BYTE-1993-04

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Who says notebook PCs are only for serious globetrotters? They're also cool for people who only travel from home to office. Or how about

corporate cats wh'

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to conference room for those perpetual lgs? Or sales people who could dig a omputer at their client's location? Really, mo le would enjoy the convenience of the right

ble. But who can afford both a portable

ortable solution that's in

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Nomad Combo: One Computer System with Portable and Desktop Functionality for One Low Price!

With a Nomad Combo from Gateway, you don't have to buy two PCs. You get a very powerful notebook computer, one of Gateway 2000'$ top-of-thecharts Nomad models, with a 15-inch CrystalScan highresolution color monitor and our custom 124-key

lyKey keyboard. You can use the Nomad by itself in portable situations. At just 5.6 pounds, with a bright, hacklit screen, comfortable keyboard, great battery life 486 performance, it's all you could ever want in a notebook. In your office, the Nomad functions as your desktop. Just plug it in to the desktop monitor and keyboard, and you have a 486 office PC. It's easy to tie into your company's network, too, with Ethernet a Token Ring options available. Gateway Nomads are

werful, expandable and affordable.

One computer. Two functions. One low p

in you dig it?

)mbos From Gateway!

HandBook Combo: Two Computer Systems, in Tune with Each Other, for One Low Price!

When you buy a HandBook Combo, you get two PCs for less than you could pay for a single system. Our combo offers include the HandBook, our notebook-palmtop hybrid, and one of Gateway's high- / performance, featurepacked desktop systems. The HandBook is the ideal portable PC for most users because it's marvelously compact - just 6x10 inches and 2.75 pounds - yet it does everything most people need to do on a portable PC. With its autoresume feature, access to thousands of available DOS applications is almost instantaneous. You can quickly

touch-type a note on its comfortable keyboard, check your schedule on the HandBook's backlit screen, or access 40 megabytes of data instantly, all without waiting to boot-up. When you come back to your office, you can easily connect your HandBook to your desktop. To transfer files back and forth, your ^ HandBook actually functions as a logical \ drive on your PC. It's a snap! We've " A included everything and set it all up for

1 you, even MS Works on both

I computers.

Two computers. Two functions. / One low price. Can you dig it? Call

Gateway!

We've Got The Portable Solution Thaf$ In Tune With Yon!

HandBook Combos—The HandBook is regularly $ 1295. Buy it with a desktop and save! See our other ad for more detailed desktop features.

HANDBOOK &4SX-33

HandBook™

■ 1MB RAM, 40MB Hard Drive

■ Backlit 7.6" 640 x 400 Screen

■ 2.75 Lbs., 5.9" x 9.75" x 1.4"

■ 4.5-Hr. Battery & AC Pack

■ MS-DOSflnterLinkfMS Works'11 for DOS

And 4SX-33 Mini Desktop*

■ 486SX-33,4MB RAM, 170MB Hard Drive

■ Windows Accelerated Video w/ 1MB

■ 14" Color CrystalScan 1024N1

■ 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard, MS Mouse

■ MS-DOS, Windows & MS Works for Windows

HANDBOOK & 4DX-33

HandBook

■ 1MB RAM, 40MB Hard Drive

■ Backlit 7.6" 640x400 Screen

■ 2.75 Lbs, 5.9" x 9.75" x 1.4"

■ 4.5-Hr. Battery & AC Pack

■ MS-DOSflnterLinkfMS Work™for DOS

And 4DX-33 Mini Desktop*

■ 486DX-33, 8MB RAM, 250MB Hard Drive

■ Windows Accelerated Video w/ 1MB

■ 14" Color CrystalScan 1024NI

■ 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard, MS Mouse

■ MS-DOS, Windows & MS Works for Windows

HANDBOOK & 4DX2-66V

HandBook

■ 1MB RAM, 40MB Hard Drive

■ Backlit 7.6" 640 x 400 Screen

■ 2.75 Lbs., 5.9" x 9.75" x 1.4"

■ 4.5-Hr. Battery & AC Pack

■ MS-DOSflnterLinkfMS Work™ for DOS

And 4DX2-66V Desktop*

■ 486DX2-66, 8MB RAM, 340MB Hard Drive

■ VLB ATI Ultra Pro with 1MB VRAM

■ 15" Color CrystalScan 1572FS

■ 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard, MS Mouse

■ MS-DOS, Windows & MS Works for Windows

$2495

$2995

$3995

Nomad 486 Notebooks and Combos—The performance of a desktop in a lightweight, full-featured portable!

NOMAD 425SXL

NOMAD 425DXL

NOMAD 450DXL

■ 25MHz 486SX Intel® Processor*

■ 25MHz 486DX Intel Processor*

■ 50MHz 486DX2 Intel Processor*

■ 4MB RAM

■ 4MB RAM

■ 8MB RAM

■ 3.5" Diskette Drive

■ 3.5" Diskette Drive

■ 3.5" Diskette Drive

■ 80MB IDE Hard Drive

■ 120MB IDE Hard Drive

■ 200MB IDE Hard Drive

■ Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays

■ Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays

■ Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays

■ Simultaneous Video with 256K

■ Simultaneous Video with 1MB

■ Simultaneous Video with 1MB

■ Size 8.5" xll"x 1.8", 5.6 Lbs.

■ Size 8.5" xll"x 1.8", 5.6 Lbs.

■ Size 8.5" x 11" x 1.8", 5.6 Lbs.

■ 6-Hr. NiCad Battery & AC Pack

■ 6-Hr. NiCad Battery & AC Pack

■ 6-Hr. NiCad Battery & AC Pack

■ 2400bps Fax/Modem

■ 2400bps Fax/Modem

■ 1 Parallel/1 Serial Port

■ 1 Parallel/1 Serial Port

■ 1 Parallel/1 Serial Port

■ 79-Key Keyboard & FieldMouse

■ 79-Key Keyboard &FieldMouse™

■ 79-Key Keyboard & FieldMouse

■ MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1

■ MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1

■ MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1

■ MS Works for Windows 2.0

■ MS Works for Windows 2.0

■ MS Works for Windows 2.0

oooc

$1995

$2495

NOMAD 425SXL COMBO

Nomad 425SXL* 15" Color CrystalScan 1572FS 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard Microsoft Mouse

$2495

NOMAD 425DXL COMBO

Nomad 425DXL* 15" Color CrystalScan 1572FS 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard Microsoft Mouse

$2995

NOMAD 450DXL COMBO

Nomad 450DXL* 15" Color CrystalScan 1572FS 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard Microsoft Mouse

$3495

Every Gateway 2000 system is backed by:

I 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee ■ One-Year Limited Warranty I Lifetime Toil-Free Technical Support

■ On-Site Service Available to Most Locations (Factory Service Only for Notebooks)

■ Lifetime BBS Membership

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GATEWAY2QOO

You ve got a friend in the hustnes.

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8 0 0-846-2058

610 Gateway Drive • P.O.Box 2000 • North Sioux City, SD 57049-2000 • 605-232-2000 • Fax 605-232-2023 Sales Hours: 7am-10pm Weekdays, 9am-4pm Saturdays (CT)

©1993 Gateway 2000, Inc. All prices and configurations arc subject to change without notice. Handbook, AnyKey, FieldMouse, CrystalScan and TelePath are trademarks of Gateway 2000, Inc. The Intel Inside Logo is a trademark and Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Circle 162 on Inquiry Card.

So Powerful It Can't Be A PC.

Transform Your PC With The INTERACTIVE UNIX System.

Unleash the 32-bit power in your PC with the INTERACTIVE1" UNIX8 System from SunSoft. Charge through applications at record speeds. Use real-world multitasking and networking. Get on the path to a distributed computing future.

Just Say No To SCO.

Why? The INTERACTIVE UNIX System is easy to use, simple to administer, all at a great price.

Open Systems Today* says the INTERACTIVE UNIX "system management...is easier to use and more comprehensive" than SCO and "is simply a masterpiece of good design."

Looking Glass Professional" desktop manager makes the INTERACTIVE UNIX System easy enough for novices, yet powerful enough for experienced UNIX users. And the award winning Easy Windows makes setting up graphic environments infinitely simpler. You can't afford not to take advantage of the already low cost of the INTERACTIVE UNIX System.

And SCO UNIX/XENIX8 users can save an additional 50% by switching to the INTERACTIVE UNIX System today. That's something to say yes to.

Everything You Like About YourPC-AndALotMore.

INTERACTIVE UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 supports hundreds of the most popular Intelbased platforms and peripherals. So getting started is fast, easy, and cost-effective.

Thousands of UNIX and XENIX applications are at your command. And our VP/ix package runs virtually all DOS software.

You get Lotus" WordPerfect*' and Oracle! You get SCO applications.

You get it all.

See What Develops.

The INTERACTIVE UNIX System is the environment of choice for 80X86 application development. You get access to a full range of development tools including compilers, debuggers and libraries. And for graphical applications, the XI1 INTERACTIVE environment is a revelation.

Partner With Power.

The INTERACTIVE UNIX System is a powerful business partner for companies who know something about power. Companies like BMW, Goodyear, Leica, and Dunlop to name a few. That power can be yours, too. All from SunSoft, the leading supplier of 32-bit UNIX system software.

Call today and save 50% on UNIX power that's so cost-effective, it can't be anything but a PC. 1-800-227-9227.

•Issue dale: April 13,1992 ©1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, SunSoft, the SunSoft Logo, VP/ix and Easy Window are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, inc. INTERACTIVE is a trademark of INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. Looking Glass Professional is a trademark of Visix Software, Inc. Ml other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective holders. The promotional discount is available to SCO UNIX/XENIX users and is subject to certain restrictions. Contact SunSoft for terms and conditions of promotion. SunSoft reserves the right to stop the promotion at any time. SunSoft can be reached at2550GarciaAvcnue,MounlainView,a94043.(510)46()-3267. ' B-4/93

BVTE

April 1993 Volume 18, Number 4

62

COVER STORY

FEATURE

Fighting Fatware

PAGE 98

13333

28 MICROBYTES

Tandy and Casio stand poised to compete with Apple's Newton PDA.

41 REPORT FROM CROATIA Recovery Through Technology

by Neven Prasnikar

Technology helps a troubled country

rebound.

44 FIRST IMPRESSIONS Easy Does It with MS-DOS 6.0

by Jon Udell

Microsoft adds compression and memory management to the venerable operating system.

49 Photoshop Now Does Windows

by Tom Yager Version 2.5 is new for Windows and improved for the Mac.

55 Stylus 800, Epson is back in the ink-jet business

Encarta, a multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia worth exploring

microWriter, Texas Instruments' low-cost laser printer

AudioMan, an easy and inexpensive approach to Windows sound

WHAT'S NEW The Dauphin 5500 Color Pentop flips its display, the Pocket Faxxer sends paperless faxes, ParaSet helps you develop and maintain software, and more.

FEATURES

98 Fighting Fatware

by Ed Perratore, Tom Thompson, Jon Udell, and Rich Malloy Bloated software slows you down, but help is on the way.

Ill Putting Fuzzy Logic into Focus

by Janet J. Barron

Fuzzy-logic applications arrive on the desktop.

JAPANESE LEADERS IN FUZZY LOGIC

by Jeffrey D. Shepard

STATE OF THE ART

VISUALIZATION

120 Overview: Visualization: Seeing Is Believing

by Jack Weber Visualization lets you see the meaning of numeric data.

VISUALIZATION APPLICATIONS

by Ma.xine D. Brown

129 Navigating the Data Flood

by William Ribarsky

Find your way through large

data sets visually.

INSIDE MULTIDIMENSIONAL DATA

by Lloyd A. Treinish

137 Image Building

by Peter Wayner

A look at the core of modem

visualization software.

143 The Difficulty with Data

by Nahum Gershon and Jeff Dozier Visualization requires diverse data types and formats.

148 Resource Guide: Visualization Software

4 BYTE • APRIL 1993

COVER IMAGE: JAMES YANG i 1993

REVIEWS

OPINIONS

150 SOLUTIONS FOCUS Shrink to Fit

by Rick Grehan and Stan Wszola

The BYTE Lab tests on-the-fly data compressors for Macs and PCs.

164 Ultraportable PCs: 0 Worth the Trade-offs?

by Robert E. Calem Subnotebook or palmtop? BYTE looks at the alternatives.

173 PowerBook Peripherals

by Tom Thompson New hardware makes your Apple notebook more useful.

177 OS/2's Multimedia Extensions

by Tom Yager

IBM builds a strong multimedia foundation

for OS/2.

179 Two Ways to Say VL-Bus

by Raymond GA Cote

Testing two motherboards that mix VL-Bus

and EISA.

183 Teaching Macs to Fetch by Stanford Diehl > Aldus introduces Fetch, a new multiuser, mixedmedia database for the Mac.

185 Macs and Windows PCs Share Control by Tom Yager

Timbuktu for Windows makes cross-platform remote control possible, but it can be slow.

189 Sun's C Solution for Solaris by Benjamin Fried and Othar Hansson Sparcworks Professional C is a solid compiler with a few good tools.

191 A Beefier MKS Toolkit by Ben Smith

MKS Toolkit 4.1 is a bigger and better collection of Unix tools for DOS and OS/2.

193 Pioneer's Super CD-ROM Drive by Howard Eglowstein

Pioneer's new minichanger can access six CDs at quadruple speed.

HANDS ON

81

194

264

12

20

USER'S COLUMN What's Hot, What's Not

by Jerry Poumelle Pournelle's annual Orchid and Onion parade arrives.

BOOK AND CD-ROM

REVIEWS

Markets as Virtual Reality

by Hugh Kenner, Raymond GA Cote,

Jon Udell, Tom Thompson,

and Rob Mitchell

The Death of Money, Windows 3.1

Insider, and other titles.

STOP BIT

The Learning Organization

by Patricia Seybold Distributed computing won't work unless companies are willing to change.

EDITORIAL

Fatware Strategies

by Dennis Allen

LETTERS

The Amiga 3000T-040/200 and 4000-040/120, OS/2 2.0, Braincel defended, and other reader mail.

197 UNDER THE HOOD FDDI Speaks

by William Stalling!

The FDDI II standard mixes voice

and data on a single medium.

201 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Processing Magic on the Mac

by Raymond GA Cote How to exploit the System 7 Process Manager in your applications.

210

READER SERVICE

262 258

Editorial Index by Company

Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

260

Index to Advertisers

SOFTWARE CORNER

LAN Remote Control

by Product Category Direct Link Cards: 258A

by Barry Nance, Tom Thompson, and Ben Smith

217

BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Remote-control programs for

Hardware/Software Showcase

NetWare and AppleTalk.

Buyer's Mart

211

215

BEYOND DOS Simple MAPI Delivers

by Jon Udell Microsoft's first-release messaging API is easily supported.

ASK BYTE

Laptop parallel-port problems and creating dynamic arrays.

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte93" and select [he appropriate subarea (i.e., "apr93"). From the UUNET: ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as '•anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

BYTE (ISSN 0360-5280) is published monthly with additional issues in April and October by McGraw-Hill, Inc. U.S. subscriber rale $29.95 per year. In Canada and Mexico. 534.95 per year. European surface mail subscriptions $60, airmail S80. Non-European subscriptions. S60 surface mail or S85 airmail. All foreign subscriptions are payable in U.S. funds that can be drawn on a U.S. bank. Single copies $3.50 in the U.S., $4-50 in Canada. Executive, Editorial, Circulation, and Advertising Offices: One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. Second-class postage paid at Peterborough. NH, and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Registration number 9321. Registered tor GST as McGraw-Hill, Inc.. GST 8123075673. Printed in the United States ol America. Postmaster: Send address changes and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions, P.O. Box 552. Hightstown, NJ 08520.

INSIDE BYTE

COVER CORNER PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PARKER/AVIS PHOTOGRAPHY© 1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 5

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The F

Fi3T OPTJGAL rlAFiD DFUVE,

"lthasal9-millisecond time and outperformed every other device we tested herr

Stanley Wszo

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"...liioi^lO.^'O.lolivors ijiionriilloloil iiorfomuiiKO,.."

Jolm Qii'iin

PC iWlijiUiilQ

TYPE: 3.5" OPTICAL

CAPACITY: 1 28 MB

SIZE: 6.9" (H) X 2.7" (W) X 8.3" (D)

WEIGHT: 4.1 1 LBS

MOUNTING: VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL

First you bought a 40MB hard Introducing the first line of optical drives that are lightning

drive, then an 80MB, stepped up to a 150MB, made the fast and have unlimited capacity. The PMO-130™ and

move to a 300MB, and took out a loan to buy a 600MB. It PMO-650™ are the world's fastest optical drives with

never ends - until today. performance that rockets past most magnetic hard drives.

OPTICAL VS. HARD DISK

ICAL VS. OPTI

Xcopy 20MB Tree to Optical Drive

Xcopy 50MB Tree to Optical Drive

Seagate5" ST4766N 630MB

ELAPSED TIME IN SECONDS

Maxtor" XT-8760SH 676MB

Maxoptix I Hewlett-Packard Tahiti" II | Corsair""

JESEE

Xcopy 50MB Tree to Optical Drive

NATIONAL SOFTWARE TESTING LABORATORIES, Inc.

NATIONAL SOFTWARE TESTING LABORATORIES, Inc.

Trademark Owners: PMO-130, PM0-650,0HD, Optkul Hard Drive, end Pinnacle Micro are Trademarks ol Pinnacle Micro, lac. ©1992. Trademarks and registered marks lo their respective owners. All test results performed by NSTl 8/92. Retail prices acquired tram dealer sorvej 10/92.

19 Technology • Irvine, CA 92718 • Int'l (714) 727-3300 • Fax (714) 727-1913

I'i-iE Last drive You'll j Jeed,

"... iIto.PMO-6.50 wis <i voiifii'ilo roiikol."

Ciirisfojilior Sfofoon PCVkok

c

■ ''lho».VJ0 is liio first

iWrilil'ilo Qi)ifoll (li'i'/O

v/o'vo ovor iasfo<l iIkii m ijof out iiitil tun nock (ii]ii notik v/ilh li'inl disks''

Rex Farrance PC Wort'

TYPE: 5.25" OPTICAL

CAPACITY: 650/600 MB

SIZE: 7.3" (H) X 3.6" (W) X lO.O" (D)

WEIGHT: 7.4 LBS

MOUNTING: VERTICAL OR HORIZONTAL

Optical technology has many advantages- making Pinnacle the leader in performance and innovation, removability, reliability, infinite storage capacity, and a lower There is no higher source in the industry. The PMO-130™and cost per megabyte over magnetic media. The PMO™ series are PM0-650™ore the Twin Peaks. Plug-n-play for PC and based on Pinnacle's own OHD™ (Optical Hard Drive) technology, compatibles, PS/2, MAC, SUN, HP, DEC, and Silicon Graphics.

It's more than a hard drive - It's optical!

(800) 553-7070

Drive Type

Retail Price

2 Disks

5 Disks

10 Disks

50 Disks

PMO-650

Optical Drive

(1 Disk)

S 4,394

S 4,593

55,190

56,185

514,145

Magnetic Hard Drive (650 MB)

S 3,594

S 6,793

516,390

S 32,385

5160,345

Pinnacle /^jcro

Circle 120 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 121).

M

THE OPTICAL STORAGE COMPANY

INSIDE M

BYTE Topic Index

This index helps you find articles that contain information on each of the listed topics. (The topic list changes each month.)

Combined with the table of contents (page 4) and the Editorial Index by Company (page 262),

you can identify articles by type, subject, title, author, product discussed, or company mentioned.

ADD-INS 62

ETHERNET 173

MULTIMEDIA 55,177,183

SCSI 62,173

ALPHA CHIP 28

FAX 62

MULTIPLATFORM 185

SHAREWARE 210

AMIGA 20

FDDI 197

NETWORKS 191,197,210

SHELLS 177

APPLETALK 173

FIBER OPTICS 197

NEURAL NETWORKS 20

SOFTWARE 62,98,137,150,177, 183,185,189

APPLICATIONS 98

FUZZY LOGIC 194

OLE 55

SOUND 55

AUDIO 55

GRAPHICS 49, 183

OPERATING SYSTEMS 44

STORAGE 193

AWARDS 81

INK-JET 55

OS/2 20,28,177

SYSTEMS 62,164

BOOKS 194

IPC (INTERPROCESS COMMUNICATIONS) 201

PALMTOPS 164

UNIX 62,191

C,C++ 28,62,189

LOCAL BUS 179

PERIPHERALS 193

UTILITIES 191

CD-ROM 55, 81,193,194

PORTABLES/NOTEBOOKS/LAPTOPS

LOCALTALK 173

28,62,164,173,215

VESA 62,179

COMPRESSION 150

MACINTOSH 173,201

POSTSCRIPT 55

VIRTUAL REALITY 194

CONNECTIVITY 62

MAPI 211

PRINTERS 55

VISUALIZATION 120,129,137,

CROATIA 41

143,148

MODEMS 215

PROGRAMMING 111,201,

210,215

DATABASES 183

WINDOWS 28,55,81,185,

MOTHERBOARDS 179

REMOTE CONTROL 185

194,211

DESKTOP PUBLISHING 49

MS-DOS 44

X WINDOW SYSTEM 189

DEVELOPMENT 189

GREAT THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

This powerful print server can tackle your biggest network printing problems

■ Connects any parallel printer directly to your Ethernet LAN

■ Fully Novell Netware 286 and 386 compatible

■ Can attach to 8 file servers simultaneously

■ Fast and easy to install

Combines high-speed printing and exceptional printer control

Supports encrypted passwords, forms, notify, .cancel, and others

Full one-year warranty and unlimited free technical support

Made in the U.S.A.

#

Ethernet port available in thin or twisted-pair

Parallel port plugs directly into any printer

Press switch to print status

Status LED

Serial port can be inputor output

Power jack

Make the Rose Connection ffiBSSI

10850 Wilcrest Drive • Houston, Texas 77099 • Phone (713)933-7673 • Fax (713)933-0044

8 BYTE • APRIL 1993

1-800-333-9343

Circle 128 on Inquiry Card.

We slash interface

LANGUA3E

PRODUCTIVITY

1991

development time across

DOS, UNIX, POSIX, VMS...

(and we can prove it!)

C-Programmers: See for yourself how

Vermont Views™ can help you create

powerful user

interfaces—whatever

your environment!

If you want to create sophisticated user interfaces—and save tremendous time and effort doing it—Vermont Views is exactly what you need.

Vermont Views isn't just a common interface package. It's a deep, flexible, menudriven screen designer supported by a C library of over 580 functions. It lets you create the ultimate user interfaces for complex database applications—in a fraction of the time it would take to code them yourself!

With Vermont Views, you create screens interactively. Designing is fast, and creative. And changes—both tiny adjustments and huge reworks—are incredibly easy.

Pull-down menus, window-based data-entry forms with tickertape or memo fields, scrollable form regions, choice lists, context-sensitive help...All these interface objects (and more) are immediately accessible. And with Vermont Views, even terminal-based applications can have the elegant features usually found only on micros.

©Copyright 1991 Vermont Creative Software

Fast prototypes, faster applications.

With most systems, you have to throw away your prototypes when coding begins. But with Vermont Views, prototypes become the actual applications!

Menus, data-entry forms, and all screen features are usable in the final applications without change. So not only do you avoid creating code from scratch once, you don't have to do it twice!

It's the universal solution.

Vermont Views operates completely independent of hardware, operating system, and database. Any interface you create can be ported easily among DOS, UNIX, POSIX, and VMS.

You can use Vermont Views with any database that has a C-language interface (including Oracle, Informix, db-Vista, and C-Tree). You can run it on PCs, DEC, NCR, HP, AT&T, and other systems. You don't have to pay runtime fees or royalties. And full library source is available, too.

What's more, your DOS applications can have full mouse control, and work in

Pinnacle Meadows Richford, VT 05476 USA Phone: (802) 848-7731 FAX: (802) 848-3502

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graphics as well as text modes!

Don't take our word for it—put Vermont Views to the test. Call or fax now for your personal, free demonstration kit. Or order Vermont Views with our 60-day, money-back guarantee.

Either way, you'll see immediately that Vermont Views is a cut above the rest.

Call for your FREE demo kit!

800-848-1248

(Please Mention "Offer 386")

We're putting i486™ technol

Now that we've introduced our i486"' SL processor to the world of mobile computing, you'll never look at notebooks the same. That's because, for the first time, you can have the performance of a true 32-bit i486 DX chip to go, with added features to help you gamer maximum power from your mobile computer.

One unique feature, our Intel SL technology, actually conserves precious battery life by routing power only to where it's needed. Battery life is further extended through the i486 SL processor's low 3.3-volt operation—which gives you up to an extra hour of computing. Plus, a unique power management feature retains data and instructions even when power is off.

©1993 Intel Corporation. All products are trademarks of their respective companies, i486 SL microprocessors in this ad are larger than actual size.

ogy in a whole new light.

Perhaps more important, however, is the fact that the i486 SL processor is just the latest step in Intel's long-term strategy to provide mobile computer users with uncompromised desktop performance. Together with our ExC A" cards such as faxmodems and LAN adapters, Intel's mobile processors will give your notebook more versatility. It's no surprise that leading notebook manufacturers

are putting Intel SL technology in the spotlight.

To learn more about the new i486 SL processor, call us at 1-800-228-4549, and let us shed some light on the latest in mobile computing.

intel

Circle 90 on Inquiry Card.

EDITORIAL

DENNIS ALLEN

Fatware Strategies

The major culprit in the problem of fatware is the industry's price war

The problem of fatware really should not be news. In fact, it should not even be a problem. For years, we have seen the coming of larger, more complex software. We wanted better graphics and more features, and it was simply a matter of waiting for the CPU horsepower that software makers could exploit.

The 486 largely delivered the horsepower (arguably, more is still needed), and the software industry was ready with applications that consumed every iota of that power. The problem was that the software industry assumed that along with increased CPU horsepower came more disk storage and more memory. That wasn't a bad assumption, but it was wrong.

The culprit is the PC price war. While we have all benefited from rapidly falling hardware prices and incredibly good deals for 486-based machines, the hardware industry quietly lured many people into buying inadequate systems. It wasn't a contemptuous act on the part of hardware makers; it was simply a matter of marketing and price competition. The market seemed to cry out for 486 systems for $2000, and seemingly no one cared about hard drive and memory size. For many systems, 4 MB of RAM and a 100-MB hard drive are standard fare.

So here we are with software fat with features and inadequate systems on which to run it. The obvious shortterm solution is to upgrade your hard drive and RAM on 486 systems and to replace 386 and remaining 286 PCs. If you go by today's standards, 8 MB of RAM and a hard drive of 170 to 200 MB will do. And that's the configuration that most system vendors are leaning toward. That's still short-term thinking, though. The 8 MB of RAM may be reasonable because it is so easy to upgrade later, but going with a hard drive of less than 250 MB is not a good plan.

It doesn't take a lot of software to fill up that first 100 MB of disk space, and the second 100 MB will go fast, too. As you know, it doesn't take many applications to fill a hard drive. While software developers are trying to address the fatware problem with shared code in objectoriented environments, that solution will not be realized for this generation of systems—and perhaps not even the next.

Meanwhile, fat software will get fatter. One of the reasons, again, is the price war. While the price war has largely been limited to the hardware industry, the software

industry is now getting into the fray. After all, when you can buy a computer for as little as $1000 or less, why should you have to pay $795 for a software package?

Already we've seen some aggressive software pricing—mostly in the form of upgrade pricing for existing users and competitive upgrade pricing to entice users to switch spreadsheets or word processors. Also consider the $99 introductory offer for Microsoft Access, a program that reportedly cost $60 million to develop.

Prices will drop only so far, though. It's not reasonable to expect complex software to sell for less than $100, although undoubtedly some will anyway. It is reasonable to expect that software makers will continue the trend of adding more features, and many of those features will come in the form of additional utilities, clip-art libraries, and bundled applications.

So for, say, $75 you might buy a very good graphics program that comes with 15 MB of clip-art images. Or maybe the next version of your word processor will come with a library of business letters that takes up 4 MB of disk space. Or your next spreadsheet program will come with a 10-MB library of financial models. The possibilities are endless, and it's one of the best ways for software companies to compete.

What all this means is that you'll need lots of disk space just for the programs and libraries you'll want to use—not to mention your data. Add to that the increased emphasis on graphics and video, which hog many megabytes of space, and, well, you see what I mean.

How much disk space is enough? I recommend no less than 250 MB and strongly suggest 300 to 500 MB for desktop systems. Also, as I've said before, get a CDROM drive so that not everything has to reside on your hard drive. At least one manufacturer, Gateway 2000. says it is making CD-ROM drives a standard feature in its high-end desktop systems, and I expect other companies to follow.

The bottom line is this: Don't let the marketers' packaged system configurations dictate what size hard drive you buy.

—Dennis Allen Editor in Chief

12 BYTE • APRIL 1993

WORLDWIDE STANDARD

New DBASE IV V2.0

gets you home for dinner

Get your work done faster

New dBASE IV® version 2.0 is up to ten times faster than version 1.5 and dBASE III PLUS®! Browsing data, executing queries, and generating reports are all foster—even on networks.

But program speed is only part of dBASE's overall performance superiority. dBASE® gets your work done faster because it's more usable. A recent study proves it!* For everyday tasks, dBASE users got their work done 25% faster than FoxPro users.

PREFER TO DO BUSINESS WITH

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powerful applications with less code. And now you can generate royalty-free .EXEs using the new, 100% language-compatible dBASE Compiler!

Get dBASE today and get home for dinner tonight.

dBASE IV outfoxes the competition

dBASE IV

FoxPro

Industry standard

No

Designed for users

Yes

No

Designed for programmers

Yes

Yes

Queries optimized for standalone & networked computers

Yes

No

Instantly accessible visual design tools

Yes

No

Full cross-platform compatibility

Yes

No

Transaction processing

Yes

No

Multiuser ready

Yes

No

dBASE makes it easy to do more

Whether you're a database user or application developer, dBASE puts your information to work. Visual design tools let you create database tables, queries, forms, and reports onscreen. Query By Example gives you fast answers to your questions. No wonder NSTL rated dBASE tops in versatility and usability*

The #1 choice for application developers

The dBASE language lets you use English-like commands to create

Borland

dBASE IV

i Version ZO for DOS

j The leading database and application development system

90-day, money-back guarantee!

I See your dealer or call now, | 11-800-336-6464, ext. 5074 |

■ In Canada, call 1-800-461-3327.

Borland

Power made easy

Circle 68 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 69).

•Usability Sciences Corp. study, 1992 • tttfhwre Diges, Ratings Report, multiuser database programs. May 1992. Copyright © 1993 Borland International, Inc. All rights reserved All Borland product r are trademarks of Borland Internafonal, Inc. Pnces good in the United States and Canada only. All prices are in U.S. dollars. Dealer prices may vary. BI4383

66

Why

edit in one window, compile in 4^f __ another, link in a third and test in a fourth. I'm amazed how quickly I can compile a program while printing a copy of the source code." OS/2 gives you the capability to have multiple configurable sessions in which to build and test your applications.

"OS/2 is easier to get into."

OS/2 Crash Protection™ helps you lose your fear of crashing and rebooting. If one app goes down due to a bug, the rest you're working on won't. OS/2 isolates the failure, letting you fix it and restart it with out affecting other apps. Dynamic Link Libraries allow applications to share common functions, making them smaller and easier

Patrick Pearce, Software Developer, Life Care Development Corp.

•>")

"Time is money.

The advantages of OS/2® are clear. "At Life Care Development Corp., we create applications for sale to physicians, psychiatrists and drug counselors for tracking patient and insurance information, and medicine and treatment goals. We make use of OS/2's inherent development capabilities like the REXX language as well as WorkFrame/2 (IBM's development environment), C Set/2 compiler and Borland ObjectVision? For us, OS/2 has meant heightened productivity, shortened development time and improved quality of product."

Work in a customizable object-oriented environment without constraints. Enjoy true preemptive multitasking, unlike what you get with Windows™ and other DOS extenders. "With OS/2,1 can reliably run several development applications at the same time:

19 9 2

-WINNER

PC Magazine Award

[or Technical Excellence

to maintain.

"I'll never go back."

OPERATING SYSTEMS AND

SOFTWARE STANDARDS

OS/2, Version 2.0

IBM Corporalion

"I may be a small 1SV, but IBM has always treated me like a big fish." IBM's valuable technical service and marketing support includes OS/2 Support Line, IBMLink, the IBM OS/2 bulletin board system and several OS/2 developer forums on

©

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In the Workplace Shell? you can edit source code files while compiling and debugging in the background.

don't do

Windows

The no-comparison comparison chart.

Windows 3.1

OS/2

Virtual memory limit

4 x physical

512MB (disk space)

Memory model

Segmented (64KB)

Flat memory objects

APIs

16 bit

Full 32 bit

Multitasking-DOS apps

Time slicing

Pre-emptive time slicing

Multitasking-Windows/PM apps

Cooperative

Pre-emptive

Priority

Static (set by user)

Dynamic

Dispatchability

Process

Thread

System services

Serial

Parallel

Protection between apps

Unprotected

Protected

KernalprotectionDOS/Win/PM apps

Unprotected

Protected

File system

FAT

Enhanced FAT and

installable file systems

(HPFS, CD-ROM)

User interface

Windowed

Object oriented

u

IBM and OS/2 are registered trademarks and Workplace Shell and OS/2 Crash Protection are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. ©1993 IBM Corp.

CompuServe? "If 1 run into a problem, the OS/2 Developer Assistance Program is there to help." The 32-bit operating system lets you break through the 64K code segment barrier and convert to a flat memory model with up to 512MB of memory per session for writing code. "Writing is easier and faster than ever—and bugs have never been easier to uncover and zap."

I'm actually having fun again."

But the best reason for leaving Windows and other DOS extenders is the opportunity to develop truly revolutionary OS/2 applications. You could say OS/2 has closed the door on Windows. For the free white paper on why OS/2 is the developers platform ol choice, or for more ^= ^^. ^^ ^Z®

1407 982-6408. =^^=T=

Circle 87 on Inquiry Card.

EVTE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Dennis Allen

EXECUTIVE EDITORS New York: Rich Malloy Peterborough: Rich Friedman

MANAGING EDITOR

D. Barker

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR

Lauren Stickler Thompson

NEWS Peterborough:

Senior Editor: Dan Muse

News Editors, What's New: Martha Hicks,

Carol Swartz

Microbytes: David L. Andrews

News Assistant: June Sheldon

San Mateo/West Coast:

Bureau Chief: Andrew Reinhardt Senior Editor: Tom Halfhill News Editor: Patrick Waurzyniak Editorial Assistant: Barbara J. Caravello

Los Angeles:

Senior Editor: Gene Smarte New York:

News Editor: Ed Perratore

BYTE LAB

Director: Stephen Apiki

(also: systems, networking)

Technical Director: Rick Grehan

Senior Editor: Alan Joch

Technical Editor:

Stanford Diehl: software, add-ins,

peripherals, multimedia

Testing Editors/Engineers: Howard

Eglowstein, Ben Smith, Stanley Wszola

Lab Assistant: Selinda Chiquoine

STATE OF THE ART/FEATURES

Senior Editor: Michael Nadeau Technical Editors: Janet J. Barron, Anthony J. Lockwood, Robert M. Ryan

SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITORS

At Large: Tom Thompson, Jon Udell Columns: Rob Mitchell

ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL EDITORS

Ellen Bingham, Susan Colwell, Jeff Edmonds, Tom Kevan, Cathy Kingery, Margaret A. Richard, Warren Williamson

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Jerry Pournelle

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Hugh Kenner, Barry Nance

CONSULTING EDITORS

Roger C, Alford, Jonathan Amsterdam, Nicholas Baran, Raymond GA Cote, Don Crabb, Anne Fischer Lent, Laurence H. Loeb, Trevor Marshall, Dick Pountain, Roberta Pournelle, Wayne Rash Jr., Kenneth M. Sheldon, Jane Morrill Tazelaar, Ellen Ullman, Peter Wayner

INTERACTIVE ON-LINE SERVICE

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Office Manager: Peggy Dunham Assistants: Linda C. Ryan, Janet A. Young

DESIGN

Director: Nancy Rice Associate Director: Joseph A. Gallagher Designers: Jan Muller, Sharon Price Graphics Manager: Roger Goode

PRODUCTION AND FINANCE

Director: Claudia Flowers

PRODUCTION

Director: David M. Cohen

Production Manager: David R. Anderson

Advertising Graphics Manager:

Susan Kingsbury

Editorial Graphics Manager:

Virginia Reardon

Graphics Production Coordinators:

Barbara Busenbark, Christa Patterson,

Donna Sweeney, Lillian J. Wise

Advertising Services Manager: Linda Fluhr

Senior Advertising Services

Representative: Lyda Clark

Advertising Services Representatives:

Dale J. Christensen, Karen Cilley,

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FINANCE

Senior Financial Analyst: Kenneth A. King Financial Analyst: Kathleen Deguise Data Processing Coordinator: Diane Henry Billings Coordinator: JoAnn Walter Production Assistant/Purchaser: Agnes Perry

MARKETING AND PLANNING

Director: L. Bradley Browne Administrative Assistant: Carol Cochran Marketing Communications Manager: Pamela Petrakos Marketing Art Director: Stephanie Warnesky Market Research Manager: Julie Perron Copyrights Manager: Faith Kluntz Reader Service: Cynthia Sands Marketing Events Coordinator: Carol Sanchioni

PRODUCT MANAGER

Kip Bryan

EXCHANGE EDITORS

Amiga Exchange: Joanne Dow Entertainment and Leisure Exchange: Rich Taylor

IBM Exchange: Barry Nance Programmers Exchange: Bill Nicholls Professionals Exchange: David Reed Tojerry Exchange: Jerry Pournelle WIX Exchange: Karen Kenworthy Writers Exchange: Wayne Rash Jr.

CIRCULATION

Director: Glyn Standen Subscriptions Manager: Paul Ruess Assistant Manager: Pam Wilder Subscriptions Assistant: Christine Tourgee Newsstand Manager: Vicki Weston Assistant Manager: Karen Desroches Back Issues: Louise Menegus Direct Accounts Coordinator: Ellen Dunbar

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EAST COAST

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MIDWEST

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SOUTH PACIFIC

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NORTH PACIFIC

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INSIDE ADVERTISING SALES

Director: Liz Coyman (603) 924-2518 Assistants: Susan Monkton, Vivian Bernier

THE BUYER'S MART (1X 2)

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HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SHOWCASE

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REGIONAL & BUYER'S GUIDE

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BYTE DECK

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EURO-DECK

James Bail (603) 924-2533

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF

See listing on page 259.

PERSONNEL

Human Resources Administrator: Patricia Burke Assistant: Fran Wozniak Receptionist: Beverly Goss

DIRECTOR OF COMPUTER-RELATED SERVICES

Stephen M. Laliberte

MEMBER SERVICES MANAGER

Kevin Plankey

BIX, owned and operated by General Videotex Corporation, is a worldwide, low-cost, online information service featuring industry news, downloadable software, powerful electronic mail, previews of upcoming BYTE articles, the full text of published issues of BYTE, and source and/or executable code for BYTE benchmarks and noncommercial software mentioned in feature articles. BIX also offers unmatched "conferences" on virtually every computer-related topic imaginable, where you can share information with thousands of other computer pros. To subscribe via modem, set your communications software to full duplex, 7 bits, even parity, 1 stop bit, and then call (800) 695-4882 or (617) 491-5410 or make a data call fo our Tymnet address: 310690157800. Then hit the Enter/Return key and enter "BIX" when asked to log in; then enter "BIX.VILLE" when asked for a name. For current fees and more information, call (800) 695-4775 or (617) 354-4137 on voice phone; fax: (617) 491-6642; Internet: bix@genvid.com.

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■i'fdi Copyright © 1993 by McGraw-Hill, WSffi lnc' A" r'9nls reservecl- BYTE and ■ ■nil EVIl are registered trademarks of McGraw-Hill, Inc. Trademark registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

ft

Member Audit Bureau of Circulation

Founder: James H. McGraw (1860-19

C^a^aTfrefdeZTa^Tchiet Executive Officer: Joseph L. Dionne; Executive Vice President. General Counsel, and Secretary: Robert N. Landes; Executive Vice President: Harold W. El, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: Robert J. Bahash: Senior Vice President. Treasury Operations: Frank D. Penglase; Executive V,ce Present, Publicatton

Services: Norbert Schumacher.

16 BYTE • APRIL 1993

The UltraL'tte Autograph is just one of the many

innovations NEC has

brought to portable

computing. Others

include the first

active-matrix color

notebook, the first

color laptop and

the first portable

Docking Station]"

,n

tf*

in

m

After you see our performance

*

you'll want our Autograph.

Applause and standing ovations. That's how people are reacting to NEC's new UltraLite" Autographs The UltraLite Autograph is a tablet computer that's designed to provide uncompromising performance anytime, anywhere. At just 3.9 lbs., and a mere 1.2" thin, this lightweight delivers heavyweight performance. The Autograph is loaded with advanced features like a powerful i486™SL processor. 40 or 80MB* hard disk drive. A full complement of standard ports. Local bus video for dazzling video performance. A high-quality VGA transflective screen display for clear viewing indoors and outdoors. Two PCMCIA slots for easy installation of peripherals like fax modems and local area network cards. And programmable HotZone™ icons that work like function keys to allow quick, easy access to frequently used functions. And there's an optional keyboard that has been customized for portable use. It comes with plenty of battery life, thanks to its 3.3-volt design that gives users significant battery life improvement depending on usage (3-5 hours with a standard NiMH battery and 6-10 hours with a double-capacity battery pack). And the Autograph can run either Windows™ for Pen Computing™ or PenPoint™ software. NEC's UltraLite Autograph. You'll give its performance rave reviews. To find out where you can see the Autograph, call us at 1-800-NEC-INFO (in Canada, 1-800-343-4418) and we'll tell you where you can sign on the bottom line for one.

Because \ is the way you want to go.

*80MB available 1st quarter 1993.

30 Logo 16 a rag Latere

■ e 1993 NEC TocflnotogWl. Ir

Circle 111 on Inquiry Card.

The New Generation 17" Monitor

Advancing into the future is the powerful, new generation ViewSonic 17... with crispness and clarity unheard of before now. So, if a high-contrast, extremely bright, sharply focused screen is important to you, this is the answer! Plus, this remarkable monitor runs at 76Hz refresh at an astonishingly high 1,280 x 1,024 and beyond, which will give you a flicker-free image.

Our unique ViewMatch™ color control is an easy-to-use system that takes the guess work out of printing by adjusting colors to closely match printer output. Brighten the red. Lighten the blue. No problem; it works. And the ViewSonic 17 even has an economically designed drop-down control panel that's as simple to use as

a typewriter. More great features include digital controls and advanced anti-reflection coating .. .all adding up to make this everything a 17" monitor should be. With its big screen display and edge-to-edge image, this is the monitor of choice for Windows, desktop publishing and CAD/CAM applications.

For safety and vision protection, the monitor meets strict MPR-II and ISO 9241-3 standards.

Call 800-888-8583 for more information on our products, including our new line of 15" through 21" monitors.

Welcome to the New Generation.

15" 17"

All pruta and brand namts are antral ir.nlvniaib <$ ilinr reslacrsi companies.

ViewSonic'

20480 Business Plow Walnut, a 91789 Tel. (909) 869-7976 Fax (909) 869-7958

Circle 149 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 150).

LETTERS

Amiga Excellence

KEVIBWS

Commodore Qott Tough

Bj

^■j-W-'ii^B

"s

.,_.- —

I would like to commend Tom Yager for the "Commodore Gets Tough" review (January). He pointed out some of the best features of the Amiga 3000T-040/200 and 4000-040/120. Yager was fair, but he neglected to mention the AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture), a standard chip set in the latest Amigas. A HAMS mode lets you display 256,000 colors in high resolution on any AGA-equipped Amiga. These new images come close to 24-bit color, and the Amiga can easily animate them for top-notch multimedia capabilities.

Despite predictions of an early death for the Amiga, it is alive and well in the 1990s.

Randy Payment No address given

My compliments to you on the articles "Grab Your Audience with Audio" (December 1992) and the "Commodore Gets Tough" (January). It was heartening to see the inclusive and balanced coverage of Amiga audio and MIDI in December. The review of the Amiga 3000T040/200 and 4000-040/120 was also fair and enlightened.

Thank you for expanding BYTE beyond another Macclone magazine. It has the unique position of being potentially platform-independent. Keep up the good work.

Jeff Johnson Cincinnati, OH

OS/2 Gets No Respect

Your omission of OS/2 2.0 from "The 1992 BYTE Awards" (January) is puzzling. There are not yet many 32-bit programs available to take full advantage of OS/2, but the operating system is technically superior. OS/2 is a huge advance in PC operating systems. Please give OS/2 the attention it deserves.

Steven Hoaaland Asheville, NC

One of the biggest technological successes of 1992 and OS/2 2.o"is not even mentioned? I just hope that the page that OS/2 2.0 was on fell out before the January issue reached me.

Robert Mahoney Babylon, NY

Braincel Defense

Maureen Caudill's review of Braincel ("Neural Net Adds Smarts to Spreadsheets, Slowly," January) made allegations to which I feel compelled to respond.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Address correspondence to Letters Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, send BlXmail c/o "editors," or send Internet Mail to letters@byteph.hyte.com. Letters may be edited.

Caudill's most exasperating allegation was that Braincel is "inappropriate for large-scale or difficult problems." We have many Fortune 500 customers who have solved large-scale problems using Braincel.

Also, Caudill's comparative evaluation of Braincel was hardly unbiased. She selected one pet problem to test and erroneously concluded that Braincel's proprietary algorithm, back percolation, performs worse than back propagation. This conclusion was due to several avoidable errors.

First, Caudill was familiar with the optimal architecture and parameter settings of Ansim for this problem. Although these settings were in all likelihood not appropriate for Braincel, she used them on both products. Second, although suboptimal architecture and parameter settings hampered Braincel's performance on the training set, Caudill unwittingly exacerbated Braincel's testing error by letting both products train for the same number of cycles. One of the first tenets in the neural-network field is to never overtrain the network, or it will perform poorly on test data. Because back percolation is a more effective training algorithm, training it for the same number of cycles as back propagation predisposed it to overtraining.

Braincel has solved many real-world problems defined with hundreds of inputs and thousands of rows of data. Many of our customers have switched to Braincel from other stand-alone neural-network products, due to both its convenience and the efficiency with which back percolation trains. Considering the number of customers we have, I am sure I would have heard other similar complaints if Caudill's criticisms were representative.

Murray A. Ruggiero Jr.

Vice President

Promised Land Technologies, Inc.

New Haven, CT

The parameters I used in the comparison test were not optimized for Ansim. I used that product because it uses a plain vanilla version of back propagation. When Braincel's heuristics determined the parameters, it could not solve the problem at all. Since Promised Land does not give details of back percolation and since its heuristics did not work, my only option was to use reasonable parameters based on my experience with other networks.

I have seen many new networks that contain improvements that are frequently optimized for a single type of problem. When tested on other applications, they often fail. Only open scientific review of the algorithm resolves such issues—an impossibility with a proprietary algorithm. As a user, my only recourse is to buy the product first and then try it on my network to see if it actually works.—Maureen Caudill

Adapter Flap

As a manufacturer of network adapters, we read with great interest Wayne Rash Jr.'s review of laptop LAN adapters ("Making Connections," BYTE's Essential Guide

20 BYTE ■ APRIL 1993

#

^

&

V&

$»

four different angles.

BallPoint* mouse raises your comfort level several degrees. And its easy-to-see cursor lowers your frustration level just as much. The point being, if you use the Windows'" operating system on a laptop, BallPoint makes your work even easier. So call us at (800) 426-9400 to find out how «- ff

to get one. Because next to this IwttCaGSOtt mouse, others are hard to handle. Making it easier

© 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. In the 50 United States, call (800) 426-9400. Outside the 50 United States, call (206) 936-8661 Customers m Canada, cat! (800) .16.3-9048. Microsoft and BallPoint are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

to i

* *i& CJ

Give your i486 PC nitro-faeled,

Introducing Intel

OverDrive Processors

for your i486 DX PC.

Want to really soup up your i486 system? Then it's time you install a new Intel OverDrive Processor under the hood.

A single-chip upgrade, an Intel

OverDrive Processor will boost the overall performance of your i486 DX or SX system up to 70%.

By using Intel's ingenious "speed doubling" technology, OverDrive Processors give you added power to run all of your software like greased lightning—from AutoCAD' to

i486™ DX System Performance

©] 992 Intel Corporation. :,: All products are trademarks of their rcspeetive companies.

tin cases where there is no OverDrive Processor socket, Intel recommends installation by a qualified technician.

■affi

ground-pounding performance.

WordPerfect and over 50,000 applications in between.

Plus, it doesn't take long to install an OverDrive Processor. Simply plug it into the vacant OverDrive Processor socket' and

you're off and running. Faster.

So to rev up your whole system and keep up to speed with all the latest software developments, you need the future of PC upgradability: Intel OverDrive Processors. To find out which OverDrive

Circle 89 on Inquiry Card.

Processor is right for your system or to locate your nearest dealer, call 1-800-538-3373, ext. 295. And turn your PC into a street-legal racing machine.

iny

Circle 172 on Inquiry Card.

PROTECT YOUR SOFTWARE

NO BUTTON, NO ACCESS.

Dallas Semiconductor is re-shaping the world of software protection and distribution control with a new family of microchips called Buttons. We put the lid on software piracy by packaging microchips in button-shaped, stainless steel cans. The chips contain missing but critical information to make the software run.

We offer a variety of Authorization Buttons and features so you can select the level of protection and price point that are right for you.

Security Continuum

Button Type

Unique Serial #

Read/Write Memory

Password Protection

Expiration Timer

Decoy Responses

DS1420 ID Button

X

DS1427 Time Button

X

4K bits

X

DS1425 Multi Button

X

2K bits

X

X

Snap In, Snap Out

Authorization Buttons interface to the installed base of 100+ million PC's via the DS1410 Button Holder. They simply snap in and out. The DS1410 accepts two Buttons concurrently.

Toward a Dongleless World

New computers that accept Buttons directly, including

palm and notebooks, are being designed at OEM's today.

Our Dongle Trade-In Program will help in your transition

to this world. With an approved

application, we'll pay you $7.00

for each dongle that you

trade in for an Authorization^

Button and Holder. This offer,

is good until August 31,1993.

The one-piece price for the

DS1420 is $4.35; volume

discounts apply.

We're Serious About Security

At Dallas Semiconductor, we design and manufacture our own microchips. And we're the only ones in the software protection business who do. Sixty intricate process steps and a 64-bit unique registration number lasered into each chip prevent duplication.

To learn how to button down your software, give us a call.

DALLAS

SEMICONDUCTOR

4401 South Beltwood Parkway, Dallas, Texas 75244-3292 Telephone: 214-450-8170 FAX: 214-450-3715

LETTERS

to Portable Computing, 1992). We question the validity of Rash's test environment and criteria. He never shares the results of his test with readers, so it's impossible to make a fair assessment of them. We also question his dismissal of Novell's Perform3 as a valid test methodology. Perform3 is one of the most widely recognized and used test packages available. If speed is going to be presented as a primary test criterion, then it's important to use a widely recognized benchmark and provide all the test results.

Most important, we challenge Rash's supposition that the EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) specification will emerge as a new standard. Although more than 60 percent of all laptops are expected to be connected to LANs through the parallel port, only Zenith and Dell have adapted the EPP approach. Most laptop vendors seem to be leaning toward the PCMCIA approach for high-speed parallel ports.

Marshall Behling

Director of Marketing

Accton Technology Corp.

Fremont, CA

Perform3 is widely recognized and produces valid results for installations with a traditional network-interface arrangement. But my tests with Perform3 on parallel-port Ethernet cards produced inconsistent results, so I did not use it. Instead, I just measured the time required to perform a 10-MB file transfer between computers. Whether PCMCIA or EPP will be the standard for high-speed parallel ports is a matter of opinion.—Wayne Rash Jr.

Computerized Cinema

I found Roger Ebert's Stop Bit "Cinema by Computer" (January) to be curiously distorted by a preoccupation with trying to fit computerization into the traditional pattern of movie-making. This blinds him to its real potentialities.

The uses he proposed are irrelevant, even from the standpoint of technique. If you want to recreate Humphrey Bogart and place him in a commercial, simply go out and hire one of the numerous skilled Bogart impersonators.

When hardware prices fall a bit more, computer animations can be good for making extremely low-budget movies with decent production values. Today, movies cost too much to make. This means that big businesses produce them rather than free artists.

Movies are a debased art form, crippled by a corruption inherent in the way they are financed. Computer animation can end that corruption and make movies into a great art.

Andrew D. Todd Philadelphia, PA

FIX

In Hugh Kenner's review of The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia CD-ROM (Book and CD-ROM Reviews, March), prices were omitted. The Windows and Mac versions both sell for $395. ■

24 BYTE • APRIL 1993

4 Gigabytes.

Under $2,000.

/

1

r

-i'

1

When you consider the value of all the data on a network, any backup system is a wise investment. But now you have a choice. Introducing PowerTape from Colorado Memory Systems. With a native capacity of 2 GB and 4 GB using data compression, PowerTape can handle virtually any backup task.

The PowerTape system includes a backup tape drive, SCSI controller, Colorado Backup" software, data cartridge, and more. At $1,995 why pay more and get less? And, if 4 GB is more than you need,

a 2.4 GB model is available with the same high peformance features at only $1,295.

With PowerTape, you get safe and easy restores and backups, plus the reliability of QIC Industry Standard Format. PowerTape is compatible with Novell NetWare* 2.2 and 3.11, NetWare Lite , LANtastic*, 3COM* and IBM'" PCNET. It supports Novell-specific files, including bindery and trustee rights.

Call 1-800-451-0897 ext. 317 today for a FREE 76-page catalog.

POWERTAPE

SERIES 40DD

GOLOR\DO

MEMORrarsreMS inc

© / 992 Colorado Memory Systems Inc. AII rights reserved PowerTape, Colorado Backup and Colorado are trademarks of Colorado Memory Systems, Inc. All oilier trademarks are property of their respective companies. PTA-BYT010893

Circle 74 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 75).

The Widest Arm

Fault Tolerant Disk Array Controllers, Subsystems and Servers supporting NetWare, SCO UNIX and OS/2.

Powerful l9 2, 3, and 5-Channel Disk Array SCSI Controllers

Mylex now offers a range of disk array controllers, all based on the powerful Intel i960CA™ RISC processor. The controllers feature 4/16/64-Mbytes of cache, an EISA host interface and extensive software support.

RAID levels 0, 1, and 5 are supported, with hot swapping, on-the-fly reconstruction, background rebuild, hot standby, multi-threading, and scatter/gather features.

NetWare 3.11, SCO UNIX 3.2.4 and IBM OS/2 2.0 operating environments are supported. All controllers are offered with user-friendly software utilities.

► DAC960-I/2: Single fast and wide SCSI-II channel, which can be upgraded to two channels. Each channel has both 8-bit and 16-bit SCSI-II connectors.

► DAC960-3: Three fast SCSI-II channels, which can support up to 21 SCSI drives.

► DAC960-5: Five fast and wide SCSI-II channels, with the option to drive 8-bit or 16-bit fast SCSI drives.

NetWare, UNIX, OS/2

All Mylex disk array products support Novell NetWare 3.11, with optional support for SCO UNIX 3.2.4 and IBM OS/2 2.0.

Disk Array Subsystem

The disk array subsystem (DAS) features a DAC960 fivechannel disk array controller and a flexible enclosure which houses up to five 5.25"or 3.5" SCSI drives. Each drive is powered by its own power supply for improved system reliability. Disk drives are offered as an option. Up to four of these enclosures can be powered by a single DAC960-5 controller, allowing up to 20 drives for each controller.

The DAS can be used in conjunction with any EISAbased computer to build a powerful file server. Up to four controllers can be configured into the system to offer virtually unlimited disk capacity.

Novell Labs Tested & Approved

y of Disk Arrays.

Integrated Disk Array Server: IDAS2000

The Mylex IDAS2000 is a high-performance integrated disk array server, utilizing state-of-the-art disk array technology.

► CPU Subsystem: Intel 486™ DX2-66MHz EISA system with 256-Kbytes of cache, 8-Mbytes of system memory upgradable to 256-Mbytes, six bus master EISA slots, built-in I/O, flash BIOS and future CPU upgrades with the ZIF socket.

► Disk Subsystem: Features a one-channel disk array controller that is upgradable to two channels for increased performance. The controller utilizes the powerful Intel i960CA RISC processor and includes a standard cache of 4-Mbytes that's upgradable

to 64-Mbytes. RAID levels 0, 1, and 5 are supported with fault tolerance, hot replacement, hot sparing and background rebuild capabilities. Both 8- and 16-bit fast and wide SCSI-II drives are supported. Software support for NetWare 3.11 (Novell certified). Optional support for SCO 3.2.4 and IBM OS/2 2.0 operating environments. Extensive user-friendly software utilities included.

► Enclosure: Includes three redundant power supplies, five cooling fans, 10 drive bays for 3.5" SCSI drives, and four additional drive bays for tape drives, floppy, etc.

The system includes an EISA LAN adapter and super VGA graphics. Disk drives are optional.

We've Benched the Competition

When Mylex conducted benchmark tests to compare our disk array system s performance to our competitors', we outperformed the competition's RAID 3 and 5 systems, as well as duplexed and spanned systems, by a wide margin.

Benchmarks: Disk Array Subsystems

CIPRICO NetArray

RAID 3

CORE IAS

RAID 3

MlCROPOLIS RAIDion

RAID 5

ULTRASTOR U124

RAID 5

MYLEX DAC960

■:m»H

NCOPY all drives enabled

13:19

15:00

13:30

10:06

4:25 4:30 10:17

NCOPY one drive down

14:05

15:00

15:30

10:36

NCOPY

during

rebuild

26:32

20:49

18:30

► LAN Technology's performance tests for Ciprico, Core and Micropolis consisted of copying 2400 files—totaling about 80-Mbytes-from one directory to another using NetWare's NCOPY. The Mylex and UltraStor test configuration included a 486 DX2-50MHz CPU-based EISA system using five HP 97556-30 796-Mbyte drives. Times are shown in minutes.

Circle 107 on Inquiry Card.

Flexible Purchase Options

Controllers only, a complete system without disk drives, or a complete system with the drives are offered.

For more information on Mylex disk array systems and controllers, call 1-80077-MYLEX or 1-510-796-6100. Or, fax us at 1-510-745-8016.

© 1993, Mylex Corporation. Specifications subject to change without notice. All trademarks are the property of their respective holders. © 1992, M&T Publishing, reprinted with the permission of LAN TECHNOLOGY, August, 1992. Novell certification applies to 5-channei disk array products only. The Intel Inside Logo is a trademark ol Intel Corporation.

rroiGc

NEWS

MICROBYTES

Zoomer Could Beat Newton to the Punch

Casio Computer and Tandy's first hand-held personal information device will be a pen-based system with an LCD screen and infrared communications. It will also have the ability to run for up to 100 hours on regular alkaline batteries. Codenamed Zoomer, the VCR cassette-size system is expected to ship late this summer, which is the same time frame in which Apple says it will release its Newton PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Bruce Mendel, director of marketing at Casio's personal communications division, told BYTE that Zoomer's price, although not yet finalized, will be closer to $600 than $1000 (Apple officials recently hinted that the initial price of the Newton may hover near $1000).

Casio and Tandy still aren't saying what processor they will use in the system,

other than to J confirm that Zoomer will be based on a low-powered, 80x86-ar

m chitecture processor running the Pen/

^^ ML • Infrar

ZOOMER

• Infrared communications

•100-hour battery life • 80x86-based • PCMCIA 2.0

GEOS operating environment from GeoWorks (Berkeley, CA). Zoomer will feature a top that you can flip up, much like the Star Trek communicator Captain Kirk uses. In addition, Zoomer will be PCMCIA 2.0-compatible, although company officials aren't saying how many PCMCIA slots the unit will have. Peripherals for a PCMCIA slot may include a Motorola pager and data communications devices, such as fax modems. Most of the internal components of Zoomer will be custom developed: Zoomer's bus or video architecture is not based on standards such as ISA or VGA.

Casio officials have demonstrated a working Zoomer prototype weighing less than a pound and capable of handwriting recognition, but to date, BYTE has not been able to test it. As an alternative to handwritten pen input, Zoomer will have a pop-up keyboard that you can tap with the pen. You'll also be able to undo digital ink strokes. Several personal productivity applications will be available when Zoomer ships, including software from Intuit (Menlo Park, CA), the market leader in personal finance software, Casio says. Other companies developing programs for Zoomer include America On-Line (Vienna, VA, interactive, on-line service) and Palm Computing (Los Altos, CA, applications software and handwriting recognition). Reference tools (e.g., an electronic dictionary) will be bundled with Zoomer.

An open API will make Zoomer accessible to software publishers who want to develop applications for the hand-held system. This could be a major distinction between Zoomer and Apple's Newton, according to Casio.

—Andy Reinhardt and Dave Andrews

Chicago Brings DOS Closer to Windows

Microsoft is developing a 32-bit version of MS-DOS to carry Windows into the future. Sources say the combined DOS/Windows operating system, codenamed Chicago, will be released next year. The idea is to tightly integrate MS-DOS and Windows so that, rather than sitting on top of MS-DOS, Windows will be threaded tightly into the 32-bit DOS. Along with the new operating system will be yet

another API, called Win32c, another source said. Combining the two systems will help Microsoft progress in the direction it has already taken with MS-DOS 6 (see "Easy Does It with MS-DOS 6.0" on page 44) in integrating MS-DOS with Windows.

Microsoft's strategy is to evolve DOS into Windows by default. Another source said that Microsoft's Chicago will be an

NANOBYTES

Stac Electronics (Carlsbad, CA), developer and publisher of the Stacker data compression utility, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft that asserts a prerelease version of MS-DOS 6 infringes two Stac patents. In announcing the lawsuit, Stac president Gary Clow provided a detailed version of discussions that he said took place between his company and top Microsoft officials before the lawsuit was filed, regarding Microsoft possibly licensing Stac's data compression for use in MS-DOS 6.

"From the very outset, Microsoft steadfastly refused to pay any royalties," Clow said. "Their position essentially was that 'we will bless Stac technology with the holy water of Microsoft and anoint you as an industry standard.' " Regarding Clow's version of what went on during these negotiations, Microsoft spokesman Collins Hemingway said, "We do not assume, and we would ask the public not to assume, that their version of the events is necessarily an accurate one." □

The FTC, apparently deadlocked in a vote on how to proceed in its investigation into possible antitrust violations by Microsoft, said in a terse statement that it "did not come to a final decision and will reconvene in the near future." The failure to take action means that, for now, the FTC is not likely to take punitive measures against Microsoft following a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the company's DOS licensing and other business practices. □

28 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Deliverin

JMifiWi

s™ NT Development Tools from WATCOM

Featuring powerful new GUI debugger

NOW available in Beta

Calll-800-265-4555

-,s to enroll.

► The Wid

32-bit DOS, „

► The Industry's Leading Code Optimizer

Advanced global optimizer with new 486 optimizations

► The Most Comprehensive Toolset

-': Debugger, profiler, 'protected-mb.de compiler and linker, 32-bit DOS extender with royalty-free run-time i'^fint;e' components from Microsoft SDK, and more

► The Best Value in 32-Bit Tools::

Unleash 32-bit Power!

WATCOM C9.0/386 lets you exploit the two key 32-bit performance benefits. The 32-bit flat memory model simplifies memory management and lets applications address beyond the 640K limit. Powerful 32-bit instruction processing delivers a significant speed advantage: typically at least a 2x speedup.

You Get:

► 100% ANSI and SAA compatible compiler and libraries C9.0/ 386 passes all Plum Hall Validation Suite tests

► Extensive Microsoft compatibility simplifies porting of 16-bit code

► Royalty-free run-time for 32-bit DOS, Windows and OS/2 apps

Comprehensive toolset includes debugger, linker, profiler and more DOS extender support for Rational, Phar Lap and Ergo Run-time compatible with WATCOM FORTRAN 77/386

32-bit DOS support includes the DOS/4GW 32-bit DOS extender by

Rational Systems with royalty-free runtime license

► Virtual Memory support up to 32Mb

32-bit WindOWS support enables development and debugging of true 32-bit GUI applications and DLL's.

► Includes licensed Microsoft SDK components

32-bit OS/2 2.0 support includes development for multiple target environments including OS/2 2.0, 32-bit DOS and 32-bit Windows

► Access to full OS/2 2.0 API including Presentation Manager

► Integrated with IBM Workframe/2 Environment

AutoCAD ADS and ADI Development: Everything you need to develop and debug ADS and ADI applications for AutoCAD Release 11

Novell's Network Cfor NLM's SDK includes C/386

The Industry's Choice.

Autodesk, Robert Wenig, Manager, AutoCAD for Windows: "At Autodesk, we're using WATCOM C/386 in the development of strategic new products since it gives us a competitive edge through early access to new technologies. We also highly recommend WATCOM C/386 to third party AutoCAD add-on (ADS and ADI) developers."

FOX Software, David Fulton, President: "FoxPro 2.0 itself is written in WATCOM C, and takes advantage of its many superior features. Optimizing for either speed or compactness is not uncommon, but to accomplish both was quite remarkable."

00, Robert Can; Vice President of Software: "After looking at the 32-bit Intel 80x86 tools available in the industry, WATCOM C was the best choice. Key factors in our decision were performance, functionality, reliability and technical support."

IBM, John Soyring, Director of OS/2 Software Developer Programs: "IBM and WATCOM are working together closely to integrate these compilers with the OS/2 2.0 Programmer's Workbench."

LotUS, David Reed, Chief Scientist and Vice President, Pen-Based Applications: "In new product development we're working with WATCOM C because of superior code optimization, responsive support, and timely delivery of technologies important to us like p-code and support for GO Corp's. PenPoint."

Novell, Nancy Woodward, VP. and G.M., Development Products: "We searched the industry for the best 386 C compiler technology to incorporate with our developer toolkits. Our choice was WATCOM."

wmm

ITS CLASS WATCOM C7.0

_* ^^f COMPUTER

tf LANGUAGE

WAT

1-800-265-4555

LANGUA3E

The Leader in 32-bit Development Tools

415 Phillip Street. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Telephone: (519] 886-3700, Fax: (519) 747-4971. 'Price does not include freight and taxes where applicable. Authorized dealers may sell for less. WATCOM C and Lightning Device are trademarks of WATCOM International Corp. D0S/4G and D0S/16M are trademarks of Rational Systems Inc. Other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Copyright 1992 WATCOM International Corp.

Circle 151 on Inquiry Card.

Exactly how fast is graphics performan Image Series PCs?

Let's just say we developed Image Video™ technology expressly for all you high-performance speed demons. Fact is, we've engineered our Image™ Series PCs with a power^^^ f u I combination

of our secondgeneration local bus and graphics accelerator, allowing graphics information to travel directly between the CPU and video memory, so Windows'" is a breeze and you can sprint through today's most demanding graphics applications. Based on Intel's powerful 486 chip, each Image Series PC has OverDrive™ capability for easy processor upgradability. An on-board SCSI II interface means you can quickly connect to a wide variety of peripherals. And with our new OptiBus™ technology, your peripheral performance is up to 30% faster than ordinary systems. We've even made it easier for you to network

NEC has the ultimate system for graphics applications: lightning-quick Image Series PCs with integrated SCSI II interface, legendary MultiSync FG monitors, and our pioneering CD-ROM readers with MultiSpin'" technology.

your PCs with an optional factoryintegrated, high-performance 10BaseT Ethernet™ adapter.

Plus, every Image Series PC is designed with True Color support of up to 16.8 million colors for photorealistic images, as well as our exclusive ImageSync™ technology for flawless performance when connected to our award-winning

MultiSync® FG™ series monitors. The result? Clear, flicker-free images without any adjusting.

So call 1-800-NEC-INFO (in Canada, 1-800-343-4418), or NEC FastFacts™ at 1-800-366-0476 (# IMAGE). Then hold on to your spots.

Because x is the way you want to go.

MuHiS^ic is s ngtmnO MdtmM and FG, In

. Imag^Syng. Obi'Bus. hWbSph onO

Circle 112 on Inquiry Card.

5 NEC GSA •C-300-L>:.'.G = 5.^1 " ■ '«" ■k-=- fe'vj;' >

the

ce of NEC's

NEWS

MICROBYTES

OS/2 killer, while still another said it represented Microsoft's hedging its bets in case Windows NT is not wildly successful in its first couple of years on the market. Mike Nash, Windows NT product manager at Microsoft, said Microsoft is always working on the next versions of its applications and operating systems, and Chicago is the "gradual logical extension" to

Windows. "It is certainly not a Windows NT Lite," Nash said. However, one source at Microsoft said the Win32c API will support all the features of Windows NT's Win32 API—including multithreading— except for security and functions related to Windows NT's Hardware Abstraction Layer.

—Dom Pancucci and Dave Andrews

DEC'S Alpha PCs: A Fast Chip Talking to Intel Parts

HUDSON, Mass.—DEC'S first Alpha "PC" system will be a tower system with six EISA slots and five bays running on the DECchip 21064 at 150 MHz. The system will be in the $7000 to $ 10,000 price range, officials said. Expected to ship this spring, the so-called Alpha AXP PS will offer one-and-a-half to two times better performance than Intel Pentium-based systems and about four times better performance than an i486 system, says DEC. DEC also says the Alpha family of PCs will eventually support Intel's PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus and EISA.

Later this year, desktop systems supporting the EISA and PCI bus architectures will follow the AXP PS and will range in price from $4000 to $6000. A "future" desktop system, based on a lowcost implementation of an Alpha chip, will likely be available in 1994. DEC says the system will offer about two to three times the performance of systems based on the

i486 and could bring Alpha technology under the $3000 mark.

Of the market that DEC will pursue with these systems, John Foesch, marketing manager for the Personal Computer group, said, "Clearly we're going to be a highend PC." DEC expects to sell 70 percent of its Alpha PCs through indirect channels such as personal computer dealers and VARs. DEC will also sell the systems directly through its Desktop Direct unit.

David Conroy, senior consulting engineer for DEC's semiconductor engineering group, said that, other than the Alpha chip, very little Alpha-specific design was going into these Alpha PCs. In referring to the AXP PS, Conroy said, "there's buckets of parts there that believe they're only talking to Intel processors." The Alpha PCs are largely built of off-the-shelf Intelcompatible parts; glue logic interfaces the Alpha to either the

'

By 1996, DEC plans to manufacture Alpha chips using Its 0.35-micron, 30-milliontransistor, CMOS-6 process. Except for the DECchip 21064 processor (which is behind the heat sink at top right in the photo inset), most of DEC's Alpha PC's parts are Intelcompatible. (Photos by Dave Andrews)

NANOBYTES

Apple and subsidiary Claris say they will move product development of future versions of HyperCard into Apple's Developer Tools organization in the Apple Developer Group. Apple says it plans to coordinate HyperCard development efforts with its AppleScript project to give Apple a competitive advantage in the emerging area of next-generation software developer tools. AppleScript, a scripting technology for automating routine tasks, is scheduled for release in the first half of this year, Apple says. Claris will continue to sell and support the current version of HyperCard until Apple ships the next version. □

In March, Microsoft (Redmond, WA, (206) 882-8080) planned to release Visual C++, a full-fledged professional development language with a Visual Basic-like front end. Later this year, Microsoft is expected to ship Visual Basic 3.0 and a new version of Visual Basic for Windows NT. Get ready for the first version of Visual Basic for the Mac in early 1994. □

Computer Associates (Islandia, NY, (516) 342-5224) says it is close to releasing versions of Realizer, its BASIC programming tool for Windows NT, OS/2 2.0, and Windows. Jack Kramer, product manager for Realizer, said that as of February, the Windows version was in "solid beta." The OS/2 version, which was still in internal testing, will be bundled with the Windows version. The Windows NT version will ship shortly after Windows NT is released. □

A select number of developers are now testing early versions of Script X, Kaleida Labs' cross-platform scripting language for multimedia, sources said. The company plans to release Script X first for the Mac and Sweet Pea, the joint Apple/Toshiba consumer device— possibly as early as this summer, although one source said that time frame was "ambitious." □

32 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Advanced Signal Processing

(ASP) delivers 4:1 realtime hardware data compression and saves up to 65% of CPU processing time.

Enhanced Features include programmable mixing, multl pie-source recording, treble and bass controls.

Wave Blaster™ upgrade option for next generation wave table music synthesis.

State-of-the-Art 16-bit Codec with 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio.

High Performance

Full Compatibility with all

Cross Platform Support

More Inputs than other

CD-ROM interface.

Sound Blaster applications and

ensures all functions are

16-bit boards, including

2-million-user installed base.

accessible from DOS, OS/2,

MIDI, joystick, and multiple

Windows or MPC.

audio sources.

SoundBlastel6ASE We're not playing games anymore.

Sure, games are great. But with new applications ranging from voice recognition to full-blown integrated multimedia, it's time to get serious about PC audio. With Sound Blaster™ 16 ASP™

The 16 ASP comes with all the features you'd expect on a professional-quality sound board, plus more than $500 in bundled software.. .all for a suggested retail of just under $350.

But the real secret lies in Creative Labs' exclusive Advanced Signal Processing technology: realtime hardware data compression that delivers full CD-quality stereo at a fraction of the CPU power required by other

16-bit boards. And downloadable algorithms that enable future upgrades like voice recognition, time control and special effects.

So if you thought the original Sound Blaster set the standard for games, you're right. But the 16-bit PC Sound Barrier has now been broken. With Sound Blaster 16 ASP: V

the new Sound Standard for CD-quality PC Audio.

For more information QI

calll-800-998-LABS. (/)

Sound

CRE TIVE

CREATIVE LAE

© Copyright 1992 Creative Labs, Inc. All specifications subject to change without notice.

Sound Blaster, ASP, and Wave Blaster are trademarks of Creative Labs, Inc. All other software and trademarks are owned by their respective companies.

International inquiries: Creative Technology Ltd. Singapore, TEL 65-733-0233. FAX 65-773-0353.

Circle 157 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 158).

OurT4500C features an LCD TFT active matrix color screen that can display a kaleidoscope of 256 simultaneous colors from a palette of 185,193. OurT4500 offers a large, bright, easy-to-read 9.5" VGA display with 640 x 480 resolution and 17:1 contrast ratio.

A 150-pin expansion port lets you attach a SCSI adapter to the notebook. Or lets you attach the notebook to our Desk Station IV, providing true desktop capabilities in your office.

System control hotkeys save time by allowing you to quickly change your display setting, power management, security status, etc., without having to call up menus.

A generous 4MB RAM standard, expandable to 20MB.

Our award-winning keyboard features standard-sized keys and key spacing.

TheT4500 series' advanced 20MHz i486'"SX processor makes any 386 seem like a tortoise. In fact, tests reveal it's up to two and a half times faster than many 386-based notebooks.

TheT4500C comes with a 120MB hard drive and ourT4500 comes with a choice of an 80MB or 120MB hard drive.

3.3-volt chip technology decreases power , drain by as much as 25%, while adding up to 27% more battery life.

THE KITCHEN SINK IS

If you're getting the feeling the T4500 series represents a new standard in business notebook computing, you're right.

INTRODUCING THE

) 1993 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.The Intel Inside logo and i486 arc trademarks of Intel Corporation. All products indicated by trademark symbol are trademarked and/or registered by their respective

OPTIONAL.

The T4500C's dimensions: 11.7"Wx8.3"Dx2.0"H. The T4500's dimensions: 11.7" W x 8.3"D x 1.8" H. Both fit into half of a briefcase.

Windowss3.1 and DOS8 5.0 with Ultrafont,"come pre-installed.

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AutoResume lets you start where you left off without rebooting and automatically saves your material when you turn the power off.

Our Quick Charge capabilities allow you to charge the battery while you're working.

Featuring AutoResume, AutoSave, Advanced Power Management, and CPU Sleep Mode, our MaxTime'"power management system helps you get the maximum out of every battery charge.

Quickread LCD status icons allow you to check a host of functions (including remaining battery time, key/ board status, and power-saving mode) at a glance.

3-- io \*m^g\@B^\mmmm]

An industry-standard PCMCIA 2.0 slot accepts removable hard drives, data/fax modems, network adapters, and other expansion options.

The BallPoint™ mouse connects directly to the computer through a unique "one touch" QuickPort'"so there's no cord to get in your way.

A front-loading floppy drive provides easy access.

Both theT4500 and theT4500C weigh in at about 6.5 lbs.

TOSHIBA T4500 SERIES

The T4500features a

large, easy-to-read 9.5"

monochrome screen.

Tests reveal that the 3.3-volt

20MHz i486~SX processor

is up to two and a half

times faster than many

386-based notebooks.

You can call real-live Toshiba technicians toll-free for complete product support.

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

1-800-457-7777

Circle 142 on Inquiry Card.

NEWS

MICROBYTES

PCI or the EISA buses.

By supporting Intel's future PCI bus, DEC will be able to take advantage of the wide variety of low-cost PCI peripherals, graphics, and I/O chips, according to Linley Gwennap, senior editor of the Micro

processor Report (Sebastopol, CA, (707) 823-4004). This will provide strong competition, at least on the Windows NT platform, for Intel's Pentium processor and the Mips R4000 family of processors.

— Dave Andrews

High Cost of Chip R&D Sparks New Friendships

The high cost of R&D in creating the next wave of CPUs and memory chips has prompted a new round of collaborations among high-technology firms. Last summer, IBM, Toshiba, and Siemens Nixdorf announced they had agreed to codevelop 256-Mb chips. Currently, Texas Instruments and Hitachi say that they, too, will share research efforts in developing 256-Mb memory chips. And in another alliance, AMD has hooked up with HewlettPackard to share development costs and expertise in developing the technology for a new generation of 0.35-micron chips that could range from RAM chips to RISC processors.

AMD and HP are working on a process technology capable of cramming as many as 10 million transistors on a single chip. To reach that goal, they must shrink the minimum feature size to 0.35 micron. (In contrast, the first versions of the Pentium have about 3.1 million transistors and a feature size of 0.8 micron.)

While the two companies have agreed to share technology to develop the smaller submicron process, each company will

use the new chip technology individually. AMD and HP hope their collaboration will result in 0.35-micron chips by late 1994, with volume shipments beginning in 1995. That's about the same time industry observers think Intel will introduce the P6.

Although HP and AMD aren't releasing financial details of their alliance, the cost of developing the new submicron technology is estimated at $800 million to $1 billion, according to Charles Boucher, a senior industry analyst at Dataquest. IBM, Siemens Nixdorf, and Toshiba estimate that their development cost on the 256-Mb chip will reach about $1 billion. "The cost is enormous," Boucher said of the HP/AMD effort. "This partnership is very strategic for AMD because it will give them the means to compete with their primary competitor, which is Intel. I think it's a positive move." HP also benefits, as it can apply the submicron technology to its line of Precision Architecture RISC processors and ASICs (application-specific ICs).

—Tom Halfhill

Digital Cellular Radio Spreads Out

PARIS—Vodafone (Newbury, U.K.), one of the U.K.'s two licensed operators of GSM (Global System for Mobile), a pan-European digital cellular-radio network, claims to have completed the world's first simultaneous text and speech transmission over the GSM. The transmission took place entirely within the U.K. between equipment from Vodafone and a digital mobile telephone that Helsinki, Finland-based Nokia manufactures. Messages of up to 160 alphanumeric characters were transmitted to and displayed on the mobile terminal. Vodafone's CEO Chris Gent said, "This first example of simultaneous speech and text transmission in mobile telephony opens the door to a whole series of value-added services, some of which will become available later this year."

Digital GSM offers the potential of bet

ter voice transmission than analog cellular phones provide, as well as security through encryption and support for international roaming, although the implementation of cross-border GSM links is still in its early stages.

Another advanced feature promised by GSM is ISDN in cars. Despite teething troubles that delayed GSM implementation by about a year, several networks with restricted geographical coverage went live last summer.

Hong Kong and Australia have already adopted GSM. Two digital formats known as TDMA (time division multiple access) and CDMA (code division multiple access) are vying for acceptance as digital cellular standards in North America for a digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS). (For more information on the two formats, see "Stretching the Ether,"

NANO BYTES

Microsoft has big plans for Modular Windows, the simplified version of the GUI for consumer entertainment and information devices. Rob Glaser, vice president of multimedia and consumer products at Microsoft, said that one benefit of Modular Windows is that it uses many of the same API calls as Windows 3.1. However, the ease in porting a Windows program to Modular Windows will vary from program to program, he said. For one thing, Modular Windows doesn't have pull-down menus. Glaser advises programmers to "think about what kind of display hardware you want your program to run on. Your next Windows application could be running on more than just an Intel processor. It could also be running on an interactive TV or standalone PDA or electronic books." Glaser said Microsoft plans to eventually release a Modular Windows version of its Multimedia Viewer development tool. □

The value of all X Window System-specific products and services sold worldwide increased more than 60 percent during 1992, according to the X Business Group (Fremont, CA), a market-research company. The total value of the X industry was $820 million for 1992, up from $510 million in 1991. The software PC X server category grew 217 percent. □

Canon says it has reached a basic agreement to acquire the hardware development and production departments of newly refocused Next. Dr. Keizo Yamaji, president of Canon, said Next originally set out to build great hardware and software. Now it will focus on building great software for Motorola, Intel, and possibly other architectures. □

36 BYTE • APRIL 1993

For Xbase All Roads Lead To CA.

It's been a very difficult and confusing couple of years for Xbase developers. Filled with uncertainty and doubt about the future. At times, some questioned whether Xbase even had a future.

But those days are over.

With the resources, experience and support of the world's leading database company behind it, and with the combined technological wealth of CA-Clipper? CA-dBFast™ and Computer Associates, the future of Xbase has never looked brighter.

CA-Clipper

tope /Compiler Kit

For dBASE IV

Millions Of Clipper, dBASE, Fox And

CA-dBFast Developers Head For The Next Generation Xbase System.

CA-dBFast

To build the Xbase system of the future, we've added

CA's visual tool and client-server technology to

Nantucket's next generation Xbase project.

This new system will provide a fully object-oriented

Xbase language, native code

compiler, an IDE (Integrated

Development Environment) and

both DBF-style and client-server

database support.

It will support Windows,

Windows NT, OS/2 and UNIX. The complete product will be demonstrated at Fall Comdex and available for beta testing in the fourth quarter of 1992.

AVi/l/fVM'/VlKd.- /,,/.,(',/

Advisor limn did first place to CA-Cltppers. 01 for Best XBase Compiler, Base Development Lnneange and Best Application /Vii'/.'p-'ffl( Product

Go GUI Today With CA-dBFast Or Go The DOS Route With OOP Via Clipper 5.0.

Attention All dBASE IV Developers: Your CA-Clipper/Compiler Kit Has Arrived.

After four years, the compiler kit you've been waiting for has arrived.

Introducing new CA-Clipper/Compiler Kit For dBASE

IV. The easiest, quickest way in the world to compile

a dBASE IV application. All it takes is three easy

steps. And in just minutes, you can turn most dBASE

IV programs into faster running, higher performance j programs.

The new CA-Clipper/Compiler Kit For dBASE IV provides compatibility and database interoperability with most dBASE IV applications. The Kit is i implemented using the open architecture of CA-Clipper, including the preprocessor, the Extend System and the RDDs.

Secure Your Future When You Team Up With The World's Leading Database Software Company

Much more than just a PC software company, CA is the world's leading database software company. CA software is used in over 70 countries around the world by more than 10 million users including over 90% of the Fortune 500. From mainframe to midrange to microcomputers, CA database software runs on more platforms, more operating systems, and handles more mission-critical applications than any other software in the world.

For Information On CA-Clipper, CA-dBFast And A Statement of Direction: Call 1-800 CALL CAI.

t'onipiacrworldsavs CA dPl'ast oilers tc/i prtcc/'pertorniancc.

There are two migration paths to this ultimate Xbase system: The OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) path of CA-Clipper and the GUI (Graphical User Interface) path of CA-dBFast with Windows support.

Both paths will provide immediate benefits and will protect and leverage the substantial investments you've made in Xbase.

Future

Of

Xbase

To get the complete story on The Future Of /ffgg2%

Xbase, call for this special 30-page state

ment of direction. It contains an Executive Summary as well as an in-depth discussion of Xbase in the 90s, CA's Open and cA-dBFast/or madam Client-Server Architectures, Integrated j°"m"rfcSho%«

aide mentionsJor Best Database Manage.'

Development Environment, Xbase

migration plans and end-user tools. Call for your copy today. And find out why the future of Xbase will lead you right to CA.

QOMPUTER jFmSSOCIATES

Software superior by design.

© Computer Associates International, Inc., One Computer Associates Plaza, Islandia, NY 11788-7000. 1-800 CALL CAI. dBASE and dBASE IV are registered trademarks of Borland International, Inc. All product names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective companies.

Circle 79 on Inquiry Card.

Introducing PC To Just think of it

in

Organize and simplify your work.

Our unique MultiDesk desktop manager lets you put related

applications, folders and files into their own separate desktops.

Set up as many desktops as you like, then switch between them

instantly. It all adds up to a less cluttered, more productive

Windows environment that works like you do.

[2]

Improve the speed and efficiency of common tasks.

Our integrated File Manager has advanced drag-and-drop

capabilities that let you quickly locate, view, copy and print files.

With over 75 viewers, you can scan files (including compressed

PKZIP data) without having to open their applications first. Hate

to turn off your PC because you don't want to set everything up

again? Our DeskSaver feature solves that problem too.

e Edit VJew Layout Fant firaphics Window Help

BOB S BIKES #%> #% f%

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ESiSSlli§^tipBidByfc

file Manager

a

CENTRAL POrNT

PC TOOLS

Windows® is a great product. And someday, it'll be even better. But why wait?

New PC Tools'" for Windows® is here right now. It saves you time, reduces clutter and gives you easy access to all the functions and files you use most often. In fact, PC Tools for Windows is so innovative that after reviewing it, the editors of

PC/Computing asked, "Who needs Macs?"

For starters, there's our unique MultiDesk™ desktop. MultiDesk is an intuitive desktop manager that lets you organize your work by creating as many desktops as you need for your projects, tasks, or clients. So, if you spend the day switching between many different projects, you won't lose anything in the clutter.

Ever misplaced a file or couldn't remember its

*Our lawyers said we could run this headline ijwe make the following absolutely clear: Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PC Tools for Windows is the sole product of Central Point Software, Inc. Microsoft and

Central Point? PC Tools;' MulliDesk',- WinShield;" Speed Keys;- System Consultant™ andDiskfix* are trademarks of Central Point Software.

ols for Windows: as Windows 4.O.*

[3]

Enhance your system's performance.

System Consultant'" performs over 400 system checks and provides recommendations for improving your PC's performance. Our Disk Optimizer can automatically defragment your hard disk at prescheduled intervals, or on command.

[4]

Automatically protect your data.

We've included new Windows versions of Backup, Undelete, Anti-Virus and DiskFixf They're all integrated in WinShieldv an automatic data-protection system that results in worry-free computing. Our Emergency Disk builds a bootable recovery disk to help get a crashed system up and running fast.

name? Our File Manager lets you quickly view files without having to load the program first. Tired of cryptic, abbreviated file names? Now you can attach long file names to your data to keep things clear and simple.

We also created Speed Keys™so you can take shortcuts through Windows, and System Consultant that gives you specific tips for improving system performance.

PC Tools for Windows is at your nearest dealer.

For more information, a free demo disk, or to upgrade from PC Tools for DOS, call us at 1-800-967-9251. Your purchase is backed by our 60-day guarantee.

Find out for yourself why the editors are already heralding PC Tools for Windows as "The ultimate desktop." It may just be the best thing since, well.. Windows.

Central Point Software

8 INC

Central Point Software did not collaborate on this product, and this ad is not in any way sponsored by Microsoft. PC Toots for Windows does not replace Microsoft Windows or any future version thereof; it simply complements it. Names of other products mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Circle 73 on Inquiry Card.

NEWS

MICROBYTES

February BYTE.) Minoru Kuramoto, executive manager of R&D for the Mobile Communications Sector at NTT (Japan), said that in Japan, standardized digital systems are also being developed.

Although the Japanese TDMA-based standard is not compatible with Europe's GSM, its use may soon extend into other Asian countries.

— Raymond Boult

Next Abandons the Hardware Business

N

| ext is out of the hardware business.

I Next chairman and CEO Steve Jobs says the imminent (late May) shipment of NextStep for Intel Processors, the "commoditization" of the hardware industry, and the need to capitalize on its lead in the object-oriented operating-system market forced the company to sell its hardware operations.

The announcement marks the closing of a major chapter in computer history.

Despite the Next cube's brilliant design, the company's decision to focus early on the education market, the halfhearted attempt by reseller BusinessLand to sell Next systems, and the machine's design flaws (e.g., the lack of a floppy drive in the original Next cube) doomed the machine. The Next cube may go down in history as a great machine that never found a market.

— Nicholas Baran

General Magic: Come Together with Telescript

General Magic, a company founded in 1990 by former Apple employees, wants to reinvent the telephone, but it may take a decade. Now that the company has announced its formidable partners, it intends to release further details this summer on its Magic Cap operating system and Telescript protocol.

Apple, AT&T, Matsushita, Motorola, Philips, Sony, and others expect the Telescript communications language to form

the basis of a new wave of hand-held devices with ubiquitous communications capabilities. EO (Mountain View, CA), an affiliate of AT&T, will use General Magic software in its Hobbit processor-based communicator. But General Magic's president and CEO Marc Porat warned that it will be many years before users can electronically access a train schedule, pay bills, or call up a favorite restaurant's menu.

— Ed Perratore

First Simultaneous-Translation Telephone Call Demonstration

Do you need to negotiate a business deal with the CEO of a German company, but all you can remember from German 101 is how to count to five? Then check out Janus, an experimental continuousspeech translation system with a 400-word speaker-independent vocabulary that translates spoken communication back and forth between languages in close to real time.

The Consortium for Speech Translation Research, a group of scientists from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), the University of Karlsruhe and Siemens Nixdorf (Munich, Germany), and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (Kyoto, Japan) demonstrated Janus in a first-of-a-kind video conference held in January. People in Japan, the U.S., and Germany spoke to one another live in their respective languages while the system simultaneously translated each person's phone conversation.

In Janus, as each person speaks into the system, the speech signal is digitized and preprocessed. Using front-end signal analysis, a recognizer detects the sounds in the input stream by applying neural-networkbased classification strategies. The system reviews the top 50 sentence hypotheses so the translation module can select the most plausible sentence to output. Further processing occurs downstream from this point.

Alexander Waibel, senior computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, said that within five years, new learning algorithms should allow for voice-activated dictionaries and phrase books that translate business phrases, travel information, and directions. Waibel said that in five to 10 years, we should see spontaneous domain-specific speech-translation devices for planning trips, reserving hotel rooms, and ordering food. ■

—Janet J. Barron

NANOBYTES

Ross Systems (Redwood City, CA), a company with experience in developing commercial accounting software programs in the minicomputer market, is releasing a suite of financial accounting products for client/server computing on a variety of platforms, including Windows NT, HPUX, and

OSF-1. Larry Smart, president of Ross Systems, on the process of rewriting its time-sharing application for the client/server model, said, "The biggest hurdle was rethinking the applications into event driven from time sharing. The interface is different, the old way was sequential, but in an event-driven world, we never know what the user will do next." □

Santa Monica, California-based Quarterdeck has reduced its workforce by about 45 people, or about 15 percent. One of the challenges facing the company is to educate the public on its Desqview/X product (see "Was Desqview/X Worth the Wait?" August 1992 BYTE). Stephen Auditore, president of the X Business Group, called Desqview/X a good product from a technical point of view. "They [Quarterdeck] are to be applauded for their efforts, but their [technical accomplishment] doesn't necessarily translate into market success." Quarterdeck plans on releasing version 7.0 of its QEMM memory manager shortly after the release of MS-DOS 6. □

A report from the City University Business School (London) says that 80 percent of companies using groupware apply the technology for tactical work, such as increasing efficiency. The other 20 percent are changing core business practices through computer-based teamwork. ■

40 BYTE • APRIL 1993

We're Playing Your Song!

If Gateway 21)00 was a record, what would we 'sound like? Music to your ears!

Those Old-Time Country Values

by The Low Overheads

Our album would kick off with some great Country tunes because, after all, we're the original country PC company with the low-overhead prices. We're located

in the heartland of America where our factory is bordered by com and bean fields. KSUX country radio, the Super Pig, is the number one station in these parts (no fooling). Gateway folks are mostly midwest bom

and raised, and it shows in our quality workmanship and in the friendly, down-home way we treat our customers. We'll bend over backwards to please you. When you buy from Gateway, you get the best price, quality and service. That's a value nobody can beat.

Gimme the Good Stuff

by Hammer and the Boys

This song is dedicated to everybody who's tired of new technology becoming affordable only after it's upstaged by something better. At Gateway, we offer the latest, newfangled technology at homespun prices.

Baby, Let Me Baby You

by The Support Group

Every Gateway 2000 system comes with excellent after-the-sale support. You get a 30-day money-back guarantee. If A

you don't like your system, send it back within 30 days for a refund. All systems come with a one-year limited warranty and telephone technical support for the life of the system from our award-winning tech department. We received PC World's World Class Award in 1992 for best service and support in the hardware category. And in a February 1993 survey, PC Magazine readers once again gave Gateway an excellent rating for service and reliability. You also get a lifetime BBS membership for additional technical support and online forums.

We offer on-site service to most locations in the country (factory service only for notebooks). Replacement parts leave our factory as quickly as possible; we pay overnight shipping. Plus we now have interactive documentation on desktop systems with pictures and text right on your hard drive (in addition to comprehensive hardware and software manuals).

We make it easy for you to buy a Gateway PC. too, with convenient payment options including major credit cards and C.O.D. terms. Net 30-day terms and leasing options are also available to qualified commercial customers. All this and your great-looking Gateway PC comes in our distinctive, country cow-spotted box!

To serve you heller,

we've hired and

trained over 500 new

people for customer

service, technical

support, sales and

manufacturing in the

past five months,

bringing our total

number of employees

to over I MO.

. m II

' w

Gatewa&doo

•4 Gateway's 4SX-33 makes a mighty-fine Windows machine!

800-846-2058

Vs.

We Got the Goods - by The Systematics

Gateway's album would continue with some heartpounding rock 'n roll cuts because our ^^ systems arc definitely pure rock. They're ^jjb^ cool-looking, hot-performing, high-energy ^T-machines - at some sweet prices. There's a model that's perfect for you.

Megahertz So Good

by Pup and the Cells

Gateway's mini-desktop systems - 3SX-33,4SX-33 and 4DX-33 - are petite but plenty powerful, based on a integrated design that incorporates many subsystems on the motherboard for the best price-performance ratio. All mini desktop systems include: 4 to 8MB RAM; a large and fast hard drive, operating on the local bus in 486 models for even faster drive performance; a fast video chipset with 1MB; a brilliant, crisp display from the standard 14-inch CrystalScan noninterlaced color monitor; and more available expansion slots than you find in most small-footprint PCs. The combination of these features makes a cool Windows machine for an unbeatable price.

So You Wanta Fly? - by The Screamin' Vs

Power users, pick up the phone and order a Gateway 2000 VESA local bus 486 machine right now. You'll never regret it. With our 4DX2-50V or 4DX2-66V models, you get screaming PC performance. We put ATI's Graphics Ultra Pro video card with 1MB VRAM on our VESA local bus for results that are simply awesome! Plus these systems have a hefty 8MB RAM with cache, and hard-rockin' hard drives running on the local bus. Extra VESA local bus expansion slots, too. You get a 15-inch flat, square CrystalScan color monitor - our top-of-the-line - and more choices of cool application software than you'll find anywhere else.

Big Bandwidth Boogie - by The Gates

If you're looking for the 32-bit power of an EISA system, we offer three models - 4DX-33E, 4DX2-50E and 4DX2-66E. All models include: 8MB RAM with 256K cache; a very large, very fast SCSI hard drive; 32-bit EISA SCSI controller; and a standard tower case. Please call for details and prices on models not listed on our price page.

Workin1 Up Some New Riffs

by The Harmonics This one's our theme song. At Gateway, we're always looking for ways to make your PC easier and more fun to use. For example, we now install a Mach 32 video driver icon in your Windows control panel so you can change your video resolution quickly and easily.

We custom-build

each Gateway 2000

computer to your order.

We II gladly provide

you with a quote on a

special configuration.

Call our sales

department'.

All Gateway systems

go through extensive

compatibility testing

to ensure flawless

performance with all

products from major

software developers

and peripherals

manufacturers.

...

GATEJWY2000

4 According to PC World, "(Gateway 2000's 4DX2-66V is) by far the fastest machine we've ever tested!"

800-846-2058

n

w (m

Windows to the Other Side

by Tommy Gee

Gateway's album would also include jazz favorites because we offer a complete line of software and peripherals to make your system extra cool.

Software Improv - by Good Vibes

All Gateway systems come with some very hip software, all pre-installed and ready to run the moment your PC arrives. With mini desktop, desktop and tower systems that include "choice of application software," you get to pick one of the following applications, all latest versions:

■ Microsoft'1'Excel for Windows'"

■ Microsoft Word for Windows™

■ Microsoft Word and Bookshelf 92® CD

■ Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows™

■ Microsoft Project for Windows'"

■ The MS Entrepreneur Pack (Works,'" Publisher,™ Money,'" and games)

■ Borland Paradox® for Windows'"

■ The Windows Programmer Pack (MS Quick C,™ Visual Basic and more)

■ Upgrade to Microsoft Office'" for $ 175

All Gateway desktop systems also come with Cool Tools for DOS, a diagnostic and utilities package including QA Plus'" from Diagsoft, Central Point® Anti-Vims and more.

Connectivity - by The Local Area Group

TelePath"Fax/Modem. A 14,400bpsmodem, V.32bis, with 9,600bps fax capability. Includes WinFax Pro, Crosstalk for Windows, Qmodem. $195

Network Cards. Call for a selection of Ethernet cards and Token Ring adapters, installed and configured. Microsoft Windows'" for Workgroups. Networking made easy! Price includes an Ethernet adapter and software. Hardware and software factory-installed. $159

WOW - by Talking Pictures in Motion CD-ROM Kit. Includes CD-ROM, interface card and

everything you need to add MPC-compliant CD-ROM to

your PC. $225

Microsoft Windows Sound System.'" Package

includes sound board, microphone, headset and

software. $149

Multimedia Accessories. Call for details on other

multimedia hardware and software.

The software

and peripherals

listed here are sold

only with the

purchase of a

system. For details

on our complete

line of extras for

Gateway

customers, call

direct to our

special add-on

components

division:

800-846-2080.

Accessorize - by The Wizbangs

We offer many other system options and upgrades, including:

■ 17" and 20" Monitors

■ Tape Backup Units

■ Texas Instruments Laser Printers

■ Panasonic Dot-Matrix Printers

■ Bigger Hard Drives

■ Other Software Call today!

■4 Gateway's 4DX-.U V is shown here with Windows Sound System components, the CD-ROM kit and optional speakers. Call for details on this system.

GATEW&2000

800-846-2058

Gateway 2000's Hit Parade

Desktop Systems

3SX-33

l33MHz386SXImefProc;fSS6r

I 4MB RAM ^T

I 5.25" & 3.5" DiskeufDrives

I 80MB 17ms IDEfiard Drive

I Windows Accented Video w/ 1MB DRAM

I 14" Color CrysJlScan" 1024NI

I Mini Desktop Ease

I 5 16-Bit ISA Slots

I 124-Key AnyKey1" Keyboard

I MS-DOS;" Widows"'& Mouse

I Cool Tools foipOS

I MS Works forWindows™ 2.0

$1295

4SX-33V

■ 33MHz 486SX Intelirocessor

■ 8MB RAM, 64K CadHe

■ 5.25" & 3.5" Diskette! Drives

■ 250MB 13ms IDF. H$d Drive

■ Local Bus IDE Interlace

■ Intel OverDrive Soofet

■ VLB ATI Ultra Priwith 1MB VRAM

■ 15" Color Crysto/Scan I572FS

■ Desktop Casejfower Upgrade)

■ 8 16-Bit IS Allots. 2 with 32-Bit VLB

■ 124-Key AwKey Keyboard

■ MS-DOS/Windows & Mouse

■ Cool jjjls for DOS I Chojfje of Application Software

4DX2-66E

66MHz 486DX2 Intel Processor 8MB RAM, 256K Cache 5.25" & 3.5" Diskette Drives 500MB I lms SCSI Hard Drive 32-Bit EISA SCSI Controller Intel OverDrive Socket Windows Accelerated Video w/1 MB DRAM 14" Color GrystalScanl024.NI Tower Case 8 32-Bit EISA Slots 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard MS-DOS, Windows & Mouse I Cool Tools for DOS Choice,of Application Software

$3495

4SX-33

4DX-33

33MHz 486SX Intel Processor

■ 33MHz 486DX Intel Processor

4MB RAM

I 8MB RAM, 64fcCache

5.25" & 3.5" Diskette Drives

■ 5.25" & 3.5" Diskette Drives

170MB 13ms IDE Hard Drive

■ 250MB 13ms IDE Hikl Drive

Local Bus IDE Interface

■ Local Bus IDE Interface

Intel OverDrive Socket

■ Intel OverDrive Socket \

Windows Accelerated Video w/1 MB DRAM

■ Windows Accelerated Video w/ 1MB DRAM

14" Color CrystalScan 1024NI

■ 14" Color CrystalScan 10^4NI

Mini Desktop Case

■ Mini Desktop Case

5 16-Bit ISA Slots

■ 5 16-Bit ISA Slots

124-Key AnyKey Keyboard

■ 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard

MS-DOS, Windows & Mouse

■ MS-DOS. Windows & Mbuse

Cool Tools for DOS

■ Cool Tools for DOS /

MS Works for Windows 2.0

■ MS Works for Window*'2.0

$1495

$1995

4DX2-50V

50MHz 486DX2 Intel Processor

8MB RAM, 64K Cache

5.25" & 3.5" Diskette Drives

250MB 13ms IDE Hard Drive

Local Bus IDE Interface

Intel OverDrive Socket

VLB ATI Ultra Pro with 1MB VRAM

15" Color CrystalScan 1572FS

Desktop Case (Tower Upgrade)

8 16-Bit ISA Slots, 2 with 32-Bit VLB

124-Key AnyKey Keyboard

MS-DOS, Windows & Mouse

Cool Tools for DOS

Choice of Application Software

4DX2-66V

66MHz 486DX2 Intel Processor

8MB RAM, 256K f ache

3.5" Diskette DrivtfAND CD-ROM Drive <

340MB 13ms IDE lard Drive

Local Bus IDE Interface

Intel OverDrive Sockgj

VLB ATI Ultra Pro wi\l MB VRAM

15" Color CrystalScan 15KFS

Desktop Case (Tower Upgrade)

8 16-Bit ISA Slots, 2 with 3%t VLB

124-Key AnyKey Keyboard Hi.

MS-DOS. Windows & Mouse '

Cool Tools for DOS

Choice of Application Software

$2495

$2995

Service

Every Gateway 2000 system is backed by:

■ 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

■ One-Year Limited Warranty

■ Lifetime Toll-Free Technical Support

■ On-Site Service Available to Most Locations

■ Lifetime BBS Membership

Primed on recycled puper with soy inks

Software Options

With systems that include "choice of application software," pick one from this selection:

■ Microsoft Excel for Windows

■ Microsoft Word for Windows

■ Microsoft Word and Bookshelf 92 CD

■ Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows

■ Microsoft Project for Windows

■ The MS Entrepreneur Pack (Works, Publisher, Money and games)

■ Borland Paradox for Windows

■ The Windows Programmer Pack (MS Quick C, Visual Basic and more)

You can also upgrade from MS Works to a choice of software for $100. or upgrade from these choices to MS Office for $ 175.

GATEJWY2000

"You've got a friend'inrthe business."

800-846-2058

P.O.Box 2000 • North Sioux City, SD 57049-2000 • 605-232-2000 • Fax 605-232-2023 --—Sales Hours: 7am-10pm Weekdays, 9am-4pm Saturdays{CT)

GLOBAL H1LEAF

©1993 Gateway 2000, Inc. All prices and configurations are suhjeci lo change without notice. AnyKey, FieldMouse. CrystalScan and TelePalh are trademarks of Gateway 2000. Inc. The Intel Inside Logo is a trademark and Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered irademarks of iheir respective companies.

REPORT FROM CROATIA

NEVEN PRASNIKAR

Recovery Through Technology

ZAGREB—Only months ago, we were spending most of our time in bomb shelters. That terrible experience is behind us, but we still have to repair the damage that was done to our newly formed nation. One can feel the winds of change, however. Exhausted as we are, Croatians are awakening—lethargy is behind us.

Now it is imperative that Croatians act as quickly and as effectively as we can. And one of the ways to achieve maximum efficiency is through the use of sophisticated computers and communications, from personal computers to large systems. That is probably why the personal computer market is one of the fastest recovering markets in the country. Proof of that recovery was seen quite clearly last October at the Fair Interbiro-Informatika (Interoffice-Information Fair) here in Zagreb. The fair— which is the largest computer and communications exposition in this part of the world—had to be canceled in

1991 because of the war. But the show bounced back in

1992 with about 30,000 attendees—more than it ever had before.

Despite the recent hard times, the shape of Croatian personal computing is not drastically different from that in most Western European countries. The personal computer has invaded both our professional lives and our private lives. It is part of everyday life, just like a car or TV set. Our children are flying spacecraft or driving race cars, destroying joysticks almost on a daily basis. Parents, on the other hand, are more conservative and mostly Tetris fans.

Compared to Western countries, it is true that we have slightly fewer of the more powerful systems, such as those based on 386,486, 68030, and 68040 processors, or Unix, VMS, or VM operating systems. Also, our distribution network is not completely in place. Many of us— including some local dealers—buy our systems directly from dealers in other countries, especially Germany, the U.K., and Italy. When you look at the number of personal computers imported in this way, you could argue that Croatia is already a member of the European Community.

Unfortunately, so far we are mostly computer buyers. But we do have the potential to produce and export. This would probably not be supercomputers or microchips, but surely it is possible to manufacture some type of peripheral or accessory. The truth is, with a population of only 5 million, Croatia is too small a nation to change the world computer market. However, we can certainly try to make some contribution.

As Croatia rebuilds, the computer industry is rebounding quickly

SLOVENIA

We do have some interesting specialized software products to offer to the world. Croatian programmers are working on all platforms and have already sold many of their products, such as Clipper applications and terminal-emulation programs, to U.S. and Western European software firms.

At the moment, a great deal of attention is being given to changing the educational and legal regulations affecting the computer software market. For example, two years ago, Croatia had poor regulations on software ownership. New regulations, however, are expected to give a boost to software production. With copyright laws in place to help in combating piracy, domestic and foreign software vendors will have a greater incentive to market products in Croatia. Also, new regulations concerning foreign investment should help reassure potential investors from other countries. These changes are now in progress, so more specific information is not yet available.

One important change for Croatia's future is a greater openness to the rest of the world. Last October, my company, Art Plus Publishing, signed an agreement with McGraw-Hill to publish a Croatian version of BYTE. It's the first agreement by a Croatian firm to publish a magazine in cooperation with a foreign publisher.

As tension continues in the former Yugoslavia, Croatians face many challenges that technology can't solve. However, as this young country looks to a more peaceful future, it hopes for a greater role in the world computer market. ■

Neven Prasnikar is the president of Art Plus Publishing and the publisher of a Croatian version of BYTE. You can contact him at Art Plus d.d., 4 J040 Zagreb, Kapelska 5, Croatia, or you can fax him at +38 41 259 201.

HUNGARY

ADRIATIC SEA

PHOTOGRAPHY: PATTI MCCONVILLE/THE IMAGE BANK ©1993

APRIL 1993 • B YTE 41

, \m mm i&^iMmummmmwmmmm ",

^g^SSS^gQg

$3,280

KINGSTON PROCESSOR UPGRADES.

Significant Savings,

Equivalent

Performance.

Kingston !s SX/Now!, 486/Now!, MCMaster, ATMaster and the IBM designed SLC/Now!processor upgrades make existing systems perform like new 386SX, 486SX or 486DX models. They provide the power needed for today's software, perform comparably to new systems and cost at least 50% less.

Eliminate Peripheral Replacement and Software Reinstallation.

When upgrading with Kingston, existing peripherals will remain fully compatible with host systems. Reinstallation of operating system and application software is eliminated.

SX/Now!

IBM-AT

With SX/Now! 25

PS/2 Model 57SX-045

Landmark Speed 2.0:

Recount:

Reuiil Price:

8 MHz 5:44 Min.

35 MHz 1:51 Min. S215

22 MHz 1:54 Min. $1,545

SLC/Now!

PS/2 Model 50

With SLC/Now! 25

PS/2 Model 57SX-045

Landmark Speed 2.0: Recount:

Retail Price:

13 MHz 3:34 Min.

33 MHz 1:08 Min. $245

22 MHz 1:54 Min. $1,545

486/Now!

PS/2 Model 70-25MHZ

With 486/Now! SX 25

PS£ Model 900H9 SX 25

Landmark Speed 2.0:

Recount:

Retail Price:

39 MHz :55 Sec.

84 MHz :39 Sec.

$495

84 MHz :38 Sec.

$3,280

MCMaster

PS/2 Model 55SX

With MCM SX 25

PS/2 Model 9TWI E> SX 25

Landmark Speed 2.0:

Recount:

Retail Price:

16 MHz

2:47 Min.

84 MHz :36 Sec. $795

84 MHz :38 Sec.

$3,280

ATMaster

PS/2 Model 40

With ATM SX 25

PS/2 Mode) 900H9 SX 25

Landmark Speed 2.0:

Recount:

Retail Price:

21 MHz 1:48 Min.

84 MHz :45 Sec. $875

84 MHz. :38 Sec. $3,280

.MlsyMWiaialinlh IkMll uUdlWmiH .-IttliMr. .m.Vl/■<::'> Mf/!. ,W Hi 1!;M.t. r,*!nlintliRUBtnlxuntandRMRuumiltxTliinnt AUs}?u™imaian'ySHl'a'.,!u>ukinknnj[%tralumaio{ 21')} /W(*<,ni/£™i.7'n;<vin\lWiiu/i / 9, i;,'iivni,i»iilihi,'ili>ii .M/invl/or \\ onliu* yrmklml gimrnltrf In'Kiu^on Technology

Systems Supported.

