DO YOU NEED MS-DOS 6.0? APRIL 1993 THE WORLDWIDE COMPUTING AUTHORITY Best Little PCs Page 164 RghtL- b. jTJtvt£l!e Software keeps getting bigger and bigger, demanding faster PCs and more disk space. Fortunately, there are SOllJtiOnS. Turn to page 98. SPECIAL REPORT: Page 150 Shrink your data 8 new ways to extend your Mac PowerBook EXCLUSIVE; BYTE tests soft /are makers' claims of «"iimum hardware requirements. 04 o 440235 o $3.50 U.S.A./$4.50 IN CANADA A McGraw-Hill Publication/0360-5280 Whether You're On The Road OrP i V lags »-:" • -..-' i: % '$#> ■j&. m\ b;. Aldus introduces Fetch, a new multiuser, mixed- media 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 I x The F Fi3T OPTJGAL rlAFiD DFUVE, "lthasal9-millisecond time and outperformed every other device we tested herr Stanley Wszo - — S : 1 :.?." . 1 ' 1 <— 1 * 1 w ._ "...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 Seagate 5 " 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-1 30, 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 fai (Ha* %it .%«(■. Saw (9 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 Ver- mont 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 perfor- mance 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 proces- sor, 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 com- plex software. We wanted better graphics and more features, and it was simply a matter of wait- ing 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 con- sumed every iota of that pow- er. 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 in- credibly good deals for 486-based machines, the hardware industry quietly lured many people into buying inade- quate 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 in- adequate systems on which to run it. The obvious short- term 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 con- figuration 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 ad- dress the fatware problem with shared code in object- oriented 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 pric- ing — 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 reason- able to expect that software makers will continue the trend of adding more features, and many of those fea- tures 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 possibil- ities 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 CD- ROM 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' pack- aged 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 BUSI NESS W ITH PLAN TO BUY INSTALLED IN COMPANY BEST NEW DATABASE MANAGER MOST IMPROVED DATABASE PRODUCT fm , H^,„«» ' 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 stand- alone & 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, | 1 1-800-336-6464, 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 Dig es , 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. BI 4383 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 print- ing a copy of the source code." OS/2 gives you the capability to have mul- tiple 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 pre- emptive 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 Sup- port Line, IBMLink, the IBM OS/2 bulletin board system and several OS/2 developer forums on © iSr BBftmriWlMIMfiHI Isisj. imi ■ w3552fim fmmQ m, *l): illllaq) axuttritafjmmjua. mtjumjwt- Wtr.T«.»flatsirsfe}: ret«*n(fiE1UIL£JMB); ) i((MM<|» I Msnge&afMLiexny. JLIne 1850* 1665 C8lu»» 3 Files Insert » ^"& wpw ^»*ag Ti wirf e-^ £;*™» lW a KM IMS r-m 'kM am CM tana i ISflJ (lia taw* WtnCalcFra»eflect(hKnd. {HSCTlJJp plf3ck->c>!Grld = Board.cx; ptrack->cyCrid - BoatcJ.cy: ptiack ->fs |= TF_GRID: ) In *«MI -I { ;- '«iil 'I return((mSUL[ttc); AMI: i* I* Mwn *ia tl* mnl tiamw. minim t*< 1* i(oldFraoeP[oc[t»eitl. «g. bj>1, sp2]] 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 Kernalprotection- DOS/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 mem- ory 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. 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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 view- ing 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 func- tions. 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 stan- dard 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 1 1 1 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 moni- tor 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 econom- ically 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 1 49 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 50). 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 ne- glected 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 resolu- tion 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 3000T- 040/200 and 4000-040/120 was also fair and enlightened. Thank you for expanding BYTE beyond another Mac- clone magazine. It has the unique position of being poten- tially 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 se- lected one pet problem to test and erro- neously concluded that Braincel's propri- etary algorithm , back percolation, performs worse than back propagation. This conclusion was due to several avoidable errors. First, Caudill was familiar with the op- timal 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 prod- ucts. Second, although suboptimal architecture and pa- rameter 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-net- work field is to never overtrain the network, or it will per- form 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 percola- tion 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 Brain- cel'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 pa- rameters based on my experience with other networks. I have seen many new networks that contain improve- ments 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 algo- rithm. 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 «- f f 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 1 72 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. Per- form3 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 per- form 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 pat- tern of movie-making. This blinds him to its real poten- tialities. 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 anima- tions 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 corrup- tion 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'" PC- NET. 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. A II 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 l 9 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 five- channel 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 EISA- based 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 addi- tional 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 1 07 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 1-800- 77-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. Code- named 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 final- ized, 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 Geo- Works (Berkeley, CA). Zoomer will fea- ture 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 in- clude 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 key- board 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 in- clude America On-Line (Vienna, VA, interactive, on-line service) and Palm Com- puting (Los Altos, CA, applications software and handwriting recognition). Ref- erence 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 be- tween 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 ver- sion of MS-DOS to carry Windows into the future. Sources say the combined DOS/Windows operating system, code- named 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 direc- tion 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 Mi- crosoft that asserts a prerelease version of MS-DOS 6 infringes two Stac patents. In an- nouncing the lawsuit, Stac president Gary Clow provided a detailed ver- sion of discus- sions that he said took place between his company and top Microsoft offi- cials before the lawsuit was filed, regarding Microsoft possibly li- censing Stac's data compression for use in MS-DOS 6. "From the very outset, Mi- crosoft 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 stan- dard.' " Regarding Clow's version of what went on during these ne- gotiations, 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 an- titrust violations by Microsoft, said in a terse statement that it "did not come to a final decision and will reconvene in the near fu- ture." The failure to take action means that, for now, the FTC is not likely to take punitive mea- sures against Microsoft following a two-and-a-half-year investiga- tion into the company's DOS licensing and other business practices. □ 28 BYTE • APRIL 1 993 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 1 6-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 1 1 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 C LASS 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 second- generation local bus and graphics accelerator, allow- ing graphics infor- mation 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 factory- integrated, high-performance 10BaseT Ethernet™ adapter. Plus, every Image Series PC is designed with True Color support of up to 16.8 million colors for photo- realistic 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 1 1 2 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 rep- resented 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 man- ager at Microsoft, said Microsoft is always working on the next versions of its appli- cations and operating systems, and Chica- go 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 sup- port 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 $ 1 0,000 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 per- formance 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 sup- porting the EISA and PCI bus architec- tures will follow the AXP PS and will range in price from $4000 to $6000. A "future" desktop system, based on a low- cost 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 high- end 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 di- rectly through its Desktop Direct unit. David Conroy, senior consulting engi- neer 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 talk- ing to Intel processors." The Alpha PCs are largely built of off-the-shelf Intel- compatible parts; glue logic interfaces the Alpha to either the ' By 1996, DEC plans to manufacture Alpha chips using Its 0.3 5 -micron, 30-million- transistor, 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 Intel- compatible. (Photos by Dave Andrews) NANOBYTES Apple and subsidiary Claris say they will move product develop- ment of future versions of Hyper- Card 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. Apple- Script, a scripting technology for automating routine tasks, is sched- uled 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 lan- guage with a Visual Basic-like front end. Later this year, Mi- crosoft is expected to ship Visual Basic 3.0 and a new version of Vi- sual 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, prod- uct manager for Realizer, said that as of February, the Windows ver- sion 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-plat- form scripting language for multi- media, 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 tech- nology: realtime hardware data compression that delivers full CD-quality stereo at a frac- tion of the CPU power required by other 16-bit boards. And downloadable algorithms that enable future upgrades like voice recogni- tion, 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 Q I 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 1 57 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 58). OurT4500C features an LCD TFT active matrix color screen that can display a kaleidoscope of 256 simul- taneous 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 note- book 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. Windows s 3.1 and DOS 8 5.0 with Ultrafont , "come pre-installed. 1-1* firm eiI Tunis «■■-. _3i ♦ 56, 'ind we- nwd tc — hould te closejer r~ *Zr~i 1 1 .. . 111. 'I TYPE "bnges tfasheis ioppei Tubing Ipa fittings 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, net- work 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 T4500 features 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 1 42 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 Lin- ley Gwennap, senior editor of the Micro- processor Report (Sebastopol, CA, (707) 823-4004). This will provide strong com- petition, at least on the Windows NT plat- form, 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 collabora- tions among high-technology firms. Last summer, IBM, Toshiba, and Siemens Nix- dorf announced they had agreed to co- develop 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 al- liance, AMD has hooked up with Hewlett- Packard 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 pro- cessors. 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 small- er 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 in- dustry observers think Intel will intro- duce the P6. Although HP and AMD aren't releas- ing 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 esti- mate 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-spe- cific ICs). —Tom Halfhill Digital Cellular Radio Spreads Out PARIS— Vodafone (Newbury, U.K.), one of the U.K.'s two licensed oper- ators of GSM (Global System for Mo- bile), a pan-European digital cellular-radio network, claims to have completed the world's first simultaneous text and speech transmission over the GSM. The trans- mission took place entirely within the U.K. between equipment from Vodafone and a digital mobile telephone that Helsin- ki, Finland-based Nokia manufactures. Messages of up to 160 alphanumeric char- acters were transmitted to and displayed on the mobile terminal. Vodafone's CEO Chris Gent said, "This first example of simultaneous speech and text transmis- sion in mobile telephony opens the door to a whole series of value-added services, some of which will become available lat- er 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 implementa- tion 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 ac- cess) 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 Modu- lar Windows, the simplified ver- sion of the GUI for consumer entertainment and information de- vices. 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 stand- alone PDA or electronic books." Glaser said Microsoft plans to eventually release a Modular Win- dows version of its Multimedia Viewer development tool. □ The value of all X Window System-specific products and ser- vices sold worldwide increased more than 60 percent during 1 992, 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 $5 10 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 de- partments 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 Mo- torola, 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 ques- tioned 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, includ- ing 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 data- base 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 soft- ware 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 immedi- ate benefits and will protect and leverage the substantial invest- ments 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 discus- sion of Xbase in the 90s, CA's Open and cA-dBFast/or madam Client-Server Architectures, Integrated j°"m"rfcSho%«- aide mentions Jor 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% Mrf J*te/ *arv &nr«a* 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 .Ml syMW iaial inlh IkMll uUdlW miH .-IttliMr. .m.Vl/ ■<::'> Mf/!. ,W Hi 1!;M.t. r,*!nl intli RUB tnlxunt and RMRuumiltxTliinnt AUs}?u™imaian'ySHl'a'.,!u>ukinknnj[%tralumaio{ 21')} /W(*<,ni/£™i.7'n;ii .M/invl /or \\ onliu* yrmklml gimrnltrf In' Kiu^on Technology Systems Supported. Kingston s SLC/Now! supports IBM's 286-hased systems 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. •*Wi~\ rwWi ""' s mn commitment In quality control r~^^^~V|J_u!> leads to main' veins of reliable service. Kingston Reliability. Processor upgrade users enjoy the same reliability customers have come to expect from Kingston memory products. Every product is individually tested prior to shipping, support- ed by free compnhensive technical assistance and backed by a five-year warranty. Tlmnks to this relentless scrutiny we have over 5,832, 717 products 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 The Inside Name in Upgrades 17600 Newhope Street, Fountain Valley, California 92708 ( 7 14) 435-2600 Fax (7 14) 435-2699 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 manag- er for MS-DOS 6.0, of the new automatic mem- ory management utility, MEMMAKER. That's the MS-DOS 6.0 upgrade story in a nutshell. The two headline features — compres- sion and memory management — are robust, au- tomatic, and fault-tolerant. I'd hesitate to ask my mother to install Stacker and QEMM, but I'm pretty sure she could install an MS- DOS 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 depart- ment, that effect would translate into more than a gigabyte of space created essential- ly out of thin air. Multiplied by the 50 mil- lion PCs in use worldwide, it would trans- late into a million-gigabyte ocean of new storage. That much storage will not ma- terialize, of course, but a good chunk of it likely will. Bundled and tightly inte- grated with MS-DOS 6.0, DoubleSpace tears down barriers of inertia and intimi- dation that have prevented more wide- spread use of other compression tools. Version 6.0 comes with a number of ad- ditional tools that you've previously had to buy separately. The package includes a disk defragger, a serial/parallel file trans- fer tool, an antivirus tool, and client-only NetBIOS LAN software, as well as great- ly enhanced backup and undelete tools. Three of these — the antivirus, backup, and undelete tools — offer to install for MS- DOS, Windows, or both. Truthfully, with the exception of the disk defragger, which is intimately con- nected 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 Archiv- ist, 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 pro- vides 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 con- tains an alternative file system used to store compressed files. To convert an uncompressed disk, Dou- bleSpace 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 prog- ress continuously. It is extremely fault- tolerant and will recover without a hiccup even if someone kicks the plug in the mid- dle 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 boot- up 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 en- hanced MS-DOS 6.0 disk cache. Smart- Drive now stores compressed data, so it uses the memory allocated to it more ef- fectively. There are times, though, when compression will just get in the way. If you're recording compressed sound sam- ples, 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, Dou- bleSpace makes it easy to slide the bound- ary between the CVF and the uncom- pressed 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 defrag- gers. One, based on Norton's Speed Disk, performs a traditional disk reorganization. The other, internal to DoubleSpace, com- pacts the CVF. They're linked, so when you type DEFRAG, the first defragger in- vokes the second. (Similarly, CHKDSK spawns a CVF-aware helper when run on a compressed disk.) In the beta ver- sion of MS-DOS 6.0 that I test- ed, defragmentation was an overnight, not a lunchtime, , affair. Even so, CVF de- ^M fragmentation only com- ^^ ^ pacts sectors. It doesn't en- sure that all sectors of a compressed file are contig- uous. That job will be left to the third-party tool vendors. MEMMAKER provides much- needed 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 pro- gram named in CONFIG.SYS and AU- TOEXEC.BAT and reboots your machine. SIZER enables MEMMAKER to figure out how much space these programs real- ly use when loaded. Then MEMMAKER computes and writes out the optimal LOADHIGH and DEVICEHIGH com- mands, exploiting their new ability to spec- ify 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. An- ticipating the possibility of an unsched- uled reboot, MEMMAKER always records enough data to pick up where it left off. The antivirus tools, licensed from Cen- tral Point Software, include a monitor that watches for suspicious disk or memory access and MS-DOS and Windows ver- sions 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 le- gitimate 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 de- fine archive sets and store them on floppy disks or network drives using the same compression technology that's in Dou- bleSpace. 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 llllllllllilllllllllllllllllll 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 Accepts Most Motherboards and Passive Backplanes Doesn't Look Like IBM Rugged, Modular Construction Excellent Air Flow & Cooling Designed to meet FCC 204 Watt Supply, UL Recognized 200 & 300 Watt Supplies, UL, CSA, TUV Reasonably Priced i$M0 Rackmount Keyboards WHSSSKiSilill Three Models: Drawer, Shelf, and Panel Reasonably Priced Call or write for descriptive brochures, prices or applications assistance: INTEGRAND 8620 Roosevelt Ave. • Visalia, CA 93291 209/651-1203 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 Mi- crosoft had considered incorporating into MS-DOS 6.0. The network support, com- prising MS-NET and Microsoft Mail cli- ents, originally debuted as a Windows for Workgroups option, and it's in that context that it would be most useful. Lacking serv- er capability and the protected-mode pro- tocol support of Windows for Workgroups, MS-DOS 6.0 networking in no way com- petes with the many excellent DOS peer- to-peer LAN products. The file transfer system has client and server components. INTERSVR runs full- screen on a host, waiting for clients to con- nect to its local drives (or printers). IN- TERLNK 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, MS- DOS 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 boot- ing 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 problemat- ic 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 pro- cess. Using a new CONFIG.SYS com- mand, MENUITEM, you can create mul- tiple paths through CONFIG.SYS. When I boot up my laptop, I get a menu of three choices: Standalone, NetLocal, and Net- Remote. All configurations share a com- mon block of commands. Standalone loads no network support, NetLocal connects me to NetWare and Windows for Work- groups through a Xircom adapter, and Net- Remote connects me to Windows for Workgroups by way of an asynchronous connection to a Shiva NetModem. Because the name of the chosen con- figuration shows up in the environment variable conf ig, I can branch appropri- ately 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 configu- rations, 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 ap- plications (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 dy- namically. I'm also glad to note the belated arrival of three long-needed commands. DEL- TREE and MOVE are the MS-DOS equiv- alents of the Unix commands rm and mv. DELTREE lops off entire trees of direc- tories and subdirectories, and it can also delete individual files marked hidden, sys- tem, or read-only. MOVE transplants files from one directory to another, and it can also rename a directory. The third com- mand 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 ca- pability, threads, and long filenames, and neither is MS-DOS 6.0. But I'm not com- plaining about version 6.0. It delivers enor- mous practical benefits and is by far the most compelling MS-DOS upgrade yet. ■ Jon Udell is a BYTE senior technical edi- tor 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 $ 1 29.99 ($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 1 181 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 our- selves. 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-catch- ing 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 automat- ically 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 infor- mation 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 1 38 on Inquiry Card. COREL The Best Software to Connect PC Peripherals I3IMSABLE IMMCTIOH- WE BOMB* mm mms ttlOXES 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 including: CD-ROM drives, rewritable and WORM optical drives, hard drives, jukeboxes, tape drives, and many more. ■ nlimited Flexibility! CorelSCSI software works with major SCSI host adapters including:' 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." M. Keith Thompson. PC Magazine, June 1992 * ► Compatible host adapter companies: I ^cidciptec 1 VjU \Vh< ii ynn'.r trnom abmil SCSI. !■■■ lethnology MDPT DOMAIN i BUSLD GICJ CorelSCSI software includes bonus programs and utilities such as ^ Quick Installatio CorelSCSI software is quick and easy to install and will get you up and , *1*W Mil 1 1 W~ Kl i\ J 1 1 f : I ■ • l : l J 1*1^: 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 Circle 80 on Inquiry Card. 1'800-836-SCSI ,- CDNTEL: (61 3) -28-8200 FAX:(613) 7 61-9176 ' ■ ♦** V 7 VKB,_ 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 match- es its PC counterpart. If you have never seen Photoshop, you've missed one of those glorious rare moments when software approaches perfection. Adobe is hum- ble 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 color - imaging techniques to Windows and revs up its image on the Mac I worked with prerelease copies of both the Windows and Mac editions of Photo- shop 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 Ma- trox 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 en- hancements. 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 ef- fects filters. Quick mask mode causes Photoshop's tools to switch from image to mask mod- ification. You see a mask as a semitrans- parent film (red by default) over your im- age. 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. Just Add Code. w»° the sV 91 <^ss>^s vetr ; " v ' ^SoV • (800) 548-4778 Free, Unlimited Technical Support 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee Same-Day Shipping (702) 831 -2500 Fax: (702)831-8123 P.O. Box 6091 Fortran is our forte Incline Village NV 89450 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 ex- ample, the brushes palette lets you select the range of brightness values (i.e., shad- ows, 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 im- age, for example, starts with three chan- nels: 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 chan- nels. You can also add channels (up to a to- tal of 16) for alpha-channel effects in oth- er programs (e.g., Matrox Studio's Personal Producer), saving masks and se- lections, image overlays, and calculated operations such as subtracting one channel from another. The new pen tool gives you more pre- cise 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 act- ing 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 col- ored 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 at- tractive toning and colorization effects. The new variations dialog box simplifies color correction by presenting multiple miniature views of your image (or a se- lected portion) and letting you see the ef- fect changes would have before you ap- ply 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 pre- view icons until the "current pick" image reflects the effect you want. A compari- son between the original and would-be modifications is always visible. Finally, Photoshop 2.5 adds a host of special effects filters. Users of Adobe Pre- miere 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 im- age into a matrix of square-capped tower shapes that convincingly simulate depth in a weird but appealing way. A distortion filter warps the image, oth- er filters build line-art-like drawings, and a host of others apply either purely artistic or functional changes. One functional fil- ter prepares an image for display on a TV monitor by filtering out NTSC-illegal (oversaturated) colors and diminishing in- terlace 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 Ami- ga (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 1 182 on Inquiry Card. 50 BYTE • APRIL 1993 "Itbu mean I can get all this from IBM Direct for just $2,099? w irifcl \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 display 1 • PowerGraph X-24™ graphics adapter •1MB video DRAM • 128KB L2 cache • 8KB internal cache •3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive ""<■*« ■& gy — jjm IBM mouse Industry standard compatibility Networkable 5 slots/5 bays Outstanding service with the HelpWare™ Advantage * $2,099 IBM Credit Lease $76/mo.' — - — ■■ Order now from IBM Direct. 1 800 IBM-2YOU. Get everything you expect. And more. M PS/lhluePoint 466DX2 Get mind-blowing, double clocked speed and power. i486DX2/66MHz processor Internal i487 math coprocessor 4MB RAM 212MB hard drive Pre-installed IBM DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows 3.1*** 6319 SVGA Nl 15" color display t PowerGraph X-24 graphics adapter 1 28KB 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/2 8 8511 VGA color display • 3.5" diskette drive • IBM mouse • 5 slots/5 bays • Industry standard compatibility • Outstanding service with the HelpWare Advantage d? 1 TOO* IBM Credit Lease iP 1,07 $44/mo." $3,225 IBM Credit Lease $116/mo" * Get on the phone ! ThinkPad? 700C t mvpE Get eye-popping, big-screen notebook color. 486SLC™ /25MHz processor Big, brilliant 10. 4" active matrix color display 1 DOS 5.0 and PRODIGY stt pre-installed TrackPoint II™ keyboard- integrated pointing device 4MB RAM (up to 16MB maximum m ) 120MB hard drive (removable) 3.5" diskette drive ' Full-size keyboard NiMH rechargeable battery pack Slip-in IC DRAM memory cards ' Outstanding service with the HelpWare Advantage ThinkPad 300 ' 386SL/25MHZ > 4MB RAM ■ 80MB hard drive ■ DOS 5.0 pre-installed ■ Integrated STN LCD display 1 3.5" diskette drive ■ Outstanding service with the HelpWare Advantage $-| nnn* IBM Credit lj77 Lease $72/mo" IBM Direct Quality, service, selection and price. Just call IBM Direct. It's that easy to get IBM PC products delivered right to your door. Or for more information on IBM products, call our automated fax system at 1 800 426-3395. Choose the best way to pay. Easy payment methods: American Express, VISA, MasterCard, Discover card or personal check. Personal checks are subject to credit approval. Purchase order is available for qualifying customers. i I Hundreds of IBM products 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/2 8 2.0, that too is available on many configurations. The HelpWare Advantage 1 One-year on-site warranty for PS/ValuePoint products and ThinkPad 300. ' Three-year international warranty for ThinkPad 700 and 700C (in U.S., first year on-site). 