O NEW VERSIONS OF P A McGRAWHILL PUBLICATION G Para 1 1 Unpara ^erforma S/2 2. reat Multitasking sn't Everything /Vas Desqview/X Worth the Wait? i : I Hi $3.50 U.S.A./$4.50 IN CANADA 0360-5280.. filll b THEY'RE HERE ^llifc ■Hi T1 5g* * Notebooks With High-Flying P< wmwm The paths of dashing young scientist Dakota Smith and independent journalist Lexa Kirk, drawn by seemingly mysterious forces, recently converged in South Dakota. There they made amazing discoveries: the Nomad notebooks and the astonishing little HandBook iM from Gateway 2000! Now their sworn mission is to carry the news to the far corners of the world. "The sky's the limit!" Dakota praises the new Nomads. "These systems are every bit as powerful as their desktop counterparts! I can actually do serious computing on land, at sea or in the air!" The Nomad's patented power- management system delivers soaring battery life — over six hours from a single battery on the 25MHz 486DX system. And it has one of the biggest and brightest notebook screens in the industry. And Lexa takes off with her HandBook, smaller than a notebook but larger and more functional than a palmtop — a real PC in miniature form! "It's a totally new category of portables, and I feel as if this little machine were designed especially for me!" she smiles, with her head in the clouds. "The HandBook is so small and feather- light; yet it has a truly usable keyboard and display, a real hard drive, and the capability to transfer files back to my editor. I can travel with it and not even know I'm carrying it!" "Once again, Gateway is in the pilot's seat," Dakota adds. And, as he and Lexa fly off into the wild blue yonder with their message, we know in our hearts that the saga of Gateway 2000 will continue.... J^mW W- 8 GATEVmlOOO you ve got a jnena in trie ousiness. 5 2 3 2 610 Gateway Drive • P.O.Box 2000 - North Sioux City, SD 57049-2000 • 605-232-2000 • Fax 605-232-2023 All prices and configurations are subject to change without notice. Prices do not include shipping. © I9!)2 Gateway 2000. Inc. HandBook and FicldMouse are trademarks of Gateway 2000. Inc." All brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. jrformance From Gateway 2000! ■ Weight 2.75 Lbs. (HandBook & Battery) ■ Dimensions 5.9" x 9.75" x 1.4" ■ 4.5Hr.* NiMH Battery, 1 .25 Lb. AC Adaptor/Charger, 6.5" x 2.5" x 1.5" ■ Traveling Weight 4.0 Lbs. (HandBook, Battery & AC Adaptor/Charger) ■ C & T® Processor, 286-Class Performance ■ I MB RAM upgradeable to 3MB ■ 40MB Hard Drive ■ Backlit 7.6" Double-Scan CGA Screen, 640 x 400 Resolution ■ I Parallel/ 1 Serial Port ■ 78-Key Keyboard, 1 1 -Key Emulation, Inverted T Cursor Pad ■ MS DOS®5.0, File Transfer Software & Serial Download Cable ■ Introductory Bonus Pack ■ Carrying Case $1295 Options: FielclMouse pointing device, 2,400 bps modem, alkaline battery pack, portable printer, combo unit (3.5" drive with serial port and parallel port), extra batteries l ^NOMAD NOMAD Options: 2,40019,600 bps modems, portable printer, numeric keypad, Token Ring or Ethernet interfaces, SCSI interface, memory upgrades, executive carrying case, extra batteries *Battery life was measured using PC Magazine's/tarn* Rundown Test with power management enabled. Results may vary. I Weight 5.8 Lbs. (Nomad & Battery) I Dimensions 8.5" x I I" x 1.8" 1 6-Hr. :f: NiCad 5.7Ah Battery 1 14.4-Oz. AC Adaptor/Charger, 6.12" x 2.25" x 1.5" I Traveling Weight 6.7 Lbs. (Nomad, Battery & AC Adaptor/Charger) I Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 640 x 480 Resolution, 64 Gray Scale I Simultaneous Video 1 1.44MB 3.5" Diskette Drive II Parallel/ 1 Serial Port I External Video & Expansion Bus Ports (Ports are Full Size) 1 79-Key Keyboard, 101-Key Emulation, Inverted T Cursor Pad I FieldMouse M Pointing Device I MS DOS 5.0 & Windows™ 3. 1 NOMAD 325SXL- $1995 25MHz, 386SXL, 4MB RAM, 80MB Hard Drive NOMAD 420SXL- $2695 20MHz, Intel®486SXLP, 4MB RAM, 80MB Hard Drive NOMAD 425DXL* $3495 25MHz, Intel 486DXLP, 4MB RAM, 120MB Hard Drive - Worksheet W **Hfc*w Grap h Projected Gains With Solaris pRxJudiviiy criilniicvMcnb. vvith oL Binder. Performance Meter Com man d Tool,,. Shell TooL, Demos... Multimedia Mali To: Ed Zander From: Scott McNealy Subject: It's So Easy! Ed. Solaris Is so easy, even I can use It. And I'd not the only one who thinks so - important people around the world have contacted me. I've summarized their comments in the attached video and voice messages. After you've reviewed them pIr*™ achaduH appointments with the hottest prospects using your Workgroup Calendar Manager. Do make sure George and John are still the right people. O CM Mu it! -Browser Multimedia Mail gives you a simple, powerful tray to send more than just text by electronic mail. Multimedia Mail lets you easily send any type of file with your message just by dropping it in the window. II Schedule.- - Calerr Mail... Goto: SCOttfcS Selected Calendar Manager's Multi-browser lets you view and modify calendars anywhere on your network simulta- neously, to make scheduling your meetings easy. Ed@SunSof GeortfciSDC John© 10 „'b owning HolmutSSonn Borises Kremlin Francois© Par is Cale March 1992 M 23 T 24 W 25 T 26 F 27 S 28 S 23 1 1 12 ^HE 1 — ft 5 Solaris: So Easy It Can't BelMX. Power Made Simple. Imagine making the power of 32-bit sys- tems easy to use. Imagine networks that not only tie together individuals, they make groups more productive. Imagine com- puters united by a consistent environment. Imagine running today's favorite programs while gaining access to tomorrow's applications. Imagine no more. Solaris® system software makes distributed computing as simple as stand-alone computing, while bringing the power of UNIX® and SVR4 to users — easily. Maybe that's why Solaris is the world's most widely used 32-bit computing solution. The Network At Your Fingertips. The Solaris solution starts with technology from Xerox that sparked the idea for the Macintosh® user interface, making Solaris as easy to use as any PC. But, because Solaris was created with group productivity in mind, it does much more. Solaris breaks the isolation of personal computing by bringing network resources to the desktop. Want to send that chart to a color printer in another building? It's easy. Want to render that 3D image on a Cray in the next state? It's easy. Solaris allows objects, like files, to be dragged and dropped on function icons, such as a printer, for instant action. With Solaris, the network is at your fingertips. Increase Personal And Workgroup Productivity. Solaris also includes 15 tools that enhance group productivity. Among these is Multimedia Mail, which can send any type of file — applications, audio, video, graphics — in a mail message. The Workgroup Calendar Manager serves as an on-line personal and group calendar that makes scheduling meetings with people next door or on the next continent easy. What's more, Solaris offers over 4,000 solutions including Lotus 1-2-3, Ashton-Tate dBase and WordPerfect. And SunSoft has an easy way for you to try these applications. It's Catalyst" CDware! With CDware, you can try more than $250,000 of soft- ware from your desktop. Solaris offers more options for produc- tive work than any other 32-bit environment. Now, that's easy! The Time Is Now. Don't wait for your PC to grow up. It's time to see for yourself how easy it is to access the power of Solaris. Call now for a free version of CDware and the names of our OEM partners who can give you a guided tour of Solaris. 1-800-227-9227, Ext. 123. See you there. ^SunSoft ^* A Sun Microsystems, Inc. Business © 1992 Sim Microsystems. Inc. All riRlils rtsavsl. i'r ini«i In the USA. Sun, Sun Micros^ns. the Sun logo. SunSoft. Solaris. Catalyst, .mil CDware are iratfcmajks or rtRitferwl trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc ns 1 jlwralorics, Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computet. SPARC reRifleml trademark of SPARC IntMnauoual Inc. Products bearing Sl'ARC trademarks are basd upon an architecture developed l»y Sun Micmsptems, Inc. Ai! products :uul company nanus are trukmarlu or rvgisterwl trademarks of tlioir ttspucure companies. B8/92 Circle 189 on Inquiry Card. EVTE August 1992 Volume 17, Number 8 COVER STORY FEATURE All Systems Go PAGE 112 NEWS FEATURES 18 MICROBYTES Apple's strategy, which first started shaping up in late 1990, is paying dividends. 32 FIRST IMPRESSIONS Picture^ A Pair of Paradoxes A new pair of database managers from Borland. 42 46 Coherent Grows Up Unix clone Coherent 4.0 is no longer a toy. Keeping in Step with Windows CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator make the grade under Windows. Back-It for Windows, Gazelle brings backup power to Windows Premium Exec 386SX/25C, AST's affordable portable color 386SX 64 Norton Desktop for DOS, Symantec's desktop cornucopia WHAT'S NEW The PMO-650 optical drive runs at 3600 rpm; the VL475 caching controller takes the local bus; wireless LANs run transparently; ForecastGFX guides you to the future; and HyperChem models 3-D molecular structures. 112 All Systems Go Parallel-processing technology has finally hit the mainstream. 141 RISC Enters a New Generation DEC's Alpha architecture defines a new generation for RISC technologies and systems. STATE OF THE ART REAL-TIME COMPUTING 154 Overview: Real-Time Computing The techniques developed to serve real-time applications — some of the toughest challenges in computing — are extending the horizons of computer technology. 1 61 The RTOS Difference Discover how the key features and behaviors of real-time operating systems ensure performance in critical applications. 177 Real-Time Posix Portability and openness finally come to real-time applications through Posix. 187 Objects in Real Time Object orientation may be the key enabling computer technology for distributed real- time systems and applications. 195 Real Time Goes Home Real-time operating systems bring multimedia into the home. 201 Resource Guide: Real-Time Operating Systems 4 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 COVER IMAGE: JOHN KRAMER/ IMAGESET DESIGN, INC.; MARK ROCKWOOD/PHOTOGRAPHY 1992 REVIEWS OPINIONS 204 224 238 247 249 253 255 257 259 261 264 SOLUTIONS FOCUS < Surveying Far-Flung Networks The top six tools for distributed network monitoring and analysis. BYTE Lab Product Report: PostScript's Middle Class These fast midrange printers offer high resolution. No More Data Loss: The BYTE Lab Tests Six Disk- Array Subsystems Disk arrays can provide a "hot- swapping" capability that protects your system from drive failure. OS/2 2.0: A Mixed Blessing The latest version excels at DOS multitasking. Was Desqvievv/X Worth the Wait? You can run DOS, X, and Windows programs locally or remotely. NEC's Notebook Compromises for Color NEC's active-matrix color notebook is colorful but cumbersome. PAGE 238 A Fresh Approach to Databases Approach for Windows is a relational database that doubles as a front end to dBase, Paradox, and Oracle SQL. Macintosh Impersonator Xcelerated Systems' Liken brings Mac applications to Unix workstations. Power Tools for Visual Basic Microsoft's new toolkit extends the Visual Basic programmer's reach. Mac LC II: The Sequel With its new CPU, the Mac LC is better (and cheaper) the second time around. REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK The BYTE Lab clocks faster speeds for the new version of LANtastic and looks at Query DOS, a new file manipulator. HANDS ON USER'S COLUMN Multimedia Medley by Jerry Pournelle Jerry looks at the latest in multimedia products and upgrade kits. BOOK AND CD-ROM REVIEWS From AI to Puzzles Bright Air, Brilliant Fire, TOG on Interface, great cities on CD-ROMrand other titles. 360 STOP BIT The Productivity MacGuffin Networks and portable computers are helping companies finally realize gains from their computing investments. 10 EDITORIAL Ethics of Electronic Information LETTERS Kudos on Mac programming; rebuttal on relational databases; speech synthesis in York; and more. READER SERVICE 356 Editorial Index by Company 352 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers 354 Index to Advertisers by Product Category Inquiry Reply Cards: 354A PROGRAM LISTINGS From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte92" INSIDE BYTE 16 269 UNDER THE HOOD 293 Digital Signal Processing The new digital signal processors will change how PCs handle sound and image data. 279 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED A Shared Resource Access Manager, Part 1 295 How do you manage access to shared resources on networks or multiuser systems? 288 SOFTWARE CORNER The Right Profile Timing DOS file access; debugging Unix code; and getting reminders on the Mac. BEYOND DOS Exorcising the A20 Poltergeist by Mark J. Mi nasi Here's what to do when keystrokes seem to appear on-screen at random in your DOS and Windows applications. ASK BYTE Reclaiming lost disk space; extending computer life; and spelling-checker problems. ABOUT THE COVER A hypercube is an arrangement of parallel processors that minimizes the time required to send a message from one processor to another. Balancing communications requirements and processing power, the hypercube represents a vital step along the road to the teraFLOPS machine. BYTE (ISSN 0360-5280) is published monthly with additional issues in October and November by McGraw-Hill Inc. U. S. subscriberrateS29.95 per year. In CanadaandMexico.S34.95peryear. Single copies S3 .50 in the U. S„ $4.50 in Canada. Executive, Editorial, Circulation and Advertising Offices: One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peteiborough, NH 03458. Second-class postage paid at Peterborough, NH, and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Registration number 9321 . Registered for GST as McGraw-Hill, Inc., GST #123075673. Printed in the United States of America. Postmaster: Send address changes and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions, P. O. Box 551, Hightstown, NJ 08520. COVER CORNER PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PARKER/ AVIS STUDIO ©1992 AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 5 BYTE Topic Index and Author Guide This index helps you find articles that contain information on each of the listed topics. (The topic list changes each month.) Combined with the table of contents (page 4) and the Editorial Index by Company (page 356), you can identify articles by type, subject, title, author, or product discussed. 161 257 18, 112, 238, 247, 249, 293 c APPLICATIONS 64 64, 204 46 EXPANDED MEMORY MANAGER 293 FREEWARE/SHAREWARE 288 GRAPHICS/PAINT 360 154 195 195, 266 E2 64 141 PARALLEL PROCESSING PEN COMPUTING 18 224 PROGRAMMING 37, 64, 177, 259, 279, 288, 293 REAL-TIME COMPUTING 154, 161, 177, 187, 195, 198, 201 18, 141, 161, 224, 241 64 18, 269 18, 42, 64, 195, 224, 257, 261, 266, 288 MATHEMATICS 46 mi 204 161 SOFTWARE TOOL 64, 255, 257 DIGITAL AUDIOTAPE 32, 255 DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSORS 269 238 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS 18,95 46, 161, 247, 249, 264, 288, 293, 295 64, 238 95, 195, 259 279 NETWORKING 64, 95, 112, 161, 198, 204, 224, 238, 249, 264, 279, 360 NOTEBOOKS/PORTABLES 46, 64, 253 OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING 64, 95, 187 OBJECT LINKING AND EMBEDDING 42, 259 18, 257 SPELLING CHECKERS 295 SPREADSHEETS 259 238, 295 261 204 141 [^ 18, 37, 64, 112, 177, 195, 204, 224, 238, 249, 257, 288, 295 141 46,95 18, 32, 42, 46, 64, 95, 112, 247, 249, 255, 259, 293, 295 [WORD PROCESSING 264 WORKSTATIONS 141 X WINDOW SYSTEM 249 Allen, Dennis 10 Andrews, Dave 18, 46 Barker, D. 256 Bryan, John 112 Burke, Joe 269 Cote, Raymond GA 266 Davis, Andrew W. 269 Diehl, Stanford 266 Edwards, David L. 224 Grehan, Rick 279 Grierson, Chris 18 Hunter, Bruce H. 204 Hurwicz, Michael 204 Kagan, Harris 187 Kaplan, Ken 195 Kenner, Hugh 266 Larson, Steve 204 Lawrence, Bill 238 Lazzaro, Joseph J. 18 Loeb, Larry 18 Long, Jim 198 Mahoney, Tom 204 Manzi, Jim 360 Miastkowski, Stan 32 Minasi, Mark J. 293 Mitchell, Rob 261 Morgan, Kevin D. 161 Nance, Barry 204, 288 Perratore, Ed 46 Pountain, Dick 112 Poumelle, Jerry 95 Rash, Wayne Jr. 253 Scott, Rick 255 Sites, Richard L. 141 Smith, Ben 37, 288 Stankovic, John A. 154 Stein, Richard Marlon 157, 177 Thompson, Tom 18, 42, 288 Udell, Jon 42, 126, 247, 259 Waterfield, Amanda L. 18 Waurzyniak, Patrick 18 Wszola, Stan 224 Yager, Tom 46, 249, 257 6 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 We slash interface vwititvmeii LANGUA3E PRODUCTIVITY AWARD 199J development time across DOS, UNIX, POSIX, VMS.., (and we can prove it!) C-Programmers: See for yourself how Vermont Views™ can help you create powerful user interfaces— whatever your environment! If you want to create sophisticated user interfaces — and save tremendous time and effort doing it — Vermont Views is exactly what you need. Vermont Views isn't just a com- mon interface package. It's a deep, flexible, menu- driven screen designer supported by a C library of over 580 functions. It lets you create the ultimate user interfaces for complex database applications — in a fraction of the time it would take to code them yourself! With Vermont Views, you create screens interactively. Designing is fast, and creative. And changes — both tiny adjustments and huge reworks — are incredibly easy. Pull-down menus, window-based data-entry forms with tickertape or memo fields, scrollable form regions, choice lists, context-sensitive help... All these interface objects (and more) are immediately accessible. And with Vermont Views, even terminal-based applications can have the elegant features usually found only on micros. ©Copyright 1991 Vermont Creative Software Fast prototypes, faster applications. With most systems, you have to throw away your prototypes when coding begins. But with Vermont Views, prototypes become the actual applications! Menus, data-entry forms, and all screen features are usable in the final applications without change. So not only do you avoid creating code from scratch once, you don't have to do it twice! It's the universal solution. Vermont Views operates completely independent of hard- ware, operating system, and database. Any interface you create can be ported easily among DOS, UNIX, POSIX, and VMS. You can use Vermont Views with any database that has a C-language interface (including Oracle, Informix, db-Vista, and C-Tree). You can run it on PCs, DEC, NCR, HP, AT&T, and other systems. You don't have to pay runtime fees or royalties. And full library source is available, too. What's more, your DOS applications can have full mouse control, and work in Vermont Creative Software Pinnacle Meadows Richford, VT 05476 USA Phone: (802) 848-7731 FAX: (802) 848-3502 jg tolate Get (FS> tact Print "jilt . Saue ■ t a 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 339") Why consider a new you can leave ws Microsoft Excel 4.0, the spreadsheet for Windows. Because well enough just might not be good enough anymore. Because new Microsoft 9 Excel4.0 for Windows™ is the ultimate refinement of a powerful, easy-to-use spreadsheet. Because you could be get- ting your day-to-day spreadsheet tasks, not to mention more amaz- ing number-crunching feats, done faster. And more easily. We're talking about one-step just-about-everything here. Take a feature like Autofor- mat: with just a click of your mouse, it applies one of 14 sharp-looking, professionally designed formats to your worksheet. Or consider Autofill, which intelligently helps you build your worksheets. For example, when you type January in a cell, Autofill automatically enters February, March, April-as many (or as few) months ahead as you designate. Shortcut menus are anoth- er innovation. When you click the right mouse button, a menu ap- pears on-screen next to whatever you're doing, offering you all the options that sensibly relate to the task at hand. Wizards are step-by-step guides that take you through com- plex tasks, like charting, or creat- ie|^lBl¥||ii^ I [T|[T| 1 ¥T7]AR|[iTi'NIBIH[W]^rg|Sl i a! S3 X Exotic Excursions J mjr:ctc?[l inr.Hmo statement ftt w iinliui ii Case 5W IS RaywiMl Total RevefKMt DpniAlinq Fniinnwit Tola! Op.ial.yi EfMraes Fwfew) tnccwie T»K PH931 XJtOJSB 379396 Cloto j : Add . Tj I B«»«te Edit.. I [»*&SFS3 i »^> IfftlltS t* The Scenario Manager is a powerful analysis tool that lets you easily create and save multiple "what if " scenarios, then instantly produce nice-looking summary reports. (Wliich makes you look nice, too J ing summary tables from a data- base, with incredible ease. And with new Drag and Drop, all you do is highlight the area you want to move,"grab" it with your cursor, and drag and 'See your reseller for details. 'Offer good only in the 50 United States through 9/30/92. For information only: In Canada, call (800) 563-9048; outside the 50 United States, call (206) 936- 8661. © 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Prii spreadsheet when 11 enough alone? drop it to wherever you want it on your screen. It's that simple. We've also made the Toolbar customizable. Plus, it has handy new features, such as a Spelling Checker and AutoCenter, day money-back guarantee: By now, you may agree with us that new Microsoft Excel 4.0 The gallery of 90chart types includes rotating 3-D charts, along with surface, radar and picture charts. It looks great here. It's even more impressive on your screen. which lets you center text over multiple columns for Windows is the ultimate refine- with a single click of your mouse.^ mentof one-step-power-with-ease. Invested a lot of time in ^ Lotus? That's no problem. You can learn using what you know. Type in your familiar Lotus 1-2-3® commands, and Microsoft Excel shows you the equivalent com- mands. Easy. Microsoft Excel also reads and writes your Lotus files. And it runs your macros -unmodified. It even comes with a convenient 90- Even upgrading is easy. It's $129 for Lotus 1-2-3 or Borland 9 Quattro*Pro users* Call us at (800) 323-3577, Dept. Y61, to order yours. Or see yourlocal software reseller. Wondering how to up- 1 grade? Check out the caption underneath that guy to your left- . if you're interested in \S /the best spreadsheet oh the planet, that is. Other- s-wise, just try to forget you ever saw this. Microsoft Making it easier the USA Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Lotus and 1-2-3 are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Borland and Quattro are registered trademarks of Borland International. Inc. EDITORIAL DENNIS ALLEN Ethics of Electronic Information New methods of transferring information still retain the attributes of privacy and ownership Have you ever had information at your fingertips that you knew you shouldn't have? In case you haven't, consider this: Information that's not yours shows up on your computer — maybe from the network or the E-mail or conferencing sys- tem. Right away you recognize that the information is not yours, but you also recognize that it might be valuable to you. For the moment, at least, you face the dilemma of whether you should use the unauthorized information in a gainful way or miss the op- portunity for the sake of ethics. And don't make any armchair proclamations of virtue unless you have actually been in that situation. As with most life experiences, when it hap- pens, even the most clear-cut solutions become sudden- ly complicated. I know, because some of the people on the BYTE staff — including me — recently experienced it. Here's what happened: Until recently, the BYTE editors in our main office and in our bureaus used a private conference on BIX (formerly known as the BYTE Information Exchange, an on-line conferencing system). We used it to commu- nicate everything from deadlines to highly confidential in- formation. It seemed like a good idea to use BIX since BYTE owned and maintained the BIX equipment and conferencing files. Or at least, BYTE did own BIX until February of this year. We sold BIX to a company called General Videotex Corp., with an agreement that BYTE could continue us- ing its private BIX conference — another good idea, or so it seemed. Somewhere along the way, a competing magazine started a separate private conference for its staff on BIX. We would not even have known about the other magazine's private conference had it not been for what happened. One day, two of BYTE's editors found themselves abruptly and mysteriously "joined" to the other maga- zine's private conference. The two editors who found themselves in this predicament had no idea why they were suddenly privy to a competitor's confidential dis- cussions. There they were, nonetheless, two BYTE jour- nalists with clandestine information at their fingertips. Now you have to keep in mind that the training of a journalist — any good journalist — includes snooping around and digging up information that most folks don't know. So it's hard to imagine any journalist who would not be curious as to what was in those conference files. The truth is that neither editor read the files, but the sto- ry doesn't end there. To their credit, both people resisted the nearly primordial journalistic urge to uncover some tidbit of otherwise hidden information, and they prompt- ly removed themselves from the other magazine's con- ference. There was one last loose end to tie up. While everyone was enjoying a pat on the back for having successfully demonstrated their integrity, I learned that some of the covert files had been downloaded and stored on a disk (files are often downloaded from BIX au- tomatically). Up to this point, the two staffers had made the tough decisions, and now it was my turn. I was asked quite simply, "Do you want the disk?" I had the disk destroyed without so much as a glimpse of what the files held. But there was a moment, those fleeting seconds as my mind churned the question I had been asked, in which I considered the alternative. Prob- ably anyone in my place would have been tempted as well, because that's the nature of humans. Thinking of electronic information differently from, say, a personal letter at the post office is natural. The in- tangible character of electronic information makes the attributes of privacy and ownership somehow seem less real. So we often take for granted how, for example, we might react to someone reading private E-mail. Yet do- ing so is no different from opening a sealed envelope that's been stolen from the post office. At BYTE, we learned the importance of having poli- cies for dealing with other people's electronic information. So we're implementing clear rules as to how privacy and ownership of electronic information are to be handled at BYTE. What would the people at your company do? With- out specific policies that deal with these situations, there's no way to know for sure. — Dennis Allen Editor in Chief (BIX name "dcdlen") 10 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Unleash the power of the C with Borland C++ Professional C programmers are choosing object-oriented C++ because they know it increases productivity. And the C++ they're choosing is from Borland. Borland® C++ & Application Frameworks gives you amazing code reusability, extensi- bility and easier maintenance. With more than 650,000 copies of Borland's C++ products in use, Borland C++ sets the standard. C am/ C++ for DOS and Windows Borland C++ & Application Frameworks is the #1 choice of professional C and C++ program- mers for Windows and DOS application development. The third-generation C++ compiler fully supports the AT&T CFRONT 3.0 standard C++, including templates! The powerful C compiler fully implements the INF g WORL SJ;(I]I]IIH OFTHE YEAR 19 9 1 ANSI C standard. And the Application Frame- works dramatically reduce your development time with sleek user interfaces and high-level objects that bolt right on to your application with just a few lines of code. The C++ you can rely on! Borland C++ & Application Frameworks includes: • ObjectWindows™ for Windows • Turbo Vision" for DOS • Complete source code for both Application Frameworks and the runtime library • Borland C++ 3.0 Borland C++ 3.0 includes: • Full C++ with templates • ANSI C • Global optimizer Precompiled headers Windows Development Environment DPMI support ObjectBrowser™ visually displays classes EasyWin™ converts DOS apps to Windows Resource Workshop to create Windows dialogs, menus, bitmaps, icons and more WinSight™ message tracking utility Turbo Debugger® for DOS and Windows Turbo Profiler™ for DOS and Windows Object-Oriented Turbo Assembler* Borland makes your transition from C to C++ easy! Borland has created two video training packages, complete with workbook and sample source code that you can plug right in to your program. And now with your order, you can get one FREE (retail value $99.95). If you buy Borland C++ ($495 suggested retail price*), you'll receive the World of C++ video training package absolutely free. If you buy Borland C++ & Application Frameworks ($749 suggested retail price*), you'll get World of ObjectWindows for C++ FREE. See your dealer today or call now, 1-800-331-0877, ext. 5706 ***** ACT NOW! WHILE SUPPLIES LAST B OR LA N D The Leader in Object-Oriented Programming "All prices are in U.S. dollars. Dealer prices may vary. Offer good in U.S. and Canada only. Copyright © 1992 Borland International, Inc. All rights reserved. All Borland products are trademarks of Borland International, Inc. Bl 1480 Circle 80 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 81 ). Why it's smart The #1 -selling database dBASE® is the #l-selling relational database in the world. It offers the most complete set of tools for devel- opers and users to access and manage their coiporate data. Today, more than three million peo- ple use it to build applications that help them run their businesses and maintain a competitive edge. And with the worlds largest community of trainers, consultants, and add-on soft- ware extensions, its little wonder that dBASE is the standard for corporate applications development. Now, new dBASE IV version 1.5 makes it smarter than ever to go with #1. New ! Version 1.5 is here Now there's an easier-to-use, faster, and more powerful dBASE. Its packed with the features you've asked for most, making it smarter than ever to use the world's #1 PC database. Working smarter is faster OPTIMIZATION With new dBASE IV, you get the job done faster because you work smarter. Smarter because new IQP'opti- G Y mization technology The Worldwide Standard What's new in dBASE IV v1.5: For Users • Mouse support • Editable multi-file view • Calculated field linking ' • QBE summary operators and pick lists • Automatic install • New optimization technology— IQ! • Save query indexes For Developers • INDEX functions • 40 work areas • Template Language included • Enhanced BLANK support • Browse/Edit organize menu toggle • Conditional compilation • Low-level file I/O • Open architecture Control Center • Enhanced RUN function • Multiple and global procedure libraries automatically selects the fastest method to retrieve your data. Smarter because you can create tables, forms, reports, queries, and menus in record time — without programming. Smarter because you get 40 different work areas for easier management of large applica- tions. Plus mouse support for fingertip access to features, an enhanced RUN function to run popular DOS applications from with- in dBASE, and comprehensive multi- user capabilities. All of which means you maintain tight data integrity, more flexibility and more support than ever before. Advanced design tools build applications faster dBASE IVs easy-to-use Control Center comes complete with an innovative set of design tools, includ- ing report, form, and label generators that help you create your applications quicker. And the Control Centers open architecture makes it easy to enhance or customize your own appli- cations by incorporating third-party add-on products available for dBASE. Copyright© 1992 Borland International, Inc. All rights reserved. dBASE, dBASE IV, Borland, and Ashton-Tate are registered trademarks of Borland International, Inc. Bl 1571 er to go with #1 Faster applications development The industry-standard dBASE lan- guage comes with a host of improve- ments that speed development: • Integrated debugger and a built-in applications generator • More than 40 new commands, functions, and keywords — Template Language now included • C language-like low-level file I/O • IBM®SAA-compliantSQL • Advanced BLANK support 100% commitment to dBASE Now that it's from Borland, your investment in dBASE is secure. dBASE gives you all the benefits of complete compatibility and applica- tion portability that come with the database standard. And Borland is the acknowledged database technol- ogy innovator, so you're on the win- ning team for the long haul. Get dBASE IV vl.5 today You'll see why it's smarter than ever to go with #1. dBASE IV dBASE IV a Borland Company Get NEW dBASE IV v1.5 today and receive more than $250 in additional software, FREE! See your dealer or call now 1-800-331-0877, ext. 6414. In Canada, call 1-800-461-3327. * Send me my FREE Pro Pack Software! Purchase dBASE IV vl.5 before September 30, 1992, and Borland will give you Central Point Software s Backup and Anti-Virus programs free* That's a sug- gested retail value of $258, Check DOS disk size required: Q 5 1/4" Q 3 1/2" dBASE IVv1.5 Serial #:_ „ . _ Name: Company:. Address:_ (We cannot ship to P.O boxes.) City/State/Province:_ Zip/Postal Code: . Phone: ( )_ . FAX: ( )_ COMPLETE this coupon, ATTACH a copy of your sales receipt (or a copy of purchase order and billing invoice) AND ENCLOSE $9.00 U.S. for shipping and handling (check or money order payable to Borland International, Inc.). Send to: Borland's Pro Pack Offer, P.O. Box 7243, San Francisco, California 94120-7243. 'Offer good in U.S. and Canada only on dBASE IV v1.5 purchases between Jjne 1 and September 30. 1992. Only original coupons will be accepted. No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, misdirected, or destroyed mail. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Subject to all local, state, and federal regulations. Void where prohibited. Offer not valid for Upgrades, Competitive Upgrades, LAN Packs, Volume Packs, or any other Borland promotion except dBASE IV v1.5 products. Distributors and resellers not eligible to participate. Central Point is a registered trademark of Central Point Software. BORLAND dBASE Wfrom Ashton-Tatef a Borland Company Circle 82 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 83). BYTE EDITOR IN CHIEF Dennis Allen EXECUTIVE EDITORS New York: Rich Malloy Peterborough: Rich Friedman MANAGING EDITOR Anne Fischer Lent ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lauren A. Stickler NEWS New York: News Editor: Ed Perratore Peterborough: News Editors, What's New: Martha Hicks, Carol Swartz, Amanda Waterfield Microbytes: David Andrews News Assistant: June Sheldon San Francisco/West Coast: Bureau Chief: Andrew Reinhardt News Editor: Patrick Waurzyniak Editorial Ass/sfanf: Barbara J. 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Penglase. 14 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 SPEED Borland's Turbo Pascal is the fastest way from inspiration to application Jump start your Windows or DOS application with object-oriented Turbo Pascal When you're inspired to write a program, you want to spend your time developing code that solves your prob- lems. Not hours and hours writing common routines for event handling, data management or user interface. Now, you can jump start your applications develop- ment for either Windows or DOS by programming with the world's #1 Pascal compiler, Turbo Pascal® Application frameworks speed you along Now you can take advantage of the power of application frameworks to boost your productivity and cut develop- ment time. ObjectWindows,™ the application framework included in Turbo Pascal for Windows, gives you a robust graphical user interface with pull-down menus, overlap- ping windows, mouse support and more in just a few lines of code. Turbo Vision™ included with Turbo Pascal 6.0 for DOS, delivers a great-looking user interface in a character-based environment. Borland's Turbo Pascal family of products spans the range of programming needs- select one that's right for you S2J :al ~™ DOS WINDOWS "*tyhj| Entry level TURBO PASCAL 6.0 with: • Turbo Vision application framework • Easy Integrated Develop- ment Environment (IDE) • Inline assembler • Fast compilation • Smart linker Just $149.95* TURBO PASCAL FOR WINDOWS 1.5 with: • ObjectWindows application framework • Windows-hosted IDE • Visual Resource Editors • Turbo Debugger for Windows • Compilation at 85,000 lines ' per minute • Windows CRT that con- verts DOS programs to Windows • Color syntax highlighting Professional TURBO PASCAL PROFESSIONAL 6.0 with all the great features of Turbo Pascal 6,0, plus: • Turbo Debugger® • Turbo Assembler® • Turbo Profiler'" • Turbo Drive'" high-eapaeitv compiler $299.95* Supports MS-Windows 3.1 See your dealer today or call now, 1-800-331-0877, ext. 5459 In Canada, call 1-800-461-3327 BORLAND The Leader in Object-Oriented Programming Circle 78 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 79). 'Suggested retail price. Prices are in U.S. dollars. Dealer prices may vary. Copyright © 1992 Borland International, Inc. All rights reserved. All Borland products are trademarks of Borland International, Inc. Bl 1391F LETTERS Two Steps Forward W fc*-f lrA**Nl)l UHM » f —• 1 Ml ll In response to "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back" (May), first, ordering is not an issue for the relational data mode. The theory does not prohibit anyone from sort- ing the data. Rather, the issue is that order- ing of rows should not have any impact on the table or on the result of a query. Second, ordering rows as a formatting feature is available in almost all relational database products. As an analytical user, you may request it by adding ORDER BY to your query. Again, with or without ORDER BY, your output should be the same, except for the ordering of rows. However, if you are implementing a relational database system, you should worry about how to organize your data space so that your product does not search through the entire data space for a single record. Finally, one major obstacle to the relational model's be- coming user friendly is how one looks at the real world through the relational view. The relational model deals with relationships, not entities that most people are accus- tomed to. To tell someone that John, Mary, Loren, and Sam are members of a family is much easier than to say that , , , and are relationships (tuples) of the "Family Member" relation (table). However, tuples and tables give the relational model the querying capability to which no other data models have even come close. Stanley Wang Bellcore Piscataway, NJ Kudos Revealed Kudos to Tom Thompson for "Mac Programming Re- vealed" (April). Now that some form of desktop en- vironment has finally reached the masses, it is time to de- mystify desktop programming. Thompson's article was a good step in that direction. Kenneth L. Kashmarek Eldridge, IA Windows Goes Real Time I'm surprised that BYTE published "Windows Goes Real Time" (April). The authors suggest running DOS/Windows under iRMX and then processing several programs at once. That's four layers of code, without Windows, that the processor must go through to accom- plish the end result. With Windows, it's five. I would think that only a souped-up 386 or 486 could do the job. The reason the article mentioned iRMX is that Win- dows has no memory protection in any mode. Memory 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@bytepb.byte.com. We edit letters for length and clarity. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back protection is the overriding factor in creat- ing a real-time multitasking environment. Only OS/2 reduces the levels of code the processor has to sift through to get the processor to react in anything near real time, and it does have memory protection. Michael F. Niemi Burnsville, MN Kinder, Gentler Computing We would like to respond to Maureen Caudill's "Kinder, Gentler Comput- ing" (April). Specifically, we would like to comment on the "Hearing It Talk" section of her article. At York, we have developed a nonsegmental-based speech-synthesis system that does not rely on the more traditional methods of targeting and "gluing" together phonemes. Our system uses the same synthesizers as cur- rent systems (e.g., DECtalk, MITalk, DECvoice, and KlattTalk) but drives them with linguistically determined parameters. This system produces "natural-sounding" speech that cannot be differentiated from real speech under strictly controlled listening tests. We would like to contact the author. Please advise a suitable route. Dr. R. P. Fletcher University of York York, U.K. Readers can write to Maureen Caudill c/o B YTE. See the information box below for BYTE's mail and Internet addresses. — Eds. Pen Skeptic For years we have been moving toward a computer inter- face that replaces multiple keystroke commands with a single mouse-click. Now the proponents of pen-based com- puters would have us replace a single click (the letter a, for instance) with multiple pen strokes — and there is no guar- antee that the pen strokes will be interpreted correctly. It seems to me that the whole idea of pen-based input is to be able to record something that can't be input from the key- board or selected from a menu. I know there are applica- tions out there for pen-based computers, just as there are for voice input, but they're not for the average user. Roger H. James Wallingford, CT FIX We inadvertently left Digital Arts out of BYTE's May Re- source Guide on 3-D rendering software. Digital Arts' ad- dress and telephone and fax numbers are: 4531 Empire Ave., Suite 229, Burbank, CA 91505, (818) 972-21 12; fax (818) 972-2115. ■ 16 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 All I reallywwiW -h \Nas sinaplrty m/ jo^ SoIbougWndaws.I bigger harfdlsK, I rejJkMBd my video cotdand lwrflar. 1 bought q hcdf-dozennetf programs, installed a. tnous&, configured -Hoe system omd as 1 sit Inere. watching mj spread shee^- crawl on my ft, I'm thinking -to myself, "TO$ te making tteasier?" Then there's Macintoshf The only personal computer designed from the very first chip to work the way people work. That's why Peter Lewis of The New York Times wrote the Macintosh is simply "better than DOS or Windows." That's vfajByte wrote, "If you use a GUI to keep your computing tasks sorted out, the Mac does it best..." That's why JD. Power and Associates ranked Apple the #1 Personal Computer Company in Customer Satisfaction Among Business Users* There's no personal computer on earth quite like it. And none more imitated. The affordable, compatible, connectable Macintosh personal computer. The power to be your best? Macintosh from Apple. 'jB. Power ami Associate? 1991 Computer End User Satisfaction Study": Phase IY: Business End User Summary. Responses fwm 5,.W end users at 4.396 business sites. Peter lawk quote from October 29, 1991 edititn o/The New York Tunes. ©1992 by The New librk Times Company. Reprinted by permission. Byte quote fwm March 1992 issue. ©1992 Apple Computer, Inc. Mi rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Macintosh and "Thcpowr to be your best" arc registered trademarks ofAJple Computer, Inc. Wmdtws is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. NEWS MICROBYTES Walking the Tightrope: Apple Tends to Its Garden While Paving New Roads Apple's strategy, which first started shaping up in late 1990, is paying divi- dends. At the stait of the decade, Apple had many obstacles to overcome: a rel- atively small customer base, an overweight portable, narrow distribution channels, and computers that many users thought were too expensive. Almost a year and a half later, the company has done very well with its Mac Classic, Mac LC, and Power- Book families, and it now offers high-end 68040-based Quadras as well. According to John Sculley, Apple's chairman and CEO, the Mac continues to gain market share, a fact that he said was largely due to the successful low-end and portable offerings. Sculley said that during the fourth quarter of 1991, 58 percent of Mac sales were to noncomputer and DOS users. Apple's unveiling of working pro- totypes of its PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) hand-held devices shows that the com- pany can develop revolutionary products while tending to its existing product lines. At Apple's World Wide Developers conference, Sculley was unusually candid about the company's future, saying that this year you can expect to see Macs with internal multimedia CD-ROM drives, more 68040-based Macs with DSPs (digital signal processors), a Mac color notebook, and more communications products for the PowerBooks. The last plan stems from positive response to the bundling of AppleTalk Remote Access software with the Mac notebooks. By the end of 1993, Apple expects to introduce the first of the PowerPC RISC computers, which will at first run the Mac OS, not the object-oriented operating sys- tem code-named Pink. Apple is ahead of schedule on porting its system software to the PowerPC, Sculley said. For workstations in general, Apple plans to push the Mac as a standard in the Unix marketplace. Sculley also outlined the five software foun- dation technologies that the company will leverage as it moves into the next century: • A new WorldScript technology will be included in a reference version (7.1) of System 7.0 and will display and process 2-byte, complex non-Roman lan- guages, such as Chinese and Korean, as well as Arabic and Hebrew. • QuickDraw GX, formerly the New Imaging Architecture, will supply new ty- pography, imaging, and print capabilities to support a media and publishing in- dustry expected to be worth $1.3 trillion by the year 2000. Printing will be sim- plified, and any Mac application will have the ability to display a document properly, regardless of whether the computer has the original fonts. • The OCE (Open Collaborative Environment) will consolidate mail services and support document transactions with electronic-signature validation and im- proved work flow. OCE will extend Apple's reach into the telecommunications market, which the company estimates will be a $ 1 trillion industry by 2000. • AppleScript, a batch-style language, will let users automate repetitive tasks and customize operations among several applications using intelligent software agents. • QuickTime, now about a year old, will be extended to Unix systems, Windows, and OS/2, and will support MIDI and text-to-speech generation. Sculley admitted that Apple now manages several lines of business, but he said that walking this tightrope is necessary if the company wants to remain a player in the computer industry. Apple is investing in anticipated high-growth sections of the industry. At the same time, it is working on projects to attract even more people who, to the Apple way of thinking, have never used a computer. — Tom Thompson N ANOBYTES A day after announcing its Hyper- Sparc chip set, Cypress Semicon- ductor announced that it is moving its U.S. assembly operation off- shore to stream- line its manu- facturing operations. The company also said it will lay | off about 200 workers. Cy- press president T. J. Rodgers attributed the workforce reduction largely to the wide gap in labor costs between U.S. manufacturing and assembly operations that are based else- where. He noted that when the company originally set up its U.S. assembly in 1984, it incorporated a high degree of automation to offset the difference between the U.S.'s $1 0-per-hour labor cost and the 50 cent-per-hour overseas cost. Since then, he said, competi- tors' offshore plants have become fully automated yet still pay low wages. Rodgers said the company can no longer afford the extra $8 million required per year to keep its assembly operation in Sili- con Valley. □ In June, just five weeks after re- leasing the Windows version, Mi- crosoft released Excel 4.0 for the Mac, the first major application to support AppleScript. Microsoft is reportedly working on an Apple- Script-compliant version of Word for the Mac as well. □ An example of QuickTime's growing acceptance is the announcement by Apple and Sili- con Graphics that QuickTime has been licensed for the Indigo work- station. This will let Iris worksta- tions author three-dimensional an- imations for use on Macs. □ 18 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Af ^ 149.96 pr?0, Wi^dowe funded liKe- a dea/. Then i koutf/rf" all neu^^ran^ ai* abou-f* ^600 a pop. J 6/ielled ouf a Coupb hundred f>sr rmchino Scr extra memory. J. pohied up ^300 each -for networking cads. The moi/£e ran ?|00and a> bigger hard dtek ran ^2-?5. /And (& i ^hs a+ -fta invo/co ior u>tat" i+W going -to oxk yt& -to corned' +hem all hoptt\or> J |hink -fc ny&df, "THIS (5 MAXiM^ iT Then there's Macintosh! There are no hidden costs. There are no cards to buy for networking, file sharing, sound, video or peripheral support. That's why Computer Shopper magazine said, "Let's not be coy: If you want the best GUI money can buy, get a Macintosh." That's whyMacWeek said, "Apple has shown that it can be technologically brilliant and price competitive at the same time." And that's why J.D. Power and Associates ranked Apple the #1 Personal Computer Company in Customer Satisfaction Among Business Users.* There's no personal computer on earth quite like it. And none more imitated. The affordable, compatible, connectable Macintosh personal computer. The power to be your best? Macintosh from Apple. 'J J). I'mver and Associate? 1991 Computer End User Satisfaction Study": Phase IV: Business End User Summary. Responses /mm 5811 end users at 4.396 business sites. Computer Shopper le Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh and 'Ihepouer to be your best" are registeredtrailemarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Vtvubirs is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. NEWS MICROBYTES High-Stakes SPARC Showdown With the introduction of its next-gen- eration RISC processor, Cypress Semiconductor has launched itself into a high-stakes battle with Texas Instruments to win the loyalty of SPARC workstation manufacturers and users. Because Sun Mi- crosystems is expected to corral a large portion of the initial offering of TI's new Viking SuperSparc RISC processor for use in the modular-CPU desktop Sparc- station 10, Cypress may find an eager cus- tomer base among SPARC clone vendors. At press time, TI said that the first Viking chips will go only to executive members of SPARC International and this drew a howl of protest from the consor- tium's associate members. Depending on how quickly Cypress can ramp up pro- duction of its HyperSparc chip set, Cy- press may find a hungry market for its chips. Cypress expects to start sampling its chip set next month and reach volume production in the fourth quarter. Cypress's 64-bit HyperSparc chip set, rated at 70 SPECmarks and 133 MIPS in its 66-MHz version, achieves its perfor- mance levels using a 64-bit data path and a superscalar, superpipelined architecture that supports multiprocessing. The new modules are pin- and function-compatible with Cypress's first-generation CYM6000 Sparcore uniprocessing and multiprocess- ing modules. In 1993, Cypress intends to start sampling 80-MHz HyperSparcs, with anticipated performance improvements reaching 85 SPECmarks and 166 MIPS. Cypress projects ratings of 101 SPEC- marks and 200 MIPS for the I 00-MHz version. — Patrick Waurzyniak Quorum Takes Legal Action Against Apple Quorum Software Systems (Menlo Park, CA) has brought legal action against Apple to counter what it called "unsup- ported allegations of patent and copyright infringement." Quorum says that letters from Roger Heinen, Apple's vice presi- dent of Macintosh software architecture, accused Quorum of infringing Apple's in- tellectual property rights and then revoked Quorum's privileges as an Apple partner. Quorum officials said that the compa- ny's complaint seeks redress for Apple's accusation that Quorum, in helping ISVs (independent software vendors) migrate their Mac-compatible applications to oth- er platforms, induced those ISVs to vio- late licensing and confidentiality agree- ments with Apple. The complaint centers on Apple's alle- gation that Quorum Latitude, a cross-plat- form compatibility tool that lets Mac-com- patible applications run on other computer platforms, violates Apple patents and copy- rights. Quorum says that Latitude relies solely on the use of Motif or Open Look for pull-down menus and uses Adobe Dis- play PostScript or SunSoft News for screen rendering and thus does not infringe Ap- ple's patents or copyrights. Quorum has asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Califor- nia to rule that Quorum has not infringed any copyrights or patents of Apple. — Larry Loeb Tandy and Motorola Pipe Up on PDA Mindful of the intense coverage that Apple has received on its PDA (Per- sonal Digital Assistant), which won't be available to the public for a few months, several other companies are jumping on the vapor-hardware bandwagon. Tandy says it will work with Casio Computer of Tokyo, Japan, to design a new family of personal information pro- cessors. Tandy and Casio will be joined by GeoWorks (Berkeley, CA), which will supply its GEOS (Graphical Environment Object System) operating environment with pen extensions, and Palm Comput- ing (Menlo Park, CA), which will supply its applications software. Tandy officials said it's too early to talk about product de- tails, pricing, and expected availability. But when, earlier this year, GeoWorks an- nounced its plans to ship pen extensions by the end of the year, it said the environ- ment would be targeted at 8088- and 8086- based systems costing less than $500. Also, Motorola and Korea's Samsung Electronics announced plans to develop and market a pen-based palmtop comput- er with wireless-communications capabil- ity. Motorola will disclose further details at Comdex in November. — Dave Andrews NANOBYTES Sun Microsystems is going out of its way to distance itself from the rest of the SPARC pack with its new workstation based on Texas Instruments' Viking SuperSparc CPU. In mid-May, the company announced its new desktop workstation, the Sparcsta- tion 1 0, a ver- sion number that is itself quite a leap, considering that the previ- ous model was the Sparcstation 2. "SuperSparc is an absolute breakthrough in terms of work done per megahertz," said David R. Ditzel, director of the ad- vanced systems group at Sun Mi- crosystems Laboratories. "We're getting performance that ex- ceeds. . . [that of] machines outside our class." Sun officials claim that even they were surprised by the performances of the machines. □ Among the features of the Sparc- station 10 and Sun Microsystems' new SuperSparc-based servers is built-in ISDN capabilities, which the company says it added in re- sponse to requests from its cus- tomers in Europe and Japan. □ Long rumored to be developing a 386 clone chip, IIT (Integrated Information Technologies) re- vealed that it has set its sights even higher. Cof ounder and presi- dent Chi-Shin Wang said IIT is working on a 486-class processor that may also incorporate some of the company's multimedia tech- nologies. With its 486 project, Wang said, "we want to integrate multimedia into the CPU. People could care less about MIPS. They care more about applications functionality." □ Apple has released the Quadra 950, which boasts a 33-MHz 68040 processor and a 25-MHz I/O bus. □ 20 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 bitting in codcb between V (dpfopdfa Inobce •ftegq/dcrost-fae 3/s/e as And T-ttint & mi/se/P f „ Ho, is mMnj , ''uery Speed xport Import ► opy ► elete ► nfo ► et ► ore ► LOVEEl DeptCode | OfficeCode | - Hell 123 Fifth Avenue 50 Bay May IB Jansson Plaza 1B0B Coruwal Road Tjepkema Kelsay Rees Rogers Help 1 Speed up queries like the one on the desktop. Screen 1 : Paradox 4.0 has a new user interface with drop-clown menus. screen 1 ) . Even better, you can now use a mouse with Paradox. And there's more, including scrollable and sizable windows. If you'd rather not eschew the old in- terface, there is a way out. The main drop- down menu has an Interface option that puts everything back in the familiar inter- face. You can't use the mouse in the old in- terface, however, nor can you view data in scrollable and sizable windows. You'll find many new features and im- provements in Paradox 4.0. Borland claims the biggest improvement is speed. Because the version I tested was an early beta ver- sion with embedded debugging code, it wasn't fair to run benchmarks. Borland claims that in the release version, most op- erations will run two to three times faster than in Paradox 3.5 because of tuned code, better memory allocation, and faster disk I/O and caching. The company also claims network performance will increase dra- matically. What else is new? PAL (Paradox Ap- plication Language) has many additions, primarily supporting event-driven pro- gramming and the new interface. PAL is indeed powerful, but the basic power of Paradox remains its ability to let you do a great deal of work without making the time-and-expertise investment to become an accomplished PAL programmer. Making Connections Among all the new features and improve- ments, it wasn't difficult to find a person- al favorite. A new field type called Memo holds a virtually unlimited amount of data, either text or binary. (Normal fields are limited to 255 characters.) To keep the size of your database reasonable, Paradox 4.0 uses a unique system. Only the first 255 characters of a memo are stored with- in the database. The remainder is stored in a memo file with a different extension. To work in a Memo field, you enter a spe- cial memo editor that includes the ability to import data from other sources. You can search the Memo field just like the rest of the database. I used it to import and store reams of material garnered from BIX. It adds a new dimension to an old database friend. Made for Each Other Paradox users have been waiting years for a Windows version. Now I know why it's taken so long. ParaWin is no quick-out- the-door port of the DOS version to the GUI environment. It's a from-the-ground- 32 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS up rewrite that's designed to take advan- tage of today's graphics-oriented envi- ronment. ParaWin is an impressive piece of programming art, and it may well re- define what a graphics-oriented applica- tion should be. Now that I've made that statement, I should explain what the big deal is. Way down deep, ParaWin is built around Bor- land's ILE (Interbase Local Engine), a set of core code that you can expect to see eventually in all Borland's database prod- ucts. ILE is file format independent and extensible, working directly with files in a number of formats. Here's another acronym. ILE is the key to ParaWin' s OOUI (Object-Oriented User Interface), letting the package handle nu- merous objects beyond your garden-vari- ety Numeric, Alphanumeric, and Date fields found in most databases. ParaWin has added Memo fields (just like those in Paradox 4.0). There's much more. Win- dows is, after all, a graphical environment, so you can link to Windows bit-map (.BMP) files and integrate graphics into your database. The BLOB Two additional types of objects that you can include in a ParaWin database are unique indeed. The first is the BLOB (Bi- nary Large Object) field, which links bi- nary files to your database (see screen 2). It doesn't take long to see that the possi- bilities are nearly endless. Besides the mundane ability to link documents (or even executable files) to your database, you can link audio or even video if your PC is mul- timedia-ready. Second, the OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) field, a special- ized form of a BLOB field, takes advan- tage of Windows 3. 1 's OLE capabilities. The number of advanced features in ParaWin is simply stunning. ParaWin is designed to handle large amounts of data, make the data easily accessible, and protect the data. Borland has done extensive work on maintaining referential integrity. There are also validity checks at field and do- main levels. ParaWin lets you do extreme- ly complex data modeling with multiple complex databases. You can do something as weird as a one-to-many-to-many-to-one data relationship. The object orientation of ParaWin ex- tends throughout the package. The Para- Win desktop contains numerous tools for organizing files and databases as working objects and for setting up forms and re- Paradox for Windows File Edit lable Record Properties Window Help = £IIVESITE= Great Barrier Reef View - :WORK;TRIPS1 .DBF Monterey Bay Florida Keys Great Barrier Reef Monterey Bay Monterey Bay Florida Keys Great Barrier Reef Monterey Bay Florida Keys Great Barrier Reef Florida Keys Great Barrier Reef Monterey Bay Species Name^ Pomacanthus nauarchus 5TARTDATE 2/11/92 1/9/92 T/7/B4 ENDDATE" 2/26/92 1/16/92 1/14/84 r=BUDDY= Kelsay Kahn Kahn View-:WORK:LIFE.DB Variola louti Pterois volitans "■Picture" "Notes^ Habitat is boulder: caves, can coral - ledges and crevice in shallow waters, is found both solit Also Known as th ■nation Trout, is found around col w| s :h Render Magnification Justification Color Font [Record 7 of 30 records View Screen 2: The Memo fields in Paradox for Windows support BLOB fields to store binary data such as graphics images. ports. You pick and choose objects and graphically indicate the interrelationships. ObjectPAL is ParaWin's object-orient- ed visual programming language. Unfor- tunately, the version that I tested didn't have it available. From the documenta- tion, it appears to strongly resemble Bor- land's ObjectVision applications devel- opment system. Keeping It Compatible What about compatibility? ParaWin can access all existing Paradox tables. It can also run existing PAL programs from with- in Windows. And therein lies the, well, paradox of Paradox for Windows. Even though at first glance it looks like a com- pletely different animal, you can get up and running with ParaWin in a matter of minutes. An experienced Paradox user can ease into the new features. With both dBase and Paradox under its corporate wing, Borland easily takes the title of market leader in the PC database sweepstakes. But Microsoft's acquisition of FoxBase means that things will quick- ly become interesting. I'm forced to re- turn to metaphors. Paradox 4.0 is the gen- eration of a workhorse, highly tuned for handling scads of data and getting loads of work done with a minimum of fuss. ParaWin has incredible power and ability hidden under its refined exterior, setting new standards for what a GUI-oriented program should be. We now come to the ultimate paradox. Microsoft Windows has given Borland the showcase environment for the application of the future. ■ Stan Miastkowski, former BYTE senior ed- itor for new products, is a freelance writ- er specializing in computer technology and news. He can be reached on BIX as "stanm." THE FACTS Paradox 4.0 $795 Paradox for Windows (price not yet available) Borland International, Inc. 1800 Green Hills Rd. P.O. Box 660001 Scotts Valley, CA 95067 (408) 438-8400 fax: (408) 438-8696 Circle 1 1 77 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 33 It's completely rational. Microsoft 8 C/C++ 7.0 now in- cludes the Windows™ operating sys- tem version 3.1 SDK. For only $139, it's hard to believe this development kit is so complete. We're talking all the latest technology programmers have told us they want. But you're still skeptical. You're asking yourself what is missing? Well, here's an admittedly long-wind- ed list of what's included. Object linking and embedding. Great for creating applications that share diverse types of data, like text and graphics. An application that supports OLE can cooperate with other OLE applications, even those from another vendor. Pen computing APIs. Everything you need to create compelling appli- cations for the next generation of pen computers. There are over 300 pages of documentation that give you the basic elements of Windows for Pen Computing. Multimedia APIs. Our newest media control interface. You can in- corporate animation, audio and video capability using third party devices and drivers. (It's the next best thing to virtual reality.) Windows Debugging Version. Traps the most troublesome UAEs and helps you create more stable, robust applications. Contains GDI, KERNEL, and USER modules. GUI Setup Toolkit It will make hammering out a custom Windows- based setup program as simple as writing a script file. Microsoft Foundation Classes. Now you can use the same building blocks we're using to build future versions of the Windows operating system. A rich set of 60 recyclable object classes provides logical order to more than 500 functions of the Windows API. Menus, GDI, OLE 1.0 and advanced diagnostics sup- port are included. Tasks such as registering Windows' classes, build- ing message loops, and managing device contexts are automatic. Sample code. Over 75,000 lines. Zoomin. A nifty tool for magni- fying portions of a screen to help identify paint problems and other screen-related issues. Heapivalker. Examine the glob- al heap and local heaps used by ac- tive applications and dynamic-link libraries in your system. Editors. And plenty of them. Dialog Editor lets you add, modify, and delete custom controls as you design and test dialog boxes on- screen. Image Editor modifies icons, bitmaps and cursors. Font Editor alters existing faces and creates new ones. Hotspot Editor creates and edits hypergraphics or bitmaps in one or more hotspots. Spy Idols. Pssst. They make it possible to monitor Mouse, input/ output from Windows, DDE and other messages between one or more Windows-based applications. You can also examine message parameter values. Stress. Allows you to consume system resources for low-resource stress testing. Acquirable resources include the global heap, user heap, GDI heap, disk space and file han- dles. (Less job stress for you.) Wdeb386. Now test and debug dynamic link libraries and Windows- based applications running in stand- ard or 386- enhanced mode. Multi-resolution bitmap compiler. Combine color and monochrome bitmaps with different resolutions into a single graphic. Help Compiler. Create Help sys- tems for applications that will take advantage of the new Windows 3.1 Help engine. Both context-sensitive and topical searches of Help files. Compiler features. Unrestrict- ed pre-compiled headers for speedy throughput. Explicit or automatic inlining of any C/C++ code for fest- er executions. Compressed code for size reductions. CodeView Debugger. This win- dow-oriented debugger is a power- ful, easy-to-use tool for analyzing MS-DOS or Windows-based pro- gram behavior. Test the execution and examine data all at the same time. Display any combination of variables -global or local- while you halt or trace a program's exe- cution. Versions for dual and single monitor debugging, even in a win- dow, are supported. Source Profilers. Optimize the performance of all your MS-DOS- based or Windows-based applica- tions. Analyze your program to find code inefficiencies. Whew! If you were to get all of this separately, it would cost many hundreds of dollars. And definitely will in the very near future. Because the response has been so enthusiastic, we've extended your chance to get this upgrade for $139. But only for a limited time. That includes over 5,000 pages of C/C++ 7.0 documentation plus the entire Windows 3.1 SDK online documentation. We'll also throw in a free copy of Qualitas* 386-Max ,u for MS-DOS-based development. And if you want the Windows 3.1 SDK documentation in hard copy (over 5,000 pages), it's yours for an additional $150. Look, ^u can defy the logic of thinking programmers everywhere and pass up this historic offer. Or you can call your reseller. Or just call us at (800) 992-3675. Microsoft < hi> riiood through 9/30/92. Reseller prices may vary. Offer good only in the 50 United States. ©1992 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Customers inside the 50 United Stales, call (800) 992-3675 between 6:30 AM and 5:30 PM / J i ,'i.s'i '">-Max is a trademark ofQuatitas. Inc. It defies logic. r information only: Outside the 50 United States, rail (206) 9368661. In Canada, call (800) 563-9048. Microsoft, CodeVieiv and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Quaiitas is a registered trademark and AttmdcnAlldMSE Ha^Arm^d dBFast Introducing new dBFast.™ The first and only dBASE™ compatible database and dBASE/X-Base language for Windows. Its the fastest, smartest and easiest way rnn for millions of users and mjLm developers to join the p^^j Windows revolution. ira 1 ™ Graphical, colorful dBFast will bring new life to all of your r.s:i.i /. rr.gi8s. Inc OutKTum; isa Irai1cm«rk Ot Apote ComDUler. lne C1997NF.C Teghnctogios. Inc Looks like someone just discovered CD-ROM with MultiSpin: The fastest-spinning readers ever. The ! ^Tlj £- InterSect™ CDR-74 and 84, only from NEC. Now ^ they not only have the ability to access large amounts of information quickly and easily, but they provide you with endless Multimedia possibilities as well. In fact, our MultiSpin technology can transfer data at a rate of 300 kb/sec. That's double the speed of any other CD-ROM reader. And, we have designed our readers to play back video without any pauses or lapses in motion. But what happens to audio? Do human voices sound more like beings from another planet? Does music sound like a record being played at the wrong speed? Absolutely not. The amazing thing about MultiSpin tech- nology is its ability to transfer data at twice the speed, while maintain- ing the standard 150 kb/sec rate for audio tracks. Simply put, NEC's InterSect™ CDR-74 and 84 with MultiSpin™ are the speed champs of CD-ROM. What's more, our CD-ROM readers cover a full range of price and performance needs. Choose from our external CDR-74 or internal CDR-84, with double dust doors and socketed firmware features. Or, if portability interests you, choose our CDR-37. All meet MPC Marketing Council guidelines for Multimedia computing, are Photo CD capable* and fully QuickTime™ compatible. So next time you hear the words CD-ROM, think MultiSpin™ And remember: it's hot, it's fast, it's only from NEC. And you don't want to be the last on your block to get one. Because ■ is the way you want to go. NEC Circle 1 27 on Inquiry Card. NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS Keeping in Step with Windows JON UDELL AND TOM THOMPSON CorelDraw 3.0 and Adobe Illustrator 4.0 have some impressive With Windows upgraded to version 3.1, appli- cations are also being upgraded to keep step. Two graphics packages that do so admirably are CorelDraw 3.0 and Adobe Illustrator 4.0. new features CorelDraw 3.0 CorelDraw 3.0 weighs in at a whopping 23 MB. The core illustration tool gains a host of fea- tures, as well as new charting, presentation, and image-editing tools. Longtime CorelDraw users will have a field day with version 3.0. An over- hauled user i nterf ace employs free-floating "roll-up" tool palettes to manage the ex- panded feature set. Wherever possible, direct manipulation replaces menu or dia- log-box interaction. Corel has abolished the split-window approach to editing and previewing, because version 3.0 can edit rendered objects directly. Text handling becomes much more powerful. Text objects now sport a cursor, so you can add and delete characters directly. To change attributes — the point size or ( 7-45, 6.42) CorelDRAW! .- SAMPLE.CDR Ion I h em Layer 1 ■AM E © M .Blend objects Wl mil | Screen 1 ; CorelDraw 3.0' s blend tool works dynamically, so if you change the path, you don't need to change the blend. emphasis of an "artistic" text object or the justification of framed text — you can park the text roll-up on-screen and tweak the object interactively. When you fit text to a path, CorelDraw links the two objects, so if you edit either the text or the path, the two readjust dynamically. The blend tool, which interpolates a se- ries of intermediates between two objects, can now follow a path (see screen 1). Three- dimensional extrusion now supports a movable light source; interactively adjust- able depth, orientation, and perspective; and solid or gradient fills on the extruded surfaces. Complex drawings can now be divided into multiple named layers. Bit- map support improves with new import/ export filters for GIF and Targa. In addi- tion, although it wasn't available in the beta version I looked at, the toolkit will include a stand-alone image editor called CorelPhoto-Paint. Corel has jumped headfirst into OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). Corel- Draw 3.0 has client and server capabili- ties, and that's a happy combination. On the client side, OLE enables CorelDraw to lean on other applications that supply vector and bit-map graphics. Because its forte is graphics, the program also works well as a server. It feeds OLE clients data types they can usefully render — metafiles and bit maps. Some interesting synergies emerged as I explored CorelDraw's OLE features. When I embedded a Paintbrush bit map in a Corel drawing, for example, I found THE FACTS CorelDraw 3.0 $595 System requirements: A 386, 486, or PS/2 with a hard drive, a Windows-supported VGA monitor, and a mouse or tablet. Windows 3.1 is required for True- Type fonts. Corel Systems Corp. 1600Carling Ave. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Z8R7 (613)728-8200 fax:(613)761-9176 Circle 1 179 on Inquiry Card. 42 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS that Corel's stretch operation left the bit map unchanged. The interplay between Paintbrush's bit editing and Corel's non- destructive effects editing hints at the sort of cooperation that OLE can support. TrueType support is the other notable Windows 3 . 1 enhancement. The first beta version still used the old WFN fonts, but Corel will move to TrueType in the final release. Font-editing capabilities now en- compass TrueType, letting me create my own TrueType characters by exporting Corel vector art to a font file, which I then installed and tested using Windows Write. Corel's marketing message resounds with phrases like "all-in-one solution" and "value-packed," and I can't disagree with that. But I do a lot more illustration than charting or presentation, and it's the core product's vastly improved power and ease of use that really make my day. Adobe Illustrator 4.0 An early glimpse of Illustrator 4.0 shows that Adobe plans to recapture the PC graph- ics market. The new version has a lot go- ing for it in this attempt, and it starts with all the features found in the Mac and Next versions. Illustrator 4.0's color support can handle the growing number of 1 6- and 24- bit displays appearing for Windows, and the software is souped up for high perfor- mance on 32-bit systems. To achieve this performance boost, the code uses the flat address-space mode found on the 386 and 486 processors. I installed copies of a beta version of Illustrator 4.0 on two 33-MHz 486-based machines with 16-bit display adapters. Il- lustrator 4.0 requires a new 32-bit version of Adobe Type Manager, which is includ- ed. Also bundled in are a color separator application, TypeAlign (an application that lets you manipulate text outlines for special effects), and 40 Adobe Type 1 outline fonts. Through the end of this month, Il- lustrator 4.0 comes bundled with Stream- Line 3.0, an auto-tracing tool that traces color images to produce artwork composed of Bezier curves and color-filled objects. Mac and Next users will feel right at home with Illustrator 4.0 for Windows. The program's layout is virtually identi- cal across the three platforms. At the bot- tom of the drawing window is a status line that provides bits of important informa- tion as you proceed with your drawing. The tool-palette window can be a fixed window at the screen's left, or it can float anywhere on-screen. Mac users will like Adobe Illustrator- [CUPS.AH °| File Edit Arrange View Paint Type Graph Window T] M JJ aj ©I £3 r»!| lull NOURISHMENT FOR THE MIND Selection IH ||it48M09- UMpt ||CU41?M|1pt. - ± Screen 2: Illustrator 4.0 lets you edit your artwork in the Preview mode, modifying your work on the fly. the program's equivalent keystrokes: I was delighted to discover that I could edit my artwork in the Preview mode, and I could modify the artwork on the fly with all the colors and masks on-screen (see screen 2). Also new is the magnifying glass tool's "selective zoom" feature: You drag a mar- quee around the area of interest, and just that area appears enlarged in the window. I was able to import BMP, PCX, and TIFF images as templates by tracing the imported image by hand with the drawing tools, with Illustrator's auto-tracing tool or StreamLine. The program also handles a variety of import/export formats (e.g., CGM,DRW, Macintosh PICT, and Win- dows Metafile). To test cross-platform compatibility, I copied several illustrations I had drawn on the Mac to Illustrator 4.0. The Win- dows version had no difficulty working with the Mac files or files moved from the Next computer. Nor did the Mac have any problem opening and editing the files made by Illustrator 4.0. Illustrator 4.0 lacks some features I'd like to see, such as a decent implementa- tion of gradient fills or layer controls. I'm not saying Illustrator 4.0 is flawed, though; PC users will be glad to get their hands on its feature-rich set of tools. ■ THE FACTS Adobe Illustrator 4.0 $695 System requirements: A 386- or 486-based PC with 4 MB of RAM, a VGA adapter, and Win- dows 3.0 or higher Adobe Systems, Inc. 1585 Charleston Rd. P.O. Box 7900 Mountain View, CA 94039 (800) 922-3623 (415)961-4400 fax:(415)961-3769 Circle 1 180 on Inquiry Card. Jon Udell is a BYTE senior technical edi- tor at large. You can contact him on BIX as "jude/l" or on the Internet atjudell@bytepb ~byte.com. Tom Thompson is a BYTE senior technical editor at large and an as- sociate Apple developer. You can contact him on BIX as il torn jhomp son or on Ap- pleLink as "T.THOMPSON." AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 43 kin" - % I 1 = A ..-£>& 1 *,.44 -*r.^* ^bur upgrade category of single-chip upgrades: Intel OverDrive Processors. The easiest, most cost- effective way to add even more power to your system-for Intel486™ SX PCs i486™SX-20 System Performance: Microsoft Word for Windows* Introducing Intel OverDrive™ Processors. With built-in upgradability we promised you room for the future. Room for more power. Well, the future has arrived. Presenting a revolutionary new ©1992 Intel Corporation. Intel486, i486 and OverDrive are trademarks of Intel Corporation. *Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 1.50X 1.0X .£ 0.5X 0.0X With OverDrive now, and soon for all 486 systems and beyond. Just pop in a new OverDrive Processor and you'll improve overall i486 SX system just checked in. performance by up to 70 percent Added perfor- mance that will benefit over 50,000 compatible software applications. And that goes for today's demanding Windows software, too. WE MAKE WORK HARDER. Find out more. Ask for ext. 98 1-800-538-3373 In fact, by adding an Intel OverDrive Proces- sor, your 486 PC will even run multiple Windows applications faster. To check in to the OverDrive Processor, see your local computer dealer now. Circle 1 1 4 on Inquiry Card. Or for a detailed brochure, call 1-800-538-3373, ext. 98. And hurry. The vacancies are filling fast. intel NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS Back It Up, Windows It is ironic that one of the things every computer user should do — backing up — is among the most tedious, un- pleasant tasks to complete. That's doubly true for Win- dows users, who typically have to enter DOS to back up their systems. Back-It for Windows, from Gazelle Systems, aims to make backing up files so easy that you'll do it without thinking. Like Norton Back- up for Windows, Back-It is a real Windows application. Nearly everything can be done with just the mouse, from set- ting preferences to selecting files. Back-It includes a sched- uler that sits in the background and kicks off backups at times and dates you pre- select. I ran a prerelease version of Back-It. The utility's interface is classic Windows style, with a few twists. Probably the most commonly seen interface element is the file-selection dialog box, and Gazelle did a good job of designing it. For the most common backup tasks, this dialog box re- duces file and directory tree selection to a few simple and obvious actions. The box is presented in the traditional split view, with the left side showing the directory structure, and the right side showing the files in the currently selected directory. Tagging can be done on either side, and an entire branch can be tagged by selecting it and clicking on the Branch button. You can sort the file view by a number of useful criteria. In a useful twist, Back-It lets you specify inclusion and exclusion lists based on wild cards; the lists are used to automatically tag files, and separate lists can be applied at volume, branch, and di- rectory levels. For many backups, a good Directory Files Options ■ITftg jlBranehl J fill J Cteaf -i^j ALDUS H I-^'MHm i Pm FILTERS MQ SETUP -C]AM -CD BACKIT -CD BIN BORLANDC h-T~IB GI L X> j ,.lp Jjfej ,,-tt.*g j ..foil ]„CI':ar | JCb ALDFSRES RSL 4 a ALDIMRES RSL JCB ALDUS IHI JCb ALDUSN BPX JC^iALDUSN NFO 4CB ALOUSNOO UPX J CSj ALDUHRES RSL 4CB ALOHPLSR RSL 4,176 02/08/91 U.080 11/15/91 1,315 05/27/92 35,710 02/08/91 51 12/18/90 3'»0,992 02/08/91 5,82*1 02/08/91 ii.688 11/08/91 Volume Include File Specs P_ Exclude File Specs |*Jbak,«.qld, Files Files Tagged Total Bytes Bytes Tagged Directory j*„bal<,*.old,*| Specs] 3882 § 20 3852 8 20 99,495,568 396,836 1,084,786 99,353,508 396,836 1,084,786 ok Cancel Help set of lists is all the selection that's need- ed. You can, however, tag or untag indi- vidual files once Back-It applies its auto- matic selections. My one complaint with the file-selection dialog box is that groups of files cannot be drag-selected and tagged. Back-It's installation adds a background task to your WIN.INI file that watches the clock and fires off backups automatically according to a schedule. Schedules are built easily enough from within Back-It, and they can be either full or "modified files only" backups. You can stack your entire backup scheme into the scheduler, directing that certain hard drives get backed up to certain floppy drives, that full backups get done every Friday, and so on. When Back-It's scheduler kicks in, it pops up a requester whenever it needs a disk or tape change. A running backup dis- plays an icon whose title changes to re- flect the percentage of the backup com- pleted so far, and a requester pops up to let you know that the backup is finished. Back-It's support for tape drives is much more complete than that in Norton Back- up for Windows. Through a DOS device driver, Back-It sup- ports both floppy controller- based and dedicated controller- based tape drives. Your specific drive must be directly support- ed. Tapes can be formatted from within Back-It, and the program includes useful tape-oriented functions like retension and se- curity overwrite. To save media, Back-It ap- plies compression on demand. It also has its own verification and error-correction schemes (which can be disabled). Final- ly, backups can be directed to any DOS device, so you can back your system up to a net- work server or create an archive file that can be copied to other systems and unpacked by Back-It. Overall, Back-It for Windows is an easy, relatively full-featured backup program for Windows. I found it much easier to use than Norton Backup for Windows, al- though it has fewer options for advanced users. Since backups are something you must do anyway, I figure you may as well make it as easy as possible. Back-It fills that bill better than anything I've seen yet. — Tom Yager THE FACTS Back-It for Windows $99.95 Gazelle Systems, Inc. 305 North 500 West Provo, UT 84601 (.801)377-1288 fax:(801)373-6933 Circle 1181 on Inquiry Card. AST's Premium Exec Offers Affordable Portable Color The past few months have seen the in- troduction of several color notebooks. While portables with active-matrix screens offer brighter displays and faster cursor response than notebooks with passive-ma- trix screens, they also cost more. Prices for passive-matrix notebooks are now threatening the $3000 barrier. These low- er-cost color notebooks are getting close at- tention from Windows users who want to take their WYSIWYG applications on the road. Competition is sure to get even fiercer in this notebook category. AST Research's new Premium Exec 386SX/25C color notebook is a good ex- ample of this competitive trend. I had my evaluation unit for only a few weeks when the company changed its pricing strategy for the notebook and reduced the suggest- ed retail price on all versions of the unit by 1 8 percent. With monochrome versions of the 60-, 80-, and 120-MB versions of the notebook just $300 less than the color ver- sions, AST has reduced the gulf between 46 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 TWICE SPEED OF A LINE PRINTER HALF PRICE! THE WORLD'S FIRST LASER LINE PRINTER NOW WITH HP LASERJET III & POSTSCRIPT EMULATIONS! CONVENIENT SPEED • Your continuous form printout stays in proper sequence • No tray limitation; print an entire box of paper at a time • Line printer output and speed, with laser print quality for half the price • 8.5" x 11" paper for easy filing and binding • Featuring Intel's i960 ™ RISC microprocessor for enhanced performance FLEXIBLE • Works in HP or PostScript environments • Ideal for LANs because it autoswitches emulations • 100% HP font compatibility including Intellifont® NOW UNDER $5,500 Intellitont. i960. PostScript. HP and LaserJet are trademarks of others and do not belong to Output Technology Corporation 800-468-8788 m OUTPUT ■TECHNOLOGY Circle 130 on Inauirv Card. N. 2310 Fancher • Spokane, W A 99212 CORPORATION Telex :i1 '5-2269 OUTPUT SPOK FAX: (509) 533-1280 NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS color and monochrome portables to a hop. The Premium Exec weighs 7 pounds and sports a 9-inch diagonal VGA display with two backlitCCFT (cold-cathode flu- orescent tube) panels. My unit had 4 MB of RAM (expandable to 8 MB) and an 80- MB hard drive. Like other passive-matrix color notebooks I've seen, it was some- times difficult to pick up the cursor when running Windows applications, especially paint programs. However, when you use this or a similar system to generate color business presentations or spreadsheet charts, you will be loath to return to a monochrome system. AST's notebook runs on a standard 386SX processor and nickel-cadmium bat- teries. The company says you can expect to run the notebook for 2 l A hours when it's fully charged. But when I left the system plugged in while I worked on it and then ran it on batteries alone, the charge dura- tion went down to about an hour. I found the notebook's 82-key keyboard comfortable and easy to work with. I ran Windows applications using a standard mouse and Microsoft's Ballpoint minia- ture trackball. In spite of the difficulty I sometimes had in picking up the cursor, both devices worked well. The notebook has one proprietary ex- pansion slot for adding a modem. In the back of the system, there are standard se- rial, parallel, external VGA monitor, and six-pin PS/2 connectors. I was disap- pointed to find that the system does not have sleep or suspend/resume modes. Until screen manufacturers can improve the yields in manufacturing active-matrix screens — which may not happen for a year or more — passive-matrix technology will offer the only low-cost portable color so- lution. Although AST's Premium Exec doesn't offer the power-saving features that some other notebooks offer, it is a solid low-cost entrant into the expanding color notebook market. — D. L. Andrews THE FACTS Premium Exec 386SX/25C with a 60-MB hard drive, $3295; with an 80-MB hard drive, $3595; with a 120-MB hard drive, $4095 AST Research, Inc. 16215 Alton Pkwy. P.O.Box 19658 Irvine, CA 927 13 (800)727-1278 (714)727-4141 fax:(714)727-9355 Circle 1 1 82 on Inquiry Card. Norton Desktop for DOS: Utilities for the Masses The historical shortcomings of DOS have made us wit- ness to years of watching file and disk management products leapfrog one another with ev- ery new version. But if Syman- tec has its way, relatively un- sophisticated non-Windows users will never look elsewhere (or shop separately) for a file manager, menuing system, data-recovery program, and several other tools. They'll just buy Norton Desktop for DOS. Norton Desktop for DOS is Symantec's $179 front end to the best functions of Norton Utilities, Norton Anti- Virus, Norton Commander, and Norton Backup. (Version 2.0 of Norton Desktop for Windows started shipping in April.) While the just-shipped version for DOS that I saw cannot quite match the Windows product in drag-and-drop dexterity, the in- terface resembles that of Windows closely enough to get the job done and allow for an easy switch later if you so decide. It's easy to guess that operating Norton 48 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 ■ilHfllfcfiBMgi Tools ; i!Rim.i mt^ffr] PuII-douns P* ssword . . . Preferences . . . Start p Prograns . . . ution Bar . . . *;cmf ..irnatibn. . , Cloc-.V;. i deo/Moitse . . . ' Editor... creen Saver. . . tituork. . . Pr vrior . , . Compression. . . Desktop Link. . . Saue Com i guration mm WM-TfffE v; ' I ' liBliMJ ):36« SUB-D IR 5-25-92 9 : 36a SUB-DIR 5-25-92 9:36a SUB-D I R 5-25-92 9:36a SUB-D IR 5-24-92 6:27a 397 5-38-92 B:53a SB, 697 3-85-92 I:B8a 9,271 5-25-92 i:08a 18,825 5-24-92 i:B8a 48,287 5-2S-92 i:B8a 27,893 3-B5-92 1-B8a 16,133 5-25-92 1:00* BfiM ■EP*..l.»