Kingston s SLC/Now! supports IBM's 286-hasedsystems while SX/Now! supports 286-basedspensfmmAST, Compaq, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Zenith. 486/Now! upgrades 386DX systems from IBM and Compaq. MCMasler supports all IBM PS/2Micm Channel systems while ATMaster suppons 386SX systems from IBM and Compaq.

Leadership in EZ Processor Upgrades.

- Kingston is the industry leader in performance and reliability. Byte Magazine's 1992 Award of Merit was presented to MicroMaster, the forerunner of the MCMaster.

$495

SAVE YOUR SYSTEM AND A BUNDLE.

Compatibility is Assured. Testing with the original manufacturer's diagnostics guarantees 100% hardware and software compatibility. The National Software Testing Lakwatory certifies that Kingston's upgrade products are fully compatible.

I'mh vY.Yw'iiml iMi,Vi«r'(in'U(m'iif/i'M.'fU/iri/ to' Ihe Sulmntil Sojknre fa/intf laboratory. (jjiificatkm fir recent inlrrxluctwns. Molester, ttmaerwul WWW. spending.

I

Easy Installation.

MCMaster and ABlaster upgrades install in any available expansion slot. SLC/Now!, SX/Now!and 486/Now!plug directly into the existing processor socket on the mother board. With Kingston s product manuals that detail the simple, step by step Installation, it only takes about 10 minutes to complete the process.

Individual Product Testing.

Every product is bench tested in the system for which it was designed. Testing will) original equipment manufacturer system ^fflffftf. diagnostics assures absolute compatibility.

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Processor upgrade users enjoy the same reliability customers have come to expect from Kingston memory products. Everyproduct is individually tested prior to shipping, supported by free compnhensive technical assistance and backed by a five-year warranty. Tlmnks to this relentless scrutiny we have over 5,832,717products hard at work in the world today.

More Information.

To find out which processor upgrade is best for you, contact your nearby Kingston dealer or give us a call at (800) 835-6575. We'll lie happy to answer your questions about processor upgrades or any of our other 625 upgrade products.

yum tit'iit vy Atitgstotl i

[800]

p Kingston

WV*% J. 1. TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION

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All Trademarks, Registered Trademarks and Logos are of their respective holders. Kingston and Kingston Technology are Registered Trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. MCMaster & ATMaster are Trademarks o/Aox, Inc.

Circle 94 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 95).

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Easy Does It with MS-DOS 6.0

JON UDELL

DoubleSpace | Fl=Help f)LT=l1enu Bar 4=Next Iten t^Preuious Iten

Screen 1: MS-DOS 6.0's file compression utility, DoubleSpace, typically expands your hard disk space by a factor of 1.8.

Compression and memory management take center stage in version 6.0 of Microsoft's venerable operating system

MS-DOS 6.0 aims to make file compression and upper-memory-block management safe for the masses. "I wanted to be sure that my own mother wouldn't have any trouble using it," says Microsoft's Eric Straub, program manager for MS-DOS 6.0, of the new automatic memory management utility, MEMMAKER.

That's the MS-DOS 6.0 upgrade story in a nutshell. The two headline features—compression and memory management—are robust, automatic, and fault-tolerant. I'd hesitate to ask my mother to install Stacker and QEMM, but I'm pretty sure she could install an MSDOS 6.0 upgrade and achieve essentially the same benefits.

Like other compression utilities, the MS-DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace utility will typ

44 BYTE • APRIL 1993

ically boost your disk space by a factor of 1.8 (see screen 1). My laptop's hard disk, for example, "grew" from 84 MB to 151 MB thanks to DoubleSpace. Multiplied by the 50 PCs in the BYTE editorial department, that effect would translate into more than a gigabyte of space created essentially out of thin air. Multiplied by the 50 million PCs in use worldwide, it would translate into a million-gigabyte ocean of new storage. That much storage will not materialize, of course, but a good chunk of it likely will. Bundled and tightly integrated with MS-DOS 6.0, DoubleSpace tears down barriers of inertia and intimidation that have prevented more widespread use of other compression tools.

Version 6.0 comes with a number of additional tools that you've previously had to buy separately. The package includes a disk defragger, a serial/parallel file transfer tool, an antivirus tool, and client-only NetBIOS LAN software, as well as greatly enhanced backup and undelete tools. Three of these—the antivirus, backup, and undelete tools—offer to install for MSDOS, Windows, or both.

Truthfully, with the exception of the disk defragger, which is intimately connected to the compression system, I don't expect to use any of these tools much. I've long since settled happily on the likes of LapLink, NetWare, and Network Archivist, and the new MS-DOS 6.0 tools don't begin to compete with these. Still, I'm pleased to see that MS-DOS finally provides a reasonably complete basic toolkit.

Wide Open Spaces

When you finish installing MS-DOS 6.0, you're invited to type ...DBLSPACE to begin the compression process. A great deal of activity ensues, all of it automatic. Like Stacker, DoubleSpace creates a CVF (compressed volume file) in place, so there is no need to reformat your disk. The CVF is a huge MS-DOS file (78 MB of the 84 MB on my laptop's hard disk) that contains an alternative file system used to store compressed files.

To convert an uncompressed disk, DoubleSpace compresses each file (using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch technique) and stores it in the CVF. Space reclaimed from the uncompressed disk enables the CVF to grow. DoubleSpace checkpoints its progress continuously. It is extremely faulttolerant and will recover without a hiccup even if someone kicks the plug in the middle of a conversion. Files that should not be

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

compressed, like the Windows permanent swap file, won't be.

The next trick is to get the CVF to show up as drive C. It's here that DoubleSpace differs most noticeably from Stacker and other add-on utilities. MS-DOS 6.0 adds a third kernel file, DBLSPACE.BIN, to the venerable pair of IO.S YS and MSDOS.SYS. Because DBL SPACE.BIN loads early in the bootup process and maps the CVF as drive C before CONFIG.SYS processing begins, there is no need to manage one version of CONFIG.SYS on the uncompressed disk and another in the CVF.

If you've never used compression, it may take a while to get used to the fact that the free space reported by DIR and CHKDSK is, necessarily, an estimate based on the current average compression ratio. In other words, with 1 MB of actual space left on your disk, the system might report 1.8 MB free. If you try to copy a 1.5-MB text file onto the disk, it will probably fit, because most text files will shrink by at least half when compressed. But if you try to copy a 1.5-MB .ZIP file onto the disk, it won't fit, because the .ZIP file is already compressed and can't get any smaller.

The compression system performs quite well in most cases, thanks partly to the enhanced MS-DOS 6.0 disk cache. SmartDrive now stores compressed data, so it uses the memory allocated to it more effectively. There are times, though, when compression will just get in the way. If you're recording compressed sound samples, for example, you'll probably want to use an uncompressed disk. DoubleSpace doesn't "know" that data won't squash any further, and it will waste time trying to compress it anyway. Fortunately, DoubleSpace makes it easy to slide the boundary between the CVF and the uncompressed disk up or down, so you can put whatever free space you have available where you need it most.

The MS-DOS 6.0 Toolkit

MS-DOS 6.0 provides two disk defraggers. One, based on Norton's Speed Disk, performs a traditional disk reorganization. The other, internal to DoubleSpace, compacts the CVF. They're linked, so when you type DEFRAG, the first defragger invokes the second. (Similarly, CHKDSK spawns a CVF-aware helper when run on

a compressed disk.) In the beta version of MS-DOS 6.0 that I tested, defragmentation was an overnight, not a lunchtime, , affair. Even so, CVF de^M fragmentation only com^^ ^ pacts sectors. It doesn't ensure that all sectors of a compressed file are contiguous. That job will be left to the third-party tool vendors. MEMMAKER provides muchneeded automation for those who use EMM386.EXE and the LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH commands. When you run MEMMAKER, it prepends the SIZER command to every device driver and program named in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and reboots your machine. SIZER enables MEMMAKER to figure out how much space these programs really use when loaded. Then MEMMAKER computes and writes out the optimal LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH commands, exploiting their new ability to specify particular regions of upper memory, and reboots the machine.

Like DoubleSpace, MEMMAKER is designed to be restartable in case of failure. Some uses of high memory that it attempts are bound to result in a hung machine. Anticipating the possibility of an unscheduled reboot, MEMMAKER always records

enough data to pick up where it left off.

The antivirus tools, licensed from Central Point Software, include a monitor that watches for suspicious disk or memory access and MS-DOS and Windows versions of a scanner that checks for (and can expunge) known viruses. The scanners also record file checksums used to detect changes to executable files that may signal viral infiltration. Of course, you've got to take all this with a grain of salt. Many legitimate programs do sneaky things— Windows itself, for example, patches COMMAND.COM when installing. So be prepared for some false alarms.

The undelete tool adds a new level of protection, Delete Sentry, which uses a shadow directory to retain deleted files (see screen 2). With MS-DOS 6.0, you can now undelete directories. However, you can't recover a whole subtree with a single undelete; you've got to reconstruct one level at a time.

With the new backup tools, you can define archive sets and store them on floppy disks or network drives using the same compression technology that's in DoubleSpace. Unfortunately, though, there's no support for tape drives, so if you're not connected to a network, you'll have to trundle a whole bunch of floppy disks to back up your newly enlarged hard drive.

MS-DOS 6.0 will support networking

File

Condition

Size

Date

Q?EASURE.INT

Excellent

72 bytes

01/07/93

Q7YNET.PRN

Good

37KB

03/06/92

p-^D:VI0N\S0TA\NT

HU?T.TXT

Excellent

36KB

07/16/92

PnDALEXIS

Time

Q NEXIS.SAV

10/27/92 03:32PM

R-^PAMAPISPK

— ■ —, __

Perfect

Deleted Date: 02/05/93 Deleted Time: 11:08AM

Path: D:\LEXIS

This file can be 100% undeleted.

Screen 2: DOS 6.0's undelete tool, Delete Sentry, puts deleted files in a shadow directory. You can now undelete directories.

APRIL 1993 'BYTE 45

Circle 88 on Inquiry Card.

Rack & Desk

VllU))lj for mini

XT/AT/286/386/486

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Integrand's unique packaging design uses modular construction. We have 3 basic models for ISA/EISA bus computers. Over 90 interchangable modules allow you to customize them to nearly any requirement. We make drive enclosures and rackmount keyboards too. Integrand offers high quality, advanced design hardware and strong support. Why settle for less ?

Rack & Desk Models

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Call or write for descriptive brochures, prices or applications assistance:

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FAX 209/651-1353 We accept VISA and MasterCard

IBWXT/AT m IBM • ZB&3B6/4BB TM INTEL Owes and computet (wards nol included.

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

and E-mail through a separate Workgroup Connection module ($79.99), which Microsoft had considered incorporating into MS-DOS 6.0. The network support, comprising MS-NET and Microsoft Mail clients, originally debuted as a Windows for Workgroups option, and it's in that context that it would be most useful. Lacking server capability and the protected-mode protocol support of Windows for Workgroups, MS-DOS 6.0 networking in no way competes with the many excellent DOS peerto-peer LAN products.

The file transfer system has client and server components. INTERSVR runs fullscreen on a host, waiting for clients to connect to its local drives (or printers). INTERLNK runs on the client and establishes connections. Unfortunately, you have to load INTERLNK by way of CONFIG .SYS, so you must either pay its 9-KB price all the time or reboot to use it.

Assorted Goodies

If you press F5 while booting up, MSDOS 6.0 boots clean; that is, it skips your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Because I'm constantly reconfiguring my machines and then trying to sort out what went wrong, this little feature is a major convenience for me. There's an even better way to zero in on specific CONFIG .SYS troubles. If you press F8 while booting up, the system prompts for permission to execute each line of CONFIG.SYS. Have you ever been frustrated trying to read the message printed by a problematic device driver as it flashed by on the screen? Now you can freeze the action and take a good look at those messages.

MS-DOS 6.0 also provides a set of handy tools for organizing the boot-up process. Using a new CONFIG.SYS command, MENUITEM, you can create multiple paths through CONFIG.SYS. When I boot up my laptop, I get a menu of three choices: Standalone, NetLocal, and NetRemote. All configurations share a common block of commands. Standalone loads no network support, NetLocal connects me to NetWare and Windows for Workgroups through a Xircom adapter, and NetRemote connects me to Windows for Workgroups by way of an asynchronous connection to a Shiva NetModem.

Because the name of the chosen configuration shows up in the environment variable conf ig, I can branch appropriately in AUTOEXEC.BAT as well (using goto %conf ig%). I use at least two of these configurations almost every day, so I really appreciate the multiconfiguralion support. There's one glitch, though. MEM

MAKER isn't aware of multiple configurations, so for optimal results, you still have to maintain multiple CONFIG.SYS files and run MEMMAKER on each of them.

Another nice touch is the ability to slosh memory back and forth between EMS and XMS (Extended Memory Specification) memory as needed. In earlier versions of MS-DOS, the boundary between the two was fixed. As a FoxPro user, that caused me considerable grief. FoxPro 2.0 really wants a chunk of EMS, but it comes out of the same pool of extended memory that Windows as well as other MS-DOS applications (including the DOS-extended FoxPro 2.0) would prefer to treat as XMS. MS-DOS 6.0 solves the problem, enabling the EMS and XMS pools to adjust dynamically.

I'm also glad to note the belated arrival of three long-needed commands. DELTREE and MOVE are the MS-DOS equivalents of the Unix commands rm and mv. DELTREE lops off entire trees of directories and subdirectories, and it can also delete individual files marked hidden, system, or read-only. MOVE transplants files from one directory to another, and it can also rename a directory. The third command is CHOICE, which prompts for a single character of input and returns an ERRORLEVEL. It's crude, but it means you can finally write interactive batch files without resorting to an external utility.

MS-DOS 5.0 wasn't the long-rumored "high-tech" DOS with protected-mode capability, threads, and long filenames, and neither is MS-DOS 6.0. But I'm not complaining about version 6.0. It delivers enormous practical benefits and is by far the most compelling MS-DOS upgrade yet. ■

Jon Udell is a BYTE senior technical editor at large. You can contact him on BIX as "judell" or on the Internet at judell® byteph.byte.com.

THE FACTS

MS-DOS 6.0

$ 129.99 ($49.99 for the first 60 days)

Microsoft Corp.

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

(800) 426-9400

(206) 882-8080

fax: (206) 936-7329

Circle 1181 on Inquiry Card.

46 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Our new color printer

not only looks great on paper,

it looks great on paper.

The eye

when it sees black

and white.

The eye when it sees color.

True, the brilliant color produced by the new Tektronix Phaser® 200 is captivating. But the price is equally attractive. And though we've become the award-winning leader in color printers by frequently outdoing the ,,.. u/y

competition, this time we've even outdone ourselves. Introducing our newest business work group color printer.

The Phaser 200 is compatible with virtually any business software and can print two colorful pages per minute. No, not two minutes per page—two pages per minute. And even at a speed like that, it still manages to print eye-catching color on common laser paper or transparencies using a separate input tray for each. You select the medium you want at your computer keyboard. And it switches automatically from user to user just as easily, using its parallel, serial, AppleTalk,™ or optional EtherTalk™ and Ethernet™ ports.

It has all the advantages of a laser printer. True Adobe PostScript™ Level 2, networkability, Pantone® colors, speed and price. (Did you notice it's only $3695, slightly below unheard of?) And when you add to that extremely high materials capacity and sparkling TekColor™ output—not just any color, but the indisputably best color in the business— you've got something even better than our previous best. Which is quite a feat.

So stop by your nearest Tektronix dealer or call us at 800/835-6100, Dept. 28J for a free output sample. For faxed information call 503/682-7450, ask for document / 1223. You won't find another business investment that looks this good on paper.

Tektronix

Phaser is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Circle 138 on Inquiry Card.

COREL

The Best Software to Connect PC Peripherals

I3IMSABLE

IMMCTIOH

WE

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Connect up to Seven Peripherals*

It's easy! Add all the" SCSI devices you need to your system. CorelSCSI makes it simple and inexpensive. CorelSCSI provides you with all the inftivarp vnu neerl to install and manaae all vour SCSI devices

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■

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IVWI Will

allow installation of SCSI devices on DOS, Windows or OS/2 systems. CorelSCSI software will even allow you to set up CD-ROMs, optical drives or jukeboxes on your NetWare* file server!

'Novell Netware 386 v3.x and higher.

"With its low cost and vast array of device support, CorelSCSI provides a great new way for PC users to make easier peripheral connections."

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► Compatible host adapter companies:

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and install the correct drivers automatically.

If you have CD-ROM drives, tape drives, or any other SCSI devices, you need CorelSCSI!

Look for the CorelSCSI Approver] Product logo.

uggested list price

NetWare I I MICROSOFT, Tested and | | WINDOWS. COMRATIISI-H

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NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Photoshop Now Does Windows

TOM YAGER

Adobe, whose graphics products have helped define the Macintosh, is extending its reach with the release of Photoshop for Windows. At the same time, the company is upgrading the Mac Photoshop to version 2.5, a release that matches its PC counterpart.

If you have never seen Photoshop, you've missed one of those glorious rare moments when software approaches perfection. Adobe is humble about Photoshop, calling it a "photo design and production tool," but no one who's used Photoshop is so reserved. In the time it spent running exclusively on the Mac, Photoshop established itself as the standard for desktop color-image processing. (More than a few Macs were bought expressly to run Photoshop.)

Photoshop's attraction is its scope: This one tool handles practically everything you'd want to do with a color image. Scanning, converting format, painting and retouching, correcting color, composing, cropping and resizing, separating color, printing, and creating special effects are but a few of the capabilities of this do-everything image-processing application.

Adobe Photoshop - [FRAMES.JPG (RGB, 2:1)1

The latest version of Adobe Photoshop extends its colorimaging techniques to Windows and revs up its image on the Mac

I worked with prerelease copies of both the Windows and Mac editions of Photoshop 2.5. The systems I used were a Mac Ilci with 8 MB of memory and an 8*24 GC graphics card and a Uniq 486/50 EISA system with 8 MB of memory and a Matrox Illuminator Pro graphics card (part of my Matrox Studio setup). Both systems were set to run in 24-bit graphics mode.

Feature Heaven

Both versions of Photoshop 2.5 include some impressive features and usability enhancements. The most visible new stuff falls roughly into eight categories: quick mask mode, dodge and burn, brushes and channels palettes, a pen tool, duotones, a variations interface, and new special effects filters.

Quick mask mode causes Photoshop's tools to switch from image to mask modification. You see a mask as a semitransparent film (red by default) over your image. You can use selection and painting tools to build your mask and then switch out of quick mask mode to turn that mask into a selection. You can use a selected area to protect portions of your image from modification or as a target for filters and other selection-oriented tools.

The dodge and burn tool's purpose is

Etm Mono Image rnioi select U'lntl

11.12M [Click and drag selected area to lighten. [Modifiers: Shift -&

HO

010:0101 *

Screen 1: Photoshop 2.5 for Windows (left), showing tools, brushes, channels, and colors palettes. Adobe designed the interface to offer rapid access to common functions and information.

Screen 2: Photoshop 2.5 for the Mac is almost identical to its Windows counterpart except for the Mac look and feel. System 7 Publish/Subscribe and QuickTime image manipulation are two features unique to the Mac version.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 49

Circle 96 on Inquiry Card.

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NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

similar to thai of darkroom tools of the same name, which either block light from the enlarger to lighten parts of an image (i.e., dodge) or cause regions of the print to darken through additional exposure (i.e., burn). You can use this tool to enhance or soften shadows, make a background less distracting, or otherwise darken or lighten portions of an image.

The dodge and bum, paint, stamp, and other tools alter your image using shapes stored in Photoshop's brushes palette (see screens 1 and 2). A selection of circular brushes is standard, with both hard and feathered edges. In the new Photoshop, you can add any selected shape to the brushes palette. As you select tools, the top of the brushes palette window offers quick access to useful tool options. When the dodge and burn tool is in use, for example, the brushes palette lets you select the range of brightness values (i.e., shadows, midtones, or highlights) to affect your image and the percentage of exposure each sweep with the tool will apply.

One way to use the channels palette is to view and modify the components of your color image separately. A 24-bit RGB image, for example, starts with three channels: red, green, and blue. The channels palette lets you switch your view from the composite color image (i.e., the default) to one or more of the component channels. You can also add channels (up to a total of 16) for alpha-channel effects in other programs (e.g., Matrox Studio's Personal Producer), saving masks and selections, image overlays, and calculated operations such as subtracting one channel from another.

The new pen tool gives you more precise control over the shapes you create to define selection areas and masks. The tool builds Adobe Illustrator-style paths with straight lines and Bezier curves. A path the pen tool creates can, in addition to acting as a means of creating a selection, be filled or stroked. That is, the interior of the shape created with the path can be painted with a color or pattern.

Duotones refers to a process in which a gray-scale image is printed with two colored inks. Each of the inks is assigned to a range of gray tones, expanding the number of distinct gray levels a screened, printed image can represent. Photoshop supports monotones through quadtones, meaning you can manage tip to four ink colors. You create a curve to set the range of grays covered by each ink. You can apply inks other than grays to the image to create attractive toning and colorization effects.

The new variations dialog box simplifies color correction by presenting multiple

miniature views of your image (or a selected portion) and letting you see the effect changes would have before you apply them. You can modify hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast here through a commonsense interface. If you need to color-correct an image, for example, you can simply click on the icon that says "more magenta," and you see a preview of the effect the added magenta would have. You can continue to click on the preview icons until the "current pick" image reflects the effect you want. A comparison between the original and would-be modifications is always visible.

Finally, Photoshop 2.5 adds a host of special effects filters. Users of Adobe Premiere on the Mac will recognize many of them. Tile breaks an image into squares and slightly (and randomly) skews each segment to give the image the appearance of being printed on a matrix of cardboard shapes that weren't fitted together very well. Extrude, similar to Tile, turns the image into a matrix of square-capped tower shapes that convincingly simulate depth in a weird but appealing way.

A distortion filter warps the image, other filters build line-art-like drawings, and a host of others apply either purely artistic or functional changes. One functional filter prepares an image for display on a TV monitor by filtering out NTSC-illegal (oversaturated) colors and diminishing interlace jitter through scan-line duplication or interpolation.

Photoshop 2.5 is one of those grand tools that adapts itself to the shape of the work to be done. In bringing it to the PC, Adobe legitimizes the use of Windows systems for serious graphics work. ■

Tom Yager is a multimedia consultant and author of The Multimedia Production Handbook for the PC, Macintosh and Amiga (Academic Press, forthcoming). He can be reached on BIX as "tyager" and on the Internet at tyager@bytepb.byte.com.

THE FACTS

Adobe Photoshop 2.5 for Windows and the Macintosh

$895 each

Adobe Systems, Inc.

1585 Charleston Rd.

Mountain View, CA 94039

(415) 961-4400

fax:(415)961-3769

Circle 1182 on Inquiry Card.

50 BYTE • APRIL 1993

"Itbu mean I can get all this from IBM Direct

for just $2,099?

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\0)

PS/lhluePoint™ 433DX

• i486™ DX/33MHz processor

• Internal i487™ math coprocessor

• 4MB RAM •120MB hard drive

• Pre-installed IBM® DOS 5.0 and Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1

•6312 SVGA Nl 14" color display1

• PowerGraph X-24™ graphics adapter

•1MB video DRAM

• 128KB L2 cache

• 8KB internal cache

•3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive

""<■*«

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— jjm

IBM mouse

Industry standard compatibility

Networkable

5 slots/5 bays

Outstanding service with the HelpWare™ Advantage

*

$2,099

IBM Credit Lease $76/mo.'

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Get everything you expect. And more.

M

PS/lhluePoint 466DX2

Get mind-blowing, double clocked speed and power.

i486DX2/66MHz processor

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4MB RAM

212MB hard drive

Pre-installed IBM DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows 3.1***

6319 SVGA Nl 15" color displayt

PowerGraph X-24 graphics adapter

128KB L2 cache

8KB internal cache

1MB video DRAM

3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive

IBM mouse

Industry standard compatibility

Networkable

5 slots/5 bays

Outstanding service with the HelpWare Advantage

\m

PS/ValuePoint 325T

• 386SLC™/25MHz processor

• 2MB RAM

• 80MB hard drive

• Pre-installed DOS 5.0

• PS/28 8511 VGA color display

• 3.5" diskette drive

• IBM mouse

• 5 slots/5 bays

• Industry standard compatibility

• Outstanding service with the HelpWare Advantage

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The 40-page IBM Direct Catalog features other IBM PSA/aluePoint and ThinkPad configurations. The catalog highlights a broad range of other products such as application software, storage devices, memory options, connectivity adapters and much more. And if you want a PS/ValuePoint system with OS/28 2.0, that too is available on many configurations.

The HelpWare Advantage

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' Three-year international warranty for ThinkPad 700 and 700C (in U.S., first year on-site).

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'At no additional charge during warranty. 'Available Monday through Friday 8 am5 pm in your time zone, when serviced by IBM. If parts are required, this service is provided after receipt of parts overnight. Applies to IBM Direct sales only.

• 4-hour service response time, on average2

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Warranty and 30-day guarantee information available from IBM and IBM authorized dealers. Please call 1 800 426-2968 for details regarding IBM's money-back guarantee and limited warranty. Copies of the terms of IBM's money-back guarantee and limited warranty are available upon request.

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'IBM prices only. The offerings, prices and products are subject to change or withdrawal without prior notice. Products you acquire may not be counted under any existing Volume Purchase Agreement. The same offerings and products may be available through IBM Authorized Remarketers. Remarketer prices may vary. Shipping and handling charges are extra. "IBM Credit Lease prices quoted are for 36-month terms. Lease rates quoted are good through 4/30/93, after which time rates are subject to change without notice. Lease available to qualified commercial customers only.

'"Screen at right depicts OS/2, also available pre-installed on this model.

'ThinkPad 300 and 700C systems and options are manufactured in Japan. PS/ValuePoint 6312, 6314, and 6319 Color Displays are manufactured in Korea. PowerGraph X-24 graphics adapter is manufactured in Mexico. "PRODIGY will not run without a modem. A modem is not included with the ThinkPad 700C. A customer who acquires a ThinkPad 700C and a modem which operates at a speed below 9600bps may contact PRODIGY to obtain a One-Month Free Trial Membership. '"Available at additional cost.

CALL TO ORDER TODAY

1 800 IBM 2YOU

1 800 426-2968, refer to: X413BYTE, 8am-9pm M-F, 9am-5pm Sat., EST.

"And the IBM Direct

Catalo,

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1 800 IBM-2YOU

Call now for your copy of the IBM Direct Catalog-a comprehensive source for a broad range of products available through IBM Direct.

Free

IBM LaserPrinter

An IBM LaserPrinter 6 delivers up to 6-pages-per-minute performance, 300 dpi resolution for sharper images, and a variety of built-in type fonts

$ 1,510*

You bet. This page offers just a sampling of the more than 250 advanced technology products found in the 40-page IBM Direct Catalog. From IBM desktops, ThinkPads and displays to adapters, peripherals, software, network connectors, even multimedia options. When you call we'll be glad to guide you to the IBM products most appropriate for your needs. We can also provide you with accurate specifications and answer any questions you may have.

ThinkPad 700 and 700C Options

Data/Fax Modem (2400 bps/9600 bps)

Price*

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IBM PS/2 8MB IC DRAM Card

$905

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Data/Fax Modem (2400 bps/9600 bps)

$330

Port Replicator

$120

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DOS 5.0 Stacker V2.0 and 386MAX 6.0

$135"

OS/2.2.0 Upgrade from DOS

$99

WordPerfect"3 5.1 for DOS

$355

Lotus" 1-2-3" for DOS

$355

Microsoft Excel™ 4.0 for Windows

$335

Lotus Freelance Graphics® for OS/2

Non-IBM programs are licensed under the manufacturer's, supplier's or publisher's terms and conditions. "Promotional price. Offer good until 3/31/93. Offer may be modified or withdrawn at any time.

$425

LAN Communications

Token Ring Network 16/4 Adapter for AT Bus

$535

EtherCard PLUS Elite 16 Combo™

$195

PC LAN Program 1.3

$185

NetWare" V3.1 (5 User)

$720

IBM OS/2 LAN Server 3.0 Entry

$505

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IBM Personal Printer Series II, 2390

$385

IBM ExecJet" Printer, 4072

$775

500-Sheet Second Drawer for 4019 (E), 4029

$295

PostScript" Option for 4019 (E), 4029

Technical support (or IBM printers is provided by Lexmark"'1 International, Inc.

$335

PS/ValuePoint Displays

IBM 6312 Color Display

$405

IBM 6314 Color Display'

$530

Expansion Unit (Docking Station)

The 3550 Expansion Unit for ThinkPad 700 and 700C gives you two slots and one bay, and accommodates 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch SCSI devices.

$859'

IBM 6319 Color Display

$660

IBM, OS/2, PS/2 and ExecJet are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. PS/ValuePoint, SLC, ThinkPad, TrackPoint II and HelpWare are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

i486 and i487 are trademarks of Intel Corporation. Lexmark is a trademark of Lexmark International, Inc. Windows and Excel are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. EtherCard PLUS Elite 16 Combo is a trademark of Standard Microsystems Corporation.

The Intel Inside logo is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. NetWare is a registered trademark of the Novell Corporation. PRODIGY is a registered service mark and trademark of Prodigy Services Company. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation. Lotus, 1-2-3 and Freelance Graphics are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. PowerGraph X-24 is a trademark of STB Systems, Inc.

©1993 IBM Corp.

IBM Direct

CALL TO ORDER TODAY

1 800 IBM 2YOU

1 800 426-2968, refer to: X413BYTE, 8am-9pm M-F, 9am-5pm Sat., EST.

Circle 85 on Inquiry Card.

i®

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Attractive Pricing and Attractive Printing

Epson America's 1985 foray into the ink-jet printer market was a brief one. By 1987, the company had quietly stopped selling its $2295 SQ-2000. Now Epson is returning to an ink-jet market dominated by Hewlett-Packard and Canon.

Epson hopes to challenge the leaders with the Stylus 800, a plain-paper ink-jet printer based on the MACH (Multilayer Actuator Head) technology that the company announced last November. The 360dot-per-inch, 48-nozzle black-and-white model, list-priced at $499, is expected to sell in the $350 to $400 range to smallbusiness and home users who want nearlaser quality at dot-matrix prices.

Epson says its printer uses fewer disposable parts and has a lower cost per page than the competition. But when comparing competing models, be aware of statistical sleight of hand on the part of all vendors and their printer specifications. Using a 1000-character text page for reference, the

Stylus, at 2.8 cents per page, does seem to win out against products such as the Canon BJ-200 (5 cents per page). It also appears that, on average, the Stylus's cost per page is lower than the HP DeskJet 550C's claimed cost of 3 cents per page in black-and-white mode and matches the per-page cost of Lexmark's IBM 4072 ExecJet (another product with a permanent print head). Epson's cartridges list at $19.99 apiece; Lexmark's list ar$28.

The 10.6-pound, compact Stylus 800 is well suited for general-purpose jobs, with an ease of use that begins with plug-andplay installation and continues through allcontrol-panel configuration. Four of the seven resident fonts are scalable (through hardware or software) from 8 to 32 points. An economy mode uses half as many dots, to extend the life of the 700,000-character cartridge. Other adjustable settings include a character table, a toggle switch for mixed text and graphics (toggled off if your software integrates scalable fonts and graphics), and head cleaning.

Paper options are plentiful up to legal size. The feeder holds 100 sheets of letter-size or, for the European version, A4 paper. A manual feeder takes single sheets and number 6 or number 10 envelopes.

The beta model that I saw excelled in print quality, with a smooth, nearly satellite-free (i.e., no stray ink dots around the letters) letter-quality text. It falls short of,

say, the HP LaserJet II under close scrutiny, but not noticeably enough to make a difference for routine use. Graphical images that I printed from Windows were attractive, although they betrayed a hairline banding that is sure to vary depending on the quality of plain paper you use.

It's ironic that the company that virtually defined the printer market now has much to prove. In spite of its name recognition, Epson is slipping behind Panasonic in the dot-matrix printer market, according to the market-research firm InfoCorp. In laser printers, Epson never made it out of the "Other" category. However, with its Stylus 800, Epson could have a big impact on the nonimpact printer market.

—Ed Perratore

THE FACTS

Stylus 800

$499;

replacement ink cartridge, $19.99

Epson America, Inc.

20770 Madrona Ave.

Torrance, CA 90503

(800)922-8911

(310)782-0770

fax:(310)782-5220

Circle 1083 on Inquiry Card.

Encarta: Explore New Worlds from the Desktop

Whether you're seeking answers to one of life's eternal questions, researching the intricacies of quantum theory, or just looking for a quick mental escape, browsing through Encarta, Microsoft's new Windows-based multimedia CDROM encyclopedia, makes for an excellent adventure. Encarta, under development at Microsoft for nearly two years, never ceased to intrigue during my examination of an alpha version. I was drawn both back in time and to faraway places by the encyclopedia's rich mixture of text, sound, photographs, and animation sequences.

Encarta encompasses some 21,000 articles in 94 categories, and it includes more than 7 hours of sound in its animations, music clips, and literature. Although Mi

crosoft licensed the contents of Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, Encarta is largely a rewrite to meet the needs of a multimedia title, according to Craig Bartholomew, product group general manag

er for Microsoft's multimedia publishing business unit.

Part of Encarta's strength comes from the volume of original animations and photos added to the encyclopedia. The collection, which can display graphics in 256 colors at 1024 by 768 pixels, contains more than 7000 photographs, charts, and graphs. For example, I found an interesting short animated sound clip, detailing the inner workings of the internal combustion engine, accompanying an article on automobiles. Among Encarta's more enjoyable features is the 20-foot historical time line of important events in history, datins from 15,000,000 B.C. to the present. Click" ing on an event in the time line pops up a short synopsis or an even longer article on the subject. Encarta also makes it easy for

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 55

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

users of all ages to search for articles by using the program's category browser, which offers a graphical method of sorting through the entire encyclopedia by subject. In this way, you could, for example, quickly look up your favorite hockey, baseball, or basketball player by selecting the sports category.

You can access articles in Encarta directly by name by clicking on graphical images of a 26-volume encyclopedia set on a bookshelf. Encarta is also organized into nine major categories: physical science and technology; life science; geography; history; social science; religion and philosophy; art, language, and literature; performing arts; and sports, games, hobbies, and pets. Each category is further divided into subcategories that you can easily search via a category browser. Or you can research topics in a much more sophisticated manner through Encarta's Find feature, which allows powerful Boolean searches that can be narrowed to specific data types, such as photographs

or animations. You also have access to an atlas with about 800 color maps, a word processor, and a Webster's dictionary and college thesaurus.

Microsoft also threw in a game called MindMaze as a fun way for younger users to build their knowledge. The MindMaze game asks youngsters questions as they try to navigate a maze by going through doors in a medieval castle. Although I was told that successful MindMaze players would get a Master of Knowledge certificate from Bill Gates, I never got that far (even though most of the questions were relatively easy).

Originally announced in October 1992, Encarta was expected to be available in late March or early April, according to Encarta product manager Sonja Gustavson. Microsoft, which has set Encarta's list price at $395, plans to sell the multimedia encyclopedia to students, educators, and school administrators for $249. If you order the initial edition by March 31, you will receive a free 1993 update. Microsoft

plans to price future updates at less than $100.

—Patrick Waurzyniak

THE FACTS

Encarta

$395

System requirements: A 386 or higher with Windows 3.1, 2 MB of RAM (4 MB is preferred), a CD-ROM drive, a VGA or Super VGA color monitor, a sound card, and speakers.

Microsoft Corp.

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

(800) 227-4679

(206)882-8080

fax: (206) 936-7329

Circle 1084 on Inquiry Card.

Tl's microWriter Pricing Breaks New Ground

Plain-paper, laser-quality output for the lowest price on the planet: That's what Texas Instruments promises with the microWriter, a svelte little desktop printer that carries a starting list price of just $729. At that price, TI hopes to entice a lot of first-time printer buyers away from inkjet and dot-matrix printers.

The basic microWriter has an LED print engine rated at 5 pages per minute, Hewlett-Packard LaserJet compatibility (PCL 4), a parallel interface, and 512 KB of RAM (expandable to 4.5 MB in PCL mode). For $999, you can buy the PS 17, with an Adobe PostScript Level 1 inter

preter with 17 fonts, 2 MB of RAM (expandable to 4 MB in PostScript mode), an Apple LocalTalk port, and automatic emulation switching between PostScript and PCL. For $1299, you can get the microWriter PS 35, witli the full complement of 35 PostScript fonts.

Paper handling is one of the microWriter's strong points. The 250-sheet paper tray is contained entirely within the printer's footprint. Printed pages normally come out at the top of the printer, facedown, and go into a fold-out paper catcher. A manual feed slot accepts envelopes and other odd-size paper. The combination of the manual feed slot and a rearpanel-access door gives you a straight paper path for heavier paper or card stock. An optional universal paper feeder attaches underneath the printer.

I spent a week with a beta unit of the 35-font PostScript configuration, connected to a PC running Windows and a network of Macs. The microWriter holds its own quite nicely against most other printers in the 4- to 6-ppm class. On BYTE's PostScript tests (a slimmed-down version of Genoa Technology's PostScript suite), the microWriter ran faster than Apple's Personal LaserWriter NT, an HP HIP with HP's PostScript cartridge, and Tl's own microLaser. The print quality is typ

ical of other LED printers.

For a beta-test unit, this printer was unusually reliable and well built. The PCL interpreter and automatic emulation sensing worked flawlessly. There was one hiccup when printing bit maps from a Mac running System 7 printer drivers; TI says this will be remedied by the time the unit ships. The microWriter-specific printer drivers weren't ready for testing, so I used the standard Apple LaserWriter drivers.

TI should make lots of friends by shipping a real Adobe PostScript printer that breaks the $ 1000 price barrier. The microWriter will present a serious challenge to many printers twice its price and make a welcome addition to almost anyone's desk. —Howard Eglow stein

THE FACTS

microWriter

$729; PS 17, $999; PS 35, $1299

Texas Instruments

P.O. Box 202230

Austin, TX 78720

(800) 527-3500

(817)771-5856

Circle 1085 on Inquiry Card.

56 BYTE ■ APRIL 1993

MOVE ME TO FOXPRO FOR JUST $149.

Name

Try Microsoft® FoxPro® 2.5. If you don't agree it's better than dBASEf send it back within 90 days for a full refund (excluding freight charges).

For your FoxPro upgrade, see your local reseller. For the name of a reseller near you, or to order by phone, call Microsoft at (800) 882-2000, Dept. JY9. Or, fill out the coupon below and return it to Microsoft.

This special upgrade offer expires June 30, 1993.

Rush me the following:

FoxPro 2.5 for Windows'" (limit one at $149) $ .

FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS® (limit one at $149) $

Applicable sales tax* (see list below) $

Freight ($10 each package) $

Total $

Company

□ Also, send me my FREE FoxPro Migration Kit for dBASE IV® users (free with product purchase).

(Kit No. 098-51503)

D I need more information before I buy. Please send my FREE FoxPro Evaluation Kit. (Kit No. 098-51496)

Shipping Address

City

State

ZIP

Daytime phone (in case we have any questions about your order)

Please indicate disk option: Windows

□ 5.25" high-density (Kit No. 215-050-250)

□ 3.5" high-density

(Kit No. 215-051-250)

MS-DOS

D5.25" high-density

(Kit No. 215-099-147)

□ 3.5" low-density (Kit No. 215-095-147)

Method of payment:

□ Check or money order enclosed

□ MasterCard □ VISA □ American Express

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□DO □□/□□

Check or credit card number Expiration date

To qualify for this competitive upgrade offer, I understand that I must be a licensed user of another DBMS product.

□ dBASE □ Other

User's signature

•Add tax in the following sates AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, Rl, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA,

WI, WV, and WY. Microsoft reserves the right to correct sales tax rates and/or collect the sales tax assessed by additional states as required by law, without notice.

Microsoft, FoxPro, and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. dBASE and dBASE IV are registered trademarks of Borland International, Inc.

Offer good only in the 50 United States. Outside the U.S., call your local .Microsoft office. Offer expires June 30, 1993. This coupon is non-transferable. Only original order forms will be accepted. Please allow 2-4 weeks

for delivery upon receipt of this order coupon by Microsoft. Do not send cash or purchase orders. Make checks payable to Microsoft Corporation. Your credit card will be charged upon shipment and your check will be

deposited upon receipt. If you have any questions aboot this offer, call Microsoft at (800) 882-2000, Dept. JY9, before returning this coupon. If you require text telephone services for the deaf and hard of hearing, call

(206) 635-4948. Send coupon with payment to Microsoft FoxPro Offer, P.O. Box 3022, Bothell, WA 98041-3022.

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Astro Mountain Bike Co.

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SUDDENLY dDASE USERS ARE LOOKING AT DATA IN A WHOLE NEW WAY.

FoxPro

version 2.5 for Windows or MS-DOS will open your eyes to a new world of database technology.

dBASE® users everywhere are making the move to the FoxPro® database management system.

Now you can have all the power and graphics of a true Windows-' based database, without sacrificing your investment in dBASE. Because it's Xbase compatible, FoxPro lets you use your knowledge of dBASE, your existing data, and your applications.

And that's just the beginning. FoxPro unleashes the full power of Windows. Make your database solutions more informative and exciting by using colors, fonts, pictures, sound, even video! And share information with other applications, such as spreadsheets and word processors.

FoxPro also provides full mouse support at all levels, enables you to edit multiple files simultaneously, and features over 100 extensions to the dBASE language.

Available for both the Windows and MS-DOS® operating systems, FoxPro helps you create the most

powerful, graphical applications across multiple platforms—leveraging your current investment in code and hardware.

How fast is FoxPro 2.5? In independent tests, FoxPro is over 30 times faster than dBASE IV® 1.5;"

But if speed, features and crossplatform compatibility don't move you, the price should. For a limited time, database users can get FoxPro 2.5 for Windows or MS-DOS for only $149 —with a 90-day money-back guarantee (excluding freight). This special upgrade price is offered only to users of other DBMS products.

FoxPro 2.5. We'll move you.

To upgrade to Microsoft FoxPro Z.5,

rush to your reseller, or

call (800) 882-2000, Dept. JY9.

Microsoft

Making it easier

" Performance tests performed by Micro Endeavors, a third-party consulting firm (November 1992). © 1993 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved, Printed in the USA. Offer good only in the 50 United States

Offer expires 6/30/93. In the 50 United States call (800) KK2-2000, Dept.JY9. For information only: In Canada, call (RO0) 563-904S; outside the 50 United States and Canada, call (206) 936-8661. Microsoft, FoxPro, and MS-DOS

are registered trademarks and Windows and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.- dBASE and dBASE IV are registered trademarks of Borland International, Inc.

Circle 217 on Inquiry Card.

IIPGRADK TO vfi.L $19.95— I-800-344-4323

Hard Drive Installation

and Diagnostics

Made Easy.

Now, adding a hard drive to your system is as easy as typing "install." There's no need to know DOS or complicated commands. SpeedStor automatically performs all of the operations to make your drive "data ready." And to keep your drive "data safe," SpeedStor contains critical diagnostics not found in DOS — diagnostics that safeguard your valuable data and ensure your hard drive is trouble free.

Available at Best Buy, Egghead Software, Computer City Supercenter, CompUSA, ElekTek and Software Etc. Order today, call 1-800-344-4323.

M STORAGE DIMENSIONS

NEWS

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Windows Sound in a Small Package

Adding sound to Windows applications is becoming de rigueur in some circles, but the cost of the equipment and the potential difficulty of adding it to the computer are stumbling blocks to many prospective sound users. And if you use a Windows notebook, sound hasn't been an option. A refreshing solution to this situation is Logitech's AudioMan.

A small, attractive, and inexpensive external device with a built-in microphone, speaker, and sound board, AudioMan eliminates the fuss of having to open your computer and install a sound board or attach external speakers that take up space on your desk. The device attaches to the parallel port of your computer and has a pass-through connector for uninterrupted printer availability. AudioMan's light weight and small footprint make it ideally suited to mobile computer users, who can choose to use the unit as a hand-held or desktop device.

AudioMan uses OLE to embed sound in any Windows document that supports OLE. The device is compatible with any Windows sound utility. AudioMan is not SoundBlaster compatible, so it won't play back sounds that were created by products that adhere to that standard. This means that you're limited to the 60-second recording limit imposed by Windows Sound Recorder, although you can link several 60second lengths together to create a longer message. The 60-second limit may be a blessing, though: Since each second of sound takes 11 KB of disk space, a full minute would eat up 660 KB on your hard drive.

AudioMan is particularly geared toward the annotation of spreadsheets and text files. I used a beta version of the package to add a verbal annotation to a text file, to play when I go back into the document to make updates.

You can also connect AudioMan to an external sound source such as a CD player via the alternative recording audio jack and then insert that recorded sound into your document. You should note that AudioMan's sound quality (8-bit mono at 11 kHz for input and 22 kHz for output) is well below CD quality (16-bit at 44 kHz). However, its sound quality is perfectly suitable for its most likely application—

adding personal comments to Windows documents. Two small buttons on the front of the unit let you control the volume for the current session; for a permanent change, you reset the default volume in AudioMan's dialog box.

You install the AudioMan software by using the Run command in the Windows Program Manager or via the Drivers icon in the Program Manager Control Panel. I chose to use the Run command, which was simple and straightforward.

To add sound to a Windows document, I positioned the insertion bar at the place in the document where I wanted the sound to go. After choosing Insert Object from my word processor's Edit menu and Sound from the subsequent Object Type list, I selected a .WAV file from the Sound Recorder file listing. I then clicked on Update in the Sound Recorder's File menu and closed the Sound Recorder. A Sound Recorder icon then appeared in my document at the place I had designated. To play the embedded sound, I simply double-clicked on the icon; AudioMan did the rest.

Despite the program's recording and compatibility limits and the less-than-specific instructions in the user's guide, AudioMan is a likable, low-cost way to add sound to Windows documents. And it's the easiest way I know to add sound to my files as I travel. ■

— Carol J. Swartz

THE FACTS

AudioMan

$179

System requirements: A 286 or higher with 2 MB of RAM, DOS 3.1, Windows 3.1, and one parallel port.

Logitech, Inc.

6505 Kaiser Dr.

Fremont, CA 94555

(510)795-8500

fax:(510)792-8901

Circle 1086 on Inquiry Card.

58 BYTE • APRIL 1993

P'hMhMAAmWiS P(MjdUi

®

PATCOM SQL Developer's Edition

by WATCOM

Complete client/server development tool allows you to develop and deploy singleuser standalone applications, and to develop applications for use with the Network Server Edition. Includes: Single-user database server: ACME application development system; Embedded SQL C/C++ preprocessor; SQL libraries for WATCOM C, C/386, MS/C ++ and BC/C++.

List: $395 Ours: $299

FAXcetera* 1683-0010

HUGE SELECTION AT THE RIGHT PRICE! CALL TODAY!

386MAX

$64

Label Master

$429

Baler

$399

Lahey EM/32 5.0

$1,015

Bar Code Library

$350

mini Ed Tools

CALL

Borland C++

$319

MKS Learning UOTX

$99

C Windows Tlkt. 386

$179

MKS Toolkit

$239

C++/Views

$449

MS Visual C++

CALL

C-DOC Professional

$269

MS FoxPro

CALL

CAD/CAM Products

CAUL

Multi-Edit Professional

$139

CASE:W Corporate

CALL

Norton Desktop/Win

CALL

CA-Clipper

$499

object-Menu

$269

CodeWright

$225

Opt-Tech Sort/Merge

$119

dBASEIV

$499

Paradox 4.0

$569

dBFast Windows

$359

PGL

CALL

dGT-Unlimited Runtime

$499

.RTLink/Plus

$445

Dr. Switch-ASE

$159

SlickEdit

$149

ED for Windows

$199

SQA:Replay

$79

GX Products

CALL

Turbo C++ for Windows

$112

KPWin++

CALL

WATCOM FORTRAN 77/C

186 $719

Essential Graphics Chart™ for Windows

by South Mountain Software

Essential Graphics Chart for Windows lets you turn your data into charts and graphs that make an immediate visual impact. Features include: DLL-works with any Windows API compatible language, 2D

bar, 3D bar, legends for all chart types, real-time charts, true perspective and rotational capability. No Royalties.

List: $399 Ours: $299

FAXcctera# 2089-0017

CA-dBFast Windows 2.0

by Computer Associates

The complete stand-alone dBASE/Xbase development language for MS Windows. Create fast, powerful, easy-to-use graphical applications. Over 200 extensions to the dBASE III PLUS language and includes an interactive editor, compiler, and linker. Challenge your creativity and imagination! Design multiple windows,

pull-down menus, check boxes, list boxes, radio buttons, bit-map pictures, and more!

List: $550 Ours: $359

FAXcetcm* 1004-0003

Dan Bricklin's Demo II

by Lifeboat Software

Experience for yourself why 30,000 people have made Demo II 3.0 the leading tool for producing program prototypes, demonstrations, and tutorials. Demonstrate commercial software to potential customers without shipping live software. Produce effective tutorials that interactively teach products. Create

Computer Based Training for a fraction of the cost of dedicated CBT authoring software.

List: $249 Ours: $215

FAXcetera* 0233-0003

Q+E Database Library (QELIB) 1.1

by Pioneer Software

A set of Dynamic Link Libraries providing a common call level interface for developer tools such as Visual Basic, ToolBook, Actor, Smalltalk, C,

C++, etc. and most macro language products to access data from Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, EE Database Manager. DB2, Netware SQL, dBASE, Paradox, Excel, and text files.

List: $399 Ours: $359

FAXcetmi* 2625-0003

Microsoft Windows for Workgroups

Considering how easy it is to use MS Windows™, imagine what MS Windows™ for Workgroups can do for an entire group. Such as information sharing among many PC users that can lead to even better, more collaborative work. Printer sharing that uses hardware resources more efficiently. And schedule management that improves efficiency.

List: $249 Ours: $175

Add-On List: $ 79 Ours: $ 61

FAX«tera# 1269-0042

;,. C

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FORWORKGROLJPS

MediaDeveloper

by Lenel Systems

Create multimedia-enabled applications

with MediaDeveloper and ObjectVision. It is

THE Multimedia Development Toolkit to

integrate sound, images, animation and

full-motion video into Windows applications. Includes media and

device control for multimedia peripherals including CD-ROMs, VCRs

and laserdisc players: support for major animation, video, audio and

graphics formats; a multimedia database; OLE server: and many DLLs.

List: $595 Ours: $449

w/MS VB Win. 2.0 List: $794 Ours: $569

w/MS VB Win. Pro 2.0 List: $1090 Ours: $739

FAXccicm # 1005-0302

r

oftware that

Lahey F77L Fortran Compiler

by Lahey

Version 5.01 includes Fortran 90 features: ALLOCATABLE Arrays, CASE Constructs. Cycle and Exit, Construct Names, and many other new features. Package includes Editor. Make Utility. Profiler, Debugger, SLR Linker, Opus Make, Video Graphics, and Excellent Diagnostics. 386/486 users have the option of generating 32-bit instructions.

List: $295 Ours: $259

FAXcetem # 1476-0001

Sizzles!

IBVTE

Visio

by ShapeWare

Now everyone can create professional-quality graphics! Straightforward stencils, designed for everyday business drawings and technical diagrams, provide all the shapes you need. Whether you're creating engineering schematics, network or block diagrams, org charts, programming flow charts, or your own custom drawings, Visio has a stencil of shapes that will make your job easier. GET A $79 VISIO PROGRAMMER'S STENCIL FREE WITH EACH COPY OF VISIO YOU ORDER!

List: $299 Ours: $225

FAXcetem* 1006-2801

^^^^ WindowsMAKER lfl '^ Professional 4.0

"f: ' by Blue Sky Software

r^T^S- Next generation of industry standard C/C++ develop

r merit tool for Windows. The easiest fastest way to

create Windows apps, just point and click. New architecture uses Switch-It™ Code Generation Modules for generating ANSI C, MFC++, or OWL C++ •"■•"JwanSJER" code among others. Award-winning Visual Prototyper lets you test the look & feel and make changes on the fly. TrueCode technology ensures the user code is preserved during code regeneration. Generates Windows .EXE w/fully commented C or C++ source.

List: $995 Ours: $695

FAXcetem # 2602-0003

Microsoft Visual C++

by Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Visual C++ combines the power of reusable, prebuilt code with a seamless, visual environment to shorten the development process. Design user interfaces, build, debug, and browse using a set of tightly integrated tools, while "wizards" assist you with fundamental tasks for maximum productivity. It's the fast, powerful way to program in C++!

Standard Edition

(Comp. Upgrade) List: $99 Ours: $95

Professional Edition

(Comp. Upgrade) List: $199 Ours: $189

FAXcetem* 1269-0040

ED-The Programmer's Editor for Windows

by Lifeboat Software

A full-featured Windows-based programmer's editor is here! ED is setting the standard with features like background compilation, automatic code indenting and completion, hypertext function/procedure lookups, "smart" language-specific editing, a fast "C" extension language, Windows Toolbar, unlimited undo and redo, keyboard macros and remapping, and emulation of popular DOS editors.

List: $269 Ours: $199

FAXcetem # 0233-0011

CA-Clipper

CA-Clipper 5.2 Competitive Upgrade

by Computer Associates

Yes, the newly released CA-Clipper version 5.2 is being offered to Xbase language product owners at the low retail price of $199. This competitive upgrade is available for a short term only! What a great opportunity to get the power of CA-Clipper. at a super price! And now when you buy, get your choice of dBFast, Clipper Tools or dBase Compiler Kit FREE!

List: $199 Ours: $149

FAXcetem* 5400-0001

MS Visual Basic for DOS

Draw forms and controls, write event-procedures, use and create custom controls-in DOS! Create all-new apps or combine with existing C/C++ or Pascal code. Highly compatible with VB/Win for multi-platform development. Even run existing MS Quick Basic/Basic PDS code! Includes a native 80 x 86 compiler that creates 100% standalone .EXE files, 386 code generation, MOVE overlays, an integrated ISAM and much more!

Standard Edition List: $199 Ours: $139

Professional Edition List: $495 Ours: $325 FAXcetem* 1269-0039

List: $195 FAXcrtcra# 3142-0009

OS/2 2.0

by IBM

OS/2 2.0 increases your operating system choices by providing you with DOS, Windows and OS/2 support. Because OS/2 was created for use with 386SX and above processors, it offers full 32-bit addressability and true concurrent multitasking. OS/2 2.0 also features an object-based user interface, enhanced file system, advanced memory technology and the ability to complete many processes within a task simultaneously.

Ours: $126

r,)wti)JmMM RtWtAi

®

MetaWare High C/C++

by MetaWare, Inc.

'%

MetaWare, Inc. announces its newest product! The 32-bit High C/C++ compiler version 3.0 is a true compiler, not a C to C++ translator. "Incremental Strengths" let you specify the level of C++ compilation, allowing you to migrate from C to C++, one C/C++ block at a time, included is a C++ tailored source-level debugger and a 32-bit Application

Development Kit for Windows. MetaWare offers a full line of multi-language, multi-platform compilers for professional software developers.

List: $795 Ours: $669

FAX«ttra# 1590-0008

VMData

by PocketSoft, Inc.

VMData for Windows is a DLL that manages up to 128 MB of dynamic data. Eliminates annoying slowdowns commonly seen in 386 Enhanced Mode when programs use large amounts of dynamic data, and eliminates outof-memory problems in Standard Mode. Provides superior run-time performance and ensures that your program is a good citizen under the Windows environment.

List: $495 Ours: $359

EAXcetera* 1987-0005

VMData

WinGEN

by Buzzwords International

Converts ObjectVision .OVD to Source Code!

Make the title bar disappear and run your

application at compiled speed. WinGEN

produces code for Windows versions of

dBASE. C/C++, and Turbo Pascal.

Supported engines include: Paradox

Engine, Sequiter Codebase, POET, Raima, Faircom c-tree, Sybase,

Novell Btrieve, Novell Btrieve with SQL/XQL Manager, OLE &

DDE/DDEML, and Q & E.

List: $149 Ours: $79

FAXretera# 1873-0002

lis

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'",..7-"X^- -■■■'■

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DataBoss

by Kedwell Software

Relational database application generator. Use to develop complete applications with menus, forms, browse tables, memo fields, reports and more. Includes sophisticated screen painter; field definition template for defining field characteristics, indexes, data files and their relations; WYSIWYG report designer; generator engine and skeletal files. Generates structured C/C++ or Pascal source code. No license or runtime fees.

List: $695 Ours: $499

FAX«tera# 3758-0001

WATCOM C/386 9.0

by WATCOM

Develop and Debug 32-bit applications for

extended DOS, Windows, and OS/2 2.0 with

the most complete 32-bit C development

package available. Includes the royalty-free

D0S/4GW DOS extender by Rational

Systems, components from MS Windows SDK,

compiler, linker, debugger, profiler, plus numerous development tools.

Supports other industry standard 32-bit DOS extenders. Create ADS

Applications for AutoCAD or embedded systems development.

List: $895 Ours: $599

FAXratera* 1683-0003

C /Views

C++ Views 2.0

by Liant Software Corp.

NEW VERSION! An application development

/■^tJi-^2 framework that provides a C++ class library and ,'"' an interactive class browser for building

^f portable GUIs for Windows, PM or Motif, it

K comes complete with over 100 classes including

iJv/r interface, graphics, event, dialog, data, win

dows, and persistent storage also available. Includes C++/Browse object class browser and source code at no additional charge.

List: $495 Ours: $399

FAXatera* 1812-0001

PROTOGEN 3.0

by ProtoView Development

NEW VERSION! The industry standard for code generation and prototyping Windows applications. Develop the user interface of your application using Visual prototyping methods. ProtoGen generates expert level, commented code for ANSI C, Microsoft NT Win32. All generators included! User Code is preserved from one generation to the next. It's easy and fast.

List: $99 Ours: $95

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GUARANTEED BEST PRI

(Call for deta

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rporate (CORSOFT): 800 422-6507

FAX: 908 389-9227

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Customer Service: 908 389-9229

For more information on the products featured on these pages call

fAXcetertf

' All prices are subject to change without notice. Circle 99 on Inquiry Card.

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

SYSTEMS

A Pentop to Flip Over

A flip-up, flip-down passive-matrix VGA color display is just one reason for considering the Dauphin 5500 Color Pentop. Other reasons are its 25-MHz 386SL processor with 64 KB of cache SRAM (static RAM), 4 MB of RAM (expandable to 20 MB), and an 80-, 130-, or 200-MB hard drive. A PCMCIA slot in place of the standard 3'/2-inch floppy drive is an option.

The backlit color display has a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels in 256 colors; you can simultaneously use an external Super VGA monitor with an 800- by 600-pixel resolution display in 256 colors. The unit includes a Centronics parallel port, an RS232 serial port, and a port for an external floppy drive. Operating systems supported include Windows for Pen Computing, PenPoint, DR DOS, DOS, and OS/2. Price: About $3495. Contact: Dauphin Technology, Inc., Lombard, IL, (708) 627-4004; fax (708) 627-7618. Circle 1131 on Inquiry Card.

Passive Color Can Turn Active

Based on a 25-MHz 386SL processor with a 64-KB cache, the DECpc

Computing power on the Dauphin 5500 Color Pentop conies partly from the 87SLC math coprocessor.

325SL notebook can be upgraded to a 486SL. The 4 MB of main memory is expandable to 20 MB, and the monochrome or passive-matrix color display can be upgraded to an active-matrix color display.

The DECpc 3 25 SL's 80or 120-MB hard drive is removable, and the unit has two sockets for attaching PCMCIA Type 2 peripheral cards. The power management system in the notebook provides up to 6'/i hours of battery life. Other features include a cableless trackball that connects to a built-in hot shoe on the front of the unit. Price: $2399 and up.

Contact: DEC, Maynard, MA, (800) 722-9332. Circle 1133 on Inquiry Card.

The DECpc 325SL.

Designed for Windows

A notebook computer designed for Windows users, the WinBook features a built-in trackball and 4 MB of RAM (expandable to 8 MB). The basic unit has a 120-MB hard drive, a PCMCIA 2.0 slot, and a 2400-bps data/ 9600-bps fax modem. With 1 MB of ROM for the BIOS, 512 KB of VRAM (video RAM), a 25-MHz 486 SLC/E processor, and a 1 -KB internal cache, the 5.4-pound WinBook packs a lot into its 11 - by 9- by 2-inch frame. The Winbook's 10-inch display is a 64-gray-scale supertwist transflective screen with a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels. You can simultaneously display on it and on an external CRT. Powered by a detachable nickel-metal-hydride battery pack, the unit runs for up to 4 hours. Price: $1699.

Contact: Micro Electronics, Inc., Columbus, OH, (800) 468-2162 or (614) 481-8041. Circle 1132 on Inquiry Card.

VL-Bus-Based Desktops

Insight's new 486-based computers have a VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association)-standard video controller as well as a VESAstandard IDE hard drive controller. The upgradable systems feature two VL-bus slots and a 238-pin ZIF (zero insertion force) OverDrive socket.

The computers have 4 MB of RAM, 128 KB of cache memory, and a 210-MB IDE hard drive with cache. Dual floppy drives, two serial ports, a parallel port, a mouse, and a 14-inch noninterlaced Super VGA color monitor are also standard equipment. Price: $1699 and up. Contact: Insight Distribution Network, Inc., Tempe, AZ, (800) 755-9628 or (602) 350-1128. Circle 1134 on Inquiry Card.

Cache Tucked in a Subnotebook

Smaller than a notebook, the Bicom SL60 runs DR DOS 6.0 as its standard operating system. Based on a 25MHz 386SL chip with a cache controller, the unit has 2 MB of RAM (expandable to 20 MB), 64 KB of cache memory, and a 25-MHz 387SX coprocessor socket. The 60-MB hard drive comes with power management. The viewing area of the high-contrast, nonglare, reflective LCD is 674 by 4'/> inches. The unit weighs about 2 pounds with the battery. Price: About $1150 (HK$149).

Contact: ABC Computer Co.. Ltd., Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong, +852 481 6118; lax+852 481 5836. Circle 1135 on Inquiry Card.

62 BYTE • APRIL 1993

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

PERIPHERALS

Dedicated SCSI Caching

A dedicated SCSI-2 caching device that has a cache access time of less than 0.03 ms, Atto's SiliconCache connects to your computer through the SCSI bus. The device, designed for disk-intensive and time-critical applications, resides between the host computer's SCSI port and its disk storage devices.

The SiliconCache's basic capacity of 32 MB is expandable in 32-MB steps to 512 MB; its transfer rate is 6 MBps. The device has a write-through design to eliminate data loss and provide an extra level of system fault tolerance. Transparent to the host, the unit supports up to 49 SCSI devices. Price: $7995.

Contact: Atto Technology, Inc., Amherst, NY, (716) 688-4259; fax (716) 636-3630. Circle 1136 on Inquiry Card.

More Power for the PowerBook

Portable storage for your PowerBook is now available in the form of the Powerbox and the MicroMD 200.

With the same footprint as the PowerBook, the 4-pound, 1.4-inch Powerbox fits under the notebook and connects through the SCSI port. The Model 200-T (with a 200-MB hard drive) and the Model 500-T (with a 500-MB hard drive) Powerboxes each have a 155-MB tape drive for microstreaming tape backup. Average seek time of the hard drive is 12 to 15 ms; the data buffer size is 64KB.

A standard PowerBook battery in the Powerbox typically provides 2 hours of hard

SiliconCache uses special caching hardware and adaptive software for access times under 0.03 ms. The device can manage up to 512 MB of cache memory.

drive operation. The System 7.0-formatted Powerbox ships with Adambyte utilities and integrated backup software.

Price: $1990 and up. Contact: Adambyte, Mountain View, CA, (415) 9881415; fax (415) 988-1418. Circle 1138 on Inquiry Card.

Procom Technology's MicroMD 200 incorporates the company's Atom 200 21/:inch hard drive, with an average access time of 12 ms. A miniature external AC power supply powers the unit.

Features include 132 KB of RAM cache, a 3.2-MBps sustained transfer rate, a 4000-rpm spindle rate, and a 100-g shock rating. The drive supports System 6.x, System 7.x, AppleShare, and A/UX. Price: $1695.

Contact: Procom Technology, Irvine, CA, (714) 852"lOOO; fax (714) 852-1221. Circle 1 139 on Inquiry Card.

Stack Up Your Storage

SmartStack is Envisio's modular answer to SCSI expansion. Comprising three main components, SmartStack uses just one SCSI cable and one power cable to

automatically connect multiple hard drives.

SmartSource, the base unit of the storage system, features a 120-W power supply, a quiet fan, a power switch that accesses all connecting drive modules, and a power cable. The unit's two 50-pin SCSI connectors let you add other peripherals.

Attached to the base unit via the snap-on/snap-off SmartStack cover unit, the SmartStack drive modules each include PTB (passthrough bus) connectors on the top and the bottom; a SCSI loop-back connector on the cover unit sends the SCSI signal throughout the system. The drive modules include a standard hard drive, an optical drive, and a DAT (digital audiotape) drive.

Price: SmartSource, $249; drive modules, $699 and up. Contact: Envisio, Inc., St. Paul, MN, (612)628-6288: fax (612) 633-1083. Circle 1137 on Inquiry Card.

Color in Full Bleed

Seiko Instruments' Professional ColorPoint PSH dye-sublimation printer lets you create extra-large fullbleed prints that fill an 8'/:by 1 1-inch area. Standard memory in the 300-dpi printer is 16 MB, expandable to 64 MB. The primary processor is a Weitek RISC XL8220 that runs at 25 MHz.

The PostScript-compatible PSH accepts incoming files at speeds as fast as 200 KBps via its Centronics parallel port. Additionally, the PSH has LocalTalk/AppleTalk and RS-232C interfaces, letting you connect Mac, PC, and Unix systems. Features include simultaneously active ports, multitasking capability, automatic input polling, and off-line printing. Price: $9999.

Contact: Seiko Instruments USA, Inc., San Jose, CA, (800) 888-0817 or (408) 9225800; fax (408) 922-5840. Circle 1 140 on Inquiry Card.

Sized to take up

minimal desk

space, the

SmartStack

modular storage

system can run up

to seven SCSI

peripherals.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 63

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

A D D - I N S

Render Graphics in AutoCAD

The 32-bit display list in the Diamond accelerator board from the Norwegian company Rasterex lets you take full advantage of the noregen rendering feature in release 12 of AutoCAD. When you're drafting in AutoCAD at 8-bit color and you use Rasterex's rendering tool RxAutolcon release 12 (built-in on the board), the Diamond will switch to 24-bit color (i.e., true color) without your having to reconfigure anything. In multimedia applications such as Animator Pro and 3D Studio, you can use RxAutoIcon for real-time capture at high resolution.

If you work in Windows, the Diamond, which is based on the TI-34020 processor and comes with 4 MB of video RAM, lets you run true-color applications. The board's 1280-by 1024-pixel resolution is reconfigurable to lower resolutions. Price: $2495 and up. Contact: Expert Graphics, Inc., Atlanta, GA, (800) 6487249 or (404) 320-0800; fax (404)315-7645. Circle 1141 on Inquiry Card.

PCMCIA for Palmtops

Available with capacities of256and512KBand 1 and 2 MB, the SRAM Memory Card Family from Memorex is geared toward users of palmtop computers. The PCMCIA-standard, solid-state memory cards use an 8- or 16-bit data bus with an average access time of 200 ns. Each card ships in an antistatic envelope and with a lithium battery. Price: From $199.95 to $749.95.

The Diamond 32-bit graphics accelerator board lets you do rendering in true color.

Contact: Memorex Computer Supplies, Santa Clara, CA, (408) 957-1000; fax (408) 957-1145. Circle 1142 on Inquiry Card.

Orange You Closer to DOS, Mac?

Two boards use different methods to let you join your Macs and PCs. One puts DOS on the Mac; the other puts Mac applications on the PC.

The OrangePC is Orange Micro's latest solution to DOS/Mac incompatibility. With either a 25-MHz 386SX or a 25-MHz Cx486SLC processor, on-board VGA hardware, DOS 5.0, and I MB or more of RAM (up to 16 MB), the board lets you display VGA graphics on any Mac monitor or Mac-compatible monitor. You can also launch Windows 3.1 inside a Mac window and run your Windows applications simultaneously with Mac applications in another window.

The entry-level board is only RAM expandable. Expandability on the intermediate 25-MHz 386SX model consists of an AT bus slot for add-on PC cards and PC serial and parallel ports, so you can attach a modem, printer, pocket network adapter, or software key. The 2 MB of RAM is expandable

to 16 MB via SIMMs. The top-of-the-line Cx486SLC board includes the same expandability features. Price: From $1099 to $1799. Contact: Orange Micro, Inc., Anaheim, CA, (714) 7792772; fax (714) 779-9332. Circle 1143 on Inquiry Card.

An expansion board that lets you run Macintosh applications on your PC in addition to all DOS and Windows applications, the 50/50 Dual Desktop displays DOS and Mac screens side by side. You can also use hot keys to toggle out of a DOS screen into a Mac screen running Mac software for a fullscreen display.

The 16-MHz 68000-based board works with the ISA or EISA bus and System 6.0, 7.0, and 7.1. It treats IDE, MFM, SCSI, and ESDI PC hard drives as standard Mac hard drives and lets PC 3 72inch floppy drives read and write to 800-KB and 1.44-MB Mac formatted floppy disks. TSR software for switching between the Mac and PC platforms is standard, as is the x-Fer file transfer program. The board has 50- and 25-pin SCSI ports and an AppIeTalk-compatible serial port; it can connect directly to an AppleTalk or PhoneNet networking system and

is compatible with PC networks such as NetWare and Ethernet. Price: $995.

Contact: 50/50 Micro Electronics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, (408) 730-5050; fax (408) 732-5050. Circle 1144 on Inquiry Card.

On-the-Fly Image Capture

The Win Vision capture board lets you capture images on the fly in 256 gray scales. The source of the image can be a camcorder, VCR, or videodisc player. With a fax board installed in your computer, you can immediately send the images to someone via fax. WinVision ships with PhotoFinish 1.01; if you don't use Windows, you can get PC Paintbrush IV Plus instead. Price: $155. Contact: Quanta Corp., Mountain View, CA, (415) 967-5791; fax (415) 9678762. Circle 1145 on Inquiry Card.

Upgrade

to Multimedia

Sigma Designs' WinSound 16 CD-ROM Kit lets you upgrade your PC with multimedia capabilities. The Sony Light Internal CDROM drive in the kit has a data transfer rate of 150 KBps and an average access time of 550 ms. The 3-inch, 3.5-W speakers are magnetically shielded and have an external DC jack, volume control, and power-on indicator. The kit comes with six applications and is Kodak Photo CD ready. Price: $799.

Contact: Sigma Designs, Inc., Fremont, CA, (510) 770-0100; fax (510) 7702640. Circle 1297 on Inquiry Card.

64 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Why some software sells more than others. "*■

Success. All software developers strive for it. Now, Don Gall was on top of the world. Software protection made all the difference. Especially in Europe and Asia. Sales were four times better than before. He is the founding father of Sentinel — the guru of software success.

Struggling Software Sales

One day, trekking through the coffee fields of Java, Don ran into his old college buddy Simon Seagull. "Don, my sales are well below expectations." Simon explained his plight, "My software should sell like yours, Don!" Yet despite critical acclaim Simon's company, SimonSays Software, teetered on a financial tightrope. "What's your secret, Don?"

They spent hours analyzing potential problems. They looked at everything.

The Key to the Problem

Finally, Don leaned back and asked the assumptive question, "What about protection - are you using Sentinel?"

Nervously, Simon sipped his coffee. His hands shaking as his eyes darted the room, "No. I didn't think I needed to."

Don's chair slid out from under him and he crashed to the floor. Amazed in disbelief, Don cried, "You What?!" Grabbing his tattered scrapbook, Don pulled out photos of his travels. "Ever been to Seoul? Prague? Anywhere? ■■■* Ten bucks will buy you anything, even bootlegged copies of software."

Don's Road to Success

Thumbing through the

scrapbook, Don shared his

experiences. "Back in the

'80s, I was in your shoes

beaten, battered

and bruised."

Simon listened.

"Then, after

a heart breaking

trip around the

world, I called the Software

Publishers Association (SPA)

"I could hardly believe it. They told me developers lose billions of dollars each year. Why? Illegally copied software. In some countries there are nine pirated copies for each legal copy sold."

It's just

Simon was disgusted, not fair."

"That's why I committed myself to solving the piracy problem," explained Don. Simon's eyes lit up. "The dongle!" he shouted. Don corrected him, "Not just any dongle — the dongle that paved the road to success for over 10,000 developers worldwide — Sentinel."

Successful Developers Use Sentinel

Don pulled a stack of letters out of his gunny sack. "All of these people tell the same story." Don read about a successful developer from California who swears she wouldn't be in business without Sentinel. Another company says protection costs less than litigation, plus , they don't have to

spend time and money supporting illegal users.

Others confessed they wouldn't market products internationally without protection.

The hours flew by, story after story, Simon learned Don Gall's secret. To succeed is to protect. To protect is to secure with Sentinel.

Most Advanced and Widely Used Dangles in the World

Backed by the world leader in software protection, Rainbow Technologies, the Sentinel Family of hardware keys is the most diverse and comprehensive selection available. For DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, LAN, UNLX and others. They're simple to install, and are the most reliable and compatible available.

Rainbow offers just-intime delivery and the largest technical support and engineering staff in the software protection industry.

Call Don Gall today for a free copy of "The Sentinel

Guide to Securing Software." Or better yet, ask him for a low cost Sentinel Evaluation

Kit—complete with a working dongle!

CALL

800/ 852-8569

FOR YOUR FREE GUIDE TO SECURING SOFTWARE

SEIUiriEL

Securing the future of software

When you need a dongle, you need Sentinel. The only dongle Don Gall will use.

^RAINBOW

TECHNOLOGIES

9292 JERONIMO ROAD, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA 92718 ■ 714/ 454-21OO ■ fax 714/ 454-8557 International offices are located in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

SPB

MICROSOFT WINDOWS COMPATIBLE

© 1993 Rainbow Technologies, Inc. All product nam

-ademarks of their respective owners.

Circle 126 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 127).

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HAZARDOUS WASTE BUSINESS

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■ 28- Chemical Engineering ■ 32C- BYTE, Data Communications, Data Communications International, LAN Times, UnixWorldH 39-Electrical World ■ 41-EIMR, Construction News Publishing Network (11 magazines, 4 newspapers) ■ 46- Global Finance ■ H6- The Physician & Sportsmedicine, Postgraduate Medicine

■ 114-Modern Plastics, Modern Plastics International ■ 117-Power, Power International

M

news

WHAT'S NEW

OTHER HARDWARE

Power Supply Check

Data Depot's PC PowerCheck diagnostic and test card detects the major causes of problems in power supplies for IBM PCs and Amigas. With a normal PC edge connector as well as a 12-pin power supply connector identical to those on the motherboard, the card can be plugged into your PC or directly into the power supply for testing.

The card tests all four output voltages on the power supply for overvoltage, undervoltage, noise, and spikes. Except for the spike detectors, which trap the error condition, the detectors monitor continuously. Price: $229.

Contact: Data Depot, Inc., Clearwater, FL, (800) 2751913 or (813) 446-3402; fax (813)443-4377. Circle 1271 on Inquiry Card.

A Power Pack for Traveling

A removable stand-alone AC module that you can use to provide 120-VAC power from any car cigarette lighter socket distinguishes the AC PowerPack from

The PC PowerCheck detects poor regulation, misadjusted outputs, leaky or noisy components, and blatant component failure in your power supply.

other power supplies. The PowerPack, designed for 120-V products up to 50 W, combines 12-VDC and 120VAC capability. The removable module can also be used as an inverter to run AC devices from a DC outlet.

A built-in regulator prevents overcharging, and you can recharge the PowerPack as many as 1000 times on its replaceable, sealed lead-acid battery. Recharging from your car's cigarette lighter takes 1 to 3 hours; using the Innova AC Charger takes 4 to 6 hours. The company's solar charger takes less than 6 hours on a sunny day. Price: $175.

Contact: Innova Electronics Corp., Fountain Valley, CA, (714) 432-1184; fax (714) 432-7910. Circle 1273 on Inquiry Card.

Tone Up Your Cartridge

With a newly designed photosensitive drum and toner bin, the DoubleFill retrofitted EP-S printer cartridge holds twice as much toner as the original cartridge. The DoubleFill can also be refilled six times rather than the once or twice of the original cartridge. The reusable cartridge is compatible with laser printers such as the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet Series II, IID, III, and HID; the Apple LaserWriter; the Brother HL-8; the NEC SilentWriter; and the QMS Turbo.

Price: $109.95; your conventional cartridge retrofitted, $99.95; subsequent refills, $79.95.

Contact: M&S Computer Products, Inc., Boonton, NJ, (201) 263-9041; fax (201) 316-0653. Circle 1272 on Inquiry Card.

The AC PowerPack.

Two Ways to Power Protection

True sine-wave UPSes (uninterruptible power supplies), the 600-to 1250-V Minuteman PM600 and PM1250 include automatic

frequency selection of 50 or 60 MHz. When input voltage is betweeen 92 and 103 VAC, the units switch to boost mode and boost output voltage 12 percent while continuing to charge the batteries. When the input voltage is 92 VAC or over 103 VAC, the units automatically switch to inverter mode and run on the batteries; when normal power returns, the units automatically switch back to AC mode.

Other features of the UPSes include an overload measurement in AC mode that uses lights and audible alarms to let you know that the unit is overloaded. Nonlinear current capability and automatic unit test at power-on are also present.

Price: PM600, $579; PM1250, $1049. Contact: Para Systems, Inc., Dallas, TX, (214) 446-7363; fax (214) 446-9011. Circle 1274 on Inquiry Card.

For those who don't need the sophisticated prowess of a UPS, a simple solution to being one step ahead of a power brownout is the Line Alarm. The device sounds an alarm whenever the 120-VAC power varies by more than 10 percent. Response time of the 3- by l'/>- by 1-inch device is about 300 ms. LEDs light to indicate brownouts at 108 VAC or overvoltage at 132 VAC. Neon lamps show if you are using proper electrical wiring and grounding. When the device signals a problem, you take responsibility for protecting your computer. Price: $29.95.

Contact: Power Alarm, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA, (800) 7866610 or (707) 579-2364; fax (707) 579-8084. Circle 1275 on Inquiry Card.

68 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Power Packed Upgrades.

STANDARD UMTS

These UL/CSA approved, fully-tested power supplies are the best basic units available.

STANDARD 200 XT $69

STANDARD 205 SLIM $89

STANDARD 220 BABY $89

STANDARD 220 AT/TOWER $89

ULTRA-QUIET UNITS

Unrattle your nerves with koise levels (dbi ., silencer power supply,

" m^d recognized since 1986 as

«-I — "* the industry's quietest.

36-1 [^_ i6% Cooled with efficient,

variable-speed fans that

ORDINARY SILENCER

POWERS™ powersupply are virtually inaudible! A must for home office or multimedia applications.

SILENCER 205 SLIM $119

SILENCER 220 AT/TOWER $129

SILENCER 270 AT/TOWER $179

HIGH-PERFORMANCE UNITS

Upgrade your computer widi one of our premium Turbo-Cool power supplies—the choice of PC professionals. You'll get 50% -100% more power, built-in line conditioning, a dual-stage EM filter, super-tight regulation, ultra-clean DC output, our high-capacity ThermaSense variable-speed fan (300W models), UL/CSA/TUV approvals, and a no-hassle 2-year warranty! Ideal for high-end workstations and network file servers.

TURBO-COOL 200 XT $159

TURBO-COOL 300 SLIM $169

TURBO-COOL 300 BABY $169

TURBO-COOL 300 AT/TOWER $189

TURBO-COOL 450 AT/TOWER $349

REDUNDANT POWER SYSTEM

Eliminate the risk of network downtime or data loss due to power supply failure with die TwinPower 900 redundant power system. It delivers high-capacity, fault-tolerant power to your entire network server. Consists of two Turbo-Cool 450 power supplies in parallel, utilizing a special power-management interface module. A must for mission critical LANs.

■ Super Server Power. With 900 watts of peak power, the TwinPower 900 effortlessly runs any array of drives- without the need for sequencing.

■ 100 Times More Reliable.

Whv gamble widi a sinde

,' ° ° , PROBABILITY OF A

unit system? TwinPower's "(KSg)™

load-sharing, redundant ™* I^gZ

design lets you take the 3°;; I

power system for granted. «m - —7&r

It's die peace-of-mind a c , ,~T~^/m

r Single-Unit TwinPower 900

network manager needs!

■ Hot-Swap Capability. In die unlikely event that one of its 450s should fail, an alarm sounds, and die other 450 sustains die server while the user simply swaps in a new unit. No downtime!

■ Optional Enclosures. We offer "monster" cases that hold TwinPower's two power supplies and interface. The Commercial Tower (76 lbs.) holds 13 drives, while the all-steel Industrial Tower (102 lbs.) allows dual systemboards and holds up to 16 drives. Now, that's expandability!

TWIN-POWER 900 , $995

W/COMMERCIAL CASE $1695

W/FNDUSTRIAL CASE $1995

486 CPU COOLER

It's a fact. 486 chips run hot, often exceeding 185T!

Now, you can reduce die operating temperature of

your 80486 processor to a cool, safe 85°- 95°F with

our popular CPU-Cool. You'll prevent random

system errors and add years to die life of your

investment. Consists of a

quiet mini-fan embedded

in a sculptured heat sink

that easily mounts on die

CPU. Powered by a spare

drive connector. Effective,

inexpensive insurance!

CPU-COOL $39

CPUTEI

!

POWER SUPPLY ADVISOR

1. Even before it fails, an inferior power supply can be trouble. Nasty hard-to-track problems such as interference, rebooting, overheating, and hard drive errors are often power supply related.

2. You can't have too much power. A power supply delivers only what die PC needs and actually performs best at 25% -75% of its rated capacity.

3. For greater hard drive reliability, use a power supply widi independent regulation and extra cooling such as the Turbo-Cool 300/450.

4. Buy from a reputable power supply specialist. You'll get real service, not some runaround like: "Here's a number in Taiwan, give them a call".

5. To save money, PC manufacturers put ordinary power supplies— widi limited features— in dieir systems. To upgrade, call us direct or ask your PC supplier for one of our units by name.

PB POWER & CO DUMB, 1MB.

5995 Avenida Encinas, Carlsbad, CA 92008 • (619) 931-5700 • (800) 722-6555 • Fax (619) 931-6988

Most orders shipped same (lay. We accept Visa, MC, COD, or PO on approved credit. Turbo-Coo] and TwinPower models guaranteed for 2 years. All other products guaranteed for I year. 1 lours: 7 a.m. - S p.m. (PT) .Mon. - Fri. ©1992 PC Power & Cooling, Inc. Silencer, Turbo-Cool, ThermaSense, TwinPower, and CPU-Cool arc trademarks of PC Power & Cooling, Inc. All other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Circle 116 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 117).

IB Windows World

Play to win in the "City of Winners'L^fe^,

It's two world-class events happening side by side in Atlanta...and the year's first opportunity to go to the cutting edge in computer and communications technology.

• More than 1,000 exhibiting companies with thousands of exciting new products!

• Plus dedicated Technology Showcases on Network Computing, Multimedia, Mobile Computing, UNIX70pen Systems, OEM Sources, and Office and Imaging Systems!

• 75,000-plus attendees...including over 5,000 international delegates from more than 70 countries!

• The rollout of Windows NT— plus a world of new Windows applications!

• "Featured Country" program highlighting Canada!

• More than 100 separate educational conference sessions on the latest technology, business and distribution issues!

• Keynote addresses from Bill Gates of Microsoft and James Cannavino of IBM...plus "CEO Perspectives" from Robert Palmer of DEC and Jim Manzi of Lotus!

If you play to win in the computer industry, there's only one place to go this spring— COMDEX and WINDOWS WORLD in Atlanta!

I *'

Don't miss the next COMDEX and WINDOWS WORLD! FAX: (617) 449-2674

YES! I want to see it first at COMDEX and WINDOWS WORLD!

□ Send information on attending, including hotel and travel savings. D Send information on exhibiting.

□ ©COmDCHKpringTO

The world's #1 computer and communications marketplace for resellers and corporate decision makers.

□ HWlNDOWSM)RLD'93

The official conference and exposition on Windows computing. Produced in cooperation with Microsoft.

May 24-27, 1993 Georgia World Congress Center • Atlanta, Georgia USA

Hotels fill up fast—reserve your accommodations today!

f Name

8LKDA

f Title

Company

Addmss

City

Statp.

Zip/Postal Code

Country

Telephone Fax 617-449-2674

or mail to: The Interface

Fax Group, 300 First Avenue, Needham, MA 02194-2722 USA.

* 1993 The Interface Group • 300 First Avenue, Needham, MA 02194-2722 USA, Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of UNIX System Laboratories. Inc.. a subsidiary ol AT&T.

Circle 91 on Inquiry Card.

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

CONNECTIVITY

Pocket Faxing

A wallet-size messageentry and telecommunications center, the Pocket Faxxer fits comfortably in your shirt pocket, a purse, or a briefcase. The paperless fax-transmission device can send messages to fax machines and beepers (i.e., radio pagers). The multipurpose communications center features 100 built-in functions that enable you to create, modify, store, and transmit information.

The Pocket Faxxer can operate as a data terminal, providing interactive communications with remote computer systems. It provides Touch-Tone dialing, reminder messages, audible alert signals, and a directory that can store names, telephone numbers, and general information.

You can program Pocket Faxxer to answer incoming calls and receive E-mail messages. The device can back up and restore all internal information to a PC.

With optional software, you can prepare messages on a PC for faxing or paging. The Pocket Faxxer can also communicate with text telephones (TDDs) used by people with hearing impairments. Price: $399.

Contact: Telecraft Industries, Brooklyn, NY, (718)9720900; fax (718) 972-4695. Circle 1276 on Inquiry Card.

Overcome Analog/ Digital Barriers

The Volante modem from Sonix Communications features a high-speed digital interface that breaks traditional divisions between modems and ISDN. The modem combines high analogtransmission performance with a digital interface running at up to 115,200 bps.

^ • !

£ ?

'

... ■

SWW Fivrc

\*V

#f

K'Juf.

^v'

i m ■

u

Wit* i'

& ♦*.-:

A A

To use the Pocket Faxxer, you plug it into a telephone line, type a message on the machine's mini-keyboard, and send the message via the phone line.

This allows it to exploit the full benefits of data compression, particularly in applications requiring regular file transfers. In addition, the Volante is totally reprogrammable through the use of flash EPROM chips.

The Volante features V.42 error correction, including MNP, as well as V.42bis and MNP 5 data compression for maximum throughput. The package includes installation software, cabling, send and receive fax software, and data communications software.

Price: About $1148 (£795). Contact: Sonix Communications, Ltd., Cirencester, Gloucestershire, U.K., +44 285 641651; fax+44 285 642098. Circle 1277 on Inquiry Card.

Fax on Demand

B< <

i ogen Communications • offers a full-featured faxon-demand system, called Fax Vault, that stores documents for retrieval via fax. Using a Touch-Tone telephone, callers are requested to follow a menu of voice prompts that allow them to select and receive up to 999 pages of information 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world.

You load documents into the Fax Vault from standard fax machines or PC fax modems. Fax Vault lets you change the factory-recorded voice prompts, security codes, and other components of the system from any Touch-Tone telephone. You can also individually configure lines to accept only calls, to transmit only information, or both.

A three-level security system controls access to the entire system, to specific documents, or to messages. In addition, Fax Vault features multiple-language voice prompts, international calling access, automatic cover-page generation, digital-voice messaging, and one to nine retries to send faxes. It provides you with reports on what information was requested, how many requests were filled, and the fax and phone numbers of those requesting information.

Price: Two-line model, $2995; four-line model, $3995.

Contact: Bogen Communications, Inc., Ramsey, NJ, (201) 934-8500; fax (201) 934-9832. Circle 1278 on Inquiry Card.

Monitor Network Traffic

You can use PacketView 1.0, a PC-based networktraffic capture, decode, and display utility, with standard network controllers to capture and analyze network traffic. Compatible with Ethernet, Token Ring, and ARCnet, PacketView uses a packet driver to capture packets from any of the three media types. It then decodes the packets to display meaningful information.

Some of the protocols that PacketView recognizes include TCP/IP, Banyan Vines, Novell IPX/SPX/NCP, XNS, and AppleTalk. PacketView also lets you create your own protocol decoders using C or assembly language. Price: $249.

Contact: Klos Technologies, Inc., Merrimack, NH, (603) 881-7777. Circle 1279 on Inquiry Card.

72 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Cross

platforms

easily.

New Timbuktu is the easiest way to network Macintosh and Windows computers, so you can share printers, files and screens.

Moving information between Macintosh® and Windows™ computers used to be quite a feat of skill. Let alone nerves.

But now there's Farallon's new Timbuktu" for Macintosh and Windows.

picture of your screen over the network so you can control and view it from another Mac or Windows PC. This lets you use your network for new things like

Call today for a free demonstration video:

1-800-998-7760 ext. 4.

i 1

MacUser|f|i%

PC Week Labs Overall Score 4.2

Macworld ***-A"

LAN Times 5 Nodes

Timbuktu is the easiest way to create collaboration and user support.

a peer-to-peer network. So, whether you're on a PC or Mac, you can share expensive peripherals like printers. And exchange files quickly and easily.

You also get a unique benefitremote control. Timbuktu can send

MICROSOFT-' WINDOWSCOMPATIBLE

it runs with NetWare

■!■ Famllon

a real-time, full-color

Of course, Timbuktu is easy to use and install. You don't need a dedicated gateway or server. And it works with what you've got. Even other networks on NetWare or TCP/IP.

For a free Timbuktu product demo video, just call. It's that easy.

Power to the network.' i-soo-998-7760 ext a*

•Call 1-800-678-5075 for upgrades from Timbuktu and PhoneNET PC (previously AppleShare PC and PhoncNET Talk). Upgrades also available for SitkaTOPS and Carbon Copy.

A copy of Timbuktu is required on each machine on the network. Single- and multi-packs are available.

All trademarks are property of their owners. ©1992 All rights reserved. For customer service, call (510)814-5000. Or contact us on America Online" or AppleLink3 ID: Farallon. CompuServe3 ID: 75410. 2702. Internet !0: Farallon@farallon.com.

Circle 82 on Inquiry Cord.

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE

Unix Software Development

The ParaSet family of Unix software development products can improve the way you develop and maintain software. The products first establish and then dynamically maintain relationships among all the key activities of the software development process, including specification, analysis/ design, coding, testing, and maintenance.

The ParaSet products support C and C++ and consist of three core modules and two options. The core system includes Para/Designer, which helps you design software using structured or object-oriented design techniques; Para/Programmer, which supports forward and reverse engineering of software; and Para/Online, which provides a hypertext-based EMACS editor for creating documentation.

The ParaSet options include Para/Analyzer, which helps you analyze and restructure existing software, and Para/Debugger, an interpreter-based debugging environment that supports incremental recompilation and relinking and mixed interpreted/compiled execution of software.

Price: $7500 and up. Contact: Software Emancipation Technology, Inc., Waltham, MA, (617)4668600; fax (617) 466-9845. Circle 1281 on Inquiry Card.

C++ Design Tools

C++ Designer combines a graphical PC-based design tool with C++ codeframe generation. The product helps you manage and manipulate objects at the design stage, as well as produce outline code. In addition,

The ParaSet family of software development products uses the same model for forward engineering to develop new software, and for reverse engineering to modify, maintain, and improve existing software.

C++ Designer provides integral rule and consistency checking to help you adhere to the principles of good object-oriented design. Price: About $282 (£195). Contact: Select Software Tools, Ltd., Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, U.K., +44 242 226553; fax +44 242 251491. Circle 1284 on Inquiry Card.

Workbench for Windows

Cumin's Bench 2.01 integrates and manages multivendor compilers, editors, linkers, make systems, and debuggers, so you can create an organized and intuitive Windows software engineering environment. You can configure DOS and Windows tools into the user-defined toolboxes and start a tool as a DOS or Windows process with the associated environment.

Bench lets you customize any tools to access files and directories and assign these tools execution context, command-line arguments, and initialization files. You can group tools into functional

areas that correspond to the way a development team works, such as programming, documentation, and testing, or you can group them on a user or project basis.

Bench stores document revision information, comments, and changes associated with each revision under the reverse delta technique. It supports branching, multiple parallel versions, and version locking. Check-in and check-out facilities transparently accommodate team development.

Price: Bench, $395; five-user LAN license, $995; 10-user LAN license, $1695. Contact: Curran Software, Seattle, WA, (206) 521-3790; fax (206) 822-3872. Circle 1285 on Inquiry Card.

Automatic Documentation for OOP

Now development teams that use Digitalk Smalltalk/V can eliminate the lag between the production of code and the availability of

documentation. Synopsis for Smalltalk/V automatically generates class documentation for any class in the system. In addition, you can print your class documentation with popular word processors or as text files.

Synopsis stores class summaries in class encyclopedias, which you can access via browser windows. It packages class encyclopedias in separate files, so you can distribute detailed descriptions of classes to other developers without having to ship source code. Two versions are available: Synopsis for Smalltalk/V Windows and Synopsis for Smalltalk/V PM.

Price: Windows version, $295; PM version, $395. Contact: Synopsis Software, Raleiah, NC, phone and fax (919) 847-0650. Circle 1282 on Inquiry Card.

Simplify Error Tracking

An add-in utility, Feedback for 4th Dimension simplifies debugging and refining four-dimensional databases on the Mac. The software takes a snapshot of the screen, records your previous actions, and logs the exact date and time you made the request.

The utility can also trap 4-D errors, record the screen, generate a feedback slip, and store a log of events. And if other users are logged on to a network, Feedback for 4th Dimension can record a history of their actions. The software includes a copy of Backtracker, a companion program that provides more reporting and follow-up features. Price: $295.

Contact: Macintosh Business Systems, Inc., Mamaroneck, NY, (914)698-7215; fax (914) 698-0224. Circle 1283 on Inquiry Card.

74 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Since when is Raima

l

I

n

CHEVRON

NAVAL ELECTRONIC

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

ACTIVITY

PHH FANTUS

a J

MM

Raima Database Manager was the database of choice in the First Annual Windows World Open. The competition featured innovative custom applications built with Windows development tools. Three of the seven winners, and two of the finalists, used Raima Database Manager to solve their critical application needs.

For professional developers like yourself, Raima products offer:

High performance: unmatched application speed. Portability: runs on DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX, VMS, QNX. Royalty-free distribution; increase your, profits. Source-code availability: total programming flexibility. Affordable pricing: starting at just $395. Language support: ANSI C, C++, arid Visual Basic.

Raima Database 'Manager ne high-performance dims

Raima Object Manager The: object storage class library

Listen to what some of our customers say about our products:

"No other products matched Raima for the price."

James Lisiak, developer. Chevron .

'Raima provided us with speed, flexibility, and royalty-free distribution<which allowed us to meet and exceed our custoiners' needs." Dave Cooper, developer, Atlantic Research Corp, (subcontractor, Naval.Electronic Systems Engineering Activity)

"Database Manager gave us the edge we needed to handle laige amounts of data auickly and efficiently within MicrosoftWbidows..." Kelly Patrick, developer, PHH Fantus

If you're looking for an award-winning application development tool, give us a call. And discover, tne Raima advantage.

MiliBtiOI#IMWIgWM

DOS, OS/2, and UNIX

■ Raulia Ctirooratit

mist) Rd, Suit

,'A 9802" (20W557-0200. Fax: (20M557

D

Save lots of time, save money, too...

Distinct TCP/IP for Windows

by Distinct Corporation

Distinct TCP/IP for Windows SDK extends the TCP/IP and RPC/XDR networking capabilities to Microsoft Windows. Includes the smallest and fastest DLLs today available for Berkeley Sockets, RPC, Telnet, and FTP. Coexists on the same board with Lan Manager, Novell and Banyan. Supports Packets, NDIS and 0D1 drivers. Only 5KB of DOS memory required.

(SDK) LIST: $495 PS Price: $439

(App!ications)UST. $395 PS Price: $379 FastFaxts 1951-003:(SDK), J951-007:(A/jp.)

Visual Basic for DOS

by Microsoft Corporation

Draw forms, controls; write event-procedures; create custom controls—in DOS! Create new apps or combine with existing C/C++ or Pascal code. Highly compatible with Visual Basic for Windows. Run existing Quick Basic/Basic PDS code! 80x86 compiler creates 100% standalone .EXE files; 386 code generation; MOVE overlays; an integrated ISAM and much more!

LIST PS Price

PRO $495 $339

Standard $199 $139

FastFaxts502-408:(PRO), 502-407-.(Stand.)

m%

High C/C++ v3.0

by MetaWare Incorporated

MetaWare Incorporated introduces its newest product: die 32-bit High C/C++ compiler, version 3.0. High C++ is a true compiler, not a C to C++ translator. "Incremental Strengths" lets you specify the level of C++ compilation, allowing you to migrate from C to C++ one C++ block at a time. Included in die package is a C++-tailored sourcelevel debugger, and a 32-bit Application Development Kit for Windows. MetaWare offers a full line of multi-language, multi-platform compilers for professional software developers.

LIST: $795 PS Price: $749

FastFaxts 89-063

ResourceSHIELD

by The Stirling Group

ResourceSHIELD integrates the process of creating, editing, translating, compiling and managing resources for graphical applications. A visual resource development tool with seven resources editors will edit resources in binary or text resource files. Pre-designed resource templates for dialogs, menus and icons are included.

LIST

PS Price

Windows OS/2 2.0 Windows NT

$149 $295 $295

Call

$289

$279

FastFaxts 2929-019: (Win. & OS/2)

To Order Call

R&R Report Writer

by Concentric Data

Create custom analytical reports from any dBASE compatible with R&R Report Writer Xbase Edition for DOS or Windows! Turn your raw data into useful publication-quality reports. Then, using the R&R Report Writer Code Generator (DOS), turn those reports into Xbase code. You've never had custom reports faster or easier!

(Report Writer) LIST: $249 PS Price: $ 159 (Code Generator) LIST: $199 PS Price: $159

FastFaxts 308-030: (Report Writer) FastFaxts 308-033: (Code Generator)

I

Visual Basic for Windows 2.0

by Microsoft Corporation

When you need to create a Windows application quickly, nodiing offers the sheer producdvity of Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0, Standard Edition. A visual development environment, flexible programming language, and fast runtime execution make this the shortest route to full-featured Windows applications. The Professional Edition includes messaging and data access capabilities, a wide variety of add-on tools, and more.

LIST PS Price

PRO $495 $339

Standard $199 $139

FastFaxts 502-443: (PRO), 502-431;(Stand.)

ProtoGen 3.0

by Protoview

NEW VERSION! The industry standard for code generation and prototyping Windows applications. Develop the user interface of your application using Visual prototyping methods. ProtoGen generates expert level, commented code for ANSI C, Microsoft MFC C++, Borland OWL C++, Turbo Pascal, and Microsoft NT Win32. All generators included! User Code is preserved from one generation to the next. It's easy and fast.

LIST: $199 PS Price: $185 FastFaxts 2115-009

Plastic Software

by Atlas Software Pty. Ltd.

Plastic is a complete Clipper 5.01 environment that accelerates systems development from database design to fully tested and documented single- and multi-user applications, Plastic comes with fully relational data dictionary, WYSIWYG screen painter, relational report generator, menu builder, powerful data-driven engines, pop-up windows, and AutoDoc documentation system. PowerCode, which builds custom UDFs, is included free.

Single Dev. ver. LIST: $495 PS Price: $449 8 Dev. ver. LIST: $895 PS Price: $819

FastFaxts 9229-001

0

1-800-421-8006

The Programmer's Shop makes it easy to do. Shop the Shop.

New Low Price! F77L Fortran Compiler

by Lahey

Version 5.01 includes Fortran 90 features: ALLOCATABLE Arrays, CASE Constructs, Cycle and Exit, Construct Names, and many other new features, Package includes Editor, Make Utility, Profiler, Debugger, SLR Linker, Opus Make, Video Graphics, and Excellent Diagnostics. 386/486 tisers have the option of generating 32-bit instructions.

LIST: $295 PS Price: $275 PasWaxts 334-004

Star Trek™ :

The Screen Saver.

by Berkeley Systems

Beam aboard the Enterprise™ with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock on a mission to prevent screen burn-in. Encounter trilling Tribbles, Mingon batllecruisers, and burrowing horta. This all new screen saver provides over 15 animated displays, password protection, SystemlQ and full compatibility with After Dark.

LIST: $60 PS Price: $59

FastFaxts 2900-007

WArCOM SQL

WATCOM SQL Developer's Edition

by WATCOM

New Product-Special Introductory Offer.

Complete client/server development tool allows you to develop and deploy single-user standalone applications, and to develop applications for use with the Network Server Edition (sold separately). Includes: Single-user database server (both 16- and 32-bit versions); ACME application development system; Embedded SQL/C preprocessor; SQL libraries for WATCOM C, C/386, MS C/C++ and BC/C++.

LIST: $795 PS Price: $379

FastFaxts 1044-035

WindowsMAKER Professional

by Blue Sky Software™

Considered die easiest and fastest way to create MS-Windows applications in C/C++. Generate the Windows .EXE w/complete source & production files (no royalties). Just Point & Click to define the Windows user interface. Lets you animate your design to instantly test look & feel and make changes on the fly without needing to compile. Custom code is preserved during code regeneration. The leading development tool for Microsoft Windows. Highly Recommended.

LIST: $995 PS Price: $895

FastFaxts 2001-006

Auto Function Tester v2.0

by Talis Computer

AFT is a Testing Tool/Database that automates the design, documentation, validation, and execution of "C" functions. ANSI/IEEE test documentation is automatically generated and updated. All testing results including MultiCondition coverage are verified and saved in database for custom reporting. Easy to learn and use, AFT hooks to your Editor/Compiler and requires no changes to source code.

Singe user ver. LIST: $695 PS Price: $679

Network 5userver

LIST: $1,495 PS Price: $1,425

FastFaxts 2044-007

The PKWARE Data Compression Library

by PKWARE

The PKWARE Data Compression Library allows software developers to add data compression technology to applications. The application program controls all data I/O, allowing data to be compressed or extracted to any device or area of memory. Only 35K of memory is needed to compress data, and only 12K is needed to extract data. Compatible with MSC, BC++, TC, TP 6.0, Clipper, Basic 4.5, 7.1, ASM.

LIST: $295 PS Price: $275

FastFaxts 3043-011

• After Dark for Windows

• Blinker

• Borland C++ 3.1

• BTrieve for DOS

• Carbon Copy 6.1

• Clarion Prof. Developer 2.1

• Clipper

• DESQview 386

Call the

But wait, there's more

LIST

50 299 495

Bargains galore!

595 199

845 795 220

PS

28 269 319 399 139 469 499 149

LIST PS

• DR DOS 99 59

• lapLink Pro 170 109

• lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 495 359

• MS Excel 495 329

• MS Windows 3.1 150 99

• MS Word (Windows) 495 339

• Norton Desktop for Windows 179 139

• Norton Utilities 179 115

• ObjectVision 2.1

• ProComm Plus

• Qenini 386

• QuattroPro

• WATCOM C 9.0/386

• WordPerfect

• 286/DOS Extender SDH 2.5

• 386/DOS Extender SDK

LIST 150 129 100 495 895 495 495 495

PS

115 89 64 349 599 279 435 435

Programmer's Shop today:

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NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

BUSINESS SOFTWARE

Program CNC Machines

Pathtrace Systems offers a Unix version of PAMS (Pathtrace Advanced Manufacturing System), its package for parts programming of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines, including milling machines, machining centers, lathes, milling/turning centers, and coordinate measuring machines. The Unix version offers a new GUI and a range of links to popular CAD systems.

Graphical icons show you machining cutting cycles and tool selection. The multitasking package lets you run operations such as CNC code generation and tool-path solid modeling as background tasks. Complete parts-file compatibility between the DOS and Unix versions of PAMS supports mixed networks and facilitates moving from the DOS version to the Unix version.

PAMS/X runs under the X Window System and is available in a Sun OpenLook version for SPARC workstations or in an OSF/Motif version for Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 700 systems. Price: About $7225 (£5000 and up).

Contact: Pathtrace Systems, Ltd., Reading, Berkshire, U.K., +44 734 756084; fax +44 734 756143. Circle 1287 on Inquiry Card.

Create Schedules

Guide Line and Guide Line Maker, two additions to Symantec's family of project management software, bring the benefits of project management to those who can answer fill-in-theblank questions. Guide Line automatically builds project schedules, based on simple user input, that work with Time Line for Windows, Time Line 5.0 for DOS, On

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With PAMS/X, you can program CNC lathes and show 4 Axis Lathe simulation with twin turrets.

Target, and Microsoft Project for Windows. Guide Line Maker also lets you import files from these project management packages.

Guide Line contains 16 guides, including construction, office relocation, LAN installation, software development, consulting, smallbusiness start-up, market research, a marketing plan, a trade show plan, and a general project plan. Three versions are available: Guide Line for Windows, Guide Line for DOS, and the Guide Line License Pack, which supports Microsoft Project for Windows.

Guide Line Maker lets you build your own project management guides from scratch or by importing previously created project schedules. It features a scripting language that facilitates development of guides and provides simple editing facilities, reusable templates, visual tools for detailed inspection of task and local variables, and report generators.

Price: Guide Line, $149.95; Guide Line Maker, $499. Contact: Symantec Corp., Cupertino, CA, (800) 441

7234 or (408) 253-9600; fax

(408) 253-4092.

Circle 1289 on Inquiry Card.

Personal Finance Software

Aatrix Software's Hi Finance is a personal finance package for the Mac that includes everything from basic bookkeeping to handling stocks and bonds to inventory tracking for individuals and small businesses. The package supports Apple's QuickTime technology, as well as unattended dial-up and downloading of stock information.

Hi Finance includes a loan calculator; retirement, savings, college, and insurance planning; an automobile pricing calculator; and even a lottery number picker. You can write checks, transfer between accounts, create budgets, and produce custom reports. The inventory manager lets you store information— such as records of family heirlooms and equipment for insurance puiposes—as pictures, sound files, QuickTime movies, and text.

You can download and track stocks, bonds, mutual

and money-market funds, and other investment data via modem. The software updates your portfolios and net worth and warns you of unusual market activity. Price: $129.

Contact: Aatrix Software, Inc., Grand Forks, ND, (701) 746-6801; fax (701) 746-4249. Circle 1288 on Inquiry Card.

Accounting for Windows

The latest version of Sybiz Accounting for Windows features flexible user-designed invoicing, integrated bank reconciliation, improved end-of-period processing, standing journals and payments, and more-focused planning and forecasting capabilities. Sybiz Accounting for Windows 3.0 lets you design and print custom invoice statements and forms in virtually any stationery layout.

Version 3.0 records payments and details of receipts and prints out full bank reconciliation reports, showing outstanding checks, deposits not listed on the bank statement, and differences between your reconciliation and that of the bank. Other features include DDE, which lets you set hot links between the accounting package and other Windows packages; mail merge; and an instant view facility, which lets you view anything in the program to service customer calls without interrupting the transaction in progress. Price: Sales, Purchase, and Nominal Ledger modules, about $432 (£299); with Inventory module, about $576 (£399); with Job Costing module, about $1010 (£699). Contact: Sybiz Solutions, Ltd., Newbury, Berkshire, U.K., +44 635 877777; fax +44 635 871887. Circle 1290 on Inquiry Card.

78 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Important News

For The Power Hungry:

Your Dinner's Ready.

| ome and get it.

The new Amiga® 3000T multimedia workstation tower-the most expandable, flexible Amiga ever built.

Now powered by a 25 MHZ Motorola 68040 CPU, the A3000J is faster than ever before. (Current A3000T users can upgrade to a 040based accelerator card.) The A3000T features a 200MB hard disk drive. A 3.5" floppy disk drive. 5MB of RAM, expandable to 18MB. And 32-bit bus architecture to transfer mammoth amounts of information at breakneck

speed. The truly power famished will be happy to know that the A3000T is stuffed with an abundant selection of expansion slots. There's a co-processor slot. A video slot for internal devices. Up to four PC slots. And up to five Zorro 111 slots. Every Amiga 3000 series computer comes with Commodore Express"" Gold Service options* And convenient leasing terms are available.

Now, you'd expect a power feast like this to carry a fat price tag. But now with our new low price, you can sit down to an Amiga 3000T for just $2,875.** Which in itself is a powerful reason for seeing your Commodore dealer today. For a dealer near you, call 1-800-66-AMIGA. In Canada, call 1-800-661-AMIGA. Bon appetit.

See Us At World of

C^ Commodore

AMIGA

New York • April 2-4

©1992 Commodore Business Machines Inc. Commodore and the Commodore logo are trademarks of Commodore Electronics Lid. Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. Products available on GSA schedule GS-00K-91 -AGS-5069. * Available only on systems purchased in the U.S. through an authorized Commodore-Amiga dealer. Customer activation

required. Some optional programs include a charge. **MSRP, monitor sold separately.

Circle 76 on Inquiry Card.

NEWS

WHAT'S NEW

OTHER SOFTWARE

Statgraphics 6 for the PC

Manugistics has added increased flexibility to Statgraphics 6 and Statgraphics Plus 6 in the manipulation, presentation, and subsequent analysis of critical data. The latest versions feature a new graphical interface, improved text and data screens, and faster data queries and graph title selection.

Statgraphics and Statgraphics Plus give you the choice of using simple pulldown menus or the traditional Statgraphics menu structure. In addition, version 6 lets you choose between APL conventions and standard mathematical rules for evaluating expressions. They also feature a File Utilities procedure that makes navigating through data more convenient. Price: Statgraphics 6, $995; Statgraphics Plus 6, $1595. Contact: Manuaistics, Inc., Rockville, MD, (301)9845000; fax (301) 984-5290. Circle 1292 on Inquiry Card.

Double Unix Throughput

Programmed Logic says that adding its HPFS (High Performance File System) to your Unix system is like getting twice the computing power out of your existing hardware configuration. The package helps your system run twice as fast or supports the workload of twice the number of users.

HPFS incorporates a new approach to meta-data management and fundamental enhancements to System V release 4's file system algorithms that collectively eliminate I/O bottlenecks. In addition, because the SVR4compatible file system maintains plug compatibility and

Statgraphics 6 and Statgraphics Plus 6 both feature a new graphical sidebar menu that lays out all your options.

media compatibility with the Unix file system, you don't need to back up and restore your files—simply plug in the HPFS software module. Price: Single-user, $249; multiuser, $499; multiprocessor, $999.