1 24-hour 800# assistance, 7 days a week' 'At no additional charge during warranty. 'Available Monday through Friday 8 am- 5 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 average 2 • 24-hour Bulletin Board and Automated Fax • Hassle-free, 30-day money-back guarantee 3 • Plus 10,000 IBM service representatives at 1 ,600 locations backed by a $1 billion parts inventory Warranty and 30-day guarantee information available from IBM and IBM authorized deal- ers. 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. $4,139* IBM Credit Lease $149/mo." Call IBM Direct. Circle 86 on Inquiry Card. '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 manufac- tured in Japan. PS/ValuePoint 6312, 6314, and 6319 Color Displays are manufactured in Korea. PowerGraph X-24 graph- ics 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, has more?'' II ft Call 1 800 IBM -2 YOU 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 specifica- tions and answer any questions you may have. ThinkPad 700 and 700C Options Data/Fax Modem (2400 bps/9600 bps) Price* $285 IBM PS/2 8MB IC DRAM Card $905 ThinkPad 300 Options Data/Fax Modem (2400 bps/9600 bps) $330 Port Replicator $120 Operating Systems and Application Software 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 Printer and Printer Options 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 regis- tered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. PS/ValuePoint, SLC, ThinkPad, TrackPoint II and HelpWare are trade- marks 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 1 987, 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 com- pany announced last November. The 360- dot-per-inch, 48-nozzle black-and-white model, list-priced at $499, is expected to sell in the $350 to $400 range to small- business and home users who want near- laser quality at dot-matrix prices. Epson says its printer uses fewer dis- posable 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 1 000-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 perma- nent 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-and- play installation and continues through all- control-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 soft- ware integrates scalable fonts and graph- ics), and head cleaning. Paper options are plentiful up to legal size. The feeder holds 1 00 sheets of let- ter-size or, for the European version, A4 paper. A manual feeder takes single sheets and number 6 or number 1 envelopes. The beta model that I saw excelled in print quality, with a smooth, nearly satel- lite-free (i.e., no stray ink dots around the letters) letter-quality text. It falls short of, say, the HP LaserJet II under close scruti- ny, but not noticeably enough to make a difference for routine use. Graphical im- ages that I printed from Windows were at- tractive, 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 ques- tions, researching the intricacies of quantum theory, or just looking for a quick mental escape, browsing through Encarta, Microsoft's new Windows-based multimedia CD- ROM 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 2 1 ,000 arti- cles 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 Bar- tholomew, product group general manag- er for Microsoft's multimedia pub- lishing business unit. Part of Encarta's strength comes from the volume of original anima- tions and photos added to the ency- clopedia. 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 in- teresting short animated sound clip, detailing the inner workings of the internal combustion engine, accom- panying 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 sub- ject. In this way, you could, for example, quickly look up your favorite hockey, base- ball, or basketball player by selecting the sports category. You can access articles in Encarta di- rectly 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 sci- ence and technology; life science; geog- raphy; history; social science; religion and philosophy; art, language, and literature; performing arts; and sports, games, hob- bies, 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 certifi- cate 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 En- carta product manager Sonja Gustavson. Microsoft, which has set Encarta's list price at $395, plans to sell the multime- dia 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 mi- croWriter, 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 ink- jet and dot-matrix printers. The basic microWriter has an LED print engine rated at 5 pages per minute, Hew- lett-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 (ex- pandable to 4 MB in PostScript mode), an Apple LocalTalk port, and automatic em- ulation switching between PostScript and PCL. For $1299, you can get the mi- croWriter PS 35, witli the full complement of 35 PostScript fonts. Paper handling is one of the micro- Writer's strong points. The 250-sheet pa- per tray is contained entirely within the printer's footprint. Printed pages normal- ly come out at the top of the printer, face- down, and go into a fold-out paper catch- er. A manual feed slot accepts envelopes and other odd-size paper. The combina- tion of the manual feed slot and a rear- panel-access door gives you a straight pa- per 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, con- nected 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 Ap- ple'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 un- usually reliable and well built. The PCL interpreter and automatic emulation sens- ing worked flawlessly. There was one hic- cup 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 ship- ping a real Adobe PostScript printer that breaks the $ 1 000 price barrier. The micro- Writer 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. LO o >- OS < Q I UJ H < H Oh < H ;> z Q OJ o UJ u. 1—1 H z z Z 5 w w C/3 C/5 w 2 Q Q < ^ & ("O >- pq ■ w 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 61 18; lax +852 481 5836. Circle 1 135 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 Silicon- Cache connects to your com- puter through the SCSI bus. The device, designed for disk-intensive and time-criti- cal applications, resides be- tween the host computer's SCSI port and its disk storage devices. The SiliconCache's basic capacity of 32 MB is expand- able in 32-MB steps to 512 MB; its transfer rate is 6 MBps. The device has a write-through design to elimi- nate 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 1 136 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 1 55-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 typi- cally 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 soft- ware. Price: $1990 and up. Contact: Adambyte, Moun- tain View, CA, (415) 988- 1415; fax (415) 988-1418. Circle 1 138 on Inquiry Card. Procom Technology's Mi- croMD 200 incorporates the company's Atom 200 2 1 /:- inch hard drive, with an aver- age 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 Technolo- gy, 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, Smart- Stack uses just one SCSI cable and one power cable to automatically connect multi- ple hard drives. SmartSource, the base unit of the storage system, fea- tures 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 (pass- through 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 1 137 on Inquiry Card. Color in Full Bleed Seiko Instruments' Profes- sional ColorPoint PSH dye-sublimation printer lets you create extra-large full- bleed prints that fill an 8'/:- by 1 1-inch area. Standard memory in the 300-dpi print- er is 16 MB, expandable to 64 MB. The primary proces- sor 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 in- clude simultaneously active ports, multitasking capability, automatic input polling, and off-line printing. Price: $9999. Contact: Seiko Instruments USA, Inc., San Jose, CA, (800) 888-08 17 or (408) 922- 5800; 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 no- regen rendering feature in re- lease 12 of AutoCAD. When you're drafting in AutoCAD at 8-bit color and you use Rasterex 's rendering tool Rx- Autolcon release 12 (built-in on the board), the Diamond will switch to 24-bit color (i.e., true color) without your having to reconfigure any- thing. In multimedia applica- tions 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) 648- 7249 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, sol- id-state memory cards use an 8- or 16-bit data bus with an average access time of 200 ns. Each card ships in an anti- static 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 Comput- er Supplies, Santa Clara, CA, (408) 957-1000; fax (408) 957-1145. Circle 1 142 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 pro- cessor, on-board VGA hard- ware, 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 Win- dows applications simultane- ously with Mac applications in another window. The entry-level board is only RAM expandable. Ex- pandability on the intermedi- ate 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 ex- pandability features. Price: From $1099 to $1799. Contact: Orange Micro, Inc., Anaheim, CA, (714) 779- 2772; fax (714) 779-9332. Circle 1 143 on Inquiry Card. An expansion board that lets you run Macintosh applications on your PC in addition to all DOS and Win- dows 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 full- screen 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 72- inch floppy drives read and write to 800-KB and 1.44-MB Mac formatted floppy disks. TSR software for switch- ing between the Mac and PC platforms is standard, as is the x-Fer file transfer pro- gram. The board has 50- and 25-pin SCSI ports and an AppIeTalk-compatible serial port; it can connect directly to an AppleTalk or Phone- Net networking system and is compatible with PC net- works such as NetWare and Ethernet. Price: $995. Contact: 50/50 Micro Elec- tronics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, (408) 730-5050; fax (408) 732-5050. Circle 1 144 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 im- age can be a camcorder, VCR, or videodisc player. With a fax board installed in your computer, you can im- mediately 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) 967- 8762. Circle 1 145 on Inquiry Card. Upgrade to Multimedia Sigma Designs' Win- Sound 16 CD-ROM Kit lets you upgrade your PC with multimedia capabilities. The Sony Light Internal CD- ROM 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 magneti- cally shielded and have an external DC jack, volume control, and power-on indica- tor. 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) 770- 2640. 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-in- time 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 927 1 8 ■ 7 1 4/ 454-2 1 OO ■ fax 7 14/ 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). BUSINESS WEEK AEROSPACE DAILY AIRPORTS AVIATION DAILY AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY NEWSWATCH BYTE CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CLEAN-COAL/SYNFUELS LETTER COAL WEEK DATA COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRIC UTILITY WEEK ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD HAZARDOUS WASTE BUSINESS INDEPENDENT POWER REPORT INDUSTRIAL ENERGY BULLETIN INSIDE ENERGY/ WITH FEDERAL LANDS INSIDE F.E.R.C. rF When you need business information, why not get the total story, instantly! Word lor word. The McGraw-Hill Publications Online database gives you just that. Unedited, full-text retrieval (except graphics) of articles exactly as they are published in McGraw-Hill magazines and newsletters. Now you can get information on companies, people and products on any topic — pertaining to one particular industry, or search the entire McGraw-Hill library (over 35 leading publications online) for diverse editorial perspectives. Only McGraw-Hill, the world's foremost business informa- tion publisher, can deliver it all so completely — immediately! McGraw-Hill unabridged. Access an entire universe of business in formation. Go online with our line. McGraw-Hill Publications OnLine. For more information, including our latest list of publications, contact Andrea Broadbent at (609) 426-5523. Or fax this coupon to (609) 426-7352. Or send it to the address below. Available through Dialog', Dowjoncs News/Retrieval', NewsNct- and Nexis'. McGRAW-HILL PUBLICATIONS ONLINE Princeton-High tstown Road Hightstown.NJ 08520 U.S.A. Please send me thecomplete 1992 list ofyour publications online. Name m Title Company Address Citv Slal Zip/Poslal Code Cou ,lly Tel. INSIDE N.R.C. INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT LAN TIMES NUCLEONICS WEEK POSTGRADUATE MEDICINE PLATT'S INTERNATIONAL PETROCHEMICAL REPORT PLATT'S OILGRAM NEWS PLATT'S OILGRAM PRICE REPORT S&P'S EMERGING & SPECIAL SITUATIONS S&P'S REVIEW OF BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES S&P'S REVIEW OF SECURITIES & COMMODITIES REGULATION SECURITIES WEEK TECH TRANSFER REPORT UTILITY ENVIRONMENT REPORT THE WEEKLY OF BUSINESS AVIATION UNIXWORLD nl AND MORE. . . Your network buy for today's business technology market. McGraw-Hill TechNet McGraw-Hill Magazines. Your Best Business Partners. ■ 4- Architectural Record ■ 7- A/C Flyer, Aviation Week & Space Technology, AW & ST China Quarterly, AW & ST USSR, Business & Commercial Aviation, World Aviation Directory and Buyer's Guide ■ 20- Business Week, Business Week China, Business Week Hungary, Business Week International, Business Week USSR ■ 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 ■ 11 7- Power, Power International M news WHAT'S NEW OTHER HARDWARE Power Supply Check Data Depot's PC Power- Check 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 connec- tor identical to those on the motherboard, the card can be plugged into your PC or di- rectly into the power supply for testing. The card tests all four out- put voltages on the power supply for overvoltage, un- dervoltage, noise, and spikes. Except for the spike detec- tors, which trap the error con- dition, the detectors monitor continuously. Price: $229. Contact: Data Depot, Inc., Clearwater, FL, (800) 275- 1913 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 1 20- 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 120- VAC capability. The remov- able module can also be used as an inverter to run AC de- vices from a DC outlet. A built-in regulator pre- vents 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) 432-1 184; fax (714) 432-7910. Circle 1 273 on Inquiry Card. Tone Up Your Cartridge With a newly designed photosensitive drum and toner bin, the DoubleFill retrofitted EP-S printer car- tridge 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 origi- nal 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 conven- tional 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 (un- interruptible power sup- plies), 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 volt- age 12 percent while continu- ing 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 automatical- ly switch back to AC mode. Other features of the UPS- es include an overload mea- surement in AC mode that uses lights and audible alarms to let you know that the unit is overloaded. Nonlinear cur- rent capability and automatic unit test at power-on are also present. Price: PM600, $579; PM 1250, $1049. Contact: Para Systems, Inc., Dallas, TX, (214) 446-7363; fax (214) 446-9011. Circle 1 274 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 1 20-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 electri- cal wiring and grounding. When the device signals a problem, you take responsi- bility for protecting your computer. Price: $29.95. Contact: Power Alarm, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA, (800) 786- 6610 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 1 1 6 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 message- entry and telecommuni- cations 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 ma- chines and beepers (i.e., radio pagers). The multipurpose communications center fea- tures 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 commu- nications with remote com- puter systems. It provides Touch-Tone dialing, re- minder messages, audible alert signals, and a directory that can store names, tele- phone numbers, and general information. You can program Pocket Faxxer to answer incoming calls and receive E-mail mes- sages. 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 tele- phones (TDDs) used by people with hearing impair- ments. Price: $399. Contact: Telecraft Industries, Brooklyn, NY, (718)972- 0900; 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 tradi- tional divisions between modems and ISDN. The mo- dem combines high analog- transmission performance with a digital interface run- ning at up to 1 15,200 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 compres- sion, particularly in applica- tions requiring regular file transfers. In addition, the Volante is totally reprogram- mable 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 soft- ware. Price: About $1148 (£795). Contact: Sonix Communica- tions, Ltd., Cirencester, Gloucestershire, U.K., +44 285 64 1651; fax +44 285 642098. Circle 1277 on Inquiry Card. Fax on Demand B< < i ogen Communications • offers a full-featured fax- on-demand system, called Fax Vault, that stores docu- ments for retrieval via fax. Using a Touch-Tone tele- phone, 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 config- ure lines to accept only calls, to transmit only information, or both. A three-level security sys- tem controls access to the entire system, to specific documents, or to messages. In addition, Fax Vault fea- tures multiple-language voice prompts, international calling access, automatic cover-page generation, digital-voice mes- saging, and one to nine retries to send faxes. It provides you with reports on what infor- mation was requested, how many requests were filled, and the fax and phone num- bers of those requesting in- formation. Price: Two-line model, $2995; four-line model, $3995. Contact: Bogen Communi- cations, Inc., Ramsey, NJ, (201) 934-8500; fax (201) 934-9832. Circle 1 278 on Inquiry Card. Monitor Network Traffic You can use PacketView 1.0, a PC-based network- traffic capture, decode, and display utility, with standard network controllers to cap- ture and analyze network traffic. Compatible with Ethernet, Token Ring, and ARCnet, PacketView uses a packet driver to capture pack- ets from any of the three media types. It then decodes the packets to display mean- ingful information. Some of the protocols that PacketView recognizes include TCP/IP, Banyan Vines, Novell IPX/SPX/NCP, XNS, and AppleTalk. Packet- View also lets you create your own protocol decoders using C or assembly lan- guage. 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 Macin- tosh® 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 benefit- remote control. Timbuktu can send MICROSOFT-' WINDOWS- COMPATIBLE it runs with NetWare ■!■ Famllon a real-time, full-color Of course, Timbuktu is easy to use and install. You don't need a dedi- cated 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 AppleLink 3 ID: Farallon. CompuServe 3 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 main- tain software. The products first establish and then dy- namically maintain relation- ships among all the key ac- tivities of the software development process, includ- ing specification, analysis/ design, coding, testing, and maintenance. The ParaSet products sup- port C and C++ and consist of three core modules and two options. The core system includes Para/Designer, which helps you design soft- ware using structured or ob- ject-oriented design tech- niques; Para/Programmer, which supports forward and reverse engineering of soft- ware; and Para/Online, which provides a hypertext-based EMACS editor for creating documentation. The ParaSet options in- clude Para/Analyzer, which helps you analyze and re- structure existing software, and Para/Debugger, an inter- preter-based debugging envi- ronment that supports incre- mental recompilation and relinking and mixed inter- preted/compiled execution of software. Price: $7500 and up. Contact: Software Emanci- pation Technology, Inc., Waltham, MA, (617)466- 8600; fax (617) 466-9845. Circle 1281 on Inquiry Card. C++ Design Tools C++ Designer combines a graphical PC-based de- sign tool with C++ code- frame generation. The prod- uct helps you manage and manipulate objects at the de- sign 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 inte- gral rule and consistency checking to help you adhere to the principles of good ob- ject-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 inte- grates and manages mul- tivendor compilers, editors, linkers, make systems, and debuggers, so you can create an organized and intuitive Windows software engineer- ing 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 environ- ment. Bench lets you customize any tools to access files and directories and assign these tools execution context, com- mand-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 re- vision information, com- ments, and changes associat- ed with each revision under the reverse delta technique. It supports branching, multi- ple parallel versions, and ver- sion locking. Check-in and check-out facilities transpar- ently 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 Small- talk/V can eliminate the lag between the production of code and the availability of documentation. Synopsis for Smalltalk/V automatically generates class documenta- tion for any class in the sys- tem. In addition, you can print your class documenta- tion with popular word pro- cessors or as text files. Synopsis stores class sum- maries in class encyclope- dias, which you can access via browser windows. It packages class encyclopedias in separate files, so you can distribute detailed descrip- tions of classes to other de- velopers without having to ship source code. Two ver- sions are available: Synopsis for Smalltalk/V Windows and Synopsis for Small- talk/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, Feed- back for 4th Dimension simplifies debugging and re- fining four-dimensional databases on the Mac. The software takes a snapshot of the screen, records your pre- vious 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 his- tory 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 in- novative 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 dis- tribution 3 '2? da i &A^B?^S4#8iltft 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 man- agement packages. Guide Line contains 16 guides, including construc- tion, office relocation, LAN installation, software devel- opment, consulting, small- business start-up, market re- search, a marketing plan, a trade show plan, and a gener- al project plan. Three ver- sions 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 man- agement 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 de- tailed inspection of task and local variables, and report generators. Price: Guide Line, $149.95; Guide Line Maker, $499. Contact: Symantec Corp., Cupertino, C A, (800) 441- 7234 or (408) 253-9600; fax (408) 253-4092. Circle 1289 on Inquiry Card. Personal Finance Software Aatrix Software's Hi Fi- nance is a personal fi- nance package for the Mac that includes everything from basic bookkeeping to han- dling stocks and bonds to in- ventory tracking for individu- als 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, sav- ings, college, and insurance planning; an automobile pric- ing calculator; and even a lot- tery number picker. You can write checks, transfer be- tween accounts, create bud- gets, and produce custom re- ports. The inventory manager lets you store information — such as records of family heirlooms and equipment for insurance puiposes — as pic- tures, 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 up- dates your portfolios and net worth and warns you of un- usual 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-de- signed invoicing, integrated bank reconciliation, improved end-of-period processing, standing journals and pay- ments, and more-focused planning and forecasting ca- pabilities. Sybiz Accounting for Windows 3.0 lets you de- sign and print custom invoice statements and forms in virtu- ally any stationery layout. Version 3.0 records pay- ments and details of receipts and prints out full bank rec- onciliation reports, showing outstanding checks, deposits not listed on the bank state- ment, and differences be- tween your reconciliation and that of the bank. Other fea- tures 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 with- out interrupting the transac- tion in progress. Price: Sales, Purchase, and Nominal Ledger modules, about $432 (£299); with In- ventory 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 1 290 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 040- based 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 mam- moth 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 inter- nal 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 in- creased flexibility to Statgraphics 6 and Statgraph- ics Plus 6 in the manipula- tion, presentation, and subse- quent analysis of critical data. The latest versions feature a new graphical interface, im- proved text and data screens, and faster data queries and graph title selection. Statgraphics and Stat- graphics Plus give you the choice of using simple pull- down menus or the traditional Statgraphics menu structure. In addition, version 6 lets you choose between APL conven- tions and standard mathemat- ical rules for evaluating ex- pressions. 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)984- 5000; fax (301) 984-5290. Circle 1292 on Inquiry Card. Double Unix Throughput Programmed Logic says that adding its HPFS (High Performance File Sys- tem) to your Unix system is like getting twice the comput- ing power out of your exist- ing hardware configuration. The package helps your sys- tem run twice as fast or sup- ports the workload of twice the number of users. HPFS incorporates a new approach to meta-data man- agement and fundamental enhancements to System V release 4's file system algo- rithms that collectively elimi- nate I/O bottlenecks. In addi- tion, because the SVR4- compatible file system main- tains 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; multiproces- sor, $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 on- line information services, now there's a software pro- gram that can help you orga- nize 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 multi- ple databases consecutively, you can update it midsession. Online Log stores a complet- ed entry in a log that you can later search, edit, display, archive, or print. The pro- gram 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 pan- el accessible through the Apple menu, the nine Wiz Tools modules include Launcher, SubMenu, Keystroke Recorder, Finder- Tools, 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 in- formation. WorldClock, and WatchFold- er. Wiz Tools help you quick- ly access applications, docu- ments, DAs (desk acces- sories), folders, and control panels; create up to five lev- els of submenus for all fold- ers 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 geographi- cal 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, statis- tical analysis, and sophisticat- ed drawing and text capabili- ties. The program includes 100 built-in linear-approxi- mating functions arranged in linear, exponential, power, and polynomial groups; and 15 resident parametric non- linear 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 logi- cally grouped vector-format illustrations. Clip-art pack- ages are also available with illustrations relevant to spe- cialized 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 profes- sional programming software you keep! ► NRI, the recognized leader in at-home computer training, shows you how to take advantage of today's newest program- ming 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 program- ming, fueled by the phenomenal popular- ity 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 full- or part-time business of your own — in this high-growth, high-opportunity field. ► NEW! The only programming course that includes a powerful 486sx- based 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 real- world program- ming. Step by step, you learn to create the kinds of full- featured, powerful programs today's ALL-NEW! 486sx Computer, Plus Windows and V Visual Basic! employers and clients demand. . . including programs designed for use in a Windows environment! 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, high- density (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, code, run, debug, and document programs in QBasic, C, and Visual Basic. 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For career courses approved under Gl Bill, check for details » Check one free catalog only Computer Programming PC Applications Specialist Programming in C++ with Windows Other Computer Career Opportunities Microcomputer Servicing Desktop Publishing Bookkeeping and Accounting Computer-Aided Drafting Name tplease pimO Age Add rcss City Accredited Membc , National [ tome Study Council State Zip 5448-0493 Learn computer programming as you train with the latest programming tools. . . a 486sx-based computer system, Windows, Visual Basic, and more! m l couldn't believe NRI gives you a computer, loads of reference material and professional software. The course has talien my knowledge of computers and my self-confidence to new levels! 99 Rob A. Chappa, NRI Studenl pF^ Here's what makes your 486sx mini-tower computer system the ideal programming tool: ► Full IBM PQAT-compatibility High-speed 80486sx CPU with 25 MHz clock 80 megabyte hard disk drive 1 meg RAM (expandable on board); 64K ROM Windows graphical interface 14" high-resolution monitor with tilt- swivel 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 BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 10008 WASHINGTON, D.C. NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE Schools McGraw-Hill Continuing Education Center 4401 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20078-3543 l,,l.lll.,,ll,.,l..,ll.,l,,,ll,,l.l..l.,l,.ll.l.,l,l ► Now, as never before, you can succeed as a computer programmer NRI at-home training gives you everything you need to build a ' igh-paying career as a com- puter programmer. 