*,„ Bffft«fet,E^p».^....EPel0tel Desktop centers around a Windows-like desktop of resizable windows, drive icons, pull-down menus, and dialog boxes. Symantec's expectation, of course, is that you'll auto-load Norton Desktop and dou- ble-click on your mouse on user-defined menus to launch your applications. This is nothing new. Where Norton Desktop strives to earn a permanent line in your AUTOEXECBAT file is in the degree of customization it offers. Beyond installation, the program's flex- ibility begins with the many available options for tweaking the desktop to your liking. A choice of long versus short pull-down menus is a start; even better is the ability to take out options you or your work- group will never use. If you're upgrading from Norton Com- mander, you can opt to switch the desktop interface to that of Commander — at some loss of feature accessibility. And if you'd like to change the role of the clickable buttons lining the bottom of the screen (numbered on a par with the function keys), you can re- place F2 through F9 with any available command. If you do this, however, you hamper Norton Desktop's drag-and-drop capabil- ity. This feature lets you click on a file or a directory and drag its graphical repre- sentation to another location — provided the destination is displayed in a file or a tree window — or even onto a button it- self to edit, print, move, copy, or delete. continued LiilJ Yoil^DOI ill p iiii&r; H J U Mb Irz mil YtiVJ 2 DOC Gateway 2000 employees were photographed for Hie summer fun ad at Atokad Park in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Hhe results are final -aii those thoroughbred "favorites" outdistanced by a simple, determined, black-and-white cow. There's a big payoff for you if you picked Gateway 2000. You get a quality, high-performance system with the number- one customer satisfaction and reliability ratings in the industry, according to PC Magazine readers in the 1992 service and reliability survey. You get old- fashioned, personal service from friendly, Midwestern people. And you get the best price in the industry, too! How can you beat that? You can't! Browse through our annual summer fun ad. New this month is our HandBook portable, plus several great software offers for Gateway 2000 customers. Then give us a call. When you put your money on Gateway 2000, you're guaranteed to come out a winner. r r. GAFEWOVOOO "You've got a friend in the business." m Gateway 2000 Notebooks Put You In Racing Form The Nomad Series Our small, lightweight Nomad notebook computers let you take desktop computer perfor- mance anywhere you go. Nomad models come with VGA graphics, a FieldMouse' M (portable pointing device), built-in floppy drive, and an 80 or 120MB hard drive, depending on the model. A patented power-management system gives you hard-to-beat battery life benchmarks — over six hours of operation from a single battery on the 25MHz 486DX system! The Nomads have a bright, crisp, backlit, 10-inch triple supeitwist VGA screen — resolution is 640 x 480, 64 gray scale, on the LCD. With simultaneous video, you can also display on an external monitor. All these features ... and the Nomads are made in the U.S.A.! Nomad 325SXL1 $1995 25MHz, 386SXL processor ■ 4MB RAM ■ 80MB hard drive Nomad 420SXL ■ $2695 20MHz, Intel® 486SXLP processor ■ 4MB RAM ■ 80MB hard drive Nomad 425DXL1 $3495 25MHz, Intel 486DXLP processor ■ 4MB RAM ■ 1 20MB hard drive For The Power User On The Go Nomad Combo ■ $3995 Since the Nomad 425DXL has all the power of a 486DX desktop system, it's the ideal portable/desktop combination system! Save with this combo package! Combo Highlights: Nomad 425DXL 115" CrystalScan 1572FS color monitor ■ program- mable 1 24-key AnyKey™ keyboard The HandBook 1 ' If you like to travel light, you can't go wrong with the HandBook. It weighs only 2.75 pounds and measures roughly 6x9 inches — smallerthan this magazine! Yet it has 286-class performance and real PC features including a bright, backlit screen, a bonaf ide 40MB hard drive and a comfortable keyboard (no chiclet keys). Downloading information from your HandBook to your office computer is easy with the serial cable and file transfer software provided. HandBooki $1295 For The Executive On The Go HandBook Combo ■ $3995 Combine the portability of our HandBook with the power of our 33MHz 486 desktop system with communication capabilities — and you have a terrific combo, Gateway value-priced! Combo Highlights: HandBook with 2,400 bps external modem and communication software ■ 33MHz 486DX system with 120MB IDE hard drive ■ TelePath™ fax/modem package GATEWM2000 "You've got a friend in (he business, " » Gain The Winning Edge With 486 Performance Gateway's powerful 486 models give you the winning margin! And when you recap our new price reductions and compare feature-for-feature against the other runners, you'll find you won't even have to play your hunches — Gateway 2000 is the odds-on favorite. 25MHz486SXi$1895 At $ 1 ,895, our 486SX/25 is the hottest value on the market. With this system, you get 486 technology, including an 8K internal cache and burst mode, at a 386 price. And besides being faster than any 386 on the market, the 486SX/25 is upgradeable to 50MHz if you need increased performance in the future. System Highlights: 4MB RAMI 120MB Western Digital IDE hard drive ■ ATP Graphics Ultra 114" CrystalScanl024NIVGA color monitor, up to 1024 x 768 non-interlaced resolution ■ desktop model is standard 33MHz 486DX ■ $2395 We recently increased performance and lowered the price of our best-selling, award-winning 486DX/33 by adding an ATI Graphics Ultra video card with a graphics coprocessor. At $2,395, the price/performance ratio on this machine is hard to beat. Plus, it's an upgradeable PC. You'll be able to switch to 66MHz later this year. System Highlights: 64K cache RAM ■ 4MB RAM ■ 200MB Western Digital IDE hard drive ■ ATI Graphics Ultra ■ 14" CrystalScan 1024NI VGA color monitor, up to 1024 x 768 non-interlaced resolution ■ desktop model is standard I 9 C C \c got a friend in (he business. " ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ■ ■ - •*• ic&i i^% j a ^B M FJr«Tff' m ■1 Wi ll ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦ ^^_ -S3L— X ^ itkalHWOb) |il ! ^H ■- i'T^^v' ^fe^l^jl 1 \ ^ _JU" ^^ tti. m i i The Gateway Team Is Behind You All The Way There's a full team of dedicated service professionals standing behind your Gateway 2000 system. In fact, a recent PC Magazine reader survey proved Gateway the clear winner in service and reliability. We whizzed past all the contenders when PC owners were asked, "How likely would you be to buy the same brand system again?" The survey also rated Gateway Number-One in overall system reliability, and we were in the Top Five for tech support and repair service. Whenever you call our sales number, you get a friendly, human voice — a helpful representative to provide you with information. In our customer support department, we have over 200 people on-line to supply free technical support for the life of your machine. They're experienced, rigorously trained and tested and ever patient, friendly and helpful. You'll see why we say "you've got a friend in the business" at Gateway 2000. In our company mission statement, one of our stated objectives is to exceed customer expectations in quality, service and value. This objective is a personal challenge to each of us at Gateway. We know how important service is to you, which is why we're constantly striving to provide the best in the business. m GATEWW2QOO " You 've got a friend in the business. " Gateway 2000 Adds A Free Software Bonus Choose Your Free Software Option With the purchase of any Gateway 2000 mini desktop, desktop or tower computer system, you receive your choice of one application software option at no additional cost. We'll install your software on your hard drive, optimally configured for your system and Windows, and provide master diskettes and manuals. You may also purchase a second application software option, pre-installed, at extremely competitive prices. Installation and setup errors are responsible for over one-third of all software problems. You can eliminate that possible source of problems by purchasing your system from Gateway with soft- ware pre-installed, tested, and ready to run the moment your system arrives. Add that advantage to the hard-to-beat prices, and Gateway is the only logical choice for PCs and software! Choose one of (he following application software options: Option #l-Microsoft Excel for Windows" 4.0 ■ New version of this powerful spreadsheet, includes online help for Lotus 1-2-3® users Uj|^ Option #2-Microsoft Word for Windows" 2.0 ■ Best-selling word processor for Windows. New version 2.0 adds online help for WordPerfect® users Option ^-Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows™2.0 ■ Easy-to-use desktop presentations program creates high-quality overheads and 35mm slides Option U-Borland® Paradox 3.5 ■ The award-winning database from Borland Option #5-The Entrepreneur Pack ■ Includes the latest Windows versions of Microsoft Works" integrating word processing, spreadsheet, and database in one easy-to-use program; Microsoft Publisher'" for creating page layouts; Microsoft Money'," to help you write checks, set budgets, track expenses; PLUS an Entertainment Pack with eight games, including Tetris* Option #6- The Windows Programmer Pack ■ Includes everything you need to create programs for Windows: Microsoft QuickC for Windows? Windows Control Development Kit 1 " Windows Help Compiler" and Windows Programmers' Online Refe mice. Option #7 -Microsoft Project for Windows ' '3.0 ■ Flexible and easy project management program NOTE: If you would rather replace an option with Microsoft Office'! it is available for S 1 75 . This package includes Word for Windows, Excel and PowerPoint. New! Second Applications At Great Prices! The following applications are only available with the purchase of a system, pre-installed, or to Gateway customers. Central Point" Anti-Virus 1.2 For Windows ■ $75 Central Point Backup"' 7.2 for Windows ■ S75 The Norton Desktop 1 ' 2.0 and Prisma Your Way 2.0 For Windows ■ $95 Peripherals The 15-Inch CrystalScan 1572FS You'll enjoy your new Gateway 2000 computer even more if you choose the new 15-inch CrystalScan color monitor option. The CrystalScan 1572FS has a flat, square, non- glare screen to reduce distortion around the corners and provide edge-to-edge display area. The CrystalScan 1572FS is an upgrade option only with the purchase of a 386DX or 486 system for an additional $195. The Gateway 2000 TelePath™ Fax/Modem The Gateway 2000 TelePath is a 14,400 bps mode, V .32bis, with 9,600 bps fax capability. The TelePath comes with WinFax Pro !" Crosstalk'" for Windows, QmoderrT and a free 30-day basic services CompuServe® membership — all for only $195! ■ Fax mode: V.17, V.29and V.27ter ■ Data mode: V.32bis, V.32, V.22bis, V.22, V.21, Bell 212A and 103, V.42 and MNP 2-4 error correction, V.42 bis/MNP 5 data compression Included With Every System: ■ One-year limited warranty ■ 30-day money-back guarantee ■ Lifetime toll-free technical support ■ Free on-site service to most locations {factory service only for notebooks) ■ Free bulletin board technical support ■ C.O.D. terms and major credit cards honored ■ Net 30-day credit terms and leasing options available to qualified commercial customers These offers include the identical applications contained in retail packages but will not include the retail box. You get all master diskettes and manuals, shrink-wrapped and packaged in a Gateway 2000 box. Sorry — we sell peripherals only with the purchase of a Gateway 2000 system, or to people who are already Gateway 2000 customers. For fastest service, call our new direct line for the Component Add -On Division: 800-252-3333. Please have xour customer ID handx when xou call. JMf BGATEWW2QOO ~ You've got a friend in the business." Gateway 2000 winners circle PORTABLES 1 HANDBOOK^ 1 286 Class Performance 1 1MB RAM upgradable 10 3MB 140MB Hard Drive I Backlit 7.6" CGA Screen I Size 5.9" x 9.75" x 1.4", 2.75 Lbs. 1 4.54k* NiMH Battery & AC Pack I I Parallel/1 Serial Port 1 78-Key Keyboard I MS DOS' 5.0. File Transfer Software & Serial Download Cabl I Introductory Bonus Pack I Carrying Case NOMAD 325SXL 125MHz, 386SXL Processor 14MB RAM 1 1.44MB 3.5" Drive 1 80MB IDE Hard Drive I Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays I Simultaneous Video with 256K I Size 8.5" x 11" x 1.8", 5.8 Lbs. l7-Hr.*NiCad Battery & AC Pack II Parallel/ 1 Serial Port 1 79-Key Keyboard I FieldMouse IM Pointing Device IMS DOS®5.0& Windows™ 3.1 NOMAD 420SXL 120MHz. lnler486SXLP Processor 14MB RAM 1 1.44MB 3.5" Drive 180MB IDE Hard Drive I Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays I Simultaneous Video with 1 M B I Size 8.5" x 1 1" x 1.8". 5.8 Lbs. 1 6-Hr.* NiCad Battery & AC Pack I I Parallel/1 Serial Port 1 79-Key Keyboard I FieldMouse Pointing Device I MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 NOMAD 425DXL 1 25MHz. Intel 486DXLP Processor 14MB RAM 1 1.44MB 3.5" Drive 1 120MB IDE Hard Drive I Backlit 10" VGA Screen, 64 Grays I Simultaneous Video with I MB I Size 8.5" x 1 1" x 1.8". 5.8 Lbs. 1 6-Hr.* NiCad Battery & AC Pack I I Parallel/ 1 Serial Port 1 79-Key Keyboard I FieldMouse Pointing Device I MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 $1295 Desktops ' $1995 $2695 $3495 25MHz 386SX I Intel 386SX Processor 14MB RAM 1 1.2MB & 1.44MB Drives 180MB 17ms IDE Cache Drive 1 16-Bit SVGA with 5 12K H4"CrystalScanl024 Color VGA Monitor I I Parallel/2 Serial Ports II 24-Key AnyKey" Keyboard IMicrosoft^Mouse IMS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 I Choice f Application Software $1495 25M Hz 486SX ■ Intel 486SX Processor 14MB RAM ■ 1.2MB& 1.44MB Drives 1120MB 1 5ms IDE* Cache Drive ■ATI" Graphics Ultra Video ■ l4"CrystalScanl024Nl Color VGA Monitor II Parallel/2 Serial Ports 1 124-Key Any Key Keyboard I Microsoft Mouse I MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 ■Choice f Application Software $1895 33M Hz 486DX I Intel 486DX Processor I64K Cache RAM 14MB RAM 1 1.2MB & 1.44MB Drives 1200MB 15ms IDE* Cache Drive I ATI Graphics Ultra Video ■ 14" CrystalScan 1024NI Color VGA Monitor I I Parallel/2 Serial Ports 1 124-Key AnyKcy Keyboard I Microsoft Mouse ■ MSDOS5.0andWindows3.l ■ Choice of Application Software $2395 50MHz 486DX2 I Intel 486DX2 Processor I64K Cache RAM I8MBRAM 1 1.2MB & 1.44MB Drives 1 200MB 15ms IDE* Cache Drive I ATI Graphics Ultra Video 1 14" CrystalScan 1024N1 Color VGA Monitor I I Parallel/2 Serial Ports 1 1 24-Key AnyKey Keyboard I Microsoft Mouse I MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 ■ Choice of Application Software 50MHz 486DX2 EISA II OTHER SYSTEMS $2695 * Enhanced IDE with RIDE (Rapid Integrated Drive Electronics) I Intel 486DX2 Processor 1 1 28K Cache RAM 18MB RAM 1 1.2MB & 1.44MB Drives 1340MB 15ms SCSI Cache Drive 132-Bit EISA SCSI Controller ■ 16-Bit SVGA with 1MB 1 14" CrystalScan 1024N1 Color VGA Monitor ■ l Parallel/2 Serial Ports 1 124-Key AnyKey Keyboard ■ Microsoft Mouse ■ MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 ■ Choice of Application Software ■ Tower Model is Standard $3695 ■ Other systems in our product line: 16MHz 386SX, 20MHz 386SX, 25MHz 386DX, 33MHz 386DX, 33MHz 486DX EISA. Call for details and pricing. * Battery life was measured using PC Magazine's Battery Rundown Test with power management enabled. Actual results may vary depending on configuration and applications, All prices and configurations are subject to change without notice, Prices do not include shipping. Components, peripherals and software are sold only with the purchase of a system, or to customers who already own Gateway 2000 systems. Some limitations apply. jfit ® *« Primed on recycled paper GATEWA&OOO "You've got a friend in the business." G11©BAL MLEAT 8 0-523-2000 6 1 Gateway Drive • P.O. Box 2000 • North Sioux City. SD 57049-2000 • 605-232-2000 • Fax 605-232-2023 Sales Hours: 7am- 10pm Weekdays. 9am-4pm Saturdays (CDT) © 1992 Gateway 2000, 1 in: AnyKey. Handliook, h'ieldMonse and TclcPaih are tradeimnis of Gateway 2000. Im I metis a trademark of Intel Corporation. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trodemarh oj their respective companies. NEWS FIRST IMPRESSIONS Compared with Norton Desktop for Win- dows, the process is understandably less smooth. (And the "Delete" button is no trashcan icon.) Nevertheless, non-Win- dows users should appreciate this no-non- sense alternative to clicking on the File menu. Norton Desktop goes beyond typical DOS-shell application launching with menus you can create (or have the pro- gram auto-build), edit, and organize into workable groups. Among the network fea- tures, you can limit users' access to appli- cations, have the computer reboot the PC upon exiting the program to prevent novices from accessing DOS, and pass- word-protect individual menu items. Another handy feature, which was in- troduced by Traveling Software's LapLink Pro, is PC-to-PC file transfer. Accom- plishable via parallel or serial ports (seri- al only if transferring the file transfer boot- strap to a PC without it), you can connect two stand-alone PCs or have network clients access a PC connected remotely to your server. Where the product disappoints, you can THE FACTS Norton Desktop for DOS $179 System requirements: DOS3.1orhigher,640KBof RAM, a hard drive with 7 MB of free space (2.5 MB for limited in- stallation), and a modem if using Norton Mail. Symantec Corp. 10201 Torre Ave. Cupertino, CA 9501 4 (408) 253-9600 fax: (408) 253-4092 Circle 1 183 on Inquiry Card. understand Symantec's logic. Printer drivers, for instance, are limited to an ASCII dump and a few variations of both Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II and Post- Script. (For others, you must manually en- ter control codes.) However, keep in mind that you'll do most printing from the ap- plications you launch. And while virtual- ly all the features of Commander, Anti- Virus, and Backup are included here, anyone familiar with Norton Utilities will find much of that package's functionality lacking here. The company clearly had to draw the line somewhere. Symantec is the first to admit that the program is not intended for the power user. But considering the integrated function- ality of utilities that together would oth- erwise list for about $600, neither is Nor- ton Desktop for the power spender. Think of it: over $400 less for a GUI front end that lacks the features many users will nev- er miss. ■ — EdPerratore Your Choice of Keyboard Monitor Switches Access multiple computers with a single keyboard and monitor to cut equipment costs, save valuable space, and end clutter Simple pushbutton operation for quick selection Four, eight, or twelve ports per unit Daisy-chaining connects unlimited number of CPUs Compatible with EGA, VGA, Macintosh, Sun, and others Optional keyboard booting for 286, 386, and 486 Optional RS232 or PS/2 mouse interface PCB construction for high reliability and low crosstalk Rack mount, matrix, and customized units available Manually controlled unit I Switch by keystroke, from front panel, or RS232port I Twoorfourportsperunit I Cascade units to support up to 255 CPUs Supports monochrome, EGA, and VGA Includes keyboard booting for 286, 386, and 486 Includes RS232 and PS/2 mouse interface I LEDs display selected CPU and CPU power-on Scan function switches among CPUs automatically Keyboard controlled unit Call toll-free now for your copy of our Switching and Sharing Solutions catalog. Other Rose products: Print servers, printer sharing units, print buffers, keyboard monitor extenders, video splitters. All Rose products are US-made and have a 1-year warranty. Make the Rose Connection 10850 Wilcrest Drive • Houston, Texas 77099 • Phone (713)933-7673 • Fax (713)933-0044 1-800-333-9343 Circle 1 50 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 63 NEWS WHAT'S NEW SYSTEMS Expandable Unix System The Wyse Series 6000i Model 640 Unix multi- user system supports up to 32 users. Based on the 33-MHz 486 processor, the system in- cludes a 387-compatible math coprocessor, 8 MB of RAM (expandable to 16 MB), 8 KB of internal cache memory, and a 1 28-KB external cache. The modular tower system provides space for expansion via three mass-storage shelves for half- and full- height drives and six avail- able ISA expansion slots. A 320-/525-MB cartridge tape drive, a 1 .44-MB floppy drive, and a 420-MB SCSI hard drive are standard equip- ment. The unit has separate fans for the mass-storage and card areas. Price: Base model, $9625. Contact: Wyse Technology, Inc., 3471 North First St., San Jose, CA 95 134, (800) 438- 9973 or (408) 473- 1200; fax (408) 473-2080. Circle 1271 on Inquiry Card. A 486SLC in a Notebook PC Brand's 25-MHz 486/SLC Notebook com- puter uses the Cyrix-based 486SLC microprocessor. De- signed to handle memory-in- tensive applications, the unit has 2 MB of RAM, expand- able to 16MB. Standard features of the 486/SLC Notebook include an 80-MB IDE hard drive, a 1 .44-MB floppy drive, a sus- pend/sleep mode, and a pro- prietary 16-bit expansion slot for a 2400-bps data or fax modem. The unit has a nonglare, paper-white VGA screen with 640- by 48Q~-pixeL The Series 6000 i Model 640 Unix multiuser system provides more than 2 GB of disk space. resolution that supports 32 shades of gray. Interfaces in- clude two serial ports, a par- allel port, an external VGA color monitor port, an exter- nal keyboard adapter, and an expansion connector. Price: $1995. Contact: PC Brand, Inc., 405 Science Dr., Moorpark, CA 93021, (800) 722-7263; fax (800) 722-7392. Circle 1 272 on Inquiry Card. Local-Bus Logic on a Riser Card The Anybus slim-line upgradable 486SX/20 computer removes the local- bus logic from the mother- board and puts it on a riser card. The card plugs into a CMS-patented SuperSlot, which lets you upgrade your 486 by plugging add-on and enhancement cards into the riser card, which is designed to accept as many as three cards. You can mix cards from different vendors for a customized configuration. The Anybus system's motherboard is designed to support 1 69-pin and future Intel OverDrive products, and it has an optional local-bus video adapter that uses ATI's 68800 Mach-32 chip. Stan- dard features include 4 MB of RAM, a 40-MB hard drive, five ISA expansion slots, DOS 5.0, and a 101 -key key- board. A standard-size ver- sion is also available. Price: $1399. Contact: CMS Enhance- ments, Inc., 2722 Michelson Dr., Irvine, CA 92715, (714) 222-6000; fax (7 14) 549- 4004. Circle 1 273 on Inquiry Card. Low Access Times Are Key The Key486-50 and Key486-33 EISA Pow- erServers feature Smart- Cache's 68000 microproces- sor and dual-bus architecture. The units allow simultaneous CPU, cache, and disk data transfer for effective access times of less than 0.5 ms. Engineered to keep pace with growing LANs, the servers have 8 KB of built-in cache memory and a 487 math coprocessor, and they are upgradable to Intel's dual- speed CPU. You can install up to 16 MB of cache memo- ry and 64 MB of RAM. Each server has 1 drive bays, two cooling fans, a 14- inch Viewsonic 6 noninter- laced Super VGA color mon- itor, and a Super VGA card with 1 MB of RAM. The Key486-50 comes with a 700-MB tape backup unit, and the Key486-33 has a 250- MB tape backup unit. Price: Key486-50 with a 675-MB hard drive, $6995; Key486-33 with a 340-MB hard drive, $4795. Contact: Keydata Interna- tional, Inc., 1 1 1 Corporate Blvd., South Plainf ield, NJ 07080, (800) 486-4800 or (908) 755-0350. Circle 1 274 on Inquiry Card. 64 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 NEWS WHAT'S NEW PERIPHERALS Optical Drive Has Hard Drive Speed A 650-MB rewritable opti- cal drive that runs at a hard drive speed of 3600 rpm, Pinnacle Micro's PMO-650 uses the company's newly developed optical hard drive mechanism. The advanced split optic design produces an optic head that is one-third the weight of original optic heads, for an effective access time of 19 ms. The drive's di- rect-seek method eliminates a step in the data-seeking pro- cess. The PMO-650's controller has a SCSI connection, a 20- MHz data processor, and a synchronous data transfer rate of 1 .4 MB in sustained mode and 4.2 MB in burst mode. The unit's dust-resistant de- sign helps provide a mean time between failures of 30,000 hours. Unix operating systems see the plug-and-play drive as a standard removable hard drive, letting you use commands such as mount, unmount, and format to access it. Price: Mac-, Sun-, and Sili- con Graphics-Compatible version, $3995; PC-compati- ble version, $4195. Contact: Pinnacle Micro, 19 Technology, Irvine, CA 92718, (800) 553-7070 or (714) 727-3300; fax (714) 727-1913. Circle 1 275 on Inquiry Card. DAT Drives Gobble Up Data Two DAT (digital audio- tape) subsystems are now available from Tecmar. The DATaVault 4000, packaged with Tecmar's QTOS backup software, is designed for stand-alone systems and peer- to-peer networks; the Proline DATaVault 4000 is packaged with the company's ProServe 4.0 VAP orNLM software The PMO-650 1 s split optic design results in an ultralight optic head that has a fast seek time. for NetWare server-based networks. Both drives provide an av- erage of 4 GB and a maxi- mum of 8 GB of storage ca- pacity. The average backup speed of the drives is 20 MB per minute, with a maximum speed of 40 MB per minute. The drives use 4-mm DAT cassettes. Price: DATaVault 4000, $5395; Proline DATaVault 4000: VAP version, $5695; NLM version, $5995. Contact: Tecmar, 6225 Cochran Rd., Solon, OH 44139,(800) 624-8560 or (216) 349-0600; fax (216) 349-0851. Circle 1 276 on Inquiry Card. External Bernoulli Drives Use PC Power Two 90-MB Bernoulli drives for ISA-based PCs, the Bernoulli PC Powered 90 and the Bernoulli PC Pow- ered 90 Pro, receive power from your computer through the bus adapter card included with the drive. The 2%- by 6M- by 10%-inch external drives are both fully compati- ble with all 90-MB Bernoulli disks and read 44-MB Bernoulli disks. Both systems include an adapter board, a 90-MB Gold Standard disk, and software. The Pro drive's data-com- pression software provides a 180-MB backup mode with its data-compression soft- ware. Additionally, the Pro drive has a 32-KB on-drive cache memory and a 20- Mbps data transfer rate. Nor- mal effective access time of the Pro drive is 1 8 ms; when used with the caching soft- ware, the effective access time decreases to 9 ms. Price: Bernoulli PC Powered 90, $713; Bernoulli PC Pow- ered 90 Pro, $855. Contact: Iomega Corp., 1 82 1 West 4000 South, Roy, UT 84067, (800) 777-6179 or (801)778-1000. Circle 1277 «n Inquiry Cmrd. Lightweight Drives of Glmee A family of 8-ounce portable plug-in hard drives, the Vision Portable Drives are designed primarily for notebook and other portable computers. The pre- formatted drives transfer data at a speed of 1 .25 MBps and have a typical seek time of 19 ms. The drives use Vision Log- ic's IDS interface controller and Areal's 900G glass drive. Vision Logic says that the glass media technology in the drives makes them 10 times more durable than standard aluminum-based drive media. The 2- by 5- by 1 -inch drives plug into the parallel port of yotir computer. Price: 40-MB model, $399; 80-MB model, $599; 120- MB model, $799. Contact: Vision Logic, Inc., 283 East BrokawRd., San Jose, CA 951 12, (408) 437- 1000; fax (408) 437-1 7 19. Circle 1278 on Inquiry Card. Removable Magneto-Optical Drive The Laserdrive LD-320 31^-inch magneto-optical drive works with both PCs and Macs. The removable, rewritable drive is available in internal and external con- figurations. Designed for easy portabil- ity, the LD-320 has a capacity of 1 28 MB, an average seek time of less than 45 ms, an embedded SCSI connection, and ISO standard compatibil- ity. The drive can also read ROM disks. Price: External drive, media, and software, about $2995. Contact: Laser Magnetic Storage International Co., 4425 ArrowsWest Dr., Col- orado Springs, CO 80907, (719) 593-7900; fax (719) 599-8713. Ctflcle 1 279 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 65 news WHAT'S NEW A D D ■ I N S Local-Bus Data Caching The Series 400 VL475I and VL475S caching disk controllers for the local bus comply with the Opti local- bus design and the proposed VESA specifications. The Windows 3.1 -compatible controllers support up to 16 MB of RAM cache. The VL475I supports up to four IDE hard drives and has a data transfer rate ranging from 19.5to33MBps. The VL475S supports seven SCSI-2 devices for up to 12.6 MB of mass storage and is compatible with the ASPI (advanced SCSI protocol in- terface) support embedded in versions of the Unix operat- ing system. Both controllers support disk mirroring and use stan- dard 256-KB, l-MB,and4- MB SIMMs for easy cache expansion. A hot-fix feature automatically tests for bad tracks that threaten data and rewrites the data to another track. Each controller also au- tomatically identifies the disk drive to which it is attached, determining operating param- eters such as size, head count, and sectors. Price: $795 each. Contact: Alpha Research Corp., Park North Building, Suite 120, 8200 MopacExpy. N, Austin, TX 78759, (512) 345-6465; fax (512) 345- 6496. Circle 1280 on Inquiry Card. The VL475 is a caching controller for the local bus. JPEG Image Compression The Series-H365 Accelera- tor Board runs Alice JPEG Image Compression software on PS/2 systems. Typical compression and de- compression speed for the board is 750 KBps, which en- ables compressed images to be displayed faster than their originals. The full-length expansion board uses the TMS320C5 1 DSP (digital signal processor) and an SGS Thomson IMSA121 discrete cosine transform processor. The board is available with from 32 to 128 KB of DSP memo- ry and has a programmable security key and a ful ly JPEG-compatible bitstream. The Series-H365 is com- patible with Alice JPEG Im- age Compression products that run under DOS, Win- dows, OS/2, and SunOS; thus, any image compressed with an Alice product can be Racer II shows the current test operation on a seven-segment numeric display to alleviate binary decoding. retrieved by any other Alice product regardless of plat- form, operating system, or environment. Price: $1595. Contact: Telephoto Commu- nications, Inc., 1 1722 Sorren- to Valley Rd., Suite D, San Diego, CA 92121, (619) 452- 0903. Circle 1281 on Inquiry Card. Portable Test Card A second-generation half- size troubleshooting card with on-board diagnostics that relay component-level error messages, the PC-com- patible Racer II comes with 512 KB of BIOS ROM for use with 386 and 486 mother- boards. Additional new fea- tures on the plug-in card in- clude a power-on self test, an improved testing methodol- ogy, support for EGA and VGA, and the ability to moni- tor power-supply voltages. Racer II displays the current test operation on its numeric display and a pass/fail test re- sult on its on-board LEDs. It supports individual test selec- tion. Price: $649. Contact: Ultra-X, Inc., 2005 De La Cruz Blvd., Suite 115, Santa Clara, CA 95050, (800) 722-3789 or (408) 988-4721; fax (408) 988-4849. Circle 1282 on Inquiry Card. Real-Time Images The Eagle, a two-board real-time image-process- ing system, has a built-in VGA display and a frame grabber that lets you transfer multiple 640- by 480-pixel 8- bit images. The images are processed in real time at 30 frames per second. You can display the images at 60 Hz noninterlaced on a standard VGA monitor. In addition to the eight planes of VGA im- age storage, the display has nondestructive VGA overlay planes in either color or gray scales. Software support is provided by the Eagle Tool- box, a C or Pascal callable library. Price: $8495. Contact: Univision Tech- nologies, Inc., 3 Burlington Woods, Burlington, MA 01 803, (6 17) 22 1-6700; fax (617)221-6777. Circle 1283 on Inquiry Card. Low-Cost Speed The Mach 5 12 VGA, a Su- per VGA adapter with built-in accelerated functions, has a maximum expansion capability of 5 12 KB. Able to support resolutions of up to 1024 by 768 pixels in 16 col- ors, the card displays 256 col- ors at resolutions of 640 by 480 pixels and 800 by 600 pixels at a refresh rate of up to 72 Hz. Drivers for the card include AutoCAD releases 9, 10, and 11; Lotus 1-2-3; Win- dows 3.x; Word 5.0; and all VESA modes. Price: With 512 KB, $89. Contact: STB Systems, Inc., 1651 North Glenville, Suite 210, Richardson, TX 75081, (214)234-8750. Circle 1 284 on Inquiry Card. 66 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 P 'hJMxmmm PoJuultii ® Send and receive faxes at your network station. Fax documents from your favorite software. Insert graphics, signatures, letterhead, coversheet. Preview before sending. Phonebook and journals for in/out faxes. Simple to use. SkyTek*FAX*Share maximizes fax and network productivity. NetWare/ MHS/Windows/PCL compatible. Single, 8 or unlimited-user versions available. Single User List: $350 Ours: $299 1-8 Users List: $750 Ours: $639 FAX«tera#: 1002-0201 sa, i TSRific The multilingual tool for TSR development. TSRific is the toolkit you need for developing memory efficient and reliable TSRs. It takes just one function call to turn your program into a powerful TSR. Swaps to XMS, EMS , or disk. Saves/ restores text and graphics. User definable Hotkey. Automatically handles interrupt conflicts. No royalties. List: $99 Ours: $89 FAXcetera#: 2089-0018 ObjectCraft™ Best way to do C++: Visually. Instead of spending hours writing cryptic C++, ObjectCraft lets you build programs visually, by "drawing" your program's objects, interface, and flow on the screen. You can test your system out in an interactive diagram, then have it converted to ready- to-compile C++ code in seconds. Supports Borland, Glockenspiel, Zortech and Microsoft C++ compilers. List: $399 Ours: $319 FAXcetera#: 2297-0001 Zinc 3.0 Competitive Upgrade Zinc 3.0 features include single source support for MS Windows 3.X, DOS graphics and DOS text, a wider range of window objects for Windows and DOS, built-in data validation and more than 1 300 pages of documentation. Upgrade from any C or C++ Interface tool to Zinc Interface Library 3.0 (w/source code) for... List: $500 Ours: $30f NOW $200 FAXcetera#: 2807-0001 ; 1 I Iconic Query™ You have enough to remember as it is. Remembering a query language is just one more thing to clutter up your mind. Luckily, there's Iconic Query. You can access your database without having to learn a query language - simply by clicking on representative pictures. Without even being familiar with computers, you can sit down and begin forming queries with IQ. List: $290 Ours: $209 FAXafera#: 1798-0009 Clarion Prof. Developer A fully equipped development system for producing PC applications. Includes an application generator for creating screens, windows, tables, menus, and reports. Also contains Report Writer, a powerful ad-hoc query utility. Speed, flexibility and ease-of-use give you the power to create much richer programs, in a fraction of the time. List: $845 Ours: $825 NOW $475 FAXcetera#: 1862-0002 KPWin Gold V2.0 A complete Windows develop- ment environment. Combines visual design with high-level OOP programming. Users can call the Windows API, including the Multimedia and Pen functions, and access DLL functions at the pointer level. Includes hypertext and expert systems capabilities Add-in toolkits provide access to most database formats via SQL Fast, flexible and easy-to-learn. List: $549 Ours: $359 FAXcetera#: 1474-0006 Instant-C 5.0 The Instant-C professional programming environment integrates the edit-compile-link- test cycle in one powerful, high performance tool. It combines an incremental compiler and linker with automatic static and runtime error detection (e.g., use of uninitialized pointers, source level debugging, interactive C expression evaluation, and support of programs up to 16MB. List: $495 Ours: $A4S* NOW: $325 FAXcetera#: 1067-0001 SUMMER SPECIALS! GUARANTEED BEST PRICES* Should you see one ofithese products listed at a lower price in another ad in this magazine, CALL US! We'll match the price, and stiil offer our same quality service and support! Terms of offer: * Offer good through August 31, 1992 * Applicable to pricing on current versions of software listed. * August issue prices only. * Offerdoesnotapply towards obvious errors in competitors' ads. * Subject to same terms and conditions Call Programmer's Paradise And mention this ad when placing you Today! r order! 1-800-' Corporate: 800-422-6507 (CORSOFT Division) Circle 1 20 on Inquiry Card. Developers, we're here to serve you. Programmer's Paradise offers the world's largest selection of software development tools and utilities at guaranteed low prices. If you don 'tsee what you want, call us! And don't forget to ask for our free comprehen- sive catalog. 00 i ID i O o 00 Intel 386/486 C Code Builder Kit Double your DOS application performance. Address 4 gigabytes of memory. The C Code Builder™'V1.1 Kit contains Microsoft-and ANSI-compatible C tools and produces 32-bit applications compatible with DOS, Windows, and OS/2. Compatible with 386MAX, EMM386, QEMM-386, and NETROOM. Works with Microsoft and Borland assemblers. 60-day money- back guarantee. Royalty-free. List: $695 Ours: $415 FAXcetera #0429-0001 386/486 Development Intel 386/486 C Code Builder 415 Lahey EM/32 5.0 1015 Phar Lap 3861 DOS-Extender 439 WATC0M C9.0/386 719 Zortech C++ Devel. 3.0 CALL Basic dB/Lib Professional 179 GFA Basic 199 MS Basic PDS 349 ProBas5.0 169 Q+EDatabase/VB 89 Realizer 319 Visual Basic 129 Visual Basic Comp. Upgd. 99 Visual Basic Pro. Tlkt SP£C//1L> 99 Visual Basic & Tlkt Bundle 228 C/C++ Compilers Borland C++ 325 w/Tools.h++ (Bundle) 425 Borland C++ &A.F. 509 w/Tools.h++ (Bundle) 599 Instant C 325 Microsoft C/C++ 7.0 299 Competitive Upgrade 134 MS QuickCfor Windows 139 Turbo C++ 69 for Windows 105 C-Application Generators CASE:W Corporate 899 dANALYSTGOLD 99 Logic Gem 99 PR0-C 99 rhJMMMAMJiM WindowsMAKER Professional 4.0 NEW VERSION! Next generation of industry standard C/C++ development tool for Windows. The easiest, fastest way to create Windows apps, just point and click. New architecture uses Switch-lt™Code Generation Modules for generating ANSI C, MFC C++ or OWL C++ code, among others. Award winning Visual Prototyper lets you test the look &f eel and make changes on the fly. TrueCode technology ensures that user code is preserved during code regenera- tion. Generates Windows .EXE w/fully commented C or C++ source. CUA & SAA compliant. List: $995 Ours: $695 fkXcetem #2602-0003 C Communications BreakOut I! C Asynch Manager CComm Toolkit Essential Comm Greenleaf CommLib GreenleafViewComm QuickComm SilverComm C Async 199 165 129 259 287 319 119 189 C Screens C-scape C Windows Toolkit386 Greenleaf Data Windows Instant Windows Island Pro Pak QuickWindows Advanced VC Screen Vitamin C CAL 17' 31! 41! 48' 14 12 33 Microsoft Visual Basic & Prof. Toolkit Contains and builds on the Visual Basic I 1.0 programming. Adds programming | tools and more than 20 powerful con- 1 trols, resulting in a sophisticated sys- 1 tern that gives quickaccessto charting, multiple document interfaces (MIDI), object linking and embedding (OLE), tables, and pen and multimedia capabili- ties. Additional controls help you create 3-D interface com- ponents, design dialog boxes, and include multi-state but- tons. MS Visual Basic w/Prof . Tlkt. List: $495 Ours: $228 MS Visual Basic Comp. Upg. w/Tlkt List: $398 Ours: $195 FAXctfcm #1269-0037 BUNDLE OF THE MONTH: Borland C++ 3.1 and Tools.h++ Special Bundle Offer! Borland C++ now supports all of the advanced features of MS Windows 3.1, including Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), multimedia, pen, and TrueType fonts. Rogue Wave Tools.h++ is a class library that builds on the template technology found in Borland C++. Together they provide everything you need to build the fastest applicationsf or C++. Borland C++ & Tools.h++ List: $794 Ours: S425 Borland C++ w/A.F. & Tools.h++ List: $1048 Ours: $599 FAXcctcra #1861-0030 C- Additional Products C-Doc 1/ MKSLEX&YACC 15 PC Lint It Phar Lap 286ID0S-Extender 4- C++ Libraries/Utilities C++Views Codebase4.5 Greenleaf Comm++ Object Craft object-Menu Poet Rogue Wave Math.h++ Rogue Wave Tools.h++ Style Tier Win++ Zinc 3.0 Zinc Competitive Upgrade International: 908-389-9228 Customer Service: 908-389-9229 Canada: 800-445-7899 Fax: 908-389-9227 RWmi latabase Development Operating Sys/GUI Windows Dev. (cont) larion Personal 72 OR DOS 59 ObjectVision 105 larionProf. SPECIAL! 449 MSOOS 65 RoboHelp 449 Upper 521 MS Windows 99 Smalltalk V/Windows 395 ataBoss 3.5 549 Upgrade 49 SQA: Robot for Windows 449 BASE IV 529 OS/22.0 139 WindowsMAKER Professional 69b oxPro 489 Upgrade 99 zApp 165 oxPro Distribution Kit CALL Windows Teach 99 Utilities aradox 529 386MAX 65 +E Database Library 279 Pascal Bar Code Library 319 &R Code Generator 179 Topaz 89 Blue MAX 105 &R Report Writer 219 Turbo Pascal for Windows 175 INSTALIT 135 ay What! 45 Turbo Pascal Professional 209 MKS Toolkit 199 ilverClip/FoxSPCS 259 Turbo Professional 99 Norton Utilities 6.0 Opt-Tech Sort/Merge QEMM386 129 115 65 Sitback for Windows SpinRitell SPECIAL! 79 59 Dan Bricklin's Demo II Experience for yourself why 30,000 people have made Demo II 3.0 the leading tool for producing program prototypes, demonstrations, and tu- torials. Demonstrate commercial software to potential customers without shipping live software. Produce effective tutorials that interactively teach products. Create Computer Based Training for a fraction of the cost of dedicated CBT authoring software. List: $249 Ours: $215 ffiXcetem #0233-0003 Additional Languages Alpha RPL 99 Lattice RPG 1549 GUARANTEED BEST PRICES* Should you see one of these products listed at a lower price in another ad in this magazine, CALL USI Well match the price, and stilloffer our same qualityservice and support! Terms of offer: * Offer good through August 31, 1992 * Offer does not apply towards obvious * Applicable to pricing on current errors in competitors' ads. versions ofsoftware listed, WATCOM C 9.0/386 Develop and debug 32-bit applications for extended DOS, Windows, and OS/2 2.0 with the most complete 32-bit C develop- ment package available. Includes the royalty-free D0S/4GW DOS extender by Rational Systems, components from MS Windows SDK, compiler, linker, debugger, profiler, plus numerous development tools. Supports other industry standard 32-bit DOS extenders. Create ADS ApplicationsforAutoCAD or embedded systems development. List: $895 Ours: $719 ffiXcetera #1683-0001 39 ' Augustissuepricesonly. Subject to same terms and conditions •ditors Irief D Ailti Edit Professional »VCS Editor Hick Editor 'edit Plus : ORTRAN aheyF77-EM/325.0 fiheyF77L /IS FORTRAN VATCOM FORTRAN 77/8.5 Sraphic Libraries iabyDriverll ILACKHAWKdGT ssential Graphics GUI ssential Graphics Kernal iraf/Drive Plus Dev. raphics-MENU X Effects 2.0 X Graphics XTexr.2.0 alo Professional :on-tools nageMan lenuet GL 3L2D,3D ctor Image Library 169 CALL 139 CALL 154 149 1015 535 349 449 229 259 209 149 269 189 179 179 125 279 279 359 279 85 CALL 179 Prototyping Dan Bricklin's Demo II Show Partner F/X 215 355 Version Control CODAN 359 PVCS Config. Builder 209 PVCS Version Mgr (DOS & OS/2} 699 TUB 109 Windows Development COOEPAOforWindows SPECIAL! 59 dBFast Windows 395 InstallSHIELD 369 Magic Fields CALL MS Test 279 Norton Desktop for Windows CALL HALO Image File Format Library (HIFFL) Make DOS and Windows applica- tions instantly compatible with hun- dreds of graphics and imaging prod- ucts. HIFFL adds image file reading andwritingtoapplications, therefore saving you a person-year of development time. Supports TIFF, PCX, BMP, and HALO CUT. Borland C++, Turbo C, Turbo C++, and Microsoft C. DOS List: $249 Ours: $179 Windows List: $349 Ours: $249 FAXcetera #1045-0010 inkers/Profilers mWkn SPECIAL! 1/2 OFF! 248 linker- NE IV VERSION! 269 Link86+ 335 .... 800-445- CORPORATE (CORSOFT): 800 422-6507 Circle 120 on Inquiry Card. NEWS WHAT'S NEW CONNECTIVITY Get a LANIord for Your Network LANIord, an integrated software system for man- aging your LAN, lets you monitor and manage in real time your LAN and worksta- tion activity, as well as work- station hardware, software, and configuration data. LAN- lord provides the network manager with ongoing pro- files of each workstation on the LAN and prevents prob- lems by anticipating them. The system uses an OS/2 server to automatically col- lect, store, and update alert data and network statistics through a central database. An SNMP-based agent is lo- cated on each workstation to filter and transmit informa- tion defined in the object management information base. LANIord allows any network Windows worksta- tion to serve as the manage- ment console; as many as 16 consoles can access the LAN- lord server at once. Price: Starts at $999. Contact: Microcom, Inc., 500 River Ridge Dr., Nor- wood, MA 02062, (800) 822- 8224 or (617) 551-1000; fax (617)551-1968. Circle 1285 on Inquiry Card. Two Wireless LANs The FreePort Wireless LAN has an IEEE Ether- net architecture and is SNMP compliant. Based on unli- Trap Vic | Cujfcnt Tiop Activity s j Foura 1 1. in Ogtcrijtlron rwi Qn04M/ l J2 H ni:i>2 1^ jirn. ■.-,■.■-<■ i. ,'„>,•' I AMIiml Power PC "«cet"Jcdtiit-llw«-:»ft.UlwObpd tiaiawam Oliver 3 2 4.4 3 I) IK'- 1 U/.lioW wo. ilS* The 5.yiipfo r-oic via:. CHiec. *b* Hdtgn w 5Z. True U-/-J detected w-j; W/Z loi VoJum.; t I it: Hap «- r -<*> >i«(*i p*«**y Critical. T-k itip H I Jn/\':k.iiiiwli:(ti)inl [ AcknoHodtjo j t Unocknowledflg j j Conferee... | LANIord lets you proactively manage your LAN by alerting you when thresholds are violated. censed spread-spectrum ra- dio, FreePort sums the eight strongest radio signals to eliminate multipath interfer- ence. FreePort consists of a hub with an antenna, transceivers with a multiuser interface op- tion, and SeePort network management software. Sys- tem throughput is as high as 5.7 Mbps, and transmission distance is as far as 260 feet. As many as 256 active users on as many as 62 wireless transceivers can use the sys- tem at any time, easily con- necting with wired LANs. The system, transparent to existing networks, is compat- ible with all Ethernet LANs. Price: Hub, starts at $4695; transceiver, $995; SeePort software, $2395. Contact: Windata, Inc., 10 Bearfoot Rd., Northborough, MA 01532, (508) 393-3330; fax (508) 393-3694. Circle 1 286 on Inquiry Card. FreePort operates seamlessly with existing wired LANs. FirLAN, a 10-Mbps wire- less Ethernet LAN, con- sists of two tranceivers and a hub. Able to run transparently across all Ethernet platforms and media, FirLAN allows seamless integration into ex- isting wired LANs. The ET300 transceiver has a 90-foot range and supports up to 29 Ethernet connec- tions. An extended-range ET330 transceiver has a range of 300 feet. The EH360 hub covers a 90-degree area and supports as many as 250 transceivers. Price: ET300, $ 1400; ET330, $1750; EH360, $3950. Contact: A. T. Schindler Communications, Inc., 102-21 Antares Dr., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2E 7T8, (613) 723-1 103; fax (613) 723-6895. Circle 1287 on Inquiry Card. A Single Solution for Ethernet An EISA card that sup- ports 10Base-2, lOBase- 5, and lOBase-T Ethernet, the EISANet Model 3490E EISA Ethernet LAN adapter in- cludes drivers for Unix, Net- Ware, and LAN Manager. The 1 0-Mbps adapter features 32 KB of shared static RAM cache packet-buffer memory. An all-surface-mount card, the EISANet 3490E uses a National DP83902 network interface controller with an integrated lOBase-T transceiver. Price: $495. Contact: Cache Computers, Inc., 46600 Landing Pkwy., Fremont, CA 94538, (5 10) 226-9922; fax (5 10) 226- 9911. Circle 1 288 on Inquiry Card. A Do-It- Yourself LAN The peer-to-peer Positive NetWork System is de- signed to be installed by non- technical people. The system, a NetWare Lite Pack, is fully upgradable to NetWare, with tools that let the end user con- figure, install, and manage the LAN. Positive NetWork consists of a worksheet, a videotape, and an installation disk that performs basic system-analy- sis tasks, such as interrrogat- ing the hardware to determine its configuration. The sys- tem's graphical screens have dialog boxes that instruct how to properly configure network cards. Price: $399.99; add-on kit, $199.99. Contact: Positive Corp., 9174 Deering Ave., Chatsworth, CA 9131 1,(818) 341-5400; fax (818) 718- 2938. Circle 1 289 on Inquiry Card. 70 BYTE • AUGUST 1 992 IfYou Need PCs That Can Take It, Take This ToYour Mailbox. For free information about Texas Micro PCs, send in this card; FAX this card to 1-713-933-1029 ; or for immediate attention, call 1-800-627-8700. 1 PURCHASE COMPUTERS FOR: □ Internal company use □ Resale □ Boili SOLUTIONS YOU PROVIDE: ___^_ APPLICATIONS YOU ARE RUNNING: processor: □ 386 D 4S6 □ Other CONFIGURATION: □ Rackmount □ Bench/desktop □ Tower □ Industrial workstation □ Car- Is important specifications: □ Heat □ Dusi □ Shock D Vibration □ Fault tolerant D Other TENTATIVE PURCHASE TIMEFRAME: □ One llionlh □ Three months □ Six months □ Over six months TITLE COMPANY ADDRESS CITY ZIP Attention Resellers: Customize For Your Customers. As a reseller, you know that you can't simply squeeze solutions to fit your customers' needs. At Texas Micro, we'll work with you to bring customized, rugged solu- tions to your customers. We've been doing it for years for some of America's biggest corporations. We offer: • Custom and standard solutions for specialized markets such as factory automation, telecommuni- cations, medical, maintenance and field sites, and harsh office environments. • A regional network of field application engineers for design, integration and support. • A complete, one-stop source for CPUs, option cards and peripherals. • Custom BIOS development, which we file for quick reordering. • Custom chassis designs with custom, screen-printed front panels. Give us a chance to assess your needs. Mark the "Resale" box on the card above and we'll send you complete reseller information. TEXAS For Immediate Attention, Give Us A Call At 1-800-627-8700. BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 2484 HOUSTON, TX NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE TEXAS TEXAS MICRO 10618 ROCKLEYRD. HOUSTON, TX 77099-9986 IIm.II..,III.mI.ImI.ImI.I..I.IhI..I..II.mII,.I To Hell And Back: Texas Micro Systems Are Built To Withstand The Most Demanding Environments. IN THE ARCTIC AND IN THE ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST DESERT , a "Big Y U.S. auto- maker uses Texas Micro PCs in every test car in temperatures ranging from 1 40° desert heat to -50° arctic cold. COMMODITIES TRADING FLOOR , customized Texas Micro PCs speed transactions by functioning as two systems with two monitors, two keyboards and two operators. IN REMOTE NORTHEASTERN U.S.A. STEEL MILL PLANTS , ruggedized rackmount Texas Micro PCs are mounted next to molten steel foundries to monitor and control various processes. IN A HARSH ENVIRONMENT, AN ORDINARY PC IS A DEAD PC. A lot of PCs do well to survive a desk- top. But on the production floor or in the field, the dust, heat, vibration and traffic can finish an ordinary If You Need A PC That Will Go Through Hell, Get One That's Been There. PC-and your operation- in a hurry. Even if your PC has to withstand hell, your business doesn't have to. As long as you're using ruggedized PCs from Texas Micro. OUR PCS TAKE A BEATING FROM THE FORTUNE 100. In fact, 70 of them put Texas Micro PCs through the wringer every day, in everything from industrial applications to severe office environments. And we don't spare our PCs, either. During factory tests, we shake, bake and beat them like there's no tomor- row. Because with an ordinary PC, there may be none. OUR PCS ARE THE BEST BECAUSE THEY'RE BUILT FOR THE WORST. We design our 286, 386 and 486 systems using rugged design techniques that give them up to three times the life expect- ancy of other PCs. Our passive backplane, for example, gives you instant access to plug-in CPU cards and compo- nents, reducing Mean Time To Repair to under 10 minutes. We shock-mount the drives within our nickel-plated, all-steel chassis to withstand vibration. We implement VLSI and PAL technology to increase component reliability. And we use positive airflow filtration to reduce contam- ination and system heat. STRONG SUPPORT IS OUR STRONG SUIT. We provide toll- free technical assistance and a regional network of field application engineers. We also customize PCs to meet your particular specifications. FIND OUT WHAT OUR PCS ARE REALLY MADE OF . Call us for complete product information and specifications. Or send in the attached card. But don't delay. The path- way to hell is paved with good intentions. TEXAS ■ 1 1 Ruggedized Rockmount I • 1 4 option slots, 3 drive bays ! • Nickel-plated, steel chassis • 1 00,000 hr. MTBF* power supply • Complete front panel accessibility • 14" VGA Multisync monitor ■MMMMMmmh Ruggedized Wodutation ' '■*'" """ ■■ • 9 option slots, 2 drive bays KW| f | t • NEMA-4 compliant , g£L & • 100,000 hr. MTBF* power supply itps 1 ||*i = ^""y]|l • CRT/CPU in one unit 1.7,,., Ruggedized Benchtop • 1 option slots, 2 drive bays • Nickel-ploted, steel chassis • 1 00,000 hr. MTBF* power supply • Extra small footprint Ask A Few Tough Questions: 1-800-627-8700. All trade names referenced are the service mark, trademark or registered trademark of the respective manufacturer. *Mean Time Between Failure. Circle 1 69 on Inquiry Card. WordPerfect users pre Wndows no matter Washington, D. C. : 72% of WordPerfect users found Microsoft Word for Windows easier to learn. Dallas: 88% of WordPerfect users preferred Microsoft Word for Windows over WordPerfect for Windows. Los Angeles: 72% of WordPerfect users, if given a choice, would buy Microsoft Word for Windows over WordPerfect for Windows. The 1992 Word Challenge is over. And as you can see, the results speak for themselves. WordPerfect 8 for DOS users all over the country prefer Word for Windows'" for everyday word proces- sing tasks. Over the past two months, the National Software Testing Labs visited 10 different cities to ask WordPerfect users to compare WordPerfect for Windows and The 1992 Coast-to- Microsoft 9 Word for Windows side-by-side. WordPerfect users were amazed at how Word put them one step away from accom- plishing everyday word processing tasks with, in many instances, one simple click of the mouse. They found it that easy. The tour was not only fun, but it def- initely confirmed two very strong hunches we've had for some time. One, WordPerfect 'Offer good for current licensees of Won/Per feet, MultiMate? WmiStar? MS* Word for MS-IX)S* mil DisplayWritc* Please atlow2-4 weeks for delivery upon receipt of order by Microsoft. Offer expires 9/30/92. Limit one per customer. Reseller prices may vary. Call for syst. Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corpoiatian. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corp. fer Microsoft Word for what state they're in. Chicago: 68% of WordPerfect users, if given a choice, would buy Microsoft Word for Windows over WordPerfect for Windows. W" U T f\ Salt Lake City: 76% of WordPerfect users preferred Microsoft Word for Windows over WordPerfect for Windows. Minneapolis: 88% of WordPerfect users felt that Microsoft Word for Windows was the easiest to use. Atlanta: 74%ofWordPerfectitsersfelt that Microsoft Word for Witidows was the easiest to use. New York: 80% of WordPerfect users thinfi that Microsoft Word for Windows is easier to use. 'oast Word Challenge. users prefer Word for Windows for every- day word processing tasks. And two, air- ports sell some very tacky souvenirs. But you can see for yourself. Sim- ply call us for a free "Word Challenge Kit." Included is a videocassette highlighting the actual test, and interviews with WordPerfect users who took the challenge. Also in the kitare the files you need to test Word on your own. Call (800) 323-3577, Department HA4. We think once you get a chance to judge for yourself, you'll no doubtwanttotake advantage of our special $129 upgrade offer* No matter what state you're in. Microsoft Making it easier mrvments. Offer good only in the 50 United States. To receive only tlw NSTL test results: In the UnitedStates, call (800) 323-3577. Dept. HA4. For information only: In Canada, call (800) 563-9048: outside the US. and Canada, call (206) 936-8661. © 1992 Microsoft NEWS WHAT'S NEW CONNECTIVITY Document Imaging for Notebooks LaserFiche Notebook, an advanced document- imaging program, lets you quickly download text, charts, graphs, forms, and photographs from your Net- Ware network to your note- book PC. Requiring at least a 286 computer with a mini- mum of 2 MBofRAManda 40-MB hard drive, Laser- Fiche Notebook automati- cally converts scanned docu- ment images into word processing text. Able to index every word in a document via computer-assisted coding technology, the software lets you retrieve a document by searching for any word in the document. Price: $495. Contact: Compulink Man- agement Center, Inc., 370 South Crenshaw Blvd., Suite El 06, Torrance, CA 90503, (3 10) 2 12-5465; fax (3 10) 212-5064. Circle 1290 on Inquiry Card. Two V.32bis Modems QuickComm's Spirit modems, available as in- ternal half -cards and external models that connect to the se- rial port, support data throughput of up to 57,600 bps. The V.32bis devices fea- ture CCITT V.42bis MNP level 5 data compression and MNP levels 2 through 4 error correction. The modems include adap- tive line speed, automatic speed negotiation at connec- tion, and extended AT-com- mand-set compatibility. The internal modem has a 16550 universal asynchronous re- ceiver/transmitter for en- hanced serial buffering be- tween it and the computer and uses a single printed ■ NOVELL Seminar Merging Islands of Automation fciranarg n cnwiay senirur rod 6* moiuimtofi on 1XW la sd *a fta "tofatftor.tijft'piobWriartd manag* iht tar q( documents sri Wrtn&mVwxip DoasmtmlmiQinj *itoorirs ceyrpum e Atowtng OKCwp.U'i * D*«p[ns*. &$ a ntawje poonw In Saw. Crnefsswoio itj ehcwtio* XVI CoTfxtf netBKi tt«J 'htavfa at A*turJaw" Wo a poweiW teHMtfttUorraVfi i.-arj Tin li-rfutf «* Remote Control for Procomm Plus LaserFiche Notebook lets you download graphs and charts from a network to your notebook PC. circuit for low power con- sumption. Price: Internal modem, $299; external modem, $359. Contact: QuickComm Co., 2290 Ringwood Ave., Suite K, San Jose, CA 95 131, (408) 956-9 145; fax (408) 956- 1345. Circle 1291 on Inquiry Card. The 3220 Plus syn- chronous/asynchronous high-speed-dial modem from Motorola Codex supports synchronous transmission rates of from 1 200 bps to 14.4 Kbps and asynchronous transmission rates of from 300 bps to 38.4 Kbps, en- abling it to operate in two- wire dial applications. The V.32bis modem has V.42 LAP-M and MNP level 4 error correction and V.42bis and MNP level 5 data compression; it works with leased- and dial-line products. A remote configu- ration capability lets you re- configure the modem via AT commands at unattended re- mote sites. You can also auto- matically reset the modem to predefined configurations. Price: $795. Contact: Motorola Codex, 20 Cabot Blvd., Mansfield, MA 02048, (508)261-4000; fax (508) 337-8004. Circle 1 292 on Inquiry Card. Adapt Ethernet for LocalTalk Connect as many as six LocalTalk devices, such as printers, to your Ethernet network with the EtherWrite hardware adapter. Available in coaxial and lOBase-T ver- sions, the adapter has en- hanced network security fea- tures that provide individual password-controlled access to the devices. EtherWrite's auto-config- ure capability senses the exis- tence of LocalTalk devices that are connected to the adapter's LocalTalk port, let- ting you turn on the adapter and connected devices in any order. You can upgrade the adapter's operating soft- ware — stored in a flash EPROM — by downloading it from a Mac on your network. Price: $695. Contact: Compatible Sys- tems Corp., P.O. Box 17220, Boulder, CO 80308, (800) 356-0283 or (303) 444-9532; fax (303) 444-9595. Circle 1 293 on Inquiry Card. B 1 last Remote Control for 1 use with Procomm Plus seamlessly runs inside Pro- comm Plus to let you remote- ly control another PC. The software, which requires 640 KB of RAM, adds itself to Procomm 's dialing directory by automatically editing the dialing-directory database file. The package includes the software module for the host PC that gives callers control over the remote machine. The included Blast file transfer protocol gives you PC-to-PC file transfer capability. Price: $69. Contact: USRobotics, Inc., 8100NorthMcCormick Blvd., Skokie, IL 60076, (800) 342-5877 or (708) 982- 5010. Circle 1294 on Inquiry Card. An Ethernet Card for the Mac llsi TechWorks' llsi Ethernet Card for the Mac llsi in- corporates National Semicon- ductor's Sonic chip set and proprietary driver software. Available for thick, thin, and 1 OBase-T Ethernet, the card has a pass-through slot for expandability, two LEDs that indicate network status and link integrity, and an FPU socket for advanced mathe- matical functions. The card uses DMA to transfer data di- rectly into system memory. Price: Starts at $279. Contact: TechWorks, Inc., 4030 Braker Lane W, Suite 350, Austin, TX 78759, (800) 688-7466 or (5 12) 794-8533; fax (5 12) 794-8520. Circle 1 295 on Inquiry Card. 76 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 New! 286ID0S-Ex te nder Version 2.5 gj-ggj ^ ble . Phar Lap 1 Phar Lap DOS-Extender Vendor A VendorB Mulunly Over 5 years and 1000 applications Less than a year Brand new Memory Model Safe Dangerous Dangerous Compatibility INT 15, XMS, VCPI ( DPMI XMS, DPMI XMS,VCPI Librory Support Extensive list of 32-bit libraries Limited library support Limited library support Documentation Extensive and detailed Limited Less than 50 pages When yOUr reputation's Phar Lap Software: Chosen 10 to 1 over at stfllfC* a " °*" ier ^OS extenders. Here's why: We know how much work you put into building your product Why use inferior tools that often create more problems than they solve? With a Phar Lap DOS-Extender, you know you're getting industry-leading, market-tested tools that have worked reliably for thousands of developers. Other DOS extenders simply can't measure up. Let Phar Lap show you what a DOS extender should be. Build multi-megabyte DOS programs with Phar Lap's DOS-Extenders! 286 1 DOS-Extender™ — it's never been so easy! With our 286IDOSExtender and your Microsoft C/C++ , Borland C++ or Microsoft Fortran compiler, you've got all the tools you'll need to quickly and easily build multi-megabyte protected-mode applications — often by simply relinking without making source code changes. Now you can build protected mode applications that access up to 16 megabytes of memory on any DOS-based 80286, 386, 386SX, or i486 PC — without changing development tools! 286IDOS-Extender is also compatible with both Borland's Turbo Debugger and Microsoft's linker and CodeView debugger. 386 1 DOS-Extender™ — the ultimate in 32-bit power. 386IDOS-Extender turns DOS into a true 32-bit operating system with a flat, 32-bit address space. Your program can access all the memory available in the machine — up to 4 gigabytes! 386IDOS-Extender runs on any DOS-based 80386, 386SX, or i486 PC, and has been used in over 800 applications, including AutoCAD 386 and IBM's Interleaf Publisher. It is backed by a full complement of 32-bit languages, including C, C++, Fortran, Pascal, Ada and Assembler. With true 32-bit performance, you can finally build workstation-class applications for the PC. Shatter the 640K barrier and build multi-megabyte DOS applications. No more suffering with overlays or EMS. Other DOS extenders can let common programming errors cause system crashes. Trademark holders: 286IDOS-Extender™, 386ID0S-Extender™ - Phar Lap Software, Inc.; Interleaf P blisher™ - Interleaf. Inc.; Windows 7 *' - Microsoft Corp.; DESQview™ - Quarterdeck Office Systems. Registered trademark holders: Phar Lap -Phar Lap Software, Inc.; AutoCAD® -Autodesk, Inc.; Borland®, Turbo Debugger - Borland International, Inc.; IBM®- IBM Corporalion; CodeView 9 , Microsoft®, MS-DOS* - Microsoft Corp. Circle 138 on Inquiry Card. Phar Lap Software, Inc 60 Aberdeen Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 617-6614510 FAX 617-876-2972 4 3lli r a Vm i } \7[ ijTj lK^fi]^j:]lj f^i] I j j: HHH[mjt]J [ir TjH K'lu^iiiii ■[ij(iXc JBlBkli 1 1 >' J ^x TjTuEk fi JIT pa a n3 s t/ 777e KX-P2124, a 24-pin with A TM* and color option. A few dot-matrix printers offer you scalable fonts. A few, color. But no other printer offers you scalable fonts. ..color.. .and Panasonic® Quiet Technology. PutourKX-P2124ahd 2123toworkand you'll get the flexibility of Adobe | Type Manager and scalable fonts. ..you'll add drama to your documents with our optional color kit.. .and you'll hear very little, indeed. Putanyofour other Quiet Technology printers to f^lHB work and ^wflLwIm you can option accom- plish whatever your needs. From our 2123, a budget- minded 24-pin with Adobe Type Manager* and optional JSEi color.. .to our 2624 wide- carriage business printer with ATM*,. ..to our 9-pin 2180 with 6 near letter quality fonts and optional color. All with the kind of features that made Panasonic printers the leaders of the industry. Such as multiple paper paths, EZ rM Set control panels, and a two-year limited warranty on parts and labor 1 . The Panasonic 2000 Series Quiet Technology Printers. Call us for more informa- tion: 1-800-742-8086. Or visit your Panasonic dealer. "•"See your dealerforwarranty details. * ATM and Adobe Type Manager are registered trademarks of Adobe. Adobe ATM for use with Microsoft* Windows™ 3.0 or higher. Available on selected printers only. Panasonic, Office Automation/^^u w/-\\ ONCE YOU'VE TRIED OUR QUIET TECHNOLOGY PRINTERS, YOU'LL NEVER SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS. The KX-P2123, a 24- pin with A TM* and color option. Pin; III The KX-P2180, a 9- pin with color option. ATM* not available. HHHMHHHUHHHHSnraHBH The KX-P2624, a 24-pin with A TM*. Color option not available. PQ9-BY Circle 1 3 1 on Inquiry Card. WHAT'S NEW NEWS PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE Use Stacks for Developing Unix Programs The MetaCard application developer lets you use reusable software stacks in building Motif programs and hypermedia documents. With MetaCard 's simple scripting language and interactive tools, you can create GUIs, commands, or full-fledged applications. MetaCard supports Motif interface controls such as push buttons, menus, scroll bars, and floating palettes. The system's text-editing tools let you build programs with automatic scrolling and search and sort support. The system runs on Sparc- station, Sun-3, DECstation, HP 9000/300, and SCO Open Desktop systems. Price: $495. Contact: MetaCard Corp., 4710 Shoup Place, Boulder, CO 80303, (303) 447-3936. Circle 1 296 on Inquiry Card. Gpf GUI Builder for OS/2 2.0 According to its developer, Gpf 2.0 completely sup- ports OS/2 2.0's new (PM) Presentation Manager Work- place Shell GUI and provides improved menu-creation ca- pabilities. Gpf uses apoint- and-click approach to GUI development and then gener- ates 16- or 32-bit C code. You can incorporate the new PM Workplace Shell user controls, including the spin button and drag and drop, within your GUI designs. Price: $995. Contact: Gpf Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 414, 30 Falls Rd., Moodus,CT 06469, (800) 831-0017 or (203) 873-3300; fax (203) 873-3302. Circle 1 297 on Inquiry Card. MetaCarcVs Rapid Development functions let you use an object-oriented approach in building Unix programs. OOP Tools for MIS Applications PowerBuilder 2.0 provides an object-oriented archi- tecture for creating main- stream business applications. The Windows-based system supports such features as in- heritance, encapsulation, and user-defined objects, and also lets you program with Win- dows objects, functions, and events, including OLE (Ob- ject Linking and Embedding), DDE, DLL, and MDI (Multi- ple Document Interface) calls. PowerBuilder includes SQL (Structured Query Lan- guage) database portability and management functions and capabilities. PowerBuilder is available in three versions for many different RDBMSes (relation- al database management sys- tems). The Standard Edition supports Gupta SQLBase and XDB; the Premium Edition supports Microsoft /Sybase SQL Server, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard's ALLBASE/SQL. There's also a Micro Decisionware DB2 edition, as well as sepa- rate versions of PowerBase that support additional database interfaces and server connections. Price: Standard Edition, $1495; Premium Edition, $3995; DB2 Edition, $3895. Contact: Powersoft Corp., 70 Blanchard Rd., Burlington, MA 01803, (617) 229-2200; fax (6 17) 273-2540. Circle 1298 on Inquiry Card. Genus Upgrades PCX Toolkit The latest release of the PCX Toolkit includes over 100 routines and 10 util- ities that you can use to dis- play, save, scale, and manipu- late PCX graphics. The developer says that version 5.0 can be used with bit- mapped graphics from any program. Some functions that the program provides are slide-show creation, screen capture and conversion, im- age scrolling and sizing with- in windows, and printing of black-and-white images. PCX Toolkit 5.0 supports all standard modes of graph- ics adapters (up through 1024 by 768 pixels by 256 colors) and is backward compatible with other Genus toolkits. Price: $249; with source code, $599. Contact: Genus Micropro- gramming, 2900 Wilcrest, Suite 145, Houston, TX 77042, (800) 227-0918 or (713) 870-0737; fax (713) 870-0288. Circle 1299 on Inquiry Card. Spiff Up Those Mac Programs Tired of making embarrass- ing mistakes in your Mac- intosh programs? SoftPolish tests the quality of your user- interface elements to identify mistakes such as incorrect capitalization in menus, in- complete icon families, and misspelled words in dialog boxes. The program makes more than 50 tests on re- sources that contain visible elements of the Mac user in- terface. It also performs hun- dreds of additional tests for resource validity and comes with an English dictionary (additional spelling libraries are available). The developer says that SoftPolish lets you add in support for new resources. The program is independent of any programming lan- guage or environment, and it lets you examine individual files, folders, or entire disks. Price: $295; international spelling libraries, $49 each. Contact: Language Systems Corp., 441 Carlisle Dr., Hem- don, VA 22070, (800) 252- 6479 or (703) 478-0181; fax (703) 689-9593. Circle 1300 on Inquiry Card. 80 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Captures Fortunes With Record Speed Now Raima Data Manager Formerly dhYISTA III Accelerated Database Performance Compared to conventional relational databases, retrieval of records can be 10—20 — even 50 times faster with Raima Data Manager from Raima Corporation. Propelling The Biggest Names In Business Companies like General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Eastman Kodak, Rockwell and others are using Raima Data Manager in their competitive environments. Today's most critical, most demanding applications demand the high performance of Raima Data Manager. Powerfully Efficient Leading-Edge Technology Raima's combined technology merges the flexibility of relational databases with the lightning speed and efficient r W TM :er The High Performance DBMS storage of the network model. With the program written entirely in C, you can "fine-tune" the Raima Data Manager engine for optimum performance in any application. Put Yourself In Fast Company Give yourself the competitive edge of Raima Data Manager • Speed — faster access to data • Portability — supports most environments • Royalty-free — increase your profits • Source code availability— total programming flexibility • Full Raima support services — including training Whether you're writing a stand-alone DOS application, or one for UNIX accessing thousands of records, Raima Data Manager will put your application on the fast track. Race to the phone and call for more information! In the U.S. or Canada, call: 1-800-DB-RAIMA In Washington state or international, call: (206)747-5570 Specifications Relational B-tree indexing. Network data model. Relational SQL query and report writer. Single & multi-user. Automatic recovery. Built-in referential integrity. Supports: VMS, QNX, ULTRIX, UNIX System V, Berkeley 4.2, AIX, SunOS, SCO, MS DOS, MS Windows, and OS/2. Most C Compilers and LANs supported. Raima Corporation 3245 146th Place S.E., Bellevue, WA 98007 USA (206)747-5570 Fax: (206)747-1991 g International Distributors: Australia: 61 2419 7177 Belgium: 32 2 734 9818 Estonia: 7 142 328 287 Finland: 358 080405350 France: 33 1 46 09 27 84 Germany: 49 7022 34077; 49 21 4 91051 g Italy: 39 49 829 1285 Japan: 81 33 865 2140 Mexico: 52 83 49 53 00 The Netherlands: 31 2159 46814 Norway: 47 2 38 48 88 Russia: 7 812 292 7210 Singapore: 65 334 0061 Sweden: 46 13 1 1 1 588 £ Switzerland: 41 64 517475 Taiwan: 886 2 5S2 3277 Turkey: 90 1 152 05 16 United Kingdom: 44 992 500919 copyright ©1992 Raima corporation, ah rights reserved. Phoio: Dak- LaFaiiene Circle 1 47 on Inquiry Card. Anyone Can Ope Future Database Consultant FutureAuthor Future Entrepreneur It's that easy Introducing the friendliest, easiest, biggest family of Windows software you 11 ever meet. The CA Family of Windows software. Covering virtually every category from accounting to database to word processing to graphics, C A Windows software sets the standard for ease of use. If you can click a mouse, CA Windows software can help you '^affl work smarter, faster and ?M*\ more efficiently than you ever $K: thought possible. Underneath the simple, user- friendly interface lies some of the most advanced and powerful Windows tech- nology in the industry Literally hundreds of dazzling push but- tons, floating windows, pull-down menus, pop- up dialog boxes, colors, fonts and graphics, all designed with the same basic goals: Making your computer a lot friendlier - and your life a CA-dBFast CA-Textor CA-UpToDate j CASt^eiProject Breathe new life into old dBASE apps with CA-dBFast's™ color- ful windows, but- tons, dialog boxes and bitmap pictures. CA-Textor'.s™ scal- able fonts, table edi- tor and customizable toolbar mean it's never been easier to write like a pro. LI It's asjriendly as a spreadsheet, but you can view and model up to J 2d i me n- sionsqfdata with new CA-CompeteP u MeetCA-UpToDate,™ the easiest and most colorful way to man- age time, people and resources through- out your company. Advanced algorithms and stunning graph- ics make it the most efficien t and friend- liest project manager in the business. QOurV\tacbws. ».l lit.' gWja mViNj 1 mSm Future Executive Future Project Manager FutureArtist little easier. Behind all of these wonderful Windows stands the world's leading software company Computer Associates. With service and support that goes around the clock and around the world, CA is the software company that more than 95% of the Fortune 500 depend on. Paint, draw and re- Creating a brand Making vivid 3-D pie Create stunning touch masterpieces new imagejoryour- charts is now a piece slide shows in sec- with 24-bit color, self is a breeze with of cake. Choosejrom onds with pre- 8-bit gray-scale, powerful tools for 12 chart types, plus designed templates, toolboxes and ami- image conditioning hundreds qf vibrant or import graphics aliased text control, and color reduction, colors andfonts. and scanned images. Dial 1-800 CALL CAI Today For A Free Demo Disk So, pick up the phone right now and order a free Demo Disk that will pfflHB show you just how ifSE easy it is. KSJureSa It's the Windows software that anyone can ° P Andwe (ZOMPUTER ™an /ASSOCIATES anyone. Software superior by design. Balancing the books has never been sim- pler. It's the account- ing software that's perfect Jor almost any small business. © Computer Associates International, Inc., One Computer Associates Plaza, Islandia, NY 11788-7000. All product names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective companies. Circle 89 on Inquiry Card. NEWS HAT'S NEW BUSINESS SOFTWARE Make 1-2-3 See into the Future ForecastGFX is a Lotus add-on that lets you use your spreadsheet data to per- form time-series, multiple-re- gression, and descriptive statistics analyses. A full set of diagnostics, including Mean Squared Error, Mean Absolute Percentage Error, and F-statistic, provide de- sired levels of confidence. You can generate forecasts based on up to 300 historical observations and 1 vari- ables. Price: $165. Contact: Intex Solutions, Inc., 35 Highland Cir., Need- ham, MA 02194, (617) 449- 6222. Circle 1301 on Inquiry Card. One-Write Plus Gets Upgraded Version 3.0 of OWP (One- Write Plus) Accounting Works is a bundle of pro- grams that provide a variety of small-business accounting tools. The accounting and payroll programs are avail- able as individual products, and most of the changes to the OWP line lie within the accounting system, OWP Ac- counting. New OWP Accounting features include improved au- dit trails and single-report transaction histories, cus- tomized income comparison reporting, and the ability to display checking transactions across all modules. Version 3.0 of OWP Accounting lets you add general ledger ac- counts on the fly and pro- vides date and time-stamped reporting, as well as a built-in screen saver. Price: OWP Accounting, $129.95; OWP Accounting Works, $199.95. Contact: Meca Software, ForecastGFX lets you see your forecasted data and graphs on the same screen. Inc., 55 Walls Dr., Fairfield, CT 06430, (800) 388-8000 or (203) 256-5000; fax (203) 256-5159. Circle 1302 on Inquiry Card. Day-Timers Go Electronic An agreement between Slate Corp. and Day- Timers, Inc., has resulted in an electronic version of the popular personal organizer. DTPS (Day-Timer Pen Scheduler) runs under the Go Corp. PenPoint and Microsoft Windows for Pens operating systems and provides all the functions (and then some) of the traditional Day-Timer. In addition to the Day- Timer's calendar and to-do list features, DTPS adds a notepad and an address book. Capabilities that only elec- tronic ink can provide include on-the-f ly indexing, which lets you select part of any page, attach an index cate- gory, and later search for it in a matter of seconds. Another pencentric tool, Tiny Text, lets you save information (e.g., maps or private data) on-screen in very small text and then enlarge it as needed. DTPS' s notebook lets you jot down and annotate notes, maps, and sketches. The notebook's gallery view lets you see up to nine pages si- multaneously. You can store standard address information in the address book and then copy or move that informa- tion to other sections of the organizer. The calendar lets you view your schedule in a variety of formats. The to-do list adds copy, prioritize, delete, and note-taking func- tions to the basic listing tool. Price: $195. Contact: Slate Corp., 15035 North 73rd St., Scottsdale, AZ 85260, (602) 443-7322; fax (602) 443-7325. Circle 1 303 on Inquiry Card. Imara Lite Includes Imaging Tools Imara Lite integrates docu- ment handling, imaging, and fax processing within a Windows-based personal pro- ductivity program. The Imara filing system lets you com- bine scanned files and soft- ware-generated documents (including spreadsheets) within a single file folder. When using Imara with a fax board or modem, you can store incoming faxes in Imara folders. Imara also lets you send faxes from within the application. Price: $295. Contact: Imara Research Corp., 1 1 1 Peter St., Suite 804, Toronto, Ontario, Can- ada M5V 2H1, (416) 581- 1740; fax (416) 581-1605. Circle 1304 on Inquiry Card. A New Take on an Old Theme NoteTaker does exactly what its name suggests; it runs under PenPoint and turns your pen computer into an electronic notepad. Note- Taker offers tools that will be familiar even to the most in- experienced computer user. Highlighters, scissors, pens, and erasers perform the same tasks in the NoteTaker envi- ronment as they do on your desktop. NoteTaker exceeds your notepad in its ability to create space and locate key- words and documents. The program's graphics ca- pabilities allow you to export your free-form sketches to TIFF, BMP, WMF, and PICT formats. The Shape Expert tool converts your hand- drawn lines, circles, and squares into perfectly formed shapes. Price: $145. Contact: Ink Development Corp., 1300 South El Camino Real, Suite 201 , San Mateo, CA 94402, (415) 573-6565; fax (4 15) 573-5 167. Circle 1305 on Inquiry Card. 84 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 What a racket! mm Also r [E2EI liable CAD/CAM Software "13,000 bucks for a CAD program? J Are you kidding? DesignCAD 2D is only $349, and it has more and better features than the other CAD programs that cost $3,000! And, if you're ready for a three dimensional CAD program, there is the state-of-the-art DesignCAD 3D . . . for only $499! DesignCAD is the software used in the design of Andre Agassi's tennis rackets, the Patriot missile, and scores of other high tech, low tech, and no tech products. So what's all the racket about? It's because we believe that it's silly to spend more on a CAD system than you would on a word processor. Agree? Well, the ball's in your court. Your product designed with DesignCAD? H^ Let us know, and maybe we'll put it in one of our ads. I.T.I ■ III 1 ■ 1 1 1 ' I ea 1 ~*M 1 — 1 1 Mi 1 1 1 BH ' J „ T . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' ^ ^ ^m i — i ■M 1 1 EDITORS 1 CHOICE mmrn EDITORS' CHOICE 1 for Mac/) For a free demo disk and 16 page color brochure, contact: iPfT American Small Business Computers, Inc. One American Way* Pry or, Oklahoma 74361 (918)825-4844» FAX (918) 825-6359 European Headquarters: 102 Rue La Fontaine* 75016 Paris, France ghone 331 4520 6540* FAX 331 4520 6539 Other offices in: Athens • Barcelona • Brussels • Bucharest • Istanbul • London Mexico City • Paris • Prague • Sao Paulo • Tokyo • Warsaw Circle 70 on Inquiry Card. Wosh iPT r- «, There Are 174 In AutoCAD 3. Phenomenal 3D rendering. Capabilities that used to come only with AutoShade® are now built into AutoCAD® Release 12. And hidden line removal is up to 100 times faster-. 4. AutoCAD SQL Extension (ASE) allows you to access data in standard database management systems via SQL. ASE provides commands for ma- nipulating external nongraphic data and linking it to graphic entities in AutoCAD drawings. 5. Region Modeler creates intel- ligent 2D models. Allows you to quickly create 2D shapes with holes and com- plex boundaries. Automatically finds area, perimeter and inertial properties of a region. 6. Automatic timed save at user- selected intervals. 