Contact: Prosrammed Logic Corp., Somerset, NJ, (908) 302-0090; fax (908) 302-1903. Circle 1295 on Inquiry Card.

Organize Online Sessions

If you regularly access online information services, now there's a software program that can help you organize your on-line sessions. Online Log for the IBM PC records your on-line sessions, along with the vendor, database, subject or client designation, connect time, filename, and session cost. Online Log works with communications software to post an entry for each on-line session. If you search multiple databases consecutively,

you can update it midsession. Online Log stores a completed entry in a log that you can later search, edit, display, archive, or print. The program lets you search by date, client, vendor, filename, and database.

When it's time to reconcile a vendor invoice for the month, you simply enter the dates and the vendor name. Online Log then displays a list of that vendor's sessions for the month, along with a dollar total. Price: $59.

Contact: Et Cetera, Inc., Dover, DE, (302) 738-7335. Circle 1293 on Inquiry Card.

System 7.0 Utilities

Designed as a control panel accessible through the Apple menu, the nine Wiz Tools modules include Launcher, SubMenu, Keystroke Recorder, FinderTools, Twins, PowerBook Utilities, ColorSwitcher,

SPREAD THE WORD

Please address new product information to New Products Editors, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. The press release should contain the product description, price, ship date, and an address and telephone number where readers can get more information.

WorldClock, and WatchFolder. Wiz Tools help you quickly access applications, documents, DAs (desk accessories), folders, and control panels; create up to five levels of submenus for all folders and volumes listed in the Apple menu; switch between two preset screen displays without going to the Monitors control panel; and view the time for different geographical areas worldwide. Price: $129.

Contact: ASD Software, Inc., Montclair, CA, (909) 624-2594; fax (909) 624-9574. Circle 1294 on Inquiry Card.

Curve Fitting and Statistics

Slide Write Plus for DOS 5.0 combines linear, nonlinear, and weighted curve-fitting functions, statistical analysis, and sophisticated drawing and text capabilities. The program includes 100 built-in linear-approximating functions arranged in linear, exponential, power, and polynomial groups; and 15 resident parametric nonlinear equations.

In addition to curve-fitting capabilities and statistical analysis. Slide Write Plus for DOS 5.0 has a WYSIWYG interface, on-screen drawing, sizing, and text formatting, scalable Nimbus-Q fonts, and vector-format clip art. You can import both Lotus and ASCII files.

SlideWrite Plus for DOS 5.0 comes with over 400 logically grouped vector-format illustrations. Clip-art packages are also available with illustrations relevant to specialized technical areas. Price: $445.

Contact: Advanced Graphics Software, Inc., Carlsbad, CA, (619) 931-1919; fax (619) 931-9313. Circle 1296 on Inquiry Card.

80 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Get the new skills you need

for a high-paying career in computer programming!

Only NRI at-home training gives you real-world programming skills in three in-demand languages: QBasic, C, and Visual Basic, today's hot new language designed for writing popular Windows applications. ■, Best of all, you get hands-on training with a powerful new 486sx-based computer system, complete with 80 meg hard drive, Windows, and professional programming software you keep!

► NRI, the recognized leader in at-home computer training, shows you how to take advantage of today's newest programming opportunities

Get in on the ground floor of one of today's fastest-growing career fields: computer programming. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that job opportunities for programmers will increase much faster than average over the next 10 years, with as many as 400,000 new jobs opening up by 2005.

And the fastest-growing segment of programming jobs will be PC programming, fueled by the phenomenal popularity of Windows, the efficient power of C, and the ascent of exciting new languages like QBasic and Visual Basic.

Now, with NRI at-home training, you can get the new skills you need to build a top-paying career — even a fullor part-time business of your own — in this high-growth, high-opportunity field.

► NEW! The only programming course that includes a powerful 486sxbased computer, 80 meg hard drive, Windows, Visual Basic, and more — all yours to keep!

Right from the start, NRI gets you actively involved in the challenge of realworld programming. Step by step, you learn to create the kinds of fullfeatured, powerful programs today's

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Only NRI gives you first- :;::...vv hand programming experience with a state-of-the-art 486sx mini-tower computer system, complete with hard disk drive, full megabyte of RAM, highdensity (loppy drive, mouse, monitor, and more — all yours to train with and keep!

Plus you explore the extraordinary capabilities of three in-demand program ming languages. You learn to design,

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Train with NRI, and immediately start getting the money-making job skills you need to be a computer programmer — no matter what your previous background.

NRI's step-by-step lessons and hands-on programming projects help you first master the programming design concepts used every day by successful PC programmers. With your experienced NRI instructor on call and ready to help, you go on to learn

programming in three of today's hottest languages.

By the time you complete your course, you have a clear understanding of programming methods, languages, and techniques.. .and you're ready to handle any programming task with confidence.

See other side for highlights of your NRI hands-on training ^^ in computer programming ^^W

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PC Applications Specialist Programming in C++ with Windows

Other Computer Career Opportunities

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Learn computer programming as you train

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Here's what makes your 486sx mini-tower computer system the ideal programming tool:

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80 megabyte hard disk drive

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Windows graphical interface

14" high-resolution monitor with tiltswivel base

1.2 meg, high-density 5'/i" floppy disk drive

MS-DOS operating system with QBasic Interpreter

Professional compilers for programming in C and Visual Basic

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With NRI, you get the hands-on experience and the confidence it lakes to master today's programming challenges. And, by creating and running your own full-length programs, you build skills you'll be proud to show any prospecttve employer or client.

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Card 72

USER'S COLUMN

■■

JERRY POURNELLE

What's Hot, What's Not

It's January, which means this is my annual yearend column, because I stubbornly insist that a year ends on December 31. Of course, that means you are reading this in late March, and the issue is dated April. Such is publishing. Anyway, it's time for the 1992 User's Choice Awards and the annual Chaos Manor Orchid and Onion Parade.

According to my business newspaper, "1992 was the year of the personal computer." This was the year that "analysts say it became abundantly clear business moved away from the big computer systems supplied by multinationals like IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., and Wang," and "computing power shifted to the individual...." Two cheers for the industry analysts who finally figured this out, and one cheer for IBM for finally catching on to what most of us here in Microland have been saying for years. Last year, Apple almost caught up to IBM as the world's largest seller of personal computers; three cheers to Apple for getting their act together, and none for IBM, who, after all, have had since 1982 to see the light— even without reading this column.

Which isn't to say all divisions of IBM are the same. Two cheers to IBM for OS/2. I wish it could be three and an Orchid. OS/2 is definitely a better DOS than DOS, and if you work mostly in DOS and use Windows applications only once in a while, you really should consider a switch to OS/2. Its installation ease ranges between simple and sheer murder (and there seems to be no way to predict which it will be). Drivers for CD-ROM drives, WORM drives, rewritable optical drives, fast video cards, local-bus video, TV-viewer boards, fax modem coprocessors, and so forth appear from time to time. Some of them work, with some products. Some don't.

IBM really is working on letting you use such assets, and I look forward to working with the next release of OS/2, which is supposed to have a module that makes it compatible with Windows 3.1. That's a neat idea, since Windows compatibility is a moving target. The next version of OS/2 is just in beta testing and will be shipping Real Soon Now. I wish them well, but I do wonder how long we'll wait this time.

Two cheers to Lotus for making Agenda highly useful and then abandoning it as a product. Agenda is a task and time management program that incorporates a simple form of AI. It looked like a good path toward more practical applications of AI. Agenda isn't at all easy to learn, and there's no Windows version, but it will run in DOS under Windows and has no problems with OS/2. If you're an OS/2 user, you'll probably like Agenda. (Tiger

Software is selling Agenda at a special price of $79.95. The original list price was $249. You can contact them at 800 Douglas Entrance, Executive Tower, Seventh Floor, Coral Gables, FL 33134, (800) 888-4437; fax (305) 5293438.)

If you do use Agenda, you'll want President's Planner from Phase III Computing. Agenda has a macro capability so rich that it might as well be a programming language, and President's Planner is a set of macros that makes Agenda learnable and more useful. It calls itself the first "do what I mean" time and information planner, and that's pretty close to the truth. I can't quite see giving a User's Choice Award to a program that supports an orphan, so President's Planner will have to settle for a big Chaos Manor Orchid. If Lotus was really smart, they'd buy President's Planner, bundle it into Agenda, run it over Notes, and reissue the product as Agenda for Notes.

The annual Orchid and Onion Parade issues forth from Chaos Manor

User's Choice

I began the User's Choice Awards well before everyone else began handing out awards. Now there's a standing joke that you cannot find a Comdex booth without at least one product that has one of the betterknown awards; but my puipose was to drive the industry in directions I wanted it to go. In those days, there weren't all that many products that deserved awards. Sometimes, "best of the year" wasn't what I could call good enough, so I deliberately didn't have fixed categories.

Nowadays there's a different problem: there are too many products that are good enough, and quite often the "best" choice isn't very clear-cut, either. As a result, I've slowly changed the nature of these awards. I generally don't and can't say that the winner is the "best" in its category, because there's no possible way I can even be aware of all the products in this industry, much less try

ILLUSTRATION: STEVE TURK ©1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 81

New Verson 5.0 of Phar Lap's 386IDOS-Extender"

ilow jiipporb Microsoft C/f>!

the wait is over!

Now you can finally build multimegabyte 32-bit DOS applications with your familiar Microsoft tools! Version 5.0 of Phar Lap's' 386IDOS-Extenderlets you run Microsoft's 32-bit Windows NT C/C++ compiler under DOS. You get all the advantages of Phar Lap's industry-leading DOS extender technology, while using the most popular C/C++ compiler available. Multimegabyte 32-bit DOS development has never been easier.

Award-winning 32 technology.

386IDOS-Extender turns DOS into a 32-bit operating environment with a flat, workstation-like address space. Your programs can access all the memory in the machine — up to 4 gigabytes! — and take advantage of true 32-bit speed and power. No more segmentation or overlay hassles. And in addition to 32-bit Microsoft C/C++, 386IDOS-Extender supports a wide range of 32bit languages, including Fortran, Pascal, Ada, Assembler and other C and C++ compilers. An add-on Run-Time Kit is also available for delivering Extended-DOS applications to customers.

bit

BVTE

p.j^ll.>:M

BVTE

LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE BaaajgjjgBi

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Circle 119 on Inquiry Card.

USER'S COLUMN

them out. Instead, a User's Choice Award says that this is a product I have used and liked. Generally, it's one I use now, and if not there's always a reason, such as I don't need to do whatever that product does, or I'm trying out something that may be better, but I haven't made up my mind.

In any event, the User's Choice Award goes to something I have personally tried and find good enough for the job it claims to do. I don't guarantee there's not something better. As always, while I discuss these with my colleagues and BYTE distributes the certificates, the User's Choice Awards remain my sole responsibility.

Operating Environment

Last year, the contest was between Windows and Desqview. Desqview is as good as it ever was, which is good indeed, but I fear it hasn't kept up with its rivals. In particular, it hasn't kept up with OS/2, which will run just about everything Desqview does, run it much faster, and do a passable job with Windows applications as well.

Windows, meanwhile, just keeps getting better and better. Equally important, most of the really high-powered software development people have jumped aboard the Windows bandwagon, with more to come. Many of the exciting new applications are now written for Windows first and then DOS, if at all. Meanwhile, most DOS applications run well in Windows, if you take the trouble to write a PIF (program information file) for them. The real rivals for Windows are Apple's Mac and Windows for Workgroups (W4WG for short), with OS/2 lurking in the wings.

I've been using W4WG for several months now. My first experiences were somewhat frustrating. Most of that ceased when W4WG went from beta testing to a shipping product, but some frustrations remain. The other day, for instance, I decided to retire the machine that was host to the Pioneer Minichanger CD-ROM drive and read/write optical drive and move those assets to my old Cheetah 386/25, which was already running on the W4WG network. The Cheetah would then be loaded down with other useful peripherals and put back out of the way in the cable room as a network server. Those Pioneer drives run off one CorelSCSI board, and it wasn't much of a problem getting them to work with the Cheetah under DOS.

When I brought up W4WG, I had previously defined that Cheetah's drive F to be the D drive on the 486/25 Larry Niven uses when he comes here to write. Alas, I had forgotten that. Since the Minichanger was installed as the Cheetah's F drive and had become a local CD-ROM drive, there was now a conflict. The intuitive way to fix

it—going into File Manager and canceling the F-drive assignment—didn't work. Fixing that took half an hour, a phone call, and two iterations of exiting Windows and resetting the machine. (You first go to File Manager and turn off the Reshare at Startup box; exit File Manager; exit Windows; restart Windows; go back to File Manager and erase the network-drive assignment; and exit and restart Windows. You don't really have to reset the machine, but I always do.) The moral of that story is that if you change the configuration of a networked machine, you must kill all its network connections and make certain they don't try to reconnect on start-up.

However, now that it's all done, it works just fine. It's pretty nice to have six CDROM discs and a 600-MB (300 MB per side) optical drive available at all times. Network access is just about as fast as if those drives were local to my own machine. It all works, too.

Well, almost all. Alas, some CD-ROM discs seem to have been hard-coded to believe they're playing off a local drive. They curl up and die at odd moments. Quanta's Desert Storm CD-ROM won't open its sound files across the network. Another

one apparently looks at the Cheetah's video board (an elderly VGA) and tries to adapt to that rather than take my word that we've got an ATI Technologies' Graphics Ultra Super VGA board over here on this machine. In both cases, of course, I'm trying to run programs off the CD-ROM drive. I don't have any trouble retrieving images.

At worst, I can put a recalcitrant CDROM disc into the Multimedia Upgrade Kit CD-ROM drive that's local to my main system. A few discs won't run under Windows even there, but so far I haven't found one that runs under Windows that won't also run under W4WG.

The main feature of W4WG is the ease of both setup and use. Other networks give power, notably LANtastic for Windows (which will link in Macs, too), but getting other networks set up requires study of the manuals and considerably more work; many establishments will need a network manager. On the other hand, W4WG can be set up and running in a couple of hours by anyone generally familiar with Windows. The network boards are pretty well self-installing, most of the operations are intuitive (not all; some applications

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APRIL 1993 -BYTE 83

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USER'S COLUMN

require you to check cancel to get out of them once you've done everything, others want OK, and one wants you to close it), and almost any user can begin elementary networking very quickly.

In my case, I have a number of assets on a remote machine, and when Niven and I work on a book together, we can trade files without having to save off on a floppy disk. I can also write each of the versions to a WORM drive, so that we'll never lose text due to version clashes. That alone justifies networking for me.

Windows has gone a long way to flatten out the PC learning curve. Richard, one of my Mac-using sons, was forced to use an NCR 3170 because he needed a laptop and no Mac PowerBook was available. He has now completely gone over to Windows because he found it easy enough to learn and there's a wider variety of software for Windows (or DOS under Windows) than he found for the Mac. That's particularly true of communications, but there are also business applications like Franklin Ascend that he uses constantly. Richard reports that he wouldn't want to learn DOS, but Windows and File Manager let him do what he needs to without DOS. He now prefers the NCR 3170 to his Mac.

(Of course, a visit to a large Mac show will convince you that there's a great ferment there, too. Many PC applications are being ported to the Mac, and while there are more Windows software developers, there's no dearth of Mac developers. The truth is, there are exciting developments in both fields.)

Meanwhile, we've thoroughly converted all our PC operations to Windows here in Chaos Manor; and for all my talk about networking over the years, W4WG has given me a practical network that I can maintain, use, and add to without much work. This year's User's Choice Awards for Operating Environment go to Windows 3.1 and W4WG; and the User's Choice Operating Environment of the Year is W4WG.

Computer of the Year

First, it's now clear that if you can possibly afford it, you ought to get a 486. This does not mean that the 386 systems are obsolete, and for that matter, you can get by with a 386SX if that's all you have; but if you're going out shopping for a new system, it's prudent to invest in a 486 and have done with it.

A lot of new computer systems passed through Chaos Manor this year, and we could have had more if we'd wanted them. One stands out. The Gateway 2000 4DX266V, a 66-MHz 486DX2 with local-bus

video, right out of the box is the fastest machine we've ever had here. It has withstood being transported to the beach house and back. It has been a test-bed for sound boards and CD-ROM and SCSI devices, and it has worked fine with them all. It's a well-built machine, and the case is attractive. There's plenty of room to install an internal CD-ROM drive. Its younger brother, a 50-MHz 486DX2, has survived being a test-bed for OS/2, DR DOS, seven different sound boards, four different CDROM systems, two drive controllers, and any number of video boards; and like the Energizer rabbit, it just keeps going and going.

You expect local-bus video to be fast; but experienced visitors to Chaos Manor find that they didn't expect the 66-MHz 486DX2 to be that fast. As an example, the ships in Berkeley's Star Trek Screen Saver for Windows flow across the screen smoothly without jerkiness; we don't get that on any other machine here. Windows don't just pop up, they explode. Windows has been criticized for slowing your machine way down. If you don't have enough memory, it surely will; but even with lots of memory, Windows can drag.

Not on this machine.

What we have is the standard configuration of the Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V. If I were buying one, I'd make one change. The Crystal Scan monitor that comes standard with it is more than good enough, but you can do better elsewhere. Both my NEC and Nanao monitors look absolutely gorgeous with the Gateway 2000, and I'd recommend getting one of those. Understand, though, it's a preference, not a requirement.

I took the still-crated-up 4DX2-66V and Crystal Scan monitor down to the beach house to do some serious editing on Prince of Sparta. There was absolutely no problem about setting it up. Everything was in there—a programmable keyboard with settable key-repeat rates, programmable macros, and even a Microsoft Mouse. Windows was already installed, so all I had to do was add Microsoft Word and the draft of my book. The computer performed flawlessly, and the speed was impressive. It's very useful to have that much speed for editing. It's also easy to get used to it so that you become impatient with anything else.

The only real negative feature is that,

What business does sound have in a computer?

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Microsoft Windows Sound System can also recognize and execute spoken commands like open, cut and paste. %u can easily create custom commands in any application for the Microsoft Windows" operating system. Want to hear something else? Turn the page.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 85

Strengt

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©1993T1

Circle 139 on Inquiry Card.

USER'S COLUMN

unlike the 50-MHz 486DX2, the 4DX266V uses an odd memory form factor I've never seen before. The machine comes with 8 MB, but you really need 16 MB, and the only source I know of is Gateway 2000. Fortunately, so long as the Department of Commerce keeps its hands out of the machinery, memory is cheap, and Gateway 2000 sells memory for the 4DX266V at reasonable prices.

I have no hesitation in giving a User's Choice Award for the Most Useful Computer at Chaos Manor this year to the Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V.

Sound and Multimedia

Multimedia was a disappointment this year. Several new products tried to take advantage of multimedia. Some were more successful than others, but the problem has been that the "multimedia standard" hasn't proved to be a standard at all, making it much harder to do multimedia applications. The sound scene has the worst confusion.

The best sound board for quality and high-end usefulness at reasonable cost has been the Turtle Beach MultiSound. This board has sound quality surpassed only by units that are quite a bit more expensive. It has an on-board DSP (digital signal processor), a special sound-processing chip that lets it generate sounds from a number of different sources and play them all simultaneously. You can have a classicalmusic CD playing in the background, add a game with sound effects, and still be able to use sound alarms. You can also associate sounds with user actions. Just like Mac users, you too can have Mr. Spock tell you "That should prove interesting" when you go to read a floppy disk, or Captain Kirk say "We better start the evacuation" when you leave an application.

If you're a serious musician, you're likely to know more about sound boards than I do, and you'll probably want one of the really high-end sound boards and speaker systems. But if you're just getting into computerized composition and sound editing, and you want to try your hand without making a really serious investment, the MultiSound is a great deal more than good enough. Incidentally, I've seen test copies of a new program that will let you scan in sheet music: it reads it and then plays it on the MultiSound. It's not out yet, but watch for it.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the MultiSound was built as an MPC board. This means that programs written for Windows will have no problems with it, since it supports the MPC sound standard and has all necessary drivers for that. You can build Windows sound objects and

DLLs with no problem. However, most games weren't written for Windows. Most games were written for DOS. Nearly every game has support for Ad Lib and/or Sound Blaster sound systems; but Turtle Beach never tried to be compatible with Sound Blaster, and few games have multimedia standard drivers. The result is that a great many of the most popular games won't work with the MultiSound.

The second drawback to the MultiSound is that the output isn't powerful enough to drive speakers directly. It must be fed into an amplifier, which means either batteries or yet one more power cord to your computer system. You can also feed the MultiSound output into your stereo system, which is probably the right thing to do anyway.

If you want high-quality sound and don't care about games, or you can live with your game using the PC's internal sound system, or you believe as I do that it won't be long before the most popular games will come out in Windows versions, you shouldn't hesitate to get the MultiSound. With that reservation, Turtle Beach gets a User's Choice Award for the MultiSound.

Converting to Multimedia

If you don't need really high-quality sound, the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro board is good enough. This burst on the scene a couple of years ago and swept everything before it; now it's pretty well the standard for all sound software except high-end composition systems, and even those will often have hooks to let their output play through a Sound Blaster Pro.

I'm not as picky about sound quality as most people, and I find Sound Blaster Pro's sounds generally good enough; but fair warning, my musical friends think I have a tin ear. Sound Blaster Pro puts out enough power (4 watts) to drive unamplified speakers: I tend to use inexpensive ones from Radio Shack. Of course, they hardly show off the sound quality to best advantage.

Sound Blaster Pro is certainly good enough for game players and for those not too fussy about music quality. It does voice quite well. There's no DSP chip, meaning the board can be overwhelmed by simultaneous sound inputs. That's not fatal, given what you're likely to be using a Sound Blaster Pro card for; it just means that instead of playing multiple sound sources,

Microsoft Windows

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APRIL 1993 -BYTE 87

USER'S COLUMN

it stops all but the one that it's outputting. The best thing about Sound Blaster Pro is that you can get it with Creative's Multimedia Upgrade Kit, which consists of a CD-ROM drive using Sound Blaster Pro as a controller and a whole bunch of software (see my March column). This is probably the most painless way to upgrade your system to multimedia specifications. Sound Blaster Pro is compatible with nearly every DOS game, so you'll have sounds for those, provided you play them in DOS.

Many elaborate DOS games will play in Windows, provided you use a memory management program to give yourself large DOS windows, and most will find the Sound Blaster Pro board.

However, not all of them will do that, and with W4WG I get an even stranger situation. A game like Darklands will come up, and then suddenly I'm back at the Program Manager with a message that some other program is using the sound board, so there won't be any sound; and my game

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has been iconized. If I double-click on that icon, the game comes up again, and there's sound as if none of that ever happened. Alas, Civilization, a DOS game that played just fine under Windows 3.1, gets locked up when I try it under W4WG. Microsoft is trying to figure out why.

A multimedia game like Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, works just fine under Windows 3.1, and many games will play across the network in W4WG. The Creative Labs CD-ROM drive can be shared across the network to other stations. Creative has an active BBS and often offers updated drivers. The Multimedia Upgrade Kit is compatible with more software—DOS, Windows, and multimedia— than anything else out there.

The Creative Labs Multimedia Upgrade Kit and the Sound Blaster Pro sound card both win User's Choice Awards.

Supra Modems

I've used a lot of modems over the years. The most useful one this year was the SupraFaxModem 144 PB with error correction. This is small enough to stuff into checked luggage and take along on trips. I always do that now, because even if my portables have internal modems, the Supra with error correction works far better over the noisy connections I always seem to get when I have a critical upload to perform. I've written about Supra modems in other columns, so it just remains to award the SupraFaxModem the User's Choice Award as Most Useful Modem of the Year.

Satisfaxtion

I know I just said the Supra was the most useful modem of the year, but the Intel Satisfaxtion is a bit more than just a modem, since it has its own CPU chip and memory. The Satisfaxtion will send and receive fax messages invisibly in the background without stealing cycles from your CPU. It works over many networks. Alas, one thing it will not do is work over a Novell NetWare network underlying W4WG running over ARCnet. No one is quite sure why, and it may be fixed by the time you read this; the problem was just discovered and reported by my son Alex yesterday.

There aren't a lot of other limits on the usefulness of the Satisfaxtion, which gets a User's Choice Award as Communications Coprocessor of the Year.

Mapping and Painting

There are a lot of drawing and painting programs for Windows out there, and most of them are pretty good. Windows Draw works well. Aldus FreeHand for Windows is excellent. If you have really elaborate

88 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 93 on Inquiry Card.

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USER'S COLUMN

drafting work to do, you can't beat AutoCAD, but like Lotus Notes, AutoCAD is almost a way of life. Every one of these has good features. Alas, each works in a slightly different way from the others, so you restart on the learning curve every time.

CorelDraw has more features than any of the other programs but AutoCAD, and it even has a few that AutoCAD doesn't have. CorelDraw has both drawing and painting capabilities. It's not particularly easy to learn, but it's not that much harder than the others; and once you have learned CorelDraw, you have available a mountain of resources and features, enough to accomplish just about everything you'd want to do.

That, at least, was my reasoning when I set out to look for a program to use for drawing maps and illustrations for my stories. I did the maps for Prince of Mercenaries in MacPaint, and they were pretty good. But publisher Jim Baen uses a PC, and lately I've taken to shipping him everything through E-mail rather than the mails, so I wanted a PC-based drawing program. I have a wide variety of mapping needs, from the rather stark military

style sketch maps I use for the Falkenberg series, to the much more fanciful pictorial maps I'll need when I get going on a major heroic fantasy. It seemed to me that the right way to go was to learn CorelDraw, because that way I'd be able to do a lot more than just maps. I have hopes of doing some equipment illustrations, and I might think of something else.

I've had no reason to regret the decision. The learning curve is a bit steep, but I'm managing, and CorelDraw comes with a great number of canned images, many of which I can incorporate directly into my maps. Certainly CorelDraw is powerful enough, and while the published price is fairly steep, the street price is quite reasonable. I'll have more to say on this as I go along, but I've had enough experience to give CorelDraw a User's Choice Award.

Cool It!

The new 486 chips, particularly the OverDrive versions, can get plenty hot. PC Power & Cooling, which so far as I am concerned is the only company to go to for a power supply, now sells a little fan, the CPU-Cool, you can attach to the chip and plug into your PC's power supply. If

you have one of the new 486 OverDrive systems, let it run for a couple of hours, turn it off, very quickly open the case, and put your finger on the CPU chip. If it's too hot to leave your finger there, you need a CPU-Cool.

A properly ventilated OverDrive chip run in a normal-temperature environment may not need one of these; but then you never know when your room will get overheated. Anyway, look into the PC Power & Cooling CPU-Cool, which gets a User's Choice Award.

The Amiga Is Back

When the Amiga first came out, the machine was well ahead of its time and had the best video imaging of any machine on the market. It was also the first of the lowcost true multitasking systems. Unfortunately, Commodore lost most of those advantages: their video-accelerator chip set is good but no longer in a class by itself.

The good news is that Commodore is back and with a vengeance. The Amiga 3000T-040 is a good machine (see my September 1992 column). The new Amiga 4000-040 is even better: fast, flexible, and, perhaps more to the point, fun. The

The First Diagnostic

that's All PRO and No CON.

ADVANCED DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE

Check/It PRO: Syslnfo provides the most accurate and comprehensive configuration data ever available. Whether you're planning an upgrade, trying to find a set-up problem, or simply becoming familiar with a new system, Check/It PRO: Syslnfo has the information you need.

•Processor/Co-Processor Model, Manufacturer, and Speed (MHz) •Detailed Memory Maps: Base/UMB, EMS, XMS, TSRs, Device Drivers and Interrupt Vectors •REAL Hard Drive Geometry, Model, and Interface Type: MFM, RLL, IDE, SCSI, & ESDI •Detects Network, Modem, FAX, CD-ROM, and Sound Card Details /vi«-".£ \ • Edit/Save/Restore CMOS, plus DOS >Fm \ \ & Windows System Files

.. Jo J, 'Performance Benchmarks compared £&/ toStandard or Custom System Profiles ^g£S 2^^'ne^°s^°en2S0

• Built-in Technical Reference Library Huntington Beach,' ca 92648

Fax (714) 960-1886

(800) 531-0450 or (714) 969-7746

Copyright a1992 TouchStono Sollware. ALL RIGHTS HESERVED. Checklt PRO is a trademark of Touchstone Software Corp. Huntington Beach, CA

The PROs and CONs of Syslnfo Utilities

There's a real difference in the information displayed by Check/It PRO, and other utility programs. For example, Check/It PRO determines the "live" status of each IRQ - but other programs just show you "standard" assignments. Check/It PRO also tests your hard drive to find out what type of drive is really attached, not just how CMOS is set up. If it was easy, every program would provide this type of information; but the only one that does is Check/It PRO. No matter what other program you have, you need Check/It PRO too.

Try it for yourself. We think you'll agree that the new Check/It definitely qualifies as a real PRO.

Touchstone

90 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 143 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 144).

The Watt's Best Selling UNIX Clone Just Got Better.

Now with full 32-bit implementation!

If you want to ignite your 32-bit hard ware with the multi-user, multi-tasking power of UNIX, Coherent 4.0 has arrived. And if you're operating or selling small business network systems with dozens of users, that's really good news. Because Coherent 4.0 is what you want in UNIX at a price that's hard to believe. if

Run UNIX applications today!

Coherent is now binary compatible with UNIX. Most UNIX PC applications port with a simple recompile and many now run right out of the box. The list is growing everyday, so call for details.

Yes, It's For Real!

How can it be? First of all, Coherent was independently developed by the Mark Williams Company, so you don't pay for UNIX licensing fees. You don't pay any mark-up or reseller costs either. Coherent is only sold directly to you.

Coherent; Still $99.95.

".. (Coherent) may be the best thing that has happened to UNIX yet." -William Zachmann, PC Week

In fact, over 40,000 copies of Coherent have already been sold. And, like the ones we quote here, virtually every critic who's reviewed Coherent has raved about it.

So Much Less, Yet So Much More.

As a virtual clone of UNIX, Coherent embraces the original UNIX philosophy: Small is beautiful. Small price, yes. But there's more, much more, to Coherent than its amazing price.

Requiring only 10 megabytes of disk space, Coherent can reside with DOS. So you can keep all your DOS applications and move up to Coherent. And it runs with as little as 1 MB of memory versus 4 MB for other UNIX versions.

The World's Only Plug And Play UNIX Clone.

You'll have Coherent up and running with a fraction of the time and effort it takes for other UNIX versions. Our

MWC COHERENT Version 4.0

SCO

UNIX/386

Version 3.2V2

No. of Manuals

1

14

No. of Disks

6

25

Kernel Size

100 K

375 K

Install Time

40 min.

34 hours

Suggested Disk Space

10 meg

60 meg

Min. Memory Required

1 meg

24 meg

Performance*

85.7

31.3

Price

$99.95

$2590

'Byte C Compiler Benchmark: Compiles per minute on 25 MHZ 486.

six disk installation is a breeze compared to their 25. You'll also learn it faster and increase overall performance. All because Coherent is smaller, faster... and better.

Small, But So Complete.

Make no mistake, Coherent is a wholly professional development system. You get a complete

"Coherent comes so fully qualified as a UNIX clone, you find yourself thinking, 7 can't believe it's not UNIXr-Sean Fulton, UNIX Today!

C compiler, assembler and over 200 UNIX commands including full sets of functions for development, administration, maintenance and text processing.

Coherent also comes with UUCP capabilities that connect you to a world-wide network of free software, news and millions of UNIX users. And it's all clearly documented in Coherent's highly praised 1200 page manual.

Experienced, Supported, Guaranteed.

Mark Williams Company has been developing professional programming tools since 1976. Our commitment to our products and users is unsurpassed. Users applaud our popular BBS and the widely acclaimed telephone support they get free from Coherent developers.

Still, we're not asking you to take a chance on Coherent. We've made it foolproof to see for yourself-with a 60-day money-back, no hassles guarantee. So pick up that phone and order Coherent now. And the best way to UNIX will be on its way to you!

800-MARKWMS

(800-627-5967 or 708-291-6700, FAX: 708-291-6750)

60-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

Mark Williams Company

60 Revere Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062

Coherent is a trademark of Mark Williams Company. UNIX is a trademark of USL.

Distributors: Australia + 07-266-2270, Brazil + 011-883-2299, Czech. + 06-32-62877, France + 1-4741-4519,1-4672-8074, Germany + 0511-53-7295 Greece + (01)222-3511 Holland + 023-386-599, Hungary + 153-0988, Malaysia + 03-756-4477, Venezuela/Caribbean + 1-809-723-5000, Sweden + 06-60-19290, UK + (0)81-541-5466

USER'S COLUMN

Circle 130 on Inquiry Card.

MASTER OS/2 WITH THE McGRAW-HILL BOOKSTORE

Introducing the first volumes in QED Publishing Group's new OS/2 series...

OS/2 2.0 WORKPLACE SHELL The User's Guide and Tutorial

Maria Tyne

Take advantage of OS/2 2,0 with this one-stop instructional guide filled with easy-to-follow steps for tackling business tasks quickly. 0-89435-442-6, 360 pp., iterated, $24.95

OS/2 PRESENTATION MANAGER PROGRAMMING FOR COBOL PROGRAMMERS

Robert Chapman

Apply the techniques and skills necessary to create Presentation Manager business applications with this comprehensive guide. 0-89435-439-6, 504 pp., diskette, $39.95

All the best books from all the best publishers

Clip or copy this coupon and fax or mail to: McGraw-Hill Bookstore, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, MY 10020. Order by phone in NY at 212-512-4100; outside NY call toll free (800) 352-3566; or fax this coupon to us at 212-512-4105. Fax or phone orders delivered within 10 days!

□ Yes! Please rush me: OS/2 2.0 Workplace Shell: The User's Guide and

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COBOL Programmers 9 $39.95 Check, money order, or credit card only:

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m

3000T-040 comes with on-board SCSI. The 4000-040 comes with on-board IDE but no SCSI; there is a third-party SCSI board available, and Commodore is working on a SCSI-2 system for the 4000-040.

In fact, Commodore is working on a lot of things. At recent shows, they have unveiled plans for a spectacular series of upgrades and new systems. Meanwhile, the company has begun aggressive marketing of their Amiga lines.

A few years ago, I expressed the hope that the Amiga would be a real player and a rival to Apple, because I truly believe that competition is what keeps companies putting out better products for the rest of us. They haven't been that yet, but it now looks like they could be. I can't yet in conscience recommend the Amiga as the only machine for naive computer users; but if you like computers and don't mind spending some time learning what you can do with them, the Amiga has great potential and is a lot of fun to boot. It's nearly ideal as a second machine for computer enthusiasts.

Three cheers, and a large Chaos Manor Orchid to Commodore. Welcome back.

E-Mail

Three cheers and a User's Choice Award to MCI Mail. I had some problems with their service—they hadn't devoted enough resources to servicing automatic log-in systems such as Norton Commander's MCI Mail handler (which I use); but they responded quickly to complaints, and the problems went away quickly. And when I needed the way to address an E-mail message to Moscow, I sent an inquiry to MCIHelp. Within an hour, a helpful young lady called to tell me precisely how to do that. I still think AT&T's mail service is technically superior to MCI. But for usability, and being able to get to a lot of people, including a gate to the Internet, MCI is a lot better than good enough, and it remains in my judgment the one indispensable E-mail service.

Printers

Two printers stood out for us last year: Seikosha's SP-2000 "pizza-box" impact printer and Kyocera's Ecosys aSi FS1500A LED printer.

Our son Phillip has the SP-2000. Phillip is a deck officer aboard the USS Tripoli, which at the moment is just off the coast of Somalia. We recently got a 12-page letter from him: written on his Poqet computer and printed on the SP-2000. It's clear that the Seikosha pizza box—it's called that because it's about the size and shape of a box containing a 12-inch pizza—is rugged and portable. It can operate on ridiculously

92 BYTE • APRIL 1993

The only Windows statistics |||2 package you'll ever need.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS,. COMPATIBLE

NEW

SYSTftTfor WINDOWS

#1 for DOS and Windows

Rated "the best general-purpose statistics program" for the PC by Software Digest®, SYSTAT for DOS is now joined by SYSTAT for Windows. This addition to the SYSTAT family takes full advantage of Windows, with pull-down menus, dialog boxes, sizable windows, and the ease of use you expect in a Windows package.

SYSTAT for Windows runs in standard and 386 enhanced modes and can take advantage of Windows advanced memory management. No matter how large or complex your analysis is, you can use SYSTAT.

SYSTAT delivers a balance of power and simplicity. It lets you analyze and manipulate data

with a comprehensive range of advanced statistical procedures, and present your results with stunning graphics.

Just point and click

SYSTAT is a full-fledged Windows application. Just point and click. SYSTAT's QuickStar™ buttons give you simple, single-click shortcuts to common statistical analyses.

More statistics, from the basic to the most sophisticated

A full range of univariate and multivariate statistics-from t tests to multidimensional scaling. With a few clicks you can turn most statistics into graphs and perform:

■ multiway crosstabs with log linear modeling

■ nonparametric statistics

■ principal components and factor analysis

■ cluster analysis

■ time series

■ nonlinear estimation

■ correlation matrices

■ means, effect, and dummy models

■ post hoc tests

SYSTAT offers the most advanced multivariate general linear model available for Windows.

The most graphics

No other statistical or graphics package can produce all the scientific and technical graphs that SYSTAT can-nor surpass its ease of use. Graphics capabilities include:

■ histograms

■ single, multiple, stacked, and range bar graphs

■ single and grouped box plots

■ stem-and-leaf diagrams

■ pie charts

■ scatterplot matrices

■ 3-D data and function plots

■ contour plots

■ control charts

■ maps with geographic projections

■ Chernoff faces

■ complete color spectrum

■ log and power scales

■ confidence intervals and ellipses

■ linear, quadratic, step, spline, polynomial, LOWESS, exponential, and log smoothing

A compatible family of products

Whichever you choose-SYSTAT for Windows, SYSTAT for DOS or both-you'U enjoy the most powerful statistics and scientific graphics software available for the PC.

For more information, special offers for current users, and demo disks, call:

708-864-5670

For Windows circle 136, For IBM/DOS circle 137.

SYSTAT

For more information call or write: SYSTAT, Inc., 1800 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois 60201-3793. Tel:708.864.5670, Fax: 708.492.3567

Australia: Hearne Marketing 61.3.8661766, BeNeLux: Oasis 31.3402.66336, Denmark: Agrolab 45.64.406575, France: Deltasoft 33.76.418508, Germany: STATCON 49.55.4272075, Italy: PiSoft 39.587.213640, Japan: HuLinks 81.33.5902311, New Zealand: Hoare & Assoc. 64.78.562675 Poland: COMPANION 48.12.360791, Spain: Addlink 34.3.4590722, Switzerland: F & P 41.31.215151, SYSTAT UK: 44.81.4620093

© 1992 SYSTAT®, Inc. Software Digest Ratings Rcport/8.5, May, 1991. Software Digest is a registered trademark of NSTL, Inc.

USER'S COLUMN

unreliable current and works in odd circumstances; it let our son get his letters done in rather trying circumstances. Seikosha has since replaced the SP-2000 with the SP-2400AP, but the Seikosha pizza box still deserves a User's Choice Award in the Affordable Printer category.

The Ecosys is a rugged, high-end LED printer that doesn't use expensive cartridges. It turns out quality printing at good speeds and does it economically. Also, as the name implies, it doesn't waste any re

sources. It wins the User's Choice Award as Printer of the Year.

Orchid of the Year

Consider AT&T: a company that only a few years ago I said couldn't market eternal life; a company with a century of experience at bureaucratic infighting, where getting ahead didn't mean pleasing the customers but, instead, understanding rules and regulations and being able to move within them. Ma Bell, The Phone Com

isobar8 —THE BEST

SURGE SUPPRESSOR

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Isobars are available with 2, 4, 6 or 8 outlets, some with fax/modem protection. Call us today to see a sample. Ask for Dept. F7.

pany. Look how they've changed!

They bought NCR to learn marketing, and it worked. They've brought out a string of new products, with their Safari laptop (since renamed the NCR 3170) one of the best designs around, incorporating Bell Labs technical skills with NCR marketing pizzazz. I regret the need to turn Bell Labs into a product-oriented outfit—it used to be the nearest thing to the long-range planning group for the human race—but it seems to be happening without destroying much of the spirit of the place.

I look for great things from the new AT&T. And for proving that big ships may turn slowly, but they can turn, I give the Chaos Manor Orchid of the Year to the aggressive new AT&T/NCR combo.

Mystat and Systat

I mentioned Mystat, an introductory course and tutorial on statistics using Systat, in the January column. The package is designed specifically for use by educators. That mention sparked a lot of interest.

Keith Reehl at Systat tells me that you can now purchase Mystat directly from them. Academic users can purchase the package from NACSCORP (528 East Lorain St., Oberlin, OH 44074, (800) 3213883). Warning: NACSCORP deals only with campus bookstores.

Winding Down

I've run out of space before I got to all the products on my list. This will be continued next month, with optical character readers, CD-ROMs, and many more software and hardware products that deserve special mention.

The book of the month is by Fortune contributing editor Daniel Seligman: A Question of Intelligence: The IQ Debate in America (Birch Lane Press, 1992). Excellent.

The computer book of the month is by Geoffrey Mandel, Essentials of Word for Windows (Peachpit Press, 1992). Thin, readable, and I have learned more about Word from this than from a dozen other thicker works. Highly recommended.

Of course, you should get The Gripping Handby Niven and Poumelle if you haven't yet, and my Prince of Sparta (Baen Books, 1993) should be in stores about now.

I have three games of the year: MicroProse's Civilization, which won my Game of the Year Award last year, has held up; it's a big game of military and industrial strategy, and, remarkably, after a year it's still played at Chaos Manor. The other game is a mini card game from the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows. It's called FreeCell, and I would hate to have to tell you how much of my time it

94 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 145 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 146).

^^ZytMAOE

"Finally, an imaging system that includes the most important part of a document

the words."

"We've been in the imaging business for over three years... which is a

long time in this industry. We have looked at every imaging system

available and ZylMAGE is the first to offer what our clients want:

an automatic way to store and retrieve documents

based on their content. ZylMAGE uses the

proven technology of Calera's

WordScan OCR and ZylNDEX

Full-text retrieval...the best of

both worlds...in a sophisticated

imaging system."

By incorporating OCR with Full-text retrieval in a sophisticated imaging system, ZylMAGE's content based retrieval technology gives you a quick, precise and natural way to access information; just enter words or phrases. You can search the entire body of a document. With ZylMAGE, every word is a keyword.

In addition to OCR and Full-text retrieval, ZylMAGE offers the full functionality you would expect in an imaging system: keyfields, batch-processing, optical drive support, compression, image manipulation and more.

ZylMACC --?

ZylMAGE also works with word processing, database and Email files to provide a complete solution for all the information your organization uses.. .paper, fax and electronic. And ZylMAGE is fast.. .routinely searching hundreds of thousands of pages in a few seconds.

Call (800)544-6339 for the name of the nearest ZylMAGE Authorized Reseller.

Dr. Gary Kramer, President

Speedscan - Skokie, Illinois

^^Information

W0~ Dimensions,,

Inc. 100 texington Drive • Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089 • (708)459-8000 • FAX: (708)459-8054

Circle 153 on Inquiry Card.

USER'S COLUMN

has consumed. Finally, Hardball III from Accolade is the Sports Game of the Year. I'm no computer baseball fan, but my son Richard is, and he likes this one a lot.

Next time I'll also discuss critical technologies, particularly video compression and PCMCIA. I'll also give the Chaos Manor Onions of the Year.

It was a good year here at Chaos Manor. I hope 1993 will be as good for you. ■

Jerry Poumelle holds a doctorate in psychology and is a science fiction writer who also earns a comfortable living writing about computers present and future. Jerry welcomes readers' comments and opin

ions. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Jerry Poumelle, c/o BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. Please put your address on the letter as well as on the envelope. Due to the high volume of letters, Jerry cannot guarantee a personal reply. You can also contact him on BIX as "jerryp. "

FOR MORE INFORMATION |

USER'S CHOICE

Gateway 2000

Satisfaxtion

President's

AWARDS

4DX2-66V $2995

from $129 to $549

Planner $159.95

Gateway 2000

Intel Corp.

Phase III Computing, Inc.

Amiga 4000-040 $3699

4DX2-66E $3795

5200 Northeast Elam

88 Bloor St., Suite 3009

Amiga 3000T-040 $2875

Gateway 2000, Inc.

Young Pkwy.

Toronto, Ontario,

Commodore Business

610 Gateway Dr.

Hillsboro, OR 97124

Canada M4W 3G9

Machines, Inc.

P.O. Box 2000

(800) 538-3373

(800) 388-9728

1200 Wilson Dr.

North Sioux City, SD 57049

(503) 629-7444

(416)925-8760

West Chester, PA 19380

(800) 523-2000

fax back: (800) 525-3019

fax:(416)920-9242

(800) 662-6442

(605) 232-2000

Circle 1171 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 1176 on Inquiry Card.

(215)431-9100

fax: (605) 232-2023

fax:(215)431-9465

Circle 1167 on Inquiry Card.

SP-2400AP $399

ITEMS DISCUSSED

Circle 1163 on Inquiry Card.

Seikosha America, Inc.

MCI Mail

10 Industrial Ave.

Civilization $49.95

CorelDraw 3.0 $595

$35 annually plus

Mahwah, NJ 07430

MicroProse Software, Inc.

Corel Systems Corp.

message fee

(800) 338-2609

180 Lakefront Dr.

1600 Carling Ave.

MCI

(201) 327-7227

Hunt Valley, MD 21030

Ottawa, Ontario,

1133 19th St. NW,

fax:(201)818-9075

(800) 879-7529

Canada K1Z8R7

Suite 700

Circle 1172 on Inquiry Card.

(410)771-1151

(800) 836-7274

Washington, DC 20036

Circle 1177 on Inquiry Card.

(613)728-8200

(800)444-6245

SupraFaxModem

fax:(613)761-9176

Circle 1164 on Inquiry Card.

(202) 833-8484

144 PB $349.95

Hardball HI $59.95

Circle 1168 on Inquiry Card.

Supra Corp.

Accolade

7101 Supra Dr. SW

5300 Stevens Creek Blvd.,

CPU-Cool $39

Multimedia

Albany, OR 97321

Suite 500

PC Power & Cooling, Inc.

Upgrade Kit $799.95

(800) 727-8772

San Jose, CA 95129

5995 Avenida Encinas

Sound Blaster

(503)967-2400

(800) 245-7744

Carlsbad, CA 92008

Pro $299.95

fax:(503)967-2401

(408)985-1700

(800) 722-6555

Creative Labs, Inc.

Circle 1173 on Inquiry Card.

fax: (408) 246-0885

(619)931-5700

1901 McCarthy Blvd.

Circle 1178 on Inquiry Card.

fax:(619)931-6988

Circle 1165 on Inquiry Card.

Milpitas, CA 95035 (800) 998-5227

Windows 3.1 $149.95

Windows for

Microsoft Entertainment

(408) 428-6600

Workgroups $249.95

Pack for Windows,

Ecosys

fax: (408) 428-2394

Microsoft Corp.

Volume Two $40

aSiFS-1500A $2395

Circle 1169 on Inquiry Card.

1 Microsoft Way

Microsoft Corp.

Kyocera Electronics, Inc.

Redmond, WA 98052

1 Microsoft Way

100 Randolph Rd.

MultiSound $599

(800) 426-9400

Redmond, WA 98052

P.O. Box 6727

Turtle Beach Systems

(206) 882-8080

(800) 426-9400

Somerset, NJ 08875

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

fax: (206) 936-7329

(206) 882-8080

(800)323-0470

York, PA 17404

Circle 1174 on Inquiry Card.

fax: (206) 936-7329

(908) 560-3400

(717)843-6916

Circle 1179 on Inquiry Card.

fax: (908) 560-8380

fax:(717)854-8319

ORCHIDS

Circle 1166 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 1170 on Inquiry Card.

Mystat $39

NCR 3170

Systat $895

from $2839 to $3829

Systat, Inc.

NCR Coip.

1800 Sherman Ave.

1700 South Patterson Blvd.

Evanston, IL 60201

Dayton, OH 45479

(708) 570-8220

(800) 225-5627

fax: (708) 492-3567

■

(513)445-5000

Circle 1180 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 1175 on Inquiry Card.

96 BYTE • APRIL 1993

SUPERIOR DISPLAYS ARE PART OF OUR HERITAGE.

June 30, 1992

FlexScan F550I

FlexScan F550I

Three hundred years ago, our ancestors in (he Nanao area of Japan created Kutani, one of the classic styles of Japanese porcelain that is meticulously crafted for display. Inspired by their vision to create such colorful, intricate art, we recreate the richest, deepest colors in our innovative computer displays: the distinguished Nanao FlexScan" monitor family.

Inherited with a discerning eye and practiced touch, we finely tune every monitor, bringing you displays with a brilliant palette and clear, sharp images - retaining a tradition that reflects our vibrant history and parallels the technology of today.

From the affordable 15" to the 21" big-screen, our FlexScan family features top-of-the line flat-square CRTs with ergonomic enhancements including easyto-use microprocessor-based controls, flicker-free refresh rates and a healthy work environment that meets the Swedish MPR II and TCO low emission standards. We've also added ecological features such as an energy-saving auto-power ON/OFF switch. And all of our monitors optimize performance for Windows users or CAD/CAM, DTP professionals.

From generations of finely-crafted displays, our renowned monitor family continues a heritage that is uniquely Nanao.

23535 Telo Avenue, Torrance, CA 90505 (310)325-5202

NANAO

Superior in every detail?

1-800-800-5202

NANAO U.S.A. CORPORATION Circle 108 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: T 09).

toftmutlng d|

MVPI

I MHMBjP

Finalist

FlexScan F340IW

COVER STORY

FEATURE

Fighting Fatware

Today's big, bloated software means big problems. What can you do about it—now, and in the future?

ED PERRATORE, TOM THOMPSON, JON UDELL, AND RICH MALLOY

Item: Dave Brown, a Keene, New Hampshire-based entrepreneur, got his Christmas wish last year—a copy of Microsoft's Access relational database manager for Windows. Excitement turned to disappointment, however, once Brown tried to run the program. Despite the fact that his system had the 4 MB of RAM that Microsoft recommends, Access was "hideously slow." A call to Microsoft technical support revealed the truth: He needed at least 8 MB of RAM to achieve acceptable performance. Now Brown has two options: He can spend $200 for more RAM or wait for version 1.1, which Microsoft claims will run better with 4MB.

Item: Most users would find two 200-MB hard drives to be more than enough storage space. But not Dave LeFevre, technical marketing manager for WordPerfect for Windows. LeFevre is a heavy user of multimedia. Even after compressing his 600 MB of files, he has only 63 MB of disk space free. "I needed to buy a second computer, in part because there was no more room," he says.

Like the carnivorous plant in the movie Little Shop of Horrors, today's popular applications software cries out to users, "Feed me!" More RAM, more hard disk space, more CPU speed—it seems like you never have enough.

The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS has doubled in size every four years, from fitting on two 360-KB floppy disks in 1983

to 5 MB today (see figure 1). During that time, spiraling hardware requirements for 1-2-3 and other popular applications have driven the typical base configuration of a PC from 64 KB of RAM and a 360-KB floppy drive to a minimum of 4 MB of RAM and a 100-MB hard drive (see figure 2).

Fat software feeds a vicious cycle of upgrading. At Hughes Aircraft (El Segundo, CA), Jack Baumann, a manager of computer systems and networks, says users ask for hardware upgrades about two months after getting new software. Then when they get new hardware, they want software with more features (see the text box "When Bigger Is Better" on page 101).

One way to combat software bloat is for users to take simple stopgap measures, such as file compression

98 BYTE • APRIL 1993

ILLUSTRATION: JAMES YANG © 1993

APRIL 1993 • B YTE 99

FIGHTING FATWARE

SOFTWARE BLOAT OVER TIME

t>

;

5

3.1 3.1+ 2.3 2.4 3.4 ■ ■ ■■■

4

0)

3.0 ■

CD

Lotus

ports

1-2-3

Q.

from

assem

bly

^3 ■o

code to C

2.2 w/Allways

"5

m

1

2.0

■

2.01 ■

■■

1 ■

1/

\

1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

Figure 1: Since it first appeared in 1983, Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS has grown in size from fitting on two 360-KB floppy disks to 5 MB—in effect doubling in size every two years. (Data from Lotus Development)

or pruning unnecessary programs and modules (see the text box ■"Software-Bloat Antidotes" on page 104). The real solution, however, is to make operating systems and applications that are designed to reuse code rather than force applications programmers to re-create the same functions over and over again. Platforms such as Windows 3.1, Unix, and the Mac's System 7 permit code reuse, but object-based operating systems such as Apple's and IBM's Taligent and Microsoft's Cairo promise to make reusable application modules a more significant reality by as early as 1994.

stripped-down version of QuarkXPress desktop publishing software for the Mac, and they proved it after Quark released the doomed QuarkStyle in the fall of 1988.

Vendors have another incentive to add features to their software: the lucrative upgrade market. Microsoft, for example, receives revenue of about $45 to $50 from each DOS 5.0 upgrade, as opposed to the ballpark $20 to $25 it earns per copy selling the original versions to system developers at $35 a pop. Application upgrades, historically composing one-fourth to one-third of a software vendor's revenue, have also undergone an upward shift, says Bill Higgs, vice president of microsystems software at market researcher InfoCorp (Santa Clara, CA). Increased competition among software vendors has pushed the percent of revenue each receives from upgrades toward 40 percent to 50 percent, he says.

Most of the large vendors now provide custom-installation routines that let users install only those features they most want. The problem with this solution, says Pete Higgins, vice president of desktop applications at Microsoft, is that users are often unsure which features they really need. The result, says Higgins, is that "everyone installs everything."

Development Issues

Poor management of software development is another important contributor of flab. Good management would prevent programmers from spending countless hours reinventing wheels, all of which end up on your hard disk. Applications built by large teams have a lot of redundant functionality, says Martin Heller, author of Advanced Windows Programming (John Wiley & Sons, 1992). "Developer A doesn't know about developer B's function," he says, "and developer B knows about developer A's function but thinks it sucks rocks."

One controversial aspect of the software-bloat problem is the increased use of high-level languages, particularly C and C++. While assembly programming can produce very tight code, the common belief is that with C or any other high-level language the code will be larger. However, a good programmer, says WordPerfect's LeFevre, can minimize the growth of code while making the most of a high-level language's advantages.

Lotus Development (Cambridge, MA) ported 1-2-3 from assembly to C between versions 2.01 and 3.0. Consequently, the code size nearly tripled, from 1.4 MB to 4 MB. Not all of that

Fat Factors

A vendor adds features to its software to stay competitive. Consumers use feature lists to evaluate different software packages. Computer magazines fuel the feature wars by publishing side-byside feature comparisons.

Some vendors have tried offering slimmed-down, feature-light versions of their software, only to see users respond unenthusiastically. Products like Microsoft Write and WordPerfect's LetterPerfect, both scaled-down versions of their more full-featured word processing brethren, "are not becoming runaway best sellers," says David Tremblay, Software Publisher's Association's (Washington, DC) director of research. Quark (Denver, CO) marketing communications manager Peter Warren says that users didn't want a

TYPICAL PC BASE CONFIGURATIONS

1983

64KB

Figure 2: In 1983, the typical RAM and storage configurations for a base IBMcompatible PC were 64 KB and 360 KB, respectively. Today, a PC with less than 4 MB of RAM and 100 MB of hard disk storage is considered inadequate.

100 BYTE • APRIL 1993

FIGHTING FATWARE

When Bigger Is Better

TOM THOMPSON

Not all software bloat is bad. Some factors that can add bulk to a program offer long-term benefits to the user. These include robust code, code that's designed for easier maintenance, and the ability of some applications to span several platforms.

For example, a vendor might choose to implement OOP (object-oriented programming) in its application designs. One of OOP's strengths is the concept of reusable code; this ultimately reduces the vendor's development and maintenance costs once a suite of proven code objects is written. OOP typically uses high-level languages, so the object code generated by high-level-language (e.g., C++) compilers won't be as compact as code generated by, say, assembly language programs. However, because code writing has become a slow and costly process, OOP's ability to let a vendor quickly fix bugs and add needed improvements to an application far offsets the code girth it incurs.

An application designed to operate on two or more platforms, such as Aldus PageMaker or Adobe Photoshop, is bigger than a single-platform application. The Photoshop 2.5 image-editing program, for example, started life as a Pascal program on the Mac in 1989. When it came time to port the application to Windows, the engineers completely redesigned the application and rewrote it in C++. OOP was used heavily for both data abstraction and code reusability. Much of the application code was written as highly abstracted core code.

Core code is so named because it implements an application's core operations: In the case of Photoshop, this means color space conversion, image

filtering, channel manipulation, pixel editing, and other functions. Core code doesn't deal with the user interface, the operations of which are typically platform-specific. The use of core code enabled Photoshop's engineers to write most of the core functions in portable C++ code. Porting Photoshop then became a matter of compiling the core code on the target platform and wrapping it in a layer of highly optimized user-interface code (for either the Mac or Windows).

According to Steve Guttman, senior product marketing manager for the Macintosh at Adobe Systems (Mountain View, CA), this technique offers tremendous economies of scale. First, you write the code only once. Second, a bug fix in the core code fixes the application across all platforms, because they use the same code. As in the case of the OOP example above, the core code is written in a high-level language, and it does not take advantage of any specific hardware. The end result is a larger amount of object code, but it makes the cross-platform implementation and support manageable.

Another factor that contributes to the bulk of a cross-platform application is that inevitably you must add support code to supply certain features that are absent on a particular platform or to overcome a limitation. For Windows, the Photoshop programmers had to write their own memory handler to overcome a limitation in the Windows memory management scheme.

A future concern for software vendors is migrating programs to the RISCbased microcomputers that are now coming down the pike. To date, Windows NT has been ported to the Mips R4000, DEC Alpha, and Intel Pentium, and the Mac OS is being ported to the PowerPC. Windows NT will ship sometime this year, and the PowerPC is slated for a 1994 release date. Vendors want their applications running on these new systems the moment they ship.

Planning for this transition affects program design. Normally, an application is written completely in a high-level language first. A team of assembly language programmers then rewrites specific sections of the program into fast assembly language code. By optimizing crucial code sections, a dramatic boost in the application's performance can be achieved without reducing the entire program to assembly language code. Unfortunately, these same optimizations tie the application to specific hardware. To temporarily avoid this problem, a vendor might choose not to fine-tune the high-levellanguage code at all in order to expedite moving the code to, say, a RISC machine. The result is a bigger, slower application, but the vendor is ready to port the application code rapidly when the time comes.

Application growth is not necessarily due to vendors' piling on unneeded features. It may actually be a result of the vendors' attempts to give you what you want: stable code, prompt bug fixes, and cross-platform operation.

growth is attributable to the difference between C and assembly—version 3.0, for example, included the printing utility Allways and had significantly more features—but it was a major contributor. The resulting product would not run acceptably under DOS until the company delayed its release to compress and optimize the code.

Program code eats up RAM. but clip art. sample documents, form letters, tutorials, and help programs feverishly devour disk space. As programs begin to include sound and video files, the required disk space will mushroom—a commonly used sample 15-second clip of the B-2 bomber, for instance, requires 2.14 MB of space, even in compressed format. Furthermore, much

APRIL 1993

'. Y T E 101

FIGHTING FATWARE

of this data is never used. Joel Diamond, technical director for the Media, Pennsylvania-based Windows Users Group Network, says the users he speaks with on several CompuServe forums install thousands of pieces of clip art but use "maybe 20 pieces of clip art a year."

In the name of usability, many applications now include on-line help files. Microsoft's Wizards on-line help, for example, takes up half a megabyte for Access alone. A multimedia tour of Lotus 1 -2-3 release 1.1 for the Mac takes up 3 MB. And Autodesk's AutoCAD release 11 Extension for Windows has an optional hypertext version of the reference manual. The size: 12 MB.

The single most cited case of disk gluttony is spelling checkers. You could have separate spelling checkers for your word processor, your desktop publishing application, and your spreadsheet, each taking up about half a megabyte on your hard disk before you add custom dictionaries. "If Windows publishers would agree on a dictionary," says Terry Currier, program chairman for the Orange Coast IBM PC User Group (Costa Mesa, CA), "we would probably save 2 or 3 MB."

The use of GUIs encourages software to expand. The Windows development process, for instance, requires an overhead that doesn't exist in the DOS environment. Windows' dialog boxes, bit maps, and graphical nature in general all consume RAM, disk space, and CPU cycles. Take WordPerfect, for example. Version 5.1 for DOS requires a minimum of 384 KB of RAM and 2 MB of disk space. By contrast, WordPerfect for Windows expects a system with at least 4 MB of RAM and 4.2 MB of disk space. Maximum space for the complete program is 15 MB, including bundled Adobe Type Manager and Reference Software's Grammatik spelling checker. For Unix, the Motif version of WordPerfect requires 5 MB of disk space, 66 percent more than for the character-based version (see figure 3).

As entrepreneur Brown discovered, software vendors are often loath to indicate the true system requirements for acceptable performance so as "not to scare people off," says LeFevre, whose company recommends a 386 with 4 MB of RAM for WordPerfect for Windows 5.2 even though it will run, however painfully, on a 286 with 2 MB.

The BYTE Lab tested nine popular software packages to gauge performance at minimum configurations. The result: All nine ran, but performance was so bad that the packages were virtually unusable (see the text box "Recommended Hardware Allowances" on page 105).

WHICH PLATFORM

HAS THE BIGGEST

APPLICATIONS?

I | Operating system I I Lotus 1-2-3 I | WordPerfect I Vacant

Figure 3: The amount of disk space taken up by applications and operating systems on a 200MB hard drive varies depending on the platform. The areas shown for operating systems represent a full installation.

each time a network administrator installs and then troubleshoots product upgrades across several hundred workstations. It can take up to 2 hours per PC to install and configure a program like Microsoft Word for Windows, says Hughes Aircraft's Baumann. You can expect to add up to 8 hours for additional training of less experienced users if the upgrade is a major one.

In addition, companies do not take into account how much training is actually needed for feature-heavy software. "Nontechnical management has the impression of, 'Oh, now we're in a windowing environment, so people don't need training anymore,'" says Loretta Weiss Morris, editor in chief of the Microcomputer Trainer (Secaucus, NJ). A GUI like Windows, she adds, still stops DOS-unaware users cold the first time a file like c : \mydir\myf ile .doc needs to be retrieved.

Training is still going on, but in subtle yet expensive ways. Users informally train themselves by trying out various features, although unfocused self-help can result in lost work time. David Harris of SBT Accounting Systems (Sausalito, CA) published a study showing that each user spends an average of 5.1 hours a week "futzing around"—learning programs, helping coworkers, and performing other activities that are indirectly associated with their own jobs.

Many users have reported that flabware impairs usability, and vendors are beginning to agree. "If you just have a lot of features and you're not focused on usability," says Betsy Fortin, director of graphics-products marketing at Lotus, "you have what I call a 'bag of tools." And the more tools you have, the harder it is to pick out which one to use."

Lotus, Microsoft, and a growing number of other companies have set up usability labs to determine how to make each product's benefits more accessible to users. "With most products, most of the features that you'd want are there," says Brian Moura, finance director and assistant city planner for San Carlos, California, and a frequent beta tester. Ease of use is "the next frontier," he says. The problem is that features for enhancing usability often add even more bulk to the code.

Productivity Lost

Big software also entails a tremendous cost in human resources, most of it hidden. Consider the amount of time that's involved

Answers in the Operating System

Software bloat is closely related to the underlying platform. If an operating system fails to make its services available in an efficient way, then each application has to include additional chunks of code to enable them. Interestingly, applications on the Mac, with its integrated GUI, are only one-third to one-half as large as

corresponding applications under Windows,

which grafts a GUI onto DOS (see the text box

"Managing Memory and Features on the Mac" on page 106). Advances in the operating system can allow some programs to

shed bulk. For example, version 2.0 of Microsoft's PowerPoint

presentation software once required 50 MB of disk space if you

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FIGHTING FATWARE

Software-Bloat Antidotes

Y

'ou can take steps now to minimize the effects of fatware. The nine steps listed below are not cures, but merely treatments to keep the condition easier to live with.

Buy as much speed, RAM, and storage space as you can afford when purchasing a new system. Upgrading later will be more expensive.

Buy integrated software, which includes common functions such as word processing, database management, and spreadsheet capability in one package, if you don't need a full-featured, single-task program.

Buy a CD-ROM drive on which you can retrieve files such as fonts or symbol libraries.

Centralize as many applications as is practical on a large network file server.

Compress files using both an on-the-fly compression utility for commonly used files and an archival compression utility for rarely used data files.

Delete tutorial files once you are familiar with a program.

Delete bundled applications, such as Windows Write or Windows Filer, and their help files, if you don't use them.

Identify your needs to make sure an upgrade meets them before making the switch.

Note disk space and memory recommendations on software packages.

loaded all its Bitstream fonts. But now that Windows itself includes the TrueType scalable fonts, PowerPoint weighs in at only 14 MB, a 72 percent weight loss that would make even Richard Simmons envious.

Sophisticated new features in Windows 3.1 and Apple's System 7.1 hold the best near-term promise of reversing the bloat in applications software. These operating systems provide a messaging mechanism that lets applications request services from other applications and exchange information. This capability allows an application to tackle complex tasks by farming out portions of the job that it can't handle to other applications on the system or network.

For example, a page-layout application would divide and conquer the job of creating a shareholder's report by asking a spreadsheet application to generate tables from numeric data for one page and asking a charting application to generate graphs of these

numbers for another page. When confronted with a scanned image file in an unknown format, this application might ask a graphics application to extract the image, scale it, and then crop it before dropping the image into the document.

This ability of one application to take advantage of the talents of others should help to end the era of monolithic, Swiss-Armyknife software. Rather than piling on features to handle every conceivable user demand, vendors will be able to tailor their code for specific purposes. Such tailored applications let vendors concentrate on writing code in their areas of expertise. Because a tailored application's code is smaller, the tasks of debugging and optimizing for specific platforms are both simplified. Sharing functions also conserves an even more precious resource—users' knowledge of their tools. Once you've mastered that drawing program, you want to get as much mileage out of it as you can.

Under Windows' OLE and System 7.1's IAC (Interapplica- . tion Communication), applications communicate in a clientserver fashion. These functions are not rigid; the same application that asks for a service (as a client) at one point might provide a service (as a server) to another application later. Because providing both client and server capabilities takes a lot of work, you can expect many vendors to supply only client or server forms of their applications.

System 7.1 keeps trim, too, by integrating network awareness, eliminating the need for extra modules. For OLE to establish network communications, however, you must have Windows for Workgroups whether or not you need its workgroup applications.

OLE Improves

Despite some drawbacks, OLE is the most ambitious and widely accepted interapplication communication tool. OLE 1.0 works sluggishly and doesn't support the seamless integration that would enable external components to compete successfully with intrinsic ones. However, the forthcoming OLE 2.0. available to developers now in beta form and possibly to users by this fall, addresses both of these problems.

By ditching Windows' cumbersome DDE protocol in favor of a proprietary form of interprocess communication. Microsoft hopes to gain enough performance to make OLE-enabled suites of applications credible alternatives to monolithic integrated programs such as Lotus's Symphony. Vendors, however, find the move to OLE 2.0 a difficult one. "We are all for the OLE vision of the world," says Steve Adams, product manager of CorelDraw at Corel (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), "but it's not a nice baby step from OLE 1.0."

On the other hand, OLE 2.0 makes life easier for users. Suppose, for example, that you've embedded a range of Lotus I -2-3 cells in a Word for Windows document and you want to change the value in one cell. OLE 1.0 requires two radical context switches to accomplish this task: 1-2-3 must first take foreground control, and then Word must regain it. With OLE 2.0, Word mingles fleetingly with 1-2-3 while the embedded cells have focus: it then regains its natural appearance.

But even if OLE 2.0 lives up to all expectations, it will provide just the starting point for a solution to software bloat. The real challenge then will be to build pluggable components. Today's integrated packages offer compelling advantages. In Interleaf Publisher, for example, all objects share common protocols so that a style change can ripple down through a document and apply to both text and graphics in ways appropriate to each. That object architecture is proprietary to Interleaf and is a key competitive advantage.

Although OLE 2.0's notion of "property negotiation" could

104 BYTE- APRIL 1993

FIGHTING FATWARE

Recommended Hardware Allowances

STEVE APIKI

According to what it says on the box, you can run Microsoft Access on any 386-class machine with at least 2 MB of memory and 8 MB of free disk space. Indeed you can—provided you can live without SmartDrive, you can successfully coerce Windows 3.1 into enhanced mode on your 2-MB system, and you have a few extra megabytes of disk space for a swap file. But once you've tuned the configuration and you have a state-of-the-art application running on hobbled, two-year-old technology, how far can you go with it?

If you're extremely tolerant, you can probably complete just about any task with such a setup. But if your patience is less than saintly, you may run into a few problems. I ran a series of Windows applications (see figure A) on an 8-MB 486DX/33, a 16-MHz 386SX with 2 MB of RAM, and the same 386SX with 4 MB of RAM. The idea

was to compare the performance of a typical modern configuration to that of one that barely met the minimum vendor-required hardware. All the applications I tested will at least run on machines that meet the minimal requirements. But they typically run at only about a tenth of the speed at which they run on a 486DX/33.

Of course, a slower, older machine won't perform as well as a modern system. Less processor horsepower means slower memory access; low memory means frequent swaps to a slow hard disk. What's telling is the surprising ratio between performance levels on typical versus minimal machines. If you have a feel for running Windows on a 486/33, you can judge for yourself the utility of a system that takes 10 times as long to respond.

Running large programs on a minimally configured system is frustrating. For example, Microsoft Access takes

over a minute just to start up. A mistaken activity bar selection in Software Products International's WindowBase might leave you waiting 15 seconds to get your mouse pointer back. Scrolling a page in WordPerfect for Windows can take over 10 seconds. With any interactive application, response time is critical. When the response time of a low-end system drops an order of magnitude from that of a typical system, interactive software becomes unusable. Although you can make it work, getting anywhere near the minimum hardware requirements for a Windows application is a bad idea. It's better to upgrade the machine or to simply forgo buying the latest software to ensure a hardware/software combination you can live with.

Steve Apiki is senior editor and director of the BYTE Lab. You can reach him on BIX as "apiki."

WINDOWS APPLICATIONS AT MINIMAL CONFIGURATION

Lotus Ami Pro 3.0

Microsoft Word 2.0a

WordPerfect for Windows 5.2

Approach 2.01

Microsoft Access 1.0

SPI WindowBase 1.5

Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 1.1

Microsoft Excel 4.0a

Quattro Pro for Windows 1.0

Relative performance

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

—J

■■

g

■■■

4-MB 386SX/16

■

^^^^Jfl

■^■^^Ml

^1

"~™fBI

2-MB 386SX/16

1

^

|

10% 20%

30%

Figure A: The dish-space figures represent a full installation. The memory used includes the opened test document

161Mrf7ZV&r%T glVer ZaperC!Tif- °fPe'f°"na"ce °* « more fully configured system (a 486DX/33 with 16 MB of RAM). Four of the apphcatwns-SPI WindowBase, WordPerfect for Windows, Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows and Quattro Pro for Windows-have either a 3-MB or 4-MB minimum RAM configuration. For these applications' we list only the performance rating for a 4-MB system, vuuuuur*, we

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 105

FIGHTING FATWARE

Managing Memory and Features

on the Mac

TOM THOMPSON

It's bad enough when your operating system hogs disk space, but its demand for even more memory later on adds insult to injury. For example, at first Apple claimed that System 7 required only 2 MB of RAM. However, Apple now admits that System 7 needs a minimum of 4 MB of RAM. a fact reflected in the base RAM configuration of its computers.

System 7's use of this extra memory is justified by the fact that it provides important new features: TrueType fonts for the on-screen display of high-resolution typefaces, File Sharing for peerto-peer transfer of files, AppleTalk Phase 2 (required for operating on large networks), and IAC (Interapplication Communication). Still, to make System 7 of more interest to users, Apple's engineers designed it to make more effective use of the memory it occupies.

The solution takes a two-tiered approach. First, System 7 is a modular architecture that allows you to add only those services you need. For example, QuickTime (which provides the Mac with multimedia handling capabilities), MacTCP (which implements a TCP/IP protocol stack), WorldScript (which

provides support for the display and storage of documents composed in foreign languages such as Arabic and Japanese kanji), and ColorSync (which provides a foundation for systemwide color matching among applications) are currently Extension files.

Extension files, if present in the System folder or the Extensions folder, install at boot time and patch the operating system to extend its capabilities. This technique consumes memory because the additional code supplied by the Extension file must be loaded and locked in RAM. However, if you don't require the services of QuickTime, MacTCP, WorldScript, or ColorSync, you simply don't copy the files to your System folder, thus saving memory.

Apple intends to introduce many of this year's additional operating-system services, such as AppleScript (a scripting mechanism for the batch control of applications), the Open Collaborative Environment (a mail and document verification facility), and QuickDraw GX (an advanced graphics engine), as System 7 Extensions. When enough users demand them, Apple will then integrate these services into a new revision of the op

erating system.

The second part of the solution is to load and unload certain service software to and from memory only when it's needed. This solution exploits capabilities built into QuickTime's Component Manager. The Component Manager's original function was to bind a software component (typically a driver or a data compressor/decompressor) to specific multimedia applications or hardware (typically an expansion board) at run time. The Component Manager can search for specific components and open multiple channels to a component, which allows its services to be shared.

These same capabilities enable the Component Manager to function as a dynamic library loader. For example, in the case of AppleScript, an Extension file installs a 5-KB stub into memory.

When an application requires AppleScript, the Component Manager loads an additional 250 KB of code, which comprises the AppleScript services. This memory is released when AppleScript is no longer required by the system. This operation is analogous to Windows' use of DLLs.

While AppleScript's size seems meager compared to today's multimegabyte applications, it gives the Mac OS the ability to effectively manage future services that will make larger demands on memory.

enable Interleaf to partition its application, a non-Interleaf application would need to know an awful lot about an Interleaf component to use it as effectively as an Interleaf client could. The more complete and specific this knowledge becomes, the less likely it is that an application could freely swap in an equivalent part from another vendor's application.

What you'll likely see, therefore, are families of products that share common protocols. Within one vendor's product family you'll achieve better synergy than if you cobble together an equivalent multivendor solution. At the same time, you'll see the emergence of vendors whose entire business is providing

components. A sreat example today is the Pinnacle Graphics Server from Pinnacle Publishing (Kent, WA), a DLL that several popular Windows databases use to graph data. Another is Tools & Techniques' (Austin, TX) Data Junction, a universal file-format converter.

lAC's Different Tack

OLE defines an API that programmers use to implement communication services. Users implement OLE services by writing the appropriate function calls. IAC takes a different tack: A Mac application requesting a service first generates an Apple Event.

continued

106

YTE • APRIL 1993

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FIGHTING FATWARE

The Apple Event gets passed to the Event Manager (the portion of the Mac OS that processes user events such as mouse-clicks, window updates, and keystrokes), which then routes the Apple Event to the recipient application. The target application then calls handler code to process and act on the message encapsulated within the Apple Event.

One interesting aspect of IAC is that while the communications mechanism is well defined and in place, the message structure isn't. This situation is similar to having radio sets but no Morse code by which to transmit information. This wasn't an oversight on Apple's part: The idea was to encourage vendors to cooperate and define classes of actions, or verbs, that applications will respond to and to define their format. Apple defines a set of core events that all applications must respond to: open application, open a document, print a document, and quit. Currently, a 500page Apple Event Registry document describes suites of verbs for QuickDraw, text, tables, and database events. Other event suites are still under development.

Apple Event verbs might request operations as simple as selecting a menu item or as complex as dropping numbers into a row of spreadsheet cells. Mac applications will ultimately be redesigned, ox factored, so that the event-driven interface is decoupled from its code and communicates only via Apple Events. This allows you to automate a job by using AppleScript to monitor the chain of events that occur as you work. AppleScript records these events into a script file and can play them back later to repeat the task just executed. AppleScript can also serve as a useful intermediary on complex jobs. For example, it can query several different databases (on several networked computers) lor information and then have a word processor consolidate the results into a single document.

Aldus Takes the First Step

Even assuming that vendors will agree on IAC verbs or implement OLE function calls, there's a significant problem in this divideand-conquer scenario: Why should vendors bother? In a market populated by several species of spreadsheets, drawing packages, word processors, database managers, and so on, a vendor differentiates its product from the others by pitching its unique capabilities or feature set. Reducing an application to just its basic capabilities and then offering these capabilities to any other application that happens to call it might not prove to be a marketable concept.

Aldus has taken the first step in this area. In April the company will announce a version of Persuasion for both PCs and Macs that breaks its charting engine out into a single-purpose, standalone application, or applet. This charting applet will act as an OLE server and use OLE 1.0 on both platforms to provide finished charts to those applications that request its services. (Microsoft currently provides software that implements the OLE protocol only on the Mac.)

You'll have to purchase Persuasion to obtain the charting applet, but once you do, its services are available to all applications that act as OLE clients. The charting applet understands Persuasion's layout, so it can maintain the format and layer control of Persuasion documents when it generates a chart. Private messages allow Persuasion and the charting applet to relay color information back and forth while you work on a graph. What all this means is that you will get better coupling between Persuasion and the charting applet than you would get with other applications.

This implementation of Aldus's charting applet seems like a reasonable compromise in exploring how to market a server application without giving away the crown jewels. It also points out two divergent futures that OLE and IAC can make possible.

Ideally, all vendors would write practical client and server applications that could be used interchangeably. You would then be free to select whatever applications you prefer to get the job done.

However, it's also likely that vendors will use private OLE messages or IAC verbs that allow their own applications to communicate extensively with one another, while talking poorly—if at all—with applications from other vendors. In this scenario, you'd have to purchase one vendor's suite of applications to fully use the features of all of them.

The latter scenario is likely, according to InfoCorp's Higgs. "Neither technical nor marketing realities in the industry make the widespread use of modular software practical," he says. Vendors will support the bare-bones communications standards but will add extensions to them. Higgs cites Unix as an example. Although it's a standard operating system, numerous variations of it exist because different vendors supply custom features or their own GUI.

An Object-Oriented Future

Perhaps the most promising development is the coming of objectoriented operating systems (see "Objects for End Users," December 1992 BYTE). The upcoming Taligent operating system from Apple and IBM, along with Cairo from Microsoft, promises to save unnecessary code by providing the user with a series of objects that can be purchased, enhanced, and linked together as

necessary.

A preview of what these object-oriented operating systems will be like is provided by Oberon, a new operating system and language developed by the designer of Pascal, Professor Niklaus Wirth at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland. According to Wirth, today's software has become grossly oversized, inefficient, and potentially unreliable. Versions of Oberon that run on PCs, Macs, Sun Sparcstations, and IBM RISC System/6000s are available now. [Editor's note: A more in-depth look at Oberon will appear in an upcoming issue of BYTE.]

Wirth's solution is extensibility. Using the Oberon programming language, users can enhance and customize a simple tool, suchas a text"editor, for particular applications. These customized versions would save space because they use the same underlying basic text-editor code.

Another important feature of Oberon is the way that it allows data to be viewed. Oberon has viewers that you can use to display documents. Documents consist of text and graphics and contain commands that change the document's contents. When a change occurs, the document sends a message to all viewers so that they can update their views of it. This separation of document and viewer allows users to create new types of documents and viewers without duplicating any of the operating system's existing

code.

Although Oberon is a complete GUI-based operating system with its own compiler and text-editor functionality, the PC version takes up only 1.5 MB of RAM, including source code. In contrast, Windows 3.1 consumes 9 MB. ■

Editor's note: BYTE senior editors Gene Smarte and Tom Half hill and news editors Pat Waurzyniak and Dave Andrews also contributed to this article.

Ed Perratore is a BYTE news editor. Tom Thompson and Jon Udell are BYTE senior technical editors at large. Rich MaLloy is a BYTE executive editor. They can be contacted on BIX as "eperratore, " "tomjthompson, " "judell, " and "nnalloy. " respectively.

108 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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FEATURE

Putting Fuzzy Logic

into Focus

When dealing with ambiguous data, desktop fuzzy-logic applications deliver precise results

JANET J. BARRON

Fuzzy logic has long excelled at delivering exact results from imprecise or ambiguous information, and its primary use has been in embedded controllers. Now fuzzy logic is entering the mainstream with a wide range of desktop applications.

Aptronix's (San Jose, CA) FIDE (Fuzzy Inference Development Environment) lets you develop fuzzy-logic-based applications. It runs under Windows on 386/486 machines and costs $1495. FIDE includes a fuzzy inference language, a fuzzy-system standard environment, a graphics editor (with which to draw graphs of membership functions), debugging tools, and a real-time code generator.

Another company, FuziWare (Knoxville, TN), makes several products, including FuziCalc for Windows, FuziQuote, FuziCell, FuziChoice, and FuziCost. These products are used as management decision-support systems for custom, turnkey, and off-the-shelf applications, as well as software techniques to implement both fuzzy logic and fuzzy math.

FuziWare's forecasting, estimating, and modeling software—FuziCalc for Windows—sells for $995. Using it, you can make decisions based on complicated combinations of hard (wellunderstood) and soft (fuzzy) factors. It produces answers that are mathematically verifiable and easy for people new to the field to model and interpret. FuziWare claims that if you have an appropriate application, you can improve your productivity some 30-fold.

Other vendors of fuzzy-logic products include the following: Motorola (Austin, TX), Omron (Kyoto, Japan), Togai Infralogic (Irvine, CA), National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA), HyperLogic (Escondido, CA), and NeuraLoaix (Sanford, FL).

Even though fuzzy logic is used worldwide, it is most popular in Japan (see the text box "Jap

anese Leaders in Fuzzy Logic" on page 116). Its acceptance outside Japan has been slow—some people blame the name itself, which Lotfi A. Zadeh (developer of the field and currently professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley) chose to call the technique.

Using Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy logic is a multivalued logic that allows for degrees (e.g., normal versus slow or fast) of set membership—a more practical way to deal with the issues you face in the real world. Unlike binary (yes or no) information, fuzzy logic emulates your ability to reason and make use of approximate

ILLUSTRATION: MARTY BRAUN 01993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 111

FUZZY LOGIC

Fuzzy-Logic Glossary

At first glance, the words pertaining to the technology of fuzzy logic often seem fuzzy; however, with a few clues, you'll find them straightforward.

crisp logic Another name for traditional logic to differentiate it from fuzzy logic. In crisp logic, the three logic operations AND, OR, and NOT return either a 1 or a 0.

crisp set The traditional definition of a set in classical or symbolic logic. Traditional or crisp sets have strict membership criteria in which an object is either completely included or excluded from the set. They are mathematical sets with definitive boundary points (e.g., 400°F is hot; -400°F is cold).

defuzzification A process in which fuzzy output is converted into crisp, numerical results.

fuzzification The process of fuzzifying an element by combining actual values (e.g., the temperature of a liquid) with stored membership functions to produce fuzzy input values.

fuzziness A term that expresses the ambiguity that can be found in the definition of a concept or the meaning of a word or phrase. The terms high temperature or very soft qualify as fuzzy.

fuzzy logic The process of solving problems that deal with ambiguous data (e.g., that in the real world) using a multivalued logic to represent a crisp-logic system. Fuzzy logic holds that all things are a matter of degree (e.g., warm versus cold or hot), hi fuzzy logic, the three logic operations AND, OR, and NOT return a degree of membership that is a number between 0 and 1.

fuzzy set A nontraditional type of set that allows an element to have gradual or partial degrees of membership. In fuzzy logic, the traditional Boolean values of true and false (1 and 0) are replaced by continuous-set membership values ranging from 0 to 1.

fuzzy inference The process of using the degree of truth in production rule premises to select an appropriate rule to execute.

genetic algorithm A process for optimizing the suitability of a function to some observations.

membership The degree of inclusion in a set. Fuzzy sets have values between 0 and 1 that indicate the degree to which an element has membership in the set. At 0, the element has no membership; at 1, it has full membership.

set A collection of objects.

data to find precise solutions.

Among fuzzy logic's benefits are fault tolerance and the ability to provide accurate responses to ambiguous data. According to David Brubaker, president of the fuzzy-logic and embedded-systems consulting firm Huntington Group (Menlo Park, CA), products designed with fuzzy logic have simpler controls, are easier to build and test, and provide smoother control than those using conventional systems.

The largest commercial uses for fuzzy logic are as controllers for tasks such as managing temperatures and energy efficiency in heating and cooling devices and regulating timing and fuel flow in automobile engines. Controllers also are used to make constant operating adjustments to subway trains, home appliances, cameras, and elevators.

In the next few years, fuzzy logic will enter domains such as computer chips, computer graphics, software development, financial planning, information processing, sales analysis, speech recognition, machine vision, and character recognition (see the text box "Fuzzy-Logic Applications" on page 114). It will improve speed, maintenance, extendability, and efficiency. Ac

cording to Earl Cox, CEO of the Metus Systems Group (Chappaqua, NY), a fuzzy-logic and fuzzy-neural network consulting organization, the use of fuzzy logic can dramatically reduce product development limes for a range of embedded control applications from the idea to the prototype stage.

Cox cites an example of a fuzzy-logic application that he developed for a bank. The application runs ^^^^^^^^^^ on PCs with Windows 3.1 and Excel, and it analyzes and rates the complexity of a software development project. This program lakes into consideration function point, code density, and the total operational interface.

The application calculates complexity indicators in software, such as the number of IF... THEN... ELSE statements, nested IF...THEN...ELSE statements, GO TOs, and comments. You use these rough figures to calculate ratios and statistical measures and feed them into a fuzzy-evaluation model.

Previous attempts to measure complexity relied on sharp boundaries between what is and what is not complex. The fuzzy approach more closely models the way that managers think in degrees such as somewhat, moderately, and highly complex.

continued

FUZZY-LOGIC ADVANTAGES

• requires no complex mathematical constructs

• uses natural language

• is easy to set up

• provides accurate results

• works well in tandem with other techniques

TRADE-OFFS

• must understand and be able to define problem

• must evaluate and fine-tune results

112 B YTE • APRIL 1993

What to do when

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FUZZY LOGIC

Fuzzy-Logic,

\pplications

Currently, fuzzy logic

is most often used for

controllers; however, the

technology is finding its

way into other

applications.

computers—embedded

business—decision mak

computers, chips, sensors,

ing, elevators, heating and

signal processing, data/in

cooling systems, risk as

formation processing, soft

sessment, copy machines,

ware development, and

and enteiprise modeling

speech recognition

home appliances—wash

transportation—automo

ing machines, air condi

bile components (e.g.,

tioners, and heating sys

transmissions and braking

tems

systems)

financial—forecasting,

military—aerospace

analysis, decision making,

industrial—robotics, pat

and risk assessment

tern recognition, and ma

economics, sociology—

chine vision

nonlinear systems

consumer electronics—

medicine and health sci

TVs, cameras, and cam

ence—diagnostic tools

corders

marketing—analysis and

microelectronics—plas

forecasting tools

ma-etching machines and

fabrication

Listing 1: Overlapping membership ranges often used in fuzzy-logic applications. A mock traffic-control system could use fuzzy rules to control the main artery traffic in a city. A speed of 10 miles per hour might be assigned to both the Sluggish as well as the Moderate category. The actual value for green-light time is derived from the combination of several rules executing.

Problem:

IF main artery traffic is blocked THEN traffic-light sequence is probably inadequate

Solution:

IF traffic is blocked THEN increase main artery green-light time

Fuzzy rules:

IF traffic flow is Sluggish

THEN green-light time is Long

IF traffic flow is Moderate

THEN green-light time is Extended

IF traffic flow is Normal

THEN green-light time is Normal

IF traffic flow is Fast

THEN green-light time is Reduced

IF traffic flow is Maximum

THEN green-light time is Restricted

Crisp vs. Fuzzy

The concept of crisp sets comes from traditional, or classical, logic (see the glossary on page 112). Crisp sets have rigid membership requirements where every object is either completely included or excluded from a set. In contrast to this true or false scenario, fuzzy sets allow for continuous-set membership values ranging from 0 to 1.

Bart Kosko, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, says, in his book Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Machine Intelligence (Prentice Hall, 1991), this type of multivalued logic was first explored some 60 years ago by Jan Lukasiewicz, a Polish logician who also defined reverse Polish notation. Max Black, a quantum philosopher, furthered Lukasiewicz's work and created the beginning of what people now think of as fuzzy-set membership functions.

In the early 1960s, Zadeh enhanced the original research. He subsequently developed what people know as fuzzy-set theory, introducing the term fuzzy into our language to deal with what Black had referred to as vagueness. In 1965, Zadeh published a seminal paper on the subject, entitled Fuzzy Sets.

A Fuzzy-Logic Model

The fuzzy-logic procedure consists of analyzing and defining your problem, creating your sets and logical relationships, converting your information to what are called fuzzy sets, and interpreting your model (see listing 1). You can use a number of criteria to determine whether a fuzzy-logic approach would lend itself to solving your specific problem. These prerequisites include the level of ambiguity of the data (determined mathematically) and the required accuracy of the output. To use a fuzzy-logic model, you would

• analyze your problem, making sure you understand it fully;

• define your problem by identifying your membership functions (i.e., the degree of inclusion in your prescribed sets);

• convert the language of the problem into a rule;

• set up an appropriate procedure for fuzzifying and processing the problem;

• learn to interpret the model and evaluate your results; and

• fine-tune the results if they are inappropriate or unsuitable.

Before you perform your calculations and build your model, you should make sure that a fuzzy model is an appropriate way to deal with your problem. If another model would be more suitable, you will find that you can't understand or evaluate your results.

Why Fuzzy Logic?

You can set up a fuzzy system for the same purpose you set up any other computing system—to map inputs to outputs. Basically, it consists of three stages: fuzzification, rule evaluation, and defuzzification.

Fuzzification is a process that combines actual values (e.g., barometric pressure) with stored membership-function data to produce fuzzy input values. Rule evaluation, or fuzzy inferencing, is a way of producing numeric responses from linguistic rules based on system input values. In the last stage—defuzzification—a fuzzy system combines all its outputs and obtains a representative number.

To see if this number solves the original problem and gives you an accurate answer in all cases, Fred Watkins, president of HyperLogic, a firm that produces fuzzy-logic development tools, says it's necessary to come up with a performance measure (theoretically, an ideal correct response). You can then run the engine

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FUZZY LOGIC

Japanese Leaders in Fuzzy Logic

JEFFREY D. SHEPARD

The Japanese recognized the potential of fuzzy logic more quickly than people in other parts of the world. One of the reasons for the explosion of fuzzy-logic applications in Japan was the success of Japan's Sendai automated railway system.

When it opened in 1987, the Sendai Metro used a Hitachi fuzzy control system. An earlier study by Hitachi had shown that a fuzzy control system was superior to a conventional one in a number of ways—increased accuracy in stopping at a platform, greater rider comfort (smoother acceleration and braking), and lower electric power usage. The performance of the Sendai system was so impressive that within 12 months, over 50 Japanese companies were working to develop fuzzy-logic technology.

The result has been the application of fuzzy technology by Japanese companies in a wide range of products, including computers, cameras, automobiles, and home appliances. In 1991, Japan captured nearly 80 percent of the several-billion-dollar-per-year world market for fuzzy logic, according to Market Intelligence Research (Mountain View, CA).

Computers Will Benefit

The Japanese are setting their sights on the application of fuzzy techniques to produce future generations of highperformance personal computers and workstations. The advent of more powerful personal computers and workstations has created a demand for faster seek times in hard drives. The seek time is limited by the performance of the ac

tuator moving the head, as well as by the control method.

A fuzzy-logic algorithm has been applied to a controller for a 3'/2-inch hard drive, improving seek times by about 20 percent to 30 percent over that of conventional controllers. The algorithm was developed at the Information Equipment Research Laboratory of Matsushita Electric Industrial (Osaka, Japan).

Someday, you may even find fuzzy logic regulating the output voltage of the switching power supply in your new personal computer or workstation. A team from Kumamolo University and Kumamoto National College of Technology (Kumamolo, Japan) has developed a new control system using fuzzy logic. The group implemented this experimental fuzzy controller in software on a personal computer.

OKI Electric Industry (Tokyo) recently introduced a new fuzzy-inference IC that is expected to improve the performance of fuzzy controllers by an order of magnitude and substantially reduce the controllers' cost. Another Japanese company, Omron (Kyoto), holds over 700 patents for fuzzy products and already offers a VLSI fuzzycontroller IC. These chips represent second-generation designs.

Other Projects

The Laboratory for International Fuzzy Engineering Research (LIFE), a sixyear project of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, is developing future fuzzy-logic applications in decision support, robotics, and fuzzy computing (including fuzzy associative

memories). At the independently funded Japanese Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute in Iizuka, a fuzzy neuron has been used in an experimental handwriting-recognition system.

A fuzzy neuron is analogous to the neuron in neural computing except that it takes fuzzy sets as inputs and yields a fuzzy set as an output. A number of people in the Japanese research community expect neural and fuzzy technologies to complement each other and to evolve together into a "neurofuzzy" technology.

A team at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology has demonstrated an optical fuzzy-inference device. In this case, light passes through translucent plates on which are inscribed the membership functions of fuzzy sets representing a rule's premises, and the amount of light emitted is measured to derive the rule's conclusion. Fuzzy optical computing could provide real-time recognition of moving images.

LIFE has developed a fuzzy flipflop circuit. Currently, a study is under way to define the architecture of a fuzzy-logic-based workstation. The machine is expected to embody both fuzzy (multilevel) and classical (binary) processing in the same architecture. You would use the machine to tackle problems such as natural language and image understanding—applications that are difficult to implement with conventional personal computers and workstations.

Jeffrey D. Shepard is a freelance writer living in Norco, California. You can contact him on BIX do "editors."

in a variety of contexts. If the number doesn't turn out to be a good solution, you tune the system parameters until you reach a satisfactory conclusion. Even as the rules of a fuzzy engine become more complex, says Watkins, the general concepts remain the same.

According to Emdad Khan, manager of fuzzy and neural networks for the Embedded Systems Division of National Semiconductor, you can construct a PC-based fuzzy-logic system (e.g., to use in a simple management project) using software alone. However, general-purpose or dedicated microprocessors

are available for more complicated applications (see the figure).

Cross-Fertilization

Fuzzy logic, neural networks, expert systems, genetic algorithms, and OOP (object-oriented programming) are some of the ways of efficiently handling problems that are rife with ambiguity, although each method handles uncertainly differently. If you use a blend of these technologies, the results are sometimes more than the sum of their parts.

116 BYTE- APRIL 1993

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FUZZY LOGIC

According to Khan, combining both fuzzy logic and neural networks results in a synergy that improves speed, fault tolerance, and adaptiveness. A neural network can convert knowledge into fuzzy rules and membership functions, and fuzzy logic can optimize the number of rules that the neural network learns.

NeuraLogix's senior software engineer David Ratti says, "In tandem, you gain fuzzy logic's ability to deal with inexact measurements and input data, and a neural network's ability to learn." The fuzzy approach assumes a priori knowledge and leverages it without the significant training times of neural networks. In and of themselves, fuzzy systems aren't adaptive, he says, but neural networks are. By observing what the fuzzy system does, the neural network can adjust the parameters of a fuzzy system and can tune it.

You might want to build a fuzzy system using an expert system if you need a simple method for encoding nonlinear data, such as market forecasts or the financial stability of an organization. Fuzzy expert systems can handle both incoming and already computed information in either a crisp or fuzzy format. They perform well at relatively high speeds on conventional computers and specialized hardware. This type of combination system produces results similar to the way humans intuitively handle most kinds of real-world problems.

Huntington Group's Brubaker says that most fuzzy systems are rule-based, but the rules in a fuzzy expert system execute to different degrees. "Rather than an all-or-nothing response," he says, "the fuzzy rules produce 'shades of gray' responses depending on the degree of belief in the premise of each rule."

Several efficient fuzzy systems have been created using genetic algorithms. Metus's Cox says that combining these technologies provides a good way to address difficult and often intractable problems. It also offers one of the best techniques to handle nonlinear problems that are normally addressed by statistics and advanced mathematical models.

Ralphe Wiggins, president of Ryan, a data-analysis consultancy based in Hartford, Connecticut, began using fuzzy logic two years ago. In combination with genetic algorithms, he found the technology a valuable way to handle applications such as financial forecasting and abstractions for data interpretation or machine learning. When performing machine learning, for instance, Wiggins found that the use of fuzzy logic greatly simplified the ways of representing data; thus, he was able to find solutions to problems that had previously defied analysis.

The blend of fuzzy logic and object orientation has proponents and opponents. "You can build a fuzzy system using object-orientation technology where rules are objects," says HyperLogic's Watkins, "but it isn't necessary to use these two technologies together."

In a combination fuzzy-logic, object-orientation system, objects themselves can be fuzzy. A given object can have only partial (a degree of) membership in its class. Wiggins says to solve very complex problems, a fuzzy-logic/object-oriented system might be the answer.

Nonuniversal Acceptance

Cox says that fuzzy sets are easy to design, build, validate, and tweak, and for several reasons, such as their fault tolerance and capabilities for parallelism, they are extremely robust. But some people are unwilling to use fuzzy-logic systems because they believe that creating, verifying, and refining them is too difficult, or that the systems are unstable.

While Ed Katz, a member of the technical staff at HewlettPackard Laboratories Division (Palo Alto, CA), is a proponent and user of fuzzy logic, especially in the noncontroller domain, he says

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FUZZY LOGIC

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that there are trade-offs to the technology. One problem lies in the area of refining your membership functions. No procedure exists for determining what a membership function looks like or for adjusting it, he says.

One issue being debated is whether fuzzy models provide ambiguous or accurate results. According to Cox and others, the use of fuzzy logic offers the same kind of deterministic results that you can expect from many other conventional systems. Cox says, "Boolean logic is to fuzzy logic as a light switch is to a dimmer switch."

Problems in the real world are imprecise. You seldom can solve them with either a yes or no. Fuzzy logic dramatically improves people's knowledge-modeling capabilities in vague areas such as economics or behavioral science. According to Cox, "[it] brings the way a computer reasons closer to the way that people think." ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My thanks to Earl Cox, Maureen Caudill, and Ralphe Wiggins for their expertise.

Janet J. Barron is a BYTE technical editor. You can reach her on BIX as "neural" or on the Internet at neural@bytepb.byte.com.

118 B YTE • APRIL 1993

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120 BYTE' APRIL 1993

ILLUSTRATION: LYN BOYER-PENNINGTON S 1993

STATE OF THE ART

VISUALIZATION:

SEEING IS BELIEVING

Grasp and analyze the meaning of your data by displaying it graphically

JACK WEBER

Imagine a Wall Street scene. People shout, screens scroll, and adrenaline flows. But one broker stares intently at a computer screen showing what appears to be a field of wheat waving gently in the breeze. Bizarre? Yes, but real. This image is one example of a growing force in computer applications called data visualization. When information overload means that you can't see the forest for the trees, visualization offers a way of identifying and analyzing the underlying patterns in data. For example, convert the prices of individual stocks into the motion of vertical stalks, plant several hundred of them on a computer screen, and watch as market trends are revealed in the shimmering crop before you. It's called Biz Viz.

Data visualization is about comprehension, not graphics. Think of it as a range of techniques that enable you to display abstract numerical data and statistics in graphical form.

After all, you comprehend information most intuitively through your visual senses. With half the neurons in the brain dedicated to visual processing, images provide the greatest mental bandwidth. Thus, by offering a picture of the data and its internal relationships, visualization makes it easier for you to understand information that's too complex to perceive numerically.

New techniques bring new possibilities. Scientists use visualization to analyze the results of experiments in fields as farflung as pollution studies, semiconductor physics, and drug design. In engineering, visualization can provide rapid solutions in design, development, and production planning. Civic and voluntary organizations can use visualization to obtain demographic data. And in business, the use of visualization techniques can reveal buying patterns, sales penetration, or investment returns. Investors can benefit from visualization's ability to explain performance rather than just track it. The advantages of sharper financial analysis or faster product prototyping are increasingly important (see the text box "Visualization Applications" on page 126). Tim Bartel, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories

(Albuquerque, NM), is using visualization to develop a boat that the U.S. Coast Guard can safely drop into the water, complete with crew, from a helicopter. He's using Tecplot software from Amtec Engineering (Bellevue, WA) on both PCs and Unix systems to animate the boat hitting the water, submerging, and resurfacing. "Without this kind of visualization tool," Bartel says, "the task of analyzing the huge amounts of data from the simulation would be almost impossible."

Until recently, only supercomputer users had access to visualization's full potential. Now anyone with a PC or a Mac can produce sophisticated and meaningful visualizations with off-the-shelf software (see screen 1).

Visualization: Seeing Is Believing

BY JACK WEBER 120

Navigating the Data Flood

BY WILLIAM R1BARSKY 129

Visualize This

Many elements combine to make up data visualization technology. Among them are animation (rapidly changing still images used to create the illusion of movement), 3-D graphics (an illusion of depth produced by using perspective), and rendering (computer images created to represent the surfaces of 3-D objects, complete with shading and texture). Visualization is often used in conjunction with simulation, but there is an important distinction between the two. Simulation is any technique that allows you to mathematically

Image Building

BY PETER WAYNER 137

The Difficulty with Data

BY NAIUM GERSHON AND JEFF DOZIER 143

Resource Guide:

VISUALIZATION

SOFTWARE

148

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 121

VISUALIZATION

Screen 1: A sophisticated 3-D visualization produced with IDL (Interactive Data Language) for Windows from Research Systems (Boulder, CO). In this example, the data comes from a magnetic-resonance scanner, but such cutaway 3-D images are used in many areas of engineering and science.

model the behavior of a physical or abstract system in such a way that you can analyze the response of the system (e.g., Flight Simulator). The results of a simulation are usually numerical rather than graphical and often are fed into a visualization environment to obtain graphical representations in various dimensions.

A simulation must be valid and correct in its own right, but the choice of a visualization technique will vary according to the purpose of the job. Visualization can reveal flaws in a simulation model that were invisible in the numerical output, and it can guide the development of the model as well as the analysis of the results.

Systems You Can Use

A small proportion of the most demanding visualization is performed on dedicated machines, such as the Princeton Engine, developed at the David Sarnoff Research Center (Princeton, NJ). This supercomputer is a scalable parallel machine, with up to 2048 processors, that was designed for fast graphics processing and visualization.

But many users want to do visualization on the machines they have at hand, and they can do so. According to Mike Peery, president of Amtec, 35 percent of his company's customers use PCs. The rest use workstations because that's what they have on their desks.

Whether you use a Mac, a PC, or a workstation, the main requirements for visualization are fast math-processing capabilities and high-quality graphics (see '"Image Building" on page 137). To perform most kinds of visualization, all you need is a 25-MHz 386 or 486 PC with VGA graphics or a Mac IIvx. The more powerful the machine, the more sophisticated the visualization application can be. If you plan to add animation, you may want a video output card so that you can dump sequences to videotape.

The Right Software

Choosing the right visualization software is a challenge. You can perform modest data visualization with almost any popular spreadsheet, but spreadsheet charts are usually restricted to 2-D data sets and offer few options.

Statistical programs provide a step up

Visualization Benefits

• analyze numerical data graphically

• view data multidimensionally

• comprehend complex information more easily

in functionality. Products such as Systat from Systat, Inc. (Evanston, IL), or Statistica from Statsoft (Tulsa. OK) give you a wider range of charting options and make it easier to display 3-D data sets than to do spreadsheets. Beyond this category, you encounter the dedicated visualization packages, which offer access to more specialized techniques.

An example of a specialized technique often used in financial visualization is heatmapping. This procedure produces a surface plot in which you use height and color to represent different variables. For instance, the height of any point on the plot can represent the price of a stock, and a color can represent the age of the data— current information can be red, and more dated values can cool off toward blue (see screen 2). The technique is simple but not readily available outside of dedicated visualization software.

Many aspects of visualization software are changing. One trend is toward graphical interfaces and visual programming (see "Navigating the Data Flood" on page 129). Most high-end visualization products are specialized programming languages, and many are moving to icon-based techniques that make it possible for you to customize the software.

The Application Visualization System from Advanced Visual Systems (Waltham, MA), the Iris Explorer from Silicon Graphics (Mountain View, CA), and the Data Explorer from IBM (Hawthorne, NY) offer visual programming for assembling program modules. Some products, such as PV-Wave from Precision Visuals (Boulder, CO), are available in two formats—a command-language version and a pointand-click version.

At this most advanced level are workstation programs that offer animation, transparency, cross-sectioning, and realtime visualization of multidimensional data sets. But you can carry out some of these techniques on more humble hardware.

Doing animation on PCs is possible, says Robert Simons, president of CoHort Software (Berkeley, CA), but you must compress the data when it's first loaded and use two pages of video RAM. His company's CoVis software performs real-time, animated visualization on a PC. The software draws each frame to the off-screen page and swaps pages.

The price you pay for the real-time action is the loss of options such as logarithmic axes and hidden-line removal. On the other hand, a program such as Malhematica from Wolfram Research (Champaign, IL) creates and stores all the frames in advance. Animations in Mathematica

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VISUALIZATION

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Screen 2: FMs real-time financial visualization in PV-Wave from Precision Visuals (Boulder, CO) uses heat-mapping. Shown are stock prices represented in a bar graph, with colors overlaid to indicate the age of the data. By using time and color in this way, you can display two additional dimensions of data.

can take longer to produce (depending on the clock speed of the machine and the amount of RAM that it has), but they impose almost no limits on the visual complexity of the result. For instance, you can fly through your data with full control over virtual lighting on the surfaces using a 386-based PC or a color Macintosh.

Applying the Technology

Two projects being carried out at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center (Atlanta, GA) reveal the potential of visualization technology. John Stasko, an assistant professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is using visualization to analyze algorithms and programming techniques. "We are trying to use animations to help researchers get a better understanding of very complex algorithms," he says. "These people often deal with large problems, and frequently, to conceptualize, they doodle—they draw pictures to get ideas." For example, Stasko's colleague Walter Rodriguez, an associate professor in the school of civil engineering, is working on the Construction Visualizer, a program to help contractors plan site layouts by visualizing the movements of materials, machines, and trucks as the project develops.

Even in the traditional field of scientific visualization, the range of applications

is expanding. Until now, many of the people performing this type of work used the paradigm of a spreadsheet or statistical charting program. But that's not the only way to look at numerical data. The National Research Council (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is using data from the flight recorder of a plane that crashed to produce an animated movie of the events that led to the accident. By adding information from radar and eyewitnesses, they can verify whether the witnesses were able to see what they reported in their accounts.

One application that is experiencing rapid growth is medical imaging. Stephen Pizer, a professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that the need to interpret data from magnetic-resonance devices and CT (computer tomography) scanners has led to volume-rendering techniques that are used to visualize many types of 3-D data.

Financial visualization provides no physical objects to be modeled. In this field, you must identify abstract data patterns. Spreadsheets can provide numerical, or quantitive, information; however, that is no longer enough. "For me, visualization is there to gather and generate qualitative information," says a New England financial analyst. "I will see something [e.g., a stock market trend], and I'll immediately use the mathematics in Malhematica to analyze it. I can't perform that function

with Lotus 1-2-3."

Critical Challenges

A major issue in visualization is determining the most meaningful way of representing data. You can use color, texture, animation, stereoscopy, sound, and touch as part of your visualization toolkit. These elements aren't just gimmicks; they represent dimensions of your data.

One of the biggest hurdles to be faced in visualization is finding enough ways of representing multidimensional data (see the text box "Inside Multidimensional Data" on page 132). Although a simple line graph is drawn in two dimensions, mathematically the data is considered to be unidimensional because it has one independent variable. Similarly, 2-D data needs to be shown in three dimensions. You could plot it as a contour or surface graph using color or perspective to stand in for the third display dimension. Beyond that, you run out of simple graphing tricks. Animation can help; so can slicing the data or using transparency to reveal what lies inside an image. But the choice is much more difficult and subjective than with visualizations with fewer dimensions.

A typical example of 3-D data might be the results of a demographic survey showing how voting behavior across the country relates to age (one dimension for age, and two dimensions for geographical location). But that's hardly a complex example. Many sociological and businessoriented applications are more demanding. Scientists are developing ways of visualizing systems with more than 100 dimensions.

According to Mike Garrity, president of Jaguar Software (Winchester, MA), a company that develops visualization software, it's common to see financial data represented in five or seven dimensions (i.e., different variables). Some financial users are considering 50-dimensional data sets. Coping with such demands is one of the critical challenges facing the field of visualization in the near future.

Another hurdle faced in visualization is the need to establish standards (see "The Difficulty with Data" on page 143), which is a consequence of the downward migration of the software from supercomputers to workstations and PCs. Just like spreadsheets, off-the-shelf visualization products need to provide a wide range of import/export options. But unlike spreadsheets, these products have to deal with multidimensional data sets, handle data primitives that can't be represented on a regular grid, and output results in all kinds of graphics and video formats. You can implement these types of visualizations with some of the

124 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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VISUALIZATION

Visualization Applications

MAXINE D. BROWN

Scientific visualization provides researchers with an invaluable tool for scientific insight and understanding. But this tool is more than just a visual representation of data that results from a computation; it's also a visual representation of data during a computation.

Using this methodology, you can distill huge amounts of numeric data into a single image or a series of images over time in animations. This capability is vital to scientific discovery and to the communication of those discoveries.

In recent years, a new generation of scientists and engineers has emerged that relies on the computer as its primary tool for discovery. These scientists and engineers develop mathematical models to simulate the behavior of the physical or theoretical worlds that they study. They work in numerical laboratories, which are environments with graphics workstations that may or may not be networked to supercomputers.

Scientific investigators, technologists, and visualization experts—commonly referred to as interdisciplinary teams—form close collaborations. These result in effective and reusable tools that are shared with scientists and engineers in other research areas.

Scientists have always posed the question "What if?" Today's computational researchers want to drive the discovery process and navigate, or steer, their calculations in near real-time. They want to interact with their data and further explore the many possibilities that their simulation models can forecast. When they change parameters, resolution, or color representation, they want to see the effects.

Shown here are visualizations in three fields: engineering, financial analysis, and science. In each case, you can read about the visualizers' goals and the data that he or she used to create the representations.

Engineering for Design

Until recently, the availability of commercial software for scientific analysis has been limited. But computer visualization technologists are developing the necessary tools to make the hardware and software more accessible.