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If the card is missing, write to us at NRI Schools, McGraw- Hill Continuing Education Center, 4401 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008. IBM PC/AT is a registered trademark of the IBM Corporation, Windows, QBasic, and Visual Basic are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Card 72 USER'S COLUMN ■■ JERRY POURNELLE What's Hot, What's Not It's January, which means this is my annual year- end 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 multi- nationals 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 appli- cations 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 copro- cessors, 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 ver- sion 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 sim- ple 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) 529- 3438.) If you do use Agenda, you'll want President's Planner from Phase III Computing. Agenda has a macro capa- bility so rich that it might as well be a programming lan- guage, 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 in- formation 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 Agen- da, run it over Notes, and reis- sue 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 prod- uct that has one of the better- known awards; but my puipose was to drive the industry in di- rections I wanted it to go. In those days, there weren't all that many products that de- served 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 multi- megabyte 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. Multi- megabyte 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 32- bit 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 LANGUAG E BaaajgjjgBi Industry-leading compatibility. 386ID0S-Extender is compatible with more than 60 popular libraries and utilities, making it easy to select the best tools on the market for your 32-bit development. Choose from user interface libraries including C-scape, DataWindows/386, WNDX and Vermont Views Plus; graphics libraries including HALO Professional, HOOPS and MetaWINDOW/PREMIUM; database libraries including AccSys, CodeBase and Raima Data Manager; class libraries including Tools.h++ and Math.h++; and many others. Only 386IDOS-Extender can offer you the universal third-party support you need. "the highest quality 32-bit DOS extender available" -Robert Wenig, Autodesk See how much faster your 32-bit DOS version could run: Complete Microsoft support. 386IDOS-Extender, Version 5.0 gives you the full functionality of j the Microsoft run- time libraries, including graphics. You can still make all your 16-bit Microsoft C/C++ calls — but now with 32-bit power! New source-level debugger. 386IDOS-Extender, Version 5.0 includes Phar Lap's new 386ISRCBug, a powerful 32-bit source code debugger for protected mode 386IDOS-Extender applications. 286 1 DOS-Extender - the easy way to build multi-megabyte 16-bit DOS applications. If you'd rather use 16-bit Microsoft C/C++, Borland C++ or Microsoft Fortran, then Phar Lap's award-winning 286IDOS-Extender™ is your solution. With 286IDOS-Extender, your program can break the 640K DOS barrier and access up to 16 megabytes of memory on any 80286 or higher DOS-based PC. You can even use CodeView or Turbo Debugger to debug your protected mode program. Phar Lap Software, Inc. 60 Aberdeen Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 617-661-1510 FAX 617-876-2972 286IDOS-Exlender and 386IDOS-Extender arc trademarks and Phar Lap is a registered trademark of Phar Lap Software, Inc. Borland and Turbo Debugger are registered trademarks of Borland International. Windows NT is a trademark and CodeView and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Oilier product ami company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Circle 11 9 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 bet- ter, 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 some- thing better. As always, while I discuss these with my colleagues and BYTE dis- tributes the certificates, the User's Choice Awards remain my sole responsibility. Operating Environment Last year, the contest was between Win- dows 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 par- ticular, 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 get- ting 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 applica- tions 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 (pro- gram 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 re- main. The other day, for instance, I decid- ed 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 net- work. 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 pre- viously 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. Fix- ing 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 Start- up box; exit File Manager; exit Windows; restart Windows; go back to File Manag- er and erase the network-drive assignment; and exit and restart Windows. You don't really have to reset the machine, but I al- ways do.) The moral of that story is that if you change the configuration of a net- worked machine, you must kill all its net- work 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 CD- ROM 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 ma- chine. It all works, too. Well, almost all. Alas, some CD-ROM discs seem to have been hard-coded to be- lieve 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 try- ing to run programs off the CD-ROM drive. I don't have any trouble retrieving images. At worst, I can put a recalcitrant CD- ROM disc into the Multimedia Upgrade Kit CD-ROM drive that's local to my main system. A few discs won't run under Win- dows 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 Win- dows. The network boards are pretty well self-installing, most of the operations are intuitive (not all; some applications What business does sound have in a computer? For starters, you can increase your productivity when you proof spreadsheets with the new Microsoft' window Wmdows" Sound SystemJustWghHght a series of num- 1 bers or words on the screen and it will read them back to you. It will even read them aloud as you enter them, if you like. To hear more, turn the page. APRIL 1993 -BYTE 83 ALSO AVA ILABLE IN NEW CD-ROM MODEL NOW BACKPACK IS SMALLER. AND FASTER We've just made it easier to backup your hard drive with our 250 MB parallel port tape backup unit. One model works with all PC compatibles and portables. Here's why: Backpack is easy to install. Plug Backpack into the parallel printer port. Then plug the printer into Backpack! Backpack requires no cards. Backpack is 30% smaller (1.5" h x 4" w x 7.75" I). Backpack is easy to transport and share between computers (2.5 lbs). Backpack can backup at a speed of up to 9 MB per minute. Backpack is a QIC 80 compat- ible and can read QIC 40 tapes. Backpack is available in 3.5" and 5.25" diskette, tape and hard disk models. So don't get left in the dust. Call for more information today. Micro Solutions, 132 W. Lin- coln Hwy., DeKalb, IL 60115, 815-756-3411, FAX: 815-756-2928 backpack lyft IVIicroSolutions Computer Products Circle 1 04 on Inquiry Cord (RESELLERS: 1 05). USER'S COLUMN require you to check cancel to get out of them once you've done everything, oth- ers want OK, and one wants you to close it), and almost any user can begin ele- mentary 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 jus- tifies 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 Win- dows because he found it easy enough to learn and there's a wider variety of soft- ware for Windows (or DOS under Win- dows) 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 Man- ager 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 fer- ment 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 convert- ed 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 4DX2- 66V, a 66-MHz 486DX2 with local-bus video, right out of the box is the fastest machine we've ever had here. It has with- stood 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 attrac- tive. There's plenty of room to install an in- ternal CD-ROM drive. Its younger broth- er, a 50-MHz 486DX2, has survived being a test-bed for OS/2, DR DOS, seven dif- ferent sound boards, four different CD- ROM 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 configur- ation of the Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V. If I were buying one, I'd make one change. The Crystal Scan monitor that comes stan- dard 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. Under- stand, though, it's a preference, not a re- quirement. 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 prob- lem about setting it up. Everything was in there — a programmable keyboard with settable key-repeat rates, programmable macros, and even a Microsoft Mouse. Win- dows 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 any- thing else. The only real negative feature is that, What business does sound have in a computer? 9' EXOTIC EXCURSIONS MEMO AlUtatf Don Edmoiid EsgwiKian plin Mitihd Dole. Leigh Heat on.. loll* Len*h»u Elle Edit Qptlons jjgla LaXZXIDe Thtetttttna detwls ii.e gtowjitit E:;onc ExonneiB ovu Hw pifl J yens H $m josffiei she nqiitnien ['l.iin]..^ "-e ■-■■ill beiiiidei^i'injuvf-t stir n«:t;ytJi.. io niccomininSMi? 'his gt owth Owavtew Ep7| Dunne the pa;i..vo year, ' ■ ■ ■ ' Eiconc E::cui uon; h*', teen a record iOO-i gicwltintevenuei While ihu tuccet: ii e:ccittn£ thete v. i need 'o *dtu-.t foi out Wiy fan gtowh We aie no longet able lo piovidei'topei ctnioniei seivice and ilteteit no phyttcal way w can handle the tncteated level ol '.tore ttatttc e, nnce Ihe cucces; 'hit we have had ovet i' '• .vt .:"' '.■, J -;l It "1Q1J-; MICROSOFT WINDOWS Now you can communicate more effectively by add- ing your voice, or even music, to documents and presen- tations. Just record it, drag it and drop it in. Microsoft Windows Sound System can also recog- nize 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 some- thing else? Turn the page. APRIL 1993 -BYTE 85 Strengt Numbers. TravelMate™ 4000 WinSX™ or WinDX™ • 486 SX/25MHz or 486 DX/25MHz • 4MB RAM std. (20MB max.) • 120MB HDD • 5.6 pounds $2,799/$3,299 SRP* TravelMate 4000 WinDX2™ • 486 DX2/50MHz • 8MB RAM std. (20MB max.) • 200 MB HDD • 5.6 pounds $3,899 SRP* TravelMate 4000 WinSX COLOR •486SX/25MHz • 4MB RAM std. (20MB max.) • 120MB HDD • 6.3 pounds $3,699 SRP* TravelMate 4000 WinDX2 COLOR • 486 DX2/40MHz • 8MB RAM std. (20MB max.) • 200 MB HDD • 6.3 pounds $4,499 SRP* Texas Instruments comes on strong with the widest selection of powerful 486 notebooks at incredible prices. From 25MHz to the world's most powerful 50MHz notebook in a 5.6- pound package, there's a TI TravelMate just for you. Take a look at these numbers. You get superior 486 performance with an extraordinary three to five hours of battery life. On our color models, you get 256 simultaneous brilliant colors on a large 9.4" display. All these numbers add up to outstanding performance and value. There's one more tant number. For more information and the dealer nearest you, call 1-800-527-3500. impor- a MICROSOFT® WINDOWS™ READT-TO-RUN iKI'li-TEEH man ^V-f-jOAl/y ^ Texas Instruments MVPI ini TravelMate, WinSX, WinDX and WinDX2 are trademarks ofTexas Instruments. The Ready-to-Run logo is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Intel Inside logo is a trademark of Intel Corporation. * Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. Dealer prices may vary. ©1993T1 Circle 1 39 on Inquiry Card. USER'S COLUMN unlike the 50-MHz 486DX2, the 4DX2- 66V 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 Depart- ment of Commerce keeps its hands out of the machinery, memory is cheap, and Gateway 2000 sells memory for the 4DX2- 66V at reasonable prices. I have no hesitation in giving a User's Choice Award for the Most Useful Com- puter at Chaos Manor this year to the Gate- way 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, mak- ing it much harder to do multimedia ap- plications. 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 pro- cessor), a special sound-processing chip that lets it generate sounds from a num- ber of different sources and play them all simultaneously. You can have a classical- music CD playing in the background, add a game with sound effects, and still be able to use sound alarms. You can also asso- ciate 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 Cap- tain Kirk say "We better start the evacua- tion" when you leave an application. If you're a serious musician, you're like- ly 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 edit- ing, 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 stan- dard 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 batter- ies or yet one more power cord to your computer system. You can also feed the MultiSound output into your stereo sys- tem, 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 Multi- Sound. With that reservation, Turtle Beach gets a User's Choice Award for the Multi- Sound. 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 unampli- fied 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 simul- taneous sound inputs. That's not fatal, giv- en what you're likely to be using a Sound Blaster Pro card for; it just means that in- stead of playing multiple sound sources, Microsoft Windows Sound System. Y)u'll be hearing a lot about it "■' • .,..; -»fT\ It's the complete audio solution for your business, i;i||jP I with all the hardware and software included. Call (800) «™ i 426-9400, Dept. JK8, for a free demo disk that'll bring ; the Microsoft Windows Sound System to life on your PC. It's the first audio system spe- ^^ j «*£* cifically designed for the Microsoft MwHCfQSOwE Windows operating system.* Making it easier Requires the Wmdons op, rating system 3.1 or later. Demo ts on a 3.5-inch liigh-dmsitv disk. Offer good while supplies last. Inside the 50 United States call (SIX)) ■126-9400. Dept. JKS. For information only: In Canada, call (8Fm \ \ & Windows System Files .. Jo J, 'Performance Benchmarks compared £&/ toStandard or Custom System Profiles ^g£S 2 ^^' n e ^°s^° e n 2S0 • 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 infor- mation displayed by Check/It PRO, and other utility programs. For example, Check/It PRO determines the "live" sta- tus 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 pro- vide 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 bin- ary 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 over- all performance. All because Coherent is smaller, faster. . . and better. Small, But So Complete. Make no mistake, Coherent is a wholly professional develop- ment 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. 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Please rush me: OS/2 2.0 Workplace Shell: The User's Guide and Tutorial @ $24.95 OS/2 Presentation Manager Programming for COBOL Programmers 9 $39.95 Check, money order, or credit card only: □ Visa QAMEX □ MasterCard □ Discover Account No. E ; 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 soft- ware 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 soft- ware: the lucrative upgrade market. Microsoft, for example, re- ceives 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. Applica- tion 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 com- petition among software vendors has pushed the percent of rev- enue 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 presi- dent 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 impor- tant contributor of flab. Good management would prevent pro- grammers 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 func- tion," 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 Word- Perfect's LeFevre, can minimize the growth of code while mak- ing the most of a high-level language's advantages. Lotus Development (Cambridge, MA) ported 1-2-3 from as- sembly 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 fea- ture lists to evaluate different software packages. Computer magazines fuel the feature wars by publishing side-by- side feature comparisons. Some vendors have tried offering slimmed-down, feature-light versions of their software, only to see users re- spond unenthusiastically. Products like Microsoft Write and WordPerfect's LetterPerfect, both scaled-down ver- sions of their more full-featured word processing brethren, "are not becom- ing runaway best sellers," says David Tremblay, Software Publisher's Asso- ciation's (Washington, DC) director of research. Quark (Denver, CO) market- ing 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 IBM- compatible 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 in- clude 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 de- signs. One of OOP's strengths is the concept of reusable code; this ulti- mately reduces the vendor's develop- ment and maintenance costs once a suite of proven code objects is written. OOP typically uses high-level lan- guages, 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 writ- ing has become a slow and costly pro- cess, OOP's ability to let a vendor quickly fix bugs and add needed im- provements to an application far off- sets the code girth it incurs. An application designed to operate on two or more platforms, such as Al- dus PageMaker or Adobe Photoshop, is bigger than a single-platform applica- tion. 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 applica- tion to Windows, the engineers com- pletely redesigned the application and rewrote it in C++. OOP was used heav- ily 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 op- erations: 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 plat- form-specific. The use of core code en- abled Photoshop's engineers to write most of the core functions in portable C++ code. Porting Photoshop then be- came a matter of compiling the core code on the target platform and wrap- ping 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 (Moun- tain 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 ap- plication 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 implementa- tion and support manageable. Another factor that contributes to the bulk of a cross-plat- form application is that inevitably you must add support code to supply certain features that are absent on a particular platform or to overcome a limita- tion. For Windows, the Photoshop program- mers had to write their own memory handler to overcome a limita- tion in the Windows memory management scheme. A future concern for software ven- dors is migrating programs to the RISC- based microcomputers that are now coming down the pike. To date, Win- dows 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 appli- cation is written completely in a high-level language first. A team of as- sembly language programmers then rewrites specific sections of the pro- gram into fast assembly language code. By optimizing crucial code sections, a dramatic boost in the application's per- formance can be achieved without re- ducing 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-level- language code at all in order to expedite moving the code to, say, a RISC ma- chine. The result is a bigger, slower applica- tion, but the vendor is ready to port the appli- cation code rapidly when the time comes. Application growth is not necessarily due to vendors' piling on un- needed 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 assem- bly — version 3.0, for example, included the printing utility All- ways and had significantly more features — but it was a major con- tributor. The resulting product would not run acceptably under DOS until the company delayed its release to compress and op- timize 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 re- quired 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, tech- nical director for the Media, Pennsylva- nia-based Windows Users Group Network, says the users he speaks with on several Com- puServe 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 multi- media tour of Lotus 1 -2-3 release 1 . 1 for the Mac takes up 3 MB. And Autodesk's Auto- CAD release 1 1 Extension for Windows has an optional hypertext version of the reference manual. The size: 1 2 MB. The single most cited case of disk gluttony is spelling checkers. You could have sepa- rate spelling checkers for your word proces- sor, 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 Cur- rier, 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' di- alog boxes, bit maps, and graphical nature in general all consume RAM, disk space, and CPU cycles. Take WordPerfect, for exam- ple. Version 5.1 for DOS requires a mini- mum of 384 KB of RAM and 2 MB of disk space. By contrast, WordPerfect for Win- dows 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 Word- Perfect requires 5 MB of disk space, 66 per- cent more than for the character-based version (see figure 3). As entrepreneur Brown discovered, soft- ware vendors are often loath to indicate the true system requirements for acceptable per- formance so as "not to scare people off," says LeFevre, whose company recommends a 386 with 4 MB of RAM for WordPerfect for Win- dows 5.2 even though it will run, however painfully, on a 286 with 2 MB. The BYTE Lab tested nine popular soft- ware packages to gauge performance at min- imum configurations. The result: All nine ran, but performance was so bad that the pack- ages 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 200- MB 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 ex- pect 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 ac- count how much training is actually needed for feature-heavy software. "Nontechnical man- agement 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 ex- pensive ways. Users informally train them- selves by trying out various features, although unfocused self-help can result in lost work time. David Harris of SBT Accounting Sys- tems (Sausalito, CA) published a study show- ing that each user spends an average of 5.1 hours a week "futzing around" — learning pro- grams, helping coworkers, and performing other activities that are indirectly associated with their own jobs. Many users have reported that flabware im- pairs 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 market- ing at Lotus, "you have what I call a 'bag of tools." And the more tools you have, the hard- er 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 under- lying 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 102 B YTE • APRIL 1993 RECOVER DATA FROM PHYSICALLY DAMAGED FLOPPIES & HARD DRIVES!! There's jto other program like it anywhere! When you GENERAL FAILURE READING DRIVE (X). RESCUE DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE™ will read it anyway! RESCUE DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE™ bypasses DOS's inability to read disks and hard drives that have been physically damaged and will move the drive heads directly! RESCUE DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE™ will even read a floppy that has a hole poked through it! You can recover all the data excluding, ol course, the actual de- stroyed area. This revolutionary program is now your first line of defense when it comes to recovering your valuable data. Save hundreds— even thousands — of dollars by doing your own data recovery! With RESCUE DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE™ you can perform miracles." 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LandingZone, Sectors Per- Track, Write Precompensalion Cylinder, Reduced Write Current and Mean Time Between Failure. • BIOS Drive Type Tables • Directory of Manufacturers • The Floppy Drive Cable • Power Connector • Pin Assignments and Specifications V0LUIVIETW0...Z?ffll/fS57T/«GS. Explanation ofJumper Types, Changes in Make & Model and Default Jumper Settings • Diagrams for over 500 drives with: Specifications, Drive Sizes, Interface Types, Jumper Settings and Locations, Terminal Resistor Locations, Pin Assignments, Pin 1 Locations, Cable Type and Locations. VOLUME THREE... CONTROLLERS • Over 275 Diagrams ol Controllers with: Specifications, Card Sizes, Largest Head and CyllnderSizes, Interface Type, Detailed Jumper Settings, Pin Assign- ments and Cable Locations. • Controller to Drive Power Connec- tions, Drive Activity L.E.D. Connections, Common Debug BIOS Format Codes and Default Jumper Settings. The Hard Disk Technical Guide™ —Comprehensive field version ol the Encyclopedia with 424 pages of vital specs! Compact to carry in the field. CALL NOW FOR PRICING! I Free Tech Support Performance Guaranteed Next Day Shipping CALL - - (800) 65-FIXED 800-653-4933 AIIMicro, Inc. 1250 Rogers St. • Suite D • Clearwater, FL 3461 (813) 446-6660 ■ Fax (813) 446-8075 Copyright © 1993. Ratal Onto Retomy Software™, The Hon) Drive KM Kit'", and The Troobleshooter'i Hit™ are trademarks ol AIIMicro, Int. All Other mmdik CircU 1 65 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 66) . FIGHTING FATWARE Software-Bloat Antidotes Y 'ou can take steps now to minimize the effects of fat- ware. 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 af- ford when purchasing a new system. Upgrading later will be more expensive. Buy integrated software, which includes common func- tions 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 util- ity 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 in- cludes 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 Sys- tem 7. 1 hold the best near-term promise of reversing the bloat in applications software. These operating systems provide a mes- saging mechanism that lets applications request services from other applications and exchange information. This capability al- lows an application to tackle complex tasks by farming out por- tions of the job that it can't handle to other applications on the sys- tem or network. For example, a page-layout application would divide and con- quer the job of creating a shareholder's report by asking a spread- sheet 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 im- age file in an unknown format, this application might ask a graph- ics application to extract the image, scale it, and then crop it be- fore 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- Army- knife 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 ven- dors concentrate on writing code in their areas of expertise. Be- cause a tailored application's code is smaller, the tasks of de- bugging and optimizing for specific platforms are both simplified. Sharing functions also conserves an even more precious re- source — 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 client- server fashion. These functions are not rigid; the same application that asks for a service (as a client) at one point might provide a ser- vice (as a server) to another application later. Because providing both client and server capabilities takes a lot of work, you can ex- pect 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 applica- tions. OLE Improves Despite some drawbacks, OLE is the most ambitious and wide- ly 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, ad- dresses 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 vi- sion of the world," says Steve Adams, product manager of Corel- Draw 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. Sup- pose, 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 switch- es to accomplish this task: 1-2-3 must first take foreground con- trol, 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 in- tegrated packages offer compelling advantages. In Interleaf Pub- lisher, 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 ad- vantage. 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 Ac- cess 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 with- out 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 Win- dows 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 ven- dor-required hardware. All the appli- cations I tested will at least run on machines that meet the minimal re- quirements. 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 sys- tem. 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 your- self the utility of a system that takes 1 times as long to respond. Running large programs on a mini- mally configured system is frustrating. For example, Microsoft Access takes over a minute just to start up. A mis- taken 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 in- teractive application, response time is critical. When the response time of a low-end system drops an order of mag- nitude from that of a typical system, interactive software becomes unusable. Although you can make it work, get- ting anywhere near the minimum hard- ware requirements for a Windows ap- plication is a bad idea. It's better to upgrade the machine or to simply for- go buying the latest software to ensure a hardware/software combination you can live with. Steve Apiki is senior editor and direc- tor 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 ^ | 1 0% 20% 30% Figure A: The dish-space figures represent a full installation. The memory used includes the opened test document 161Mrf7ZV&r%T glVe r Z aperC !Tif- °fP e '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 de- mand for even more memory later on adds insult to injury. For exam- ple, at first Apple claimed that System 7 required only 2 MB of RAM. How- ever, Apple now admits that System 7 needs a minimum of 4 MB of RAM. a fact reflected in the base RAM config- uration 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-reso- lution typefaces, File Sharing for peer- to-peer transfer of files, AppleTalk Phase 2 (required for operating on large networks), and IAC (Interapplication Communication). Still, to make Sys- tem 7 of more interest to users, Apple's engineers designed it to make more ef- fective use of the mem- ory 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 pro- vides 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 for- eign 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 Sys- tem folder or the Extensions folder, in- stall at boot time and patch the operat- ing system to extend its capabilities. This technique consumes memory be- cause 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 Ap- pleScript (a scripting mechanism for the batch control of appli- cations), the Open Col- laborative Environment (a mail and document verification facility), and QuickDraw GX (an advanced graphics en- gine), as System 7 Ex- tensions. When enough users demand them, Ap- ple 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 soft- ware to and from memory only when it's needed. This solution exploits ca- pabilities built into QuickTime's Com- ponent Manager. The Component Man- ager's original function was to bind a software component (typically a driv- er 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 com- ponents 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 Exten- sion file installs a 5-KB stub into memory. When an application requires Ap- pleScript, the Component Manager loads an additional 250 KB of code, which comprises the AppleScript ser- vices. 