7. Now you can use PostScript® typefaces in AutoCAD drawings. 8. You can also import PostScript files into AutoCAD, and plot them. 9. New boundary polygon com- mand surrounds an area with a closed polyline automatically. 10. New Fence or Polygon window crossing selection feature speeds selec- tion of entities in dense and complex areas of drawings. 1 1 . No Main Menu! You now enter directly into the AutoCAD drawing edi- tor, where you can perform standard file handling and configuration opera- tions, as well as work on your drawing. 12. Dramatically improved entity selection speed in large drawings. 13. Nested entity dimensioning. Entities within blocks or external ref- erences are now easily dimensioned. 14. Locked layers feature prevents accidental modification of drawing data. 15. PostScript output feature lets you enhance AutoCAD drawings by using PostScript-compatible imaging programs. 16. Release 12 and Release 11 draw- ings are forward and backward compatible. 17. Support for 255 individual pen widths for laser and electrostatic plotters. 18. You can plot without leaving the drawing editor. (And without losing the UNDO file.) 19. Now you can import TIFF; GIF and PCX raster images into your drawing. 20. GripEdit feature allows interac- tive editing of selected entities without running a command. 2 1 . PickFirst feature lets you select entities prior to executing a command. 22. Improved external references. You can attach, reload or bind Xref files while the "master" is being edited. 23. Enhanced hatching. Automati- cally hatch bounded areas with a single pick. 24. New continuous polyline line- types facilitate contour mapping and other applications. 25. Programmable dialog boxes can be customized for your particular working environment or by third-party application developers. 26. AutoCAD's new integrated cal- culator performs calculations based on existing geometry and includes exten- sive algebraic and geometric functions. 27. New ALIGN command lets you move and rotate entities in 2D or 3D. 28. 3D ROTATE command rotates entities about an arbitrary 3D axis. 29. 3D MIRROR command mirrors entities on an arbitrary 3D plane. 30. CHANGE command enhance- ments simplify entity property modifi- cations, such as elevation, color, layer, linetype and thickness. 31. Advanced, multipoint tablet cal- ibration allows compensation for map projections or stretched drawings. 32. Platform-independent menus and dialog boxes that follow operat- ing system standards. So AutoCAD works like other programs on your computer. 33. An improved graphical in- terface makes the power of AutoCAD more accessible to everyone. 34. Cascading pull-down menus that put more power at your fingertips. 35. Pop-up menus at the cursor location for often-used items. 36. Screen menu is automatically updated to reflect the currently run- ning command. 37. Shift and Control key combina- tions allow you to invoke more com- mands with your mouse and digitizer buttons. 38. Single mouse click-and-release action for selecting pull-down menus. 39. Automatic Drawing Conversion. Full support for any drawing created by any version of AutoCAD. 40. Enhanced CONFIG command allows for configuring AutoCAD from the drawing editor. 41. New dialog boxes give you con- trol of dimension variables and styles. 42. Dimension dragging feature provides visual feedback while creating dimensions. 43. RECTANGLE command now allows you to create a rectangle with just two screen picks. 44. Enhanced Write Block com- mand helps developers maintain "smart" drawings (entity handles). 45. Enhanced command transpar- ency lets more commands be used inside other commands. 46. Transparent "Object Filters" dia- log box allows more flexible definition of selection sets. 47. ZOOM Window is now the default. 48. DXF1X utility reads R12 DXF™ files and translates them into R10 files. 49. New COMPILE command com- piles shape files, font files and Type 1 PostScript fonts. 50. Now you can fill closed poly- lines with PostScript patterns for ex- tremely high-quality output. 51. Network users can view and plot AutoCAD drawings without using server authorization. 52. Database-specific drivers link AutoCAD and external nongraphic databases, such as dBase,® Paradox,® Oracle® and others. 53. Create New Drawing command now allows you to start with an unnamed New Features Release 12. drawing or specify a prototype drawing. 54. OPEN command presents "Open File" dialog box to simplify load- ing of existing drawings. 55. SAVE AS command now changes the current drawing name to new name specified. 56. END and QUIT commands prompt you for a file name when exiting an unnamed drawing, to pre- vent you from losing data. 57. Several AutoLISP® enhance- ments, includingmuch faster loading of LISP routines. 58. A wide range of new and en- hanced system variables, especially created for the power user. 59. DD Modify command allows for interactive editing of entity parameters. 60. New Units Control dialog box shows all units, angles and direction values on-screen as well as precision settings. 61. New special context-sensitive help dialog boxes allow you to browse through available help files. 62. New View Control dialog box allows selecting with a pick instead of typing in view name. 63. You can plot AutoCAD drawings as bit map files in PCE. T1FE. TGA and GIF formats. You can even automati- cally FAX your drawings to a subcon- tractor or client. 64. 24-bit, true color rendering is supported by appropriate hardware. 65. PostScript files can be brought in as outlines or fully rendered images 66. Modify Entity dialog box en- ables you to edit an entity's properties directly. 67. Mirrored blocks can now be exploded. 68. List and load standard AutoCAD SHX fonts as well as Adobe Type 1 Post- Script fonts from dialog box. But Either One Of These Alone Makes It !>rth The Price. 1. Something every AutoCAD® user has been wait- ing for: new technology that virtually eliminates regens. A new built-in 32-bit display list permits pans and zooms without regens. So you can spendyour time editing your drawing, instead oj waiting for regens. 2. The plot quickens. Now you get WYSIWYG plot preview, on-the-fly plot device selection and the ability to save plot configurations. 11 AUTODESK 69. New option allows a box to be drawn around dimension text automatically 70. Insert a text string before or after dimension text automatically 7 1 . Configuring for AD1® drivers has never been easier, with the new feature that displays all drivers in the ap- propriate menu when configuring AutoCAD. 72. HP LaserJet legal-size paper out- put is now supported by a new, im- proved device driver. 73. ADS applications can now be compiled by inexpensive "real mode" compilers; no need for costly develop- ment tools. 74. AutoLISP and ADS can now be used to drive the PLOT command. 75. Linetype scaling adjusts to view scale in Paper Space. 76-174. Unfortunately we're out of space. But you get the idea. Release 12 is the most significant enhancement of AutoCAD ever. Its improved per- formance will pay off for every AutoCAD user. So the cost of an upgrade can pay for itself in a couple of weeks. If you're still not convinced, call your Authorized AutoCAD Dealer. Your dealer can give you an even more complete list of the new features. And tell you what you need to do to up- grade. If you need more information or the number of your nearest dealer, call 1-800-445-5415, ext. 770. Outside the U.S. and Canada fax 415-491-8303. © 1992 Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk, the Autodesk logo, AutoCAD, AutoLISP ADI and AutoShade are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. AutoCAD Development System (ADS) and DXF are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective holders. Circle 75 on Inquiry Card. NEWS WHAT'S NEW • S C I E N C E / E N G I N E E R I N G SOFTWARE Model Motion Experiments Interactive Physics II uses the laws of physics to guide you in designing models of objects in real motion. The Macintosh program lets you create any number of objects, define the motion parameters (e.g., mass, elasticity, and charge) for each object, apply environmental factors (e.g., gravity or air resistance), and run the experiment. You can display the resulting data in graphs, meters, or tables. Interactive Physics II sup- ports System 7.0 features such as Publish/Subscribe and QuickTime. You can view and save motion experi- ments as movies and then ex- port the movies to other QuickTime-compatible appli- cations. The upgrade also provides many new modeling tools, including pulleys, actu- ators, equation-based forces, and custom forces. Price: $399. Contact: Knowledge Revo- lution, 15 Brush Place, San Francisco, CA 94103, (415) 553-8153; fax (415) 553- 8012. Circle 1 306 on Inquiry Card. Autodesk Ships Molecular Modeler HyperChem is Windows- based modeling software for building, analyzing, and manipulating 3-D molecular structures. By incorporating chemical-property rules, Hy- uu- iiiii nti n-t ts Uieiu linn iii*iiiii< Measure Conlinl g ft iniilur i iji h> :q©¥ -^J^^.1^3- _L This screen from Interactive Physics II shows the effect that the mass of the rider's body and the motorcycle, friction, gravity, and speed create as the biker drives down a step. If handlebars had been added to the cycle, the rider could have compensated for the extreme bending of back, knees, and elbows. perChem lets you experiment with the reactivity of molecules, evaluate chemical pathways and mechanisms, study and animate the dy- namic behavior of molecules, and construct proteins and nucleic acids. The program provides amino acid and nu- cleotide residue libraries. Other HyperChem tools let you perform classical and semi-empirical quantum me- chanical computations or cal- culate single-point energy values. HyperChem' s presentation options let you display your chemical structures as sticks, filled spheres, dot surfaces, or overlapping disks. Once you've built a chemical struc- ture, you can render it, rotate it, and align it along x, y, or z axes. Price: $3500. Contact: Autodesk, Inc., 2320 Marinship Way, Sausa- lito, CA 94965, (415) 332- 2344; fax (415) 331-8093 Circle 1307 on Inquiry Card. HyperChem' s built- in amino acid and nucleotide libraries let you build proteins and nucleic acids by sequence- based editing. Get Instant On-Site CAD Feedback Stylos/Markup lets CAD users make alterations to drawings and designs while in the field. The redlining ap- plication is intended for use on pen-based systems, and it runs as an add-on to existing CAD packages. You can open your CAD files within either the Pen- Point or the Windows for Pens environment, make notes or changes to the draw- ing as needed, and then save the new data as a file layer. When you reopen the file on your desktop computer, you can merge or eliminate the on-site changes. The pro- gram's communications ca- pabilities let you send changes to your desktop- bound source files via modem. According to its developer, Stylos/Markup is compatible with any CAD format and supports many graphics file formats, including Auto- CAD's DWG, TIFF, PCX, and BMP. Price: $895. Contact: Stylos Develop- ment Corp., 5725 Paradise Dr., Suite 160, Corte Madera, CA 94925, (415) 927-7623; fax (415) 927-0653. Circle 1 308 on Inquiry Card. Travel the Heavens from Your Desktop Seeing stars on your PC doesn't necessarily mean gazing at the typical celestial screen saver. With The_Sky for Windows, you can search the heavens for up to 270,000 stars and deep-sky objects. The_Sky provides point- and-click identification of as- tronomical objects and, ac- cording to the developer, plots screens in less than 1 second, even without a math coprocessor. This speed lets you dynamically scroll and zoom through the sky. You can do on-screen plotting of constellation lines and bound- aries or perform time skips to show planets in motion. By clicking on two known points, you can use the pro- gram as a telescope to identi- fy unknown points. Price: Level I (10,000 ob- jects), $99; Level II (45,000 objects), $129; Level III (272,000 objects), $199. Contact: Software Bisque, 912 1 2th St., Suite A, Gold- en, CO 8040 1,(303) 278- 4478; fax (303) 278-0045. Circle 1309 on Inquiry Card. 88 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 This way to the future. Obsolescence is a thing of the past. Investment Protection. The last thing you want your next PC to be is obsolete. So Zseries offers an unprecedented range and economy of upgradeability to protect your investment. Change a single chip or an entire module. Enhance performance, add memory or stack drives. You can even upgrade your black-on-white notebook display to active-matrix color. And watch the value of your investment grow. You've got connections. Integrated Connectivity. The next level of PC productivity lies in networking. And Zseries sets the standard for Integrated Connectivity with Novell® NetWare? Microsoft® LAN Manager™ and Banyan® VINES® client shells pre-installed. Ethernets-compatible High-Speed-Communications pipes. And we're already thinking about what comes next. It's all part of Thinking Ahead. Introducing Z series. Your future is built in. TheZseries of desktop and notebook PCs and servers isn't just fresh thinking. It's a whole new way of thinking. It views PCs as a long-term investment, and has the vision to protect it. It makes future changes part of a master plan. It's called Thinking Ahead. consistency of component design for streamlined support and constant productivity in a changing world. Thinking Ahead means you won't have to rethink your investment. Ever. Call 1-800-472-3699, ext. 107. We'll be glad to send you more information about the Z series. We know that sooner or later you'll come around to our way of thinking. It's called Thinking Ahead. ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS A Bull Company Thinking Ahead. \ The awkward years are behind you. Easy To Use. Finally. This is the PC as it ought to be. You're up and running in minutes. The con- nections are self-configuring, MS-DOS® 5.0 and Microsoft Windows™ 3.1 are optimized and pre- installed, the mouse is included, the upgrades are literally a snap and unlimited support is toll-free. Even the manuals have been simplified. We know you need to focus on the growing demands of your work rather than on your tools. So we made it easy. It's a grand design. Design & Ergonomics. Someone had to do it. Someone had to make growth and change part of a grand design. An elegant vision that appeals to the eye as well as the intellect. It begins with crisp, cool aesthetics that invite interaction all across theZseries landscape— and it extends to a careful Z-STATION Z-SPORT™ Z-NOTE 4-Slot Tower Affordable Daybright Configura- SX notebook black-on-white tion with signifi- display cant expan- upgradeablc to sion options active-matrix using AT color. docking unit. > Z-SPORT Z-NOTE Z-STATION ISA EISA Z-SERVER EISA Processor/MHz i386*sx/25 i486*SX/20 J486SX/25 i386SL/20 J386SL/25 i386SX/25 i486SX/20 J486SX/25 i486SX/20 i486DX/33 i486DX/33 i486SX/25 i486DX2/50 i486DX/50 J486DX/33 Storage 60,85, 1 2 omb* 60.85,120MB' 80,120, 120.200,400MB 300,400.500MB* 200, 400MB (up to eight) Memory 2/8MB* (Standard/Max) 4/ 12MB" Video VGA display up to 64 gray scales Pre-installed ms-dos 5.0 with apm Operating Systems Integrated n/a Connectivity Upgrade Options Memory, HDD, Coprocessor Mouse Optional Battery Life 2 or 2.5 hours under APM* Weight 6 or 6.2 lbs: Optional AT Docking Unit Peripherals 3 slots ATcompatible 2 half-height drive bays 2-4712MB VGA display up to 64 gray scales or active matrix color 4/64MB 4-87128MB Integrated SVGA @ 1024x768 resolution with 1 6 colors. Upgradeable to 256 colors. MS-DOS 5.0 with APM. MS-DOS 5.0 Microsoft Windows 3. 1 Microsoft Windows 3. 1 Novell NetWare, Microsoft Novell NetWare, Microsoft LAN Manager, Banyan LAN Manager, Banyan VINES client shells VINES client shells pre-installed pre-installed Video display, Memory, BIOS, CPU, Memoiy, BIOS, FDD, HDD, FDD, Coprocessor HDD. Coprocessor, OverDrive™ processor, Windows accelerator module (VVAM). SCSI module. SCSI tape backup, SCSI hard drive Logitech™ TrackMan 8 Microsoft 'l\vo-button Portable 4 - 1 hours under Premier N/A System Management™ (7 3 less in color) 5,9 or 6.5 lbs.* N/A READYDESK N/A port replicator 4-87192MB Integrated SVGA @ 1 024x768 resolution with 16 colors. Upgradeable to 256 colors. MS-DOS 5.0* Novell NetWare, Microsoft LAN Manager, Banyan VINES, SCO™ UNIX*" CPU, Cache, BIOS. HDD, FDD, Coprocessor. OverDrive processor, SCSI streamer and DAT tape drives, CD-ROM drive, LAN boards. Serial port boards Optional N/A N/A N/A ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS A Bull Company "Dependent ujwn sialic model ""Pending terlifiuilions Thinking Ahead. /■NOTK Z-SERVKK. Z-SPOK'i; Z'STATION. /-VISION. KKADYDKSK and I'reniiei System Mdiia.c.eitient ; trademarks ol MitrnSolt Corporation. Logitech aturtt-atk.Manaiv tiaOemaik-s ol Logitech. Inc. I'lic Intel Iti jrc undeinaik.s ol llaiiyan Systems, Inc SCO is a traJctnaik o\ Sain.iOuz Operations. UN IX is ,i reyisterc trademaiks o e logo, i38U i Data Svstcins Corporation. Aliciosolt, LAN Manager. MS DOS. Microsoft YVimk>\ d Overl'riveare itndemaiks ol Iiiil'I Corporation. Novell and Net\Vaie C£ c§] "D O CD O X Oi C0 > on o o ro o CO I CO CD K> CD 3J < O m "0 :=- Tl XI CD CO —I c §< CO jaaMH| CO z 3> m (/> tj m X" (/) -l DO O m S ■o ^~ "D -< CO Tl S m r~ o > > r See reverse side for card. 1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category. 2. Print Your Name and Address Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343. 3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies! BYTE m USER'S COLUMN Km ul ' -ji . h | 1 ^ Jm 21 H^i*,' •■:.:■'■' AMI EISA The Only Game In Tbwn For EISA, there is only one player to consider— AMI. Whether it's motherboards, BIOS, utilities, or SCSI host adapters, AMI is the single source for advanced EISA technology. ADVANCED EISA & MODU- LAR CPU MOTHERBOARDS With AMI leading the way in EISA motherboard designs, you will benefit from bulletproof performance and proven reliability. ■ EZ-Flex— A new modular CPU design offering easy upgrades to future technology. ■ Enterprise II— A proven EISA per- former, popular for critical applications. to) 1988-t»0 AMI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 466E1SA THE LEADING EISA BIOS AMI is the world- wide standard for BIOS. AMI'S EISA BIOS provides the reliability, compatibility, and features you desire. Plus, it's compatible ^ with AMI'S BIOS Configura- tion Utility, providing on-site customization for the Integrator or OEM. jm EISA UTILITIES MAKE THE JOB SIMPLE AMI designed and developed the EISA Configuration Utility to make configuring EISA products a snap. Run the ECU and select the auto configuration option, modify the I/O ports, inter- , or DMA settings as you desire. EISA ADD-ON CARDS The East Disk EISA SCSI Host Adapter, with a combination of 16 MB cache, and intelligent 386SX I/O management, is the fastest SCSI host adapter on the market today. Look to AMI for other EISA cards in the near future. THE AMI DIFFERENCE AMI's expertise covers the entire EISA environment. With research, engineering ^ and support functions under one roof, =^ AMI is unmatched in knowledge and support. Call AMI, and you will understand why AMI's "monopoly" on EISA makes it the only game in town. Circle 69 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 16). Single Source Technology AMERICAN MEGATRENDS, INC. 800-U-BUY-AMI or 800-828-9264, 404-263-8181, fax 404-263-9381 w§^ He 53 -a a GO TO BANKRUPTCY Discount EISA boards have high failure rate GO BACK 3 SPACES Discount board has slow video speed LOSE TURN Use highly compatible AMI EISA BIOS Join the New Imaging Revolution USER'S COLUMN 70:00 Shoot The new Canon RC-570 Still Video Camera records 25 electronic photos on a reusable 2-inch video floppy disk. No film or processing. No waiting. No waste. The 3X zoom lens and 450-line frame video resolution ensure superior image quality. Speed, portability, ease of use, and direct playback to a TV monitor make the RC-570 an ideal imaging tool. 70; 7£ Process Canon digitizers allow still video images to be easily input to Macintosh®, PC, or NeXT' M computers. Integrate graphic files into applications like DTP, Databases, Multimedia and Presentations. You can even record from your computer back to video floppy with our Electronic Still Presentation systems. 70; VS Present ©1992 Canon USA, inc. Still Video System Division. One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 1 1042 Brand and Product names are trademarks of their respective holders. 102 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Use the RC-570 still video camera connected to a TV monitor to deliver impressive computer generated presentations directly from your video floppy disk. No computers. No slides. No projectors. No hassles. That's Revolutionary! Learn more about this revolution, call 1-800-221-3333 ext. 313. Canon Circle 84 on Inquiry Card. Either of these is plenty good enough, and I doubt you'd be unhappy whichever one you get. I love it when two companies fight to keep me happy. It's a Miracle The Miracle Piano Teaching System con- sists of a well-designed keyboard with speakers and headphones, a rather inge- nious "footpedal," cables to connect the keyboard to your PC, and some really nifty software for teaching you how to trans- late musical notes into finger movements. Now, the keyboard hasn't the musical quality of a Steinway, and the software is no substitute for a good music teacher. But anyone serious -about learning to play the piano will find that The Miracle plus in- structions will get you further, faster, than lessons and practice alone will ever do. Among other things, The Miracle makes piano practice a lot less painful: the soft- ware prompts you on what to do and keeps track of how well you did it. The integration of software and hard- ware is amazing. You can, for instance, adjust the volume on the keyboard either with a hardware device on the keyboard itself or with the mouse on-screen. You can cause the keyboard to play notes by mousing around or by pressing the keys. The keyboard connects to your com- puter through a serial port. There's also a MIDI. If you connect through the MIDI, you can get software that lets you record, edit, and play music with the keyboard. The keyboard has its own speakers, but it will also connect to external speakers or to your stereo system. I keep threatening to write an opera; this has certainly moved me closer to being able to do it. Do understand, this is a semiprofes- sional system. You can certainly buy bet- ter-sounding keyboards with more com- plex capabilities, and if you learn to play well enough that you want to do profes- sional concerts, you'll certainly want to get something better. Of course, the some- thing better will cost you several times as much as The Miracle. Serious music teachers should look into The Miracle; the system isn't going to take the music teacher's job away, just make it a great deal easier, letting the teacher concentrate on fine points. The Miracle will take care of most of the basics and provide motivation for practice to boot. I suspect this thing is going to just fly off the shelves. The Miracle Piano Teaching System gets a User's Choice Award. High- ly recommended. Multimedia Multimedia right now is little more than a catchphrase that doesn't stand for much, / INTRODUCING MICRO-CAP IV. MORE SPICE. MORE SPEED. MORE CIRCUIT. TM PC-based circuit analysis just became faster. More powerful. And a lot easier. Because MICRO-CAP IV is here. And it continues a 12-year tradition of setting CAE price/ performance standards. Put our 386/486 MICRO-CAP IV to work, and you'll quickly streamline circuit creation, ac Analysis simulation and edit-simulate cycles — on circuits as large as 10,000 nodes. In fact, even our 286 version delivers a quantum leap upward in speed. Because, for one thing, MICRO-CAP IV ends SPICE-file-related slowdowns; it reads, writes and analyzes SPICE text files and MC4 schematic files. It also features fully integrated schematic and text editors. Plus an interactive graphical interface— windows, pull-down menus, mouse support, on-line HELP and documentation — that boosts speed even higher. Now sample MICRO-CAP IV power. It comes, for example, from SPICE 2G.6 models plus extensions. Compre- hensive analog behavioral modeling capabilities. A massive model library. Instant feedback plotting from real-time waveform displays. Direct schematic waveform probing. Support for both Super and ExtendedVGA. And the best is still less. At $2495, MICRO-CAP outperforms comparable PC- based analog simulators— even those $5000+ packages— with power to spare. Further, it's available for Macintosh as well as for IBM PCs. Write or call for a brochure and demo disk. And experience firsthand added SPICE and higher speed— on larger circuits. 1021 S. Wolfe Road Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 738-4387 FAX (408) 738-4702 Circle 157 on Inquiry Card. USER'S COLUMN but the concept is valid: the integration of visuals, sound, and your computer system to produce things that none of them can do alone. There isn't yet a great deal of software designed to take advantage of multimedia, but now that there's a rea- sonable standard, that's coming. There are several ways to get multime- dia. The least expensive way is to get the various components — a 386 or higher ma- chine, a CD-ROM drive, and a good sound card with a MIDI — and put it all together. In fact, that's no bad way to do it. You can get inexpensive CD-ROM drives all over the place, and sound cards are easy enough to come by. You could also get the Creative Labs Multimedia Adaptation Kit, which con- tains nearly everything you'll need: to wit, a Sound Blaster Pro card with a MIDI, a game port, and a SCSI port to drive a CD- ROM; a CD-ROM drive; and software. Alas, it is "nearly" everything. When we went to install the kit in our Gateway 2000 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 NoveHlsareglsteredtrademarkofNovdUnc. EXCelledCe ill ChQtWnQ the flOW Of ideOSl Patton & Patton Software Corp. 485 Cochrane Circle, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 Software Corporation 486/50, we discovered that the kit con- tains an internal drive. That isn't a real problem in that there is room for the drive in the Gateway; but, alas, there are neither rails nor screws with the CD-ROM drive, so it was physically impossible to install it. I thought I might be able to find the proper screws around here somewhere, but no; they're not standard. I found one screw taken out of an older computer that matched the size and pitch of the mounting holes, but it wasn't long enough; besides, I am not going to install a CD-ROM drive with one screw. By next month that should be fixed, and I'll be able to report on the Creative Labs CD-ROM drive. Corel Blockbuster I also have the Corel Blockbuster CD- ROM package. The package I have con- tained an external Toshiba drive, a SCSI card, cables (including a SCSI termina- tor), software, instructions, and the CD- ROM version of CorelDraw 2.0. The CD-ROM installs simply enough. The instructions are clear, and the soft- ware installs itself like a miracle. There was only one problem: after everything was done, it wouldn't work. The Corel package installs the Microsoft DOS ex- tensions known as MSCDEX, but when AUTOEXEC.BAT tried to run MSCDEX .EXE, nothing happened. Then the mes- sage "Incorrect DOS Version" appeared. I looked for instructions on what to do. Nothing. What about a README.TXT file? None. I fired off a fax to Corel. Then, on a hunch, I looked through the software again; a file called README.CD told me what I should have remembered — that MSCDEX doesn't know about DOS 5.0. The remedy is spelled out in detail on the README.CD file and involves running SETVER. Once that was done, the CD- ROM drive came right up. MSCDEX is very large and reduces DOS memory something awful, so I took time out to install Quarterdeck QEMM 6.02. QEMM automatically makes EMS memory available to anything that needs it. Inserting the switch /E into the MSCDEX command line causes MSCDEX to load itself up in EMS memory. The Gateway 2000 has plenty of upper memory. Once QEMM installed itself and ran Optimize, I accessed the CD-ROM disk drive and got a pleasant surprise. That CD- ROM is fasti Now true, it's operating on the Gateway 2000 486/50, which is easily the fastest machine in the house; but the CD-ROM drive itself is also very fast. The result is that pictures just leap onto the screen. The Corel SCSI card will run more than 104 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Circle 133 on Inquiry Card. Don't Shoot It, Troubleshoot It LANDMARK... the widest selection of PC diagnostic software, firmware, and hardware in the world! PC WONT BOOT? KICKSTART IT! Don't replace your motherboard, use KickStart 2™ When serious hardware problems occur, nothing gets you up and running as fast. KickStart 2 measures power within 2.5% on all four voltages, shows Power-On Self-Test (POST) failure codes, and features on-board ROM-based diagnostics allowing you to determine and remedy the problem quickly, easily, and inexpensively! Built-in serial and parallel I/O allows for testing remote via modem, or simply logging results to a remote terminal, printer, or laptop. You can configure your own test routines and store them in KickStart 2's battery backed-up CMOS RAM for quick future use. On-board switches, LEDs, and digital displays allow complete control over testing in systems lacking video or disk. KickStart 2 is the ultimate SECURITY CARD, too. With two levels of password protection and pre-O/S activation, you can confidently prevent unauthorized use of your PC. Includes serial and parallel loopback plugs and the Landmark JumpStart™ AT ROM BIOS for testing ATs that don't issue POST codes. KickStart 2 works independent of your operating system. You can use it on DOS or UNIX systems. CALL for current pricing. THE 5 MINUTE SOLUTION TO FLOPPY DRIVE FAILURE With Aligniryou can clean, diagnose, and align your floppy drives in minutes without a scope. Patented technology requires only a screwdriver to perform ANSI-accurate alignments (.3 mils). Alignlt is ideal for corporate users with multiple PCs. The GOLD STANDARD feature allows you to align all your PCs to the same in-house standard, guarantee- ing that all your floppies are perfectly interchangeable between PCs! Available in 3.5" or 5.25" for both high and low densities. CALL for current pricing. "The number of tests KickStart 2 can perform is mind- boggling... IF THE KICKSTART 2 CAN'T FIND THE PROBLEM, IT PRDBABL Y EXISTS IN YOUR HEAD, not in the hardware. " Rich S ant alesa, Computer Shopper "KickStart 2 system diagnostics board helps users check out virtually every aspect of a PC's hardware system... THE BOARD IS A WORTHY INVEST- MENT for computer maintenance. " David Claiborne, PC Week PROFESSIONAL LEVEL PC TROUBLESHOOTING Landmark Service Diagnostics" is ideal for professionals requiring the most exhaustive diagnostic test capabilities. Service Diagnostics is not just a single product, but a complete LINE of products. It's comprised of software, hardware, and firmware so you can choose the best "tool" for the job. mm& EDITORS' CHOICE August 1990 Service Diagnostics: The Kit Overall , Service i „ The Kit was the best performer. you're tunning a service department, SERVICE DIAGNOSTICS IS NOT AN OPTION. IT'S A NECESSITY Bill O'Brien. PC Magazine When your PC won't boot, you'll need ROM POST firmware, a plug-in chip that virtually "jumpstarts" the system to determine what's wrong. And, when your printer isn't working, you won't know whether it's the LPT port, cable, or printer without hardware, like our loopback plugs (which together with our software completely test the COM ports). To provide you a complete troubleshooting resource, Service Diagnostics is offered in single modules or in "kits." Components include; CPU-specific software (PC, XT, AT, 386/486, PS/2), ROM POSTS (PC, XT, AT) and floppy alignment disks (3.5" and 5.25"). All the Service Diagnostics software modules are available in self-booting versions for use with non- DOS operating systems like UNIX. Service Diagnostics is powerful and flexible. Hundreds of tests can be performed on your mother- board, memory, video, COM ports, floppy and hard drives, printer, and more. CALL for a customized quote on the kit that's right for you! PC DIAGNOSTICS MADE EASY You don't need to be technical to use PC Probe™. With clear, intuitive, pull-down menus and 206 pages of on-line help, troubleshooting your PC is truly MADE EASY! And, you don't have to be handy with a screwdriver to make PC Probe pay for itself. Just by providing a diagnostic report to your service and repair shop, you'll save money and receive quicker service. PC Probe runs over 150 tests including; motherboard and CPU, memory, video card and display, keyboard, COM ports, floppy drive and controller, hard drive and controller, and more. Includes VirusCure, Landmark Speed Test, AT SetUp & loopback plugs. CALL for current pricing! SLASH HARD DISK SET-UP TIME If you install, upgrade, or maintain hard drives, then you need DiskBase ™. It'll save you boat-loads of time and money by putting the exact hard disk information you need at your fingertips. . . whenever you need it. DiskBase reveals 12 technical specs on over 2500 hard disk drive models and 8 technical specs on over 220 controllers. Once you've located the correct hard disk model, you can instantly bring up a listing of all compatible controllers. CALL for current pricing! • Toll Free Tech Support • 90 Day Money Back Guarantee • Federal Express Shipping CALL (800) 683-6696 FAX (813) 443-6603 • Int'l (813) 443-1331 ^LANDMARK RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION 703 Grand Central Street • Clearwater, F L 34616 irjAi.vii. KO\! POST. Sen «. DiskBase, ond Speed Test I Curp. Ail RighK Reserved. Other •■■■■' iivir ;iv,.vulcil(nviicr\. Circle 1 64 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 65). USER'S COLUMN one CD-ROM drive. For the heck of it, I connected up the Pioneer Minichanger to the daisy chain. It worked just fine. The result is neat: I have seven CDs available. Next, I put the Sound Blaster Pro board into the Gateway 2000. 1 did this with a little trepidation. When we first got the Gateway, we tried an older Sound Blaster Pro board in it, and that didn't work. Clear- ly the machine was too fast for the board, because speech came out garbled and mu- sic very fast with dead spots in it. The board I just put in came from the multi- media kit (the one that contained a CD- ROM drive but no rails), and it works just fine. The multimedia upgrade kit also con- tains Windows 3. 1 , but that came with the Gateway 2000, so I didn't need to install it. With the Corel Blockbuster CD-ROM drive, Windows, and Sound Blaster Pro with a MIDI, I have a very fast and pow- erful multimedia machine. Tandy 4033 LX The simplest way to get multimedia is to go to your local Radio Shack and buy a Tandy 4033 LX. You get a 386/33 PC with a mouse, a 100-MB hard drive, and 4 MB of RAM; a Sound Blaster Pro/SCSI drive controller board with a MIDI and a game port; and the same CD-ROM drive you get with the Creative Labs Multimedia Adaptation Kit. My 4033 LX came with Windows 3.0, but if you get one now, you'll get version 3.1. You also get inte- gration software and a CD-ROM with a bunch of multimedia demonstrations, some extremely impressive. The Tandy 4033 LX is a solid machine. We've bashed it around a bit without caus- ing any problems at all. Tandy's techni- cal support varies in quality depending on where and how you got your system, but ultimately it's quite solid, and there are Radio Shack outlets all over the place. If you live in West Misery, Radio Shack may well be the closest high-tech shop. There are two things you'll want to do with the 4033 LX. First, add some memo- ry. The 4033 LX uses standard SIMMs, and the manual explains how to bring your system up to 16 MB. You may not need 16 MB, but I strongly recommend you go for 8 MB; Windows and multimedia eat mem- ory like mad. Second, get hold of a Cyrix math chip and install that. I don't insist on the Cyrix chip, but that will certainly work. I've got Cyrix math chips in several ma- chines, both here and at other test sites, and I've never heard a negative report. The 4033 LX manual explains the instal- lation, and if you pay attention to what you're doing, you should have no trouble at all with it. With a math chip and more memory, you will have a machine that is at least as good as any 386 I have here at Chaos Manor, and the multimedia integration of the Tandy 4033 LX is well worth having. You won't have as fast a CD-ROM drive as the one that comes with Corel Block- buster; but it will be fast enough. The manuals are a bit thin but under- standable, and I didn't look for any infor- mation I didn't find. The keyboard is de- cent; I'm spoiled by my OmniKey, so I may not be the right judge of keyboards. The fact is, though, Tandy has produced a solid, well-integrated machine and greatly simplified the setup; it's a good way to get into multimedia without hassles. Recom- mended. Gateway 2000 486/50 I don't have time for a full report on this machine; let me just say that I have reason to believe it's the fastest machine in the 1987-88-90 U.S. Delivery $3.00 -oreign Delivery $4.00 1987 1988 1989 1990-91 U.S. Delivery $6.00 Foreign $8.00 Canada & Mexico $6.50 1990 1991 1992 BYTE BACK ISSUES FOR SALE The above prices include postage in the US. European customers please refer to Back Issue order form in the International Advertising section of the book. Please indicate which issues you would like by checking(V) the boxes. Send requests with payment to: BYTE Back Issues, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, N.H. 03458,(603)924-9281 □ Check enclosed Charge: □ VISA □ MasterCard January February March April May Junel July August September October November December Special Issues uaro ff hxp. Dale Signaluie Name Address City State Zip All orders must be prepaid. Please allow four weeks delivery. I Issues Outlook '92 ■^^^jAvailablc 1 106 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 MINUTEMAN TAKES CHARGE IN OVER 1000 JCPENNEY STORES. Every time JCPenney sells a pair of jeans, a toaster or a bottle of perfume, MINUTE- MAN takes charge. That's because more than one thousand JCPenney stores rely on MINUTEMAN UPS systems to back up power to their point-of-sale systems. Every day your company relies on its voice and data communications equipment to stay productive. Unfortu- nately, the electricity that powers these vital systems is not reliable. Blackouts, brownouts, spikes, surges and even lightning strikes are common in most business environments. And the high MINUTEM AN's Intelligent Power Master Series: ■ PM600 $579 . PM1250 $1049 ■ The intelligent power boost feature allows for normal input to the computer during extended brownouts of up to -12% without draining the batteries ■ Truesinewave ■ Continuous protection from surges and spikes Auto frequency selection - 50Hz or 60Hz LEDs and alarms indicate overload, even in AC mode Lightweight and small footprint LEDs and alarms for low, weak or bad battery and LEDs of re- maining operation time Auto self diognostic of all system functions Test button cost of losing vital informa- tion and productivity due to power outages and surges calls for preventive measures. Power requirements can be confusing. And your company has unique needs that often require Recently JCPenney Co., Inc. changed its operations from the old POS systems to the new PC-based technology, relying on PC platforms for point-of-sale and in-store support. And they back each DickPatefield, Senior Project Manager for Store Systems Support, JCPenney one up with help from MINUTEMAN. "There was a violent surge in one of our stores, " says Patefleld. "If we didn 't have the MINUTEMAN unit, it probably would have seriously damaged all of our point-of-sale equipment. "The key was the switch-over time from AC to battery," says Patefleld. "It really has the best continuity of the UPS systems we evaluated. Also, the price was very favorable. When you're installing them in as many locations as we are, the pricing was very attractive." custom solutions. MINUTEMAN PRODUCTS: ■ On-line and standby UPS 300V A to 10KVA ■ Shutdown software for every available operating system ■ Automatic voltage regulators ■ Surge suppressors ■ Global Socket Series - compatible with all major plug patterns ■ Two year warranty . Call our toll-free POWER HOTLINE now for your free Power Protection Guide. (800) 238-7272 MINUTEOMAN UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLIES Reduced prices up to 36% Call for complete price list. Circle 1 32 on Inquiry Card. © 1992 Para Systems, Inc., 1455 LeMay Drive, Carrollton, Texas 75007 (214) 446-7363 (214) 446-9011 fax USER'S COLUMN house. I had no trouble installing Sound Blaster Pro and the Corel Blockbuster CD- ROM drive. It came with Windows 3.1; I added QEMM 6.02. This will probably become Roberta's Windows machine. More another time, butyoucanbesurel won't sether up with a machine I don't have confidence in. VisSim 1.1 There are many dynamic simulation pro- grams for the Mac. There had been a few such programs in CP/M days, and a few of them — TutSim comes to mind — were translated to the PC. But there just weren't many nonlinear simulation programs for the PC, and those had confusing interfaces. The Mac made it a lot easier to do simu- lations and show results, and most of the best dynamic simulation software is still on Macs only. Then came Windows, and 1 don't ex- pect it will be long before we get a lot of good simulation programs for PCs. ^-\T7 Q& M ' - '■ PM ; § . .-.-r" ■ ,_. , ,. : t \..-.\ : H *3 i \ I ■£. ^ m£$r 1% fog W. W: HOW TO EXTEND YOUR CAD POWER With Generic CADD, you can put the power and productivity of CAD on every desk. From engineering to manufacturing to tooling and more, Generic CADD allows you to view, edit, export and print your valuable AutoCAD* designs, or sketch design concepts. Generic CADD software runs on standard PCs, Macs, and laptops, utilizing existing hardware. At $495, it's the economical way to extend your CAD power. To learn why over 300,000 people are using Generic CADD, call 1-800-228-3601. Ask for Info Pak#A30. m .AUTODESK •Generic CADD 6.0 and Generic CADD forMacintosh 2.0 - loud native AutoCAD.DWC. drawing files dirt-clly. Copyright 1992 Autodesk Retail I'rcxlucts. All rights reserved. Generic G\DD is a registered tr.idemark of Autodesk Retail I'rtxluds. AutoCAD. AuUxlesk. and the Autodesk logo ate registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hy Autodesk. Inc. Macintosh is a registen.'d trademark of Apple. VisSim is one of the first I've seen. It's pretty good, but you have to study the man- ual; it's not as intuitive as I'd like" it to be. On the other hand, it works, and you can learn it. And once learned, it's a power- ful tool. Dynamic simulation is one of the most exciting developments in the small com- puter world. Anyone interested in science and engineering will learn a lot from just playing around with nonlinear simulations. They're also fun. VisSim comes with a bunch of ready- made simulations you can use as models. I wish it came with Jay Forrester's World Dynamics built in: it's not that I'm much enamored of his model, but that model is a good starting point for world simulations, and VisSim is flexible enough to allow you to get into the equations and change things. This is the way to learn about model- ing and sensitivity to assumptions. I can't emphasize strongly enough that the best way to understand what you're modeling is to get in there and just play around with variables and initial conditions. The professional version of VisSim is pretty expensive, although if you need it, you'll need it bad. I think there's also a student version that's more reasonably priced, for people who just want to muck around learning the simulation game. The Virus Scene I haven't time to do this justice, but just be warned. There's a chap calling himself Dark Avenger who is very, very good. He has released source code for generating "stealth" viruses. The upshot is that it's going to be a lot harder to detect viruses out there, since his source code makes it easier for less talented people to write them. Get yourself a good virus-detection sys- tem and make sure you get frequent up- dates. I'm still recommending Dr. Sol- omon's Anti-Virus Tool Kit. Whatever you get, use it. Winding Down As usual, there's far more going on than I have time or space to report. Windows makes possible more and better software. Visual Basic with the Crescent Tools makes it possible to turn out incredibly sophisticated software in a very short time. I hope to have a lot more to report on that Real Soon Now. There are some new versions of older good stuff. Bell Atlantic has Thinx 2.0; Thinx is the Windows object-oriented database I reported on last year. If you haven't seen it, try to see a demonstration; it could be just what you need. This is a 108 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Circle 1 04 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 10S). ATLAS SOFTWARE A NEW DIMENSION IN DATA MANAGEMENT business and government pro- fessionals view and analyze data with spreadsheets, datahases and occasionally in business graphics packages. While these types of software work well when displaying statistical data, they arc blind to impor- tant geographical information — such as market potential by sales territory, distri- bution coverage by product, or customer loca- tions by ZIP code or street address. Atlas Software 1 " is changing that. By link- ing data from spreadsheets, databases and even other applications — on your PC or Macintosh 00 — you can now add the important geographical dimension to your information system. And when we say important, we mean mission critical. For example, Atlas Software can help business professionals answer "what if" and "show me where" questions for optimizing sales territo- ries, targeting customers, and select- ing ideal site locations. Government ! professionals can use Atlas Software \ for everything from political redis- ricting to land-use planning and public safety analysis. Without Atlas Software decision makers often overlook important geo- graphic information and allocate resources inef- fectively. Atlas Software programs come equipped with built-in data management capabili- ties, map file importing and a generous base map and data sampler from our comprehensive library containing over 75 gigabytes of geographic files, business statistics and demographic data. Atlas Software comes in a variety of "flavors" to suit your specific needs and supports MS DOS®, MS Windows® and Macintosh operating systems. So if you're ready to add a dynamic new dimension to the way you use informa- tion, like 25,000 other Strategic Mapping customers, call us for a free Desktop Mapping Guidebook and demo disk. We'd be happy to map out a plan for you. Phone: (408) 985-7400 FAX: (408) 985-0859 In Canada, call 416-693-4166 In th« UK, c.ill 4 -S1-994-27S0 In Germany, call 49-228-62-73-8 In Australia, call 61-3-866-1766 %&# In Belgium/LUX, call 32-2-771-25-75 In France, call 33-1-45-27-20-61 In the Netherlands, call 31-340-266-336 In Denmark, call 45-42-25-17-77 Circle 1 62 on Inquiry Card. USER'S COLUMN very flexible and powerful program. The orchid of the month goes to Syman- tec/Norton technical support; several read- ers report good experiences. I'm still look- ing into Norton Desktop for Windows. There's no questioning that it makes using Windows a bit neater and more conve- nient. If you use Windows a lot, it's like- ly to be worth the price; and Symantec has a reasonable upgrade policy, so when they improve that Desktop — and they will — you can get the improved version at rea- sonable cost. The computer book of the month is Bri- an Livingston's Windows 3 Secrets (IDG Books, 1 99 1 ) yet one more time; there's a new edition that deals with version 3.1. Reading this book may not make you an expert, but you can pretend to be one. The book of the month is Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, a novel about, among other things, government inefficiency. It's set in the n ineteenth century, but the Office of Circumlocution has a strangely mod- ern flavor, and the bureaucrats Dickens shows us could have come right out of modern Washington. Next month, the Amiga scene: a new Amiga arrived last week. More on multi- media and a whole bunch of CD-ROMs, including CorelDraw (it's wonderful). Also, with any luck, this will be the month I really get started on networking Chaos Manor. ■ Jeny Pournelle holds a doctorate in psy- chology and is a science fiction writer who also earns a comfortable living writing about computers present and future. Jerry welcomes readers' comments and opin- ions. Send a self-addressed \ stamped en- velope to Jerry Pournelle, do BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. Please put your address on the let- ter as well as on the envelope. Due to the high volume of letters, Jeny cannot guar- antee a personal reply. You can also con- tact him on BIX as "jerryp." ITEMS DISCUSSED \ American Heritage Dictionary, Gateway 2000 486/50 ...$2995 Multimedia Adaptation Kit....$849.95 Windows Edition $49 Gateway 2000 Creative Labs, Inc. WordStar International, Inc. 610 Gateway Dr. 1901 McCarthy Blvd. 201 Alameda del Prado North Sioux City, SD 57049 Milpitas,CA95035 P.O. Box 6113 (800) 523-2000 (800) 998-5227 Novato, CA 94948 (605) 232-2000 (408) 428-6600 (800) 227-5609 fax: (605) 232-2023 fax: (408) 428-661 1 (415) 382-8000 Circle 1 1 50 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 1 54 on Inquiry Card. fax:(415)883-1629 Circle 1 146 on Inquiry Card. Graphics Ultra Tandy 4033 LX $5499 with 512 KB $599 Tandy Corp. Corel Blockbuster with 1 MB $799 1800 One Tandy Center CD-ROM Kit $1295-$1395 ATI Technologies, Inc. Fort Worth, TX 76102 CorelDraw 2.0 CD-ROM $795 3761 Victoria Park Ave. (817)390-3011 Corel Systems Corp. Scarborough, Ontario, fax:(817)390-2774 1600 Carling Ave. Canada M1W3S2 Circle 1 1 55 on Inquiry Card. Ottawa, Ontario, (416)756-0718 Canada K1Z8R7 fax:(416)756-0720 Thinx2.0 $199 (613) 728-8200 Circle 1151 on Inquiry Card. Bell Atlantic Corp. fax:(613)761-9176 Thinx Software Division Circle 1 147 on Inquiry Card. Microsoft Ballpoint Mouse ... $175 13100 Columbia Pike Microsoft Windows 3.1 $149.95 Silver Spring, MD 20904 Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Microsoft Word (800) 688-4469 Tool Kit 5.56 $149.95 for Windows 2.0 $495 Circle 1 1 56 on Inquiry Card. Ontrack Computer Systems 6321 Bury Dr., Suites 15-19 MS-DOS 5.0 ..$99.95 Microsoft Corp. TrackMan Portable $169 Eden Prairie, MN 55346 1 Microsoft Way Logitech, Inc. (800)752-1333 Redmond, WA 98052 6505 Kaiser Dr. (612)937-1107 (800) 426-9400 Fremont, CA 94555 fax:(612)937-5815 (206) 882-8080 (800)231-7717 Circle 1 148 on Inquiry Card. fax:(206)883-8101 (510)795-8500 Circle 1 1 52 on Inquiry Card. fax:(510)792-8901 Dual Serial/Parallel $69 Circle 1 1 57 on Inquiry Card. STB Systems, Inc. The Miracle Piano Teaching 1651 North Glenville, Suite 210 System $379.95- $499.95 VisSiml.l $1195 Richardson, TX 7508 1 The Software Toolworks Visual Solutions, Inc. (214)234-8750 60 Leveroni Court 487 Groton Rd. fax:(214)234-1306 Novato, CA 94949 Westford, MA 01886 Circle 1 149 on Inquiry Card. (415)883-3000 (508)392-0100 fax:(415)883-3303 fax:(508)692-3102 Circle 1 1 53 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 158 on Inquiry Card. 110 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 MPnUTTTJrW.llf.lJ 1 1 MM M ■■1 :. oration. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. COMPAQ Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark. Office. Contura and CompaqCare okPC Looks Like A ould Make Ihis IhE Most Ad In History. or components. No sec- ond-rate manufacturing. No logos stuck on the out- side after somebody else's guts went inside. 1 hanks to high levels of chip integration and some of the smartest me- chanical design this side of NASA, we've managed to engineer costs out and Intel 386SL/25 with 64-KB cache << 4 MB RAM (up to 1 2 MB) << 60- or 120-MB hard drive Intel 386SL/20 « 2 MB RAM (up to 10 MB) << 40- or 84- MB hard drive << Both models: 6.2 lbs. << 9.5" VGA display << Isolated inverted "T" cursor controls << 3.5- hr. NiCd battery (optional NiMH battery) « Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 as published by Compaq the right stuff in. Open either COMPAQ Contura PC and you'll find a large, 9.5 -inch screen beaming brightly. Lay your fingers on the keyboard and they im- mediately feel at home. This notebook also has a unique ability to hiber- nate when left idle, sav- ing all open files to the hard drive and auto- matically shutting your notebook down. Preserv- ing your remaining bat- tery life. Start up hours, days, or even years later, and you're right where you left off. In addition to all of the above, the COMPAQ Contura notebook PCs support three internal power-conserving mo- dems from Compaq. All of which is backed by CompaqCare, our new service and support pro- gram, which includes a free one-year limited war- ranty good anywhere in the world. And free on- site* service anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. For information, call 1-800-345-1518, ext. 220 in the U.S., or call 1-800-263-5868, ext. 220 in Canada. We'll tell you more about it. We'll tell you all the places you can get it. And we'll tell you that you won't find an affordable notebook PC that looks this good and works this well no mat- ter who you call. Just because you're out of the of] ice doesn't mean you're out of touch. The COMPAQ^Contura PC features an optional power-conserving 2400- bps data 1 9 600 -bps fax modem. As well as a uniquely sophisticated power conservation tool, Hibernation also serves as an easy-to-use placemark. comPAa arc trademark*' of Compaq Computer Corporation. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Circle 87 on Inquiry Card. Affordabiuty Runs Deer Affordable prices aren't limited to our new products. In fact, we've lowered suggested list prices by up to 40% on COMPAQ hardware. And even more on our list of options. In the past twelve months at Compaq, we've incorporated major efficiencies in design, en- gineering and manufacturing across our product line. As a result, you'll notice savings on everything from our notebook PCs to our desktop computers to our servers to our extensive list of optional equipment. The right computer at the right price. The following list includes just some of the COMPAQ prod- ucts that are now more affordable. Obviously, when it comes to the subject of afFordability, we could go on and on. But we'd rather talk to you directly. Give us a call and we'll tell you where you can find new COMPAQ products, not-so-new COMPAQ products and the new prices for both. Call 1-800-345-1518, ext. 225 in the U.S., or in Canada, call 1-800-263-5868, ext. 225. DESKPRO 386s/20N Model << DESKPRO 386s/20N Model 1 << DESKPRO 386s/20N Model 60 << DESKPRO 386s/20 Model 1 << DESKPRO 386s/20 Model 60 << DESKPRO 386s/20 Mo- del 120 << DESKPRO 386/25M Model 1 << DESKPRO 386/ 25M Model 60 << DESKPRO 386/25M Model 120 << DESK- PRO 486s/16M Model 1 << DESKPRO 486s/ 16M Model 60 << DESKPRO 486s/ 16M Model 120 << DESKPRO 486s/25M Model 1 << DESKPRO 486s/ 25M Model 60 << DESKPRO 486s/25M Model 120 << DESK- PRO 486/33M Model 1 « DESKPRO 486/33M Model 120 << DESKPRO 486/33M Model 340 << DESKPRO 50M Model 1 << DESKPRO 50M Model 120 << DESKPRO 50M Model 340 PORTABLE 486c Model 120 << PORTABLE 486c Model 210 SLT 386s/20 Model 60 << SLT 386s/20 Model 120 << LIE Lite/ 20 Model 40 << LTE Lite/20 Model 60 << LTE Lite/20 Model 84 << LTE Lite/25 Model 60 << LTE Lite/25 Model 84 << LTE Lite/25 Model 120 <d thru October 31, 1992. 'The Interleaf filter is only available as a pait of the optional RltcrPak for 5995.00. Frame offers filters for 12 different UsTX software packages, call for more information. Phone V - Company - .). Street- City. State/Province_ . Zip/Postal Code - Number of employees Purchase timeframe (in months) [ lc-3 [ ]4-IS [ ]■ Please describe your computing environment: Indicate number of computers: Apollo NeXT . Macintosh . PC Windows . . IBM RS/6000 HP 9000 PC PC OS/2 J more than 1 2 DECstation DOS Bvte BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRSTCLASSMAIL PERMIT NO. 1762 SAN JOSE, CA POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE FrameTechnology The document publishing company FRAME TECHNOLOGY 1010 RINCON CIRCLE SAN JOSE, CA 95131-9847 NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES II.Im.I.ImmIImIImmIII.ImImImImIIm.ImII.I MULTI-PLATFORM DOCUMENT PUBLISHING ►Frame The ultimate Interleaf "upgrade!' ", If ? Wlh'NER BVTE a Year after year you Interleaf users hoped for a newer, friendlier, better publishing solution-and what you got were promises. Whatyou ought to get is FrameMaker.® ► With FrameMaker you'll get a document pub- lishing program that's powerful, fully featured, and fully integrated-like Interleaf. But not fully frustrating- like Interleaf. You'll get a familiar, well-behaved user interface that increases your productivity instead of a proprietary interface that increases your confiisionYou'll get access- ible, intuitive tools like FrameMaker's Conditional Text, instead of cumbersome, procedure-intensive nightmares like Interleaf's "Effectivity" You'll finally get files that are truly compatible- across all the major desktops and across future upgrades. Instead of Interleaf version 5 on your Sun™ that can't be handled by Interleaf version 3 on your Macintosh. You'll get thesame compatibility with FrameViewer,™ Frame's leading edge viewing technology that lets you distribute FrameMaker documents-or even converted Interleaf documents-electronically So everyone in your organization < receive up-to-the-minute, accurate information on-line. And if you act quickly you'll get an even easier upgrade deal: a free Interleaf -to-FrameMaker file conversion filter*— a $995 value** Call 1-800-U4-FRAME Ext 233 today for more information. And this time upgrade for good. Frame © Copyright 1992 Frame Technology Corporation. All rights reserved International customers please call (408) 433-33H. Frame, FrameMaker and Frame Technology are registered trademarks of Frame Technology Corporation. Ihe Frame logo and FrameViewer are trademarks of Frame Technology Corporation. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their tespective companies. *With purchase of FrameMaker for UNIX. Offer good thru October 31, 1992. **1he Interleaf filteris only available as a pan of the optional UNIX FilterPak for J 995. Circle 1 03 on Inquiry Card. ALL SYSTEMS GO Programming in Parallel There has been no single dramat- ic breakthrough in parallel pro- gramming to match the hardware advances of the last year. Pro- gramming parallel computers is still more difficult than sequential program- ming. SIMD and multicomputers are more difficult than shared-memory ma- chines, which let you use the same large global data structures that matrix-based scientific and engineering programs need rather than requiring that you par- tition your data between distributed memories. FORTRAN programs for a shared-memory machine can look much like their sequential equivalents. The introduction of virtual shared mem- ory (e.g., Performance Computing In- dustries' shared global objects) will mean that this kind of programming can be extended to distributed-memo- ry machines, too. This is a tack that a number of universities are pursuing in the development of High-Performance FORTRAN. The Linda programming model, in which data packets are thrown into a memory pool called tuple space and retrieved after processing, is well suit- ed for shared-memory machines and offers the advantage of hiding the real- ity of multiple processors from the pro- grammer (see "Getting the Job Done," November 1988 BYTE). Torque Com- puter has had some success in dissem- inating its Opal system, which includes a portable C implementation of Linda called Tuplex and a communications architecture for Intel 860-based paral- lel machines running Unix. Torque Computer has opened the Opal speci- fication to competing vendors. Where distributed MIMD machines are concerned, the advent of routing networks has eliminated a great deal of the heartbreak from programming, because the network-operating-system layer handles low-level message rout- ing and permits you to address mes- sage destinations using symbolic names, independent of the underlying topology. Meiko's CS-Tools C libraries typify this approach. The implementation of switched vir- tual channels in the T9000 transputer will have a similar simplifying effect on the Occam language, removing the crippling restriction of four channels per processor and allowing truly topol- ogy-independent programs at last. The irresistible rise of C has not si- lenced those who advocate high-lev- el languages (e.g., Prolog) and purely functional languages as a way of achieving transparent parallelism. And these advocates are not all confined to universities either. Thinking Machines still offers Lisp as its principal pro- gramming language, and Parsytec has a commercial implementation of Paral- lel Prolog. The European Esprit initia- tive is funding research on parallel functional languages in several places. One of the results, a language devel- oped at the University of Nijmegen in Holland called Concurrent Clean, can generate native code as efficient as that from a C compiler. 1 MB of external cache on the MBus (Sun Microsystems' in- dustry-standard memory bus) and up to 2 MB of cache on the Xbus (developed by Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center). The Xbus was primarily designed for large-scale, massively parallel machines. Intel also has multiprocessing in mind with the P5 chip. Sig- nificantly, it isn't necessarily the P5 as much as its support log- ic that will enable multiprocessing. The dedicated cache con- troller for the P5, a modified version of the 486DX CPU cache controller, supports the MESI (modified, exclusive, shared, in- valid) cache-coherency protocol. Although the Mips R3000 does not have any intrinsic multi- processing capabilities, some versions of the R4000 do (e.g., the R4000SC and the MC), especially in their support for an external secondary cache. With interface logic in programmable-logic devices or application-specific ICs, the R4000 will support var- ious bus designs. Another recently introduced microprocessor built to support multiprocessing is the DEC Alpha. Multiprocessing Buses The bus system in a shared-memory system is critical because it not only handles processor-memory transfers but must also sup- port the system-cache-coherency scheme. Although some vendors use proprietary processor buses, many are turning to third-party buses, specifically the C-Bus from Corollary. An outgrowth of the NuBus designed by Corollary's founder and president, George White, the C-Bus has been licensed by several vendors of mul- tiprocessing systems, including DEC, ALR (Advanced Logic Research), Everex, and Zenith Data Systems. The C-Bus architecture is a dual-bus design featuring sym- metrical access to processor modules and links to a separate in- dustry-standard I/O bus (e.g., ISA, EISA, and Micro Channel architecture). It uses a write-back cache-coherency scheme to maximize memory-bus bandwidth. The target market for the re- sultant systems is primarily network servers. Continuing this trend, Corollary's newest product, the C-Bus II, is also a dual-bus design, but it features fully symmetrical ac- cess across both buses. Although originally developed to sup- port the 486 from Intel, the Mips R3000 and R4000, and other pro- cessors, the C-Bus II has taken a change in direction and will be exclusive to the P5. Complete Solutions Many companies have stepped into the shared-memory multi- processing arena, focusing primarily on the network-server and technical-workstation markets. Perhaps the best known multi- processing personal computer in the server marketplace is the Compaq Systempro. The Systempro supports two 33-MHz 386 or 486 processors. Compaq supports several operating-system options in the Systempro, each targeted at different segments of the same market. These include SCO MPX, LAN Manager, Banyan Vines, and NetWare, although Novell does not take ad- vantage of the Systempro's multiple processors. To keep two processors busy in a network-server environ- ment, the Systempro comes with the Intelligent Drive Array sys- tem, which provides several network-fault-tolerant features while 130 BYTE -AUGUST J 992 I m o Multifunction (DE-S7001) CD-ROM Minichanger (DRM-600) WE DIDNT HAVE TO PUT OUR OPTICAL PRODUCTS ON PEDESTALS. u. JERRY POURNELLE DID. I am pleased to report that I'm sold. The Pioneeer optical drive. . . is as solid as a rock. . . . Thus, I'm discontinuing testing. Now Til just use the drive. ... I now rely on the Pioneer erasable optical disks for backup, for primary storage of really big files, and for archive copies of software . . . you really need something so easy to use that you'll routinely use it for backup. . . the Pioneer DE-S7001 will do the job very well indeed. Recom- mended. Byte (9/91) The Pioneer six-pack CD-ROM Minichanger is great. We've had it in operation for the best part of the year now, on a number of different sys- tems. ... It has always performed flawlessly. . . it changes drives a lot faster than you'd expect it to. . . . It's really fast. . . . Accesses that used to take many seconds are now nearly instantaneous. Accesses that took over a minute now take a few sec- onds. I always did like the Minichanger. . . . Now it's even bet- ter Incidentally, the Pioneer Minichanger will work just fine with a Mac. Byte (10/91) The Pioneer DE-S7001 dual-purpose external optical disk drive I've written about before. Log your wordprocessor to that, save early and often, and you'll have it all. . . . In a word, WORM drives look like JERRY POURNELLE RENOWNED COMPUTER COLUMNIST the ultimate in backup storage. Byte (12/91) Suppose you erase a file? Overwrite one you wanted to keep? And suppose your house burned down? You don't have any off-site backup at all. ... I could remedy that by installing the DE-S7001 on the network server and archiving on that... Byte (12/91) I have the DRM-600 running not only with QEMM386.SYS, but inside DESQview windows, which has the amusing result that I can actually have several CD-ROM win- dows open at once It's surprising how fast you can switch back and forth among them. . . . The Pioneer DRM-600 . . . it's very convenient to have a bunch of CD-ROMs available without swapping. Byte (1/91) It's quite intuitive [the Pioneer CD-ROM Minichanger]: no instructions are required. . . . Recommended. Byte (1/91) This technology is a m. coming of age. Byte (1/91) / / For more information or for a free VHS videotape "Pioneering The Future," about Pioneer optical disk products, call 1-800-LASER-ON, and find out why Pioneer is the leader in optical disk technology. ^ PIONEER' Pioneer DE-S7001, Pioneer DRM-600, unci Pioneer DD-S5101 are trademarks of Pioneer Communications of America, Inc. QEMM3S6.SYS and DESQview are trademarks of Quarterdeck Office Systems. Circle 141 on Inquiry Card. ALL SYSTEMS GO a) Mesh architecture O — O — O — 0' 6 — 6 MULTICOMPUTER TOPOLOGIES b) Hypercube o — o Figure 3: The topology you use in a system depends on the nature of the application, (a) If most interprocessor communication is local — within one or two nodes — a mesh architecture is most cost efficient, (b) When communication is more widespread, a hypercube may be necessary to minimize latency. delivering performance limited only by the bandwidth of the EISA bus. Compaq uses an IDA controller with up to four chan- nels to simultaneously write to and read from as many as four disk pairs. (See "Compaq's Reason to Believe in EISA," March 1990 BYTE.) Other companies staking out a claim in the multipro- cessing superserver market are Parallan and NetFrame. In the technical-workstation multiuser environment, Sun Mi- crosystems offers several systems powered by the 40-MHz SPARC and SuperSparc CPUs. A major advantage of the Super- Sparc systems is the increased size of the CPU cache; where the Sparcserver 600s with older SPARC chips can only be configured with 64 KB per CPU, the new SuperSparc servers ship with 1 MB of local cache memory. This increased cache size reduces cache misses, decreasing MBus traffic, which in turn allows for less attrition in performance scalability. ICL, a SuperSparc licensee, bases a large part of its corporate endeavors in the multiprocessing market. A major player in the European business market, ICL produces systems targeted at the traditional minicomputer realm: upgradable business systems that specialize in transaction processing, database manipulation, and real-time financial manipulation. Other vendors supplying shared-memory multiprocessing systems include Data General (Aviion), DEC, ALR, Everex, Zenith Data Systems, and NCR. Real-time computing is an important market in the general realm of multiprocessing, because most real-time synthesis and appli- cations generate more data than can be acted on by one processor. Control Data Systems, the new name for the Computer Products Group of Control Data Corp. (Minneapolis, MN), has been mar- keting the Series 4000 in the aerospace and manufacturing-control simulation markets since the introduction of the Mips R3000 CPU. The Control Data Systems' 4336 and 4339 are the only snugly coupled multi- processing systems available. Control Data Systems' Series 4000 sys- tems support various interprocessor proto- cols (e.g., NFS, TCP/IP, semaphores, and named and unnamed pipes) through a LynxOS TC/IX port. Each platform is a file servers database servers technical workstations transaction processing dual-bus system, with the CPUs communicating over the VSB bus. This feature allows interprocess communication to scale at a pace with I/O, which improves the bandwidth, responsiveness, and predictability of each CPU. The VME/VSB bus is capable of transfer rates of 40 MBps, and a system with eight CPUs is rated at 264 VAX MIPS and 225.2 SPECmarks. A new company, Kendall Square Research (Cambridge, MA), is taking another tack to sharing memory on a MIMD machine: It's using virtual memory. The processors work solely with vir- tual addresses and are decoupled from the location of the data, which is managed dynamically by memory management hardware so that data migrates to where it's needed. This approach can be made scalable to large systems and is likely to be of growing importance in the future. Kendall Square Research's AllCache ar- chitecture is the leading example of this field of development, us- ing 64-bit addressing, a ring topology, and advanced cache man- agement to present the appearance of one huge memory space. Because they share a common address space, shared-memory systems are, for the most part, transparent to application pro- grams and application programmers. Thus, they are easier to program than other types of parallel machines (see the text box "Programming in Parallel" on page 130). On the other hand, they are limited in the number of processors they can support, due to bus saturation problems. To get much beyond the power of eight or 1 processors, you must get rid of the bus. Shared-memory systems are used mostly as high-end graphics workstations and as file and database servers on LANs in multi- user environments, where they run nearly any type of applica- tion software. They are still considered ^^^^^^^— _l too costly and powerful for most individ- ual users, but the advent of power-hungry multimedia-based applications will un- doubtedly see more multiprocessor sys- tems on desktops. Shared-Memory Applications Multicomputers In a distributed-memory MIMD machine, every computing node is a complete com- puter, with its own local memory. These 132 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Why do they call it a dongle? He wasn't famous. He didn't drive a fancy car, but dressed in his favorite Comdex T-shirt and faded blue jeans, he set out to change the course of the computer software industry. Quite a task for a lonely software developer. Sitting in front of his . computer, J^ drinking UP. pots of I ^coffee and smoking cartons of cigarettes, he'd write pages of code. It took time. Years in fact. But he did it. He wrote the most powerful computer program in the world. Now came the hard part. Selling it. The Most Powerful Program in the World Determined to make those long years pay off, he called on every distributor, VAR and dealer in the world. He drove from Beantown to San Diego. Flew from Dublin to Borneo. Everyone loved the program. So he sold a few. Only a few. Back in Boston he waited. After a long year with only 1 3 orders he set out to see what happened. As he drove across the country and flew around the world he discovered everyone knew about his program. Everyone had it too. The Global Marketplace From Paris to Prague, his program was everywhere in Europe. When he got off the plane in Hong Kong he found his program stacked to the ceiling in every computer store. Amazed in disbelief, he bought a hundred cartons of cigarettes and a hundred pounds of Indonesian coffee and flew back to Boston. Beaten, battered and bruised he went back to the drawing board. This time he would really change the face of the software industry. He would develop a device that would prevent unauthorized distribution of software programs. Call It What You Like He developed a hardware key. His peers applauded his efforts. Finally, a solid solution for revenue protection. But he didn't know what to call it. He thought of naming it after an exotic place he visited in his travels. Madagascar was a bit too long, though. "Name it after you, Don!", urged his peers. So he did. Soon everyone was calling the key a dongle, ^ after Don Gall— p* the lonely software developer who did what he had to do. You've Come A Long Way, Baby Today, dongles are different. Fact is, they've come a long way. Leading the industry with security solutions, Rainbow Technologies has changed the face of hardware keys. They work with multiple applications, are programmable and network versions control concurrent usage. And they're always transparent to the end-user. Sentinel Family from Rainbow Truth is, more and more developers are using keys. And the Sentinel Family is the most widely used in the world. In fact, over 6,000 >* developers use Sentinel from Rainbow. Why? They are simply the most effective, reliable and easy to implement keys on the market. Learn more about securing I your software r and how keys jgg provide developers with extra value. Call for a free copy of "The Sentinel Guide to Securing Software." And see just how easy it is to install a hardware key into your application in just minutes. Try it with our low cost Sentinel Evaluation Kit. Q^ Order one for your DOS, OS/2, Windows, Macintosh or UNIX based application. And remember, when you need a dongle, you need Sentinel— the only dongle Don Gall would use. CALL 800/852-8569 FOR YOUR FREE GUIDE TO SECURING SOFTWARE SEWinEL Securing the future of software ABi Some call it a dongle. Those who know, call it Sentinel. ^.RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES 9292 JER0NIM0 ROAD, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA 92718 ■ 714/ 454-2100 ■ fax 714/ 454-8557 International offices are located in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Circle 148 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 49). ALL SYSTEMS GO Multicomputer Applications • supercomputing • "grand challenge" problems • database servers • computational servers machines are often referred to as multicomputer s. Because other nodes cannot see into a node's private memory space, results must be passed between nodes over a communication network. Distributed-memory MIMD architectures are also called mes- sage-passing architectures. The performance of a multicomputer is as much affected by the speed of its communication network as it is by the speed of the processing elements. Perhaps it would be better to say that the bal- ance between communication-time and computation-time in a message-passing machine varies from problem to problem, ac- cording to the algorithm used and the topology and performance of the communications network utilized. Applying more pro- cessors to a problem on a message-passing computer does not en- sure improved performance because the machine may spend all its time communicating while half its processors lie idle. There are as many ways to connect distributed processors (the topology of the multicomputer) as there are ways to use a constructor set, and most of them have been tried by someone, somewhere (see figure 3). Pipelines, arrays, meshes, cubes, hypercubes, trees, rings, and to- ruses all have their advocates. In fact, disputes about topology tend to take on an almost theological intensity (mingled nowadays with a shrewd commercial- ism, because millions of dollars of DOD acquisition funds are at stake). Most multicomputers are built with commodity RISC chips. It's hard to justify spending your own money designing a processor when every month a semiconductor company announces the fastest-yet CPU. You can argue over whether the Intel 860, SPARC, DEC Alpha, Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture, In- itios T9000 transputer, IBM RISC System /6000, or Texas In- struments TMS320C40 is the better chip to use, but with the odd exception, everyone now buys of f the shelf. The economies of vol- ume production speak for themselves. Going Upscale Scalability is the biggest advantage that multicomputers enjoy over shared-memory machines. It's the reason for their existence. In shared-memory systems, adding processors to a system can de- grade performance due to bus saturation. With multicomputers, you can almost linearly increase computing power by increasing the number of processors; in the ideal case, 1 times more pro- cessors would mean 10 times more throughput. Scalability is a big issue because it doesn't just happen. You must design it in, and it's not easy to do. Simply adding processors to a distributed MIMD computer will not help if you're adding processing pow- er without adding the equivalent communications bandwidth. Scalability is the hot issue now because suddenly there's a clear winning post for high-performance parallel-computer de- signers: to make the first teraFLOPS computer. Why a teraFLOPS computer? Well, 1000 gigaFLOPS (i.e., 1 trillion FLOPS) is a nice round number; the sporting aspects of a race are heaven sent for publicity and marketing departments; and it corresponds to a real, if small, market demand. There are flagship applications (e.g., modeling global climate change, quantum chromodynam- ics, and the human genome project) that can use this much pow- er now. Even using the fastest RISC chips likely to be available in the near future, a teraFLOPS machine will require thousands of processors, hence the obsessive interest in scalability (see the text box "The TeraFLOPS Machine" on page 135). Topology can have an important effect on scalability. Pio- neering message-passing machines like the CalTech Cosmic Cube, the Intel iPSC, and the NCUBE machines had processors that were hard-wired into a hypercube formation, a topology chosen because it gives the best trade-off between the longest path between nodes and the number of physical connections re- quired at each node. In a system where messages have to be re- ceived and passed on by each node they pass through, the com- munications delay, or latency, is more or less proportional to this longest path. For example, you can connect 1 6 processors as a 4-D hypercube, with four connections per node and the longest path between any two processors being four nodes. For 256 pro- cessors, an 8-D hypercube topology only doubles the required con- nections to eight per node, and the longest path increases to eight nodes. If the connections are processor-to-processor and involve additional hardware, the hypercube is unbeatable, because it min- imizes both the extra hardware and communication latency you incur as you scale the system. ^^^^^^^^^^^ The arguments about topology have become less vehement recently, be- cause there's a definite movement away from fixed topologies and toward user- selected topology controlled by a rout- ing network. Instead of connecting all the processors directly together, you connect them to a fast-routing network (as pioneered by the Connection Ma- chine), which uses switches to make and break virtual connections between nodes, in much the same way a packet-switching telephone network does. The motto of this movement might be, "Switch- es are cheap, wire is expensive." If the switches are designed to cause the minimum delay to messages that are just passing through, then communication la- tency will scale slowly as you add more nodes to the system. For example, switches that buffer each message in memory be- fore passing it on would be quite unsuitable. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to devise switches that check the message's in- tended destination by reading a short address header but let the rest of the message pass unimpeded. By using multistage networks of nonbuf fering switches, it's possible to get close to the theoretical ideal of a (virtual) connection from every processor to every oth- er. Parallel computers that use switching networks usually have a software layer to handle the setting of the switches at the op- erating-system level (usually a version of Unix), and they present the programmer with a higher-level interface that hides the me- chanics of message routing. Practical Multicomputers The most serious impediment to the widespread commercial adoption of multicomputers is that they are notoriously difficult to program. This has prevented the creation of a commercial- multicomputer-software market, restricting multicomputers mainly to government research labs and universities. Multicom- puter researchers are taking two approaches to getting these ma- chines into the mainstream. One is to come up with better software development technologies. The other is to apply the machines to tractable problems in the commercial world. Ron Buck, NCUBE's vice president of marketing, thinks that "the future of multicomputers in the commercial realm lies in client-server applications." In addition to its traditional niche in the supercomputing market, NCUBE wants to provide database and computational servers for LANs. In the former case, NCUBE is working actively with Oracle to port the Oracle relational DBMS to NCUBE's massively parallel architecture. The sys- tem is in beta testing and should be announced this fall. A multicomputer as a back end makes a great deal of sense in 134 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 ALL SYSTEMS GO The TeraFLOPS Machine Although you won't see a tera- FLOPS machine on your desk- top soon, you may see pieces of one. Your next desktop machine may owe a lot to one or more of the machines — all contenders for the tera- FLOPS crown — described below. The GigaCube The GigaCube from the German firm Parsytec is a scalable, distributed MIMD design based on the Inmos T9000 trans- puter (see "The Transputer Strikes Back," August 1991 BYTE) and its companion chip, the C104 packet- switching router chip. The GigaCube is a cube-shaped module containing 64 transputers, whose peak performance should be about 1 gigaFLOPS, hence the name. (See the photo.) The conceptual unit of the GigaCube is a "cluster" of 16 transputers that be- haves as a single processing element. Each of the four clusters in a cube is a circuit board holding 17 transputers, 4-32 MB of DRAM, and four CI 04 routing chips. The extra transputer in each cluster provides fault-tolerance. A cluster is connected to each of its neigh- bors by eight transputer links via the CI 04 routers, giving a bidirectional bandwidth of 160 MBps between clus- ters, or about 1 gigabyte per second for the entire cluster. This is almost equal to the bandwidth available within a cluster, which suggests good scalability. The logical topology of a network can appear anyway you like. Parsytec claims that it can implement a 10-di- mensional hypercube with a sustained bandwidth of 5-12 MBps between neighboring nodes. Thinking Machines' CM-5 Thinking Machines' CM-5 is built from tens, hundreds, or thousands of single- board nodes that contain a general-pur- pose SPARC processor with 8-32 MB of DRAM on a 64-bit bus. Computing nodes also have two custom 64-bit vec- tor arithmetic accelerators capable of 128 MFLOPS. A network interface provides a 64-bit synchronous inter- face between nodes. The CM-5 uses three communica- tion networks: the Control Network, the Data Network, and an "invisible" Diagnostic Network to isolate faulty components and trace errors. The Con- trol and Data networks are memory- mapped into the local memory space of each node so that processors can talk to each other without a costly call to the overlying operating system, which runs on each control processor. The Control Network is responsible for synchronous operations that involve all the processors in a partition. It can, for example, broadcast a value to every processor or combine the values from all the processors into one answer in just three memory cycles. The Data Network supports asyn- chronous bulk data transfers between processors, and it consumes no pro- cessing resources in transmitting mes- sages. The Data Network topology com- bines features of hypercubes and "fat trees," so it provides 20 MBps of band- width between any group of four of the nearest neighboring processors, 10 MBps of bandwidth between any 16 neighbors, and 5 MBps of bandwidth to processors outside the nearest 1 6 neigh- bors. Processors can, however, "lend" spare bandwidth to others in their group. This networking model ensures the scalability of the CM-5. The GigaCube 's modules can be stacked to build walls with up to 16,084 processors. Performance Computer Industries' CS-2 Another teraFLOPS contender, PCI, is a consortium of the U.K. companies Meiko and Parsys and the French firm Telmat. PCI was formed earlier this year with the intention of producing a teraFLOPS machine by next year. PCI's CS-2 depends on two new communication chips. One chip, code- named Elan, is an MBus-compatible packet-communications controller com- bined with a virtual memory manager. The other chip, Elite, is a fast eight-way crossbar switch used to build a multi- stage network. Elan and Elite make the machine's physically distributed mem- ory look like one shared address space to the Solaris operating system. The computing nodes in the CS-2 are based on the 50-MHz SuperSparc chip and the Fujitsu VP2000 super- computer on a chip. Each node has twin SCSI-2 disk controllers so that you can load data directly into a node, result- ing in I/O bandwidth that can be scaled with the rest of the machine. The CS-2 architecture promises a tera- FLOPS machine from only 1000-2000 nodes. This would be far more manage- able in terms of power consumption, cooling, and physical size than PCI's main competitors. NCUBE's NC3 The latest company to jump into the teraFLOPS race is NCUBE. When re- leased in 1 994, the NC3 is expected to produce 6.5 teraFLOPS by linking over 65,000 of NCUBE's nC3 micropro- cessors. By giving each processor up to 640 MB of interconnect bandwidth, NCUBE expects to reduce the maxi- mum message-passing latency in the system to 5 milliseconds. To load the enormous data sets required by such a system, NCUBE plans to significantly upgrade its distributed I/O capabilities. To make programming easier on the NC3, NCUBE will build in the capa- bility of letting software see the dis- tributed memory as a single-level ad- dress space. It will offer programming tools and parallelizing compilers to sim- plify porting applications to the NC3. AUGUST 1992 • B Y T E 135 ALL SYSTEMS GO a client-server environment. It provides more power than a unipro- cessor or a shared-memory machine can, yet its greater com- plexity is hidden by the client-server architecture. With this ar- chitecture, the server is a black box. Applications and users don't have to know how it works; they simply send queries and get responses. In preliminary tests, NCUBE claims that its 64-node Oracle server executed a record-breaking 1073 tps (transactions per second), achieving $2500 per tps. Computational servers are a new category of machines. They provide high-speed number crunching to client workstations at- tached to a network. The drawback to computational servers is that there's no standard way to format a computational query, as there is with Structured Query Language and relational databases. Further standardization is needed before computational servers become widespead. Of course, you don't have to wait for such standardization if you develop your own applications. Companies such as Micro- Way produce parallel processing subsystems that fit into ISA ex- pansion slots and act as coprocessors to your system. The Micro- Way Quadputer gives you the power of four Inmos transputers for your scientific, technical, and imaging applications. All Systems Go The future of parallel computing has never looked better than it does right now. It is targeted squarely at the booming network- and database-server market (which is expected to exceed $50 billion by 1995, an improvement over today's $20 billion, according to Datapro) and at the nascent computational-server market. With shared-memory machines a commercial reality and multicom- puters knocking at the door, parallel technology has taken that all important first step out of the lab and into the marketplace. For a couple of shaky years, the difficulty of parallel -software development caused widespread disillusionment and the demise of several first-generation vendors. Now the remarkable progress of commodity RISC processors is combining with advances in the understanding of communications networks to produce a tech- nology that can solve real problems in the real world — and do it faster than any other technology on earth. ■ Dick Fountain is a BYTE consulting editor based in London. You can reach him on BIX as "dickp." John Bryan is a free- lance technology writer and consultant based in San Jose, Cal- ifornia. You can contact him on BIX do "editors." COMPANY INFORMATION \ Adaptive Solutions, Inc. Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc. Parallan Computer Corp. 1400 Northwest Compton Dr., 16780 Lark Ave. 201 Ravendale Dr. Suite 340 Los Gatos, CA 95030 Mountain View, CA 94043 Beaverton, OR 97006 (800) 255-5969 (415)960-0288 (503)690-1236 (408) 354-7770 fax:(415)962-8141 fax:(503)690-1249 fax: (408) 354-7085 Circle 1010 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1000 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1005 on Inquiry Card. Parsytec Computer GmbH Compaq Computer Corp. Meiko Scientific Corp. Julicher Strasse 338 P.O. Box 692000 1601TrapeloRd. D- 1500 Aachen Houston, TX 77269 Waltham,MA02154 Germany (800)345-1518 (617) 890-7676 49-241-166-000 (713)370-0670 fax:(617)890-5042 fax:49-241-166-0050 fax:(713)374-4583 Circle 1006 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1011 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1001 on Inquiry Card. Microsoft Corp. Radius, Inc. Corollary, Inc. 1 Microsoft Way 1710 Fortune Dr. 2802 Kelvin Ave. Redmond, WA 98052 San Jose, CA 95131 Irvine, C A 927 14 (800) 426-9400 (800) 227-2795 (800) 338-4020 (206) 882-8080 (408)434-1010 (714)250-4040 fax: (206) 936-7329 fax:(408)434-0770 fax:(714)250-4043 Circle 1 007 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1012 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 002 on Inquiry Card. MieroWay, Inc. Sun Microsystems, Inc. IBM P.O. Box 79, Research Park 2550 Garcia Ave. Old Orchard Rd. Kingston, MA 02364 Mountain View, CA 94043 Armonk, NY 10504 (508) 746-7341 (800)821-4643 (800)426-2468 fax: (508) 746-4678 (415)960-1300 (914)765-1900 Circle 1008 on Inquiry Card. fax:(415)969-9131 Circle 1003 on Inquiry Card. NCUBE Circle 1013 on Inquiry Card. ICL 919 East Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 200 Thinking Machines Corp. 9801 MuirlandsBlvd. Foster City, CA 94404 245 First St. Irvine, CA 927 18 (800) 654-2823 Cambridge, MA 02142 (714)458-7282 (415)593-9000 (617)234-1000 fax:(714)458-6257 fax:(415)508-5408 fax:(617)234-4444 Circle 1 004 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1009 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 01 4 on Inquiry Card. 136 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 u When will optical drives be as fast as hard drives? At Pinnacle and only Pinnacle; we proudly answer... today! Introducing the PMO-650™ a high spe^d 650 MB rewritable optical drive featuring Pinnacle's own 0HD T " (Optical Hard Drive) mechanism. The PMO-650 works like a hard drive, feels like a hard drive, but it's better - it's optical. And with optical there are many advantages: removability, reliability, infinite capacity and a low megabyte of disk storage. Pinnacle's R&D center, located in Colorado Springs, CO, is one of the mo; advanced optical research and development facilities in the country. The Pinnacle R&D Center is now the leader in optical drive performance and innovation. - The PMO-650 is faster than a Seagate® ST4350N magnetic hard drive and Q five times faster than Sony's® SMO-E501 optical drive. With speeds faster than most hard drives, the PMO-650's applications are endless. It can replace existing hard drives for general data storage or can be used for vertical applications such as digital audio, digital video or multimedia. The PMO-650 is the ultimate storage system. It's mprelhan a hard drive, It's optica) PMO-650 FEATURES C XXBENCH TEST XCOPY.EXE DISK TRANSFER Drive Tested Pinnacle PMO-650" Sony"' SM0-E5D1 Seagate* SH350H 350MB 5 Mb transfer If UH1.I 38.44 185.04 61.26 tO Mb transfer 50 Mb transfer tML 74.28 396.31 125.06 m 45777 2941.88 819.79 100 Mb transfer 921.28 4995.14 3600 RPM rotation speed 1 9 msec effective access time* MTBF: 30,000 hours Ultra light optic head Split Optic Design ISO/ANSI Standard compliant Direct seek technology Data queuing on reads/writes 20 MHz processor/design Horizontal and vertical mounting Dust-resistant design Plug-und-pluy ready for IBM AT/XT, PS/2 and Compatibles, MAC, SUN, HP, Silicon Graphics and others. Circle 1 39 on Inquiry Ca (RESELLERS: 140). © 800-553-7070 "~Tr~niT Himn'i i : ^Horred t> HCAV K. 3,^2 * "Teg Eesvln pafafmed ^h a 1/3 sJrckf f los hif ^ ovej a 50 M3 bir.cl ^ : J?!i. A 1/3 stjoVe pirtfel^ H th? sto^diril cf [fiensvtemni ri ft* cpf«f itw^g ^iisJrr. - PlI«\CLE 7M WR ^Technology • Irvine, CA 92718 • U.SJI. • Infl (714) 727-3300 • Fax (714) 727-1913 THE OFMCAL STORAGE COMPANY Flag Of The AMD Delivers The World's Fastest 386s. The great 386 race is over. And the clear winner full 32-bit 386 performance to the desktop.The is the Am386 microprocessor family The fact is, no other 386 micro- processors available today can rival the sheer speed and performance of the Am386 microprocessors.The Am386DXL-40 CPU brings 40MHz, Ti\e 40MHz DXL-40 and tfic33M/-fe SX/--3 3 are available » i lo^cost PQFP packaging. Am386SXLr33 CPU makes 33MHz the stan- dard for 386SX machines both at the desktop and for battery powered applications. In either case, they're over 20% faster than those run-of-the-mill 386s. 4 Am386" I SXL-33 901 Thompson Place, P.O. 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Call today And find out /->.-„- „- B ® what our power \M\JmrUTcK windows can do ^iSSOCIATES for yOU Software superior by design. CA-SuperProject 6 For Windows ©Computer Associates International. Inc.. One Computer Associates Plaza, Islandia. NY 11788-7000. All product names referenced herein are trademarks of iheir respective companies. FEATURE RISC Enters a New Generation An insider's look at the development of DEC's Alpha CPU RICHARD L. SITES RISC has emerged over the last 15 years as the model of choice for the design of general-purpose processors. Its success best indicates the degree to which it has de- livered on its initial promise. The basic concept works well: Reduce the instruction set to only the most frequently used, single-stage instructions and give the language compil- er greater responsibility for handling complex operations. But most processor architectures using the RISC approach were conceived several years ago and, to varying degrees, are bur- dened by assumptions made then. In 1988, an engineering task force was charged with de- signing a new architecture to succeed DEC's VAX. The task force decided on a clean-sheet RISC design, of which I was a coarchitect. The project was code-named Alpha. Planning for the Alpha project began in the fall of that year. We did not set out simply to build a faster VAX or just another RISC/Unix machine. And because we solved compatibility issues with existing Ultrix and VMS applications at the out- set, we were free to create a kind of RISC wish list. One factor in our decision was recognizing that the industry's 15 years of RISC use provided a valuable historical vantage point from which to examine what RISC had become and what im- provements might be made in design fundamen- tals. As a result, Alpha embodies some new think- ing in RISC development. What Is Alpha? Alpha is both an architecture and the start of a family of processors and systems. It is intended to be more than a proprietary solution. Its architec- ture, hardware, and software technologies will be licensed to third parties. Alpha's load/store RISC architecture performs all operations between 64-bit registers. Memory is accessed through 64-bit, little-endian byte ad- dresses, yielding an addressable memory space ILLUSTRATION: RAPHAEL LOPEZ © 1992 of 18.4 exabytes (exa is the prefix for 1018). The architecture provides 32 integer and 32 floating-point registers and supports longword (32-bit) and quadword (64-bit) integers. It also sup- ports four floating-point data types: IEEE single (32-bit), IEEE double (64-bit), VAX F_floating (32-bit), and VAX G_floating (64-bit). The task force decided to define a true 64-bit architecture, because Alpha was conceived as having a design life of 25 years, with the final iteration having a 1 000-to- 1 perf oimance advantage over the first Alpha system. Only those who ride the very crest of the wave, using the highest of the high-end ap- plications, need 64-bit addressing. But, like so much else in computing, user requirements for address space change with AUGUST 1 992 -BYTE 141 RISC ENTERS A NEW GENERATION time. Users outgrow address space at about 0.6 bit per year, so Al- pha's 64-bit addressing capability should be enough for the next 25 years. The architecture is also designed to be used in systems that will eventually range from palmtops to massively parallel su- percomputers. Embedded applications are also envisaged. The first Alpha processor (the 21 064- AA) is a dual-instruction- issue, 200-MHz CMOS chip with a theoretical peak throughput of 400 MIPS. An Alpha processor optimized for embedded ap- plications is also in development. Chips Define the Possible The microprocessor has had as much impact on the economics of computing as it has had on the performance of computers. As a result, any new CPU is likely to be conceived as a single-chip de- sign. The result of this drive for chip-level implementation of RISC architectures is that advances in processor power are linked closely to advances in semiconductor technologies — processors' designs are scaled to chips, and chip technology is driven to ac- commodate new processors. This interdependence of technologies affects the basic strategies of RISC-chip vendors and computer systems manufacturers. One response of large computer manufacturers to this depen- dence on semiconductor technologies has been to develop their own research, design, and production capabilities for chips and semiconductor processes. DEC took control of its chip-dependent destiny many years ago. As a result, it has considerable experience in semiconductor design and manufacture, currently manufac- turing 80- to 1 00-MHz VAX processor chips in a 0.75-micron, three-metal-layer CMOS process that has a (conservatively rat- ed) 200-MHz capability. Like any large technology-based company, DEC has an in- ternal base of technology that results from many research projects, past and present. Some of these projects have been aimed at ex- ploring processor designs, including RISC designs, and their re- sults have contributed to Alpha's knowledge base. The State of RISC As an approach to processor architecture, RISC has delivered on speed, economy, and, to a degree, portability of source code. But some serious shortcomings in current-generation RISC im- plementations limit architectural longevity — the ability of a pro- cessor family to evolve into greater realms of performance over time. Given Alpha's design life and performance growth targets, architectural longevity was a primary design goal. Architectural longev- EVTE ACTION SUMMARY Users of desktop computers will have a new and exciting computing alternative by 1993: a true 64-bit machine, based on DEC'S Alpha CPU, that runs three of the industry's leading operating systems several times faster than anything else that fits on a desktop. ity involves a number of key factors. The first is address-space capacity. Today, only the largest CAT scans or IC simu- lation applications push the limits of the virtual address space provided by a 32-bit word length. However, just 1 years ago, few applications pushed the limits of 16- bit virtual addressing. As any computer archi- tect knows, people use up the power and space you give them and then ask for more. The second factor is performance — not just clock-speed performance, but also MIPS- level performance. Clock speed can get only so fast — at present, a 100-MHz clock speed stretches the limits of most silicon tech- nology (although due to some decisions made during chip layout, the first Alpha processor runs reliably at 200 MHz). Even with newer chip technologies, clock speed will probably increase by only 10 times — not enough to deliver the 1000-fold increase in performance envisioned for Alpha over 25 years. What's needed are added dimensions for multiplying MIPS, and these must come through multi-instruction launch — the abil- ity to issue more than a single instruction per clock cycle — and the ability to connect processors in parallel configurations. Few of to- day's RISC architectures are capable of issuing multiple in- structions, and those are limited to two-way launch or, in some cases, the types of instructions they can launch simultaneously. Also, few RISC processors have the inherent communications capabilities for running in parallel-processor configurations of more than two or four processors. Some other architectures require strict read/write ordering between processors, which is difficult to achieve quickly across multipath routing networks in mas- sively parallel-processing systems. Other architectures have only primitive atomic-update facilities that depend on holding con- trol of a single shared-memory bus. Last, RISC designs are optimized for Unix. For example, they provide hardware (coprocessor) instructions for manipulating a Unix view of virtual memory management. Another way archi- tectures can be optimized for Unix is by providing register win- dows that depend on a low frequency of context switching. Also, some Unix design features are intended to achieve source-level compatibility among platforms. But that compatibility is also potentially limiting: Because they are optimized for Unix, they are, in effect, proprietary to Unix. Unix is certainly a key operating system, but there are sure to be other important operating systems playing on users' desktops during the next 25 years. Any RISC ar- chitecture that strives for longevity will want to accommodate them all, without a hardware bias. Alpha: Reapplying RISC to RISC With longevity as a guiding philosophy, we based our deci- sions on what to keep and change from current RISC designs. For instance, we kept the standard RISC functional concepts and dimensions: the load/store type of operation, where the only instructions that access memory are load or store instructions (no specialized instructions); the (then) standard 32 integer registers and 32 floating-point registers; and the 32-bit-wide instruc- tions. We reapplied the principles of RISC to processor design to get maximum clock speed. In other words, we looked as hard for what we could leave out of the design as we did for what we could put in it. As a result, we rejected any special registers, such as those for maintaining condition codes or multiplier quotients, and we worked to minimize instruction and register complexity. The critical importance of parallel execution as a means of ensuring continued performance growth led to making the Alpha architecture capable of launching more than a single instruction with every clock cycle. The first implementation of Alpha is a dual-issue machine, capable of executing two instructions per cycle; future implementations may well be designed to launch three or more instructions in parallel. Another crucial difference between Alpha and other contem- porary RISC designs has to do with increasing performance through parallelism, but this time into multiprocessor imple- mentations. Ready compatibility for multiprocessing carries many design implications — particularly in memory design and timing and instruction sequencing. For example, the load- 142 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 SONY ENHANCED DATA GRADE D8. DESIGNED TO SAVE YOUR BUSINESS. NOT YOUR BIRTHDAYS. The more information your business generates, the more you stand to lose. Because not all the 8mm tapes used by business are designed for business. So before risking valuable data to a tape made for saving video memories, rely on new Sony Enhanced Data Grade D8. This compact DS cartridge starts out where our video grade leaves off, holding up to 5 gigabytes, for today's high-capacity storage and archiving. With data security features you'd only expect from the inventor of the 8mm video format. For instance, new D8 has a more durable media for greater data integrity, taking over 1,500 full back-ups, to keep your business moving forward. The shell is made to resist warping, while an improved lid reduces friction through over 10,000 openings and closings. The result is a shelf life that will exceed 30 years under recommended conditions. So your data will be around when you need it. Since lost data can cost your business its lifeblood, trust yours to the safest place of all. Sony Enhanced Data Grade D8. A memory worth celebrating. SONY Circle 1 56 on Inquiry Card. SONY RECORDING MEDIA RISC ENTERS A NEW GENERATION ALPHA'S PALCODE User application User application User application VMS operating system Unix operating system Future operating system PALcode ■ ■ ■ H PALcode PALcode Personal computer Alpha Figure 1 : Operating-system independence is the goal of Alpha's PALcode. PALcode consists of subroutines that handle context switching, memory management, and other primitives specific to each operating system. PALcode is similar conceptually to the BIOS of a personal computer. locked/store-conditional sequence Alpha uses for atomic up- dates can scale well with processor (not main-memory) speed. In the absence of actual interference, a different atomic update can be done on each processor simultaneously. And the rules for multiprocessor read/write ordering and the inclusion of the Memory Barrier instruction allow complex, high-bandwidth interconnection between processors. If these and other multi- processing support features were not part of the architecture, the additional overhead for extra handshaking and control logic would impose severe limits on implementations of multipro- cessors. One last break with RISC tradition occurs in Alpha: The ar- chitecture is not optimized for any operating system. This inde- pendence was mandated by the immediate need to support mul- tiple operating systems — initially, DEC's VMS, Ultrix, and OSF/1. We took the mandate to support multiple operating sys- tems as an opportunity to give Alpha true operating-system in- dependence — an attribute that will be even more important in thecoming decade. ALPHA 21064 PROCESSOR Integer execution Floating- point execution t t \ \ t \ decode Integer register file Floating- point register file t j i f - Address generate 5^B Figure 2: Avoiding bottlenecks is the goal of the Alpha core architecture, shown here with distributed floating-point and integer register files and execution logic. Operating-System Independence To accommodate existing VAX and Mips software, we came up with two sophisticated binary translators. The translators will let customers move executable programs to the new Alpha platform without having to recompile their source code. For more complex operating-system primitives (e.g., those for context switching, memory management, and interrupt and ex- ception delivery), we adopted from an earlier project, called Prism, the concept of an instruction library — actually regular RISC instructions but running in a privileged mode — called PAL- code (Privileged Architecture Library code) (see figure l ). PALcode consists of optimized subroutines activated by in- structions, called PALcalls, that specify that certain operating-sys- tem primitives be performed. These primitive routines are then drawn from the I-cache (instruction cache) or from main memo- ry and run in privileged (no-interrupt) mode. In fact, PALcode is analogous to a PC's BIOS firmware: Both serve as a kind of insulation between operating system and hard- ware. In Alpha's case, PALcode is software, not firmware, and it permits Alpha to act (and be designed) as a single, unbiased hardware platform. The hardware can then be optimized through different PALcode implementations to run various operating sys- tems. Perhaps even more important, the PALcode concept opens the door to newer operating systems that are just now in devel- opment or planning stages but might predominate five, 10, or 20 years from now. Taking Aim on Performance Thanks to the translators and PALcode, we were free to create the fastest RISC architecture we knew how. Based on the reasons I discussed earlier, we decided on a full 64-bit architecture — one with a flat, unsegmented 64-bit virtual address capability. A 32- bit architecture would run slightly faster at first implementation, but we would pay the penalty within five or 1 years, when grow- ing applications would demand a new — or kludged — architecture. As for processor speed, we worked with our chip-design en- gineers toward a clock-speed goal of 200 MHz — that's 5 nano- seconds, or about the time that it takes a beam of light to travel 5 feet. Additionally, we were able to call on some of the most high- ly respected compiler experts in the industry. This is extremely im- portant, because compiler technology is the key to optimizing hardware-register interactions in RISC architectures and to opti- mizing RISC system peiformance in general. Designing the Chip Building dual-issue capability in the first Alpha processor meant making some tough decisions — notably in register organiza- tion — as well as confronting some basic RISC assumptions, par- ticularly in functions such as instruction interaction and multi- instruction pipelining. The first area, organization of the processor's hardware regis- ters, was critical to getting high performance in mixed-integer/ floating-point operations. By definition, RISC processors make frequent use of hardware registers for integer and floating-point calculations, and register allocation plays an important role in RISC compiler effectiveness. One important factor in chip layout involves the physical lim- its of electron speed and distance across the silicon. To get opti- mum speed, integer registers should be placed as close as possi- ble to integer arithmetic hardware, and floating-point registers should be placed near the floating-point adder and multiplier. Performing simultaneous integer and floating-point operations from a single register file would require more than six read/write 144 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 INTRODUCING THE WORLD'S SMALLEST, LIGHTEST 386 COLOR NOTEBOOK COMPUTER. OK: ■Ki- 4Qt Sharp, the world leader in LCDs just created a notebook that delivers spectacular color and features in an incredibly compact size. To make your sales demonstration, engineering design, or presentation more brilliant than ever before. Introducing the extraordinary Sharp PC-6881 notebook computer. With 256 simultaneous colors and an extra-wide viewing angle, it's the best LCDVGAcolor screen available. 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However, special bypass logic — a standard architectural attribute — sends both E and J the results of A at the same time the results are entered into the A register, so they don 7 have to wait an extra cycle. ports (e.g., for sending two numbers to the integer hardware and two to the floating-point hardware and receiving the return val- ues, as well as accessing memory for normal load/store opera- tions). This would create a circuit bottleneck and slow down per- formance. Thus, we implemented a partitioned register file rather than a combined file and placed the integer and floating-point registers on opposite sides of the chip, close to their respective hardware and with separate paths to main memory (see figure 2). Each file contained 32 64-bit registers; thus, Alpha's performance was faster using the two small files rather than a single large file. Compiler designers within DEC helped influence our deci- sion. Most compiler designers would prefer a combined file, but having gained experience with partitioned files, DEC designers assured us that compiler performance would not be adversely affected. Avoiding Speed Traps Once the register-file design was finalized, our quest for a high- performance multiple-issue architecture dictated that we chal- lenge some RISC assumptions. We looked for otherelements or functions that might slow down (or tie up) a multi-instruction pipeline, and we then made several important secondary deci- sions. Three examples of functions common to early or current-gen- eration RISC machines and not included in Alpha are special registers or register operations, arithmetic overflow traps, and branch-delay slots. Adding functional complexity to register op- erations would mean adding extreme complexity — and on-chip clutter — to the decision logic that controls register usage during pipelined operations. To keep operations as simple as possible — critical to heavily 146 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Computing Know How with computer books from Abacus DR DOS 6.0 Complete The user's guide to running DR's new DR DOS 6.0 operating system, from introduction to the basics to using and understanding DR DOS 6.0, learn to optimize your DR DOS system to your needs. Item #B144. ISBN 1-55755-144-8. Suggested retail price $34.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. DOS 5.0 Complete Special Edition Learn the 'ins andouts' of DOS 5.0. • UsingthenewSHELUDOSKEY, EDIT, and QBASIC • Complete comprehensive DOS command reference section • Includes Tempest - the graphic shell for DOS 5.0 Item#B151.ISBN 1-55755-151-X. $39.95 with Tempest and utilities disk. PC Intern The encyclopedia of DOS programming know how for the professional programmer. Includes parallel working examples in ML, C, Pascal and BASIC. • DOSandBIOS internal structures and functions • Programming video cards, sound, TSRs Item#B145. ISBN 1-55755-145-6. $59.95 with over2mb of source code on one diskette. Turbo Pascal for Windows Introduction tothestandardelements of Turbo Pascal. • Development of the WinCrta, WinCrt and WinDOS ;units • Comprehensive coverage of the Object Oriented Programming (OOP) features Item #B 141. ISBN 1-55755-141-3. Suggested retail price $39.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. IIS #?> Windows 3. 1 Complete Learn to optimize & customize Windows 3. 1 . • Improve your productivity with the built-in Windows applications • Includes dozens of useful tips and techniques • Includes two valuable Windows utilities: Backup & SnapShot Item #B 153. ISBN 1-55755-153-7. $34.95 with Windows utilities disk. Windows 3. 1 Intern Introduces the reader to the overall concept of Windows programming and events using dozens of easy-to- follow examples. It's a solid guide for beginning to intermediate Windows programmers who need to know more, faster. Item #B 159. ISBN 1-55755-159-6. Suggested retail price $39.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. The 486 Book 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. Item#B155. ISBN 1-55755-155-3. Suggested retail price $34.95 with 3.5" companion diskette. The OS/2 Book From installation, to overview, to the basics of the Presentation Manager, you'll learn how to take full advantage of this new operating environment. Item#B157. ISBN 1-55755-157-X. Suggested retail price $24.95. Stepping Up To OS/2 V2 The upgrader's guide to learning OS/ 2 in a hurry. Item #B 160. ISBN 1 -55755- 160-X. Suggested retail price $39.95. Available at B. Dalton Booksellers, CompUSA, Crown Books, Software etc, Waldensoftware, Computer City, and other retailers nationwide. In the UK call Computer Bookshops 021-706- 1188. In Australia call Pactronics 02-748-4700. Abacus! Dept. B8, 5370 52nd Street SE, Grand Rapids, Ml 49512 Phone: (616) 698-0330 • Fax: (616) 698-0325 Order Toll Free 1-800-451-4319 In US and Canada add $5.00 postage, Foreign orders add $13.00 postage per item. We accept Visa, Mastercard or American Express. Circle 65 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 66). rpTe Please rush me the folowing books: DR DOS 6.0 Complete S34.95 ea. DOS 5.0 Complete S.E $39.95 ea. PC Intern $59.95 ea. Turbo Pascal for Windows .... $39.95 ea. Windows 3.1 Complete $34.95 ea. Windows 3.1 Intern $39.95 ea. The 486 Book $34.95 ea. The OS/2 Book $24.95ea. Subtotal: CA & Ml orders include correct sales tax: In US & Canada add S5.00 shipping: Foreign orders add $13.00 per item: Total amount (US funds): For fast delivery Order Toll Free1-800-451-4319 ext. 28, or FAX (616) 698-0325 I Or mail this coupon to: Abacus, 5370 52nd Street SE, Grand Rapids, Ml 49512 Method of Payment: □ Visa □ Master Card □ Am. Express □ Check /M.O. Card#:l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l Expires: / Name: Company: Address: City: Phone#: _ State: .Zip: _Fax#:. □ Yes, please rush your free catalog of PC books and software. Dept. B8 Circle 1 86 on Inquiry Card. are you cramped for disk space? add up to 1 70MB of detachable storage with a simplicity portable drive ^ Attaches instantly to any PC parallel printer port, no card needed ^ Gives you extra storage ^ Lets you use the same programs at home, office, and client ^ Perfect for laptops, PS/2s, and demos ^ Reliable. Rugged. Small. 170MB $1299, 120MB $899, 80MB $699, 40MB $499 Seven hour battery, carrying case, and 220V power available to order, or for free info: call (800) 275-6525 30 day money back guarantee, 1 year warranty Visa/MC/Amex accepted, overnight shipping €> simplicity computing 126 W. 23rd St. ^ New York, NY 10011 ^ Phone (212) 229-1625 ^ Fax (212) 229-2938 Faxiicts C P I A ■ I N TERNATIONAL introducing the Fax-on-Demand System That's Above and Beyond The Call. Immediately respond to your customer's needs with FaxFacts™ Fax-on-Demand. Be there with on- the-spot tech support, late breaking news, and sales and marketing information without adding another member to your staff! i Inexpensive one-call and full-featured call- back delivery methods. i Switch between one-call and call-back configura- tions dynamically. i Password protection for system entry & images. i Utilize images & messages on line-by-line basis for Service Bureau. i Auto charge feature verifies credit card, debits account, issues receipt. i Additional features include Broadcast, DID, up to4128 lines. TRY THIS DEMO: 708/924-3030 DOC. NO. 889812 Copio International Ltd. 708/682-8898 FAX: 708/665-9841 Dealer Inquiries Welcome RISC ENTERS A NEW GENERATION register-oriented RISC architecture — Alpha limits instruction interaction to reads and writes of registers or memory. There are no special registers, such as condition-code registers or multi- ply quotient registers, and there are no complex operations (e.g., "load four registers and check for bytes of 0"). Alpha also reduces complexity in arithmetic operations. In Alpha, there are no "precise" arithmetic exceptions (there are, however, precise fault reports for memory management). An arithmetic exception can occur when the result of an arithmetic op- eration overflows its registers. Some RISC architectures look ahead to see if a complex in- struction (e.g., a double-precision divide) might cause an overflow. If that looks likely, they will halt all other instructions until that divide is completed. However, such an instruction can take 30 or more machine cycles, and it may not overflow after all. By contrast, Alpha gives no special treatment to complex arithmetic instructions. Overflows, which are extremely rare, are reported only when they have occurred. This saves valuable processing cycles for those instructions not affected by the overflow, significantly speeding up multi-issue processing and pipeline operations. (However, Alpha contains a Trap Barrier in- struction if you want precise reporting of arithmetic excep- tions.) Another RISC artifact eliminated from Alpha is the branch-de- lay slot. Branch delay is a means of keeping the instruction pipeline full even during branch instructions — when a natural in- terruption occurs in the control of sequential program execu- tion. In branch delay, the branch instruction is delayed and the fol- lowing instruction is sent to the pipeline. In a multi-instruc- tion-issue architectural family like Alpha — one that may span several generations of implementations — it would be impossi- ble to maintain binary compatibility across all platforms if branch delay were used. The reason? Different platform im- plementations would react differently: Some would send just one instruction, another might send two, and another (future) ar- chitecture might send four, six, or more instructions into the pipeline. In place of branch delay, Alpha uses several mechanisms that avoid the delay time caused by branch instructions (see figure 3). These include adding predictive logic that anticipates branch di- rection many cycles before the branch is resolved. When used with an optimizing compiler, this results in fast prefetching, in the right direction. Also, Alpha can use some bits in a branch in- struction t o provide ahintof the jump target — another way t o pre- pare the instruction logic to handle the branch. Alpha as an Open Architecture DEC has embarked on a program to license the Alpha technolo- gy in chip, board, or box form, and with varying degrees of ad- ditional software, to third-party vendors and developers. Already, DEC has announced some Alpha license agreements, and we anticipate more in the near future. In addition to large-system vendors, the company expects that some PC makers will adopt the Alpha engine.Thus, you may see it in desktop- or even notebook-size packaging in the not-so-dis- tant future. ■ Richard L. Sites is a senior consultant engineer for DECs Semi- conductor Engineering group in Littleton, Massachusetts. Pri- or to joining DEC in 1980, he worked at IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Burroughs. At IBM, he worked on software for the precur- sor to the first RISC machine (the 801). Sites holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford and a B.S. in mat hematics from MIT. He can be reached on BIX do "editors." 148 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 HOT New Products, The HOTTEST Prices, And Award-Winning Service That Won't Leave You Out In The COLD! JS^ ii /VORTHGATE = 4¥^lI/ - COMPUTER ff X^> SYSTEMS, /JVC 'When it lias to work right" They're New, They're Northgate®, And At New Hi^h-Performance Northgate 486/33 EISA Workstation Only ? 3299! Or power up to the fastest processor available — Intel® DX/50 MHz! Look! You get more from Northgate! Lowest price ever for EISA power from Northgate! mm EDITORS' CHOICE Match 17. 1992 Northgote Elegance 433e PC Magazine praised Northgate's 486 EISA file server with its coveted "Editors' Choice." NOW, Northgate completes its EISA line with a desktop system that won't overpower your desk and won't bust your budget! Super economy, top performance — Our new EISA is a superb workstation for GAD, desktop publishing, and all graphics applications. It will even serve you well as an economical yet powerful file server (Tower case available). This high-performance, low-cost system meets all the traditional Northgate standards of excellence. Lease as low as *112.83/month* Flexibility — Six full EISA bus- master slots and two slave slots ensure maximum performance of 32-bit EISA drive controllers, video and network cards. Expansion — On-board RAM capacity up to 128MB. Hard drive storage options to 1.5GB and space left for both floppies and tape backup. Performance — Fastest processor available: genuine Intel 486/50 MHz! We can also configure your system with your choice of other Intel 486 processors including DX/33, DX2/50, and the DX2/66 MHz processor when it becomes available! Service — Northgate earned the highest customer satisfaction rating in PC Magazine 's recent "Service & Reliability" survey (turn page). • Intel® 486/33 processor • 4MB RAM (expands to 128MB on-board memory) • 128K high speed write-back cache • 240MB 16ms hard drive • 32-bit IDE controller (SCSI also available) • EISA bus with eight 32-bit expansion slots (6 Bus master, 2 slave) • 1.2 MB or 1.44 MB floppy drive • Space-saving desktop case — three exposed 5.25" half -height and two exposed 3.5" devices • 1024 x 768 VGA color monitor • OmniKey® keyboard • MS-DOS® 5.0 • Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1 and mouse • Northgate Service & Support Package Feature for feature, benchmark for benchmark, dollar for dollar, this new Northgate system is unmatched. Phone today and talk to the most knowl- edgeable sales reps in the industiy! The Number-One Direct Marketer of LAN Products! Powerful File Servers and Workstations — File servers ranging from Elegance 386/33 to 486/33 EISA systems. All are Novell® and FCC Glass B certified. Also, a complete range of workstations, featuring our popular 386SX/25 systems. Northgate Is Now Authorized by Novell to Self -Certify Our Systems — a huge advantage for our customers ! Choice of Topologies — Select from ARCNET, ETHERNET Thin Net, or ETHERNET 10BASE-T. Wireless networks, LANtastic and Token Ring Products also available. Two Operating Networking Software Environments — Netware® 386 3.11 and 286 2.2. Full Service Featuring Telephone Technical Hardware Support From Certified NetWare Engineers. These HOT Prices They're Going Fast! NorthMe- SL20 Notebook Only '2549! Northgate's new notebook is packed with so many features, you'll know your search for the ideal notebook is over! Extended battery life up to 8 hours using full power-saving features! Even at a scorching 20 MHz, the new Intel® 386SL processor sips far less power than other processors. So you can expect 3 hours, 4 hours or even more between charges. And the Northgate SL20 completely recharges in about an hour. The Intel 386SL processor takes advantage of the Advanced Power Management of MS-DOS® 5.0 and Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1 — included with your Northgate SL20! The notebook for the power hungry! On-board cache controller speeds throughput. And with 64K of cache, 4MB of RAM (expandable to 8MB), 80 or 120MB hard drive, and 3.5" floppy drive, you have all the power you need to run power-hungry software in your office or on the go. Fax machine built-in! Wherever your business takes you, you're never out of touch. Built-in 9600/2400 baud fax/ modem comes with WinFAX 2.0 software, so you can easily send faxes from any Windows application. You can even receive faxes in sleep or suspend mode! Looking good! You'll appreciate the extra large 10" viewing area of the high contrast VGA display as well as the notebook's non-glare backlit LCD with 32 gray shades. You'll also like its sleek, contoured design and rugged, scratch-resistant metallic bronze finish case. Plus, so many other features, including: power-on self-test and diagnostics, BIOS setup menu for power management and preferences, battery overcharge protection, hot key control for system functions, unique pivoting screen for working in cramped places, full-travel keyboard slanted at the correct angle for comfortable typing . . . and the list goes on! Try the Northgate SL20 notebook risk-free for 30 days! If you aren't completely satisfied, we'll buy it back for every penny you paid! Blazing 386SL/20 MHz Power! Up to 8 Hours Between Charges — Full Charge In An Hour! 10" Triple SuperTwist VGA Display! Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1 Included! Unique Angled Keyboard Just Like A Desktop! Built-in Send/Receive 9600/2400 Fax/Modem with WinFAX Software ! Lease as low as $87.18/month Northgate SL20 Notebook Has It All! • Intel® 386SL processor • Advanced Power Management (APM) • 2-8 hours battery life • 4MB RAM (8MB also available) • 64K cache with 25ns SRAM • On-board cache controller • 80387SL coprocessor support • 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive • 80MB 19ms hard drive (120MB also available) • 10" non-glare Triple SuperTwist display supports 32 shades of gray • Enhanced 80-key keyboard emulating 101/102 • Serial, parallel, VGA and PS/2 mouse ports • 9600/2400 fax modem with WinFAX software pre-loaded • MS-DOS 5.0 pre-loaded • Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1 pre- loaded • Microsoft PS/2 style mouse • Autosensing adapter/charger for other currents • Unique hinge mechanism pivots display in place • Carrying case • FCC Glass B Certified • One year limited parts/labor warranty • Toll-free technical support — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week MICROSOFT® WINDOWStm read/torun mmssM Charge it to your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express or Northgate Big'N' Card. w=~ COMPUTE/7 X0r« SVSTEMSJNC "When it has to work right" 7075 Flying Cloud Drive, Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344 \ Northgate ZXF Systems - Fast, Easy From the company ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by PC Magazine readers ! You need flexible, easy upgrades, quality, high performance, reliability and top rated service and support at reasonable prices. That's what Northgate delivers with our spectacular line of Elegance™ ZXP systems! Incredible Northgate flexibility! Take your pick of three cabinet styles, plus a complete range of LAN options. Best of all, every ZXP system comes with the level of service and support you won't find anywhere else. And that's not just our opinion . . . "Northgate earned the highest score for satisfaction with technical support among this survey's 35 desktop manufacturers . . . On satisfaction with technical support, Northgates 486-based desktops . . . received a significantly higher rating than those of the other 486 manufacturers: Compaq, Gateway 2000, IBM and Zeos." — PC Magazine, May 26, 1992 Do-it-yourself ease and convenience for any upgrade! The secret is our ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket. No prying, no pushing, no special tools needed to handle delicate chips. Simply release the lever and effortlessly lift out the old processor. Place your new processor in the socket and press the lever to lock it into place. Presto . . . incredible new speed! (You can even use the old processor to upgrade another ZXP system!) ©Copyright Northgate Computer Systems, Ine. 1992. All rights reserved. Northgate, Elegance, ZXP, and the Northgate 'N' logo are U.S. trademarks or registered U.S. trademarks of Northgate Computer Systems. 80486SX, 80486 and the Intel Inside logo are U.S. trademarks of Intel. QA Plus is a registered U.S. trademark of DiagSoft Corporation. MS-DOS, Windows and Microsoft are U.S. trademarks or registered U.S. trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other products and brand names arc U.S. trademarks and registered U.S. trademarks of their respective companies. Prices shown are in U.S. dollars and do not include shipping/handling charges or appropriate sales taxes. Offer and Unlimited 486 Upgradability! ZXP systems feature a unique zero insertion force socket that makes upgrading a snap! ZXP Systems Use Any Intel® 486 Chip! With Northgate ZXP systems, you can specify a 486SX/16 for your workstations. Later, upgrade to SX/25, DX/33, DX2/50 and Intel's DX2/66 when available. Our expert sales team will help you decide which configuration is best for your applications. Then, relax. Whatever your future needs turn out to be, Northgate has you covered. Upgrade options include hard drives up to 1.5GB, floppy drives, memory, the fastest video cards and more. Choose from three cabinet styles! Space-saving desktop case with seven expansion slots, a whisper- quiet 200 watt power supply and room for three exposed 5.25" half- height and two exposed 3.5" devices. Full-size desktop case with eight expansion slots plus space for three exposed and two internal 5.25" half-height devices. Tower case with a 220 watt switching power supply and eight expansion slots, plus space for three exposed and four internal 5.25" half-height devices. Elegance ZXP 486/33 Configuration • Intel 80486DX/33 processor • 4MB RAM; expands to 32MB • 64K cache • 120MB hard drive • 1.2MB 5.25" and 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drives • One 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion slots • Integrated IDE hard /floppy drive controller • 800 x 600 video card -, • One parallel and two serial ports • Space-saving desktop case • 14" SVGA color monitor; 1024 x 768 • Northgate 101 -S keyboard • MS-DOS® 5.0 and QBasic • Microsoft® Windows™ 3.1 and mouse • DiagSoft™ QA Plus™ system diagnostic/performance software • FCC Glass B certified Only $2649 Lease as low as £90. 60/mont/i a Service & Support That Stops The Competition Cold! Money-back guarantee! If you're not happy, return your system within 30 days for a full refund. One-year limited parts and labor warranty on your system, five full years on PC Magazine "Editors' Choice" OmniKey 9 keyboards. Second and third year system warranty plans also available. Overnight cross-shipment of replacement parts at our expense for one year. Unlimited toll-free technical support! We're here in person to meet your needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! 100% compatibility with industry-standard software and hardware! On-site service provided by NCR® during your warranty period. Extended on-site service coverage also available. MS-DOS 3.3, 4.01 or 5.0 and GW-BASIC or QBasic software installed and ready to run! DiagSoft™ QA Plus™ system/diagnostic software included. Other ZXP Systems Configured As Shown 486SX/16 s 2249 Lease as low as $83.21/ month* 486SX/20 g 2299 Lease as low as $85. 06 /month* 486SX/25 s 2399 Lease as low as $88. 76/month* 486DX2/50 s 2849 Lease as low as $97 .44/month* Novell Gold Authorized Reseller Calif or Charge it to your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express or Northgate Big 'N' Card. NO/7THGATE w= COMPUTE/7 XSF® SYSTEMS, MC "VWien it has to work right" 7075 Flying Cloud Drive, Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344 valid in the U.S. and Canada only. Prices and specifications subject to change without notice. Northgate reserves the right to substitute components of equal or greater quality or performance. .All items subject to availability. We support the ethical use of software. To report software copyright violations, call the Software Publishers Association's Anti-Piracy Hotline at 1-800-.W8-IMR8. 'Monthly lease payments are based on a 36-month standard, fair market value open-ended lease. 12-60 month leasing options available for qualified businesses. CODE B4208 154 BYTE • AUGUST 1 992 ILLUSTRATION: JAVIER ROMERO DESIGN, INC. ©1992 STATE OF THE ART REAL-TIME COMPUTING Real-time technologies are widening the scope of what we can control with computers JOHN A. STANKOVIC Real-time systems are those in which the correctness of the system depends not only on the logical re- sults of computation but also on the time at which the results are produced. Real-time systems range from simple microcontrollers to highly sophisticated, complex, distributed systems. They directly control much of what we depend on in our world. A cursory survey of famil- iar real-time systems might include the microcomputer con- trolling your automobile's engine; the process-control sys- tems that refine gasoline, manufacture medicines, bake bread, and generate electric power; and the flight-control systems in a modem airliner, the ATC (air traffic control) systems that guide it safely on its way, and the ticketing system that re- serves your seat. All these systems depend on real-time control. Real-time applications are growing in number, and so is our dependence on them. Because of this, it is important to un- derstand the current technology and its limitations and to de- vote significant effort toward improving the technology. Real-Time Systems Typically, a real-time system consists of a controlling sys- tem and a controlled system. For example, in an automated fac- tory, the controlling system is the computer and human in- terfaces that manage and coordinate activities on the factory floor. The controlled system is the factory floor itself, with its robots, assembly stations, and assembled parts. A controlling system interacts with its environment based on the information from various sensors and inputs. The real- world environment with which a computer interacts can be viewed as a controlled system. The information presented to the computer must be consistent with the actual state of the en- vironment, or the actions of the controlling system can be disastrous. This makes periodic monitoring of the environ- ment and timely processing of sensed information a must. Timing Is Critical The timing-correctness requirements of a real-time system arise from the system's role as a controller. For example, if the computer controlling a robot does not command it to stop on time, the robot might collide with something. In many real-time systems, severe consequences result if the timing and logi- cal-correctness requirements of the system are not satisfied. The most common timing constraints for tasks are either pe- riodic or aperiodic. An aperiodic task has a deadline by which it must finish or start, or it may have a constraint on both start and finish times. With a periodic task, a period might mean "once per period T" or "exactly T time units apart." Low-level application tasks, such as those that process in- formation obtained from sen- sors or that activate elements in the environment (through ac- tuators), typically have strin- gent timing constraints dictated by the physical characteristics of the environment. Most sen- sory processing is periodic. For example, a temperature monitor of a nuclear reactor core should be read periodically so that any changes can be detected promptly. Some of these periodic tasks may exist from the point of sys- tem initialization, while others may come into existence dy- namically. The temperature ex- ample is an instance of a per- manent task. An example of a dynamically created periodic task is a new flight entering an ATC region. The periodic task of monitoring a flight be- gins when the aircraft enters the ATC region and ends when the aircraft leaves the region. continued AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 155 Real-Time Computing BY JOHN A. STANKOVIC 154 The RTOS Difference BY KEVIN I. MORGAN 161 Real-Time Posix BY RICHARI MARLON STEIN 177 Objects in Real Time BY HARRIS KAGAN 187 Real Time Goes Home BYKENKAPLAN 195 Resource Guide: REAL-TIME OPERATING SYSTEMS 201 REAL-TIME COMPUTING More complex types of timing con- straints can also occur. For example, spray painting a car on a moving conveyer must be started after time Tl and completed be- fore time T2. Aperiodic requirements can arise from dynamic events such as an ob- ject falling in front of a moving robot or a human operator pushing a button on a con- sole. Time-related requirements can also be specified in indirect terms. For example, the value of completing a task can be spec- ified to increase or decrease with time. Similarly, an inexact but fast answer might be more valuable than a slow but accurate answer. In other situations, missing a* dead- lines might be admissible, but missing a+ 1 deadlines might be unacceptable. What happens when timing constraints are not met? The answer largely depends on the application. A real-time system that, say, controls a nuclear power plant or a missile cannot afford to miss timing con- straints on critical tasks. Resources need- ed for critical tasks in such systems have to be preallocated so that the tasks can exe- cute without delay. In many situations, however, some leeway does exist. For ex- ample, on an automated factory floor, if it is estimated that the correct command to a robot can't be generated on time, it may be appropriate to command the robot to stop or slow down (allowing more time to produce a correct command). In a real-time system, the characteris- tics of the various application tasks are usually known at the outset and might be scheduled statically or dynamically. Typ- ically, periodic tasks are specified stati- cally, and aperiodic tasks are specified dy- namically. When the periodic temperature monitor of the aforementioned nuclear re- actor senses a problem in the core, it can invoke another aperiodic task to activate the appropriate elements of the reactor to correct the problem (e.g., to force more coolant into the reactor core). In this case, the deadline for the aperiodic task can be BVTE ACTION SUMMARY Real-time applications bring the power of computers to bear in controlling much of the modern world. The optimized technolo- gies developed for these appli- cations are advancing and en- tering the mainstream. statically determined as a function of the physical characteristics of the reactions within the core. On the other hand, the deadline of a task that controls a robot on a factory floor can be determined dynam- ically depending on the robot's character- istics, such as its speed and direction. Accommodating Change In a statically scheduled real-time system, the characteristics of the controlled sys- tem are assumed to be known before the system is designed. Thus, the nature and sequence of the system's activities can be determined off-line before the system be- gins operation. Static systems are quite inflexible but are likely to achieve low run-time overheads. In practice, most ap- plications involve a number of compo- nents that can be statically specified along with many dynamic components. Most currently implemented real-time systems are static in nature, but next-gen- eration systems will have to adopt solu- tions that are more dynamic and flexible. This is because these systems will be large, complex, and physically distributed among different sites and will function in uncer- tain environments. More important, they will have to be maintainable and extensi- ble due to their likely need to evolve and their projected long lifetimes. Because of these characteristics, real-time systems in general need to be fast, predictable, reli- able, and adaptable. Real-Time Means Predictable One long-held misconception about real- time computing systems is that fast oper- ation is their only requirement. Speed is usually a necessary attribute, but a real- time system must also be able to meet ex- plicit deadlines. Being fast on average does not guarantee that a deadline will be met. If a real-time system can be shown to be able to meet its deadlines (using a worst- case rather than an average-case analysis), it is said to be predictable. Predictability has many meanings; for the purpose of this article, it means that when a task or set of tasks is activated, it should be possible to determine its com- pletion time, subject to failure assump- tions. This must be done taking into ac- count the state of the system (including the state of the operating system and the state of the resources controlled by it) and the tasks' resource needs. Characterizing Real-Time Systems Building a real-time system is a task that can range from simple to extremely com- plex. The difficulty depends on the sys- tem's characteristics. Five of the most im- portant characteristics are discussed below. Granularity of deadline and computa- tion time of tasks. In a real-time system, some tasks have deadlines or periodic tim- ing constraints. If the time that elapses be- tween the point when a task is activated (i.e., required to be executed) and the point when it must complete execution is short, then the deadline is tight and the granu- larity of the deadline is small. This im- plies that the operating system's reaction time has to be short and the scheduling al- gorithm to be executed must be fast and very simple. Tight time constraints may also arise when the deadline granularity is large but the amount of computation required is also great. In many real-time systems, tight tim- ing constraints predominate; therefore, de- signers must focus on developing fast and simple techniques to react to this type of task activation. In general, the tighter the deadline, the more difficult the design task will be. Strictness of deadline. This refers to the value of executing a task after its dead- line. There is no value in executing a hard real-time task after its deadline has passed. A soft real-time task retains some dimin- ished value after its deadline, so it should still be executed after that point. Differ- ent techniques are usually used for hard and soft real-time tasks. In many cases, hard real-time tasks are preallocated and prescheduled to ensure that all of them make their deadlines. Soft real-time tasks are often scheduled with non-real-time scheduling algorithms, with algorithms that explicitly address the timing con- straints but aim only at achieving a good average-case performance, or with algo- rithms that combine importance and timing requirements. Hard real-time tasks are more difficult to deal with than soft real- time tasks, and dealing with both types si- multaneously is even more difficult. Reliability. Many real-time systems op- erate under severe reliability requirements; that is, if certain tasks, called critical tasks, miss their deadlines, a catastrophe may occur. These tasks are usually guaranteed to make their deadlines by an off-line anal- ysis and by schemes that reserve resources for critical tasks, even if it means that those resources are idle most of the time. The requirement for critical tasks is that all of them should always make their dead- line (a 100 percent guarantee), subject to certain failure and workload assumptions. However, too many systems treat all tasks that have hard timing constraints as critical tasks when in fact only some are truly crit- ical. This can result in erroneous require- ments and an overdesigned and inflexi- ble system. It is also common to see hard real-time tasks defined as those of critical 156 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 REAL-TIME COMPUTING Safety by Formal Design RICHARD MARLON STEIN Software safety has become a paramount concern for many real-time applications, especial- ly those that depend on comput- ers to control their processes or prod- ucts. Medical instruments have become substantially more capable — and ex- pensive — because of the flexible diag- nostic power enabled by embedded computers and software. But these ma- chines that are intended to preserve life could go awry and end it (see "Com- puters Out of Control," February BYTE). In one tragic example, a radi- ation therapy machine, the Therac 25, fatally overdosed two people and seri- ously disabled several others because there was a bug in the dosage-editor- control software. To prevent mishaps like this, new techniques in software engineering must be developed. Formal methods of specification pioneered by the Pro- gramming Research Group at Oxford University present an attractive ap- proach to better software safety. A formal method is basically a math- ematical proof of design. The Pro- gramming Research Group devised the Z notation, a specification language based on set theory and first-order pred- icate logic to express a system's func- tionality. The specification's schemata embody mathematical descriptions of the individual requirements imposed on the system. A schema enumerates a precise mathematical proof of func- tionality that eliminates the ambigui- ties of the English language or graphi- cally based CASE tool-design philos- ophies. The rigors of mathematical log- ic and set theory are used to specify the detailed operation of the system, which can be proven right or wrong with the laws and axioms of mathematics. Formal specification methods are ex- traordinarily popular in the U.K. Many projects, including IBM's CICS (an on- line transaction processing program) and the Inmos transputer, were de- signed with formal methods; this ap- proach resulted in substantial savings during the testing and integration phases of each product's life cycle. For- mal methods have also been used to specify digital oscilloscopes and real- time operating-system kernels. Formal methods represent the an- tithesis of the ad hoc school of soft- ware engineering. One must undergo a multiweek training process to devel- op the skills needed to produce proba- bly correct schemata and acquire the ability to transliterate a specification into software. Industrial concerns are reluctant to switch to formal methods because of this training expense. Uni- versities that adopt formal methods as part of their computer science curricu- lum could offset this cost, however. Industry can gain from formal meth- ods in several ways: Product quality will improve; and software develop- ment costs will drop, since less time is spent patching software that is proven correct before the latter phases of the life cycle (e.g., code, integration, and testing) — where mistakes become pro- gressively more expensive to correct — are reached. Product liability and in- surance premium costs account for a substantial part of business decisions to build a system in the first place. A formal specification can be used to es- tablish proof of product correctness — that it behaves precisely as it should and thus absolves its developer from liability if it should fail under circum- stances outside the scope of its intend- ed use. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Bowen, Jonathan, and Victoria Stavri- dou. "Safety-Critical Systems, For- mal Methods and Standards." Ox- ford University Computing Lab- oratory Technical Report PRG-TR- 5-92. Available from the Program- ming Research Group ( 1 1 Keble Rd., Oxford 0X1 3QD, U.K.) or from the PRG librarian through Internet ad- dress library@comlab.ox.ac.uk. Ian J. Hayes, ed. Specification Case Studies. In the International Series in Computer Science. 2d ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1992. McDermid, John A., and Peter Why sail. Formal System Specifica- tion and Implementation UsingZ. In the International Series in Comput- er Science. 2d ed. New York: Pren- tice-Hall, 1992. Spivey, J. M. The Z Notation: A Refer- ence Manual. 2d ed. In the Interna- tional Series in Computer Science. 2d ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1992. Richard Marlon Stein is a freelance writer residing in Santa Clara, Cali- fornia. He can be reached via Internet at rms@well.sfca.us or on BIX do "editors. " importance with strict deadlines. It's im- portant to keep a clear separation between these notions because they are not always related. Size of system and degree of coordina- tion. Real-time systems vary considerably in size and complexity. In most of today's real-time systems, the entire system is load- ed into memory, or, if there are well-de- fined phases, each phase is loaded prior to its beginning. In many applications, sub- systems are highly independent of each other and there is limited cooperation among tasks. The ability to load entire sys- tems into memory and limit task interac- tions simplifies many aspects of building and analyzing real-time systems. But for large and complex next-genera- tion systems, having completely resident code and highly independent tasks is not always practical. Moreover, solutions can't be based on virtual memory because of the substantial unpredictability it causes. Increased system size and greater coordi- nation requirements give rise to many new problems and complicate the notion of pre- dictability. Environment. The environment in which a real-time system is to operate plays an important role in the system's design. Many environments (e.g., an automobile engine or an assembly line) are very well defined. Designers think of these as de- AUGUST1992 -BYTE 157 REAL-TIME COMPUTING terministic environments. Even though they may not be intrinsically deterministic, they are controlled. These environments give rise to small, static real-time systems where all deadlines can be guaranteed at the outset. Even in these simple environments, re- strictions on the inputs are needed. For ex- ample, if an assembly line that can cope with only five items per minute is given more than five, the system will fail. Taking this approach enables an off-line quanti- tative analysis of the timing properties. Since you know exactly what to expect given the assumptions about the environ- ment, you can usually design and build these systems to be predictable. The problem is that the approaches tak- en in relatively small, static systems do not work for larger, more complicated, and less controllable environments. Consider a next-generation real-time system such as a team of cooperating mobile robots on Mars. This system is large, complex, dis- tributed, and adaptive. It contains many types of timing constraints and needs to operate in a highly nondeterministic en- vironment and evolve over a long period of time. It is not possible to assume that this environment is deterministic or to control it well enough to make it look determinis- tic. This type of dynamic real-time sys- tem operating in a nondeterministic envi- ronment is required for many applications. But many new answers are required be- fore reliable and safe systems of this type can be built. Real-Time Operating Systems The operating system is the focal point for next-generation real-time systems (see 'The RTOS Difference" on page 161). It must provide basic support for predictably satisfying real-time constraints, fault tol- erance and distribution, and integrating time-constrained resource allocations and scheduling across a spectrum of resource types. These resource types include sen- sor processing, communications, CPU, memory, and other forms of I/O. Future developments in real-time oper- ating systems and kernels could simplify applications design, especially through more direct support for developing pre- dictable and fault-tolerant real-time appli- cations. One aspect of this support will be in the form of scheduling algorithms. For example, the design and analysis of real- time applications is simplified if the op- erating system can perform integrated CPU scheduling and resource allocation in a planning mode so that collections of co- operating tasks can obtain the resources they need at the right time to meet timing constraints. Further, if the operating system retains information about the importance of a task and what actions to take if the task is de- termined to be unable to meet its deadline, then a more intelligent decision can be made about alternative actions. In turn, graceful degradation of the performance of the system can be better supported rather than resulting in a possible catastrophic collapse of the system. Kernels that support A distributed real-time operating system must use an open-system approach. retaining and using semantic information about the application are sometimes re- ferred to as reflective kernels. Real-time kernels are also being ex- tended to operate in highly cooperative multiprocessor and distributed-system en- vironments. This means that there is an end-to-end timing requirement that in- cludes all processing and communications tasks. The distributed system must com- plete this set of tasks before a deadline (possibly with complicated precedence constraints). Directions for Distributed Systems Much research is being done on develop- ing time-constrained communication pro- tocols to serve as a platform for supporting user-level end-to-end timing requirements. The Mars project (see reference I), the Spring project (see reference 2), and a proj- ect currently under way at the University of Michigan (see reference 3) are all at- tempting to develop such protocols. The Mars project uses an a priori anal- ysis and then statically schedules and reserves resources so that distributed exe- cution can be guaranteed to make its dead- line. The Spring project's approach sup- ports dynamic requests for real-time virtual circuits (which have a guaranteed deliv- ery time) and real-time datagrams (i.e., packets of data that have a best-effort de- livery) integrated with CPU scheduling to guarantee the application-level end-to-end timing requirements. The Spring project uses a distributed replicated memory based on a fiber-optic ring to achieve the low- er-level predictable communications prop- erties. The work at the University of Michi- gan also supports dynamic real-time virtual circuits and datagrams, but this project is based on a general multi-hop communi- cation subnetwork (i.e., one that goes from one network to another). Research is also being done on devel- oping real-time object-oriented kernels to support the structuring of distributed real- time applications. Although no commercial products of this type are yet available, one company has developed this technology as a foundation for its distributed real-time control systems (see "Objects in Real Time" on page 187). Applications requiring predictable dis- tributed-systems technology differ widely. To handle this diversity, a distributed real- time operating system must use an open- system approach. It is also important to avoid having to rewrite the operating sys- tem for each application area with differ- ent timing and fault-tolerance require- ments. A library of real-time operating- system objects might provide the level of functionality, performance, predictabili- ty, and portability required. For example, a library of real-time scheduling algorithms should be available that can be selected depending on the run-time task model be- ing used and the load, timing, and fault- tolerance requirements of the system. Directions in Scheduling Recent research into real-time scheduling has been fruitful. Theoretical results have identified worst-case boundaries for dy- namic on-line algorithms, and complexity results have been produced for various types of assumed task-set characteristics. Queuing-theory analysis has been applied to soft real-time systems covering algo- rithms based on real-time variations of FCFS (first come, first served), earliest deadline, and greatest computation time. We have seen the development of schedul- ing results for imprecise computation, a situation where tasks obtain a greater val- ue the longer they execute up to some max- imum value. More applied scheduling re- sults have been produced with an extensive set of improvements to the rate-monoton- ic (i.e., deterministic) algorithm; these in- clude the deferrable-server and sporadic- server algorithms, techniques to address the problem of priority inversion, and a set of algorithms that perform dynamic on-line planning. We have also seen practical application of a priori calculation of static schedules to provide 100 percent guarantees for critical tasks. These guarantees are based on many 158 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Intel SatisFAXtion Modem/400 Married. With children. The traditional modem is a dying breed. And in its place comes a new generation of products. Introducing the Intel family of faxmodems — a combination of our award-winning modem technology and SatisFAXtion® Board that brings you a no-compromise modem and fax in one. All for about the price of a data modem alone. Our top-of-the-line product, the SatisFAXtion®Modem/400, is 50 percent faster than a traditional 9600bps modem. Plus it features unequalled fax capabilities. The Model 400e is the powerful external brother to the Model 400. And Models 200 and 100 are excellent values if you have less need for speed. So don't settle for just a modem. For the ultimate performance, features and compatibility only Intel can give you, tie the faxmodem knot now. Experience our no-obligation, 14-day Test Drive program. For the Intel Test Drive dealer nearest you, call 1-800-538-3373, ext. 63. ©1992 Intel Corporation. SatisFAXtion is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. For information faxed directly to you, call 1-800-525-3019 and ask for document 9990. For international inquiries, call 1-503-629-7354. In Europe, -(44-793-431 155. Circle 1 1 2 on Inquiry Card. intel REAL-TIME COMPUTING (oftentimes unrealistic) assumptions. If the assumptions are a poor match for the en- vironment (which is more likely in a dis- tributed environment), the system will miss deadlines with 100 percent guarantees. For all the scheduling results outlined above, the trend hasbeento deal with more complicated task sets and environmental characteristics. While many interesting scheduling results have been produced, there are only piecemeal solutions. Still required are analyzable scheduling ap- proaches that are comprehensive and in- tegrated. For example, an overall approach must be comprehensive enough to handle preemptable, nonpreemptable, periodic, and aperiodic tasks; tasks with multiple levels of importance (or a value function); and groups of tasks with a single deadline. The approach must also accommodate end- to-end timing, precedence, and placement constraints; communications, resource, and fault-tolerance requirements; tight and loose deadlines; and normal and overload conditions. Finally, the approach must be integrated enough to handle the interfaces between resource allocation and CPU scheduling, I/O scheduling and CPU scheduling, real-time communications scheduling and CPU scheduling, local and distributed scheduling, static scheduling of critical tasks, and dynamic scheduling of essential and nonessential tasks. Real-Time Architecture and Fault Tolerance Real-time systems are usually intended for specific purposes. In the past, architec- tures that supported such applications tend- ed to be special-puipose, too. The current trend is to use more off-the-shelf compo- nents to produce more generic architec- tures. For this article, I'll consider how architecture affects the computation of worst-case execution time and supports' fault tolerance. A program's worst-case execution time is dependent on the system hardware, the operating system, the compiler, and the programming language. Many hardware features that speed up the average-case be- havior of programs pose problems with regard to worst-case behavior. For in- stance, caches, pipelining, DRAMs, and . virtual memory lead to highly nondeter- ministic hardware behavior. Similarly, compiler optimizations tailored to make better use of these architectural enhance- ments contribute to poor predictability of code-execution times. Additional compli- cations include system interferences due to interrupt handling, shared memory ref- erences, and preemptions. Many real-time system architectures consist of multiprocessors, networks of uniprocessors, or networks of both unipro- cessors and multiprocessors. Such archi- tectures have the potential for high fault tolerance but are also difficult to manage so that deadlines are met predictably. Fault tolerance must be designed into the sys- tem from the beginning, encompass both hardware and software, and be integrated with timing constraints. In many situa- tions, the fault-tolerant design must be stat- ic due to extremely high data rates and se- vere timing constraints. Ultrareliable systems need to use proof - of -correctness techniques to ensure fault- tolerance properties. Primary and backup schedules computed off-line are often found in hard real-time systems. New ap- proaches are also being taken in which on- line schedulers predict when timing con- straints will be missed, enabling early action on such faults. Dynamic reconf ig- urability is needed, but little progress has been reported in this area. Also, while con- siderable advances have been made in the area of software fault tolerance, techniques that explicitly take timing into account are lacking. Since fault tolerance is difficult to achieve, the trend is to let experts build the proper underlying support for it. Some examples of primitives that support fault tolerance include the implementation of checkpointing, reliable atomic broadcasts, data logging, lightweight network proto- cols, synchronization support for replicas, and recovery techniques. Making these primitives available to applications sim- plifies the creation of fault-tolerant appli- cations. However, many of these tech- niques do not carefully address timing considerations or the need to be predictable in the event of a failure. The integration of fault tolerance and real-time scheduling can make a system more flexible. For example, the use of an imprecise computation model or a plan- ning scheduler gives rise to a more flexible approach to fault tolerance than static schedules and fixed backup schemes. New Trends and Technologies Building complex next-generation real- time systems will be difficult and require research advances in many aspects of sys- tem design and implementation. For ex- ample, good design methodologies and tools (see the text box "Safety by Formal Design" on page 157) that include pro- gramming rules and constraints must be used to guide real-time system develop- ers through subsequent implementation and analysis. This includes proper de- composition of an application into sub- systems and allocation of those subsys- tems within distributed architectures. The programming language used must provide features tailored to these rules and con- straints, limit its features to enhance pre- dictability, and provide the ability to spec- ify timing, fault tolerance, and other information for subsequent use at run time. The execution time of each primitive of the kernel must be bounded and pre- dictable, and the operating system should provide explicit support for all the re- quirements, including real-time require- ments. New trends in the operating-sys- tem area include the use of microkernels, support for multiprocessors and distribut- ed systems, and real-time threads. The architecture and hardware must also be designed to support predictability, fa- cilitate analysis, and provide for growth. For example, hardware should be simple enough so that predictable timing infor- mation can be obtained. And the resulting system must be scalable so it can meet ad- ditional computing needs as the system evolves. Research is required to address all these issues in an integrated fashion. To satisfy this need for systems integration, various centers for real-time computing have been established, such as CRICCS (Center for Real-Time, Intelligent, Complex Com- puter Systems) at the University of Mas- sachusetts-Amherst. Finally, although it is beyond the scope of this article, addi- tional research is currently focused on the development of real-time databases and real-time AI. ■ REFERENCES 1 . Kopetz, H., A. Damm, C. Koza, and M. Mulozzani. "Distributed Fault Tolerant Real-Time Systems: The Mars Approach." IEEE Micro, 1989, pp. 25-40. 2. Stankovic, J., and K. Ramamritham. "The Spring Kernel: A New Paradigm for Real-Time Systems." IEEE Software, vol. 8, no. 3, May 1991, pp. 62-72. 3. Shin, K. "HARTS: A Distributed Real- Time Architecture." IEEE Computer, vol. 24, no. 5, May 1991. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Stankovic, J., and K. Ramamritham. Hard Real-Time Systems, Tutorial Text. Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer So- ciety Press, 1988. Stankovic, J. "Misconceptions About Real- Time Computing: A Serious Problem for Next Generation Systems." IEEE Computer, vol. 21, no. 10, October 1988, pp. 10-19. John A Stankovic is a professor in the computer science department at the Uni- versity of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA). He can be reached on BIX c/o "editors. " 160 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 '3*H& Kv CURED Iff You're with a very important customer at a remote site. Bad time to discover that the file you need isn't on one of the 200 floppy disks in your brief case. You even brought your removable cartridge, but unfortunately your customer doesn't have that type of drive. You would have brought it on you're notebook, but you exceeded the limited capacity of your drive last year. Now there's only one thing left to do. Panic. Fortunately dataphobia is easily cured... with EasyStor. 