Using computers, engineers can investigate the potential of new designs by dynamically altering and tuning simulation parameters. In addition, they can monitor the progress of a simulation and terminate poor design directions. Results of this type of research are paving the way for new, reusable scientific and engineering tools.

In the screen below, an engineer is using scientific visualization to optimize the design of a front-end automobile component from the perspectives of weight, cost, and manufacturability. From a local workstation, the engineer

can define the size and material properties of a structure and invoke a crash (i.e., impact) simulation running on a networked supercomputer. The engineer can then visually examine the resulting stress levels and modifications to the structure.

After a simulation has been executed, the engineer sees the resulting stress contour superimposed on the deformed component. Selecting a rainbow color map and a stress (force-per-unit area) range, where regions of high stress are red and regions of low stress are blue, the engineer notes that the bent areas, with high stress and extensive deformation, are critical sections. The engineer can move the structure around to study it from different vantage points or display the component in the context of the entire automobile.

MATERIAL EDITOR

Front-end automobile component (Screen courtesy of Edward Plaskacz, Steve Karlovsky, and Fred Dech of the Argonne National Laboratory)

126

YTE • APRIL 1993

VISUALIZATION

Financial Analysis

A research analyst studying investment strategies can use financial models and visualization techniques to aid his or her analysis. In the portfolio management example in the screen on the right, an analyst investigates trading strategies and examines the resulting changes in the growth rate of a portfolio.

The financial analyst plays a number of what-if scenarios before deciding which strategy will make the most money for the client. In search of the optimal investment strategy, an analyst interactively defines the characteristics of a portfolio—the number of stocks, the percentage of each stock in the portfolio, and the stock prices. In this visualization, the analyst is also defining the investment risk factor (i.e., the

Structural Biology

Interactive graphics is an integral part of academic and industrial research on molecular structures and interactions. Scientists are successfully carrying out the process using supercomputers to model complex systems, such as proteins and DNA. The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly using molecular modeling to design modifications to known drugs and to propose new therapeutic agents.

Structural biologists, working with a visualization expert, created the visualization of cytochrome C shown in the screen on the right. Their goal is to better understand the properties and functionality of this protein structure.

The line drawing represents the amino acid backbone structure of the protein. The colors (other than the orange, which represents iron atoms) are used to highlight various properties of the amino acids that compose the protein. Visualization provides structural biol

Portfolio investment analysis (Screen courtesy of Carolina Cruz-Neira, Andrew Morton, and Stanley Pliska of the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago)

volatility), the period of time before rebalancing, and the cost of trading at each portfolio's rebalance.

This simulation uses the asymptotic

Molecular modeling (Screen courtesy of Christina Vasilakis and Emanuel Margoliash of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Edwin Westbrook of the Argonne National Laboratory)

ogists with greater insights into the mystery of how this protein transfers electrons.

growth-rate model. This is a model in which each year's growth rate is random, but over the long run, the average growth rate converges to the theoretical value of the strategy.

The problem becomes more complex as the number of stocks in the portfolio increases. A portfolio with three stocks is a five-dimensional problem, encompassing the value of the portfolio, the length of time of the investment, and the varying investment percentages of each of the three stocks.

Because a 2-D workstation display can't show a multidimensional chart without cluttering the image, the diagrams are simplified to show the growth rate (the y axis) over a period of time (the z axis) using one of the stocks as a reference (the x axis). In other words, the x axis represents different percentages of the investment in a stock, from 0 percent to 100 percent. The surface's color represents volatility: Red means a strategy with high risk, and blue means a strategy with low risk.

Maxine D. Brown is codirector of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. You can contact her on BIX c/o "editors" or on the Internet at maxine@bert .eecs.uc.edu.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 127

VISUALIZATION

software packages now on the market (see the Resource Guide on page 148).

Much confusion has come about because visualization grew out of many fields, each of which brought its own file formats. Meteorology has BUFR (Binary Universal Form for Representation) and GRIB (Gridded Binary Form) files. Remote sensing has ERDAS (Earth Resource Data Analysis System) images. CAD uses IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) files. And the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) format is being developed for medical images. Dozens of other file formats exist—most of which are incompatible with each other.

"The standards are really awful," says Garrity. "The field's not going any further until they start taking on a more permanent form." And what will cause the standards to crystalize when they are in such flux? Garrity's bet—and that of other industry representatives—is on the HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) developed by the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (Champaign, IL). HDF is extensible, available in the public domain, and capable of handling data and images as

well as scaling information. The fact remains, however, that if you are an advanced visualization user, you'll probably always be drawn to formats developed for your own needs.

Excitement and Caution

Powerful new desktop computers and workstations are enabling the development of new software products to serve increased demands for visualization. Novel uses for this technology are appearing on a regular basis.

Even the nature of visualization is changing. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researchers are adding virtual-reality techniques to visualization to simplify drug design. Using a force-feedback arm, they are able to pick up a molecule visualized on a screen and push it onto a biological receptor. An easy fit implies that the drug can be effective at that site. Physical resistance shows that the shape or distribution of electrical charges would make the drug ineffective at that site.

There is a need for a degree of caution, though. Precisely because it allows you to see the invisible, the capabilities of visu

alization, with its pizzazz and drama, can also blind you to what it reveals. To watch the dynamic ebb and flow of market forces or to reach out and touch an enzyme molecule is a seductive experience—so seductive that you can easily forget the approximations and interpolations that went into it.

"One of the problems with data exploration and visualization," says Paul Velleman, president of Data Description (Ithaca, NY), a maker of visualization software, "is that these technologies make it easy to find patterns that may or may not be real." Color, shading, sound, and other dimensions that add realism to visualization are equally capable of making the unreal seem more plausible. But used intelligently, visualization can change the way people use computers to analyze and interpret numerical data. ■

Jack Weber is a TV producer working for the BBC, making documentary films and producing the weekly prime-time scienceand-technology program Tomorrow's World. You can contact him on BIX c/o "editors " or on the Internet at jweber® cix. compulink. co. uk.

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NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Create a visual road map to maneuver through your data

WILLIAM RIBARSKY

For 10 years or more, people have been digitizing all types of data, from images to simulations to scientific and engineering observations. And this trend will continue. For example, in six years, NASA's Earth Orbiting System satellites will become functional. As a result, the data on atmospheric chemistry, weather patterns, and ocean currents and temperatures will increase at a rate of 1 trillion bytes per day.

To facilitate easy access to and understanding of this data, a number of software and hardware makers are mapping database management and query strategies onto parallel and distributed architectures. Among these companies are Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA), Sybase (Emeryville, CA), and Kendall Square Research (Waltham, MA).

However, the results of these undertakings will be of little use if your desktop computer is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the data. According to Barbara Mihalas, a research scientist at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign, IL), "We must learn to drink from a fire hose."

But a flood of data is not the same as the spray from a fire hose. Unlike water, each particle of data is unique and carries with it links to other data. Context is everything, and you must explore and reveal the underlying meaning of the data if you are to understand what you have retrieved.

Interacting with Your Data

There are two main categories of software in visualization technology. To an extent, both methods allow you to display and manipulate data quickly without having to

ILLUSTRATION: LYN BOYEH-PENNINGTON C 1993

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 129

NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Screen V.TheG UI of the Iris Explorer

shows the graphical network (i.e., the map editor) and the color-map module menu for an application. Note the interactive buttons and dials on each module.

perform graphics programming.

The first category is characterized by a point-and-click approach. The interface uses an iconic representation and mode of interaction similar to that found on a Mac, in which you select menu options with a mouse. It includes pull-down, scrollable menus and additional windows.

After a data display appears in the window, you are able to rotate, pick, probe, and animate the material (as a sequence of still images). From the extensive task menus, you can choose visual representation operations, such as probes, annotations, scales and colors, and views of data around a central window.

With this type of software, beginners can often convert, display, and analyze their data within a few hours. In addition, the interface allows you to take full advantage of your workstation's windowing capabilities. Examples of this kind of software include DataVisualizer from Wavefront (Santa Barbara, CA), PV-Wave from Precision Visuals (Boulder, CO), and IDL from Research Systems (Boulder, CO).

The second category of software uses a data flow approach. The tool sets allow you to build your own applications by constructing graphical networks of modules (e.g., modules for data input, filtering, pseudocoloring, and rendering). The links between the modules in the graphical display represent the flow of data through the network. Each module is a program that performs an operation on the data (e.g., filtering or pseudocoloring) and passes the results to the next module (see screen 1). When you execute the visual program underlying the network, the system causes the connection of modules and the exchange of data. AVS from Advanced Visual Systems (Waltham, MA), Iris Explorer from Silicon Graphics (Mountain View, CA), Data Explorer from IBM

130 BYTE' APRIL 1993

(Hawthorne, NY), and Khoros from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM) are a few of the products that fall within this category of software.

The data flow approach incorporates elements of visual programming, which uses graphical symbols to represent program elements. But it lacks important components, such as flow control, a feature that deals with how data travels through your program and branches at certain points.

The power of data flow and similar environments lies in their flexibility, extensibility, and interactivity. Because they use a Unix pipe-and-socket construction, the modules can be distributed across a network of disparate computers, such as Crays and graphics workstations (e.g., Sun's Sparcstation, DEC's DECstation, and Silicon Graphics' Indigo). In addition to using preprogrammed modules, you can program your own modules in FORTRAN, C, or C++ and incorporate them into your data flow environment.

Besides giving you the ability to create new modules whenever you need them, the extensibility of this approach also makes data flow environments movable feasts, with an unending supply of new modules available from expert users. Some organizations, such as the International AVS Center (Research Triangle Park, NC), are already furnishing a mechanism for collecting, organizing, and publicizing the new modules. Finally, these tools allow you to participate at each stage of execution, because each module in a data flow network can have its own control panel, with its own interactive dials, sliders, and widgets.

Data Flow Environments

The real power of data flow environments lies in the concept of building customized applications by focusing on the flow of

data through modules that can exchange data with one another. These environments provide a strong, attractive framework on which to hang new interaction or analysis capabilities (by creating new modules), because they retain the rich functionality of all their existing modules.

As a result, data flow environments are becoming the favorite foundation for visualization and usability researchers and third-party applications developers. This attractive development arena offsets the shortcomings of this set of tools.

Among the shortcomings are the lack of a full visual programming language, inefficiencies in the handling of both distributed computing and large amounts of data, and the tendency in more complicated applications for the data flow network to grow bewilderingly complex. One strategy to overcome these problems is to optimize the data flow execution model for large amounts of data and to provide new structures (e.g., hierarchical groupings) for the data flow network.

How will you use these tools to modulate data flow? Researchers are developing methods that will allow you to take data from any source (e.g., observations, simulations, or accumulated databases), automatically transform it into a common data format, and display the data from different sources together (see the text box "Inside Multidimensional Data" on page 132). This satisfies the two most important criteria for finding the correlations and interdependence of data: easy access to data and side-by-side comparison.

Glyphs for 3-D Data

Another important area in visualization is the use of glyphs to portray 3-D data and its interrelationships. Glyphs are objects whose attributes (e.g., shape, position, color, size, and orientation) are bound to independent data variables. Examples of simple glyphs are the spheres in molecular structures or dynamics calculations.

The work of Georges Grinstein, Haim Levkowitz, and their colleagues at the University of Lowell (Lowell, MA) provides another example of glyphs. These scientists are mapping data to the angles, lengths, or coloring of simple stick-figure glyphs. Their images of satellite or MRI (magnetic-resonance imaging) data, with pixel values mapped to tens of thousands of glyphs, show the information in the images (e.g., vegetation patterns or tumor structures) as subtle textures or color patterns. If you generalize the glyph concept to include the binding to data of surface structures (and their coloring) and volume elements (and their transparency), you have encompassed most of today's visualizations.

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NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Inside Multidimensional Data

LLOYD A. TREINISH

Visualization implies creating a pictorial form for data. The geometry composing such a picture, like your data, can be classified by its dimensionality. To visualize data appropriately, you must understand its characteristics. To grasp the nature of data, consider its five key attributes: dimensionality, parameters, rank, mesh structure, and aggregation.

Data is a function of independent variables, or dimensions (e.g., space, time, and energy). Some complex data can have five or more dimensions. A parameter is the data (or function) itself or dependent variables and can have more than one value (or rank). Rank 0 is a scalar (i.e., it has one value), and rank 1 is a vector (i.e., it has three values in three dimensions). Some complex data can be rank 2 or greater.

Often there is an association between the dimensionality of data and its geometry, which is called a mesh, or a grid. This association describes the relationship of the size, shape, and organization of the data to the physical coordinate structure (see the figure).

DIMENSIONALITY OF VISUALIZATION GEOMETRY

Table A: The dimensions of typical geometries used to compose visualization images.

Dimension

Geometry

Point Line Polygon Volume

Collections of data can be aggregated. For example, weather data might consist of temperature, rainfall, and barometric pressure measurements. A time series can be composed of a decade of monthly sales figures. And a hierarchy can embody the structural organization describing the parts of an airframe.

Multidimensional Techniques

Table A lists several visualization geometries with their dimensionality.

Table B shows a number of visualization techniques (categorized by dimensionality and rank) that you can use with multidimensional data. For example, time is a data dimension that can be mapped into a visual dimension. Similarly, you can treat animation as a visual dimension for sequencing other techniques.

You can combine these techniques to represent multiple parameters. It's possible, for instance, to embed a lower dimension in a higher dimension, such as inserting a line, plane, or surface in a volume. The dimensionality of a visual representation can be different from that of the data (see screens A and B).

The size and complexity of data are growing faster than the speed at which desktop systems are increasing in power. From a hardware perspective, the problem is not how much raw floatingpoint speed and bulk storage you have but whether your system can achieve efficient processor utilization and rapid access to the data. From a software perspective, the problem is not rendering an

EXAMPLES OF 2-D MESH STRUCTURES

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a) Regular grid

b

) Irre

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c) Ungridded

d) Deformed regular (structured grid)

These mesh structures portray relationships between the dimensionality of data and its geometry: (a) a regular grid, such as a temperature map; (b) an irregular grid, such as several satellite images with gaps in coverage; (c) ungridded (scattered points), such as sales figures or rainfall in specific towns; and (d) a deformed (curvilinear) grid, such as the pressure on an airframe. The data can have one or more variables dependent on the dimensions.

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NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Screen A: The relationship between ozone depletion and atmospheric dynamics on October I, 1987. The images are produced from five 2-D data parameters and two sets of 2- and 3-D objects. On the left is the southern hemisphere, and on the right is the northern hemisphere. In each stack, from top to bottom, you see a colored surface indicating ozone density, arrows showing wind velocity colored by speed, a colored disk with contour lines reflecting temperature, magenta lines representing coastlines and national boundaries, and a surface map delineating the topography. (Copyright 1992 IBM. All tights reserved. Data courtesy of NASA/ GSFC-NSSDC)

image. It's selecting strategies to create effective visualization and storage structures for data of varying dimensionality, parameters, rank, mesh structure, and aggregation.

Lloyd A. Treinish is a member of the research staff of the Visualization Systems Group at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. You can reach him on BIXc/o "editors" or on the Internet at lloydt® watson. ibm. com.

Screen B:A1- and 3-D representation of a 2-D parameter—column ozone density. On the left is a line plot of ozone versus latitude at a specific longitude. On the right, the ozone is shown as a translucent sutface covering a globe. (Copyright 1992 IBM. All rights reserved. Data courtesy of NASA/GSFC-NSSDC)

DIMENSIONALITY OF SAMPLE DATA A

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Table B: Shown here is a sampling of visualization techniques appropriate for data of different dimensionality and ranks. This table illustrates the diversity of data and some ways it can be visualized.

Dimension/rank

Example of data

0/0

Sales

1/0

Sales history

2/0

Ground temperature

Medical image

2/1

Ocean surface currents

3/0

Atmospheric temperature

Stacked medical images

3/1

Atmospheric wind

Discrete technique

Histogram

2-D scatter plot

Multiple x-y plots

3-D scatter plot

Colored 2-D scatter plot

Arrows

Colored 3-D scatter plot

Isosurfaces

Arrows

Continuous technique

2-D line plot Isocontours Pseudocolor image Surface/height map Streamlines Volume rendering

Streamlines

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 133

NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Glyphs are a powerful medium for distinguishing and comparing several variables at once. They take advantage of your eye's ability to perceive small differences in shape or position and to discern properties such as color and shape. As a result, you have at your command several attributes (the most quantitative being spatial position) that you can bind to variables while still being able to see each of the attributes separately. This capability is necessary for the quantitative comparison and correlative analysis of data.

Glyphs also fit naturally into the landscape of 3-D displays and virtual environments. In such interactive environments, using glyphs allows you to perceive patterns of clustering and details of spatial arrangement in all three dimensions.

To find the limits in the number of variables and the amount of spatial complexity that a multidimensional representation can handle, my colleagues and I have studied the simultaneous binding of several variables in applications such as complex molecular-dynamics structures. Because these calculations are molecular-dynamics simulations, you can designate another dimension—time—via an animation.

Screen 2: Simulation of a nickel atomicforce microscope tip pulling up a gold surface, where shape distortions and coloring of spheres indicate components of atomic stress. (Screen courtesy of Robert Minsk and William Riharsky, taken from supercomputer calculations by David Luedlke and Uzi Landman)

Visual representations like these are successful in pinpointing the relation between stresses and dynamic behavior. Such a method is general and can be applied to many types of data whose performance can be affected by several variables (e.g., stocks and bonds).

For example, stress buildup can eventually lead to inelastic deformations, flow, and fracture in these systems. Therefore, you have complex structural information, atom types, and six components of a tensor field all depicted in the same image (see screen 2).

If the visualization program you have won't accept and display data in a suitable manner, however, you must address issues in the areas of graphics programming and conversion of data to appropriate geometries. Researchers in visualization and usability are making significant strides in these areas. They are building tools for the data flow environment that allow you to create your own glyphs in a 3-D editor and bind them to your data any way you want. The objective of this work is to develop a highly interactive environment that doesn't need programming.

The interactivity and ease of glyph construction make it possible for you to play what-if testing and compare combinations of variables and visual representations for different data ranges. With this capability, you can recognize and analyze the different characteristics of your multidimensional data.

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NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD

Research to the Rescue

Interdisciplinary efforts are under way to make the navigation of data easier and more efficient. They are taking place in sites such as the Graphics. Visualization, and Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA); Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA); and the Institute for Visualization and Perception Research at the University of Lowell (Lowell, MA).

Researchers at Xerox PARC and other institutions are developing 3-D visualizers of information structures (see "The Information Theater," November 1992 BYTE). And in many research centers, work on visualizing scientific multidimensional data has much wider implications. For example, the efforts at NCSA and other national supercomputer centers focus on accurate, interactive display and analysis of large data sets derived from supercomputer calculations. The results of these calculations include representations of complex molecular structures, unsteady air flows around aircraft, and loads on bridges. The Environmental Protection Agency is also beginning to visualize the effects that result from its air-quality models.

Screen 3: The

interconnected backbone networks and selected regional networks collectively called the Internet. This representation correlates node connectivity with geographical location. (Screen courtesy of Donna Co.x a/id NSCA)

With the growing complexity of information stores (e.g., the Internet), symbolic representation must become 3-D to show their full character (see screen 3). To understand the interdependence of the Internet's parts so that you can formulate plans and carry out troubleshooting, you must be able to interactively navigate the network and open windows to reveal deeper levels of its hierarchy. As you can see from this example, the need to find new ways to

perform interactive analysis is growing in an expanding number of areas. ■

William Ribarsky works at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA). He is the manager of the Scientific Visualization Laboratory and an associate director for service at the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center. You can reach him on BIX c/o "editors" or on the Internet at bill.ribarsky@oit.gatech.edu.

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Date

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Circle 216 on Inquiry Card.

STATE OF THE ART/Visualization

IMAGE BUILDING

Architecture determines visualization software's power and flexibility

PETER WAYNER

Computers can now create complex graphical systems that allow you to examine data in ways that never existed before. The power and flexibility of a visualization system depend on the software architecture that designers develop.

There are two types of visualization software architecture. One is an object-oriented environment, which you program in a straightforward procedural manner. The other is a WYSIWYG environment, which allows you to handle data directly and see the results of your work at each step of the process. Both approaches have advantages and trade-offs, and there are many similarities between the two.

A Common Tool Set

Whatever the architecture, basic visualization software has four types of tools, or routines, that you link to produce an image. These include tools for loading, transforming, rendering, and controlling data (see the figure). Loading tools read data in from a file and construct an internal structure to hold the data. Transformation tools operate on data and refine it. Some transformations can be as simple as smoothing the data by averaging neighboring values; others (e.g., finding contour lines connecting equal-valued points) might create new data sets. Rendering tools use sophisticated hidden-line and rendering algorithms to convert information to pictures. And with control tools, you can modify the actions of the other tools.

When data is loaded, the software must format the values into an internal structure that is robust enough to describe all possible forms that the data can take as it passes through the different tools. Each

ILLUSTRATION: LYN BOYER-PENNINGTON «> 1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 137

IMAGE BUILDING

A VISUALIZATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

File-system hardware

Data-loading tools

Transformation tools

Glyph generator

Slicer

Parallel-processing hardware (optional)

Control tools

Rendering tools

Screen

Tools in a system such as this are implemented in software and can use as much hardware as is available. Transformation tools make up the core of the software and do much of the work.

tool knows the structure and reads and writes data into it. This process allows you to connect the tools in arbitrary chains without having to be concerned about whether the tools know how to exchange data—they all read and write the same language.

In some cases, software architects find it easy to let the transformation tool act on all forms of data. A transformation tool that rotates data, for example, works similarly on 1-, 2-, and 3-D data objects. In other cases, though, the architect has to think in more abstract terms.

For instance, a transformation tool that finds contour lines works well in a 2-D image, but the idea does not generalize well to a 3-D image because the outermost contour line is really a 2-D surface that obscures all the interior ones. In such situations, most contour-generating transformation tools produce only one 2-D surface when presented with 3-D data.

The internal data structure allows transformation tools to be flexible. These tools can produce new views of data based on the type of input they receive as long as they output the views in the standard format of the internal data structure.

One such tool might take data representing a 3-D array of the wind and temperature in a region, find the lowest windchill, and output a new data structure consisting of one point marking this location. Another transformation tool might take the same data and construct a set of lines that represents the isothermal con

tour lines. Both the point and the contour lines are new data sets that other tools can transform farther down the chain.

The large number and diversity of transformation tools are good measures of the power of visualization software. Among the most common transformation tools are map tools, which match up two sets of data and interpolate the results if the sets don't line up exactly, and color tools, which add a layer of color to the data based on a range of values. Other typical tools include arithmetic tools, which perform most of the basic operations on data; glyph generators, which create vectors, flags, and icons at locations scaled to the values in the data; and slice tools, which pull out 2-D slices of data from 3-D data sets.

A rendering tool draws and combines all the data sets presented to it. It can create a weather map by combining the tem

Visualization Architectures

Object-Oriented

• ease of use

• consistent internal data structure

• visually programmed

WYSIWYG

• see changes as they occur

• high data contact

perature contour lines and the minimum windchill point that the previously described tools produced. Using graphic routines, the rendering tool should allow you to modify variables such as the position from which the data is viewed or the faux lighting used to illuminate the data.

Those who work with visualization usually want to modify images and look at the data in different ways. The simplest control tools inform the rendering tool of any changes in the positions of the images so that you can perform this image manipulation. Other tools send messages back to data-transformation tools to modify their transformations. One control tool might send a value n back to the coldest windchill finder, instructing it to find the coldest n points in the country. Another might send a message to the contour function modifying the interval between the lines.

These four types of tools handle the basic tasks that visualization software must carry out. The way that the architect implemented some of the basic functions may not be obvious.

For instance, many images include axes with lick marks that indicate the scale of a picture. The rendering tool might draw axes, or a transformation tool might create them as a separate data set, in much the same way that the coldest point was found and marked. In this situation, the rendering tool would combine the image data with the new axes' data.

In most cases, both of these techniques are probably just as useful, but the second method is more flexible. If the axes are just another data set, the other transformation tools can be used to color, bend, or transform the axes as they would with regular data.

Software architects must anticipate all these issues when they design tool sets and distribute the various tasks among the individual tools. If they aggregate too much functionality in one tool, you will not be able to link the tools in certain ways. But if the architects split the functionality too much, they create software with thousands of tools that no one can remember.

Many implementations of visualization software are designed to be readily portable to different machines with different configurations of processors. This allows you to run a visualization routine on more than one platform without recompiling it. Some software architects take this flexibility one step further and allow the software to split up the computation tasks necessary to create an image. If a parallel processor is available, the system is able to divide each tool's responsibilities into a number of parts so that you can quickly perform the visualization, continued

138 BYTE- APRIL 1993

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Circle 77 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 78).

IMAGE BUILDING

Big Blue and Indigo Sky

The IBM Data Explorer is a good example of full-featured, tool-oriented software. The application runs on several platforms— from low-end IBM RISC System/6000 workstations to specialized IBM power visualization computers that feature 32 860 chips and fast 256-bit buses.

Software running on the high-end computer can take advantage of its extra processors and break down the work of each tool into multiple sections. But software running on the low-end machine must use its sole processor to perform all the work. Speed is the only difference that you would notice in the performance of programs running on these machines. The algorithms are easy to express in parallel form, and often a machine with n processors performs n times faster.

The Iris Explorer 2.0 is an object-oriented, tool-based architecture that Silicon Graphics (Mountain View, CA) ships with its workstations, including its Indigo and Personal Iris. The Iris series can include up to eight processors, and on this platform, the Explorer configures itself to use the maximum amount of power available.

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ware packages allow you to use a visual program editor to create a program for converting data into images. In this editor, one window has boxes that represent the tools, and the lines between them represent the data flow. With this kind of editor, you can easily create images from data, because it allows you to choose the tools that you need and connect them in a proper chain. If you want to add more sophisticated features, you can use the appropriate tools and draw more lines.

A second window includes the control tools, which have input fields, sliders, and other input interfaces that allow you to control an image on the screen by sending messages to the transformation tools that dictate the parameters. For example, a control tool might send messages to a slice tranformation tool telling it on which plane to slice the data. Another control tool might manipulate the contour-finding selection.

Creating an image from data with an object-oriented tool is similar to programming in a standard language. The format is easy to use because the steps of the process are laid out with boxes and lines instead of in a text file with procedure headers. A consistent internal data structure adds to

the simplicity of the process because you can connect any tool to any other.

An example of this process can be seen on the screen, which shows a CT (computer tomography) image of a tooth and the program that created it. First, the CT scanner creates a 3-D matrix filled with the density of the tooth at the grid points. Next, a color-map tool changes these densities into colors (yellow for the boundary, red at the crown, and blue at the root). Then a slice tool cuts away half of the tooth so that you can see the interior densities. This kind of view is useful to dentists because the 3-D information can be much more revealing than a 2-D x-ray. The Iris Explorer created this image, which shows how several simple, abstract tools can be joined to produce rich images.

WYSIWYG for Free

NIH Image software for the Mac implements the four sets of tools differently. It was written by Wayne Rasband of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD) to provide scientists with a free and easy method of manipulating and analyzing 2-D images. It is similar in structure to products like Dicer from Spyglass (Champaign, IL)

Why Our Intelligent Modems Are A Wise Investment

140 BYTE • APRIL 1993

IMAGE BUILDING

or several tools produced at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Urbana-Champaign, IL).

The architecture of the NIH Image software is built in the spirit of Mac-based WYSIWYG word processors. You see the data at all times, and changes appear on the screen as each operation modifies the data. You don't build a program or a chain of tools; you execute a set of commands. The main advantage of this approach is high data interaction. You constantly see the intermediate views of your data and can discover other facets along the way.

Object-oriented, tool-based architectures do not show the image until all the tools have finished their work. Serendipitous results are happenings that visualization software is meant to facilitate. There are many ways to examine data, and you don't have to use the tools in any particular order. The interactive, visual program editors of IBM and Silicon Graphics provide almost the same level of interactivity and experimentation because of the flexibility they have.

Best of Both Worlds

Good visualization software provides simple methods that work together efficiently.

Dentists can use 3-D computer tomography imaging to identify and analyze problems. Slicing the data can reveal abnormalities in the internal structure of a tooth.

Both approaches to visualization—object orientation and WYSIWYG—provide you with a chance to experiment with data.

In the future, you'll see hybrid visualization software emerge, as the two structures grow to imitate each other. WYSIWYG programs will allow you to link many different steps and small programs in much the same way that object-oriented systems

now do. How will all this end? When you can get the picture on your computer's screen as fast as you can imagine what you want to see. ■

Peter Wayner is a BYTE consulting editor based in Baltimore, Maryland. You can contact him on BIX as "pwayner" or on the Internet at pcw@access.digex.com.

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Circle 168 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 169).

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 141

Unleash Your 486!

NDP Fortran is now six years old, yet people still call with 486 performance questions related to their use of 16-bit compilers. Therefore, we decided this was a good time to remake the case for 32-bit tools and languages. To get full access to a 386 or486 requires that it be placed in 32-bit protected mode. This is done by 32-bit operating systems and some Extenders. Running in 32-bit protected mode increases the 486's segment size from 64 Kbytes to 4 Gigabytes and breaks the 640K DOS barrier. This makes it possible to access

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STATE OF THE ART/visuaiization

THE DIFFICULTY WITH DATA

Handling the basics of visualization data

NAHUM GERSHON AND JEFF DOZIER

The challenges arising when you work with data must be dealt with if visualization is to become simpler and more efficient. Visualization demands that your system handle huge amounts of data quickly. And that data comes in a wide variety of forms. Raw data enters the process in different formats and from different sources, including surveys, simulations, instruments, and photographic or video images (see screens 1 and 2).

Data is usually accompanied by metadata, which contains information essential to the visualization process (e.g., the name of the data set, the date of generation, and statistical information about the data). Typically, the metadata contains information that describes the data's format, units of measurement, scale, display-color specifications, and relationship to other data sets (e.g., this image of atmospheric temperature is related to an image of atmospheric humidity produced by the same climate model).

As a result, visualization packages must accept data and metadata input in disparate formats. The data might be expressed as a one-dimensional string of numbers or in multidimensional forms. An image is usually expressed in two dimensions, but data from remote sensing instruments can have as many as six dimensions: x, v, z, time, wavelength, and polarization. And data can be continuous (i.e., there are no gaps in the data) or sparse (i.e., there are holes in the data). Even data of the same type can have different formats (see the text box "The Faces of Data" on page 147).

Data Formats

Ideally, there should be standards for data formats and metadata that would enable

ILLUSTRATION: LYN BOYER-PENNINGTON « 1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 143

THE DIFFICULTY WITH DATA

Screens 1 and 2: 77j<? information in these screens was generated from data obtained from 14 image slices of the brain. Input data was generated by positron-emission tomography and transformed to a format that could be used with a workstation. Then 14 2-D slices were transformed into a 3-D set with its own format. The white, green, blue, and black specify high, medium-high, medium-low, and low grain activity, respectively. To get a stereoscopic view of these images, hold the page about 20 inches from your eyes and move it toward your face until the effect is achieved. (Data courtesy ofNIA, NIH)

visualization software to import and export data easily, accurately, and quickly. However, because applications require many types of formats, it's unrealistic to expect that all data sets will be converted into a global data format standard.

However, the SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) is one attempt to develop a universally accepted data-format standard. The U.S. has adopted this spatial-data standard, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has approved it as a Federal Information Processing Standard. In addition, the Technical Committee on Computer Graphics of the IEEE Computer Society plans to develop standards for visualization data.

But in the absence of a globally accepted standard, there are good visualization packages that support several common data formats. The University of Pennsylvania has created the domain-rendering program at. You can also use toolkits that are able to convert many data formats. For example, SDSC (San Diego Supercomputer Center) has developed a publicly available format-conversion utility that supports almost 30 image formats. And Mitre (McLean, VA) has recently constructed an extensive conversion capability that integrates conversions, libraries, and utilities. It uses a common API and Carnegie Mellon's Fuzzy Pixmap Manipulation library, SDSC Image Tools, and conversion utilities from Paragon Imaging (North Chelmsford, MA).

An alternative approach used by people associated with the University of California's Sequoia 2000 project is to incorporate the format-conversion capabilities in

a DBMS. In this process, the DBMS understands a suite of formats and can translate a stored format into a desired output format.

Data Storage

Storing visualization data is another problem. If you have only a few data sets, it's convenient to store them in a file system. But when there are many data sets, it's difficult to search for specific and appropriate data, because only limited amounts

Why Visualization Data Is Complex

• wide variety of data types and formats

• no format standards

• large memory and storage requirements

• potential need for lossless data compression

• huge data sets

• fast processing-speed requirements

of information can be stored under a filename.

Posing appropriate queries against the data requires knowledge of the metadata or the information. For example, to search a large collection of data sets for files containing information about an ozone hole,

the system must be able to recognize the subject. In addition, it's essential for the system to understand the context of the subject (e.g., ozone climatology and spatial contiguity of stratospheric ozone depletion).

To be able to pose queries, you must store at least the metadata of the data sets in a DBMS. And the images themselves must also be accessible to DBMS queries. But in many scientific and engineering domains, data is spatially organized and cannot be stored efficiently in most commercial DBMSes. And when the data volume exceeds the available disk space, you must store parts of the data in tertiary memory (e.g., magnetic tape or optical disks), which takes longer to access.

Most commercial DBMSes don't handle queries across multiple storage levels. However, the Teradata Optical Call Level Interface from Teradata Corp. (El Segundo, CA) handles queries across a DBMS and a storage system. But using the product doesn't necessarily permit optimal storage-access times. Therefore, you need a DBMS that can handle large objects (e.g., images), tertiary memory, and file systems. The DBMS must also be able to optimize queries directed at all the available data types wherever they are stored (see the figure).

Data Compression

To save storage space and to shorten the time required to transmit data, visualization software must compress data and then decompress it quickly to yield an acceptable image. Two types of compression methods are used: lossless and lossy.

144 BYTE- APRIL 1993

THE DIFFICULTY WITH DATA

With lossy compression, data can be permanently discarded during the process, but files compressed in a lossless fashion retain their data integrity and can be transformed back to their original state. The RLE (run length encoding) and LempelZiv-Welch algorithms are typical losslesscompression techniques.

For some types of analysis (e.g., quantitative examination of scientific data), it's essential that the data remain unchanged. In these cases, you need to compress the data using a lossless compression algo

A

. ny compression algorithm that you use should protect against propagation of errors in the compressed data.

rithm. Archiving data ordinarily requires lossless data compression because of the need for an accurate and complete record of the data. Any compression algorithm that you use should also protect against propagation of errors in the compressed data.

Lossless-compression algorithms are also required for such tasks as modeling heat transfer that occurs in the ocean. In this case, you must keep the exact values of sea surface temperature as a function of latitude and longitude.

However, there are rare situations in which lossless-compression methods don't produce acceptable results. For example, when such algorithms are applied to satellite-image data, they generally yield minimal compression—usually no better than a 2-to-l ratio.

The use of lossy compression methods is acceptable when you can tolerate some loss of precision. For example, suppose you want to browse through low-resolution versions of your data. In such cases, you want to check the appropriateness and quality of particular data sets before obtaining a full version of them for detailed analysis.

Among the most common lossy compression algorithms are MPEG (Moving

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APRIL 1993 -BYTE 145

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THE DIFFICULTY WITH DATA

AN INTEGRATED DBMS

Visualization

B

m

H

D

m

Intelligent search

File management system

u

Data archive

You can search data via an extended DBMS that controls data stored in a traditional DBMS fashion as well as in a file system. You don't have to know where the data is stored.

Pictures Experts Group) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) standards, which are specific implementations of the discrete cosine transform. Volume reduction of at least 50 percent is common with lossy compression methods.

Addressing Animation

Animation is a special capability of visualization technology that represents time sequences of data. It's important for applications that describe time-dependent processes.

A typical animation uses large amounts of data. To save space in primary memory, data can be compressed (in space and time) or reduced (e.g., by subsampling). Such compression and reduction schemes are effective only if it's possible to transform the compressed or reduced data back to acceptable images in real time during the animation process.

To further decrease the volume of animation sequencing information that must be placed in memory, you can store just a part of the collection of frames representing the animation loop. To prevent the animation from appearing jerky, real-time fast interpolation algorithms replace the missing frames before or during a viewing. Advanced Visual Systems (Waltham, MA) has created software capable of generating these missing frames.

Visualizing What's Ahead

Visualization data comes in diverse types and formats, and no commonly accepted standard formats exist, making management of visualization data difficult. But efforts to develop standards (e.g., SDTS) and new. flexible format-conversion tools (e.g., SDSC image tools) may alleviate some of the difficulties. Fast, effective compression algorithms and the evolution of integrated systems of DBMSes and storage systems promise additional improvements.

The successful implementation of these efforts depends on widespread cooperation. The support of users, vendors, government agencies, and standards organizations is a necessity. ■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank.Ion Doughty, Jim Green, Steve Hirsch, David Isaac, Don Sawyer, and Ron Zahavi.

Nahum Gershon is a principal scientist at Mitre Corp. (McLean, VA). JeffDozier is a professor of geography at the University of California at Santa Barbara. You can reach them on BIX do "editors" or on the Internet at gershon@mitre.org and dozier@crseo.ucsb .edu, respectively.

THE DIFFICULTY WITH DATA

The Faces of Data

DATA TYPES

Analog Video data

Command Data parameters necessary for the execution of a visualization program

Control Data describing a sequence of keystrokes

Derived Data resulting from the processing of raw or simulation data

Digital Digital image

External Input data generated externally, or internal data exported as an output

Geometric Data describing a sphere

Internal Version of the data used in the visualization program

Metadata Information about the data (e.g., data set name or generating instrument)

Nongeometric An image

Raw Data as it comes from surveys or instruments

DATA FORMATS

CDF (Common Data Format)

Supports multidimensional scientific data

CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) Accommodates both graphics and image data

FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Data standard used in the astronomy community

HDF (Hierarchical Data) Supports multidimensional scientific data

Net CDF (Network Common Data Format) Supports multidimensional scientific data

PICT Bit-mapped graphic format for the Mac

PostScript A page-description language

SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) Supports vector spatial data

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

For raster images, including color and subimages

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APRIL 1993 -BYTE 147

RESOURCE GUIDE

Visualization Software

Visualization products for PCs and workstations are available from a number of companies. The following is a sampling of software to perform scientific, engineering, and business applications.

AVS

Price: $6500

AVS ANIMATOR

Price: $1800

DEVELOPERS AVS

Price: $25,000

(Unix)

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc.

300 Fifth Ave.

Waltham, MA 02154

(617) 890-4300

fax:(617)890-8287

Circle 1146 on Inquiry Card.

COVIS

Price: $395

(PC, PS/2)

CoHort Software

P.O.Box 1149

Berkeley, CA 94701

(800) 728-9878

(510)524-9878

fax:(510)524-9199

Circle 1147 on Inquiry Card.

DADISP 3.0

PC Price: $1895

Workstation Price: $4495

(PC, most workstations)

DSP Development Corp.

1 Kendall Sq., Building 100

Cambridge, MA 02139

(800)424-3131

(617)577-1133

fax:(617)577-8211

Circle 1148 on Inquiry Card.

DATA DESK 4.0

Price: $595

(Mac)

Data Description, Inc.

P.O. Box 4555

Ithaca, NY 14852

(607)257-1000

fax: (607) 257-4146

Circle 1149 on Inquiry Card.

DATA VISUALIZER

Price: $9500

(most workstations)

Wavefront Technologies, Inc.

530 East Montecito St.

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

(800)545-9283

(805)962-8117

fax: (805) 963-0410

Circle 1150 on Inquiry Card.

DICER

Price: $695 TRANSFORM

Price: $595

(Mac, most workstations)

Spyglass, Inc.

P.O. Box 6388

Champaign, 1L 61820

(217)355-6000

fax: (217) 355-8925

Circle 1151 on Inquiry Card.

EASY5X

Price: $8900

(Unix)

The Boeing Co.

P.O. Box 24346, MS 7L-46

Seattle, WA 98124

(800)426-1443

(206)865-3622

fax: (206) 865-2966

Circle 1152 on Inquiry Card.

IDL

Price: $1500

(PC, Unix, VMS)

Research Svstems, Inc.

777 29th St.", Suite 302

Boulder, CO 80303

(303) 786-9900

fax: (303) 786-9909

Circle 1153 on Inquiry Card.

IPLAB SPECTRUM 2.2

Price: $1000

(Mac II, Quadra)

Signal Analytics Corp.

374 Maple Ave. E, Suite 204

Vienna, VA 22180

(703)281-3277

fax:(703)281-2509

Circle 1154 on Inquiry Card.

MAPS&DATA

Price: $395

(Windows 3 x)

Maplnfo Corp.

200 Broadway

Troy, NY 12180

(800) 327-8627

(518)274-6000

fax:(518)274-6066

Circle 1155 on Inquiry Card.

MATLAB 4.0

Price: $1695

(PC, Mac, most workstations,

some supercomputers)

The MathWorks, Inc.

24 Prime Park Way

Natick, MA 01760

(508)653-1415

fax: (508) 653-2997

Circle 1156 on Inquiry Card.

PVWAVE COMMAND LANGUAGE

Price: $4950

PVWAVE POINT AND CLICK

Price: $2495

(Unix, VMS)

Visual Numerics

6230 Lookout Rd.

Boulder, CO 80301

(303) 530-9000

fax: (303) 530-9329

Circle 1157 on Inquiry Card.

SLIDERS AND DIALS

Price: $99

(Microsoft Excel

subapplication)

Golden Technologies, Inc.

14251 Camden Lane

Lake Oswego, OR 97035

(800)653-2201

(503)620-2201

Circle 1158 on Inquiry Card.

SYNCHROWORKS

Price: $29,000 (Sun Sparcstation) Oberon Software, Inc. 1 Memorial Dr. Cambridge, MA 02142 (617)494-0990 fax:(617)494-0414 Circle 1159 on Inquiry Card.

TECPLOT 5

Price: $649 to $3000

(PC, Unix, VMS)

Amtec Engineering, Inc.

P.O. Box 3633

Bellevue, WA 98009

(800) 676-7568

(206) 827-3304

fax: (206) 827-3989

Circle 1160 on Inquiry Card.

VISUALIZATION DATA EXPLORER

Price: $5900

(most workstations)

IBM Research

8 Skyline Dr.

Hawthorne, NY 10532

(800) 388-9820

(914)784-5110

fax:(914)784-5077

Circle 1161 on Inquiry Card.

VOXELBOX

Price: $495

(Windows 3.x)

Jaguar Software

573 Main St., Suite 9B

Winchester, MA 01890

(617)729-3659

Circle 1162 on Inquiry Card.

Inclusion in the resource guide should not be taken as a BYTE endorsement or recommendation. Likewise, omission from the guide should not be taken negatively. The information here was believed to be accurate at the time of writing, but BYTE cannot be responsible for omissions, errors, or changes that occur after compilation.

148 BYTE- APRIL 1993

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BY493

SOLUTIONS FOCU&M.O-P-*.

SHRINK TO FIT

RICK GREHAN AND STAN WSZOLA

On-the-f ly compression W W ard drives keep getting cheape].

software for PCs and but for some reason, disk real es

I tate still seems as rare and preIVIacs fits more data on I cious as San Francisco street park

less hard disk space M * %Da? ^c"mulates, bit-map

r graphics proliferate, and what you need to

store grows faster than hardware costs can shrink. On-the-fly data compression offers a real alternative to hardware upgrades, offline storage, and constant file pruning. Software compression is nothing new. PKZip, ARC, and LHARC are just a few common utilities for archiving files. These archivers shrink files to conserve space, but you need to manually decompress a file before you can use it. With on-the-fly compression, you can expect to double effective disk space almost invisibly. You're simply presented with the illusion of a standard file system that takes less space.

This month's Solutions Focus concentrates on eight on-the-fly compression packages for PCs and Macs: DoubleDensity 1.0 from Abacus Software, Stacker 3.0 from Stac Electronics, SuperStorPro 1.0 from AddStor, XtraDrive 1.0 from Integrated Information Technology, AutoDoubler 2.0.1 from Fifth Generation Systems, Stufflt SpaceSaver 1.0.3 from Aladdin Systems, SuperDisk 2.1 from Alysis Software, and TimesTwo 1.0.1 from Golden Triangle Computers. The packages differ a little in their approach: The PC packages trap sector reads and writes to compress data, while most of the Mac packages work on a file basis. However, all eight packages deliver a compression ratio of around 2 to 1 with an average mix of data.

Besides these eight packages, we also took an early look at the compression capabilities of DOS 6. Microsoft's latest DOS release includes a bevy of new features, but on-the-fly compression as an operating-system component is among the most intriguing. For more details, see the text box "DoubleSpace and DOS 6" on page 156.

Two Advantages

Software compression isn't quite as good as a new hard drive. Your performance will probably drop (although there are exceptions), and you will end up using an

150 B YTE • APRIL 1993

PHOTOGRAPHY: DANIEL MORDUCHOWICZ ■: 1993

VA'i

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT ON-THE-FLY COMPRESSORS ARE

Software packages that increase apparent storage by automatically compressing and decompressing data.

LIKES

Good compression ratios and good speed. Compression is an inexpensive alternative to hardware upgrades.

DISLIKES

Data recovery is more difficult, especially with XtraDrive and TimesTwo. PC setups can require a lot of tweaking of configuration files.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Choose Stacker on the PC and Stuffit SpaceSaver on the Mac.

unusual disk data format that might make recovery more difficult.

But software compression has two big advantages over hardware upgrades. First, it's inexpensive. These software compression packages range in price from S59 to $149, and even the most expensive among them is considerably less expensive than a modest hard drive. If you can get reasonable performance, be assured of data integrity, and double the effective capacity of a 200-MB disk, you have obviously saved a bundle.

Software compression's second advantage makes it an especially effective technology for notebook users. It's not always practical to upgrade or add storage to portable machines, but portables are often where the capacity crunch hits hardest. Software compression doesn't require space for additional hardware.

If software compression is the right solution, how do you choose from among the packages on each platform? The measure of effective software compression comes down to the compression ratio and the speed of compression and decompression. We used these two criteria in designing the tests used to evaluate these packages (see the text box '"Measuring Compression" on page 153 for a complete description of the tests we carried out). The compression ratio is a function of the type of data and the effectiveness of the compressor; for example, text files might be compressed at a ratio of 2 to 1, while bit-map graphics files (e.g.. .BMP) may be squeezed at a ratio of 8 to 1.

Compression and decompression speed will affect how invisibly each on-the-fly

APRIL 1993 'BYTE 151

DATA COMPRESSION

BENCHMARK RESULTS

Table 1: Compression ratios and throughput indexes for three major application categories. For each application type, the compression ratio describes compression on representative data. Throughput indexes for Word Processing and Database are a combination of results from BYTE's application benchmarks and low-level tests (see the text box "Measuring Compression" for details). Higher numbers are better.

WORD PROCESSING

DATABASE

GRAPHICS

Compression ratio Throughput Compression ratio Throughput Compression ratio Throughput

PC products

DoubleDensity

2.00

Stacker

2.06

SuperStor Pro

1.50

XtraDrive

1.70

Mac products

AutoDoubler

1.66

Stufflt SpaceSaver

2.18

SuperDisk

2.28

TimesTwo

1.79

0.38 1.05 0.62 0.73

0.46 0.60 0.46 0.52

2.00 1.92 1.40 1.70

2.06 2.25 2.04 1.70

0.26 0.95 0.64 0.62

0.46 0.61 0.46 0.46

2.00 2.10 1.30 1.72

1.20 1.30 1.49 1.20

0.37 1.02 0.56 0.73

0.42 0.61 0.54 0.40

BYTE COMPRESSION BENCHMARKS

Composite Compression Ratio

Composite Throughput Index

DoubleDensity Stacker1 Stacker2

■■BHBHmBBBHBBS

SuperStor Pro

XtraDrive

AutoDoubler

I^HMHi

■■

Stufflt SpaceSaver1

Stufflt SpaceSaver2

SuperDisk1

■■^■■■l

i^—

SuperDisk2 TimesTwo

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6

1.0

1 Optimized for size 2 Optimized for speed

ua eu

Composite compression ratios (left) and throughput indexes (right). In the composite compression graph, a score of 2.0 indicates a 2-to-l ratio—disk space is effectively doubled. We tested products that offered a range of settings at their extremes: optimized for speed (i.e., best speed, worst compression) and for size (i.e., worst speed, best compression). For the PC products, throughput scores are normalized against a Compaq Deskpro 386I33L with no compression. Mac scores are normalized against an SE/30 running System 7.0 without compression. Higher numbers are better.

compressor operates. The results of our benchmark tests, which are listed in table 1 and summarized in the figure, illustrate the speed and compression capability of each package.

After these two main factors come considerations such as price, ease of use, minimum system and memory requirements, and the utilities that each compressor includes. We have considered these in each evaluation. For a summary of features, see table 2.

On-the-Fly Compression

Data compression works by translating a representation of data from one set of symbols to another, more concise, series of symbols. On-the-fly compressors use a variety of lossless compression algorithms, and most manufacturers are tight-lipped about the exact techniques. However, the most common algorithms for general lossless compression are variations on dictionary-based schemes such as LZ (Lempel-Ziv) and its patented cousin LZW

(Lempel-Ziv-Welch). For example, Stacker uses a compression algorithm that Stac Electronics calls LZS, for "Lempel-ZivStacker."

Dictionary-based compressors use symbols to represent recurring strings in the uncompressed input. An encoding dictionary maps these symbols to the strings they represent. With most dictionary algorithms, the decompressor can completely reconstruct the encoding dictionary from the compressed data stream—the compressor doesn't need to explicitly include a decoding table.

LZ and similar techniques make for fast compression and decompression, although decompression is usually somewhat faster. Both attributes serve on-the-fly compressors, since speed is critical for invisible operation and read accesses are often far more common than writes.

Like all lossless compression, on-thefly compression works by removing redundancy in the source data; therefore, it's highly dependent on the input data type. Source data with a high degree of redundancy (e.g., bit maps or mostly empty databases) compress very well, while more random data (e.g., executable binaries or precompressed archives) don't compress well at all. Text files usually land somewhere in the middle.

To complete the illusion of invisible operation, some on-the-fly compressors "lie" to the operating system about used and available disk storage. The accuracy of a compressor's estimate of effective available space depends on the compressibility of the data you'll be adding; if a disk is half full of text files, adding executable files or bit maps to the other half will probably lead to some weird results.

152 B YTE • APRIL 1993

DATA COMPRESSION

Measuring Compression

We tested each of the eight software packages reviewed here for speed and compression ratio (see the figure in the main text). Our goal was to come up with accurate tests that were as similar as possible for both PC and Mac compression packages.

To test speed, we ran a mix of application benchmarks and low-level tests. We ran the Word Processing and Database elements of BYTE's application benchmarks. For raw speed measurements, we ran random and sequential file I/O operations on various data representing the most common files: text, executable, bit-mapped graphics, database, and precompressed data. On the PC side, our graphics data came from PCX files and our compressed data came from ZIP files; on the Mac side, our graphics and compressed data came from PICT and Stufflt files, respectively. We kept the Mac's disk cache to a minimum during throughput tests.

We also measured compression ratios for each of the five data types. On the PC side, where the compression applications spanned an entire partition,

we filled the partition with data until the system ran out of room. The amount of data we wrote, compared to the physical space on the disk, provided the compression ratio.

It was relatively easy to check the compression ratios for the three file-ata-time Mac packages. We just moved the representative data into a file tagged for compression and then rebooted the Mac with extensions disabled; thus, we revealed the file's true sizes. This trick didn't work on Alysis Software's SuperDisk, which apparently made more permanent alterations to the file's directory information. However, we found that we could get the file's true size if we moved it into the Trashcan. Apparently, SuperDisk has to report the true size of the file while the file is in the Trashcan; otherwise, throwing away the trash would result in botched volume and directory data.

Golden Triangle Computers' TimesTwo acted more like the packages we reviewed for the PC; therefore, we ran a ported version of the tests we used on the PC to determine TimesTwo's compression ratio. «c» We should point out ^^cEJ"

that the compression ratios shown for TimesTwo aren't as exact as those shown for the other Mac packages. A Macintosh creates a desktop database file, and since it's virtually impossible to gauge that file's compression, we cannot know for sure how much space was actually left over for user data.

The figure shows the composite compression ratio—the unweighted average of compression ratios for each file type—and the composite throughput index. We derive the latter figures by taking the ratio of each package's throughput to the throughput the test systems achieved without compression. We used a Compaq Deskpro 386/33L as our test PC; our test Mac was an SE/30.

Table 1 in the main text shows extracted compression ratios and throughput for three specific application areas: Word Processing, Database, and Graphics. The Word Processing and Database throughput figures include the low-level tests and the application benchmarks.

DOS Data Compression

11 four packages for the PC use a device |cw| dl"'ver t0 fool DOS into ft===-A thinking it has extra or §j=3p§V\ larger logical drives. When DOS accesses a compressed disk, the device driver intercepts the data stream and compresses or decompresses it on the way to or from the disk.

The compressed disk is actually a single compressed file in the normal DOS file system. With products such as Stacker or SuperStor Pro, the compression file usually takes up most of the available hard disk space. In addition to the compression file, there is usually only one copy of the CONFIG.SYS file, a compression driver, and some other device drivers in

the normal file space.

One potential problem is that the compressor requires an additional logical drive letter that refers to the compressed file. Unless the compression package provides a driver that swaps drive letters for you. you may need to adjust all your paths to handle the new drive.

Compression occurs when a number of sectors written to disk are compressed to fewer sectors in the compression file. In addition to compressing, on-the-fly compressors are more efficient in their use of disk space. DOS allocates space to files in clusters, where each cluster is composed of two to 32 512-byte sectors. A cluster is the minimum allocation unit—no matter how little data is in a file, each file must be made up of a whole number of sectors. Typical hard drives have 4-KB clusters, which means that DOS wastes 3 KB of space in storing a 1-KB file. Since all the compressor's interaction with DOS is in a

single normal file, the compressor can allocate space on a thriftier sector basis.

There are some drawbacks to the single-file, sector-based compression method. Just reading a single byte requires the compressor to decompress a full physical sector. The decompressor needs some sizable decompression buffers to work efficiently. Also, the compressor must handle the mapping of logical clusters to physical sectors on its own. All this reading and decompression requires some CPU time, system RAM, and time for disk accesses. On a reasonably fast system with fast drives, such as those we used for our benchmark tests, speed is not really an issue. Fortunately, most of the products include builtin caching and can actually provide better performance than an uncompressed disk.

A word of caution for Windows users: None of the programs we looked at could deal easily with Windows permanent swap

APRIL 1993 'BYTE 153

DATA COMPRESSION

ON-THE-FLY

DISK COMPRESSORS

Table 2: All the f

you mix compres share a common

C products were sector-based (i.e., they compressed an entire volume), while three of the Mac products let sed and uncompressed files on the same volume. Beyond this fundamental difference, most of the packages set of features. (N/A = not applicable.)

PC MAC

DoubleDensity 1.0

Stacker 3.0

SuperStor Pro 1.0

XtraDrivel.O

AutoDoubler 2.0.1

Stufflt SpaceSaver 1.0.3

Company

Abacus Software

Stac Electronics

AddStor

Integrated Information Technology

Fifth

Generation

Systems

Aladdin Systems

Price

$79.95

$149

$149

$99

$89.95

$59.95

Minimum system requirements

MS-DOS 3.2

MS-DOS 3.2

MS-DOS 3.2

MS-DOS 3.0

Mac Plus

None specified

Minimum memory requirements

512KB

640 KB

640 KB

512KB

1 MB

2MB

File-/sector-based

Sector

Sector

Sector

Sector

File

File

Passwords

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Adjustable ratio

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Self-extracting files

No

Floppy-based

Floppy-based

No

Yes

Yes

Deinstallation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

Utilities

Defragmenter

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Diagnostics/repair

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Other

N/A

Removable media; Windows utilities

Removable media; Windows utilities; JPEG Workshop

Optional cache

Finder enhancement (CopyDoubler)

N/A

files. In installing each of these packages, we had to switch to a temporary swap file or make an uncompressed partition that did not interfere with the permanent swap file.

Crashes are somewhat more serious on a compressed disk than they are on an uncompressed one, because it's easier to lose more data. However, if you regularly back up your disk, you shouldn't have much cause for concern. In any case, you should do a complete backup before you proceed with the initial compression process.

DoubleDensity 1.0

Abacus Software's DoubleDensity is a simple, inexpensive compression utility. It is DOS-based, and although it will run with Windows, it has no Windows-related features, as do some of the other packages reviewed here.

To install DoubleDensity, you must first type in the registration number on the floppy disk to get by copy protection. Next, you select an installation subdirectory and the disk you want to compress. (The maximum size of a DoubleDensity volume is 250 MB.) You also have the option of specifying an eight-character password for data protection. DoubleDensity uses chkdsk to scan the disk for lost clusters before beginning the compression process.

DoubleDensity's installation automat

ically modifies your CONFIG.SYS file. If you want DoubleDensity to load high, however, you need to make some manual adjustments. The device driver takes up 47 KB of RAM.

The installation doesn't let you select the default compression ratio. DoubleDensity increases capacity by creating a hidden file called D_D_VOL that uses all the available storage space. The device drivers create a new compressed disk that's almost twice the size of the original volume. On our test system, DoubleDensity created a 20-MB E drive out of a 10-MB D drive. When the installation process was through, all the software that was on the D drive ended up on the larger E drive , and we had to fiddle with paths by hand.

DoubleDensity is the leanest package in terms of utilities. Its chkddv utility is similar to DOS's DIR, but it supplies extra information regarding compression and space availability. Also, a ddexist utility tells you whether a disk is a DoubleDensity volume, and a dall utility shows a list of all the DoubleDensity volumes installed on your system.

DoubleDensity is inexpensive ($79.95) and more or less easy to use. It has the best compression of any package we tested. Unfortunately, it's also much slower than any of the other compressors and lacks utilities for determining space usage

by file type and error-correction features. Despite its compression prowess, its lack of speed and utilities make it barely usable.

Stacker for Windows and DOS 3.0

Stacker for Windows and DOS, from Stac Electronics, is almost transparent in operation, and it's fast enough that you probably won't notice any degradation in performance. The program has an easy-to-use interface for both DOS and Windows. At $149, it's not exactly bargain-basement, but for speed and sheer usability, Stacker is unmatched.

Stacker has two installation methods, one for DOS and one for Windows. When installing Stacker, you can tune it to optimize compression and speed or choose a middle setting.

Stacker creates a STACVOL file. This invisible file contains all the compressed files in the "Stacked" drive. The STACVOL file on our benchmarking partition used 10,376,192 bytes, leaving approximately 100 KB for Stacker to use as a temporary storage area. There are no significant size restrictions—the uncompressed disk can be up to 1 GB in size, and you are only limited to 10 Stacker drives per system.

Two Stacker device drivers map a drive letter to the compressed file and swap drive

154 B YTE • APRIL 1993

DATA COMPRESSION

MAC

SuperDisk2.1

TimesTwo 1.0.1

Alysis Software

Golden Triangle Computers

$59

$149

Mac Plus

Mac Plus

1 MB

2MB

File

Sector

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

N/A

Manual

No

(reformat disk) No

No

Yes

N/A

N/A

letters. If you compress the C drive, the compressed drive will still be C, while the uncompressed drive will become D. The device drivers can detect a permanent Windows swap file and configure themselves to avoid the swap file every time you start up the system. The device drivers use from 36 KB to 64 KB of system RAM. You can load the drivers into high memory or configure Stacker to use EMS, reducing system RAM requirements in either case.

Stacker uses a default compression ratio of 2 to 1, but you can set the ratio to a maximum of 16 to 1. Included in the Stacker package is a version of the Norton Speed Disk. Stacker uses Speed Disk to defragment the files. When Speed Disk finishes its job, the setup program scans the entire compressed disk looking for bad sectors.

One nice bonus is Stacker's Windows capability. After compressing the disk, you can create a Stacker Program Group, which gives you icons for the Stacker Tuner, setup options, a readme file, and a utility called Stackometer. Stackometer uses three gauges to display a compression-ratio summary for the compressed disk. A bar chart shows the amount of disk space needed to store files without compression, compared to the space required to store the same files on a compressed disk. A Disk Space gauge displays used and available capacity on the compressed disk. There's also a graph

ical display of disk fragmentation levels.

However, DOS users aren't left out in the cold. You can get to all the Stacker utilities from the command line. For example, for detailed information on disk usage, you can use the report utility to display a list of all files on the selected drive and their current compression ratios. You can also use a built-in optimizer to rearrange the files on the disk with either a quick optimize, which rearranges only fragmented files, or a full optimize, which optimizes the entire disk.

The Stacker Tuner lets you change the balance between how fast Stacker works and how tightly it compresses the data. Stacker was fast in both configurations. On our tests, when Stacker was optimized for speed, it actually outran an uncompressed disk. Stacker's compression ratio wasn't as good as DoubleDensity's, but it was better than that of the other packages when set for high compression.

A handy Stacker feature is that you can compress floppy or other removable-media disks. You just use the Stacker setup options to mount and compress the selected disk. You can take the compressed removable disk to any other computer, even one that is not running Stacker, and read and write the data. The compressed disk or cartridge will have two visible files on it: instructions in README.STC and the Stacker Anywhere program (STACKER.EXE). You run the Stacker Anywhere program to access the files on the removable media.

Stacker is fast, provides good compression, and is a comfortable package to use. Stacker's utilities provided accurate information on hard disk space use, datacompression ratios, and error-correction functions. Also, the program's documentation is the best of the four DOS packages we tested.

SuperStor Pro 1.0

If Stacker is the DOS compression utility against which others are measured, SuperStor Pro from AddStor is the next best thing. Although SuperStor Pro shares Stacker's price ($149) and is more Windows-capable, it's not quite as quick, flexible, or powerful.

Before you install SuperStor Pro, you must disable memory-resident programs (e.g., memory managers such as EMM386 or Compaq's CEMM). The installation program copies the device driver and utility programs to disk. The installer also modifies the CONFIG.SYS file to run the device driver at boot-up.

You continue the installation by running SuperStor Pro's main user program, sstor. With sstor, you can preview

compression results by viewing the uncompressed and compressed disk statistics. You then prepare the disk for compression. During this preparation, the program will recognize a Windows permanent swap file, and it will give you the option of keeping the swap file on a reserved partition or deleting it

Next, the sstor program asks if you want to compress all or part of the disk. You can select the compression ratio— ranging from 2 to 1 to 8 to 1. We picked the default 2 to 1.

Because we chose to compress a nonbooting partition, we had to create a separate mountable drive. The instructions for this custom installation weren't clear; we had to get information from three separate sections of the user's guide. To compress the 10-MB D drive partition, first we had to prepare the disk by making it mountable. Then we had to give the hidden file a unique name. To make the compressed partition automatically mountable, we had to manually change the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Like Stacker, SuperStor Pro can swap drive designations, so your compressed drive maintains its old drive letter. Even with the problems we had with the custom installation, we had no problems booting or running the system. Our original uncompressed D drive became a compressed D drive.

The device driver uses 52 KB of system RAM for a simple installation. You can load the driver into high or extended memory, which reduces the system RAM requirements to only 10 KB.

SuperStor Pro also works with floppy disks or other removable media. You just use the sstor menu options to mount and compress the selected disk. The sstor program lets you choose to make files on removable media read-only or read-write. Read-write compressed media include a driver each for DOS and Windows, as well as a Windows DLL. When you get your removable disk to another machine, you only need to run the appropriate driver, depending on whether you are running Windows.

SuperStor Pro has various utility programs, mostly under a single ssutil shell. The ssutil shell provides a variety of essential maintenance functions. The shell's analysis function is similar to that of chkdsk: It analyzes and repairs damage to compressed disks. A disk tune-up component performs fragmentation analysis and a full or partial defragmentation of compressed files. The ssutil shell can also recompress, raising the compression ratio by up to 25 percent by (more slowly) compressing files still further.

continued APRIL 1993 -BYTE 155

DATA COMPRESSION

DoubleSpace and DOS 6

Wi

Te took an early look at DOS 6, Microsoft's heir the single-user-PC throne DOS 6 has data compression built into the operating system in the form of a utility called DoubleSpace. In fact, DoubleSpace is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Stac Electronics against Microsoft; Stac Electronics alleges that DoubleSpace infringes Stac Elec tronics' patents.

From a user perspective, DOS 6 works much like Stacker and SuperStor Pro. Once you install DOS 6, you type in dblspace. DoubleSpace creates what Microsoft calls a CVF (compressed volume file). It also installs a driver that tricks DOS into seeing a CVF as a logical drive. One key difference between DoubleSpace and the other PC compressors is that the compression driver is actually an operating-system kernel file—its routines become part of the MS-DOS operating system at boot time.

When you install DoubleSpace, you are faced with two options: You can compress all your existing files in place, or you can simply create an empty compressed logical drive. The former option causes DoubleSpace to scan your entire partition, compress uncompressed files, move them into the CVF, and delete the original copy

of the file from the regular partition. Also included in DOS 6 is the MRCI (Microsoft Real-Time Compression Interface). The MRCI allows an application to query the operating system for the presence of a compression server. If a compression server is present, the application can call the server's compression and decompression routines. For example, if your telecommunications application is about to transmit a large amount of data across a network, it can first pass the data off to the compression server and then transmit the compressed information.

Within DOS 6 is an LZ (LempelZiv)-based compression server, which is more or less the compression engine that DoubleSpace uses to do its work. Although we ran a beta release of DOS 6 (and therefore couldn't produce any conclusive test results), we got a good picture of what the new operating system intends to offer. Our preliminary tests show that the DOS 6 compression engine yields compression ratios that score around the middle of the pack of the DOS products in this review, and throughput performance that scores near the top. Look for tests of the final release of DOS 6 in an upcoming issue of BYTE.

Finally, you can adjust the size of SuperStor Pro's compressed partition. Besides the utilities in the ssutil shell, there is also the simple command-line ssdir, which lists the files on the mounted drive, their sizes, the compression ratio, and the time and date.

Some of SuperStor Pro's utilities are available through a well-designed Windows interface. SuperStor Pro's SSW1NPRO Windows application is more informative than the Stacker equivalent. In addition. SuperStor Pro has a bundled program called the JPEG Workshop, which is a nice Windows application for image compression and light image processing. The JPEG Workshop is not integrated in SuperStor Pro and runs as a

separate program.

Unfortunately, SuperStor Pro is weakest where it matters most—in compression ratio and compression speed. SuperStor Pro turned in below-average scores on both of our measures of performance. Although its good utilities and Windows capability makes SuperStor Pro a strong contender, its performance keeps it from outgunning Stacker.

XtraDrive 1.0

XtraDrive from Integrated Information Technology takes a strange approach to increasing capacity. IIT's XtraDrive doubles the capacity of a hard disk by altering the boot track, replacing the DOS boot record at the BIOS level, and routing disk

function calls through its own device driver and interrupt handler. This has its pros and cons: It is easy to use, but data recovery can be considerably more difficult.

XtraDrive runs under DOS. There are no Windows programs in the package, although the software operates fine with Windows. Advanced installation options let you select expected compression ratio. We selected a ratio of 2 to 1, but you can go as high as 8 to 1. You can also select the EMS cache size, between one and four 16KB blocks, and an optional system RAM cache of the same size. For the benchmarks, we selected a 16-KB block for the system RAM cache and no EMS cache. Depending on the options, the drivers and cache can use from 40 KB to 90 KB of system memory, although you can load them in high memory.

The program creates two compressed disks equal in size to the original uncompressed disk. In our test system, the 10MB D drive became a 10-MB D and a 10MB E drive. XtraDrive keeps all the original data on the new D drive, so paths are retained.

The original disk contains an invisible file called IITV3.VOL, which is about 160 KB in size. IITV3VOL is the proprietary FAT (file allocation table) and drive information file for the XtraDrive virtual drive. It is one of two copies; the other copy is saved in a protected location outside of the compressed partition. If the IITV3.VOL file is damaged or destroyed, an XtraDrive utility program can rebuild the file.

XtraDrive is a slim package. It features three utilities: an xdir utility that is similar to DIR, which supplies information regarding compression and space availability, a chkdsk equivalent, and a defragmentation utility.

Because of the unique way in which XtraDrive modifies your hard disk, loss of or damage to the XtraDrive device driver will prevent access to the entire hard disk. With the other packages, such as SuperStor Pro or Stacker, loss or damage to the drivers prevents access to only the compressed disk space. Consequently, it is vitally important for you to follow the correct procedure for deinstalling XtraDrive.

XtraDrive provides fair compression and speed. Its technique of directly altering the boot track is unusual. Unlike Stacker and SuperStor Pro, the $99 package has few utilities and no Windows interface. (Version 2.0, with a larger set of utilities, will soon be available.) XtraDrive also has a no-bells-and-whistles approach to data compression that's easy to work with but its boot-track modifications make us uneasy, continued

156

YTE • APRIL 1993

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DATA COMPRESSION

Data

Compression on the Mac

All the products for the PC compress whole disk vol

ne uisk voi- /^gggjggasggsggs umes, but with the r-'~~" products for the

Mac, it's a different story. Three of the four Mac products we tested—AutoDoubler. SuperDisk, and Stufflt SpaceSaver— use what's best described as "file-at-atime" compression. Whenever you open a compressed file or launch a compressed application, the compression utility jumps into action and decompresses a copy of the file. As long as the file remains open, any application accessing it works with a decompressed image of that file. When you close the file, the utility reactivates and recompresses the file.

All three of the file-at-a-time compressors enhance the basic scheme with varying degrees of intelligence; for example, they all watch the uncompressed file for updates, and if none occurs, they simply discard the uncompressed image at close time. All three packages are also smart enough to recognize a .SIT file (i.e., a file compressed with the popular Stufflt utility) and don't bother trying to compress it.

This file-at-a-time technique has several advantages. Installation is painless, and you can freely mix compressed and uncompressed files on the same volume. In addition, it means that once a compressed file is open, you're working with an uncompressed data stream, and there's no time penalty for each read and write. However, the packages must play games with the Mac's file system so that, for instance, a Get Info selection returns the file's uncompressed size rather than its compressed size (i.e., its true size as seen by the File Manager).

Our fourth Mac product, TimesTwo, is a more traditional on-the-fly compression package. It operates beneath the Mac's File Manager, deluding your system into believing it has twice as much space as it really has.

AutoDoubler 2.0.1

Once installed on your Mac, Fifth Generation Systems' AutoDoubler waits silently for idle machine time. When such time is available, AutoDoubler begins scanning disks, looking for uncompressed files. It goes to work on any files it finds, turning the Mac's arrow cursor into a miniature AD (for AutoDoubler) so that a quick glance at your screen tells you that the

package is busy.

You can interrupt AutoDoubler at any time. If you move the cursor, insert a floppy disk, or do anything else that requires your Mac's attention, AutoDoubler will put its work aside and permit you to conduct business as usual. When your machine becomes idle again, AutoDoubler picks up where it left off. Your only clue that the package has been active at all (besides the increased disk space) is a small, reverse-video DD stamped in the lower left corner of the icons for those files that have been compressed. (AutoDoubler has a companion product, DiskDoubler, which is a less automated file compression utility. Auto-Doubler uses the same compression technology as DiskDoubler; hence the DD stamp.)

Whenever you open a compressed file or launch a compressed application, AutoDoubler sneaks in and decompresses the file. Depending on how big the file is and how you call it up (e.g., whether you open it as a read-only file or as an update file), AutoDoubler attempts to expand the file in RAM and keep its compressed image on disk unchanged. Consequently, the package does its best to keep access as swift as possible.

AutoDoubler carries on its compression in the background, but you can make all sorts of adjustments to its operation through AutoDoubler's control panel. For starters, you can target which volumes you want the package to ignore, so if you have a disk that you keep your immediate work on and you don't want to wait around for decompression when you open a file, you can tell AutoDoubler to skip it. You can also tell AutoDoubler how much idle time it should let pass before it goes into action.

AutoDoubler will decide whether to go to work on a volume based on a free-space target that you set after installation. If after one compression pass it finds that the free-space target is not met, it makes another pass, attempting to compress the files even further. The target and the other settings that the control panel provides help you control AutoDoubler's enthusiasm about compressing files.

If you're naming System 7.0, AutoDoubler installs a CopyDoubler utility on your disk. This program is integrated into the Finder and provides a number of useful enhancements. These enhancements include faster file copy (around two times faster) and file deletion (emptying the trash—about 10 times faster), as well as the ability to completely erase deleted files so they can't be illicitly recovered using a file recovery utility.

Fifth Generation Systems also includes the DD Expand utility with AutoDoubler.

DD Expand is an application that can expand any AutoDoubler-compressed file. Since you can freely distribute DD Expand on a noncommercial basis, you can simply copy it onto a floppy disk with your AutoDoubler-compressed files and pass the whole package to others who don't run AutoDoubler.

AutoDoubler provides compression that is as good as that of any of the other Mac packages not optimized for high compression. But AutoDoubler's compression speed was average. Although the S89.95 AutoDoubler is complete and easy to use, you can find more capability in less expensive Mac packages reviewed here.

SuperDisk 2.1

SuperDisk from Alysis Software is a $59, item-at-a-time compression program that is more obvious in operation than is AutoDoubler. SuperDisk doesn't operate during idle time; instead, it compresses a file when you close it and decompresses the file when you open it.

To make SuperDisk even more obvious when it kicks in, a pop-up window appears. The window plays a moviola whose main character is a soda can: If SuperDisk is compressing a file, you watch the soda can get crushed; if the package is expanding a file, the can reinflates. This display is charming the first few times, but its charm can rapidly transform into annoyance, particularly in the midst of compressing or decompressing a large file. Fortunately, you can disable this feature.

SuperDisk does not browse whole volumes, as AutoDoubler does. Rather, you tag those items that you want compressed by appending a .S to their names. This is not as arduous as it sounds: You can tag an entire folder, and anything moved into that folder will get compressed. You can also adjust SuperDisk's activity to your own workstyle: Files that you access frequently (and where you don't want to wait for decompression to take place) you simply leave untagged, and you move less active files into a tagged folder.

SuperDisk allows two levels of compression that are more or less a trade-off between speed and size. If you want maximum compression, then you'll pay a speed penalty. If you're happy with a less compact version of the compression algorithm, your system will open and close files more rapidly. Higher compression ratios consume more memory. (Just how much more is difficult to measure, since Mac memory is allocated and deallocated on the fly.) SuperDisk delivers great compression, but unfortunately, it's not very fast, even when set for maximum speed.

SuperDisk's control panel is as animated

158 BYTE- APRIL 1993

THE BENCHMARK FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE

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FAST SCSI-2 INTERFACE

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2105

560 MB 10 ms 10 max

Yes

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1,050 MB 10 ms 10 max

Yes

Micropolis is a registered trademark of Micropolis Corporation. AT is a registered trademark of IBM Circle 103 on Inquiry Card.

DATA COMPRESSION

as its crushing-soda-can pop-up. To alter the package's compression options, you proceed to a dialog box that contains three subpanels: one showing the soda can, another showing a leaping rabbit, and the third showing an elephant. If, for example, you select the most compact compression, the bunny leaps more slowly (showing a speed penally) and the elephant's girth swells (showing more memory consumption).

Another dialog box from the control panel lets you create auto-expanding files. These files are SuperDisk's answer to AutoDoubler's DD Expand utility. An auto-expanding file is compressed like any tagged SuperDisk file, but attached to it is a small piece of executable code that knows how to expand SuperDisk files. You can give an auto-expanding file to a Mac user who does not have SuperDisk, and he or she can decompress the file by simply double-clicking on it.

Finally, SuperDisk lets you passwordprotect files. When you attempt to open a protected file and the soda-can window pops up, you're prompted to enter the password before the open operation proceeds. This also occurs if you try to launch a protected application.

Stufflt SpaceSaver 1.0.3

Stuffit SpaceSaver ($59.95) from Aladdin Systems is a direct descendant of Stufflt, the premier data-compression utility for the Mac. The Stufflt utility originally appeared around 1987 as a shareware utility, and since then it has set the standard for BBS compression and has become a commercial product. The commercial version is Stufflt Deluxe 3.0, which includes SpaceSaver.

Interestingly, SpaceSaver and Stufflt Deluxe do not use the same compression algorithm. SpaceSaver is geared for speed; thus, it uses an LZ variation, while Stuffit Deluxe uses a proprietary technique designed for maximum compression.

SpaceSaver operates like a hybrid of AutoDoubler and SuperDisk. Like AutoDoubler, SpaceSaver compresses files during your system's idle time. Decompression takes place when you open or launch a compressed file. As with SuperDisk, SpaceSaver lets you tag files and folders that you want compressed. However, SpaceSaver is not restricted to a predefined tag; you can modify the string that SpaceSaver looks for in file and volume names. Additionally, SpaceSaver will respond to

the tag at the beginning or end of the name.

As with AutoDoubler, you can adjust the amount of idle time SpaceSaver lets pass before it scans your disk. If you need to have files compressed immediately, you can completely disable idle-time compression, and SpaceSaver will work like SuperDisk—compressing when the file closes. If you frequently use more recent files and tend to keep older files around in archives, then you can configure SpaceSaver to only compress those files that have not been modified within a certain amount of time. In this way, SpaceSaver will pass over recently used files as it scans the disk.

SpaceSaver provides the same trade-off between space and speed that we saw in SuperDisk. You can choose "fastest" or "smallest" compression. SpaceSaver was the fastest among the Mac packages and came in second for high compression.

One of the package's unique features is its magic menu. This is a miniature menu icon that appears to the right of the Special selection on the Desktop's menu bar. Clicking on the magic-menu icon activates a pull-down menu that lets you directly expand or compress files. The magic menu

I I I I I I I I

DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARIES™

PKWARE's* Data Compression Libraries™ allow software developers to add data compression technology to software applications. The application program controls all the input and output of data allowing data to be compressed or extracted to or from any device or area of memory.

• All Purpose Data Compression Algorithm Compresses Ascii or Binary Data Quickly with similar compression achieved by the popular PKzip software, however the format used by the compression routine is completely generic and not specific to the PKZIP file format.

• Application Controlled I/O and memory allocation for extreme flexibility. Adjustable Dictionary Size allows software to be fine tuned for Maximum Size or Speed. Approximately 35K memory needed for Compression, 12K memory needed for Extraction. Compatible with most popular Languages: C, C+ +, Pascal, Assembly, Basic, Clipper, Etc. Works with any 80x86 family CPU in real or protected mode. $295.00 No runtime royalties.

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160 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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DATA COMPRESSION

also allows you to alter some of SpaceSaver's more important configuration parameters (e.g., fast or tight compression) without having to call up control panels. It's simple to create a self-extracting file (or folder) within SpaceSaver. You can either move the files you want to compress into a folder and append a .SEA extension to the folder name—at which time SpaceSaver compresses that folder into a self-extracting archive—or use the Make Self-Extracting selection from the magic menu. Similarly, SpaceSaver can create .SIT files directly. If you're transferring files and the destination machine has a copy of Stufflt available, .SIT files offer the best compression since there's no executable code to carry for decompression.

TimesTwo 1.0.1

TimesTwo is an unusual, $149 compression package from Golden Triangle Computers that provides sector-based data compression. When you install TimesTwo, it covers an entire disk volume. In fact, TimesTwo takes over entire disks; you cannot run TimesTwo on a multiply partitioned drive. The company says that it is working to remove this limitation.

TimesTwo's installation is lengthier than those of the other Mac compression products, because it compresses your whole disk at installation time. Although the documentation recommends that you back up your hard disk prior to installation (sound advice), the TimesTwo installations we performed resulted in no lost or corrupted files. Anything on the partition at installation was compressed where it stood.

TimesTwo installs itself beneath the

Mac's Finder, and once it's in place, you don't need to make any adjustments to it. Consequently, TimesTwo doesn't have a control panel for selecting compression ratio or speed. If you install TimesTwo on an empty drive, the package simply makes your disk seem twice as large as its physical capacity. As you move files onto the disk, the actual ratio varies depending on what sort of data you're storing.

The TimesTwo disk has no attendant utility programs. A TimesTwo volume looks to the outside world like an ordinary volume, so there are no self-extracting compressed files to be made.

Because TimesTwo affects the entire disk volume, the only way we could get a good idea of compression ratios was to run a file copy program that filled up the compressed disk—the same technique we used to gauge the compression ratios of the PC products. The test results were pretty good: TimesTwo was fastest among the packages not specifically set for speed, and it gave the best compression for a package not tuned for file size.

However, running our test meant that the TimesTwo driver had to contend with a disk-full condition. When the disk filled, TimesTwo's response was a series of alert dialog boxes that began with strident warnings and concluded with the package telling us that the volume was unusable. It then threw the icon of the compressed disk into the trash.

We got the icon back by rebooting the system. It took the Norton Utilities' Disk Doctor to recover the disk. Since the system chucked the disk into the trash without properly closing any open files, the vol

ume's bit-map and information block were awry. Sometimes even the Disk Doctor couldn't resurrect the disk. It would tell us there was 75 MB of free space on the disk; however, TimesTwo kept complaining that we had less than 1 MB of space left and warning that we'd better not write any more files to the disk. Running the Verify option from TimesTwo's installer usually fixed the problem; in the most severe cases, we just had to reinstall TimesTwo.

Best to Compress

On the PC side, the overall winner was easily Stacker. It provided everything: the best performance, good data-compression ratios coupled with fast operation, a good user interface for Windows and DOS, an informative set of utility programs, and a well-written manual.

On the Mac side, all the packages were close on both the throughput index and the compression ratio. In the throughput index, SpaceSaver won out, although in compression ratios, there was no clear champion. SpaceSaver and SuperDisk ran a close race even down to the price; however, we chose SpaceSaver based on a mixture of price ($59.95 is easy to swallow), performance (SpaceSaver always scored at or near the top), and the comfort that comes from a trusted name in compression. ■

Rick Grehan is technical director of the BYTE Lab. He has a B.S. in physics and applied mathematics and an M.S. in mathematics/computer science. Stan Wszola is a testing editor for the BYTE Lab. You can reach them on BIX as "rick_g " and "stem," respectively.

COMPANY INFORMATION

Abacus Software

(DoubleDensity 1.0)

5370 52nd St. SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49512

(800)451-4319

(616)698-0330

fax:(616)698-0325

Circle 976 on Inquiry Card.

AddStor, Inc.

(SuperStor Pro 1.0)

1040 Marsh Rd., Suite 100

Menlo Park, CA 94025

(800)732-3133

(415) 688-0470

fax:(415)688-0466

Circle 977 on Inquiry Card.

Aladdin Systems, Inc.

(Stufflt SpaceSaver 1.0.3)

165WestridgeDr.

Watsonville, CA 95076

(408)761-6200

fax:(408)761-6206

Circle 978 on Inquiry Card.

Alysis Software Corp.

(SuperDisk 2.1)

1231 31st Ave.

San Francisco, CA 94122

(800) 825-9747

(415)566-2263

fax:(415)566-9692

Circle 979 on Inquiry Card.

Fifth Generation Systems, Inc.

(AutoDoubler 2.0.1)

10049 North ReigerRd.

Baton Rouge, LA 70809

(800) 873-4384

(504)291-7221

fax: (504) 295-3268

Circle 980 on Inquiry Card.

Golden Triangle Computers, Inc.

(TimesTwo 1.0.1)

4849 Ronson Court

San Diego, CA 92111

(800)326-1858

(619)279-2100

fax: (619) 279-1069

Circle 981 on Inquiry Card.

Integrated Information Technology, Inc.

(XtraDrive 1.0)

2445 Mission College Blvd.

Santa Clara, CA 95054

(800) 832-0770

(408)727-1885

fax: (408) 980-0432

Circle 982 on Inquiry Card.

Stac Electronics

(Stacker 3.0)

5993 Avenida Encinas

Carlsbad, CA 92008

(800) 522-7822

(619)431-7474

fax:(619)431-0880

Circle 983 on Inquiry Card.

162 B YTE • APRIL 1993

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m\ REVIEWS

SYSTEM

Uitrapoi table PCs: Worth the Trade-Offs?

ROBERT E. CALEM

Relentlessly, personal computers continue to shrink. Early portable units, such as the first Compaqs, were actually more luggable than portable—they were about the size of a small suitcase and heavy enough to cause hernias. Luggables were soon followed by machines labeled laptops because they could be comfortably placed on your lap without blocking circulation. Soon after, the state of the art evolved to notebook computers, named for dimensions that were roughly equivalent to a sheet of notebook paper.

Two other categories—subnotebooks and palmtops—define a class of computers that can go anywhere you can go. Now you need never leave your computer behind. But has the ultraportability trend gone too far? As always, you must consider the trade-offs.

Smaller than a Breadbox

Subnotebooks are smaller than notebook computers but can still run standard DOS applications. These units have no internal floppy drive, helping them achieve lighter weights but hampering convenience. As the subnotebooks get even smaller, they are moving into the roles once reserved for palmtops. Some are now "instant-on" (i.e., you don't have to wait for them to boot up) and include palmtop-style applications in ROM, such as schedulers and address books. But they still don't fit into a jacket pocket.

Subnotebooks, in fact, come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and capabilities (see table 1). At the head of the class are models powered by processors able to run Windows 3.1 and with bright, backlit VGA displays. Lost in the crowd are models with slightly less powerful microprocessors and solid-state memory in place of hard drives, as well as less impressive

screens. Often, the same PC companies offering notebook computers sell subnotebook models: Dell Computer, Gateway 2000, and Zeos International, for example.

Palmtop computers easily fit into your jacket pocket and are mainly used as personal schedulers, memo-takers, and address books (see table 2). Unlike subnotebooks, a number of palmtops are made by the same consumer electronics companies that sell calculators, organizers, and video games. In fact, palmtop computers are about the same size as some calculators, and they usually weigh only a pound or less.

For this roundup, I used four subnotebooks (see photo 1) and three palmtops (see photo 2). The subnotebooks included the Dell 320SLi, the Gateway 2000 HandBook, the Olivetti Quaderno, and the Zeos Pocket PC. Among the palmtops were the Hewlett-Packard 95LX, the Psion Series 3 256K-S, and the Sharp Wizard OZ-9600.

Photo 1:

Subnotebooks come in

ultraportable sizes but still run standard MS-DOS software. The price you pay for compactness is a cramped keyboard or a tiny screen.

164 BYTE • APRIL 1993

PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PARKER/AVIS STUDIO© 1993

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

SUBNOTEBOOKS

Dell 320SLi

I grew to like the $2148 Dell 320SLi more and more as I used it. At first, like a childsafety cap on a bottle of aspirin, the two briefcase-type latches that sealed the unit shut were difficult to work. And at about 1'h inches deep and 1 1 inches wide, it's the largest machine tested. Compared to the other subnotebooks, the 320SLi seemed more cumbersome. In the end, however, its size was a major advantage. Aesthetically, the 320SLi is the best of the lot. The matte-finished plastic case feels nearly like rubber and is pleasing to look at. The same could not be said about the 320SLi's reflective LCD, which, despite being bright, is difficult to look at

for a long time. Using a graphical word processor that I installed on the 60-MB hard drive, I often lost sight of the mouse cursor. It sometimes seemed to just disappear. Moreover, the dial for adjusting the display's contrast is located too near the machine's power switch. As a result, it's easy to dim the display accidentally before turning on the computer. The screen is big, though, thanks to the machine's large size.

The supplied external floppy drive is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, but the 320SLi's best feature is a keyboard that is large enough to permit fast touch-typing. A clever keyboard mouse is designed in as well, although not clearly marked. I discovered it only after reading the plainly written and well-oreanized user's cuide.

I WHAT SUBNOTEBOOKS AND PALMTOPS ARE

Subnotebooks are significantly smaller than traditional notebooks but still run standard DOS applications. Palmtops fit in a coat pocket and are more suited to personal scheduling and, in most cases, number crunching.

I LIKES

Ultraportability; integrated applications.

I DISLIKES

Touch-typing on subnotebooks is difficult; on palmtops it is impossible.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The HP 95LX combines impressive power in a palmtop package. Among the subnotebooks, the Gateway HandBook strikes the best mix of power, portability, features, and price. But go with a standard notebook unless portability is your top concern.

Serial, parallel, keyboard/mouse, and VGA display ports are all located together in a convenient rear bay. The 386-class microprocessor that powers the 320SLi provides brisk performance at all times. The machine's larger size sacrifices some convenience, but that trade-off is sufficiently balanced by the advantages of a larger screen and keyboard.

Gateway 2000 HandBook

The $1295 HandBook was the subnotebook I tried first. I like it, despite some drawbacks. Its most outstanding feature is a backlit LCD with blue characters. It's the best screen in the group. Unfortunately, the HandBook's keyboard suffers from unusual placement of certain frequently used keys. The backslash key, for example, is positioned in the lower-right corner in a difficult-to-reach spot rather than in its familiar locale above the Enter key. Moreover, the keyboard, while better than all but the 320SLi's, would benefit from wider key-spacing.

The slightly cramped keyboard contributes to the compact dimensions of the HandBook. It's small enough to fit in your lap with room to spare. But that extra room would be taken up by the HandBook's

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 165

ULTRAPORTABLE PCS

SUBNOTEBOOK FEATURES

Table 1: Subnotebooks come in a range of sizes and capabilities. Of these four, the Gateway HandBook is the only one with a backlit display. The Dell 320SLI sacrifices some portability for a larger screen and keyboard. (• = yes; o = no.)

Dell Computer

Gateway 2000

Olivetti

Zeos International

Subnotebook model

320SLi

HandBook

Quaderno

Pocket PC

Price

$2148 (with 4 MB of RAM)

$1295

$1195

$595

Processor

20-MHz 386SL

C&T 10-MHz 8680

16-MHz

NEC V30HL

(8088-compatible)

7.15-MHz

NEC V30

(286-compatible)

RAM (standard/maximum)

2 MB/10 MB

1 MB/3 MB

1 MB/1 MB

1 MB/1 MB

Dimensions (DxWxH; inches) 7.8 x 11 x 1.3

5.9x9.8x1.4

6.0x8.3x1.2

4.5 x 9.6 x 0.88

Weight

3.6 lbs

2.75 lbs (with battery)

2.0 lbs

1.2 lbs

Display type

Reflective triple-supertwist LCD

Backlit supertwist LCD

Reflective LCD FSTN

Supertwist LCD

Keyboard layout

85 keys

78 keys

94 keys

81 keys

Integrated mouse

•

0

o

o

Battery type

Rechargeable nickel-metal hydride

Rechargeable

nickel-metal hydride

or six AA

Nickel-cadmium or six AA

Two AA

Battery life (vendor spec.) 3.5 hours (without power conservation)

2.5 hours

2 to 4 hours

10 hours

Recharge time External floppy drive

1.5 to 2 hours

2 hours

3 hours

Not applicable Optional (through parallel port)

Standard

Optional

Optional

Hard drive size

60 MB

40 MB

20 MB

IC cards (512 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB)

Ports

PCMCIA, serial, parallel, VGA, keyboard

Parallel, serial

Serial, parallel, PCMCIA

Serial, parallel, two PCMCIA Type 1

Accessories

Tape drive, battery charger external keypad

2400-/9600-bps fax modem

Cigarette-lighter adapter

Serial and parallel adapters

Included software

Editor

•

•

•

Spreadsheet

0

•

o

Database

o

•

o

Address book Scheduler

o

0

•

0

•

•

File transter

•

•

•

Other

MS-DOS, Windows

MS-DOS, Windows

MS-DOS,

audio software

MS-DOS

SUBNOTEBOOK BATTERY LIFE

Dell 320SLi

Gateway 2000 HandBook

Olivetti Quaderno

Zeos Pocket PC

Minutes

ul

H

■

^H

■

0

60

120

180

240

300

Tests performed by the BYTE Lab indicate the type of battery life you can expect without power-conservation features. The Zeos Pocket PC used alkaline batteries; the other units were tested with rechargeable batteries.

Combo Unit. This $265 option houses an external floppy drive, as well as serial and parallel ports to supplement the ones found

on the HandBook itself.

Microsoft Works for DOS, which comes loaded on the HandBook's 40-MB hard

up and running with the unit right after unpacking it, and there was little need to read the simple user's guide.

On one occasion, the HandBook slipped into a coma while in suspend mode, and no amount of fidgeting would awaken it. My call to Gateway's support line was answered quickly, though, and I was back up and running in less than 3 minutes. The solution: pressing a reset switch on the bottom of the machine. Another alternative—pressing Fn-Alt-Del to reshadow the BIOS, clear memory, and issue reset commands to some hardware functions— was ineffective, as was attempting to warm-boot the machine.

1 was disappointed by the slow performance of the Chips & Technologies 8680 PC/Chip microprocessor that powered the HandBook. Often, something as simple as

166 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Exercise Your Video... Stretch It!

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Copyright© ATlTechnologies Inc., 1993. All company and/or productnames are trademarks and/orregistered trademarks of their respective manufacturers.'Accelerates Indeo Video. RLE and Video 1 compressed filesunderVideoforWindows. QuickTime forWindowssupportis planned. Performance varies depending onsystem configuration. 'ISAversionsonly. 'Suggested retail prices, dealers may sellfor less. Prices andfeatures are subjectto changewithoutnotice.

Circle 67 on Inquiry Card.

Perfecting the PC

ULTRAPORTABLE PCS

saving a text file within Works took so long it left me wondering if I had stalled the system. Still, I liked this machine and loved the bright, backlit display.

Olivetti Quaderno

Like a fine Italian sports car, the $1195 Olivetti Quaderno is fine to behold. It has some nifty features. But like a sports car, this machine has limited appeal. The unit is highly compact, but the keyboard is too cramped for touch-typing. It also suffers from a dim reflective display.

The XT-compatible Quaderno includes audio features that set it apart from the other systems. Built-in audio-recording software lets you store voice messages in MS-DOS file format on the internal 20MB hard drive. You can record voice files with a microphone hooked to a port on the computer's side and use them within any of the Quaderno's built-in applications or most word processors. The usual cassetteplayer controls—fast-forward, rewind, pause, play, and stop—are located on top of the machine, and you monitor functions on a small LCD screen that is always visible. You can use the controls even when the system is closed.

Built-in software includes a word processor, calculator, calendar, business card database, and phonebook. All are easily accessed from a main menu and are simple to learn. The unit is powered by a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery or six AA batteries. Options include a car cigarettelighter adapter and an external floppy drive. While the Quaderno is probably the most unique system in this lineup, it falls a bit short when confronted with serious business tasks.

Zeos Pocket PC

The Zeos Pocket PC strikes a middle ground between subnotebooks and palmtops. It's extremely portable, runs on AA batteries, and has built-in palmtop-style software, such as a scheduler and an address book. But the DOS interface and programs will still be familiar to PC notebook users.

As soon as you turn on the juice to the Pocket PC. an attractive main menu greets you, with graphical buttons depicting the eight built-in software applications. The choices include file management, calendar, to-do list, card file, and calculator software, Microsoft Works for DOS, a file transfer utility, and an information base listing international telephone area codes, weight and measure conversion tables, and user-customizable currency exchange rates. The combination of a function-key interface and an underlying DOS interface makes the Pocket PC easy to learn and

use. The user's guide, however, is intimidating, with small, dark type and very little white space.

The Pocket PC is an XT-compatible system, making it a relatively slow machine. The keyboard, just wide enough for touch-typing, lacks a solid feel, but it employs an efficient layout with no keys mysteriously placed in awkward locations. The unit houses two PCMCIA card slots as

well as a serial and parallel port.

At $595, and without a real hard drive, the Pocket PC comes very close to being categorized as an electronic organizer. In the end, however, it is distinguished from those devices by its 10-inch-wide keyboard size. If you're looking for one machine that doubles as a scheduler and a low-end subnotebook, Zeos offers a clever combination.

PALMTOPS

Sharp Wizard OZ-9600

The OZ-9600 was the newest and in some ways the best palmtop computer I tested. Still, some improvements are required. The unit sells for $649 and comes standard with 256 KB of RAM.

Although loo large and heavy to fit comfortably in any pocket, the OZ-9600 won't occupy too much space in a briefcase or handbag. And despite having the largest reflective LCD in the group, its application screens are often cramped with narrow rows and columns. The interface is somelimes difficult to navigate. At one point, I found myself stuck trying to delete an entry in the to-do list. A search through the user's guide revealed an overly complex menu system. And while the user's guide clearly explains how to use all the OZ9600's many features, its heft and complexity can be intimidating.

I appreciated some of the unique features. The display, for example, is touchsensitive. The special pen that ships with the device, when combined with integrated "digital ink" software, turns the OZ9600 into an electronic notebook where you can write notes on the screen and store them away for later retrieval. This scrapbook might even temporarily substitute for the other integrated applications, such as the appointment scheduler or card file, until you have learned how to use them effectively.

Photo 2: Palmtop computers can usually fit in a coat pocket. They can handle scheduling, notetaking, and some pretty serious spreadsheet work—but forget touch-typing.

Other interesting features include a builtin infrared system for transmitting data from one OZ-9600 to another (or to a personal computer hooked up to an optional interface device) and a built-in word processing program that is powerful enough to be used on a PC. Unfortunately, its power was difficult to use for very long because the machine's small keyboard is not well suited to touch-typing. Overall, the OZ9600 is intriguing and powerful, but I found its interface somewhat complex.

Psion Series 3 256K-S

The $545 Psion Series 3 is the smallest, lightest, and best-looking of the three palmtops. It is also the easiest to learn because of its simple interface. I was able to effectively use the Series 3 right away. Icon buttons located just above the keyboard open the built-in applications. These applications include Lotus 1-2-3-compatible software, a personal scheduler, a calculator, a world clock, and a word processor. The keyboard itself is uncluttered, and the light keys are easily distinguished against the darker background. Like the other palmtops, though, it's too small for touch-typing.

A main menu on the reflective LCD lists the data contents of the various multitasking applications. The display itself is small but adequate.

Like Sharp's OZ-9600, the Series 3 is accompanied by a hefty user's guide, but this auide is not as well written. It did not,

168

YTE • APRIL 1993

45 SECONDS OF COLOR WEO OH 1M MB III

0 SEQUENCE CAPTURE: 1st MPEG SOLUTION

PROFESSIONAL FRAME CAPTURE: 16 MILLIONS OF COLORS

COMPARISO Movies capture MPEG compression Digital VCR (100 % software) Frame capture

_ ; Video standard f Spatial definition < Aspect ratio

Size of the board . Technology Installation , IRQ, DMA ' SVGA modes

yes

yes (about 30 Kbytes per sec

yes

high professional quality

16 millions colors per pixel

4:2:2 (2 times more color samples)

NTSC.PALandSECAM

768 x 576 (PAL and SECAM)

640x480 (MTSC)

square pixel

short: compatible with desktop PCs

miniaturized: SMT

no switches at all

none: high compatibility

all

medium quality

16 millions colors per

4:1:1

NTSC, PAL,

720x512 (PAL)

640x480 (NTSC)

rectangular pixel

long

classic

many switches

several IRQ and DM

limited absolutely necessai

MAKER™ is delivered with the best software under WINDOWS:

IMAGER™ : frame capture, video sequence capture. MPEG compression, image edition (color controls, text overlay, cropping, zoom, vertical & horizontal flip, numerous filters, contour extraction....), save images in .BMP (8 bits or 24 bits), .TIF (G,P, RGB, YUV, CMYK,...), .PCX, .VSF, .MPG,... MPEG PLAYER™ : veritable digital VCR, letting you play MPEG-compressed sequences in normal mode or single-step forward or backward under WINDOWS 3.0 and 3.1.

MULTIMEDIA MANAGER™ from MULTIMEDIA TELECOM: true generator of multimedia and hypermedia applications with the following main features:

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Circle 167 on Inquiry Card.

ULTRAPORTABLE PCS

PALMTOP FEATURES

Table 2: Palmtops are about the size of electronic calculators and run on alkaline batteries. The HP 95LX includes Lotus 1-2-3 in ROM. The Sharp Wizard OZ-9600 features a touchscreen and infrared communications. (• = yes; o = no.)

Hewlett-Packard Psion Sharp Electronics

Palmtop model

HP 95LX

Series 3 256K-S

Wizard OZ-9600

Price

$550 for 512-KB model, $799 fori-MB model

$545

$649

Processor 9HI

NEC V20H (8088-compatible)

NEC V30H (80C86-compatible)

Proprietary

Standard RAM

512 KB or 1 MB

256KB

256KB

Dimensions (DxWxH; inches)

3.4x6.3x1.0

3.3 x 6.5 x 0.9

4.1 x7.1 x1.0

Weight

11 ounces

12 ounces

15 ounces

Display type

Supertwist LCD

Retardation film LCD

Touchscreen LCD

Display size (inches)

1.9x4.5

1.5x3.9

3.0x4.0

Ports

Serial

Serial

Serial, infrared

Card slots

One PCMCIA

Two (solid-state disks for RAM, EEPROM, or ROM)

One proprietary Wizard slot

Batteries

Two AA

Two AA

Four AAA

Options Integrated software

Connectivity pack,

serial interface,

RAM cards, dictionary card

Serial and parallel interfaces,

C development environment,

language translator,

software cards

Wireless printer and

computer interfaces,

PC and Mac link software,

30 software cards

Editor

•

Spreadsheet

Optional

Calculator

•

Address book

•

Scheduler

•

To-do list

•

File transfer

•

Other

File utility

Database, programming language, world information, Spanish version

World clock, electronic ink pad, filer

for example, explain how to clear the calculator's "list of previous calculations," a pot into which all solved problems are thrown when a new problem is begun. Neither could I figure out how to do this on my own. To the day I sent the unit back, the list remained.

The Series 3 works very well as a simple organizer and scheduler. It does not offer some of the high-end features of the OZ-9600 or the HP 95LX, but it is very easy to learn and use. If you want an electronic replacement for your Day-Timer, the Series 3 is a solid choice.

Hewlett-Packard 95LX

The HP 95LX is quite plain, with a small keyboard featuring black keys on a black background, but don't let the aesthetics fool you. HP has packed a lot of power into a small package, as evidenced by the intimidating user's guide. The guide is nearly as thick as the Concise Oxford Dictionary that sits on the shelf above my PC. But there is a lot to cover here. The HP 95LX contains real Lotus 1-2-3, not a com

patible, in ROM; and much of the manual is devoted to explaining the spreadsheet program alone. The HP 95LX also features a high-end HP scientific calculator and the usual array of applications: a to-do list, an appointment diary, a memo editor, a card file, and a telephone directory. It also has MS-DOS loaded into ROM.

For data communications, the HP 95LX is a powerhouse—especially considering the number of after-market wireless devices that will work with it to send and receive information over long distances. It also boasts the most on-board memory for data storage: The $799 model includes 1 MB; the $550 model holds 512 KB. Its reflective LCD is adequate.

If you have serious spreadsheet work in mind for your palmtop computer, the HP 95LX is an excellent choice. You'll also appreciate the connectivity pack for transferring files to your PC.

Carry-Along Alternatives

Subnotebook and palmtop computers serve very different needs. The larger machines,

while they can be loaded with the same types of applications found in the palmtop models, are not nearly as portable and are usually more expensive. Moreover, battery life for the subnotebooks is measured in hours, not weeks or months as with the palmtops, and that often means you'll have to take along a cumbersome AC adapter. Add to that an external floppy drive and perhaps a spare battery, and you might be looking at a major nuisance. You should consider these systems only if portability is your chief criterion. When testing the battery life of the subnotebooks (see the figure on page 166). the BYTE Lab discovered some problems with voltage levels on the serial port. The Gateway HandBook, in particular, provided unacceptable voltage levels to the serial port as battery power began to degrade. And. in general, the subnotebooks did not seem as sturdy as standard notebooks. These types of problems emphasize the nature of these units: They are not in the same class, in terms of power and functionality, as standard notebook computers.

170 BYTE • APRIL 1993

TheWoiidAt Yaw Fingertips.

INTRODUCING A 1.3 LB. PC!

SEND & RECEIVE E-MAIL AND MORE.

Imagine a portable PC that lets you send and receive e-mail, modem a memo to the home office, write reports, create spreadsheets, manage your calendar, calculate your expenses., .work non-stop for ten hours.. .and is so portable that it weighs about the same as a notepad.

A futuristic fantasy? Not unless the future is now. It's the ZEOS" Pocket PC, and only ZEOS has it. You're going to love how portable and affordable it is. In fact, we think you'll find it's the one PC you'll want to take with you everywhere!

COMPACT YET COMPLETE.

At only 9%" x 4Mn and only 1.3 lbs., what's great about the ZEOS Pocket PC is that it has a keyboard you can really use. If you're accustomed to typing with both hands, switching to a palmtop can be awkward because the keyboard only lets you type with one hand or even one finger. Yet the ZEOS Pocket PC's keyboard lets you use both hands easily, so you won't sacrifice comfort and speed for portability.

And even though it's small, the ZEOS Pocket PC carries afuU suite of industry standard software already loaded and ready to go! You get Microsoft DOS 5.0 system files with built-in file transfer and Microsoft Works 2.0 with word processing, spreadsheet, database and communications programs. Plus, you get a personal organizer which includes a calendar/planner, "to do" list, business card file, information retrieval (for country codes, converting measurements and currency) and more. It's everything you need to manage your life!

YOUR LINK TO THE WORLD.

Modem a memo to a client; send and retrieve your e-mail. With the Pocket PC's optional fax/modem, you can communicate worldwide. Plus, expanding the memory is another easy option—with an additional memory card that slips right into a slot on the system's underside. And that's not all.

IT JUST KEEPS GOING...

Ten hours of continuous use? Absolutely! All it takes is the two AA alkaline batteries included with your system. And your ZEOS Pocket PC has great power management, too—it automatically switches to the suspend mode when you take a break. Plus, when you turn off your system, then turn it on again, it goes right back to where you left off. What a time-saver!

FREE 24-HOUR TECH SUPPORT.

Questions about your purchase? ZEOS technical support is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and always toll-free. And we back every ZEOS purchase with our 30-Day Absolute Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee, One Year Limited Warranty and more.

ORDER YOUR ZEOS POCKET PC TODAY. MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

Call us today at 800-554-5226.You're going to love the new ZEOS Pocket PC. We guarantee it!

tf&

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BUY WITH CONFIDENCE.

ZEOS just won PC Magazine's Readers' Choice for Service & Reliability (Feb. 9, 1993).We're the only PC vendor to earn the "Excellent" rating for both our laptop and desktop systems!

-*f

"A wonder of small-scale engineering" -PC Week September 14,1992

"The first mini PC with a keyboard large enough for serious typing" -PC World November 1992

"Blows the HP palmtop away" -C

ONLY $595!

CPU: Industry-standard NECV30.

Memory: 1 MB of RAM and 1.5MB of ROM. Size: Only 1.3 lbs., 9%"x4W,x%7 flower Simply: Two AA alkaline batteries and 2032 Lithium back-up battery, all included. Ten hours battery life with continuous use, even more in suspend! Preloaded Software: MS-DOS 5.0 system files, Microsoft Works 2.0 (word processing, spreadsheet, database ana communications programs) and a personal organizer, planner, to do list, card file, information retrieval and calculator. I/O Ports: One serial, one parallel and two PCMCIA memory card connectors. Carrying case, cables and adapters included. Power Management: Automatic transition between active, doze and suspend modes. Screen; Easy-to-read 7" x

character display. Keyboard: 81-key with 12 function keys, embedded numeric keypad and special-function hat keys. Special Travel Kit only $249.' Comes with send/ receive fax/modem and communications software.

ORDER NOW TOLL FREE:

800-554-5226

Fax Orders: 612-633-1325 Government: 800-245-2449 Outside U.S. and Canada: 612-633-6131 Hearing Impaired (TDD): 800-228-5389 MasterCard, VISA, Discover, American Express* Z-Card,' COD and Leasing Programs Open 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Ifear!

All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice Please call for current pricing and warranty details. ZEOS is a publicly traded company: NASDAQ symbol: ZEOS, © 1993 ZEOS International, Ltd., 1301 Industrial Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55413 USA. All products and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. PT1R-BYT-9304

Circle 152 on Inquiry Card.

ULTRAPORTABLE PCS

Of the units tested, I really appreciated the Dell 320SLi's larger keyboard and the form factor of the Zeos Pocket PC, but the Gateway HandBook offers a strong combination of features and, even with the optional floppy drive included, lists for almost $600 less than the 320SLi.

The palmtop units can be useless if your major work entails typing or using powerful PC software while mobile. They're intended as supplements, not substitutes, for a desktop or even a notebook PC. They

can be very efficient organizational tools if used to their full advantage as replacements for the myriad scraps of paper that might be floating around in your pockets and on your desk right now. Because of its impressive mix of power and features, I recommend the HP 95LX. ■

Robert E. Calem is a freelance computer journalist based in New York. He can be reached on both BIX and MCI Mail as "rcalem."

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Plus, Flow Charting 3 is now available in a LAN version. Making it easy to share files and set up work groups for specific projects.

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COMPANY INFORMATION

Dell Computer Corp.

(320SLi)

9505 Arboretum Blvd.

Austin, TX 78759

(800) 289-3355

(512)338-4400

fax:(512)343-3653

Circle 1232 on Inquiry Card.

Gateway 2000, Inc.

(HandBook)

610 Gateway Dr.

North Sioux City, SD 57049

(800) 523-2000

(605) 232-2000

fax: (605) 232-2023

Circle 1233 on Inquiry Card.

Hewlett-Packard Co.

(HP 95LX)

Corvallis Division

1000 Northeast Circle Blvd.

Corvallis, OR 97330

(800) 443-1254

Circle 1234 on Inquiry Card.

Olivetti

(Quaderno)

22425 East Appleway Ave.

Liberty Lake, WA 99019

(509) 927-5600

fax:(509)927-5612

Circle 1235 on Inquiry Card.

Psion, Inc.

(Series 3 256K-s)

5 Concord Farms

555 Virginia Rd.

Concord, MA 01742

(508)371-0310

fax:(508)371-9611

Circle 1236 on Inquiry Card.

Sharp Electronics Corp.

(Wizard OZ-9600)

Wizard Division

Sharp Plaza

Mahwah, NJ 07430

(800) 321-8877

Circle 1237 on Inquiry Card.

Zeos International, Ltd.

(Pocket PC)

1301 International Blvd.

Minneapolis, MN 55413

(800)423-5891

fax:(612)633-1325

Circle 1238 on Inquiry Card.

172 B YTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 115 on Inquiry Card.

YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD

For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343!

es, 1 want

information on the following products!

Fill out this coupon carefully. Please Print.