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 mea- ger compared to today's multimegabyte applications, it gives the Mac OS the ability to effectively manage future ser- vices that will make larger demands on memory. enable Interleaf to partition its application, a non-Interleaf ap- plication 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 equiv- alent 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 sever- al 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 com- munication 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 ON ONE HAND, PROJECT MANAGEMENT CAN BE A REAL HEADACHE. &£k will be. W^'^Ik^lw fft>bftb(v|3St5r Wed. ON THE OTHER HAND, WHY SHOULD IT DE? You work hard enough plan- ning your projects; why not let Microsoft" Project 3.0 for Windows" help you make it easier? With clear graphs, you'll be able to see and communicate your project even better-from the tiny details to the big picture. Changes? No problem. For every revision you make, Microsoft Project helps you see how it will affect the entire job. Assigning a new job? Just click the People button. Want to know who's doing what, when? Microsoft Project can help you keep track of everyone. And if you need to get off to a fast start, use PlanningWizards to guide you step by step. Soon, you'll have great-looking, easy-to- read reports that make all your plans perfectly clear. You can even exchange files between Project on your PC and your Mac! Either way, why not plan on the leading project man- agement software? Microsoft Project 3.0 - it takes the pain out of planning. Making it easier For more tafarmuta. inside the 50 United State., call (800) 426-9400. Dept. JM2. Outside rhe U.S. and Canada, call ,206, 936-866 1 . Cmoam Printed in Che USA. Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Cl . in Canada, call (800) 563-9048. ID 199.1 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved, -poration. Mac is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. Inc. 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 re- spond 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 500- page 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 se- lecting 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 de- coupled from its code and communicates only via Apple Events. This allows you to automate a job by using AppleScript to mon- itor the chain of events that occur as you work. AppleScript re- cords 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 divide- and-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 differ- entiates its product from the others by pitching its unique capa- bilities 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 mar- ketable concept. Aldus has taken the first step in this area. In April the compa- ny will announce a version of Persuasion for both PCs and Macs that breaks its charting engine out into a single-purpose, stand- alone 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 ap- plet, but once you do, its services are available to all applica- tions that act as OLE clients. The charting applet understands Persuasion's layout, so it can maintain the format and layer con- trol of Persuasion documents when it generates a chart. Private messages allow Persuasion and the charting applet to relay col- or information back and forth while you work on a graph. What all this means is that you will get better coupling between Per- suasion and the charting applet than you would get with other ap- plications. This implementation of Aldus' s charting applet seems like a reasonable compromise in exploring how to market a server ap- plication 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 ap- plications 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 com- municate 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. Ven- dors 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 object- oriented operating systems (see "Objects for End Users," De- cember 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. Ver- sions 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 program- ming 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 view- ers 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 ver- sion takes up only 1.5 MB of RAM, including source code. In con- trast, 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 con- tributed 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. " re- spectively. 108 BYTE • APRIL 1993 How much longer can you afford to wait? Create Overlaid Programs-Fast. 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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 Devel- opment Environment) lets you develop fuzzy-logic-based ap- plications. 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 sev- eral products, including FuziCalc for Windows, FuziQuote, FuziCell, FuziChoice, and FuziCost. These products are used as management deci- sion-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 mod- eling software — FuziCalc for Windows — sells for $995. Using it, you can make decisions based on complicated combinations of hard (well- understood) and soft (fuzzy) factors. It produces answers that are mathematically verifiable and easy for people new to the field to model and in- terpret. FuziWare claims that if you have an ap- propriate application, you can improve your pro- ductivity 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), Hy- perLogic (Escondido, CA), and NeuraLoaix (San- ford, 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 1 16). Its acceptance outside Japan has been slow — some people blame the name itself, which Lotfi A. Zadeh (developer of the field and cur- rently professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley) chose to call the tech- nique. 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 1 993 -BYTE 111 FUZZY LOGIC Fuzzy-Logic Glossary At first glance, the words pertain- ing to the technology of fuzzy logic often seem fuzzy; however, with a few clues, you'll find them straightforward. crisp logic Another name for tradi- tional 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. Tra- ditional or crisp sets have strict mem- bership 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 fuzzi- fying an element by combining actual values (e.g., the temperature of a liq- uid) with stored membership functions to produce fuzzy input values. fuzziness A term that expresses the ambiguity that can be found in the def- inition of a concept or the meaning of a word or phrase. The terms high tem- perature 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 mul- tivalued logic to represent a crisp-logic system. Fuzzy logic holds that all things are a matter of degree (e.g., warm ver- sus cold or hot), hi fuzzy logic, the three logic operations AND, OR, and NOT return a degree of membership that is a number between 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 val- ues of true and false (1 and 0) are re- placed by continuous-set membership values ranging from to 1 . fuzzy inference The process of us- ing the degree of truth in production rule premises to select an appropriate rule to execute. genetic algorithm A process for op- timizing the suitability of a function to some observations. membership The degree of inclu- sion in a set. Fuzzy sets have values between and 1 that indicate the de- gree to which an element has member- ship in the set. At 0, the element has no membership; at 1, it has full mem- bership. 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. Ac- cording 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 us- ing conventional systems. The largest commercial uses for fuzzy logic are as controllers for tasks such as managing temperatures and energy effi- ciency in heating and cooling devices and regulating timing and fuel flow in auto- mobile 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 process- ing, sales analysis, speech recognition, ma- chine vision, and character recognition (see the text box "Fuzzy-Logic Applications" on page 1 14). It will improve speed, main- tenance, extendability, and efficiency. Ac- cording to Earl Cox, CEO of the Metus Systems Group (Chap- paqua, NY), a fuzzy-logic and fuzzy-neural network consulting organization, the use of fuzzy logic can dramatically reduce prod- uct development limes for a range of embedded control applica- tions from the idea to the prototype stage. Cox cites an example of a fuzzy-logic application that he de- veloped 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 pro- gram lakes into consideration function point, code density, and the total opera- tional 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 fig- ures to calculate ratios and statistical mea- sures and feed them into a fuzzy-evalua- tion model. Previous attempts to measure complexi- ty relied on sharp boundaries between what is and what is not complex. The fuzzy ap- proach more closely models the way that managers think in degrees such as some- what, 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 it ■ ■ -...-. l^HiW$?M--:$*:\v* I ■■".'■ - :: : ;.;'■■ ': ■ - - "'}v '■■■:'■ '.■ . : . :.-?fvW$WX:W±- :''": ■ PC Certify™ from Landmark resolves hardware and software conflicts FAST! CPU & System Board Tests - Clock speed, instruction set, DMA controller 1 & 2, interrupt controller 1 & 2, CMOS RAM, 8253/8254 timer, math coprocessor (instruction set), COM & LPT Port Tests - COM (1,2, 3, 4), LPT (1,2, 3, 4), internal loopback, identities addresses. Hard Drive Tests - Non-deslructive testing of drive and controller lor MFM, RLL, IDE, ESDI, and SCSI. Includes indentification ot IDE specs (hds, cyi, spl) lor quick and easy setup. CMOS Save & Restore - CMOS recovery program for restoring lost CMOS settings. Continue (Dun Tests) I CPU [386DX] (40.52 MHz) System (AT) II Memory: 640KB, 3Q72KB EXT, 64KB HHA, 19B4KB XMS Ports: (1:3FB) (Z:ZFB) __ Port: (1:378) 1 A: 1.2MB 5.25" Floppy Drive 1 B: 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive 1 HDO:Type 47, Cyls: 762, Hds; 8, Sect: 39, Cap: 116Mb 1 Paradise (UGA) and VGA Color Monitor 1 101 Key Enhanced Keyboard 1 Printer Iterations: continuous ': don't test Memory Tests - Tests conventional, UMB, HMA, XMS, extended and expanded, identities address, bit, and parity failures, displays bad RAM address. Floppy Drive Tests - Non-destructive tests for 3.5" and 5.25", with high and/or low density controllers. Video Tests - Text attributes, ASCII character display, scrolling character set, high and low resolution graphics, EGA/VGA color tests. Supports Hercules, MONO, CGA, EGA, and VGA (up to 1MB). Printer & Keyboard- Printer character and barber pole tests, 84 and 101 key model keyboards. WHAT IS PC CERTIFY? PC Certily is an easy-to-use, non-destructive PC diagnostic program designed to quickly identify hardware faults and system configuration errors, Windows setup problems can be frustrating. You don't know whether it's the software, configuration, or a hardware fault. With PC Certify you'll quickly be able to pinpoint what the source of the problem is. WHAT DOES PC CERTIFY DO? PC Certify software allows you to easily: •Diagnose hardware vs. software failures. » Identify system setup problems. • Keep track of system upgrades and configuration changes. • Run a complete preventative maintenance check on your system. • Print a testing and certification report for quality control and inventory records. WHY YOU NEED PC CERTIFY Few things are more aggravating than computer downtime and lockups. You waste time waiting for help and usually pay a dear price to get it ivftenyou finally do. Your time is valuable, so let PC Certify handle the problem for you. Anyone can use PC Certify. Simply run the program in AUTOMATIC or QUICK MODE, sit back, and relax while PC Certily scrutinizes and tests your computer system for hardware failures. Once the battery of tests is complete (usually within minutes), a Test Results Summary will be on your computer screen. You can route the summary to a disk file or your printer. Either way, you'll know what's wrong with your PC hardware. 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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 1 12). Crisp sets have rigid mem- bership requirements where every object is either completely in- cluded or excluded from a set. In contrast to this true or false scenario, fuzzy sets allow for continuous-set membership val- ues ranging from to 1 . Bart Kosko, professor of electrical engineering at the Univer- sity of Southern California, says, in his book Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Machine In- telligence (Prentice Hall, 1991), this type of multivalued logic was first explored some 60 years ago by Jan Lukasiewicz, a Polish lo- gician 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 mem- bership functions. In the early 1960s, Zadeh enhanced the original research. He subsequently developed what people know as fuzzy-set theory, in- troducing 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, con- verting your information to what are called fuzzy sets, and in- terpreting your model (see listing 1 ). You can use a number of cri- teria 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 func- tions (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 pro- cessing 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 suit- able, 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. Basi- cally, 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 inferenc- ing, is a way of producing numeric responses from linguistic rules based on system input values. In the last stage — defuzzi- fication — 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 Hy- perLogic, a firm that produces fuzzy-logic development tools, says it's necessary to come up with a performance measure (the- oretically, an ideal correct response). You can then run the engine 114 BYTE • APRIL 1993 MOV SJ -K w **,*«&, tvvp.^; % t X) ie Silentwriter Model 95. Come see what all the noise is about. Purchase the $1749" Silentwriter Model 95 by April 30. 1993, and get a $250 rebate along with Adobe" PostScript'" Level 2 interpreter, HP'PCL' 5 emulation, PC and Mac' compatibility, 6PPM speed and microfine toner. Because tt is the way you want to go. For information, call 1-800-NEC-INFO (in Canada 1-800-343-4418), or NEC FastFacls'" al 1-800-366-0476. request #SWM95. Circle 1 10 on Inquiry Card. FUZZY LOGIC Japanese Leaders in Fuzzy Logic JEFFREY D. SHEPARD The Japanese recognized the po- tential of fuzzy logic more quick- ly than people in other parts of the world. One of the reasons for the explosion of fuzzy-logic applica- tions 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 sys- tem. An earlier study by Hitachi had shown that a fuzzy control system was superior to a conventional one in a num- ber of ways — increased accuracy in stopping at a platform, greater rider comfort (smoother acceleration and braking), and lower electric power us- age. The performance of the Sendai sys- tem 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 compa- nies in a wide range of products, in- cluding computers, cameras, automo- biles, 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 (Moun- tain View, CA). Computers Will Benefit The Japanese are setting their sights on the application of fuzzy techniques to produce future generations of high- performance personal computers and workstations. The advent of more pow- erful personal computers and worksta- tions 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 algo- rithm was developed at the Informa- tion Equipment Research Laboratory of Matsushita Electric Industrial (Osa- ka, 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 Tech- nology (Kumamolo, Japan) has devel- oped a new control system using fuzzy logic. The group implemented this ex- perimental fuzzy controller in software on a personal computer. OKI Electric Industry (Tokyo) re- cently introduced a new fuzzy-infer- ence 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 prod- ucts and already offers a VLSI fuzzy- controller IC. These chips represent second-generation designs. Other Projects The Laboratory for International Fuzzy Engineering Research (LIFE), a six- year project of the Ministry of Interna- tional Trade and Industry, is developing future fuzzy-logic applications in de- cision support, robotics, and fuzzy com- puting (including fuzzy associative memories). At the independently fund- ed Japanese Fuzzy Logic Systems In- stitute in Iizuka, a fuzzy neuron has been used in an experimental hand- writing-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 num- ber of people in the Japanese research community expect neural and fuzzy technologies to complement each other and to evolve together into a "neuro- fuzzy" technology. A team at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology has demonstrated an opti- cal 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 flip- flop circuit. Currently, a study is un- der way to define the architecture of a fuzzy-logic-based workstation. The ma- chine is expected to embody both fuzzy (multilevel) and classical (binary) pro- cessing in the same architecture. You would use the machine to tackle prob- lems such as natural language and im- age understanding — applications that are difficult to implement with conven- tional personal computers and worksta- tions. 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 satis- factory 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 net- works for the Embedded Systems Division of National Semi- conductor, 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 fig- ure). 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, al- though 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 Discover the best systems in the industrialized world. The industrial sector is no place for weak technology And one industrial line has more depth and experience than any other To get free, detailed product analyses just return this card, fax it to 1-713-933-1029 , or call 1-800-627-8700.' 1 PURCHASE COMPUTERS FOR: □ Internal company use □ Resale □ Bolh SOLUTIONS I PROVIDE: NAME . TITLE. APPLICATIONS I AM RUNNING: COMPANY- PROCESSOR: □ 386 □ 486 □ Other. l'HONE_ CONFIGURATION: D Rackmount □ Bench/desktop □ Tower □ Industrial workstation □ Cards ENVIRONMENTAL SPECS: □ Heal □ Dust □ Shock □ Vibration □ Fault tolerant □ Other ADDRESS. CITY- TENTATIVE PURCHASE TIME FRAME: □ One month D Three months □ Six months □ Over six months STATE. * European inquiries call 31 36 536 5595. Other international inquiries call 1-713-933-8050. .ZIP, BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 2484 HOUSTON, TX POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES TEXAS TEXAS MICRO 10618 ROCKLEYRD. HOUSTON, TX 77099-9986 II,.,II.„III,mI,I„I,ImI,I„I.I„I„ImII,„IIm FUZZY LOGIC According to Khan, combining both fuzzy logic and neural networks results in a synergy that improves speed, fault toler- ance, and adaptiveness. A neural network can convert knowl- edge 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 mea- surements 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 neu- ral 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 comput- ers 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 dif- ferent 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 non- linear problems that are normally addressed by statistics and ad- vanced mathematical models. Ralphe Wiggins, president of Ryan, a data-analysis consul- tancy 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 finan- cial forecasting and abstractions for data interpretation or ma- chine 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-ori- entation technology where rules are objects," says HyperLogic's Watkins, "but it isn't necessary to use these two technologies to- gether." 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 diffi- cult, or that the systems are unstable. While Ed Katz, a member of the technical staff at Hewlett- Packard Laboratories Division (Palo Alto, CA), is a proponent and user of fuzzy logic, especially in the noncontroller domain, he says Built for harsh including today's economy. i I \\v Introducing the 4210, the affordable, rugged PC. You don't have to go broke to get a PC that won't break in harsh operating envi- ronments. Because n jtf. w m starting at $3,087 for a 25MHz 486 SX system, you can get the new 4210 from Texas Micro. Available in desktop and rackmount versions, the 4210 is built for high reliability under elevated temperature, dust and shock, making it ideal for mission critical office and industrial applications. The 4210 has a sturdy chassis with a 10- slot passive backplane to allow for easy CPU and peripheral upgrades. Call Texas Micro today to get complete specification and price lit- erature on the new 4210. And find out just how rugged a computer has to be to survive the economy. Call 1-800-627-8700. ©1993 Texas Micro. Inc. The Intel Inside logo is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Circle 140 on Inquiry Card. APRIL 1993 • B Y T E 117 Circle 155 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 156.) FUZZY LOGIC ractal image compression. The technology that inspired PC Magazine to proclaim "The advantages of fractal compression are unmatched." The technology selected for Microsoft's breakthrough CD-ROM Encyclopedia, Microsoft* Encarta. This technology is now available to Windows 3.x developers in POEM ColorBox, which provides DLLs for: • ultra-high compression; • resolution independent images; • fast decompression; and • superior 24-bit color rendering. For multimedia, archiving or other ima- ging applications, ColorBox is compre- hensive, easy-to-use and at $995, sup- risingly affordable. Call today for more information. Learn why ColorBox is the solution to your image compression needs. Iterated Systems 5550-A Peachtree Pkwy., Suite 650 Norcross,GA 30092 Tel: 1-800-4FRACTL Fax: (404) 840-0806 ■ ' MULTIMEDIA AVerKey (NTSC or PAL — VGA to VIDEO for Notebook — Flicker-Free filler — Supports Windows 3.0 and 3.1 — Supports all IBM standard modes up to 640x480 with any colors (256, UK, UK,...) for NTSC or PAL For PAL TV system, 800x600 is supported if Cirrus CL-CD6410 VGA chip is used. — Supports 640 x 480 mode without loading any A VerKey driver. — Compatible with ail VGA cards — Simultaneous graphics display on both VGA and TV monitors. £rf.~~*> i VGA Monitor We also have following items: — VGA to Video OVERLAY/GENLOCK card — Live Video Window controller — VGA to Video Converter card — TARGA 16 compatible card — JPEG compression card — TUNER card n r S rRlBUTOJt & Igyl WELCOME MANUFACTURED BY: ADDA (USA, CA) TEL: 1-510-7709899 FAX: 1-510-6231803 ADDA (CANADA, BC) TEL: 1-604-2783224 FAX: 1-604-2782909 ADDA (TAIWAN) TEL: 886-2-2484131 FAX: 886-2-2484276, 2488214, 2404538 All trade marks are the property of their respective holders. COMBINATION FUZZY-LOGIC/ NEURAL-NETWORK SYSTEM System I/O data Application parameters Neural-network learning Fuzzy-rules and membership-function generator Fuzzy-rules verifier and optimizer* * Implements fuzzy design Automatic code generator Microcontroller assembly code National Semiconductor' s NeuFuz system combines fuzzy logic and neural networks, which learn the system behavior based on I/O data, and a rules generator, which creates fuzzy rules and membership functions based on the neural-network learning process. A fuzzy-rule verifier validates and optimizes the number of generated rules and functions. Finally, an automatic code generator converts these rules and functions into an embedded controller's assembly code. 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 am- biguous 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 im- proves 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 Circle 154 on Inquiry Card. We Deliver Computing Know How Learn More with Computer Books from Abacus Sound Blaster Book The 486 Book This book is your guide to Sound Blaster, from installation to custom programming. Includes an overview of the different Sound Blaster cards, many specific software products and much more. Also includes simple MIDI system to use with your Sound Blaster. #B 18 1 . ISBN 1-55755-181-2. Price S34.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. Explains the features that make this processor so advantageous - the memory capabilities, the math coprocessor, the specialized software that maximizes the CPU's performance and more. PC INFO program and System Sleuth™ diagnostic software on companion diskette. #B183. ISBN 1-55755-183-9. Price $34.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. 420 pages. Multimedia Mania Upgrading & Maintaining Your PC Turn your PC into a high performance screamer. Whether you're adding memory or a hard drive. 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Price S29.95 with companion disk including wave forms and Sound Database Manager. PC INTERN The encyclopedia of DOS programming know how for the professional programmer. Includes parallel working examples in Machine Language. C. Pascal and BASIC. • DOS and BIOS internal Structures and functions • Programming video cards, sound, TSRs #B145.ISBN 1-55755-145-6. Price S59.95 with over 2MB of source code on one diskette. 1300 pages. Turbo C++ Step by Step Teaches you step by step C++, the language of choice among professional developers. The lessons are designed to be short, progressive and to the point, so you can learn quickly. #B156. ISBN 1-55755-156-1. Price $34.95 with 3.5" companion diskette, 300 pages. Windows 3.1 Complete Find out how to customize Win- dows to your needs with this in depth book covering all the ins and outs! Learn dozens of lips and practical techniques from the pros. Includes two complete Windows utilities ready to run- Disk Backup and Snapshot screen capture, #BI53. ISBN 1-55755-153-7. Price $34.95 wAVindows utilities disk. 875+ pages. Windows3.1 INTERN Introduces the reader to the overall concept of Windows programming and events using dozens of easy- to-follow examples. A com- prehensive info source for every Windows programmer. It's a solid guide forbeginning to intermediate Windows programmers who need to know more, faster. #B159. ISBN 1-55755-159-6. Price S49.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. 1200+ pages. PC Assembly Language Step by Step Teaches you machine language from the ground up. at your own pace. Learn assembly language using the unique assembly language simulator which shows how each instruction functions as the PC executes it. You'll get hands-on training with this exceptional book/ disk combination. #B096.ISBN 1-55755-096-4. Price S34.95 with 2 5.25" companion diskettes. Order Toll Free 1-800-451-4319 Available at B. Dalton, Crown Books, Software EtcWaldsnbooks, Computer City and other retailers nationwide. In Canada, Coles W.H. Smith and Classic Bookshops. In the UK, call Computer Bookshops 021-706-1 18( In Austailia call Pactronics 02-748-4700. In US and Canada add $5.00 postage. Foreign orders add $13.00 postage per item. We accept Visa, Mastercard or American Express. Abacus! Dept. B4, 5370 52nd Street SE, Grand Rapids, Ml 4951 2 Phone: (61 6) 698-0330 • Fax: (61 6) 698-0325 Circle 61 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 62). (Please rush me the following books: _ Sound Blaster Book S34.95 ea. _ The 486 Book S34.95 ea. _ Multimedia Mania 549.95 ea. _ Upgrading & Maintaining $34.95 ea. _ Wicked Sounds $29.95 ea. _ PC INTERN $59.95 ea. _ Turbo C++ Step by Step $34.95 ea. _ Windows 3.1 Complete $34.95 ea. _ Windows 3,1 INTERN $49.95 ea. _ PC Assembly Language $34.95 ea. Subtotal: Ml orders include 4% sales tax: In US & Canada add S5.00 shipping: Foreign orders add SI 3.00 per item: Total amount (US funds): For fast delivery Order Toll Freel -800-451 -431 9 ext. 24, or FAX (616) 698-0325 I Or mail this coupon to: Abacus, 5370 52nd Street SE, Grand Rapids, Ml 49512 Method of Payment: □ Visa Q Master Card □ Am. Express □ Check /M.O Card#: I I I I, , l_„l I I I ,!._ ,[ I I J_J I I Expires: / Name: Company: Address: City: . Phoneft: . State: .Zip: Fax#: □ Yes, please rush your free catalog of PC books and software. Dept. B4 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 over- load means that you can't see the forest for the trees, visual- ization 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 hun- dred 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 nu- merically. New techniques bring new possibilities. Scientists use vi- sualization to analyze the results of experiments in fields as far- flung as pollution studies, semiconductor physics, and drug de- sign. In engineering, visualization can provide rapid solutions in design, development, and production planning. Civic and voluntary organizations can use visualization to obtain de- mographic data. And in business, the use of visualization techniques can reveal buying patterns, sales penetration, or in- vestment 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 pro- totyping are increasingly important (see the text box "Visu- alization 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, com- plete 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, submerg- ing, and resurfacing. "Without this kind of visualization tool," Bartel says, "the task of ana- lyzing the huge amounts of data from the simulation would be almost impossible." Until recently, only super- computer 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 tech- nology. Among them are ani- mation (rapidly changing still images used to create the illu- sion of movement), 3-D graph- ics (an illusion of depth pro- duced by using perspective), and rendering (computer im- ages created to represent the surfaces of 3-D objects, com- plete with shading and texture). Visualization is often used in conjunction with simulation, but there is an important dis- tinction between the two. Sim- ulation 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 ab- stract system in such a way that you can analyze the response of the system (e.g., Flight Simulator). The results of a simu- lation are usually numerical rather than graphical and often are fed into a visual- ization environment to obtain graphical representations in various dimensions. A simulation must be valid and correct in its own right, but the choice of a visu- alization 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 supercom- puter is a scalable parallel machine, with up to 2048 processors, that was designed for fast graphics processing and visual- ization. But many users want to do visualiza- tion 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 work- station, the main requirements for visual- ization are fast math-processing capabili- ties 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 graph- ics or a Mac IIvx. The more powerful the machine, the more sophisticated the visu- alization application can be. If you plan to add animation, you may want a video output card so that you can dump se- quences 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 of- fer 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 Sta- tistica 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 cat- egory, you encounter the dedicated visu- alization packages, which offer access to more specialized techniques. An example of a specialized technique often used in financial visualization is heat- mapping. This procedure produces a sur- face plot in which you use height and color to represent different variables. For in- stance, 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 vi- sualization software. Many aspects of visualization software are changing. One trend is toward graphi- cal 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 Graph- ics (Mountain View, CA), and the Data Explorer from IBM (Hawthorne, NY) of- fer visual programming for assembling program modules. Some products, such as PV-Wave from Precision Visuals (Boul- der, CO), are available in two formats — a command-language version and a point- and-click version. At this most advanced level are work- station programs that offer animation, transparency, cross-sectioning, and real- time visualization of multidimensional data sets. But you can carry out some of these techniques on more humble hard- ware. Doing animation on PCs is possible, says Robert Simons, president of CoHort Soft- ware (Berkeley, CA), but you must com- press the data when it's first loaded and use two pages of video RAM. His com- pany's CoVis software performs real-time, animated visualization on a PC. The soft- ware draws each frame to the off-screen page and swaps pages. The price you pay for the real-time ac- tion is the loss of options such as loga- rithmic axes and hidden-line removal. On the other hand, a program such as Malhe- matica from Wolfram Research (Cham- paign, IL) creates and stores all the frames in advance. Animations in Mathematica 122 BYTE • APRIL 1993 3*. - 1RP It could be worse. We might've stored our data on something else. . Verbatim'"tapes, optical and floppy disks. Your best defense against data loss. Circle 1 48 on Inquiry Card. VISUALIZATION SOMtD UFMJF CAEPO CAIRO PfiPWU M1C05 CAi?RM -0.10 »0N +0.0? *G5< ■■■■ i ■:■..