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STATE OF THE ART/Real-TimeComputin THE RTOS DIFFERENCE Real-time applications make unyielding demands on an operating system, but proper design can deliver an operating system that's up to the challenge KEVIN D. MORGAN M any features found in today's op- erating systems are intended to improve a computer's average throughput rate. But by defini- tion, a real-time application's performance isn't measured by average execution rates; many literally pass or fail based on the time required for each execution of an algorithm or kernel service call. For ex- ample, consider a temperature-control al- gorithm that's overseeing a sensitive chem- ical process. If the algorithm executes within its predefined time limit every in- stance but once, and that one delayed ex- ecution allows the process to go exother- mal (i.e., run away uncontrollably), is the control system a successful design? Common operating-system features that spell high performance for general-pur- pose applications can spell failure for real- time applications. Factors that are key to understanding real-time operations include an understanding of RTOSes (real-time operating systems), how they differ from standard operating systems, how they're affected by common computer features, and how they're advancing. RTOSes Real-time computing applications require operations to complete in a fixed time pe- riod. The types of time-limited operations vary greatly, as does the degree of diffi- culty that a computer system may have in meeting its timing limits. And the conse- quences for failing to meet timing limits range from mere inconvenience, to sig- nificant financial losses, to the loss of hu- man life. Because of the broad scope of real-time computing, the attributes and design al- ternatives of RTOSes are very broad. In ILLUSTRATION: JAVIER ROMERO DESIGN. INC. © 1992 AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 161 Circle 85 on Inquiry Card. You can control any IEEE-488 (HP-IB, GP-iB, 488.2) device with our cards, cables and software for the PC/AT/386, EISA, Micro Channel and Macintosh II. Ypu get fast hardware and software support for all the popular languages, plus a software library of time saving utilities. Instrument control has never been easier. FREE Informative Catalog 8GQ-234-4CEC Applications help 617-273-1818 Capital Equipment Corp. Burlington, MA. 01803 Micro Channe! it a trademark of IBM this article, I'll examine these attributes and design alternatives, take a detailed look at some of the unique and techno- logically advanced aspects of RTOSes, and explore the interplay of real-time re- quirements with state-of-the-art hardware designs. Attributes of RTOSes RTOSes can usually be characterized as having unique requirements in five gen- eral attribute areas: determinism, respon- siveness, user control, reliability, and fail- soft operation. Detenninism is the tendency of a system to perform an operation in a well-defined, or "determined," time period. A fully de- BVTE ACTION SUMMARY A computer must have an opti- mized operating system to per- form real-time applications. Knowing how these operating systems affect real-time per- formance is critical to under- standing such applications. terministic system performs operations in the same amount of time, every time, in- dependent of surrounding conditions. Con- versely, a fully nondeterministic system is one for which operation times have no guaranteed upper boundary. All operating systems, including RTOSes, exhibit behavior that is less than fully deterministic; one of the key char- acteristics of RTOSes is their degree of deterministic behavior. The maximum amount of time a high-priority device in- terrupt is delayed from interrupting the computer system is called the IACKL (in- terrupt acknowledgment latency). A non- real-time operating system may have a long IACKL — in the range of tens or even hundreds of milliseconds — while an RTOS's IACKL will typically have an up- per boundary of anywhere from a few mi- croseconds to a millisecond. Note how the difference in determinism between an RTOS and a non-real-time operating sys- tem is largely a matter of degree. This is true of every characteristic of real-time systems. Responsiveness is the ability of a system to respond quickly to an event. Because a synchronous event (e.g., a process send- ing a message to another process) induces a well-defined series of operations whose speed is important to the performance of any computer system, responsiveness to synchronous events is usually not a key THE RTOS DIFFERENCE difference between real-time and non-real- time systems. Asynchronous events — in particular I/O interrupts — are the area in which real-time systems have more strin- gent requirements. Interrupt response times have several important components. The first is the maximum amount of time the acknowl- edgment of an interrupt can be delayed; this attribute is more properly considered a component of determinism. The second component is the amount of time required to initially handle the interrupt and begin execution of the ISR (inteirupt service rou- tine). This time is dependent on the type of the ISR; if the ISR involves a user task, and hence a context switch, then the max- imum delay time to initiate and then per- form the context switch becomes a signif- icant response factor. The third component is the amount of time needed to actually service the interrupt. The fourth compo- nent is the effect of nested interrupts on the system's response time. Interrupt nest- ing occurs when one interrupt occurs, fol- lowed by further interrupts, prior to com- pletion of the first. The degree to which a system allows and handles interrupt nest- ing affects deterministic behavior and re- sponsiveness. Response time — I/O interrupt response time in particular — is critical for real-time systems because they must meet real clock- time requirements imposed by individu- als, devices, and data flows that are exter- nal to the computer system. The RTOS interacts with and/or controls external sys- tems via I/O. Hence, I/O responsiveness and determinacy of I/O operations are key characteristics of real-time computing sys- tems. User control in a general-purpose time- sharing operating system is limited so that the operating system can be designed to provide specific services with their own attributes of fairness and response times. Such operating systems include some de- gree of user control, such as which class- es of users are to be given preferential treatment. But the operating system makes the final decisions about which processes to run now or later, which I/O to perform now or later, and so forth. The operating system makes these decisions to balance individual service requests with attainment of overall performance objectives, which are usually measured in terms of through- put (i.e., jobs completed per unit time) and interactive responsiveness. An RTOS gives ultimate control of the system's behavior to the user. The user may actually be a restricted set of the sys- tem's total user community, but that "user" has a broad set of capabilities for control- ling system behavior. 162 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Circle 86 on Inquiry Card. THE RTOS DIFFERENCE This user controllability starts with the concept of fixed, user-specified priorities for task execution. This is not the only scheduling policy that a real-time system may provide, but it's the most common. The system's letting the user specify the relative priorities of tasks allows the user to specify throughput and/or responsive- ness goals for the system on a much finer basis than a "do the best you can overall" request. For example, the tasks that ac- quire data from a jet engine test system can be given high priority to avoid the loss of incoming data, while the processing of that data can be given a lower priority. User controllability does not stop with task prioritization; it extends to every area of the system. A real-time system will al- low the user to specify such characteristics as the use of paging or process swapping, what processes must always be memory resident, what disk transfer algorithms are to be used, what rights the processes in various priority bands have, and so on. Frequently, real-time systems give users privileged capability — that is, the right for a user process to switch into privileged mode, the mode that's strictly forbidden to any process in a time-sharing system except the kernel itself. This allows a user process to do such things as turn off the entire interrupt system to ensure that a time-critical operation executes without losing control of the CPU and violate memory-protection mechanisms in order to do high-performance data transfers di- rectly to a memory-mapped I/O device or some other process. The right of a user process to switch into privileged mode is one of the few attributes that do not exist in a non-real-time system; it provides the ul- timate in user control. Reliability in an RTOS means that the system can run continuously for extend- ed periods — frequently years — without failure. Almost all personal computer users have had their computers hang up on them; after a quick reboot to solve the problem, they simply grumble and go on working. But a real-time system failure that requires a reboot is likely to be catastrophic, be- cause real-time systems frequently con- trol real-world systems. Losing control of processes in a manufacturing plant can cost millions of dollars; losing control of processes in a fly-by-wire airplane can cause loss of human life. Reliability in an RTOS also means en- suring that critical real-time processes are able to execute by letting them preallocate all required resources. Resource depletion by non-real-time processes cannot be al- lowed to cause the application's real-time requirements to go unmet. Fail-soft operation is a concept that re- u* Provides from 2 to 128 Mbytes of fast memory. *> Works in 16 or 32 bit mode to meet your needs. u* Provides extended and expanded memory. i<* Fast software and hardware for LDM 4.0 included. V Automatic configuration for DOS, OS/2 and UNIX. *"* Easy to install/Risk free guarantee. Two year warranty. V Add a disk cache and RAM disk using OSfRAM32plus to get maximum performance from your computer. i<* Free up low memory by moving your drivers and TSR's to OS/RAM32p/«s. We guarantee compatibility! Call today 617-273-1818 or 1-800-234-4CEC Capital Equipment Corp. Burlington, MA. 01803 PS/2 and Micro Channel are trademarks of IBM suits from applying fallible computer sys- tems to mission-critical applications. All computer systems, even those with re- dundancy and f ailproof software, some- times fail. A modern operating system, such as a standard Unix system, will per- form a panic operation when it detects a corruption of data within the kernel. The panic operation causes a failure message to print out on the system console, may dump the memory contents to disk for later fail- ure analysis, and terminates execution of the system. An ideal real-time system, on the other hand, will never perform a panic opera- tion. Instead, when a kernel data corruption is detected, steps are taken to either correct or minimize the problem. The user (or a user surrogate, such as a specific user pro- cess) is notified of the failure. The system continues executing, possibly with some degradation of performance or degree of overall service. The notified user process can then take appropriate steps at an ap- plication level. These can range from im- mediate shutdown of the entire system in a graceful manner to bringing a backup system on-line or sounding an alarm. This type of behavior is referred to us fail -soft operation. Another characteristic fail-soft require- ment for RTOSes is file system consis- tency and data integrity during a system failure, crash, or power-down. The Unix method of write-back disk caching is fre- quently incompatible with the require- ments of a real-time system, because it makes it difficult to guarantee that no data will be lost if system operations terminate for any reason; data written to the cache but not transferred to disk will be lost if the system crashes. These five attributes are the key areas of difference between a real-time system and a non-real-time system. The actual attribute values of an RTOS are determined by the design choice made by its developers; I'll explore these choices next. Design Alternatives for Real Time RTOSes vaiy widely in their organization, models of computation, feature sets, and al- gorithms. They range from single-task, dedicated control systems in which all I/O is performed via polling and the kernel size is only a few hundred bytes to large Unix-style systems that claim to provide time-sharing services, transaction-pro- cessing capabilities, and real-time opera- tion. In this section I'll break down the key implementation alternatives for real- time systems so you can better understand, compare, and contrast the plethora of sys- tems that are branded "real-time." Design alternatives that significantly af- fect the unique attributes of RTOSes can be classified into six broad areas: memory model, tasking model, binding model, AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 163 THE RTOS DIFFERENCE PROTECTED-MEMORY MODEL Kernel code Kernel data Process 1 with personal computer and stack Process 2 with personal computer and stack — )■» Process 1 code Process 1 data — *- Shared data explicitly attached to by process 1 and process 2* 4* Process 2 code Process 2 data * Must be programmed to allow shared- memory access Figure 1 : The protected -memory model reserves protected data and code areas for each process. Provisions for sharing data between processes must be specially programmed. reentrancy model, interruptibility model, and degree of modularity. I'll look at each and also consider the most common com- binations of design choices. Memory Model There are two fundamental types of mem- ory model that can be used for an RTOS: a global address space with no protection between tasks, and separate address spaces with some form of protection between tasks. A global memory model is your only choice when the target CPU provides no protection facilities. Such processors are simple and inexpensive. But using a glob- al memory model with a processor that has extensive address space-protection facilities is a mismatch of software and hardware. Multitasking operating environments are frequently implemented using a glob- al address space with no protection. The advantage of this design is that task switch- ing can be performed more quickly due to the smaller amount of process state that must be saved and restored for each con- text switch (since there is no per-task ad- dress and protection information). And since all memory is equally accessible by all tasks, data sharing requires no special programming. In a task-protected envi- ronment, the use of shared memory be- tween tasks requires special requests to the operating system to create such shared areas. A drawback of the global memory mod- el is that it offers no protection between tasks. Errant reads or writes from a task are not trapped by protection hardware and may not appear as an overt defect until they are exposed by a change in the oper- ating environment after system deploy- ment. Additionally, the operating-system kernel itself is exposed to possible cor- ruption by the user tasks; a dynamic failure of a user task can cause complete system failure. But in a protected environment, the failing task alone would suffer a pro- tection violation and be signaled (and pos- sibly terminated) without affecting the en- tire system operation. Current commercial RTOSes usually fall clearly into one of these two models of memory management; a few offer a choice of either model. Tasking Model A real-time system design may utilize only a single thread of execution; in such a de- sign, there is no concept of multiple tasks or context switching between tasks. Such nontasking systems come in two flavors: one that allows interrupts and the execution of an ISR asynchronously from the exe- cution of the main system task, and one that does not allow for interrupts. The lat- ter performs all I/O on a polled, rather than an interrupt-driven, basis. A single-task, polled I/O system is high- ly specialized and usually developed from scratch for a specific repetitive operation. It has the advantage of being highly de- terministic and responsive. It is naturally coupled to a global-memory-model de- sign. DOS is a single-task operating. system that allows asynchronous ISR execution. Asynchronous ISRs are used to simulate true multitasking in such systems. How- ever, most modern RTOSes provide for true multitasking, if only because typical applications with real-time attribute re- quirements involve multiple parallel op- erations that are most easily mapped onto a multitask design. A feature related to the tasking model and the memory model for an RTOS is the provision of user-process- level threads, which I'll discuss later. Binding Model Multitasking RTOSes may be initially built by a user with a fixed number of tasks and a specific set of code for them to execute. Such a system is said to provide static binding. A system that allows a new task with new code to be created and loaded while the system is running provides dy- namic binding. Some RTOSes don't directly address the question of static versus dynamic bind- ing; in fact, they don't address the question of building a complete system environ- ment at all. These real-time kernels pro- vide a service for creating a new task, but what code that task executes and how it gets into memory is completely up to the system designer using the real-time ker- nel product. Other systems provide flexi- bility by allowing a static system to be prebuilt so that no dynamic loading need occur and by providing operating-system services that allow a new task, complete with task-specific code, to be loaded from an I/O device (e.g., a ROM or a disk) or from across a LAN. Statically bound systems are closely coupled with a ROM-based real-time ap- plication, such as an automobile engine controller. Dynamic binding is needed for more dynamic environments, such as a work-cell controller in a manufacturing environment where the specific jobs to be performed change over time. Reentrancy Model An operating system provides services for user tasks. Some of these services are in the form of code that's bound with the task itself; these are called libraries. Others are provided by the operating-system kernel and are invoked by a system call. The sys- tem-call operation changes the global sys- tem state from user mode to kernel mode. In a multitasking environment, a task can generally be stopped at any time and a different task executed instead. A kernel may or may not allow a task switch to oc- cur at any arbitrary time that a task is exe- cuting in kernel mode. If the system does allow this, then the newly executing task may in turn make a system call and execute in kernel mode (or it may stop while in kernel mode and start up again). A sys- tem that generally allows task switching out of a task executing anywhere in kernel mode is called a generally reentrant kernel. A system that only allows task switch- ing out of a task executing at specific points in kernel mode is known as a limit- ed reentrancy kernel. Reentrancy into a kernel must be controlled because a kernel 164 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Verbatim® tapes, optical and floppy disks. Your best defense against data loss, Circle 1 71 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 72). THE RTOS DIFFERENCE scans and manipulates global data struc- tures. These operations can fail — with catastrophic consequences — if two such operations are allowed to intermix due to context switching and kernel reentrance. A generally reentrant kernel still per- forms nonreentrant operations that must be protected from reentrancy. One of two techniques is used to accomplish this: Ei- ther context switching is temporarily dis- abled, or a semaphore is used to protect access to the data structure or critical code region by another process. Kernel reentrancy control is the prima- ry driver of a key real-time system per- formance metric known as CSL (context switch latency). CSL is the longest amount of time that the system can delay the initi- ation of a context switch to a new ready-to- execute task that is of higher priority than the currently executing task. If the cur- rently executing task is in kernel mode in a limited reentrancy kernel, then the current task must continue executing until a pre- emption point is reached — that is, a point where it is safe for the system to context- switch and allow the kernel to be reen- tered. The longest path between preemp- tion points then determines the CSL. In a generally reentrant kernel, the long- est code path for which context switching is disabled determines the CSL. However, if semaphores are used for controlling crit- ical region or data-structure access during critical operations, then a context switch may be allowed, but the newly activated process may make a system call that will end up blocking (i.e., delaying execution or going to sleep) because it needs access to the critical region. Thus, the CSL is re- duced, but a possible delay of the high- priority task is created; this, in turn, de- creases overall system determinacy. I'll explore this use of semaphores for criti- cal section management in a kernel more thoroughly later on. CSL is an important responsiveness characteristic any time that processing of I/O involves the execution of user tasks. Since I/O is normally bound for user tasks, which in turn process the data in some way and then do further I/O, CSL is an impor- tant characteristic of an RTOS. The original implementation of Unix and its evolutionary successors use a pre- emption-point approach toward managing kernel reentrancy and have a limited num- ber of preemption points (i.e., any time a process is blocked waiting for an event, the system allows a context switch to oc- cur). This approach means that the CSL can be extremely large, since kernel op- erations in standard Unix systems can take a long time. Early "real-time Unix" sys- tems addressed this problem by incorpo- rating more preemption points. More mod- ern Unix approaches include revamping the entire kernel to make it generally pre- emptible. These modern approaches are often coupled with making the Unix kernel suitable for symmetric multiprocessors, as general kernel reentrancy is also needed for high performance in these environ- ments. Most real-time kernels designed from the ground up for real-time opera- tions use a generally reentrant approach. Interruptibility Model A kernel might also be reentered due to the occurrence of an I/O interrupt. If an interrupt is handled by some form of task that requires a context switch in order to execute, then reentrancy due to an inteirupt is generally no different from kernel reen- N. othing is free; every optimization in one area imposes a cost in another area. trancy by tasks. If, as is frequently the case, I/O interrupts are handled by special ISRs that run not as tasks but as special han- dlers in an inteirupt mode, then reentrancy due to interrupts becomes a second type of reentrancy that the kernel must handle. One approach to interrupt-handler reen- trancy into the kernel is to simply shut off I/O interrupts any time the kernel is exe- cuting. This approach can work for ker- nels that are small or that have short paths of execution. However, most modern real- time kernels provide extensive services (e.g., LAN operations) that preclude us- ing such an approach. The typical approach to interrupt-han- dler reentrancy is two-pronged. First, the set of operations that can be performed by an ISR running in interrupt mode is limit- ed to a specific set. The kernel designer understands exactly what data structures will be scanned and/or manipulated by that set of services. Then, all scans or ma- nipulations of those data structures by code in the kernel in ways that cause simulta- neous access problems are protected by the CPU hardware's disabling of ac- knowledgment of I/O interrupts for the period of the operation. The maximum time that I/O interrupts are disabled is the IACKL, which, like the CSL, is a key per- formance characteristic of an RTOS. Modularity RTOSes serve in a wide variety of appli- cations and take many different forms to meet the specific needs of these applica- tions. As a result, an RTOS must have a high degree of modularity. While an RTOS may be designed to provide a fixed set of services, such a struc- ture limits its flexibility. For example, if a kernel must have a complete disk-based file system, then it is not suitable for a ROM-based application that requires no I/O other than, say, RS-232 interactions. A diskless workcell application that requires dynamic process loading requires an op- erating system that can have a LAN man- ager and a process loader structured into it, Determinacy and Caching Both RISC and CISC processor architec- tures make extensive use of data caching (which, for the purpose of this article, will refer to data and instructions) and caching of address translations to improve aver- age system performance. But in computer science, nothing is free; every optimiza- tion in one area imposes a cost in another area. Caching imposes a significant in- crease in the nondeterminism of CPU op- erations, an area of particular sensitivity for real-time applications. The general concept of a data cache is that of a small, high-speed (and costly) memory area that lies between a fast pro- cessor and the slower main-memory sub- system. When a byte or word of data in main memory is accessed by the processor, a contiguous memory area holding the data item is transferred into the cache. This contiguous memory area is called a cache line; the typical size of a cache line is 16 to 64 bytes. The cache line is preserved in the data cache in the likely event that fur- ther data from the same area of memory will be accessed soon. Typically, data cache accesses can be performed in a sin- gle processor cycle, whereas a main-mem- ory access causes delays in the range of two to 10 cycles. An address-translation cache (frequently called a translation look-aside buffer, or TLB) has the same function as the data cache, but instead of holding actual data, it holds information on how to translate a virtual address to a physical memory ad- dress. 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Distributors: Australia (07) 266-2270, Chile (02) 2235538, Czechoslovakia 632-62877, Denmark 42-88-72-49, Finland 47-871-201, France (1) 46-72-80-74, Germany (0511) 53-72-95/(030) 313-7015, Norway 211-0950, Singapore (02) 291-8151, Sweden (0) 660-192-90, UK (091) 4276430. THE RTOS DIFFERENCE USER-LEVEL THREAD MODI EL Kernel cads Kernel data Process 1 Thread 1A persons.! computer/stack Thread 1 B person al computer/stack Thread 1C persons.' computer/stack Process 2 Thread 2A persons! computer/stack Thread 2B persons.1 computer/stack Process 1 code Process 1 data Shared data explicitly attached to by process 1 and process 2 Process 2 code Process 2 data Figure 2: A system providing user-level threads is a protected-memory system in that it protects each process and the kernel, but it allows a process to contain multiple thread* of execution. The threads executing within a process have immediate shared access to all global data within the process. time. TLB misses can be far more costly than cache misses and can require many CPU cycles to look up and fetch the re- quired data from memory. The data- acid address-translation caches dramatically improve average CPU exe- cution rates by reducing the number of times the CPU must wait for a main-mem- ory access. Bit. as discussed earlier, the performance of a real-time application is frequently measured not by average exe- cution rates but by the time of each in- stance of the execution of an algorithm or kernel service call. Data and address cache misses may cause the execution time to vary by as much as a factor of 20. Block TLBs The processor implementations of today, such as the Mips R4000 and the Hewlett- Packard 7100, provide block-translation facilities to allow the operating-system de- signer to minimize nondeterminism due to address-translation cache misses. TLB entries usually translate on a page basis (typically 2-KB to 16-KB pages); the high bits of an address select the virtual page and are translated to a physical page, while the low bits select the bytes or words with- in the page. The CPU assumes that indi- vidual pages are contiguous in physical memory, but the virtual-address-transla- tion function allows contiguous virtual pages to be scattered in physical mem- ory. Shifting contiguous page location from physical to virtual memory simpli- fies memory management for the operat- ing-system designer. With a block-translation facility, units of contiguous physical memory larger than a single page are translated by a single block TLB entry. The first and most im- portant use of such a facility is to map all the code in the kernel using a single block entry, thereby eliminating all data-address- translation cache misses for kernel code. Doing this requires that the kernel code be physically contiguous in memory, but since RTOSes always have fully mem- ory-resident kernels, this requirement is easily fulfilled during system boot-up. The next logical use of block TLBs is for map- ping as much of the kernel data areas as possible to minimize address-translation cache misses on kernel data accesses. Since kernel data can be dynamically allocated and deallocated, managing this data be- comes more difficult and is exacerbated by the frequent restrictions on the place- ment and size of the contiguous memory block to be mapped by the block TLBs. Finally, a real-time system can provide a program-execution mode wherein the program is loaded contiguously into main memory and mapped with block TLBs. Again, memory management complexity is increased due to the need to find or cre- ate contiguous free memory areas for pro- gram loading, but the benefit in increased execution determinism more than out- weighs this cost. Real-time kernels that use block TLB services and provide these services to programs will be very popular in the 1990s. User-Level Threads All modern RTOSes provide multitask- ing; they differ in the type of memory model used. Some provide a global-mem- ory model, where all processes have im- mediate and implicit access to all loaded code and data. In this model, data and code sharing is automatic, programming is sim- plified, and task-switching times may be reduced. The operating-system kernel in such a system is usually not protected from user tasks. Other RTOSes provide a protected- memory model that defines for each pro- cess its own data and code areas that are protected from other processes (see figure 1). In this model, the operating-system kernel is similarly protected from user pro- cesses, and system calls occur only through controlled gateways, usually using special instructions that either cause a trap or change privilege levels and possibly jump. Modern systems can provide the best of both worlds via user-level threads. Such a system is first and foremost a protected- memory-model system; each process is protected, as is the kernel itself (see figure 2). But in a system with user-level threads, a process may contain multiple threads of execution; each thread has its own private program counter and stack, and hence its own flow of execution through the pro- cess code and its own state. The multiple threads executing within a process have the advantage of immediate shared access to all global data within the process. This eliminates the need for special program- ming for shared-memory access, which is a drawback of protected-memory-model systems. At the same time, different pro- cesses can be used where data protection is needed for security or reliability reasons. Thus, the user-level thread programming model allows an application to be parti- tioned into discrete sets of data and threads that act on the data, with protection be- tween the sets. The tasking facility in Ada is based on a thread concept. In the past, Ada was im- plemented on multitasking systems such as standard Unix by having an Ada run- time module at the process level that, with- in the single-threaded-process model sup- ported by the Unix kernel, would create multiple threads of execution to support multiple Ada tasks. The kernel itself would view the entire Ada module as a single process with a single program counter and stack; the Ada run-time module would ef- fectively create multiple program coun- ters, stacks, and threads of execution with- in the process. The big drawback of this implementation was that any time a sin- gle Ada task initiated a blocking I/O op- eration (e.g., a disk read), the Unix kernel would block the process, which in turn would block every Ada task. 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ASr markets products worldwide, for more information call AST International on (7U) 727-9292 or FAX to (714) 727-85H5 AST is a supplier to US government agencies, enerai Service Contract Number CSOOK9UQS6064 AST, ASr logo and Premium registered and Cupid-32, Cupid-32 logo trademarks AST 1 lescarch, Inc file Intel Inside I.agoisa trademark of Intel Corporation All other brand and product namesare trademarks or registered trademarks oftiu-ir respective companies Copyright © 1992 AST Research, Inc All rights reserved jfi^'^iiii' ■ _ . . ~W L V A COMPUTER The Power Of Choice Circle 73 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 74). THE RTOS DIFFERENCE time systems) are increasingly supporting user-level threads within the kernel itself. In such systems, a thread — not a process — is the object that the kernel schedules and switches to, as well as the object that can block I/O or an inteiprocess communica- tion facility (e.g., a semaphore or a mes- sage-queue read). This type of system has substantial ben- efits for real-time applications. Since the kernel deals with threads directly, each thread can have its own independently de- finable user priority and can independent- ly block without affecting the continued execution of other threads. The concept of user-level threads presents a significant new application-programming model in which a global-memory model and a pro- tected-memory model are blended togeth- er to allow the best of both worlds. Reentrancy Control with Semaphores Reentrant kernels frequently use kernel- level semaphores to control access to crit- ical code regions. An example of a critical code region is code that is doing an insert operation on a linked list that is itself a global data structure used by many areas of the kernel. An attempt to delete a list item for which the delete operations become interleaved with the insert operations due to process preemption (based on priori- ties) and kernel reentrancy can be disas- trous. A typical approach to this access- control problem is to attach a semaphore to the linked-list data structure and require any code that performs list operations to first lock the semaphore and then unlock it when complete. In this way, each list op- eration is guaranteed to complete before the start of a new operation. In a real-time system, such an approach can lead to subtle but significant response- guarantee problems. Consider a case in which process A, running at priority 10, has locked a list semaphore and is per- forming a list insert when a disk I/O- completion interrupt occurs. The disk driv- er ISR wakes up the waiting process B, which is at priority 20 (in this case, 20 is more important than 1 0). The kernel, being preemptible, instead of returning to the in- terrupted process A, switches immediate- ly to the more important and now exe- cutable process B, which then executes a system call. During the course of performing this system service for process B, the kernel needs to perform an operation on the list that process A was using. An attempt to lock the semaphore fails because A has it locked. B is put to sleep until the list semaphore is unlocked. The system now switches back to process A, which con- tinues its list operations. Under ideal con- ditions, it will complete its operation and unlock the semaphore, which will awaken process B. The system will switch back to B, which can then lock the semaphore and continue its operation. In this scenario, the highest-priority pro- cess, process B, is context-switched to im- mediately by the kernel. However, it is un- able to accomplish its task due to resource locking by a lower-priority process. Hence, a first-order concern for an RTOS design- er using a preemptive kernel model must be the number and length of times for which resources are locked in order to per- form any system service. Note that a sys- tem may have excellent response charac- teristics in terms of starting the execution of a newly awakened highest-priority pro- cess, but it may frequently allow that pro- cess to be delayed in a busy environment. T he frequency of use of data structures is highly application- dependent. RTOS designers must consider an even more subtle and dangerous condition that can occur in the above scenario. Consider what happens if, after A starts execution again after B has blocked on the sema- phore, another I/O completion interrupt occurs, this time waking process C at pri- ority 15. Because A is less important than C, a switch to C occurs immediately. Pro- cess B (which has priority 20) is now ef- fectively waiting for process C (which has a lower priority) and will continue to wait until process C gives up the CPU of its own accord. This problem is called priority inver- sion; its solution is known as priority in- heritance. With priority inheritance, the owner of a locked resource temporarily inherits the priority of any requester of the resource. It is easy to see why from the above scenario. Process B, at priority 20, needs process A, at priority 10, to com- plete its operation involving a locked re- source that process B needs. Hence, by having process A inherit B's priority of 20, the system doesn't allow an interme- diate-level priority process (e.g., C at 15) to preempt A and hence delay B. The priority-inversion solution presented here is simple, but the implementation can be quite complex when requirements for nested locked resources are considered. A semaphore- lock alternative that avoids this complexity is to disable context switch- ing for the duration of a critical (i.e., non- reentrant) operation. One trade-off in- volved is that a context switch-off period can delay any switch, regardless of whether the target process will use the data structure undergoing a nonreentrant operation. The proper design approach will use a context- switch disabler for frequently used data structures, and semaphore locks for infre- quently used data structures. But before you assume this to be a simple answer, re- member that the frequency of use of data structures is highly application-dependent. Alternative Scheduling Policies Real-time systems generally present to the application designer a programming mod- el involving fixed, application-specific pri- orities. The only semantic content of these priorities is a specification of how the CPU should be allocated, assuming that more than one process can be executed. Application designers must map the time-behavior requirements of their ap- plications into this programming model, when in fact the real world is not orga- nized into such definite terms as "A is more important than B, which is more im- portant than C." A may actually be more important than B unless A cannot be per- formed in time, in which case B becomes more important and A should not be per- formed at all. The classic example of this is when there are two alternatives to solving a prob- lem of significance — for example, main- taining control of a half-ton steel rod trav- eling at 50 mph in an automated steel mill. Data on its position and velocity must be computed and outputs generated to keep the rod on the proper track. If the overall algorithm can be accomplished on time, it is the most important task. If it cannot, a shutdown program must take precedence to prevent complete loss of control. Problems described in terms of time needed to complete requirements lie in the realm of deadline scheduling, a scheduling policy for multiple processes in which each process is described in terms of value func- tion over time, and the value of a result increases over time to a maximum and then decreases. A problem in which the value of the result goes to zero abruptly at a certain point is referred to as a hard real-time problem, while one in which the 170 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 \-*',..i" v it *:^r ( it/ '^■rV^V^itfif /• > ■ ■ '" \ v The new TI TravelMate ™ 4000 family* Ifour windows to the- future. {now you can step up tc REWTo-Ri-N . grated /Windows™ i^,,, and DOS* 5,0. Introducing the TI TravelMate 4000 notebook computers — ready for todays applications and those of tomorrow. , ' y Choose from three models' to> : j meet your needs. They all feature an ' enhanced 10" diagonal VGA display, plenty of memory and storage, and four to five hours of typical battery life. Plus the new TM4000 notebooks mea- WinPX are trademarks tti rion. 486. 486SX; 386SLa TM4000WmS\™/l6 f I6MH2* Pre-installcJ >: ; 4MB-8MBRAM /Windows 3.1 and i 80MB HDD TravdPoint 1 * poi I DOS 5.0 intingdeviu 'TM4000WinSX/2S 486SX 25MHz Pre-installed '4MB-20MSRAM Windows 3.1 and DOS 5.0 1 20MB H D D Travel Poi nt poi nting device TM4OO0WinDX™/25 486DX 2 5 MHz Pre-installed 4MB-20MB RAM Windows 3.1 and DOS 5.0 1 20 M B H D D Travel Po i n t noi n tt nc device under 5.6 lbs. (including battery). All this at a surprisingly affordable price and with ample perto A\ into the future. >r more information and the name of a dealer near you, call 1-800-527-3500. ^ Texas Instruments I Inside lnyu are trademark* ot Intel C "orpin Circle 1 68 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 19 on Inquiry Card. Just Add Code F77L EM/32 32-bit protected-mode Fortran Your Fortran code is important. Trust it to the company that has been writing award-winning Fortran language systems for 25 years. (800) 548-4778 Lahey t'rimimlerSyMriiiN, hit- %S Fortran is our forte (702) 831-2500 ■ Fax: (702) 831-8123 ■ P.O. Box 6091 ■ Incline Village NV 89450 &P? PRICES HARD MEET - SERVICE HARD TO BEAT! World Wide Inquiries Promptly Filled THE RTOS DIFFERENCE value of a result goes to zero gradually over time is referred to as a soft real-time problem. The role of the deadline scheduler is to schedule processes so that no process completes with a zero-value result and the overall set of values is maximized. To perform deadline scheduling, the scheduler must know the completion val- ue over time and the resource (i.e., CPU and I/O) load and execution time require- ments for every process in the system. Deadline scheduling is a reality in the world of the real-time-application devel- oper. The classic approach to ensuring that a task with a serious deadline (e.g., loss of the steel rod in the example above) is ac- complished within the time budget is to overdesign the system, usually through the use of dedicated computational power. The problem of monitoring whether the sys- tem is going to complete on time, along with the problem of specifying exactly what the value of completion over time is to the operating system, is avoided. Deadline scheduling is proving to be a useful technology in the world of human interfaces and multimedia systems. Such systems have limited computational pow- er, because users are willing to spend only limited amounts of money on specialized multimedia-processing hardware. But these systems are asked to perform a large num- ber of tasks, regardless of whether they can accomplish all of them effectively. As a result, multimedia systems require that the system designer either make a priori judgments of the values of solutions over time or provide the user with a method to specify these time/value functions. For ex- ample, is receiving an incoming fax mes- sage without error more or less important than responding quickly to a user request for the display of a graphical image? At what point does minimizing further delay of an image display outweigh handling the incoming fax? A simple relative task-pri- ority specification mechanism will proba- bly not suffice (i.e., "always do displays before handling incoming data, regardless of loss of transmitted data"), unless failures due to overloading are uncommon. Multimedia systems, an increasingly popular type of real-time system, are like- ly to drive deadline schedulers into the mainstream in the 1990s. Deadline sched- ulers will ensure that multimedia systems meet their users' needs based on what these users define as the value functions for their systems' tasks. ■ Kevin D. Morgan is an RTOS software de- velopment manager at Hewlett-Packard in Cupertino, California. You can reach him on Internet at kmorgan@cup.hp.com or on BIXc/o "editors." 172 BYTE 'AUGUST 1992 Circle 153 on Inquiry Card. WE'RE LOWERING OUR STANDARDS Just a few dollars more moves you up to Sound Blaster Pro Basic. With stereo sound, 7 software titles, 20 voice capacity and CD-ROM interface, it's the number one choice for multimedia. It'll even play your music CDs. NOW JUST $229. Sound Blaster™ is the PC sound standard, and its new low price makes it sound better than ever. Its great quality sound, multiple source sampling and text-to-speech capa- bility makes ordinary computer games anything but kidstuf f . NOW JUST $149. Visit your computer retailer or call us today at 1 800 998-LABS. Sound Blaster Pro ratchets the standard up one more notch with all of the above, plus a complete MIDI kit with adaptor and sequencer and even more soft- ware. So it can handle everything from Fugues to Funk. NOW JUST $299. SOUND BLASTER CREATIVE LABS. INC. Sound Blaster is a trademark of Creative Labs, Inc. All other marks are owned by their respective companies. ©1992 Creative Labs, Inc. All rights reserved. Circle 1 87 on Inquiry Card. THE MOST POWER / A' M 4* VI , A* ■>*■ ,\m &k 1 i* v -» V* ia «\* ' V* A* " ,\* ) 1991 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. The Intel Inside logo is a trademark oflniel Corporatk FUL 486SX. GOING. TOSHIBA Behold the ne wToshibaT4400SX notebook— the first 486SX computer to offer all the power and performance of a desktop computer while freeing you from the tyranny of the nearest electrical outlet. For starters, the T4400SX offers a 25 MHz 486SX microprocessor with 8Kinternal cache, upgradable to a full 486DX. Plus an 80 or 120 MB hard drive and standard 2 MB RAM, expand- able to 18 MB. TheT4400SX And for added expandability and connectivity, there are built-in parallel, serial, video, keypad/board, mouse and bus expansion ports. There's even Sales by Regie If you choose the 9.5" diagonal LCD display, you get the versatility of 64 gray scales as well as high-resolution 640x480 VGA on theblack and white ultra thin screen. You can use our credit card- sized memory modules to expand standard 2MB RAM to 18MB for added speed and multi-tasking capabilities. is the only notebook computer that offers a high-speed Gas Plasma screen, which means no mouse blur. And its 100:1 contrast ratio delivers seven times the contrast of a typical LCD display. Or if you prefer, you can choose our 9.5"diagonal LCD display, the most state-of-the-art LCD available, with uncompromising clarity from the black and white ultra thin screen. Both offer a 640x 480 VGA high- resolution display as well as the graphic versatility of 16 gray scales for the gas plasma screen ^ *~J r and 64 gray scales for the LCD screen. a dedicated modem slot for an optional internal cellular-ready, 9600 bps fax or standard modem. All that in an ultra-strong 11.7 "Wx 8.3" D x 2.2" H carbon fiber-reinforced case weighing only 725 lbs that fits into half a briefcase. If youd like to know more about the T4400SX notebook computer, or any On those occasions when you're actu- ally at your desk, you can plug your T4400SXinto ' our optional Desk- Station IV with all standard desktop hard- For familiarity and ease ware connec- tions and ex- pandability. r of use, theT4400SX has a full- function keyboard with standard size keys and key spacing. The Nickel Cadmium bat- tery provides more than 3.5 hours of computing power. Our AutoResume feature allows you to shut down and start up precisely where you left off. of our full line of Toshiba portables, call us at 1-800-457-7777 We 11 send you information that can lead to only one conclusion about desktop computers: Going. Going. Gone. In Touch with Tomorrow TOSHIBA Circle 1 70 on Inquiry Card. THIS IS WHAT A MASSACRE LOOKS LIKE IN THE WORLD OF APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT. DATAPRO DBMS USER SURVEY PROGRESS SOFTWARE SYBASE INFORMIX INGRES FOCUS ORACLE ATTRIBUTES Reliability. 9.3 8.7 8.9 8.1 7.7 8.8 EaseofUse 9.1 82 8.2 7.9 7.9 7.4 Ease of Install/Upgrade 8.9 8.0 8.8 7.1 8.1 7.6 Price/Perform Return 9.1 8.3 8.5 7.5 8.1 7.1 FUNCTIONALITY Flexibility 9.1 8.8 8.6 9.0 8.4 8.6 Interface Capabilities 8.9 8.9 8.4 8.7 8.7 8.0 Comprehensiveness 9.1 8.8 8.8 8.3 8.7 8.7 User Friendliness 8.9 7.7 8.3 7.9 7.5 7.3 OS Compatibility 9.6 8.4 8.9 9.1 8.8 9.0 PRODUCT SUPPORT Documentation 9.0 8.2 8.6 5.7 6.2 7.3 Vendor Training 6.7 7.9 8.0 7.2 7.6 8.0 Problem Response Time 6.8 7.5 7.2 6.1 6.4 6.7 Quality of Vendor Support 9.0 7.8 7.5 6.4 6.9 7.0 Frequency of Releases 8.5 7.5 6.7 7.2 7.7 7.2 Response toUser Request 8.8 7.5 7.8 7.0 7.0 7.3 Overall Satisfaction 9.3 8.7 8.5 8.3 8.0 7.9 VARBUSINESS DBMS REPORT CARD PROGRESS ASHTON- SOFTWARE INFORMIX ORACLE TATE INGRES PRODUCT FEATURES Ease of use 9.02 7.07 6.00 6.19 5.90 Memory requirement 7.37 6.16 4.25 6.19 5.22 Ease of programming 9.03 7.09 6.06 6.20 5.90 Ability to manipulate data 9.19 7.41 7.44 6.81 5.67 Sorting capabilities 9.02 7.44 7.69 6.65 5.78 Provision for software security 8.56 6.93 7.28 5.07 5.78 Reportwriting capabilities 8.39 6.72 6.59 5.71 4.11 Ease of use of interface 8.51 7.05 6.15 6.10 6.10 Software integration capabilities 8.34 7.26 7.24 6.27 6.10 Ease of data retrieval 9.08 7.68 7.66 6.61 6.11 Satisfaction with product profitability 8.26 7.04 6.22 5.58 5.13 Overall quality of product 8.94 7.37 6.69 6.32 5.44 Product Features Average 8*64 7.10 6.61 6.14 5.60 SUPPORT FEATURES Provision for customer support 7.74 5.98 5.76 5.77 5.50 Charges for training time 4.49 4.59 5.64 4.56 Provision for technical support 5.76 5.72 5.87 5.22 Provision for marketing support 6.89 5.88 6.09 6.13 3.80 Documentation & product information 8.74 6.73 6.56 6.45 5.56 Frequency of updates & revisions 8.35 5.88 6.34 5.57 5.00 Support Features Average 7.73 5.79 5.84 5.90 4,94 Overall Average 8.34 6.66 6.35 6.06 5.38 C1991 VARBUSINESS Softwate Report Card repnnied with per mission. ■I Rated on everything from performance and reliability Also, Progress becomes the first product ever to to service and support, Progress trounces all of its capture all 18 categories of the Varbusiness Report Card, competitors in the 1991 Datapro user surveys and the Racking up9's in five categories, where no one else even 1991 Varbusiness Software Report Card. gets an 8. Anywhere. So, if you're con- Topping the Datapro surveys for PflC jflnnSi S sidering a 4gl/rdbms for building the fourth year in a row, users give SOFTWARE anc * i m pl ementm g high performance Progress a rating of 9.3 for overall sat- applications that are fully portable isfaction. The highest mark ever awarded. Against all across major platforms, isn't it time you rated comers, Progress is unsurpassed in all 15 categories Progress? For more complete information, or for our (okay, we tie once). With a 9.0 or higher in eight categories. fully functional Test Drive, simply call 800-4 Progress. Progress applications are fully portable across the broadest spectrum of hardware platforms, operating systems, network protocols and user interfaces. So many, in fact, that we had to list them here in small type: aix™ cros, hp/ux,"' Novell nlm, osr/i,® os/i,® os/400™ unix,® ultrix™ VMS, 1 *' XENIX,® MICROSOFT® WINDOWS?" * WINDOWS!" DECnetJ" LAN MANAGER,'" NetBIOS,™ NOVELL® SPX/lPX, TCP/IP and SNA APPC LU 6.2. Also, Progress lets you process information in other databases, including AS/400, c-isam,'*' ct-isam,'*' oracle, Rdb, and rms. bytadvo5 Circle 1 44 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 145). STATE OF THE ART/Real-Time Computin: REAL-TIME POSIX Posix is bringing the benefits of portability and openness to real-time applications Real-time systems are everywhere: in cars, VCRs, microwave ovens, supermarket checkout counters, video games, telephones — the list is almost endless. For example, the im- provement in the fuel efficiency of auto- mobiles is partially due to EFI (electronic fuel injection). EFI uses an embedded computer system that controls the engine's fuel supply virtually instantaneously in re- sponse to changing commands from the accelerator pedal. Like all computer ap- plications, real-time applications derive many of their capabilities from the char- acteristics of their operating systems. Below the surface of a real-time appli- cation sits the operating-system kernel. Since it is the core of the application, it must be extraordinarily robust and stable. Rather than attempting to provide equal access to all processes, as does a time- share system that runs batch or interactive jobs, an RTOS (real-time operating sys- tem) is tuned and sculpted by the applica- tion, much as an athlete is trained for a specific event. A real-time computer system is actual- ly a simulation that generates a predictable result within a predetermined amount of time. The application exploits an RTOS to achieve a specified level of fidelity in the simulation — no more or less than required. Using system calls, the application con- structs a tightly orchestrated simulation thai may consist of many separate pro- cesses, each designed to contribute in a unique capacity. The RTOS kernel insulates the appli- cation from the host silicon by abstract- ing the bare state machine into a usable interface. This abstraction mechanism al- lows software engineers to design portable ILLUSTRATION: JAVIER ROMERO DESIGN, INC. © 1992 RICHARD MARLON STEIN AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 177 REAL-TIME POSIX IEEE POSIX The IEEE Posix standards committee comprises 16 distinct working groups. Each focuses on a specific aspect of open-systems computing. Group Charter 1003.0 1003.1 1003.2 1003.3 1003.4 1003.5 1003.6 1003.7 1003.8 1003.9 1003.10 1003.11 1003.12 1003.13 1003.14 1003.15 Open-system architecture Posix application interface Shell and command utilities Testing and verification methods Real-time extensions to Posix Ada language bindings System security extensions System administration Transparent file access FORTRAN language bindings Supercomputing profile Transaction processing Protocol-independent network access Application environment profiles Multiprocessing application environment profiles Batch services software. Until recently, Unix was the fo- cus of portability and open-system initia- tives; real-time applications were not as aggressively courted by operating-system vendors. But although real time has long been the province of specialized operat- ing-system products, it's finally entering the age of open systems through the ef- forts of the working groups of the IEEE's Posix standards committee. Portable Applications Through Posix In 1988, the IEEE adopted its standard 1 003 . 1 , called Posix. I , which defines a set of system calls, interface definitions (in- cluding arguments), and ranges (which must be supported by a vendor's Posix im- BYTE ACTION SUMMARY Real-time applications are built as custom systems, which greatly increases the cost and complexity of developing them. The efforts of the working groups of the IEEE's Posix stan- dards committee are bringing the benefits of portability and openness to real-time systems. plementation). Unix has been promulgat- ed as the baseline for the Posix standard since the early 1 980s, and it is endorsed by government agencies like NASA and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and commercial groups like Unix International and OSF (Open Soft- ware Foundation). Unix supports the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model, where one application can be eas- ily moved between different platforms. The OSI model serves as the vehicle for application mobility across a range of plat- form hardware, from workstations to su- percomputers. Vendors of mainframes were slow to endorse this model at first, but workstation manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard and Sun, quickly em- braced this standard. Software publishers support it because it means that they no longer have to invest in creating and sup- porting many platform-specific versions of their products; they can write an appli- cation on one platform and simply recom- pile it on another platform with little dif- ficulty. The Posix class of standards embraces far more than standard operating-system- interface definitions; the table lists the Posix working groups and their charters. The Posix standards committee recognized that real-time applications have specific needs, and IEEE standard 1 003.4 (on real- time extensions) and standard 1 003.4a (on threads extensions) and its companion stan- dard 1003.13 (on application environment profiles for real-time applications support) supply a solid foundation for addressing the real-time computing domain. Since they are mature (albeit draft) stan- dard documents, these three official Posix standards (collectively called the Posix. 4 standard) will provide software publish- ers with a unified and versatile set of system services that cover the complete spectrum of RTOS capabilities and appli- cations. Some vendors are currently de- veloping implementations based on these mature drafts. At least two companies have announced Posix.4-compliant products: DEC (Maynard, MA) has introduced its OSF/1 operating system, and Lynx Real- Time Systems (Los Gatos, CA) has an- nounced LynxOS. The standard does not specify imple- mentation mechanisms, but it does man- date that Posix.4-compliant vendors must state performance data for all the exten- sions under a variety of timing and machine conditions. Such performance metrics are essential for applications pub- lishers who use the Posix.4 extensions in their simulations and products. For end users, comparison shopping is simplified by the publication of performance met- rics. Verification of Posix vendor perfor- mance metrics will be accomplished through standard testing laboratories li- censed by NIST. Beyond 1003.1 The Posix extensions are grouped into cat- egories and include binary semaphores, a synchronization mechanism useful for guarding access to a device or memory re- gion shared between competing processes. A semaphore helps protect a simulation's critical functions by controlling which pro- cesses can alter specific devices, files, or memory regions. When properly used, semaphores ensure determinism. Process-memory locking prevents an operating system from swapping out blocks of data from virtual memory to disk. Most real-time simulations cannot afford to wait for a machine to fetch swapped data and executable instructions from a slow mass-storage device; the Posix extensions provide system calls that lock data and in- structions in RAM. The Posix extensions also provide shared-memory facilities. Multiple pro- cesses can efficiently exchange informa- tion (or pointers to information) through a common physical location. The Posix.4 extensions allow the file-system naming conventions to be used for creating and operating on shared-memory segments. Shared-memory attributes (e.g., write and read permissions on a per-process basis) can be specified, and this feature can add security to an application. Multiprocessor platforms are also able to take advantage 178 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 REAL-TIME POSIX a) REAL-TIME THREADS ID Spin rate OK Spin spin error OK Spin rate spin error too fast OK Spin rate too spin error fast . ! Semaphore Semaphore Garbled display due to race conditions Spin rate OK Spin rate OK Spin error Spin error Correct display Process 1 Telemetry link to/from ground control Acquire satellite spin velocity Get semaphore Report telemetry to ground control No Release semaphore ^ignal Yes Get I semaphore ] i Release ■ semaphore ] j Transmit "spin error" to ground control Process 2 Process 1 ♦ Monitor satellite spin rate i Asynchronous interrupt signal Process 2 Asynchronous interrupt signal Monitor satellite spin rate T Signal handler Obtain global spin-rate variable; spin-rate signal received Satellite spin rate alert Telemetry link to/from ground control Thread 1 : satellite spin-rate alert Wait for signal Transmit satellite "spin error" to ground control I Get semaphore Release semaphore Thread 2: acquire and report ~3 Acquire spin velocity; report to ground control Get semaphore Release semaphore Figure 1 : (a) Process I uses a standard Unix signal handler to report satellite spin-rate data. This implementation leads to a race condition, where the display output may become garbled due to the asynchronous interrupt condition overriding the normal output instruction stream, (b) When the process is implemented as a thread that runs concurrently with another peer, the race condition is eliminated; the output will appear normal under all circumstances. This implementation uses a thread to perform the warning-message output. It blocks until the signal is received; then the peer thread blocks, the warning message is displayed, and the other peer resumes. of this facility. Priority scheduling and the capability to specify either round-robin or priority- based policies, like FIFO (first-in/first- out), are also specified by the Posix ex- tensions. In round-robin scheduling, pro- cesses with the same priority are given equal time slices of the processor, and the process dispatcher cycles each one in a continuous loop. With a FIFO policy, mul- tiple processes are permitted to execute, and the first one that is available at a giv- en priority level runs. If the process is preempted by a higher-priority process or blocked because of an I/O operation, it is then moved to the end of the priority queue. Asynchronous event notification allows an important mechanism to report when operations that are independent of the cur- rently running process are complete. I/O to a disk file is slow, and a process may choose to perform this operation asyn- chronously and continue running the body of its context. At some later time, the asyn- chronous activity may complete; the call- ing process receives notification of this and can judge whether it was completed successfully. A timer's expiring or an ex- ternal process's sending a message are ad- ditional examples of asynchronous events; since the context of the executing process may not reach the part of the code body that tests for these conditions, an asyn- chronous event handler processes these events. The Posix.4 extension establishes timer resolution with a fine granularity. Control of the temporal state can be spec- ified in nanoseconds, and both absolute AUGUST 1 992 • BYTE 179 REAL-TIME POSIX POSIX.13 APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT PROFILES Multipurpose Posix.1, Posix.2/2a, and Posix.4/4a functionality; networking; windowing; programming languages; memory management; high-speed mass storage; special interfaces; network support; display devices; mix of real-time and non-real-time processes. Figure 2: The application environment profile core of Posix.1 3 is the minimal profile. Successively larger and more robust application environment profiles build on this core. and relative timing is permitted. The Posix.4 standard enumerates other services that are important to real-time computing, such as support for asynchro- nous I/O, extended and reliable interpro- cess communication for the proper order- ing of messages, and real-time files for use by transaction processing and data- bases. A real-time file system permits di- rect I/O transfers (in which buffering sys- tems are bypassed), preallocation of file sizes, the organization of contiguous files, and aligned transfers of data from memo- ry to the I/O device. Synchronized I/O is also supported by real-time file systems, af- fording a reliable mechanism for data transfers by verifying that the data stream has been received and written by the I/O device. Transaction-processing and data- base-commit operations can make use of this function. All these services have been agreed to by the Posix.4 working group as substan- tial and important enhancements to the original Posix. 1 interface. Header files that define constants and symbols for accessing real-time functions are also specified by the standard. Special processing privileges are not necessary to use these functions. Following a Slender Thread One area of standards activity that remains to be hammered out is that of thread ex- tensions. A thread is a lightweight pro- cess that exists within the context of a par- ent process. A thread differs substantially 180 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 from a child process created via the Unix fork ( ) call, which causes the entire pro- cess space to be replicated — a heavy and expensive operation. A thread uses the ad- dress space of its parent and thus requires far less overhead to create, manage, and B efore Posix.4, operating-system vendors carved niche markets for their products. execute than a child process does. A ma- chine must maintain far less state infor- mation for a thread, and it runs within the confines of the parent, but it can be sched- uled with different scheduling-policy and signal-handling capabilities (see figure 1). The Posix 1 003.4a working group is trying to agree on how much context a thread must carry and how asynchronous event notification (i.e., signals) will be dealt with by a thread. Until these issues are resolved, Posix.4a will not become part of the full Posix.4-standard release. Threads are useful in shared-memory multiprocessing environments, where idle processors can pick up the slack by running threads spawned from larger contexts. Threads become trivial to manage when simulations run on silicon that supports microcoded process schedulers with con- text-switch times of 1 microsecond or less. Software overhead is nonexistent on these CPUs. Standard CISC and RISC compo- nents do not support this microcode mech- anism, although at least one processor, the SGS-Thomson/Inmos transputer, does. Mapping a Real-Time Hierarchy Before Posix.4, operating-system vendors carved niche markets for their products. The Posix 1003.13 working group com- mittee (on application environment pro- files) examined these commercially suc- cessful products to discern the scope of RTOS support for real-time application domains. The committee identified the four real-time profiles: minimal, controller, dedicated, and multipurpose. Each more complex profile requires substantially more operating-system services and resources than its simpler siblings (see figure 2). The minimal application profile is used in embedded systems that are largely au- tonomous and drive few I/O devices; no mass storage is used. A single Posix. 1 pro- cess is used with interrupt handlers for all computation in such systems. An exam- ple of a minimal-profile product is the firmware that controls a VCR, video game, or microwave oven. The controller real-time profile adds structured device I/O and memory man- agement and accommodates RAM disk storage and Posix. 1 signals. Mass storage can be used but is not required. The dedicated real-time profile adds multiple processes and processors. Most of the Posix.4 extensions are needed except for a real-time file system. The multipurpose profile consists of the entire Posix.1 and Posix.4 functionality and includes the capability for interactive use, as in a flight simulator. Networking can be used, as can threads, window man- agement systems, and high-speed I/O de- vices for mass storage. These standard profiles can be imple- mented simply with a Posix.1- and Pos- ix.4-compliant product through the con- figuration of a system with the minimal Posix. 13-standard kernel symbol defini- tions. A system administrator can enable or disable any range of Posix.1 or Posix.4 functionality and thus tailor the kernel to meet the needs of a particular installation or application. continued I w I We Guarantee It, We're so sure the new Honeywell mouse will outlast your current mouse that it comes with a :M» Mm limi led 1 i let ime wa rran ty * , The reason it works better is that we've replaced the conventional ball mechanism with two "feet". >:This.'new;\ patented technology eliminates problems inherent in other mice. A ball mouse can make your A cursor hop, skip and jump across the screen *- the new Honeywell mouse makes your cursor go precisely where you want it - when you want it - forever! A hall mouse or an optical mouse needs a special pad to work best - the Honeywell mouse works perfectly on any surface - at any angle - even upside down. And since there's not a ball to pick up dust and dirt which can contaminate the insidg, it's more reliable and you never have to clean it. So quit dragging your. old-fashioned ball mouse around, and go get a new Honeywell mouse - it's the last one you'll ever need to buy. We guarantee it. The new Honeywell mouse is Microsoft'* Windows'* compatibles-works with IBM, compatibles and PS/2 systems Circle T08 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 109). Helping You Control Your World *See warranty for complek D 1992 Honeywell Inc. Keyboard Division 4171 N. Mesa Bldg, D El Paso, TX 79902 (915) 543-5566. All product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Hassle-Free Printer-Sharing For Your Local Area Network JetLAN lets you plug your HP Laserjet printers directly into your network . . anywhere! Here's how you can connect your HP LaserJet printers where you want them: near your network users. Without sacri- ficing centralized file servers for LAN maintenance and network security. Without the expense of dedicating a PC as a print server. And without software that degrades performance and hogs memory on a user's workstation. 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While support for uniprocessor and shared-memory multiprocessor systems is intrinsic, no mention of scalable parallel- processing architectures has been made. Posix must eventually be able to support massively parallel computers (also called multicomputer s\ which are the acknowl- edged future of the computer world. The memory model associated with a distributed system stands as a great barri- er that unnecessarily complicates software engineering for multicomputers. A Posix- based memory model like that supplied by Linda (see the bibliography) can make distributed memory transparent to an ap- plication programmer and greatly simpli- fy his or her chore. Until this occurs, mul- ticomputer software will remain expensive, since no portable standard memory model exists. The sooner this standard arrives, the sooner these powerful machines can be applied to the complex environmental, engineering, and scientific challenges that await solutions. ■ Richard Marlon Stein is a freelance writ- er residing in Santa Clara, California. He can be reached on Internet at rms@ well.sf.ca.us or on BIX c/o "editors. " BIBLIOGRAPHY Gelernter, David, and James Philbin. "Spending Your Free Time." BYTE, May 1990, pp. 2 13-219. Leler, W. "Linda Meets Unix." IEEE Com- puter, vol. 23, no. 2, February 1 990, pp. 43-54. Stankovic, J. A. "A Serious Problem for Next-Generation Systems." IEEE Com- puter, October 1988, pp. 10-19. Stankovic, J. A., and Krithi Ramamritham. "What Is Predictability for Real-Time Systems?" Real-Time Systems, vol. 2, 1990, pp. 247-254. 182 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Circle 409 on Inquiry Card. Real Stats. Real Easy^ Answer Your Really Tough Questions with SPSS forWindows. Learn Fast Work Fast "It's extremely easy to learn and use. 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Add to that the unforgiving requirements of real- time performance and the nonstop relia- bility that is required for distributed con- trol, and these systems become too much for a general-purpose computer to handle. Yet users of DCSes (distributed-control systems) demand to have the ability to use them on standard computers and to have them intemperate seamlessly with the rest of their corporate information systems (see the text box "The Process-Control System" on page 189). Ob ject Orientation Using the right type of object orientation can be the key to making real-time dis- tributed systems work. I'll review the ba- sics of object orientation, provide examples of how it can be applied within a specific area, and discuss how it can be adapted to systems in general. While DCSes repre- sent a segment of computing that's usual- ly neglected in general discussions about computing, they offer some surprising an- swers to the challenges of distributed real- time systems. In distributed real-time computer sys- tems, objects are meaningful data con- structs that have a dynamic quality and a ILLUSTRATION: JAVIER ROMERO DESIGN, INC. © 1992 AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 187 OBJECTS IN REAL TIME unique identity (so they can be easily iden- tified and communicated with). A DCS can be viewed as an integrated collection of many different objects working in con- cert (although the total system is greater than the sum of its parts). In their simplest form, objects can be such things as print- ers, ports, and logical devices. As objects become more complex, they have inher- ent and implied hierarchical structures and many attributes. An object can also be a user with certain privileges and attributes (e.g., passwords, user/group/world, and read/write/execute). It's easy to relate to an object such as a printer — a physical device usually refer- enced as a logical device — whose dynam- ic attributes are simple things like off-line or out of paper. Complex objects become more abstract as their number of attributes and internal hierarchical construction in- crease. An object in a DCS is traditional- ly a portion of the process under control, such as a valve in a pipe or a distillation column in a refinery. The attribute of in- terest in a valve is its flow, and its param- eter is its rate of flow or percentage of opening. A distillation column has many attributes addressing temperature, flow, density, and pressure, along with many as- sociated parameters. The object types commonly found in DCSes today are control objects (e.g., tags); simple variables created by appli- cations for sharing data; complex variables of arrays, strings, data structures, and nest- ed or hierarchical control objects; and log- ical and physical devices. Working with objects requires a valuable system resource known as object management. Object Management Object management can be viewed as a specific set of functions supporting change or event-driven data between various ap- plications and stations on a network. What makes it so valuable is that it has the abil- ity to define objects by type, allowing a convenient way to organize and arrange BVTE ACTION SUMMARY Object-oriented technologies are the focus of concentrated research. Developers of con- trol systems are putting results of this research to work in real- time applications and systems. data. A sampling of common object types might include control objects, shared vari- ables (e.g., data created by applications), logical devices (e.g., alarm loggers and applications), and physical devices. Object management supports the no- tification of a change within an object greater than a defined change limit. There are two benefits here. The first is that this notification is change driven, essentially providing data by exception. This negates the need for software polling. Whenever the point of interest changes, it triggers a notification to the client from the server A .11 DCSes place a supreme value on security. that the change occurred and that new data is available. Data-by-exception models greatly reduce the network load under nor- mal conditions, because if a value doesn't change, there is no communication. The second benefit of change notifica- tion is the ability to specify a change lim- it or dead band (i.e., a range in which changes have little interest). If the point of interest is a measurement of tempera- ture, you might only want to know about changes that exceed 1 percent of the range of your measuring device. Setting change deltas provides a noise filter within a real- time system. Object management also fully supports a client/server model, providing a high de- gree of security. This includes the ability to automatically logically reconnect a com- munications path that physically gets bro- ken and is restored. The final benefit of object management is its support for unique object names. This provides an unprecedented level of valid- ity security. An object on a network that you share data with must be the object you expect it to be. There can be no ambiguity about whether you're working with the correct data or object. The Client/Server Model A client/server model for object manage- ment is, pragmatically speaking, an ex- tension of the operating system in a mul- titasking environment. The applications that must share data and objects need to do so in a timely and secure way, and the physical locations of the parties involved must be transparent to the applications. Using the client/server model for ob- ject management, you can think of the ap- plication that needs the data object as the server and the application that sends the data as the client. In a distributed-control environment, objects must be shared in real time between peer stations on a net- work. The extent of peer-to-peer commu- nications depends on the capabilities of the station doing the actual control, the deterministic nature of the peer-to-peer communications, and the requirements of the application. Real-Time Control and Objects Objects can form the basis for real-time control in a DCS. The basic unit of a con- trol object is a block, an algorithm that performs some common function. For ex- ample, a PID block is a proportional/in- tegral/derivative algorithm with standard parameters that can be manipulated. A block's parameters (e.g., set point, output, measurement, high alarm level, and low alarm level) are modified through the con- figuration processes and by software con- nections to and from other blocks. The set of available control blocks form the build- ing blocks for the desired control scheme. From the template of an analog input block, a user can set the specific attributes of the various parameters and create a uniquely named analog input block for a specific set of input points. In a hierarchical structure, it is conve- nient to group a set of blocks together as a compound. The primary attributes of a compound are that its set of blocks can be alarmed, displayed, and manipulated to- gether. Thus, the compound itself becomes an object. The compound can then be nest- ed into other higher-level objects; each higher-level object may have its own pa- rameters as well as all the information em- bedded within its subobjects. The infor- mation is simply referenced so the data flow is clean and fast. This hierarchical structure allows a change to some aspect of a parameter within a block to become im- mediately available to the highest-level object (i.e., a compound) associated with that block, as well as to any other client in the distributed system with a logical connection to that block. Security All DCSes place a supreme value on se- curity. There is often the risk of loss of human life or tremendous liability due to lost production should a DCS fail. Many process plants and their control systems are expected to run for years without ever 188 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 OBJECTS IN REAL TIME The Process- Control System Unless you grow your own food, spin your own cloth, hunt with a bow and arrow, never drive, and never get sick, you depend on process control in many ways that you probably don't recognize. Process con- trol is the technical and economic en- abler of chemical, oil, and gas refiner- ies; textile and paper mills; food and drug manufacturing; mining industries; municipal water and sewage treatment; and, of course, power generation. The processes and end products of all these industries are obviously dif- ferent. Yet from the standpoint of a control system, they offer many simi- larities. Each has data to be acquired, control decisions to be processed, com- munications to perform, reports to gen- erate, and more. But these similarities are of type, not detail. The challenge is to develop a control system that ad- dresses the tremendous but unique com- plexity of each application without rein- venting a thousand new wheels each time. These control systems are usually called distributed process-control sys- tems, or DCSes. A modern DCS has three points of view: the control sys- tem, the computer system, and the in- formation management system. The primary attribute of a DCS is its abili- ty to control a process via the execu- tion of various algorithms in real time. The very nature of process plants is such that this control needs to occur over large physical areas and must be supervised by many individuals. This profile leads to a major feature of the computer system view — that the sys- tem must be distributed. The information management sys- tem view grows naturally from the role of the DCS as the heart of a process plant. The DCS is a key source of in- formation for the whole organization. In addition to controlling the process, in- formation from the DCS is central to inventory control, shipping, receiving, engineering, management, training, maintenance, analysis, and even mar- keting and sales forecasting. The DCS must process lots of information quick- ly, communicate among many stations and nodes securely, and make data available in a clear, understandable way across many boundaries, stations, ap- plications, and networks. Any user of data in the system should have the abil- ity to get any data anywhere, and get it in time enough to take effective ac- tion based on it. These requirements dictate that a system from one vendor must be open to other vendors' systems, networks, software, and instrumentation. In fact, today's DCS can be described as an open, industrial, real-time, object-ori- ented, hierarchical, change-driven, fault-tolerant, redundant, distributed process-control system. shutting down; the phrase "7x24" (for sev- en days a week and 24 hours a day) is of- ten used to modify terms like operation, re- liability, security, and performance when discussing DCSes. Software upgrades to existing systems must be made while the systems remain running. Security in the DCS world means relia- bility (i.e., robustness), validity (i.e., getting the data you expect to get every time), availability of system resources, authen- tication, and encryption. Objects help pro- vide security in an open and distributed system. Of the five above-listed concepts of DCS security, the most important ones are validity and availability. Validity means data integrity — in other words, getting good data. This is a securi- ty issue, because anything that adversely affects the quality or integrity of the data poses a security risk. Availability is the probability that the system resources re- quired for operation are available at any time they are needed. Availability can be addressed as a subset of authentication Authentication Authentication is simply the verification of a user's identity. The object in this case is the user of the system, and the authen- tication mechanism is the password-pro- tected accounts that he or she uses. Ob- jects as data constructs must have names, and object management requires a facility to guarantee that those names are unique. Any entities in the system that need to share data first need to find each other and validate that they are sharing data with whom (or what) they expect to share it. Finally, the entities need to evaluate the extent to which the data will be shared or modified (i.e., the privilege level of the interaction). The fundamental way in which objects are guaranteed to be unique is through a declarations process. When an object is created within a running system, it needs to announce its arrival. This is broadcast via a systemwide communications ser- vice that all members of the system need to address. Should a duplicate name exist, the manager of the object with the origi- nal name responds; the new object with the duplicate name is not entered within the local object manager's name lists. DCSes require an attachment service so that when running networks are merged they can share and resolve naming con- flicts. Environments, Objects, and Security Each of an object's attributes defines a constraint, quality, or special ability of the object or its behavior. For example, you could define the security attributes of an object such that its data is available only to other objects of a certain class. When operational environments are managed as objects, the flexibility of the system increases significantly. Typical op- erational environments within DCSes are provided for process operators, who man- age the process; process engineers, who define the process and its constraints; plant management users, and maintenance per- sonnel. In a DCS, an operating environment may be further specified for an individual operator. Such an operator's environment gives him or her access to a subset of ap- plications and process displays. For ex- ample, an individual operator may be al- lowed to set values to controllers via the display but may be blocked from canceling an alarm or altering a data log. One dis- play may behave differently in different circumstances, depending on the environ- ment from which it is invoked. An environ- ment object defines the degree of security AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 189 OBJECTS IN REAL TIME from the client side, while the security at- tributes of a control object enforce securi- ty compliance. Connection Management Distributed computing obviously depends on communications and connections. But the relationships between communications services and objects in a real-time system are not so obvious. The nature of a dis- tributed system requires that data be shared via some message protocol. For a DCS, however, facilities for message identifica- tion, delivery, security, and portability are of the most importance. Both one-time communications and change-driven com- munications are critical to the correct func- tioning of a real-time system. In a DCS, a one-time message is generally thought of as a get or a set, either of which needs to be performed in a timely way. A get is a reading of a single data value; a set is the writing of a value. Control objects always have attributes and parameters that are get- table and settable. These parameters have their own attributes regarding who has the privilege of performing these operations. Other communications are best served when messages are delivered over a se- cure connection. A secure connection pro- vides a notification to both ends if it should break, and it guarantees the order of de- livery of message traffic. Because an object manager requests communication services and is notified of the status of communi- cations, it has the ability to automatically reconnect the client and server logically should a connection be physically broken and rejoined. This auto-reconnect func- tion has the advantage of allowing objects to migrate. A unique object (whether it's software, hardware, or logical) can move from one place to another in a way that is relatively transparent to the applications tracking it. In the DCS world, these capa- bilities are key to providing security. The network objects and process ob- jects in large systems are subject to fre- quent change due to periodic maintenance of the system and process plant. But the overall functioning of the system and the plant must continue during maintenance, and users must have the ability to control, redirect, and compensate should certain areas of the plant get into trouble. Configuration Management System configuration encompasses the layout of hardware and software as well as the definition of physical, logical, and application relationships, including li- censing, hosting relationships (for stations that aren't self-hosting), logical device declaration, device backup designations, I/O port assignments, configurations, and more. Modifications to a system's config- uration can be complex, especially in a global system where all system attributes need to be known by all the elements in the system. The strict operational require- ments of real-time control applications fur- ther add to the complexity. For the DCS designer, the challenge is to develop an architecture that allows systems to become intelligently adaptable to change. DCSes must be modifiable on-line in a way that is transparent to the system's applications and to the process it's controlling. Much of the complexity of system mod- ification can be reduced by combining an object-oriented system with intelligent ob- ject-oriented applications. In terms of sys- tem configuration, any application can be trained to know enough about objects to be able to handle new ones with ease. For ex- ample, consider the addition of a new con- trol station to a running DCS (a common occurrence). In this case, the new control station is non-self-hosting; it requires boot services from another station. There are two different methods that can be used for this common modification — a traditional approach and an object-oriented approach. In the traditional approach, the system configuration must be modified to identi- fy the new station by a logical name, place it within a node, and assign it to a station management group and to a host file serv- er. After the configuration decisions are made, the process is completed by the ex- ecution of an installation program that cre- ates whatever files and database changes are needed. In some cases, this information needs to be made available to every other station or file server on the network. The new station is then physically installed in the system and booted up. If the new sta- tion is of a completely new type or is a device previously unknown to the system, upgrades must be made to the system-con- figuration, system management, and soft- ware-installation software. The object-oriented approach is very different. The new control station is simply plugged into the running system. The new station, which in this case is a non-self- hosting control station, starts putting out boot requests. Since all host stations are aware of all the other stations in the ob- ject-oriented network, some simple tasks can be performed: The system manage- ment program can alert the system ad- ministrator that there is an unfulfilled boot request occurring on the network, and a human system administrator can invoke the system-configuration application. This application can determine that the unso- licited boot request is from a control station by looking at the semantics of the boot- station message object. The configuration software has enough information at this point to know where the station is located (via node addressing), what image and base applications are required, which file server is best suited to be the host file serv- er, and what the minimal configuration questions that require human input are. This example illustrates what happens to simply add a new station to the network; completing its integration to the DCS re- quires additional work. The information management requirements depend on the applications involved. The database for physical objects usually requires some re- configuration to deal with the new data associated with this new station. The ap- plication requirements are addressed by additional applications or reconfiguration of existing applications to deal with the added functions and capability brought on-line by the new station. This means new control algorithms must be added to the station, new control objects must be created for the control database, and new hardware must be added to the system for the control station's connection to sensors and actuators. The information and application aspects of reconfiguration are managed by smart objects that are cloned from object libraries and modified for their new roles. Often the only thing needing change is the top- level name of the objects. Library objects can include displays and their display ob- jects, control objects, application objects, environments, and individual operators. The Future of Real-Time Systems The puipose of working with any system is to manage data and to be in control of all the information that is important for the completion of your work. Real-time sys- tems have special needs, but if you can design a real-time system, you can use it to run non-real-time applications as well. Object management research needs to continue to provide higher-level constructs that are simple and easy to use. Standards need to be developed, and applications need to take advantage of them. Correct object management will create the foun- dation for dissimilar systems' sharing data in a relatively seamless way. While objects have the ability to pro- vide a framework for organizing and shar- ing data, they must be managed in a way that provides correct access and security. Combining objects with distributed real- time systems is a natural evolution. ■ Harris Kagan is an architect for systems development and engineering with The Foxboro Co. (Foxboro, MA). You can contact him on Internet at hkagan@ foxboro.com or on BIX do ki editors. " 190 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 BEFORE PROTECTING YOUR SOFTWARE... ...against piracy and unauthorized use, make sure that your protection system has all the following qualities: A GOOD HARDWARE KEY Hardware-based software protection systems are now the standard worldwide. However, not all keys are the same. A good key should have all the following features: V Compatibility and transpa- rency. The key should work without any problem on your . customers' computers. The user should be able to forget the key after connecting it. V Unbreakable electronics. A customized ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) component should be integrated in the key. This prevents reverse engineering and makes cracking virtually I impossible. •/ A unique and inaccessible software developer's code burnt into the ASIC. (This code should not be held in the key's memoiy, where it can be read and altered.) \/ A Read/Write Memoiy inside the key should be available on demand. The memory should be writable in the field, on any PC, without any special programming equipment. V Very low power consumption, enabling the key to work even under the worst power conditions, on PCs and laptops, with or without a printer. POWERFUL SOFTWARE Since it's practi- cally impossible to crack or duplicate a key having all the features mentioned above, a pirate will usually go for the software linking the protected program to the key. Therefore, check that your protection soft- ware has all of the following: •/ A Linkable Protection Module with which calls can be made to the key from any point in the protected program. V An "Envelope" installation program. Such programs enhance security while making it possible to protect a software even without its source code. V Sophisticated antidebugging and encryption mechanisms. HASP®, THE PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE PROTECTION SYSTEM, OFFERS YOU ALL THESE FEATURES AND MORE: HASP was designed by a team of computer experts, professional cryptologists, and elec- trical engineers. As a result, HASP keys are supported by what is probably the best soft- ware in the market, and the HASP system has worked on eveiy computer it has been tried on. In addition to all the features mentioned above, HASP provides: \/ A Full Authorization System for protecting dozens of programs using only one key. •/ A Pattern Code Security System (PCS) enabling parallel processing of multiple calls by the Linkable Protection Module. V A Virus Detection option that can be incorporated in the protected program to check whether it has been infected by a virus or tampered with in any way. V Several HASPs can be connected one behind the other. I l/ Operating systems supported: ' DOS, SCO Xenix & Unix-386, OS/2, WINDOWS, AIX, AUTOCAD, PHAR-LAP, ERGO and RATIONAL DOS Extenders. %/ NetHASP provides full support for protecting DOS and WINDOWS software under network environments, including Novell dedicated & non- dedicated servers, Lan Manager, Lantastic, Banyan, DLink, and all NET-BIOS based LANs. IN A TEST CARRIED OUT BY AN INDEPENDENT LAB, HASP WAS THE ONLY KEY WHICH WAS NOT BROKEN*. Circle 67 on Inquiry Card. AND THE BOTTOM LINE: we offer some of the most competitive prices in the market. Since 1984, HASP has enabled thousands of software producers in more than 40 countries, including several Fortune 500 companies, to protect their software. To learn more about why so many professionals have chosen HASP, please contact: />ALADDIN • U v /KNOWLEDGE \V SYSTEMS LTD. 15 Beit Oved St., Tel- Aviv, Israel P.O.Box:lll4l Tel-Aviv 61110 Tel: 972-3-5375795 Fax: 972-3-5375796 In North America: ALADDIN SOFTWARE SECURITY 306 Weymouth St., Dix Hills, NY 11746, USA S 1 800-223 4277 516-586 2845 Fax: 516-586 1602 • Australia Conlab Pty. Ltd., Tel: 3 8985685, Fax: 3 8995759 ^ Belgium Akkermans bvha, Tel: 3 2338826, Fax: 3 2315438 %/ Czechoslovakia ATLAS Ltd., Tel+Fax: 2 766085 ^ Denmark SC Metric a/s, Tel: 42 804200, Fax: 42 804131 V' France Logidata Intl., Tel: 50707375, Fax: 50753144 • Germany CSS GmbH, Tel: 201 749860, Fax: 201 748644 • Greece Unibrain SA, Tel: 1 6856320, Fax: 1 6474943 ^ Holland Akkermans BV, Tel: 45 241444, Fax: 45 245515 ^ Italy Partner Data S.r.l., Tel: 2 33101709, Fax: 2 347564 • Korea Hanil System Inc., Tel: 2 5639161, Fax: 2 5538079 ^ New Zealand Training Solutions, Tel: 4 5666014, Fax: 4 5697190 ^ Poland Systherm Tel: 061 45065, Fax: 061 324134 ^ Portugal Futurmatica Lda., Tel:l 4116269, Fax: 14116277 • Spain PC Hardware, Tel: 3 449 3193, Fax: 3 3337497 • Switzerland Opag AG, Tel: 61 7112245, Fax:6l 7115355 • Taiwan Teco Ltd., Tel: 2-5219676, Fax: 2-5425939 ^ Turkey Mikrobeta Ltd, Tel: 4-4677504, Fax: 4-4670274 * CT Magazine, May 1 990. © Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. 