A. What is your primary job

;

D. What operating systems are you

1, Circle the

function/principal area of responsibility? (Check one)

currently using? (Check all that apply)

12 Q PC'MS-DOS 15 J Una

Name

t Q MIS/DIP

13 3 DOS + Windows 16 J MacOS

Numbers on

2 G Programmer/Systems Analyst

14 3 OS/2 17 Q VAX/VMS

Title

3 □ Adminslration/Managemenl

E. For how many people do you

Your Direct

4 Q Sales/Marketing

5 Q Engineer/Scientist

influence the purchase of hardware or software?

18 □ 1-25 20 Q 51-99 ent 19 Q 26-50 21 □ 100 or more

Link Card j

Company

6 □ Other

B. What is your level of manaqem

Circle the numbers

Address

responsibility?

7 □ Senior-level 9 Q Prolessiona

8 Q Middle-level

which are found on ads

City

State

!ip

and articles in this issue

C. Are you a reseller (VAR, VAD, Dealer, Consultant)?

Phone

Fax

or circle the product !

iu -i Tea n _i no

April 1993 186 96 98 |

category number and

Product Category

Disks & Optical Drives 7

Multimedia 19 Educational

30 Shareware 42

receive information on

Information

Diskettes/Duplicators 8

Printers/Plotters 20 Engineering/Scientilic 31 Software Duplication 43

all advertisers listed in

Circle the numbers below for

Fax Boards/Machines 9

Programmable Hardware 21 Entertainment

32 Spreadsheets 44

information on the entire category

Graphics Tablets/Mice/

Scanners/OCR/Digitizers 22 Graphics

33 Unix 45

that category.

of products you're interested in.

Pen Input 10

Tape Drives 23 Macintosh

34 Utilities 46

Hardware

Keyboards 11

UPS

24 Mail Order

35 Windows 47

Accessories/Supplies 1 Add-in Boards 2

LAN Hardware 12 Laptops & Notebooks 13

Software Mathematical/Statistical 36 Word Processing 48 Business 25 Miscellaneous Software 37 Genera|

2. Print Your

Bar Coding 3 Communications/Networking 4 Computer Systems 5

Mailorder 14 Memory/Chips/Upgrades 15 Miscellaneous Hardware 16

CAD/CAM 26 On-Line Sen/ices 38 Books/Publications 49 Communications/Networking 27 Operating Systems 39 Hecrui|ment s0 Data Acquisition 28 Programming Languages/ Misn*.ner>..s ret

Name and

Data Acquisition 6

Modems/Multiplexors 17 Monitors & Terminals 18

Database 29 Tools Security

40 41

Address

Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to

Inquiry Numbers 52-233

Inquiry Numbers 409-590

Inquiry Numbers 766-947 1

Inquiry Numbers 1123-1304

52 78 104 130 156 182

208

409 435 461 4B7

513 539

565

766 792 818 844 870 896

922

1123 1149 1175 1201 1227 1253 127'

53 79 105 131 157 183

209

410 436 462 488

514 540

566

767 793 819 845 871 897

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1124 1150 1176 1202 1228 1254 1280

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210

411 437 463 489

515 541

567

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1125 1151 1177 1203 1229 1255 1281

1-413-637-4343.

55 81 107 133 159 185

211

412 438 464 490

516 542

568

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925

1126 1152 1178 1204 1230 1256 1282

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60 86 112 138 164 190

216

417 443 469 495

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573

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220

421 447 473 499

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577

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423 449 475 501

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227

428 454 480 506

532 558

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1142 1168 1194 1220 1246 1272 1298

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72 98 124 150 176 202

228

429 455 481 507

533 559

585

786 812 838 864 890 916

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1143 1169 1195 1221 1247 1273 1299

73 99 125 151 177 203

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430 456 482 508

534 560

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1144 1170 1196 1222 1248 1274 1300

74 100 126 152 178 204

230

431 457 483 509

535 561

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590

791 817 843 869 895 921

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1148 1174 1200 1226 1252 1278 130

Inquiry Numbers 234-408

Inquiry Numbers 591-765

Inquiry Numbers 948-1122 j

Inquiry Numbers 1306-1479

234 259 284 309 334 359

384

591 616 641 666

691 716

741

948 973 998 1023 1048 1073

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1305 1330 1355 1380 1405 1430 145!

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950 975 1000 1025 1050 1075

1100

1307 1332 1357 1382 1407 1432 1457

237 262 287 312 337 362

238 263 288 313 338 363

387 388

594 619 644 669

595 620 645 670

694 719

695 720

744 745

951 976 1001 1026 1051 1076

952 977 1002 1027 1052 1077

1101 1102

1308 1333 1358 1383 1408 1433 1458

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1309 1334 1359 1384 1409 1434 1459

^*M I

239 264 289 314 339 364

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596 621 646 671

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Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category.

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3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies!

BITE m

REVIEWS

HARDWARE

PowerBook Peripherals

TOM THOMPSON

In October 1991, Apple introduced the PowerBooks, the company's new line of notebook computers. A year later, Apple delivered more powerful PowerBooks and introduced new, lightweight PowerBook Duos designed for docking stations. As small and light as the original PowerBook and the PowerBook Duo are, their designs actually offer significant room for expansion. Both models have two slots: a memory slot for adding extra RAM and a modem slot for installing an optional modem.

Unfortunately, Apple offers only a few options for these systems: a pricey 4-MB RAM expansion board for each machine; a 14,400-bps data and 9600-bps fax modem, called the Express Modem, for each machine; and a 2400-bps fax/data modem for the PowerBook. Naturally, third-party vendors leapt at the opportunity to get a piece of the PowerBook action, and they quickly offered their own expansion hardware at competitive prices.

To see how this third-party expansion market is developing, I gathered together a variety of peripherals, ranging from network connectors to modems to a Duo docking unit, for evaluation. For hardware, I used a PowerBook 180 and a PowerBook Duo 230. This review is by no means intended to be a comprehensive guide to every PowerBook peripheral on the market, but it does offer an overview of some of the more significant products that are now available.

While I found plenty of products for the standard PowerBooks, there were virtually none for the Duo. Two factors account for this paucity of Duo peripherals. First, the Duo is a new design, on the market for scarcely six months. Second, the dimensions and power requirements for Duo expansion boards are radically different from those of the PowerBook, which means that even seasoned third-party vendors practically had to start over on the peripheral designs.

At the time of this review, most Duo products were still preliminary or in very short supply. Even Apple was experiencing difficulties: The Duo 230 that it sent me came without an Express Modem or MiniDock. By the time you read this, however, more Duo peripherals will be available.

Outside In

Gaining access to the PowerBooks' innards is a simple matter of loosening some screws. You'll need a Torx #10 and a Torx #8 driver for the PowerBook 140, 145, and 170, while just a Torx #8 suffices for the PowerBook 160 and 180 and the Duo 210 and 230.

First, shut down the PowerBook and take out the battery. Remove the four screws from the bottom and then the one at the back. Next, gently pry open the PowerBook at the front seam, starting at the battery compartment. Then unplug the SCSI cable from the internal hard drive and separate the top and bottom sections of the notebook to get at the slots.

To open up the PowerBook Duo, you loosen the three rearmost screws on the bottom of the computer. (Do not loosen the deeply recessed screw near the front!) Then turn the Duo over, and gently pry up the keyboard with your fingernail. Don't yank it, because the keyboard is attached to the main unit by two slender ribbon cables. Beneath the keyboard, on the main logic board's right side, are the two slots for memory and a modem board.

For a good description of how to open a PowerBook safely, get a copy of The PowerBook Companion by Richard Wolfson (Addison-Wesley, 1992). This book is chock full of tips and hints on the care and feeding of PowerBooks, and it's well worth the money.

Exercise care when opening these com

Photo 1:

Two ways for PowerBooks to tap into Ethernet: Asante's EN/SC PB (left) andDayna Communications' DaynaPort SCSI/Link-3 PB (right).

puters, as you can easily damage them. Neither I nor BYTE is responsible if you damage your PowerBook while following these instructions. If you're not handy with tools or if the PowerBook is still under warranty, take the computer and peripheral to a dealer for installation.

Network Connections

The high-end PowerBooks (the 160, 170, and 180) have enough processing power and hard disk capacity (80 to 120 MB) to make them suitable as substitute desktop systems. But how do you connect them to the office network? Of course, there's the LocalTalk port, but if the notebook is going to play desktop computer, you will also want it to manipulate large chunks of data. That job requires being hooked into Ethernet.

Some hardware solutions are available. Two are Dayna Communications' DaynaPort SCSI/Link-3 PB and Asante's EN/SC PB (see photo 1). These are Ethernet interface units that attach to the PowerBook's SCSI port. Clever Ethernet driver software routes network traffic through the SCSI port, to the interface unit, and out over the network. Both units have two DB-25 SCSI ports and a SCSI ID selector switch so that they can be daisy chained with other SCSI devices; they provide thick, thin, and lOBase-T Ethernet connectors. Be sure that you specify the PB version to obtain the special HDI-30 SCSI-to-DB-25 SCSI adapter cable required to connect these

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 173

POWERBOOK PERIPHERALS

peripherals to the PowerBook.

Both the SCSI/Link-3 PB and the EN/SC PB provide an Installer disk, along with the appropriate driver software. Be careful when you do the installation: The Dayna installation script wants to install a serial version of the driver (it has no way of knowing there's a SCSI device present if the SCSI/Link-3 isn't powered on, so it guesses), and the Asante installation script wants to add AppleTalk 57. Version 57 supplies some important features that the driver requires, but it is superseded by AppleTalk 58, which is found in the PowerBook 160 and 180. For both peripherals, you should click on the Custom Installation

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT POWERBOOK PERIPHERALS ARE

Third-party hardware that delivers expanded functionalitycommunications, network connections, or other services— to Apple PowerBooks.

LIKES

These peripherals connect your PowerBook to the world.

DISLIKES

There's a dearth of peripherals for the Duo Dock; some of the modems have software problems.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Wait for the PowerBook Duo peripherals market to mature somewhat before making any large-scale purchases.

Photo 2: Internal modems for the PowerBook (from left to right): PSI Integration's PowerModem IV, Global Village's PowerPort/Gold, Supra's

SupraFaxModem 144PB, and Applied Engineering's DataLink PB.

button when you run the Installer and make the choices yourself. If you sidestep these pitfalls, the SCSI/Link-3 PB and the EN/ SC PB both work well, providing highspeed Ethernet communications—including printing and file sharing —with a minimum of trouble.

If you are unable to get an Ethernet connection because you have a PowerBook Duo (which doesn't have a built-in SCSI port), check out Farallon's PowerPath solution. PowerPath consists of two PhoneNet nodes and a cable, plus a disk of software. You plug one node into the Duo's LocalTalk port and the other into the printer port of a desktop Mac connected to Ethernet. Then you copy the PowerPath Control Panel to the desktop Mac and reboot.

The PowerPath software acts as a forwarding agent, routing network traffic appearing at the printer port onto the Ethernet network. From a Duo 230 connected to my office Mac Ilci running PowerPath, I was able to access BYTE's file servers and printers located on the Ethernet. Furthermore, when the Duo ran File Sharing, other Macs on the network could see the Duo and access its hard drive. Network traffic operates at LocalTalk speeds, and the host Mac's performance plummets when the Duo accesses the network; still, at $149, the PowerPath offers a quick but elegant network connection for Duo owners.

Going Serial

For keeping in touch with the office, either by E-mail or by ARA (AppleTalk Remote Access), you have a wide choice of PowerBook-compatible modems (see photo 2). I looked at four V.42bis/V.32bis modems: Global Village Communication's PowerPort/Gold, PSI Integration's PowerModem IV, Applied Engineering's DataLink PB, and Supra's SupraFaxModem 144PB. These modems have 14,400-bps data and

send/receive fax capabilities, except for the PowerPort/Gold (14,400-bps data, 9600-bps send/receive fax). Each is compliant with MNP levels 2-5; the DataLink PB also complies with MNP level 10.

The DataLink PB also comes with builtin digitizer hardware and memory that allow it to act as a telephone, a speakerphone, and an answering machine. I didn't check out this feature because it required soldering wires to the PowerBook 180's main logic board.

Each modem has disks containing fax software, a CCL (Connection Control Language) file for ARA, and perhaps a modem control panel. All come bundled with terminal-emulation software—typically MicroPhone 1.7, except for the DataLink PB, for which a freeware terminal application is provided. I had no problem installing any of the boards.

For modem tests, I called the National Bureau of Standards atomic clock to reset the PowerBook's date and time (which get lost when you remove the battery during modem installation), faxed a threepage document with a mix of typefaces to our fax machine, and dialed into BYTE's AppleTalk network as an ARA client. I used Shiva's LanRover/L and an external SupraFaxModem to manage the ARA server connection.

Global Village's Control Panel 2.04 did not recognize the PowerBook 180. However, the PowerPort/Gold still functioned, so I called AppleLink and downloaded the company's 2.06 software revision. Once I updated the software, the PowerPort/Gold was the only modem to run through the tests without problems. The PowerPort/ Gold's data dial-up test ran cleanly; the faxed output was crisp at the high-quality settings; and I got good 14,400-bps ARA connections to the network every time.

With the other three modems I experienced some problems, all having to do with software. The difficulties involved either the CCL file, which ARA relies on to configure the modem properly and to establish a connection, or the fax software. PSI Integration, Applied Engineering, and Supra all rely on STF Technologies for their fax software. For the DataLink PB and the SupraFaxModem, the STF Installer didn't have the name of the modem in its selection list. I had to guess, using a related modem name, or install the software by driver type. Once the software was installed properly, I got fine faxes out of these modems.

The PowerModem IV faxed without incident, but I had all sorts of problems trying to establish an ARA session with it. With the PowerModem IV CCL, ARA did not recognize the modem at all. A

174 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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©1993 PopMn Solium- & Sracmj Incoipor.unL 'llic Swan Arohilea logo is .1 rr.iciciiLiik of Popkin Software 6: Syii

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SYSTEM ARCHITECT

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England 44-926-881186; Benelux 31-3406-65530;

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Australia 61-02-346499; Sweden 46-8-626-8100.

suhjeci to change Jt ilie stA- ilwivlii jii of die company.

Circle 123 on Inquiry Card.

POWERBOOK PERIPHERALS

call to PSI's technical support confirmed that this CCL file was bad. The company sent me a new version of the file via AppleLink, and, at last, I was able to get ARA sessions at 14,400 bps.

The SupraFaxModem had the same problem, but I found a CCL (the Practical Peripherals 14400SXFA) that allowed me to establish 14,400-bps ARA sessions reliably. The DataLink PB was the only modem besides the PowerPort/Gold whose CCL file worked perfectly the first time, providing me with 14,400-bps sessions.

These are all good modems, but their effectiveness can be seriously hampered by the software. Global Village writes its own fax software to avoid problems. PSI has just bought STF's fax source code so it can manage its own updates and add new features, such as a one-stop fax menu and OCR (optical character recognition) software.

Currently, only a few fax machines can accept faxes at 14,400 bps, but that will change over time. Those funky CCL files are a more serious problem. Most people shell out extra for these modems so that they can connect to the office network through ARA at high speeds. An ineffective CCL file can turn that high-performance, high-priced modem into useless junk.

Getting Docked

Earlier, I mentioned a shortage of PowerBook Duo peripherals. In fact, there was exactly one ready at review time: E-Ma

Photo 3: E-Machines' PowerLink Presenter plugs into the Duo's back expansion connecter and provides a floppy drive connecter, a port for the ADB, a sound jack, and external video ports.

chines' PowerLink Presenter.

This docking module plugs into the Duo's back expansion connector and brings out a variety of useful signals. There is an HDI-20 floppy drive connector, a port for the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), a sound jack, a DB-15 RGB video port, and a composite video port. The PowerLink Presenter's driver and frame buffer support monitors in sizes ranging from 13 inches (displaying 256 colors) to 21 inches (displaying 16 colors). The PowerLink Presenter also supports a "virtual desktop" 1656 by 1296 pixels when it's in black-and-white mode.

I plugged the PowerLink Presenter into the back of the Duo 230 (see photo 3) and checked it out. It worked fine driving both 13- and 16-inch Apple monitors. Better still, I didn't have to plug in the power charger to use them—unlike with the

PowerBook 180, which insists on running off its power charger when an external monitor is connected.

The video mirroring mode worked fine (video mirroring allows you to see an identical image on both the PowerBook screen and the external monitor), as did a mouse plugged into the ADB port. I plugged a stereo amplifier input cable into the sound jack and got bowled over when a beep sound came blasting out of the speakers.

I routed the composite video to a small color monitor and got a good image: E-Machines has some sophisticated deconvolution hardware

inside the PowerLink Presenter that

minimizes the shimmering that occurs when 1-pixel-wide lines are shown on an interlaced display. A Duo, monitor, PowerLink Presentor, and mouse would make a dandy on-the-road demonstration machine.

The diversity in the current crop of peripherals indicates that the PowerBook market is growing rapidly. The presence of different vendors, especially for modems, will only produce better products while driving prices down. I expect to see even more interesting things happen when the PowerBook Duos arrive in force. Stay tuned. ■

Tom Thompson is a BYTE senior technical editor at large with a B.S.E.E. from Memphis State University. He is also an Associate Apple Developer. You can contact him on BIX as "tomjhompson, " or on the Internet at tomt@byteph.byte.com.

ITEMS DISCUSSED ]

DataLink PB $525

EN/SCPB (for thick, thin,

PowerModem IV $495

PowerPort/Gold $499

Applied Engineering, Inc.

and lOBase-T cable) $499

PSI Integration, Inc.

Global Village

3210BeltlineRd.

EN/SC 10-T PB (for

851 East Hamilton Ave.,

Communication

Dallas, TX 75234

lOBase-T only) $419

Suite 200

685 East Middle Field Rd.,

(800) 554-6227

Asante Technologies, Inc.

Campbell, CA 95008

Building B

(214)241-6060

821 Fox Lane

(800)622-1722

Mountain View, CA 94043

fax:(214)484-1365

San Jose, CA 95131

(408)559-8544

(800) 736-4821

Circle T075 on Inquiry Card.

(408) 435-8388

fax: (408) 559-8548

(415)390-8200

fax:(408)432-7511

Circle 1079 on Inquiry Card.

fax:(415)390-8361

DaynaPort SCSI/Link-3

Circle 1077 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 1081 on Inquiry Card.

PB $499

PowerPath $149

Dayna Communications, Inc.

PowerLink Presentor ,$499

Farallon Computing

SupraFaxModem

50 South Main St., Fifth Floor

E-Machines, Inc.

2470 Mariner Square Loop

144PB $349.95

Salt Lake City, UT 84144

9305 Southwest Gemini Dr.

Alameda, CA 94501

Supra Corp.

(801)531-0600

Beaverton, OR 97005

(510)814-5000

7101 Supra Dr. SW

Circle 1076 on Inquiry Card.

(800) 344-7274

fax:(510)814-5023

Albany, OR 97321

(503) 646-6699

Circle 1080 on Inquiry Card.

(503) 967-2400

fax: (503) 641-0946

fax:(503)967-2401

Circle 1078 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 1082 on Inquiry Card.

176 BYTE • APRIL 1993

REVIEWS

SOFTWARE

OS/2's Multimedia Extensions

TOM YAGER

With the release of Multimedia Presentation Manager/2, IBM bridges the gap between OS/2 and the world of multimedia. MMPM/2 builds a systemslevel foundation for multimedia applications into OS/2, inviting developers and multimedia producers to create their programs and materials on IBM's powerful PC operating environment.

The Flyby

IBM didn't spend a lot of time making MMPM/2 glamorous. The packaging and documentation are minimal. That treatment fits, though, because MMPM/2 isn't an application; it's an OS/2 extension. You can get the basic version of MMPM/2 on floppy disks or preinstalled on a PS/2 system, or grab the development kit on CDROM (MMPM Toolkit/2).

The basic version of MMPM/2 came to me loaded onto a PS/2 Ultimedia Model 77. This system, and its less-expensive brother, the M57 SLC (see "IBM's New System Speaks for Itself," September 1992 BYTE), are the target hardware environment for MMPM/2. I had both the shipping version and a prerelease of the next version of MMPM/2 for this review, and while I can't go into detail about those things that aren't real yet, I can say that IBM is planning some support for nonPS/2 systems.

I installed the CD-ROM developer's toolkit version onto my system. The installer lets you choose from among the available drivers and modules, which include complete on-line manuals, sample source code, and the header files and libraries you need to write C or assembly language programs. Standard multimedia device support in MMPM/2 1.0 includes digital audio and MIDI (through the M/Audio board), CD audio, and videodisc control. The prerelease included CD-ROM XA (Extended Architecture) support, and that will be standard in MMPM/2 in the future as well.

You don't get a lot of cute sample programs in MMPM/2. You get only a media player, volume control, and data converter. The media player records digital audio as well (see the screen), but it provides no control over sampling rate, record level, and other settings. The volume control is as close as MMPM/2 gets to the

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MMPM/2's standard applications are functional, but the real power of OS/2 multimedia is best seen from a programmer's point of view.

central mixer applet bundled with most Windows sound boards. Just one knob controls the volume for the entire system's audio output. The data converter is most useful for converting audio and graphics originally created in AVC (Audio Visual Connection—IBM's most popular multimedia development system) to MMPM/2 formats.

The media player itself is merely functional. When you play CD audio, for example, you see only the total playing time of the disc on the seek slider; there are no track markers or next/previous track buttons. It works, but as your primary introduction and interface to MMPM/2, the media player belies the power of the structure beneath it. The media player launches automatically when you double-click on a multimedia file from within the Workplace Shell. Unlike Windows, which is hobbled by the DOS file system, OS/2 can identify multimedia files either by extension or by data in the file's extended attributes.

Digging In

To appreciate MMPM/2 today, you must look at it from a developer's point of view. IBM wisely chose to create a structure and an API for its multimedia extensions that

are very similar to Microsoft's. The benefit is obvious: It's easier for IBM to coax developers into an environment that's familiar to them.

There are a number of low-level calls, but you'll likely use MMPM/2's highlevel API. IBM's MCI (media control interface) is a superset of Microsoft's, so if you're Windows MCI-savvy, you'll feel right at home. The MCI string interface reduces most multimedia programming to simple commands like play iquit.wav that you can easily build into your applications regardless of the language.

MMPM/2 is no clone: It has several intriguing and useful traits that distance it from Windows' multimedia extensions. Among the notable enhancements offered by IBM are playlists, cuepoints, closed captioning, and connectors. A playlist is a microprogram that lets you exert precise control over the data stream associated with an open MCI device. The machine language-like playlist instructions include branches, loops, and subroutines, and playlist programs offer many benefits of driver-level operations without forcing you to dabble in low-level or device-dependent code.

MMPM/2's cuepoint interface allows

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 177

OS/2'S MULTIMEDIA EXTENSIONS

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION MANAGER/2 IS

An OS/2 extension providing extensible support for multimedia devices and programs.

LIKES

Powerful API; closed captioning.

DISLIKES

Poor set of standard applications.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The most powerful PC multimedia environment available. A good choice for multimedia applications developers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

IBM

1000 Northwest 51 st St.

Boca Raton, FL 33429

(800) 426-2468

Circle 1222 on Inquiry Card.

you to drop markers at precise, arbitrary positions in a media stream, from within your application. Each time a marker is hit during recording or playback, a message is dispatched to your application. Cuepoints can be embedded in MMPM/2 data files in addition to being set at run time.

Closed captioning offers multimedia producers an easy system for providing running caption text with audio. This is an extremely thoughtful aid for persons with hearing impairment.

Finally, MMPM/2's connector interface puts your program in charge of those hardware signal paths under the system's control. You can, for example, connect the CD audio output to the system's headphone jack, or switch the audio card's recording input from the microphone to the line input jack. Connectors elegantly solve the problem of managing signal flows, but they can also be applied to data streams; this patchcord metaphor works just as well for audio as for data.

Borrowed but Blue

That MMPM/2 looks so much like Windows' multimedia extensions doesn't bother me a bit: I consider it an asset. But once

you peel away the look-alike layers, you learn that IBM's multimedia foundation is much more powerful than Windows'.

As a developer, I became instantly enamored with the greater control offered by IBM's MCI. OS/2 is not constrained by the limitations of a DOS environment (e.g., dealing with DOS device drivers, working within a segmented memory model, or making things run on a 286 system), so it's no surprise that MMPM/2 attains a higher standard than the multimedia extensions built into Windows 3.1. Developers who take the time to dig deeper than the Windows-compatible layers will find a well-designed support structure for demanding multimedia applications. Certainly, anyone who thinks Windows is the only game in town for multimedia development needs to take a look at OS/2 and MMPM/2. ■

Tom Yager is a multimedia consultant, analyst, and developer, and author of The Multimedia Production Handbook for the PC, Macintosh and Amiga (AcademicPress, forthcoming). He can be reached on BIX as "tyager" and on the Internet at tyager@bytepb.byte.com.

The Perfect Back-up Fop An Imperfect World.

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178 B YTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 147 on Inquiry Card.

REVIEWS

HARDWARE

Two Ways to Say VL-Bus

RAYMOND GA COTE

Systems that use VL-Bus (VESA Local Bus, from Video Electronics Standards Association) technology promise faster throughput for peripherals from video cards to network adapters. These PCs can now be purchased from a host of system manufacturers. Further proof that VL-Bus has hit the big time lies in the ready availability of VL-Bus motherboards from high-end board manufacturers. These boards will not only form the basis of many VL-Bus clones but will be popular items in the end-user replacement market. I tested the performance of two 486 VLBus motherboards: American Megatrends' Enterprise III and Micronics' EISA/VLBus System Board (see the photo).

The boards were similarly configured, with 8 MB of base memory, 256 KB of processor cache, and a 33-MHz 486DX processor. Micronics places its 486DX processor in a ZIF (zero insertion force) socket for easy removal. Both boards are in standard AT format with eight EISA slots, two of which have accompanying VL-Bus sockets. Micronics' EISA/VL-Bus System Board provides on-board IDE and floppy drive controllers, while the Enterprise III sports a PS/2-style mouse port. Both motherboards provide an industrystandard BIOS: Micronics opts for the Phoenix BIOS, and American Megatrends, not surprisingly, includes its own AMI BIOS.

In my test configuration, the Enterprise III lists at $1150, and the EISA/VL-Bus System Board lists at $1275. In OEM quantities, both should be comparable at about $1000. But as is frequently true with new technology, it's performance, not price, that drives the decision.

Test Flight

To get a feel for performance, I ran a series of low-level benchmark tests on both motherboards, both through the VL-Bus and through the EISA channel. Naturally, the tests required fast peripherals that were available for both buses.

First, I ran BYTE's File I/O benchmarks on a 540-MB Maxtor SCSI drive (see figure 1). I hooked the SCSI drive to the motherboards through both the VL-Bus (using an Ultra 34F host adapter, $325) and the EISA bus (with an Ultra 24F, $595). Although the two UltraStor adapters

The Micronics EISA/VLBus System Board (left) and the American Megatrends Enterprise III are combined EISA/VL-Bus motherboard designs.

are both high-speed SCSI devices, the boards are fundamentally different: The 34F is an ISA-bus card that uses VL-Bus for added throughput, while the 24F is an EISA design that also includes floppy drive support.

The disk performance results were surprising. On both motherboards, the EISA host adapter ran significantly faster than the VL-Bus version. On the Micronics board, the Ultra

BVTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT VL-BUS MOTHERBOARDS ARE

High-end 33-MHz 486 motherboards with EISA and VESA Local Bus support.

LIKES

High performance for both systems. A variety of platforms (EISA, VL-Bus, and ISA) from which to choose the fastest peripherals.

DISLIKES

Disk performance shows an advantage for EISA over VL-Bus.

24F showed a 10 percent advantage in read rates. According to UltraStor, VL-Bus interface boards that need to move large

RECOMMENDATIONS

Price/performance is about equal between the two boards. The Micronics EISA/VL-Bus System Board has superior EISA-bus performance, but it is also somewhat more expensive.

PRICE

Enterprise III (486DX/33, 8 MB of RAM), $1150 EISA/VL-Bus System Board (486DX/33, 8 MB of RAM), $1275

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 179

No Doubt

TWO WAYS TO SAY VL-BUS

YOU're

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BYTE

BYTE FILE I/O BENCHMARKS

■3S^B

AMI Enterorise II ■ ^■■■^^^^^■■■H

Ultra 24F (EISA) ■■■■■■■i

AMI Enterprise III/ ■ ■■■■■^^■■l Ultra 34F (VL-Bus) ^^^■■■■^^

■ Read

■ write

1-IS.AA/l -Hue/ | ■■■■M^^^HBi^

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Micronics EISA/VL-Bus/1—— ■■■■■^^■■i Ultra 34F (VL-Bus) |^^^^^^^^H^^MI

0 100 200 300 400 500 Kbps

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Figure 1: Disk tests show similar performance for both system hoards using VL-Bus peripherals. However, the Micronics EISA I VL-Bus System Board is somewhat faster as the basis for an EISA design.

BYTE WINDOWS BENCHMARK INDEXES

AMI Enterprise Ill/Diamond Stealth 24 (ISA)

AMI Enterprise Ill/Diamond Stealth 24 VLB (VL-Bus)

Micronics EISA/VL-Bus/ Diamond Stealth 24 (ISA)

Micronics EISA/VL-Bus/

Diamond Stealth 24 VLB

(VL-Bus)

0.0 0.2 0.4

0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 For all indexes Orchid ProDesigner II and 486/33 = 1

Figure 2: Video benchmarks for both motherboards, running over ISA and over VL-Bus. The BitBlt test, especially, shows a substantial performance increase when run through a VL-Bus video card.

blocks of data are very sensitive to system architecture (e.g., factors like memory interleave).

When purchasing a motherboard to use with a VL-Bus peripheral such as a SCSI interface, you should test the particular board to ensure that it meets your needs. Keep in mind that although the EISA interface looks faster on both motherboards in this configuration, EISA peripherals are often more expensive than VL-Bus devices.

My video tests (see figure 2) ran on two Diamond Stealth video boards: the Stealth 24 (an ISA-bus board) and Stealth 24 VLB. Except for the additional VL-Bus support, these two boards are identical. Both contain 1 MB of display memory, support up to 1280 by 1024 pixels at 16 colors, have a 24-bit Super VGA Windows accelerator, and sell for $249. Both

motherboards showed substantially better video performance through VL-Bus than through EISA.

VESA Vis

Comparing the performance of these motherboards yields some interesting conclusions. On the video tests, Micronics' board was faster with the ISA-based Diamond Stealth, but the two motherboards showed equivalent performance using VL-Bus accelerated video. Disk test results show that VL-Bus performance was nearly equal, while the Micronics board outperformed the Enterprise III over the EISA bus.

So, which motherboard is best for you? When considering them strictly as EISAbus systems, the Micronics board is clearly the quicker of the two motherboards. It showed a significant increase in video throughput and maintained a slight edge

180 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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Circle 170 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 171).

AT&T

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The California desert tortoise is losing ground. Its young are being crushed by motorcycles and off-road vehicles. Sheep and cattle grazing are diminishing an already scant supply of food while mining and road building are destroying the tortoise's natural habitat.

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TWO WAYS TO SAY VL-BUS

on SCSI performance. For either system, I would recommend an EISA SCSI card over a VL-Bus host adapter if maximum performance is required.

Price/performance is about equal between the two boards; the Micronics board compensates for its somewhat higher price with slightly better performance. You'll have to consider your need for VL-Bus throughput against the availability of EISA peripherals, which may offer a performance advantage. ■

Raymond GA Cote is a BYTE consulting editor, freelance writer, and publisher of the Robot Explorer newsletter. You can reach him on BIX as "rgacote" and on the Internet at rgacote@hytepb.byte.com.

COMPANY INFORMATION

American Megatrends, Inc.

(Enterprise III)

6145-FNorthbeltPkwy.

Norcross, GA 30Q71

(800) 828-9264

(404)263-8181

fax:(404)263-9381

Circle 1225 on Inquiry Card.

Diamond Computer Systems, Inc.

(Diamond Stealth 24, Diamond

Stealth 24 VLB)

1130 East Arques Ave.

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

(408) 736-2000

fax: (408) 730-5750

Circle 1226 on Inquiry Card.

Maxtor

(MXT-540S)

211 River Oaks Pkwy.

San Jose, CA 95134

(800) 262-9867

(408)432-1700

fax: (408) 432-4698

Circle T227 on Inquiry Card.

Micronics Computers, Inc.

(EISA/VL-Bus System Board)

232 East Warren Ave.

Fremont, CA 94539

(510)651-2300

fax:(510)651-5612

Circle 1228 on Inquiry Card.

UltraStor

(Ultra 14F, Ultra 24F, Ultra 34F)

15 Hammond, Suite 310

Irvine, CA 92718

(714)581-4100

fax:(714)581-0826

Circle 1229 on Inquiry Card.

182 BYTE • APRIL 1993

REVIEWS

SOFTWARE

Teaching Macs to Fetch

STANFORD DIEHL

Graphics professionals working in a production environment must maintain thousands of images. These images, created in-house or purchased, come in a variety of formats and spill across network servers, removable-cartridge drives, CD-ROM discs, and shared volumes. Aldus Fetch 1.0—a $295 multiuser, mixedmedia database for cataloging images, QuickTime movies, animations, and sound files—is designed to meet the challenges of a workgroup production environment.

Fetch is a snap to use. To catalog a CDROM full of images, I simply dragged the CD-ROM icon onto the Fetch application icon. Indexing 500-plus images on a CDROM took a little over 45 minutes. Once created, a catalog contains a visual thumbnail (a tiny replica) of all the items within it. You can browse through the thumbnails or search for a specific item by filename, description, or user-supplied keywords (see the screen). Double-clicking on an item loads it into the proper viewer. There is no need to open the application that created the file.

Fetch supports a wide variety of formats (e.g., EPS, JPEG, PICT, TIFF, SND, Illustrator, Photoshop, Kodak Photo CD, and SoundEdit), but noticeably missing is a GIF viewer. Aldus does plan to ship one with the next version.

Fetch keeps track of where an image resides. When you call up a cataloged image on CD-ROM, Fetch prompts you for the correct disc. If you're working off a network server, the volume is automatically mounted and the file retrieved. Even if an image is moved from one place to another, Fetch will find it and update the catalog. Fetch is not quite as smooth when dealing with shared drives. When a catalog is created on a local drive and then accessed remotely, Fetch thinks the files in that catalog have moved and asks if you want to update every file you access. Only if you use file sharing to access local CDROM drives or removable-cartridge drives should this limitation be of concern.

By designating a subset of a catalog as a "project," you can streamline the flow of files. For example, an art director could create a project of images to be used in a specific layout and send the images over the network (or through E-mail) to the production department.

W File Edit Item Search Uiem [Window Rdmin

jg #

nidus (etch l.o

Fetch creates a catalog of thumbnail images. You can browse through the images or search for a specific item by filename, description, or keyword.

The advantages are numerous. For instance, the art department can maintain a central catalog of images; designers can quickly browse through images (or search for items of interest) and visually select graphical elements for the layout; the production department can work with small images and view the full image without source applications; and one set of images can be stored on a network drive while only the thumbnails are shipped around. And if a file changes along the way, you needn't worry about obsolete files floating around, since everyone is working with pointers to a single file. Fetch doesn't have the high-end version-control features of some document management packages, but it's a very useful utility that doesn't require a large commitment of resources to learn and implement.

Fetch lets you search for files by description or keywords rather than just filenames, but generating this information can be quite a chore. Descriptions and keywords can be attached to any file using the pnot resource, andpnot information isn't destroyed by a desktop rebuild, making it more persistent than simple Finder comments. Major applications (including the new versions of Adobe Premiere and Aldus FreeHand) are starting to include menu options for adding descriptions to a file. With some procedural discipline, all your files could have keywords and descriptions built into them, allowing Fetch to use all of its ample searching capabilities.

I hope to see some enhancements to Fetch soon—a GIF viewer and better version tracking would be nice—but anyone who deals with lots of images, QuickTime

movies, sounds, or animations will surely appreciate Fetch. ■

Stanford Diehl is a BYTE Lab technical editor covering graphics software, peripherals, and add-ins. You can reach him

i BIX as "sdiehl.

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT ALDUS FETCH 1.0 IS

A multiuser, mixed-media database for cataloging images, animations, QuickTime movies, and sound files on the Mac.

LIKES

Easy to learn and use; broad support of file formats.

DISLIKES

No GIF viewer; lacks versioncontrol features.

RECOMMENDATIONS

An excellent utility for workgroups working with images.

PRICE

$295

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Aldus Corp.

411 First Ave. S

Seattle, WA 98104

(206) 622-5500

Circle 1224 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 183

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UNIX is changing the world of computers, the world of business - quite simply, changing the world. It's revolutionizing office automation. It's required for U.S. government computer contracts. It's the backbone of information strategies worldwide.

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and software reviews to help you invest wisely when you buy.

UmxWomd's in-depth features go beyond dry technical facts to show how the pieces fit together - to tell you what's important about the advances and strategies that are changing your world. And UnixWorid consistently offers the freshest, most downto-earth writing that you'll find in any computer publication.

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REVIEWS

SOFTWARE

Macs and Windows PCs Share Control

TOM YAGER

With the success of Windows and the Macintosh, most offices include systems of both types. There are plenty of ways to share files between PCs and Macs, but the most useful link would permit you to share applications as well.

Farallon Computing's Timbuktu is a popular Macintosh program that allows you to reach across a network link to operate someone else's Mac by remote control. Now the vendor has introduced Timbuktu for Windows, making it possible to create remote-control links not only from Windows PC to Windows PC but between Macs and Windows systems as well.

The Road to Timbuktu

I tested Timbuktu for Windows using a trio of machines: an Advanced Logic Research Flyer 32LCT (66-MHz 486DX2), a Uniq 50-MHz 486 EISA file server, and a Mac Ilci. Both PC systems were running DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1, and all three systems had 8 MB of memory. I hooked the systems together on a dedicated thinwire Ethernet network.

I installed Timbuktu on all three systems. On the PC, it sits atop Farallon's AppleTalk software, called PhoneNet PC. This foundation network is installed under DOS and runs as an army of TSR programs—160 KB of them, in my case. That's the last thing my already-overburdened PCs needed. Farallon's documentation lays out some useful tips for moving the PhoneNet drivers into high memory, and you can selectively leave out some services—like printer sharing—to conserve memory.

The PhoneNet TSRs bring partial AppleTalk network participation to your PC. You can mount a remote Mac's hard drive as a DOS drive or redirect your printer output to an AppleTalk printer, but PhoneNet PC provides no reciprocal incoming services.

Starting a Timbuktu session is easy. The New Session dialog box (see the top-left window in the screen) maintains a list of systems listening for incoming connections. All you have to do is select the system you want and then click on the icon for the level of service you're requesting: You can control, observe, send files, or exchange files.

You can request any of these services,

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Timbuktu for Windows' connection dialog box (upper left) and access-control dialog box (lower left), and a remote Mac screen. This PowerPoint image was relatively unchanged, but others had severely distorted colors.

but what you're actually granted is determined by the remote system. Timbuktu's access-control scheme is inventive: Instead of assigning a password to each service, the interface (the bottom-left window in the screen) gives you up to four passwords, each of which unlocks a group of services. I found Timbuktu's access controls excellent as far as they go, but I'd have liked a little more control, perhaps in limiting access from certain machines or certain named users.

Services Rendered

The services offered by Timbuktu fall into the four classes shown in the connection dialog box's icons. The least capable is a Send Files connection. With this, all you can do is copy files from your system to a designated drop folder or subdirectory on the destination machine. You can't see the other system's directories or access its files. Timbuktu doesn't make any conversions between Mac- and DOS-format files, except to mangle Mac filenames to fit the DOS 8.3 convention.

The next level up is bidirectional file transfer. When you send, receive, and delete files through this interface, you can

specify independent permissions through the access-control dialog box. The file transfer interface looks just like the familiar Apple File Exchange: You see your system's files listed side by side with the other system's files. All you have to do is select the files you want moved or deleted and click on the appropriate button.

The heart of this program is its remotesession capability. Timbuktu allows both observing and controlling connections. As an observer, you can monitor a remote system's display. With a controlling connection, your keyboard and mouse input is relayed to the remote machine, and that system's display is duplicated on your screen.

By default, Timbuktu presents the remote system's display in a window (the middle window in the screen). With a controlling connection, Timbuktu sends your input over the wire whenever that window is selected and the mouse pointer is inside it. If the window is smaller than the remote system's screen, Timbuktu will scroll in all directions; as you move the mouse close to the edges of the window, the screen scrolls underneath it. It's a little disconcerting, because the scrolling makes

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 185

MACS AND WINDOWS PCS SHARE CONTROL

the mouse pointer sit still even though you're busily rolling away. It's like moving your mouse pad around to position your cursor. It works, though, and since all my systems have accelerated graphics controllers, scrolling was very snappy.

When the screens are precisely the same size (as they were when I connected the two Windows systems), maximizing the Timbuktu session window makes the borders and scroll bars disappear. The remote system's display fills yours, and only a floating title bar remains to remind you that you're running someone else's machine. Clicking on an icon on the title bar will put the screen back into a resizable window.

You can have only one screen-sharing session going at once, but you can pop up the send or exchange interfaces during a screen-sharing session. I'd have liked the ability to run more than one observation session, a feature that would be particu

BVTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT TIMBUKTU FOR WINDOWS IS

A remote-control package that allows file transfer and remotesession connections to PCs and Macs.

LIKES

Well-designed interface, particularly access controls and full-screen remote sessions; notification and control over incoming remote connections.

DISLIKES

Size (160 KB) of TSRs; poor color-palette mapping from Mac to Windows; serious performance problems on slower systems.

RECOMMENDATIONS

An elegant solution for network administrators, support people, and others who value accessibility over performance.

PRICE

$199

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Farallon Computing, Inc.

2470 Mariner Square Loop

Alameda, CA 94501

(510)814-5100

fax:(510)814-5020

Circle 1230 on Inquiry Card.

larly useful for network administrators, instructors, and others who benefit from keeping a watchful eye over a small flock of users.

If you're worried about Big Brother, you'll be relieved that Timbuktu doesn't allow silent connections. Whenever someone is hooked into your system, a tiny icon appears in the corner of the screen that reflects the type of connection.

Protocol Matters

According to Farallon, Timbuktu for Windows expands on a scheme the company devised for its Macintosh Timbuktu product. When two Macs converse, Timbuktu passes data using a packaged version of the Mac's QuickDraw graphics system. When mixing Macs and Windows PCs, Timbuktu uses the guest's native graphics system: That is, a Windows system controlling a Mac uses GDI (Graphical Device Interface) for its protocol, and a Mac controlling a Windows system uses QuickDraw.

With Timbuktu for Windows, Farallon has also introduced a set of optimizations that are specific to graphics type. The result is that elements drawn by Windows (e.g., text, icons, windows, and other specific object types) are specially packaged for efficient transport and display on the guest system.

Farallon admits that there are weaknesses in its current scheme, especially when controlling a Mac from a Windows system. Text-display scrolling is particularly painful. Also, complex graphics can bog Timbuktu down, particularly if the application's interface is sloppy. The Macversion of PowerPoint, for example, repaints its entire window a lot. That's not something you notice sitting in front of the system, but when those changes are packed up, sent through a little wire, and unpacked on the other end, you notice.

The good side of Timbuktu's performance can be seen in the rapid drawing of filled rectangles (like windows) and icons. Menus and dialog boxes generally popped up in good time on both sides of my test connection.

The two Windows machines, with their 66-MHz and 50-MHz 486 processors, got along famously. I ran FrameMaker over a remote connection, even on a file loaded with bit-mapped graphics. I would liken the performance to that of an unaccelerated display card. It felt smooth and fast enough that I sometimes lost track of whether I was running remotely or not. Similarly, I was able to connect to Windows from a fast Mac with lesser but still acceptable performance. Although the display lagged noticeably behind my typing,

Timbuktu never dropped a character.

Timbuktu proceeds only as quickly as the remote connection will allow; the local system always stays in sync with the remote. This can be troublesome, as Timbuktu's response often lags well behind input. Scroll buttons and other interface elements that require a click-and-hold are handled badly. If you hold down a scroll button until the image in the window looks like it's in the right position, you'll generate a long queue of scroll requests that will continue to march along well after you release the button.

As I mentioned earlier, running a Mac remotely from a Windows system brought out the worst in Timbuktu. Windows and icons came up quickly enough, but text and complex graphics drew and scrolled so slowly as to be really frustrating. Moreover, while both Windows systems happily displayed each other's 256-color screens with no loss of quality, 256-color Mac screens under Windows lost their color palette. I chose one of the less-affected images for the screen shot; PowerPoint slides that used graduated shading got hopelessly stepped on by Timbuktu for Windows.

Timbuktu supports up to 24-bit color between systems, but Farallon wisely recommends that you put the Mac in monochrome-display mode for acceptable performance when you're controlling it from Timbuktu for Windows.

How Slow Can You Go?

Among fast machines, Timbuktu is good enough to use anytime it's not convenient to walk over to a free Mac or Windows system, or when you need to guide someone through a tough problem without looking over his or her shoulder. However, when you control a Mac from a Windows system, performance is poor enough that you need to seriously consider what Timbuktu offers before running it.

If you use it to gain access from off-site through a WAN (wide-area network), then the convenience of access to your files and applications may well be worth the sluggish response. And for remote administration and support, as well as occasional short bursts of cross-platform applications use, I'd say Timbuktu is good enough in every case to give you most of the benefits of sitting in front of a remote machine. ■

Tom Yager is a multimedia consultant, analyst, and developer, and author of The Multimedia Production Handbook for the PC, Macintosh and Amiga (Academic Press, forthcoming). He can be reached on BIX as "tyager" and on the Internet at tyager@bytepb. byte, com.

186 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Has been greatly

DOS is still the preferred operating system on over 80% of the PCs in Fortune 1,000 companies, according to recent studies.

Bring Windowing Advantages to DOS.

Many Fortune 1,000 companies are using DESQview™ as the best solution for keeping the dependability and familiarity of DOS programs and adding multitasking, windowing productivity. DESQview users give up nothing—since it actually runs MS Windows better should users wish to run Windows programs.

As you may know, DESQview 386 has been around for years, evolving into a highly efficient multitasking, windowing environment that extends the power of DOS, giving you increased productivity while conserving precious memory and disk space. In fact, the vast majority of 386 and 486 PCs need no additional memory or disk space to run DESQview.

DESQview 386 gives you pre-emptive multitasking like OS/2, but with Moth of the disk space and mi of the memory requirements. It gives you windowing like MS Windows, but with greater speed and efficiency and fewer 'crashes.' And DESQview lets you use a mouse or stick to the keyboard.

You Create the Standards; We Follow.

We've never been confused about our role. We believe software companies exist to make your job easier and your working day more productive. When publishers step out of that mold and begin to tell you what hardware you need and that you should throw out

somebody else's perfectly good software—well, they simply are not operating in your best interest.

Software publishers don't create standards. You do. And whatever standard you choose, we support it.

If you like a program that only runs in MS Windows, like Wordperfect for Windows, DESQview 386 supports your choice. If you prefer a spreadsheet that runs in DOS, Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3, for example, we support that too. In fact, DESQview 386 lets you run your favorite DOS and Windows programs side-by-side.

Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too.

DESQview 386 comes with QEMM-386, the number one memory management utility, and Quarterdeck Manifest, the award-winning memory analysis and monitoring program. Between them, they assure you every last 'K' of memory is put to use* In many cases, QEMM can mean the difference between running the TSRs you want and not having enough memory.

And DESQview is an open doorway to the future, too. Our next step up, DESQview/X, opens your PC to a network full of possibilities, including graphic workstation standards—X Window System software—all while retaining the compatibility of DESQview.

If you're as committed to DOS as we are, and feeling left out by the so-called industry leaders, take heart. There's no reason to leave DOS. If more productivity is what you need, we can provide it.

Quarterdeck helps you get the most out of the hardware and software you own today.

Quarterdeck Office Systems, 150 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90405 (310) 392-9851 Fax (310) 314-4219

Quarterdeck International Ltd., B.I.M. House, Crofton Terrace, Dun Laoghaire Co. Dublin, Ireland Tel.(353) (1) 284-1444 Fax: (353) (1) 284-4380

* DESQview makes multitasking and windowing available to users of 286-class machines with similar memory efficiencies through QEMM-50760 for IBM™ PS/@ 50 and 60 users and ORAM for other 286 users.

©1992 Quarterdeck Office Systems. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Circle 124 on Inquiry Card.

Discover why FoxPro, Clipper, and dBASE were all written in C.

There is a good reason why • your database language was developed in C. In fact, there are many good reasons.

C code is small. C code is fast. C code is portable. C code is flexible. C is the language of choice for today's professional developer. With the growing complexity of database applications, C is a realistic alternative. Now with CodeBase 5.0, you can have all the functionality, simplicity and power of traditional database languages together with the benefits of C/C++.

C speed - fast code, true executables...

FoxPro. Clipper, and dBASE were written in C primarily for speed. But those compilers don't really compile, they combine imbedded language interpreters into your .EXE. Now that's slow. For dazzling performance you need the true executables of C. With CodeBase you get the real thing, C code. Consider the following statistics, from the publisher of Clipper:

SLOWER

remember, those products are all written in C. So why do you need to lug all their extra code around? You don't. CodeBase is a complete DBMS, in C. No fat executables stuffed with unused code. No runtime modules. No royalties. Just quality C code. CodeBase is just what you need.

C portability-ANSI C/C++ on every hardware platform...

No other language exists on more platforms than C/C++. Why rewrite your entire application for DOS, Windows, Windows NT, OS/2 or UNIX? With CodeBase the complete C source code is included, so you can port to any platform with an ANSI C or C++ compiler. Now and in the future.

dBASE Compatible data, index and memo files...

You want the industry standard. You need compatibility. Sure, dBASE is the standard, but every dBASE compatible DBMS product uses its own unique index and memo file formats. Only CodeBase has them all: FoxPro (.cdx), Clipper (.ntx), dBASE IV (.mdx) and dBASE III (.ndx). Now it's your choice, we're compatible with you.

dBASE IV FoxPro Clipper 5

"Sieve of Erastothenes"

Benchmark for Prime Number Generation Shows C to be incredibly faster!

C size ■ small executables, no added overhead...

FoxPro, Clipper and dBASE would like you to believe you need their entire development system to build database applications. But

CodeBase 5 J

The power of a complete DBMS, the benefits of C

NEW ■ Multi-user sharing with FoxPro, Clipper and dBASE...

Now your multi-user C/C++ programs can share data, index and memo files at the same time as concurrently running FoxPro, Clipper and dBASE programs. No incompatibilities. No waiting.

NEW - Queries & Relations 1000 times faster...

CodeBase 5.0 now lets you query related

data files with any logical dBASE expression. Our new Bit Optimization Technology (similar to FoxPro's Rushmore technology) uses index files to return a query on a 1/2 million record data file in just a second. Automatically take advantage of this query performance by using our new CodeReporter:

To use CodeReporter, simply draw your report, then include it in any program you write. Call 403/437-2410 now for your FREE working model of CodeReporter.

New - Design complex reports in just minutes...

Our new CodeReporter takes the painstaking work out of reports. Now simply design and draw reports interactively under Windows 3.1, then print or display them from any DOS, Windows or UNIX application.

SPECIAL - FREE CodeReporter

Order CodeBase 5 before April 30, 1993 and receive CodeReporter for free! This offer includes our no-risk, 90-day money back guarantee, so order today!

-saatBC SKSM

B.O

The C/C++ Library tor DataBase Management

Call Now 403-437-2410

SEQUITER

SOFTWARE INC.

FAX

Europe

403-436-2999

33.20.24.20.14

-54 AVE., EDMONTON. AB. CANADA T6E-5V1

:■ |Nn|*!ll> •■I'llirrl Ir./J.VJIV.' Limip.mr

Circle 129 on Inquiry Card.

REVIEWS

APPLICATION

Sun's C Solution for Solaris

BENJAMIN FRIED AND OTHAR HANSSON

Sun Microsystems startled many of its customers when it announced that, starting with SunOS 5.0 (a.k.a. Solaris 2.0), SunOS will no longer include a C compiler. Sun has explained that a C compiler is no longer necessary to reconfigure the operating system and has pointed to the bulk of Solaris customers who never use one.

For those of us who do use one, including Solaris 2.0 developers and SunOS 4.1 users who want a professional compiler and development environment, SunPro offers Sparcworks Professional C. Sparcworks Professional C is the bundling of two development products: Sparcompiler C, which is Sun's C compiler, and Sparcworks, a collection of language-independent tools, including a browser and a debugger (see the screens).

What's New

Sun hasn't just uncoupled its old compiler and remarketed it at a premium; Sparcompiler C is a significant improvement, providing ANSI C compatibility, better optimization, and many new commandline options. The compiler also offers substantial support for developers moving their programs from Kemighan and Ritchie C to ANSI C, plus a wealth of useful documentation.

Sparcworks is a set of language-independent development tools with OpenWindows user interfaces, controlled by a graphical utility called Sparcworks Manager. The Sparcworks applications are

• FileMerge, which aids in comparing and merging differing versions of source files.

• SourceBrowser, for examining and searching source code, viewing call graphs, and performing simple editing tasks. SourceBrowser can also graphically display C++ classes and class hierarchies with the Sun C++ compiler.

• Analyzer, a profiler and performance tuner (for Solaris 2.0 only).

• MakeTool, which browses make files, displays expansions for make-file rules and macros, and runs make on selected targets.

• db.x and Debugger, a multilanguage command-line debugger and its OpenWindows front end.

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Sparcworks Professional C (above) is a compiler plus Sparcworks, a collection of OpenWindows development tools that includes Debugger, SourceBrowser, and MakeTool. The Sparcworks SourceBrowser can help to clarify module relationships with displays like this call graph (right).

SunPro also bundles AnswerBook—Sun's handy hypertext browser and navigator— with on-line copies of all the paper manuals.

SunPro distributes all this on a single CD-ROM. Installation is simple. Sun's CDmanager program shows icons for each package on the CD-ROM; all you have to do is select the products for which you hold licenses.

Sparcworks Does Windows

The window-oriented tools that make up Sparcworks were not equally useful. FileMerge has an impressive GUI, but it was not as good as a combination of dif f and patch, a free command-line utility. Similarly, MakeTool has a pretty interface and some nice features, including a menu with entries for each target and being able to

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run user-specified commands when make operations start, complete, or fail. Overall, though, MakeTool was more cumbersome than just running make directly from a shell window.

In contrast, the other two tools are clearly better for the addition of the GUI. The debugger shows the most improvement. Being able to use the mouse to set breakpoints, display the value of variables, and step through code represents a big step up from the traditional dbx.

SourceBrowser's graphical display of function-calling relationships (see the screen) can clarify the structure of a program. SourceBrowser includes an editor, good for making simple changes to source code, and it hooks into the debugger to keep the debugger and browser displays in sync. continued

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 189

Circle 100 on Inquiry Card.

SUN'S C SOLUTION FOR SOLARIS

Technical calculations made easy!

i L MEW VERSION 3.1'.

Now it's easierthaneverto perform faster, more reliable engineering and scientific calculations.

Windows graphics features make Mathcad 3.1 the simple solution to complex analytic needs.

Dialogs, pull-down menus, and mouse pointand-click capabilities make it easy to combine equations, text, and graphics right on your screen and print it all in a presentation-quality document.

New Electronic Handbook Help facility serves as an on-line reference library. Paste standard formulas, constants, and diagrams from searchable, hypertext Electronic Handbooks for instant use in your Mathcad worksheet.

Symbolic calculations with a simple menu pick.

Use expressions resulting from symbolic derivations in your numeric calculations or for further symbolic manipulation.

Mathcad works on PC DOS, PC Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX. More than 600,000 engineers, scientists, and educators already use Mathcad for a variety of technical applications. Applications Packs are also available to customize Mathcad for particular disciplines, including electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering and advanced math.

Call 800-MATHCAD or use this coupon to request a free 3.1 demo disk!

In Massachusetts, call 617-577-1017.

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For a free Mathcad 3.1 Introductory Kit, clip this coupon and mail it back to us, or fax it to 617-5778829. Or circle your reader service card.

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Lots of Options

Of course, the backbone of the development environment is the compiler, and Sparcompiler C supports its environment well. Sparcompiler C has four levels of ANSI conformance, ranging from loose— essentially K&R C—to strict. Sparcompiler C also has five levels of optimization, which lets you choose the trade-off between size and speed. You can compile with both optimization and debugging switches set and run the debugger on optimized executables.

When we compiled for size, object files were about as large as those produced by Sun's old compiler. When we targeted speed, results were impressive with both integer- and floating-point-intensive code.

BVTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT SPARCWORKS PROFESSIONAL C IS

It comprises Sparcompiler C, a highly optimizing ANSI C compiler, and Sparcworks, an integrated set or OpenWindows development tools.

LIKES

Sophisticated optimization, good support for moving from K&R C to ANSI C, and a nice user interface to the debugger.

DISLIKES

Some Sparcworks tools are of limited utility; the price will seem high for users used to getting a compiler and debugger free with the operating system.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Superior optimization and excellent ANSI C compatibility make the compiler well worth considering.

I PRICE

(single-user, with printed manuals) Sparcworks Professional C, $1795 Sparcompiler C, $795

I FOR MORE INFORMATION

SunPro

2550 Garcia Ave.

Mountain View, CA 94043

(800) 926-6620

(415)336-6848

fax:(415)964-0946

Circle 1223 on Inquiry Card.

Although Sparcompiler C generated reasonably sized object files, SunOS 4.1 executables of very small programs (e.g., "hello, world") were about 100 KB larger than those compiled with Sun's bundled compiler or with the GNU C compiler. A call to Sun technical support revealed the reason: The SunOS 4.1 shared C library has a bug in the base conversion routines. Rather than distribute an updated shared library, Sun elected to include the fixes with Sparcompiler C. The compiler statically links in the fixed routines if they're needed, and it was these routines that inflated the files.

Compiler Comparisons

Sun's is a fine compiler, but it's not the only horse in the race. GNU's GCC supports SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.0, is ANSIcompatible (with several strictness levels), has a long list of optimizations that can be switched individually, and comes with extensive documentation. Its price is hard to beat, too: It's free. Since GCC comes with source code, fixes are widely available, and several companies provide commercial support at rates that compare favorably to Sun's right-to-use licenses and support contracts.

Sparcompiler C, for its part, optimizes better than GCC, provides good support for moving between K&R C and ANSI C, and with Sparcworks is part of a promising development environment. AnswerBook provides most of the help you'll need, and SunPro's sizable support infrastructure offers added assistance. If you want a wellsupported compiler that produces good code, and if buying the compiler from the hardware vendor is important to you, you'll feel comfortable with Sparcompiler C.

Of the Sparcworks tools, we found that Debugger stood well above the rest as a genuine improvement over the commandline utility it replaces. SourceBrowser has some useful features, providing elements of many different utilities under a single window. The other tools were not very useful, and we abandoned them for their (free) command-line equivalents. You'll want to carefully consider whether two good tools justify the cost ($1795) of the entire package. If you're working with more than one Sun language, Sparcworks becomes considerably more attractive than in a single-language environment. ■

Benjamin Fried and Othar Hansson are both members of the technical staff at Heuristicrats Research, Inc., a software R&D firm in Berkeley, California. You can contact them on the Internet at ben @heuristicrat .com and othar@heuristicrat.com, respectively.

190 BYTE • APRIL 1993

REVIEWS

SOFTWARE

A Beefier MKS Toolkit

BEN SMITH

Ask a developer what's best about Unix, and you'll hear about its rich set of command-line utilities and the great flexibility with which these can be strung together. Ask a developer what's best about MS-DOS, and you'll hear first about a massive potential market.

But why sacrifice a great working environment just because DOS and Windows are where all the action is? Tine MKS Toolkit has been bringing DOS and Unix together for eight years by providing DOS (and more recently, OS/2) developers with a full set of Unix utilities and a Korn shell command interpreter. Version 4.1 of the MKS Toolkit represents a significant improvement, introducing background UUCP file transfer and Unix mail and bundling two utilities (make and awkc) that were previously sold separately.

The Toolkit bucks a trend with its primarily command-driven, nongraphical user interface. Version 4.1 does include some character-based GUI utilities and some PIFs for Windows (see the screen). However, its extensive set of Unix utilities easily offers far more power and flexibility than a flashy palette of icons.

Significant Enhancements

The two most significant enhancements in version 4.1 are UUCP support and the addition of Unix E-mail. There are standalone UUCP systems that run under DOS, but Mortice Kern Systems puts most of its UUCP system in a TSR program that takes up less than 3 KB. As a result, the entire process of calling (or answering) another UUCP system, setting up the connection, and handling spooled UUCP requests takes place in the background. MKS's UUCP utilities include file transfer (uucico) and remote command execution (uux and uuxqt) as well as utilities for configuring and administrating UUCP.

Version 4.1 includes the Berkeley Email interface (mailx) and a mail router (rmail) so you can carry on Unix E-mail communications just as if you were on a Unix system. The mail and UUCP support are solid enough that you can even create a UUCP network of DOS or OS/2 sites running MKS utilities. You'll need one real Unix site designated as a "smart site" to resolve unknown addresses; MKS UUCP does not include sendmail, re

MKS Toolkit 4.1

makes a few

concessions to

graphical

orientation,

including

Windows PIFs

for some

(appropriate)

command-line

utilities.

quired to resolve addresses for sites not directly connected to your system.

MKS's UUCP configuration program uses a character-based GUI. Configuration files are binary rather than plain text (the Unix way) for security, since text files have no protection on a DOS system.

Variable Immersion

You can install the Toolkit in several different configurations, depending on how deeply you want to immerse yourself in a Unix-like working environment. You can choose anything from installing a simple collection of utility programs (more than 170) to replacing COMMAND.COM and AUTOEXEC.BAT with a Unix-style shell complete with log-in security. MKS Toolkit includes on-line documentation in the form of the man command and quick syntax reference with help.

MKS's utilities are very well written; the quality and level of Posix compliance of these tools exceed that of many commercial Unix versions. In fact, the Toolkit is often used by vendors of non-Unix operating systems, such as in DEC's VMS, to claim Posix compliance.

I run the MKS Toolkit on every DOS machine that I use, from laptops to highend desktops. With version 4.1,1 also enjoy background access to Unix mail and UUCP while running a DOS application. ■

Ben Smith is a testing editor for the BYTE Lab and the author of Unix Step-by-Step (H. W. Sams, 1990). You can reach him on BIX as "hensmith" or on the Internet at ben@hyteph.hyte.com.

BVTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT MKS TOOLKIT 4.1 IS

Unix utilities and a Korn shell command interpreter for DOS and OS/2.

LIKES

Inclusion of UUCP and background mail access; quality and completeness of utilities.

DISLIKES

If you prefer working with a GUI, you won't get much out of it.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Well worth the price for developers and users familiar with Unix. Current MKS Toolkit users who make frequent use of Unix mail should make the upgrade.

PRICE

$299

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Mortice Kern Systems, Inc.

35 King St. N

Waterloo, Ontario,

Canada N2J 2W9

(519)884-2251

fax:(519)884-8861

Circle 1221 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 191

EXCEED THE LIMITS OF X TERMINAL EMULATION.

Turn your PC into an X station.

WithHCL-eXceed/W PC X server software, Hummingbird allows you to live in two worlds: DOS/MS-Windows and X Windows/UNIX.

Imagine being able to move both text and images between UNIX hosts and your DOS PC. It's as simple as copying and pasting from one window of your PC screen to another.

Discover other innovative capabilities of HCLreXceed/W.

■ Launch Pad menuing facility

■ Telnet and FTP applications

■ Xll R5: support for scalable fonts, font servers, XDMCP security

■ Xstart — X client program starter

■ Xtrace — protocol tracing facility

■ single window and multiple window mode

■ supports 15 different TCP/IP transports and DECnet

■ supports up to 16 million colors

■ plane mask support

X Development Tools

HCL-eXceed/W now includes the Xlib, Xt intrinsics, Xaw and Xmu libraries. This introduces a whole new dimension to PC X servers. Now you can use your PC as a low-cost workstation to develop and run X applications. You can also give other PCs and workstations access to these applications over the network.

HCL-eXceed/Wfrom Hummingbird. It's far more than X terminal emulation for PCs. And it's one of the family:

HCL-eXceedPlus-A

DOS-based X server with a local window manager that supports EGA, VGA and SuperVGA.

HCL-eXceed HiRes - The

same as "Plus" but it also supports 8514A, XGA and TIGA 2 high resolution graphic standards.

HCL-eXtend - UNIX hostbased X clients for accessing DOS services.

HUMMINGBIRD COMMUNICATIONS LTD.

For the name of your closest reseller, please contact:

2900 John Street, Unit 4, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 5G3 Telephone: (416) 470-1203, Fax: (416) 470-1207

In Europe: 37-39 rue de Vermont, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Telephone: 41 (22) 733 18 58, Fax: 41 (22) 734 14 79

Circle 214 on Inquiry Card.

REVIEWS

HARDWARE

Pioneer's Super CD-ROM Drive

HOWARD EGLOWSTEIN

If you think your CD-ROM drive is fast enough and you like loading those ornery CD caddies, then don't try out Pioneer's DRM-604X high-speed minichanger. This drive features Pioneer's Quadraspin technology to achieve a continuous 600-KBps transfer rate, and it automatically switches between six CDROM discs at one time.

The DRM-604X is an external unit with two 50-pin SCSI connectors, switchable internal termination, and push-button SCSI ID selection. You load your CD-ROMs into a six-disc magazine that slips easily into a slot on the front panel. Loading the discs is simple enough, but the magazine itself feels breakable. The leaves that separate the discs are thin, and it wouldn't take much to snap one off. A front-panel button ejects the magazine; a rear-panel DIP

BYTE

ACTION SUMMARY

WHAT THE PIONEER DRM-604X IS

A CD-ROM drive that accepts six discs at a time and runs at four times the speed of standard CD-ROM drives.

LIKES

Fast and convenient.

DISLIKES

The magazine is somewhat flimsy.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you need to access large databases on CD-ROM or regularly use multiple discs, the DRM-604X is an excellent choice.

PRICE

$1795

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Pioneer Communications of

America, Inc.

3255-1 Scott Blvd., Suite 103

Santa Clara, CA 95054

(408)988-1702

fax:(408)988-1848

Circle 1231 on Inquiry Card.

The Pioneer DRM-604X racks six CD-ROM di

scs at one time.

switch setting allows you to disable the eject button if you wish.

I tested the Pioneer drive on a Mac Ilfx and a 33-MHz 486 EISA machine with an Adaptec 1742 EISA SCSI controller and an internal Sony CDU-541 CD-ROM drive. Pioneer's drivers loaded perfectly on the Mac. In spite of the Ilfx's goofy SCSI port, I had no trouble using the Pioneer's internal terminators. If a SCSI drive works on the Ilfx, it'll work just about anywhere. I loaded up the magazine with a selection of Mac HFS, ISO 9660. and Kodak Photo CD ROMs. The Ilfx had file sharing enabled, and I had no trouble accessing a number of different CD-ROMs simultaneously from different machines on the network. The Pioneer drive handles the disc requests on a first-come, firstserved basis, transparent to the Mac OS. The discs get swapped in and out of the magazine as needed; as far as the Mac can tell, the drive is simply six different CDROM drives.

Using the drive on the 486 machine should have been as easy, but the Pioneer DOS drivers simply wouldn't talk to the Adaptec board. The drivers will handle standard ASPI (advanced SCSI programming interface) drivers or selected Future Domain boards. I had been using Adaptec's ASPI to run the internal Sony drive, so connecting the Pioneer should have been a simple cabling problem. I ended up using CorelSCSI to drive both the Sony and Pioneer drives at the same time.

A test program confirmed Pioneer's speed claims: The DRM-604X transferred 60 MB in about 10 seconds (actually 598.6 KBps). The Sony CDU-541 single-speed

drive ran the same test at 149.8 KBps. Some of the machines in the BYTE Lab have hard drives slower than the Pioneer CD-ROM drive. Scary.

I also installed Microsoft's Video for Windows and ran a number of video clips (.AVI files) from a Microsoft sampler CDROM. AVI files get choppy if your CDROM drive can't read fast enough; the DRM-604X's busy light barely flickered.

At $1795, the DRM-604X isn't for everyone. To date, I haven't seen six CDROMs that I'd ever use on a regular basis; for me, switching CD-ROMs isn't a big problem. If all you need is a drive for occasional software installation, you don't really need quadruple-speed performance.

However, in some applications, Pioneer's drive would be a bargain at twice the price. Research libraries often have a number of large CD-ROM databases, and the minichanger would save wear and tear on both the users' patience and the CDROMs. Educational applications are notorious for accessing a lot of animations and graphics, and the DRM-604X's speed really makes these applications fly. You may also find yourself switching between several software programming reference CD-ROMs on a regular basis. If you regularly use more than one CD-ROM and spend a lot of time watching your drive's busy light, check out the DRM-604X; you'll wonder how you ever worked without one. ■

Howard Eglowstein is a BYTE Lab testing editor who holds an S.B. from MIT. You can reach him on BIX as "heglowstein. "

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 193

BOOK

AND CD-ROM REVIEWS

HUGH KENNER

Such was the barbarity of its opening prose, I nearly tossed The Death of Money aside. "The network is juxtaposed by computers that chart investment risk"—that kind of thing. And (my favorite), "Supply and demand— the two bedrock tenants of economics." What Joel Kurtzman must mean is tenets, but I cannot guess what he intends by bedrock.

Don't expect computer expertise, either. Of TFLOPS CPU speeds he exclaims, "A machine this big could read, digest, and process the entire contents of the Library of Congress" in just seconds. But the reading bottleneck isn't the CPU, it's the medium read from. And "digest, and process"? What can be going on? Burp suggests itself. Or barf. "

But Kurtzman's book does come to cohere, sort of. He has arresting news. Time was, you bought a bond and held it to maturity. Now, the average ownership period is 20 days. That comes of eyes kept on tiny fluctuations—quick, it's up, sell it—that need cashing in on at speeds once unimaginable. Computers enable that. So does Money-as-Infonnation: not gold nor paper, just strings of bytes moving via New York-TokyoZurich, zap.

The book's title says the money you carry in your pocket is no longer what matters. That's the money you imagine as "real" because it's imprinted on real paper and used to buy real commodities: autos, houses, software, kittens. There, it's a measure of comparative values. But the economy in which I hand you $20 and you hand me the kitten of my choice is no longer, Kurtzman says, where the action is. That economy—of kittens, scissors, cars, screwdrivers— is where most of us live most of the time. But it's now exceeded by the non-kitten economy of just, oh, futures contracts, to which nothing tangible, nothing save spreadsheet numbers, can be attached.

Exceeded, moreover, by—hang on—a multiplier of 30 to

MARKETS AS VIRTUAL REALITY

The Death of Money

Joel Kurtzman

Simon & Schuster, $21,

ISBN 671-68799-9

Windows 3.1 Insider

Keith Weiskamp

and Ron Pronk

John Wiley & Sons, $26.95,

ISBN 0471-57984-X

50. Thai's the extent to which phantom trading exceeds trades in anything as real as a meowing kitten. So forget kittens. Consider how we all exist amid "a network of financial networks." Unless we're speculators, they don't touch you and me in our daily transactions at all. But they touch us, year by year, as they devalue our dollar. Each January it buys less than in former Januaries. That's because (Kurtzman says) the "dollar" has lost all contact with tangible commodities. It's bounced about by speculative fervor, which can be obsessed with mere seconds. (Humans haven't so short an attention span, let alone reaction time. But trading programs, yes, have.)

The new electronic economy, juggling those phantom dollars, is "not only exceptionally complex and responsive, but it is also prone to volatility...temperamentally high-strung." Though I closed the book persuaded of that much, some things never did get clear. How was it that our pre-1971 money supply, tied to gold, grew at just about the right rate to deal with "the orderly expansion of growth and trade"? What magic in gold? And when the crash of '87 wiped out "trillions of dollars," just how were zapped megabucks re-created within two years?

Still, an arresting book while we wait for a belter one.

Short Subject

Wiley's Insider series aspires to "put an expert by your side." The introductory volume, on Windows 3.1, may be the best Windows book yet. It avoids rewriting the manual when the manual is adequate. It's knowingly explicit where the manual is confusing or silent. It abounds in hot tips. And it's organized to help you find what you need. ■

Hugh Kenner is Franklin and Callaway Professor of English at the University of Georgia. He writes for publications ranging from the New York Times to Art & Antiques. You can contact him on BIX as "hkenner."

RAY TRACING AS ART

Practical Ray Tracing in C, Craig Lindlev, John Wiley & Sons, $49.95, ISBN 0-471-57301-9

Practical Ray Tracing in C is the perfect introduction to ray tracing as art and science. Ray tracing is a technique for generating photo-realistic 3-D images using the principles of geometric optics. It models the interaction of light and objects within a scene so you can display shadows, reflections, perspective, and surface texturing.

This is a dense book that's not for casual browsing. I had to work hard to gain a firm understanding of the mathematical basis for using this powerful technique.

Lindley emphasizes the practical. He tells you exactly

what you need to know and moves on. No fluff. No unnecessary details. You'll learn to view ray tracing from two perspectives—the technology required to make a picture and the techniques required to make it pretty.

An accompanying set of source code and executable files lets you start experimenting with designing and drawing images without writing thousands of lines of code. The package includes full source code for DKBTrace, a high-quality public domain ray-tracing program. Although it's written for PC compatibles, you can port the source code to the Amiga, Mac, VAX, and Unix environments.

Practical Ray Tracing in C will have you whiling away many hours of your free time. Rather than sitting idle overnight or during weekends, your computer will be gencrating your new masterpieces for the world to see.

—Raymond GA Cote

194 BYTE • APRIL 1993

ILLUSTRATION: TIM GRAJEK <L8 1993

HEALTH ON DISC

The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book on CD-ROM

(Windows or Mac), $99.95, Sony Electronic Publishing, 9 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019, (212) 410-9409

The CD-ROM version of The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book augments the full text of the 1378-page book with 500 narrated illustrations and 45 animations and video clips. You locate a subject by way of the table of contents, an illustration list, or a full-text search. But the main attraction is a morph-like animation of the human anatomy that gradually exposes the muscles, organs, and skeleton as you move a slider bar. From there, you can click on an anatomical label to bring up more detailed illustrations.

Like most family health books, the Mayo Clinic CDROM presents an overview of many subjects but lacks depth. Many illustrations don't add much detail, and they often include single-sentence narrations that state the obvious (e.g., "Arterial pressure points are shown in this sequence"). The product also would benefit from more hypertext links between subjects.

I searched for "chronic lymphocytic leukemia" and turned up a one-screen synopsis of the disease and a link to a sidebar on "understanding your blood." But there were no links to cancer, chemotherapy, prednisone treatments, or other mentioned subjects. Prescription-drug information is limited to a simple listing. And a section on childhood immunizations includes just a few sentences ___^__ about each inoculation and when your child (BeSI^^ should receive it. I'd like to see hypertext tS^r links to all the diseases mentioned, as well as KL information on each immunization's poten- Jw^^v \< tial side effects. ' \

The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book on CD-ROM is an entertaining introduction to CD-ROM family health, but I don't see a clear advantage over the book version. Anatomical illustrations aside, the multimedia contents aren't compelling, and the textual content lacks the depth to make hypertext links truly beneficial. For more serious health questions, you'll find a copy of the Physicians' Desk Reference or the Merck Manual more informative.

—Roh Mitchell

FUZZY-LOGIC FOUNDATIONS

Fuzzy Logic, Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger, Simon & Schuster, $22, ISBN 0-671-73843-7'

A washing machine evaluates a load of clothes and automatically chooses the correct cycle. A hand-held camcorder compensates for wobble and records rock-steady scenes. Two common threads weave through these examples: The products represent applications of fuzzy logic, and they are made in Japan.

Fuzzy logic deals with vague knowledge and shades of meaning. Unlike classical set theory, which requires binary inclusion or exclusion, fuzzy logic defines continuously varying degrees of set membership: The load of laundry is mostly white, moderately heavy, and extremely dirty. Because fuzzy logic uses the numerical equivalent of such language (e.g., 0.8 heavy, 0.9 dirty), it greatly simplifies the development of control systems that mimic human judgment. Although such systems have proved effective, there's been a strong Western bias against a technique whose name connotes imprecision.

The authors of Fuzzy Logic plausibly suggest that fuzzy logic may require a Kuhnian paradigm shift to break free of the 2000-year tradition of crisp Aristotelian logic. Attributing Japan's rapid embrace of fuzzy logic to an inherently "vague" religious and cultural disposition, however, they skate on dangerously thin ice. It's true that fuzzy logicians Lotfi Zadeh and Bart Kosko are far better known in Japan than in their own U.S., but so is the management scientist W. Edwards Deming. In fairness, McNeill and Freiberger do eventually admit that pragmatism, more than Buddhism, may account for these preferences.

While Fuzzy Logic whetted my appetite, I went away hungry. The authors assert the superiority of fuzzy logic as a basis for control systems and say it will work synergistically

with expert systems and neural networks, but they don't describe their gee-whiz examples in enough detail to help you evaluate these claims. I would prefer less pop sociology and more substance.

—Jon Udell

PHOTO JOURNEY

From Alice to Ocean, Rick. Smolan and Robyn Davidson. Addison-Wesley, $49.95, ISBN 0-201-63216-0

From Alice to Ocean is a coffee-table picture book with a twist. The subject is Robyn Davidson's solo journey by camel across the Australian outback, and the book contains photojournalist Rick Smolan's dazzling pictures, with text from Davidson's book Tracks. The bonus are the two CDROMs: a Kodak Photo CD of high-quality images from the book and an interactive CD developed by Apple. The interactive CD presents a map of the trip that lets you point and click to jump to different portions of the route, and to see and hear Davidson's travel experiences in an arbitrary hypertext fashion.

The audio tracks—snatches of native music, Tracks narratives read by Beverly Dunn, and Smolan's commentary on the making of the book—pepper the work with intriguing facts and draw you into Davidson's travails as she makes the trip.

The discs are well done. The images are carefully dithered to 8-bit color and reproduce gorgeously on a 14-inch Mac monitor. This is the best example of interactive CD technology that I've seen. It's too bad Davidson herself didn't read the excerpts: That would have made the account more compelling.

—Tom Thompson

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 195

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UNDER THE HOOD

WILLIAM STALLINGS

FDDI Speaks

After a long standardization period and a slow start, FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) has gained acceptance. Now a new FDDI standard is set to take the technology to the next level. The original FDDI, known as FDDI I, calls for a 100-Mbps optical-fiber network that can function as both a LAN and a MAN (metropolitan-area network). With the increasing use of high-speed workstations, the growing reliance on graphics and image processing, and the need to interconnect departmental LANs with a highspeed backbone, FDDI has found plenty of niches.

However, FDDI is poorly suited to voice and other applications that have traditionally been handled by circuit-switching networks. To remedy this weakness, the ISO has defined FDDI II. As of this writing, the FDDI I documents are approved ANSI standards; the FDDI II documents are still in committee, but they appear to be technically stable.

The Optical Advantage

One of the biggest strengths of FDDI I and II is that both use optical fiber. Fiber-optic cable already enjoys considerable use in long-distance telecommunications and in the military. But optical fiber is used less than twisted-pair and coaxial cable for office LANs because of its relatively high cost and the complexity of its installation and maintenance.

Nonetheless, optical fiber enjoys several advantages over copper media that make it attractive for a number of

A new optical-fiber LAN standard adds circuitswitched voice and video traffic to the mix

LAN applications. The most obvious advantage is capacity. Optical fiber's potential bandwidth is immense: Data •'ites in the gigabit-per-seconr' .ange have been achieved. In addition, optical-fiber cable is considerably thinner and lighter

than coaxial cable or bundled twisted-pair cable, and it's at least an order of magnitude thinner in terms of comparable information-transmission capacity. For cramped conduits in buildings or underground along public rightsof-way, the advantage of small size is considerable. The corresponding reduction in weight reduces structural support requirements.

Another advantage of optical fiber is its electromagnetic isolation properties. Fiber-optic LANs are not affected by external electromagnetic fields that create interference, impulse noise, and cross talk. And optical fibers do not radiate energy that might cause interference with other equipment and provide an easily delectable signal for eavesdropping.

Because of these advantages, fiber-optic LAN technology has enjoyed substantial R&D, and related products have proliferated in recent years.

FDDI Foundations

The original FDDI I standard is a high-speed, fiber-based alternative to existing LAN standards. Like the twisted

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID TURNER (J 1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 197

UNDER THE HOOD

FDDIII ARCHITECTURE

Logical link control (LLC)

Circuit-switched

multiplexer(s)

(CS-MUX)

Media access control (MAC)

Isochronous MAC (IMAC)

I Hybrid ring T control (HRC) 1

Data-link layer

Physical layer

Hybrid multiplexer (HMUX)

Physical layer protocol (PHY)

Physical layer, medium dependent (PMD)

Station management

(SMT)

Figure 1: The internal structure of the FDDI 11 data-link layer enables support for the usual packet-based applications provided by other LANs, as well as circuitswitching applications.

pair token-ring standard, FDDI uses token passing to control access to the ring.

The FDDI MAC (media access control) algorithm is based on the use of a small token packet that circulates around the ring when all stations are idle. A station with data packets to transmit must wait until it detects a passing token. The station then captures the token by aborting the token transmission (i.e., by not repeating bits of the token) as soon as it recognizes the token. After it has completely received the captured token, the station begins transmitting one or more packets.

At this point, other stations with data to transmit must wait until the transmitting workstation releases the token. The transmitting station does this by inserting a new token on the ring when it has completed transmitting.

FDDI enhances this basic scheme with a capacity-allocation capability that regulates the amount of access time available to each station. Each station must release the token after its allocated time is up; stations with a higher priority are allowed to hold the token longer than other stations.

FDDI Extended

FDDI LANs transmit all data in frames of variable length. Each frame includes de

limiters to mark its beginning and end, and address information indicating source and destination stations. But FDDI I is not suitable for maintaining a continuous constant-data-rate connection between two stations. Even the so-called synchronous

w»

ith FDDI II, you can maintain a constant-data-rate connection.

traffic class of FDDI guarantees only a minimum sustained data rate; it does not provide a uniform data stream. Such a continuous, constant data stream is required for circuit-switched applications such as digitized voice or video.

FDDI II is an upward-compatible extension to FDDI that provides a circuit

switched service while still maintaining FDDI's token-controlled packet-switched service. With FDDI II, you can set up and maintain a constant-data-rate connection between two stations. Instead of using embedded addresses in frames, a connection is established on the basis of a prior agreement, which may have been negotiated using packet messages or established by some other suitable convention known to the stations involved.

The technique FDDI II uses to provide circuit-switched services imposes a 125microsecond frame structure on the ring. A circuit-switched connection consists of regularly repeating time slots in the frame. This mode of transmission is sometimes called isochronous transmission.

The FDDI II Architecture

Figure 1 shows a block diagram of an FDDI II station. The PMD (physical-layer, medium-dependent) portion of the specification defines the physical medium and specifies reliability features. The FDDI standard specifies an optical-fiber ring with a data rate of 100 Mbps. Based on the detailed characteristics of the medium and the electrical signaling specification, the maximum distance between adjacent repeaters is 2 kilometers. The total ring can have a maximum of 1000 repeaters and a total fiber path length around the ring of up to 200 km. Thus, FDDI can easily cover large office buildings and building complexes and can support a large number of computers and slow-speed LANs.

The medium-independent portion of the physical layer specification, the PHY(physical layer protocol), addresses the electrical specification of the signal that transmits bits on the ring. Tire encoding scheme developed provides for efficient signaling at FDDI's high data rate. This scheme, known as 4B5B, includes the definition of several nondata symbols that are used to communicate control information.

At the MAC level, two new components are added to the token-passing MAC module: the HMUX (hybrid multiplexer) and IMAC (isochronous MAC). The IMAC module provides the interface between FDDI and the isochronous service, represented by the CS-MUX (circuit-switched multiplexer). The HMUX multiplexes the packet data from the MAC and the isochronous data from the IMAC.

SMT (station management) monitors activity and exercises overall control of physical- and data-link-layer activity at each workstation. These functions include control and management within a workstation for such purposes as initialization, activation, maintenance, performance monitoring, and error control. SMT also com

198 BYTE • APRIL 1993

UNDER THE HOOD

municates with other SMT entities on the LAN for the purpose of controlling network operation. Examples of SMT functions include the administration of addressing, allocation of network capacity, and network control and configuration.

A Hybrid LAN

An FDDIII network can operate in either basic or hybrid mode. In basic mode, only the packet-switched service is available, and the network operates in the same fashion as an FDDI I network. In hybrid mode, both packet and circuit services are available. An FDDI II network typically starts out in basic mode to set up the timers and parameters necessary for the token protocol (e.g., each station's token-holding time) and then switches to hybrid mode.

When operating in hybrid mode, FDDI

11 uses a continuously repeating 16-bit pattern referred to as a cycle. A cycle is a framing structure similar in principle to that used in synchronous transmission systems such as Tl. The contents of the cycle are visible to all stations as it circulates around the ring. A station called the cycle master generates a new cycle 8000 times per second, or once every 125 u.s. At 100 Mbps, this works out to a cycle size of 12,500 bits (see the table). The cycle master strips each cycle as it completes its circuit around the ring.

Figure 2 shows the cycle format, which has four components. The preamble is a five-symbol (20-bil) nondata stream. Its actual size varies from four to six symbols to maintain synchronization in the face of jitter. The 12-octet (8-bit) cycle header defines how the rest of the cycle is used. A DPG (dedicated packet group) consists of

12 octets that are always available for token-controlled packet transfer. Finally, the WBCs (wideband channels) each consist of 96 octets per cycle.

Each WBC provides a capacity of 6.144 Mbps (96 octets per cycle x 8 bits/octet x 8000 cycles/second). Each channel can be set aside for circuit switching or packet switching. If a channel is used for packet switching, then it is merged with the DPG octets and any WBCs set aside for packet switching to form one large, dedicated packet-switching channel. This channel, referred to as the packet-data channel, is controlled by a circulating token. The minimum capacity of the packet-data channel is 768 Kbps, and it can grow in increments of 6.144 Mbps to a maximum of 99.072 Mbps. The table shows the capacity allocation of FDDI II.

The IMAC sublayer located within the hybrid ring control (see figure 1) determines which WBCs are used for circuitswitched traffic. Each 6.144-Mbps wide

band channel can support a single isochronous channel. Alternatively, the IMAC can subdivide one WBC into several subchannels that permit simultaneous, independent, isochronous dialogues between different pairs of FDDI II stations.

The Cycle Header

The FDDI II cycle header consists of the fields shown in figure 3. The start delimiter (SD) indicates the beginning of a cycle and contains a unique pair of nondata symbols. The synchronization-control field (CI) establishes the ring's synchronization state. The nondata symbol R indicates that synchronization has not yet been established and that the cycle can be legally

interrupted by another cycle. The CI field is set to R during hybrid-mode initialization or by any station that detects a loss of cycle synchronization by not receiving a cycle within 125 ixs of the previous cycle. The nondata symbol S indicates that synchronization has been established; only the cycle master can set this value.

The sequence-control field (C2) indicates the status of cycle sequencing. A value of R indicates that either the cycle sequence (CS) has not yet been established or that a CS error has been detected; a value of S indicates that a valid CS has been established and stations can latch each CS value to compare it to the CS value in the next cycle. continued

FDDI CAPACITY ALLOCATION

The minimum capacity the maximum capacity

of a data channel in an is 99.072 Mbps.

Bits per cycle

FDDI II system is 768 Kbps; Data rate (Mbps)

Overhead (cycle header + preamble) n channels of circuit-switched data Packet-data channel

116

nx768 96+(16-r?)x768

0.928

nx6.144 0.768+(16-n)x6.144

Total

12,500

100

FDDI II CYCLE STRUCTURE AT 100 MBPS

-< 16 octets 1

I

I Preamble

Cycle header (12 octets)

RowO

DPG 0

Row 88

DPG 11

Row 95

o

o

- m

S

o m g

O

m g

CO

o m g

o

CD g

m O

CD

g

CD O CO

5

o

03

5

CO

o

CD

g

o

CD g

o O

CD g

O

m g

CM

o

CO

g

CO

O CD g

o

CD g

O

co

g

96 rows

Figure 2: FDDI II imposes a framing structure on 100-Mbps traffic.

The specification divides this structure into several channels to provide both

packet-switching and circuit-switching facilities.

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 199

UNDER THE HOOD

i

-1

1

2

FDDIII CYCLE HEADER

^ 16

2

SD

Start delimiter

CI

Synchronization control

C2

Sequence control

CS

Cycle sequence

PO

P1

:■■■:,. • : " ,. ..-. ■:.-;■. .. ...

P15

IMC

Isochronous

maintenance

channel

.

Figure 3: 77?e ryc/e header appears at the start of each cycle. It provides synchronization and housekeeping information and defines the channel allocation used.

0 1

SORTING WIDEBAND CHANNELS

Cycle programming template

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

R

R

S

S

S

R

R

S

S

R

S

S

R

R

R

R

R = packet-data WBC

S = isochronous WBC

Sample cyclic group

Isochronous WBCs

CH 2

CH 3

CH

4

CH

7

CH 8

CH 10

CH

—^

Packet-data WBCs

Figure 4: This sample programming template indicates which channels to merge to provide one token-passing channel for packet-based traffic and which channels to reserve for circuit-mode traffic.

The CS field takes the form nn, where /; is a data symbol. If the CI and C2 fields both contain R, then the CS field is interpreted as containing a monitor rank. The monitor rank, used during the monitor contention process, can take on a value from 0 to 63. During this process, monitor stations transmit their rank in the CS field. The station with the highest rank becomes the new cycle master. During normal operation, both CI and C2 contain S, and CS contains a value between 64 and 255. The cycle master increments this number by one for each new cycle. When the value reaches 255, it wraps around and starts incrementing at 64.

The programming template field (P0P15) consists of 16 symbols, one for each WBC. An R value indicates that the corresponding WBC is part of the packet-data channel, while an S indicates that the corresponding WBC is dedicated to isochronous traffic (see figure 4). All stations read the programming template, but only the cycle master can modify it.

The IMC (isochronous maintenance channel) field carries isochronous traffic

for maintenance purposes. Its use is outside the scope of FDDI II.

Operation

During normal operation, the activity on an FDDI II network consists of a sequence of cycles generated by the cycle master. Two stations can communicate using circuit switching by sharing the use of a dedicated isochronous channel, or they can communicate using packet switching over the packet-data channel, observing the rules imposed by the token-ring protocol. The ring initializes in basic mode. Once basic mode is established and operating, one or more stations can attempt to move the network to hybrid mode by issuing a cycle. One monitor station might be preassigned this task, or all monitor stations might compete. During the monitor-contention process, each contending monitor station continually issues cycles with an R value in the CI and C2 fields and issues its monitor value in the CS field. If it sees an incoming frame with a higher monitor value, it ceases to transmit its own cycles and simply repeats incoming cycles. Even

tually, the monitor with the highest rank sees its own rank. It then issues cycles with an S value in the CI and C2 fields and a cycle-sequence number in the CS field.

The cycle master maintains the programming template. The allocation of capacity between packet and circuit transmission can be modified dynamically by means of SMT requests to the cycle master. When a request for modification comes in, the cycle master waits until it receives the token on the packet-data channel to ensure that no other station's packet data is circulating on the ring. It then generates a new cycle with the new programming template and issues a new token on the packet data channel. Other FDDI II stations adjust to the new allocation as soon as they receive the new programming template.

The End of the Line

FDDI II expands the power of FDDI I by supporting circuit switching for users who need LAN support for voice, video, or other constant-data-rate applications. With its standardized data rales, FDDI II lends itself to ready integration with ISDN, Tl, and other long-haul data-transmission services. FDDI II most likely represents the end of the line for refinements of this sort of shared-access technology. Vendors are already beginning to explore the use of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), or cell relay, technology. With the use of ATM switches, it is possible to build a LAN or MAN in which each attached station has a dedicated high-speed link to the network, rather than a shared link, as is the case with FDDI II. For the near term, however, FDDI II should rejuvenate the FDDI market. ■

William Stallings is president of CompComm Consulting (Brewster, MA) and is a lecturer and author. This article is based on his two most recent books: Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, 4th Edition (Macmillan, 1993), and Networking Standards: A Guide to OSI, ISDN, LAN, and MAN Standards (Addison-Wesley, 1993). You can reach him on BIX do "editors" or on CompuServe at 72500,3562.

200 BYTE • APRIL 1993

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

RAYMOND GA COTE

Processing Magic

on the Mac

Imagine working in an environment of total isolation. You have no neighbors, no one to call, and nobody to help you with your work. Until Apple's System 7 operating system arrived, most Macintosh programs worked this way. Programs executed in the midst of a bustling, industrious work environment without any means of communicating outside their own boundaries. While programmers could find an occasional peephole through which a trickle of information might pass between applications, doing so required arcane knowledge and questionable tricks.

Today, System 7 enhancements such as the Process Manager and Apple Events permit programs to communicate freely with other applications, request help, and exchange data. While System 7 has been around since 1991, many programmers are still unaware of how their applications can take advantage of these enhancements. I'll focus here on the capabilities of the Mac Process Manager.

History Lesson

The original Mac OS could run just one application at a time. You could also run DAs (desk accessories)—small utility programs roughly equivalent to TSR utilities under DOS—but these specialized utilities had several severe constraints, including very limited size.

Apple's Switcher was the first attempt to allow users to keep multiple applications active on the Mac. Switcher moved applications in and out of memory while fool

Here's a look at how the System 7 Process Manager works— and how you can use it

ing the operating system into seeing only one application. This solution let users quickly change from one application to another, but tricking the operating system was not an optimal solution.

Then came MultiFinder, which let users have multiple applications active simultaneously and allowed operations to continue in applications that were not currently on-screen. MultiFinder still required a bit of magic to work. The Finder still saw only one program; MultiFinder tricked the Finder into running more than one. To add to the complexity, MultiFinder was an option, and you couldn't easily tell when it was installed. Nevertheless, MultiFinder appeared to be a complete solution for users, who could now have multiple programs running at the same time and could switch smoothly and quickly between them.

Programmers saw things differently. They wanted to use the inherent features of MultiFinder in their products, but doing so wasn't easy. Apple proclaimed that MultiFinder should be transparent: A program shouldn't have to know whether it was running under MultiFinder or the Finder. But some subtle—and not so subtle—differences between the two environments made complying difficult.

The most important difference was how one application could start another application and then regain

ILLUSTRATION: MANUEL KING ©1993

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 201

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

PROCESS MANAGER CALLS

Use these Macintosh Process Manager calls to read process information.

OSErr GetCurrentProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn );

OSErr GetFrontProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn );

OSErr GetNextProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn );

OSErr GetProcesslnformation ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn, ProcesslnfoRec *plnfo J

OSErr SameProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn, ProcessSerialNumber *ps2 );

OSErr SetFrontProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn );

OSErr WakeUpProcess ( ProcessSerialNumber *psn );

control. An application running under the Finder could perform this task, but it would not regain control until the other application had finished. Launching from within MultiFinder allowed both of the applications to be active simultaneously. Furthermore, developers found that the process of launching one application from within another was fraught with loopholes and dangers: This operation was not officially supported by Apple, required a relatively arcane invocation of the code, and usually broke between operating-system releases.

It was also impractical, if not downright impossible, to detect other currently active applications. This, again, required delving into the hidden system resources and was fraught with peril, since Apple never guaranteed that such officially unsanctioned features would exist in the next system release.

Salvation

System 7's arrival changed the rules. MultiFinder and the Finder are fully integrated and documented, and one of the results of this integration is the Process Manager.

It schedules all processes, including both applications and DAs. The number of available processes is limited only by available memory.

Apple also provides an official interface to the Process Manager's internal data structures and functions. Although much of this information is interesting only to programmers who design operating-system utilities, other pieces are vital if you want to use inteiprocess communications in your applications.

When a user launches an application or a DA, the Process Manager assigns it a PSN (process serial number) that's unique to the system but not necessarily unique to the application. The Process Manager stores the PSN, a 64-bit value, as two 32bit unsigned long integers in a structure of type ProcessSerialNumber. This ID is the key to all the system-maintained information stored about that process.

The sample program I built for this article prints out the PSN for informational purposes, but Apple instructs programmers not to try to interpret it. Apple doesn't want you to even try to compare two PSNs, except by way of the built-in SameProcess function. The company reserves the

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right to maintain status data or other dynamic information in the PSN, so don't make any assumptions about the format of the PSNs, their order, or their magnitude.

The table lists the system calls used to acquire process-dependent information. The three functions that return PSNs are GetCurrentProcess, GetFrontProcess, and GetNextProcess. Each of these calls accepts a pointer to a ProcessSerialNumber structure. The GetCurrentProcess call returns the PSN for the currently active process, which is your own identity. GetFrontProcess returns the PSN of the process that owns the active window, which the user sees. Since applications can operate in the background, these two numbers are frequently different. One way your application can determine whether it is the foreground process is to compare the PSNs returned from calls to GetFrontProcess and GetCurrentProcess.

You use GetNextProcess to walk through the system's internal process list and find all active processes. Listing 1 shows the simple process. Before the first call to GetNextProcess, the Process Manager sets the PSN to the special system constant kNoProcess. The first call to GetNextProcess returns the first active process—typically, the Finder. On subsequent calls, the program passes the record that was returned from the previous call.

GetNextProcess currently returns only three defined values: noErr, paramErr, and procNotFound. The paramErr value indicates that the PSN passed in the record structure is invalid. If you receive procNotFound, then there are no other processes on the process list following the specified one. This is not an error—it simply means that you've iterated through all available processes.

Current versions of System 7 assign PSN 8192 to the Finder and then increment the PSN by 1 for each additional launched application. Be aware that this is not a behavior on which your code should depend. Apple doesn't even guarantee that the values will appear in sequential order.

Having a PSN is not very interesting unless you can do something useful with it. One use is to bring an application to the foreground. For example, an application can call GetCurrentProcess to determine its own ID and then call SetFrontProcess to activate itself. Or you can use it when an application needs to launch several other applications simultaneously. Instead of having each of the new applications flash on the screen, your application can launch them with instructions to stay

in the background. The launching application can then determine which application to move to the foreground.

Since the Mac is still a cooperative multitasking environment, calling SetFrontProcess doesn't automatically make the specified application move to the foreground. The specified process becomes the foreground process only after the current foreground process makes a call to WaitNextEvent or Event Avail. The one exception to this is when the current

foreground process is displaying a modal dialog box. In this case, the specified process remains in the background until the user dismisses the dialog box.

Process Details

The Process Manager maintains a data set on each process. The information it contains ranges from the application name to its memory location. Programs access this data by calling GetProcessInformation with a pointer to a PSN structure

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APRIL 1993 -BYTE 203

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Listing 1: Listing all processes on a Macintosh.

psn.highLongOfPSN = kNoProcess; psn.lowLongOfPSN = kNoProcess;

while ( noErr = (result =GetNextProcess ( Spsn ) ) ) {

/* process the information */ }

if ( procNotFound != result ) (

/* generate an error message */

Listing 2: GetProcessI

nf ormation returns this

process information record.

struct ProcessInfoRec

{

unsigned long

processInfoLength;

StringPtr

processName;

ProcessSerialNumber

processNumber;

unsigned long

processType;

OSType

processSignature;

unsigned long

processMode;

Ptr

processLocation;

unsigned long

processSize;

unsigned long

processFreeMem;

ProcessSerialNumber

processLauncher;

unsigned long

processLaunchDate;

unsigned long

processActiveTime;

FSSpecPtr

};

proces sAppSpec;

Listing 3: Grabbing the process information.

I*

* Initialize the size of the passed structure

* and a pointer to the buffer into which the

* name is returned. */

plnfo.processInfoLength =

sizeof( ProcessInfoRec ); plnfo.processName =

(StringPtr) (StheNameString); plnfo.processAppSpec = SpFSpec;

result = GetProcessInformation( Spsn, Splnfo );

if( noErr != result ) (

/* Generate an error message */ }

Listing 4: Typical output.

Process. It

Process ID: 8252

Application file type: PROJ

Application signature: KAHL

Process mode

Need suspend and resume events

Can background

Activate on foreground switch

32-bit compatible

Aware of high-level events

Aware of local and remote

high-level events

Stationery aware

Partition starts at:

00CADC38

Partition size:

64000

Free heap memory:

49634

Launched by process ID:

8251

Running since time tick:

4300cf

Accumulated CPU time ticks:

9a

Listing 5: Launching another application.

void doLaunch( void ) (

StandardFileReply mySFR;

SFTypeList myTypeList;

OSErr result;

int fsRefNum;

LaunchParamBlockRec lParms;

ProcessSerialNumber launchedProcessSN;

myTypeList[0] = 'APPL';

StandardGetFile( NULL, 1, myTypeList, SmySFR ); if ( true = mySFR.sfGood ) f

lParms.launchBlockID = extendedBlock; lParms.launchEPBLength = extendedBlockLen; lParms.launchFileFlags =0; lParms.launchControlFlags =

launchContinue + launchNoFileFlags + launchlnhibitDaemon; lParms.launchAppSpec = SmySFR.sfFile; lParms.launchAppParameters = NULL;

result =LaunchApplication ( SlParms ) ;

Process error codes

MemFullErr, MemFragErr,

appModeErr, appMemFullErr, and appIsDaemon

// doLaunch

obtained from one of the Getnnn calls and a pointer to a ProcessInfoRec structure (see listing 2).

Your application must initialize several fields in ProcessInfoRec before it can call GetProcessInformation. Since the size of this structure may increase in future versions of the operating system, the first 32-bit structure member is set to the

size of the current record definition. (Note that all the structure members are 32-bit values. This helps speed up structure access in Macs using 32-bit processors.)

The structure also contains pointers to a name string and to a System 7 file specification record. If your application doesn't require this information, you can set the pointers to NULL. Listing 3 shows the set

up code and call to GetProcessInformation. The only possible return values are noErr and paramErr.

Look at the information returned in the ProcessInfoRec. The processName returns the name of the application as a Pascal string—with one complication: DA names contain a \0 in the first character location, and this makes them difficult to

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print from within C routines. I ignored the problem and obtained the program name from the file specification record, which contains the name of the file that launched the application. There is a subtle difference between the process name and the file specification record: One is the name of the application in memory, and the other holds the name of the application on disk. These two names are currently identical, but in future operating-system releases, in-memory applications might be allowed to have different names.

Although I defined the processType and processSignature values as unsigned long integers, they're actually 4byte character arrays. The processType for applications is always APPL, unless the application launches at setup and runs only in the background. In that case, the type is appe. Apple's documentation says that all DAs are of type drvr, but all the DAs I tested had the file type dfil.

The 4-byte processSignature is unique for commercial applications, since Apple requires that developers register the signatures. This is the value applications store as the creator type in the files they create. The creator type determines which application System 7 launches when you double-click on a data file on the desktop.

The processSignature has other uses as well. If you're writing an application that communicates with other applications by way of Apple Events, then you must ensure thai the application with which your application is communicating is active. You can do this by simply searching through all active processes until you find the one with the correct signature. You then know the PSN of the program with which you must communicate. For example, if you need to send Apple Events to Microsoft Word, you can search until you find a process with the signature MSWD.

The next structure member, processMode, contains a set of single-bit flags that indicate if the process is an application or a DA. It also contains information from the application's size resource. Among other things, these bits indicate whether the application is 32-bit compatible, if it can use high-level Apple Events, and whether it operates in the background.

The ProcessInfoRec also contains information detailing the application's memory use. The processLocation field contains the application's starting address. The amount of memory used is in processSize, and processFreeMem indicates the current number of bytes available in the application's heap. Use this information to build system memory maps and to monitor how closely applications are reaching their memory limits.

You could use the information the Process Manager returns to build a tree showing which applications launched other applications. The processLauncher value is a ProcessSerialNumber containing the process ID of the initializing application. Be aware, though, that the launching application may no longer be running.

You might also want to know when a process started an application (processLaunchDate) and how much of its activity has been devoted to computation (processActiveTime). My applications typically use 30 percent of their available time; the rest of the time they wait for user input. When developing new programs, I find it useful to check how much time an application is using while it is in the background. When the values become too large,

T

.he Process Manager can determine when a process started an application and its activity level.

I rethink my process architecture.

Finally, ProcessInfoRec contains the name of the file from which an application launched, and its location on the disk. You'll find this information by way of launchAppSpec, which points to the appropriate FSSpec record. This record type (available only in System 7) contains a volume reference number that identifies the file, the reference number of the directory in which it is located, and the actual name. This information is particularly useful if you have multiple copies of the same application on your system. Displaying the information available in the FSSpec record shows me that I am running the wrong application, and it shows precisely where it is so that I can remove it easily. Listing 4 shows the type of information that you can extract from the system for a single application.

Prepare to Launch

Having one application launch another just is a 5-minute exercise with System 7 (see

APRIL 1993 'BYTE 207

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listing 5). Before you launch an application, first you have to fill out an FSSpec record with the appropriate information. The simplest method is to ask the user and the operating system to do it. StandardGetFile presents the user with the typical Open File dialog box and returns the required FSRec (professional programs will want to use a custom dialog box that says "Launch" rather than "Open").

The program fragment in Listing 5 sets up StandardGetFile to display only launchable applications. The user then selects the application to launch from the standard dialog box. When StandardGetFile returns, the StandardFileReply record is set to the description of the selected file. The sfFile member contains an FSSpec record that you must pass on to the LaunchApplication function.

Several other parameters must be initialized before launching the application. The values stored in launchBlockID and launchEPBLength are predefined constants provided for historical reasons. Always set these fields as shown.

The launchFileFlags variable allows you to set the Finder flags (typically found in the size resources) for the application. The easiest approach is to place a 0 in this location and set the launchNoFileFlags bit in the launchControlFlags. This instructs the Process Manager to extract the flags from the application file.

Launch options in launchControlFlags indicate how the application is loaded and whether or not the launching application will continue operating. The launchContinue option indicates that you want your application to continue running after the launch occurs. If you do not set this Hag, your application will terminate, even if the launch attempt fails. When you set this Hag, the launched application does not actually start executing until your application's next call to WaitNextEvent or EventAvailable.

Use SetlaunchUseMinimum when you want the application to load using the minimum amount of recommended memory. Without this flag, the application is launched using the preferred memory size. If you set the launchDontSwitch flag, the launched application will not automatically move to the foreground, but will remain in the background until the user selects it (or your program issues a SetFrontProcess call).

Setting the last option, launchlnhibitDaemon, ensures that you do not launch a background-only application. Background-only applications have the onlyBackground flag set in the Finder flags; however, since my example shows the pre

ferred method of letting the launch function set the Hags for you, I never actually see them. This flag ensures that the user does not accidentally launch an application that has no user interface.

The last parameter to be set, launchAppParameters, is a pointer to the first high-level event to be sent to the newly launched application. If this field is set to NULL, the Open Application event is sent.

After you've set up the preliminaries, all that's left is to call LaunchApplication and check the result value. If the returned value is meraFullErr or memFragErr, you can try relaunching the application in the minimum recommended space. You will receive an appModeErr if you attempt to launch an application that is not 32-bit clean while you are in 32-bit address mode. A result of appMemFullErr indicates that the application requires more memory to load than is indicated in the size resource; this is a programmer's problem that you cannot solve. If you have set the launchlnhibitDaemon flag, you may receive the appIsDaemon result, indicating that the application was a background-only task and was not launched.

The LaunchParams record holds several other useful bits of information. The Process Manager returns the launched application's PSN in launchProcessSN. If you have difficulty launching because of limited memory, you can check the launchPreferredSize and launchMinimumSize parameters to see how much space the application would like to consume. The variable launchAvailableSize contains the size of the maximum contiguous chunk of memory currently available.

System 7 has elevated process management from the depths of murky obscurity to mainstream functionality. Programs are no longer officially isolated entities, but can be more fully aware of the environment in which they're operating. This capability will gain greater importance as more and more applications seek to communicate with each other through Apple Events. ■

Editor's note: The complete listings for this article are available in electronic format. See page 5 for details.

Raymond GA Cote is a software development engineer for Appropriate Solutions, Inc. (Peterborough, NH), specializing in cross-platform application development. He also edits the Robot Explorer newsletter. You can contact him on BIX as "rgacote" or on the Internet at rgacote@bytepb .byte.com.

208 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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LAN Remote Control

Operating another PC across the LAN saves time walking around the office to troubleshoot problems. It's also useful for a variety of tasks. You might use remote control as a training tool, to demonstrate the proper use of an application. Or you can use remote control to manage an unattended PC, such as a backup server, without leaving your desk. This month's Software Corner offers a pair of programs, Control and SlavelPX, that implement remote control of DOS sessions over IPX. These programs, which include assembly language source code, should run over any Novell NetWare 2.x or 3.x LAN.

Programming a LAN-based remotecontrol utility means choosing a transport protocol such as NetBIOS or IPX to shuttle screen and keyboard messages back and forth. Because Control and SlavelPX use IPX, you don't have to load the Novell NetBIOS emulator to do over-thewire remote control. However, using IPX also means that the remote-control software won't run on LANtastic, LAN Server, or other NetBIOS-based networks. I plan to add NetBIOS support to future versions.

A pair of PC

remote-control programs

for NetWare LANs

You run SlavelPX at the host workstation, the one that you want to operate through the wire. SlavelPX is a TSR program that takes only 7 KB of RAM. It listens for message packets containing keystroke information from Control. SlavelPX also watches the video buffer for changes and sends the screen updates to Control at your PC. On the other end, Control sends keystroke information to the SlavelPX workstation and accepts video-buffer updates from the host.

You run Control at the remote, or controlling, workstation. Control takes a single command-line parameter, the log-on user ID for the workstation you'd like to control. If Fred is logged in and his PC is running SlavelPX, you'd enter Control FRED to start up the remote session. When you want to stop Control, press Control and the 5 key on the numeric keypad. Your keyboard reverts to controlling your PC instead of the remote PC. SlavelPX stays

ready, waiting for the next call.

The slave program intercepts the timer tick interrupt, INT 8h. On every tick (i.e., 18.2 times a second), the SlavelPX program checks the text video buffer (i.e., monochrome at B000:0000, or color at B800:0000) to see if it should send a screen update to Control. SlavelPX also sends cursor-size and cursor-location updates. Control hooks the keyboard interrupt INT 9h. When you press a key on the controlling machine, Control sends the event to the SlavelPX TSR at the remote PC. INT 9h is the low-level keyboard interrupt, so Control gets raw scan codes. It sends keys and shift-key states across the LAN to the host machine.