-■'■■« IMS HALCNAHDO 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 im- pose almost no limits on the visual com- plexity 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 Geor- gia Institute of Technology's Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center (At- lanta, GA) reveal the potential of visual- ization technology. John Stasko, an as- sistant professor of computer science at Georgia Tech, is using visualization to analyze algorithms and programming tech- niques. "We are trying to use animations to help researchers get a better under- standing of very complex algorithms," he says. "These people often deal with large problems, and frequently, to conceptual- ize, they doodle — they draw pictures to get ideas." For example, Stasko's col- league Walter Rodriguez, an associate professor in the school of civil engineer- ing, is working on the Construction Vi- sualizer, a program to help contractors plan site layouts by visualizing the move- ments of materials, machines, and trucks as the project develops. Even in the traditional field of scientif- ic visualization, the range of applications is expanding. Until now, many of the peo- ple 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 Na- tional Research Council (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is using data from the flight re- corder 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 re- ported 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 phys- ical 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 finan- cial 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 deter- mining the most meaningful way of rep- resenting data. You can use color, texture, animation, stereoscopy, sound, and touch as part of your visualization toolkit. These elements aren't just gimmicks; they rep- resent 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 Multidimension- al 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 in- dependent 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 vi- sualizations with fewer dimensions. A typical example of 3-D data might be the results of a demographic survey show- ing how voting behavior across the coun- try relates to age (one dimension for age, and two dimensions for geographical lo- cation). But that's hardly a complex ex- ample. Many sociological and business- oriented applications are more demanding. Scientists are developing ways of visual- izing systems with more than 100 dimen- sions. According to Mike Garrity, president of Jaguar Software (Winchester, MA), a company that develops visualization soft- ware, 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 vi- sualization 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 migra- tion of the software from supercomputers to workstations and PCs. Just like spread- sheets, off-the-shelf visualization products need to provide a wide range of import/ex- port options. But unlike spreadsheets, these products have to deal with multidimen- sional 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 There's Sound. vroom, vroom .And There's SoundMan™. SoundMan" 16. Get Real. SoundManl6 delivers sound so real, 85% of the time people can't tell the difference from live sound. That's because it's packed with the absolute latest in sound board technology: up to 16-bit/44KHz record/playback, Yamaha OPL-3 stereo synthesis 20-voice chip, 1 00% Sound _» — Blaster'" and Ad Lib" compatibility, and more. SoundMan brings you the highest T - XD - quality sound available, for all your games and applications, in Windows" ■* ■ v and DOS. From Logitech, the peripherals leader. At your dealer, or call LUl/lTEun 1 -800732-302 1 . W® Ttodemoiks belong to their respective owners. The SenSeWOre" Company Circle 97 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 98). VISUALIZATION Visualization Applications MAXINE D. BROWN Scientific visualization provides re- searchers with an invaluable tool for scientific insight and under- standing. 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 dur- ing a computation. Using this methodology, you can dis- till huge amounts of numeric data into a single image or a series of images over time in animations. This capabil- ity is vital to scientific discovery and to the communication of those discov- eries. In recent years, a new generation of scientists and engineers has emerged that relies on the computer as its pri- mary tool for discovery. These scien- tists and engineers develop mathemati- cal models to simulate the behavior of the physical or theoretical worlds that they study. They work in numerical lab- oratories, which are environments with graphics workstations that may or may not be networked to supercomputers. Scientific investigators, technolo- gists, and visualization experts — com- monly 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 compu- tational 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 possibil- ities that their simulation models can forecast. When they change parame- ters, 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 repre- sentations. Engineering for Design Until recently, the availability of com- mercial software for scientific anal- ysis has been limited. But computer vi- sualization technologists are developing the necessary tools to make the hard- ware and software more accessible. Using computers, engineers can in- vestigate the potential of new designs by dynamically altering and tuning sim- ulation 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 sci- entific and engineering tools. In the screen below, an engineer is using scientific visualization to opti- mize the design of a front-end automo- bile component from the perspectives of weight, cost, and manufacturability. From a local workstation, the engineer can define the size and material prop- erties of a structure and invoke a crash (i.e., impact) simulation running on a networked supercomputer. The engi- neer can then visually examine the re- sulting 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 defor- mation, are critical sections. The engi- neer 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 manage- ment example in the screen on the right, an analyst investigates trading strate- gies and examines the resulting changes in the growth rate of a portfolio. The financial analyst plays a num- ber 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 port- folio, and the stock prices. In this vi- sualization, 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 interac- tions. Scientists are successfully car- rying out the process using supercom- puters to model complex systems, such as proteins and DNA. The pharma- ceutical industry is increasingly using molecular modeling to design modifi- cations to known drugs and to propose new therapeutic agents. Structural biologists, working with a visualization expert, created the vi- sualization 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 re- balancing, 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 ran- dom, but over the long run, the aver- age growth rate converges to the theo- retical value of the strategy. The problem becomes more com- plex as the number of stocks in the port- folio 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 dia- grams 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 percent- ages of the investment in a stock, from 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 "edi- tors" 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 be- cause visualization grew out of many fields, each of which brought its own file for- mats. Meteorology has BUFR (Binary Universal Form for Representation) and GRIB (Gridded Binary Form) files. Re- mote sensing has ERDAS (Earth Resource Data Analysis System) images. CAD uses IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Speci- fication) files. And the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medi- cine) format is being developed for medi- cal 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 perma- nent form." And what will cause the stan- dards 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 ex- tensible, available in the public domain, and capable of handling data and images as well as scaling information. The fact re- mains, however, that if you are an ad- vanced visualization user, you'll probably always be drawn to formats developed for your own needs. Excitement and Caution Powerful new desktop computers and work- stations 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 chang- ing. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researchers are adding vir- tual-reality techniques to visualization to simplify drug design. Using a force-feed- back arm, they are able to pick up a mol- ecule visualized on a screen and push it onto a biological receptor. An easy fit im- plies 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 mol- ecule is a seductive experience — so se- ductive that you can easily forget the ap- proximations and interpolations that went into it. "One of the problems with data explo- ration and visualization," says Paul Velle- man, president of Data Description (Itha- ca, 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 dimen- sions that add realism to visualization are equally capable of making the unreal seem more plausible. But used intelligently, vi- sualization can change the way people use computers to analyze and interpret nu- merical data. ■ Jack Weber is a TV producer working for the BBC, making documentary films and producing the weekly prime-time science- and-technology program Tomorrow's World. You can contact him on BIX c/o "editors " or on the Internet at jweber® cix. compulink. co. uk. IHiALO IMAGING LIBRARY GIVES PROGRAMMERS THE D OWER TO WRITE MAGING MAGIC. 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STATE OF THE ART/visuaiization 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 sci- entific and engineering observations. And this trend will continue. For exam- ple, in six years, NASA's Earth Orbiting System satellites will become functional. As a result, the data on atmospheric chem- istry, weather patterns, and ocean currents and temperatures will increase at a rate of 1 trillion bytes per day. To facilitate easy access to and under- standing of this data, a number of software and hardware makers are mapping data- base management and query strategies on- to parallel and distributed architectures. Among these companies are Oracle (Red- wood Shores, CA), Sybase (Emeryville, CA), and Kendall Square Research (Wal- tham, MA). However, the results of these undertak- ings 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 (Na- tional Center for Supercomputing Appli- cations, 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 ev- erything, and you must explore and re- veal the underlying meaning of the data if you are to understand what you have re- trieved. Interacting with Your Data There are two main categories of software in visualization technology. To an extent, both methods allow you to display and ma- nipulate 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 win- dow, 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 representa- tion operations, such as probes, annota- tions, 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 ad- vantage of your workstation's windowing capabilities. Examples of this kind of soft- ware include DataVisualizer from Wave- front (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 con- structing graphical networks of modules (e.g., modules for data input, filtering, pseudocoloring, and rendering). The links between the modules in the graphical dis- play 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 un- derlying the network, the system causes the connection of modules and the ex- change of data. AVS from Advanced Vi- sual Systems (Waltham, MA), Iris Ex- plorer 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 el- ements of visual programming, which uses graphical symbols to represent program elements. But it lacks important compo- nents, 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 en- vironments lies in their flexibility, exten- sibility, 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 publiciz- ing 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, slid- ers, 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 vi- sualization 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, in- efficiencies in the handling of both dis- tributed computing and large amounts of data, and the tendency in more complicat- ed applications for the data flow network to grow bewilderingly complex. One strat- egy to overcome these problems is to op- timize 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 modu- late data flow? Researchers are developing methods that will allow you to take data from any source (e.g., observations, sim- ulations, or accumulated databases), au- tomatically transform it into a common data format, and display the data from dif- ferent sources together (see the text box "Inside Multidimensional Data" on page 132). This satisfies the two most impor- tant 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, col- or, size, and orientation) are bound to in- dependent data variables. Examples of sim- ple glyphs are the spheres in molecular structures or dynamics calculations. The work of Georges Grinstein, Haim Levkowitz, and their colleagues at the Uni- versity 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 (magnet- ic-resonance imaging) data, with pixel val- ues 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 en- compassed most of today's visualizations. continued Pacific DirectNet It teaches your LaserJet to look both ways. Until now, most network interface cards for the LaserJet could only look in one direction. And over time, that restriction proved to be inefficient and costly. Now there's Pacific DirectNet" from Pacific Data Products. With it, your LaserJet printer can work on Novell* alone. Or Novell and TCP/IP together. Even if you currently run only one type of network, it's likely it won't stay that way. 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El PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS Pacific Data Products, Inc., 912S Ftehco RiL, San Diego, CA 92121. In Europe, call (353) 61 47S609. Pacini: DireetNel is a trademark o( Pacific I'aia Products, Inc. HP, Laser|ei, PaintJet, and Desie,n|et arc roistered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Co. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell. Unix is registered trademark of Unix System Laboratories, Int. Sun is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. IBM and MX arc trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corp. All older brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of iheir respective manufacturer. ©1993 Pacific Data Products, Inc. NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD Inside Multidimensional Data LLOYD A. TREINISH Visualization implies creating a pic- torial form for data. The geome- try composing such a picture, like your data, can be classified by its dimensionality. To visualize data ap- propriately, 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) it- self or dependent variables and can have more than one value (or rank). Rank 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 com- plex data can be rank 2 or greater. Often there is an association between the dimensionality of data and its ge- ometry, which is called a mesh, or a grid. This association describes the re- lationship of the size, shape, and orga- nization of the data to the physical co- ordinate 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 aggregat- ed. For example, weather data might consist of temperature, rainfall, and barometric pressure measurements. A time series can be composed of a de- cade of monthly sales figures. And a hierarchy can embody the structural or- ganization describing the parts of an airframe. Multidimensional Techniques Table A lists several visualization ge- ometries with their dimensionality. Table B shows a number of visualiz- ation techniques (categorized by di- mensionality 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 low- er dimension in a higher dimension, such as inserting a line, plane, or sur- face in a volume. The dimensionality of a visual representation can be dif- ferent 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 pow- er. From a hardware perspective, the problem is not how much raw floating- point speed and bulk storage you have but whether your system can achieve efficient processor utilization and rapid access to the data. From a software per- spective, the problem is not rendering an EXAMPLES OF 2-D MESH STRUCTURES • • • • • *. L_jS[ /\ \r\~A a) Regular grid b ) Irre gularg rid 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. 132 BYTE • APRIL 1993 I ~i "V7"#^0 f Enter my one-year (12 issues) sub- I V\ JL Jjji^i scription to BYTE for only $24.95.* I'll save 40% off the single copy price. Plus, I'll also receive BYTE's Annual Special Issue FREE with my paid subscription. If at any time I'm not satisfied with BYTE, I may cancel for a full refund on all unmailed copies. □ Payment enclosed □ Bill me later NAME. BYTE COMPANY . ADDRESS.. CITY. ..STATE ZIP.. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Basic subscription rate is $29.95. (Mexico, $29.95 payable in U.S. funds). Above rates are for U.S. delivery only. Please see table of contents for international subscription rates. *Plus applicable state and local tax, if any. IB34014 BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 42 HIGHTSTOWN. NJ POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE: BVTE Subscription Department P.O. Box 558 Hightstown, N.J. 08520-9409 NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES lfl„,l.,l„l.l„.l.lll...l.l..,l„lll,„l,l„„ll,l 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 cre- ate effective visualization and storage structures for data of varying dimen- sionality, parameters, rank, mesh struc- ture, and aggregation. Lloyd A. Treinish is a member of the research staff of the Visualization Sys- tems Group at IBM's Thomas J. Wat- son 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 JliWMl/JIR \il.»lJ^!lilMIIJJ 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 1 993 • BYTE 133 NAVIGATING THE DATA FLOOD Glyphs are a powerful medium for dis- tinguishing and comparing several vari- ables at once. They take advantage of your eye's ability to perceive small differences in shape or position and to discern prop- erties such as color and shape. As a result, you have at your command several attri- butes (the most quantitative being spatial position) that you can bind to variables while still being able to see each of the at- tributes separately. This capability is nec- essary for the quantitative comparison and correlative analysis of data. Glyphs also fit naturally into the land- scape of 3-D displays and virtual environ- ments. In such interactive environments, using glyphs allows you to perceive pat- terns of clustering and details of spatial arrangement in all three dimensions. To find the limits in the number of vari- ables and the amount of spatial complex- ity that a multidimensional representation can handle, my colleagues and I have stud- ied the simultaneous binding of several variables in applications such as complex molecular-dynamics structures. Because these calculations are molecular-dynam- ics simulations, you can designate anoth- er dimension — time — via an animation. Screen 2: Simulation of a nickel atomic- force 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 suc- cessful 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 even- tually 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 geome- tries. Researchers in visualization and us- ability 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 con- struction 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 differ- ent characteristics of your multidimen- sional data. tirrelv became shari al breath during e.erase As a maiw ol course during his regular bike nde, he'd dismaun, the bike al bottom of hills and walk up^ "I dismissed li as ius' go»ing wind- ed "recalled the 35, earold Walls dur ,„go phone mtet-iewlrom the olicesol hildosvmownlawliirn.Matzellftchard & Walls , „,. ... l„ctll, b. Jim. h-.~ile/bike "ding companion d,d not dismrs, the svmp- ,om instead sleenng he. husband to the doclofsallice bi a stress tesi On rhe tteadmill and hooked up to an EKG, Jim became 'wmded' ogam Onlythis.ime.doc'otsoetec.eda blockage in h,s heart. A "me bomb „h,ch gave no signs or symptoms olher litan Walls' seemingly tome Shortness ol breath, the condmon requited bypass surgery Immediately 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 Insti- tute of Technology (Atlanta, GA); Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA); and the Institute for Visualiza- tion and Perception Research at the Uni- versity of Lowell (Lowell, MA). Researchers at Xerox PARC and other institutions are developing 3-D visualizers of information structures (see "The Infor- mation Theater," November 1992 BYTE). And in many research centers, work on vi- sualizing scientific multidimensional data has much wider implications. For exam- ple, the efforts at NCSA and other nation- al supercomputer centers focus on accu- rate, interactive display and analysis of large data sets derived from supercomput- er calculations. The results of these calcu- lations 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 infor- mation stores (e.g., the Internet), symbol- ic representation must become 3-D to show their full character (see screen 3). To un- derstand the interdependence of the Inter- net's parts so that you can formulate plans and carry out troubleshooting, you must be able to interactively navigate the net- work 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 Visualiza- tion Laboratory and an associate direc- tor for service at the Graphics, Visualiza- tion, and Usability Center. You can reach him on BIX c/o "editors" or on the Inter- net at bill.ribarsky@oit.gatech.edu. : NO OTHER PRINTER MEASURES UR Introducing the Image Xpert" 5000. 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And the unlimited use runtime license lets you distribute report applications for free. SPECIAL OFFER FOR R&R USERS. Registered users of R&R Report Writer for Xbase can upgrade to CA-RET for just $79 ($89 in Canada). To order, just call 1-800-531-5236 (in Canada: 1-800- 665-5449). Call today and find out how ImOMPUTER easy it is to turn the mundane ^SSSOCJATES into the magnificent. Software superior by design. ©Computer Associates liuernaiional. Inc.. One Computer Associates Plaza, Islandia. NY 11788-7000. All product names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective companies. 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 ex- isted before. The power and flexi- bility of a visualization system depend on the software architecture that designers develop. There are two types of visualization soft- ware architecture. One is an object-ori- ented 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 simi- larities between the two. A Common Tool Set Whatever the architecture, basic visual- ization 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 smooth- ing the data by averaging neighboring val- ues; others (e.g., finding contour lines con- necting equal-valued points) might create new data sets. Rendering tools use sophisti- cated 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 struc- ture 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 1 993 -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 sim- ilarly 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 sit- uations, most contour-generating trans- formation tools produce only one 2-D sur- face when presented with 3-D data. The internal data structure allows trans- formation 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 for- mat of the internal data structure. One such tool might take data repre- senting a 3-D array of the wind and tem- perature in a region, find the lowest wind- chill, and output a new data structure consisting of one point marking this loca- tion. 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 trans- formation 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 arith- metic tools, which perform most of the ba- sic 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 cre- ate 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 de- scribed tools produced. Using graphic rou- tines, 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 usu- ally 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 ma- nipulation. 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 modi- fying the interval between the lines. These four types of tools handle the ba- sic tasks that visualization software must carry out. The way that the architect im- plemented 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 transfor- mation 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 in- dividual 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 con- figurations 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 cre- ate an image. If a parallel processor is avail- able, the system is able to divide each tool's responsibilities into a number of parts so that you can quickly perform the visual- ization, continued 138 BYTE- APRIL 1 993 The Worlds First Universal File Editor Edit Any Text/Data/Binary File Up To 2 Gigabytes a Unique multi-mode, multi-file editor handles any text, data or binary file. □ Edit DOS, Unix and Mac text files, fixed and variable length data records. □ Edit in ASCII, Hexadecimal or EBCDIC, or combination of modes. Q Edit database, mainframe, Postscript, .EXE and other non-standard files. □ Hyper-browse CD-ROM files. Q Full featured program editor. □ Convenient word processing. □ Also VEDIT for only $89. * iilit : iindou jilack 'oto : isc irint 'carcli onf ifl 6 Brouse Mode 7 Neu 6 Open . . . 4 Close Buffer suitcli. 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VEDIT PLUS has the most powerful macro programming language of any editor. It's ideal for translating files from one format to another. Easy to learn, easy to use An intuitive user interface with drop down menus, hot keys, mouse support, optional scroll bars, context sensitive help, point and shoot file selection and unlimited keystroke macros make VEDIT PLUS easy to use, easy to learn. Safety features include 1000 level undo, auto-save and optional backup files. The entire keyboard layout and everything in VEDIT is configurable with easy to use menus. With over 100 configuration parameters you can fine-tune VEDIT to your exact needs and preferences. Installation is trivial. Only the 85K VEDIT.EXE is required (no overlays) and a full installation is only 500K. 2:49 min >24hours 20.0 min 2:10 hour DOS UNIX QNX FREE Fully Functional Demo! Call 1-800-45-VEPIT Confidently order your VEDIT PLUS today; it comes with a 30 day money-back guarantee. VEDIT has been the choice of 100,000 programmers, writers and engineers since 1980. VEDIT PLUS - DOS single user license: $185; DOS network 5 user license: $385; UNIX/XENIX, QNX, FlexOS/IBM 4680: $285. A new, fully functional demo of VEDIT PLUS and a shareware VEDIT Jr. are available on our BBS at (313) 996-1304. Toll Free: 1-800-45-VED1T (1-800-458-3348) Telephone: (313) 996-1300, Fax: (313) 996-1308 Mail: P.O. Box 1586, Ann Arbor, Ml 48103 VEDIT is a registered trademark of Greenview Data, Inc. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Greenview Data 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 com- puter can take advantage of its extra pro- cessors 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 run- ning on these machines. The algorithms are easy to express in parallel form, and often a machine with n processors per- forms n times faster. The Iris Explorer 2.0 is an object-ori- ented, 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 plat- form, the Explorer configures itself to use the maximum amount of power available. Both the IBM and Silicon Graphics soft- ware packages allow you to use a visual program editor to create a program for converting data into images. In this edi- tor, one window has boxes that represent the tools, and the lines between them rep- resent the data flow. With this kind of ed- itor, 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 so- phisticated features, you can use the ap- propriate 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 send- ing 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 program- ming 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 (com- puter 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 den- sities into colors (yellow for the bound- ary, 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 den- sities. This kind of view is useful to den- tists 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 imple- ments the four sets of tools differently. It was written by Wayne Rasband of the Na- tional 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 soft- ware 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 re- sults are happenings that visualization soft- ware 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 experimen- tation because of the flexibility they have. Best of Both Worlds Good visualization software provides sim- ple 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 visualiza- tion software emerge, as the two structures grow to imitate each other. WYSIWYG programs will allow you to link many dif- ferent 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 edi- tor based in Baltimore, Maryland. You can contact him on BIX as "pwayner" or on the Internet at pcw@access.digex.com. With the ZyXEL U-Series modems, you're sure to save. Time. Effort. Money. The savings begin with the U-Series' ultra-high speed — 1 6.8Kbps data, 1 4.4Kbps fax (send and receive). And our new PLUS Series runs at 19.2Kbps. But what keeps you saving are the U-Series' intelligent features — features that save you effort and ensure reliable communications. Like Fast Retrain with Auto Fall-Forward/Fall- Back. And multi-level security features — Call- Back Security and Password Protection. With Caller ID, you can even answer calls selectively. Want to save by having one phone line do the work of three? Get the U-Series. It adds Digitized Voice Capability with Speech Compression to its fax and data capability. And, Distinctive Ring and Auto* DatalFaxlVoice Detection for intelligent access to all three. And now diere's a Cellular Option for the new PLUS Series. Everyone can save with the U-Series mo- dems. Because they're smart enough to work in all environments — including DOS", Windows'", OS/2®, Macintosh®, NeXT®, UNIX'-', and Amiga'". The U-Series modems support V.32bis/V.32, as well as industry- standard data compression and error correc- ^a» tion protocols. In case you believe all this intelligence is expensive . . . relax. The U-Series are the lowest-priced, high-performance modems around. And they come with free ZFAX software and a 5-year warranty. Which means now is the perfect time for smart people to save — by getting the ZyXEL U-Series modems. To start your wise investment, just call today for the name of your nearest ZyXEL dealer. (800) 255-4101 ZyXEL f'wt ..^} ZyXEL The Intelligent Modem 4920 E. La Palma Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92807. (714) 693-0808 BBS: (714) 693-0762 FAX: (714) 693-8811 *Available April 1993. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 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 re- lated to their use of 16-bit compilers. There- fore, we decided this was a good time to remake the case for 32-bit tools and lan- guages. 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 386, 486 and i860 Compilers Microway's NDP family of 32-bit compilers generate globally optimized mainframe qual- ity code that runs on the 386, 486 and i860. They require the use of 32-bit operating sys- tems such as OS/2, UNIX, Xenix, Solaris, Coherent, DESQview/X and DPMI and VCPI DOS Extenders. NDP Fortran"" is a full F77 with F66, DOD, VMS and MS extensions. NDP CIC tm ++ includes a full C compiler that runs in both K&R and ANSI modes plus a C++ compiler that is Release 2.1 compliant. NDP Pascal 1 " 1 is a full ISO Level 1 Pascal with BSD extensions that can interface the NDP C runtime libraries. NDP Language Pricing Coherent versions use the Coherenttools and supportthex87famiiy $295 MS-DOS versions include a VCPI virtual memory DOS Extender, a DPMI interface layer, support for the x87 and Weitek coprocessors, NDPLink, NDPLibandGREX- our DOS graphics library. The 486 version adds 486 code generation, royalty free DPMI and VCPI plus ClearView, Microway's sym- bolic debugger. 386 Release $595 486 Release $995 OS/2 releases include x87 support, a Work- Frame interface and our 486 extensions. These tools work with the IBM Linker. CIC++ includes the portions of the IBM Tool Kit needed to interface the PM API's $695 UNIX/Xenix 386/486 use the native tools on the system in question. V.3 and V.4 versions are available $1195 DESQvlew/X $1195 Coprocessors Weitek 4167 25/33 $350/$795 3167$200/250 Cyrix D8733/40..$99/129 S87..$79 EMC$250 Intel 387SX. .$80 387DX.. $85 287 ..$80 OverDrive 25MHz$475.. 33MHz $675 arrays larger than 64K using the 486's 32-bit "flat" model, which runs 2 to 4 times faster than the huge model employed by 16-bit compilers. 32-bit tools also simplify ports. Programs writ- ten for mainframes often assume that integers and pointers are 32-bits long or depend on bi- nary representations, especially when written in Fortran 66 and C. Our 32-bit NDP compilers eliminate porting headaches by providing the extensions you need to recompile your VMS, VS, Cray and MS codes. We alsosell the IMSL, NAG and VAST II tools that frequently get bundled with mainframes. i860 Supercomputers QuadPuter-860 The world's most cost effec- tive Supercomputer, the QuadPuter comes with four modules each of which has an i860 and two megabytes of local memory. The modules sit on an EISA base board that can be purchased with 8 or 32 megabytes of shared memory. Five QuadPuters have an aggregate throughput of a gigaflop! The card comes with one NDP language plus MAX-860. From $9995 Number Smasher-860 our ISA card can be purchased with 8/32 megabytes of memory running at 33 or 40 MHz. Options include EISA and ISA Fifos, a P version with built-in Fifos for distributed parallel processing and a 24-bit graphics buffer. The card includes one NDP Language plus OS860. From $3995 NDP Fortran-860 along with our CIC++ and Pascal utilize advanced scalar code genera- tion techniques designed to optimize the i860's RISC performance. The languages run on DOS, UNIX, OS/2 and i860 UNIX V.4 Workstations $1995 PPS-860postprocessing scheduler, takes as- sembler outputandconvertsscalaroperations into pipelined. It also reschedules using dual instructions. Scalar speed ups in the range of I0to40%areproduced $595 VAST-II from PSR is the same vectorizer that is used with Cray's $1495 AT Accelerators FASTCache-X86/Plus™ — The 'Windows Solution"- easily converts your 286 based PC into a 386/486 powered workaholic. The board takes up a slot in AT bus designs and has sock- ets for up to 16 megabytes of DRAM. It plugs into your 286 using a cable. The PS/2 version hasnomemory.Allboardshavea16Kfourway cache and run at 25 MHz. Two processors are available, including the Cyrix CX486SLC. From $399 Before you give up on your486, give us a ring. Whether you are looking for the 5 megaflops your486 produces by itself, the 1 2 megaflops it delivers with a Weitek 41 67 or possibly the 80 megaflops we can coax out of our Number Smasher-860, you owe it to yourself tocontact our excellent Tech Support Staff today. Microway has had the answers to your PC performance problems since 1 982! Phone:(508)746-7341 Fax: (508)746-4678 486 Workstations AMicroway BlackTower is the ideal solution to your486 needs. They feature industrial grade American power supplies, heavy duty cooling and easy access. All motherboards are care- fully burned in before shipping and equipped with heavy duty power connectors. Our BX Towers are ideal for use as desktop worksta- tions, file servers, RAID servers and CAD/CAM stations. They were originally en- gineered to house i860 arrays, which fre- quently get attached to SUN Networks as computational servers. We customize each system with the OS of your choice, including UNIX, OS/2, DOS and Wndows.The base sys- tems listed include case, 4 MB, tactile response keyboard, supply, flop-pyandmouse. The B 2 T is our tall tower, the B is a larger box that features front and side hinged panels. All but the 386 system use industrial supplies and the B 3 is available with a 1 2 slot EISA channel. To see why Microway systems have earned an international reputation foroutstanding design, price/performance, value and reliability, ask for our BX Series Catalogue. 386B 2 T-40 ISA 64K Cache 200W$1395 486B 2 T-33 ISA64K " 250W$2495 486B 2 T-33 EISA256K " 250W$3395 486B 2 T-50EISA256K " 250W$3995 486B 3 -50EISA256K " 350W$4495 486B 3 -66 EISA51 2K &1 2 Slots 350W $5495 386, 486, i860 Libraries NDP IMSL Microway compiled and validated version of the IMSL mainframe libraries, avail- able forthe 386/486 and i860 $2,000 NDP NAG Microway compiled and validated NAG Workstation library, available for the 386/486 and i860. 386/486 $995, i860 $1495 KUCK & ASSOCIATES hand coded i860 libraries. DSP library does 1024 real FFT in 500 microseconds! DSP.. $750 BLAS..$500 LAPACK and BLAS vectorized, sources in- cluded. 386/486 $295i860 $495 Microwa Technoloav vou can count on! Research Park, Box 79, Kingston, MA 02364 USA (508) 746-7341 FAX (508) 746-4678 Kingston-Upon-Thames, U.K., 081-541-5466 Spain /Portugal 351-1-604-049 Germany 069-752023 Greece 30 12915672 Italy 02 7490749 Japan 047 423 1322 Poland 22-414115 Circle 1 06 on Inquiry Card . 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 photograph- ic or video images (see screens 1 and 2). Data is usually accompanied by meta- data, which contains information essen- tial 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 informa- tion that describes the data's format, units of measurement, scale, display-color spec- ifications, and relationship to other data sets (e.g., this image of atmospheric tem- perature is related to an image of atmo- spheric 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 usu- ally 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 V" 'Special Introductory Price $99 00 ! -+f. fliTICH Why Learn Ada? -Ada^theOTOstimportantnewprog^am- ; ■ ming language today, wiilbethe'domi- nant programming language- in the • :/ nlrure!' Ada was, designed and devel- oped "by the U.S. Governnient and is now mandated by Congress for use.in all new software applications for the ■ Federal Government. Ada is currently ..being used in hundreds of new systems, ^including the Space Shuttle, the Space, Xab Space Station, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the FAA National Aerospace System, and many more! 5841 Edison Place, Suite 1 10 ' '■ ' ' Carlsbad, CA 92008 (619)431-7714 FAX (619)431-0860' Call for Complete Product Line Circle 63 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 64). 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 1 146 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 1 147 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 1 148 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 1 149 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 1 150 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 98 124 (800)426-1443 (206) 865-3622 fax: (206) 865-2966 Circle 1 152 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 1 1 53 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 1 154 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 1 155 on Inquiry Card. MATLAB 4.0 Price: $1695 (PC, Mac, most workstations, some supercomputers) The MathWorks, Inc. 24 Prime Park Way Natick, MA 01 760 (508)653-1415 fax: (508) 653-2997 Circle 1 1 56 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 1 157 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 1 158 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 1 1 59 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 1 160 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 1 161 on Inquiry Card. VOXELBOX Price: $495 (Windows 3.x) Jaguar Software 573 Main St., Suite 9B Winchester, MA 01 890 (617)729-3659 Circle 1 162 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 Get 5 Books for only when you join The Computer Book Club 5 YES! Rush me the following titles, billing me just $4.95 (plus shipping/handling & sales tax). Enroll me as a member of The Computer Book Club according to the terms outlined in this ad. If not satisfied, I may return the books within 10 days without obligation and my membership will be cancelled. I agree to purchase just 3 more selections at regular Club prices during the next 2 years and may resign anytime thereafter. Code #'s of my books for $4.95 Get 5 Books for only when you join The Computer Book Club 5 YES! Rush me the following titles, billing me just $4.95 (plus shipping/handling & sales tax). Enroll me as a member of The Computer Book Club according to the terms outlined in this ad. If not satisfied, I may return the books within 10 days without obligation and my membership will be cancelled. I agree to purchase just 3 more selections at regular Club prices during the next 2 years and may resign anytime thereafter. Code #'s of my books for $4.95 If you select a book that counts as 2 choices, write the book number in one box and XX in the next. If you select a book that counts as 2 choices, write the book number in one box and XX in the next. Name Name Address/Apt.# City State. Zip. Phone . Offer valid for new members only, subject to acceptance by CBC. Canada must remit in U.S. funds drawn on U.S. banks. Applicants outside the U.S. and Canada will receive special ordering instructions. A shipping/handling charge & sales tax will be added to all orders. ©1993 CBC BY493 The Computer Book Club™ Address/Apt. # City State. Zip. Phone . Offer valid for new members only, subject to acceptance by CBC. Canada must remit in U.S. funds drawn on U.S. banks. Applicants outside the U.S. and Canada will receive special ordering instructions. A shipping/handling charge & sales tax will be added to all orders. ©1993 CBC BY493 The Computer Book Club™ CO UJ a < f- >- OS < Q UJ UJ X crt «t] h- O HI s u_ Q 0. o U UJ z z Z Z 3 CO CO CO LD .1 05 a> a u ■ < 5- -AS CM ce N < a. CI c < - a. n _j 5 01 3 I ft: II < a CD 3 " CO H CO O E 2 _ CO n O D) c 2 ■§cc > a) £ o .2 < CO CO UJ < >- si < Co Q UJ UJ H < o a, n CO UJ U < s u. g Q UJ z Z z 3 Ml <$ LY LUERI Ph" rwi ^ ^J o ^^^ z r^ e- c«i tyjS Hd £| ^^ W5 C/J3 Pfe PPi* u. to -Q CO w ri O) D a < >- D .* CD 1 it C\] K N < a. CD CD 1— - a. BJ 11 < p- CO 3 | CO ._ CO Q O O) Qj > co ;C a = K> < oo 881653P-XX S29.95 Counts as 2/Softcover 3280H S36.95 MAXIMIZING PERFORMANCE WITH LOTUS® 1-2-3® FOR WINDOWS 3971 P $24.95 Softcover PROGRAMMWG _USWGJW C LANGUAGE 031541P-XX S33.61 Counls as 2/Softcover 043297H-XX S39.95 Counts as 2 C+C++ Programming With Objects in C ana C++- —ii- ■:■■■ ■,-. ■■■ .;■ ■.. ■:-.;,: 3941 H S32.95 3745H S36.95 UNIX FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPEP.S 4069H-XX S39.95 Counts as 2 881682P-XX S24.95 Counts as 2/Softcover The Computer Professional's SURVIVAL GUIDE ,. A N P.. 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And you'll be eligible for FREE BOOKS through our Bonus Book Program. Your only obligation is to purchase 3 more books during the next 2 years, after which you may cancel your membership at any time. All books are hardcover unless otherwise noted. Publishers' prices shown. If you select a book that counts as 2 choices, write the book number in one box and XX in the next. A shipping/handling charge & sales tax will be added to all orders. ©1993 CBC ,, . , If card is missing, write to: The Computer Book Club, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0820 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 pre- IVIacs 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, off- line 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 decom- press 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 il- lusion 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 Inte- grated Information Technology, AutoDoubler 2.0. 1 from Fifth Generation Sys- tems, 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 dif- fer a little in their approach: The PC packages trap sector reads and writes to com- press 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 ca- pabilities 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 com- pression packages range in price from S59 to $149, and even the most expensive among them is considerably less expen- sive than a modest hard drive. If you can get reasonable performance, be assured of data integrity, and double the effective ca- pacity of a 200-MB disk, you have obvi- ously saved a bundle. Software compression's second advan- tage makes it an especially effective tech- nology for notebook users. It's not always practical to upgrade or add storage to port- able 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 so- lution, how do you choose from among the packages on each platform? The mea- sure of effective software compression comes down to the compression ratio and the speed of compression and decompres- sion. We used these two criteria in de- signing the tests used to evaluate these packages (see the text box '"Measuring Compression" on page 1 53 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 Stacker 1 Stacker 2 ■■BHBHmBBBHBBS SuperStor Pro XtraDrive AutoDoubler I^HMHi ■■ Stufflt SpaceSaver 1 Stufflt SpaceSaver 2 SuperDisk 1 ■■^■■■l i^— SuperDisk 2 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 con- siderations such as price, ease of use, min- imum system and memory requirements, and the utilities that each compressor in- cludes. 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 sym- bols 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 loss- less compression are variations on dic- tionary-based schemes such as LZ (Lem- pel-Ziv) and its patented cousin LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch). For example, Stack- er uses a compression algorithm that Stac Electronics calls LZS, for "Lempel-Ziv- Stacker." Dictionary-based compressors use sym- bols to represent recurring strings in the uncompressed input. An encoding dictio- nary maps these symbols to the strings they represent. With most dictionary al- gorithms, the decompressor can completely reconstruct the encoding dictionary from the compressed data stream — the com- pressor 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 compres- sors, since speed is critical for invisible operation and read accesses are often far more common than writes. Like all lossless compression, on-the- fly compression works by removing re- dundancy in the source data; therefore, it's highly dependent on the input data type. Source data with a high degree of redun- dancy (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 some- where in the middle. To complete the illusion of invisible op- eration, 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 avail- able 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 prob- ably lead to some weird results. 152 B YTE • APRIL 1993 DATA COMPRESSION Measuring Compression We tested each of the eight soft- ware packages reviewed here for speed and compression ra- tio (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 com- pression packages. To test speed, we ran a mix of ap- plication benchmarks and low-level tests. We ran the Word Processing and Database elements of BYTE's appli- cation benchmarks. For raw speed mea- surements, we ran random and sequen- tial 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, re- spectively. We kept the Mac's disk cache to a minimum during through- put tests. We also measured compression ra- tios for each of the five data types. On the PC side, where the compression ap- plications 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 phys- ical space on the disk, provided the compression ratio. It was relatively easy to check the compression ratios for the three file-at- a-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 Su- perDisk, which apparently made more permanent alterations to the file's di- rectory information. However, we found that we could get the file's true size if we moved it into the Trashcan. Appar- ently, 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' Times- Two 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 Times- Two'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 impossi- ble 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 com- pression ratio — the unweighted aver- age 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 compres- sion. 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 applica- tion areas: Word Processing, Database, and Graphics. The Word Processing and Database throughput figures include the low-level tests and the ap- plication 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 in- tercepts the data stream and compresses or decompresses it on the way to or from the disk. The compressed disk is actually a sin- gle compressed file in the normal DOS file system. With products such as Stack- er or SuperStor Pro, the compression file usually takes up most of the available hard disk space. In addition to the compres- sion 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 com- pressor 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 com- pressors 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 al- locate space on a thriftier sector basis. There are some drawbacks to the sin- gle-file, sector-based compression method. Just reading a single byte requires the com- pressor to decompress a full physical sec- tor. The decompressor needs some sizable decompression buffers to work efficiently. Also, the compressor must handle the map- ping of logical clusters to physical sectors on its own. All this reading and decom- pression 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. Fortu- nately, most of the products include built- in caching and can actually provide bet- ter 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 un- compressed 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 flop- py disk to get by copy protection. Next, you select an installation subdirectory and the disk you want to compress. (The max- imum 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. Double- Density 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 vol- ume. 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 utili- ty tells you whether a disk is a Double- Density 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 test- ed. 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 us- able. Stacker for Windows and DOS 3.0 Stacker for Windows and DOS, from Stac Electronics, is almost transparent in oper- ation, and it's fast enough that you proba- bly won't notice any degradation in per- formance. 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 opti- mize 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 STAC- VOL file on our benchmarking partition used 10,376,192 bytes, leaving approxi- mately 1 00 KB for Stacker to use as a tem- porary storage area. There are no signifi- cant size restrictions — the uncompressed disk can be up to 1 GB in size, and you are only limited to 1 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 Win- dows 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 con- figure Stacker to use EMS, reducing sys- tem RAM requirements in either case. Stacker uses a default compression ratio of 2 to 1 , but you can set the ratio to a max- imum of 16 to 1. Included in the Stacker package is a version of the Norton Speed Disk. Stacker uses Speed Disk to defrag- ment 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, set- up options, a readme file, and a utility called Stackometer. Stackometer uses three gauges to display a compression-ratio sum- mary 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 util- ities 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 opti- mize, 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 uncom- pressed 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 op- tions to mount and compress the selected disk. You can take the compressed re- movable 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 (STACK- ER.EXE). You run the Stacker Anywhere program to access the files on the remov- able media. Stacker is fast, provides good compres- sion, and is a comfortable package to use. Stacker's utilities provided accurate in- formation on hard disk space use, data- compression ratios, and error-correction functions. Also, the program's documen- tation is the best of the four DOS pack- ages we tested. SuperStor Pro 1.0 If Stacker is the DOS compression utility against which others are measured, Su- perStor Pro from AddStor is the next best thing. Although SuperStor Pro shares Stacker's price ($149) and is more Win- dows-capable, it's not quite as quick, flex- ible, 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 util- ity programs to disk. The installer also modifies the CONFIG.SYS file to run the device driver at boot-up. You continue the installation by run- ning SuperStor Pro's main user program, sstor. With sstor, you can preview compression results by viewing the un- compressed and compressed disk statis- tics. You then prepare the disk for com- pression. During this preparation, the program will recognize a Windows per- manent swap file, and it will give you the option of keeping the swap file on a re- served 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 non- booting partition, we had to create a sepa- rate 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 par- tition 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 cus- tom installation, we had no problems boot- ing or running the system. Our original uncompressed D drive became a com- pressed D drive. The device driver uses 52 KB of sys- tem 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 re- movable disk to another machine, you only need to run the appropriate driver, depen- ding on whether you are running Win- dows. SuperStor Pro has various utility pro- grams, 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 dam- age to compressed disks. A disk tune-up component performs fragmentation analy- sis and a full or partial defragmentation of compressed files. The ssutil shell can also recompress, raising the compres- sion 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 com- pression built into the oper- ating system in the form of a utility called DoubleSpace. In fact, DoubleSpace is the sub- ject 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 Super- Stor Pro. Once you install DOS 6, you type in dblspace. DoubleSpace cre- ates what Microsoft calls a CVF (com- pressed volume file). It also installs a driver that tricks DOS into seeing a CVF as a logical drive. One key dif- ference between DoubleSpace and the other PC compressors is that the com- pression driver is actually an operat- ing-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 par- tition. Also included in DOS 6 is the MRCI (Microsoft Real-Time Compression Interface). The MRCI allows an application to query the operating sys- tem for the presence of a compression server. If a compression server is pres- ent, the application can call the server's compression and de- compression 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 in- formation. Within DOS 6 is an LZ (Lempel- Ziv)-based compression server, which is more or less the compression en- gine that DoubleSpace uses to do its work. Although we ran a beta release of DOS 6 (and therefore couldn't pro- duce any conclusive test results), we got a good picture of what the new op- erating system intends to offer. Our preliminary tests show that the DOS 6 compression engine yields com- pression ratios that score around the middle of the pack of the DOS prod- ucts 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 Super- Stor 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 Win- dows interface. SuperStor Pro's SSW1N- PRO Windows application is more in- formative 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 pro- cessing. The JPEG Workshop is not in- tegrated 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 dou- bles 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 driv- er and interrupt handler. This has its pros and cons: It is easy to use, but data recov- ery can be considerably more difficult. XtraDrive runs under DOS. There are no Windows programs in the package, al- though 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 1 6- KB blocks, and an optional system RAM cache of the same size. For the bench- marks, 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 uncom- pressed disk. In our test system, the 10- MB D drive became a 10-MB D and a 10- MB 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 in- formation file for the XtraDrive virtual drive. It is one of two copies; the other copy is saved in a protected location out- side 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 sim- ilar to DIR, which supplies information regarding compression and space avail- ability, a chkdsk equivalent, and a de- fragmentation 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 Super- Stor Pro or Stacker, loss or damage to the drivers prevents access to only the com- pressed disk space. Consequently, it is vi- tally 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 un- easy, continued 156 YTE • APRIL 1993 20 Years of Jameco Quality, Value and Service. You Get it AIL . -^"E^J ^*™ ' vV:;. 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J AMECO Computer & Printer Repair ServiceLine quick- turn repairs, parts installation & tech assistance. DATA COMPRESSION Data Compression on the Mac All the products for the PC compress whole disk vol ne uisk voi- /^gggjg gasggs ggs umes, but with the r-'~~" products for the Mac, it's a different story. Three of the four Mac products we tested — AutoDou- bler. SuperDisk, and Stufflt SpaceSaver — use what's best described as "file-at-a- time" 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 compres- sors enhance the basic scheme with vary- ing 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 utili- ty) and don't bother trying to compress it. This file-at-a-time technique has sever- al advantages. Installation is painless, and you can freely mix compressed and un- compressed files on the same volume. In addition, it means that once a compressed file is open, you're working with an un- compressed data stream, and there's no time penalty for each read and write. How- ever, the packages must play games with the Mac's file system so that, for instance, a Get Info selection returns the file's un- compressed 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 Gener- ation Systems' AutoDoubler waits silent- ly 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 flop- py disk, or do anything else that requires your Mac's attention, AutoDoubler will put its work aside and permit you to con- duct 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 com- pression technology as DiskDoubler; hence the DD stamp.) Whenever you open a compressed file or launch a compressed application, Auto- Doubler 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 pack- age 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 decom- pression 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 af- ter one compression pass it finds that the free-space target is not met, it makes an- other pass, attempting to compress the files even further. The target and the other set- tings that the control panel provides help you control AutoDoubler's enthusiasm about compressing files. If you're naming System 7.0, AutoDou- bler installs a CopyDoubler utility on your disk. This program is integrated into the Finder and provides a number of useful enhancements. These enhancements in- clude 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 ex- pand any AutoDoubler-compressed file. Since you can freely distribute DD Ex- pand 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 com- pression. 