1 985-1992 BEST DOS REPORT CARD INFO N0VEWBER4, 1991 Performance WORLD DRDOS MS-DOS Version 6.0 Version 5*0 Memory handling Excellent Very Good User interface Very Good Very Good Speed Good Very Good Compatibility Very Good Very Good Documentation Excellent , Very Good Setup Good Very Good Ease of learning Very Good Very Good Ease of use Very Good Good Error handling Satisfactory Satisfactory Support Support policies Good Satisfactory Technical support Satisfactory Satisfactory Value Excellent Excellent Final Scores 7.6 7.1 THE INTERFACE^ GROUP r EVTE When the competition is good, you have to be better. And the critics agree: DR DOS® 6.0 delivers more of what todays PC users are looking for in a state-of-the-art DOS operating system. That means better performance: "...tops [MS-DOS 5] with better disk performance, faster task switching, access to more RAM, and improved security, while providing full Windows™ SUppOrt" PC World, January 1992 Flawless operation of all your PC applications, with advanced capabilities that help you be your productive best: » l Digital Research and DR DOS are registered trademarks, and MemoryMAX, DiskMAX, TaskMAX, ViewMAX and FileUNK are trademarks of Digital Research Inc. Novell and the Novell logo are registered trademarks 1 YEAR FOR $42KK)! Save over 40% off the single copy price by subscribing now to BYTE! Your paid subscription will include BYTE's Annual Special Issue. □ Payment enclosed □ Bill me later NAME. COMPANY ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Basic subscription rate, including Special Issue is $29.95. (Mexico, $29.95 payable in U.S. Funds). Your subscription is GUARANTEED! If you are ever dissatisfied, cancel for a full refund on all unmailed issues. Above rates are for U.S. delivery only. Please see table of contents foe international subscription rates. BVTE IW28017 BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 42 HIGHTSTOWN. NJ POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE: EVTE Subscription Department P.O. Box 558 Hightstown, N.J. 08520-9409 NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 in 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II I II I II II 1 1 1 1 II nil 1 1 BEST WUE Superior memory management, optional "on-the-fly" file compression, high-performance disk caching,, instant task switching, comprehensive password security, PC-to-PC transfer software, and more. .". . complete MS-DOS 5 compat- ibility with more features and ■ functions! PC Magazine, November 12,1991 And a complete package of indispensable utilities that normally would cost nearly $400 extra: '!. . an excellent value" InfoWorld, November 4, 1991 Find out today why DR DOS 6.0 is the best DOS. And the best value, too. Get the facts by fax: 1-800-955-DOS6. 335.7* Or call us today for details and the name of the DR DOS reseller nearest you: 1-800-274-4DRI. ■NOVELL Circle 102 on Inquiry Card. &\ MONITORS: Beyond VGA ?»: RAYMOND GA COTE AND STANFORD DIEHL The BYTE Lab tests 24 high-resolution color monitors (or PCs and the Mac and tells you how to choose the display that best fits your needs. Optiquest 2000D OVERALL PERFORMANCE LEADER ". . .the 15-inch Optiquest 2000D, priced at $795, is the overall performance leader, followed closely by. . .Although earlier we warned you against using monitors smaller than 16 inches, the price gap between a 16- and a 15-inch monitor is sufficiently large to compel us to recommend a 15-inch monitor over the pricier 16-inch displays/' BYTE May 1992 Optiquest, Inc. 9830 Alburtis Ave. Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 Tel: (310)948-1185 (800) 843-6784 Fax: (310) 949-2231 PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PARKER/AVIS STUDIO ©1992 EVTE Excerpted with permission, from the May 1 992 issue of BYTE Magazine, Copyright © 1992 by McGraw- Hill, Inc. New York. All rights reserved. Circle 1 28 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 129). STATE OF THE ART/Real-Time Computing REAL TIME GOES HOME Home information appliances are coming, with multimedia features and a real-time operating system KEN KAPLAN A fusion of computers, TV, and tele- phones will soon bring new kinds of entertainment and information services into the home, to an ex- tent almost unimaginable today. Tech- nologies to deliver these services are now emerging; some are already available. The "home information appliance" of the future is beginning to take shape. It is probably a small box atop or built into your TV. It contains the equivalent of a Mac Classic plus powerful audio and video decompression and signal-process- ing engines (see figure 1 ). It has a CD drive and a telephone/cable TV wideband digi- tal-network interface. It has no keyboard — just the usual wireless remote control with a small joystick or trackball added. And it costs about $200. The software foundation will be based on RTOSes (real-time operating systems) and specialized, consumer-friendly graph- ical interfaces that look more like network news graphics than Windows or Motif. Today, you find real-time software in a wide variety of intelligent products and in systems used mostly in industrial, mili- tary, and scientific applications. The de- velopment of these new interactive multi- media products will spread real-time software far beyond its traditional niche. The first example of this new genre is the CD-I (Compact Disc Interactive) sys- tem introduced to the consumer market in October 1991. It looks like a CD player and hooks up to a TV like a VCR. In ad- dition to playing normal audio CDs, in- teractive multimedia CD-I offers high- quality natural images, high-fidelity sound, and complete interactivity. For instance, you can take a self -directed tour through the Smithsonian. Children can watch a ILLUSTRATION: JAVIER ROMERO DESIGN, INC. ©1992 AUGUST 1992 - BYTE 195 REAL TIME GOES HOME ARCHITECTURE OF HOME MULTIMEDIA APPLIANCE GD-I controller* Network interface -*- (e.g., telephonic, cable) Video out -* — (+) 5: z) Network controller* 68000 16-bit CPU RAM (1-MB minimum) MPEG decoder Bit-map video controller ROM (RTOS and user-interface software) Video RAM Pointing-device input controller Infrared remote joystick * One or both present Internal bus Figure 1: The architecture of a home multimedia appliance has most of the same components as a low-end PC, with digital video and audio decoders added. The CPU and RTOS manage the flow of data from the optical disk or network interface to the decoders and run the GUI. BYTE ACTION SUMMARY Your TV and a CD-I device will soon become a means of re- ceiving multimedia information and other services. The back- bone of the technology is an RTOS (real-time operating sys- tem) based on OS-9. The RTOS allows for precise synchroniza- tion of audio and video, as well as for the multitasking neces- sary to handle multiple re- quests for the service. The new services will include interactive games, access to electronic databases, and home shop- ping. 196 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 cartoon, recolor its characters, and even change the soundtrack, and then play back "their own" version. Researchers at Philips Electronics and Sony, the developers of CD-I, quickly re- alized that an RTOS was essential for use with their technology. They chose the OS- 9 operating system as the basis for CD- RTOS, the ROM-based RTOS in every CD-I player. A key factor in the decision was OS-9's open-ended reconfigurabili- ty, necessary for supporting multimedia I/O and other future extensions. Why Real Time? Video and audio information coded digi- tally can be stored and communicated much like any other kind of data. There is a critical difference, however: Sound and pictures have a temporal (time-based) de- pendency. Simply stated, they must be played back at exactly the same speed they were recorded, with nearly perfect syn- chronization. A time shift of more than 10 milliseconds between motion video and its audio track results in something re- sembling a badly dubbed movie. If you want digital audio and video as part of an interactive multimedia program, the applications software must be able to both control and sense the current play- back point of the audio and video materi- al. This also involves precision timing. For example, a delay in the delivery of a block of audio data can produce a noticeable click or pop in the sound. The source of the multimedia data is an input stream typically delivered from an optical disk, a high-speed telecommuni- cations inteiface, or any other medium ca- pable of delivering data at a real-time rate. For full-screen, full-motion video with high-fidelity stereo sound, the minimum data rate is about 1 .5 Mbps (or about 150 KBps). The processor and operating sys- tem need to accept and manage this high- speed input stream while simultaneously performing other tasks, such as accepting input from the pointing device, updating the user-inteif ace display, and running the application program. An RTOS provides an excellent soft- ware foundation for multimedia applica- tions. The multitasking capability provides a concurrent programming paradigm that is well suited for multimedia program- ming. The RTOS also provides other es- sential services, such as real-time syn- chronization, interprocess communications, and fast interrupt handling. Popular oper- ating systems such as MS-DOS and Unix can't handle applications with real-time attributes easily (if at all). The fact that many applications must go around DOS has caused headaches for designers of DOS emulators that run on other hardware (e.g., Mac and Unix work- stations). It also has had more insidious effects. Because DOS fails to provide a usable, hardware-independent application environment, PC programmers have to write code to support nine or more differ- ent video display modes, several kinds of pointing devices, and perhaps a half-dozen brands of sound processor boards. The user is often forced to run elaborate in- stallation and setup programs. DOS is def- initely not consumer-friendly. A good RTOS avoids these problems because it provides a fast, versatile, ex- pandable, and hardware-independent I/O system. The system using it can be ex- panded or improved in the future without affecting existing application programs. You Should Be in Motion Pictures MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group), an industry standards committee, has de- vised a standard for digital compression and decompression of full-screen, full-mo- tion video. It is likely to be the ubiquitous standard for digital video for many years to come. In all probability, TVs of the future will have MPEG input jacks. continued IZ REASONS WHY ZOKTKH IS A BETTER C++ THAN MICROSOFT OR BORLAND. 1991 PRODUCTIVITY AWARD Computer Language April 1992 The Best Of 1991 PC Magazine January M, 1992 AWARD OF DISTINCTION BYTE January 1989 EXCELLENCE AWARD PC Tech Journal June 1988 A few more reasons why you should start 32- bit programming withZortech C++, today. bit bit- bit bit bit bit Let's face it, the way of the future will be applications that take ad- vantage of 32- bit processing speed and memory opti- mization. The new re- lease of OS/2 2.0 and the im- pending Microsoft Windows NT are perfect examples. So, why wait? Zortech C++™ lets you develop full flat model 32-bit under DOS right now. While others would have you wait for their 32-bit C++ compilers to ship "some time this year." Tomorrow's compiler, today. Under 32-bit, the 64K and 640K barriers are gone. You'll also get bit-bit-bit bit-bit-bit bit-bit-bit bit-bit-bit bit-bit-bit- bit-bit-bit bit-bit simpler memory management, access to 16 MB of memory, and programs that run incredibly fast. Only Zortech C++ from Symantec delivers all that today. Zortech is the leader in ship- ping 32-bit C++ technology. Our commitment to cross-platform support means there's no need for re-training, re-evaluation of tools, or additional costs for new product, when you move among platforms. And our commitment to the evolving ANSI standard and bit bit bit bit bit bit "In PC WEEK Labs' tests, it distinguished itself with a high degree of versatility, error-free operation and efficient code generation." PC WEEK, OCTOBER 14, 1991 support for leading third party utilities, libraries, and other tools, means your solution options are completely open. And will stay that way. Ifs all in there. Everything you need to start writ- ting C++ code for Windows, DOS, and OS/2 1.x comes in one box, in- cluding editor, compiler, global optimizer, debugger, linker, and libraries. There's nothing else to buy. So visit your dealer right now to get the only 32-bit C++ compiler you can buy today. Or call 1-800-554- 4403 for an instant FAX Data Sheet (enter 830). Special Smart Start Offer. Start your 32-bit future with Zortech C++ today, get our comprehensive C++ video training course (a*249 value) for a special price. The course consists of 32 lessons on six video cassettes, tutorial disk, and 221-page workbook. Suggested retail for Zortech C++ alone is s 699! Buy Zortech C++ before 7/31/92, and get both for just W Call 1-800-228-4122, ext. 809-DR for details. ©1992 Symantec Corporation. *Price good in U.S. and Canada only - quoted in US dollars. **Offer valid in U.S. and Canada only. Internationa! phone: Canada, 1-800-465-2266; Europe, 31-71-353111; Australia, 2-879-6577; others, 1-408-252-3570. All trademarks or register- ed trademarks are those of their respective holders. Circle 1 76 on Inquiry Card. SYMANTEC REAL TIME GOES HOME Real Time and Digital Motion Video on LANs JIM LONG Multimedia and digital motion video are finally becoming practical for commercial desk- top computing. Digital video will first appear in applications such as training, education, factory-floor ref- erence, retail point-of-sale, and video databases. It will then expand into gen- eral office environments as video an- notation, video mail, teleconferencing, and fancy presentations become com- monplace. For these applications to become a reality, cost-effective multimedia-ca- pable systems need to be available. The keys to creating these systems are video compression technology, real-time syn- chronization subsystems, and real-time networking. Networks are important because the characteristics of multimedia data, es- pecially audio and video components, require sharing data among many users. Most multimedia applications (e.g., training and documentation systems) support workgroup or enterprise-wide organizations. In addition, future ap- plications such as desktop video con- ferencing will mandate networked so- lutions. To be effective, popular compres- sion technologies must be integrated into desktop operating systems and net- works in a real-time fashion. But most desktop systems, networks, and servers are designed to handle transaction-ori- ented applications in a time-sharing fashion. Local and network operating systems share scarce resources (e.g., CPU, bus, memory, and network band- width) democratically among many users. Too many requests spread out resources and slow everything down. This is a nuisance for transactional ac- tivities like word processing, databases, or spreadsheets. For video, the delays can be disastrous. Audiovisual streams demand a Fed- AUDIOVISUAL DATA-FLOW BOTTLENECKS Storage subsystem Server y~7 Audiovisual files WAN Client LAN Hub <£Z V Network topology and protocols Internetwork □ i access Continuous, not random, access Central processor, bus or backplane, operating system Real-time control, not time-share Flow control more important than integrity Network interface Give video priority Figure A: Because most networks are not designed to allow a consistent, continuous flow of data, they present several bottlenecks to the smooth control of audiovisual data. Each network component pictured here presents an opportunity for delay or interruption. Access from the storage subsystem needs to be continuous, not random. Control over the CPU, bus, and operating system must be in real time, not time-shared. Flow control through the network is more important than integrity. And video data must have priority over textual data in getting to the client. eral Express attitude: They absolutely, positively have to arrive at the client computer on time, regardless of net- work traffic flow. Video is not either slow or fast: Either it works, or it doesn't. Therefore, managing data flow is key to all multimedia computing, es- pecially on networks. The important network function for audiovisual media isn't fair allocation of resources or er- ror-checking; it is making sure that data flows at the proper rate between the server and client, or between client and client, and guaranteeing that data ar- rives on time. Ensuring proper data flow is particularly difficult for normal networks because of the many bottle- necks that exist in the client/server en- vironment. Bottlenecks for Digital Video Along the digital path that connects the disk drive on a server to a client com- puter, these bottlenecks slow or inter- rupt the audiovisual stream. The bot- tlenecks occur in the disk drive, the system bus, the processor, the network, and the various interfaces and buffers between the parts of the system (see figure A). The trick is to make an asynchronous system (i.e., computers and packet net- works) behave in a synchronous fashion (like a telephone call). To accomplish this, buffers are usually placed through- out a system to even data flow. While they are useful, buffers are not a panacea. For either live or stored video, keeping buffers filled requires a real- 198 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 REAL TIME GOES HOME time approach. If a buffer is almost empty, you cannot wait for another ap- plication's printing request to finish be- fore filling it. Making the buffers large reduces their real-time demand. But this can in- troduce latency and, even worse, it can introduce jitter if the system designer relies more on probability effects than on deterministic management. (Latency is the delay between a signal being sent and received; jitter is a breakup of the video stream caused by underrunning buffers.) Latency and jitter issues are particu- larly demanding when supporting mul- tiple, live, full-duplex teleconferences. Buffers can also require significant memory and CPU resources if the op- erating system manages them by means of many memory-to-memory copies of the same data, as is common in most systems. Add the fact that a server or a net- work is dealing with dozens of video streams, sometimes several needing syn- chronization to one desktop, and the real-time buffer management issues be- come extremely complex. Normal serv- er file systems do not have the deter- ministic scheduling ability that is necessary to handle this complicated problem efficiently. Buffer management is one part of an overall, end-to-end, flow-control func- tion. For the network, this means that instead of normal asynchronous re- quest/receive communication between two computers, streams should be ini- tiated and then paced via communica- tion designed to tune the stream flow depending on whether it is arriving too fast or too slow. Pacing also requires real-time scheduling. Most of today's network protocols have little regard for timely delivery. They are usually so concerned with er- ror control and acknowledgments that they can't keep up with a high-speed continuous stream. Special lightweight pacing protocols are needed to handle video streams and also to coexist trans- parently with other protocols. Such pro- tocols can be designed to be more effi- cient for streaming data by eliminating some of the functionality found in pro- tocols such as TCP, which is meant to cover many other applications and types of networks (e.g., error control for 9600- bps voice lines). Finally, because video streams have to be handled differently than other data, network devices and computers must be able to distinguish between the two. In fact, video should be given prior- ity — another real-time feature. For ex- ample, if, over a short period of time, a network device capable of handling 1 Mbps is flooded with 7 Mbps of video and 7 Mbps of other data, it must be able to ensure that the video informa- tion gets through while delaying the other data. Potential Solution The good news is that cost-effective so- lutions are at hand that coexist with tra- ditional systems and add real-time net- work and server functions. The real-time functions ensure that the video streams are managed in a timely and reliable fashion. In fact, by adding real-time ele- ments, you can meet the challenges of networked video applications without installing expensive new networks or specialized client platforms. Large multi- media network solutions (i.e., 40 to 60 simultaneous video streams) can use common lOBase-T Ethernet networks and new switched Ethernet hubs, pre- serving the existing client network in- terface hardware. The video streams in such a network can be managed by a real-time stream- ing data application server tuned for the demands of video by efficiently man- aging disk arrays and real-time video network protocols. Video protocols can operate in parallel with traditional net- work sei*vers on the same network to en- sure timely delivery of real-time multi- media streams. Such a configuration will allow users to access both their current networked applications as well as new video ap- plications. This solution provides the foundation for the integration of video into current and future desktop appli- cations. The solution also brings video to the desktop in an easily installed, cost-effective manner and offers a pow- erful user interface. Jim Long is president of Starlight Net- works, Inc. (Mountain View, CA), which is developing a real-time digital net- working environment. You can contact him on BIXc/o "editors. " MPEG combines a number of com- pression and coding techniques to squeeze motion video into a digital data stream. The highest compression is achieved with a DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), which effectively codes interframe differences. The quality, size, and resolution of the de- coded picture depend on the data rate used, which is adjustable. At 1.5 Mb, the pic- ture is slightly better than what you would get with VHS videotape. At 2 Mb, laser- disc quality is achieved. And from 5 to 10 Mb is HDTV territory. An MPEG decoder 1C requires parallel processing with a combined effective throughput on the order of 100 MIPS. It also has to be economically mass-pro- duced, at a price of a few tens of dollars at most. Several companies claim to have working silicon now, and Philips has promised to ship CD-I players with MPEG before the end of this year. MPEG needs a real-time software en- vironment. Once compressed, video data cannot be manipulated by an application program. So, many MPEG-based systems will have a second video "plane" that will appear "on top" of the motion video. VCRs and TV receivers with on-screen controls usually use this technique so that control graphics (e.g., channel and volume graph- ics) do not completely cover the TV pro- gram. Multimedia applications will use the overlay graphics plane for several things, including menus, captioning, and controls. Take a movie player application as an example. An application program (or task, in real-time jargon) is playing continu- ously running MPEG motion video. A sec- ond task (the user interface) draws VCR- type control icons (e.g., pause and fast forward) on the graphics overlay plane, covering only a small area at the bottom of the screen. Now the viewer uses the point- ing device to move the cursor to an icon. The user-interface task continuously re- ceives pointing-device input coordinates and correspondingly updates the overlay graphics plane to redraw the cursor as it moves. When the viewer pushes the se- lect button, the user-interface task signals the motion video task, which then com- mands the MPEG decoder and the input media controller hardware to execute the requested function. Real multitasking is necessary to run the motion video application and the user- interface programs simultaneously. Some precise timing may also be needed to give smooth, clean cursor motion. Often, the user-interface task will be synchronized to the video-display timing (using inter- rupts), so graphics updates are done only during the vertical retrace time. continued AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 199 REAL TIME GOES HOME And Now Answer the Phone Another big step is connecting the multi- media box to wideband telecommunica- tions networks (e.g., telephone networks, cable TV systems, and direct-broadcast satellite systems). Some of the potential services that can be provided are quite in- teresting. You will be able to rent a movie without visiting a video rental shop — you'd just dial it up. You could tune into almost any sports event being played any- where, perhaps even choosing the camera angle and controlling your own instant re- plays. You can have instant access to al- most any home-shopping catalog (with minicommercials and product demos). The information sources will be "con- sumer-oriented," so they may include ac- cess to libraries around the world; finan- cial services such as banking, investments, and insurance; perhaps even in-depth re- views of that new car you've been dream- ing about. The network is basically a data pipe be- PUT AN END TO SOFTWARE PIRACY! Meet the growing family of security keys from Software Security. Each one a specialist at enforcing your license agreement in virtually any user environment you can think of. Whether it's DOS, UNIX, Macintosh or OS/2. Whether it's a single user installation or a LAN. Simply connect the appropriate key to a single user computer, or a non-dedicated file server in a network, and you control all access to your protected application. Users, however, won't even know it's there. The keys are transparent and won't impact software functionality or the ability to make back-up copies. Normal node and LAN operations are unaffected. The Ultimate Protection For Software Publishers Simple. Unassuming. Ever vigilant. Easy to incorporate into your application package. And quite possibly the most profitable hardware investment a software developer can make. To find out more, call: 1-800-841-1316 IN CONNECTICUT CALL: 203-329-8870 FAX 203-329-7428 EUROPE AND UK: + 44 784 43 00 60 J^jF w SOFTWARE SECURITY 1011 High Ridge Road Stamford, CT 06905 Proudly Made in the USA AVAILABLE! WITH REMOTE UPDATING! 1 \AGIS i 14 North American Readers circle 1 54; Other Readers Worldwide circle 155 200 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 Circle 1 54 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 1 55). tween your home and a server at a remote information warehouse. It delivers stan- dard-format packets of multimedia data at a constant rate. The technical require- ments are eased since the high-speed data stream need flow in only one direction. It's easier to send high-speed data in one direction than in both directions concur- rently. To communicate back to the remote server, only a relatively low data-rate "re- verse channel" for control is needed — even a few thousand bps is adequate in most cases. The reverse channel may be a completely different medium; the use of cellular phone-like radio transmitters has even been proposed. It is generally better to have the reverse channel be an integral part of the network interface, because the high-speed incoming channel and the re- verse channel can be routed together through the network. Also, the reverse channel may be used to communicate with the network itself (e.g., to dial a number). Network interfaces are a traditional ap- plication for RTOS software. Most data communications equipment depends on embedded RTOSes. Fast interrupt re- sponse, synchronous and asynchronous I/O capabilities, and the ability to rapidly respond to events (e.g., in flow control and error correction) are all essential for data communications. The server providing the multimedia data must have multitasking capabilities to handle many callers simultaneously. It must also retrieve and transmit data with precision timing. So When Will It Happen? It's starting now. CD-I is here. Philips an- nounced it will ship a CD-I player with full MPEG by year's end. Several tele- phone andcable TV companies say they'll have small-scale trials or demos of "video- on-demand" services early next year. Based on the current status of the tech- nology and some assumptions about the amount of money consumers are willing to pay for these magic boxes, it will probably be three to five years before there is sig- nificant widespread deployment of net- work-connected multimedia. This can be extrapolated from the historical price curves of the key semiconductor compo- nents. So it is probable that CD-I will be the first widely used consumer multimedia product. CD-I players with network inter- faces may even become universal home multimedia decoders/controllers. ■ Ken Kaplan is president of Microwave Sys- tems (Des Moines, IA), which developed and sells OS-9. You can contact him on BIX c/o "editors. " RESOURCE GUIDE Real ODeratiii I-Time itf Svstflms Although all real-time applications are in some sense unique, common ground for many of them begins with a real-time operating system. These operating systems form the core of a growing number of real-time applications. Charles River Data Systems, Inc. Intel Corp. 983 Concord St. 5200 Northeast Elam Young Pkwy. Framingham, MA 01701 Hillsboro, OR 97124 (508)626-1000 (503) 696-4872 fax:(508)626-1046 fax: (503) 696-4633 Circle 1 1 59 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 1 69 on Inquiry Card. Concurrent Computer Corp. Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc. 1 Technology Way 16780 Lark Ave. Westford,MA01886 Los Gatos, CA 95030 (508)392-2713 (408) 354-7770 fax:(508)392-2495 fax: (408) 354-7085 Circle 1 1 60 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 1 70 on Inquiry Card. Data General Corp. Microware Systems Corp. 4400 Computer Dr. 1900 Northwest 114th St. Westborough, MA 01580 Des Moines, IA 50325 (508)366-8911 (515)224-1929 fax:(508)366-1299 fax:(515)224-1352 Circle 1161 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1171 on Inquiry Card. Diab Data, Inc. Modular Computer Systems, Inc. 323 Vintage Park Dr. 1650 West McNabRd. FosterCity,CA94404 P.O. Box 6099 (415)571-1700 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33340 fax:(415)571-9068 (305)974-1380 Circle 1 1 62 on Inquiry Card. fax:(305)977-1900 Circle 1 1 72 on Inquiry Card. Digital Equipment Corp. 1 29 Parker St. Quantum Software Systems, Ltd. Maynard, MA 01754 175 Terrence Matthews Crescent (508)493-5111 Kanata, Ontario, fax: (508) 493-8780 Canada K2M 1W8 Circle 1 163 on Inquiry Card. (613)591-0931 fax:(613)591-3579 Digital Research Inc. Circle 1 1 73 on Inquiry Card. 70 Garden Court, Box DR1 Monterey, CA 93942 RTMX-UniFlex (408)649-3896 800 Eastowne Dr., Suite 1 1 1 fax: (408) 649-8209 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Circle 1 164 on Inquiry Card. (919)493-1451 fax:(919)490-2903 Encore Computer Corp. Circle 1 174 on Inquiry Card. 6901 West Sunrise Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, FL 333 13 VenturCom (305)797-2900 215 First St. fax: (305) 797-5546 Cambridge, MA 02142 Circle 1 165 on Inquiry Card. (617)661-1230 fax:(617)577-1607 Hewlett-Packard Co. Circle 1 1 75 on Inquiry Card. 3000 Hanover St. Palo Alto, CA 94304 Wind River Systems, Inc. (415)857-1501 1010 Atlantic Ave. Circle 1 166 on Inquiry Card. Alameda, C A 94501 (510)748-4100 IBM Old Orchard Rd. Armonk, NY 10504 (914)765-1900 Circle 1 1 67 on Inquiry Card. Industrial Programming, Inc. 1 00 Jericho Quadrangle Jericho, NY 11753 (516)938-6600 fax:(516)938-6609 Circle 1 1 68 on Inquiry Card. fax:(510)748-0115 Circle 1 1 76 on Inquiry Card. Inclusion in the resource guide should not be taken as a BYTE en- dorsement 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. "3 TWO**' -• in J & iM c y R E ur ^ Ed FJ pi H CE Now get PC Week's "Top Rated" FasMath™ coprocessor for 386SX or 386DX PCs at a bargain price. FASMATH 83S87 MAIH QflP FORALL386SXPCs NOW Cyrix FasMath has won every comparative PC publication review ever held for math coprocessors. Available at computer dealers everywhere. Or call 1-800-FAS-MATH. *83S87-33for $99 386SX33PC; **83D87-40jor 386DX40 PC; $129 Cyrix TOP RATED UHIWEEK LABS AUG. 27,1990 32g&m FasMath 83D87 Math Chip FORALL386DXPCs NOW III Cyrix products are proudly made in the USA. Cyrix is a registered trade mark and FasMath is a trademark of Cyrix Corporation. Circle 232 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 233). Conventional wisdom has it that Compaq has the best features, and Zeos and Gateway the lowest prices. It also said disco and communism were here to stay. Pardon us while we mess with your reality. But versus two in some competing systems. And with the new Dimension Value Series by Delf is about to Dimension you don't pay for a load of software you make conventional wisdom look pretty dumb. may not need. Introducing Dimension, a line of high-quality, We don't skimp on service either. We offer on-site full-featured PCs, 'From notebooks to i486 floor- second-business-day service, toll-free help, 24-hour standing systems. TechFax, and a 30-day money-back guarantee? All Dimension systems can be up to $500 less than from a FORTUNE 500® company, equivalent PCs from Compaq, Gateway and Zeos.* So if you want a great computer at an incredible Each Dimension desktop comes with at least three price, give us a call. You'll find Dimension drive bays and four ISA slots, ^is anything but conventional. Dimension — — - — Value Series by M4L 1 800 433 2312 HOURS: 7AM-7PM CTMON-FRI. 8AM-4PM CTSAT. WHEN CALLING, PLEASE REFERENCE #11E74. LJ.U: I L±JL \\\\v\\\ m Dimension™ 386SX/25 i386*sx 25 mhz system 4 MB RAM, 80 MB Hard Drive, Dual Floppy Drives (3.5" and 5.25"), SuperVGA 10241 Monitor (14", 1024 x 768, .28mm), LeaseO: $50/M0. MS-DOS® 5.0/Microsoft*Windows" 3.1/Mouse 61 C/IO Dimen8i0n 386DX/33 i386DX 33 MHz System u I iWy 4 MB RAM| 80 MB Hard Drive - Duat Ft °ppy Drives ( 3 - 5 " and V I / V I U 525"), Super VGA 10241 Monitor (14", 1 024 x 768, .28mm), Lease: $57/M0. MS-DOS 5.0/Microsoft Windows 3.1/Mouse O'r >'£&■■/.' $2,199 Lease: $81/M0. $2,699 Lease: S100/MO. Dimension 486SX/Z5S i486SX 25 MHz System 4 MB RAM, 212 MB Hard Drive, Dual Floppy Drives (3,5" and 5.25"), Ultra VGA 1024NI Monitor (14", 1 024 x 768, .28mm), MS-DOS 5.0/Microsoft Windows 3.1/Mouse Dimension 486DX/33S i486DX 33 MHz System 8 MB RAM, 212 MB Hard Drive, Dual Floppy Drives (3.5" and 5.25"), Ultra VGA 1024NI Monitor (14", 1024 x 768, ,28mm), MS-DOS 5.0/Microsoft Windows 3.1/Mouse e LJ I .1.1 I I l_X'-i~LJ l.l 1.1. I tl_lrJ / w -,-; •.;'■; •:'■:):•;;;<; 01 I dino diagrams and tables you rely on every day. Just open an Electronic Handbook and select your topic. They're interactive, so you can modify for- mulas for specific calculations. Change parameters, plots and variables, and let Mathcad automati- cally calculate your answers within the Handbook. Or double-click on a Handbook entry and paste it into your Mathcad document— with the correct units! Three new optional Mathcad Electronic Handbooks* arc now avail- able, each created in conjunction with a leading publisher of technical reference handbooks: • Mathcad Treasury of Methods and Formulas offers you a host of the meth- ods, formulas and diagrams you use every day, along with interactive explanations of every feature and algorithm of Mathcad. • Machine Design and Analysis from Hicks' Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations from McGraw-Hill, contains more than 125 practical calculation proce- dures including shaft and gear mechanics, time and power to cut, drill, bore, countersink, and a lot more. 1991 COVER STORV •The CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook contains more than 140 tables of data, bit- mapped illustrations, and Mathcad plots. Includes densities, melting points and crystal structures of elements, properties of ceramics and superconducting materials, and much more. Also Available: • Optional Applications Packs- adaptable Mathcad templates for Electrical, Mechanical, Civil and Chemical Engineering, Statistics, Advanced Math, and Numerical Methods. • PC DOS and Macintosh® versions also available. Free demo disk. For a FREE Mathcad demo disk, or upgrade information, call l-800-MATHCAD(or 617-577-1017, Fax 617-577-8829). Or sec your software dealer. ^Electronic Hand books require Mathcad 3 . 1 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 (or higher) orUNIX. ©1992 MathSoft, Inc. TM and ® signify manufc ctuicr's trademark •ncgistcicd trademark respectively. Mathcad 1-800-MATHCAD The answer is Mathcad B95 MathSoft, InC. 201 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA • Phone: 1-800-628-4223 • 617-577-1017 • Fax: 617-577-8829 Australia: Hearne(03) 866 1766; Belgium: SCIA013/55 1775;Dcn mark: Engberg 42 251777; Finland: Zcnu 90-692-7677; France: ISE(1)46 09 2400; Germany: Softline (07802)4036; Italy: Channel 02-90091773;Japin:CRC03-366S-974I; Netherlands: KJaasing 01620-8 1600; Sweden: AbdemiData (018) 24 00 35; Switzerland: Redacum 032 41 01 1 1; U. K..: Adept Scientific (0462) 480055. In other locations, contact MathSoft, USA. Circle 1 22 on Inquiry Card. DISTRIBUTED NETWORK MONITORS maximum of 32 stations, for $2495. LAN- tern Services Manager software sells for $4995. All in all, LANtern Network Monitor and LANtern Services Manager constitute an excellent product for proactive Ethernet internetwork management. It's easy to use, and it ran without problems. Steve Larson is a systems engineer at Con- nect Computer Co. in Eden Prairie, Min- nesota. He has more than five years of in- ternetwork design, implementation, and troubleshooting experience, and special- izes in WANs, network-to-mainframe com- munications, and applications integration. You can contact him on BIX do "editors." PrtMroga 05KFiJSe«n CSGRJSomii &a*-W«i ProTools' Network Control Series Barry Nance The growth of my company, PRC, has forced us to move 18 people, along with a file server, into a new office across the street. Novell's Async Remote Router created a WAN link between our old and new LANs, and ProTools' NCS (Network Control Series) let me monitor the two net- works from my desk. I wanted to make sure both the LANs and the link between them stayed healthy during the reconfigu- ration of PRC's networks. BYTE asked me to review NCS at just the right time. NCS is a software-only product, con- sisting of two modules: FM (Foundation Manager) and CA (Cornerstone Agent). FM sells for $8995; each C A (one per seg- ment) will run you $1295. You use FM as a master console and CA as a remote slave on each outlying network. Both compo- nents require a 25-MHz 386-based com- puter running OS/2 1.3 or 2.0. You must also use a Token Ring adapter that offers a "promiscuous" mode of operation. This mode lets applications software see all the frames that circulate the LAN; Proteon, Olicom, Ungermann-Bass, IBM, and Com- 216 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 paq all make such devices. You can also use NCS on Ethernet LANs with a wide variety of Ethernet network adapters. Multiple FMs can share data; for ex- ample, one FM node running Token Ring and another running Ethernet can share and report statistical data from each LAN. You'd need to set up a Token Ring/Ether- net bridge in this situation to let NCS process the network management packets from the other LAN. Each CA gathers statistics on its LAN and reports results, on request, to the cen- tral FM. FM and CA use SNMP to ex- change statistics. The components did not appear to slow our router's performance, but you can configure FM and CA to ex- change data less frequently if you find that NCS's internal communications are putting a significant load on your network. CA can operate by itself on the local console. You can monitor network loads, set alarms, or generate a map of the nodes on CA's segment. According to ProTools, CA can also report its findings to any SNMP console that uses RMON, MIB I, orMIBII. Up and Running You use your own PCs, copies of OS/2, and network adapters to run NCS. You'll want to plan ahead to make sure all the pieces are ready at the right time. Installa- tion itself is a snap. The documentation includes a Customer Information Guide for obtaining technical support, a Getting Started Guide with installation steps and tutorials, and a thorough User's Guide. NCS decodes MAC control frames, SNMP, TCP/IP, XNS/IPX, NetBIOS, NetWare NCP, IBM/Microsoft SMBs, Banyan Vines, IBM SNA, and DECnet protocols. You can associate a different name with each network node (ProTools says that future versions of NCS will be able to obtain these names automatically from the network operating system), and NCS uses DDE to exchange data with products like Microsoft Excel. NCS can also import frame-capture files from Net- work General's Sniffer. NCS's menu options are SAA/CUA (Systems Application Architecture/Com- mon User Access) compliant, but the tool- bar of icons gives you the quickest access to NCS functions. The Acquire icon tells NCS to begin capturing frames. The Play- back icon sends previously acquired frames across the LAN. The Remote icon connects FM to one of up to 256 remote agents (e.g., a CA). The DDE icon lets you export NCS statistics. The Transmit icon lets you generate network traffic; it's password-protected . You use the Alarm icon to set up thresh- olds to tell NCS to notify you when MAC- layer error frames, high network load, or unusually large or small frames occur. The Filter icon lets you categorize and see frames between specific nodes or cate- gories of nodes on the LAN. The Map icon shows a graphical dis- play of the nodes on the LAN. You can see total traffic or, with filtering, traffic between specific nodes or kinds of nodes. The Statistics icon lets you see up to 16 simultaneous summaries of network and workstation activity, including frame-size distribution, errors, and network load. One of NCS's nicest qualities is its strong graphical orientation. For example, you set up filtering by graphically attach- ing filters through a visual programming tool. NCS in Action The first thing you should do with a net- work analyzer is baseline your LAN, to establish what's noiTnal for your network. NCS offers automatic baselining — a nice feature. After you let NCS observe your LAN, it automatically sets up alarm thresh- olds for you. The next most handy feature of NCS is GeoGraph. When you drag the Map icon to the main window, NCS draws a map of your LAN (local or remote). You see the message traffic between nodes on the LAN in real time; you can instantly see who is hogging the network. If you're not an expert LAN trouble- shooter, don't worry — NCS's Network Consultant screens, in OS/2 hypertext (.INF) format, offer a range of helpful ad- vice. For each of about 35 typical prob- lems, you see symptoms, a problem de- scription, and a proposed solution. NCS ships with a list of solution files, and Pro- Tools says that it will continually expand the list of typical problems and solutions in the database. A partial list of problems ("B" through "C" in the NCS help file) shows entries for broadcast storm, buffer overflow, cable fault, cache problems, and connector fault. Problem descriptions are detailed and comprehensive, and they are obviously written for a general audience. A typical description for cable fault suggests that the faulty cable may be lying next to vi- brating equipment or may be too near a device that generates electrical noise. ProTools designed FM and CA to help you proactively prevent network problems. Both modules do a good job of decoding and analyzing LAN packets at all levels. The statistical reporting functions enable you to view bar graphs and tables depict- ing your network's workload in a very use- ful fashion. continued Developers Say... "Hardlock is Networking! Now everyone on the Network can access my application without having the Hardlock on their PC. NET Hardlock's interface allows me to easily limit the number of simultaneous users without having to build this up myself. Since NET Hardlock contains an algorithmic response ASIC, I'm assured of the highest level of copy protection effectiveness. Glenco's software interface choices couldn't have been easier to use!" Accountants Say... "NET Hardlock is a welcome addition to the Hardlock family of revenue protection products. Now limiting and expanding the simultaneous user portion of the license agreement is the easy part! Our costs are lowered and the end user benefits - it's a perfect solution!" End Users Say... "NET Hardlock is the easiest protection system I've ever used! Once the NET Hardlock is plugged in, I don't even know it's there. Now the application can find the NET Hardlock regardless of which PC I'm using. We can easily add more users to the license without shipping Hardlocks back and forth. Just knowing the software developer is paid for their efforts makes me feel confident that the next upgrade is coming and my investment is secure!" Other products in the Hardlock Family: Hardlock & Hardlock with Memory (Single User) Hardlock DES (Data Security) Hardlock SE (Workstations) Supporting DOS, Windows, OS/2, Xenix Shown actual size. The only product that combines a memory option with program- mable, algorithmic response — all in one compact unit. ade in the USA The Preferred Protection System! 1-800-562-2543 SERVING THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY SINCE 1979 270 Lexington Drive Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089-6930 708/808-0300 Fax: 708/808-031 3 For a distributor in Europe contact Fast Electronic GmbH, Tel: 49-89-538-800-0 Fax: 49-89-539-800-40 In Korea contact Finecom, Tel: 82-2-690-5811 Fax: 82-2-605-5729 In Brazil contact HT-MACH, Tel: 21-257-0314 Fax: 21-235-6808 In Chile contact Datasoft S.A., Tel: 562-246-7443 Fax: 562-208-0591 In Peru contact V.C.H.I., Tel: 51-14-440537 Fax: 51-14-475984 For International information circle 106, For End-User information circle 107 on Inquiry Card. Circle 1 06 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 107). Circle 1 1 1 on Inquiry Card. Rack & Desk vIiUjjIj FOR III III II XT/AT/286/386/486 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Integrand's unique packaging design uses modular construction. We have 3 basic models for ISA/EISA bus computers. Over 90 inter changable 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 JK/J00 Rackmount Keyboards SE^> ' **ttttji, -^"ifn 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 IBM/XT/AT TMIBM*38&38&486 TM INTEL Drives and computer boards not included DISTRIBUTED NETWORK MONITORS TTC's NetLens Analyzer and NetLens Probe Barry Nance TTC's distributed LAN-monitoring tools allowed me to watch over the same process I analyzed with ProTools' NCS: the creation of another segment in PRC's LAN. As with NCS, it was an ideal time to review a distributed monitoring system. Two NetLens Probes accompanied the NetLens Analyzer. The NetLens Analyz- er is a Compaq Portable III running Com- paq DOS 3.3 1 with 640 KB of RAM and a Token Ring board. The NetLens Probes are self-contained devices (not PCs) that you attach to each remote LAN. The NetLens Analyzer acts as a central con- sole from which you can see activity from each of the network segments. The NetLens Analyzer queries the NetLens Probes on each segment to gather LAN traffic data. A proprietary TTC protocol carries data between the analyzer and the probes. TTC offers both Token Ring and Ethernet versions; however, a single ana- lyzer and its probes can monitor only one type of physical network. Although the NetLens Probes must send captured packets back to the NetLens An- alyzer for analysis and decoding, I didn't notice any performance problems. Com- munication between Probes and Analyzer using the TTC communication protocol on our Token Ring LANs didn't hamper the passage of normal NetWare traffic through the router. Token Ring NetLens Probes cost $3995 each, and you'll need one for each ring. The NetLens Analyzer, including the host console, costs $15,990. The company also sells a NetLens Analyzer kit, consisting of a network adapter and software you in- stall in one of your own PCs, for $12,450. TTC's network adapter, built into the NetLens Analyzer I reviewed, contains an on-board 80 186 CPU running at 16 MHz, as well as a Texas Instruments TMS380 Token Ring controller chip. Installation and Configuration Installing the TTC products is a simple matter of attaching them to your LAN. If you need to reconfigure a NetLens Probe, you connect an asynchronous terminal, or a PC running communications software, to the Probe's serial port. To install the NetLens Analyzer computer, you connect a LAN cable to its network adapter. The TTC documentation doesn't as- sume that you're a networking expert. The user's guide clearly spells out how to run the different tests, and the Packets and Pro- tocols booklet helpfully explains the un- derlying theory on which NetLens Ana- lyzer works. The NetLens Analyzer can decode TCP/IP and UDP, MAC frames, LLC, ISO, CONS/CLNS, Banyan Vines, IPX, NetBIOS, and NFS protocols. The Net- Lens Analyzer model that I evaluated also decodes the higher-level NetWare NCP, IBM /Microsoft SMBs, and IBM SNA pro- tocols. You use the TADDMOD utility to associate names with the individual node addresses on your LANs. The TMAKE123 utility does a good job of converting test results into files that you can import into Lotus 1-2-3. Living with NetLens The menu options for NetLens Analyzer are traffic-display modes. You can choose alarms, development, performance, statis- tics, summary, test, traffic generation, open, and errors. You use the alarms mode to warn you about error conditions on the local or remote network, selecting from a variety of conditions. You can set an alarm to tell you when network traffic gets above a certain level, the rate of MAC error frames exceeds a certain threshold, a new station joins the ring, a station has not transmitted anything for a long time, the ring is beaconing, a station has lost contact with a neighbor, or the active monitor has failed. The development mode lets you debug a new protocol or IPX/NetBIOS applica- tion if you're writing software that sends and receives packets. Performance mode can show either packets per second or net- work load. Summary mode shows aver- age load, peak load, and error rate. The other modes offer similar summary-level information. NetLens Analyzer has a fa- cility to log all frames to a disk file so that you can look at them later. NetLens Ana- lyzer implements password protection to prevent unauthorized use of the traffic gen- erator or the development-mode analyzer function. To activate remote probes, you choose one or more (by name if you've config- ured it that way; otherwise, by network address) from a list of up to 50 remote de- vices. Except for the open test, which you can't run remotely, all the NetLens Ana- lyzer modes operate the same way whether you are monitoring a remote probe or 218 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 Your 1 0-vendor network just went down. The LAN people blame the WAN people. The data center people blame the bridge/router people. And you didn't 30 to INTEROP. You've got choices. One is to struggle through the incredible pace of technical evolution or hope through osmosis that you learn whatever it takes to find a solution. The industry's premier Interoperability Conference and Exhibition bring together the leading vendors, most powerful technologies, comprehensive tutorials and conference sessions in an all-new format. It's four conferences in one. •Global INTEROP: Building Internet Infrastructures Focus on SNMP/CMIP network management and security, X.400, OSPF, Frame Relay, SMDS, ATM and SONET, FDDI/CDDI, SMT, Client-Server issues, wireless networks and more. •SNA INTEROP: Internetworks in the SNA Environment Concentrate on migrating SNA networks to the internetwork architecture, and achieving the price-performance of large multiprotocol internetworks. • Desktop INTEROP: PCs and LANs in the Enterprise Network Join internetworking expert Craig Burton of The Burton Group in exploring how you can benefit from network services like messaging, director/ and file. Target second-generation network applications, today's state-of-the-art, and the future of NetWare. •Executive INTEROP: The Business of Network Computing With a special focus on lANs and IAN integration into the corporate network, join Howard Anderson of the Yankee Group and take a high-level look at open systems, downsizing, legacy systems and the changing demands of end users. There are also all the features you've come to expect: over 40 information-packed, two-day tutorials, as many as 100 conference sessions, world-renowned instructors and speakers, over 400 exhibitors all running live on a global internetwork, and fascinating Solutions Showcase™ Demonstrations. Come and learn the answers you need, well before you need them! INTEROP 92 Fall, San Francisco 26-30 October 1992 Moscone Convention Center Call for your 48-pagebrochure 1-800-INTEROPext/l39 1 KNOW IT WORKS INTEROP92 I SAW IT AT INTEROP" © 1992 Interop Company, 480 San Antonio Road, Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94040, 1-800-776-6676, outside of the US Call 415-941 -3399, FAX 415-949-1 779 Circle 1 77 on Inquiry Card. ^.irtie i xo on inquiry v.ara Gain speed in your problem solving and confidence in your answers with Maple V... 3-D Tube Plot created with Maple V. The symbolic math software for engineering, science, and education professionals. Maple, developed at the University of Waterloo, is today's most complete symbolic math package, and it's now available from MathSoft, the makers of Mathcad. Maple's comprehensive library of over 2,000 built-in functions and easy-to-use interactive environment delivers a maximum strength program in a surprisingly uncomplicated package. • Provides power and flexibility. You won't believe that something so powerful runs on everything from supercomputers to computers with as little as 1MB of memory. And Maple's flexibility makes it easy to share files across all platforms. It's completely programmable... and Maple's user interface supports natural mathematical calculations, so you can request an infinite variety of computations and graph your output in two or three dimensions. • Use for a wide range of applications. Maple is ideal for a wide range of applications, including helicopter blade design, VLSI design, chemistry, satellite guidance systems, econometrics, electrical engineering, and applied mathematics — to name just a few. Maple frees you from the "bookkeeping" of complex calculations and lets you concentrate on modeling and problem solving. Call us toll-free at 800-628-4223 or use this coupon to request more information on Maple. In Massachusetts call 617-577-1017 or fax this coupon to 617-577-8829. [ ] Yes! Tell me more about Maple. Name_ Title Company or institution Address City State Phone ( ) Zip B95 Mail this coupon to: MathSoft, Inc. 201 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Maple DISTRIBUTED NETWORK MONITORS running locally on the analyzer. When you're connected to a remote probe, the NetLens Analyzer screen shows a happy face that blinks to indicate that the con- nection is still active. Protocol analyzers show LAN traffic; it's up to you to figure out how the traffic relates to the work you do in your office. The first step is to baseline your LAN. I used the NetLens Analyzer's statistics mode to baseline both the local and re- mote networks. After a half-day of moni- toring, I used the figures from the full- statistics screen to set alarm thresholds for both networks. From my desk, I could watch the critical link between the routers, as well as the file server on the remote net- work. I could monitor traffic at other nodes, too. NetLens Analyzer's detection and dis- play of Token Ring faults is its strongest feature in a Token Ring network. The an- alyzer maintained an accurate log of all the errors that occurred on each LAN — receiver congestion, line errors, burst er- rors, and things like that. For example, NetLens Analyzer showed a pattern of re- ceiver congestion errors at one of the re- mote workstations. I then installed a better- performing network adapter in the office across the street. The next time I fired up NetLens Analyzer, it told me I had cured the problem. A Useful Tool In standard configuration, the NetLens An- alyzer and NetLens Probes decode four layers of protocol, up through the trans- port layer of the Open Systems Intercon- nection reference model. Decoding all seven layers, which you'd want if, for ex- ample, you need to see file-redirection packets, is an option. The protocol sup- port in the standard configuration is more than adequate for diagnosing and isolat- ing hardware problems and for analyzing network traffic loads. With the TTC system, you have to do the work of associating names with net- work nodes and determining what's nor- mal for your network. You also have to spend the time and effort to understand and analyze the network message traffic. Overall, though, I found NetLens Analyz- er a reliable, useful tool. And the well- written documentation helped me make sense of the LAN activity, both locally and remotely. ■ Barry Nance, a programmer for the past 20 years and a BYTE contributing editor, is the author of Using OS/2 2 (Que, 1992), Network Programming in C (Que, 1990), and Introduction to Networking (Que, 1992). Barry is the Exchange Editor for the IBM Exchange on BIX, where you can reach him as "barryn. " COMPANY INFORMATION ! Concord Communications, Inc. Novell, Inc. (Trakker) Network Management Products 753 Forest St. Division Marlborough, MA 01 752 (LANtern) (508) 460-4646 2 180 Fortune Dr. fax:(508)481-9772 San Jose, CA 95131 Circle 1 3 1 on Inquiry Card. (800) 243-8526 (408) 473-8333 Hewlett-Packard Co. fax:(408)435-1706 Intelligent Networks Operation Circle 1313 on Inquiry Card. (LanProbe System) 1 50 1 Page Mill Rd., Building 6U ProTools, Inc. Palo Alto, CA 94304 (Network Control Series) (415)857-1501 1 4976 Northwest Greenbrier Pkwy. fax:(415)852-3762 Beaverton, OR 97006 Circle 1311 on Inquiry Card. (503) 645-5400 fax: (503) 645-3577 Network General Corp. Circle 1314 on Inquiry Card. (Distributed Sniffer System) 4200 Bohannon Dr. Telecommunications Techniques Menlo Park, CA 94025 Corp. (415)688-2700 (NetLens Analyzer and NetLens Probe) fax:(415)321-0855 20410 Observation Dr. Circle 1312 on Inquiry Card. Germantown, MD 20876 (301)353-1550 fax:(301)353-0734 Circle 1 3 1 5 on Inquiry Card. 220 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 A Little Enxm June 30. 1992 Nanao Flexscan F550i 'L=P : ' 5 e Ik- _GJ 3 ■ENTER ADJUST /D-SUB DEGAUSS T560i THE PC/COMPUTING BSD BEST PC PRODUCTS 1^^2 . ANNUAL WIN AWARD Yes, it displays images that crisp. Yes, it does conform to the strict new Swedish MPR II and TCO guidelines, the world's toughest VLF and ELF emission standards. Yes, it does have an intelligent front control panel. Yes, it is a NANAO monitor. And the closer you get, the better we look. Take a close look at the increased clarity and brightness of Trinitron technology through graphic appli- cations such as CAD, Desktop Publishing and Windows, and see their true colors. 7660/ With flicker-free 1 280 x 1 024 ultra high resolu- tion and .26mm trio pitch, the 1 7-inch FLEXSCAN T560i gives you more work space without sacrific- ing desk space. For those who prefer a larger work area, the FLEXSCAN T660i's 20-inch screen size is ideal. With the innovation and ergonom- ics of NANAO's FLEXSCAN T-Series monitors, no other monitor can come close. That's why the Im ^^ m T560i won the 1991 BYTE EVTE AWARD OF DISTINCTION. K3H Take a closer look at your nearest NANAO dealer today, or for more information call NANAO. NANAO 1-800-800-5202 1-310-325-5202 (CA) Fax: 1-310-530-1679 ® Trinitron, Windows and FLEXSCAN are trademarks of their respective companies. "Salellile" graphic images created by Jerry D. Flyrm, Design Engineer, Cocoa Beach, FL. "Lunar Landing" created fay Design Visualization Croup, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company Circle 125 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 126). AtOkidaia one good thing In June 1990, Okidata's OL400 personal page printer won a PC Magazine Editors' Choice award. The editors praised its overall performance and value - applauding its graphics and text quality, and its wide selection of built-in type- faces and fonts. All at the lowest suggested list price of any page printer available. In November 1991, Okidata's new OL830 Adobe® PostScript® printer won the same coveted award. Once again, the editors praised our printer's overall per- formance and value. They found it to be the fastest of all 8-ppm printers tested in PCL (HP em- ulation) graphics mode. And considering its record-setting low price, they rated it "the best inexpensive PCL/PostScript printer available".* leads to another. Both printers come equipped ness or home-office application, ceptable, but outstanding per- with an impressive list of stan- And both come with dard features - including full one additional standard HP Series II software compati- feature: the Okidata bility, and the industry's only 5- OK! It's our pledge to year printhead warranty. Plus a you that every product choice of options to tailor either bearing our good name machine for your specific busi- will deliver not just ac- formance and value. Call 1 (800) OKIDATA for the name of your nearest Okidata dealer, and ask him to show you both award-winning page printers. OKIDATA OK! We don't just design it to work. We design it to work wondersf *REPR!NTED FROM PC MAGAZINE, 11/26/91. PC MAGAZINE AND THE EDITORS' CHOICE AWARD ARE REG. TMs OF ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING. ADOBE AND POSTSCRIPT ARE REG. TMs OF ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. OKIDATA AND THE OKIDATA OK! ARE REG. TMs OF OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY, CO., LTD. "WE DON'T JUST DESIGN IT TO WORK. WE DESIGN IT TO WORK WONDERS", ISA REG. TM OF OKI AMERICA INC. Circle 61 on Inquiry Card. W. POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS an PostScript's Middle Class The BYTE Lab tests printers that raise the bar without breaking the bank STAN WSZOLA AND DAVID L. EDWARDS p rice, speed, and resolution. These features are at the top of the list when BYTE readers go shopping for a printer. If you need a model capable of handling the PostScript page-description language, price no longer is the obstacle it once was. You can get a good PostScript printer for less than $1500 (see "Penny-Wise PostScript" in the October 1991 BYTE). But what if you're less con- cerned about price and more interested in getting sharp output at a relatively brisk clip? Then, you need to take a look at the middle class of PostScript printers. The good news is the list of machines that fall into this category is growing. More manufacturers are adding technology for enhancing the look of printed text, particularly text in small point sizes, without raising prices exorbitantly. They're also incorporating faster processors to boost output rates. While these midrange printers cost more than basic "white bread" PostScript models, prices have fallen to a level that most companies can afford. In this month's BYTE Lab Product Report, we compare 1 1 midrange print- ers that offer PostScript capability with a bit of icing on top: Apple's Laser- Writer Ilg, Dataproducts' LZR-960, Epson America's EPL-8000, GCC Tech- nologies' BLP IIS, IBM's LaserPrinter 10, LaserMaster's TrueTech 1000/4, Mannesmann Tally's MT-908, NEC Technologies' Silentwriter2 990, New- Gen Systems' Turbo PS/400p, Texas Instruments' microLaser Plus PS 17, and XANTE'S Accel-a-Writer 8000. For those willing and able to go a step above, we also look at the QMS-PS 1700, a more expensive, high-resolution printer designed for use on a network (see the text box "High Speed, Sharp Graphics, and Lots of Connections" on page 234). In general, midrange PostScript printers distinguish themselves from penny-wise models by offering print speeds of at least six pages per minute and resolutions of at least 400 dots per inch. (Our list includes a couple of exceptions, but units that don't meet these criteria compensate by providing either enhanced resolution or considerable processing speed.) We chose the current group of printers to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of capabilities covered by the term PostScript compatible — and to see just how little or how much you must spend to get better-than-basic PostScript quality. Our selections present a wide range of features and capabilities: engines from several manufacturers (including one for the GCC Technologies BLP IIS that is based on LED-array technology rather than on laser technology), engine speeds ranging from 4 to 17 ppm, and resolutions from 300 to 1000 dpi. Support for PostScript versions also varies (see the text box "Post- Script: Level 2 and Clones" on page 227). List prices start at $1399 for the microLaser Plus PS 17 and climb to $7995 for the QMS-PS 1700, but base price doesn't always provide a good point of comparison. Some manufactur- ers sell printers ready to run PostScript; others offer PostScript capability or suf- ficient memory to run PostScript as options that can add several hundred dollars to the price tag. Drivin' the Toner At the heart of every printer is an engine. The Canon engine, in its various ver- sions, turns up in half of the review units: the Apple LaserWriter Ilg, LaserMaster TrueTech 1000/4, NEC Silentwriter2 990, NewGen Turbo PS/400p, QMS-PS 1700, and XANTE Accel-a-Writer 8000. There's good reason for this engine's popularity. It's easy to maintain, and the toner and drum share a single cartridge that slides easily into the printer. When the toner runs out, you simply replace the entire cartridge. The integration makes the cost of a new cartridge relatively high — replacements retail for around $100 — but Canon cartridges are widely available, so you can shop around for the best price. Cartridges also may be recy- cled, which means you can sell depleted ones to a "remanufacturing" operation and purchase recycled, replenished car- tridges for considerably less than the cost of a new one. Other printers that follow this all-in- one design include the Epson EPL-8000, built around a 10-ppm Minolta engine, and the Lexmark IBM LaserPrinter 10, based on IBM's own 10-ppm engine. Epson and IBM cartridges are not as 224 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 2IYES! Enter my one-year (12 issues) subscription to BYTE for only $24.95. Ill 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 NAME COMPANY ADDRESS. CITY_ _STATE ZIP. Please allow 6-8 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. [ Ah.*™ Please see table of contents for international subscription rates. I ^jsovin kI IB2S016 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 m.ImImI.I.mI.IIIm.I.I.mImIIIm.I.IhmII.I widely available as the Canon cartridges, and the prices may run a little higher because they can be used only in printers with those engines. You also will have a harder time selling a used cartridge from one of these printers, because many remanufacturers deal exclusively with Canon cartridges. The Texas Instruments microLaser Plus PS 17 and the Dataproducts LZR- 960 use Sharp engines rated at 9 ppm. Installing these units' separate toner and drum cartridges is a little more difficult than with the simple Canon engine, but it can be more economical because you may replace just the toner or the drum. Further, what you lose in convenience you make up for in efficiency, because printers built around Sharp engines offer a more compact design. The Mannesmann Tally printer, which has a Konica engine running at 8 ppm, also uses separate drum and toner car- tridges, which fit into a lift-out tray. You must work quickly when servicing this machine, however. The photosensitive drum lacks a cover, and prolonged expo- sure to bright light could damage it. The Okielectric engine in the GCC BLP IIS uses an alternative technology: an LED array that produces very nice output. This design means that the Oki- electric engine is somewhat simpler mechanically and therefore has fewer moving parts that may break. Unfortu- nately, it is also our least-favorite engine to set up and replenish. The toner comes in a metallic cylinder. To add toner, you remove the old cylinder and pop in a new one, rotating it a half-turn to release the powder into the toner well. The cylinder remains in place, but you may get a bit dirty during refills, because there is no protective case between you and the cylinder. You Need More Than a Fast Engine Engine design and ppm ratings are important but, when it comes to Post- Script printers, they tell only part of the story. Fast engine speed simply won't be that beneficial if the printer's controller spends a lot of time interpreting the PostScript code before sending it along to the print engine. To give you the full picture, our suite of benchmarks included start-to-finish printing tests (see the text box 'Testing PostScript Speed and Compatibility" on page 232). The fastest printer in the BYTE Lab-tests proved to be the QMS- PS 1700, with its 17-ppm engine and 25- MHz Intel 80960CA RISC microproces- sor. A laser printer that packs such pure brute force is just what you need for a networked printer. Of course, you pay for this level of performance. The QMS is in a class above the other units BYTE ACTION SUMMARY WHAT MIDRANGE POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS DO These printers deliver the industry-standard PostScript language (or compatible alternative), relatively fast printing speed, scalable fonts, and high resolution. LIKES Good output, especially crisp text; PostScript compatibility; falling prices. DISLIKES PostScript still is slow. It requires a fast microprocessor and plenty of RAM to keep up with a fast computer. Replacing toner and drums can be expensive. RECOMMENDATIONS Most economical is the Tl microLaser Plus PS 17. However, the more expensive Epson EPL-8000 beats the Tl at speed and quality of output. Our champion for sharpest output is the 1000-dpi LaserMaster TrueTech 1000/4. If you're shopping for a fast network printer, check out the QMS-PS 1700. PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT PARKER/ AVIS STUDIO © 1992 AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 225 POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS reviewed here and is included as an index of sorts that shows what's avail- able when you go beyond the midrange of PostScript printers. The fastest truly middle-class print- ers — candidates more likely to end up on a desktop — are the NEC Silentwriter2 990, the NewGen Turbo PS/400p, and the Dataproducts LZR-960. All use a Weitek RISC processor; the NEC and the Data- products use the 8200 running at 16 MHz, while the NewGen has an 8220 running at 16 MHz. All also have reason- ably fast engines. The lone printer to use the 16-MHz AMD 29000 RISC processor is the 8-ppm XANTE Accel -a-Writer. Rounding out the field are the printers that use a variety of Motorola 68000 microprocessors. The fastest of this bunch is the Apple LaserWriter Ilg, with a 25-MHz 68030. Behind it are the Texas Instruments microLaser Plus, with a 68000 running at 12.5 MHz, and the IBM, with a 68020 running at 16.7 MHz. Our speed benchmarks clearly illustrate the benefits of coupling RISC processors with reasonably fast print engines. Of course, the final product matters as much as processing time, and all the printers we tested produced good-look- ing pages of text and graphics. Only after looking intently at the fine details under a magnifying glass were we satis- fied that we had singled out the printers capable of producing the highest quality output. (See the text box "Do You Real- ly Need All Those Dots?" on page 230 for guidelines on choosing the printer with the right resolution.) Eleven midrange printers with such varied capabilities, designs, and features offer a lot to talk about — too much, in fact. In the discussions that follow, we focus on the five midrange models that, in our estimation, are the cream of this middle-class PostScript crop. To see how the remaining six stack up against the top five and our "token" high-end PostScript model — feature for feature and bench- mark for benchmark — see the table on page 228 and the figure on page 232. The printers that didn't make the cut certainly aren't slouches. They simply fall short in one respect or another, HOW THE OUTPUT LOOKS These enlarged output samples show how each printer handles different types of printing jobs. The top row of sam- ples, extracted from the background of a black-and-white photograph, demon- strates each printer s control of contrast and resolution when working with halftone images. The middle row of samples shows how each printer does when dealing with very fine detail; the trick is to print tiny text without filling in the holes of letters such as o and e. The bottom row of samples, a closeup of a diagram of a printed circuit board, shows each printer's ability to produce thin, curved lines and angles. Good toner distribution is one of the keys to successfully printing small text and fine lines; if toner spatters, output suffers. You be the judge. BMCMXXCra ARC IN IPOCI 7ULEJNMCEI AflG FTHCTKWl BCCtHAlX X * */- .1 Ml - +/- flOi 1/S- UNLESS Q7WCRVJSE SPEXBHED 2(MCNS2CK Aflt IN INO-C? TOLERANCE* ARC FWCUONS DECWALS MCLE X - */- 1 t/16 x* = *'- -»i i/3 XXI - */- J0I1 ^=^ ^ Epson EPL-8000 IBM/Lexmark LaserPrinter 1 UNLESS 01HCPV1SC SPCCJRED DttftMS)(*a ARC IN INO€l TtLCPfcNCXS tf>C' fRACHQtrt KCIMM.S JC -- */- .1 !/*, -XX - */- « 1/P XXX - *>/- OW =^*=^=^^ ^ ^==* ^ 'KM UNLESS OTHCfefftE SPECKED OINCNXION* ArtC IN HOC* TELEftANDCS JflC* n*C7JDN* KCIHALS X - */- .