These programs don't attempt to shuttle screens in graphics mode, handle mouse movements, or print to a remote printer. These might make SlavelPX and Control more useful, although it wouldn't get you to Windows remote control. If you need these enhancements, add them to the barebones versions of SlavelPX and Control available through the usual sources. You need only MASM (Microsoft Macro Assembler) or TASM (Turbo Assembler) and a linker to create new executable files. ■

MAC/Tom Thompson

Cleaned-Up ARA

AppleTalk Remote Access lets your PowerBook call up a Mac at work and appear as a node on the office AppleTalk network. You can view files, copy them to the office network, and print them, just as if you were there. The only problem with ARA is that it has a clunky interface that uses a Control Panel to enter configuration settings and then an application to dial and establish the connection.

ARAClient, shareware written by Ron Duritsch, consolidates both the setup and access procedures into one convenient Control Panel. You enter the modem settings, phone number, user ID, and password into ARAClient and click on a button to make the connection. You can also save these values into a file for later use. ARAClient saves filed connection information into a stand-alone application that automatically makes the connection when launched.

UNIX/Ben Smith

An Old Friend Extended

Yes, I have heard the joke: "Friends don't let friends use vi." But vi is an old friend to many a Unix user. Compared to emacs, it's small and simple—yet it does everything you need.

Chris and John Downey have developed a freely available version of vi with extensions (hence the name xvi). Although xvi is not an X Window System application, it does have multiple windows and buffers, 8-bit character support, multiple command buffers (i.e., it can repeal more than one command), and on-line help.

Even though xvi was originally developed for the Amiga, it's been ported to almost every popular operating system except the Mac OS. If your fingers (and mind) are already conditioned to vi, you will enjoy this old friend in this more sophisticated and more portable incarnation.

Editor's note: Software Corner highlights public domain, freeware, and shareware programs. The programs are available electronically. See "Program Listings" on page 5 for details. We solicit your contributions. We pay $50 for any program we use. Write to: Software Corner, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458.

210 BYTE- APRIL 1993

BEYOND DOS

JON UDELL

Simple MAPI Delivers

You've probably heard that Windows for Workgroups comes with builtin mail and mail-enabled scheduling. You may not realize, though, that it is also a platform for building mail-enabled applications. The key to this kingdom is the first incarnation of MAPI, Microsoft's Messaging API. A major piece of WOSA (Windows Open Services Architecture), MAPI aspires to make mail a standard Windows system service, just as ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) does for SQL (see "Connecting Windows to Data with ODBC," January BYTE).

The simplest MAPI-aware applications will present Send menu items (or toolbar buttons) so you can mail a file or a range of files from your word processor or spreadsheet. In Windows for Workgroups, for example, File Manager's toolbar sports a Send File button. More fully MAPI-enabled programs will route forms, distribute software, and manage work flow.

Unfortunately, MAPI isn't yet as mature as ODBC. Developers are rapidly making the WOSA vision of multiple service providers a reality for ODBC. I just learned that both Watcom's and Raima's newest SQL products support ODBC. I fully expect that the WordBasic macro and the supporting DLL I built to access dBase and SQL Server data through ODBC will converse successfully with these new databases and many others.

The situation with MAPI is different. The shipping version, called simple MAPI, is inseparably bound to Microsoft Mail. The first beta version of an extended MAPI open to alternate mail transports, address books, and message stores won't be available until you read this. So don't plan on running MAPI-enabled software over MHS, Vines, SMTP, or other popular mail transports anytime soon.

Using Simple MAPI

Despite this limitation, you can do quite a lot with simple MAPI today. Comprising just a dozen function calls and a few

basic data structures, it's a surprisingly powerful tool. I began exploring simple MAPI using the MAPI custom controls included in the professional edition of Visual Basic 2.0. In just a few minutes, I created a Visual Basic mail notifier that periodically polled my mailbox and popped up a message box when it spotted a piece of unread mail. Although trivial, it served a useful purpose. Windows for Workgroups doesn't provide a lightweight notifier, so you have to keep Mail—a hefty program—loaded all the time to check for incoming messages.

The Visual Basic custom control does a great job of encapsulating the MAPI data structures—a message, along with its lists

Microsoft's new E-mail

API is powerful yet easy to implement

of recipients and attachments—but the result wasn't the lightweight notifier I'd envisioned. The next step was to re-create the program in C. That was straightforward, too. LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress gave me the addresses of the entry points in MAPI.DLL that I needed: MAPILogon (to establish a session), MAPIFindNext (to enumerate unread messages in the inbox), MAPIReadMail (to peek at the contents of new incoming mail), and MAPIFreeBuf f er (to free memory allocated by MAPI for message storage). You can do this in any language that can call a DLL and can represent a message and its associated lists.

When a mail-enabled program logs on to the mail system, it can display the same log-on dialog box that Mail itself uses, or, if it knows a valid name and password, it can bypass that dialog box and silently establish a session. Both approaches have their uses. When interaction is necessary, a standard look (as with the Windows 3.1 common file, print, and font dialog boxes) tells you to expect standard behavior. Developers who've worked with both MAPI and the VIM (Vendor-Independent Messaging) API cite VIM's lack of an embedded common user interface as a drawback.

MAPI Functions

Simple MAPI provides two functions for sending mail. MAPISendDocuments, which always prompts with standard dialog boxes for recipients and sending options, works even with minimally capable languages like WordBasic that can't pass message structures as parameters. If you're using a more robust language, you can use MAPISendMail and skip the addressing and attachment dialog boxes. An unattended program using this function can send a message (with a list of file or OLE attachments) to a list of recipients. Other MAPI functions enable programs to save and delete messages, build recipient lists using the address-book dialog box, resolve a name to an address-book entry, and view

ILLUSTRATION: JOSEF GASTS1993

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 211

HANDS ON/BEYOND DOS

or edit an address-book entry.

Every MAPI message has an associated type. These types conform to a three-part syntax. If I send you a standard Microsoft Mail message, its type will be IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note. The first field denotes interpersonal mail, the second identifies the sending application, and the third further categorizes the message. Other IPM message flavors common in Windows for Workgroups define message receipts and requests for meetings.

Simple MAPI also recognizes message types beginning with IPC, which stands for interprocess communications. IPM messages show up in your inbox when you run Mail, but IPC messages don't. Suppose I'm a network administrator receiving frequent automatic status reports — via Emai! — from nodes on a network. Instead of cluttering up my inbox, the reporting nodes and monitoring application might use the invisible IPC channel.

Hitting the Wall

Why not just stash IPM messages in a designated folder accessible to the standard Mail client? Here's where simple MAPI starts to run out of gas. Its concept of a

message store is extremely limited. It knows only about a single folder: Mail's inbox. You can't use simple MAPI to create a new folder or set the current folder to be other than the inbox. Extended MAPI, by contrast, defines a rich message store comprising a hierarchy of folders and provides functions to create, move, copy, delete, and search those folders. There may, in fact, be several message stores, so extended MAPI also provides a function to enumerate them.

Like message stores, transports and address books can multiply in extended MAPI. Novell's MHS, for example, comprises both a store-and-forward mail transport and a directory of users. A MAPI implementation would make MHS one of several transports that are available to MAPI clients and merge the MHS directory into the system address book. At this point, MAPI starts to look a great deal like ODBC. As more service providers appear on the scene, diverse message systems — MHS, SMTP, and even fax—will become accessible to Windows applications that use MAPI.

Such integration today requires specific collaboration between clients and gale

ways. Extended MAPI aims to generalize that relationship, granting any Windows application common access to all the message systems enabled on a given machine. Moreover, you will enjoy a unified view of those diverse systems. When you address a note to a mixture of E-mail and fax recipients, you'll always work with the same address-book dialog box, whether you initiate the action from a minimally mailaware application or from a full-blown mail client.

Extended MAPI Objects

All the objects that an extended MAPI client can manipulate — including message databases, messages, attachments, folders, address books, users, and distribution lists—support a common interface for querying and setting properties. Additional common interfaces support streaming text to and from messages and attachments, and arranging lists or hierarchies in tabular form for search or display.

The function GetContentsTable, for example, works polymorphically to enumerate flat objects like distribution lists and attachment lists, while GetHierarchyTable examines tree-structured

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212 BYTE • APRIL 1993

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HANDS ON/BEYOND DOS

objects like address-book containers and folders. Tables acquired by means of either of these functions support common search, sort, and navigation protocols.

To support the multiprovider scenario, extended MAPI defines a trio of interfaces to which message store, address book, and transport providers must conform. For the most part, MAPI.DLL, like ODBC, will play the role of a driver manager that loads DLLs. Then it will get out of the way so those DLLs can do the real work. However, MAPI.DLL will directly implement certain key services such as memory management and event notification.

In general, service providers will ask MAPI to allocate memory, and clients will ask MAPI to free it. Because a central authority brokers requests from both sides, ownership conflicts won't arise. There's also a chaining function that a provider can use to grow complex, nested structures that a client can nevertheless free by calling MAPI with a single base pointer.

The event-notification service is particularly elegant. A client that wants to be notified when the contents of a particular folder change issues a call to the folder's provider. It in turn sends a client-supplied

folder ID and callback function along to the notification engine in MAPI.DLL. When the provider changes the folder's contents, it alerts MAPI, which takes care of notifying all clients that have registered interest in the folder.

MAPI in Your Future

Microsoft plans to roll out extended MAPI with a future version of Windows, probably in 1994, and promises that applications written to simple MAPI today will run unmodified on extended MAPI when it's available. Message-enabled applications previously confined to a Microsoft Mail straitjacket will suddenly be able to connect to a rich assortment of message systems. And at the same time, extended MAPI's superior facilities for organizing, searching, and storing message data will encourage the development of new mailenabled applications more ambitious than those feasible today with simple MAPI.

Do developers buy into this plan? Yes and no. The author of a leading mail-enabled forms program told me his principal concern is to get that program onto as many mail platforms as possible. A multiprovider version of MAPI would do the

trick, but so would a multiprovider version of VIM. Currently, he's forced to support the early, uniprovider versions of both APIs to get coverage of just two mail systems—Microsoft Mail and cc:Mail. Both MAPI and VIM promise to decouple from proprietary transports and push beyond their current Windows (and, for VIM, OS/2) implementations to DOS, Unix, and the Macintosh. But E-mail developers aren't sitting on their hands waiting for all this to happen.

In the meantime, it's hard to go wrong with simple MAPI. Windows for Workgroups is going to put Microsoft Mail and MAPI onto a lot of desktops. Users of Windows for Workgroups will come to expect that applications notice the mail system and react by offering Send options. It's so easy to satisfy that expectation that there's no reason not to. A developer who supports DDE or OLE must make a major commitment. Simple MAPI, by contrast, lives up to its name—it really is a cinch. ■

Jon Udell is a BYTE senior technical editor at large. You can contact him on BIX as "judell" or on the Internet at judell® bytepb. byte. com.

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214 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 70 on Inquiry Card.

ASK BYTE

Running CD-ROMs in Parallel

I have an NEC Intersect CDR-73 external CD-ROM drive connected to my Amiga 2000.1 recently purchased a Librex T386SX/Notebook and would like to use the CD-ROM drive with it. Because my notebook cannot use SCSI peripherals directly, I am looking for ways to connect external SCSI devices to either the parallel printer port or the PCMCIA slot. How do I do so?

Bryan Brown Silver Spring, MD

I'm not aware of any PCMCIA SCSI adapters. Parallelport adapters seem to be all the rage these days, and two companies attract most of the attention. Always Technology (Westlake Village, CA, (818) 597-1400) and Trantor Systems (Fremont, CA, (510) 770-1400) both make parallel-port SCSI adapters that should do the trick.

Always' AL-1000 supports a full host of SCSI devices and comes with ASPI (advanced SCSI programming interface) drivers. It should handle your CD-ROM drive. If you have a bidirectional port, the AL-1000 will give you data at rates of up to 250 KBps. Trantor's T338 MiniSCSIand T348 MiniSCSI Plus both come with CD-ROM support. If yourLibrex machine has a bidirectional parallel port, you '11 want to investigate the T348 MiniSCSI Plus. Freeport Data (Fremont, CA, (510) 505-0567) makes two similar products: the Freeport/25 and Freeport750 (25and 50-pin SCSI, respectively) adapters.

MSCDEX comes with most drives, or you can get a copy as part of Corel SCSI, a universal SCSI driver that handles many different SCSI drives, from Corel Systems (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, (613) 728-8200). Because these products are always being upgraded, you should check with the manufacturer to make sure that the Intersect CDR-73 is one of the supported drives.

—Howard Eglowstein

Dynamic Arrays

Regarding Daryl F. Watson's C programming problems (Ask BYTE, December 1992), I had the same problems when I started programming. For a program to execute another program or an operating-system command and return to the mother program, ANSI C provides the system ( ) function with prototype in stdlib.h (e.g., system ("rogl.exe") will execute progl in DOS).

Dynamically allocating multidimensional arrays is not as tricky as your reply says, although it requires a programmer's logic. For example, to allocate a 2-D array with six columns and nine rows, you define a pointer that indicates an array of six pointers, each pointing to its own array of nine floats. Listing 1 shows how to do it in C++.

The solution in ANSI C follows similar lines. As a physicist, I use multidimensional arrays so often that I have defined functions with templates to handle this business. This lets me dynamically allocate memory for multidimensional arrays of any object in a single line.

Michael Chen Riverdale, MD

There are two items of importance in your listing: The first is the system () function; the second is the concept of dynamic-array allocation. .j^fc , On the first point, note that the I/O of

^^Jfc| any program or process skirled with

A^ ^f i\ system () is completely independent of W^^^^H the parent program, your C code. It ■^^^ i doesn7 even return the exit slams of the

i W \ program, only the exit status of the com

I mand interpreter (e.g., command.com or

/bin/sh). This is acceptable if you only want to initiate another program from within yours.

The second point is also valid, but only in a limited context. It is in the definition of the word dynamic that outviews differ, and it's from this difference that the problem becomes either trivial or complex. I'll define dynamicarray allocation in this way: the ability to expand or contract the size of an array based on the dynamic conditions within a running program.

To allocate memoty once during the program is no problem, but when you want to add to the size of the array, many things can go wrong. The C++ operator new and the C function mal loc () return a pointer to a block ofmemoiy. Even sequential calls to these operations will not give you the next sequential address so that you could have merely concatenated the new with the old, to create a contiguous array.

Assuming that you plan to allocate an entirely new block ofmemoiy when it comes time to change the size of the array, you face some inconveniences: You must copy valid contents of the old array to the new array before you free the space on the old one; you can't use more than half of the free heap space, because you must maintain two copies of the array during the copy; and your heap space will become fragmented and limit the size of your arrays even more.

The solution is to manage the heap with your own routines for dynamically changing the size of arrays. Some of our longtime readers may recall that Rick Grehan offered such routines in "If Memory Serves... " (August 1989 BYTE).—Ben Smith ■

Listing 1: Dynamically allocating multidimensional arrays.

float **ptr;

//Allocate memory for 6 pointers.

ptr=new float *[6];

//Now allocate memory for

//6 arrays, each with 9 floats.

for(int i=0; i<6; i++)

ptr[i]=new float [9] ; //Now we can use the array! ptr[3][5]=1.2;

The BYTE Lab welcomes your questions. Address correspondence to Letters Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. You can also send BIX mail c/o "editors."

We read every letter, but due to the volume of mail received, we cannot guarantee a response. We edit all letters for clarity and brevity.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 215

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Use external monitor Up to 6 drives

EEC

8.75" high

f

Mono or color monitor Up to 5 drives

[

V

8.75" high

14" color monitor

Up to 3 drives

- " gig

1

12.25" high

Rack Mount Monitors

10" mono or color monitor

\ Ldsl

8.75" high

14" mono or color monitor

! 2.25" high

Enclosure for most desk top monitors

C

14.0" high

Rack Mount Keyboards

Drawer mounted keyboard

1.75" high

Drawer for desk top keyboards

M/

3.5" high

Vertical-mount, sealed membrane keyboard

S^^^S

5.25" high

Rack Mount Printer

Dot matrix printer with industrial rating

12.25" high

Call for our other Rack Mount computer and "enclosure only" product offerings.

RECDRTEC, INC.

1290 Lawrence Station Road, Sunnyvale CA 94089 Tel. [408] 734-1290 Fax: [408] 734-2140

1-800-729-7654

Circle 197 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 198).

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 219

TWttHJl

LIFETIME1 WARRANTY

100°/i

fflMU S U PER SOU

1x9$CALL

,« SIMMS 4 x 9 SCALL

HARD

DRIVE

SUPER

PRICES

SCALL

Q

Quantum FUJITSU

MepQot

tSPseagate MicRornus

/uufurn

WESTERN DIGITAL

f Apple

:wa hod wioj!lla i «

4MB MOO M1033LL-* IM

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fOWlfttOOKUD

3M3 MOD IYA (US UOD It*

m*c poruile saw in

IMS UOD N*

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S17K KF! N.'

2MB HI MC7.19

16MB KIT N MACLC

1MB KIT M071E 47

2MB MOD H05HtLA 69

1MB Kll MO2707 13)

I Kll HD375LL-A IU

MAC IrCI

1MB Kll MD21B 47

J1!.'? MOD M05I4LLA (9

1MB Kll M077D7

FAST

DELIVERY, GREAT SERVICE

AND LOW PRICES

SEHiEaBiigg^aia

8087 smut, ikie 8087-? bmiiz intel

8087-1 10MH2 INTEL 30237-5 6MHZ INTEL 80287-S BMHZ INTEL 60287-10 10MHZ INTEL 80287XL I0MHZ INTEL 80387XLT 1ZMHZ INTEL 60387SX-16 \m\il INTEL 60387SX-20 20 HZ INTEL 80387DX16 16MHZ INTEL 603fl7D!(-2u" 20MHZ INTEL =;-ft?[v>:-::,j :-'S!M7 firf.i 80387DX-11 KMH.-' MF: BD487SX-70 INTEL OVERDRIVE SXDXa3 OVERDRIVE SXDXK OVERDRIVE SXDX70

CYRIX

18.00 S3D87DX 1G I8MHZCVRD<

»-00 OT7DX-20 2QMHZ CYRIX

|J2S B3D970X-25 25MH2 CYRIX

H-ffi 3DS7DX-33 33MKZ CYRIX

5-ffl e3DB7DX-40 JOMHZ CYRIX

JsS B3S37SXT6 I6MHZ CYRIX

rs'00. B3S37SX20 20MHZ CYRIX

15.00 &3S87SX25 25MHZ CYRIX

IS-M B2S37XL CYRIX

j^gg WEITEK

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1900 1167-?3!.H/ v,;r'

19.00 3167-33MHZ WEITEK

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S.OU 2C87-&6WHZ IU 19.00 2C87-:« my.\> m

B.X 2C87-i:M?MI'Z III S.00 2C87-3) ?.Ci'K 11 EM 3C87-I6 16MHZ IIT '9.00 X87-20 JOMHZ IIT '9.00 3C87-25 2SMH2 IIT 5.00 3C87-33 33MHZ III '9.00 KS7-.10 40MHZ IIT 3S87SX-lf> ibMii/ il 3S87SX-20 20MHZ HT

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■5 00 W>> Wi-Vii? r

500 AMD

5.00 BOC2S7-10 AMD

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PXZ CALL FOR LATESTi

SIMMSIPP MODULES

S9.W 59.D0 65.00 69 00

B9.D0 89 DO 89.00

89.00 93.0(1

4MB X 9-BQNS SIMM-PC 4MB X 9-70NS SIMM 4MB X 9-60NS SIMM 1MB X 9-100NS 9 CHIP SIMM 1MB X9-80NS3 CHIP SIMM 1MB X 9-80NS9 CHIP SIMM 1MB X 9-70NS3 CHIP SIMM 1MB X 9-70NS9 CHIP SIMM !MBX 9-60NS 3 CHIP SIMM 1MB X 9-60NS 9 CHIP SIMM 1MB X 9-53NS 3 CHIP SIMM 1MB X9-53NS9 CHIP SIMM 16MB X9-70NS SIMM 16MB X 9-60NS SIMM

EACH 12 +

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

CALL CALL

256KX9256K X 9256K X 9256K X 9

1MB xe

1MB X8

4MBX8' 4MB X 8' 1MB X 9 1MB X 9^ 1MB X9

TOONS SIMM SONS SIMM 70NS SIMM ■SONS SIMM ■SONS SIMM JONS SIMM SONS SIMM 70NS SIMM 1D0NS SIPP SONS SIPP 70NS SIPP 60NS SIPP

CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL

256K X9-100NSSIPP

CALL

256K X 9-B0NS SIPP

CALL

256K X 9-70NS SIPP

CALL

256KX 9-60NS SIPP

CALL

256X36- 1MB .

CALL

512X35- 2MB .

CALL

1 X 36 - 4MB

CALL

2X36- 8MB

CALL

4X36-16MB

CALL

8 X 36 - 32MB .

CALL

1MBX40-80NS-4MBSIMM

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2MB UDD 3107385 I

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ALB POWER PAD

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ALII POWER pucvnc

16MB Kll 12916000 ALB POWER CACHE 416-49

AlBMICflDfLEXXCO

VMM Kll 121)16000 10W ALR ELYER 37! i:i

1MB I2902SOI 53

ALH FLYER 37DT

EVEREX^

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3-4MB E-C II33476R I2S

4MB !>C II3.1477B ISI

LASER

PRINTER

MEMORY

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NEC

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i"i| uui! mm 199

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2MB MDD PC2126 IM

1MB MOD PC2I22 tM

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PROSPEED 41 IU. MULE hi-, v-ji ri?itQS3>M 41

2MB EC A BUS E-C APtiii'ij■:■:■■'. 515 POWER**IT FUfllULE PLUS

■ 3WS i;: /-;■: h ■■---,: ;k

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HASTTRSPORT 3S6

1MB MOD ZA3I31 MASTER SPORT 3«SK """3 U0D2A36O:

SUHSPORT

1MB MOD 3A1B095 2MB UDD 2A1B064 4MB MOD 2A1S071 TUB BOS PORT 316 1U5 UOD 2A30J4VF

SIIPERSPDRT 7I6E

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OKIDATA

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HL-9. -IE. 40. -IV

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SXVNOW! CPU

PROCESSOR

UPGRADES

ttl :■ :i-i-:=um zaB. BR*VD2B6 COMPAQ DESKPRO 296 PORTABLE III IF1CCI PORTABLE III |PE*|

LAPTOPS NOTEBOOK

ALTIK* LAPTOP 51

2MB MOO

4MB MDD IDMDWtLl E310 St

CHICONY 3MSI

GOLOST1ROS5Z0 31«SAI[ 1MB MDD

4MB UOD

LEADWG EDGE BIT MM SI

1MB UOD JC

MnSUBA NKAJA 716 3I&SI

PACKARD BELL PS2164IB 1MB UDD

4UB UDD

SAMSUNG HO TEN ASTER 3*6 S

SAMSUNG KOTEMASTER 3MS

SjWVO 17MB. HUE

2MB MDD S*MP0 NBSI16 IMS. HOD

:ms »:.:■■

4MB MDO S*MP0 NBSX75

T1NDDN Kfi3B55I

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4MB MDD

SMB MOD TAMr 15/19. 28.10. SMI

RMill

GRAPHICS

4D.-30. 35, INDIGO RPC.

i;y;i ->i iiio;?*

2MB CARD I120ETX ! 4MB MOD 124079811 I1DNU. 11DM.S

1110.11772. 1173

9148623002 175

■ I'lhlliMilillM'M

ONE BOARD SOLUTION

386 486

386/486-64K Cache no CPU

$200. 386/486-256K Cashe no CPU $2541

■iliilHIIAWilillilJiliMia

386DX-25 CASHE W'CPU 386DX-33-64K CACHE W/CPU 386DX-33-256K CACHE W/CPU 386DX-'!0-54K CACHE W/CPU 386DX-40-256K CACHE WCPU 486DX-33-64K CACHE W/CPU 486DX-33-256K CACHE WCPU 486DX-50-256K CACHE W/CPU

S1SO 199 249 210 260 490 540 749

SIMMpry-RAM" lor lit PS/Mf a e -t w* ™*-,» wis dm s t a

U '!t4 Hun One rWn W aiori HiM v |;M atXM 51MU5 S195

S[MMplj-RAMrVorliy^lu.^N3ii™^taFS7i)iwmTois;

\iv-vuc:i'n.-na s-«iui>a(Eai*i<i8iiarBt.y5iiiia $195

RAMpAT!'" llimplo16UBDlmim]r( t B-brt ISA [ Ft A r)nu s conipibCHr SMI

nstiRng im:«*Ui«oi»'T"],-^ii.!: '•r/.i't: Uwr, tiititttd or LIM 4 OtnuncsrJ r-.:::■.-.'yi:. $108

RAMpATI-P/uS " Uplu 16MBol memory HjK-oiOpKiosinn t-eitor 16(0 IS* upinacn ilou HirO*jr. si[.{.!i: i.1 \l<' i 0 -ifjrtjnl rr«m- r<ic

oiyMfrclllnguttwiit »I13

^Rampage Plus $140. BOCA BRAT90W/2MB1169.

DYNAMIC RAMS

1MB X 1-80NS 4.2D

256K X 1-70NS

1.80

64KX4-100NS 2.10

IMBX I-70NS 4.25

256K X 1-60 NS

2.20

1MBX 1-60NS 4.70

256K X 4-T00NS

4.35

64K X 1-150NS .... 1.50

256KX1-I50NS 1.50

256K X 4-80NS

4.45

256KX MOONS 1.70

256K X 4-60NS

4.75

1 x 4-80NS 1 x 4-80NS

21.00 STATIC ZIPP 21.00 ZIPP

AM2800P-07 256x1 2.B5 AAA2800P-06 256x1 3.05

nxm

^^" FOR MEMORY PRODUCTS MOT LISTED, CALL FOR PRICES AND AVAILABILITY

„.,c,d lws« PURCHASE ORDERS FROM GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ■ UNIVERSITIES - FORTUNE 2000 FIRMS - CALL 1-215-922-4650

S^JSSL™««>»». NEVER A SURCHARGE ON CREDIT CARDS OPEN SATURDAY 10 - 6 «"-»».».»

TECHNICAL SUPPORT ORDERS ONLY TOLL FREE FAX

■215-922-4640 1 -800-457-6937 1-215-922

0116

ALL CREDIT CARDS ARE VERIFIED FOR FRAUDULANT USE. ORDER TOLL-FREE FROM ANYWHERE IN THE USA OR CANADA. CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES AND VOLUME DISCOUNTS. PRICES AND AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE. ORDER LINES OPEN G DAYS

MINIMUM ORDER 50.OOUSA SHIPPING & HANDLING: AIR S1?.00-AIR OVERNIGHT S1B.OO-COD ADO $4.0Q*PA RESIDENTS ADD 7% SALES TAX»PREPAID ORDERS CALL FOR CONF!RMATION»ALL RETURNS REO.UIRE RMA# AND ORIGINAL INVOICE CANCELLED ORDERS AND RETURNS FOR CREDIT SUBJECT TO 25% RESTOCKING CHARGE-RETURNED MERCHANDISE MUST BE IN NEW CONDITION AND RECEIVED WITHIN 14 DAYS FROM INVOICE DATE. SORRY NO REFUNDS AFTER 14 DAYS SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES NOT REFUNDABLE»INTERNATlONAL ORDERS WELCOME-APO-EPO ORDERS WELCOME PO S ACCEPTED FROM GOVERMENT AGENCIES/UNIVERSITIES FORTUNE 2000 COMPANIES-SUBJECT TO APPROVAL ALL MEMORY PRODUCTS ARE THIRD PARTY ALL TRAOEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS* ALL WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS ARE 100% GUARANTEED AND COME WITH LIFETIME WARRANTY EXCEPT

30 DAY WARRANTY ON CPU CHIPS AND 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON MOTHER BOARDS *

WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGIES

437 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 Customer Service 215-922-4640

220 B YTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 199 on Inquiry Card.

The difference between their prices and ours is simply too great to ignore. No wonder we've been around

(AND WHAT AUDACITY THE COMPETITION HAS TO CLAIM THAT THEY WONT BE UNDERSOLD)

i memory upgrades "experts in portable intelligence"

TOSHIBA MEMORY

T2200SX, T2000SXE, T2000SX, T2000, T5100, T3200SX,T3100SX,T3100e, T1600, T1200XE.T1000XE/SE/LE , and T1800, T1850, andT1850C

2MB..$ 77 4MB..$158 8MB..$280

*ALI_ CARDS ARE FAST 70ns

LASER PRINTER MEMORY

WE OFFER MEMORY FOR ALMOST ALL BRANDS AND MODELS OF

LASER PRINTERS AT ROCK-BOTTOM PRICES. JUST CALL OR FAX

YOUR REQUIREMENTS, AND WE WILL RESPOND IMMEDIATELY WITH

OUR BEST PRICES.

CIA V2.0 FAX/MODEMS FOR YOUR COMPUTER NOW IN STOCK

MORE LAPTOP/NOTEBOOK MEMORY

AST PREMIUM EXEC 4MB

BCC AVANTI MODEL «025 2MB/4MB

COMMODORE CLT286/3B6 2MB

EVEREXTEMPO/LX 2MB/4MB

GRID 1720/1750 2MB

MIT AC 3025D/3025F 4MB

NEC ULTRAUTE/286F 4MB

NEC ULTRALITE/III 2MB/4MB/BMB

NEC ULTRAUTE SL20/20P 2MB/6MB

NEC ULTRAUTE SL25C 2MB/4MB/BMB

PANASONIC CF170/270/370 IMB/2MB

PANASONIC CF-470/480 2MB/6MB

SANYO MBC-17NB/18NB 2MB

SHARP PC-77CXY7750 4MB MEMORY BOARD

SHARP PC-Q041/8031 1 MB MODULE

SHARP PC-8501 COLORSTAR 2MB

TANDY 1500HD/2810HD/3810HD 1MB/2MB

TANDY 2820/3820/3830 2MB/6MB

Tl TRAVELMATE 4000 & WinSLC 4MB/ 16MB

ZEOS 286/386SX NOTEBOOK 2MB

ZENITH MASTERSPORT SX/SL/SLE/SLC 2MB

ZENITH Z-NOTE 2MB/8MB

S120

$16t/$322

$93

$93

$98

$214

$208

$105/$173/$303

$105/5244

$105/5173/5303

$58/$98

$158/$385

$93

$389

$53

$119

$58/$98

$158/$385

$221/$CALL

$93

$96

$113/$311

DESKTOP/WORKSTATION MEMORY

APPLE MAC llfx 4MB $151

APPLE MAC +/SE/S1/II/CI/CX 4MB $150

AST BRAVO LC 3/33s 2MB/8MB $78/317

AST BRAVO 486/25 & 4/33 2/8MB E102/S330 AST BRAVO LC486 4/B/16MB $153/$307/$585 AST CUPID-32 2/4/8MB $102/$165/$330

AST PREMIUM 385/486 4MB/8MB $165/5330 AST PREMIUM 38&25.331MB/2MB $51/$102

AST PREMIUM 386C 4MB AST PREMIUM II 4MB/6MB AST PREMIUM SE 4/50 32MB AT&T 6386 2MB/4MB IBM34F2933 4MB IBM 6450128 4MB IBM 6450129 BMB IBM 6450130 8MB

BM 6450603 1MB

BM 6450604 2MB CPQ DESKPRO 4MB/8MB CPQ DESKPRO 386s 4MB CPQ PROLINEA 4/33 BMB

$156

$165/$330

$1352

$70/5141

$153

$153

$325

$325

$4B

$79

$135/$260

$153

$294

CPQ PROLINEA 4/33 4MB $146

CPQ PROLINEA 3/25 8MB $281

CPQ SYSTEMPRO 2MB/8MB $98/$377 CPQ SYSTEMPRO/LT 4/BMB $153/$325 DECpc 433 & 433 PORTABLE 8MB $281 DELL 316SX 2MB $78

EPSON 386/33 4MB/8MB S146/$291

EPSON EISA SERIES 2/BMB $B7/$325

EPSON EQUITY4B6PIUS 4MB $156

HP 700/RX TERMINAL 4MB/8MB$153/$325 HP XSTATION 700/RX BMB $325

HP VECTRA T/U SERIES 4/BMB $153/$325 NCR 386SX/1S & 486/MC 8MB $281

NEC POWERMATE 386/25S BMB $312

SUNX104C/IPC/1/1 + 4MB $156

SUNELC4MB/16MB $153^585

SUNSLC 4/20 4MB $153

SUN SPARCSTATION 16MB $585

ZENITH 386 1MB/2MB $48/$79

ZENITH Z-STATION4MB/16MB $153/$5B5

PCMCIA SHAM MEMORY

AST POWEREXEC, DEC PALMTOP , DELL 320SLi, GRID GRIDPAD, HP 95LX, IBM PC RADIO, MOMENTA PENTOP, NCR 3125 NOTEPAD

POOET, SHARP PC3000/3100, SHARP PC-6700/6741/6781/6785, SHARP PC-6800/6841/6881/6891, ZEOS POCKET PC

512K $87 1MB $157 2MB $281

COMPAQ LAPTOP MEMORY

CONTUHA 2MB/4MB/BMB $9B/$145/S268

LTE3B6S/20 1MB/4MB $ 88/S156

LITE/20 & LITE/25 1MB/4MB/8MB $ 88/$156/$299

PORTABLE 486 & 4B6C 2MB/4MB/8MB $79/$153/$325

LTE/286 1MB/2MB/4MB $45/$91/$150

SLT3863/20 4MB $163

FULLY-CONFIGURED NOTEBOOKS

AST PREMIUM EXEC 386SX/20 200MB LCD VII 8MB $1923

AST POWEREXEC 386 EL/25SL 60MB LCD VW 10MB $1663

AST POWEREXEC 386EL/2SSL BOMB LCD W/ 10MB $1847

AST POWEREXEC 386EL/25SL 120MB LCD VII12MB $2215 AST POWEREXEC 386EL/25SL PASSIVE COLOR 120MB VII12MB $2B59

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL BOMB LCD VII12MB $2662

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL 120MB LCD VII12MB $2646

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL 200MB VII12MB $3122

AST POWEREXEC 4B6/25SL BOMB PASSIVE COLOR W/12MB $3306

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL 120M B PASSIVE COLOR VI112MB $3490

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL 200MB PASSIVE COLOR VW 12MB $3766

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL BOMB ACTIVE COLOR W/12MB $4226

AST POWEREXEC 486/S5SL 120MB ACTIVE COLOR VI112MB $4410

AST POWEREXEC 486/25SL 200MB ACTIVE COLOR VI112MB $4686

IBM THINKPAD/300 3B6SL/25 80MB LCD VI112MB $2457

IBM THINKPAD/300 3B6SL/25 120MB LCD W/ 12MB $2644

IBM THINKPAD/700 486SLC/25 80MB LCD VII 16MB $30B4

IBM THINKPAD/700 486SLC/25 120MB LCD W/ 16MB $3279 IBM THINKPAD/700C 486SLC/25 120MB ACTIVE COLOR W/16MB $4646

SHARP PC-6340 386/20 40MB LCD W/2MB $1000

SHARP PC-6785 386SL/25 BOMB LCD W/ 8MB $1774

SHARP PC-6B81 386SL/25 80MB ACTIVE COLOR VII 8MB $2906

SHARP PC-6891 3B6SL/25 120MB ACTIVE COLOR VII 8MB $3090

SHARP PC-7700 4B6SX/25 124MB LCDW/8MB $2403

SHARP PC-7750 4B6DX/33 124MB LCD W/ 8MB $2816

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TM3000/120MB LCD W/6MB $2183

TOSHIBA T1800 386SX/20 60MB LCD VII10MB $1324

TOSHIBA T1800 386SX/20 BOMB LCD VII10MB $1476

TOSHIBA T1850 386SX/25 BOMB LCD VII12MB $1750

TOSHIBA T1850 386SX/25 120MB LCD VII12MB $1978

TOSHIBA T1850C 386SX/25 80MB PASSIVE COLOR VW 12MB $2464

TOSHIBA T1B50C 386SX/25 120MB PASSIVE COLOR W/ 12MB $2647

TOSHIBA T2200SX 386SX/20 60MB LCD W/ 10MB $1695

TOSHIBA T2200SX 3B6SX/20 80MB LCD VII10MB $2118

TOSHIBA T3300SL 386SL/25 80MB LCD VI118MB $2985

TOSHIBA T3300SL 3B6SL/25 120MB LCD W/ 18MB $3163

TOSHIBA T4400SX 486SX/25 120MB LCD VII18MB $3007

TOSHIBA T4400SX 486DX/25 120MB LCD W/ 1BMB $3368

TOSHIBA T4400SX 486SX/25 200MB LCD W/ 18MB $3485

TOSHIBA T4400SX 486DX/25 200MB LCD VII1BMB $3847

TOSHIBA T4400C 486SX/25 120MB ACTIVE COLOR VII20MB $4049

TOSHIBA T4400C 486DX/25 120MB ACTIVE COLOR VII20MB $4411

TOSHIBA T4400C 4B6DX/25 200MB ACTIVE COLOR VII20MB $4935

TOSHIBA T4500 4B6SX/20 BOMB LCD VII20MB $3007

TOSHIBA T45O0 486SX/20 120MB LCD W/ 20MB $3181

TOSHIBA T4500 4B6SX/20 120MB ACTIVE COLOR W/20MB $4402

TOSHIBAT5100 3B6DX/16 100MB GAS PLASMA W/4MB $1968

TOSHIBAT6400 4B6DX/33 200MB GAS PLASMA VII36MB $5142

TOSHIBA T6400 486DX/33 200MB ACTIVE COLOR VII 36MB $7148

TOSHIBAT6400 486DX2/50 200MB GAS PLASMA VII36MB $5403

TOSHIBA T6400 486DX2/50 200MB ACTIVE COLOR VII36MB $7671

ZENITH NOTEBOOKS (ALL MODELS) $CALL

tote-a-lap

550 Pilgrim Drive , Ste.F, Foster City, CA 94404 PHONE : (415)578-1901 FAX: (415)578-1914 ORDERS ONLY : 1-800-9-LAPTOP

(PRIOR APPOINTMENTS ARE NEEDED FOR WILL-CALLS, PLEASE)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: All soles final. Wo charge o 25% re-stocking fee on oil refused shipments ond pre-epprovod returns. Prices ore subject to change without notice, and reflect all cash discounts. Warranty on all merchandise, except memory upgrades, Is thru the original manufacturer only, unless previously agreed upon and stated on our invoice. All software, plus all merchandise that include a rem bios, are not returnable [or credit, end are subject to en even oxchengo only. We accoptpurchese orders from creditworthy institutions, although pricos may bo slightjy higher on some items. We will not ship to ony account with an overdue balance. Purchase prices at the time or sale are final. Memory upgrades guaranteed 100% compatible or your money back. You have NO RISK buying our CONTROL memory upgrades. ALWAYSINSISTONcortTlOl.

MP 95LX PALMTOP

PCMCIA 2400B MOD6M/9600B FAX NOW IN STOCK AT SPTO

MATH COPROCESSORS

80287-10/12 $64

80387SX-25 $ 80

80387DX-33 $81

B0367DX-40 $ 95

80487SX $430

SHARP PC-6700, 6741, 67B1, 6785.

6800, 6B81 , 6891 RAM UPGRADES

2MB $88 4MB $158

We are listed in the TOSHIBA TECHNICAL INFORMATION GUIDE

as "the least expansive memory

manufacturer approved for Toshiba

laptops and notebooks.'

TOSHIBA T1200XE /T3100SX

2MB $79 4MB $168

TOSHIBA T4400/T6400

2/4/B/16MB $98/$158/$280($694

TOSHIBA T5200/T5200C/T8500

2MB/8MB $91/$265

TOSHIBA T3300SL

2/4/6/16MB $7B/$143/$208/$644

TOSHIBA T4400

213MB INTERNAL HARD DRIVE UPGRADE KIT IN STOCK !!!

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE KITS

(19 OZS. BATTERY-POWERED)

20, 40, 60, 80,130, AND 213MB

SIZE-PERFECT FOR LAPTOPS

TOSHIBA T5200

486 CPU UPGRADE

NOW IN STOCK.

APPI

100

.E POWERBOOK MEMORY

2MB 4MB 6MB BMB WMB ' $94 $169 $247 X X

140

$94

$143 $209 X X

145

$94

$143 $209 X X

170

$94

$143 $209 X X

160

X

$207 $250 $402 $4B0

190

X

$207 $250 $402 $480

210

X

$169 $234 $299 X

230

X

$169 $234 $299 X

ALL MEMORY UPGRADES COME WITH A LIFETIME WARRANY& A 48 HOUR

EXCHANGE GUARANTEE !

IBM LAPTOP MEMORY

CL57SX2M8/4MBJBMB SI 80/4247/5434

U0.SX 2MB/4MBJSMB $87/? 153,4325

N33SX 2MB/4MB 587/3153

N51SX2MB/4MB/BMB $105/5184/5390

N51SLC2MB/4MB/eMB ?!05/$184/?390

THINKPAD 2MB/4MB/BM8 $1B0tf247/S434 PC RADIO PCMCIA SRAM 5T2K TO 2M8

SE HABLA ESPAN0L pregunte por Hector

Circle 196 on Inquiry Card.

"P-Our 17th Year of Superstore Deals!

33&j

Hard Drives

Western Digital

High performance

"Caviar" series with l"

height. Cache Flow'*' and 32K buffer.

AC2B0 60Mb l'3.5'14ms IDE.,..Call

AC2120 125Mb 1" 3.5" 14ms IDE....Call

AC2200200Mb 1" 3.5" 14ms IDE....Call

Maxtor

7080A 80Mb 1" 3.5" 15ms IDE....Call 7120A 120Mb 1" 3.5" 15ms IDE....Call LXT213A213Mb 1" 3.6" 15ms IDE....Call MX12401.2Gb 1" 3.5" 15ms IDE....Call Panther 1.2Gb SCall Panther 1.7Gb Call

Conner Peripherals

30104 120Mb 3.5" 19ms IDE....Call 3204 200Mb 3.5" 16ms IDE....Call

Hard Drive Specials

Seagate ST3283 249Mb IDE 499.95

Samsung 100Mb IDE 299.95

Seagate Wren 340Mb ESDI 599.95

Brand Tech 200Mb IDE 379.95

Call for Quantum, Micropolis, Seagate. Controllers from Ultrastor, Always, WD etc.

Backups

Colorado

DJ10 120Mb Tape Drive internal.. 199 DJ20 250Mb Tape Drive internal ..268

Trakker 120 Tape Backup 358

Trakker 250 Tape Backup 428

Syquest (with cartridge)

44Mb kit SQ555, SQ400, SQ01(16bft) .419

44Mb external 499

88Mb kit SQ5110. SQ800, SQ0K16 bit) 529 88Mb external 629

GrassRoots Floptical

Floptical 21 Mb (external) Call

Floptical 21 Mb (internal) Call

Floppy Disk Drives

Toshiba

ND04DG 360K 5.25" HH PC/XT 59

ND08DEG 1.2Mb 5.25" HH PC/AT ....72 ND3561GR1.44Mb 3.5" HH w/ATKit..72

ACP

1.2 Mb 5.25'. 66 2.88Mb 3.5" Call

1.44Mb 3.5" ....67 All in One 3.5/5.25 149

MultiMedia

Creative Labs

Complete all-in-one MPC compatible upgrade kit includes: Panasonic CD Drive. Sound Blaster Pro. five CD's. Microsoft SW

MultiMedia Kit Int/Ext 545/625

Sound Bldster 1.5/Professional 88/187

m

Pro Audio Spectrum 16

Absolutely the finest sound board for true MultiMedia MPC applications.

ProAudio Spectrum 16 197

CDPC Subsystem (external) 989

Pro 16 Multimedia System 898

MediaVision Fusion CD (external) . 399 CD ROM Sys w/Sound, Speakers, 4 CD's: Compton's Carmen, Ultima, Wing Comm Fusion CD 16 (Int/Ext) 498/548

Advanced

3-button Mouse 15 101 Keyboard ..58 Mouse+Windows 88 Microsoft

Serial Mouse 69

Ballpoint 98

Ballpt+Windows 148 Microspeed

PCTrac 78

PC Trac bus vers 88

Logitech

Mouseman 75

Mouse (OEM) ....35 Cordless Mouse . 88

Trackman 78

Trackman Port. ..94 Scanman32...128 Scanman256 ..258 CH Products

FlightStick 49

Joystick Machill call

IBM Compatible Cards

Advanced Monochrome ...38

Color Card 48

EGA Card 48

VGA

512K. 800x600 ...53

512K. 1024x768.68

1Mb. 1024x768 .88

Windows

1 MbAccelerator 149

Interface

Parallel Card ....29

Serial Card 35

Multil/O 59

IDE 16-bit 19

IDE Multil/O 69

Modems

2400bps internal. 39

2400bps external.69

Memory

AT 0-8Mb(simm) 99

XT0-8Mb(ICs) ...99

Chips and SIMM's

dRAM Qtvl 25 SIMMs Qtvl 12 35 lMbx9-80 .. 35 ....34 45 lfvlbx9-70

256x1-100 256x1-100

149 . 1.59 .

256x4-80 4.79 ..4.59 lfvibxB-80

lfvlbxl-100.4.05 ..3.95 4tv1bx8-70

. 36.. . 32.. 129..

lMbxl-80....449 ..4.39 4Mbx9-70 139 Call for VIDEO RAMS & CACHE RAMS Over 20,000,000 IC's in-stock including We Specialize in Memory Modules

Math Coprocessors

Intel Cyrix

387SL Mobile 78 387SX(16-25) 73

80387DX (all) 85 387DXC20-33) 88

80387SX (oil) 78 387DX/40 108

RapidCAD 248 80287(all) 78

8087 29 Intel Overdrive

80287-10 89 486DX-33 649

80287-20 89 486SX-25 489

Toshiba

T4400/16Mb

s799

Apple Powerbook

140/170-6Mb

$249

IBM

ThinkPad

2Mb..5158

"— «449

Memory upgrades

Notebooks/Laptops |

ASTPowerExec 4Mb.s178 AST PowerExec 16Mb. 1325 Compaq Contura 4Mb... 169 Compaq Contura 8Mb...369 Compaq Lite4/25C 4Mb ... 239 Compaq Lite4/25C 8Mb... 399 HP95LX Palmtop 2Mb ..call

Tl TravelMale3000 2Mb 87

H TravelMate4000 4Mb...218 Toshiba T4400/6400 4Mb... 187 ToshibaT4400/6400 8Mb ...388 Zenith Z-Note 2Mb... 168

Call for all Notebook Memory Upgrades!

Laser Printers GoBforOTBoards

Canon LBP-4,4Lite.4Plus 1Mb. 118 2Mb 168

Canon LBP-8III, Bill Plus 2Mb . 169 3Mb 199 Compaq PAGEMARQ15/20 8/16Mb..299/599

Epson ActionLaser II 2Mb 138

HPU lllsi, 4, 4M, XL300 4Mb. 148 8Mb 298

HP LaserJet IIP.III.IIIP.IIID 2Mb. .98 4Mb 158

HP LaserJet II, IID 2Mb. .98 4Mb 158

Panasonic4410/4430 2Mb. 118 4Mb 188

Panasonic 4420/4450i 2Mb. 118 4Mb 188

OkiLaser400 1Mb ...78 2Mb..98

Tl MicroLaser Turbo, XL 1Mb ...69 4Mb 269

Computer Memory Upgrades

AST Bravo 4/33, 486/25 2/8Mb 88/299

Compaq ProLlnea 3/25s, 25zs 2/8Mb 88/288

ProLinea 4/25s, 4/33,4/50 2/8Mb 88/308

IBM ValuePoint except Cxx 4/16Mb 158/578

IBM PS/2 Model 90, 95 2Mb 88

Call for all Computer Memory Upgrades!

Micronics Motherboards

486DX/33ISA ..'799 486DX2/50 VL ! 1049 486DX2/50 ISA .. 899 4000LB Video ... 199 486DX2/66ISA 1079 486DX/33 EISA ..999 486DX2/66VL.1399 486DX2/50EISA 1299

Compton's Encyclopedia CD

Standard version with world Atals 49

Interactive version, NEW! 249

CD ROM Drive Special

Mitsumi CD ROM (internal) 350ms 199

MPC Compliant, Kodak Photo CD ready

input Devices

Advanced

Motherboards

80286/12MHZ .... !69 4B6DX/33MHZ . !499 386SX/25MHZ ...119 486DX/50MHZ ..999 386DX/40MHZ ..199 486DX2/50MHZ 699 486SX/25MHZ ...229 486DX2/66MHz 949

Video Graphics Cards

ATI

Graphics Ultra Pro l/2Mb 428/518

Graphics Ultra Pro l/2Mb 288/328

Graphics Ultra 512K/lMb 248/288

Graphics Vantage 512K/lMb 188/218

VGA Wonder XL24 512K/lMb 128/148

VGA Integra 83 VGA Basic 16 65

Stereo F/X Soundboard 109

Diamond

SpeedSTAR Stealth w/IMb 229

Speedstar 24X 24-Bit Color w/IMb 158

Orchid Fahrenheit 1280w/lMb ...275

Video Seven

WIN VGA Accelerator w/1Mb 149

1024i Plus VGA 512K 79

VRAM II ERGO 1Mb 239

$429

ADS Prime Time TV

122 channel cable-ready TV-Tuner with scalable windows and complete software kit, 4watt stereo 429

ADS VGA TV Elite

Converts VGA to Big Screen TV ... 349

Advanced computers

486 High Performance CPU's • Plus all New! MultiMedia PC

486 SuperVGA system

Includes:

• 486DX/33 • w/256k Cache •

• 4Mb RAM

• 1Mb SVGA Card • •120Mb HardDrive

1.2Mb 5.25" Floppy

1.44Mb 3.5" Floppy

IDE Controller

101 Keyboard

14" SuperVGA .28

Color Monitor and morel

$1499

>re! B^T M M0t

ACP's Sale Price

Call for MiniTower and Tower configurations... plus

EISA, SCSI, Local Bus, and 4S6DX2/S0, 4S6DX2/66 and 486DX/50

486 MultiMedia System

Complete MPC compliant MultiMedia system utilizing tne most popular /&'.

components available in the industry today- Internal CD-ROM drive /ff*sa

and 16-bit SoundBldster Technology. Plus Free Software preloaded. ^sstaasas All completely assembled, tested ready to plug in and play!

Preloaded Software

•Kodak Photo CD. Mammals, Microsoft Bookshelf, Beethoven, Works, Windows 3.1, DOS 5.0, Levingson Power Accounting, 386MAX, Quicken 2.0, Mayo Family Health Book, King's Quest V, HSC Interactive

1.44Mb 3.5" Floppy Amplified Speakers MultiMedia Authoring Tool & Audio Tracks

2 Serial, parallel- MiniTower Case ,rp,

16-bit Sound Card J?Y n

I Year warranty on-site wtth GE Sale Price

Includes:

• 486SX/25 w/32k Cache- 4Mb RAM

• 1Mb SVGA Card- 120Mb Hard Drive

• MPC Internal CD-ROM Drive

• 14" SuperVGA Color Monitor .28

$2599

PC Special

1*269

3.5" Floppy 1Mb* Kb

Call for Toshiba's New TeaooM color for

COMPAQ. TOSHIBA

ProLinea 3S/25 w/84Mb 999

ProLinea 4/25s w/240Mb 1499

Contura 3/20 w/84Mb 1499

Contura 3/25 w/84Mb 1699

Contura 3/25 w/120Mb 1899

Contura 3/25C w/84Mb 2299

Contura 3/25CW/120Mb 2499

Compag LTE Lite/25c w/84Mb 3499

Compaq LTE Lite/25c w/120Mb 3699

T1800 Satellite 60Mb iurr

T1850 Satellite 80/120Mb 1599/1799

T1850C Satellite w/120Mb Color 2399

T3300SL 80/120Mb 1949/2149

T4400SX LCD/Plasma 120Mb 2399/2599

T4400C Color 120Mb 3499

T4500 80/120Mb 2399/2599

T4500C Color 120Mb 3799

T6400DXC Color 200Mb 6199

!"-' i

r777

Symantec Norton Antivirus v2.0

Cure infected systems plus on-going preventative care. Plus 24-hour Virus FAX-Line for new viruses updates.

Symantec Q&A $1|7Q Database v4.0 I /

ACP Special Bundle cn95

Norton Desktop for Windows Oy

plus FREE! Z-nix Mouse all for only

(Quantities Limited)

Windows Accelerator Increases Performance!

!\ Diamond

Computer Systems, Inc,

Speed Star 24X

...make your 386 perform like a 486

SpeedStar 24X ....s 158 Stealth .. s229

SII

New low price! SVGA ,25mm non-interlaced multi-scanning monitor.

CM 1450 14"

CM 1760 17" (.25mm)

..'439 .1099

SHARP

Color NEW!

386SL/20

NoteBook

Only 4.9 LBS.! • 2Mb RAM • 80Mb PC6881C Color Notebook .. 2699 PC6785 LCD Notebook 1699

ACP Special 6«/>qr

Modem Bundle *39y;>

2400 Baud, FREE Prodigy Software

Save now while supply lasts!

CO OL810 ■Ji LED Printer

\\^ Super improved hi-resolution

H__ LED printer. 5 year guarantee

^^j on LED printhead which has no

^^ moving parts. 8 ppm! OL810

^ "See the Difference"

o no95

^^ OL400 Printer

s599

New! OPTIMA" Low Cost Fax

Now get v.42bis data modem plus up to 14.4FAX with Hayes high performance and compatibility. Plus SmartCom EZ and FAX software.

OPTIMA' 24 + FAX 96 s158

OPTIMA'96 +FAX 96 378

OPTIMA'144 + FAX 144 475

OPTIMA" 24/SC EZ 128

OPTIMA'96/SC EZ 348

Pocket Edition' 2400 118

l«*ViM

il

Canon® Authorized 1

NEW LOW PRICES!

BJlOex Portable

BJ20ex Portable

BJ200 Inkjet

LBP-4SX Laser Printer

LBP-8SX Laser Printer

Reseller

s299 364 339 899

1288 599

1799

1999 .. 399

BJ330 Printer (B/W)

BJC 800 (Color)

BJC 820 (Color)

BJ 300 BubbleJet(B/W) ....

Advanced Computer Products, Inc.

1310 E. Edinger, Santa Ana, CA 92705 • FAX 714-558-8849 • Toil-Free 1-800-FONE ACP • Sales 714-558-8813 MMC

Prices subject lo change without notice. No surcharge on credit card. Credit cards not charged until we ship. 100% risk free return guarantee! II you are not 100% satisfied just return insured within 15 days complete with all materials in new resaleable condition with original invoice. ACP will immediately exchange product or issue ACP credit less shipping for future purchase. No Returns on software Special Purchase

Circle 180 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 181).

COMPLETE NETWORK DEFINITELY IS.

Intel? EtherExpress™ cards automatically configure themselves. No jumpers to deal with.

Coaxial net work cable, BNC connectors, Tconnectors, terminators and cable stripping tool.

Microsoft Windows for Work groups

Eagle

NetWare

Life

Artisoft

LANtastic

AE-2

Buffalo/WEB

Complete

Network

Full Windows & DOS Support

No

No

No

Yes

NetWare Compat. (NCP Sup.)

No

No

No

Yes

Unlimited Toll Free Tech Sup.

No

No

No

Yes

Intel Auto Config. Ethernet

Yes

No

No

Yes

Money-Back Guarantee

None

None

30 day

45 day

Price (2 Node Network Kit)

$850.00

$615.00

$699.00

$495.00

|2| Read Av. Write Av.

N/A

28.28 28.18

40.88 47.42

289.2 178.48

LAN Times Network Drive Performance

-KB perse

:ond (Higher

is better) 3

i ^^^^™ - l

The WEEP Network

Operating System — LAN Times 1992 Best of Times award winner.

Fast, unlimited toll-free technical support to the US and Canada. Any questions.

MESK

IMEf

^00.345-23^

Now there's a network that offers something no one else can — everything.

It's the Buffalo Complete Network!" You get all the hardware, software, cable, connectors, and terminators you'll need to set up your network, all in one box. We even throw in a cable stripping tool.

For performance, it features the WEB operating system. Just check out the chart above and see why LAN Times said WEB's throughput speed "made us rub

our eyes and blink and blink again."

Installation is fast and easy. The Intel EtherExpress cards are completely auto configurable so there are no difficult jumper settings. And they automatically adjust for 8 or 16 BIT card slots.

There's a 45 day money-back guarantee, and unlimited, toll-free technical support -answered by technicians, not voice-mail. So is the Buffalo Complete Network really complete? Definitely.

Res

-■sponse

Code:43CN3

Complete Network is a trademark of Buffalo Products. Inc. Buffalo is a registered trademark of MELCO. Inc. WEB is I of WEBCORP. INTEL is a registered trademark of INTEL Corp. Other brands and product names are trademarks or .

registered trademark of WEBCORP. WEBCORP is a trademark :gistered trademarks ol tlieir respective owners.

Circle 185 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 223

MAVEL NEAT, TRAVEL SMART...

- Weight less than 1 kg

- PCMCIA 2.0 Interface

- 60 Mb Hard Disk

- 2 Mb RAM

- No adapters needed

' Weight 2.2 lbs. (Bicom and Battery)

■ Dimension 8.78" x 6.36" x 1.22"

< True 16 bit AMD Lonestar Processor, 386SX Class Performance

■ 5 "AA" size NiMH Batteries

■ 60 MB Hard Disk Drive

■ 2MB RAM expandable to 4MB on board and 16MB with memory card

1 PCMCIA 2.0/JEIDA standard port for memory card and I/O card • 640 x 400 resolution LCD screen supports CGA, AT&T mode and all Windows graphics • 64-key keyboard • 1 parallel (bi-directional)/1 serial • External FDD port for optional Floppy Drive • DR-DOS 6.0, File Transfer Software & Serial Download Cable • Built-in Personal Data Manager software

• Built-in Programmable Power Management Software

• Universal AC/DC adaptor

• Carrying Case

Options: External Floppy Drive, SRAM Memory Cards, 9624 IC Card Fax/Modem, Mini-trackball, External Keyboard, extra batteries.

COMPUTERS®

MCOMPUTERS

Abe

1-800-336-2280

ABC Computer (USA) Corp.

2531 237th Street, Suite 122, Torrance CA 90505

310-325-4005 Fax 310-325-6369

NOW ONLY

^ . ^^

$795

£

VISA

f

224 BYTE • APRIL 1993

30-Day Money Back Guarantee

All brand names are registered trademarks of their respective owners. Circle 178 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 179).

Never again worry about computer theft or damage

What could be better than full replacement?

By now, you've probably heard or read about SAFEWARE® Insurance for microcomputers. But you may still wonder just what it protects, or whether it's really worth the investment. If you've never lost any part of your computer system or software, you probably don't yet realize the limitations of most standard insurance coverages. Or the agonies you could face in tryin to recover even the simplest piece of peripheral equipment.

What do you mean it's not covered?!

Operating your computer system without SAFEWARE protection is fine as long as you don't have to worry about an accident or loss But what if you came to your office one morning to find you'd been robbed? Or your home had been ransacked? Or that a pipe had burst and caused water damage? Or that your system, too, had fallen victim to a leading destroyer of micro-systems — a power surge? All events beyond your control. If something like this should happen to you, you're likely to find out the hard way just how limited your standard insurance policy's protection really is. And no matter how little or how much you have invested in your computer system, discovering that it's not covered can be an expensive lesson.

Now you can be sure

SAFEWARE was developed by an insurance professional who was shocked to learn that his very own personal computer was at risk. Can you imagine? What he discovered was that his homeowners insurance policy excluded coverage as soon as he began operating his first business program. Even his simplest spreadsheet voided coverage. Because most homeowners policies won't cover any equipment used for business, no matter how infrequently. Out of this need was born SAFEWARE. A simple, easy-tounderstand coverage you can count on. Full replacement coverage of hardware, media and purchased software, after a low $50 deductible.

With SAFEWARE there's no need for you to schedule equipment or software as you do with the "rider" type of policies. So your coverage can grow with your system, providing protection for its full value rather than for each individual item. This will be especially impor

tant to you if you're ever planning to buy additional equipment or software. Even just one peripheral.

What the editors reported

Publication editors have discovered the news about SAFEWARE and have reported to their readers. Computer Decisions: ... "Your personal computer might not be safe at home. If it is not insured, then you're running the risk of losing the thousands ofdollars you've invested ..."

Personal Computing: ... "Replacing hardware may be more of a problem than you thought it would be . . . That's why (a computer consultant) suggests that you get the computer insured." Wall Street Journal: . . . "[SAFEWARE] introduces coverage that insures home computers regardless of use. The usual premium: about $75 a year."

No risk offer

SAFEWARE is a comprehensive plan of insurance, which means that it covers all hardware, all purchased software, and all media. Your complete system is protected against theft, fire, accidental damage. SAFEWARE even covers damage caused by power surges ... the leading destroyer of microcomputers.

And, now, SAFEWARE is available on a no risk basis. If you are not completely satisfied with the protection afforded by SAFEWARE, you may return the contract for a full refund within the first 10 days after you've received it.

Thousands have said "yes!"

Since it was first introduced in 1982, thousands of computer owners, like you,have said "ve.v" to the SAFEWARE offer. Owners of systems from the smallest portable micros to larger sophisticated business systems are finding that SAFEWARE offers the most affordable and complete security. And the simplest peace of mind available to ensure carefree computing.

The cost: pennies a day

As you can see from the table, the annual premium for a typical system consisting of a $2,000 processor, a disk drive and printer worth $2100, and $900 in software, is just $69. And you can save even more since the cost of insurance for personal computers used for business may be tax deductible. To determine your rate of coverage, just add up your total system value. Then, find the premium in the table.

Easy to order

Choose from three simple ways to pay for your complete SAFEWARE protection: Call the toll-free phone number listed and we'll charge your premium to your VIS A or MasterCard. Or, you can mail us the coupon below along with your check. Or, send us the coupon and charge to your credit card.

Total Hardware, Media & Software System Value

Annual Premium

UptoS 2,000

49

$ 2,001-S 5,000

5 69

S 5.001-$ 8.000

S 89

S 8.001-SI 1,000

SI09

SI 1,001-514,000

S129

Call toll-free for rates on higher coverages

It is an underwriting requirement

that you insure your system

for full replacement cost.

800-848-3469

Phones open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

SAFEWARE, The Insurance Agency Inc. 2929 N. High St. P.O. Box 02211 Columbus, OH 43202

With SAFEWARE you get...

• Full replacement coverage.

• Freedom from worries of fire, theft or accident.

• Ultimate in power surge protection.

• Costs as low as $49 a year.

-, my computer needs immediate '

JtCS9 protection. Please issue my

SAFEWARE Insurance Policy.

City

State _

Phone .

Zip _

Total System Value S

□ Check Enclosed fj VIS A

□ MasterCard

Card#

Exp. Date_ Sign here

No risk. You may return contract for full refund within 10 days. Coverages and limits are subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions in the policy. Offer differs in Texas and Kansas. Void where prohibited.

Mail to: SAFEWARE:

2929 N. High St.

P.O. Box 02211

Columbus, OH 43202

, T-BYTE f.

Circle 194 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 225

CONTROL UP TO 96 PC

FILE SERVERS WITH 1 KEYBOARD

AND MONITOR USING...

COMMANDER

• Select via Keyboard

• Dual access up to 250 feet away (optional)

• No external power

• Mix PC, PC/XT, PC/AT

and PS/2

• "AutoBoot™" Feature boots attached computers without operator intervention

• Able to Broadcast to all attached computers

ZZj

7777T7//////////////777

wrnj

mm fgggutt PBI

KESEEZESSffl

>

WS/////>/W////;y//,

PS/2 and Serial Mouse support available

Each unit accommodates from 2 to 8 PCs

up to 12 units can be cascaded

Mounting kit available for 19" and 24" rack installation

ci h m ■ 1/

COMMANDER"

2800-H Bob Wallace Ave. Huntsville, Alabama 35805

(205) 534-0011 - Fax (205) 534-0010

Dealer Program Available

PC, PC/XT, PC/AT and PS/2 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.

226 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 187 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 188).

Ms HARD DRIVE

SALE

NEW REDUCED PRICES

^Seagate

MODEL SIZE SPEED TYPE PRICE

ST225 20MB 65MS MFM5.25" $149

ST4096 80MB 28MB MFM Full HT $349

ST251-1 42MB 28MS MFM5.25" $239

ST35IAM" highl ....42MS 28MS 1DE3.5" 1159

ST3120A (1- high) 105MB 18MS IDE 3.5" $259

ST3144A (1" high) 130MB 16MS IDE 3.5" $289

ST3283A (Thigh) 240MB 12MS IDE 3.5" $449

ST1480N 426MB 14MS SCSI 3.5" $999

ST4766N 660MB 15MS SCSI/FH S899

ST41200N 1037MB 15MS SCSI/FH $1499

MODEL SIZE SPEED TYPE PRICE

CP300011" high; 40MB I9MS IDE $159

CP3O084E 80MB 19MS IDE $228

CP30J04 (I" high) 120MB 19M5 IDE $288

CP30174A[I* h:gh| 170MB 17MS IDE $329

CP30204 209MB 15MS IDE $399

CP3544A S25MB 15M5 IDE $989

CP3540 540MB 12MS SCSI S999

Mspgor

MODEL SIZE SPEED TYPE PRICE

2585(2K "Dri**) 80MB 17MS IDE 1249

7120A|rh,gh] 130MB 15MS IDE S273

72l3A|l-h,gh) . . 213MB 15MS IDE $378

72135(1" h,gS| ... 213MB 15MS SCSI $399

7245A 245MB 15M5 IDE $399

LXT340A 340MB 15MS IDE $648

LXT340S 340MB 16M5 SCSI $698

LXT535A 535MB 15MS IDE $999

PAMTHER(FH) 1000MB 13MS SCSI $UB9

PANTHERIFH] 1500MB 13MS SCSI $1729

fuJttsu

MODEL SIZE SPEED TYPE COST

2622A/S (3.5"] 330MB 12MS SCSI/IDE $845

2623A/S (3.5"| 420MB 12MS SCSI/IDE $899

2624A/S (3.5"] 520MB 12MS SCSI/IDE 5949

2266S(FH) 1080MB I4MS SCSI 51449

2652SIFH) 1750MB 11MS SCSI 52699

MICROPO.LIS

1624 (HH| 6&0MB 15MS SCSI $1199

2112(3.5"! 1050MB 10MS SCSI/IDE $1688

1598 |FH| 1050MB I4MS SCSI $1499

1548 (FH| 1748MB I4MS SCSI $2049

1528-15IFH) 1350MB 14MS SC5I $1749

1924 (FH| 2100MB 11M5 SCSI $2895

SOFTWARE LIQUIDATION

WORDS1M.

Wordstar 2000 Rel. 3.5

Thii It not a misprintl Theic ore the.

for over $300.00 from our compalilc

We have thousands in stock

FOR SALE BELOW

DISTRIBUTOR

COSTI LIST S495.00 ea

DEAIf RS WELCOME

RETAIL BOXED & FACTORY SEALED

IOO FOR $55 EACH

360K 720K 1.2MB 1.44MB

Cables

Floppy Drives

525" 'AHT $29

3.5" S29 I" ■M<jB

5.25" '.III $58 I==^51^b1

3.5" VjHT $58 ■■■l^SSHBl

5.25" MOUNTING $5

Drive Controllers

4Hoppy $9

4 Floppy Ugh Deoi.ly .... $49

2 Hard Dr.vei MFM. $49

2 Hard Dri-ej RLL $59

Hard Drive only $24

Hard and Floppy 1 1 h-erfocu $34

DTC-3280 ISuppcrn 7 drivoj) . . $139

Adaptec I542B . $224

DTC6282 24 $149

Hard and Floppy $29

Hard and Floppy w/O S39

Hard Drive $9

Hard and Floppy $14

computer Memory

MODEL* MEMORY PART#

WTEr}OOK2Bo/!2.386SX/20 4MBMOD 500814-003

NOTEBOOK EXEC SX/25.-SX/25C ...4MB MOD 500814-004

POWER EXEC 3/2551,3/25SL-C 4MB MOD 500984-001

16MB MOD N/A

AST POWER EXECL EL 2MB MOO 500984-004

4MB MOO 500984001

8MB MOD 500984002

16MB MOD 500984-003

POWER PREMIUM 4B6/50D 8MB EXP KIT 500780-001

4/33; 3/33.4/660, PREMIUM II 16MB EXP KIT N/A

386/25.33,484/33; 5X20 ... 4-32 MB EXP BRD 500818-001 500780-004

AST PREMIUM 386C/386-16 4MB KIT 500510-008

AST PREMIUM 386 4MB KT 500510-004

AST PREMIUM II, 3865X/16;

386SX/20,486 37&33T 4MB MOD 500780-004

BRAVO LC 425S, 4/335,

4/50D. 4/66D 2MB KIT 500987-001

4MB MOD 500987-002

8MB KIT 500987-003

$148 $148 $168

$1298 $99 $169 $599

$1245 S279 $598 $298 $298 $198 $198

NEVADA Fre.\M»d*m

COMPUTER ,- w,,h ps/2

Memory

Purchase!

WE WON'T BE UNDERSOLD!

ComputerPeripheralsjnc

2400 BAUD MODEMS

2400 lfi»»mol.^ Card(or!BMPC,XT,ATandcompallhlei.CCin V.22bii, V.22 and Bell 212A. Aula dial/Auto answer. Supports Comml-4/IRQ 2-5, Software included, $39 2400 External, MmeasaLweplui 8 LEDslalus lights, $69 PS/2 1200 Baud IBM modem $ 1 9

FAX MODEM

9600 BPS Group III Facsimile, 2400 BPS Haves Compatible Modem,

True Background Send and Receive,

Menu Driven, Command Line, Normal and Fine Model,

Hall Card, One Year Warranty

$58

For laptops $ 198

VrU 5 Illl^U 80486DX/25 S299

II IIUI 80486 DX/33 5399

JU6SX ^* 80486 OX/50 $540

80386 SX/16. 529 386DX 80486 DX-2/50... $489

B03B6SX/20.. S39 80386 DX/20 . $39 80486 DX-2/66... $699

80386 SX/25... $49 803B6 DX/25 . $71 80486 SX/25 $209

80386 SX/33... $59 80386 DX/33 . $89 B0486 SX/20 $124

fffrfrfriTt CPU UPGRADES

I^ECHNoiijYcorporation 386 & 486 Pro com or Upgrade! for your ryttaml Now you can use Windows in enhanced mode, gel true multitasking 8. background operation (or Windows 3.1, 05/2, & olher 386 specific software. Processor upgrades offer dramatically Increased system performance & easy installation & improves your systems performance by up to 350%. Available far mast machines.

25Mhz SX/NOW (upgrade fraa 386 la 386SX] $288

33Mhz SX/NOW jvpfMh («■ 386 to 38811) $318

486SX 25 (ippah ff«t 386 to 48681) $428

486DX 33 IvHnrft frwi 386 rl 486SX) $899

int^l COPROCESSORS

usauyDAuoffC' mumiDrnw-S: soMvwwmiti:

S0S73 5MHi ™«9 B0287-6MHi ...129 B387- \Mk W9

8087-2 SUHt Si? 80287 -BWfa S39 B0387-2CWHi 159

8087.1 IOMHe S89 80787-IOMHi ... $49 60387-25MHi $49

30287X1 . J84 B03B7-33MK2 S79

Overdrives 80787-xii... . 599 80367-5X16 $49

B0*34sxt6/S<?0 l*w 803S7SX20 $89

kmba sx?s.. DOS SWv 803B7SI SW

mm sx33«o«3 m«

RAPID CAD . JNv

/»„»w COPROCESSORS ^■flO,!^- AND CPU's

Plug compatible with Intel, and faster! 5 year warranty,

CYRIX B3D87-33Mhi $88

CYRIX 83D87-40Mhi $104

CYRIX 83D87-SX25Mhz / SX33 $88

CYRIX B04B6DLO25 (mode by Tl) $128

CYRIX 80486DLC-33 $155

CYRIX 80486SLC-25 $119

Largest selection of Memory! Call if you don't see it!

HM PS/2 Memory

MODEL # MEMORY PS/1 and 386/SX 2MB

4MB

PS/2 30/286; Adpt 3rd 1497259 512K

PS/2 30/286;25/286; Adpt Brd 1497259.... 2MB PS/2 35SX, LS, 40SX.70-E61; 061; 121 Adpt Brd 6450609; 34F3011; 34F3077

XSlation 120& 130 1MB

PS2 50, 50Z, 55SX, 60, 65SX 2-BMB

2-16MB PS/1 Consultant, Essenliols & Expert models x43, x44 & PS/Valuepaint oil models

exceptCwt series. 4MB

16MB PS?2 70-A21; A61; B21; 961; PS/1 Consultant, Essential & Expert models xl 1,

xl 3 & xl 4, PS/Valuepoint Cxx series 2MB

PS/2 35SX; L5, 40SX, 55SX; LS, 65SX; LS. XStolion, PS/VaWpoini Cxx series. &

odopter board 34F3001 or 34F3007 4MB

PS/2 90 XP, 95 XP, P75 (Pairs). 56 57 [all]

PS/1 Pro 2123 2MB

4MB PS2 90, 95 XP, P75 (Pairs) 56, 57, (all) PS/1 Consultant, Essential, Expert x 11, xl 3 &xl4,PS/l Pro2123,RS/6000 4MB

8MB Exp. boards for 50, 502, 55SX, 60.65SX 2-BMfl 2MB

PS2/2 35SX;IS 40SX. PS2 70's and 80's

PS/2 80-A2l;A31;A61

PS/2 80-041

PS/280-111; 311; 121, 321;081; 161 -.

IBM Laptops

PS/2 MD CL57SX Color, Notebook, Thinkpad 700, 700C, 300

PS/Note N45SL

PS/2 Model N51, N82, Notebook SLC, SX

Willi PS72

PART* PRICE 92F9935 578 92F9694 $138 30F5348 S35 30F536O $89

6450603 $49 1497259 $259 6450609 $308

N/A $159 N/A $699

6450902 $84 87F9977 $148

1497259 5258

6450129 $289 6450605 $249 34F3077 $289 34F3011 $388 6451060 $198 6450375 $68 6450379 $89

Egg Memory

m MEMORY PART# PRICE

Portable 111 1NTFC

EXPBD 2MB

Portable 386 1MB

4MB EXP 4MB DAGhtT

Deskpro 386/16 1-2MB

2MB

'07808-001 599 107811 -001 $249 : 07332-001 $98 107651-001 $119 07653-001 $449 i 07654-001 $449 iOB069-001 $248 0B069W71 5348 0B071001 $98 08070-001 $469 08072-001 $269 13131-001 $59 13132-001 $168 ■ 13634-001 $218 12534001 $179 : 13645-001 $218

151-14-001 $102 16561-001 $389 6568-001 $1498

186B9-001 $89 18690-001 $148 28877-001 $318 41738-001 $89 41742001 $279 683001

4MB

TOSHIBA

MODEL

Laptop & Notebook

MEMORY

T1000SE/LE/XE.... T2000SX/T10001F

2MB CARD F

8MB CARD F

4MB CARD F 8MB CARD F

•1MB BOARD F

4MB MOD P

4MB MOD P

4MB CARD P

T4400 SX, SXC, T6400 SXC, DXC.

6MB CARD 16MB CARD 2MB CARD 4MB CARD 8MB CARD 16MB CARD

T5100 2MB BOARD

T5200/T5200C/T8500 2MB MOD

8MB MOD

07GI419 $168 07G1420 $239 07G1421 $389 92F8857 $98 92P8804 $98 07G1826 $88 07GI827 $158 07G1828 $308 79F0999 S88 79F1000 $148 79F1001 $288

PARTS PA83I1U PA8312U PA8314U PA8315U PA8306U PA8302U PA2000U PA2001U PA2002U PA7135F. PA8341U PA8308U PA8310U PA8307U PA8309U PA8318U PA8319U PA7137U PA2006U PA2007U PA2008U PA2009U PA2003U PA2004U PA2O05U PA2010U PA8301U PA8304U PA8313U

$158 $158 $128 $188 $288 $795 $125 $198 $348 $799 $88 $99 $298

Deskpro 286E; 386-20; 20E; 25;25E 1MB

4MB

Deskpro 386S 4MB Board

4MB Module

Deskpro 386-20E, 25E 4MB

Deskpro 386/33; 386/331; 486/25; '

33L,50L;Systempro 2MB

8MB 32MB

Compaq "M" 2-64MB 129160001 $358

Deskpro 286N, 386N, 386SX/20; 20N, Portable 486c, Deskpro M , Systempro LT

Series 129160 001, Compoq ProSignio... 1MB 118688-001 $59 2MB ■1MB 8MB

Prolina 3/25 & 25Z 2MB

8MB

Prolina 4/25si, 4/33, 4/50 2MB Module

4MBModulc 141684-001 5168 SMBModule 141685-001 $318

Compaq Pro Signia 16MB 149320-001 $1295

32MB 149147-001 $2395 Systempro; Deskpro 6 SKT EXP BRD W/2MB 116569-001 $299

Compaq Laptop & Notebook Memory

Centura Nolebock/Loptop.. 2MB 139497-001 $88

4MB 139498001 $168

8MB 139499001 $318

Compaq SLT/286 IMEGMOD 110235-001 $99

4MEGMOD 110237001 $218

Compaq SLT386 IMEGMOD 118303 001 $89

2MEG MOD 118304-001 $129

4MEGMOD 118305001 $175

Compaq Lie 286 1MEGBRD 117081-001 S79

2MEGBRD 117081-002 S99

4MEGBRD 117081-003 $218

Compaq Lte 386/20 IMEGMOD 121125-001

4MEGMOD 121125-002

Compoq Lte Lite/20, 25 2MEGMOD 129769-001

4MEG MOD 129769-002

8MEGMOD 129769 003 Compaq LTE Lite/20 &

Lile/25;25C 16MB Cord N/A

Compaq Lite 486/25C 4MB Card N/A

8MB Card N/A

Laser Printer Memory

1MEG 2MEG 3MEG4MEG 5MEG8MEG

Brother HL-8, 8E, BD, 8V $99 , $149 $249

Canon LBP4 $128 . $178

Compaq Pagemark 15 & 20 $319 $638

Epson Action Laser II. 8000.. $95 $163 $229

Epson 6000 $108 $178

Fujitsu 7100 & 7200 $199. $279

HP Deskjet 500, 500C...S59 (256K]

HP2, 2D 3 3D, 3P. 2P, 2P+ $104 . . ,. $164

HPtll SI $50 $148

HP loser Jet 4. ] I ISi, XL3Q0 .. .... $U8 .... $289

IBM loser 4019. 4019E (3.5MB) $169

IBMloser4029 $149

NEC 90, 290 $118

NEC95 $128

OKI 400 $99

Packard Bell PB9500 $125 $178

Panason.c 4410/4430 $119 . $178

Panasonic 4420/44501 $89, $118 . $178

Panason.c 4450 ,. $105

Panason.; 4455 $139

QMS 410 $119, $159 $249

StorLS04 $129. $179 $269

StorScr.pi4 $128.$178 $258

Tosiba Poyo Loser 6 $119 $178

T1XL/PSI7/PS35 $59

Major Laptop & Notebook Memory

PRICE $128 $238 $128 $149 $298 $345

$98 $198

5138 $218 S458

$1045 $198 $378

■ Si mm Modules (Call for current prices] ■

" DESCRIPTION I0ONS 80NS 70NS 60NS 53NS ■

Z 256X9 $9 $10 $11 $15

. 1MEGX3

$32 $33

$38

■ IMEGX9

$29

$35 $37

$44

$54 •

■ 4MEGX9

SI 24 $134

$159

■ 16MEGX9

$699

' 256X36 !MEG(72Pin

S50

, 512X36 2MEG |72 Pin

585 $95

■ IX36 4MEG|72Pin)

$139 $149

$159

■ 2X36 8MEG|72 Pin)

$289 $298

$329

■ 4X36 )6MEG|72Pin|

$599 $619

$719

D

Ram Chips

DESCRIPTION 150NS

120N5

100NS BONS

70NS

60NS

64X4 $195

$2.25

$2.45 $2.95

256X1 STATIC

$1.95

$2.25

256X1 $1,05

$1.25

$1.40 $1.55

51.95

$2.20

256X4

$3.95

$4.45 $4.95

$5.45

$5.95

1MEGX 1

$2.95

$3.45 $3.95

$4.45

$4.75

1MEGX1 STATIC

$4.95

$5.25

IMEGX4

$17.00

$20.00

$24.00

MODEL MEMORY AT&T Sofari 2MB

AT&T Safari 4MB

Bondwell B-310 1MB

Dec pc 320 Notebook 2MB Mod

4MB Mod

8MB Mod

Delllaplop212,320N;320NT IMBMod

2MB Mod

Dell 325N;NC; Notebook PC. 2MB Mod

Dell NL20 & NL25 NTBK 2MB Mad

Epson NB-3 No'ebook. ......4MB

Epson NB-51/20.25 2MB Mod

25C Notebook 4MB Mod

Everex Tempo IX. LX20 2MB

Everex Corner 2MB

Grid 1500 4MB

Grid1450SX 2MB

Goldstar GS520. 386SX 16 1MB

Goldstar GS520. 386SX 16 4MB

NCR 3120 Notebook 4MB Mod

NCR 3170 Notebook . 4MB Mod

Packard Bell. Mognavox, Milsubo 1 MB Packard Bell, Magnavcx. M.isubo .....4MB

Panasonic CF170/270/370 1MB

Samsung Notemaster 3 36S . .. 2MB

Samsung Nolemaster l'B6S .....4MB

Sanyo 17NB; 18NB&2EOS 2MB

Sharp6220 .. ...... 1MB

Sharp 6640 2MB

5horp4700MZ-200 1MB

Sharp 8501 Colorstor 2MB

Tl Travolmate 2000 1MB

Tl Trovolmate 3000SX, WINSX 2MB

Tl Travel mate 4000,

WINDX/25 5X/16,SX25 4MB

PART*

37650

37651

2305009100

FR-PCIM-BA

FR-PCIM-BB

FR-PCIM-BD

310-3203

310-3204

310-3210

310-3213

A8085O1

A80877I

AB087BI

00160

0026300

52587

6200203

N/A

N/A

3120-K104

3123-KI04

N/A

N/A

CF-B

165

SNM002

SNM004

MBC-NBMEM2

CE-621B

N/A

CE-471

N/A

2568034-0011

2566996-0001

2581265-001 $218

SI 38 $228 $87

ZENITH MEMORY

ZNoie320L, 320LB 2MB MOD

325L.325LC 8MB MOD

MASTERPORT386SL;SLE;SLC ... 2MB MOD

MASTERPORT 386SX 2MB MOD

SUPERSPORTSX/286E. ALPHA 2MB MOD

BETA 2MB MOD

2-386/20, Z-386/25, Z-386/33 .. IMBMOD

Z-386/33B, Z-3B6SX/20

286LP+.Z-LS

Z-486/33ET

16 Bit Memory Boards Below Dealer Cost!

Newer Technology

0-8MB 1 6BIt for 286 and 386, up to 24Mhz, Limm 4.0 and Extended. Uses Dip chips. Extended and Expanded OK 2MB 4MB 8MB

$19 $89 t $159 $299

O- 1 6MB Lim/EMS 4.0, Expanded and Extended, True EMS 4.0 for any 286. 386 ond 486 w/ up to 33Mhz CPU speed Uses Simms OK 2MB 4MB 8MB 16MB

$49 $139 $204 $352 $653

EO-iB Memory Boards

Boca AT Plu» (Brat 90 uses 1MEG Simmsl OK-8MEG Board, 4.0 LIM compatible, Conventional, Expanded & Extended Memory, Supports DOS, OS/2,UM/EM5&EEMSOK-$94,2MEG-$159,4MEG-$228 8MEG-S358 Bral 80 (uses Dip Chips) 579 [SAME AS ABOVE) BwtAT + l/OParSer04MEGS118 OKSHB 2MEGSI84 4MEG5250 fldvanfage/2 Memory Board for IBM PS/2 model 50/60. Comes with OK, expandable to Smb. Uses Simm modules Super Pak utility software. OK-S49 2MB-S139 4MB-5I99 8MB-$349

Z-300/400 SERIES Z-420/SX

Z-425/SX, Z-433/DX, Z-433/SX

Z-SERVER 42SSE, 433DE, 450DE

420SN.425SH.433DEH

433DH

450XEN.Z-STATION325SB, 325N

. 2MB MOD

4MB KIT

16MB KIT .4MB MOD 16MBMOD

4MB KIT

8MB KIT 16MB KIT 32MB KIT

.4MB MOD

16MB MOD

ZA-3250-5 $168

ZA-3250-4 $488

N/A $109

Z-360-1 $118

ZA-180-86 $128

ZA-180-87 $278

ZA-3600-ME $48

3800-ME $48

ZA-605-1 $98

ZA-4200-M2 $178

ZA-4200-M8 $588

ME-100 $158

ME-90 $648

ME-432 $168

ME-102 $318

ME-442 $638

ME-92 $1219

MB-100 S148

MB-90 $648

ComputerPeripheralsjnc Memory Boards

For 286, 16 Bit, 2MB Expandable to 4MB. (Uses 1 MB x 1 Dips) Works with IBM AT, an6 compatibles. Expanded, Extended, 4.0 Lim compatible

2MIO $69

4MIO 119

AAA *%Di!SJiNLY#» M 4*. m TERMS* SHIPPING: UP5 {Min, $8.25) Shipping charges CONDITIONS: 20% Restocking Fee on refunds within 30

0 00B982B2925 are non refundable. NET 30 Accepted. Purchase orders days. No refunds or exchanges after 30 days-WARRANTY

HOURS: M-F7AM-6PM/SAT 10AM-3PM from Universities, Fortune 1000 & Government REP1ACEMENTONLY. ALL PRICES FINAL. PRICES SUBJECT

FOR TECHNICALS CUSTOMER SERVICE QUESTIONS CALL: AgenciespersonalChecks,CODodd$5.00(Cashierscheck TO CHANGE. Mfg. pari #'s for convenience only.

(702) 294-0304 FAX ORDERS INQUIRIES AND reqired) 'Best prices on same items under same terms. Trademarks are registered with their respective Co.'s. 386,

EXCESS INVENTORY LISTS TO: FAX (702) 294-1168 We shiP by UPS< DHL' FEDERAL EXPRESS AND PARCEL POST 387, 287, SX, are trademarks of Intel Corp.

Circle 193 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 227

WIRELESS

NETWORKING

B Y

MOTOROLA

EMBARC; from Motorola, delivers information to moving targets

Users roam the nation and stay in the loop

Portability doesn't have to mean isolation from important, timely information, thanks to EMBARC wireless networking.

Anywhere in America's top 200 , cities, users stay connected—to E-mail from the office and news and weather briefs from USA TODAY as well as optional services such as sports, key market and financial developments, and targeted industry news briefs from HeadsUp."' They can even have their important databases routinely updated—automatically! All that's required is EMBARC's compact, powerful NewsStream receiver (it plugs directly into most laptop, palmtop and notebook computers) and the simple software package that drives it. It installs in minutes and is ready to operate—without wires, faxes or phones.

Equip your whole team and send memos, documents and file updates for pennies per recipient. You'll find EMBARC so cost effective you'll communicate more.

Our corporate trial program lets you try it virtually risk-free. Sign up right now by phoning 1-800-EMBARC4, Ext. 350. Give your team the homefield advantage... even when they're on the road.

EMBARC service is available for DOS-based laptops and notebooks, HP 95LX palmtops and Macintosh Powerbooks.

Circle 211 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 212).

" , Motorola and NewsStream are registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc. All other product and company names are the property ol their respective owners. ® 1993 Motorola, Inc.

HIGH

SCORING

TEAMS

HEWLETT-PACKARD & MANCHESTER

INTRODUCING THE PRINTER

YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

THE

HEWLETT-PACKARD

LASERJET 4

PRINTER

BETTER RESOLUTION

FASTER THROUGHPUT

IMPROVED PAPER HANDLING

MORE FONTS

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

True 600 x 600 dpi Resolution

Improved Resolution Enhancement Technology

Microfine Toner Engineered Specifically for 600 dpi Printing

Standard 250 Sheet Input Paper Tray, Plus Multi-Purpose Tray

(For 100 Sheets or 10 Envelopes)

250 Sheet Output Tray

More Built-in Typefaces: 45 Internal Scalable Typefaces

Fast RISC Processor and I/O for Faster Printing of Complex Graphics

"Hot" l/Os Enabling the Printer to Automatically Switch Between All

Ports, and Send Messages Back to the Host

Improved Printer Drivers

Built-in TrueType for Optimum Performance in Windows Applications

2MB Standard, Expandable to 34MB

Many Options to Allow Improved Flexibility

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

NETWORKING . CONNECTIVITY

CAD/CAM ^gggfa^ RISC/UNIX

m

HEWLETT PACKARD

Authorized Dealer

MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT COMPANY INC.

The Computer Supply and Equipment Experts" 50 MARCUS BLVD. ■ HAUPPAUGE, NY 11788 ■ (516) 435-1199 ■ (212) 629-6677

New York City: (212) 629-6969 ■ Boca Raton: (407)241-7900 ■ Tampa: (813) 888-8809 ■ Boston: (617)455-8300

Circle 577 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 228NE-1

r

•

m

M)

»

THE

FUTURE...

" ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' I !

■V

IK ravel into the next I decade as PC EXPO 1 embarks on an entirely new era of computing. You'll journey into the future of Windows, pen-based computing, multimedia and open systems. You'll tour the more than one-half million square feet of exhibition space showcasing a universe of the latest programs and services. And you'll explore a galaxy of new products that link today's information services with tomorrow's innovative technologies.

Catch a glimpse of the future at

PC EXPO

JUNE 29, 30 & JULY 1,1993

JACOB K. JAVITS CONVENTION CENTER

llth Avenue at 34th Street New York City

For more information call today!

800-829-3976 ext. 9202 PC EXPO IN NEW YORK

It's the one computer trade event

guaranteed to leave you ligfit years

ahead of your competition.

.^vS'2f<bv

,'%

* m *

BLENHEIM

Foreign Buyer Program

Circle 556 on Inquiry Card.

• •• * '*....•*.. '. PC EXPO in New York is produced and managed by Bruno Blenheim Inc.

; • '. ' Fort Lee Executive Park, One Executive Drive, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 • 800-829-3976 • 201-346-1400 • Fax 201-346-1602

EasyCAD 2

the #1 Rated

Number 1 in user satisfaction-PC Week poll.

In competition against other top CAD software for performance, hardware compatibility, ease of use and value, EasyCAD 2 handily won the award that counts most-User Satisfaction (1989, 1990). Now the best is even better.

• You Pay Only $199.00 for the Program CAD Users Rate Number 1.

PC WORLD said it best, "This easyto-learn program is blindingly fast, and its flexibility, wealth of features and

excellent user

interface match those of professional

programs costing thousands of dollars

more."

In fact, because it is written entirely in assembly language experts say EasyCAD 2's speed rivals CAD packages costing up to twenty times more. So why spend well over $2000 to get

what EasyCAD 2 can deliver for just $199.00?

Expanded, productivityboosting associative dimensioning.

EasyCAD 2's associative dimensioning feature allows you to rotate, stretch or change the scale factor of a drawing and all dimensions are instantly updated to reflect the change. This includes ordinate, angle, radius and diameter as well as other dimension formats. You never have to erase or re-enter dimensions.

Whisk through even the largest drawings.

An enhanced memory manager lets you work through the largest drawings faster than ever.

are

Plot to file means you can store drawings on disk now and send it to the printer later. And it supports PostScript printer fonts and line weight controls.

More features, less moneyguaranteed.

No other CAD software gives you so many features for so little money (and a 30-day money back guarantee): Customizable pull-down menus, script and macro capabilities that automate complex" or repetitive tasks, DXF for exchanging drawings and files with other CAD programs and spread sheets. The list goes on.

Call 1 (800)874-4028 now for more information, plus the name of your nearest dealer. If you already own EasyCAD, ask about our special tradeup programs.

EVOLUTION

CAD2

COMPUTING

437 S. 48th St., Ste. 106 Tempe, AZ 85281-9936 1(800)874-4028

© 1992 Evolution Computing

EasyCAD2 is a registered trademark of Evolution Computing

Circle 558 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 228NE-3

TAIPEI

COMPUTEX '93 International Computer Show June 1-5, 1993

Computers • Peripherals. Software. Office automation systems • Software

Data communications • Applications. Mass storage • Components

The biggest, most important comforter show in Asia. Your point of access to thousands of opportunities!

l!S£\ CHINK EXTERNAL TEWDE g • J k TAIPEI COMPUTER

f4TW' DEkTlOP/MENT COUNCIL W i i W ASSOCIATION

Sponsor: Venue:TAlPEI WORLD TRADE CENTER EXIIIB1TION HALL, 5 Hsinyi RJ. Sec. 5, Taipei, Taiwan. R.O.C

Tel; 886-2-725-1111 Fax: 886-2-725-1314 Telex: 28094 TPEWTC Branch Offices: CETDC Inc., New York .... ijtiMPa WORLD Tel: (212)512-7055 Fax:(212)213-4189 Far Easr TraJe Service. Inc., San Francisco Tel: (415)788-4304

\3v*AF 1TWDECENTER Fax:(415)788-0468 Far East Trade Service. Inc., Chicago Tel: (312)819-7373 Fax:(312)819-7377

Circle 557 on Inquiry Card.

FREE On-Site Service Nationwide For One Year!

10mm < mm

386DX 40 64K Cache 4 Meg

486DX 33 256K Cache 4 Meg... 486DX2 50 256K Cache 4 Meg. 486DX 50 256K Cache 4 Meg... 486DX2 66 256K Cache 4 Meg.

486 VESA Local Bus

w/24 bit 16 Million true color video

stems Inclu

ra

$1575 $1625 $1775 $1775

Add $100

C O IV! F> U

0 Meg hard disk (14.5 ms)

44 Meg floppy drive

2 Meg floppy drive

VGA 1024 X 768 .28 14" color monitor SVGA card (trident) 1 Meg °20 Watt desktop or mini tower

serial, 1 parallel, 1 game, IDE 2HD/2FD

)1-Key enhanced keyboard

year parts and 5 years labor

»1 YEAR ON-SITE SERVICE »FCC B AND UL APPROVED

One Hollywood Drive North Grafton, MA 01536 508-839-3289 fax 508-839-6236

800-685-3981

Monday-Friday: 10am-10pm Saturday: 10am-6pm

Sunday: Noon-6pm

Circle 560 on Inquiry Card.

ISA-VESA-ISA

SYSTEM

Poly486-66EV $2750

♦>

ADVERTISE RS

♦;♦

Run a full- or half-page 4-color ad

reaching a portion of BYTE's U.S. readers

at unbelievably low rates — right here in this section!

Call today to learn more about BYTE's unique Regional Advertising Section, located in our prominent Buyer's Guide.

♦

(603) 924-265/ or (603) 924-2637

228NE-6 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Practice it. Say it out loud a few times. Oh! You'll hear it often and say it yourself at DEXPO. You'll say it when you see new products, or hear new solutions or gain new ideas as you walk through the exhibit hall or attend a conference session. You'll say it when you meet your friends or peers and have discussions about mutual problems. You'll say it time after time as you find the technology that can improve your business.

DEXPO Spring, The Event Of The DEC Open Market is your best opportunity to find the products and solutions to make your DEC and DEC compatible products work better together, to improve productivity, to increase profitability.

Open Systems Conference debut's at DEXPO Spring '93.

Today's information manager has two things on their mind - increased productivity and profitablity without added expense. DEXPO has added a world class conference to open your eyes to new ideas in making your DEC and DEC compatible products work more effectively together. Topics include: Achieving Enterprise-Wide Open Systems A Guide to DEC-Other Vendor Integration

• IBM, HP, Sun, Unisys, Pes, Unix System V DEC and the Issues of the 90's

• Open Systems

• Operating Systems

• Network Management

• NAS

• Application Development

• DEC's Software Vision

To obtain registration information for DEXPO Spring '93 fill out the form and return either by mail or fax.

DEXPO Spring

Exhibition & Open Systems Conference

June 8 -10,1993

Inforum

Atlanta, GA

Fax to: 214/385-9003

Mail to: Registrar

DEXPO Spring

13760 Noel Road, Suite 500

Dallas, TX 75240

Yes, I'm interested. Please send more information on:

() Attending () Conference () Exhibiting

Company

City/State/Zip

DEXPO

No one serves the DEC market better, no one can.

Produced by Miller Freeman, Inc.-A member of the United Newspaper Group ©1993 Miller Freeman, Inc.

Circle 559 on Inquiry Card.

pCjour*5,

Says... Kenosha Computer' Center offers some of the Best Buys in Mail Order!

EPSON

LX810

....$169

LQ570

$235

FX870

....$259

LQ870

$425

FX1050....

....$349

LQ1070....

$339

FX1170

....$345

LQ1170....

$569

EPL8000 ...

..$1065

LQ2550....

$849

Action 3250

$189

Action 1000 6 PPM,

14 fonts

$645

Action 1500 6 PPM,

PLC5

$789

DFX 5000/DFX 800r

$1259/$2129

Call For Options

Join the thousands of

satisfied customers who

enjoy our combination of

price, service, and speed

of delivery.

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

SALES LINE OUTSIDE WISCONSIN

1-800-255-2989

Shipping, customer service & technical assistance call

414-697-9595 - FfiX 414-697-0620

VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS ACCEPTED

' No Surcharge on MasterCard

or Visa! 1 Kenosha Computer Center is

now in its 6th year!

Aj? Texas Instruments

Travelmate 3000-WINSX

$1749 ..$2149

Travelmate 4000 SX-80mg

Travelmate 4000 WIIMSX 25-120 ....

..$2349

Travelmate 4000 WINDX 120mg....

..$2879

Travelmate 4000 Win SLC/25

..$1749

Travelmate 4000 Win DX2/50

..$3399

Travelmate 4000 Win SX/25 Color

..$3199

Travelmate 4000 Win DX2/40 Colo

.$3899

Call For Accessories

OKIDATA

ML320/ML321 S299/S419

ML380/ML590 S219/S419

ML591/ML393 $569/5909

OL 400 Laser/OL 810 S589/S1029

OL 820 Laser/OL 830 S1219/S1259

Okilaser 400 2MG upgrade S119

Panasonic,

1123/1124i S195/S275

2180/2123 S179/S229

1624/1654 S339/S519

2124/2624 S299/S359

4410/4430 S599/S859

4450i/4451 S1059/S1379

2mg. Upgrade for 4420 & 44501 S125

cc Computers

KCC 386 SX-33 W/1.2MB floppy, 2 MG RAM, 40 MG Hard Drive, SVGA Card & Monitor,

DOS 5.0, Windows & Mouse S1249

KCC 386-DX-40 w/64K Cache 1.2 MG floppy, 4 MG RAM 106 MG Hard Drive, SVGA Card and Monitor, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1

and Mouse S1499

KCC 486-DX-33 w/64K Cache, 1.2 MG floppy, 4 MG RAM, 211 MG Hard Drive, SVGA Card and Monitor, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 and Mouse S1999

HEWLETT-PACKARD

Laserjet IV w/toner S1399 Deskjet 500/500C S399/S509

Laserjet IV M w/toner Call Deskjet 550C $729

Laserjet III P w/toner $979 Deskjet Portable Call

Laserjet II P+ w/toner $809 Laserjet III si $3249

1 MB Upgrade $69 4 MB Upgrade S149

2 MB Upgrade $99 Options Call

Canon

BJ 10 EX $245

360 DPI, 37K Buffer, 142 CPS, 6 fonts, IBM & Epson Emulation

BJ 20 $359

Detachable cutsheet feeder, 188 CPS, 360 DPI

BJ300 $325

600 CPS, 30K Buffer, 3 Fonts, Epson IBM Emulation

BJ330 $555

Wide carriage. Version of BJ 300

BJC800 $1779

Color Bubblejet, 360 DPI, 7K Buffer, Epson Emulation LQ2550, 600 CPS, Built-in auto cut sheet feeder

BJ200 S325

496 CPS, 360 DPI, cut sheet feed, Epson & IBM Emulation

MEMORY PRODUCTS

2 MB IBM 30-286 $89

2 MB IBM 55SX $89

1 & 4 MB $IMMS Call

BOCA RAM AT 2 MB $179

4 MB Tl 4000 $199

Ast Premium 4 MB $165

Toshiba, Nee, Zenith, AST, IBM, Compac, Other Manufacturers & Products Call

LASER PRINTERS

2 MB EPSON ALII $139

2 & 4 MB H-P III $99/$159

2 MB OKI 400 $119

2 MB OKI 830/840 Call

2 MB Panasonic 4450i $125

2 MB Panasonic 4410/4430 $125

Other Models & Manufacturers Call

HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS PLOTTERS & SUMMAGRAPHICS DIGITIZERS

Image Maker A&B 11x17 $699

DMP-52C&D 1 Pen $1979

DMP-161 A to D 8 Pen $2749

DMP-162 A to E 8 Pen $3475

DMP-162RAtoE8Pen

Roll Feed $4749

Summasketch III 12x12 $279

Summasketch III 12x18 $469

HARD DRIVES & TAPES

SEAGATE, CONNER & MAXTOR

SEAGATE 120 MB 3144A $249

$EAGATE 245 MB 3283 $389

MAXTOR 120/211 S265/S369

MAXTOR 245/340 S389/S599

MAXTOR 535 MB $899

CONNER 120/170 S265/S285

CONNER 200/250 5369/5389

CONNER 510 S799

MICROSOLUTIONS

100 MB or 200 MB S489/S599

External Parallel port hard drive. Perfect for Laptops, PS ll's & XT's.

QUANTUM

Hard Card 50XL $239

Hard card EZ 127/240 $325/5529

TAPE BACK UP

Colorado Jumbo 120 $159

Colorado Jumbo 250 $219

Colorado Tracker 120 $339

Colorado Tracker 250 $399

Mountain, Maynard, others CALL

MONITORS

Mitsubishi EGA $239

Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 17" $1069

Mitsubishi HL 6955 20" $1779

NEC Multisync III FGX $609

NEC Multisync IV FGX $709

NEC Multisync VFGX $1245

NEC 6FG $2249

Samsung 14" Sync Master 2 $249

Samsung 14" Sync Master 3 $299

Samsung 15" Sync Master 15 $479

Samsung 17" Sync Master 4 $769

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

2133 91st Street Kenosha, Wisconsin 53140

SOFTWARE

Lotus 2.4/3.1 $299/S359

Microsoft Word for Windows $299

Microsoft Windows 3.1 $79

Microsoft DOS 5.0 $69

DBase IV $419

Word Perfect 5.2 $269

C.A. Cricket Paint $89

C.A. SuperCalc $89

C.A. Simply Accounting $125

C.A.Clipper $495

C.A. BPI Value Pak $359

C.A. db Fast $329

BATTERY BACKUP & UPS

AMERICAN

250/400 $109/$165

450/600 $199/$259

900/1200VX $375/$729

SMART UPS 400 $309

TRIPPLITE

BC 250 $105

BC 400 $159

BC 500 LAN $195

BC 600 LAN $259

BC 900 LAN $359

GRAPHICS CARDS

ATI VGA Wonder XL 24 1MB $149

ATI Graphics Ultra + 1MB $279

ATI Graphics Ultra Pro 1MB $439

Diamond Speedstar 1MB $169

Diamond Stealth 241MB Local Bus..$169

Diamond Stealth $219

Orchid Fahrenheit1280 1MB $189

Orchid Prodesigner IIS MC 1MB ..$289 Trident 1280 x 1024 1MB $75

Nq charge lor MasterCard or Visa. Wo will ship COD on a cash or enshor's chock oasis only. Shipping & handling

3% - S6 minimum; AK anil HI slightly higher. 15%

restocking charge on returned items. Purchase orders

accepiod from Fortune 1000. Government institutions,

schools and universities. 2% shipping discount available

on orders over S20D0 II prepaid by check.

Prices and availability subject to change.

KENOSIHA COMPUTE!

1-800-255-2989

Circle 561 on Inquiry Card.

MODEMS & FAX MODEMS

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS

FAX ME for plain paper fax

$169

PRACTICAL PER 9600 INT/EXT

..S199/S229

PRACTICAL PER 14.4 INT/EXT.

..S309/S279

HAYE$

HAYES OPTIMA 9600

S329

HAYES OPTIMA 14.4

S399

HAYES OPTIMA 14.4 W/FAX ...

S439

HAYES ACCURA 14.4 W/FAX..

$309

U.S. ROBOTICS

USR 9600 V.32 bis

S469

HST16.9lnt/Ext

..S499/S549

USR SPORTSTER 14.4 Int/Ext..

..S269/$299

U$R $PORTSTER 14.4 W/FAX.

S279

USR DUAL STD EXT

$709

World Port 96/96 Fax Modem..

$439

Intel Satisfaxtions Below

intel

Satisfaxtion Fax Modems

200 2400 V.42/9600 Fax $269

400 14.4/14.4 Fax $369

400 ext 14.4/14.4 Fax $375

Faxability Plus $59

80387-SX co-processor $75

80387-DX co-processor $85

Overdrive Upgrade SX20/25....$349/5435 Overdrive Upgrade DX25/33 ...$435/$575

MULTIMEDIA & CD ROMS

Media Fusion 16 Kit $499

Pro Audio Spectrum 16 Bit $195

ATI Stereo F/X Card $109

Soundblaster Pro $195

Soundblaster Pro 16 Bit $229

Videoblaster $329

Soundblaster Multi Media $539

NEC CD Express $419

Toshiba 3401 INT 200MS Access $489

Toshiba 3401 EXT 200MS Access $589

SCSI Adapter For Above Drives $189

NETWORKING

NETWARE 2.2 5 USER $489

NETWARE 2.2 10 USER $1079

NETWARE 2.2 50 USER $2099

NETWARE 3.11 5 USER $589

NETWARE 3.11 10 USER $1329

NETWARE 3.11 50 USER $2619

NE 2000 $139

LANTASTIC 10MPS STARTER KIT $449

LANTASTIC 10MPS ADAPTER $199

LANTASTIC FOR WINDOWS $165

3 COM ETHERLINK II $185

3 COM ETHERCARD $279

INTEL ETHER 16 $119

INTEL ETHER 16 20 PAK $1779

SMC ETHER + ELITE 16 $145

SMC ETHERNET 8 BIT COAX $95

XIRCOM POCKET ADAP COAX $299

XIRCOM POCKET ADAP 10 BASE T $299

ENTER

Micro-International Inc

Intel CPU

486X-25

486DX-33

486DX2-50

486DX-66

Monochrome

$2,160

$2,410

$2,560

$2,720

Color

$3,060

$3,310

$3,460

$3,620

Don't be misled by cheap, low-performance 486SLC designs. With the real Intel 486 power, this notebook computer is the only system you'll ever need in the office or on the road.

HCP Power Notebook Standard Features

VGA graphics with CCFT backlit LCD screen

Mono - 32 gray scale

Color - 256 colors 4 MB RAM installed (16 MB capacity) 120 MB hard disk, 1 5 ms access time 1.44 MB floppy drive

Nickel-cadmium quick-rechargable battery Carrying case

Built-in trackball (COLOR System Only) Serial mouse (MONO System Only) Licensed Microsoft Windows 3.1 Licensed DR-DOS 6.0 One parallel and two serial ports External VGA and keyboard connections External numeric keypad AC adapter/charger included

Optional Features

Docking station with 2x16 bit slot $ 160

Auto cigarette adapter $ 40

Memory upgrade to 16 MB $380

Memory upgrade to 8 MB $ 160

Pocket fax modem (24/96) $ 130

Upgrade hard drive to 210 MB

Upgrade hard drive to 450 MB

Additional battery

Battery charger

Additional AC adapter/charger

$200 $720 $ 90 $ 30 $ 50

Micro-International, Inc.

^BfcaigR

10850 Seaboard Loop Houston, Texas 77099

V/SA

National Sales 800/967-5667 Houston 713/495-9096

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday (Central Time)

All systems and components include a one-year warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee.

Price reflects cash or credit card payment. Major corporation purchase orders accepted.

Circle 201 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 202).

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 229

MakingThe Best Better

Plug-in Printer Sharing

Expandable Printer Sharing

Bay Tech brings a new level of quality, performance and affordability to the printer sharing market. Bay Tech's new products are designed to give you high speed performance never before seen in printer sharing products.

A Complete Product Line

Bay Tech is the only printer sharing company you will ever need. Our expandable products give you the ability to increase users in an application without completely changing hardware. Our stand-alone products feature 4, 6, 8 and 10 port models with a variety of serial and parallel port combinations. Our plugin products allow you to easily connect multiple computers to your HP printers. And now, our NEW Network Print Server will give you

Stand-Alone Printer Sharing

Take the Bay Tech Challenge

the performance, quality and affordability you expect from Bay Tech products.

Product Highlights

• High speed printing 66,000 cps parallel, 46,000 cps serial

• Long distance printing to WOO ft. •4 to 24 port units

• Plug-in printer sharing

• Modem sharing

• Network print sen>ers

• Buffers from 256KB to 16MB

• Made in the USA

• Toll-free technical support

All product or company names respective holders.

; trademarks of their

BayTech CHALLENGES you to

try our products for 30 days. If you are not completely satisfied we will refund your money 100%, no questions asked.

High Speed Printer Sharing Parallel/Serial Converters

Statistical Multiplexers Data Acquisition Controllers

Network Print Servers

Because Resources Should Be Shared

BayTech

Data Communications Products Division 200 N. 2nd St, PO Box 387, Bay St Louis, MS 39520 Pax: 601-467-4551 Phone: 601-467-8231 or toll-free

800-523-2702

230 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 183 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 184).