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 ex- pensive 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 Auto- Doubler. 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 ap- pears. 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 expand- ing a file, the can reinflates. This display is charming the first few times, but its charm can rapidly transform into annoyance, par- ticularly in the midst of compressing or decompressing a large file. Fortunately, you can disable this feature. SuperDisk does not browse whole vol- umes, 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 frequent- ly (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 com- pression that are more or less a trade-off between speed and size. If you want max- imum compression, then you'll pay a speed penalty. If you're happy with a less com- pact version of the compression algorithm, your system will open and close files more rapidly. Higher compression ratios con- sume 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 3.5-Inch Disk Drives Have It Your Way Upgrade your AT™ system without changing the interface using a Model 21 12A drive with IDE interface; upgrade any Work- station with the Model 2112 with Fast SCSI-2 interface Super Fast Performance A I Oms Average Seek, a 5.56ms Average Latency and a 5 12K Buffer with Advanced Cache Management (SCSI models only) 1 Write-Behind Cache Provides up to a 300% improve- ment in write performance by managing writes to the disk Tagged Command Queuing Increases data throughput by optimizing seek and latency and minimizing other delays (SCSI models only) Multi-Segmented, Read-Ahead Cache Permits multiple seeks to be serviced from the buffer without the delay of mechanical seeks and latency ommand Processing and processing time to was loOus (IDE) or350us (SCSI) ur nearest Micropolis Authorized Distributor Model Number IDE (AT) INTERFACE Formatted Average Transfer 5-Year Capacity Seek Rate (MB/s) Warranty j 2105 A 560 MB 10 ms 5 max* Yes 2112 A 1,050 MB 10 ms 5 max* Yes "Asynchronous FAST SCSI-2 INTERFACE BwmmI Formatted Average Transfer Capacity Seek Rate (MB/s) 5-Year Warranty 2105 560 MB 10 ms 10 max Yes 2112 1,050 MB 10 ms 10 max Yes Micropolis is a registered trademark of Micropolis Corporation. AT is a registered trademark of IBM Circle 1 03 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, an- other 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 pan- el 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 dou- ble-clicking on it. Finally, SuperDisk lets you password- protect files. When you attempt to open a protected file and the soda-can window pops up, you're prompted to enter the pass- word before the open operation proceeds. This also occurs if you try to launch a pro- tected 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 ap- peared around 1987 as a shareware utility, and since then it has set the standard for BBS compression and has become a com- mercial 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 de- signed for maximum compression. SpaceSaver operates like a hybrid of AutoDoubler and SuperDisk. Like Auto- Doubler, SpaceSaver compresses files dur- ing your system's idle time. Decompres- sion 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 Space- Saver 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 com- pression, 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 Space- Saver 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. RUNNING OUT OF EXPENSIVE DISK SPACE? PKziP can help! PKziP compresses your files to free up disk space and reduce modem transfer time. You can compress a single file or entire directory structures with a single command. Compressed files can be quickly returned to their normal size with PKcjnzip. Software developers can reduce the number of diskettes needed to distribute their product by using PKziP . Call for Distribution License information. The included PKzip utility lets you store compressed files as a single self-extracting .EXE files that automatically uncompresses when run. Only $47.00 9025 N. Deerwood Dr. Brown Deer, Wl 53223 (414)354-8699 Fax (414) 354-8559 BY493 160 BYTE • APRIL 1993 Circle 122 on Inquiry Card. Discover the basic principle of connectivity... Defy the gravity of your connectivity problems. It's a basic principle worthy of Newton: When the complexities of multiple platforms weigh you down, discover superior PC-to-host connectivity solutions from SmarTerm? Take emulation to new highs. SmarTerm provides PC users with advanced DEC and Dasher terminal emulation (including VT420, VT340, and D470) and connectivity to VAX/VMS, UNIX, and Data General hosts. Whether you need precise emulation for text or graphics (including full ReGIS, Tektronix, and sixel capabilities), or for Windows, DOS, and soon Windows NT, SmarTerm connects on the highest levels. Break free under your own power. Escape from high support costs with SmarTerm's pioneering tools and utilities, including simplified keyboard remapping, pop-up keyboard, on-screen toolbox, user-definable button palettes, and custom- izable help system. You'll reduce calls to the help desk and standardize your site's connectivity. Discover SmarTerm. It's the only emulation software that includes a multiprotocol kit FREE in every package. Get implementations of LAT, TCP/IP, Token Ring drivers, and support for a variety of third-party TCP/IP, all designed and supported by Persoft, and all at no extra cost! Discover the basic principle of connectivity today. Call 1-800-EMULATE. persafr CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS DOS • Windows • Ethernet • Token Rinq Persoft U.S A. 465 Science Dr.- Box 44953 Madison WI 53744-4953 • Phone (608) 273-6000 * FAX (608) 273-8227 Persoft Europe World Trade Center • Beursplein 37 • Box 30237 • 3001 DE Rotterdam, The Netherlands • Phone +31 10 405.3560 • FAX +31 10 405.5073 ©1993 Persoft, Inc. All rights reserved. Persoft and SmarTerm are registered trademarks of Persoft, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned are properties of their respective companies. Circle 1 1 8 on Inquiry Card. DATA COMPRESSION also allows you to alter some of Space- Saver's more important configuration pa- rameters (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 com- press into a folder and append a .SEA ex- tension 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 ex- ecutable code to carry for decompression. TimesTwo 1.0.1 TimesTwo is an unusual, $149 compres- sion package from Golden Triangle Com- puters that provides sector-based data com- pression. When you install TimesTwo, it covers an entire disk volume. In fact, TimesTwo takes over entire disks; you cannot run TimesTwo on a multiply parti- tioned drive. The company says that it is working to remove this limitation. TimesTwo's installation is lengthier than those of the other Mac compression prod- ucts, because it compresses your whole disk at installation time. Although the doc- umentation 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 installa- tion 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 phys- ical 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 pret- ty 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 warn- ings 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 op- tion 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 in- dex, SpaceSaver won out, although in com- pression ratios, there was no clear cham- pion. 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), perfor- mance (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 math- ematics/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 495 12 (800)451-4319 (616)698-0330 fax:(616)698-0325 Circle 976 on Inquiry Card. AddStor, Inc. (SuperStor Pro 1.0) 1 040 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, C A 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 921 11 (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 A chain is as strong as its weakest link. Picture your Hardlock™ key as a bike lock, and the accompanying software routines used to implement the copy protection as the chain. You can own the best lock that money can buy, but that lock is useless if the chain is weak. Introducing HL-Crypt, a major breakthrough in copy protection. HL-Crypt is not just a shell or simple conditional response checker. Using our proprietary Patcher Technology, HL-Crypt encrypts and binds the application to your Hardlock™ device. HL-Crypt features many protection modules that secure the application against piracy, reverse engineering, and debugging, to name a few. Picture HL-Crypt as an ironclad chain. The only ironclad chain in the industry today. For more information, call 1-800-562-2543 HL-Crypt The Fortified Protection Linker for Hardlock 3EKVIMG THE evJ3^ro«JngJs jPT ■jde in the U5A .'270 1 'EM/ARE INDUSTRY SINCE 1979 u-2!) ?u: -I'-i-m-vy-vm-V} ■•M-'SI'l'i rj r i' . i rjLinSiJQ >ington Drive Grove, IL 60 089-6930 Fax: 562-208-0591 X! 51-14-475984 For International information ■.. ■ FW 708/808-03 13~~ F vV t '%'"' circle 83, For Domestic information circle 84 on Inquiry Card. m\ REVIEWS SYSTEM Uitrapoi table PCs: Worth the Trade-Of fs? 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 fol- lowed by machines labeled laptops be- cause they could be comfortably placed on your lap without blocking circulation. Soon after, the state of the art evolved to notebook computers, named for dimen- sions that were roughly equivalent to a sheet of notebook paper. Two other categories — subnotebooks and palmtops — define a class of comput- ers that can go anywhere you can go. Now you need never leave your computer be- hind. But has the ultraportability trend gone too far? As always, you must con- sider 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 appli- cations 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 microproces- sors and solid-state memory in place of hard drives, as well as less impressive screens. Often, the same PC companies offering notebook computers sell sub- notebook models: Dell Computer, Gate- way 2000, and Zeos International, for ex- ample. Palmtop computers easily fit into your jacket pocket and are mainly used as per- sonal schedulers, memo-takers, and ad- dress books (see table 2). Unlike subnote- books, 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 subnote- books (see photo 1) and three palmtops (see photo 2). The subnotebooks includ- ed 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 child- safety 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, de- spite 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 dis- appear. 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 dis- covered 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 togeth- er 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 suffi- ciently balanced by the advantages of a larger screen and keyboard. Gateway 2000 HandBook The $1295 HandBook was the subnote- book 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. Unfortunate- ly, 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 fa- miliar locale above the Enter key. More- over, the keyboard, while better than all but the 320SLi's, would benefit from wider key-spacing. The slightly cramped keyboard con- tributes 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 1 1 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 • 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 (51 2 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 • o Database o • o Address book Scheduler o • • • 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 ■ 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 an- swered 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 alterna- tive — 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 perfor- mance 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! Why settle for an out-of-shape graphics board? Let ATI's newGRAPHICSULTRA+and GRAPHICS ULTRA PRO cards pump up your computer with graphics and multimedia video acceleration. than other local bus solutions. With 2.0MB of video memory, ATI acceler- ates 1 024x768 in 65,000 colors. Run resolutions upto 1280x1024, colors upto 24-bit, and sit-up to flicker-free graphics at76Hz refresh rate. Plus,thebestsoftware support of ANY accelerator product With ATI accelerated by VGAVESAor fJJaC/J 32 851 4/A drivers. rECI INOI OGIUW I Exercise your options under Windows with the FlexDesk Control Panel oruseDeskScanto pan and zoom across a virtual desktop. And ourexclusive CRYSTAL FONTS Onlythe GRAPHICS ULTRA+/PR0 \* smoothsTrueType for laser-quality cards come readyto accelerate 1 text right on-screen. multimedia applications under Windows. Stretch small video images to partial orfull screen for better visibility... and maintain smooth dynamic motion (when othersfallbehind). ATI's mach32 Accelerator Chip addsthe muscleto run Windows, NT,0S/2and CAD fast... evenfaster ACCELERATORS • GRAPHICS • MULTIMEDIA • COMMUNICATIONS GRAPHICS ULTRA + ► Accelerated 1024x768 at65,000 colors ► Truecolor(16.7M)at800x600 ► Multimedia Video T Acceleration ► Fast zero wait-state VGA ► Includes three button inport mouse ► Available in 1.0MB or 2.0MB versions ► 5yearwarranty ►Priced from $399.00 3 GRAPHICS ULTRA PRO adds ► Even faster performance with VRAMs ► Accelerated 1280x1 024 at 256 colors up to 74Hz non-interlaced ► Available in ISA, EISAand Micro Channel- versions ► Priced from$599.00 3 Avoid lowimpactgraphics. Shape up with ATI Graphics and Multimedia Video Accelerators. 8nde $ ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC. 3761 Victoria Park Avenue Scarborough, Ontario Canada Ml W3S2 Tel: (416) 756-0718 Fax:(416)756-0720 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 $1 195 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 20- MB 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 cassette- player 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 vis- ible. You can use the controls even when the system is closed. Built-in software includes a word pro- cessor, 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 recharge- able nickel-cadmium battery or six AA batteries. Options include a car cigarette- lighter 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 palm- tops. It's extremely portable, runs on AA batteries, and has built-in palmtop-style software, such as a scheduler and an ad- dress book. But the DOS interface and programs will still be familiar to PC note- book 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, calen- dar, 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 intimi- dating, with small, dark type and very lit- tle white space. The Pocket PC is an XT-compatible system, making it a relatively slow ma- chine. The keyboard, just wide enough for touch-typing, lacks a solid feel, but it em- ploys an efficient layout with no keys mys- teriously 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 key- board size. If you're looking for one ma- chine 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 stan- dard with 256 KB of RAM. Although loo large and heavy to fit com- fortably 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 applica- tion screens are often cramped with narrow rows and columns. The interface is some- limes difficult to navigate. At one point, I found myself stuck trying to delete an en- try 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 OZ- 9600's many features, its heft and com- plexity can be intimidating. I appreciated some of the unique fea- tures. The display, for example, is touch- sensitive. The special pen that ships with the device, when combined with integrat- ed "digital ink" software, turns the OZ- 9600 into an electronic notebook where you can write notes on the screen and store them away for later retrieval. This scrap- book 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, note- taking, and some pretty serious spreadsheet work — but forget touch-typing. Other interesting features include a built- in infrared system for transmitting data from one OZ-9600 to another (or to a per- sonal computer hooked up to an optional interface device) and a built-in word pro- cessing 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 OZ- 9600 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 be- cause of its simple interface. I was able to effectively use the Series 3 right away. Icon buttons located just above the key- board open the built-in applications. These applications include Lotus 1-2-3-com- patible software, a personal scheduler, a calculator, a world clock, and a word pro- cessor. 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 multitask- ing 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 SEQUENCE CAPTURE: 1st MPEG SOLUTION PROFESSIONAL FRAME CAPTURE: 16 MILLIONS OF COLORS COMPARISO Movies capture MPEG compression Digital VCR (1 00 % 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: - intuitive icon-based interactive multimedia scenarios, - directly compatible with VIDEO MAKER™ , - compatible with all the MPC audio cards (ex.: SOUND BLASTER™ ), „ - manages multimedia librairies with sound, image, ... - manages active regions in the images. § VIDEO MAKER U.S. & CANADA Ph.:404921 61 67- Fax.: 404 921 9243 E.E.C. Ph.: 33.1.46.29.03.06 I Fax.: 33.1.46.29.03.04 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 cal- culator's "list of previous calculations," a pot into which all solved problems are thrown when a new problem is begun. Nei- ther 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 sim- ple 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 elec- tronic 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 Dic- tionary 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 fea- tures 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 de- vices that will work with it to send and re- ceive 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 5 1 2 KB. Its re- flective 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 palm- top models, are not nearly as portable and are usually more expensive. Moreover, battery life for the subnotebooks is mea- sured 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 flop- py 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 volt- age levels on the serial port. The Gateway HandBook, in particular, provided unac- ceptable 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 stan- dard 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 4M n 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 awk- ward 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, data- base 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 measure- ments 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 addi- tional 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 Guaran- tee, 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& ■igBgg 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 communica- tions programs) and a per- sonal 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: Auto- matic 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 spe- cial-function hat keys. Special Travel Kit only $249.' Comes with send/ receive fax/modem and communi- cations 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 pub- licly traded company: NASDAQ symbol: ZEOS, © 1993 ZEOS International, Ltd., 1301 Industrial Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55413 USA. All products and company names are trade- marks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. PT1 R-BYT-9304 Circle 1 52 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 com- bination of features and, even with the op- tional floppy drive included, lists for al- most $600 less than the 320SLi. The palmtop units can be useless if your major work entails typing or using pow- erful 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 replace- ments 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." ARE YOU SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME DRAWING FLOWCHARTS? YOU NEED FLOW CHARTING™ 3. livery day, professionals worldwide save time and money using Flow Charting 3. It's fast, efficient, easy to use, and always produces presentation-perfect charts and diagrams. With Flow Charting 3's built-in flexibility, you can create customized charts using a variety of shapes, lines, and text — placed where you want them. 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. And it's backed with free technical support and a 90-day no-risk guarantee. So if you're spending too much time drawing charts, call for a free demo and see for yourself what makes Flow Charting 3 the best-selling flowcharting software. See your dealer today! Or for a free interactive demo disk,call 1-800-525-0082, ext. 112 International: 408-778-6557, ext. 112 PflTTON&PATTON S o ware Corporation registered trademark of Novell, lm Excellence In charting the flow of ideas! Patton & Pattern Software Corp. 485 Cochrane Circle, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 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 1 234 on Inquiry Card. Olivetti (Quaderno) 22425 East Appleway Ave. Liberty Lake, W A 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 1 15 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 1 86 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 79 105 131 157 183 209 410 436 462 488 514 540 566 767 793 819 845 871 897 923 1124 1150 1176 1202 1228 1254 1280 54 80 106 132 158 184 210 411 437 463 489 515 541 567 768 794 820 846 872 898 924 1125 1151 1177 1203 1229 1255 1281 1-413-637-4343. 55 81 107 133 159 185 211 412 438 464 490 516 542 568 769 795 821 847 873 899 925 1126 1152 1178 1204 1230 1256 1282 56 82 108 134 160 186 212 413 439 465 491 517 543 569 770 796 822 848 874 900 926 1127 1153 1179 1205 1231 1257 1283 57 83 109 135 161 187 213 414 440 466 492 518 544 570 771 797 823 849 875 901 927 1128 1154 1180 1206 1232 1258 1284 58 84 110 136 162 188 59 85 111 137 163 189 214 215 415 441 467 493 416 442 468 494 519 545 520 546 571 572 772 798 824 850 876 902 773 799 825 851 877 903 928 929 1129 1155 1181 1207 1233 1259 1285 1130 1156 1182 1208 1234 1260 1286 3. 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For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343! cz -a c/3 a CL o > DO IV) o CO I CO CO ro CD CD cn (/> O TI CO H c §< IBBBBBB s z r - m C/> T3 m c/> —I jj 2 o m -~J "D i~~ 13 -< =1 C/3 -n S m > ^■^■t 2 > ■~ 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! BITE m REVIEWS HARDWARE PowerBook Peripherals TOM THOMPSON In October 1 99 1 , Apple introduced the PowerBooks, the company's new line of notebook computers. A year later, Ap- ple delivered more powerful PowerBooks and introduced new, lightweight Power- Book Duos designed for docking stations. As small and light as the original Power- Book 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 mo- dem, 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 hard- ware 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 in- tended to be a comprehensive guide to ev- ery 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 virtual- ly 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 di- mensions and power requirements for Duo expansion boards are radically dif- ferent from those of the PowerBook, which means that even seasoned third-party ven- dors 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 experienc- ing difficulties: The Duo 230 that it sent me came without an Express Modem or MiniDock. By the time you read this, how- ever, more Duo peripherals will be avail- able. Outside In Gaining access to the PowerBooks' in- nards 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 Power- Book at the front seam, starting at the bat- tery compartment. Then unplug the SCSI cable from the internal hard drive and sep- arate 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 ca- bles. 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 Wolf- son (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) and Dayna 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 periph- eral 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 go- ing 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' Dayna- Port SCSI/Link-3 PB and Asante's EN/SC PB (see photo 1). These are Ethernet in- terface 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 Ap- pleTalk 58, which is found in the Power- Book 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 functionality- communications, 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 high- speed Ethernet communications — includ- ing printing and file sharing — with a min- imum of trouble. If you are unable to get an Ethernet con- nection because you have a PowerBook Duo (which doesn't have a built-in SCSI port), check out Farallon's PowerPath so- lution. PowerPath consists of two Phone- Net nodes and a cable, plus a disk of soft- ware. You plug one node into the Duo's LocalTalk port and the other into the print- er port of a desktop Mac connected to Ethernet. Then you copy the PowerPath Control Panel to the desktop Mac and re- boot. The PowerPath software acts as a for- warding agent, routing network traffic ap- pearing at the printer port onto the Ether- net 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. Further- more, when the Duo ran File Sharing, oth- er 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 Power- Book-compatible modems (see photo 2). I looked at four V.42bis/V.32bis modems: Global Village Communication's Power- Port/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 com- pliant with MNP levels 2-5; the DataLink PB also complies with MNP level 10. The DataLink PB also comes with built- in digitizer hardware and memory that allow it to act as a telephone, a speaker- phone, 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 Lan- guage) file for ARA, and perhaps a mo- dem control panel. All come bundled with terminal-emulation software — typically MicroPhone 1.7, except for the DataLink PB, for which a freeware terminal appli- cation is provided. I had no problem in- stalling any of the boards. For modem tests, I called the National Bureau of Standards atomic clock to re- set the PowerBook's date and time (which get lost when you remove the battery dur- ing modem installation), faxed a three- page 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 1 80. How- ever, 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 1 4,400-bps ARA connections to the network every time. With the other three modems I experi- enced 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 relat- ed modem name, or install the software by driver type. Once the software was in- stalled 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 "I couldn't find a powerful CASE tool that was affordable. So I designed one." JAN POPKIN, CHIEF SCIENTIST POPKIN SOFTWARE & SYSTEMS, INC. "I'm an engineer. And I know what it's like to need a high- performance and easy-to-use CASE tool. One that I could afford to place on every project team member's desk, not just a select few. That's why I devel- oped System Architect?' As Chief Scientist at Popkin Software, my role is to bting the experiences of our developers to bear on the design of the best CASE tool possible. System Architect is the result." Low Price. High Performance. Since its introduction in 1988, System Architect (SA) has proven that many of the features offered by more expensive CASE tools are available for a v|K1 , osni , fraction of the cost. There are WINDOWS, now more than 12,000 SA copies in use at 3,000 installations worldwide. Quick And Easy. System Architect works on IBM® and IBM-compatible PCs running MS Win- dows® or OS/2 PM®. It comes with an integrated data dictionary that users can customize to meet their needs. Project per- sonnel can easily share information both on and off a network. It's so user-friendly that even from the first day you can sit down, get to work, and produce results. Multiple Choice. SA works with multiple methodologies: Yourdon/DeMarco, Gane & Sarson, Ward & Mellor (real-time), Shlaer/Mellor (OO), Information Engineering, SSADM, and ER diagrams. T Develop scieensfor GUI or character-based applications. ▲ Bring existing SQL data- bases into a CASE environment for simple management ami/ or forward engineering. ©1993 PopMn Solium- & Sracmj Incoipor.unL 'llic Swan Arohilea logo is .1 rr.iciciiLiik of Popkin Software 6: Syii The Power To Grow. To respond to advances in technology such as Client/Server Architecture, SA continues to grow in functionality and productivity. A few optional modules now offered are: SA Reverse Data Engineer: Provides reverse engineering of SQL databases, in- cluding DB2, Informix, Oracle, and SQL Server. Allows existing SQL databases to be brought into a CASE environment for management, enhancement, and/or forward engineering. Provides generation of graphic screens and menus from .DGL and .MNU files. And ensures new SQL data- base applications are built with the proper design integrity. SA Screen Painter: Automatically cre- ates screens for GUI orcharacter-based appli- cations from your SA Data Dictionary; captures existing screens; provides an easy- to-use tool for designing screens from scratch — or mix-and-match all 3 methods; generates MS Windows dialogs and Mcrosoft Microfocus COBOL Screen Sections. SA Schema Generator: Translates entity models from the encyclopedia into schema for DB2, Oracle, Ingres, SQL Server, Rdb, PROGRESS, Paradox, SQL Base, AS400 (SQL & DDS), , Inc. All other brand names and piiKliiccsiirrlnidi'm.irks or regisir^J midLMii.irks ii| ihdr rispecriveholdas. Spccilici Interbase, OS/2 DBMS, dBASE III, XDB, SYBASE and Informix. Generates Windows DLGs, and C type data definitions or COBOL data structures. SA Object Oriented Analysis & Design (OOAJOOD): Supports Booch '91 and Coad/Yourdon. SA Network Version: Diagram and data dictionary record locking allows multiple project members to work concur- rendy on the same project. All The Tools You Need. SA also has other features: automated documentation; extensible dictionary; normalization, rules and balancing; requirements traceability; import/export; custom reporting; and CRUD Matrices. Call us toll-free today at 800-REAL-CASE, xl09. To find out how to qualify for your free 30-day evaluation copy, simply call us today or fax us at 212-571-3436. SYSTEM ARCHITECT Popkin Software & Systems, Inc., 1 1 Park Place, New York, NY 10007 England 44-926-881 186; Benelux 31-3406-65530; Germany 49-6151-82077; Italy 39-49-8700366; Switzerland 41-61-6922666; Denmark 45-45-823200; 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 con- firmed 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 14400- SXFA) that allowed me to establish 14,400-bps ARA sessions reliably. The DataLink PB was the only mo- dem 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 char- acter 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 ineffec- tive CCL file can turn that high-perfor- mance, high-priced modem into useless junk. Getting Docked Earlier, I mentioned a shortage of Power- Book 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 sup- port monitors in sizes ranging from 13 inches (displaying 256 colors) to 21 inch- es (displaying 16 colors). The PowerLink Presenter also supports a "virtual desk- top" 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 so- phisticated deconvolution hardware inside the PowerLink Presenter that minimizes the shimmering that oc- curs 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 pe- ripherals 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 Mem- phis State University. He is also an Asso- ciate 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 Pre- sentation Manager/2, IBM bridges the gap between OS/2 and the world of multimedia. MMPM/2 builds a systems- level foundation for multimedia applica- tions into OS/2, inviting developers and multimedia producers to create their pro- grams 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 treat- ment 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 sys- tem, or grab the development kit on CD- ROM (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 environ- ment for MMPM/2. I had both the ship- ping 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 non- PS/2 systems. I installed the CD-ROM developer's toolkit version onto my system. The in- staller lets you choose from among the available drivers and modules, which in- clude complete on-line manuals, sample source code, and the header files and li- braries 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/Au- dio board), CD audio, and videodisc con- trol. 