| XXX • ♦/- £01 WNCLE1 i LaserMaster TrueTech 1 000/4 NewGen Turbo PS/400P LWLC5K cmCBWISC SPECinD MMCKSUK AAC IN DCHEI TLLX MAMJLX AM- rmci 17* ICCmALS X = */- J mcxe: =^m=^=^m =^m=^=^m QMS-PS 1700 226 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS MS PostScript: Level 2 and Clones PostScript Level 2 clears up the confusion over the many different PostScript revisions, unifying them under one release. Level 2 offers support for CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color images, composite fonts, support for extended character sets with special positioning require- ments, and optimized text and graphics operators currently used in Display PostScript systems. The new release also includes language additions, such as file-system extensions to support hard disks and cartridges. The Level 2 language also addresses a major com- plaint about PostScript: its slow perfor- mance. Level 2 caches predefined forms and patterns, compresses data, and handles memory and resources more efficiently. Although printer makers are moving to Level 2, and several manufac-turers have started shipping Level 2 printers (see the features table "Midrange PostScript Printers Compared"), the move to provide Level 2 compatibility is only beginning to gather steam. For most users, Level 2 won't make a sig- nificant difference except for work involving color images. Nearly every printer manufacturer offers a PostScript-compatible device, but PostScript compatibility no longer is the exclusive province of Adobe. Its success has spawned a host of PostScript "clones." The Mannesmann Tally MT-908, for example, uses a non- Adobe interpreter: PageStyler from Destiny Technologies, and the Laser- Master TrueTech 1000/4 relies on Microsoft's Truelmage PostScript. Dur- ing benchmark testing, we turned up a few problems with the Mannesmann Tally implementation that prevented us from printing several test pages. The TrueTech 1 000/4, on the other hand, did just fine. In general, PostScript clones do the job, especially if you look for a version written by a respected software devel- oper such as Microsoft. perhaps providing print quality that is less than exceptional or print speed that is below average. One printer that didn't make our top five but that definitely deserves careful consid- eration is Apple's LaserWriter Ilg. With its Canon engine and Motorola 68030 proces- sor, the Ilg did well in our speed tests. It also offers something Apple calls Pho- toGrade technology, which permits it to print 65 shades of gray — a helpful capabil- ity if you work with a lot of scanned images. In addition, the LaserWriter Ilg incorporates Apple's FinePrint technology, which smooths the edges of text. To our eyes, however, the print samples from the Ilg did not look significantly better than pages from other printers in this report. While this is a good printer, and one that networked Mac users will likely scarf up, the $4599 asking price gives us pause. The 1000-dpi LaserMaster TrueTech 1000/4 costs over $100 less than that. EPSON EPL-8000 Epson's EPL-8000 resides on the out- skirts of the midrange PostScript neigh- borhood. It has a resolution of merely 300 dpi but, with help from Epson's res- olution-improvement technology, man- ages to produce sharp output. Its rated 10-ppm engine speed is among the high- est of the printers we reviewed. With a base price of $1995, it stands out as a real bargain. But, beware; you need to spend a little more to bring it into the PostScript class. First, count on installing the PostScript Identity Card, which costs $649; then, you'll need to boost RAM from the stan- dard 1 MB to at least 1.5 MB. You can add memory: by adding a 0.5-MB chip set or by installing a 2-MB expansion board. Setting up the Epson and adding PostScript and memory is easy. The EPL-8000's Minolta engine fin- ished second only to the high-speed QMS in our page-printing test, taking just 22 seconds to complete the task. Its perfor- mance in the Genoa tests for CAD and precision-drawing applications and in the tests for word-processor graphics, howev- er, was below average. Epson's Resolution Improvement Technology produces smooth and sharp lines, graphics, and text. You can change the quality of the printout from the con- trol panel, simply by adjusting the degree of enhancement from light to heavy and printing out a test pattern to check the results. The unit's print resolution for text is among the highest of the printers we tested (see "How the Output Looks" on page 226). The EPL-8000's printer emulations include the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III and Epson ESC/P modes, which cover applications written for Epson 9-pin and 24-pin printers. The printer has two built- in interfaces, one Centronics parallel port and one RS-232C/RS-422 serial port; you can install optional interface cards if you need a third channel for input. You may connect as many as three computers to the Epson EPL-8000, which can switch automatically to the channel receiving the data. A printer offering PostScript compatibil- ity and enhanced resolution at a relatively good price, the Epson EPL-8000 is an excellent choice if you produce primarily text documents and need fast printouts. IBM LASERPRINTER 10 The IBM LaserPrinter 10 Model 4029- 030 is based on the Lexmark 4029 printer engine, a standard engine for Lexmark's entire LaserPrinter line. But unlike less expensive LaserPrinter models, which use a Motorola 68000, this LaserPrinter uses a Motorola 68020 running at 16.7 MHz. It also uses a high-capacity toner cartridge rated to produce 15,000 printouts. Like most of the other units in this report, the IBM LaserPrinter 10 has a one- line, 16-character LCD, three LEDs, and eight buttons on the front panel for setting up the printer and displaying printer sta- tus. Navigating through a multiline menu tree using a one-line display is annoying, but at least the user's guide is well written and provides detailed instructions on how to configure the printer. The LaserPrinter 10 comes standard with 1 MB of RAM (expandable to 9 MB) and three emulations: HPGL, HP PCL4 (with 12 bit-mapped fonts), and IBM Personal Printer Data Stream (with 10 bit-mapped fonts and 26 scalable Adobe Type I fonts). If that's not enough variety, you can plug IBM's proprietary font card into the unit's two slots. Adding PostScript to the LaserPrinter 10 requires installing a circuit board on the printer controller board. The Adobe PostScript option costs $499; the HP continued AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 227 ^POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS MIDRANGE POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS COMPARED Engine life, microprocessor, memory, and typefaces are some of the features that distinguish one PostScript printer from another. ( # = yes; O : = no; NIA - not available). Company Apple Computer, Inc. Dataproducts Epson America, Inc. GCC Technologies, Inc. IBM/Lexmark Model LaserWriter llg LZR-960 EPL-8000 BLP IIS IBM LaserPrinter 1 Price $4599 $2195 $2648" $2599 $2395 Standard Features Engine manufacturer Canon Sharp Minolta Okielectric Lexmark Print resolution (dpi) 300 300 300 300 300 or 600 Integrated/separate drum and toner Integrated Separate Integrated Separate Integrated Rated speed (pages per minute) 8 9 10 8 10 Operating noise level (dBA) 50 50 50 53 50 Engine life (no. pages) 300,000 180,000 300,000 300,000 N/A Monthly duty cycle (no. pages) 6000 10,000 5000 5000 20,000 Standard memory (MB) 8 2 1 4 1 Maximum memory (MB) 32 10 7.5 4 9 Microprocessor/speed (MHz) 68030/25 Weitek 8200 RISC/16 68000/16.67 68000/16.67 68020/16.7 Interface* A, R, SCSI, Ethernet A, P, R, SCSI P.R A,P,R P,R Dimensions (H x W x D in inches) 8.6x20x18.5 10.5x13.6x15 10.5x18.8x15.1 5.24x17.7x17.7 10.2x14.2x20.6 Weight (lbs.) 45 33.5 40 24.2 33.6 Power consumption (watts) 900 700 850 800 750 Warranty 1 year 1 year 2 years 1 year 1 year Paper Handling Features Standard capacity tray (no. pages) 200 250 250 200 200 Maximum capacity with optional trays 400 500 500 400 700 Paper sizes handled Letter, legal, A4, B5 Letter, legal, A4, B5 Letter, legal, A4, A5, B4 Letter, legal, A4, B5, C5 Letter, legal, A4, A5, B5 Prints envelopes • • • • • Output orientation Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face down Optional equipment Envelope tray, paper trays, external hard drive Paper trays, envelope feeder Paper trays, PostScript Identity Card Printer emulation cartridge, interface adapters Paper trays, font cards, envelope feeder Typographic Features: No. resident typefaces 35 35 27 35 26 Has font cartridge slots O 2 2 1 2 Accepts HP font cartridges O o O o O Offers PostScript Level 2 • • O o O HP-PCL 5 compatible O o • o Optional Autoswitching Standard mode/PostScript • o • o • Provides Windows print driver O o • • • Printer Emulation LaserJet Series II LaserJet Series II LaserJet Series II, Epson printers LaserJet Series II, Diablo 630 IBM PPDS, HPGL, HP PCL4 *A = AppleTalk, P = parallel, R = RS-232C "$1999 without PostScript card 228 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS LaserMaster Corp. Mannesmann Tally NEC Technologies, Inc. NewGen Systems Corp. QMS, Inc. Texas Instruments, Inc. XANTE Corp. TrueTech 1000/4 $4495 MT-908 Silentwriter2990 $1995 $2999 Turbo PS/400p $2995 QMS-PS 1700 $7995 microLaser Plus PS 17 Accel-a-Writer 8000 $1399 $3995 Canon 400 or 1000 Integrated 8 53 150,000 6000 9 9 Proprietary RISC/16 N/A 9.1x17.9x19 38 870 90 days TEC 300 Separate 8 47 300,000 5000 1 5 Canon 300 Integrated 8 50 300,000 5000 2 4 Intel 80960 RISC/1 6 Weitek 8200 RISC/1 6 P.R 8.6x15.5x15.9 31.9 600 1 year A.P.R.SCSI 11x25x17 49 870 1 year Canon 400 Integrated 4 53 150,000 3500 4 16 Weitek XL-8220/1 6 A.P.R 7.5x16x13,5 23 550 1 year Canon 300 or 600 Integrated 17 50 1.5 million 50,000 8 32 Intel 80960CA RISC/25 A.P.R 19x21.6x22.4 106 650 2 years Sharp 300 Separate 9 50 180,000 10,000 1.5 4.5 68000/12.5 A.P.R 10.9x13.4x14.2 33 700 1 year or 120,000 pages Canon 300 or 600 Integrated 8 53 750,000 25,000 2 16 AMD 29000 RISC/16 A.P.R 9.1x8x19.5 50 870 1 year 200 450 Letter, legal, A4, B5 250 550 Letter, legal, A4, B5 200 200 Letter, legal, A4, B5 50 250 Letter, legal, A4 1000 N/A Letter, legal, A4, exec. 250 200 750 N/A Letter, legal, A4, B5 Letter, legal, A4, B5 Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Face up or down Paper trays, sheet feeder 300-sheet feeder, PageStyler PostScript- compatible PDL Letter or legal paper cassettes, Envelope cassette SCSI interface, 250-sheet page tray, font cards Envelope feeder, duplexing unit, SCSI and Ethernet interfaces Turbo upgrade , (PostScript Level 2) 500-sheet feeder, envelope feeder Paper tray 135 35 35 35 58 17 35 N/A 2 O 2 2 2 O O O O • O O O • O O O o • O O • O O o • O • O • • • • o • o • • • • • Microsoft's Truelmage LaserJet Series HI, Epson FX-850, IBM Proprinter XL24e, PageStyler PDL LaserJet IIP LaserJet Series II, MPGL LaserJet Series II, HPGL,CCITTGroup4, DEC LND3 LaserJet Series II LaserJet Series II AUGUST 1992 • B YTE 229 POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS « % Do You Really Need All Those Dots? For most computer users, a 1000- dpi laser printer is overkill. Few applications require a resolution that fine. But if your work involves printing technical drawings, scanning in sophisticated images, or doing any- thing else that requires reproducing shading or minute details, then you can justify such an extravagance. Printers that fall within the 600- to 800-dpi range offer plenty of resolu- PCL5 option costs $199. You can install both options if you wish, but keep in mind that you'll need at least 2 MB of RAM to run PostScript, which means you will need a $199 1-MB memory upgrade or the $799 4-MB memory upgrade. The PostScript board provides only the basic 17 PostScript fonts; how- ever, you can add 22 scalable fonts with a $399 font card. But you may need even more memory than that if you want to* take advantage of another special feature: the option of boosting standard 300-dpi output to 600-dpi output. Running in 600-dpi mode with PostScript installed requires 5 MB of RAM. The 600-dpi resolution of the Laser- Printer 10 produces excellent quality out- put, thanks to IBM's Print Quality Enhancement Technology. Like Epson's Resolution Technology, PQET enhances the appearance of characters by smooth- ing the edges through controlling the size of the dots. Smaller dots reduce the jagged edges of characters. Although the printouts look great, the LaserPrinter takes its time producing them. Despite having a 68020 running at 16.67 MHz, the unit scored a disappoint- ing 0.73 in the BYTE Lab printer test suite, one of the slowest times we recorded. Another, more minor, flaw concerns the ports. Both of the printer's parallel and serial ports share the same Centron- ics connector; you configure the appro- priate port through the printer's front panel switches. If you plan on sending data to the printer via a serial port, how- ever, you'll need to purchase a special Centronics-to-DB25 adapter or cable. The IBM LaserPrinter 1 is a good solid printer that produces excellent output at 600 dpi. Outfitted with the PostScript card, it ranks as one of our favorite laser printers. tion for fine detail. Generally, you can use these printers to produce good- looking newsletters, brochures, and proposals. Practically everybody can benefit from using a laser printer that offers 300- to 400-dpi resolution. The real workhorses of the breed, these print- ers are designed to produce readable output for letters, reports, contracts, memos, and the like. LASERMASTER TRUETECH 1000/4 LaserMaster's TrueTech 1000/4 printer is very different from the other printers cov- ered in this report. Not only does it sur- pass the others in resolution, producing printouts at 400 by 1000 dpi and 1000 by 1000 dpi, it comes with a controller designed to fit inside the host computer. The card acts like any other high-speed print controller. Because the controller has its own on-board processor, a propri- etary RISC design, this setup places a minimal load on the host PC's resources. The controller board can vary the den- sity of individual dots, and LaserMaster claims the printer can achieve resolutions as high as 1000 by 1000 dpi in its so- called TurboRes mode. To support both resolution levels, the company offers two types of toner cartridges. One contains a fine-grained toner formulated for the thin lines required for text; the other is designed to handle the large dark areas typical of graphics images. With the TurboRes mode turned on, curved lines and text characters appear much smoother. The print quality in both the 400- and 1000-dpi modes places the TrueTech 1000/4 near the top of its class. In terms of speed, however, it is only adequate. The TrueTech 1000/4 is not based on Adobe PostScript. Instead, it comes with Microsoft's Truelmage PostScript-com- patible interpreter, which makes the print- er compatible with Windows 3.1 True- Type fonts. Despite its use of a PostScript "clone," the TrueTech sailed through our compatibility benchmarks. The only sticking point with this print- er is the installation procedure. You have to install the controller card in your com- puter, sacrificing a free 16-bit slot in the process. In addition, you must assign the card to a specific port, either LPT 1 , 2, or 3, and set two DIP switches. Finally, you have to run a program to configure the controller for a base I/O address and IRQ setting. During testing, we had no diffi- culty using the default address of 100 hexadecimal and IRQ 10, but you may use other addresses and IRQs to avoid con- flicts with existing hardware. The setup program also lets you select printer emulation modes"(Post- Script, HP PCL, or both), install the font manager software, and install the 135 TrueType-compatible fonts that come with the printer. A complete installation requires approximately 3 MB of hard disk space. The separate manuals for the controller and the printer cover installa- tion and operation, but this is not a plug-and-play printer. Although the TrueTech's high resolu- tion is exceptional, it isn't a printer for the average office. Unless you do a lot of desktop publishing and precision printing, you probably don't need to pay for resolution this impressive. But if crisp text and images are what you want most, check out the LaserMaster TrueTech 1000/4. NEWGEN TURBO PS/400P At only 23 pounds, NewGen's Turbo PS/400p is a featherweight compared to the other printers we tested, but it's a heavyweight in terms of performance. This compact marvel uses a 16-MHz Weitek XL-8220 RISC processor with a Canon engine, a combination that won't keep you waiting long for printouts. Its results on the Genoa test suite are outstanding. An overall index of 1.93 places the PS/400p third from the top in speed, right behind NEC's Silentwriter2 990. With another 2 MB of RAM added to the standard 4 MB offering, you can do double page buffering and increase print- ing speed by 75 percent. Although it prints at just 400- by 400- dpi resolution, the Turbo PS/400p comes with IET (Image Enhancement Technolo- gy) that smooths out curves, sharpens line art and text, and enhances gray scales — all without noticeably affecting output speed. According to NewGen, IET increases resolution to an effective 600 dpi for line art and text. Results in the text-resolution tests were excellent. Font support for the Turbo PS/400 is top-notch. You get 35 LaserWriter IINT/NTX-compatible resident fonts and some HP LaserJet Series Il-compatible fonts. NewGen also provides additional 230 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 Both products give LaserJet owners 100% PostScript compatible output. But one is built to do it a lot faster. Let's face it. Some things in this world were de- signed for speed. And other things, well, just weren't. Take Pacific Data Products' Pacif icPage PE/XL™ and Hewlett-Packard's PostScript Cartridge. Both give you 100% PostScript compatible output, but only one delivers it with blazing speed. To be precise, PacificPage PE/XL performs up to 8 times faster than HP or any other standalone cartridge in Windows as well as DOS. You're probably thinking that to get speed like this, you'll sacrifice print quality or pay a lot more. Nope. When we say 100% PostScript compatible output, we mean it. You'll get exactly the same output as you would from HP or Adobe. We're so sure of it, that we back PacificPage PE/XL with a 60-day money back guarantee of satisfaction. As for price, just compare. PacificPage PE/XL includes a cartridge, an accelerator board with 2 MB of memory and, of course, its impressive speed for only HP PostScript PacificPage XL Cartridge Time to print average graphics page $14 more than HP's cartridge and 2 MB of memory. PacificPage PE/XL is easy to install. Just slip the car- tridge in any LaserJet IIP, IIP Plus, III, HID, or HIP, and slide the accelerator board into the memory slot. It's compatible with all software applications that support PostScript output. Why wait? Call Pacific Data Products at (619) 597-3200 ext.1212, Fax (619) 552-0889. Courier Swiss 721 (Helv) Swiss 721 Narrow (Helv Narrow) Dutch 801 (Tms Rmn) Zapf Calligraphic 801 (Palatino) ITC Avant Garde® ITC Bookman® Century Schoolbook ITC Zapf Chancer f ITC Zapf Dingbats®®^***^^®®* $ Symbol cxPx&e<}>7WiK?uT Each typcstyle comes in normal, !x»ld, italic and !x>ld italic treatments except forChancciy, Zapf Dingbats, and Symbol. PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS I'ritus based on suggested list asot 4/1/92. I'anlicl'age i'F/Xl.isa trademark of Pacific Data Products, Inc. Adobe and l'ostScr 1( trademarks of Adoln- Systems, Inc. HP and Unserjet an- registered trademarks ol I lewlett-Pai kard Co. I 'hoe nix Page is a registered trademark «f Phoenix Technologies Ltd. © 19K7, 19K8 Phoenix Technologies Ltd. i960 is a trademark of In tel Corporator i. All other trade names referenced are the trademarks or registered trademar ks of the respective manufacturer. Pacific Data Products, Inc., 9125 Rehco Itaad, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. Luropean Offices: PnglandTel 0800 SI 5511. tax (44) 442 23654*; France Tel 05 90 65 09. Fax (33) 1 39 633 1 20; Germany Tel OI10 81 3685; Irelarxl Tel (3531 61 475609, Fax (3531 61 475608; Switzerland T (41)22341 2650,Fax(-ll)22 34l 06 82; Belgium Tel 078 1 11292; Netherlands Tel 06 0222065.® 1992 l'acific Data Products, Inc. FAST WINDOWS® PRINTING WITH i960? PROCESSOR POSTSCRIPT PRINTERS Testing PostScript Speed and Compatibility For PostScript printers, it's not enough to produce good-looking pages. You want a model that works fast and can handle all sorts of software, too. To evaluate these print- ers' overall speed and compatibility, we relied heavily on tests derived from the industry-standard Genoa Technology test suite, which involves printing over 700 pages of text and graphics using 48 popular Mac and PC applications. If a printer can successfully make its way through the tests, it's compatible for most business applications. The first speed benchmark, the Sin- gle-Page Test Index, suggests how efficiently a printer handles short memos or business letters (see the fig- ure, part a). We used Lotus Develop- ment's Ami Pro to generate a single- page business letter, timing each printer from the time it began process- ing the PostScript code to the moment the printer dropped the paper into the output tray. Next, we took 50 pages from the Genoa suite and broke them into three groups by application category: spread- sheets, drawing programs, and word processors (see the figure, part b). The times in these three categories suggest the level of performance you might expect if you use the printer for these types of applications. The spreadsheet component of the Application Tests Index includes pages from different ver- sions of Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel. The spreadsheet images have a lot of heavily formatted text and a num- ber of three-dimensional graphs. The drawing component involved working with AutoCAD, PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, and several illustra- tion packages. The CAD images we printed contain thousands of thin, close- ly spaced lines and shapes, while the DTP and illustration pages focus on larger areas, intricate shapes, and com- plicated fill patterns. The word-processing component of the Application Tests Index evaluated how well the printers handle pages of text containing a variety of fonts. Print- ers that have trouble rendering compli- cated curves usually do better in this area of the test. The results of both the First-Page Test and Application Tests are indexed to the Apple LaserWriter II NTX, a $5000 high-end PostScript printer rated at 8 ppm that BYTE typically uses as a baseline printer for tests such as these. To round out the testing, we ran a series of other benchmarks, the results of which you won't see reflected in the graphs below. That's because they emphasize compatibility rather than performance. PostScript is a complex language, and most applications — even groups of dif- ferent applications — don't fully exercise its capabilities. To check out how each of the review printers handles the com- plete range of PostScript capabilities, BYTE ran each machine through Genoa test pages designed to exercise every PostScript operator. Of the 12 printers tested, only the Mannesmann Tally, which uses the PageStyler page-descrip- tion language instead of Adobe PostScript, choked during testing. Com- pany representatives acknowledge the problem and promise an update that will fix it. a) Apple LaserWriter llg Dataproducts LZR-960 Epson EPL-8000 GCC BLP IIS IBM LaserPrinteMO LaserMaster TrueTech 1 000/4 Apple LaserWriter II NTX Mannesmann Tally MT-908* NEC Silentwriter2 990 NewGen Turbo PS/400P QMS-PS 1700 Tl microLaser Plus PS 1 7 XANTE Accel-a-Writer 8000 BYTE BENCHMARK RESULTS b) A Worse <4 Worse First-Page Index Better ► ■n -— ■_ 1 ■| ■ ■ MM ■■■■ MM ■HH ■MB ■HMH HBBBi ■""■*■■ 1 1 MM ■■■OHM MB -H ^^^ ^^^m^^^m ^^^ ■| ^M ■■■■J ^^^^^^ ^■■" HM ■■■MMM mmmt mmm HHHBMM ■H ^MMHM mm ^ ■MB MHHMH ■MB ■HIM ■ il mmmt MHMMI ■^ ■mI M ■MB ■^■H ■MBiBSSSSi 3 ■ i ■"" — immMB "■" ^"™~ Application Indexes 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 1.0 2.0 3.0 4. | Spreadsheets □ Drawing | Word Processing ' Failed to complete tests for spreadsheets and drawing. (a) The first-page index tracks each printer s performance on a single page of text, comparing completion time against that of the Apple LaserWriter II NTX. We started timing when the print command was entered and stopped timing when the page fell into the output tray. This test evaluates how efficiently a printer can handle memos and simple business correspondence. (b) The application index rates the printers performance when processing and printing spreadsheets, drawings, and pages of text. All results are indexed to the Apple LaserWriter II NTX. Longer bars indicate better performance. Results for the Man- nesmann Tally printer do not appear because it failed to com- plete the tests. 232 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 Four reasons to buy aTl microLaser ™ printer* Now there's a way for you to put the power of Microsoft® Windows™ on paper — microLaser from Texas Instalments. Designed to be Windows C Translator Available (Using Visual Basic? Try CodeBasic!) y/ £ The C Library for DataBase Management SEQUITER SOFTWARE INC. TEL. 403«437»241 FAX 403*436«2999 Europe 33.20.24.20.14 #209,9644-54 AVE., EDMONTON, AB, CANADA T6E-5V1 Circle 1 5 1 on Inquiry Card. Redefining RAID to a gRAIDER rate RAID is an advanced storage technique designed to efficiently secure on-line information. The RAID concept is designed to speed up access to files by performing multiple, independent transactions simultaneously. RAIDER embodies DynaTek's mission to optimize security and to maximize speed and capacity. ENGINEERING RAIDER engineering is the product of the accumulated knowledge of a brilliant team that implemented disc striping, mirroring and RAID levels 3 and 5 in the most practical way; a team which is dedicated to benchmark your required implementation and to optimize it for your application. It is highly innovative engineering which goes beyond the conventional levels of RAID to the extended redundancy levels of RAIDER. w C^ ST STRUCTURED FOR STORAGE RAIDER construction is an ingenious, creative design of superior craftsmanship, manufactured in a quality controlled production environment. It is a ruggedized, flexible, but compact electronically redundant disc array. RAIDER is designed to complement the security obtained through disk redundancy by utilizing self-contained, "hot- mountable" modules. It is built to maximize RAID to a gRAIDER level. INTEGRATION RAIDER integration is accomplished using Management Interface for Raider (MIR), allowing RAID administration on operating systems across different platforms. Whether Novell or OS/2, UNKV5.4orAIX-MIR expands RAID to a gRAIDER range. 9 J The Future of Storage DYNATEK AUTOMATION SYSTEMS INC., 15 TANGIERS ROAD, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, M3J 2B1 TEL: (416) 636-3000 FAX: (4l6) 636-3011 Circle 191 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 192). REVIEWS HARDWARE NEC's Notebook Compromises for Color WAYNE RASH JR. NEC Technologies' UltraLite SL/25C is one of the first active-matrix color notebooks to hit dealers' shelves. The UltraLite is built around the Intel 25-MHz 386SL microprocessor, so it's fast. Its backlit TFT (thin-film transistor) LCD provides good color and delivers full VGA resolution, yet it uses relatively little power compared to earlier portable color screens. More important, the UltraLite's screen is fast enough to avoid the prob- lem of trails behind moving objects, such as the mouse pointer. Color Compromises Portable-computer color screens are a com- promise. They can't soak up the power that a CRT uses, or there wouldn't be a prayer of running them on batteries. But TFT displays still demand a lot of power to drive the backlighting, which must shine through the color LCD panel. That means there will always be a trade-off between battery life and the brightness and bril- liance of a portable TFT display. NEC has obviously chosen to favor bat- tery life in this equation; the backlighting is somewhat dim (see the photo). You can't use the UltraLite outside or in a brightly lit office. Even under normal office fluores- cent lighting, the screen washes out to the point of being difficult to see, and in sun- light, it's unusable. However, if you have an office optimized for computer use, with indirect, subdued lighting, you'll proba- bly be able to see the screen just fine. Even with relatively low-powered back- lighting, the UltraLite demands consider- ably more power than comparable mono- chrome devices. NEC says that the normal battery life between charges is 1 hour, 18 minutes if you use the machine constantly during that time. This closely matches the 1 hour, 20 minutes I measured in actual use. BYTE's battery-life tests (see the fig- ure) pegged the UltraLite's life at just over T/i hours in typical conditions — far below the times of monochrome SL machines that BYTE has tested, but above those of some SX-based monochrome notebooks. NEC has made good use of the 386SL's power management features to extend life. If you don't press a key, and if there isn't anything happening on the screen for over a second, the CPU clock drops to 6.25 MHz. After a preset time, all power-consuming NEC's UltraLite SL/25C has a colorful, high-contrast display, but the machine is bulky, and the display can fade in bright light. ■i'J 11 ACTION SUMMARY ■ RECOMMENDATIONS ■ WHAT THE ULTRALITE SL/25C IS NEC Technologies 7 low-power Considering the premium you high-speed notebook with an pay for color and the added bulk active-matrix color display. required for the display, the monochrome version of the ■ LIKES UltraLite is probably a better The UltraLite is fast, and power choice. management features provide good battery life. ■ PRICE $6268 (as tested) ■ DISLIKES The UltraLite is big and heavy by ■ FOR MORE INFORMATION current notebook standards, and NEC Technologies, Inc. it's hard to work with the display 1414 Massachusetts Ave. in bright light. Boxborough,MA01719 (508) 264-8000 fax: (508) 264-8673 Circle 1 1 33 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 253 NEC'S NOTEBOOK COMPROMISES FOR COLOR BYTE NOTEBOOK BENCHMARK INDEXES Toshiba NEC H Aquiline ■ Everex T2200SX UltraLite SL/25C I Arima SN386SL H Tempo 386SX/20 DOS APPLICATIONS Word Processing Spreadsheet Database Overall Better ikikitik WINDOWS APPLICATIONS Word Processing Spreadsheet Database Overall DOS LOW-LEVEL Disk Video BATTERY Battery life (Hours) Better Worse SEk All results are indexed, and higher numbers indicate better performance. For each index in the DOS and Windows tests, a Toshiba T2200SX running DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 = 1. The BYTE low-level benchmark suite identifies relative performance at the hardware level, breaking down performance by system component. The results of these tests can help you to identify the relative performance of a given subsystem and to determine where performance bottlenecks may lie. For a complete description of these tests, see "BYTE's New Benchmarks: New Looks, New Numbers," August 1990 BYTE. The BYTE low-level benchmarks, version 2.2, are available in the by te.bmarks conference on BIX, or you can contact BYTE directly. BYTE's application performance suite measures the performance you can expect to see running a given application category under a given operating environment. We test under two environments: DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0. We test three application categories for each environment, running test scripts using the following programs: Word Processing: WordPerfect 5.1 and Lotus Ami Pro 2.0; Spreadsheet: Lotus 1-2-3 release 2.3 and Microsoft Excel 3.0a; Database: Software Publishing Superbase 4 version 1.3 and Borland dBase IV. The data files and test scripts are available from BYTE. Benchmark results place NEC's UltraLite SL/25C among the faster notebooks BYTE has tested Its battery life compares favorably to that of some monochrome machines. devices shut down as the computer enters rest mode. Finally, after another config- urable interval, the machine shifts to stand- by mode, where the processor completely stops. Standby mode requires only about 4 percent of the power required during full operation. Replacing the battery is easy even while you are using the UltraLite. The battery is located beneath a panel in front of the screen. If the computer is in use, you shift it into standby mode by pressing a button that is adjacent to the power switch, swap the old battery for a new one (the UltraLite will run for about 5 minutes with the bat- tery removed), and shift the computer back into normal operation. High-Speed Cruise The UltraLite runs at a full 25-MHz clock speed when it's plugged in, but you can set the battery-power clock speed to 25 or 1 2.5 MHz. The lower rate extends battery life. BYTE ran performance tests on a 4- MB version of the UltraLite (the standard complement is 2 MB) running at 25 MHz. As you can see from the benchmark graph, that performance is respectable. In real- world use, the UltraLite is fast enough to run Windows comfortably while at full speed. I was surprised that switching to half- speed battery operation didn't give me much of a perception that the UltraLite was slowing down. Of course, CPU-intensive operations, such as reformatting a large Word for Windows document or recalcu- lating a big spreadsheet, would make the slowdown obvious, but most people don't run those operations on notebooks very often. The only obvious delays happen when you bring the computer back to life after it's been in the standby mode. That can take a few seconds. Big No matter how you look at it, the UltraLite is hefty for a notebook computer. At 9 by 1 VA inches, it stretches the upper end of the category boundaries. Its 2/<-inch thickness is probably too much for your briefcase, and it weighs TA pounds. When you carry the UltraLite around for a while, you be- gin to wonder where the name came from. Thickness also makes the UltraLite harder to use. The front edge of the key- board rises 1 A inches above the surface on which it rests. This is high enough to make typing uncomfortable. Otherwise, the UltraLite is well ar- ranged. The floppy drive is on the left side near the front, leaving plenty of room on the right side for a clip-on trackball like the Ballpoint mouse. The 80-MB hard drive is just behind the floppy drive. The controls are easy to find: The power switch is on the flat surface above the keyboard, and the standby switch is next to it. The brightness control is just below the screen's lower-right comer. Serial, parallel, mouse, keyboard, external floppy drive, and VGA connectors are behind covers on the back- panel. The backpanel also holds a power jack (concealed by a plug that's hard to remove but easy to lose) and a docking- station connector. At just under $6000, the UltraLite is reasonably priced — as these things go. Toshiba charges, and Zenith plans to charge, a lot more for its color notebook computers (close to $8000). If, however, you can live without a color screen, you can save a lot of weight and thousands of dollars and get longer battery life. If the UltraLite's color screen were as bright and clear as those of some of its competition, it might be worth the cost; but the display is just not that good. NEC's UltraLite SL/25C is a good machine, but for six grand, you should expect a great one. ■ Wayne Rash Jr. is a consulting editor for BYTE and director of the Network Inte- gration Group of American Management Systems, Inc. (Arlington, VAj.He is coau- thor of two books for business network users: The Executive Guide to Local Area Networks and The Novell Connection. You can contact him on BIX as "wayne- rash" or in the to.wayne conference. 254 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 REVIEWS APPLICATION A Fresh Approach to Databases RICK SCOTT Database programs are an invaluable tool for keeping track of information, but they can be difficult to learn and use. Approach Software is trying to change that with its new Approach for Windows, which takes advantage of a graphical en- vironment to remove some of the fear and loathing from setting up a database sys- tem. Approach is not only simple to set up, but it also offers some unique features, such as being able to easily access and blend information from other databases. Approach is a stand-alone relational data- base. But it can also serve as a front end to databases created in dBase III Plus, dBase IV, Paradox, or Oracle SQL. It is equally suitable for creating files you can use with those programs. Approach can mix data from any of these three databases in the same form or report, to a limit of 1 data- bases per application. The program can import and export in- formation in popular formats, such as Lo- tus 1-2-3, Microsoft Excel, and ASCII. Approach can also store graphics in PCX, TIFF, EPSF, BMP, and Windows metafile formats. This is handy if you want to set up a pictorial database, such as a personnel directory. Besides text and pictures, the program offers six other field types: Nu- meric, Boolean, Date, Time, Memo, and Calculated. Approach is function-rich: A calculation can use any of 8 1 predefined functions, including trigonometric, statis- tical, date, conversion (i.e., numeric to text), and string functions. When you want Approach to sort a file, just click on the fields you want to sort on, in the order you want, and select as- cending (e.g., A to Z) or descending. Mul- tiple-field sorts are also possible. Approach creates an index (which it calls a smart in- dex) on any field on which you do a find or a sort. After a field is indexed, Approach maintains the index for that field so that subsequent fields and sorts are performed faster. You can also define a field as an Index field during data entry. Boolean, Picture, and Memo fields cannot be in- dexed. Approach comes with a macro feature to record and play back a sequence of oper- ations. You can set macros to move to dif- ferent screens, switch a view, find a par- ticular record, execute a menu option, move to the current record, or set a field to To design a data- entry field with Approach for Win- dows, you pick fields from a pull- down list and then select border and label options. The program lets you preview the results in a window in the lower right cor- ner. The toolbar at the top provides push-button ac- cess to commonly used operations. I Approach - |C:\APPROACH\EXAMPLES\INVOICES.VEW:Data EnUy] File Edi> View Becords Design Objects Style Window Help (an cb rnBioioTTi [siBipnn mm INVOICE INV.DATE CONTACT COMPANY ■■.'it. v. -. "Boiders Dlop (HI Boltom Dun D Text Baseline El S how Label ® Above OLelt O Below ORigh» Label: |CUSTJD | |Ffln»... [ ""!) lit a entry f« nn.it O n t TttMt O ^^ Value L«l O p=E] T ext and Value List | Value LUt... | Sample CUSTJD JCUST ED TZ?. j JcA^MV.V.Vi &tx.; £.9Si.".'.'j K£al". I Data Entry a particular value. As with everything else in Approach, you define your macro's ac- tion from a list of options. Macros are the closest thing to programming you'll find in Approach, since it has no programming language. Making a database with Approach is a point-and-click process. After naming a new database and choosing its type (e.g., dBase, Paradox, or Oracle SQL), you enter the field name, field type, and field length. Approach extends the standard types. For example, in dBase mode, which is the default, you can have Text, Numer- ic, Date, and Boolean fields, as well as Calculated fields. Building a formula for a Calculated field is as simple as picking the fields to be included in the calculation and selecting the operators and functions. Operators include standard math, such as BVTE ACTION SUMMARY ■ RECOMMENDATIONS ■ WHAT A PPROACH FOR WINDOWS IS Approach is perfect for novices and intermediate users, for those A relational database for Windows. who don't want or need a ■ LIKES database programming language, and for people who It's easy to use and has the ability to access and use files from need to tap into data in dBase, dBase, Paradox, and Oracle Paradox, and Oracle SQL SQL. It also has good formats. documentation. ■ PRICE ■ DISLIKES $399 It's awkward to change lists when conditions change or you make a ■ FOR MORE INFORMATION mistake, and it lacks mail merge. Approach Software Corp. 311 Penobscot Dr. ■ REQUIREMENTS Redwood City, CA 94063 Microsoft Windows with 2 MB of (415)306-7890 RAM and an EGA or better fax:(415)368-5182 monitor. To use Oracle SQL Circle 978 on Inquiry Card. databases, you need software from Oracle. r i AUGUST 1992 • B Y T E 255 A FRESH APPROACH TO DATABASES The Key to Other Databases D. BARKER One of the significant and unique components of Approach for Windows is the company's PowerKey technology. The program uses this technology to ac- cess and work with files from dBase, Paradox, and Oracle SQL databases. "With a PowerKey, we can give some- one access to a data type without them having to learn a new database," says Approach Software president Kevin Harvey. PowerKeys are basically DLLs. But they are not filters, Har- vey says: "They are full-blown database engines that allow Approach to act like a native database." Ap- proach doesn't build an intermediate data file. It operates directly on each native data type. PowerKeys bring several advan- tages. As Jaleh Bisharat, Approach Software's vice president of market- ing, points out, corporations can give Approach to their novice or interme- diate computer users, while their pro- grammers or database honchos can continue using dBase, Paradox, or Or- acle SQL. "This allows corporations the flexibility to provide appropriate database solutions to a range of users," she says. New PowerKeys will give Ap- proach the ability to tap into more databases, such as SQL Server. D. Barker is a BYTE Lab technical ed- itor. You can contact him on BIX as "d barker. " +, -, and so on, as well as < >, = and ( ). In design mode, you not only add and position fields on the screen, you define data-entry options as well (see the screen). One option lets you define the value of a field on a new record. You can force a de- fault value or the current date and time, or you can select the value from the pre- vious record. A field can also be serial- ized, which is perfect for invoices or cus- tomer numbers. You can determine the beginning and incremental values, too. The database builder can set up param- eters to force you to fill in a field, in es- sence making the field required. Another option lets you pick from a list of values you define. Approach creates a drop-down scrollable list for you during data entry. The only limitation to this procedure is that if you add an entry to the list, it ap- pears at the bottom of the list. You can- not reorder elements in the list unless you delete all elements and rebuild the list from scratch. This is a serious limitation and in- consistent with the flexible options that Approach uses in the rest of the design process. The database designer can specify that you match the value you enter to one that is already in the specified field in another record in the same database or in a joined database. For example, you might want to verify that a customer number in an order form exists in the customer's database. Approach makes this procedure extreme- ly simple — you just specify the database and the field in that joined database by se- lecting files and fields from a list. Joining database files is easy, too. You open a database and select the field to be used as the key to the second database. When you select the second database, you pick the corresponding field and click on the Join button. That's all there is to it. Designing Forms and Reports Approach uses an object-based method for designing a form. Basically, you start out by choosing database fields from a list, and then you click on the Add but- ton to put them in the adjacent Form Fields list. Approach builds a default form, which includes field prompts and room for each field you've selected. You move and resize these fields to make the form look the way you want. In design mode, you work with objects such as field prompts, the fields themselves, graphics, and titles. For example, if you want to move a field, you click on it and drag it to a new position. Putting together a report that presents the data from a set of records or a whole database is similar to designing a form with Approach. Reporting comes in three flavors: standard, in which each field sits on a separate line; columnar, where each record appears as a row; and summary, which shows only the calculated results of specified records. On a Network Approach will work with several LANs: Novell Advanced NetWare 2.0 A or high- er, NetWare 386, NetWare Lite, LANtas- tic, Microsoft LAN, IBM PC LAN 1.12 or higher, 3Com 3+Open 1 .0 or higher, or Banyan Vines 2. 1 or higher. If someone else on the network has made a change to the file you're working on, Approach will show you that change if you use the Refresh command. If a fellow user modifies a record after your last re- fresh, the program alerts you to that and asks if you want to override the modifi- cation. The program will lock a record if you want to temporarily keep another per- son from making a change to it. After you have made changes, Approach automati- cally locks the record while writing those changes. When working with dBase or Paradox files, you can specify "no database sharing" if you don't want anyone working with a file while you've got it. Further- more, you can guard files with passwords so that other people can view them but can't change them. As Easy as It Gets Approach makes the design and use of databases almost effortless. It takes ad- vantage of point-and-click operation, the hallmark of a good Windows (or any GUI) application. Novices should have no prob- lem getting up to speed. Approach still has some rough edges, especially when it's building validation lists. If you make a mistake or want to make an addition later, you have to start from scratch. Mail merge also needs to be implemented. As a stand-alone relational database pro- gram that can double as an easy-to-use front end to dBase, Paradox, and Oracle SQL databases, Approach is unique. If your database requirements are straight- forward and you don't want or need a pro- gramming language, you can't go wrong with Approach. ■ Rick Scott is a technical writer and con- sultant based in Seattle, Washington. You can reach him on BIX c/o "editors. " 256 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 REVIEWS APPLICATION Macintosh Impersonator TOM YAGER Life would be easier if everyone in your company used the same kind of com- puter. In reality, however, most busi- nesses operate networks that include many kinds of systems. Sharing data among those various system types is hard enough. Sharing applications among them is al- most impossible. With Liken, Xcelerated Systems offers a partial solution to the cross-platform ap- plications compatibility problem. Liken is software that emulates a Mac, from its 68000 CPU to its system ROMs. Once you install Liken on your SPARC-based work- station, you suddenly can run a wide as- sortment of Mac programs; no special hardware or software (other than Liken and the Mac system software) is needed. Preparing the Imaginary Mac I installed Liken on a Sun Microsystems Sparcstation IPC with 16 MB of memory that was running SunOS 4.1 and Open- Windows 2.0. It installs using Sun's au- tomated extract_unbundled facility, and a vendor-supplied script takes it from there. Take note: Each copy of Liken is serialized, so before you can use it, you have to call Xcelerated Systems to collect an authorization key. Liken's minimum requirements are meager: 5 MB of disk space and an un- specified amount of memory. It ran well within my Sparcstation IPC's 16 MB of memory. To complete the installation, you'll need a set of Mac system software disks; the procedure and documentation call specifically for version 6.0.7, and the software must be on 1 .44-MB floppy disks. Even at BYTE, where there are lots of Macs of various ages, I had trouble track- ing down the needed version and format. Since newer Macs ship with System 7.0, finding the older version to accommodate Liken could be a challenge for some users. The faux Mac that Liken creates is no Quadra. Rather, you get a 68000-based system with 4 MB of memory and a monochrome display, with no math co- processor. It won't run System 7.0, it has no networking support, it can't read 800- KB Mac disks, and it can't run Multi- Finder. These points are immutable (for now). While all that seems mighty limiting to many modern-day Mac users, there are still a lot of systems out there with most of Liken running un- der OpenWindows with the pop-up menu activated. these limitations, so you'll find plenty of commercial software that runs in this en- vironment. While Liken's primary job is to emulate a Mac, it takes advantage of some perks found only in a workstation environment. For one, the monochrome display is con- figurable to a variety of sizes, from the standard 512- by 342-pixel resolution "cute-little-Mac" display to an 1152- by 900-pixel resolution window that fills a Sun monitor. Since Liken runs under Open- Windows, you can run it across a network. The monochrome-only display emulation performs reasonably well over a wire. Also, Xcelerated Systems applied some imagi- nation to storing Mac files on the worksta- tion's hard drive. More on that shortly. Feels Like a Mac Liken loads and launches quickly, opening a display window that dumps the typical "happy Mac" boot icon in favor of a less inspiring Xcelerated Systems logo. That's quickly replaced by the familiar, cozy Mac Desktop, and the similarity is more than just skin-deep. Whenever you select the Liken window and place the mouse point- er inside it, the virtual Mac owns your mouse and keyboard. Mouse movement, at least on the Sparcstation IPC, is only a lit- tle sluggish compared to the mouse move- ment in the root window. Performance of other common Desktop activities — pull- down menus, resizing and moving win- dows, dragging items to the Trashcan, and so on — varies in relative speed, but I always found them bearable. Liken has a pop-up menu (see the screen) (activated by the Mac-superfluous BVTE ACTION SUMMARY I WHAT LIKEN 1.0 IS Software for SPARC-based Unix workstations that emulates a Mac. LIKES Variable-size display, flexible file system support, and simple pop- up menu control. I DISLIKES Configuration and compatibility limitations, no networking, and no System 7.0 support. I RECOMMENDATIONS A good start on what promises to be an effective bridge between Mac and Unix environments. Version 1 .0 is a little wobbly yet, but it offers the neediest users some early relief. I PRICE $695 for a single-user license. I FOR MORE INFORMATION Xcelerated Systems, Inc. 3944 Murphy Canyon Rd., Suite C201 San Diego, CA 921 23 (619)576-3080 fax:(619)576-2504 Circle 977 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 257 BYTE BYTE Reprints ACTION SUMMARY s ||| ggf. =5r §=£:. gf jj J5? The BYTE Reprint Department will provide free quotations for reprints of BYTE articles. Reprints can serve as high quality, inexpensive promotional tools: • Train and educate key personnel • Present information at conferences/seminars • Provide literature to users of your products Call 603-924-2525 for information and a free price quotation. Minimum order: 500 WW m MACINTOSH IMPERSONATOR right mouse button) that lets you mount a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or hard disk vol- ume; change the display resolution; bring up the on-line manual; or force an exit from Liken. The menu is always available, re- gardless of what the virtual Mac is running. The pop-up menu's volume-mounting options point out some interesting traits of Liken. It doesn't monitor the floppy drive, checking for media the way the Mac does. Instead, the drive is available to oth- er Unix applications until you insert a flop- py disk and ask Liken to mount it. Liken can deal only with 1.44-MB floppy disks, and it can't format them. Once they're mounted, though, they can be handled just like regular Mac floppy disks, and you'll have no trouble exchanging disks with any 1.44-MB-capable Mac. And while Liken can't automatically mount an inserted flop- py disk, it can eject one in the normal Mac way. If your Sun workstation has a CD- ROM drive, Liken will let you read any Mac-compatible CD-ROM. Again, Liken doesn't seize control of the device until you explicitly ask it to. On a multiuser sys- tem, that's the right way to handle device usage. Liken supports two flavors of hard disk access: HFS (Hierarchical File System) and UFS (Unix File System). HFS is the format used on native Mac hard disks. A Liken HFS volume is a preallocated Unix file that looks to the Mac system software like a formatted and initialized hard disk. The UFS volume uses its own hierarchical structure to store Mac files. While Mac files stored on an HFS volume can be seen only by Liken, UFS files are ordinary Unix ' files that Unix applications can read and modify. Feet to the Flames Running a handful of popular Mac appli- cations turned out to be a challenge thanks to Liken's lack of network support. De- spite the fact that BYTE's Mac and Unix networks are linked with the venerable Cayman Systems' GatorBox, I was unable to get files copied from a Mac to the Sparc- station IPC (through Cayman's Gator- Share) to read correctly under Liken. I fi- nally resorted to floppy disks, finding that the latest version of Aladdin Systems' Stuffit archiving utility crashed Liken. When I used an older copy of the utility things ran smoothly. Claris Resolve ran mostly without prob- lems, and the display performance was pretty good. Sometimes, though, Liken would forget to refresh parts of the screen during a scroll. The data was still there, but I had to kick in another scroll to get the screen refreshed. MacWrite II ran well without any of Resolve's display anoma- lies. Beyond that, compatibility, as evi- denced by Xcelerated Systems' own man- ual, is a mixed bag. Many of the big names (e.g., Microsoft's Word and Excel) make Liken's compatibility list, while others (e.g., Frame Technology's FrameMaker and Apple's ResEdit) do not. Liken supports an Apple LaserWriter as an output device, routing Mac applications' printed output through the Unix line-print- er daemon. Since Xcelerated Systems doesn't offer a LocalTalk card or adapter, you need to use one of your SPARC sys- tem's I/O ports (serial or, in some cases, parallel) or connect to a LaserWriter through a network. Either way, your application must use the system's printer driver that in- tercepts and reroutes the output through Unix. Programs that want to use propri- etaiy drivers must be persuaded otherwise or made to save their output to a file that you can then print manually. A Real Conclusion On my Sun Sparcstation IPC, the BYTE low-level Mac benchmarks showed Liken's performance to be about half that of Apple's low-end PowerBook (a 16- MHz 68000). There were both bright (tran- scendental floating-point operations) and bleak (text-output) spots, but on a 25-MHz SPARC system, Liken seems to pull the weight of an 8-MHz 68000. Once again, compatibility became an issue as the graphics benchmark test froze up. Liken didn't freeze, though, and I was able to use the pop-up menu's Abort com- mand to shut down Liken. Liken earned my respect for doing most of what it promised and for not promising to do more than it could. Both the docu- mentation and the company that created it are honest about what Liken can and can't do, so when the firm talks about the prod- uct's future, I'm inclined to take it seri- ously. This first release of Liken will be followed by a series of intermediate up- dates, rolling in color, networking, System 7.0 compatibility, and a host of other things that Mac users have come to expect. Today, Liken is a convenience that can help smooth out some sticky integration issues for mixed-platform shops. Soon, if Xcelerated Systems' plan works out, Liken will grow into a product that even the most dedicated Macophile will happily use. Giv- en what I've seen so far, I'm looking for- ward to the Likens to come. ■ Tom Y,ager is director of the BYTE Multi- media Lab and author of the forthcoming book The Multimedia Producer's Hand- book (Academic Press). He can be reached on BIX as "tyager" or on the Internet at "tyager@bytepb.byte .com ." 258 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 REVIEWS SOFTWARE Power Tools for Visual Basic JON UDELL Visual Basic was born to be extended. Once you see the wonders you can work with its native controls — menus, buttons, list boxes, and text fields — you lust for even more leverage. Visual Basic can't really extend itself, however. An in- terpreted language that lacks pointer sup- port, it just isn't the right tool for build- ing high-performance objects that reach deep into the Windows API. Instead, it re- lies on custom controls called VBXes (Vi- sual Basic Extensions). Written in C, these extensions appear in the Toolbox and act just like native Visual Basic controls. You draw them on forms, modify their prop- erties interactively at design time or pro- grammatically at run time, and write code to define how they respond to events. Microsoft's new Professional Toolkit for Visual Basic supplies a set of useful custom controls and the development tools you need to write your own VBXes. The new custom controls (see the table) are a mixed bag. Some merely add visual or functional pizzazz to standard Visual Ba- sic controls. You can use three-dimen- sional versions of buttons and frames to achieve a chiseled Motif-like look, or in- stant-change scroll bars that trigger change events while the scroll indicator is moving. Others take Visual Basic into new areas — graphing, common dialog boxes, OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), multi- ple-document interfaces, pen input, and multimedia. Experimenting with these building blocks proved entertaining, productive, and sometimes frustrating. Why frustrat- ing? Because I achieved so much so quick- ly with the Visual Basic power tools, I raised my expectations impossibly high. Then reality set in. Also, I discovered that some of the Toolkit's controls don't en- capsulate all the behaviors they should to rate as fully general-purpose objects. Building a Database Browser My central example is the database brows- er (see the screen). This program uses five Toolkit controls: Common Dialogs, Grid, Graph, MDI Child, and (gratuitously) OLE Client. It displays a FoxPro 2.0 database in one MDI Child window, graphs selected data in a second, and inserts an embedded object into a third. For the database sup- port, I enlisted the help of Sequiter Soft- The Grid control serves as a database browser. The Graph control renders the select- ed column of data as a 3-D bar chart. Both the Grid and the Graph controls occupy the MDI Child control, as does the OLE Client (mini- mized), which con- tains an embedded Paintbrush image. ■ETEW! Olij.irt Clos Surmagraphics Every decision should be this easy. © 1992 Summagraphics Corporation. Seymour, CT 06483. All rights reserved. Circle 1 63 on Inquiry Card. UNDER THE HOOD algorithm code to account for the peculiarities of any given chip's architecture; for exam- ple, with the DSP3210, the trick is to try to keep off-chip ac- cesses to just one or two per in- struction cycle and pay no per- formance penalty. Programming the Motorola and Analog Devices DSPs With the Motorola DSP96002, the 1 x4 by 4x4 vector-transfor- mation algorithm takes three in- structions for setup and 19 in- structions for kernel execution. Each of the assembly-level code instructions has up to six fields of the form fmpy.s d7,d5,dl fadd.s dl,dO x:(r0)+,d6.s y : (r4) +n4, d7 .s The first field, called the op-code field, tells the data ALU, address-generation unit, bit-manipulation unit, or program controller which instruction to perform. The second field specifies the operands to be used. The sample code above calls for a single-precision multiply of d7 and d5 and storing the result to d 1 . The third field, another op-code field, specifies a floating-point add/subtract op- eration in the data ALU, and the fourth field contains the operands for that opera- tion. The sample instruction calls for a floating-point add of dl and dO and storing the result in dO. The fifth field specifies an optional data transfer over the x data bus (and the ad- dressing mode for the transfer); the last field provides similar information for the y data bus. (The DSP96002's five separate bidirectional 32-bit buses are the x data bus, the y data bus, the global data bus, the DMA data bus, and the program data bus.) Performing 1000 vector transforms with a 40-MHz DSP96002 would require 0.95 ms after initialization was complete. Listing 1 : Matrix multiplication on the DSP 3210. The chips concise assembly language syntax resembles that ofC. rl = mat A r2 = matB r3 = mate rl5 = -12 /post modify by 4* (n-1) / rl6 = 16 /post modify by 4*(n)/ rl7 = -44 /post modify by 4*((n-2)n+(n -1))/ aO = *rl++**r2++rl6 aO = aO + *rl++**r2++rl6 aO = aO + *rl++**r2++rl6 *r3++ = aO = a0+*rl++rl5**r2++rl7 {repeat for rows 2, 3, and 4} The FFT (fast Fourier transform) "but- terfly" operation is another key signal-pro- cessing algorithm. It uses a complex in- put comprising real and imaginary parts along with a complex coefficient with sine and cosine components. The DSP3210 re- quires six instructions to encode the inner loop; the Analog Devices ADSP-21020 can encode the inner loop in just four in- structions (in a total time of 160 ns). Setup takes up only one line of code that sets a loop counter to the value in register 15 and says to run until the loop counter (LCE) expires (see listing 2). The second line of the core loop shows the power of the complex chip architec- ture. A single instruction cycle accom- plishes a floating-point multiplication, ad- dition, and subtraction together with a data memory (dm) write and a program memo- ry (pm) read. The fourth term in the in- struction tells the DSP to get the data in floating-point register f 13, write it to data memory in location i2, and then modify pointer value i2 by the value of mO, a mod- ify register. This is similar to the post-in- crement capability of the DSP3210. The ADSP-2 1 020 has a program mem- ory for the storage of op codes and data values and a separate data memory for operands. Each memory has its own bus. Listing 2: The FFT butterfly operation on the ADSP-21020. The chip's instruction format includes optional fields for multiplication, addition, and subtraction, as well as fields for manipulating data and program memories. LCNTR=rl5, Do end_bfly until LCE; f8 =fl*f6, fll=fl*f7, f3 =f9+fl4, f9 =f9-fl4, fl4=f0*f6, fl2=f8+fl2, end_bf ly : fl2=f0*f7, fl3=f8+fl2, fl0=f8-fl2, fl4=fll-fl4, dm(i2,m0)=fl0, f9=pm(ill,m8) ; dm(i2,m0)=fl3, f7=pm(i8,m8) ; f8=dm(i0,m0), pm(il0,ml0)=f 0; f6=dm(i0,m0), pm(il0,ml0)=f3; The on-chip cache is used only for instructions that re- quire the program bus for a data fetch. In the butterfly op- eration, the first line of code, which sets the loop counter, would never be cached, but the four lines making up the loop would all be cached, since they all have program- memory data fetches (reads or writes) as part of the instruc- tion. Since the instruction is in a cache, the program-mem- ory bus is free for a data trans- fer, and two operands can be accessed in a single cycle. DSP Applications for Personal Computing The success of multimedia applications for personal computers will require the ability to compress and decompress large sound and video files to store them, trans- port them across networks and bus inter- faces, and play them back at normal full- motion-video speeds. DSPs can help. In JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) encoding, for example, a picture is bro- ken up into 8- by 8-pixel blocks that serve as the input to a DCT (discrete cosine transform); this reduces data redundancy. The DCT coefficients are then quantized using weighting functions optimized for the human visual system, which is insen- sitive to some color and spatial frequencies, and the resulting data is encoded using a Huffman variable-word-length scheme. To decompress an image, this process is done in reverse. All these operations are multiply-accumulate intensive and require accelerator hardware to meet current per- formance demands. Traditional software support for per- sonal computer DSP boards comes in two flavors. If you need to roll your own DSP application for filtering, noise suppression, fax/modem/communications, image pro- cessing, or spectral analysis, you can get an appropriate toolkit — an assembler, a link- er, a C compiler, and possibly a packaged library of DSP algorithms. Or you can buy one of the DSP applications that require or support personal DSP peripherals. Ex- amples of these DSP programs include FDAS from Momenta Data Systems, Hypersignal from Hyperception, Signal Processing WorkSystem from Comdisco Systems, SpeechStation from Ariel, and Spectrum Analyzer from Spectral Inno- vations. These applications typically target speech or audio research, filter design for electronics applications, emulation of spec- trum analyzers or oscilloscopes, and radar/sonar research. 274 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 UNDER THE HOOD New this year is support for DSP hard- ware from within non-DSP applications. For example, several new products that were announced recently allow users of National Instruments' LabView program, a leading data acquisition and analysis package for the Mac, to boost performance by adding a DSP board and LabView DSP extensions to their systems. No repro- gramming is required, since the DSP- enhanced modules use the same inputs and outputs as standard modules. LabView is supported in this fashion by both Spectral Innovations, which makes Mac DSP boards based on the AT&T chip set, and National Instruments, which makes a NuBus board that is based on the TI TMS320C30. Spectral Innovations' Lightning Effects uses the same approach to beef up Adobe Photoshop. Lightning Effects enables Pho- toshop to export a variety of operations (e.g., filtering, blurring, scanning en- hancement, and image resizing) to a DSP chip. These imaging operations, which make heavy use of multiply/accumulate operations, run up to 20 times faster with Lightning Effects than they do on an un- accelerated Mac. However, other Photo- shop operations, such as screen redraw- ing and individual pixel-editing functions, obtain no benefit at all from a DSP accel- erator. In the future, DSPs will be incorporated directly onto system motherboards rather than taking the form of board-level add- ins. The state of the art is advancing quick- ly. In March, IBM, TI, and Intermetrics announced an alliance to promote the MWave subsystem, a fixed-point DSP technology for multimedia computing that will allow a single subsystem to handle the processing that is done today by mul- tiple add-in boards. In April, AT&T for- mally announced its VCOS operating sys- tem, multimedia extensions, and DSP3210 chip, as well as strategic alliances with several board companies and systems ven- dors. Whether you are a radar/sonar re- searcher, a developer interested in multi- media education and entertainment soft- ware, or an end user who wants to be able to talk to a computer and have it talk back, there's a DSP-enabled personal comput- er in your future. ■ Andrew W. Davis is an independent mar- keting consultant who focuses on data ac- quisition and image processing. Joe Burke is president and a founder of Spectral In- novations (Santa Clara, CA), which spe- cializes in DSP solutions for Mac users. You can contact them on BIX do "edi- tors." y >i Invest in something with growth potential. Americas economic future depends on a motivated, educated work force. At a Boys & Girls Club, kids learn the life skills and job skills they need to grow into productive members of our American economy, as well as our society. Please make a contribution to the Boys and Girls Clubs. You'll be investing in the growth of America. BOYS & GIRLS CLUB SUPPORT THE CLUB THAT BEATS THE STREETS AUGUST 1992 • B Y T E 275 Here Are Just 22 of More Than 10, SVS C3 ANSI C, Pascal, orFORTRAN-77 by Silicon Valley Software Only from the Programmer's Shop! ANSI compliant, optimizing, 32-bit compilers; DPMI-compliant, royalty-free DOS extender; source level debugger; utilities. Supports "flat model" code. Linker, librarian, make, i387 emulation, W31/4167 support. Interoperable languages! LIST PS Price ANSI C S325 S325 Pascal S325 S325 FORTRAN S395 $395 FastFaxts 1958-048 (C), 1958-049 (FORTRAN), 1958-050 (Pascal) UHC System V release 4 UNIX by UHC UHC UNIX features the complete runtime SVR4 UNIX kernel as well as 17 add-on packages for the base system. Options are available for advanced C development as well as for comprehensive networking installa- tions. The Motif graphical user interface runs on an enhanced X1 1 R4 high resolution Graphical Environment. UHC's enhanced menu-driven installa- tion procedure makes the introduction of UNIX to your system a pleasure. List: $695 PS Price: $639 Multiuser upgrade: List: $395 PS Price: S369 FastFaxts: 3587-015 EMU-TEK 4200 Plus by FTG Data Systems EMU-TEK lets your IBM personal computer connect to a host computer, identify itself as a 4208 Tektronix graphics terminal, and then function just as a Tek terminal would. EMU-TEK delivers correct and complete graphics and provides DEC VT220 emulation. A variety of networks, display adapters, printers and plotters are supported. The product is easy to set up and use. List: $950 PS Price: $919 FastFaxts: 3137-001 HALO Image File Format Library by Media Cybernetics Instant file support for your applications Add image file reading and writing to your applications with the HALO Image File Format Library. Makes your application instantly compatible with hundreds of graphics and imaging products. Offers complete support for TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), PCX (PC Paintbrush), BMP (Windows Bitmap), and CUT (Dr. HALO). Works with Borland C++, Turbo C, Turbo C++, and Microsoft C. DOS Windows LIST: $249 LIST: S349 PS Price: $199 PS Price: $279 FastFaxts 0086-073 iii I mmm*mmmmmmmm—mm allCLEAR vl.l by Clear Software Give clarity and impact to every policy, procedure, and written idea. allClear automatically converts ordinary text into presentation-quality flow charts, diagrams and decision trees. Just like numbers are explained with pie, line and bar charts, allCLEAR illustrates words with diagrams- people learn faster and make fewer mistakes. LIST: $300 PS Price: $259 FastFaxts 873-008 List: $599 PS Pric* FastFaxts: 2135-001 $589 The PKWARE Data Compression Library by PKWARE The PKWARE Data Compression Library allows software developers to add data compression technology to applications. The application program controls all data I/O, allowing data to be compressed or extracted to any device or area of memory. Only 35K of memory is needed to compress data, and only 12K is needed to extract data. Compatible with MSC, BC++, TC, TP 6.0, Clipper, Basic 4.5,7.1, ASM. LIST: $295 PS Price: $275 FastFaxts 3043-011 New PDC Prolog v3.3 for DOS & Windows by Prolog Development The world's most popular native- code compiler for Prolog now supports Windows, with direct access to the entire Windows API , including all the new 3.1 features and supplementary DLLs. Easier than ever to interface to other languages, with ready-to-use bindings to Paradox Engine, QELIB, Oracle and XVT. Includes special version of SLR's Optlink/ Windows. Crfi* The Mu\t\pte* orm Edfto* SlickEdit by MicroEdge Powerful, programmable editor emulates BRIEF and Epsilon. Includes macro language, undo/redo up to 32,000 steps, multiple windows, on-line help, multiple clipboards, compiler error message processing, procedure tagging, programmable file manager, and command retrieval. DOS/OS/2: List: $195 PS Price: S189 FastFaxts: 1101-001 Windows NT 386 or mips List: $195 -call Micro Edge for more information Unix/Xenix single user: List: $295 PS Price: S279 (cpu license) for Unix/Xenix, Sun OS, AIX RS6000, Motorola 88k, DG Aviion, Silicon Graphics, or HP9000: List: $425 PS Price: S415 FastFaxts: 1101-005 THE PROGRAMMER'S SHOP All prices subject to change. International prices will vary, 1-800-421-8006 National Accounts: 800-446-1185 FAX: 617-749-2018 II Reasons to Shop The Shop- High C/C++ by MetaWare Inc. MetaWare Incorporated announces its newest product. The 32-bit High C/ C++ compiler. High C++ is a true compiler, not a C to C++ translator. 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LIST: $895 PS Price: $739 FastFaxts 1044-029 Q+E Database Library (QELIB) by Pioneer Software Don't rewrite code just to use a different database! QELIB and your favorite development tool can build applications that simultaneously and identically access, query, and edit data in fourteen formats: DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Netware SQL, Ingres, XDB, SQL Base, Btrieve, OS/2 EE DBM, Paradox, dBASE, Excel .XLS files, and text files. List: $399 PS Price: $379 FastFaxts: 2137-012 Smartcom II® for the Macintosh® by Hayes Microcomputer Smartcom II 9 for the Macintosh® Praised by software reviewers and users as the most reliable, easiest to use Mac communications software available. Smartcom II supports System 7, XMODEM, YMODEM and ZMODEM, and all popular modems plus the advanced features of Hayes Smartmodem and V-series products. Other features include support for Multi Finder®, Autopilot sequences to automate communications, and Interactive Graphics. 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Fastest dynamic overlay linker for C, C++, ASM, BASIC, Clipper, QuickBASIC, Fortran, etc., with new integrated memory swap function designed to save time and memory. Automatically creates fast, stable overlaid .EXEs to reduce memory requirements. Uses XMS/EMS to save currently executing program and run a second within the first. Features CodeView support and overlay caching to XMS/EMS for optimum runtime performance. $ LIST: $299 PS Price:$279 "FastFcixts 2933-006 ■■^■■nnHMMi WordPerfect by WordPerfect WordPerfect gives you text/ graphics integration, tables, pull- down menus, mouse support, equation editor, spreadsheet links, labels, mail merge, context- sensitive help.spell checker/ thesaurus, macros, dictionary- based hyphenation - plus toll-free support. LIST: $495 PS Price: $279 FastFcixts 1933-014 Janus/ Ada x86 Compiler by R. R. Software Janus/ Ada for DOS: the power and reliability of Ada, priced for everybody! 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LIST: $699 PS Price: $599 FastFaxts 971-039 ■KMniiHHKni PRODUCT LIST PS PRODUCT LIST PS n 1 Norton Desktop for Windows 149 99 Windows 3.1 upgrade 99 Call y I Lotus 1-2-3 v3.1 595 429 Norton Utilities 179 129 " ■ V J Excel 4.0 495 Call Visual Basic 1 .0 199 149 1 QuattroPro 495 349 Carbon Copy Plus 6.0 199 129 L U U WordPerfect 495 279 ProComm Plus 119 99 WordPerfect (Windows) 495 450 299 239 xtree gold 2.5 Norton PC Anywhere 4.5 149 179 109 Call Microsoft Word PARADE OF Microsoft Worcl (Windows) MS DOS 5.0 upgrade 495 339 Stacker 149 Call 100 65 BTrieve 595 399 PRODUCTS Borland C ++ 495 329 .RTLINK Plus 5.1 495 249 Microsoft C/C++ 7.0 495 339 Case:W Standard for C 495 429 Clipper 95 Call ObjectVision 2.0 149 105 dBASE IV 1.5 795 529 QEMM 100 69 FoxPro 2.0 795 Call DesqView 220 99 Windows 3.1 149 Call ACT! 395 249 What is FastFaxts? Get literature on any of our more than 10,000 products via fax machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. FREE! Call: 617-740-0025 from any fax machine! Follow the voice computer's instructions and enter your product's code number. Product literature prints out of your fax machine instantly. THE PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 1S0O4ZL8006 National Accounts 800-446-1185 90 Industrial Park Road, Hingham, MA 02043 • Canada 800-446-3846 • MA 617-740-2510 • FAX: 617-749-2018 Credit card orders processed only when product is shipped. All prices subject to change. International prices will vary. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED CK GREHAN A Shared Resource Access Manager, Part 1 The world of multitasking and multiuser systems is a world of careful coordination. Like aircraft jock- eying for a runway, programs vie for drives, print- ers, and other shared entities. When two or more airplanes attempt to land on the same runway at the same time, or when two or more programs try to ac- cess the same disk file simultaneously, a crash often re- sults. The task of adequately managing access to shared re- sources is not a simple one. Before tackling that, I should define just what constitutes a "resource"; the advent of the Mac and Windows has given a new definition to the term. I use it broadly to mean system assets that pro- grams use in either a multiuser or multitasking environ- ment (since the problem of resource management in a single-user, single-tasking environment is trivial). Be- cause the resources are shared, they are often in limited supply. This is the crux of access management: providing a means of making these limited supplies available to multiple programs. Resources might include processors, memory, disk space, printers, or virtually any peripheral device. For the purposes of this article, I refer to such resources as physical resources. A network printer is the quintessen- tial shared resource. Proper access management for the network printer is an obvious requirement: It won't do to have someone else's word processing document come out of the printer intermixed with yours. Entities other than physical devices can also be shared Here's how to manage access to shared resources in a multiuser environment resources. These logical re- sources include printer queues, files within databases, records within database tables, and even fields within records. In a shared-memory system, you might impose some segmenta- tion scheme as a means of han- dling memory allocation. These memory segments are an- other good example of a logical resource. Logical resources are not physical entities in the same sense as a printer or a plotter, but they always have a physical component. Files exist as magnetic domains on a hard disk platter, for example. Logical resources are just as real as physical resources, and mishandling access to them can result in problems that are just as severe as those that occur when two pro- grams attempt to send data to a single printer. If two pro- cesses insert a row into a database table with no access coordination in effect, the result is a tangle of data. Whichever process's write operations execute last over- write the information laid down by the other process. This situation — where more than one program writes to the same dataand where the outcome depends on which program gets scheduled last — is called a race condition. Semaphores The simplest way to provide access management is via an active data structure known as a semaphore. Notice that ILLUSTRATION: ROGER BOEHM ©1992 AUGUST 1992 • B YT E 279 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED I've coined a new term here: active data structure. I wanted to distinguish sema- phores from traditional data structures such as bit fields, lists, and the like. Even though internally a semaphore is just an integer value, the semaphore's behavior depends on how that value is manipulated. Semaphores are most often used to con- trol access to critical sections of code in a multitasking environment. A critical sec- tion is a portion of a program that only one process can execute at a time — for ex- ample, that portion of an operating sys- tem's BIOS that seeks to and reads a sec- tor from the hard disk. Suppose that one process begins to execute this section, gets past the seek part, and is switched out to be replaced by another process that begins executing the same code. When the first process switches back in again, the inter- rupting process has moved the disk head to a different location on the platter. The first process completes the critical section and ends up reading a sector from the wrong place. As you'll see, a semaphore placed as a guard to the critical section would allow only one process through at a time. Each task can issue a seek-and-read without be- ing interrupted. Because a semaphore can literally guard anything, it's a good, simple method of access management. Semaphores come in two forms: binary and counted. The bina- ry semaphore is the simpler of the two forms, and you can visualize it as a tog- gle switch governed by a few special rules. If you pretend that the switch guards access to some resource, then the properties and rules are as follows: • Only one process has access to the switch at a given time. • If the process finds the switch set to the off position, it can turn the switch on and proceed to access the resource. • If the process finds the switch on, some other process is using the resource. The process blocked at the switch must try again later. • Once a process has finished with the guarded resource, it must turn the switch off. The first property guarantees that oper- ations are atomic. This means that a pro- cess in the midst of manipulating the sem- aphore is not interrupted; it keeps one process from changing the switch behind the back of another process. The second and third properties describe the mechan- ics of the semaphore. The last guarantees that a forgetful process won't leave the switch on, stranding everyone following it as they wait forever for the switch to re- turn to the off position. The switch might simply be a bit some- where in memory. Usually, operating sys- tems that support semaphores guarantee the semaphore's atomic behavior by dis- abling interrupts while the semaphore is being tested and modified. A counted semaphore, as its name sug- gests, increases the possible states of a semaphore beyond simply on and off. B ecause a semaphore can guard anything, it's a good method of access management. (Counted semaphores are sometimes re- ferred to as general semaphores.) Imag- ine a bowl of tickets, and imagine that a process must be carrying a ticket to be per- mitted access to the guarded resource. The new rules are as follows: • Only one process can have its hand in the bowl at a given time. • If a process gets a ticket, it is allowed access to the resource. • If a process does not get a ticket, it must try again later. • Once a process has finished with the guarded resource, it must return its ticket to the bowl. These rules parallel those of the binary semaphore. A counted semaphore, how- ever, allows more than one process at a time to access the resource. It's up to the system to "initialize the bowl" so that it holds an appropriate number of tickets at start-up. An operating system creates a counted semaphore using an integer value rather than a single bit. A counted semaphore would be handy if you had attached four modems to one of your systems on your network and desig- nated that machine as a modem server. In this case, you would initialize the sema- phore with a count of four. State Your Rights A semaphore does not recognize different types of access; a process is either admit- ted or denied access to whatever the sema- phore guards. In many cases, it's worth- while to provide different access rights that identify what operations the requesting process is allowed to perform. There are two fundamental access rights: exclusive and shared. All other forms are elaborations on these two basic types. You've probably encountered ac- cess rights in one manual or another, usu- ally in the section describing file access. If you read the passages in the MS-DOS doc- umentation on file access rights, it's easy to get out-and-out frightened. The same applies to AppleShare documentation for the Mac. Both texts present scary matri- ces of allowed and disallowed interactions for a program attempting access of one type while access of another type is al- ready in place. For now, I'll keep it simple. A process acquiring exclusive access to a resource has unrestricted and uncontest- ed access privileges to that resource: The rest of the world is excluded. Exclusive access is usually applied when a process must make global changes to the resource in question. Also, most physical resources that permit only one user at a time — a net- worked printer or modem, for example — can only be accessed exclusively. Return- ing to the example of a networked printer, suppose your program and some other user's program are both vying for access to that printer. Whoever gets control of the printer must obtain exclusive access to the printer for the duration of the print job — not just on a page-by-page basis. Under shared access, a program has re- stricted access to the resource, as does the rest of the world. Restricted access means that the process is limited as to what type of operations it can perform on the re- source. Most often, a process with shared access performs read operations only. This is simply called read-only access; it is fre- quently used in file management and database systems. Lock Your Valuables The topic of access rights leads naturally to the subject of file locking. After all, open- ing a file with exclusive access is often re- ferred to as locking the file. One variation on the access rights discussed above is multilevel locking. Multilevel locking means establishing a variety of shared ac- cess levels — exclusive access is still ex- clusive access. Furthermore, you have to define how different lock levels interact with one another. The following example illustrates why this is important. A B-tree is a data structure that pro- grammers often use to manage database indexes. B-trees consist of nodes, or pages, that are fixed-length physical records. Each 280 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Not since Jimmy Stewart has there been such a combination of character and good looks. C-scape® lets you easily create handsome and completely portable character-based applications with integrated graphics. Hollywood isn't the only place that can make tilings look good on the screen. We offer a complete line of user interface toolkits to make your own applications become stars. Even better, our toolkits let your applications appear on screens everywhere — from DOS to Windows to UNIX and more — without modification. C-scape. The most flexible user interface package for character-based applications. C-scape is a true windowing environment that provides C programmers with a library of powerful functions such as scrolling windows, mouse support, menus, and graphics. Look & Feel®, C-scape's interactive screen designs; makes prototyping and code generation almost effortless. C-scape supports both text and graphics mode for DOS, extended DOS, UNIX, and VMS platforms. It's a smart choice you want to add a graphics look to existing text applications. C + 7Views™ lets you easily create handsome and completely portable applications for MS Windows and other GUI environments. C + 7Views. The leading C++ class library for fast development of better looking GUI applications. C ++ /Views contains over 100 proven and totally portable C++ object classes for GUI development. These classes shield you from the underlying GUI environment and API — slashing development time on GUI programming up to 75%. C + 7Views is independent of compiler, operating system, and hardware — so you get guaranteed portability to MS Window, OS/2 PM, UNIX/Motif, and otliers. C ++ /Browse™, a powerful source code browser comes free with C^/Views, as does a sophisticated documentor Both products come with source code — FREE. if Call 1-800-662-9866. FAX 1-508-992-6936. Call for your free C-scape or C + 7Views demo today. Andsoonyour applications will be playing on screens everywhere. LlIiAINIT All trademarks belong to their respective companies. Copyright © 1992 by Liant Software Corporation, 959 Concord St., Framingham, MA 01701. 