MeMOMU. MEHOKVU M6M0MU

ACER 486SX - 16MB SIMM cam x 36)

32MB SIMM(8mx36) AMI EZ-FLEX - 64MB KITvsimms) AMIGA 2000 - 16MB SIMM AST BRAVO 486LC - 16MB SIMM COMPAQ SystemPro - 32MB MODULE DELL 486'S - 16MB KIT (2 simms) 32MB KIT (2 simms) MAC llfx - 16MB SIMM MAC QUADRA 950 - 16MB SIMM MAC llci,llcx,llsi,QUADRA 900 - 16MB SIMM MAC QUADRA 700 & SE/30 - 16MB SIMM NeXT TURBO - 16MB SIMM SUN IPX,ELC - 16MB SIMM

$ 529.00 $ 1,599.00 $ 2,799.00

SPARC

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

469.00 469.00

1,199.00 538.00

1,088.00 479.00 469.00 469.00 529.00 469.00 499.00

256MB KIT

ER MEMORIES AVAILABL

IBM

PS/1 - 2MB

4MB

M30 - 2MB

M50Z,55sx,65sx,70 - 1MB 2MB M55sx.65sx,70 - 4MB M70-A21A61.121 - 2MB M40SX.35SX - 8MB M57sx.90.95 - 4MB 8MB M80-041 - 1MB M80-111.121,311 - 2MB M80-A21.A31 - 4MB 16-BIT OK Exp Board 32-BIT OK Exp Board

AST

PREM. PREM. PREM. PREM.

$ 68

S 149

$ 79

$ 45

$ 79

$ 135

$ 79

S 269

135

269

65

99

180

128

128

386/20C - 1MB KIT 386/25 - 1MB 486/25 - 1MB // 486 - 1MB 4MB 8MB KIT PREM. II 1MB Exp Board

$ 65 S 45 $ 45 $ 41 $ 139 $ 278 $ 469

COMPAQ

DP 386/20.20E.25 - 1MB 4MB DP 386S/16 - 1MB 4MB DP 286N.386N.S/20 - 4MB M-SYSTEMS - 2MB 4MB 8MB DP 386/33,486/25 - 2MB SystemPro - 8MB

OK Exp Brd DP 386S/16 1MB Exp Brd DP 386/20.20E.25.25E 1MB Exp. Board

DELL

325D.P.-333D.P - 1MB

4MB

420/125.433

$ 66 $ 159 $ 66 $ 159 $ 135 $ 79 $ 135 $ 299 S 96 S 269 $ 335 $ 105

$ 105

450DE.450SE

2MB KIT 4MB KIT 8MB KIT 2MB KIT 4MB KIT 8MB KIT

$ 41 $ 135 S 82 $ 158 S 270 $ 82 S 158 $ 270

HP

Vectra QS-16 - 2MB KIT 4MB KIT Vectra 486 - 2MB 4MB 8MB X-Station 700 Ser. - 2MB 4MB 8MB 9000/400t.425t - 8MB KIT 16MB KIT 32MB KIT 9000/425e - 8MB KIT 16MB KIT

129

229

79

135

269

89

149

299

495

999

$1869

$ 428

S 828

APPLE

ll,SE,SE/30 - 1MB $ 32

Classic - 1MB Exp. Board $ 54 SE/30.llcl,llcx,llsl,LC &

Quad. 700,900 - 4MB $ 115

Quad. 700,900 - 32MB KIT $1120

llfx - 16MB KIT $ 499

llfx - 32MB KIT $1156

Quadra 256K V-RAM $ 27

LC 512K V-RAM $ 44

LAPTOPS

AST EXEC. NB - 4MB $ 119

COMPAQ LTE386 - 4MB $ 209

SLT386 - 4MB $ 168

DELL 316,320 LT - 2MB $ 99

EVEREX TEMPO - 2MB $ 78

IBM L40SX - 4MB $ 135

MAC POWERBOOK - 2MB $ 104

NEC P.S. 286,386sx - 4MB $ 200

P.S. 386 - 8MB $ 429

P.S. SX/20 - 4MB $ 200

PANASONIC CF170 - 1MB $ 55

T.I. TRVL-MT 3000 - 2MB $ 80

TOSHIBA 1000 - 2MB $ 108

2000SXE - 8MB $ 388

3200SXC - 4MB $ 160

5200 - 8MB $ 315

PRINTERS

EPSON 6000 - 4MB $ 229

HP IIPIIUIID.P - 2MB $ 108

lllsl - 4MB $ 135

IBM 4019.4029e - 3.5MB $ 129

4029 - 4MB $ 135

OKIDATA 400 - 2MB $ 129

PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE

OTHER MEMORIES FOR:

ACER, ALTIMA, APPLE, AST, CHAPLET, COMPAQ, DELL, EPSON, EVEREX, HP, LEADING EDGE, IBM, NEC, NCR, OKIDATA, PACKARD-BELL, PANASONIC, PHILIP, SAMPO, SHARP, SILICON GRAPHICS, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, TANDON, Tl, TOSHIBA, TULIP AND ZENITH.

call if©® om ©ommMM catmob

TERMS: C.O.D. CASH, VISA OR MASTERCARD,

COMPANY AND UNIVERSITY P.O.'S ACCEPTED UPON CREDIT APPROVAL.

414 CLOVERLEAF DR., UNIT B, BALDWIN PARK, CA 91706

TEL (818)855-5688 FAX (818)855-5687

Circle 200 on Inquiry Card.

ALL PRODUCT NAMES. TRADEMARKS AND REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR REPSECWE COMPANIES.

m

m

IBM

PS/1286, 3SSSX 2MB 9ZFS935 $79 4MB 92F969H $H9

PS/1 Consultant, Essential & Expert models X43, :M & PS/valuepoInt all models except cxx series

4MB PN m $159 16MB PN MA $579

PS/1 Consultant, Essential & Expert models x76 16MB Kit PN NA $579

PS/2 25/2B6,30/286. 8. memory adapter 1497259 2MB Kit 30FS36O $79

PS/2 35SX; IS, 40SK, 507, 55SX; IS, S5SX; IS, 70, & XStatlon

1MB 0450603 or 90XS624 $49

2MB 6450S04 Or 50X8625 $7$

PS/2 70-A21; A61; B21; BS1, PS/1 Consultant, Essential s Expert models x11, H3 S114, PS/valuepoInt Cxx series

2MB 6450608 $75

PS/2 35SX; IS, 40SX, 55SX; IS, 65SX; IS, XStatlon, PS/

Valuepolnt Cxx series ft adapter board 34F3011 or 34F3077

34F2933 or 87F9977 $149

PS/2 35SX; IS, 40SX, PS/valuepoInt cxx series

8MB 6450129 $289

PS/2 90 XP, 95 XP, P75 (pairs), 56, 57 Mil, PS/1 Pro 2123

2MB 64S0902 $79

PS/2 90,95 XP, P75 ipairsi, 56,57 lain, PS/1 consultant, Essential, Expert 111,113 & xm, PS/1 Pro 2123, RS/6000

4MB 6450128 $149 8MB 6450130 $289

Expansion boards for 50,507,55SX, 60,655X

2-8MB M/2MB 1497259 $269

Expansion boards for all models 70 & 80

2-10MB W/2MB 34F3077

NEC

PomerMate 286/12; SX/16 8, sx/20

2MB Kit 0P-410-B103 $79

PowerMate SX/20

2MB CPU Upgrade op-410-8101 $169

2MB Exp. Board OP-410-8102+8103 $209

POtierMate 38E/33E S 486/25E 2MB OP-410-51M $189

.. $329

S99

$319

VeHra 486PC; 25T; 33T; 486S/20; 486/25N; 5511; SON; E6N

2MB D2381A $89 8MB D2152A $299

4MB D2151A or D2156A $149

Vectra 3B6/25; 486/25U; 486/33U; 486/50U; 48E/66U

2MB D2381A $89 8MB D2152A $299

Vectra 436/25N; 4I16/33N; 486/50N; 4S6/66N 16MB D2S76A $579

Compaq

ProUnea 3/25s; 3/25zs

2MB 141738-001 .... $89 8MB 141742-001... $289

ProUnea 4/25S, 4/33,4/50

1MB 141682-001.... $49 2MB 141683-001 .... $89

4MB 141684-001 .. $159 8MB 141605-001 .. $299 DestPro 386-20, 20e & 25

4MB 113132-001 $169

OesKPro 386S/16

4MB 112534-001 $169

DeskPro 2B6N; SOON; I Series; 386SX/20; 20N; Portable 486c; M Series expansion boards; SystemPro LT series

1MB 118630-001 .... $49 2MB 118689-001 .... $79

4MB 118690-001 .. $149 SMB 112877-001... $299 DeskPro 386-33,486-33 s SystemPro

2MB 115144-001 .... $99 8MB 116561-001... $209

DeskPro 3B6M, 486M, SystemPro tr (32-Blt Exp. board)

2-E4MB W/2M 129160-001 $359

DeskPro 586/331,486/331, SystemPro 6 Socket Brd W/2MB 116569 * 115144-001 $389

DELI.

Power Desktop 3250 8 P, 3330 S P, 433P, 486P & ABED

1MB 310-2505 $59

4MB 310-2507 $149

poHerilnc workstation 420; 25; 33; 50; 450DE/2 a 46EDE

J^JjV 2MB S10-246B $119 4MB 310-2467 $179

iffi? 8MB 510-2468 $319 16MB 510-2469 $599

Zenith

Z-300/400 Series 2-420/SX, 2-425/SX, 2-433/DX, 2-4S5/SX

4MB ME-100 $159 16MB ME-90 $599

Z-Server 425SE, 433DE, 450DE

4MB ME-432 $179 8MB ME-102 $319

16MB ME-442 $599 32MB ME-92 $1179

Z-Statlon 325Sn, 42DSEh; Sh; SO, 4255k, 433Deb; Dh.SOXEn

1MB ME-70 $49 4MB ME-100 $149

Zenith 2-386/20; 25; 33 & 33E

1MB ZA3800ME $49 4MB ZA38B0MX $149

Zenith Z-586SX/Z0, 2S6LP+, Z-IS

2MB Kit Z-605-1 $89

Zenith 486/33ET; 25E

4MB ZA4ZO0M2 $179 16MB ZA4Z00M0 .... $599

AST

Brain 38E-SX, BIS/286, 38S

2MB 50051D-OD2.... $89 4MB $00510-008 .. $179 Bravo 3/25S

2MB 500710-004.... $99 8MB 500824-002.. $319

Bravo 3/33S

2MB S00962-OO1.... $75 8MB 500962-002.. $339 BraiO tC 4/25S, 4/33, 4/33S, 4/50d, 4/66d

4MB 500987-002 .. $139 SMB 5DD987-BB3 .. $259

16MB 500987-004 . $499 32MB 500987-805 .. $999 Premium 386/2$; 33; 35T, Premium II386SX/16; 20; 25

1MB U/WPB 500780-003; 002 S39

Bravo 4/33; 486/25; Premium 4/25; 33TE, Server SE 4/33

2MB SV/WPB 500718-004; 780-005 $109

Power Premium 3/33,4/33,4/33S, 4/500,4/66d, Premium

38E/35TE, 486/25, 25E, 25TE, 33, 33E, 33TE, Prem. II3/25, 33, 486/53, 486SX/20 8. Server SE 4/33 4MB 500780-004 .. $145 8MB 500780-001.. $289

DEC

DECstatlon 3 series SX; C; Plus; £ 425c

2MB PC4XM-CB $99

DECpc 400ST series

4MB PCTAM-CC $189 8MB PCTAM-CD $299

We also stock memory for most discontinued systems!

HKlngston

WPI^tMM. TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION 306 & 486 Processor upgrades

CPU Upgrades (CPU socket) from 286 to 386SX

25MH! SXVrttw! $199 33MHI $K/NOWl $249

Add a math coprocessor for $75

From 386 to 486

25MHI466SX7N0W1 $429 S3MH! 486DX/NOW1 . $659

MIcroMaster Upgrades (expansion slot!

From 286 & 386 to 486

25MHz 4B6SX MIcroMaster $829

33MH! 486DX MIcroMaster $1299

MIcroMaster with 32-bit 70ns Memory

25MHI 4B6SX W/4MB $999

W/8MB $1179 W/16MB $1519

33MH! 486DX W/4MB $1439

W/BMB $1619 W/16MB $1959

Laptop & Notebook Memory

m

Hfe

Mfe Megahertz

-'corporation

Laptop tk Notebook Pax/Modems

for AST, Compaq, IBM, Sharp, Tl, Toshiba, Zenith and many other Laptop & Notebook Systems

PCMCIA 2.0 FAhVModems with KJflCK

i.ooobps FAX/Modem, cellular, Autosync scan

24/9600bps FAXVMOdem $call

Internal FAX/Modems w/mnp-5 & V.42/v.42bis

14,000bps FAX/Modern, cellular, Autosync $529

96/9600bps FAX/Modem $489

24/9600bps FAX/Modem.. 2400bps Modem

$229

$149

External Pocket Modems for any RS-232 Serial Port

14,000bps FAX/Modem, cellular, Autosync $379

9600bps FAX/Modem $309

24/9600bps FAX/Modem $189

AST

POBtrEXOC 3/25S1, 3/25SI-C

premium Exec 58GSK/25,25C

Compaq

Centura 3/20,3/25 & 25c

LTE 386S/20

ITE Ute 20; 25; 25c

SIT 286 SIT 386S/20

IBM

ThinkPad 300

0

PS/2 CL57SX & ThinkPad 700; 700C

N51 Notebook (Ail)

MOSS 8. N355X laptop

140SX

NEC

uitratlte & cellular workstation 286F Ultratlte & cellular Workstation sx/20 Ultraute III, S1/2SC

Ultratlte St/20. S1/20P

ProSpeed 286, 386SX/16

Prospeed 386 Panasonic

CF-170, CF-270, CF-370

4MB $179

16MB $1299

1MB $69

4MB $129

4MB $169

8MB $319

2MB $99

4MB $199

4MB $199

2MB $1!9

4MB $219

1MB $99

4MB $279

1MB $B9

4MB $199

2MB $159

SMB $429

4MB $219

SMB $369

2MB $179

4MB $249

4MB $13$

SMB $285

1MB $159

4MB $369

2MB $179

8MB $$99

2MB $113

4MB $199

2MB $119

6MB $269

1MB $189

4MB $209

2MB $149

1MB $54

Texas Instruments

TravelMate 2000 1MB $S9

TravelMate 3B00, WInSX -jVl. 2MB $79

TravelMate 4000 -&£r 4MB $199

Toshiba

T1000SE/LE/XE; 2000; 20005X/SXe; 2MB $85

T220D& T1800 satellite Series 4MB $159

8MB $299

T1200XE, 1600, & 3100E 2MB $8S

T3100SX, 3200SX, & sxc Portables 2MB $85

4MB $149

T3200 3MB $149

T3300S1 Notebook 2MB $119

4MB $179

T4400 s T6400, sx, sxc Notebook 2MB $129

4MB $179

SMB $349

T5100 2MB $8S

T5200; T5200C S T8500 2MB $92

8MB $279

Zenith «/W

Z-Note Notebook (all models) Jfeir 2MB $159

^^ SMB $369

2-SP0rt 325S 2-EMB $139

Z-Sport 420S S, 425S 4MB $189

MastersPort 386SI, StC, Sle 2MB $99

MastersPort 3B6SX 2MB $109

SupersPort SX; 2860; silmsport 2MB S139

supersport 286e; Silmsport 4MB $279

Grid

14S0SI 2MB $149

Magnauox or Packard Bell

2S6 & 386SX Notebook 4MB $179

Sharp

PC-6220 Notebook 1MB $109

Sanyo or zeos

Notebook Memory 2MB $79

Everex

Tempo tx Notebook 2MB $79

Tempo Carrier Notebook 2MB $119

Laser Printer Memory

. Compaq PAGEMARQ 15 £ 20 ?£*?■ 8MB 126361-001... $329 16MB 126361-001 .. $649

Hewlett Packard LaserJet nisi, 4,4M & XL300

4MB C2065A $149 8MB C2B66A $299

Hewlett-Packard taserJet IIP, III, NIP, HID

2MB 3347SB $95 4MB 33477B $159

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II & IID

2MB 33444B $102 4MB 33445B $160

Hewlett Packard DeskJet 500,500C

256K 22707B $59

IBM laser 4029 All Models

4MB 1183335 5129

Canon LBP-4, ante, 4Pius

1MB S65-2230 $119 2MB N/A $169

Canon top-ill & SHI Plus

2MB S63-2350 $249 SMB 563-23S0 $299

Panasonic 4410 & 4430

2MB KJ-P441 $109 4MB N/A $179

Panasonic 4450I & 4420

2MB KX-P441 $109 4MB N/A $179

Okltaser 400 1MB 78014701 $79 2MB OKI N/A $99

Texas Instruments MicroLaser & XI

1MB 2555739-0001 $49

Epson EPt 6000 2MB IB5401 $99 4MB N/A $169

Epson ActJonLaser II, EPt-8000

2MB N/A $149 4MB N/A $239

Expansion Boards

BDCRi

BSSBBSma las

Memory Boards for any 286 or 386! BocaRam AT Plus 2-8MB memory board for 802B6 & 80386 IBM compatible machines running up to 33MH2. Get conventional, exp. ILIM EMS 4.0) and/or ext. memory, OS/2.

Including 2MB $169 Including 4MB $229

Including 6MB $299 Including 8MB $369

Memory I/O Boards BocaRam AT I/O plus 2-4MB memory board, same as AT Plus with 1 serial and 1 parallel port, uses 1M x 1 DRAM chips. Including 2MB $199 Including 4MB $279

ack Guarantee

Buy with confidence!

First Source international

"The Only Source for Computer Upgrades"

• SO Day Money Back Guarantee • 100% compatible In form, fit, and function

• All products user installable

• Installation Instructions included

• Toll-free technical support

• Thousands of items in stock

• Manufacturer's warranties

• corporate PO's, apo/FPO's welcome

• Government & Educational pricing

• International orders welcome

• Special volume pricing • 24-hour fan line

• Same day shipping Overnight delivery available

• Visa, MC, amex, and Discover accepted

• No surcharge on credit cards

• Call for any Items not listed

• We'll meet or beat any advertised price

Toll free from anywhere in the united states or Canada

800/531-9866

international

714/588-9866

Facsimile

714/588-9872

Business Hours Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm Saturday, 8am-2pm, P.S.T.

Mail orders to: First Source International, Inc.

36 Argonaut, Suite 140 Af iso Viefo, California 92656 USA

Terms and Conditions: Memory products are third party, manufacturer's numbers are for your convenience. First source international will refund 100% of the sales price of the product If notified within 30 days of the invoke date. Freight charges are non-refundable. A Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number Is required for all returns. Items must tie returned within 30 days of the Invoice date with orglnal documentation and packaging. All non-defective returns, unopened, refused, or cancelled orders, and Items returned after 30 days of the Invoice date will be subject to a 20% restocking fee. Prices and availability are subject to change without notice. Purchase prices at the time or order are final. First source international cannot be responsible for errors In typography or photography. We will beat any advertised price valid only on Identical brands, offer not good for SIMMs or DRAM. Trademarks and registered trademarks are of their respective companies.

CALL THE UPGRADE EXPERTS TOLL FREE 800/531-9866

Circle 191 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 192).

We Carry

ALPS

BASF brother.

Canon CEnTRomcs

a»anzEN- ccsstat

CREATIVE LABS INC. CLKT1S Dataproducts 3DBDQBD Dyson

EPSON" EXABYTE PACIT QE| FUJITSU

vSil GRAHAM MAGNETICS

SBBCOM Sgnkjs

KZI BiCKABO LMJRl

f-JUEOf [gKttEBti 3M M. TALLY maxelL MICROSOFT INraltauja SEC

OCLI OKJDATA Olivetti OLYMPIA

OTC PACIFIC DATA

Panasonic

SPolaroid qms

SMITH CORONA

QuickShot

puma \mmm <SPseagate

SELKOSHA

sony rtoc SYQUEST &TDK.

TEA.C. ES2HHSS3

►StSSIhts TOSHIBA

TRIPPLITE

■yferbatim avAiMH

and many more OEM supplies!

ALL LOGOS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE COMPANIES.

P.O.S./ATM SUPPLIFS RIBBONS, ROLLERS AND OTHER CHECK PROCESSING SUPPLIES FOR DIEBOLD, IBM, ICL, TEC, EPSON, OMRON, SWEDA AND NCR. (TO QUOTE PRICES, WE NEED PART NUMBERS)

ATTENTION !!!

WHOLESALE DEALERS

& VOLUME BUYERS

SAVE $$$

DISKETTES

DESCRIPTION TDK BASF MAXELL M

BW DS/DD $ 2.75 3.35 3.55 3.75

6W DS/HD 4.95 5.35 5.65 5.95

37;" DS/DD 4.35 5.35 5.65 5.85

3'/;" DS/HD 6.95 B.55 B.75 9.35

FORMATTED

BULK DISKS

5W DS/DD $ 0.20

6VV DS/HD 0.29

3Vi" DS/DD 0.34

372" DS/HD 0.53

(Above Inc. Sleeves & Tabs)

DATA CARTRIDGES

DESCRIPTION 3M MAXELL DYSAN

DC-2120 $13.95 12.95 11.95

DC-6150 15.25 13.95 12.95

DC-6250 20.95 17.95 16.95

DC-6525 24.95 21.95 19.95

STREAMER CASSETTES

MAXELL TEAC

CS-600 HD. . $11.25 I 60 MB l CT-600H. .$ 11.75

CS-600 XD ..12.25 150 MB CT-600N... 16.75

CS-600 SX ..19.25 I 600 MB I CT-600F .. 23.75

4 MM & 8 MM CARTRIDGES

DESCRIPTION TDK SONY EXABYTE

4MM 60 Meter $ 6.75 8.95 —

4MM 90 Meter 8.75 10.95 Call

8MM 112 Meter 6.75 10.25 12.25

OPTICAL DISKS

DESCRIPTION MAXELL BASF SONY

37;" 512/128 MB $36.00 37.00 39.00

57«" 512/600 MB 76.00 83.00 89.00

57<" 1024/650 MB 76.00 83.00 89.00

HEWLETT PACKARD

INK JETS TRANSPARENCY/PAPER

HP51604A ..$7.65 HP51630Z ... 14.95

HP51606A .. 19.65 HP51630S ... 42.95

HP51606C ..22.65 HP51636G... 36.95

HP51625A ..22.65 HP92261K ... 46.95

HP51626A ..20.65 HP17703T ... 34.95

LASER TONERS RIBBONS

HP92275A .$54.95 HP92151H .... 4.25

HP92285A ..69.95 HP92155A ... 12.25

HP92291A ..96.95 HP92155L ... 13.95

HP92295A ..68.95 HP92156S .... 8.45

HP92298A ..89.95 HP92154B ..109.00 We carry a complete line of HP Products Please call for the lowest prices.

PANASONIC

KX-P115 RIBBON $ 6.59

KX-P140 RIBBON 8.59

KX-P4450 TONER KIT 25.99

KX-P4450 DRUM KIT 105.99

(CALL FOR OTHER PANASONIC ITEMS)

RICOH

TONER 6000+ $12.95

TONER 80 PLUS 27.95

TONER 150 PLUS 27.95

OPC KIT 80 96.95

OPC KIT 81 96.95

OPC KIT 150 93.95

KYOCERA

TONER $25.00

DEVELOPER 106.00

DRUM 111.00

FUSER 156.00

DIGITAL

LN03X-AC TONER KIT $ 32.75

LN03X-AD OPC KIT 104.75

TK-50 TAPE CARTRIDGE .... 16.75 TK-70 TAPE CARTRIDGE .... 26.75 TK-85 TAPE CARTRIDGE .... 27.75

RA60-P DISK PACK 595.00

Dec Ribbons & other supplies Please call for the lowest prices.

IOMEGA

3.5" FLOPTICAL DISK 21 MB . . $ 17.00

OPTICAL DISKS 512/1024 194.00

44 MB GOLD BERNOULLI CART . . 83.00 90 MB GOLD BERNOULLI CART . .124.00

SvQUEST (5-year warranty)

10MB DISK CARTRIDGE ..$114.00 44MB DISK CARTRIDGE .... 62.00 88MB DISK CARTRIDGE .... 93.00

CANON

BC-01 INK CARTRIDGE ..$ 15.95

BJ1-481 INK CARTRIDGE .... 10.95

BJI 642 INK CARTRIDGE .... 14.95

BJ-10e PRINTER 249.00

BJ-20 PRINTER 369.00

BJ-300 PRINTER 439.00

BJ-330 PRINTER 559.00

KODAK

MICRO GRAPHICS FILM

DACO-DL FILM

105X125M $218.00

THERMAL PRINT FILM

16MM X2000' 16.50

DACOMATIC FILM

16MM X170M 57.30

THERMAL FILM

16MM X1000' 8.70

THERMAL FILM

105X1500' 84.00

IMAGELINK

16MM X10ff 5.80

IMAGELINK

16MM X215' 10.80

IMAGELINK FS

16MM X 100' 6.00

IMAGELINK FS

16MM X215' 11.60

IMAGELINK FS

16MM X 1025' 32.70

(QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE)

QuickShot

COMPATIBLES - CONTROLLERS, GAMING/ POINTING DEVICES

SUPER NINTENDO M6-BIT) CONTR.

SUPERCON2 $9.65

SUPERCON2B 8.05

INVADER 2 11.25

CONQUEROR 2 23.45

MAVERICK 2B 11.05

SEGA GENESIS 116-BIT) CONTR.

PYTHON 3 9.65

INTRUDER 3 18.75

AVIATOR 3 24.05

MAVERICK 3 10.75

STARFIGHTER 3 9.65

STARFIGHTER 3B 8.05

INVADERS 10.95

CONQUEROR 3 22.95

IBM PC/XT/AT/386/486 CONTR. AND GAMING DEVICES

WARRIOR 5 8.05

WARRIOR 5 PLUS B.65

WARRIOR6 10.75

INTRUDER 5 18.75

AVIATOR 5 24.05

SMART GAME CARD 13.35

RAIDER 5 10.75

GAME KIT 25.15

STRAFIGHTER 5 8.05

IBM PC/XT/AT/386/486 POINTING DEVICE

QUICKTRAC 100 15.65

MOUSE 150 9.75

DUOMOUSE 10.55

SOLEPOINTER 26.25

Qgnius

CLIXes - ERGONOMIC STREAMLINE MOUSE 350-4200 DPI $12.75

MouseOne SERIAL - STARTER

MOUSE, 350-1050 DPI 9.95

MouseOne PS/2 STARTER

MOUSE, 350-1050 DPI 10.25

MouseToo Serial & PS/2

SMARTER MOUSE, 350-1050 DPI . 24.25

HiTrak - SPACE SAVER MOUSE, 350-1050 DPI 38.85

GS-4500A FOR WINDOWS BLACK & WHITE HAND HELD SCANNER, 100-400 DPI 84.25

GS-B105A FOR WINDOWS 256 GRAYSCALE HAND HELD SCANNER, 100-400 DPI 139.00

GS-C105 FOR WINDOWS COLOR

HAND SCANNER, 100-400 DPI ... 270.00

GS-FC60 FLATBED COLOR

SCANNER, 600 DPI 897.00

HiPen - PEN COMPUTING PINPOINT PRECISION TABLET, 9"X6" 188.00

HiSketch 1212 - HIGH PRECISION DIGITIZING TABLET, 12" X 12" . . . 215.00

HiSketch 1812 - ULTIMATE IN PRECISION FOR PROFESSIONAL USERS, 18" X 12" 293.00

TEL: 619-278-2600

STARTECH juw^w FAX: 619-278-2780

COMPUTER SUPPLIES TLX: 415779 ANS: STARTECH

5575 Magnatron Blvd., Suite G San Diego, CA 92111 USA

WE BEAT ANY PRICE!!

TERMS: C.O.D., BANK DRAFT, WIRE TRANSFER OR L/C AT SIGHT. P.O.'s ACCEPTED FROM RECOGNIZED INSTITUTIONS ON NET 30 DAYS. MINIMUM ORDER $3000.00. PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS.

Circle 195 on Inquiry Card.

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 233

SDPT

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SmartCache Plus is the SCSI controller that delivers higher performance without a higher price!

Windows, Netware, Unix and other high-end applications need a SCSI controller that delivers top disk I/O performance and a growth path. Only SmartCache Plus delivers both - and costs no more than less advanced controllers!

As the industry's fastest SCSI controller, SmartCache Plus is the easy choice. It's the smart choice, too - because if your system needs a performance boost, you can transform it from a non-caching host adapter into the world's fastest caching controller! Expandability is so simple: plug-on modules add caching, up to a total of 16MB of cache memory, and disk mirroring!

SmartCache Plus is supported by all major operating systems and applications, and provides connectivity to hundreds of SCSI devices. Reliable, scalable and simple to install, SmartCache Plus breaks your system's disk I/O bottleneck without breaking your budget!

Distributed Processing Technology

140 Candace Drive, Maitland, FL 32751 USA

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Circle 189 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 190).

inn TPfTT

This tree comprehensive Performance Report details the SmartCache Plus advantage over its leading competitor in nine different benchmarks for DOS 5.0, Netware 3.11 and Unix applications. For your copy, contact DPT Channel Marketing today...

TEL.

FAX

■■ „{

1993 SCSI CONFERENCE

".VIHr—'f.WlCTTOCTPM

/ urf mum—MJMU I. i ' l C3ESC

prv-f-fv-t-rrr'

i Ldafca ur-ir n

■■<•

I

Everyone makes claims.

We make sure.

When the industry wants product testing taken to the nth degree, they take it to NSTL,

In every field, one name sets the standard. In microcomputer testing, the name is NSTL, the leading independent testing lab.

The NSTL compatibility certification seal on a product says that it withstood the toughest lab in the industry — and it's ready for your business.

The seal saves you a lot of comparison and guesswork. It says you'll find the product compatible with a wide range of business applications and hardware. It helps you make the right choice.

Real-world testing for realworld use.

Beyond compatibility testing, we access nearly every conceivable

problem — from engineering-level hardware bugs to the eveiyday usability of business software.

And we test with the end-user in mind, in a real-world environment, just the way your staff uses equipment. Except our trials are more punishing.

Our publications, and others that publish our work.

In a separate facility we also do comparison testing for our own Ratings Reports: Software Digest®, PC Digest® and LAN Reporter®. They're read by people who purchase an average of more than $500,000 in microcomputer hardware and software annually.

And because of the respect we've earned, some of the industry's leading publications, like Data Communications,

LAN Times, Unix World and Datapro Research Group publish our test results.

Look for the NSTL seal and be sure.

Experts rely on the NSTL name: now you can, too. The final test of a product is its compatibility in a business environment. The NSTL mark tells you it's already met that test. Look for it when you compare products.

NSTL

Plymouth Corporate Center

Box 1000, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

215-941-9600

Micro Channel™ antl OS/2'''' are trademarks of the IBM Corporatioi

Circle 113 on Inquiry Card.

MEMORY...

YOU JUST CAN'T DO WITHOUT IT.

Picture this:

You bought a new software package. You try it out on your computer and soon find yourself working for hours on a sophisticated graphic design, While scrolling through your worksheet, it feels like you are moving through pudding. Your hard disk has a tough time trying to catch up, You then try to print, but the laser printer's buffer is full. You reset it, try again, and find that it spits out only part of your beautiful graphic,,..

No problem!

We'll take it from here. With our JetRam™ line that supports the leading brands of laser printers and PcRam™ line that upgrades your Notebook, Laptop or Desktop computers, Transcend can help solve your memory problems.

What you get from our memory upgrades

■ Life time warranty on all our products

■ Full memory lines support a variety of brand names of laser printers and PCs

■ High quality at a reasonable price

■ Easy-to-install

Office hours: 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Mon. to Fri. "You order in the morning, we will ship in the afternoon."

See us at CeBit Show '93 Booth no. Hall 6 Stand A59

epson Panasonic SEC sharp

comma

TOSHIBA okjtota fissiiif QMS -to

% Apple rj£ KyncERa brodiac Instruments

* All brand names are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

nWTHTzfTfTl Transcend Information Inc.

UA*4££^LZt£iZJ 104 Exchange Place,

Your Supplier, Your Partner, Your Friend.

236 BYTE • APRIL 1993

3FI., No. 465, Chung Hsiao East Road, Pomona, CA 91768 U.S.A. Sec. 6, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

TEL: (909) 598-5500 TEL: (886) 2-7881000

FAX: (909) 598-5050, (909) 598-6050 FAX: (886) 2-7881919, 7889191

Circle 204 on Inquiry Card.

Speed that Excels

The power, reliability and price of Kaiyo computers make them stand out among other leading computer systems. Thanks to the Local Bus VGA design, Kaiyo offers you the best performance, especially in the CAD and windows environments.

Rated by Chip Magazine of Germany as its January "Tip of the Month", Kaiyo enhances video performance by more than ten-times that of normal VGA display. In utilizing a full 32-bit CPU bus. Kaiyo's local bus design lets VGAs operate at the processor's clock speed. This versatile series includes a comprehensive range of PCs guaranteed to meet the needs of all your customers. It features up to 66 MHz 80486DX2 EISA bus microprocessors so they'll never be at a loss for computer power. Incorporating the most advanced

microprocessor technology, Kaiyo has among the smallest, yet most powerful compact desktop computers in the world.

But don't just take our word for it.

Over the years, our Group has established a strong base of over 190 active customers in 46 countries. We're particularly strong in Western Europe, especially Germany. And our sales in Eastern Europe have increased

by over 74% over the last year.

Team up with us- long-term business partner that support you every step of the way.

The Power In PCs

The Intel Logo is a trademark of Intel Corporation"

(All brand names are registered trademarks of their respective owner.)

o

Ocean Office Automation Ltd.

Head Office: Ocean Office Automation Ltd.

4th & 5th Floor. Kader Industrial Building. 22 Kai Cheung Road, Kowloon Bay. Kowloon Hong Kona

Tel: (852) 3051800 Telex: 52289 OCCOM HX Fax: (852) 799 2398 (5 lines)

U.S.A. Office: Ocean Information Systems, Inc.

12155 Mora Dr. Suite 6, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670, U.S.A.

Tel: (213) 946 5888 Fax: (213) 946 0929

For US Enquiry—Call Toll Free: 1 -800-32-KAIYO (52496)

Circle 207 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 208).

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 237

Circle 203 on Inquiry Card.

You Can Rely on Ralin For all Your PC System Upgrades!

]VfODEM UPGRADES BESS wRBBSSM IVfPC UPGRADES

Zoom Telephonies

All Zoom modems are backed by a 7-year warranty and are made in the USA.

2400 bps w/ v.42bis and MNP 2-5

(AMC) (AMX)

$ 49.00 $ 65.00

2400 bps w/ v.42bis and MNP 2-5 9600 send & 4800 receive Fax

(AFC) (AFX)

internal external

$ 49.95 $ 69.95

9600 bps modem w/ v.32, v.42bis, MNP2-5

(VP-V32) (VX-V32)

internal external

$188.00 $199.00

14,400 bps modem w/ v.32bis, v.32, v.42bis, (VFP-V32bis*) MNP 2-5 and 9600 bps send/receive Fax (VFX-V32bis*)

internal external

$199.95 $249.95

2400 bps modem w/.42 bis and MNP 2-5, 9600 bps send and 4800 bps receive Fax

PKT Pocket/Fax Modem

$ 89.95

*W1NFAX software option available for $15 if purchased with VFP-V32bis or VFX-V32bis modem.

Call a corporate sales expert today and find out how Ralin can maximize

your purchasing dollars by upgrading your existing computer equipment.

Ralin stocks: • Motherboards • SIMM Memory • Controllers • Printers • Monitors

Hard Drives • MPC Products • Computer Cases • Keyboards and much more

Philips CDD-462 BK $325.00

• External MPC CD-ROM and CD Audio player.

• Kodak Photo CD compatible

• 680 Meg.

■ Dealer Inquiries Welcome.

■ Purchase Orders Accepted.

■ International Orders Welcome.

CALL 1-800-752-9512

^IG

■ItL*

Ralin Policies

• Prices and availability subject to change.

• Purchase orders are accepted, subject to approval.

• We do not charge your card until order is processed.

Incomplete returns are subject to a service charge. All returns other than exchanged items incur a 10% re-stocking fee.

To insure your shipment arrives when you need it, Ralin uses only the most reputable modes of transportation available:

worujwkx Exmexs ■

|j?

WE ACCEPT:

!© I ImbU

WHOLESALERS, INC.

P.O. Box 450, Orchard Park, NY 14127 Hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Mon-Fri Customer Service: 716-674-6267 Fax: 716-674-2108

The Most Ergonomic Input Interface TouckPLs Touch Screen Monitors Make Your Application Systems More Competitive

9", 14", 15", 17" touch screen monitors available now. Contact us for more information.

Applications: Banking ATM System/Supermarket/Traffic Station/Hotel/ Medical System for hospitals or clinics/CAI/Games/ Real Estate/Multimedia/Design Testing/Postal Service/ Information Service, etc.

OEMs DISTRIBUTORS WELCOME! CONTACT US YOU COULD WIN THE MARKET

We specialize in superior quality touch screen monitors, excluding full-set touch screens. Also available are touch screen panels to make assembling easier and more satisfying. OEM, special design requirements are welcome. Contact today.

Features include:

A. Monitor:

I Autoscan digital control

color monitor I Superb display quality I Full microporcessor control I Continuous display frequency

B. Touch Screen (Resistive type)

■ Reolution: 1024x1024

■ Position accuracy: Maximum error of 1%

■ Durability: up to 3 million touches I Operational temperature range: -15°C to 65°C

■ Operational Humidity Range: 5% to 96% RH

■ Operation system: MS-DOS I Connector: RS-232

■ Software utilities: Windows Mouse Drive/DOS Mouse Drive/ASCII Code Background Drive

Autoscan

Elegant appearance User friendly operation "No screws" mechanism for easy maintenance

Touc

:4>LS

The Professional Touch Screen Company

TouchPLS Technology Co., Ltd.

6F-1, No. 21, Sec. 2, An Ho Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Tel: 886-2-325-3117 Fax: 886-2-704-5621

238 B YTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 213 on Inquiry Card.

1979

2233 Samaritan Drive, San Jose, CA 95124

BUY WITH CONFIDENCE FROM JDR!

30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE • 1 YEAR WARRANTY TOLL-FREE TECH SUPPORT

95

UPRIGHT CASE $99

Mounts 3 floppy and 4 hard drives * ,

Accommodates std. & mini motherboards m 2 digit LED display

CASE-100A $99.95 """^

CASE-200A Super Deluxe Upright $349.95 'Rt':™t

PS-250TW 250W p. supply $129.95

PS-300TW 300W p. supply $149.95

CASE-I30 Mid-upright case $99.95

CASE-120 $199.95

L Mini-upright case w/200W power supply ^-*-&i&

POWER SUPPLIES

• U/L approved |J::»..." &

• 110/220VAC, 50/60H2 ™l**^?

PS-150 8088 150 watt ^V.Tl'. -'$69.95

PS-200X 8088 200 watt $89.95

PS-200 286/386/486 200 watt $89.95

L PS-300 286/386/486 300 watt $149.95

ENHANCED KEYBOARD

$4995

W: ' ' • ' I,' 5:,*: ' ' '

K0 «iv< i i.fe

r

■ BTC-5339 101/102-key enhanced layout $49.95

NON-INTERLACED 1024x768 MONITOR^

VGAMON-1024N .28 dot pitch .... $379!

VGA-M0N-17N 1024x768 1 7" Nl, 0.26mm $999.00

VGA-PKG-1024N Non-interlaced Super VGA pkg $469.95 VGA-PKG-1024+ 1024x768 interlaced VGA pkg . $449.95 LJ0A-PKO 640x480 .39mm dot pitch VGA pkg. .. $299.95^

2400 BAUD MODEM

Internal data modem Hayes comparible Config. asCOMl-COM2 | MCT-241 $49.95

14,400 BPS INTERNAL FAX/MODEM

• 14,400/12,000/9600/7200/4800/2400/300

• Hayes AT set, V.42bis/V.42/V.32, Group III fax comp.

I VIVA-144IF $229.95 I

VIVA-144EF 14,400 baud external version $299.95

VTVA-96E 9600 baud external modem only $269.95 j

I FAX/MODEM/PHONE SWITCH

Save phone line charges!

Supports fax, modem, phone and **^

answering machine from 1 phone line -■--.....

| FAXM-SWITCH $89.95

[FAX-SWITCH Without modem connection $59.95

PORTABLE IC TESTER ^

Tests the following 14 to 20-pin ^B *v\,

devices: 74 series TTL, 40 & 45 series ^^B CMOS & 41/44 series DRAM up to lMb^M B^ Identifies unknown part numbets :" ^BP^

I M0D-HIC $149.95 ^^

WIRE-WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS

JDR-PR2 8-bit with I/O decode layout $29.95

JDR-PR10 16-bit with I/O decode layout $34.95

SOLDERLESS PROTOTYPE CARDS

PDS-601 8-bit breadboard-on-a-card w/IO decode $79.95 1 PDS-611 1 6-bit version $89.95

MOTHERBOARDS

/MODULAR

25MHZ 386SX

$19995

• 25MHz Intel 80386SX CPU • Expandable to 16Mb on-board • Uses 256K, 1M or 4M x 9 80ns SIMMs (0K installed) • Six 16-bit and two 8-bit slots

MCT-M386$X-25 $199.95

MCTM486-50E 50MHz EISA w/cache $1195.00

MCT-M486-50 50MHz cache 486 $999.00

MCT-M486-33 33MHz cache 486 $799.00

MCT-M486SX-25 25MHz cache 486SX $399.95

MCT-C386-40 40MHz cache 386 $379.95

MCT-C386-33 33MHz cache 386 $349.95

MCT-M286-16 1 6MHz 286 $149.95

MCT-M286-12 1 2MHz 286 $129.95

16-BIT VGA CARD {AQ95

• 8/16-bit 8088 and 286/386/486 compatible EJH

• 640x480 in 16 colors |j&| 320 x 200 in 256 colors

• 256Kb video RAM MCT-VGA-1000 .... $49.95

MCT-VGA-4000 1024x768, 1Mb DRAM $129.95

MCT-VGA-5000 Windows Accelerator $149.95

SPEEDSTAR-24X 24-bit color, 1280x1024 $169.95

STEALTH-VRAM Windows acceler., 1 280x1024 $229.95

3-BUTTON MOUSE ;,mj^J

' Accuracy 290-1450 DPI /Iffli

Accuracy 290 -1450 DPI Opto-mechanica! design Windows 3.1 compatible

JDR-M0USE-3 $14.95

MOUSE-PAD $4.95

POST CODE DISPLAY CARD

286/386/486 compatible Displays power on self-rest code Works when software won't even boot PC0DE $49.95

EPROM PROGRAMMER $19995

• Programs devices up to 512K bits,

plus 27C100, 27C101, 27C301, jgflg 27C1000, 27C1001, 27C2001, | 27C4001 and more

• Includes dedicated 8-bic 8088 and 2S6/386/486 PC compatible card

• ZIP socket accepts 0.6"W DIP ICs to 32 pins

M0D-MEP-1A $199.95

M0D-MEP-4A As above with 4 ZIF sockets $269.95

MOD-EMUP Universal programmer/tester $699.00

EPROM ERASER $3995 \6fe_

• Quickly and simultaneously erases up to -i standard EPROMs

DATARASEII $39.95

120Mb'DRIVE package $ 299

• CP-301 IDE har fluppy/h cables ai

HDKIT120

J4 120Mb, 19ms d drive, 1 6-bit ard disk controller id instructions $299.

)0

ii

IDE HAku ukives

PART#

BRAND

CAP.

SPD.

TYPE

PRICE

CP-3000

ST-351A

CP-30084

ST-3096A

CP-30104

ST-3144A

CP-30204

Conner Seagate Conner Seagate Conner Seagate Conner

42Mb 42Mb 84Mb 88Mb 120Mb 131Mb 212Mb

28ms 28ms 19ms 16ms 19ms 16ms 12ms

3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE 3.5" IDE

S159 $169 $239 $259 $279 $319 $429

:%►>

FLOPPY DRIVES

FDD-1.44A 1.44Mb, 3.5", Beige .$79.95 FDD-1.44X 1.44Mb, 3.5", Black . $79.95

EDD-1.2 1.2Mb, 5.25", Beige $89.95

EDD-360 360Kb, 5.25", Black $89.95

FDD-2.88A 2.88Mb 3.5" drive, Beige $149.95

, FD-505 5.25" 8. 3.5" combo drive, Beige $149.95

MULTI I/O CARD WITH IDE t AQ9J FLOPPY/HARD CONTROL

• 16-bit 286/386/486 compatible

• Supports 2 IDE hard drives & 2 floppy drives (360Kb-l.44Mb)

• 2 serial, 1 parallel & 1 game port

MCMDEIO

MCT-IDE10+ As above w/16550 compatability MCMDEFH 16-bit IDE hard/floppy controller ...

MCT-CIDEFH 16-bit IDE CACHE controller $

MCT-IDE-8 8-bit IDE controller

MCT-FDC-HD 1.44Mb floppy controller

MCT-FDC-HD4 1.44Mb floppy controller (4 drives) MCT-FDC-ED 2.88Mb intelligent floppy controller

MCT-AIO Seriai/parallel/game port card

MCT-AI0+ Two NS1 6550 seriol/par/game port .

GATEKEEPER PC security card

RAMPAT+ 8/16-bit 16Mb RAM card (w/OKb). $ S0UNDBIASTPR0 8-bit MIDI sound board . $

$69.95 $99.95 $29.95 169.95 $79.95 $49.95 $59.95 $79.95 $49.95 $89.95 $49.95 139.95 199.95

DYNAMIC RAM

PART#

41256-80

414256-80

1MB-80

1MB-60

41256A9B-80

41256A9B-60

421000A9B-80

421000A9B-60

424000A9B-80

424000A9B-60

SIZE

256K x 1

256K x 4

lMxl

lMxl

256K x 9

256K x 9

IMx9

!Mx9

4Mx9

4Mx9

SPEED

80ns 80ns 80ns 60ns 80ns 60ns 80ns 60ns 80ns 60ns

TYPE

DIP DIP DIP DIP SIMM SIMM SIMM SIMM SIMM SIMM

PRICE

1.69

5.49

4.99

5.49

14.95

16.95

39.95

45.95

149.95

159.95

MATH CO-PROCESSORS int^l

PART #

8087-2

8087

80287-XL

8MHz 5MHz 12MHz

PRICE

129.95 89.95 89.95

PART*

80387-SXP 80387-DXP 80487-SX

SPEED

<25MHz <33MHz <25MHz

PRICE

79.95 89.95 389.95

CALL FOR YOUR FREE * "*■ fiM JDR CATALOG TODAY!

FOR PC'S, SOFTWARE, MONITORS,

DISK DRIVES, KEYBOARDS, MODEMS, ,

CABLES, CONNECTORS, ICS,

COMPONENTS, PROGRAMMERS, - .SAZ:„

TEST EQUIPMENT, TOOLS & MORE! "*-* ===

HOW ORDER

24 HOURS

A DAY!

800-538-5000 '"tS^Sff"

I & $7.50 for air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign on i tax. Prices subjeel to change without notice. We are not and to substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to ~J~JDR Microdevices, and the MCT logo

VVV 800-538-5005

may require additional shipping charges—contact our Sales Dept. for the

frffTt^l*^^

total 408-559-1200 BBS 408-559-0253

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 239

Circle 206 on Inquiry Card.

Local Printer Sharing

PARALLEL DEVICE

LCX-1000 1Mb $495

4 serial I/O, 57,600 bps 2 parallel in, 2 parallel out

LC-512Kb $495

4 serial I/O, 19,200 bps 2 parallel in, 2 parallel out Many New Features!

LC Jr.-256Kb $239

Up to 115,200 bps 4 serial in, 1 parallel out

LC-41PAS $90

Smart-switch

4 in /1 out, all parallel

Requires no power supply

SPPS $60

Up to 115,200 bps Serial / Parallel Converter Requires no power supply

PB-42PP-256Kb $250

4 in / 2 out, all parallel Upgradable to 4Mb

Logical Connection, Inc. Customer Support:

4660 Portland Road NE #108 (503) 390-9375 Salem, OR 97305-1697 FAX: (503) 390-9372

800-238-9415

AMT International

(COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS)

3074 LANDESS AVENUE ■ SAN JOSE, CA 95132 TEL: (408) 942-9695 ■ FAX: (408) 942-5509

VISA

LOWEST PRICES SAME DAY SHIPPING

COMPAQ MEMORY

DeskPro 286-E, 386-20/20E/25

1MB 113131-001 $75.00

4MB 113132-001 $169.00

DeskPro 286N. 386N and 386SX

2MB 118689-001 $135.00

4MB 118690-001 $230 00

DeskPro 336S

1MB 113646-001 S99.00

4MB 112534-001 S195.00

DeskPro 386-33, 486-33 & SystemPro 2MB 115144-001 S185.00

AST MEMORY

Bravo-266, Workslation 512K KH500510-010 2MB Kit 500510-002..

Premium 386-16/20C 1MB W50051O-003 4MB Kit 500510-004

Premium 366-20

1MB Kit500510-003 4MB KilSOOS10-004

Bravo-366SX

4MB KitSOOSIO-OOS..

Premium 366-SX/25/33 & 48

1MB 500718-002

4MB 500-780

559.00 SI 50.00

S75.00 5185 00

S75.00 S18500

S220.00 -25

„ S60.00 5195.00

HEWLETT-PACKARD MEMORY

Vectra QS/16S

1MB $65.00

4MB $185.00

Vectra QS/20PC, RSJ25PC and 20C

1MB D1640A S65.00

4MB D1642A S170.00

Vectra 486PC

1MB D2150A $75.00

4MB D2151A $165.00

IBM PS/2 MEMORY

Models 30-286, Exp. Board 1497259 512K Kit 30F5348 S54.00

2MB Kit 30F5360

.$9500

Models 70-E61/121.SSSX, 6SSX

1MB 6450603

$59.00

Models 70-E61/121, S0Z, 55SX, 65SX

2MB64506O4

.599.00

Models 55SX, 65SX, 34F3077 & 34F3011

4MB34F2933

S149.00

Models 70-A21

2MB 6450608

$99.00

Models 80-141

1MB6450375

..$75.00

Models 60-111/311

2MB6450379

$99.00

All Models 70 and 60

2-14MBW/2M34F3077

$290 00

4-16MBW/4M34F3011

S350 00

Models 50. 507, 55SX & 60

2-8MB 1497259

5290.00

LASER PRINTER MEMORY

Hewlett-Packard User Jet IIP, III s HID

$70.00 ...$99.00

2MB33475B

4MB33477B

$185.00

Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet IIP & IID

. 575 00

2MB33444B

SI 10.00

4MB33445B

SI 75 00

IBM Laser 4019 and 4019e

1MB 1039137

S95.00

3.5MB 1038675

S195 00

CansonLBP-81l,81lR. BUT

S129.0C

^LAPTOP AND PORTABLE

l MEMORY

TOSHIBA MEMOHY

1MB Model 1000SE/XE...

$110.00

2MB Model 1000SE/XE...

$99.00

2MB Model T1200XE

...S99.00

2MB ModelT1600

S99O0

2MB Model T31O0E

$9900

2MB Model T3100SX

$99 00

4MB Model T3100SX

. S195.00

2MB Model T3200SX

. .$99.00

4MB ModelT3200SX

$195 0(

2MB Model 5100 $99.00

2MB Model T5200J8500 .5110.00 8MB Model T5200.T8500. 5299.00

ZENITH MEMOHY 1MB SuperSport 286 S286E8135.00 2MB SuperSport 286 S 2B6ES140.00 2MB SuperSport SX/Alpha.. $140.00 2MB SuperSport SX/Beta ... $140 00

COMPAQ MEMORY

1MB Portable LTE 286 $125.00

2MB Portable LTE 286 $150.00

1MB SLT-286 $140.00

4MB SLT-286 8350.00

NEC MEMORY

1MB Prospeed286 5170.00

2MB Prospeed386 S240.00

ZENITH MEMORY

Zenith Z-386/20/2S/33 & 33E

1MB ZA36/3800ME $90.00

2MB ZA3600MG $140.00

4MB ZA3800MK $205.00

Zenith Z-386 SX

2MB Z-605-1 S125.00

MATH COPROCESSORS

Overdrive Mathco CALL

INTEL

8087-5 MHz 550.00

8087-2 8MHz S60.00

8087-1 10MHz $99,00

80287-6 6MHz $5000

80287-8 8MHz 555 00

80287XL 8/lOMHz $59.00

80287XL 6. SLT $89.00

80287-1010MHz $5900

80C287-1212MHz $69.00

B0387SX-16 S8S.00

60387SX-20 $6500

80387DX-20 $89.00

80387DX-25 $8900

80387DX-33 $89.00

80487SX-20 $435.00

WEITEK 3167-20 20MHz 580.00

3167-25 25MHz 5135.00

3167-33 33MHz 5240 00

4167-25MHZ $350.00

4167-33MHZ $585.00

CYRIX

82S87XL S59.O0

83D87-16 S59.00

83D87-20 $75.00

83087-25 S75.00

83087-33 575 00

83D87-40 S89.00

83S87-16 lOV/ S6500

83S87-20 ISX 56500

83SS7-25 J S65 00

IIT

2C87-8 549 00

2CB7-10 85900

2C67-12 S59.00

2C87-20 559.00

3C87-2C S69.00

3C87-25 S69.00

3C87-33 S79.00

3C87-40 $89.00

3S87-16 i pw $65.00

3S87-20 ISX 569.00

3S87-25 J $69.00

ULSI

US83587SX25/33 S59.00

USD8387-33-40 S79.00

IBM TYPE ADD $2.00 FOR SIPPS 4Mx980 $138.00

4MX9-70 S140.00

4MX9-60 $143.00

1MX91C S30.00

1Mx980 $35.00

!Mx970 $36.00

256x9-70 $10.00

256K9-1C 59.00

256x580 51000

256x950 S12.00

APPLE-MAC 1MX8-70 532 00

1MX810 $30.00

1Mx880 $32.00

4MX8-B0 S118.00

SIMM MODULES

ORAMIMGX1

1MGX1-120NS

.. $3.00

1MGX1-100NX

... $3.50

1MGX1-80NX

...$3.60

1 MGXI-70NX

$3.65

1MGXI-60NX

.53.75

DRAM 64X1

4164-150

. $0.85

4164-120

50.95

4164-100

51.50

4164-80

$2.00

DRAM 64X4

4464-15

S3.99

DRAM 256X1

256XI-150NS

S1.25

256XI-120NS

.. $1.50

256XI-10ONS

S1.60

256XI-80NS

$1.75

256XI-70NS

S1.75

256XI-60NS

... S1.85

DRAM 256X4

256X4-100NS

... $3.99

256X4-80NS

. $4.50

256X4-70/60NS

$4.75

256XI-STATIC COL

AAA 2800-08

AAA 2800-07

.... S1.85

AM 2800-60

.... $1.95

1X4-80 ZIPP

. $16.00

1X4-70STTZIPP

. S19.00

486 DX-33W/ 64k cache

• 4MB RAM • 1.2 & 1.44 • 130MB HD

• SVGA Monior • 101 Key Board

• Mini-Tower Case • DOS 5.0

• IDE With I/O

MOTHERBOARDS in/CPU

$1369.00

VGA 0.41 14- $215.00

SVGA 0.28 14' $259.00

SVGAN-1 0.2814' 310.00

VIEWSONIC CALL

NEC CALL

486 DX-50 w/256k cache ....S600.00 486DX-33 w7128k cache ....5450.00 386/486 DX-40 AMD

(upgradable) $230.00

486SX-25/20 $279.00

386 DX-40/64k cache $169.00

386SX-33 $125.00

386SX-25 $110.00

486VL-50/33/256k cache ....$195.00

IDE with I/O $22.00

Trident w/IMB $69.00

Orchid Pro IIS W/1MB $139.00

Diamond Stealth W/1MB $235.00

NESA IDE Controller $80.00

RampatAT $95.00

Rampat Plus XT. AT $119.00

Simmply Ram PS/2-16 $149.00

IBM PS/2 50. 50Z, 55. 60, 65 or

any MCA System Simmply Ram PS/2-32 $169.00

PS/2, 70. 80 S 90 32 Bit MCA

System

CP3000 44 MB $158.00

CP3000 89MB $215.00

CP3000 130MB $247.00

CP3000 210MB $360.00

CP3000 340MB $595.00

CP3000 520MB 5890.00

Modem 2400 Bps $40.00

96/24 Bps Int $60.00

96/144V.32 Bps/v.42 Bps ....$220.00

MEMDRY BOARDS OK

240 BYTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 182 on Inquiry Card.

Accessories/Supplies • Add-In Boards

Polaroid

Polaroid's Circular Polarizing Filters for computer monitors combine circular polarizer technology with optical quality materials and coatings to provide the ultimate in glare reduction and contrast enhancement technology. Polaroid CP-Filters suppress up to 99% of reflected light and are more effective than any other filter for improving contrast. Also, most CP-Filter models have a transparent electrically conductive coating which reduces up to 98% of the electromagnetic radiation and eliminates static.

Polaroid produces a full range of optical quality anti-glare filters in glass and triacetate to fit most9"-21" monitors.

Polaroid Corporation, Polarizer Division, N2,1 Upland Road, Norwood, MA 02062 1 -800-225-2770 Fax 617-446-4600

Circle 349 on Inquiry Card.

Experience the Power

Parallel Processing

For the professional, student or hobbyist who wants to come up to speed with parallel processing. All kits include one or more 20-MHz 32-bit transputer processors, each with 1MB of DRAM • Occam2, C, and assembler • examples and demos • complete set of manuals • schematics. Requires IBM-compatible PC.

4 Processors: $1,284 1 Processor: $396

The Transputer Education Kit is outstanding. You would be hard pressed to find as valuable and inexpensive a tool.

R. Eckhouse, IEEE Computer, Sept. 92, page 97

Computer System Architects

15N.100E., Provo, Utah

#100 84606

^f 800-753-4CSA or 801-374-2300 FAX 801-374-2306

VISA • MasterCard American Express

EDrCATIONiJT

Circle 331 on Inquiry Card.

ROMDISIC

Solid State Disk and Drive Emulators

•Proven Performance!

For OEM/Military, Embedded Systems, Diskless/High Performance PC's, CAD/CAM, Industrial Control, Medical, POS, LAN's, etc.

•High Capacity Models (PCF/PCM)

•Low Cost Models (FERO.E/2SR/Special OEM)

•Dual Mode Emulation Models

(PCF, PCM/2, PCE/2) •Autoboot Capabilities, all

models •MS DOS/DR DOS/E-Venix OS

Support •NEW! PCMCIA models

(PCM, PCM/2) and acces

CURTIS, INC.

Industry Leader in Disk and Drive Emulation Products

612/631-9512

418 W. County Rd. D

St. Paul, mn 55112 FAX 612/631-9508

DR DOS is a Irademark

of Digital Research;

MS DOS is a irademark of Microsoft

Circle 333 on Inquiry Card.

Add-In Boards

SCSI IDE FLOPPY

HOST BUS ADAPTER/CONTROLLER

STANDARD FEATURES

• Drivers for Fixed, Optical and Removable Drives

• Internal and External SCSI Connectors

• SCSI and IDE Cables

• On-Board Diagnostics

• Complete Documentation

• Lifetime Warranty

• 30 Day Return Policy

• Made in the USA

$150.00

SUPPORTS

• Up to 7 SCSI Devices

• Up to 2 IDE Drives

• Up to 4 Floppy Drives

• 7 ROM Addresses

• 2 I/O Addresses

OPTIONS

• CD ROM & UNIX Drivers

• ASPI Manager

• 3rd & 4th Floppy Driver

$175.00

116-Bit HBA/Cntl w/Option Pkg.l

l

s

CONTROL CONCEPTS INC. (703) 876-6444* (703) 876-6416 Fax

WWUttVWttW

int. Educational and Corporate Disc Dealer Inquiries Welcome

Circle 381on Inquiry Card.

GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES

■10"/14" VGA Color Industrial Workstation

•17" Rack Mount Monitor Enclosure with Touch Scteen -286/386SX-33/386DX-40/486DX2 Al

■iiMiie Slot Board Computer •All-in-one EISA bus CPU Card •Dual Drive RAM/ROM/FLASH Disk •19" Rock-Mount Chassis with 14 Slots •6-Slols heavy-duty Node Chassis

. — MITAC Inc.

AAtT/ir ;3S 16TH R~ 51 SEC. 3.MING SHENG E. RD..TAIPEI.TAIWAN.R.0 C ■"^ -^Sf TEL:886-2-501-5180 FAX:886-2-509-0979

A

RHINO (U.S.A DISTRIBUTOR) iP.hay??™^ ™.t?n,mL4843o,u.s.a

I TEL:l-800-648-2248 FAX:313-750-1836

Circle 374 on Inquiry Card.

Direct Stepper Drive from PC

• No external DC supply or translators required SA703 $249

• Free 2D/3D interpolation software Drives lwo ,/2 amP motors

• Free HPGL converter SA704 $995 SAJ04 j Drives two motors up to 6 amps

fcto ' -Call (613)359-1029

|FAX (613)359-1147

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 241

Bfl

Bar Coding • Communications/Networking

Communications/Networking

Portable Bar Code Readers

TimeWand* I

DuraWand* TimeWand II

Data collection is fast, easy, and extremely accurate when using Videx portable bar code readers. Cordless operation, compact size, and light weight allow you to take the wands wherever the work needs to be done. Call Videx today for your free information kit: 503-758-0521. Prices starting at:

'^MHl TimeWand I $298

l^^fT] DuraWand $495

\^MmtmMmJ TimeWand II $698

1105 NE Circle Blvd., Corvallis, OR 97330-4285 503-758-0521 • FAX 503-752-5285

TimeWand, DuraWand, and Videx are registered trademarks of Videx, Inc. GC0355

Circle 359 on Inquiry Card.

New for Windows 3.1!

It's Fax-on-demand. It's an Applications

Generator. It's $495 for board

and software. It's PhoneOffice.

PhoneOITiw application windou running In Windows 3.U nnfignre for Ulto-Attendant. Message ( enter, Ka\-nn-demand, Message vardii^Pagina/Scliedulin«,r':ix-stanner,

." :» -■_■-■ i !;i'":-'Tl

'■' 9HIMNM'!

(ttfettU

t MMDmhietiitfuMiStiuCUi!'

■ ■'•'-.

|psr" t

~:y' :':';•'

„..,

:■;-. :::. -■:''

e

DENS

Call our demo line 309-862-1804 to get more information by fax-on-demand.

Tel: (309)862-1704 Fax: (309)862-1804

309 W. Beaufort. Suite 8. Normal. IL 61761

is about our specially discounted promotional units.

Circle 379 (RESELLERS 380) on Inquiry Card.

Light-Speed Serial Communications

PCSS-8FX Intelligent Serial Coprocessor _H

• Better than lMbyte/second / transfer rate. M' ft; ^j*' .

• No load on Host /'j,,, . ■"/ Processor!

• I/O Mapped - No' host memory used.

• NEW - Supports DMA transfer. Faster than Dual Ported Memory!

• Looks like IBM Uart with Huge QUEUE!

• 8 ports per card. RS-232, 422,485.

GTEK. INC. • DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE • P.O. Box 2310 Bat SI. l.ouis. MS 39521-2310 USA • Mississippi & Technical Support 601-467-8048 Fax: 601-467-0935 • OEM 4 Dealer Inquiries Welcomed!

ORDER TOLL-FREE

800-282-4835

TEK

Circle 338 on Inquiry Card.

Access your old PC's disks from your new PC

Introducing:

InfiniStor!

InfiniStor™ from InfinicorT makes your old PC's disk drives appear to be

internal to your newer PC. What's more, those disks will perform almost

as fast as if they were mounted

inside. InfiniStor consists of a pair of

half-size add-in cards (one for your

old PC and one for your new one), a

thin 12 ft. cable (which can be

increased to 50 feet or more), and

easy-to-use software which takes

less than 10 minutes to install.

And you'll get Super PC-Kwik™ InftiiStorAdd-in cards ami CablB

disk caching software (to speed things up even more) and Stacker™

file compression software (to double the size of your old PC's hard disk),

both bundled FREE with InfiniStor.

Only $129§§ (introductoryoffer) Warning! InfiniStor is not a network product, and as such Infinicon cannot promise that you will encounter the typical network software installation difficulties. Furthermore, you won't have to deal with the usual cabling problems, and you won't have to become a master of complexity. InfiniStor uses only 4K bytes of memory, appears transparent when in use, and is compatible with all your favorite software (including Microsoft Windows™ and computer networks). And if you're not totally satisfied, just return it within 30 days for a complete refund on the purchase price. For info or to order, call toll-free: (800) 374-3880

VISA • MasterCard • AMEX F°xr; j™ j %+*$*

INFINICON ■ 15 North 100 East, Suite 106 • Provo, UT 84606

Circle 378 on Inquiry Card.

LET YOUR COMPUTER DO THE TALKING!

Integrated Voice/Fax Mail

integrates major voice/fax applications plus program control into one full-featured high performance software. PC-AT/386/486 based. Menu driven. Easy to use. Full support for Rhetorex, New Voice, Dialogic, TIT and Intel voice and fax hardware. Supports up to 24 voice lines and up to 8 fax lines. Hardware + Software Kits <J? /C C A

2 voice lines kit starts at *?"j"

24 hours tree info: 818-368-4566 or 818-368-8848

SigmaTech Software

Tel: (818) 368-6132 Fax: (818) 368-7859

10801 Bismarck Ave.. Northridge, CA 91326 USA (Resellers/Dealers/OEMs/Private labels are welcome)

I Auto-Attendant

■ Unlimited Audiotex I Voice Mail

■ Call Processing I Telemarketing

■ Fax Mail

■ Fax-on-Demand I Fax Broadcasting

■ Party/Chat lines

■ Talking Yellow pages

Circle 371 (RESELLERS 372) on Inquiry Card.

Multi-Line Voice Mail Plus.

, FAX ON DEMAND

FAXON DEMAND • VOICE MAIL CALL PROCESSING • TELEMARKETING

VOICE PLUS gives you professional VOICE MAIL & AUTO TRANSFER while il pounds out Fax'd Hard Copy non-stop 24-hours a day. Give it to them - NOW! Complete Package with Hardware and FAX Software. 2 year warranty.

Requires PC/AT/386/486. ForSalesandlnformationCall:

VOICE PLUS only $695 -f -800-685-4884

Basic Voice Mail fromS295 510-522-380-FAX:510-522-5556

[Develper/OEM package specials) (VISA-MC-AMEX-COD)

TALKING TECHNOLOGY, INC. ~

1125 Allanlic Ave., Alameda, CA94501 J

Circle 354 on Inquiry Card.

242

■ YTE -APRIL 1993

Computer Systems

Computer Systems • Data Acquisition

486 Computers

486-33 64K Cache $1649

Intel 486DX 33 MHz Processor 4Mb SIMM Memory 1.2Mb, and 1.44Mb Floppies 120Mb Hard Disk Drive @15ms 2 Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game Port Tower Case with 230Watt PS SVGA Card - Trident 8900 w/IMb 1024 x 768 .28dp SVGA Monitor Keytronics 101 Keyboard, Mouse

486-50DX2 256K Cache $1749

486-50DX 256K Cache $1949

486SX-33 8K Cache $1399

350 V* Upsonlc UPS only $90 w/486 Purchase!

NoteBook Computers

386SX/25 $1259

60Mb Hdd, 2Mb RAM, 64 Gray VGA 1 ser, 1 par, 1 PS/2 Mouse port 86 Key, 12 Function Kbd, 6 Lbs

486SLC/25 $1599

80Mb Hdd, 4Mb RAM, 64 Gray VGA 1 ser, I par, 1 PS/2 Mouse port 86 key, 12 function Kbd, Case, Universal Power Supp., 6 Lbs.

Call or Fax for More Great Prices

.€&' S COD & Company POs accepted g^Conguters 911 N. Edgefield

Dallas TX 75208

386 Computers

386DX 40 128K Cache $1199

Intel 386DX 40Mhz Processor 4Mb SIMM Memory 1.2Mb, and 1.44Mb Floppies 84Mb Hard Disk Drive @15ms 2 Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game Port Tower Case with 230Watt PS SVGA Card - Trident 9000 w/512Kb 1024 x 768 .28dp SVGA Monitor Keytronics 101 Keyboard

386DX-33 128K Cache $1189

386SX-33 $999

Free 3 Button Mouse w/386 Purchase

Components

1 Mb SIMMS @ 70ns $32

250 VA UPS $99

213 Mb Hdd $395

Internal FAX modem 96/24 $72

250 Mb Colorado Tape Back-up..$259

Internal CD ROM $259

Creative Labs Multi-Media Kit....$549

3 Button Mouse $21

Monterrey Spill-Proof 101 Kbd $26

International'

Ph. (214) 948-3155 FAX (214) 942-8360

Member: Dallas Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Better Business Bureau

Circle 388 on Inquiry Card.

Circle 341 on Inquiry Card.

Rackmount Solutions

RACKMOUNT COMPONENTS - QTY 25 PRICING Rackmount Chassis 19"x7"x1 T $183

Rackmount VGA Monitors $531

Rackmount Monitor Shelf $113

Rackmount Keyboard Shelf $88

RACKMOUNT PLATFORMS - Qty 1 Pricing RMS486-33EISAS1799 RMS386-40 $814

RMS486-33 $1443 RMS386SX-25 S693

System Platforms include T Rackmount Chassis, 200W Power Supply, Motherboard, 1,0MB Memory. IDE, FDC, 2-Ser, Par, 1.2MB or 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive, 1 Year Warranty

RACKMOUNT CHASSIS - 15 Models up to 20 Board Slots SLOT CPU BOARDS - 486, 386, 386SX RACKMOUNT MONITORS - Super VGA and Monochrome RACKMOUNT CABINET - Modular from 2V to 96' high

wm \muEY

TECHNOIOCY INC.

2468 Armstrong Street, Livermore CA 94550 (510) 447-2030 FAX: (510) 447-4559

AT Systems in ROM

Run DOS in ROM

Develop code on a PC. Use 'C and standard PC tools. Burn DOS and .exe code in ROM. Run disk-less on our battery-backed single board computers.

PC Compatible

Our CPU cards are PC compatible. They run all PC software and drive standard PC expansion cards (VGA, A/D, etc.) on a passive backplane.

For Catalog Call 303-444-7737 or fax 303-786-9983

655 Hawthorn Avenue, Boulder CO 80304 USA

CPU Card

KS-6

KS-3

Base price

S299

$224

CPU chip

V53

V40

Equivalent to

286

186

Runs PC code

yes

yes

Bus

AT

XT

Max DRAM

4M

512K

Max ROM

2M

512K

Max SRAM

512K

256K

Serial ports

5

3

Parallel ports

2

2

Real clock

yes

yes

Flop, Keybd.

no

yes

Size

4"x8"

4"x6"

Power 5v

400mA

250mA

We provide complete support

oimple

ment ROM based PC systems. Devel

opment kits with source code

samples

and DOS utility disk are available.

KILA

Circle 343 on Inquiry Card.

Onnrag Hnniog finfilog On,,.,,,

gitHL Digit HL Digit HL Digit AL

«„„.,

AIL"'

A-AIT

20-BIT A/D

For PC/XT/AT & Compatibles

Linearity .0005 percent of full scale

ti

$300

software included

| LAWSON LABS, INC.

74 4TH AVE. NW KALISPELL. MT 59901

800 321-5355

406 257-5355

m

L°9d,

9iVALo\igirHrDigirflLo%igirAL°\igirflrDigintnAL°9Digin"ArDi,7,

Circle 345 on Inquiry Card.

The Intelligent Solution For Data Acquisition

DAP 2400e ANALOG I/O DIGITAL I/O

•Inputs to :tl2K samples per second •Outputs to 312K samples per second •Simultaneous fast input/output CRJ:il86ori486

FFr and FIR-ffltering at 16 MIPS 20 MHz CPU with DRAM to 1024K 32 MHz DSP with SRAM to 96K DAPL™ Operating System

• 100* standard commands MlCRQSTAR

• Custom commands in C

Send for FREE catalog and demo diskette. Or call us at (206) 453-2345.

Laboratories^

2265 116th Avenue NE Bellevue, WA 98004 FAX (206) 453-3199

Circle 365 on Inquiry Card. Circle 346 on Inquiry Card.

5

T

Bfl

APRIL 1993 'BYTE 243

Disk & Optical Drives • Keyboards

Laptops & Notebooks

S

on

Pfl

PS/2 50 50z 55sx 60 70 80 P70

INTERNAL DRIVES - May be used as a high performance replacement or to co-exist with original IBMdrive. Compatible with DOS 3.3, 4.01. 5.0. OS/2 2.0 and Novell. Includes IDE or SCSI-2 microchannel controller, hard drive, mounting kit, ribbon & power cable, manual, and hardware. 85mb, 17ms, Internal Western Digital IDE Drive Kit $439

125mb, 15ms, Internal Maxtor IDE / SCSI Drive Kit $494/5504 200mb, 15ms, Internal WD IDE/Maxtor SCSI Drive Kit S6Z3/$649 340mb, 13ms, Internal WD IDE/Maxtor SCSI Drive Kit $837/5933 512mb, 12ms. Internal Fujitsu IDE / SCSI Drive Kit $1,289/51299 1.2gb, 12ms, Internal Toshiba SCSI Drive Kit $1.794

PS/2 Model 25, 30, 30-286

42mb Seagate Hard Drive Kit 5243

85mb/125mb Hard Drive Kit $3l3/$368

i'lVm.i/ SCSI :.'m'<>s.n.iil.mle Imi 1251* 15 I 75qtt. Includes

2CSI-2 ai.'i.'.'Li'frv isti^ul c.i$e -.'.lit! ,lti:e >;!<l.:lle,t:,nduvihi!,;;,1,!

5' SCSI csble rVe? timers lor CO-Pm tfrfws ot Novell 2S6 & 386

1 QAA #*T CJIIE ft Iwlfc^i JjrliWUlEZM

-800-487-2538

Circle 375 on Inquiry Card.

High-Performance Parallel-to-SCSI Adapter

/

100% Printer Passthrough Weighs Just 7.2 Ounces Fully Compatible With Bidirectional and Unidirectional Parallel Ports

Powered By The SCSI Bus Only $229.00

I Parallel H Connector

Transform Your Parallel Port

Connect up to 7 SCSI devices to your parallel port and sjjll use your printer!

Up to twice as fast as our original MiniSCSI, the MiniSCSI Plus

lets you run a CD-ROM, tape backup, SyQuest, Bernoulli or other SCSI device from almost any parallel port. For most notebook users, it's the only way to use SCSI devices. Plus, an integrated cable makes it a snap to share SCSI devices with desktops and other notebooks.

Call Today For Details!

800-872-6867 • 800-TRANTOR

Trantor Systems. Ltd.

i-,15 Randall Place • Fremont, CA 94538-3151

TEL: (510) 770-1400 • FAX: (510) 770-9910

© 1991 Tr/mtor Systems Ltd. MiniSCSI im,l MiniSCSI Plus arc tuutenmrks ami irmiier ts ,1 registered muleemrtr „/' inmter Systems Ltil. Ml other product names are trademarks of their respective companies,

EPP Version Available!

■'This product... is darned near perfect." -Jerry Pournelle, Byte Magazine March 1993

"Thisyear, the company outdid itself...

The MiniSCSI Plus is even more elegant than

its predecessor and a/most twice as fast."

-Jim Seymour. PC Magazine December 1992

Circle 364 on Inquiry Card.

Money Back Guarantee & 1 Yr. Warranty

Popular

Space-Saver

Keyboard

$98.00

Saves 60% desk space. Footprint 27.3 x 15.2 cm. 100 fulltravel tactilly responsive keys. Standard left-right spacing for easy touch typing. IBM XT/AT PS 2 compatible. Many language versions available.

Call Toll Free To Order: 1 -800-DATALUX

W|jW*>*! * ME** 155 Aviation Dr.*Winchester, VA 22602

»*** mm^mmmMM^. Tel x. 703-662-1500 -fax 1-703-662-1682

- VISA, MC, AmX - Auto-FAXed Specs FAX 1-703-662-1675

Circle 335 on Inquiry Card.

onix CableMate

Low Cost Notebook Cable Management System

Now you can connect your desktop peripherals in one easy step while reducing wear and tear on your interface ports. Ihe CableMate Plus option provides bus expansion for low cost ISA compatible Lapstation expansion systems and both versions are available for Compaq LTE, Toshiba T2200-T6400 and other popular Notebook models. CableMate and Lapstation are available from Axonix direct, dnd from Authorized Axonix dealers worldwide.

inixz

1214 Wilmington Avenue ~ Salt Lake City, Utah 84106

Tel: 801-466-9797 / Fax: 801-485-6204

Call Toll Free for Nearest Dealer 1-800-866-9797

Circle 330 on Inquiry Card.

HP 95LX

EduCALC Mail Store

27953 Cabot Road Laguna Niguel. CA 92677 (714)582-2637

FREE CATALOG

Everything you can dream of for your HP 95LX! Flash and RAM memory cards, connectivity kits, printers, modems, and over 30 software programs are just some of the products you will find in this 72 page catalog — all at EduCALC's everyday discount prices! Call today for your FREE catalog.

m

HEWLETT PACKARD

Circle 385 on Inquiry Card.

"1

Breaks the 4-Color Price Barrier with the Hardware/Software Showcase

See how affordable it is to advertise to BYTE's 500,000 computer professionals in this section!

■ Call for more advertising information:

(603) 924-2695 or (603) 924-2598

244 B YTE • APRIL 1993

Laptops & Notebooks • Memory/Chips/Upgrades ■ I Memory/Chips/Upgrades * Monitors & Terminals»Multimedia

Universal Keypad for

Portable Computers

Available in Ivory or Black

Boost data entry speed, accuracy and convenience with Genovation's Micropad,™ the innovative numeric keypad for portable computers.

TO COMPUTER

▲

T TO PRINTER

(800)822-4333 17741 Mitchell. North Irvine. CA 92714 USA TEL (714) 833-3355 FAX (714) 833-0322

Is the unhandy numeric section of your portable computer's keyboard dragging you down?....Give your productivity a boost by using our Micropad. The economically designed Micropad is ideal for spreadsheet and accounting applications that require fast and accurate entry of numeric data.

The Micropad attaches to the parallel port of any MS-DOS computer while providing a clean pass through connection to the printer. Power usage is negligible. Lightweight and compact, the Micropad is fully programmable and is also available with connectors to fit keyboard and serial ports.

GENOVAfiONi

Circle 337 on Inquiry Card.

Memory Superstore... your direct smusi,

...For the absolute best prices on laptop, desktop and workstation memory, call now! SOO-SOO'7056.

4MB x 9-80/70 * * * S110.00

4MB X 9-60 $114.00

256Kx 9-80/70 $11.00

1MB x 9-80/70 (9 chip) $34.50

1 MB x 9-80/70 (3 chip) S31.00

1MB X 36-70- $136.00

2MB X 36-70' $262.00

4MB X 36-70* * * * $499.00

Call for best price on a 30-pin S 72-pin

Modules. 2. 4, 8 & 16MB

'used in PS/2, Compaq, Dell &

other high-end systems (336 & 436)

"4 piece minimum

Canon 1MB $118.00

IBP 8II/8IIR/8IIT 4MB $190.00

Epson Action Laser 2MB $125.00

Action Laser II 2MB $138.00

HP LaserJet IIP.IIPPIs.lll.lllD.IIIP.II.IID.IIIsi

2MB $99.00 4MB 5172.00

HP DeskJet 256K $78.00

Specialists in workstation products. Contact us for current prices & new catalog.

IBM 4029*** Sharp JX9500PS OKI Laser OL400 OL800/820

4MB $140.00

1MB 575.00

2MB 5116.00

2MB 5135.00

4MB $210.00

2MB S135.00

2MB $175.00

4MB 5215.00

Panasonic KXP4420, 4450I KXP4455 KXP4410

PS/2;35SX/LS,40SX,50Z,55SX/LS,57SX, 65SX/LS.70.70A21,821 ,B61.90.95

2MB 589 4MB $136 8MB 5268

DeskPro386/20.E,25,S/16.N,SX20,33M

2MB $89 4MB $136 8MB $268

SunEPC/IPX*** 16MB $470

Dell 486 16MB $495

IBM RS6000 16MB $620

HP Apollo 16MB $675

Silicon Graphics 16MB $620

Next 16MB $470

Apple Power Book* 4MB $230

AST Premium Exec. 4MB $160

AT&T Safari 4MB $345

Bondwell 8310 1MB $136

Compaq

LTE386S/20 1MB $82 4MB $259 LTELite/20.5 2MB $140 4MB $240

8MB 5578 LTE/286 1MB 588 2MB 5138

SLT/286 1MB $88 4MB $240

Goldstar GS520 4MB 5330

HP 95LX, Poget PC, Grid Pad

SRAM Card 256K $122

512K $149

Flash Memory 1MB $238

2MB 5309

Packard Bell, Magnavox, Mitsuha***

2MB 5150 4MB 5290 Toshiba - T1000SL7LE/XEJ2000SX, T1000LE. T2200-SX, T2000SXE

1MB $80 2MB $109 4MB $230 8MB 5430

Toshiba - TI200XE 2MB $88

Toshiba -T4400 SX/SXC, T3300, T6400

2MB $182 4MB $329

6MB $469 8MB*$670

Zenith Masters SL 2MB $122

(800)800-7056 KfflSSE

"—"-■ BsSpnn niscOLM,lslDrCorliOreliDiis,VARs. GovGrmnciit ami

' * w U U Universities. Shipping worldwide Fed Ex and UPS.

?0% Restocking Fee on rolunds within 30 days. No relunds or exchanges oiler 30 days

IWRMHTY BEPUtCtWEHT ONLY. ALL PRICES FINAL. PfflCES SUBJECT TO CHARGE.

TJOlVf PTHC LAIiGESr BXX& DLSlTlOiU J-VV/lVl JDIVJOAMI-MR. BIOS-PHOENIX

UPGRADES as low as $29.95

ROM B/OS|UPGRADES FROM ACER TO ZEOS, SET-UP IN ROM, FULL SUPPORT FOR WINDOWS, IDE, SCSI, UP TO 2.88MB FLOPPY, VIRUS AND PASSWORD PROTECTION, 47 DRIVE TYPE INCL. 2 USER DEFINABLE, ENHANCED KEYBOARD, VGA, AUTO DETECTION ETC DONT BE FOOLED BY THE REST, BUY FROM THE BEST"!

MEMORY J

LASER MEMORY: HP IV-4MB $ 175.00 HP III 2MB $98.00

PANASONIC 4410/30 2MB $105.00 PANASONIC 4410/30 4MB $165.00 HP-PANASONIC-OKIDATA-IBM-NEC-TEXASINSTRUMENTS-APPLE-ANDMOREin MEMORY ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PCS AND LAPTOPS. CALL NOW!!!"

m<worH£/?fiQAgDs|UPGRADEABLE 386,s 2 YEAR WAR

268-386-486 STARTING AT $85.00.VESA LB MB'S.VL BUS IDE & VIDEO CARDS

E ZS SM™ Technologies ] "800 "54 1 " 1 943

i :-' f -! = =2432"A Palma D"ve VISA MC AMEX DISC. COD

If ~- -«• MVentura Ca. 93003 GOVT, UNIV. & HOSP. PO'S WELCOME

(805)650-2030/FAX (805)650-6515 ™LELCHTP PUUSJ CATALOG, MANUALS. OTHER ITEMS ALSO AVAILABLE .CALL US NOW!

Circle 387 on Inquiry Card.

STAND-ALONE LCD MONITOR

New Touch Screen Option Available

S*7QC I This 10" black on white monitor is easy-to-read, yet

' 3v I compact. Resolution is 640x480 for sharp, flicker-free image. Fast response, high refresh rate twisted nematic technology with backlighting provides a bright low radiation screen with a wide viewing angle. The adjustable monitor base is only 29x14 cm. It lets you mount the LCD monitor on vertical surfaces or fold for transport. Conies with 1.5 m cable and controller card. No external power required. IBM AT compatible.

$ "1 OQE% I New Touch Screen Version. Capacitive technolo* J^^ w j gy from MicroTouch™. Provides high resolution, fast response, all glass scratch proof optically clear touch sensor. Complete with controller and software. DOS, Windows compatible.

To Order Call ToU-Free: 1-800-DATALUX

155 Aviation Drive • Winchester, VA 22602

Tel: 1-703-662-1500 FAX: 1-703-662-1682 AutoFAXed Specs: 1-703-662-1675

Circle 334 on Inquiry Card.

IMAGING CARDS M0DEL 1-800-292-1160

-512/24 512x480x24 - New Full 24 bit color board, mult, in, 24 bit RGB out $795

-512 512x480x8 - Advanced grayscale board. Multi res/multi image, 4 inputs, in/out LUTS, dual ping-pong buffers, RGB out $795

-02 256x240x8 Workhorse 8 bit grayscale. 2 inputs, 24 bit RGB out, cursor $495

-03 256x240x6 Economy 6 bit version of -02 above $395

MC/VISA/COD

Control Vision^w

Box 596 Pittsburg, KS 66762 316-231-6647 Fax: 231-5816

Video Framegrabbers for the XT,'AT/386

• Real time grab/display

• Complete with software

• 60 & 50 Hz. Video •Quality since 1987!

Money back guarantee

Circle 367 on Inquiry Card. Circle 332 on Inquiry Card.

ra

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 245

Multimedia • Printers/Plotters • Programmable Hardware II Programmable Hardware

BD

Desktop Video

Motion Capture VGA-TV Converter

• Real-time & motion video capture

• 8, 16, 24-bit color

• DOS & Windows support

• S-VHS & Composite input

• Free development kit

• Sound Blaster compatible USS 299

■ Sharp & Flicker-free

• TV & Monitor display simultaneously

• S-VHS & Composite output

• Windows support

■ MRVP/NTSC also for Mac

■ Hor. Over/Under-scan switch USS 149 (MR VV Plus) USS 349 (MR VP)

DISPLAY RESEARCH LABORATORY

Capital Automation Inc.

Tel.:1-800-CAPITAL Fax: 704-596-9595

International inquiry:

Int'l Tel.: (852) 420 1165 Infl Fax:(852)415 2739

Circle 382 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 383).

PRINTER BUFFER

for automatic sharing of printer(s) by several computers

• Simultaneous input on all ports Nobody Wftlts!

• Compatible with all printers, Lasers and CAD plotters

• Pop-up Menus

• Free Technical Support •30 day money-back guarantee

& full-year limited warranty

• Full Windows® Support

STANDARD 1 MB memory • memory sizes thru 8 MB • Fast - data rates to 75 KB/S • multiple copies • multiple outputs

1 MB 6-Port Parallel $-| 9Q95

9-Port Parallel $259.95

15-Port Parallel $379.95

4-Serial + 5-Parallel $269.95

16-Serial + 3-Parallel $399.95

Single User Parallel $9995

512 KBytes - unit is expandable to 4 MB

Serial or Converting buffers available

Other Models also available - Call!

Extra Memory: $50 per Megabyte

Technologic __

S V" S T E IVrl S *"^ AS visa

5 13-644-2230 • FAX 644-2232 Made in USA

204 EAST FOURTH STREET, MARYSVILLE, OHIO 43040

Receive FAX Info On-Demand: (805) 650-3299 - Item # 700

Circle 355 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 356).

PLC

IB

ONE OF

THE CHEAPEST

P.LC:s IN THE WORLD!

HARDWARE: tli oplo-isolaled digital inputs. »S relay outputs @125 VAC. tl/0 status indicator LED's. tWalch-dog and power failure circuits, tslandard RS232 interlace, tsingle 5/12/24 VAC/VDC power supply (under 3W). *24 Kb battery back-up SRAM. tllOxl/O mm. PROGRAMMABLE with any compatible PC thru RS232 in ladder logic using ' our powerful remoIER program 'Real lime variables de

bua #C BASIC compilers and assemblers available. SOFTWARE DRIVERS enable your PC applications to remote control PICOIOG I/O thru RS232 EXTENSION MODULES AVAILABLE.

Q£^&:

Phone 39 742 451987 ITALY

Fax 39 142 451988 BBS 39 142 453165

246

; YTE • APRIL 1993

Circle 373 on Inquiry Card.

Notebook PCs

aches to the PC's parallel Controls up to 14 IEEE instruments

• Transfers data at up to 170 Kbytes/sec

• Includes DOS or Windows software drivers

• Graphics & analysis software available

• Allows parallel & IEEE devices to I connected simultaneously

or fax for more information:

nnon Road Cleveland,

Circle 342 on Inquiry Card.

UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER, EMULATOR, & TESTER TUP-400 $745.00 NEW

TUP-300 $575.00

■ New Improved hardware and software.

■ The most complete PC-based Universal Programmer, Programs PLD (PAL, GAL, FPL, EPLD, PEEL, MAX, MACH...), E(l:)PROM, (up to 16Mbit), Flash EPROM, BPROM, Special PROM, MPU (87XX, 68XX, Z8, PSD301, P1C16XX, TMS320EXX, UPD75PXXX, HD637XXX..J.

■ Covers DIP, PLCC, QFP, SOP, and PGA with 8 to 84 pins. Gang Progamming adapters available also.

■ EPROM EMULATION capability.

I Tests digital ICs and DRAMs (SIMM/SIP adapter available).

■ Free software updates and new device added upon request.

■ IC Manufacturers' approval.

■ l-year warranty, 30-day money-back guarantee. CALL TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION. Distributors are welcome!

FLEX-700 UNIVERSAL

PROGRAMMER SYSTEM NOW AVAILABLE. CONNECTS TO ANY PC XT/AT/3S6/486/LAPTOP THRU THE PARALLEL PRINTER PORT

Tribal Microsystems Inc. Tel (510) 623-8859

| 44388 S. GRIMMER BLVD., FREMONT, CA 94538 FAX (510) 623-9925

Circle 357 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 358).

SUPERPRO $549

Universal Programmer

Over 2,000 devices, desktop programmer for your IBM PC with high speed & reliability

• Easy to use menu driven Software.

• Universal programming tor E(E)PROM, Flash E(E)PROM, Bipolar PROM, PAL, FPL, PEEL, GAL, E(E)PLD, & Microcontroller, etc

• Test TTUCMOS logic ICs, & memory (DRAM/SRAM).

• Lile time free Software updates on BBS S technical support.

• 1 year Hardware warranty & 30 day money back guarantee.

• Developed & made in U.S.A.

• Call for demo disk. Distributors are welcome!!

E(E)PROM programmer to 4-Mbit

• ROM MASTER: $149 E(E)PROM programmer 4 gang version

• ROM MASTER/4: $239

757 N. Pastoria Avenue, Sunnyvale. CA 94086

(408)524-1929

FAX (408) 245-7084 BBS (408) 245-7082

XELTEK

Circle 362 on Inquiry Card.

tMw Little PLC ;195!

H™^ Program It In C

New Little PLC™ measures only 4.33 x 2.85 inches and costs S195! This miniature controller includes 8 optically isolated inputs, 8 relay driver outputs, two RS-485 serial ports, battery backed memory and time/date clock, programmable timers, and watchdog. Low cost expansion cards increase digital and analog I/O. With easy to use Dynamic C™ $195 development system, you can write programs in an hour or develop major applications with 20,000 lines of C language.

Z-World Engineering (916)757-3737

1724 Picasso Ave., Davis, CA 95616 • FAX: (916) 753-5141 24 hr. Data Sheet Retrieval from YOUR fax: (916) 753-0618

Circle 363 on Inquiry Card.

Security • Tape Drives

Tape Drives

COMPUTER SECURITY PRODUCTS

COMPLETE LINE OF PROVEN AND EASY TO INSTALL COMPUTER SECURITY PRODUCTS FOR COMPUTERS.

PREVENT COMPUTER THEFT!

DISK DRIVE LOCK™

lljllfflffll

L_ ^ !

iiiiiillii

lllllllllllll! Ililllllllllll

KABUT™ SECURITY SYSTEM

This system allows you to secure all your computer components: CPU, monitor, keyboard, printer. Internal component security: Kablit fasteners secure the rear panel of CPU protecting internal boards and hard drives. Fasteners available for all applications. Prices $34.95 to $49.95 depending on system.

IBM I'S-2 DLK-270 SERIES

Now you can lock a diskette into your disk drive and force the computer to boot from the diskette. Disk Drive Lock models available for PS/2 - 30, 55SX, 50, 70 and 90. Protect your data from viruses or from being copied. Other drive locks to fit most non IBM PS/2 and Macintosh disk drives. List price $24.95

Order your free catalog of these and many other security products.

Purchase orders accepted. Quantity pricing available. Shipping not included. MC/VISA accepted. Dealer inquiries invited.

Secure-It, Inc. 1-800-451-7592

18 Maple Court F.asl Longmeudow, MA 01(128

Circle 352 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 353).

9 Track/3480 Tape Subsystems

1/4" DAT 8mm Optical New Windows Software Available

• Best Quality

• Lowest Prices

800/1600/3200/6250 BPI

CALL1-800-938-TAPE

fy Laguna Data Systems

3740 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite C, Las Vegas, NV 98128 Tel: (702) 254-2648 • Fax:(702)254-0901

Circle 344 on Inquiry Card.

9-Track for PCs

Mainframe to PC data interchange

Rock solid solutions, rock bottom prices.

Direct from the manufacturer. 1600 & 6250 bpi.

Subsystems includl drives and software.

800-729-8725

OVERLRtID DRTR

Since 1980

Tel: 619-571-5555 ■ FAX: 619-571-0982 Europe: Tel: (+49) 6172-35027 • FAX: (+49) 6172-35028

3480 Now with IDRC!

Ask about 3480 tape drives too

Circle 348 on Inquiry Card.

Desktop 9-Track Tape Subsystem

#1-selling 9-track system on desktop.

Qualstar's low cost 1/2-inch 9-track Streaming tape systems bring full ANSI data interchange to IBM AT, PS/2 or Macintosh, giving your micro the freedom to exchange data files with nearly any mainframe or minicomputer in the world.

Systems include DOS or Xenix compatible software, coupler card and cables. High reliability 1600 or 6250 BPI capability may be used for disk backup as well as data interchange.

Call us today! For details and to order: Fax (818) 882-4081 Phone (818) 882-5822

Chatsworth CA 91311

niURLSTRR\

9621 Irondale Ave.,

©1989 Qualstar Corp.

All product and company names and trademarks are the exclusive property of their respective owners.

Circle 3SO on Inquiry Card.

9 TRACK MAGNETIC TAPE SYSTEM

FOR IBM PC/XT 286/386/486

i Mainframe to PC Data Xfer to 24MB/mln

> Complete Software Packages » Ready to Operate Systems

> Service and Support, Easy Installation ' No. 1 In Customer Satisfaction

> SCSI Buss Interface, UNIX Compatible

> 3480, Cartridge, Tape Duplication Systems 1 Data Conversion /Duplication Services

1 New/Unused, Reconditioned, Used MTUs

call (919) 763-8400 or write to: 4304 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28403

Circle 384 on Inquiry Card.

Let your

"true colors shine

through"

when you advertise your

computer products in

BYTE's

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SHOWCASE

our newest, affordable, 4-color advertising section!

Call for more details:

(603) 924-2695 or (603) 924-2598

S

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 247

Business • CAD/CAM • Engineering/Scientific | Engineering/Scientific • Data Acquisition

r

s

Electronic archiving/ retrieval software!

• Stores scanned images & existing files

• Designed for multiuser networks

• Supports desktop and E-size scanners

• Safe, secure, protected

• Multiple optical drives (either 5.25" or 12")

V.O.I.CE. outperforms the competition in cost & features!

VO.I.C.E. was designed specifically for monitor. V.O.I.CE. archives and retrieves multiuser networks like Novell and scanned images, drawings, Word Perfect,

Lantastic. Use VO.I.C.E. with any IBM AutoCad. and Lotus 1-2-3 electronic files,

compatible PC with a VGA or EG A and has multiple levels of security.

Indus

340 South Oak Street West Salem, Wl 54669 USA

Place an order by calling:

1-800-843-9377

'-. oc-rT"::,*'^v arxi product rt

Circle 339 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 340).

Program Your Business For Success

Micr<

▼ vn

COMPUTERIZE YOUR

BUSINESS & WATCH

YOUR PROFITS GROW!

• Increase Control

• Increase Profits & Sales

• Work smarter, not harder

• Lower Costs & Reduce Inventory

We Provide Software That Is:

• Affordable & Functional

• Easy to use

• Tested & Stable

• Unparalleled In Technical Support Qaatowsisam^Boo-'sELL-posI

fff:m///.7,I'ijijiijI!;];4■/,>/, 1J; IE

Circle 376 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 377).

800-637-8268

Main Phone: (914) 425-9500

Fax- (914)425-4598

BBS: (914)425-6440

Fax an dsmandi (914) 426-6064

smARTWORK* PCB Software

WINTEK

' Wlntek Corporation

1801 South Street Lafayette, IN 47904

(800) 742-6809

The first printed-circuitboard program for the IBM PC, and still the first choice for designers of 2-sided PCBs, occasional users, and educators. The program's features include unmatched ease of use, continual design-rule checking, automatic pad shaving, trace filleting, soldermasks, and silkscreen. smARTWORK with autorouting is $895 ($495 without) and has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Call (800) 742-6809 or (317) 448-1903.

Circle 361 on Inquiry Card.

ientific Grapi

Nine types of animated graphs let you quickly visualize large data sets. Ideal for researchers working with mathematical models, data acquisition hoards, chaotic systems, and other sources of large or dynamic data sets.

. arc. PO Box 1149. Berkeley. C A 94701 I'S A Free demo disk. (800)728-9878, (310)324-9878, or fax (5101524-9199 Also try our other MS-DOS software for technical drawings, statistics, and non-animated graphs. (This ad was created with CoVis and CoDraw.)

248

Circle 368 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 369).

. YTE • APRIL 1993

30 Day Money-Back Guarantee

If you've been disappointed with traditional diagnostics and "Passive Post Cards," or are looking for an alternative to high cost ATE . Systems - Put V-ATE plus to the test! We're certain you'll find V-ATE the best investment you've made in years.

• Find Failures in 100% DEAD Systems

• Find Intermittent Faults

• Test for PC Compatibility and reject Sub-standard or Faulty hardware

• US prices from $995

Call (800) 875-8459 Today! VISTA MICROSYSTEMS, Inc.

6 Whipple St., No. Attleboro, MA 02760 Tel. 508-695-8459 • FAX 508-695-8688

Circle 360 on Inquiry Card.

Free Data Acquisition Software Tool

DAQ Designer is a free software tool that helps determine which hardware and software combinations are best for your PCbased data acquisition system. DAQ Designer will (1) ask questions about your application, (2) analyze your answers to determine your system needs, and (3) describe what hardware and software you need to develop your data acquisition system.

National Instruments

6504 Bridge Point Parkway

Austin, TX 78730

(512)794-0100 • (800)433-3488

Circle 347 on Inquiry Card.

Mathematical/Statistical • Programming Laungiiages/Tools • Security | | Utilities • Windo WS

JMP® Statistical Discovery Software

"JMP, from the SAS

Institute, is the most surprising Mac

product in years...with the most helpful

Mac interface of all the statistics programs and one of the best interfaces ever produced for scientific software. It's nothing less than dazzling."

MACWORLD

Call today for a free demo disk and Points of Interest from the leading name in data analysis software...SAS Institute Inc. 919-677-8000. Fax 919-677-8166.

JMP is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc. Copyright © 1992

Circle 351 on Inquiry Card.

J± P \j Complete APL system $60.

J Ken's new APL for teaching and research. Shareware and documentation $24. Source $90.

NEW! True Windows 3.1 versions. GUI programming for APL and J

Iverson Software Inc.

33 Major St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2K9 Phone (416) 925-6096 Fax (416) 488-7559

Circle 370 on Inquiry Card.

FtogcrCheck flngerprfait verifier Inelrtiies: «, Fbutfrprfnt Hetuiet

b. am fitertae

• PCAT-Bu. •RS«

c. S/W Ar-r-tkution inturfee*:

• Snare Capture

* enrollment

* matching

Application Area:

• Computer acres'* or transaction control.

• Computer database security control.

• Physical access control by connecting FingerCbeck fingerprint verifier with control circuitry to activate door locks (stand-alone system), ine Stand-alone system can be connected to a computer network to perform otber inactions such as event recording and communications for management (network type system).

• For law enforcement applications the FlngerCheck fingerprint verifier can work with card systems, such as smart cards and optical cards to perform identity verification. It provides social wetiare security by using cards such as ID card, drivers license, passport, credit card and so on.

1&*

SsSB*

Distributors, OEM & ODM are welcome!

jk,t

STARTER ENG, INC.

3F, 54 Park Ave II Science-Based Industrial Park Hsinchu. Taiwan 300 R.O.C Tel 886-35-76538B Fa*; 886-35-7870B9

PC Diagnostics and System Information

QAPIllS" Over 3 Million users

□ New Version 4.7 now includes Reachouf Host remote control software and NovT Scan virus detection software

□ Both novices and expert PC users can quickly solve common computer problems

Q Reports hardware configuration, interrupts, performance benchmarks and more

□ Includes LAN features for networked PC support and management

For More information call:

1-800-DIAGSOFT

Also from DiagSoft. QAPlusfWIN" for tuning and troubleshooting Windows' and QAPlus/FE~ for power-users and service/support professionals.

Available from Egghead Discount Software, Comp USA, Biz Mart, Fry's Electronics and other fine resellers.

, DiagSoft, Inc., 5615 Scotts Valley Drive, Suite 140, Scotts Valley,

3 Suggested Retail: $159.95

Circle 336 on Inquiry Card,

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

Nominee Compute Choice Award Best Adult Discovery Software

WINDOWS VERSION

• Dr. Schueler's Home Medical Advisor gives updated info on diseases, injuries, medical tests, drugs, poisons, nutrition, diets, fitness, and health/ travel tips.

• Q/A format analyzes your symptoms, shows you anatomical displays, and makes over 400 diagnoses.

• Hypertext and SCAN features make finding any topic FAST.

• Low cost updates to all registered users.

• Developed by over 40 physician specialists.

Available in WINDOWS or DOS versions $99.95 Retail WINDOWS Special: $69.95 DOS Special: $59.95

To order, Call: 1-800-788-2099, Dept. B or see your software dealer

PIXEL PERFECT^*IMC.

1 0460 S. Tropical Tr. Merritt Island, FL 32952

Circle 386 on Inquiry Card. Circle 366 on Inquiry Card.

m

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 249

KeyPro...

A Legend in Software Protection

Just as the legendary Chinese warrior god Zhong-Kui had the reputation of a fearsome warrior who easily fended off evil spirits, KeyPro has established its reputation as a dependable means of guarding programs against unauthorized copies. Zhong-Kui enslaved and ate ghosts, but KeyPro employs a much more useful and appealing method to protect your software.

While designing the KeyPro software protection device, our engineers considered not only the need of software developers but also the convenience of users. Software developers enjoy KeyPro's protection capability, while users can forget the key after installing it.

The KeyPro Family Outstaij

KeyPro II : NetKeyPro:

for PC environments

for Netware environments

./

Unbreakable Electronics

An ASIC-based hardware and a proprietary encryption algorithm are used to prevent code tracing by the most persistent software pirates.

Compatibilify

KeyPro is transparent to the computer and other peripherals that are attached to it. It works on every computer it has been tried on without interfering with computer's normal operations.

Cascadability

KeyPro can cascade on the printer port with any other KeyPros or the keys manufactured by other companies, Because KeyPro's both sides are transparent, it can sit in any position in the cascade chain,

• Runtime Reprogrammability

A buffer with read/write runtime memory inside the hardware allows developers to protect and write into multiple software programs using only one key.

Virus Dectection

KeyPro provides the protected program a virus defection option to check whether it is infected.

•> User Limit

KeyPro allows programmers to designate up to 100 workstations using one software in Netware environment,

* Driver/External Protections

Two protection methods provide the security for a software with or without its source code.

Regional Distributors Welcome!

' KeyPro is a registered trademark of Transcend Information Inc. * All other trademarks are registered by their respective owners.

Transcend

Your Supplier, Your Partner, Your Friend.

Transcend Information Inc.

U.S.A.

104 Exchange Place, Pomona, CA 91768 TEL: (909) 598-5500 FAX: (909) 598-5050 (909) 598-6050

Taiwan

3FI., No. 465, Chung Hsiao E. Rd. Sec. 6, Taipei, Taiwan TEL: (886) 2-7881000 FAX: (886) 2-7881919 (886) 2-7889191

Circle 205 on Inquiry Card.

Germany

Transcend Information Trading GmbH

Lademannbogen 45a,

2000 Hamburg 63

TEL: (49) 40/538 81 37

FAX: (49) 40/538 17 81

THE BUYER'S MART

A DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

THE BUYER'S MART is a unique classified section organized by product category to help readers locate suppliers. Each ad has Inquiry numbers to aid readers requesting information from advertisers. AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Do NOT send logos or camera-ready artwork. Advertisers should furnish typewritten copy. 2"x1Ve" ads can include headline (23 characters maximum), descriptive text (300 characters is the maximum recommended) plus company name, address, tele

phone and fax number. 2"x25/s" ad has more space for descriptive text (850 characters is the maximum recommended).

DEADLINE: Ad copy is due approximately 2 months prior to issue date. For example: November issue closes on September 8. Send your copy and payment to: THE BUYER'S MART, BYTE Magazine, 1 Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more information call: Margot Gnade at 603-924-2656. FAX: 603-924-2683.

RATES (Jan. 1993)

3-5 6-11 12 13

issues Issues issues issues

2"X1'/."

1 ad

2 ads/issue

3 ads/issue 2"x2s/,"

1 ad

2 ads/issue

3 ads/issue

$663 $636

$557 $530 530 504 504 477

S1.326 $1,272 $1,114 $1,060

- 1,060 1,008

- 1,008 954

ACCESSORIES

ARCHIVAL UTILITIES

BAR CODE

RADIOACTIVE?

Plot it on your PC with The RM-60 RADIATION MONITOR Serial or printer port. Detects: ALPHA • BETA • GAMMA • X-RAY.

MicroR, 1000 times the resolution of standard geiger counters.

Excellent for tracking RADON GAS. Find sources. New: Version 2.9

+ WINDOWS, Plot: • Background ■ Cosmic Rays • Clouds • Foods

Call/Write for PC MAGAZINE review. • TSR • GM Tube

VISA/MC/EURO Phone orders. Not satisfied? Full refund.

800-729-5397 or Tel/Fax: (302) 655-3800 Aware Electronics Corp.

P.O.Box 4299, Wilmington, DE 19807 $149.50

KEYBOARD, VIDEO, MOUSE, AUDIO

Extend signals from PC with EXTENDER Split signals with COMPANION/PC EXPANDER Switch signals among PCs with COMMANDER

Boosts signals up to 600 feet. Control up to 96 PCs

with one keyboard, monitor and mouse.

CYBEX CORPORATION

2800H Bob Wallace Ave., Huntsville, AL 35805 Phone: 205-534-0011 Fax: 205-534-0010

Inquiry 701.

RawCopy

PC

TM

The Best Archival Utility,

Removes all the things

you HATE

to look up & plug in

CALL US TODAY

$79.95

FREE SHIPPING

Micro Systems International™

1-800-944-3410

Inquiry 705.

Bar Code Readers

For PC, XT, AT, PS/2, Macintosh and Serial Terminals

>• Attaches as 2nd Keyboard or to any ADB port >■ Reads 2of5, 128, UPC/EAN, Code 39, etc.

> External or internal attachment on PC

> Wand, CCD, Slot Badge, Magstripe or Laser >■ Two Scanners per Reader

>• 100+Configurable Options

> 2 Year Warranty, 30 Day $ Back Guarantee

> Direct From Manufacturer

> Top Rated by Independent Review

>• Complete with Laser Scanner-$1399

> Complete with Stainless Steel Wand - $399

Worthington Data Solutions

Swiss Office 3004 Mission Street

Rutistrasse 6 Santa Cruz, CA 95060

CH 9050, Appenzell Switzerland 40B-458-9938 071 87 51 17 FAX

071 87 51 15 Phone 800-345-4220

BAR CODE

CUSTOM KEYBOARDS AND TERMINALS

Engineering, Development and Production

• Point-of-Sale • Special purpose • Harsh environment

• Access control • Data collection • Operator input

• Unique • Industrial • Any interface, key style or size

• No minimum quantity required

GENOVATION, Inc.

17741 Mitchell North, Irvine. CA 92714 (800)822-4333 (714)833-3355 FAX (714) 833-0322

Inquiry 702.

YOUR SALES MESSAGE

about the special computer product or service that you provide belongs in print

THE BUYER'S MART

can help you reach computer professionals and produce valuable inquiries (or your company!

Call MargOt Gnade (or more information

603-924-2656

or

Fax: 603-924-2656

Inquiry 703.

ADD-ON MAILING TOOLS

MAIL FOR LESS!

BAFLL1TE - INSTANT BAR CODES on labels, invoices, envelopes, letters, etc. Just load BAR_LITE and run your print job!

DB„Mailer - Full 1st and 3rd Class presorts, barcoding. reports, etc. for XBASE fifes.

2IP+4, OTHER BARCODES AND PRODUCTS POSTAL CERTIFICATIONS. RESELLER PROGRAM.

POSTSAVER SYSTEMS

(800)879-6820 FAX (313) 299-5052

Portable Reader

Simple, Powerful, Easy-to-use

> AA Battery Operated, with backup coin battery

> 2 x 16 Supertwist LCD Display

> 32 Raised Rubber Keys

>- Real-time Clock Built-in for Date/Time Stamps

V 2 Built-in Inventory Programs

>- 3 User Defined Programs, & 3 User Data Files

>- Wand, CCD, or Laser Scanner Input

>■ Doubles as Non-Portable Reader

> Serial Interface and Keyboard Interface

>• Reads 2of5, UPC/EAN, 128, Code 39, etc. >- Uploads with furnished Programs or Xmodem >- 64K Complete with Steel Wand - $799

Worthington Data Solutions

Swiss Office 3004 Mission Street

Rutistrasse 6 Santa Cruz, CA 95060

CH 9050, Appenzell Switzerland 408-458-9938 071 87 51 17 FAX

071 87 51 15 Phone 800-345-4220

Labeling Software

On EPSON, IBM, OKI, or LaserJet. Easy WYSIWYG design. Any format/size. Up to 120 fields per label. 18 lext sizes to 3" -readable a! 100', AIAG, KMart, Sears, MIL-STD, Pennys, 2of5. 128, UPC/EAN, Code 39. File Input & Scanned PCX graphics - $279. Other programs from $129.

Worthington Data Solutions

(408) 458-9938 800-345-4220

CREATE BAR CODE SYSTEMS

Data Harvester Developer's Version can put handheld portable bar code data collection in your application. Generate system to scan, validate entries (lengths, types, etc.) and communicate data to PC. Format data for your software. Easy to use. No programming. Supports many portable terminals. DOS & UNIX.

AccuScan, Inc.