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 pro- grams in MMPM/2. You get only a me- dia player, volume control, and data con- verter. The media player records digital audio as well (see the screen), but it pro- vides no control over sampling rate, record level, and other settings. The volume con- trol is as close as MMPM/2 gets to the 3 ■ . '■.. = v * m>. View Ultimedia Matinee Recoider Multimedia Data Multimedia Converter Setup gitai Audio MIDI Player CD Player Sound Elites Multimedia Recorder Install Ultimedia Matinee Player File Optiyno Control Help ■topped 7: rM^A, .Mitral i b'e uptiorre UP ,•> Help , Stopped M ■#*% % 30 J +! ° o * 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 multi- media development system) to MMPM/2 formats. The media player itself is merely func- tional. When you play CD audio, for ex- ample, you see only the total playing time of the disc on the seek slider; there are no track markers or next/previous track but- tons. It works, but as your primary intro- duction and interface to MMPM/2, the me- dia player belies the power of the structure beneath it. The media player launches au- tomatically 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 bene- fit is obvious: It's easier for IBM to coax developers into an environment that's fa- miliar to them. There are a number of low-level calls, but you'll likely use MMPM/2's high- level API. IBM's MCI (media control in- terface) 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 appli- cations regardless of the language. MMPM/2 is no clone: It has several in- triguing 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-depen- dent 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 mes- sage is dispatched to your application. Cue- points 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 hard- ware signal paths under the system's con- trol. You can, for example, connect the CD audio output to the system's head- phone 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 Win- dows' multimedia extensions doesn't both- er 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 en- amored 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 mod- el, or making things run on a 286 system), so it's no surprise that MMPM/2 attains a higher standard than the multimedia ex- tensions built into Windows 3.1. Devel- opers who take the time to dig deeper than the Windows-compatible layers will find a well-designed support structure for de- manding multimedia applications. Cer- tainly, anyone who thinks Windows is the only game in town for multimedia devel- opment 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 (Academic- Press, 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. Accidents don't happen in perfect worlds. In this world, the best solution is VALITEK. VAL1TEK builds every tape back-up drive as though your business depends on it. There's no safer, simpler, smarter tape back-up drive anywhere. No installation. No controller cards. No pre-forrnatting tapes. Back-up f'rc 60 MB to 1.2 GB with speed and reliability no bargain basement tape drive can begin to match. Complete portability. Rock-solid construction. Uncompromising quality. When you can't afford to lose a single bit of data, can you afford anything less than VALITEK? VALITEK 100 University Drive, Amherst, MA 01002 CALL: 1-800-VALITEK or 413-549-2700 FAX: 41 3-549-2900 BBS: 41 3-549-7560 The worldwide leader in parallel/ serial technology 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 Lo- cal Bus, from Video Electronics Stan- dards 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 VL- Bus motherboards: American Megatrends' Enterprise III and Micronics' EISA/VL- Bus 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 Sys- tem Board provides on-board IDE and floppy drive controllers, while the Enter- prise III sports a PS/2-style mouse port. Both motherboards provide an industry- standard 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 $1 150, 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 fig- ure 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/VL- Bus System Board (left) and the American Megatrends Enterprise III are combined EISA/VL-Bus motherboard designs. are both high-speed SCSI de- vices, the boards are funda- mentally different: The 34F is an ISA-bus card that uses VL-Bus for added through- put, while the 24F is an EISA design that also includes floppy drive support. The disk performance re- sults were surprising. On both motherboards, the EISA host adapter ran significantly faster than the VL-Bus ver- sion. On the Micronics board, the Ultra BVTE ACTION SUMMARY WHAT VL-BUS MOTHERBOARDS ARE High-end 33-MHz 486 mother- boards 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 1 percent advantage in read rates. According to UltraStor, VL-Bus in- terface 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 Expert! BYTE READERS are considered experts in today's complex computer environment. When you need to make decisions, BYTE editorial is there to give information on current products and emerging technologies. And when you order products, BYTE advertisers are ready to answer your every need. Use the convenient toll-free numbers in this issue, and remember to say: A You Saw it in 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^ (eisa) ^^^^^^m^mm^^^m Micronics EISA/VL-Bus/ 1—— ■■■■■^^■■i Ultra 34F (VL-Bus) |^^^^^^^^H^^MI 100 200 300 400 500 Kbps 60C ) 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 sys- tem architecture (e.g., factors like mem- ory 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 in- terface looks faster on both motherboards in this configuration, EISA peripherals are often more expensive than VL-Bus de- vices. 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 Win- dows 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 moth- erboards yields some interesting conclu- sions. On the video tests, Micronics' board was faster with the ISA-based Diamond Stealth, but the two motherboards showed equivalent performance using VL-Bus ac- celerated 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 EISA- bus systems, the Micronics board is clear- ly the quicker of the two motherboards. It showed a significant increase in video throughput and maintained a slight edge 180 BYTE • APRIL 1993 Less Noise Less Hassle Less Money! DataPort 14.4/Fax Modem with optical technology More Speed: only at&ts exclusive Optical Line Interface (OLI), pat. pending, eliminates the noise that other high-speed fax modems add to the data stream. Less noise means the highest speeds possible on good or bad phone lines! More Compatibility: OLI delivers hassle-free compatibili- ty for more consistent connectivity than other high-speed fax modems. The DataPort 14.4/Fax Modem costs less, gives you much more! • Optical Line Interface (OLI) pat. pend. • V.32bis (14,400 bps data, 9,600 bps fax) $289 PC/AT internal card S299 PC/AT/XT or Macintosh external model error correction) Effective throughput up to 57,600 bps Lifetime warranty Lifetime toll-free technical support Comes complete with: QuickLink II comm/fax software for DOS and Windows or the Macintosh; CompuServe bonus (S22.95 value), user's manual and fax modem phone cord. Macintosh version also includes Mac cable. MORE VALUE : You get everything you want in a high-speed fax modem, backed by AT&T's lifetime warranty and helpful, toll-free support. Special low prices, so hurry! Solidly-built, solidly-backed by AT&T. Visit the participating dealer near you. Or for the name of other dealers near you, or to order the DataPort 14.4/Fax Modem directly, call now: 1 800 554-4996 ext 9604. z'mw^f/J'CU/ reLeORonics iri| ELEK-TEK The Computer Wonderland Offer ends April 30, 1993. Visit the dealer nearest you, today! Prices under $300 vary by dealer. © 1993 AT&T Paradyne DataPoil is a trademark ol AT&T All other products or services mentioned here are the Irade- marks. service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks ol their respeclive owners. Lifetime warranty is limited and applies to original purchaser only. Circle 1 70 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 171). AT&T No Wild, No Wildlife 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. The fact is that the tortoise population has declined as much as 90% over the last fifty years. This drop is a true biological indicator of how severely the des- ert ecosystem is at risk. The Sierra Club works to save wildlife by saving the wilderness. We have a history of victories. And, we believe with your help, the three-million-year-old desert tortoise can win back its native turf. For information on how you can help: Sierra Club Dept. DT 730 Polk Street San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 776-2211 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 be- tween 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 perfor- mance 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 1 225 on Inquiry Card. Diamond Computer Systems, Inc. (Diamond Stealth 24, Diamond Stealth 24 VLB) 1 130 East Arques Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 736-2000 fax: (408) 730-5750 Circle 1 226 on Inquiry Card. Maxtor (MXT-540S) 211 River Oaks Pkwy. San Jose, CA 95 134 (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 1 228 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 main- tain thousands of images. These im- ages, created in-house or purchased, come in a variety of formats and spill across net- work servers, removable-cartridge drives, CD-ROM discs, and shared volumes. Al- dus Fetch 1.0 — a $295 multiuser, mixed- media 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 CD- ROM full of images, I simply dragged the CD-ROM icon onto the Fetch application icon. Indexing 500-plus images on a CD- ROM took a little over 45 minutes. Once created, a catalog contains a visual thumb- nail (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 cre- ated the file. Fetch supports a wide variety of for- mats (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 re- sides. When you call up a cataloged image on CD-ROM, Fetch prompts you for the correct disc. If you're working off a net- work 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 deal- ing 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 CD- ROM 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 pro- duction 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 in- stance, 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 pro- duction 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 float- ing 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 de- scription or keywords rather than just file- names, but generating this information can be quite a chore. Descriptions and key- words 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 com- ments. Major applications (including the new versions of Adobe Premiere and Al- dus FreeHand) are starting to include menu options for adding descriptions to a file. With some procedural discipline, all your files could have keywords and descrip- tions 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 ver- sion 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, pe- ripherals, 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 version- control features. RECOMMENDATIONS An excellent utility for work- groups working with images. PRICE $295 FOR MORE INFORMATION Aldus Corp. 411 First Ave. S Seattle, WA 98 104 (206) 622-5500 Circle 1224 on Inquiry Card. APRIL 1993 -BYTE 183 I I I m Down > f o Fcirffi. tajraj! pfsss fl :■ 3S*fc ■•d^P* 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. That's why you need UmxWORlD - the magazine that keeps you up to date on the rapidly changing world of open systems computing. Each issue brings you the latest product trends and technical advances that can affect your business. The inside story on some of the biggest high-tech companies. Easy-to-understand programming tips and tutorials that can help your company use UNIX to its fullest. And unbiased hardware 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 down- to-earth writing that you'll find in any computer publication. Subscribe today and recieve the next 12 issues of UnixWorid for just $18.00 - half the regular newsstand price. Save even more by ordering for two or three years. You can't lose- every subscription to UNIXWORID comes with a no-risk guarantee*. iobsmbe now! Call toll-free: 1-800-2S7-9402 ext. 29 UNIXWORLD McGraw-Hill's Magazine of OPEN SYSTEMS COMPUTING UnixWorid 's no-risk guarantee: II nol satisfied, camel ana 1 receive a full refund for the balance at your subscription. UNIX is □ registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, [nc Save50% Explore Unix World... Risk Free! Yes! Start my one-year (12 issues) subscription for only $18.00. That's 50% off the newsstand price. 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Mainframe Computers Minis/Superminis Micros/Supermicros Workstations e. Board-Level Products f. Terminals g. Primers h. Disk Drives i. Tape Drives j. Modems/ Multiplexers k. 1. LAN Equipment Software : ZD3B501 Please allow 6-8 weeks for processing. NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT #42 HIGHTSTOWN, NJ POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE UlMlXWORLD SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES P.O. BOX 570 HIGHTSTOWN, NJ 08520-9328 ,I„I„I.I,mI.IIIm.I,I„mII,„I.II„I,„II,I REVIEWS SOFTWARE Macs and Windows PCs Share Control TOM YAGER With the success of Windows and the Macintosh, most offices include sys- tems of both types. There are plenty of ways to share files between PCs and Macs, but the most useful link would per- mit 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 op- erate someone else's Mac by remote con- trol. Now the vendor has introduced Tim- buktu 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 Re- search 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 thin- wire Ethernet network. I installed Timbuktu on all three sys- tems. On the PC, it sits atop Farallon's AppleTalk software, called PhoneNet PC. This foundation network is installed un- der DOS and runs as an army of TSR programs — 160 KB of them, in my case. That's the last thing my already-overbur- dened PCs needed. Farallon's documen- tation 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 con- serve memory. The PhoneNet TSRs bring partial Ap- pleTalk 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 Phone- Net 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 connec- tions. All you have to do is select the sys- tem you want and then click on the icon for the level of service you're requesting: You can control, observe, send files, or ex- change files. You can request any of these services, SALn Flyer M ! El Ob:.!.'. 'vi..-r"l !■■!'. . Guest Access" (ft) On Oon \i> Tcm ni) gel Arrange Slide Ulindoiu Privilege Summary Conlroi £3 ~H Poui eiPo on II 7 MB a g)l : CREATE ST. PPT | E5H23 ''in nnnum PowerPoint 3JD: Designed for the Latest Technology Define Passwords Public privfttgr* j» trtilibk U sierijcnf <£l 1 El EL d t A • i • W £2.3l-S«vttW>1« | a 1 H ^ ffi] B RttdM* TcachTexl System FoWtr CD M ■ ;yj !iirff PowtrPofnt 5 [ 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 deter- mined by the remote system. Timbuktu's access-control scheme is inventive: In- stead of assigning a password to each ser- vice, the interface (the bottom-left win- dow 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 conver- sions 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 de- lete files through this interface, you can specify independent permissions through the access-control dialog box. The file transfer interface looks just like the famil- iar 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 remote- session capability. Timbuktu allows both observing and controlling connections. As an observer, you can monitor a remote sys- tem's display. With a controlling connec- tion, 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 re- mote system's display in a window (the middle window in the screen). With a con- trolling 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 re- mote 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 mov- ing 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 bor- ders 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 ma- chine. 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 remote- session 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 1 230 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 some- one is hooked into your system, a tiny icon appears in the corner of the screen that re- flects the type of connection. Protocol Matters According to Farallon, Timbuktu for Win- dows expands on a scheme the company devised for its Macintosh Timbuktu prod- uct. 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 graph- ics 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 weak- nesses in its current scheme, especially when controlling a Mac from a Windows system. Text-display scrolling is particu- larly painful. Also, complex graphics can bog Timbuktu down, particularly if the application's interface is sloppy. The Mac- version of PowerPoint, for example, re- paints 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 perfor- mance 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 unacceler- ated 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 Win- dows from a fast Mac with lesser but still acceptable performance. Although the dis- play 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 re- mote. This can be troublesome, as Tim- buktu'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 gener- ate a long queue of scroll requests that will continue to march along well after you re- lease 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. More- over, while both Windows systems hap- pily displayed each other's 256-color screens with no loss of quality, 256-color Mac screens under Windows lost their col- or 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 rec- ommends that you put the Mac in mono- chrome-display mode for acceptable per- formance 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 some- one through a tough problem without look- ing 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 Tim- buktu 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 slug- gish response. And for remote adminis- tration 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 compa- nies are using DESQview™ as the best solution for keeping the dependability and familiarity of DOS programs and adding multi- tasking, windowing produc- tivity. 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 environ- ment 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 1 24 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, 1 993 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.VJI V.' Limip.mr Circle 1 29 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 com- piler is no longer necessary to reconfig- ure the operating system and has pointed to the bulk of Solaris customers who never use one. For those of us who do use one, includ- ing Solaris 2.0 developers and SunOS 4. 1 users who want a professional compiler and development environment, SunPro of- fers Sparcworks Professional C. Sparc- works Professional C is the bundling of two development products: Sparcompiler C, which is Sun's C compiler, and Sparc- works, a collection of language-indepen- dent tools, including a browser and a de- bugger (see the screens). What's New Sun hasn't just uncoupled its old compil- er and remarketed it at a premium; Spar- compiler C is a significant improvement, providing ANSI C compatibility, better optimization, and many new command- line options. The compiler also offers sub- stantial support for developers moving their programs from Kemighan and Ritchie C to ANSI C, plus a wealth of useful docu- mentation. Sparcworks is a set of language-inde- pendent development tools with Open- Windows user interfaces, controlled by a graphical utility called Sparcworks Man- ager. 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 dis- play 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 Open- Windows front end. a i 28 jfif ■ ■ a m >ii i -.u-!- ..!.■■ ;-i : ^' : : toeu.ff i ii'ji: ('(■■) i. •.■-•;;■ , gtf&f HSWH if tar9<"1) £ f* gal AM CQttllfld lliii? if r h*W0i ■rfmrasOi ,;«mM0j = *r<|v[0); ' •„, ■,a:-.-iri imr M.i.Jr.tiw.s^eiMi; char *tt»r4» (): S*t.5Cfnl!_re9ion (start, stop) int start, stop; chor 'bu(: ©if (TS_sec_Stroll_tegicfl} 6uf - toaran (ts„set_:cr oil .region. 0. . Start. Et.oo - i); else >f CTS_5«t.scron.re 9 icn.i) 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 manu- als. 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. File- Merge has an impressive GUI, but it was not as good as a combination of dif f and patch, a free command-line utility. Sim- ilarly, MakeTool has a pretty interface and some nice features, including a menu with entries for each target and being able to ■ ''/■// ' ■ ' / Ij wf l-y ■ /. / J b?L~*£' f L ;?, j MI, V'i i/r, '? ' / 1 ' N - I run user-specified commands when make operations start, complete, or fail. Over- all, though, MakeTool was more cumber- some than just running make directly from a shell window. In contrast, the other two tools are clear- ly better for the addition of the GUI. The debugger shows the most improvement. Being able to use the mouse to set break- points, 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 pro- gram. 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 point- and-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 engi- neers, scientists, and educators already use Mathcad for a variety of technical applications. Applications Packs are also available to cus- tomize Mathcad for particular disciplines, including electrical, mechanical, and civil engi- neering and advanced math. Call 800-MATHCAD or use this coupon to request a free 3.1 demo disk! In Massachusetts, call 617-577-1017. Please specify diskette size: □ 3 1/2" □ 5 1/4" For a free Mathcad 3.1 Introductory Kit, clip this coupon and mail it back to us, or fax it to 61 7-577- 8829. Or circle your reader service card. D Yes! Tell me more about Mathcad 3.1 ! Company or Institution Math Soft Mail this coupon to: MathSoft, Inc. 201 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Lots of Options Of course, the backbone of the develop- ment 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. Sparcom- piler C also has five levels of optimiza- tion, 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 op- timized 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, $1 795 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 stati- cally links in the fixed routines if they're needed, and it was these routines that in- flated the files. Compiler Comparisons Sun's is a fine compiler, but it's not the only horse in the race. GNU's GCC sup- ports SunOS 4.1 and Solaris 2.0, is ANSI- compatible (with several strictness levels), has a long list of optimizations that can be switched individually, and comes with ex- tensive 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 of- fers added assistance. If you want a well- supported 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 command- line 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@heuristi- crat.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 en- vironment just because DOS and Windows are where all the action is? Tine MKS Tool- kit has been bringing DOS and Unix to- gether 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 im- provement, 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 pri- marily command-driven, nongraphical user interface. Version 4.1 does include some character-based GUI utilities and some PIFs for Windows (see the screen). How- ever, its extensive set of Unix utilities eas- ily 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 stand- alone 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 configur- ing and administrating UUCP. Version 4.1 includes the Berkeley E- mail 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 sup- port 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. Configura- tion 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 dif- ferent configurations, depending on how deeply you want to immerse yourself in a Unix-like working environment. You can choose anything from installing a sim- ple 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 com- mercial Unix versions. In fact, the Toolkit is often used by vendors of non-Unix op- erating 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 high- end desktops. With version 4.1,1 also en- joy 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 host- based 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 2 1 4 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 mini- changer. This drive features Pioneer's Quadraspin technology to achieve a con- tinuous 600-KBps transfer rate, and it au- tomatically switches between six CD- ROM 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 it- self feels breakable. The leaves that sepa- rate 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 data- bases 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 Pio- neer's internal terminators. If a SCSI drive works on the Ilfx, it'll work just about any- where. I loaded up the magazine with a selection of Mac HFS, ISO 9660. and Ko- dak Photo CD ROMs. The Ilfx had file sharing enabled, and I had no trouble ac- cessing a number of different CD-ROMs simultaneously from different machines on the network. The Pioneer drive han- dles the disc requests on a first-come, first- served 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 CD- ROM 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 program- ming interface) drivers or selected Future Domain boards. I had been using Adap- tec'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 CD- ROM. AVI files get choppy if your CD- ROM drive can't read fast enough; the DRM-604X's busy light barely flickered. At $1795, the DRM-604X isn't for ev- eryone. To date, I haven't seen six CD- ROMs 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 oc- casional software installation, you don't really need quadruple-speed performance. However, in some applications, Pio- neer's drive would be a bargain at twice the price. Research libraries often have a num- ber of large CD-ROM databases, and the minichanger would save wear and tear on both the users' patience and the CD- ROMs. Educational applications are no- torious 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 reg- ularly 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 with- out one. ■ Howard Eglowstein is a BYTE Lab test- ing editor who holds an S.B. from MIT. You can reach him on BIX as "heglow- stein. " APRIL 1 993 • 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 jux- taposed by computers that chart in- vestment 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 read- ing bottleneck isn't the CPU, it's the medi- um read from. And "digest, and process"? What can be going on? Burp suggests it- self. Or barf. " But Kurtzman's book does come to co- here, sort of. He has arresting news. Time was, you bought a bond and held it to ma- turity. 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 -Tokyo- Zurich, zap. The book's title says the money you carry in your pock- et 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 ex- ceeded by the non-kitten economy of just, oh, futures con- tracts, 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 047 1-57984-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 net- work 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 ex- ceptionally complex and responsive, but it is also prone to volatility... tempera- mentally 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 En- glish 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, per- spective, 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 mathemat- ical 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 unnec- essary 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 pack- age 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 gen- crating your new masterpieces for the world to see. — Raymond GA Cote 194 BYTE • APRIL 1993 ILLUSTRATION: TIM GRAJEK