PO Box 80037, Conyers, GA 30208 (404)922-1220

Inquiry 706.

Inquiry 704.

Portable Bar Code Reader

>- Use as a PORTABLE, WEDGE, or SERIAL >- 9V Battery Operation with Lithium Backup >- 2x16 Supertwist LCD Display >- 54 Key Keyboard with Separate Numeric Keys >- Real-time Clock Supports Date & Time Stamps

> Reads all Popular Bar Codes (16 types)

>- Wand, CCD, Laser, or Serial Input Devices >- Built-in Program Generator

> Create Your Own Custom Programs >- 6 Built-in Inventory Programs

>- Up to 250 Programs Can Reside in Memory >- Create up to 250 Data Files per Program >- Up to 250 Look-Up Files in Memory

> Built-in Calculator

>- Supports HAYES Compatible Modems

>- 64K Memory with Data Compression

>- 30-day $$ Back Guarantee - 1 Year Warranty

> Complete Unit with WAND Scanner-$795

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

2190 Regal Parkway, Euless, TX 76040 (800)648-4452 (817)571-9015 FAX (817)685-6232

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 251

THE BUYER'S MART

BAR CODE

BAR CODE

BAR CODE READERS

For PC, XT, AT, PS/2, & Serial Terminals

>• Emulates Keyboard: Works With Any Soltware >■ Data Appears as Keyboard Input >- Uses Enhanced Decoding Algorithms >• Accepts Wand, Slot/Badge, CCD. Laser,

Magnetic Stripe Reader, & RS232 Serial Input >- Reads All Popular Bar Codes (16 types)

V Reads HIGH, MEDIUM, & LOW density codes >■ Auto-Discriminates Between Bar Code Types >• Easily Programmed with a Bar Code Menu

>• Over 140 User Configurable Options >■ Daisy Chain Up to 96 Readers

V Supports NOVELL Networks

>- Supports US & INTERNATIONAL Keyboards

> Direct From Manufacturer

> 30-day SS Back Guarantee, 1 Year Warranty >• Complete Unit with LASER Scanner - S1095 >• Complete Unit with WAND Scanner - S395

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

2190 Regal Parkway, Euless, TX 76040 (800)648-4452 (817)571-9015 FAX (817) 685-6232

Bar Code Printing Software LabelWorks for Windows

>- Prints all Popular Bar Code Types (19 Types)

>- Desktop Publishing Features: WYSIWYG, Scalable Fonts, Rulers, Guides, Lines, Shapes, Page Zooms (25%-400%), Templates >■ Rotates Text, Bar Codes, and Graphics >■ Supports Windows Compatible Fonts >■ Choose From Over One Hundred Popular

Label Formats or Design Your Own >- Rich Text Support: Mix Styles, Types, & Sizes > Automatically Prints Serial Numbers

>- Imports & Exports Graphic Files:

TIFF, GIFF, BMP, PCX, WPG, WMF, TARGA

>• Supports Virtually all Windows Compatible

Printers (PostScript, Laser, & Dot Matrix) >- 30-day Money-Back Guarantee, S295 ' * * CALL FOR FREE DEMO SOFTWARE' * *

AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS

2190 Regal Parkway, Euless, TX 76040 (800)648-4452 (817)571-9015 FAX (817) 685-6232

ONE STOP SOURCE FOR BAR CODE SOLUTIONS Quality * Performance * Value

We carry a lull line of READERS-PRINTERS-PORTABLESSOFTWARE'READERS'SELF-CONTAINED READERS-WANDS' MAGNETIC SWIPE READERS. Our readers plug and play witli your existing svslem without software. 30 DAY GUARANTEE • LIFETIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT • NEXT DAY DELIVERY • VARIETY OF PAYMENT OPTIONS'OEM/VAR DISCOUNTS. CALL US

INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES & SYSTEMS

Richmond. VA Eastern USA (800) 228-9487

Brea.CA Western USA (800) 826-1688

Inquiry 709.

PC BAR CODE SPECIALISTS

Bar code readers designed for fast, reliable, costeffective data entry. They emulate your keyboard, so data looks just like it was typed in! Choose from stainless steel wand, laser gun, CCD, and magnetic stripe scanners. Also, powerful label printing software. Great warranty. Generous reseller discounts. 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE.

Seagull Scientific Systems

15127 N.E. 24th, Suite 333. Redmond, WA 98052

1-800-758-2001 206-451-8966

DATA INPUT DEVICES

Bar Code, Magnetic Stripe Readers & SmartCard Encoder/ Reader for microcomputers & terminals, including IBM PS/2 & others, DEC, Macintosh, AT&T, CT, Wyse, Wang. All readers connect on the keyboard cable & are transparent to all software. UPC & 39 print programs, magnetic encoders, & portable readers are also available.

TPS Electronics

4047 Transport, Palo Alto, CA 94303 415-856-6833 Telex 371 -9097 TPS PLA 1-800-526-5920 FAX: 415-856-3843

Inquiry 710.

VARIANT MICROSYSTEMS

BAR CODE READERS DELIVER

WAND/LASER/MAGNETIC CARD CONNECTIVITY ■ Keyboard wedges (Internal/External) for IBM PC/XT/AT, PS/2, and portables

• RS232 wedges for WYSE. Link, Kimlron terminals

• Bar code and label printing software

• Full two-year warranty

• 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

• Extensive VAR/Dealer Discounts

46560 Freemonl Blvd.. Suite 206/Freemonl, CA 94538/(510) 440-2870 800-666-4BAR FAX: (510) 440-2873

Inquiry 711.

ELECTRONICS CAD

Schematic Capture & PCB CAD

Analogue Simulation, Digital Simulation, etc.

Prices from S195. Credit cards welcome.

For brochure use Inquiry # or contact us at:

NUMBER ONE SYSTEMS

Harding Way. ST. IVES, Cambs, UK, PE17 4WR

Tel: 011-44-480-461778 Fax: 011-44-480-494042

Inquiry 713.

ECAL UNIVERSAL ASSEMBLER

170 + processors supported.

User control of syntax and instructions.

Integrated linker/loader.

Trace and I/O windows.

Monitor and RS-232 windows.

Single micro versions available.

Demo version available.

VAIL SILICON TOOLS (305) 570-5580

Inquiry 714.

CAD/CAM

CONTOURING MOTION CONTROL

FROM A PRINTER PORT! c

Indexer LPT"-' software !J>^4y

NEW VERSION 3 visa/mc

• Controls up to six step motors simultaneously.

• Linear and Circular Interpolation.

• New features to accommodate machine control.

• Easy-to-use DOS device driver. Super Manual.

• CAD-CAM interface available.

Corporation. 1422 Arnold Ave. Ability OVStemS Roslyn, PA 1S001 (2t5) 657-4338

' ' FAX: (215) 657-7815

Inquiry 715.

CAT-SCANNERS

INPUT SLIDES & NEGATIVES with FOTOVIX lll-S

New high-resolution S-video version of Tamron's popular 35mm film to video converter. Perfect for input of film to any computer equipped with a video capture board. Crop 35mm images with 3x zoom. Color balance and exposure correction controls. List price S929.00

Tamron Industries Inc.

99 Seaview Blvd., Port Washington, NY 11050

1-800-827-8880

Inquiry 716.

CD-ROM

BAR CODE "SPECIALS"

Wedges/Portables/Multi 0n-Line readers with HP wands Spectra-Physics lasers S899. PSC & Symbol in stock 3" CCDs S468. Mag stripe encoders/readers S1485 Software: print bar codes S99 8, read bar codes S159 P.O.S.-cash drawers S199/receipt printers S399... 30-day SS Back /1 Year Warranty 'Spanish Dept. available OEM/VAR/Dealer discounts BARCODE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS 9190 Palm Canyon Drive, Corona, CA 91719 1714) 277-1917 • (800) 653-4252 • FAX: (714) 277-1005

Inquiry 707.

800-821-9362

Scan Characters/Bar Codes

■ CCD Scanner. Integral decoder S399, Wand & decoder S199

• Character scanning, OCR 'A' etc, turnkey service hardware, software, on site training and installation from S4200

Keypads/ Specialty Keyboards

• Keypads 13-35 keys, mini keyboards from S64.99

• Keyboards with-lrackball/maa. slripe/lelephone and system

• 2<1 programmable keys full size keyboard S99

30 day money back, 12 month warranty

ELECTRONE INC. fax 303-758-3088

1685 S. Colorado Blvd. Suite 353, Denver CO 80222

TERMINATOR

is fiendishly relentless in routing your board to completion

***Super high density router*** (Complete with schematic & PCB Editor)

Design Compulation's totally integrated CAD software offers

'iiiiiui^-uon.w!: sii|teiior fiinciioiuilitv ai Wufo'i/jij/V competitive prices. Request a FREE DEMO & see tor yourself. All DC/CAD packages include:

Rip up and retry router w/via minimization

No copy protection available

ASCII file format w/automatic procedure recording

All user-definable option

WINDOWS compatible as Dos task

Autoplacer and autopanning

Two-way Gerber and DXF

Complete w/schematic, SMT and dolly libraries

Optional Automatic Copper plane w/cross hatching

Optional simulation capability & enhanced mode for

386 users

Price from § * 95 Call for current promotional offer •EXPEDITED PCB LAYOUT SERVICE AT LOW COST*

LEASE PROGRAM, PAYMENT PLAN & SITE LICENSE AVAILABLE

Design Computation, Inc.

1771 Highway 34, Farmingdale, NJ 07727 Phone: (908)681-7700 Fax: (908)681-8733

DC/CAD - The performance value leader tor the demanding entrepreneur

OYTl-CDcache™

Improve CD-ROM workstation performance!

Only $89! OPTl-CD«K*e™ takes advantage of Extended Memory (XMS) to cache CD-ROM data. Retrieve data from a high speed cache instead of directly from the CD-ROM drive and significantly improve your CD-ROM workstation performance! Ask for our free catalog of exciting CD-ROM products including the market4eading OPTi-NBT CD-ROM networking software1

ONLINE COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC.

a member of 800-922-9:

EAX us

:d I

-viiT group. 28-3700

[l 301-428-3700.

Inquiry 717.

NEW NEW NEW

Rocket "93" HQ CD ROM

600 megs of High Q. Shareware $39.95+ Latest Shareware on floppies $1.98 ea.+ Lowest Prices - Highest Quality Catalog Available

ROCKET SHAREWARE

1-612-934-4775

Inquiry 712.

Inquiry 718.

252 B YTE • APRIL 1993

CD-ROM

CROSS ASSEMBLERS

DATA RECOVERY

Simtel MSDOS Shareware CDROM. 640 Meg, Dec. 92 ..S24.95

CICA MS Windows Shareware CDROM, Nov. 92 S24.95

OS/2 Shareware CDROM, Nov. 92 £24.95

Source Code CDROM, 600 Meg. Mar. 92 $39.95

INFO-MAC Macintosh SW, 4000+ files, Aug, 92 S39.95

CDROM Caddies S4.95

WALNUT CREEK CDROM

1547 Palos Verdes Mall. Ste 260. Walnut Creek, CA 94596 (800) 786 9907 (510) 947 5996 FAX: (510) 947 1644

Inquiry 719.

COMMUNICATIONS

X.25, HDLC, SDLC, BSC

SDLA card and software provides 'plug-in' synchronous link support tor PCs which is inexpensive, easy to use and robust.

Coprocessor architecture ensures reliable communications under any operating system at line speeds to 180kbps. Packages include protocol analyser, test and development software. OEM enquiries welcome.

Full function SNA emulation packages also available,

Sangoma Technologies Inc.

(416) 474-1990 1-800-388-2475

Inquiry 720.

COMPUTER BOOKS

Going From C to C++

Robert J. Traister

The author draws on the reader's knowledge of C as the new tools of C++ are introduced, making the transition between these object-oriented programs a smooth and logical process.

April 1993. c. 224 pp., S34.95 (tentative)

ISBN: 0-12-697412-8

Syslem requirements: 5% " disk for 286 or higher, IBM PC or compatible

ACADEMIC PRESS

HBJ Order Fulfillment Dept. DM17915, Orlando, FL 32887 CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-321-5068 or FAX 1-800-336-7377

Inquiry 721.

PC BASED DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

We offer low-cost efficient CROSS ASSEMBLERS and a superb line of SIMULATOR-DEBUGGERS with full built-in DISASSEMBLERS for Intel's MCS-48, 51, 85 and 96. and

for the Z80 families of embedded controllers. Our new simulators for the 80C196KB and 80C196KC are unique in the market, and have been received with rave reviews. The price of our software includes unlimited tree upgrade privileges!

Lear Com Company

2440 Kipling St., Ste. 206, Lakewood, CO 80215 (303) 232-2226 FAX (303) 232-8721

Inquiry 725.

Cross Assemblers $50

Simulators $100

Disassemblers $100

PseudoCorp

716 Thimble Shoals Blvd. Newport News, VA 23606 (804) 873-1947 Fax (804) 873-2154

Inquiry 726.

DATA ANALYSIS

ADVANCED DATA ANALYSIS... at a click!

CUCK-X™ software, the most user friendly data analysis - ever! • Edit Graph/Data • Analyze • Advanced Math / Regression / Engineering / Statistics • Import/Export. FREE demo disk. Custom software available.

SoloSoft

P.O. Box 2548, Stamford, CT 06906-0548 Phone: (203) 977-8161 Fax: (203) 977-8237

Inquiry 727.

Dr. Solomons Data

Recovery Service

NO FIX-NO FEE

Unique Technical Expertise

High Success Rate

Free Diagnosis

Fast Turnaround

S & S International

Berkley Court, Mill Street

Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

HP4 2HBUK

Tel +44 (0)442 877877

Fax +44 (0)442 877882

Inquiry 731.

TAPE DATA RECOVERY

DC2000 ■ 1/4" Cartridge (AS/400)

TEAC . 4mm DAT

8mm EXABYTE • DEC TKxx media

1/2" Tape • 3480 8,3490

Whatever the Hardware. Software & Problem...

if there is data on a tape we will recover it.

In U.S.A. TEL 1 800-392-5373 FAX: 405-321-2741

TEL 44+ (0) 734-890042 FAX: 44+ (0) 734-890040

Vogon Enterprises Ltd.

Unit 5, Forrest Court, Oaklancls Park, Fishponds Road,

Wokingham, Berks., RB11 2FD, England

Inquiry 732.

DATA/DISK CONVERSION

CONVERTING YOUR DISKETTES? ENTRUST THEM TO US!

2500 Word Processor & Computer formats,

Z% ". 5'A", 8" Disks, Mag Tapes, Mag Cards, Cartridges,

Cassettes & 8 MM Custom Conversions, Programming

& Applications Development

DISK DUPLICATION

OCR SCANNING SERVICES

Call us for Quality, Best Prices and Quickest Turnaround Time.

COMPANY COMPENDIA, INC., 55 E. Washington St.,#237 Chicago, IL 60602 TEL: 1-800-374-DISK FAX: 312-419-1390

Inquiry 733.

DATA CONVERSION

COMPUTER BOOKS at a discount

We specialize in ADVANCED books for developers, programmers, computer professionals, and academics. 15% discount. Latest books from over 50 publishers. Free catalog. UPS & international shipping. Personal service. MC/VISA/AMEX. CompuServe 70007 1333 GO CBK Windows, C++. O/S 2 2.0. UNIX, Mac, OOP

CompuBooks

Rt. 1, BOX271-D 512-321-9652

Cedar Creek. TX 78612 Fax 512-321-4525

800-880-6818

Inquiry 722.

COMPUTER INSURANCE

TAPE CONVERSION & DUPLICATION

• DC2000 . 1/4" Cartridge (AS/400)

• TEAC • 4mm DAT

• 8mm EXABYTE • DEC TKxx media

• 1/2" Tape • 3480 8 3490

Mainframe, Mini or Micro - popular or obscure.

Fixed price quote by return. Standard turnaround 24 Hours

In U.S.A. TEL 1 800-392-5373 FAX: 405-321-2741

TEL 44+ (0) 734-890042 FAX: 44+ (0) 734-890040

Vogon Enterprises Ltd.

Unit 5. Forrest Court, Oaklands Park, Fishponds Road.

Wokingham. Berks., RG11 2F0, England

Inquiry 728.

THE #1 CHOICE in disk & tape conversion

for many leading corporations, government agencies, law firms, and companies in every industry-world-wide.

Free test • Satisfaction guaranteed

Graphics Unlimited Inc.

3000 Second St. North, Minneapolis, MN 55411

(612) 588-7571 FAX: (612) 588-8783

1-800-745-7571

Inquiry 734.

DATA RECOVERY

INSURES YOUR COMPUTER

SAFEWARE Computerowner's coverage provides replacement of hardware, media and purchased software. As little as S49 a year covers accidents, theft, power surges and more. One call does it all.

TOLL FREE 1-800-848-3469

SAFEWARE, The Insurance Agency Inc.

PO Box 02211. 2929 N. High St., Columbus. OH 43202

Inquiry 723.

COMPUTER SYSTEMS

LOW- LOW- LOW

Computer Systems/Notebooks/Network Solutions

IBM-Apple-Compaq-AST-ALR-Everex-Sothers SURAH 386/486 ISA/EISA-AMI/Mylex Motherboards

• CD ROMS • Tape Backup ■ Pocket FAX Modem LAN Cards • Hard Drives/Floppy Drives • Memory/upgrades

• DRAMS, SIMM Modules • Laser Printers/Scanners

• Plotters & Digitizers • Software

CI ID A U! \nr* 44912 Osgood Road. Fremont CA 94539 USd OUnHn llll/, PROne:(510)651-5101 Fax:(510)651-5241

1-800-543-1001 Nationwide Orders

Inquiry 724.

Ontrack

DATA RECOVERY

• Professional service recommended by major

hard drive manufacturers • Expertise in virtually

every operating system & media storage device

• 24-hour support with weekend, priority, & on-site

service available • For fast, successful results, call:

CA: 1-800-752-7557 • MN:1 -800-872-2599

2400 Main Street, Suite 200. Irvine CA 92714

6321 Bury Drive. Eden Prairie MN 55346

Inquiry 729.

Now we're

Ontrack in

London, too.

ONTRACK DATA RECOVERY EUROPE, LTD.

0800-24-39-96 • 44-81-974 5522

Surrey House, 34 Eden St.. Kingston upon Ttiames, Surrey KTt tER UK

Inquiry 730.

CONVERSION SERVICES

Convert any 9-track magnetic tape to or from over 5000 formats including 3!f, 5%", 8" disk formats & word processors. Disk-to-disk conversions also available. Introducing CD-ROM conversions. Call for more info.

Pivar Computing Services, Inc.

165 Arlington Hgts. Rd„ Dept. #B Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 (800) Convert

DATABASE

dBASE, Fox & Clipper from Visual Basic

Get complete database management power and dBASE, FoxPro and Clipper file compatibility from VB Win and VB DOS. Get CodeBasic! Fully multi-user and only $195. Comes with a 90 day money-back guarantee. FREE demo available.

Sequiter Software

#209. 9644-54 Ave., Edmonton. AB. Canada T6E 5V1 Tel (403) 437-2410 Fax (403) 436-2999

Inquiry 735.

APRIL 1993- BYTE 253

THE BUYER'S MART

DATABASE

EDUCATION

Which Windows database is the best?

The best?

We recommend SUPERBASE 2

We build vertical applications with it,

train end-users and developers on it,

and make it available to others

who want the best Windows relational database

Superbase 2 for $189 (list $795)

Superbase 2 Developers Edition $650.

Superbase 2 Developer class,

4 days for $995.

Consulting and on-site training available.

^fcRD

%

800-448-NERD

%

Inquiry 736.

DIAGNOSTIC

"..PINPOINT ANY PC FAILURE."

John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine 6/30/92

Top-rated PockelPOST Power On Self-Test card with diagnostic software for ISA/EISA/MicroChannel. 180-page book. Hones your trouble shooting skills. CALL NOW.

DATA DEPOT, Inc.

1710 Drew Street #5, Clearwater. FL 34615

1-800-275-1913

FAX 813-443-4377

813-446-3402

B.S. & M.S. In COMPUTER SCIENCE

The American Institute for Computer Sciences offers an indepth correspondence program to earn your Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science at home. B.S. subjects covered are: MS/DOS. BASIC, PASCAL, C, Data File Processing, Data Structures & Operating systems. M.S. program includes subjects in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.

AMERICAN INST, for COMPUTER SCIENCES

2101-BV Magnolia Ave. South, Sle. 200, Birmingham, AL 35205 800-767-2427 205-323-6191

FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

BrainMaker:

"The most fascinating computer software I've ever seen.. .learn about this stuff." John Dvorak, PC Mag. Predicts stocks, bonds, sales, inventories. Comprehensive manual. Menus. 12,000 sold. PC or Mac. Still only $195!

Free Flyer: 800/284-8112,916/477-7481 California Scientific Software

Inquiry 740.

FLOWCHARTS

FLOW CHARTING 3

| FR|ENDLy | ' Hi9h resolution print outs... dot matrix or laser

• Multi-page charts... portrait or landscape

• Import/export capabilities

• 35 shapes, 10 fonts, 4 line styles Call for tree demo disk!

PATT0N & PATT0N 800-525-0082 «t. 1317

Software Corporation J85 Cochrane Cr„ Monj,m Hilt. CA 95037 See our ad on page 172

Inquiry 737.

Inquiry 741.

Digital Quad Maps

Local Street Maps, State Maps, and World

Maps in DXF, PCX, PICT, PIC or TIF Formats. Gigabytes of Map data available.

H/j icrpJAoBACAD™ (303) 988-4940

Inquiry 742.

GRAPHICS DATA CONVERTER

OPTICAL GRAPH RECOGNITION (0GR) SOFTWARE

SCAN-X™ software imports, converts and manipulates data from scanned plots, pictures, graphs on paper, or captured screens into data files for comparing/analyzing/plotting/exporting. FREE demo disk. Service available.

SoloSoft

P.O. Box 2548, Stamford, CT 06906-0548 Phone: (203) 977-8161 Fax: (203) 977-8237

Inquiry 743.

HARDWARE

Let US Meet Your Hardware Needs

•Complete Systems-Starting @ $895 w/SVGA monitor •For 486 DX50 from $895-$1795 •Motherboards, Memory • Software

Call tor information or catalog. MC & VISA accepted

Kings Computer Technologies

Killeen, TX 76541 817-554-5464

Inquiry 744.

FREE NEWSLETTER OFFER

THE PC TROUBLESHOOTER

Learn all the latest PC troubleshooting tips and tricks from the pros. Covers PCs, networks, Windows and more. CALL NOW for a FREE sample issue.

USA: (800) 683-6696

Int'l: (813) 443-1331, FAX: (813) 443-6603

Landmark Research Int'l Corp.

703 Grand Central Street Clearwater, FL 34616

Inquiry 738.

DISK DRIVES

21MB 3.5" Floptical Disk Drive for $399!

EchoDrive SCSI Floptical disk drive not only reads and writes to 21MB 3.5" Floptical diskettes but also:

• reads and writes to 720K and 1.44MB lloppy diskettes

• runs under DOS. Windows, or on the Macintosh

• is available as an external or internal drive

• provides amazing floppy speed! WOW!

• It's GREAT for backup, file archival, and transporting files. Second Wave, IPC. • 9430 Research Blvd. II-260 Austin, TX 78759 ■ (512) 343-9661 • FAX: (512) 343-9663

Inquiry 739.

254 BYTE • APRIL 1993

WINDOWS FLOWCHARTER $129

RFFlow 2.0 is a professional drawing tool for flowcharts & org. charts. Requires Microsoft Windows. 100 shapes auto adjust in size. Diagonal lines and curves. Auto line routing and re-routing. Click on a shape to bring up a sub-chart. Move charts lo other apps. via the Clipboard. Call for free trial disk.

RFF ELECTRONICS

1053 Banyan Court, Loveland, CO 80538 Phone: (303) 663-5767 FAX: (303) 669-4889

FRAMEWORK/FRED

THE FRAMEWORK MAGAZINE

Framework enhancement programs 12 issues $29.90

Unlimited Framework and FRED support. Access undocumented powers of Framework & FRED.

fBase for Framework $190.90

The fastest disk database access in

existence. dBase file Index

optimization and compression.

Selections & Functions, Inc. (617)826-1553

25 Washington Street, Hanover, MA 02339

Pre-0wned Electronics, Inc™

THE Independent Provider, serving the Dealer,

Professional, Corporate, Government, and Educational Buyer since 1985

APPLE II & MACINTOSH

SYSTEMS ' PARTS • EXCHANGE REPAIRS

Call for a Catalog 800-274-5343 INT'L: 617-275-4600 • FAX: 617-275-4848

205 BURLINGTON ROAD • BEDFORD, MA 01730

Inquiry 745.

HEWLETT PACKARD

Buy - Sell - Trade

LaserJet ColorPro

DeskJet DraftPro

RuggedWriter DraftMaster

Electrostatic Plotters

• Monochrome and Color

HP 9000 Workstations and Vectras also available.

T. E. Dasher & Associates

4117 Second Ave.. S. Birmingham. AL 35222 Phone: (205) 591-4747 Fax: (205) 591-1108 (800) 638-4833

Inquiry 746.

HARDWARE/COMPUTERS

SC/FOX™ EMBEDDED COMPUTERS

PC Parallel Coprocessor Plug-in Boards: 15 MIPS avg 50 MIPS burst,

using the SC32 32-bit CPU or ihe 16-bit Harris RTX 2000™.

VME Master/Slave System Conlroller SBC: 18 MIPS avg 70 MIPS burst,

uses RTX 2000 cpu, SCSI. 2 ser, 1 ptr ports, to 6-40K bytes.

Stand-Alone Single Board Computers: 18 MIPS avg 60 MIPS burst. 3U

or 100x100mm Eurocard-size using either SC32 or RTX 2000,

Ideal ioi embedded real-time control, data acquisition, robotics, and signal

processing. OEM soltware development system included.

SILICON COMPOSERS INC (4is) 322-8/63

208 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Inquiry 747.

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING

MEDICAL SOFTWARE

PROJECT BILLING

Complete RealTime Operating System For your 386/486 PC only

$995 I

• POSIX Compliant • Realtime Tasks

• Full Networking ■ • Development Tools

• X Windows • Source Available

RTMX-UniFLEX Call: 1-919-493-1451

800 Eastowne Dr., Ste 111 • Chapel Hill. NC 27514

Inquiry 748.

JAPAN MARKET

INTELLIGENT MEDICAL SYSTEM

Distributors required for English, French, German & Spanish Market

Horizon Integrated Intelligent Medical System for International use in multilingual environment (HIMS} is a "state of the art" system for Doctors & Hospitals. Developed in conjunction with World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

HORIZON SOFTWARE LTD.

27 East Street, Leicester, LE1 6NB, U.K TEL: (44) 533-556550 FAX: (44) 533-470942

Inquiry 753.

PROGRAMMERS TOOLS

Client Project

A Time and Billing System that accounts for charges to over 100,000 projects (or matters). Regular price $299, current price with limited time discount $159; demo available for $10.

Micro Billing Systems, Inc.

117 W, Harrison, Ste# 624M, Chicago IL 60605 Tel: (312) 939-1869 Fax: (312) 939-1351

Inquiry 758.

SECURITY

Seek Software Developers

We are looking for companies developing competitive software products for PCs and aggressively wishing to enter Japan market. Enormous Japanese PC software market attracts worldwide attention. Do not worry about even though you are unfamiliar with Japan market or do not have well organized sales network in Japan. Our technical engineer is pleased to help you by modifications for Japanese PCs. If your company deserves our considering, please feel free to fax us today for details. Product catalogs and company profile are highly welcome.

Giken Shoji Co., Ltd.

Fax: 81-052-972-6577 Phone: 81-052-972-6544 6F Soar Bldg. 2-3,1-chome. Izumi. Higashi-ku. Nagoya 461, Japan

Inquiry 749.

LANS

The $25 Network

Try the 1st truly low-cost LAN

• Connect 2 or 3 XTs, ATs,386s, 486s

• Uses serial ports and null modem cable

• Runs at 115K baud - approx 8500 bytes/sec

• Runs in background, totally transparent

• Share disks and printers, etc.

• Needs only 15Kof RAM

Little Big LAN

The most flexible network

• Peer to Peer LAN to 250 nodes

• $75 total software cost, not per node!

• Link via serial, parallel, or Arcnet

• Link via Ethernet or Modems soon

• Mixed mode routing

• Typically only 35K of RAM

Skeptical? We make believers!

Information Modes

P.O. Drawer F. Denton. TX 76202

Tech 817-387-3339 Orders 800-628-7992

Hours 1-5 Mon/Wed, 9-5 Tue/Thu/Fri CST

Inquiry 750.

INCORPORATE SOUND BLASTER S ADLIB INTO YOUR SOFTWARE

The W0RX programmers toolkit will allow you to easily incorporate sound and music into your software without having to strimuli! '.villi low level code and compatibility problems. Plays back standard MIDI files and V0C sample files fully in the background. This toolkit is a linkable library which takes less than 32K of code, and requires no driver or TSR. Autodetects Sound Blaster configuration. No royalties, and updates are always free. WORX 1.6 for Turbo C. Pascal and Microsoft C: S49 Resource manager for WORX (C only): S29

MYSTIC SOFTWARE

1504 Encinal Avenue, Ste D, Alameda, CA 94501 Voice: (510) 865-9189 Demos/BBS: (510) 865-3856

Inquiry 754,

DON'T DEVELOP NETWORK APPLICATIONS

without NPPC, a powerful library subroutine package that handles all the details of IPX or NetBIOS programming! NPPC supports high-level program communication at the message level. If you are using C or Assembler, NPPC allows you to write a single application that runs on BOTH IPX AND NetBIOS without any modifications. Supports both client/ server and peer-to-peer models. 30 day money back guarantee. NPPC for IPX or NetBIOS $195 w/source$395 SOFTWAREHOUSE CORPORATION 326 State Street, Los Altos, CA 94022 (415) 949-0203 FAX: (415) 949-0208

Inquiry 755.

FIGHT PIRACY!

• EVERLOCK3.0 * SOFTWARE COPY PROTECTION

New Option Board Safe-New Remote Registration New CPU LOCK-CD ROM LOCK and more • EVERKEY HARDWARE LOCKS *

Az-Tech Software, Inc.

Call for a 201 East Franklin, Richmond, MO 64085

(816)776-2700

FAX (816) 776-8398

FREE

Demo (800) 227-0644

Inquiry 759.

THE ULTIMATE SOFTWARE SECURITY

• STOPCOPY family - UNCOPIABLE copy protection

• STOPVIEW software encryption

• NETLIMIT network license metering

• DOS. Windows. Macintosh, OS/2, support

• No source code changes required - for ANY of our products in ANY environment

• Our products destroy ALL of our competition

• Call for FREE demo disk, or to discuss our products'

MANYoptions

BBI Computer Systems, Inc.

14105 Heritage Lane, Silver Spring, MD 20906 BDO/TRY-ABBI • 800/879-2224 • 301/871-1094 • FAX:301/460-7545

Inquiry 760.

Cop's CopyLock II

The professional software protection with TRUE Machine Install. Option Board safe. OS/2, Networks, Windows, and Trace 1020.

LINK Computer

Int'l: + 45 31232350 Fax: + 45 31238448

US/CAN: 800-344-2545 FAX: 408-923-7061

LAPTOP COMPUTERS

USED COMPUTERS

MAJOR BRANDS - WIDE SELECTION IBM - COMPAQ & OTHERS

Computers from S99 Color Printers $199

Mono Monitors from S25 CGA Color Monitors S129

IBM 5140 LAPTOP S349

IBM PCjr S CONVERTIBLE PARTS S ACCESSORIES

HARD-TO-FIND ITEMS FOR OLDER PCS

FREE CATALOC COMPUTER RESET

P.O. Box 461782, Garland, TX 75046

Phone (214) 276-8072 & FAX BBS (214) 272-7920

Inquiry 751.

LAPTOP PERIPHERALS

Boost Your BASIC with ProBas!

bs" ProBas5 adds 938 new commands fo QB/PDS t;i Written in assembly for speed c«" Gives your programs a professional look ** Easy to use, money back guarantee, S195 «• Other add-ons for BASIC, C & Visual Basic avail. FREE DEMO Disk AND BOOKLET

TeraTech (soo) 447-9120 xi 043

Dept 1043, 100 Park Ave., Suite 360, Rockville, MD 20850 Inf'l+1(301) 424-3903 Fax (301) 762-8185 BBS (301) 762-8184

Inquiry 756.

KEY-LOK SECURITY

Piracy survival over 10 years proves effectiveness of powerful multilayered security. Algorithmic response. Programmable memory. Very economical. Device transparent to PARALLEL/SERIAL port, Counters/RealTime-Clock. MUIti-product/feature licensing. DOS/UNIX/ VMS/etc. Also, access control system and diskette drive locks.

MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS

3167 E. Otero Circle, Littleton, CO 80122 (303)770-1917

Inquiry 761.

SHAREWARE

Auto Power Adapters

12V battery systems

Small package with high efficiency

Plugs between computer and lighter receptacle

S99!oS129

Designed and made in USA!! In stock for Apple PowerBook (10-30V input). Canon BJ printer, Compaq Centura, Everex Tempo LX. IBM, Kodak Diconix printer. Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba, Zeos. Custom adapters designed for OEMs. Serial interface cards for Toshiba and Sanyo.

Empire Engineering

California USA tel 805/543-2816 fax 805/543-2820

Inquiry 752.

Structograms

Software Documentation made quick and easy with PANORAMA

■ Structograms (Nassi-Shneidermann) automatically from the source code in a flash

■ Hierarchie-trees of modules, procedures

■ Headers of modules, procedures

■ Software-Metrics: McCabe complexity, LOC and more Available for: Turbo Pascal. C, Modula-2. Fortran-77, PUM, dBase PANORAMA Standard (Pascal, C, Modula-2); S495

panorama u.e: $295 Wuest Intormatik AG

Schuetzenstrasse f 1; CH-8245 Feuerthalen; Switzerland Int'l (+41 53) 29 31 32 FAX: (+41 53) 29 31 43

Call or Fax lor information and free demo.

Inquiry 757.

FREE SOFTWARE FOR IBM/CLONES

Try us! Get 5/5.25" or 3/3.5" disks full of the latest software - FREE! Choose from General Interest, Games, Windows", Kid's, Clip Art or Fonts. Pay only a small service charge of $2.95 per package. Credit Cards only. CALL TODAY!

SOFTWARE OF THE MONTH CLUB (619) 931-8111, EXT. 511

Inquiry 762.

APRIL 1993- BYTE 255

THE BUYER'S MART

SOFTWARE WANTED

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

SOFTWARE/PACKAGING

Publish Your Program!

Young, enthusiastic and successful software publishing company looking for PC productivity and utility software to acquire or publish. For a confidential review of your software product, send information to Software Adv., 2210 Wilshire Blvd., #836, Santa Monica, CA 90403 or circle our number on the Direct Link Card in the back of this issue. We will contact you promptly.

Inquiry 763.

SOFTWARE/ACCOUNTING

SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION

Graphics library for VGA and ET4000 Super VGA. Up to 1024x768 resolution. Supports HiColor and 24-bit true color. 2-D & 3-D w/perspective. Gouraud shaded polygons. Z-buffer hidden surface removal. Animation. Mouse S joystick support. Scale and rotate text. Store/ retrieve in PCX format. Available for MS FORTRAN, MS C, Borland C, Turbo C. $250. Call for free demo disk.

AEROSOFT CORPORATION

5562 Bells Ferry Rd., Suite 233, Acworth, GA 30102 Ph. 800-949-1812 Tel/Fax 404-917-1309

STOCK PACKAGING

to help you

market your software

ask for catalog 92 S

call 708 390-7744

or fax 708 390-9886 PolyQuick Co.

1243 Rand Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016

Inquiry 772.

SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC

dBASE BUSINESS TOOLS

• GENERAL LEDGER

PURCH ORD/INVNTORY

• ORDER ENTRY

ACCOUNTS RECVABLE

■ JOB COSTING

JOB ESTIMATING

•BILLOFMATLS

SALES ANALYSIS

• PAYROLL

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

$99/5198 ea. + S&H

dATAMAR SYSTEMS

Cred. Card-Check-COD

6969-D Corte Santa Fe. San Diego, CA 92121

(619)452-0044

(800) 223-9963

Inquiry 764.

SOFTWARE/ENGINEERING

"The Ultimate CAD/CAM/CAE Programming Engine"

Slash your development time, with your CAD programming companion. TG-Professional v,4.0, Ihe most complete C/C++ toolbox of 2D & 3D geometric routines available today! Over 800 routines including NURBS, DXF, Graphics, Surfacing, Hidden Line, Transforms, Perspectives, Polygon (Int/Union/Dilf), Clipping, Tangenls and more. Routines for drawing using BGI or MSC Graphics. Full source & 30 day guarantee. USA $500.00. Use MSC, Borland C/C++, WATCOM C/386 or Melaware High C/C++. Call 1-800-635-7760 or Fax/Phone 214423-7288 for free 30 page technical paper.

Disk Software Inc.

109 S. Murphy Rd., Piano, TX USA 75094

Inquiry 768.

Weather Monitor & Weatherlink!

The ultimate in weather monitoring systems! A state-ofthe-art weather station and a PC link allow you to view, record, summarize, and graph weather information. The perfect marriage of computer and weather technology.

DAVIS INSTRUMENTS

3465 Diablo Avenue, Hayward, CA 94545 1-800-678-3669 FAX 1-510-670-0589 Bra

Inquiry 773.

Mixed Mode Simulation

Electrical Engineers!

Now you can run Analog/Digital SPICE

Simulations on your PC or Macintosh

with the affordable and powerful

ISSPICE3

Also Available

• Integrated Schematic Entry

• Extensive SPICE Model Libraries

• Waveform Graphics and Analysis

• Filter Synthesis and Design

Full SPICE programs starting at $95. Complete systems with schematic, IsSpice3 simulation, models, and waveform graphics only $1575.

Call or Fax for your Free Demo and

information kit.

P.O. Box 710 San Pedro, CA 90733-0710

Tel (310)833-0710 . f.

FAX (310)833-9658 lt\fUSOTt

Inquiry 765.

Sirlin's CAD ++ ENGINE

• Read and Write AutoCAD DWG and DXF files.

• Object oriented, modular, database-like access to CAD data.

■ View, Print (rasterize), Plot (vectorize), and Pick (interact) modules.

• Available for C/C++ for DOS, Extended DOS, Windows, Sun and other Unix systems.

Sirlin Computer Corporation

25 Orchard View Dr., Ste 14, Londonderry, NH 03053 Phone: (603) 437-0727 • Fax: (603) 437-0737

Inquiry 769.

MARKET TO EUROPE!

The BYTE EURODECK offers you a unique opportunity to sell your computer products to BYTE's 50,000 European Subscribers!

Call Jim for more info! (603) 924-2533

Inquiry 782.

Volume Visualization

VoxelBox is a volume Tenderer for Windows. Volume rendering is the most direct method of visualizing 3D data. VoxelBox is fast, powerful and easy to use. It features raytracing, color/alpha mapping, lighting, keyframe animation support and much more. Price S495

Jaguar Software, Inc.

573 Main St. Suite 9B, Winchester, MA 01890 (617) 729-3659

Inquiry 774.

VTp-X Scientific Desktop Publishing

• Equations • Tables • Graphics • Scalable Fonts • Supports most printers • WYSIWYG previewer • Foreign Languages ■ Special Symbols • Font Effects • Indices • Only S299 'TEX of Tomorrow'-Notices of AMS, March 1991. Call now for a FREE DEMO DISK

MicroPress, Inc.

68-30 Harrow Street, Forest Hills, NY Tel (718) 575-1816 Fax (718) 575-8038

SOFTWARE/GUI

Inquiry 775.

SOFTWARE/VOICE/FAX

SA.UNA.I 3D THERMAL ANALYSIS

• Models: PCBs, plates, heatsinks, enclosures, multiboard enclosures. • All heat transfer modes: convection, radiation, conduction • Interactive menudriven ■ Thermal parameters library • Fast "what if": dimension, mat'l, finish, analyses • Easy to learn & use • IBM PC & Macintosh II

Call for free evaluation program

Tatum Labs, Inc.

1287 N. Silo Ridge Drive, Ann Arbor, Ml 48108 313-663-8810

Inquiry 766.

SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS

GUI TOOLKIT ONLY $249

Full source code included

TEGL Windows Toolkit lets you create DOS based GUI apps that are completely standalone. Over 500 functions. Menus, mouse S keyboard support, dialogues, and more. Includes TEGL graphics interface which has drivers lor most popular video modes. Supports most C and Pascal compilers. Protected mode version is only $499. No royalties.

TEGL Systems Corporation

P.O. Box 580, Stn. A, Vancouver B.C. V6C 2N2 (604) 669-2577 FAX (604) 688-9530

Inquiry 770.

SOFTWARE/PACKAGING

MULTI-VOICE" TOOLS

Multi-Voice Tools is a complete development Toolkit for Pascal or "C" to access all Ihe features for most speech processing boards available today. It helps you write MULTI-LINE VOICE APPLICATION systems in minutes. A number of programming examples are provided. All programs and libraries are delivered with source code. Dialogic, Fhetorex, Pika, VBX: $599. Walson (Single Line); S99. ALSO AVAILABLE: Fax Programmer's Toolkit (S199). Based on CAS specilications. Visa/MC accepted.

ITI Logiciel

4263 Cristophe-Colomb, Montreal. Quebec. Can. H2J 3G2 TEL (514) 597-1692 FAX (514) 526-2362

STATISTICS

TIFF, PCX. TARGA, GIF. DIB. BMP, DCX, EPS, WMF, WPG. PICT, JPEG

AccuSoft Image Format Library 3.0

"The most comprehensive raster support library on the market" Import, export, convert, display, and print all above formats! DOS & Windows versions included in one package. No royalties. Includes several sample programs with source code. Supports all languages. Format compatibility guaranteed! G3, G4. TIFF-F, multi-page images etc. Rotate, scale, color reduction, sharpen etc. 30 day satisfaction guarantee. S495

AccuSoft Corporation

160 E. Main St.. P.O. Box 1261, Westboro, MA 01581 (800) 525-3577 (508) 898-2770 FAX (508) 898-9662

Inquiry 767. 256 BYTE

FREE SOFTWARE PACKAGING CATALOG

Everything you will need to Package, Distribute, and Ship Your Software!! From manuals and binders to mailers and shippers

LABELS • LABELS • LABELS

For your diskettes, plain or custom printed dot matrix or laser printer... free samples

• ••FREE CATALOG-" Hice & Associates

8586 Monticello Dr., West Chester. OH 45069

Phone/Fax: 513-777-8586

Inquiry 771.

The AIM Estimator™

Outperforms Neural Nets & Regression!

AIM combines the best of neural nets S regression to automatically learn polynomial networks that ESTIMATE or PREDICT any numeric value, suctt as: prices, probabilities, fuzzy values, inventories, sensor readings, control settings, and costs. ANYONE can learn AIM within 30 minutes and quickly achieve more accurate results.

Order S20 Demo Package Today! AbTech Corporation

508 Dale Ave, Charlottesville. VA 22903

Tel:804-977-0686 Fax:804-977-9615

Inquiry 776.

APRIL 1993

STATISTICS

NCSS 5.x Series - $125

Easy-to-use menus & spread sheet. Multiple regression. T-tests. ANOVA (up to 10 factors, rep. measures, covariance). Forecasting. Factor, cluster, & discriminant analysis. Nonparametrics. Cross Tabulation. Graphics: histograms, box, scatter, etc. Reads ASCII/Lotus. Many new add-on modules.

NCSS

329 North 1000 East. Kaysville, UT 84037

Phone: 801 -546-0445 Fax: 801 -546-3907

Inquiry 777.

PsychStat MAX 2.2 - $59.95

Frequency • descriptives • chi-square • Fisher's exact test • ttests • multiple regression • weighted & unweighted ANOVAs • correlation • repeated measures • intraclass corr • ANCOVA • right-wrong & Likert item analysis • Cronbach's Alpha • point-biserial • corrected item-total ■ coprocessor support • ASCII • 25500 variables • satisfaction or money back.

PsychStat

1003 Justin Lane 2118 Austin, TX 78757 512-451-8152

Inquiry 778.

UTILITIES

FastTrax the best disk optimizer

• Defragments any size DOS disk incl. >1 Gb

• No limits on directories, files or clusters

• Unique in-cylinder method reduces seeks

• MakeTrax (incl.) for custom file placement

• Batch operation, power failure protection

• $70, or $40 for competitive upgrade, + S&H

FastTrax International

880 Ensenada Avenue, Berkeley CA 94707 24-hr Sales and Tech support (510) 525-3510

Inquiry 779.

PEN PLOTTER EMULATOR

FPLOT turns your printer into an HP pen plotter. Fast hi-res, no jagged lines. Vary line width, color. Screen preview - zoom, pan. Works with most CAD programs. Supports most printers. Requires DOS 2.1 or higher. $119+S3 S&H. VISA/MC/Chk/MO.

FPLOT Corporation

24-16 Steinway St., Suite 605, Astoria, NY 11103 718-545-3505

Inquiry 780.

WINDOWS

Hyper Photo_db

the Hyperlmage Spreadsheet/

Document manager/Desktop image

authoring system for Windows

Display and manipulate up to 62K stampviews on main image matrix, or create families of images and documents-ail image spreadsheet! Associate text info, other images, or imported files with any image or any pixel inside an image. Use HyperLinking to navigate from image to image through successive levels of detail, Search 500K images in seconds. Design graphic information templates for relational database, report writing, tree search, or finding a point inside an image.

Use HypurPhoto„db to dynamically manage image collections and text, HyperLink your images to navigate images and retrieve data. Use your scanner and HyperPhoto_dh to create simple desktop authoring for training. QA/QC. customer support, sales applications. Coming-compatible upgrade to HyperVideo_db.

Work with PCX, BMP, TIF, GIF, Postscript file formats in true color or with color matching. Network version available.

Imaging power for $225! Friendly Information Systems, Inc.

5^2 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. MA 02139

CALL 800-55HYPER FAX (617) 492-8525

Inquiry 781.

BYTE BACK ISSUES FOR SALE

January

February

March

April

May

Issues

Available June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Special

Issues

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

IBM

IBM

Outlook '92

Windows

Portability

Windows - Portability U.S. Delivery $3.00, Foreign Delivery $4.00 1988 thru 1989 U.S. Delivery $3.00, Foreign Delivery $4.00 1990 thru 1992 U.S. Delivery $6.00, Foreign Delivery $8.00, Canada & Mexico $6.50

European customers please refer to Back Issue form in

International Advertising section of book.

Please indicate which issues you would like by checking (V) the boxes. Send requests with payment to:

BYTE Back Issues, One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, N.H. 03458 (603)924-9281

□ Check enclosed Charge: □ VISA □ MasterCard

Card*

Exp. Date. Signature .

Name

Address

City.

State

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All orders must be prepaid. Please allow four weeks delivery.

APRIL 1993- BYTE 257

YOUR DIRECT LINK

ADVERTISER CONTACT INFORMATION

To order products or request FREE information, call advertisers directly or send in the Direct Link Card by mail or fax! Let them know you saw it in BYTE!

Inquiry No.

Page No. Phone No.

170-171 AT&T PARADYNE (N.A.)

181

61-62 ABACUS SOFTWARE 119

178-179 ABC COMPUTER 224

154 ADDA 118 180-181 ADVANCED COMPUTER PROD 222

63-64 AETECH 147

165-166 ALLMICRO 103

66 AMERICAN POWER CONV 110

182 AMT INTERNATIONAL 240

568 APPRO INT'L INC 228PC-7

67 ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC 167 330 AXONIX CORP 244

800-554-4996

ext. 9604

800-451-4319

310-325-6369

+886-2-248-4276"

714-558-8813

619-431-7714

800-653-4933

800-800-4APC

DPT.A2

408-942-9695

408-732-6091

416-756-0718

801-466-9797

183-184 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 230

450 BIX 206

159-160 BLINK INC 109

401-402 BOCA RESEARCH INC (INT'L) 80IS-3

68-69 BORLAND INTERNATIONAL 13

185

BUFFALO PRODUCTS BYTE SUB MESSAGE

223 202

800-523-2702 800-695-4775 804-355-4444 407-997-6227 800-336-6464 ext. 5074 800-345-2356

552

557

564

571

161

73

403

436-437

200

368-369

74-75

76

404-405

406

79

216

C++ 172IDRC1-2

C.E.T.R.A. 228MW-3

C.E.T.R.A. 228NE-4

C.E.T.R.A. 228PC-6

C.E.T.R.A. 228SO-2

CASTELLECORP 212

CENTRAL POINT SAW 38-39 CHERRY MIKROSCHALTER

GMBH (INT'L) 206-207

+886-2 +886-2+886-2' +886-280I 800

725-1314" 725-1314" -725-1314" 725-1314" ■359-7654 ■967-9251

407

331

186

381

332

80

176-177

157-158

333

187-188

408-409

CHICONY 56IS-4

CITITRONICS 231

COHORT SOFTWARE INC 248

COLORADO MEMORY SYS 25

COMMODORE 79

COMPEX INC 56IS-3

COMPUSAVE INT'L (INT'L) Clll

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 37

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 136

COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S

BOOK SOCIETY 148A-B

COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S

BOOK SOCIETY 149

COMPUTER QUICK (INT'L) 57

COMPUTER SYS ARCHITECT 241 COMPUTERLANE UNLTD 72IS-4

+49-964+886-3811 510 800800 714602800800

71

71

CONTROL CONCEPTS CONTROL VISION COREL SOFTWARE COVOX INC CREATIVE LABS INC CURTIS INC CYBEX CORP CYBEX CORP (INT'L)

241 245

48 205

33 241 226 CIV

800703

318-262" 323-5743" 855-5688 524-9878 346-9881 66-AMIGA 630-7302 437-8208 CALL-CAI CALL-CAI

794-2191

'-794-2191 -8330 1-753-4CSA 1-526-3482 1-876-6444 316-231-6647 800-836-SCSI 503-342-1271 800-998-LABS 612-631-9512 205-534-0010" 205-534-0010"

DALLAS SEMICONDUCTOR 24 800-258-5061

DATALUX CORP (N.A.) 244 800-DATALUX

DATALUX CORP (INT'L) 244 +44-306-876718

DATALUX CORP (N.A.) 245 800-DATALUX

DATALUX CORP (INT'L) 245 +44-306-876718

DATAPRO INT'L 96IS-3+44-0628-773628"

411-412 DATATRONICS TECH (INT'L) 97 +886-2-782-0305" DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) Clll 800-626-8260 DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) CIV 800-626-8260 DEXDYNE (INT'L) 57 +44-285-655644"

DEXPO/

MILLER FREEMAN, INC 228MW-5 800-87-DEXPO DEXPO/

MILLER FREEMAN, INC 228NE-7 800-87-DEXPO DEXPO/

MILLER FREEMAN, INC 228PC-5 800-87-DEXPO DEXPO /

MILLER FREEMAN, INC 228SO-5 800-87-DEXPO

172 335 335 334 334 410

433 553

559

567

572

Inquiry No.

336 DIAGSOFT INC 173 DIGISPEECH INC 382-383 DISPLAY RESEARCH LAB 189-190 DISTRIBUTED

PROCESSING TECH

Page No. Phone No.

249 800-DIAGSOFT 196 916-621-1787 246 +852-677-8810"

234

407-830-5522

379-380 EDEN'S TECHNOLOGY CORP 242 385 EDUCALC 244

81 ELIASHIM MICROCOMPUTERS 147

• ELONEX (INT'L) 52-53

373 ELSIST 246

211 -212 EMBARC / MOTOROLA 228

413 EUTRON (INT'L) 97

558 EVOLUTION COMPUTING 22BNE-3 566 EVOLUTION COMPUTING 22BPC-1

309-862-1704

714-582-2637

+972-4-528613"

+44-81-452-6422"

+39 142 451988"

800-EMBARC4

ext. 350

+39-35-692-229"

800-874-4028

800-874-4028

F

82 FARALLON (N.A.) 73 800-998-7760 4

414 FAST ELECTRONIC GMBH (INT'L)73 +49-89-533-401 " 425-426 FIRST INT'L COMP 56IS-2 +886-2-717-4500"

191-192 FIRST SOURCE INT'L 232 714-588-9866

415-416 FUTURESOFT ENGINEERING 80IS-2 713-496-9400

375

337

417

83-84

77-78

418

388

338

GATEWAY 2000 GATEWAY 2000 GENERAL TECHNICS GENOVATION, INC GFK HAMBURG GLENCO ENGINEERING GREENVIEW DATA GREY MATTER LTD GSQUAHED COMPUTERS GTEK INC

CII.1

40A-H

244

245

72IS-3

163

139

96IS-4

243

242

800-846-2000 800-846-2000 800-487-2538 800-822-4333

+49-40-231-789" 800-562-2543 800-458-3348

+44-0364-53071" 214-948-3155 800-282-4835

H

440 HONEYWELL KEYBOARD DIV 72IS-1 914-544-5511 214 HUMMINGBIRD COMMNTNS 192 416-470-1207

I

IBM-DIRECT (N.A.) 51

IBM - DIRECT (N.A.) 52-53

IBM-DIRECT (N.A.)

87 IBM PERSONAL S/W PROD

339-340 INDUS

341 378

90

INESGMBH

INFINICON

INTEGRAND RESEARCH

INTEL CORP 89 INTEL CORP

174-175 INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYS 91 INTERFACE GROUP

342 IOTECH 155-156 ITERATED SYSTEMS 370 IVERSON SOFTWARE, INC

92 JAMECO ELECTRONICS

JDR MICRODEVICES 427 JEN ELECTRONICA (INT'L)

54

14-15 248 243 242 46

10-11

22-23 202

70-71 246 118 249

800-IBM-2-YOU ext. 413BYTE

800-IBM-2-YOU ext. 413BYTE

800-IBM-2-YOU ext. 413BYTE 4070982-6408 800-843-9377

+49-221-491621 800-374-3880 209-651-1203 800-538-3373 800-538-3373 800-237-4774

216-439-4091 404-840-0633 416-925-6096

157 800-831-4242 239 800-538-5000 54 +39-73-3224035"

93

561 554 569 575 343 94-95

KEA SYSTEMS LTD KEDWELL SOFTWARE KENOSHA COMP CTR KENOSHA COMP CTR KENOSHA COMP CTR KENOSHA COMP CTR KILA KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY

80IS-1 228NE-8 228MW-1 228PC-3 228SO-6 243 42-43

800 603 800 800 800 800 303 714

I-663-8702 ,-433-4777 i-255-2989 1-255-2989 i-255-2989 I-255-2989 i-444-7737 -435-2600

344 LAGUNA DATA SYSTEMS 247 800-859-8856

96 LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS 50 800-548-4778

134-135 LANDMARK RESCH INT'L CORP 113 800-683-6696

Inquiry No.

345 LAWSON LABS INC

206 LOGICAL CONNECTION 97-98 LOGITECH INC

Page No. Phone No.

243 800-321-5355

240 800-238-9415

125 800-732-3021

m

577 435

101 100

MANCHESTER EQUIP CO 228NE-A-B MANCHESTER EQUIP CO 228NE-1 MANNESMANN TALLY (INT'L) 51 MARK WILLIAMS CO 91

MATHSOFTINC 146

MATHSOFTINC 190

MCGRAW HILL BOOKSTORE 92

• MCGRAW HILL NRI (N.A.) 80A-B

102 MEDIA CYBERNETICS 128 419 MEGADATA 96IS-2 367 MEMORY SUPERSTORE 245 104-105 MICRO SOLUTIONS COMP PROD 84 201-202 MICRO-INTERNATIONAL, INC 229 376-377 MICROBIZ 248

103 MICROPOLIS CORP 159

* MICROSOFT CORP 21 MICROSOFT CORP 56A-B

MICROSOFT CORP (N.A.) MICROSOFT CORP MICROSOFT CORP MICROSOFT CORP

57

516-435-1199 516-435-1199 +44-0628-527782" 800-627-5967 800-628-4223 800-628-4223 212-512-4100

800-992-HALO 516-589-6858" 800-800-7056 815-756-3411 800-967-5667 800-637-8268 800-395-3748 800-426-9400 800-882-2000

ext. J49 800-882-2000

ext. J49 800-426-9400

ext. JK8 800-426-9400

ext. JK8

346

573-574

106

424

421

114

374

420

107

MICROSOFT CORP 107

MICROSTAR LABORATORIES 243 MICROTECH COMPUTER 228SO-3

MICROWAY MINICOM LTD MINOLTA GMBH MINUTEMAN MITAC

800

800206800 508 +972-2 +49-511 214

142 80IS-2 96IS-1

89 241 +886-2-509-0979"

■426-9400 ext. JK8 ■426-9400 ■453-2345 342-6508 746-7341 ■637576" 779089" 446-7363

MKS/MORTICE KERN SYS 80IS-4

MYLEX CORP

26-27

519 510

884-2251 796-6100

N

209-210 NAGA SYSTEMS CORP 218

108-109 NANAO USA CORP (N.A.) 97

347 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 248

* NATIONAL INSTRU 172IDRC1-2

110

112 111 193 113

NEC - PRINTERS NEC - ENTRY SYSTEMS NEC - LAPTOPS NEVADA COMPUTER NSTL

115

30-31

17

227

235

800-568-6242

310-325-5202

800-433-3488

512-794-0100

800-NEC-INFO

800-NEC-INFO

800-NEC-INFO

800-654-7762

215-941-9600

207-208 OCEAN OFFICE

AUTOMATION LTD

428 ONTIMEMKT/

KARSTEN PETERSEN

348 OVERLAND DATA INC

237 +852-305-1800

96IS-2 247

115

551

556

563

570

116-117

118

555

562

576

119

120-121

366

122

349 560 123

PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS PATTON & PATTON

131

172

PC EXPO PC EXPO PC EXPO PC EXPO PC POWER & COOLING

228MW-4 228NE-2 228PC-2 228SO-4 69 161 228MW-2 228NE-5 228SO-1 82 6-7

PERSOFTINC PERSONAL SOLU COMP PERSONAL SOLU COMP PERSONAL SOLU COMP PHAR LAP SOFTWARE INC PINNACLE MICRO PIXEL PERFECT/ MEDICAL ADVISOR 249

PKWARE INC 160

POLAROID CORP 241

POLYWELL COMP, INC 228NE-6

POPKIN S/W S SYSTEMS INC 175 PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE 59 PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE 60-61

+49-40-435-196" 800-729-8725

619-625-3608 800-525-0082 ext. 112 800-829-3976 800-829-3976 800-829-3976 800-829-3976 800-722-6555 800-368-5283 800-685-3981 800-685-3981 800-685-3981 617-661-1510 714-727-3300

800-788-2099 414-354-8699 800-225-2770 800-999-1278 212-571-3434 800-445-7899 800-445-7899

258 BYTE • APRIL 1993

YOUR DIRECT LINK

ADVERTISER CONTACT INFORMATION

Inquiry No. Page No.

Phone No.

Inquiry No. Page No.

Phone No.

Inquiry No. Page No.

Phone No.

PROGRAMMER'S SHOP (NA)

76-77

800-421-8006

217

STORAGE DIMENSIONS STRADA AUTOTECH. INC

58 241

800-344-4323 613-359-1029

*

UNIXWORLD

184A-B

800-257-9402

Q

ext. (ORIS)

V

125 QUA TECH INC

216

800-553-1170

162

SUNSOFT

2-3

800-227-9227

147

VALITEK INC

178

800 VALITEK

350 QUALSTAR CORP

247

818-882-5822

136-137 SYSTATINC

93

708-864-5670

148

VERBATIM CORP

123

431-432 QUANTUM CORP (INTL.)

180

+41-38-337722

422

SZKI RECOGNITA CORP (INTL) 77

+361-201-7607"

VERMONT CREATIVE SAW

9

802-848-3502"

429-430 QUANTUM CORP (INTL.)

181

+41-38-337722

T

167

VIDEO MAKER / VITEC

169+33-146-29-03-04"

124 QUARTERDECK OFFICE SYS

187

310-392-9851

359

VIDEX, INC

242

503-758-0521

R

354

TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC

242

800-685-4884

149-150 VIEWSONIC

18-19

714-869-7976

355-356 TECHNOLOGIC SYSTEMS

246

513-644-2230

360

VISTA MICROSYSTEMS

248

800-875-8459

RAIMA CORP

75

800-327-2462

423

TECHPOWER COMPANY LTD

80IS-2

+886-2-753-1940"

215

VORTEX COMPUTERS

263

800-548-7839

126-127 RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES

65

800-852-8569

138

TEKTRONIX

47

800-835-6100

w

203 RALIN WHOLESALERS

238

800-752-9512

139

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

86

800-527-3500

197-198 RECORTECINC

219

800-729-7654

141

TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS

16A-B

800-627-8700

151

WATCOM PRODUCTS INC

29

800-265-4555

128 ROSE ELECTRONICS

8

800-333-9343

140

TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS

117

800-627-8700

384

WILTEC, INC

247

919-763-8400

565

THE COMP MUSEUM 228PC-4

361

WINTEKCORP

248

800-742-6809

s

142

TOSHIBA AMERICA INC

34-35

800-457-7777

199

WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGIES 220

800-457-6937

196

TOTE-A-LAP

221

800-9-LAPTOP

130 S'N'W COMPUTERS 4 ELECTRONICS

92

800-874-1235

213

TOUCHPLS

238

+886-2-325-3117

X

194 SAFEWARE 438-439 SAMTRON (INT'L) 351 SAS INSTITUTE INC

225 76

249

800-848-3469

+82-2-774-6659"

919-677-8000

143-144 TOUCHSTONE SOFTWARE

204 TRANSCEND INFO INC

205 TRANSCEND INFO INC

90 236 250

714-969-7746 909-598-5500 909-598-5500

362 XELTEK 163-164 XLICORP

246 134-135

408-524-1929 617-932-9199

352-353 SECURE IT INC

247

800-451-7592

364

TRANTOR SYSTEMS LTD

244

800-872-6867

z

129 SEQUITER SOFTWARE INC

188

403-437-2410

365

TRI VALLEY TECHNOLOGY INC 243

510-447-2030

371-372 SIGMA TECH SOFTWARE

242

818-368-6132

357-358 TRIBAL MICROSYSTEMS

246

510-623-8859

363

Z-WORLD ENGINEERING

246

916-757-3737

441 SOFTLINE CORP

56IS-1

718-438-6057

145-146 TRIPP LITE

94

312-329-1777

152

ZEOS INTERNATIONAL

171

800-423-5891

131-132 SOFTWARE SECURITY INC

203

203-329-8870

387

TTI TECHNOLOGIES

245

800-541-1943

153

ZYLAB/DIVISION OF IDI

95

800-544-6339

195 STARTECH INT'L

233

619-278-2600

u

168-169 ZYXELUSA

140-141

714-693-0808

386 STARTEK

249

+886-35-787089"

' Correspond directly with company

133 STATSOFT

209

918-583-4149

*

UNIXWORLD

184

800-257-9402

'* Indies

tes FAX Numbe

BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF

Liz Coyman, Inside Advertising Sales Director, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, Tel.

(603) 924-2518

NEWENGUND SOUTHEAST

SOUTHWEST,

NORTH PACIFIC

SOUTH PACIFIC: Irvine, CA

ME, NH, VT, MA, Rl, CT, ONTARIO NC, SC, GA, FL AL, TN MS

AR, LA, ROCKY MOUNTAIN

NORTHERN CA, OR, ID, MT, WY, UT

ORANGE COUNTY

CANADA S EASTERN CANADA KY, DC, MD. VA, WV

CO, OK, TX

RoyJ. Kops (415) 513-6861

SAN DIEGO COUNTY J

David Richardson (617) 860-6344 Man/Ann Gouiding (404) 843

-4782 Jennifer Walker (214) 701-8496

Joseph Mabe (603) 924-2662

Beth Dudas (714) 753-8140

Patricia Payne (603) 924-2654 Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574 Larry Levine (603) 924-2637

SILICON VALLEY, HI, WA, AK,

Joseph Mabe (603) 924-2662

McGraw-Hill Publications McGraw-Hill Publications

McGraw-Hill Publications

W. CANADA

McGraw-Hill Publications

24 Hartwell Avenue 4170 Ashtord-Dunwoody Rd

Suite 520 14850 Quorum Dr

, Suite 380

Bill McAfee (415) 513-6862

15635 Alton Pkwy., Suite 290

Lexington, MA 02173 Atlanta, GA 30319

Dallas, TX 75240

Jonathan Sawyer (603) 924-2665

Irvine, CA 92718

FAX: (617) 860-6899 FAX: (404) 252-4056

FAX: (214) 991-6208

SILICON VALLEY, NV

FAX: (714) 753-8147

Barbara Holmes (415) 513-6945

EAST COAST MIDWEST

SOUTH PACIFIC:

-os Angeles, CA

Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574

NY, NYC, NJ DE PA ILi M0' KS. IA, ND, SD, MN

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, AZ, NM,

McGraw-Hill Publications

Kim Norn's (212) 512-2645 ™. NE.IN^ Ml, OH

Alan El Faye (213) 480-5243

1900 O'Farrell Street, #200

Jonathan Sawyer (603) 924-2665 Kurt KBlteV <312> 616-3328

Larry Levine (603) 924-2637

San Mateo, CA 94403

McGraw-Hill Publications Ed Ware <603) 924-2664

McGraw-Hill Publications

FAX: (415) 513-6867

1221 Avenue ol Americas-28th Floor McGraw-Hill Publications

3333 Wilshire Boulevard #407

New York, NY 10020 [wo Pruden la Plaza

FAX: (212) 512-2075 r£» » SS?

' Chicago, IL 60601

Los Angeles, CA 90010 FAX: (213) 480-5249

Regional & Buyer's Guide

FAX: (312) 616-3370

Brian Higgins (603) 924-2651 BYTE Publications One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, NH 03458

Peterborough, NH Office: Inside Sales FAX: 603-924-2683 Advertising FAX: 603-924-7507

Hardware/Software Showcase The Buyer's Mart/Classifieds BYTE Deck

EURO-DECK

BYTE International Direct

Mark Stone (603) 924-2695 Margot Gnade (603) 924-2656 Brad Dixon (603) 924-2596

James Bail (603) 924-2533

Response Postcards

Ellen Perham (603) 924-2598 BYTE Publications

BYTE Publications

BYTE Publications

Ellen Perham (603) 924-2598

BYTE Publications °ne Phoenix Mill Lane

One Phoenix Mill Lane

One Phoenix Mill Lane

BYTE Publications

One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough. NH 03458

Peterborough, NH 03458

Peterborough, NH 03458

One Phoenix Mill Lane

Peterborough, NH 03458

Peterborough. NH 03458 !|

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

FRANCE, UNITED KINGDOM,

AUSTRALIA

SINGAPORE

THAILAND

AUSTRIA Zena Coupe

BENELUX

Rod Tremain

Derek Ng

Jack Hu

Jurgen Heise A-Z Inlernational Sales Ltd.

Gary Lucas (+44 81 545 6268)

Rod Tremain Media

Stephen Tay

Sahaviriya OA Group

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 70 Chalk Farm Road

McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.

Suite 4, 1st Floor,

Third Wave Publishing Corp.

28/1 Praoawil Bldo., Surasak

Liebigstrasse 19 London NW1 SAN

Wimbledon Bridge House

13-14 Myrtle Street,

1123 Serangoon Road, #03-01 Rd.

D-6000 Frankfurt England

One Harlfield Road

Crows Nest, NSW

Singapore 1232

Silom, Bangkok 10500

Germany Tel: +44 71 2843171

Wimbledon. London SW19 3RU

Australia 2065

Tel:+65 296 6166

Thailand

Tel: +49 69 71407 140 FAX: +44 71 2843174

England

Tel: +61 2 955 3545

FAX: +65 298 7551

Tel: +66 2 2360295

FAX:+49 69 71407147

FAX: +44 81 5456294 TELEX:892191

FAX: +61 2 955 3646

HONG KONG

FAX: +66 2 2365960

JAPAN

Candice Lo

TAIWAN

ITALY

Masaki Mori

Third Wave Publishing Corp.

Liwen Lee

Zena Coupe, Amanda Blaskett

Transworld Media Inc.

Unit 2, 6F Hing Wah Center

Third Wave Publishing Corp. I

A-Z international Sales Ltd.

4th Floor, 1 -26-6 Kamimeguro 82-84 To Kwa Wan Road

2ndFI., No. 19-1, Lane 231

70 Chalk Farm Road

Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153, Japan Kowloon, Hong Konq

Fu Hsing North Road i

London NW1 SAN

Tel:+81 3 57210761

Tel: +852 764 3830

Taipei 10445, Taiwan

England

Tel:+44 71 2843171

FAX:+81 3 57210762

FAX: +852 764 3857

R.O.C. j Tel: +886 2 7136959

Subscription Customer Service

FAX:+44 71 2843174

KOREA

Young-Seoh Chinn

MAYAYSIA

Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

FAX:+886 2 7151950

U.S. 1-800-232-2983

ISRAEL

Dan Ehrlich

JES MEDIA INT'L. 5th Floor, Banpo Bldg.

H.K. Lin

51h Floor, Bena Tower

INDIA, INDONESIA, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES,

Outside U.S. +1-609-426-7676

Ehrlich Communication Int'l. P.O. Box 99

40-7, Chamwon-Dong Seoul 137-030. Korea

Seocho-Gu 160, Jalan Ampang OTHER ASIAN AND 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia PACIFIC COUNTRIES

Herzliya 46101, Israel Tel: +972 52 586245 Tel: +972 52 586246

Tel: +82 2 5458001

Tel: +60 3 2624592

K.T. Wu

Third Wave Publishing Corp.

2nd Fl.. No. 19-1, Lane 231

For a New Subscription

Tel: +82 2 5458002 FAX: +82 2 5498861

FAX: +60 3 2624591

U.S. 1-800-257-9402

FAX: +972 52 585685

Fu Hsing North Road ' Taipei 10445, Taiwan

Outside U.S. +1-609-426-5526

R.O.C. r Tel: +886 2 7136959 FAX:+886 2 7151950

APRIL 1993 -BYTE 259

YOUR DIRECT LINK

PRODUCT CATEGORY INDEX

For FREE product information from individual advertisers, circle the corresponding inquiry numbers on Your Direct Link Card!

To receive information for an entire product category, circle the category number on Your Direct Link Card!

Category No. Inquiry No.

HARDWARE

Page No.

1 ACCESSORIES/SUPPLIES

85 IBM-DIRECT (N.A.)

435 MANNESMANN TALLY (INT'L)

349 POLAROID CORP

67

401-402

404-405

331

381

333

433

189-190

379-380

417

92

427

374

107

125

354

435 359

ADD-IN BOARDS

ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC

BOCA RESEARCH INC. (INT'L)

COMPEX INC

COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECT

CONTROL CONCEPTS

CURTIS INC

DEXDYNE (INT'L)

DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING TECH

EDEN'S TECHNOLOGY CORP

GFKHAMBURG

JAMECO ELECTRONICS

JEN ELECTRONICA (INT'L)

MITAC

MYLEX CORP

QUA TECH INC

STRADA AUTOTECH, INC

TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC

BAR CODING

MANNESMANN TALLY (INT'L) VIDEX. INC

54

51

241

167

80IS-3

56IS-3

241

241

241

57

234

242

72IS-3

157

54

241

26-27

216

241

242

51 242

COMMUNICATIONS/NETWORKING

183-184 379-380

211-212

338

378

419

573-574

424

128

371-372

354

355-356

568 76

341

343

577

201 -202

573-574

209-210

112

113

207-208

116-117

555

562

576

197-198

423

141

140

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 230

EDEN'S TECHNOLOGY CORP 242

ELONEX (INT'L) 52-53

EMBARC / MOTOROLA 228

GTEK INC 242

INFINICON 242

MEGADATA 96IS-2

MICROTECH COMPUTER 228SO-3

MINICOM LTD 80IS-2

ROSE ELECTRONICS 8

SIGMA TECH SOFTWARE 242

TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC 242

TECHNOLOGIC SYSTEMS 246

COMPUTER SYSTEMS

APPRO INTERNATIONAL INC 228PC-7

COMMODORE 79

DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) CHI

DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) CIV

ELONEX (INT'L) 52-53

GATEWAY 2000 CII.1

GATEWAY 2000 40A-H

GSQUARED COMPUTERS 243

IBM - DIRECT (N.A.) 51

INES GMBH 243

KILA 243

MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 228NE-A-B

MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 228NE-1

MICRO-INTERNATIONAL, INC 229

MICROTECH COMPUTER 228SO-3

NAGA SYSTEMS CORP 218

NEC - ENTRY SYSTEMS 30-31

NSTL 235

OCEAN OFFICE AUTOMATION LTD 237

PC POWER & COOLING 69 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228MW-2 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228NE-5 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228SO-1

RECORTEC INC 219

TECHPOWER COMPANY LTD 80IS-2

TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 116A-B

TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 117

Category No. Inquiry No.

Page No.

365 152

345 346

TRI VALLEY TECHNOLOGY INC 243

ZEOS INTERNATIONAL 171

DATA ACQUISITION

LAWSON LABS INC 243

MICROSTAR LABORATORIES 243

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 172IDRC1-2

QUA TECH INC 216

7 DISK & OPTICAL DRIVES

375 GENERAL TECHNICS 244

104-105 MICRO SOLUTIONS COMP PROD 84

103 MICROPOLISCORP 159

120-121 PINNACLE MICRO 6-7

431-432 QUANTUM CORP (INT'L) 180

429-430 QUANTUM CORP (INT'L) 181

195 STARTECH INTERNATIONAL 233

364 TRANTOR SYSTEMS LTD 244

8 DISKETTES/DUPLICATORS

148 VERBATIM CORP 123

10 GRAPHICS TABLETS/MICE/PEN INPUT

440 HONEYWELL KEYBOARD DIVISION 72IS-1

11 KEYBOARDS

403 CHERRY MIKROSCHALTER GMBH (INT'L) 206-207

335 DATALUX CORP (INT'L) 244

335 DATALUX CORP (N.A.) 244

230 226 CIV 240 80IS-2 69 238

224

244

56IS-4

244

56IS-2

245

52-53

229

17

228NE-6

92

86

34-35

221

263

171

222

240

231

72IS-4

52-53

54

157

239

228MW-1

228NE-8

228PC-3

228SO-6

227

12

LAN HARDWARE

183-184

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC

187-188

CYBEX CORP

408-409

CYBEX CORP (INT'L)

206

LOGICAL CONNECTION

424

MINICOM LTD

116-117

PC POWER & COOLING

203

RALIN WHOLESALERS

13

LAPTOPS & NOTEBOOKS

178-179

ABC COMPUTER

330

AXONIXCORP

436-437

CHICONY

385

EDUCALC

425-426

FIRST INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER

337

GENOVATION, INC

86

IBM-DIRECT (N.A.)

201 -202

MICRO-INTERNATIONAL, INC

111

NEC - LAPTOPS

560

POLYWELL COMPUTERS, INC

130

S'N'W COMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS

139

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

142

TOSHIBA AMERICA INC

196

TOTE-A-LAP

215

VORTEX COMPUTERS

152

ZEOS INTERNATIONAL

14

MAIL ORDER

180-181

ADVANCED COMPUTER PROD

182

AMT INTERNATIONAL

200

CITITRONICS

186

COMPUTERLANE UNLTD

86

IBM-DIRECT (N.A.)

85

IBM - DIRECT (N.A.)

92

JAMECO ELECTRONICS

JDR MICRODEVICES

554

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

561

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

569

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

575

KENOSHA COMPUTER CENTER

193

NEVADA COMPUTER

Category No. Inquiry No.

Page No.

555 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228MW-2

562 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228NE-5

576 PERSONAL SOLUTION COMPUTERS 228SO-1

130 S'N'W COMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS 92

195'' STARTECH INTERNATIONAL 233

15

MEMORY/CHIPS/UPGRADES

200

CITITRONICS

231

191-192

FIRST SOURCE INT'L

232

417

GFKHAMBURG

72IS-3

90

INTEL CORP

10-11

89

INTEL CORP

22-23

92

JAMECO ELECTRONICS

157

94-95

KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY

42-43

367

MEMORY SUPERSTORE

245

204

TRANSCEND INFORMATION INC

236

205

TRANSCEND INFORMATION INC

250

387

TTI TECHNOLOGIES

245

199

WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGIES

220

16

MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE

88

INTEGRAND RESEARCH

46

97-98

LOGITECH INC

125

126-127

RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES

65

195

STARTECH INTERNATIONAL

233

n

MODEMS/MUILTIPLEXORS

170-171

AT&T PARADYNE (N.A.)

181

411-412

DATATRONICS TECHNOLOGY

97

*

JDR MICRODEVICES

239

168-169

ZYXEL USA

140-141

IS

MONITORS & TERMINALS

334

DATALUX CORP (INT'L)

245

334

DATALUX CORP (N.A.)

245

*

ELONEX (INT'L)

52-53

108-109

NANAO USA CORP (N.A.)

97

438-439

SAMTRON (INT'L)

76

213

TOUCHPLS

238

149-150

VIEWSONIC

18-19

19

MULTIMEDIA

154

ADDA

118

332

CONTROL VISION

245

176-177

COVOX INC

205

157-158

CREATIVE LABS INC

33

173

DIGISPEECH INC

196

382-383

DISPLAY RESEARCH LAB

246

96

LAHEY COMPUTER SYSTEMS

50

97-98

LOGITECH INC

125

•

MICROSOFT CORP

83

*

MICROSOFT CORP

85

*

MICROSOFT CORP

87

138

TEKTRONIX

47

167 VIDEO MAKER / VITEC 169

20 PRINTERS/PLOTTERS

183-184 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 230

185 BUFFALO PRODUCTS 223

LOGICAL CONNECTION 240

MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 228NE-1

MANNESMANN TALLY (INTl) 51

MINOLTA GMBH 96IS-1

NEC-PRINTERS 115

PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS 131

S'N'W COMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS 92

355-356 TECHNOLOGIC SYSTEMS 246

138 TEKTRONIX 47

163-164 XLICORP 134-135

21 PROGRAMMABLE HARDWARE

81 ELIASHIM MICROCOMPUTERS 147

206

577 435 421 110

130

260 BYTE- APRIL 1993

YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD

For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343!

FREE

>rmaiion on tne t<

ig products!

1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card

Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category.

2. Print Your Name and Address

Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343.

3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies!

Fill out this coupon carefully. Please Print.

BYTE

s

Name

Title

Company

Address

City

State

Zip

Phone

Fax

A. What is your primary job function/principal area of responsibility? (Check one)

1 3 MIS/DIP

2 □ Programmer/Systems Analyst

3 □ Admmstralion/Management A G Sales/Marketing

5 3 Engineer/Scientist

6 Q Other

B. What is your level of management responsibility?

7 □ Senior-level 9 3 Professional a Q Middle-level

C. Are you a reseller (VAR, VAD, Dealer, Consultant)?

10 Q Yes 11 □ No

D. What operating systems are you currently using? (Check all that apply)

12 3 PC/MS-DOS 15 □ Unix

13 3 DOS + Windows 16 Q MacOS

14 3 OS/2 17 3 VAX/VMS

E. For how many people do you

influence the purchase of hardware or software?

18 3 1-25 20 3 51-99

19 3 26-50 21 3 100 or more

□

APRIL 1993 86 96 99

Product Category

Disks & Optical Drives

7

Multimedia

19

Educational

30

Shareware

42

Information

Diskettes/Duplicators

8

Printers/Plotters

20

Engineering/Scientific

31

Software Duplication

43

Fax Boards/Machines

9

Programmable Hardware

21

Entertainment

32

Spreadsheets

44

information on the entire category

Graphics Tablets/Mice/

Scanners/OCR/Digitizers

22

Graphics

33

Unix

45

of products you're interested in.

Pen Input

10

Tape Drives

23

Macintosh

34

Utilities

46

Hardware

Keyboards

11

UPS

24

Mail Order

35

Windows

47

Accessories/Supplies 1 Add-in Boards 2

LAN Hardware

12

Mathematical/Statistical

36

Word Processing

48

Laptops & Notebooks

13

?F>

Miscellaneous Software

37

Bar Coding 3

Mail Order

14

CAD/CAM

2fi

On-Line Services

38

49

Communications/Networking 4

Memory/Chips/Upgrades

15

Communications/Networkinq 27

Operating Systems

39

Recruitment

50

Computer Systems 5

Miscellaneous Hardware

16

Data Acquisition

28

Programming Languages/

Miscellaneous

51

Data Acquisition 6

Modems/Multiplexors Monitors & Terminals

1/ 18

Database

29

Tools Security

40 41

Inquiry Numbers 52-233

52 53 54 55 56 57 56 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77

104 130

105 131

107 133

108 134

110 136

111 137

115 141

116 142

156 182 208

157 183 209

158 184 210

159 185 211

160 186 212

187 213

188 214 163 189 215 164 165 166 192 218

193 219

194 220

161 162

190 216

191 217

167 168

117 143

118 144

119 145

120 146

121 147

122 148

123 149

124 150

125 151

126 152

127 153

128 154

129 155

169 195 221

170 171

196 222

197 223

172 19B 224

173 199 225

174 200 226

175 201 227

176 202 228

177 203 229

178 204 230

179 205 231

180 206 232

181 207 233

Inquiry Numbers 234-406

234 259

235 260

236 261

237 262

238 263

239 264

240 265

241 266

242 267

243 268

244 269

245 270

246 271

247 272

248 273

249 274

250 275

251 276

252 277

253 278

254 279

255 280

256 281

257 282

284 309

285 310

286 311

287 312

288 313

289 314

290 315

291 316

292 317

293 318

294 319

295 320

296 321

297 322

298 323

299 324

300 325

301 326

302 327

303 328

304 329

305 330

306 331

307 332

334 359 384

335 360 385

336 361 386

337 362 387

338 363 388

339 364 389

340 365

341 366

342 367 392

343 368 393

344 369

345 370

346 371

347 372

390 391

258 283 308 333

394 395 396

397

348 373 398

349 374 399

350 375 400

351 376 401

352 377 402

353 378 403

354 379 404

355 380 405

356 381 406

357 382 407

358 383 408

Inquiry Numbers 409-590

409 435 461

410 436 462

411 437 463

412 438 464

413 439 465

414 440 466

415 441 467

416 442 468

417 443 469

418 444 470

419 445 471

420 446 472

421 447 473

422 448 474

423 449 475

424 450 476

425 451 477

426 452 478

427 453 479

428 454 480

431 457 483

432 458 484

433 459 485

434 460 486

487 513

488 514

489 515

490 516

491 517

492 518

493 519

494 520

495 521

496 522

497 523

498 524

499 525

500 526

501 527

502 528

503 529

504 530

505 531

506 532

507 533

508 534

509 535

510 536

539 565

540 566

541 567

542 568

543 569

544 570

545 571

546 572

547 573

548 574

549 575

550 576

551 577

552 578

553 579

554 580

555 581

556 582

557 583

558 584

559 585

560 586

561 587

562 588

511 537 563 589

512 538 564 590

Inquiry Numbers 591-765

591 616

592 617

593 618

594 619

595 620

596 621

597 622

598 623

599 624

600 625

601 626

602 627

603 628

604 629

605 630

606 631

607 632

608 633

609 634

610 635

611 636

612 637

613 638

614 639

641 666

642 667

643 668

644 669

645 670

646 671

647 672

648 673

649 674

650 675

651 676

652 677

653 678

654 679

655 680

656 681

657 682

658 683

659 684

660 685

661 686

662 687

663 688

664 689

665 690

691 716 741

692 717 742

693 718 743

694 719 744

695 720 745

696 721

697 722

746 747

698 723 748

699 724 749

700 725 750

701 726 751

702 727 752

703 728 753

704 729 754

705 730 755

706 731 756

707 732 757

708 733 758

709 734

710 735

711 736 761

712 737 762

713 738

714 739

759 760

763 764

715 740 765

Inquiry Numbers 766-947

766 792

767 793

768 794

769 795

770 796

771 797

772 798

773 799

774 800

775 801

776 802

777 803

778 804

779 805

780 806

781 807

782 808

783 809

784 810

785 811

786 812

787 813

788 814

789 815

790 816

818 844

819 845

820 846

821 847

822 848

823 849

824 850

825 851

826 852

827 853

828 854

829 855

830 856

831 857

832 858

833 859

834 860

835 861

836 862

837 863

838 864

839 865

840 866

841 867

842 868

843 869

897 923

898 924 925 926 927 928

870 896 871

872 898

873 899

874 900

875 901

876 902

877 903 929

878 904 930

879 905 931

880 906 932

881 907 933

882 908 934

883 909 935

884 910 936

885 911 937

886 912 938

887 913 939

888 914 940

889 915 941

890 916 942

891 917 943

892 918 944

893 919 945

894 920 946

895 921

947

Inquiry Numbers 948-1122

948 973

949 974

950 975

951 976

952 977

953 978

954 979

955 980

956 981

957 982

958 983

959 984

960 985

961 986

962 987

963 9B8

964 989

965 990

966 991

967 992

968 993

969 994

970 995

971 996

972 997

998 1023

999 1024

1000 1025

1001 1026

1002 1027

1003 1028

1004 1029

1005 1030

1006 1031

1007 1032

1008 1033

1009 1034

1010 1035

1011 1036

1012 1037

1013 1038

1014 1039

1015 1040

1016 1041

1017 1042

1018 1043

1019 1044

1020 1045

1021 1046

1022 1047

1048 1073 1098

1049 1074 1099

1050 1075 1100

1051 1076 1101

1052 1077 1102

1053 1078 1103

1054 1079 1104

1055 1080 1105

1056 1081 1106

1057 1082 1107

1058 1083 1108

1059 1084 1109

1060 1085 1110

1061 1086 1111

1062 1087 1112

1063 1088 1113

1064 1089 1114

1065 1090 1115

1066 1091 1116

1067 1092 1117

1068 1093 1118

1069 1094 1119

1070 1095 1120

1071 1096 1121

1072 1097 1122

Inquiry Numbers 1123-1304

1123 1149

1124 1150

1125 1151

1126 1152

1127 1153

1128 1154

1129 1155

1130 1156

1131 1157

1132 1158

1133 1159

1134 1160

1135 1161

1136 1162

1137 1163

1138 1164

1139 1165

1140 1166

1141 1167

1142 1168

1143 1169

1144 1170

1145 1171

1146 1172

1147 1173

1148 1174

1175 1201

1176 1202

1177 1203

1178 1204

1179 1205

1180 1206

1181 1207

1182 1208

1183 1209

1184 1210

1185 1211

1186 1212

1187 1213

1188 1214

1189 1215

1190 1216

1191 1217

1192 1218

1193 1219

1194 1220

1195 1221

1196 1222

1197 1223

1198 1224

1199 1225

1200 1226

1227 1253 1279

1228 1254 1280

1229 1255 1281

1230 1256 1282

1231 1257 1283

1232 1258 1284

1233 1259 1285

1234 1260 1286

1235 1261 1287

1236 1262 1288

1237 1263 1289

1238 1264 1290

1239 1265 1291

1240 1266 1292

1241 1267 1293

1242 1268 1294

1243 1269 1295

1244 1270 1296

1245 1271 1297

1246 1272 1298

1247 1273 1299

1248 1274 1300

1249 1275 1301

1250 1276 1302

1251 1277 1303

1252 1278 1304

Inquiry Numbers 1305-1479

1305 1330

1306 1331

1307 1332

1308 1333

1309 1334

1310 1335

1311 1336

1312 1337

1313 1338

1314 1339

1315 1340

1316 1341

1317 1342

1318 1343

1319 1344

1320 1345

1321 1346

1322 1347

1323 1348

1324 1349

1325 1350

1326 1351

1327 1352

1328 1353

1329 1354

1355 1380

1356 1381

1357 1382

1358 1383

1359 1384

1360 1385

1361 1386

1362 1387

1363 1388

1364 1389

1365 1390

1366 1391

1367 1392

1368 1393

1369 1394

1370 1395

1371 1396

1372 1397

1373 1398

1374 1399

1375 1400

1376 1401

1377 1402

1378 1403

1379 1404

1405 1430 1455

1406 1431 1456

1407 1432 1457

1408 1433 1458

1409 1434 1459

1410 1435 1460

1411 1436 1461

1412 1437 1462

1413 1438 1463

1414 1439 1464

1415 1440 1465

1416 1441 1466

1417 1442 1467

1418 1443 1468

1419 1444 1469

1420 1445 1470

1421 1446 1471

1422 1447 1472

1423 1448 1473

1424 1449 1474

1425 1450 1475

1426 1451 1476

1427 1452 1477

1428 1453 1478

1429 1454 1479

YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD

For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343!

cz ~0

Q.

"D P

CO

O X

> zt

o o

ro

CD

CO

I

CO CD

ro en

> D m

CD

m

30

<

o m

BD

m

See reverse side for card.

1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card

Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category.

2. Print Your Name and Address

Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343.

3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies!

BYTE m

YOUR DIRECT LIN

PRODUCT CATEGORY INDEX

For FREE product information from individual advertisers, circle the corresponding inquiry numbers on your Direct Link Card!

To receive information for an entire product category, circle the category number on your Direct Link Card!

Category No.

Inquiry No. Pago No.

373 ELSIST 246

414 FAST ELECTRONIC GMBH (INTL) 73

342 IO TECH 246

JDR MICRODEVICES 239

357-358 TRIBAL MICROSYSTEMS 246

362 XELTEK 246

363 Z-WORLD ENGINEERING 246

22 SCANNERS/OCR/DIGITIZERS

81 ELIASHIM MICROCOMPUTERS

573-574 MICROTECH COMPUTER

147 228SO-3

52

SECURITY

352-353

SECURE IT INC

23

TAPE DRIVES

74-75

COLORADO MEMORY SYSTEMS

344

LAGUNA DATA SYSTEMS

348

OVERLAND DATA INC

350

QUALSTAR CORP

147

VALITEK INC

384

WILTEC, INC

24

UPS

66 AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION

114 MINUTEMAN

116-117 PC POWER & COOLING

145-146 TRIPP LITE

25 247 247 247 178 247

110 89 69 94

SOFTWARE

25 BUSINESS

79 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES

339-340 INDUS

102 MEDIA CYBERNETICS

376-377 MICROBE

115 PATTON & PATTON

556 PC EXPO

551 PC EXPO

563 PC EXPO

570 PC EXPO

422 SZKI RECOGNITA CORP (INTL)

26 CAD/CAM

558 EVOLUTION COMPUTING

566 EVOLUTION COMPUTING

361 WINTEK CORP

37

248

128

248

172

228NE-2

228MW-4

228PC-2

228SO-4

77

228NE-3

228PC-1

248

27 COMMUNICATIONS/NETWORKING

161 CASTELLE CORP

211-212 EMBARC / MOTOROLA

82 FARALLON (N.A.)

415-416 FUTURESOFT ENGINEERING

424 MINICOM LTD

118 PERSOFTINC

28

DATA ACQUISITION

341

INES GMBH

347

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

29

DATABASE

68-S9

BORLAND INTERNATIONAL

79

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES

216

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES

*

MICROSOFT CORP

*

MICROSOFT CORP (N.A.)

212

228

73

80IS-2

80IS-2

161

243 248

13

37

136

56A-B

57

Category No. Inquiry No.

* RAIMA CORP

129 SEQUITER SOFTWARE INC

30

61-62 63-64 91

EDUCATIONAL

ABACUS SOFTWARE AETECH

INTERFACE GROUP MCGRAWHILLNRI (N.A.)

31 ENGINEERING/SCIENTIFIC

165-166 ALLMICRO

368-369 COHORT SOFTWARE INC

155-156 ITERATED SYSTEMS

134-135 LANDMARK RESEARCH INTL CORP

101 MATHSOFT INC

100 MATHSOFT INC

428 ON TIME MKT/KARSTEN PETERSEN

360 VISTA MICROSYSTEMS

33

GRAPHICS

368-369 COHORT SOFTWARE INC 80 COREL SOFTWARE

108-109 NANAO USA CORP (N.A.) 138 TEKTRONIX

VERMONT CREATIVE SOFTWARE

35 MAIL ORDER

406 COMPUSAVE INTERNATIONAL (INTL)

407 COMPUTER QUICK (INTL) 418 GREY MATTER LTD

* PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE

99 PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE

PROGRAMMER'S SHOP (N.A.)

441 SOFTLINE CORP

36 MATHEMATICAL/STATISTICAL

351 SAS INSTITUTE INC

133 STATSOFT

136-137 SYSTATINC

37 MISCELLANEOUS SOFTWARE

428 ON TIME MKT/KARSTEN PETERSEN

38 ON-LINE SERVICES

450 BIX

39

OPERATING SYSTEMS

87 IBM PERSONAL SOFTWARE PROD

MARK WILLIAMS CO 124 QUARTERDECK OFFICE SYSTEMS

Category No.

go No.

Inquiry No.

Page No.

75

172

DALLAS SEMICONDUCTOR

24

188

81

ELIASHIM MICROCOMPUTERS

147

413

EUTRON (INT'L)

97

414

FAST ELECTRONIC GMBH (INT'L)

73

83-84

GLENCO ENGINEERING

163

119

174-175

INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYSTEMS

202

147

126-127

RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES

65

70-71

131-132

SOFTWARE SECURITY INC

203

80A-B

386

STARTEK

249

45

UNIX

103

77-78

GREENVIEW DATA

139

248

214

HUMMINGBIRD COMMUNICATIONS

192

118

*

MARK WILLIAMS CO

91

113

420

MKS / MORTICE KERN SYSTEMS

80IS-4

146

162

SUNSOFT

2-3

190

96IS-2

248

46

UTILITIES

165-166

ALLMICRO

103

336

DIAGSOFT INC

249

134-135

LANDMARK RESEARCH INTL CORP

113

248

122

PKWARE INC

160

48

217

STORAGE DIMENSIONS

58

97 47

143-144

TOUCHSTONE SOFTWARE

90

9

47

WINDOWS

61-62

ABACUS SOFTWARE

119

73

CENTRAL POINT SOFTWARE

38-39

cm

418

GREY MATTER LTD

96IS-4

57

214

HUMMINGBIRD COMMUNICATIONS

192

96IS-4

93

KEA SYSTEMS LTD

88

59

*

MICROSOFT CORP

107

60-61

108-109

NANAO USA CORP (N.A.)

97

76-77

118

PERSOFT INC

161

56IS-1

366

PIXEL PERFECT / MEDICAL ADVISOR

249

153

ZYLAB/ DIVISION OF IDI

95

249

48

WORD PROCESSING/DTP

209

•

MICROSOFT CORP

21

93

422

SZKI RECOGNITA CORP (INT'L)

77

153

ZYLAB/DIVISION OF IDI

95

14-15 91

187

40 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/TOOLS

159-160 BLINK INC

77-78 GREENVIEW DATA

418 GREY MATTER LTD

370 IVERSON SOFTWARE, INC

KEDWELL SOFTWARE 106 MICROWAY

428 ON TIME MKT/KARSTEN PETERSEN

119 PHAR LAP SOFTWARE INC

123 POPKIN SAW 8, SYSTEMS INC

* PROGRAMMER'S SHOP (N.A.)

126-127 RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES 151 WATCOM PRODUCTS INC

109

139

96IS-4

249

80IS-1

142

96IS-2

82

175

76-77

65

29

41

SECURITY

165-166 ALLMICRO 103

403 CHERRY MIKROSCHALTER GMBH (INTL) 206-207

GENERAL

49 BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS

61-62 ABACUS SOFTWARE

* COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S

BOOK SOCIETY COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S

BOOK SOCIETY C++ 410 DATAPRO INTERNATIONAL

MCGRAW HILL BOOKSTORE

* UNIXWORLD

* UNIXWORLD

51 MISCELLANEOUS

BYTE SUB MESSAGE

552 C.E.T.R.A. 557 C.E.T.R.A.

564 C.E.T.R.A.

571 C.E.T.R.A.

553 DEXPO / MILLER FREEMAN, INC 559 DEXPO / MILLER FREEMAN, INC 567 DEXPO / MILLER FREEMAN, INC

572 DEXPO / MILLER FREEMAN, INC 194 SAFEWARE

565 THE COMPUTER MUSEUM

148A-B

149

172IDRC1-2

96IS-3

92

184A-B

184

202 226MW-3 228NE-4 228PC-6 228SO-2 228MW-5 228NE-7 228PC-5 228SO-5 225 228PC-4

APRIL 1993 • BYTE 261

EDITORIAL INDEX

For more information on any of the companies covered in articles, columns, or news stories in this issue, circle the appropriate inquiry number on Your Direct Link Card. Each page number refers to the first page of the article or section in which the company name appears.

Inquiry No.

Page No.

A

1288 Aatrix Software

78

976 Abacus Software

150

1135 ABC Computer

62

1178 Accolade

81

1138 Adambyte

63

977 AddStor

150

1182 Adobe Systems 49, 98

1296 Advanced Graphics 80

Software Advanced 40

Telecommunications

Research Institute

International

1146 Advanced Visual 120, 129,

Systems 143, 148

978 Aladdin Systems 150

1224 Aldus 98, 183 Always Technology 215

979 Alysis Software 150

1225 American Megatrends 179 America-On-Line 28

1160 Amtec 120,148

Engineering

Apple Computer 28, 32, 40,

98, 194,201

1075 Applied Engineering 173

Aptronix 111

Art Plus Publishing 41

1077 Asante Technologies 173 1294 ASD Software 80

AT&T 40

1136 Atto Technology 63

B

1152 Boeing 148

1278 Bogen 72

Communications

c

Canon 36

Carnegie Mellon 40

University

Casio Computer 28 Central Point Software 44

City University 40

Business School

1147 CoHort Software 120,148

1163 Commodore 81

Business Machines Computer Associates 32

1164 Corel Systems 81,98,

215 1169 Creative Labs 81

1285 Curran Software 74

1271 Data Depot 68

1149 Data Description 120, 148

Dataquest 36

1131 Dauphin Technology 62

David Sarnoff 120

Research Center

1076 Dayna 173

Communications 1133 DEC 32,62,98, 129

1232 Dell Computer 164

1226 Diamond Computer 179

Systems

1148 DSP Development 148

1078 E-Machines 173

1137 Envisio 63

EO 40

1083 Epson America 55

Inquiry No. Page No.

1293 Etcetera 80

1141 Expert Graphics 64

1080, Farallon Computing

1230

980 Fifth Generation

Systems 1144 50/50 Micro Electronics Freeport Data FuziWare

173, 185

150

64

215 111

1167, Gateway 2000 12,81,

1233 164 General Magic 40 Georgia Institute of 120,

Technology 129

GeoWorks 28

1081 Global Village 173

Communication

1158 Golden Technologies 148

981 Golden Triangle 150

Computers

H

1234 Hewlett-Packard 111, 164 Hiroshima Institute of 111

Technology

Hitachi 36,111

Hughes Aircraft 98

Huntington Group 111

HyperLogic 111

1161, IBM 36,98,120,

1222 129,137,148,177

InfoCorp 98

1273 Innova Electronics 68

1134 Insight Distribution 62

Network 982 Integrated Information 150

Technology 1171 Intel 32,36,81

International AVS 129

Center Intuit 28

J

1162 Jaguar Software 120, 148 Japanese Fuzzy Logic 111 Systems Institute

K

Kaleida Labs 32

Kendall Square 129

Research 1279 Klos Technologies 72

Kumamoto National 111

College of Technology 1166 Kyocera Electronics 81

The Laboratory for 111

International Fuzzy Engineering Research 1086 Logitech 58

Lotus Development 98

M

1272 M&SComputer 68

1283 Macintosh Business 74

Systems

Inquiry No.

Page No.

1292 Manugistics 80

1155 Maplnfo 148 Market Intelligence 111

1156 The Math Works 148 Matsushita Electric 40,

Industrial 111

1227 Maxtor 179 1168 MCI 81 1142 Memorex Computer 64

Supplies Metus Systems Group 111 1132 Micro Electronics 62

1228 Micronics Computer 179 1177 MicroProse Software 81 1084, Microsoft 12,28,32, 1174, 44,55,81, 1179, 98,211 1181

Mitre 143

1221 Mortice Kern Systems 191

Motorola 28, 40, 111

N

120, 137

National Center for

Supercomputing

Applications National Institute of 143

Standards and

Technology National Institutes 137

of Health The National Research 120

Council National 111

Semiconductor 1175 NCR 81

Neuralogix 111

Next Computer 40

Norton 44

Novell 210

1159 Oberon Software 148

OKI Electric Industry 111

1235 Olivetti 164 Omron 111 Oracle 129

1143 Orange Micro 64

P

Palm Computing 28

Paragon Imaging 143

1274 Para Systems 68 1287 Pathtrace Systems 78 1165 PC Powers Cooling 81 1176 Phase III Computing 81

Philips 40

Pinnacle Publishing 98

1231 Pioneer 193

Communications

America

1275 Power Alarm 68 Precision Visuals 120,129

1139 Procom Technology 63

1295 Programmed Logic 80

1079 PSI Integration 173

1236 Psion " 164

Q

1145 Quanta Quark

Quarterdeck Office Systems

R

1153 Research Systems

64 98 40

129, 148

Inquiry No.

Page No.

Ross Systems

40

Ryan

111

s

Sandia National

120

Laboratories

San Diego

143

Supercomputer

Center

SBT Accounting

98

Systems

1140 Seiko Instruments

63

1172 Seikosha America

81

1284 Select Software Tools

74

1237 Sharp Electronics

164

Siemens Nixdorf

38,40

1297 Sigma Designs

64

1154 Signal Analytics

148

Silicon Graphics

120,

129, 137

1281 Software Emancipa

ion

74

Technology

Software Publisher'

98

Association

1277 Sonix Communications

72

Sony

40

1151 Spyglass

137

148

983 Stac Electronics

28

150

Statsoft

120

Sun Microsystems

129

1223 SunPro

189

1082, Supra

81

173

1173

1290 1289 1282 1180

Sybase 129

Sybiz Solutions 78

Symantec 78

Synopsis Software 74

Systat 81,120

1276 Telecraft Industries 72

Teradata 143

1085 Texas Instruments 36,56

Togai Infralogic 111

Tools & Techniques 98

Toshiba 36

Trantor Systems 215

1170 Turtle Beach Systems 81

u

1229 UltraStor 179

University of California 143 University of Karlsruhe 40

University of Lowell 129

University of 129

New Mexico

University of 143

Pennsylvania

1157 Visual Numerics Vodafone

w

1150 Wavefront

Technologies Wolfram Research

X Business Group Xerox

1238 Zeos International

148

36

129, 148 120

36 129

164

262 BYTE • APRIL 1993

ACTIVE COLOR 486-33, SHIPPING NOW!

Winner of " BEST COLOR DISPLAY " at COMDEX '92

VORTEX is committed to suppling top quality notebook computers. Our customers include NASA, Hewlett Packard, NCR, Texas Instruments, Cyrix, AT&T, Lockheed and the U.S. Navy to name a few. These discriminating customers depend on VORTEX, because we provide:

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STOP BIT

PATRICIA S E Y B O L D

The Learning Organization

No technological innovation can succeed without simultaneous organizational change

Organizational productivity constitutes the missing return on investment without which our computer industry, our organizations, and our global economy have become mired in finger-pointing gridlock. New information technologies cannot solve these problems because the source is organizational in nature. Organizations still can't assimilate the technology that corporate information technologists are trying to implant today.

The rejection of technology is rife in most organizations. New technology comes in and is jettisoned back out or remains largely unabsorbed and unused. Why? Because people are reluctant to alter their work habits. Major changes are needed in organizational practices, behavior, and culture.

If we are going to make companies more responsive, more flexible, and more viable in the global information economy, we have to teach our organizations to learn. For better or worse, that responsibility is falling squarely on the shoulders of the information technologist.

These de facto change agents are saddled with both designing new distributed computing applications and changing entrenched organizational behaviors that threaten to subvert their best efforts. To avoid disaster, they should follow the basic principles of organizational learning and build them into each design effort.

One key is to make things tangible and visible. The most common complaints I hear from all types of workers in information-intensive organizations are, "I didn't know," "No one told me," "How was I supposed to know that?" and "I know we must have that information somewhere, but I don't know how to get it." Despite our efforts to deploy information technology, we haven't managed to communicate relevant information.

Suppose your assignment is to design a document management system to track and maintain changes in manufacturing standards. Your company produces 50 different products in 11 worldwide manufacturing facilities. The application needs to leverage the PCs and LANs deployed throughout the company. The goal is to streamline the process of the creation, approval, and dissemination of manufacturing and packaging standards to meet your company's stringent quality requirements. This new distributed documentation application will replace the company's current, outmoded, paper-based processes. Where does organizational learning fit in this project?

What is invisible in the current manufacturing standards process is the actual creation of the standards. Standards are created by the R&D group, with little input from the manufacturing floor. Using the principles of organizational learning, the standards development process becomes a collaborative effort among the R&D, manufacturing, purchasing, and quality-control departments.

By designing the application to solicit input from all participants in the process at the outset, you eliminate cycles of approval and modification, cutting valuable days, weeks, and months off the standards creation cycle. You're also building in the sharing of experience and knowledge across functional workgroups with different skills and opinions. The system captures information about ingredients, weather conditions, batches, and machinery, from all the participants, thus documenting the assumptions on which the manufacturing processes are based. And by instituting a set of work-flow rules that automatically route these standards for approval, you are making explicit a set of organizational procedures that can then be further refined, questioned, and streamlined.

By approaching the development of distributed applications in a way that incorporates these principles of organizational learning, you provide a huge service to your organization. You are also ensuring that the new technology has a chance to take root and make people more productive, because you're confronting the necessary changes in organizational behavior head-on.

A learning organization encourages learning and experimentation among its employees and is masterful at transforming itself to create and meet new market conditions. A learning organization can transform itself over and over again. Dynamic change is no longer feared, but becomes a way of life. Learning to share information, to document assumptions, and to question those assumptions is the first step on the long journey toward improved organizational productivity. ■

Patricia Seybold is the founder and CEO of the Patricia Seyhold Group, a consulting and information services firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, and specializing in distributed computing for networked organizations. You can reach her on BIX c/o "editors. "

Stop Bit is a forum for informed opinion on personal computing topics. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of BYTE. Your contributions and comments are welcome. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458.

264 B YTE • APRIL 1993

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS SPOLLEN©1993

DELL CUTS PRICES.

IBM AND

COMPAQ

REACT

WITH A FEW

CHOICE

WORDS.

When Dell cut prices up to $300 on its Performance Series,

IBM and Compaq reacted with a few choice words.

The price cuts aren't the only thing that they reacted to; these

systems already offered up to 50% better performance than our previous systems, and at tip to 25% lower prices. Yikes!

D0LL

800-348-6151

WHEN CALLING, PLEASE REFERENCE #11E94

HOURS: 7AM-9PM CT MON-FRI, 8AM-4PM CT SAT, 10AM-3PM CT SUN.

IN CANADA, CALL 800-668-3021. IN MEXICO CITY, 228-7811.

' Quaruntees available in USA only [or registered owners of Dril Performance Serifs systems jmrcnii.scd after 7/1/92. For a complete copy, please call our TechFa*"1 line a! 1-800-950-1329 or mile Dell 1 ISA L.P., 9505 Arboretum Hint., Austin TX 78759-7299. Attention guarantees. Leasing arranged by Leasing (iroufj, Inc. I >n-site sereice provided by BancTec Service Corporation. <)n-site service may no: he available in certain remote areas. tWINMARKS test results ohtuiueti by nimting WINBENCH tier. 3,1 hi (W0 jc480 (25d colors). $WINMARKS test results obtained by running WINBENCH vex. 2.5 si 1024 v 7«i. The bud Inside logo is a registered £HidemarJ< and Pentium. i4rS6 and $86 ore traaemarfei aj fniei Qfiporasiin. MS-DOS is o registered trademark and WNdmes is a trademark oj Mtcnso/t Cur/mration. UNIX is o registered iriufcmnik of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc. in i/il' I 'need .Simes aultither countries. FORTUNE 500 s o registered trademark o) The Time Inc. Magazine Company. Dell disclaims proprietarj interest in the mollis and names of others. e;S93 Dull Computer Corpomtitm. All rigfas reserved.

E DELL 333s/L

S6™ SX 33MHz SYSTEM

EASE: $44/MO.

2MB RAM

I 20MB (17ms] HARD DRIVE

3 ISA EXPANSION SLOTS

/GA 800 MONITOR

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Intel isn't the only thing in this

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E DELL 425s/L

36 SX 25MHz SYSTEM

LEASE: $55/MO.

4MB RAM

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AAi

E DELL 466/ME

"""—^

86 DX2 66MHz SYSTEM

"Imrjrzi

I3j°j

LEASE: $111/MO.

Frsfl'Tn

<-*ftlr9l&

4MB RAM

170MB (17ms) HARD DRIVE

Ift-iUJ

lP!r

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486, the 66MH: [1X2. If

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quick serviced Two-thirds ot the

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UPGRADEABLE PROCESSOR

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■ 1M1-I:. 50MHz, and 66M11: — you tun configure |u

.-d. Info

ith

FROM NOW UNTIL APRIL FOOLS DAY,

THE JOKE'S ON IBM AND COMPAQ.

DELL PERFORMANCE SERIES 425s/L i486 SX 25MHz

NOW $\599

(SAVE $469)

D0LL

800-348-6149

WHEN CALLING, PLEASE REFERENCE #11ED3.

HOURS: 7AM-9PM CT MON-FRI, 8AM-4PM CT SAT, 10AM-3PM CT SUN,

IN CANADA, CALL 800-668-3021. IN MEXICO CITY, 228-7811.

Laugh while you can.

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All this for just $1,599? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! DELL" 425s/L i486" SX 25MHz SYSTEM

' LEASE0: S59/MO

> 4MB RAM

' 170MB (17ms) HARD DRIVE

■ 3 ISA EXPANSION SLOTS

' UPGRADEABLE PROCESSOR • ACCELERATED LOCAL BUS VIDEO WITH 51 2KB VIDEO RAM

■ ULTRASCAN'" 14C MONITOR

(14", 1024 x 768, .28mm, Nl)

• DUAL DISKETTE DRIVES (3.5" AND 5.25") ' MS-DOS1" 5.0/MICROSOFT

WINDOWS"'' 3.1/

MOUSE

in

iM

w

Jito

Very Serious Video Performance.

Our accelerated local bus video gives

you up to three times the video speed of

IBM ValuePoint's or Compaq Prolinea's

non-local bus video*. Which makes

them look, well, laughable.