508-997-5801. C-scape for DOS $499- C + 7Views for MS Windows $495. Call for pricing on other platforms. Circle 182 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 183). SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED record is usually stored in its own disk sector. Nodes carry key and pointer tuples so that the logical structure looks some- thing like the diagram in the figure. Note the relationship among nodes. Each node (except the root) has exactly one parent node. Every nonleaf node has one or more child nodes. I won't distract you with the formal details of B-trees here; instead, I suggest you take any questions about those details to "Trees 'n Keys," parts 1-3, Jan- uary-March 1989 BYTE. What's important is how a database sys- tem manages access to a B-tree in the pres- ence of multiple users — some who might be simply reading the index, and others who might be in the process of updating it by inserting or deleting keys. You want users to conflict with one another as little as possible, and you don't want one user locking others out for no good reason. One multiuser management technique for B-trees uses three kinds of locks: read locks, intent-to-update locks, and update locks. A read lock is just what it says: The program issuing the lock simply reads the tree. Read locks assure the program that no other program will modify the locked node, putting the reader's local copy of the node out of sync with the version on disk. A read lock permits shared access; any number of programs can hold a read lock on the same node. An update lock is an exclusive lock on the node and indicates that the lock hold- er is in the process of modifying that node. A program would issue an update lock while inserting or deleting a key on a par- ticular node. Since an update lock is ex- clusive, it ensures that only one task can al- ter the node at any moment and that no task can read a copy of a node that's about to be altered. The intent-to-update lock is tricky. It's issued by a program that is about to per- form an update but is currently only gath- ering information about the structure of the tree in the vicinity of the node or nodes to be updated. For example, a program in the process of inserting a key must first execute a search operation to locate where the key is to be placed in the B-tree. To perform that search, the program must snake its way down into the tree from the root, collecting inf onnation about the hold- ing capacity of the nodes it visits (i.e., how much free space is on those nodes?). Why collect holding capacities? Be- cause insert operations always begin on a leaf node of a B-tree, and those nodes the program is visiting on its way to the leaf in- clude the great-grandparent, grandparent, and parent nodes of that leaf. Some of these ancestor nodes will be modified if the effects of the insert propagate back up the tree. Such propagation happens if the insert causes a node to become overfilled. In that case, the node splits, and a selected key from the node is moved up the tree to be inserted into the parent node. The pro- gram can calculate how far the effects will propagate using the capacity information it collected on the way down, but this infor- mation is valid only as long as someone else doesn't modify those nodes. The an- cestor nodes must remain unchanged until the program completes the insert opera- tion. That's where the intent-to-update lock comes in. It allows a program to assure it- self of the local integrity of the B-tree throughout an update operation. An intent- to-update lock excludes update locks and other intent-to-update locks, but it does not exclude read locks, since a task that is only reading the node will not modify it. This allows good concurrent access to the B-tree; many programs can continue read- ing in the vicinity of an update operation. Before the actual updating begins, how- ever, the program must convert the intent- to-update locks into update locks on those nodes it intends to modify. This will serve to drive away any reading processes be- fore the program modifies the B-tree. The above method uses three locking levels. Furthermore, the interaction among these levels is complex: Update locks ex- clude everyone, intent-to-update locks ex- clude update and intent-to-update locks, and read locks don't exclude anyone. Access Control as a Service Thus far, I've introduced a smorgasbord of access management techniques. Now I'll examine how to bring all the ideas to- gether and build an access manager (some- times referred to as a lock manager) that can act as a central switching station in a multiuser or multitasking environment. Such a manager might run as a background task on a Unix system or as an NLM (Net- Ware loadable module) on a NetWare server. In the discussion that follows, assume that I' ve created a server process that acts as an access coordinator. Processes using systemwide resources must first petition this server for permission to access those resources. (I refer to the tasks as clients to DIAGRAM OF A B-T Root REE " :? " :m i ■ -U u ■ i^ 1 - v ■ ■ I ■ 4i 1 r ■ ■ - L ieai noaes 1 i v w I o |o |o| o |o |o| o |o |o| o ■o io| c 3 lo lo| Leaf nodes [o] Node pointer 1 1 Key 1 Data pointer The search for a particular key always begins at the root. If the key is not found, the search concludes in a leaf node where the key would be if it were in the tree. If the search is in preparation for an insert operation, the location where the search ends is where the insert begins. 282 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 1,278 PAGES. 1,311 PHOTOS. CHARTS AND GRAPHS. 48 PAGES. 3 A" x ,5 /W 20 CHARACTERS PER LINE. ONE SOLUTION. Ventura — the one desktop publishing solu- tion that gives you total-document control . . . regardless of size. Take The Comprehensive U.S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia.™ Over 1,200 pages, 655 charts and graphs, 560 full- color separations ... the entire book was produced using Ventura. Now that's publishing. Then there's lilliputian/te/ey. Tiny tomes like this used to take the typesetter up to nine tries. Ventura got it right the first time. That's also publishing. In fact, Ventura can handle all of your documents with equal ease — from flyers, sales bulletins, and newsletters to catalogs, manuals, and corporate publications. Discover Ventura's complete publishing solution — including Ventura Publisher® 4.0 for Windows, Ventura DataBase Publisher,® and Ventura Color Extensions. Visit your local Ventura dealer, or call (800) 822-8221. Get the one answer to mm _ Ventura Software Inc. total- capability DTP. Ventura. The Document Maker. A Xerox Company 15175 Innovation Drive, San Diego, CA 92128 • (800) 822-8221 ©1992 by Ventura Software Inc. All rights reserved. Ventura Publisher® and Ventura DataBase Publisher® are registered trademarks of Ventura Software Inc., a Xerox Company. XEROX® is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation. The Comprehensive U.S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia 1 " was written by John W. Highfill, ©1992 by John W. Highfill, and is a trademark of Highfill Press, Incorporated, P.O. Box 365, Broken Arrow, OK 74013. Electronic prepress was provided by EPIC Digital Imaging Center. Paisley was written by Suzanne Carlisle Crowley, ©1990 by Miriam D. Irwin, and published by Mosaic Press. Circle 239 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 240). SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED make the client/server relationship clearer.) The server either grants or denies perniis- sion. For now, I'll leave out the detail of how the petition-grant/deny conversation takes place; it could be any method of in- terprocess communication — a message queue, sockets, or whatever. The simplest model for access coordi- nation is a gate, with the server process acting as gatekeeper. Any client lucky enough to arrive at the gate when it's open passes through. A client that arrives at the gate when it's closed is turned away and must try again later. It's up to the server to monitor clients passing through the gate and — based on the number of clients, the kinds of access they're requesting, and the kinds of access the resource will permit — determine whether to close the gate be- hind a client that has just passed through. (This gate analogy bears a close resem- blance to the switch analogy I described in my discussion of semaphores.) A piece of p-code (from the client's per- spective) that follows this model would look something like this: while (pass_thru_gate ( server_id, resource_id) { <...spin your wheels. ..> } <... access permitted. > Here, the function pass_thru_ gate ( ) returns a TRUE value if the serv- er allows passage through the gate con- trolling the resource identified by re- source_id. As short as it is, this scrap of p-code re- veals one of the limitations of this model. Requests for access occur within a tight polling loop. If the above client task is running in a multitasking environment, it could consume considerable CPU time as it makes the same attempt over and over again. You could eliminate some of the overhead by writing the "wheel-spinning" portion of the loop so that the current task is descheduled for several time slices, giv- ing other tasks in the system a chance to get some work done. You can do this eas- ily in a cooperative multitasking system. It's not so easy in a preemptive multitask- ing system if descheduling calls are not available to the application programmer. Even so, if you're running on a network so that the server is executing on a ma- chine separate from the client, then each call to pass__thru_gate ( ) translates to traffic on the network. If the resource is tied up, then any client's attempt to access it will result in a series of exchanges with the server that looks like a child nagging its parent: "Can I go through yet?" "Not yet." "How about now?" "No." "Now?" "No." And so on. This creates a great deal of un- necessary network chatter. Worst of all, no fairness is built into the scheme. There's no guarantee that a coin- cident series of requests won't result in one client getting turned away repeated- ly. Suppose client A has access to the re- source. Client B makes a request and gets turned away. While B is waiting, A re- leases the resource but client C immedi- ately requests and acquires it. B tries again and is turned away again, and while B waits, C releases the resource and client D gets it. The computer science technical jargon for B's situation is starvation. T Ah . he simplest model for access coordination is a gate, with the server process acting as gatekeeper. What's needed is a queue — a waiting list. When a client requests a resource that is currently in use, that client is not simply turned away, but is placed on a waiting list for access to that resource. In a simple waiting list, every task enters at the bottom of the list. Access is granted on a first-come/first-served basis. In the scenario above, client B requests access and is placed on the waiting list. When client C requests access, it enters the queue behind B. So, when client A finally gives up the resource, B gains access. (In fair- ness to the lowly semaphore, most oper- ating systems that have built-in semaphore functions provide a waiting list as part of semaphore management.) Network traffic is considerably reduced, since a client no longer repeatedly nags the server. One transmission goes out from the client, say- ing, in essence: "Let me know when I can have access to this resource." The only other transmission would come from the server: "OK, you've got it." There are several improvements to this idea that let it work even more smoothly. First, it's a good plan to put a cap on the amount of time a client has to wait on a resource. The client's transmission would then become, "Let me know if I can have access to this resource within the next 10 seconds." Now the server has two re- sponses: "You've got it," or "Sorry, your waiting time is up." This prevents a client application from freezing when a resource is tied up for an inordinately long period of time. You may also want to allow clients to attach a priority to themselves that con- trols where they enter the waiting list. This involves imposing rules such as, "A client shall enter the list behind all clients of higher priority and before all clients of lower priority. Clients of equal priority are serviced on a first-come/first-served ba- sis." With such a prioritization scheme, a client task running in background could be given a low priority, and high-priority clients would tend to acquire access be- fore the background client. Wheel-spinning still occurs, but it now consumes fewer network and CPU re- sources and is relegated to lower-level rou- tines where the application programmer doesn't have to contend with it. P-code for a request might now look like this: result=get_resource ( server_id, resource_id, priority, timeout ) ; if ( result==ERR_TIMEOUT ) { <...code to handle time-out...> } else { <... access allowed or some other error...} I've added the arguments priority, which specifies the client's priority level, and timeout, which specifies the num- ber of seconds the client is willing to wait for the resource. I'm assuming that the program blocks at get_resource ( ) un- til access is granted or the request times out. I also assume that if you're in a mul- titasking environment, get_resource ( ) does smart wheel-spinning. In other words, while get_resource ( ) waits, it should allow other tasks some CPU time slices. At Your Service I've written an access-managing server that provides the capabilities described above for Unix. I've tried to keep the low- level network communications routines layered away from the higher-level code so the intrepid programmer can more easily move it to other operating environments (e.g., NetWare). The access manager acts as a systemwide librarian. Not only does it provide a central repository where client tasks can look up information on resources (e.g., name, availability, and access rights 284 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 WEIGH THE OPTIONS M496E V.32b/42b/FAX 14.4 Kbps - V.32bis + V.42bis High Speed Modem/Fax 14.4Kbps-V.32bis/V.32 + V.42bis/MNP® 5, V.42/MNP® 4,3 II II ■■!■ 1 W1 II Will ■! ■ .! ■ The features you want in a High Speed- 1 4.4Kbps Modem/Fax. At nearly half the Price! ZyXEL's U-1496E offers all the standard features available in a 14.4Kbps- V.32bis+V.42bis modem/fax with DTE speeds up to 57.6Kbps. But you'll also find features you'd expect in only the "top-of-the-line" modems. So why pay more for the features you want, when you can get the best value from ZyXEL for less? 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Available with MAC™, Windows™ and DOS fax software packages. ZyXEL USA, 4920 E. LaPalma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 All brand names and trademarks are the propeity of their respective owners. Comparison chart was completed in May, 1992. Circle 234 on Inquiry Card. Guarantees We offer a Full 5 year Parts and Labor Warranty, a 30 day money back guarantee and full BBS technical support line. Once you've weighed the options, you'll agree: Zyxel's U-1496E offers the bestvalue for less than any other modem/fax in its class. So, don't hesitate. Call Today. ZyXEL USA (800) 255-4101 Reseller discounts available TEL (714) 693-0808 FAX (714) 693-0705 BBS/Tech.Support (714) 693-0762 1 Exxon 25 26 27 28 29 30 Standard Oil (Ohio) AT&T Technologies Boeing Dow Chemical Allied Eastman Kodak 49 Consolidated Foods 2 General Motors 50 Lockheed 3 Mobil 51 Georgia-Pacific 4 Ford Motor 52 Monsanto 5 IBM 53 W.R. Grace 6 Texaco 54 Signal Companies 7 E.I. du Pont 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Unocal Goodyear Dart & Kraft Westmghouse Elec. Philip Morris Beatrice Foods Union Carbide Xerox Amerada Hess Union Pacific General Foods McDonnell Douglas 55 Anheuser-Busch 8 Standard Oil (Ind.) 56 Nabisco Brands \ 9 Standard Oil of Cal. 57 Johnson & Johnson 10 General Electric 58 Coastal 11 Gulf Oil 59 Raytheon 12 Atlantic Richfield 60 Honeywell 13 Shell Oil 61 Charter 14 Occidental Petroleum 62 General Mills 15 U.S. Steel 63 TRW 16 Phillips Petroleum 64 Caterpillar Tractor 17 Sun 65 Aluminum Co. of Amer. 18 United Technologies 66 Sperry i 19 Tenneco 43 44 45 46 47 48 Rockwell Int. PepsiCo Ashland Oil General Dynamics 3M Coca-Cola 67 Gulf & Western Ind. 20 in 68 Continental Group 21 Chrysler 69 Bethlehem Steel 22 Procter & Gamble 70 Weyerhaeuser 23 R.J. Reynolds Ind. 71 Ralston Purina i 24 Getty Oil 72 Colgate-Palmolive 27 million Americans can't read. And guess who pays the price. While American business is trying to stay competitive with foreign companies, it's paying an added penalty. The penalty of double-digit illiteracy. Believe it or not, 27 million American adults can't read and write. Another 47 million are literate on only the most minimal level. That adds up to almost one third of our entire population . . .and probably a disturbing number of your employees. What does illiteracy cost you? Get out your calculator. Illiterate adults make up 50%-75% of our unemployed. Every year they cost us an estimated $237 billion in lost earnings. They swell our welfare costs by $6 billion annually and diminish our tax revenues by $8 billion. Illiteracy costs you through your community, too. It robs the place where you work and live of its resources. It undermines the potential of the people who make your products and the people who buy them. No dollar figure can be assigned to this. But over the years, this may be the costliest loss of all. What can your company do about this? It can join in local efforts to fight illiteracy. It can volunteer company dollars and facilities for better school and tutorial programs. It can invest in a more literate community. The first step is to call the Coalition for Literacy at 1-800-228-8813 or fill out the coupon be- low. Do it today. You may find it's the greatest cost-saving measure your company has ever taken. A literate America is a good investment. Coalition for Literacy G I want my company to join the fight against illiteracy. Please send brochure with additional information. D We want to discuss funding the Coalition for Literacy Please have a representative contact me Name _ Title _ Company . Address Gty .Z,p_ Phone Please return to Coalition for Literacy Business Division PO 8ox 81826 L.ncoln. NE 68501 1826 SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED pei*mitted), it also manages access to the re- sources under its control. If a client task wants access to a resource, it must check out that resource with the access manager. Tasks awaiting an unavailable resource are placed on a waiting list. The access manager supports up to four levels of locking and allows you to define lock-level interactions on a per-resource basis. You can define some resources to have only one lock level (e.g., exclusive only) and others to have multiple levels, in case you want to implement the B-tree multilevel locking scheme that I described earlier. I will describe the access manager's ser- vices in detail next month, but a few of the most significant commands that a client process can issue to the server follow: • Register a resource, which lets the client define a resource and log it with the serv- er. The client must supply descriptive de- tails of the resource: its name, how many clients can use the resource simultaneous- ly, how many lock levels the resource sup- ports, and so on. Furthermore, the man- ager provides resource templates, a kind of object-oriented feature. This relieves clients from having to transfer often-used resource details: Once a resource template is defined, a client can request the equiva- lent of "Register a resource of name so- and-so and use template such-and-such." The template carries all the necessary ini- tialization details. • Apply lock, which lets the client issue a resource-lock request. The client specifies the lock level and the maximum time it's willing to wait for the resource. The serv- er compares the requested lock level with any locks currently applied to the resource and determines whether to place the client on a waiting list or grant access. • Remove lock, which is the reverse of the apply lock command. • Change lock, which lets the client change the current lock level. For example, if you were implementing the multilevel locking scheme I described for B-trees, you could use this call to change an intent-to-update lock to an update lock. Next month, I'll conclude with a close look at the data structures and inner work- ings of the access manager. Since this is a client-server arrangement, I'll also go into the details of the client side and provide a few programming examples. ■ Rick Grehan is technical director of the BYTE Lab. He holds a B.S. in physics and applied mathematics and an M.S. in math- ematics/computer science. You can reach him on BIX as "rick_g." 286 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 SOFTWARE CORNER BARRY NANCE The Right Profile For a certain development project, I needed to know the exact times an application opened and closed its files. I also needed to know the file-handle values and if the file operations were successful. So I wrote 10- PROF (I/O Profiler) and PTRACE (Pro- file Trace reporter), two utilities that can help you keep track of file access. IOPROF is a TSR program. You run it once to load and activate the program. Then you run the application you need to profile. When you run IOPROF a second time, the program writes its statistics to a file and removes itself from memory. IO- PROF can record up to 1000 file opera- tions; it tracks file-open, file-close, and file-creation events. If you're trying to optimize the perfor- mance of an I/O-oriented DOS program, you can use the information IOPROF pro- vides to tell you how much time your pro- gram spends doing file I/O operations, ei- ther on a local disk or on a network drive. Tracking File Access IOPROF intercepts INT 21 h and recog- nizes certain file operations as they occur. Each of these operations is a DOS function Profiling DOS file access to hunt down bottlenecks call: open, close, or create a file. Written in assembly language, most of IOPROF is a table in which the program stores data about each event. IOPROF time-stamps each record by calling DOS function 2Ch (Get System Time), with the time the func- tion call started and ended. IOPROF also records whether DOS reported an error (carry flag set) as it tried to do the opera- tion. I used MASM (Microsoft Macro As- sembler) 5.1 to assemble IOPROF. You'll need the BIOS.INC and DOS.INC files that come with MASM if you want to modify the program. IOPROF takes about 25 KB of RAM, but most of that is the aforementioned table. PTRACE is the reporting program. It reads IOPROF's record file and displays a formatted listing of filenames, operation codes, file handles, and start and stop times. PTRACE is a simple (56-line) Tur- bo C program that understands the layout of IOPROF's table. Listing 1 shows a sample report. In the EVENT column, 3D is an open, and 3E is a close. The ERR column shows whether each operation succeeded or failed. You can find out most of what you need to know from this report by keeping track of file handles. For example, to find out which file was closed in a 3E operation, you note the handle and look back through the list of operations until you see a cor- responding 3C or 3D. ■ Listing 1 A sample re port from PTRACE. EVENT FILE HANDLE ERR START STOP 3D cl.exe Y 11:54:31.53 11:54:31.65 3E 0005 11:54:31.97 11:54:31.97 MAC/Tom Thompson Keep on Schedule with Notify I wish I owned stock in 3M, because the bottom of my Super- Mac monitor is festooned with Post-it notes that act as re- minders for schedules and deadlines. If all you need are some simple reminders, Steve Stockman's Notify 2.2 fits the bill. Notify is a Control Panel that posts reminder messages on- screen through the Mac's own Notification Manager (i.e., the part of the Mac OS that lets background processes send mes- sages to users). To set up Notify, you open the Control Panel and enter up to 64 messages, each up to 240 characters long. Then you schedule the time and date of each message's arrival. Mes- sages can be repeating (e.g., indicate a meeting every Friday at 2:00 p.m.), or they can time out (i.e., after a certain time or date, the message clears itself). You can easily add, edit, or re- move messages to keep your reminder list current. Notify is free, and it works perfectly. Thanks, Steve. UNIX/Ben Smith A GNU Debugger Of all the products available through the FSF (Free Soft- ware Foundation), among the best known are the GNU development tools: GNU's compilers and its sophisticated de- bugger, gdb. Richard Stallman was the author of gdb, but many other programmers have performed work on this multilanguage, multiplatform source code debugger. Among gdb's features in the current release (i.e., edition 4) are command history, watchpoints, dynamic switching between object-file formats (including COFF, .o object files, and archive libraries), and support for SunOS shared libraries. The GNU debugger has been ported to most operating sys- tems, but it's particularly well known to Unix and DOS pro- grammers. Source code for gdb and the GNU's compilers can be found on BIX, on most Internet anonymous FTP sites, and on floppy disks from FSF. Editor's note: Software Corner highlights public domain, freeware, and shareware programs. The programs are available in elec- tronic format. See "Program Listings" on page 5 for details. We solicit your contributions. We pay $50 for any program we use. Write to: Software Comer, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. 288 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Save50% Explore UNixWoRLD...Rislc Free! Yes! Start my one-year (12 issues) subscription for only $18.00. That's 50% off the newsstand price. 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Minis/Superminis c. Systems Integrator/House c. Office Mgml. /Administration c. 50 - 249 c. Micros/Supermicros d. Software Developer d. Network Mgml./ d. 250 - 999 d. Workstations e. VAR. Dealer or Distributor Telecommunications e. 1 ,000 - 4.999 e. Board-Level Products f. Communications/Telephone e. Systems Integration f. 5.000 or more f. Terminals q. Transportation/Utilities n. Mining or Construction f. Design or Dev. Engineering g. Printers n. Disk Drives q. Prog./Soflware Development n. Research/Analysis i. Fin. /Ins. /Real Estate i. Tape Drives i. Whslc or Retail Trade !c. Consulting i. Marketing or Sales j. Modems/ Multiplexers k. LAN Equipment j. Purchasing k. Mfg./Production 1. Government or Military 1. Software m. School or University 1. Distribution n. Other: m. Education/Teaching o. Medical/Denlal/Lesa] n. Consulting p. Research/Development o. Government/Public Admin. p. Other: q. Technical Staff/Eng. 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Buy with Confidence Illllllllllllil In an effort to make your telephone purchasing a more successful and pleasurable activity, The Microcomputer Marketing Council of the Direct Marketing Association, Inc. offers this advice, "A knowledgeable buyer will be a successful buyer/' These are specific facts you should know about the prospective seller before placing an order: Ask These Important Questions • How long has the company been in business? • Does the company offer technical assistance? • Is there a service facility ? • Are manufacturers warran- ties handled through the company? • Does the seller have formal return and refund policies? • Is there an additional charge for use of credit cards ? • Are credit card charges held until time of shipment? • What are shipping costs for items ordered? Reputable computer dealers will answer all these questions to your satisfaction. Don't settle for less when buying your computer hardware, software, peripherals and supplies. 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(Q) Direct Marketing Association, Inc. 1988 BEYOND DOS J Exorcising the A20 Poltergeist MARK J MINASI Have you ever seen a word pro- cessor display odd keystrokes un- der DOS 5.0 or Windows? It hap- pened to me while upgrading the machines in my office. My mar- keting person, Donna, claimed that Word- Perfect for Windows wouldn't work with DOS 5.0. 1 didn't have time to look into it, so I uninstalled DOS 5.0 and put the mat- ter in the "things I will do eventually" pile. But I kept hearing scattered reports of key- board problems with DOS 5.0. Then Kris, a technical instructor, rein- stalled 5.0 on Donna's machine, "causing WordPerfect and other programs to dis- play random characters." "Random char- acters?" I asked. "Will it do it right now — before our very eyes?" Kris said that there seemed to be no way to make it stop doing it. Grabbing my deerstalker cap and cala- bash pipe, I cried, "Quick, Kristina! The game is afoot!" Along the way, I learned that, believe it or not, you need the key- board's permission to address extended memory. And thereby hangs a tale. Address-Line Issues A peek or two at the symptoms showed that the characters weren't random at all. Intermittently, the keyboard added a Shift key to the keystroke, almost as if there were a ghostly finger on the keyboard. Like all good troubleshooters, I started by emptying the CONFIG.SYS and AUTO- EXEC.BAT files. The problem went away. While adding back the lines one by one, I found the problem in DOS=HIGH. This surprised me. Of all the nifty fea- tures of the memory managers that come with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1, the one that seems to have the least trouble is load- ing DOS into the HMA (high memory area). This is the memory space between 1024 KB and 1088 KB. (For you purists, it's not exactly from 1 024 KB to 1 088 KB; it's between 1024 KB and a point 16 bytes below 1 088 KB.) The HMA is an artifact of a bug in 286 and higher CPUs. These "286+" chips have several processing modes designed mainly to accommodate multitasking and handle large amounts of memory. Pro- tected mode is the keystone of Windows, OS/2, and other advanced PC operating platforms. To maintain backward com- patibility with existing 8088 programs, In- tel included the 8088 compatibility mode, or real mode. DOS was written to live in real mode, but Windows and OS/2 are changing that. The original 8088 could address 1024 KB of memory, so you'd think that 1024 KB would be the limit for 286+ chips in What to do about those random characters that sometimes appear in DOS 5.0 and Windows applications real mode. But for reasons that are too con- voluted to describe here, 286+ chips ad- dress just under 1 088 KB of RAM in real mode. Suppose an 8088 program has its in- struction counter at the very top of memory at location 1 024 KB - 1 . (The addresses start at 0, so the top address is 1 024 KB - 1). When the processor tries to increment the instruction pointer, it rolls over to lo- cation 0, just as an automobile's odometer does when it passes 99,999 miles. It does this because the 8088 processor is built to support 1 024 KB of RAM, which requires 20 wires, or address lines, on the address bus (2 2() equals 1 024). These line numbers go from A0 to A 1 9. An 8088-based com- puter has no A20 address line and can't communicate with memory beyond 1024 KB. A 286+ computer, on the other hand, has more address lines: 24 for a 286, 386SX, or 386SL; and 32 for a 386DX, 486SX, or 486DX. What happens when a program sets the instruction pointer for a 286+ CPU run- ning in real mode at 1 024 KB - 1 and then tries to increment the pointer? Instead of rolling over, it moves up to 1024 KB and continues to move up to nearly 1088 KB. That's partly because there are address lines above A 1 9. When your program first rises above 1024 KB - 1 , it energizes the A20 address line. The Infamous A20 Gate The presence of the A20 line troubled the designers of the IBM AT, who sought compatibility with the IBM XT. They re- sponded with the A20 gate, an electronic switch on the A20 line between the pro- cessor and memory. When the AT (and all subsequent PCs) powered up, the gate opened, keeping A20 signals from reach- ing memory. This lets a 286+ more fully emulate an 8088: The addresses wrap around, and the top of real-mode memory becomes truly 1024 KB - 1 on a 286+ computer. Then along came Windows. The A20 ILLUSTRATION: ROBIN JAREAUX©1992 AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 293 A Message To Our Subscribers HANDS ON/BEYOND DOS F ROM TIME TO TIME WE make the BYTE subscriber list avail- able to other companies who wish to send our subscribers material about their products. We take great care to screen these companies, choosing only those who are reputable, and whose products, services or information we feel would be of interest to you. Direct mail is an efficient medium for presenting the latest personal computer goods and services to our subscribers. Many BYTE subscribers appreciate this controlled use of our mailing list, and look forward to finding information of interest to them in the mail. Used are our subscribers' names and addresses only (no other information we may have is ever given). While we believe the distribution of this infor- mation is of benefit to our subscribers, we firmly respect the wishes of any subscriber who does not want to receive such promotional literature. Should you wish to restrict the use of your name, simply send your request to the following address. BVTE Magazine Attn: Subscriber Service P.O. Box 555 kfjm Hightstown, NJ 08520 Kfll gate must close before protected-mode programs like Windows can address ex- tended memory, and the keyboard con- troller controls the A20 gate. This con- troller, which is an 8042 chip on most 286+ motherboards, is a microcomputer in itself. It has a CPU, RAM, and ROM all built into a single 40-pin DIP. This de- sign explains why resetting the computer with the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys doesn't do the same thing as turning the power off and on again. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del just resets the CPU. That doesn't do any good when the keyboard processor crashes. Microsoft addressed the problem with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 with HI- MEM.SYS and the WINA20.386 driver, respectively. Windows 3.0 came first. Then DOS 5.0 arrived, with its ability to load DOS high by twiddling the A20 line. Win- dows' 386 enhanced mode creates virtual DOS machines, but the standard DOS ma- chine that WIN386.EXE creates — the vir- tual machine manager under Windows 3.0 — doesn't know anything about the HMAortheA20gate. The WINA20.386 driver solved that. WIN386.EXE in Windows 3.1 knows about the HMA, but the installation pro- gram doesn't remove the now-irrelevant device=WINA2 .386 line from your SYSTEM.INI file; you should remove it yourself after upgrading. And if you're not loading DOS high, you dpn't need WINA20.386atall. The Poltergeist Problem If you use OS/2, you don't have to worry about the A20 line; the software closes the gate (connects the A20 line) and goes on. DOS is a different story. Prior to version 5.0, DOS just opened the gate and left it open. Now you can load programs into the HMA. But when you put any program — particularly DOS— into the HMA, the A20 gate swings open and closed as though in a windstorm. That causes a problem on some PCs when the keyboard controller can't open and close the gate quickly enough. Bombarding the keyboard con- troller with A20 requests can make it be- have erratically in its primary duties, lead- ing to the Shift-key specter I described earlier. What do you do if you have this prob- lem? Start by checking your CMOS set- tings. Many motherboards, particularly those built with the Chips & Technologies chip set and the AMI BIOS, feature a "fast A20" option. If you've got such a mother- board, make sure it's enabled in your com- puter's Setup program. Also, look for this feature the next time you're buying a PC clone. Next, check the keyboard controller. Just as BlOSes sometimes require updates, so does the keyboard controller. If you have an AMI BIOS, you'll see the words American Megatrends, Inc. on-screen when you turn on your computer. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see what look like serial numbers, followed by -Kjc. The x will be the version number of your key- board controller. I've seen -KA, -K8, -KD, and -KF. You want the KF version to avoid A20 problems. Don't think that just because you've got a new computer you have version KF. I recently did work for a large defense agen- cy that had just received a pile of new Ev- erex computers equipped with the K9 con- troller. Keyboard controllers sell for under $75 and aren't too hard to find; just check the ads in the back of computer magazines for BIOS upgrade vendors. Donna now has a new keyboard controller, and all is well. There may, however, be a cheaper way out. Under DOS 5.0, HIMEM.SYS manip- ulates the A20 gate. You've probably no- ticed the "A20 handler enabled" message when HIMEM loads. And you now know that the keyboard controller is the control point for the A20 gate. But that's not the whole story. PS/2 computers use an en- tirely different approach, as do the AT&T 6300 Plus, Philips computers, the Acer 1100, and many others. To address this problem, HIMEM has a /machine: switch. You invoke HIMEM.SYS with the /m: n parameter, where n is a number from 1 to 16. If your PC misbehaves with HIMEM, try all the machine types — but make sure that you've got a bootable floppy disk on hand first. QEMM owners can use the IG- NOREA20 and UNUSUAL8042 options. I find that if you've got a problem PC, QEMM is better at handling A20 troubles than HIMEM. However, before you go out and buy QEMM or a new keyboard controller, try all the HIMEM machine pa- rameters. Here's a final suggestion: The DOS ver- sion of WordPerfect is more sensitive to this type of problem than are other pro- grams, because it programs the keyboard controller directly. Invoking WordPerfect with the /nk option may alleviate the prob- lem. ■ Mark J. Mi nasi runs seminars around the world on OS/2, Windows, and PC trou- bleshooting. He is based in Arlington, Vir- ginia. You can contact him on BIX as "mjminasi. " Your questions and comments are wel- come. Write to: Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. 294 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 ASK BYTE Missing Megabytes I recently bought a 1 30-MB Seagate ST1 144 A IDE hard drive for my Vendex/VTI Turbo 55 computer, which is a 12-MHz 286 machine. When the re- tailer formatted the drive, he could get only 124.7 MB. He claims my machine's BIOS is outdated and won't support the higher-capacity drive, but my local ser- vice center insists that the ST1 1 44A has a formatted capacity of 1 24.7 MB. The drive installation instructions state that "if you have a system BIOS that offers a user-defined drive type, select from the following drive configurations." When I go into Setup and attempt to enter 1001 cyls, 15 heads, 17 sectors, 130.7 formatted MB, it's not accepted. Is there a BIOS upgrade for my machine? I would like to get all I can from my new hard drive. Jeffrey A. Sawyer Woonsocket, RI I can understand your frustration k flowing that 6 MB of hard disk space in your computer is inaccessible. Unfortu- nately, there are no replacement BIOS source codes for your machine. You could run an installation and management utility like SpeedStor or replace the motherboard. SpeedStor takes the place of your missing "user-defined drive type" and lets you configure your drive any way you want. It sells for $100 from Storage Dimensions, Inc. (1656 Mc- Carthy Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 954-0710; fax (408) 954-0517). A new motherboard will cost anywhere from $100 to $500, but you should be able to reuse all your internal expansion boards. Your best option, however, may be to do nothing. The missing 6 MB is slightly less than 5 percent of the total disk space. Run your system with only 124 MB. When you finally do bump up against the hard drive s storage limits, motherboard prices will probably have dropped some- what, and you can pick up a bargain. — Stan Wszola Lifesavers How long should I keep my computer turned on — on a day-to-day basis — to minimize wear and tear and maximize its life? I have a Leading Edge D/LT386SX Plus laptop with a 40-MB hard drive, 2 MB of RAM, and a VGA screen. Except for mechanical wear and tear on the keyboard, screen hinges, and so forth, what are the main factors in the wear and tear leading to the breakdown of a computer? I've heard that "thermal variations" are the main cause. Andre Pilon Toronto, Ontario, Canada When you turn on a computer, the sudden rush of current stresses the system's electronic components. The same thing happens when you turn on a light. That's why most light-bulb failures occur at this time. With older desktop computers, leaving them on was the best practice. This left all the internal components at a steady temperature, and they experienced no stresses from powering on. Current laptop computers use smaller components and generate less heat, so thermal variations aren't a serious problem. Computers like yours ^0^ J also use power management circuits ^^J% tnat turn off unused subsystems or put ^^ ^r the entire machine into a sleep mode M^^^^H when not in use. This conserves battery ■^^^ power and lengthens the computer's life. * W Spinning down the hard drive limits I wear on the drive spindle and motor. Shutting off the backlighting on the dis- play increases the life of the fluorescent tubes. My suggestion is that you leave your computer on for most of your workday a fid shut it off at night. I also sug- gest investing in a good surge suppressor/ power condi- tioner. — Stan Wszola A Capital Offense I need to check the spelling of 300 MB of ASCII text data, but all the spelling checkers I have seen tag every proper noun. This has tripled the time it takes to check my data. Is there a spelling checker that will not tag words that begin with a capital letter? S. Spencer Levittown, NY None of the spelling checkers I know about ignore capital- ized words. Indeed, ignoring capitalized words presents its own problems since the first word of each sentence will not be checked. Your problem lies in generating a list of valid names for your spelling checker. A product called Moby Words contains, among other things, a list of over 15,000 names culled nationwide from telephone books. You could feed this list into your spelling checker and create a private dictionary. Moby Words is available from Illumind (571 Bel den St., Suite A, Monterey, CA 93940, (408) 373- 1491). Another possibility is to create your own list of valid names. A rather tedious yet straightforward method is presented in the Unix environment. Running the spell utility on your file creates an output file containing one unrecognized word per line. The sort and uniqfi.e., unique) utilities can then create a sorted list of unspelled words. The sorted list groups all the capitalized words to- gether. You manually proof these words by removing the incorrectly spelled items and feed the list back into your spelling checker. Many such Unix-style utilities are available for DOS, both commercially and in the public domain. For informa- tion on commercial utilities, contact Austin Code Works (11100 Leafwood Lane, Austin, TX 78750, (512) 258- 0785) or Mortice Kern Systems, Inc. (35 King St. N, Wa- terloo, Ontario, Canada N2 J 2W9, (800) 265-2797 or (519) 884-2251; fax (519) 886-8619). ■ — Raymond GA Cote The BYTE Lab welcomes your questions. Address correspondence to Ask BYTE, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. You can also send BIX mail do "editors.'' AUGUST 1992 • B Y T E 295 WHEN YOU NEED SOLUTIONS, NOT JUST ANOTHER BOARD! Let a Quatech Sales Engineer show you the value of quality, service and support. COMMUNICATION Quatech produces a full line of serial and parallel adapters for PS/2, PC-XT, AT and compatible systems available in RS-232, RS-422, RS-485 and Current Loop. Selectable addresses and interrupt capabilities are featured in our multi-port/user, SDLC, HDLC, and X.25 adapters. Software and 1 6550 UARTS are available. DATA ACQUISITION Quatech has developed a full line of data acquisition products for the IBM AT and compatibles. These high performance, low cost boards provide analog-to-digital, digital-to-analog, and digital input/output functions. A/D and D/A converters are equipped with 8, 1 2, or 1 6 bit resolution, and sampling rates up to 1 MHz. 1-800-553-1170 n QUATECH .: ir^,--;^ 1/li/lM . ' ■ ''.■.'.-.'.'.••^■^Hft. 1 )-,>•■ ':,■• SRHB|B/. Made in U.S.A. Corporate office: (216) 434-3154, FAX (216) 434-1409, 662 Wolf Ledges Pkwy, Akron, OH 44311 U.S.A. International: Australia/lnterworld Elec- tronics 03-563-7066, Canada (Western)/!nterworld VCR 604-984-4171, England/Diamond Point International 634-722-390, Finland/Lab Hitech , OY 358-0-804-2522, France/Elexo 33-1-69302880, Germany/ Jupiter Electronic Systems 06181/75041, Israel/ RCM Ltd. 972-03-5447885, Ifaly/N.C.S. Computer Italia 0331/770-016, Netherlands/ACAL Auriertta 040-8 16565 Korea/Sam Boo Enterprise Co. 02-678-7457. IBM PC-XT, AT and PS/2 are registered trademarks of IBM Corp. 296 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Circle 146 on Inquiry Card. ■fi 42" SS3£o? >Oc ZZ, X X ~5 as© o,,^ Coming Spoin._ New Display Tec* Compaq's New Low-Cost Compu BUYER'S GUIDE Mail Order The latest offerings from vendors supplying products of all leading manufacturers at extremely competitive prices. Hardware/Software Showcase This categorized four-color display section makes it easy to find Hardware and Software products from a wide variety of manufacturers and suppliers. Buyer's Mart From Accessories to Laptops to Word Processors, you can easily find the dealers you are looking for in this directory of products and services. 298 336 345 HD Get A Lode Of This Our Three-Way Guarantee Jusk Got Better. ■T Personal most cohiprQh^hsiye r But now it just-got better. v>\ Iritroc^GinjgThe ' LodeStaix Five-Way Personal Guaran- ■ t^".-;NoW;- ^very todeStax " system is 'cbvereci five wpys tb4nsure,ypyr ; complete satisfaction , And that should take'alode off ' you mind; \ 'If- you , ctigtige "your, 'rnind-for [.any '' re^fon-simply' return your LodeStai ' system .to us in original condii within ■ 30' days of your receipt ■ahdwe'U refund ydurmon&y: ' \./-"/ • . >'2 FREEUFETIME- ^MpRSWWT. Although -you "will probably never 'need 'it; for as long ds'ydu bwn your'' 'system, it wili" he protected by bur J00% lopqr Warranty. -,',/. '■',,/ %; ;. '; A fREE2*YEAB ,' For a full-, two , yedrs,,dfter' purchase, ',, yourLodeS' a ; ' will be cov- ered by ;.oaf;iOd% parts, warranty, wimfostturhmoundohany replace- ' ments. '.' ■■ ...' v* . ,.\ \'-f'/.yy '-v'O ,"■■■,' 5 FREE 1-YEAR ON-SITE SERVI0E. Moduless Upgradeables Carry A Greater Lode In The Future 'For a full one year, after paretic , 'you'll havetheadde^isecuritydfpur . coasMo^chst- FREE' on-site service. ' fasy and inexpensive upgrades are built right into your LodeStar Starflex computer. Unlike conventional modular upgradeable systems from other Com- panies, you can upgrade your LodeStar Starflex system at a fraction of the cost- all the way from 386DX to 486SX or 486DX, at any clock speed. Thanks to our unique non-proprietary Moduless Upgrade design, LodeStar Starflex systems can be upgraded by simply plugging in the new chip and oscillator that comes in their inexpensive upgrade kit. Another bright idea from LodeStar-It's just that simple ! ^very LodeStai computer is fully loaded C with value . This includes unsurpassed quality throughout. To make certain of this, every system is individually pre- tested and bumed-in for 72 hours prior to shipment. And of course, we stand be- hind our quality with our comprehensive Five- Way Personal Guarantee. You will see this quality all the way from our StarView SVGA Non-interlaced Monitors withf licker-free image , to our own StarKey extended keyboards. And we pack in even extra value by pre-loading MS DOS 5.0 & Windows 3.0, as well asa Hi-Res 400 DPI serial mouse on every system. And our systems can be upgraded to include optional cache, RAM, more hard disk capacity, larger monitor, and a host of other enhancements you may requiie. Add it all together - stellar performance, brilliant quality, and guarantee that out- shines all others - and you've got LodeStar. Lodestar 386-40C $1579 AMD 80386/40 Processor 64K Cache RAM (Expandable to 256K) 4MB RAM (Expandable to 32MB) 1 25 MB IDE Hard Drive w/Cache Teac 1.2MB 5.25" 8c 1.44MB 3.5' Drives 1 MB SVGA Non-interlaced Color card 14' StarView 1024 NI SVGA Monitor (VEA Std for 72 Hz Flicker-Free Display) 2 Serial, 1 parallel, 8c 1 Game Port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual Starkey 102 Keyboard Hi-Res Serial Mouse Desktop CPU case (Verticals optional) StarFlex 386-40 Cache Upgradable Series $1689 Upgradable to 486SX-20. 486-33/50. LodeStar 486-50 EISA Plus $2999 Intel 80486/50 Processor w/8K Internal Cache & Built-in Math Coprocessor 256K Cache RAM 8 EISA Slots/6 Master Bus/2 Slave 4 MB (Expandable to 32MB) 60ns 210 MB Hard Drive w/Cache 32bit EISA Cache Controller Card Teac 1.2MB 5.25" & 1.44MB 3.5" Drives Diamond 24bit SVGA Graphic Card 15" 6FS Viewsonic Flat Screen Digital Monitor 2 Serial, 1 Parallel, & 1 Game Port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual 101 Keyboard & Hi Res Mouse Med Vertical Case 486SX-50DX2 $2799 486-33 $2599 LodeStar 486-33 EISA $3079 LodeStar 486-50DX2 $2189 LodeStar 386-33C $1549 Intel 80386/33 Processor 64K Cache RAM (Expandable to 256K) 4MB RAM (Expandable to 32MB) 125 MB IDE Hard Drive w/Cache Teac 1.2MB 5.25" 8c 1.44MB 3.5" Drives 1 MB SVGA Non-interlaced Color card 14" StarView 1024 NI SVGA Monitor (VEA Std for 72 Hz Flicker-Free Display) 2 Serial, 1 parallel, & 1 Game Port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual Starkey 102 Keyboard Hi-Res Serial Mouse Desktop CPU case (Verticals optional) StarFlex 386-33 Cache Upgradable Series $1659 Upgradable to 40 Mhz & 486SX-20.48M3/50 LodeStar 486-50C $2219 Intel 80486/50 Processor w/ 8K Internal Cache 8c Built-in Math Coprocessor 2 x 32 Bit Local Bus Expansion Slots 64K Cache RAM (Expandable to 256K) 4MB RAM (Expandable to 32MB) 60ns 125 MB IDE Hard Drive w/Cache Teac 1.2MB 5.25" 8c 1.44MB 3.5' Drives 1 MB SVGA Non-interlaced Color card 14" StarView 1024 NI SVGA Monitor (VESA Std for 72 Hz Flicker-Free Display) 2 Serial, 1 parallel, 8c 1 Game Port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual Starkey 102 Keyboard Hi-Res Serial Mouse Vertical or desktop Case 486-50DX2 CADstation $3629 256K Cache RAM Memory 8 MB RAM & 210 MB Hard Drive 17" SVGA NI Color Monitor 32 Bit S3 1MB Local Bus SVGA Card LodeStar 386-25 $1339 4 MB RAM on board 85 MB IDE Hard Drive w/Cache Teac 1.2MB 5.25" & 1.44MB 3.5" Drives 1 MB SVGA Color Graphic Card 14" StarView 1024 SVGA Monitor 2 Serial, 1 parallel, & 1 Game port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual Starkey 102 Keyboard Hi-Res Serial Mouse Desktop CPU (Vertical optional) 486SX-20 $1489 386SX-25 $1239 (w/2MB RAM) StarFlex 386-25 Cache Upgradable Series $1569 MK Cache RAM (Expandable to 256k) Upgradable to 33/40 Mhz & 486SX-20, 486-33/60. LodeStar 486-33C $1989 Intel 80486/33 Processor w/ 8K Internal Cache 8c Built-in Math Coprocessor 2 x 32 Bit Local Bus Expansion Slote 64K Cache RAM (Expandable to 256K) 4MB RAM (Expandable to 32MB) 60ns 125 MB IDE Hard Drive w/Cache Teac 1.2MB 5.25" 8c 1.44MB 3.5" Drives 1 MB SVGA Non-interlaced Color card 14" StarView 1024 NI SVGA Monitor (VESA Std for 72 Hz Flicker-Free Display) 2 Serial, 1 parallel, 8c 1 Game Port MS DOS 5.0 & MS Window 3.1 w/Manual Starkey 102 Keyboard Hi-Res Serial Mouse Mid Vertical or Desktop Case 486-33 WINstation $2399 8MB RAM & 210 MB HD. 32 Bit Local Bus SVGA Color Card MB RAM & Provide 32.768 Colors) i " Orieotthe ■thosi ^t&^ICiX : - LodeStar frprn its competitors; is [extensive warranty sup-. port " - Craftsmanship - Layout is excellent:: .'..>■ Won- . derfully-. unciamped 'sights that greets, '■■you\.when\Yp\x-; . open thecgsewith LodeSicit's' tower, you don 'thave to fight . -amass of tangled cables and* ■jagged edges.,\ /ifcs a further test of technical support: Yj^ei^p^ty^e^' stroyed....:^lthengav:e;the; I system [and, a phone ', to, an : in experienced , friend ; , A [l^deStx^techhhianc ■ iently took her through the 'process; ;;-:./ ; KWhenTcg]led:wiih a ques- tion. ...... 1 was immediately \cofmec^tepaJd-&' in'iesal- . ■ r : ondiUbn Please call tocaiiliimaU .war- ranty, details. Photography is for illustration . orily. No-surcharge oh VISA, MasterCard, & ' Discover.- . 2% 'cash 'discount oh all., Pre-Paid ' systems. . Purchase -orders, are accepted, on approved credit: Caitfomia orders add 8" 1 / !es tax.' Ail.produci' names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property ol ,. their respective campai wntten itioh;',pledse call for our FREE product ircle 2 1 7 on Inquiry Card. APS Technolog ...from the SCSI Drive Sneci; alists Why Choose SCSI? 5 Good Reasons • Handles up to 7 devices (8 floppy) w/one controller • Supports CD-ROMs, Tape, DATs, Scanners and more • Bus Mastering I/O • Use "Workstation" Quality (and Performance) Peripherals • Works with ST-506, ESDI Drive Controllers and IDE Controllers Quantum Toshiba MB INTL EXTL MB INTL EXTL 120 399 479 830 $1499 $1599 240 659 729 425 999 1069 WREN Maxtor MB INTL 330 $1299 EXTL $1449 MB INTL EXTL 480 1249 1349 120 $359 $439 600 1399 1549 213 499 569 630 1649 1749 340 949 1049 1.2G 1899 1999 535 1249 1349 1.6G 2799 2949 760 1399 1549 1.2G 1899 1999 SyQuest Flint" 511 Model Bare 1 UJll< MB 330 3U INTL $1099 EXTL $1199 SQ-555 SQ-5110 Additional SyQuest Cartridges $379 499 520 1249 1349 44MB -$75 88MB -$109 DAT Model INTL EXTL APSdat $1599 $1699 2.6 -5 GB Compression DA T APSdat 1399 1499 Desktop and Portable Units DATs Archive-based Mechanisms All Tape Drives Include Sytos Plus Micronics 386SX isa 25 386DX isa25 386DX ISA/33/Cache 486DX ISA/33/Cache 486DX EISA/33/Cache 486DX ISA/50/Cache $259 399 449 859 1199 1449 Toshiba CD-ROM 3301B Bare $579 • 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee • All products carry a 30-day money- back guarantee. Your risk in the transaction is the cost of shipping. • Disk-for-Disk Replacement Warranty 'Quantum, Maxtor, SyQuest and DAT drives carry a two-year "parts 8 labor" disk-for-disk replacement warranty. WREN, Toshiba, Micronics products and SyQuest cartridges carry a one-year "parts S labor" disk-for-disk (board-for-board) replacement warranty. Fujitsu drives carry Fujitsu's five-year warranty. • Mounting Hardware fi Cables Included 'All hard drives include rails, extenders and data cables required for standard operation. Board products are populated but without RAM. • Toll-Free Technical Support • Toil-Free Technical Support, 9am to 7pm Monday thru Friday, Central Standard Time. As often or for as long as you need. • Prices fi Specifications Subject to Change Without Notice • M-F 7AM-9PM CST SAT 10AM-4PM CST Visa/MC, Discover, AMEX— No Surcharge International: I-8I6 478-8300 FAX: I-8I6 478-4596 (24 Hrs) Toll Free UK: 0800-897-545 Toll Free Australia: OOI4-800-I25-875 Alliance Peripheral Systems, 2900 5. 297 Hwy., Independence, MO 64057 -800 235-3707 The Bulldog cool" way to shop! Network Enjoy an Explosion of Red Hot Savings this Sizzling Summer! 1-800-438-6039 3COM 3C503 Etherlink 11/ 5-pack 189/799 3C503TP 10 BaseT 229 3C505B Ethernet Plus 579 3C507 Etherlink 16 279 3CJ23 MCA Ethernet 269 Starter Kit 2mbps/AE2 325/459 Starter KitAE3 539 Lan Cards 2mbps/AE2 129/199 Lan Car/AE3 229 Central Station 419 Novell Lite 1.0/starter kit 69/399 Novell Lite Add-on kit 209 Netware 2.2 5/10 User 479/1099 Netware V.2.2-50 user 1899 Netware 3.11 20/100 User 1899/3648 Netware 3.1 1-10 User 1375 Ethernet NE1000/NE2000 129/155 NE 3200 669 Access Server 1595 SMC PC130/PC130E 75/99 PC600WS/PC600FS 1 29/209 HUB 8-Active/4-Passive 249/69 Ethercard 8 bit/16 bit 149/169 Token Card 8 bit/16 bit 349/399 10 Base-T Card 8 bit/16 bit. ..185/205 3608TP 10BT concentrator 409 3106 16 bit Ethernet 10BT coax .. 159 3512TP Ether.lOBT cone. 12 port 709 THOMAS CONRAD TC4045 16/4 Token Ring 499 TC6151-11 16 port smart hub ....679 TC6242/TC6242-TP+ 69/99 TC6245/TC6245-TP+ 199/219 ^TC6045^C6045^^^^^^^99/219 Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 server 559 Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 node 339 Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 server 625 Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 node 409 Word Perfect Oflice- 5 user 289 Wordstar 2000 LAN-3 pack 259 Peachtree Network Accounting 489 Borland D Base IV Server-3 users... 795 Borland D Base IV LAN-1 user 249 Borland Quatro Pro V.4.0 ntwkable .319 1 additional user 259 Microsoft LAN Manager 10 user .... 1275 additional 10 user license 675 Microsoft Windows 3.1 89 Norton PC Anywhere V.4.5 119 Norton PC Anywhere V.4.5 Lan 325 XTree Virus Safe Lan 379 X Tree Net/ for Unix 319/189 Procomon Plus Network 5 pack 325 Foxpro Lan 6 user '. 515 Close-Up Lan 2user/8 user 249/479 Close-Up Lan/16 user 609 Aldus Pagemaker 469 Carbon Copy/Close Up 110/109 Clarion ProDeveloper 449 Clipper 5.0 489 Corel Draw 365 Dbase IV 1.5 489 Desqview 386 129 Foxbase/FoxPro 195/449 FoxPro Distribution Kit 299 Freelance Plus 309 Harvard Graphics 359 Lotus 2.4/3.1 Plus 345/379 Lotus Symphony 469 Lotus for Windows 415 Smart Suite/Upgrade 449/339 Microsoft Windows 3.1/Word 89/219 Microsoft Word for Windows 319 Microsoft Excel for Windows 299 Norton Desktop for Windows 94 Norton Utilities 6.0 115 Norton Antivirus 85 Peachtree III Complete 139 Paradox V3.5 489 Q&A 4.0 249 Quattro Pro 299 Ventura Desktop Publishing 479 WordPerfect 5.1 255 Word Perfect for Windows 259 Wordstar 7.0/2000+ 259/225 Monitors NEC MULTISYNC 3FGX 689 4FG 769 PANASONIC 1381/1395 329/439 SAMSUNG Flat White ML4571 119 CVB 4995 Syncmaster 2E 269 JCVM 4967 Syncmaster 3E 299 5468/5468NI 289/329 3436 Multiscan .28 399 1760 17" VGA.28 869 Njfffl? 4 * 2 229 ' 275 907OU/9080i 1019/1199 550i/560i 1175/1999 Drives CONNER 120 IDE 3.5 349 200 IDE 3.5 549 IOMEGA 90 MB Insider/Transportable 579/689 Dual 90 ext 1495 MAGNA VOX 461RSEXTCDW/ software 399 MAXTOR 7120A 130 mg 369 MHM 210l "%£imoM 56g backpack Ext. Floppy 1.2/1.44 .. 199 ST251-1 42 mb MFM 229 ST3096A 89 mb IDE 289 ST3144A 120 IDE 379 SYSGEN-moblledlsk 40/80/120 399/569/649 FLOPPY DRIVES 360K/1 2MB/1.44MB 59/59/59 Modems & Fax ADTECH MICROSYSTEMS Datatax 9600/2400 68 Datatax 9600/2400 w/ Win 79 Datafax 96VI w/ V.42 Bis MNP5 ... 99 PocketFax modem 9624 105 PocketFaxmodem9624w/WIN. 115 Smart Connect 2400INT W/MNP5. 65 CARDINAL 2400 INT/EXT 62/84 2400 INT/EXT w/MNP 89/99 9600 INT/EXT 249/279 96/24 Fax modem INT 89 HAYES Ultra 144 V.32 749 Ultra 9600 ext 599 Optima 9600 V.32 349 HEWLET-PACKARD Plain Paper Fax 200/310 .... 999/1339 INTEL Satisfaction Modem 200/400. 309/409 US ROBOTICS 1 6.8 HST ext. w/ ASL 569 Dual 16.8 HST ext 749 Shared Access Kit 649 Sportster 14.4 Fax int/ext 359/399 Sportster 9600 Fax int/ext . .319/349 16.8 HST ext. w/ ASL 569 Worldport Palmtop Fax 179 Worldport 9696 489 PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS 9600 V.42 Int/Ext 269/279 1.44FX tax/modem Int/Ext ....350/389 [7T INTEL 387-33 199 387-SX16/20 „ 1 1 9/129 387-16/20 /25 155 387-33 159 387-SX16/20 99/109 287XL 85 387-40 199 MEMORY 1MB SIMM 80ns 39 4 MB SIMM 80ns 139 Printers CANON LPB4+/LBP8+ 919/1499 BJ20 399 BJ 300/330 469/599 DICONIX 180si/701 299/439 EPSON LX810 155 AP3250 219 FX850/FX1050 289/379 LQ570/LQ870 269/435 LQ1070/LQ1170 375/579 LQ2550 849 Action Laser 679 EPL8000 1295 EPL7500 1 839 DFX5000/8000 1269/2139 HEWLETT-PACKARD Laser Series lll/IIID 1549/2599 Laser IIP/IIIP 869/1069 Desk Jet 500/500C 439/759 IBM Laser 6P/10P 1825/2899 NEC Silentwriter 95 1469 OKIDATA 184/380 229/219 320+/390+ 314/437 321+/391 + 435/595 393+/393C+ 919/999 400/800 LASER 629/925 820/830 LASER 1249/1295 840 LASER 1589 3410 1299 PANASONIC 1123/1124J 199/275 1624/1654 339/539 2180/2123 175/255 1695/2624 369/379 4410/4450i 649/1079 4430/4455 909/1719 QMS PS 410/815 1529/2949 Color Script 100 model 10p 4699 SEIKO Label Pro 129 LASER ACCESSORIES Upgrade for HP III 1 mb 79 Upgrade- HP III 2mb/4mb . 109/179 Pacific Data 25-N-1 249 Pacific Page PE/PEXL 269/649 Pacific Connect 256K 249 Complete Font Library 249 Font Bank Cartridae 1 .5 Mb 269 Mice & Misc. Microsoft Mouse w/Windows 3.1 ... 1 49 Microsoft Ball Point Mouse 1 1 8 Logitech Fotoman 495 Logitech Trackman Serial/Bus ....69/85 Epson 300C w/ interface 1 1 75 Logitech Scan Man 256 269 Sound Blaster Pro 1 89 Bulldog Systems Bulldog's Standard Configuration We guarantee all of our Bulldog Systems and bundle each one with a Dual Floppy Drive • Super VGA Card with 1 Mb RAM (1024 x 768) • 14" Color VGA Monitor (1024 x 768) • MS DOS 5.0 • MS Windows 3.0 • Mouse • 1 year on-stte warranty! 386-SX/25 w/80 1525 386-25 w/ 100 1695 386-33 (64K CACHE) w/100 1795 486-25 (256K CACHE) w/200 2595 MAGNAVOX NOTEBOOKS Metalis 386SX16 w/ 40 1349 Metalis 386SX20 w/ 60 1649 Call for other configurations Video Cards ATI VGA Integra 512K 89 Graphics Vantage 1mb 349 Graphics Ultra w/ 1MB 459 8514 Ultra Plus w/ 1MB 389 VGA Wonder XL w/ 1mb 189 BOCA Basic VGA/Super VGA 63/129 CARDINAL VGA 700/732 W/1MB 119/139 ORCHID Prodesigner llw/1 mb 185 Fahrenheit 1280 degreewith 1 MB. ..289 VIDEO SEVEN 1024i Plus w/ 512 95 V RAM li 1 mb 269 Win. VGAw/1 mb 159 AST SixPack+w/384KXT 129 SixPack286w/0KAT 95 Rampage PC w/1 mb 285 ORCHID RamquesM 6/32 wOK PS/2 199 Ramquest 8/16 w/OK XT/AT 129 ACCELERATOR BOARDS OrchldTiny Turbo 286/Extra.1 1 9/179 lntellnboard386PCw/1mb 499 ARCHIVE 40 Meg Int/Ext 239/349 60 Meg w/Cont Int/Ext 579 COLORADO MEMORY SYSTEMS DJ10 120 Meg Int Jumbo 199 DJ20 250 Meg Int Jumbo 259 QFA 700 Meg Int 719 MICRO SOLUTIONS 40/120 Backpack 365 80/250 Backpack 429 Memory Boards Tape Drives 610 Industrial Park Drive Evans, Georgia 30809 PO Box 211043, Martinez, GA 30907 OPEN weekdays: 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (706) 860-7364 • FAX (706) 860-7358 BULLDOG COMPUTER PRODUCTS jayiivJv >*:'H>n9 o 1992 • B Y T I SmartCache Plus: the grow-as-you-go approach to SCSI controllers START WITH THE BEST... DPT's entry level SmartCache Plus board offers unrivaled price/performance for single-userf systems. It.features ISA or EISA bus mastering, and universal SCSI disk compatibility for all PC operating systems. SmartD river software supports SCSI-2 peripherals like tape and optical drives. NOW ADD CACHING! Get DPT's award-winning caching technology in a plug-in module! Move up to disk caching speed without investing in a new controller. With an integral 512K cache, the module provides up to 5X performance gains for workstations, power users, and small multiuser systems. ADD MORE USERS, ADD MORE CACHE! Plug in a 2MBor 4 MB memory module and accommodate up to 18 users from a single card slot. Ideal for medium-sized networks or multiuser systems. HOW ABOUT DISK MIRRORING? DPT's SmartCache mirroring module provides 100% disk'faulttolerance by simultaneously writing all data to a second "mirrored" driva No more data loss or costly system down-time due to disk failures. And unlike software mirroring schemes, fault tolerance- is achieved with no performance penalties. PLUS STILL MORE CACHE, AND THEN SOME.. . Cable over to DPT's 4 MB Cache Expansion Card, then grow your system to 16 MB by adding more plug-in memory moduies^enough power for 64-plus users! DPT has your solution—no matter .how youg row. Performance/cornpatibilityand upgradability make SmartCache Plus the only SCSI controller you'll ever need. FoY details, contact Distributed Processing Technology, 140 Candace Drive, Mart- land, FL 32751 . Phone (407) 830 - 5522; FAX (407) 260-5366. II Circle 204 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 205). T3M& Motherboards Buy any RMB motherboard with SIMM memory and we'll install the memory FREE. And we won't stop there... Ralin will also run a full diag- nostic and burn-in your memory onto the motherboard at no charge. It's service like this that sets Ralin apart from our competition and makes our 1st time customer a customer for life. 386SX-25 MHz $ 169 25MHz processor speed Headland HT18 80386sx chip set IBM™ AT-bus compatible AMI BIOS (64 Kb) AMD CPU Up to 16 Meg on-board RAM memory Model No Memory 2Mb 4Mb 8Mb 16Mb '829 32Mb 386 SX-25 J 169 J 259 '349 '529 NA 386SX-33 '199 J 289 '379 $ 559 J 859 NA 386 DX-25 '235 NA '415 $ 595 J 895 J 1555 *386DX-33 '299 NA '479 '659 '959 '1619 *386DX-40 J 299 NA J 479 J 659 J 959 J 1619 *486DX-33 '645 NA $ 825 4005 J 1305 '1965 **486DX-33 Upgradable '715 NA '895 J 1075 J 1375 J 2035 **486 DX-50 Upgradable $ 1095 NA '1275 J 1475 '1755 '2415 *128k Cache Memory Standard **256k Cache Memor) Future Upgradabilfo r. 486 DX-33 to -> DX-2/66 MHz 486 DX-50 to -> DX-2/100 MHz Buy Smart. .Buy RMB Upgradable Motherboards Desktop Case $ 87°° Mini Tower $ 7S 5-bay Desktop Case 200 watt Power Supply (3 )- 5.25 inch bays (2 )- 3.5 inch bays 16.3 inch, 16 inch & 7 inch 4-bay Mini Tower Case 200 watt Power Supply (2) - 5.25 inch bays (2) - 3.5 inch bays 7 inch, 16 inch & 13.6 inch Full Tower $ 149° 8-bay Full Tower Case 230 watt Power Supply (4) - Internal 5.25 inch bays (4) - External 5.25 inch bays Digital Display w ¥ Whet ' hether you're upgrading to avoid replace- ment costs or merely to enhance your present system, rely on the upgrade specialists at Ralin for the equipment and expertise you need to get the job done right and at a great price. Our specially trained representatives sell thousands of motherboards and upgrade components every month... and our volume purchasing allows us to pass the savings on to you. Ralin offers a complete line of brand name products to complete your upgrade. Use this check list of key upgrade components when planning your next PC modification. □ Motherboard □ Memory □ Case w/Power Supply □ IDE MIO card □ Floppy Drive(s) □ Hard Drive (IDE) □ Keyboard □ DOS 5.0 □ Tape Backup □ Mouse 30-Day Guarantee At Ralin, if your not satisfied, we're not satisfied. We offer a full 30-day guarantee on all merchandise. Items can be returned up to 30 days following the material invoice date. Some restrictions apply, call a customer service representative for details. 1-800-752-9512. Call 1-800-752-9512 today and talk to the Ralin Policies • Prices and availability subject to change. • Purchase orders are accepted, subject to approval. • We do not charge your card until order is processed. • Incomplete returns are subject to a service charge. • All returns other than exchanged items incur a 10% re-stocking fee. 304 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 • Not responsible for compatibility problems and typos. • 30 day guarantee does not apply to software. Defective software exchanged only. • APO and I'PO's please call for shipping charges or for credit card orders leave blank when mailing order and applicable charges will be added. To insure your shipment arrives when you need it, Ralin uses only the most reputable modes of transportation available: WO/KJ7MOE EJffWfElS (UJJOI Circle 229 on Inquiry Card. MPC Upgrades Ralin MPC Upgrade Kit $ 595°° Our MPC Upgrade Kit combines Philips, the inventor of CD-ROM technology, and Creative Labs, The manu- facturer of the #1 selling Sound Blaster Pro MPC sound card, with a bundle of the most popular CD software to offer an unbeatable upgrade value. Kit includes: Sound Blaster Pro Package 5 195 00 ' Philips internal MPC CD-ROM drive Sound Blaster Pro MPC sound card CD-ROM Software: -The New Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia -PC SIG on CD-ROM -ChessMaster 3000 (MPC) -Wing Commander -Ultima VI • Sound Blaster Software: -The Talking Parrot -Text to Speech & Dr. Sbaitso -Voice Editor II -MultiMedia&MMPlay -CD Play -FM Intelligent Organ Communications Upgrades Sound Blaster Pro sound card Sound Blaster Pro software bundle (6 titles) CD-ROM software: ChessMaster 3000 (MPC) and Wing Commander with Ultima VI Zoom Telephonies Zoom modems rate at the top of their class for compatibility and performance. The recipient of numerous Editors' Choice awards, Zoom modems offer the quality and dependability that you require at a price that makes them a true value. All Zoom modems are backed by a 7 Year Warranty and are made in the USA. 2400 bps w/ v.42bis and MNP 2-5 (AMC) (AMX) internal external $ 57.00 $ 65.00 2400 bps w/ v.42bis and MNP 2-5 9600 send & 4800 receive Fax (AMC) (AMX) internal external $ 69.00 $ 82.00 2400 bps w/ 9600 bps send/receive Fax (FC 9624) (FX 9624) internal external $105.00 $105.00 9600 bps modem w/ v.32, v.42bis, MNP2-5 and 9600 bps send/receive Fax (VFP-V32) (VFX-V32) internal external $249.00 $269.00 14,400 bps modem w/ v.32bis, v.32, v.42bis, (VFP-V32bis) internal $269.00 MNP 2-5 and 9600 bps send/receive Fax (VFX-V32bis) external $299.00 Printer Upgrades If your printer is behind the times and can't keep up with your workload, consider an upgrade to the latest Star Micronics has to offer. Star's award winning NX-2420 Rainbow 24-pin color printer can supply the letter quality, crispness and speed you need, plus seven vibrant colors to make your print outs come alive. If it's laser quality you require, the StarJet ink jet printer can produce professional laser quality at a fraction of the cost of a true laser printer. StarJet SJ-48 ink jet $28900 • 100 cps near laser quality speed • 360 x 360 dpi high resolution available • 4 near laser quality fonts • 13 scalable fonts with windows • 2 paper paths • IBM™, Epson™ and NEC™ 24-pin graphics compatible Hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday - Friday Customer Service: 716-674-6267 • Fax:716-674-2108 WE ACCEPT: ^JJ j)^£ Circle 228 on Inquiry Card. .WHOLESALERS, INC. P.O. Box 450 Orchard Park, New York 14127 AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 305 MflHlWM^^ DRIVES AND BACKUPS Conner Hard Drives 3000 42MB 3.5" IDE 28ms $1 99 30104H 120MB 3.5" IDE 1 9ms 30174E 170MB 3.5" IDE 1 7ms 3204F 21 2MB 3.5" IDE 16ms Seagate Hard Drives ST351AX 40MB IDE 3.5" . . ST251-1 40MB MFM28ms . ST3096A 89MB IDE 3.5" Urns ST3120A 100MB 3.5" IDE . . . ST3144A 130MB IDE 3.5" 16ms Micropolis 1654 161MB ESDI HH 16ms 1664 345MB ESDI HH 18ms 749 999 Plus Development Hard Drive Cards Hard Card IIXL 50MB /1 05MB . CALL Mountain Tape Backups FS4000 40/1 20MB AT Int $239 FS8500 80/304MB AT IDE Int 499 Irwin Tape Back-Up Accutrok 1 20MB Internal Drive 1 79 Accutrok+ 250MB Internal Drive ... 299 FLOPPY DRIVES Toshiba Disk Drive Kits ND 04D 5.25" 1/2HT360K (PC/XT) $59 ND08DEG5.25" l. 2MB (PC/AT) ... .69 ND 356T 3.5" l .44MB AT Kit 69 Sony Disk Drives 3.5" 720K (PC/Xf/AT) 59 3.5" l .44MB Slimline Bare 59 3.5" l .44MB 59 MONITORS Packard Bell Color Monitors 855 lVG 14" 640x480 (.51 mm) .$199 8538VG 14" 1024x768 (.39mm) . 279 8528SVGL 1 4" 1 024 x 768 Low Radiation (.28mm) 349 8548SVGL 14" 1 024 x 768 Low Radiation Non-interlaced (,28mm) 369 Panasonic Color Monitors C-1381! 14" 1024x768 (.28mm) $349 C-l 395 1 4" 1 024 x 768 (.28mm) . . 449 Leading Edge 14" Monitors Mono VGA Monochrome 1 29 C39AD 1 024 x 768 (.39mm) 245 C28AD 1024x768 (.28mm) 299 C28M 1024x768 Multisync (.28mm) 350 NEC Multisync Color 2A 1 4" 800 x 600 399 3FGX15" 1024x768 659 4FG 15" 1024x768 755 5FG 1 7" 1 280 x 1 024 1450 5D20" 1280x1024 1699 Sony 14" Color 1 304HG 1 024 x 768 Multiscan 589 1320 640x480 VGA 349 BOARDS & VIDEO CARDS Intel Aboveboard Classic Memory Bd.w/2MB/4MB . $229/299 Above Board MC for PS/2 249 Boca Boards Boca I/O 2 Ser., lPar 45 Boca I/O MCA 2 Ser., 1 Par 89 Boca AT Plus 0K/2MB 109/209 Boca VGA Basic 640 x 480 49 Boca VGA Basic 800 x 600 59 Boca SVGA 1 024 x 768 119 Boca SVGA 1024x768 high resolution color 1 29 JOYSTICKS Etronics Super Shooter Joystick . $1 0.99 Gravis Analog Joystick 31.99 Gravis Eliminator Game Card . . . .24.99 Gravis PC Game Pad 19.99 MICE Etronics Smartee Mouse IMSI Pet Mouse Logitech Mouseman Combo . Logitech First Mouse Serial . . Logitech PortableTrockmon . $25.00 . .19.99 . .69.99 . 39.99 . .99.00 Microsoft Ballpoint for Laptops ..11 9.99 MicrosoflSerial Mouse w/Wind. 149.99 MicrosoffMouse Serial/Bus 79.99 Mouse System Omnimouse II w/Paint Bus/Serial 49.99/35.99 Feather Light & Priced Right! AST I 386SX/20 40MB 43V 386SX/20 60MB 63V 386SX/25 60MB63V/4 386SX/25 80MB 83V/4 386SX/25 120MB 123V/4 386SX/25C60MB63V/4 386SX/25C80MB83V/4 386SX/25C 120MB 123V/4 AST Premium® Exec™ Notebook Series AST's Premium Exec Notebook computers pack the highest performance, processing, and more standard features, into a convenientcompoctpackage weighing only 7 lbs. The Premium Exec 386SX/20 and 386SX/25 include the latest flat panel display technology, providing high-resolu- tion VGA on a "paper white" screen, capable of supporting 32 shades of gray. The New Premium Exec 386SX/25C offers passive matrix color, 1 6 colors at 640 x 480 resolution with 64 gray shades, at a price other manufacturers charge for slower speed monochrome systems. Premium Exec 386SX/20 Features: ■ 386SX/20MHz processor ■ Ports: 1 S , 1 P, 1 Video 1 KB ■ 40MB or 60MB fast-ac«ess, or mouse 2.5" lightweight HD ■ MS-DOS 5.0 from AST ■ 2MB RAM exp. to 8MB ■ Free carrying case with ■ 3.5" 1 ,44MB FDD handle Premium Exec 386SX/25 & 386SX/25C Features: ■ 386SX/25MHz processor ■ Ports: IS, IP, 1 Video, 1 KB ■ 60MB,80MB or 1 20MB fast or mouse access, 2,5" lightweight HD ■ MS-DOS 5.0 from AST ■ 4MB RAM exp. to 8MB ■ Free carrying case with ■ 3.5" 1 ,44MB FDD handle AST, AST logo and Premium are registered ond Exec is a trademark of AST Research, Inc. All other product or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. CALL FOR NEW LOWER PRICES MATH COPROCESSORS Intel Math CoProcessors 8087 (5MHz) $85.00 80872 (6/8 MHz) 119.00 80871 (10MHz) 159.00 80287XL (6,8,10MHz) and 80C287 (1 2MHz) 79.99 80287XLT Compaq LTE/286, and Tandy 2800 79.99 80387SL (16/20/25MHz) ..119.99 80387SX (l6/20/25MHz) ..119.99 80387 (16/20/25/33MHz)199.OO 80487SX (20/25MHz) .... Ropidcad(l6/20/25/33MHz) Overdrive processor 486SX/20 Overdrive processor 486SX/25 Cyrix Math CoProcessors 82S87 (8-20MHz 80286) 83D87-25 (l6/20/25MHz) 83D87-33 (33MHz 80386) 83D87-40 (40MHz80386) 83S87-16 (l6MHz80386SX) 83S87-20 (20MHz 80386SX) 83587-25 (25MHz80386SX) . 459.00 355.00 CALL . . CALL CALL FOR NEW LOWER PRICES CHIPS AND SIMMS All speeds CALL MEMORY UPGRADES FOR IBM Legend IBM™ Compatible PS/2 Memory Upgrades 529802 2MB 30-286 . . . . : $119 529828 2MB 70-E61, 70-12 1 . . .119 529836 2MB70-A21 109 551029 2MB Exp. Bd 50Z, 60, 55SX299 Legend Memory available for Toshiba Laptops, AST, HP, Mac & Others. CALL MULTIMEDIA SoundBlaster Pro $199.99 SoundBlaster PC 99.99 Multimedia Int. CD ROM Drive w/SoundBloster Pro 579.00 LABTEC SS- 1 00 Amplified Speaker 1 9.99 IABTEC SS-700 Amplified Spaeker 29.99 Sony CD-ROM 7205 Ext. XT/AT w/laser Library 549.99 Includes: Complon's Family Encyclopedia. Languages of the World/ Toolworks, World Atlas and more. Multimedia CD-ROM Software Microsoft Multimedia Bookshelf for Windows 124.99 Greatest Book Collection 32.99 Library of the Future 1 34.99 King'sQuestV 39.99 — 2400 Baud Internal w/softwar 2400 Baud External no sofrwa 2400 Baud Internal w/V.42 S 2400 Baud External w/V.42 n NEW 9600 Baud InternalwA NEW 9600 Baud External w/ e re software . . $49 69 95 119 = TR0NICS= MODEMS A 1 00% Hayes Compatible ▲ 2 Year Warranty '.42 & software /.42 no softwar 249 259 DISKETTES ELEK-7EK maxell. SONY 3M U \ferballm. 3 1/2"DSDD S6.50 $7.99 $7.99 $8.50 $7.99 3 1/2" DSHD 10.99 12.99 12.99 13.99 11.99 5 1/4" DSDD 3.99 5.50 4.99 5.99 5.50 5 1/4"DSHD(I8MA1) 6.99 8.99 8.99 9.50 8.99 In addition to the above, we stock pre-formatted & color diskettes. 3M DATA CARTRIDGES Regular DClOOA(Mini) . . . $14.99 DClOOO(Mini) . . . . $14.50 DC300XL/P . . . . .20.00 DC2000(Mini) . . . . 14.99 DC600A . . . . . .21.00 DC2080(Mini) . , . .19.50 DC6150 . . . . . 22.00 DC2120(Mini) . . . 20.99 DC6250 . . . . . .26.99 DC1.35G Magnus . . .36.99 DC6320 . . . . . .29.00 2000 Tope DC6525 . . . . . .34.00 Drive Cleaner . . . . .19.99 Pre-formatted DC600 HC/!otomot™ $25.50 DC61 50/Zetamot™ . 28.00 DC2000/Kappomol T,s 19.00 DC2000/Thetomot™ . 19.00 DC2080/Rhomat™ . 20.99 DC21 20/Rhomat™ . 25.50 DC2120/Ximar™ . . 25.50 Call for large quantity pricing. Call for wholesale pricing on 3M computer tape. SOFTWARE Quicken Windows $17,9 9 386 Max 54.99 Bodyworks . . . 39,99 Gabon GqpyPlusI 19.99 Cathy Daily Planner 34.99 Central Point Antivirus .... 57.99 Central Point Backup V7.l 59.99 Fastback for Windows 89.99 Fax Grabber . 1 04.99 LetterPerfect . . . 94.99 PC Anywhere V4.5 . ... $124.99 PFS: Job Search & Resume Pro . . .36.99 Presentation Task Force 1 24.99 ProCom Plus . .63.99 ProCom Plus Windows 84.99 Speedster 59.99 Quofio Pro V4.0 309.99 QEMM 386 V6 58.99 Stacker V2.0 ..84.99 WinFox Pro . . .74.99 XTREE Gold . . .99.99 We Stock 2500 Other Software Titles "Complete Line Of EPSON Panasonic, * OKIDATA Dot Matrix & Laser Printers Call For Our Low, Low Prices." HEWLETT PACKARD Genuine WBOa\Pl Laser Toner Cartridges HP92275 - LoserJet IIP/IIP+/IIIP . $59.99 HP92285 - U/U+/U 500+ 81 .99* HP92295 - LaserJet ll/IID/lll/IIID . 79.99* HP92291 - LoserJet IlISi 107.99* Ink Cartridges DeskJet/DeskJet Plus Ink Cartridges .15.99* DeskJet High Capacity Cartridge . 23.99* DeskJet Color Ink Cartridge 25.99* *Quantity Discounts Available Trays Lower Cassette IIP/IIP+/IIIP 135 Letter" / Legal Size" IIP/IIP+/IIIP 49/59 Envelope Troy ++ IIP/IIP+/HIP 65 Letter / Legal Size ll/IID/lll/IIID .52/60 Envelope Tray ll/IID/lll/IIID 70 Letter Size IlISi / Legal Size IlISi . . 95 / 95 Executive Size IlISi 95 t* Requires Lower Cassette Memory Boards l MB Memory U IIP/IIP+/IIIP/III/IIID 149.00 2MB Memory U IIP/IIP+/IIIP/III/IIID 249.00 1 MB Memory LoserJet IlISi 11 5.00 4MB Memory LoserJet IlISi 325.00 HP LASERJET ENHANCEMENTS PACIFIC 25-IN-l FontCart. II/IIP/IIP+/IHP/IIICALL 25-IN-l FontCart. DeskJet 500/Plus $99 1MB Memory Board IIP/IIP+/III/IIID . . ,89 2MB Memory Board IIP/IIP+/IH/IIID . 129 Postscript Cart, for IIP/IIP+/IID/III/IIID 299 MODEMS AND FAX BOARDS Internal Hayes 2400 Baud with Software $239 9600 Baud V.42 w/Sohware 499 External Hayes (with software) 2400 Baud Smartmodem 279 9600 Baud V.42/Ultra 96 499/599 Ha>es Optima 2400/9600 Ext. CALL Internal Hayes Compatibles (with software) Practical Peripherals 2400 / 2400 V.42 . 75 / 1 15 2400 IBM PS/2 199 9600V. 42 269 External Hayes Compatibles Proctical Peripherals 2400SA / 2400SA V.42 99 / 1 25 9600SA V.42 bis 279.99 2400V.42 Pocket Modem w/Send Fox 159 Other Hayes Compatibles Intel 9600 V.32bis with Software ... 465 All U.S. Robotics High Speed Models . CALL Intel SatisFAXtion 2400 mod,FAX:96/48 Send/Recv. . . .99 2400V.42 mod, FAX: 96 Send/Recv. 299 14.4 mod, FAX 14.4 Send/Recv. . . . 399 Practical Peripherals Fax Modems 2400 Baud Int. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fox 99 2400 Baud Ext. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fox 109 14400 V.32 Int. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fax375 14400 V32 Ext. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fax 399 Etronics Fox Modems 2400 Baud Int. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fox 85 2400 Baud Ext. w/9600 Send/Recv. Fax 99 CORPORATE CUSTOMERS INVITED We offer large bid opportunities. DUNS # 09-718-0517 OPEN ACCOUNTS -Net 30 terms available to D&B accounts rated 2A1 or better. Actual freight charges FOB Skokie, IL. Phone (as indi- cated) or fox orders to: Corporate Accounts, 708-677-71 68. Moil P.O.'s (as indicated) to Depl. CI 1 32. PREPAID ACCOUNTS -Use Visa, MasterCard, check or money order (no cosh or c.o.d.'s pleoseJ.When ordering by mail please call in ad- vance for shipping and handling charges. Shipments to IL odd 7.75% tox. Minimum order $1 5.00. 8/92 Wr ' te * or FREE cata ' 9- Prices subject to change; products subject to last. ElEK-TEK is not responsible for printing lability while quantities ir printing or typesetting errors. ^^B I _ RETURN POLICY-- All soles are final except defectives which will be replaced with identical merchandise only. Computers and large peripherals- -3 work days after delivery; most small items 30 calender days, oner which manufacturer's warran- ty applies. No returns will be accepted without an RMA number. Unauthorized returns and refused shipments subject to 15* restocking charge. ALL ELEK-TEK MERCHANDISE IS BRAND NEW, FIRST QUALITY AND COMPLETE. In no event will ELEK-TEK bo liable for ony damages whether incidental, consequential or otherwise Except as stated herein, no warranties [including ... , fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability) shall apply. This does not ET Valueline is the telemarketing and mail order department or ELEK-TEK, inc. reduce the benefit of any manufacturer's warranty. AF002 WHERE MORE THAN JUST THE PRICE IS IIOHT 7350 North Under Avenue, Skokie, Illinois 60077 800-395-1 OOO In IL: 708-677-7660 Circle 206 on Inquiry Card. m> **■.«:*■** ■JM; m fed ^Jg A legendary year in the history of naval conflict has returned. The Pacific Solomons 1942. Setting for a series of naval confrontation&.th0t would change the course of World WartlrAnd the setting for the first in a new series of spectacular Pacific War simulations from MicroProse. Task Force 1942 is your chance to command a fleet of destroyers, cruisers, and battleships against aggressive enemy forces in the . South Pacific. No detail has been overlooked in this painstakingly researched simulation. Torpedo wakes. Thrilling night combat Blinding explosions. Flares. Even harsh weather conditions. All presented in breathtaking realism. Issue commands to ships and convoys. Fire torpedos into enemy - • backsides. Control crucial battle positions. Shell enemy targets. Confront enemy ships head-on. And, if you choose, lead the Japanese forces into battle. Task Force 1942 from MicroProse. It's the only way to experience the thrills.. .and risks. ..of naval < combat in World War II. To order, visit your nearest retailer or call 1 -800-879-PLAY. Call today. " HHH : ■ ■Mfc,, ' Actual screens may vary. SOFTWARE SURFACE NAVAL ACTION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC 180 Lakefront Drive, Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030-2245. © 1992 MicroProse Software, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. For IBM-PC/Tandy/compatibles Circle 21 3 on Inquiry Card. il Computer Memory zenith iHSfl®G0Q^ PS/1 286, 386SX 2MB 92F99S5 «. $99 PS/2 30/2B6 512K 30F5348 $35 2MB 30F5360 $99 PS/235SX; IS, 40SX, 50Z, 555X; IS, 65SX; LS, 70 1MB 6450603 _ $51 2MB 6450604 $B9 PS/270421; A61; B21; B61 2MB 645060B $95 PS/2 35SX; IS, 40SX, 55SX; IS, 65SX; IS, 34F30XX 4MB 34F2933 $169 PS/2 S55N;15. 405X 8MB 6450129 _ „„ $349 PS/290,95 (Install In pairs) 4MB 6450128 $169 BMB 6450130 $349 Expansion boards for so and 60 2-8MB 1T/2MB 1497259 $269 Expansion boards for all models 70 and 80 2-14MB H/2MB 34F3077 $349 Zenfth 2-386/20; 25; 33 and S3E 1MB ZA3800ME $59 4MB 2A3800MK $179 ZenttiW-386SX, 286PL+, Z-IS 2MB Kit Z-605-1 $99 Zenith 486/33ET; 25E 4MB ZA4200M2 ..... $219 16MB 2A4200M8 .... $699 .. $169 '$$ Bravo 386SX, WS/2B6, 386 2MB 500510-002.... $B9 4MB 500510-00B .. $179 Premium 3B6/25; 33, Premium II 3B6SX/16; 20 1MB ll/WPB 500780-003 $69 Premium il 38ESV20 and 386SX/16 4MB II/WPB 500780-004 All Premium and Bravo 486 Models 8MB H/WPB 500780-001 Compaq DeskPro 386-20, 20E and 25 4MB Module 113132-001 $179 4MB Board 113645-001 $249 DeskPro 3865/16 4MB Module H2S34-001 $179 4MB Board 113634-001 „„ $259 0eskPro286N, 386N, 386SX/20, 386/25M, 486/33M, 486s/ 25M, 486S/16M; SVSPro IT, 486SX/255; 386/255; Port486t 2MB 11B689-0O1 -...$99 4MB 118690-001 „ „... $169 oeskPfo 386M, 486M, SvstemPro IT (32-Bit Ejp. Board) 8 Socket Brd If /2MB 1291604-118688-001 .... $379 DeskPro 386/331. 486/331 STSttmPro 6 Socket Brd H/2MB 116569^-115144-001 $389 True multitasllng, background opera- tion for windows 5.0, OS/2, and 386 software. Sx/Now! Improves s?stem performance b| up to 550%. SX/now! available for: HP ES286/12 & ES/8 • Epson Equity ile & II+ • IBM original at & xt/286 • AGI 1800A.1800B & 1800C • AST Premium 286; Bravo 286 • Compaq Portable III, DeskPro 286 • NEC Powemate 286+ & Portable* • IBM PS/2 25/286, 30/286, 50, 50Z, 60 Kingston Technology corp.'s SX-Now! is the undisputed performance champ. •PC Magailne Oct 29,1991 20MH2 SX/Now! ....$309 25MHZSX/NOW! ....$359 Hewlett-Packard Vectra 05/165; 20PC, RS/20PC; 25PC, 20C 4MB Kit 01542 or 1642A $179 Vecta 386/16N, 386/20N 2MB D2406A $109 BMB D2404A $329 vectra 486 PC (install In pairs* BMB 02152ft $359 4MB 02151A „.. $179 vectra 386/25, 486/25T, 53T (Installln Pairs) 2MB 02381A -. $99 BTJBD W ! ' • Intel or amo cpu • Expand cache to 128KO/256KD • •AMI BIOS • Expand to 32MB using SIMM's • Baby Footprint • 25MHZ 386SX -j*A|&fr $299 35MHZ 386 64Kb CACHE .^fgM^.... $479 40MHZ 586 64Kb CACHE ^ggS^ $589 33MHZ 486 64Kb CACHE ZM&..... $969 20MHz 486SX 64Kb CACHE l.i>. $549 NEC ..$99 -&3T@©CH " -4R .H i *."* - M > Henlett-Padard usetJetiiP.lll. hip, HID 2MB 514758 $119 4MB 55477B. . $189 Hewlett -padtartuser Jet il and m 2MB 554448 $125 4MB 35445B .$195 Hewlett Pactart laser Jet lllsi 1118 C2063A $59 4MB C2Q65A . -$159 IBM US« 4029 an Models 2MB 11B5J64 ...... $129 4MB 1183335 .$183 Qf&fl 16P-4 1MB S65-2250 _„ $169 2MB PH H/A -$225 caaoo IBP-Sll, 8tlR ion 8I(T 2MB SSS-1880 $129 4MB Pfl R7A. .$209 casome-pmaadMiPto 2MB S63-25S0 ...... $249 SMS $65-2360.... .$293 BrOUWHl-8, BE, 80,6V 1MB MB-810 $129 2MB MB-820 ..$169 Panasonic 4450I and 4420 2MB W-P441 $129 4MB PNN/A .$209 Twtlba Page Laser 6 2MB IS8-HB0090..S125 4MB IS6-RB0100 .$133 0IJlaser400 1MB 70014701 ........ $99 2MB 0X1 PNN/A ..$129 Tew fastruseats MicroLaser and XL 1MB 25S5739-0001 -.$59 E*MEPL6000 2MB IBS4W $H9 4MB P« R/A ...... ..$183 Epson Artionlassr li, epl-sooc 2MB PNM/A $169 4MB PH N/A „„.. .$253 Poirermate 286/12; SX/16 and SX/20 2MB Kit 0P-410-8103 Powermate386/20;25 2MB APC-H655 $359 8MB APC-H656 SB99 Ponennatc 386/33E and 486/25E 2MB 0P-410-51O1 „ $219 AST Premium Exec Notebook 1MB $69 4MB.. $169 Compaq LTE386S/20 1MB $129 4MB $283 Ute 20; 25 2MB .....;....., $209 4MB.. $239 SLT28S;SS6 1MB ^. .$99 4MB $249 Dell 212N&320N ffl».«» $109 2MB .„...„„,. $159 Grid 14S0SK 2MB $189 1500 series 4MB_ „$259 IBM N51 Notebook 2MB « „ $173 4MB.. $249 L40SX and 833SX 4MB $169 Data Master IBM PS/2 Mod 50 & 50Z Internal IDE Drive n/controller BOMB , ,.$499 105MB $539 IBM PS/2 Mod 60; 65; BO; 90 & 95 Internal SCSI r /controller 113MB _$849 159MB „.$919 Data Traveler Add a hard drive to tour desktop, laptop or notebook PC. Connects to parallel port on system running DOS 3.3 or better. 52MB ....$499 105MB $669 Toshiba T1000SE;tE;XE, 2D0DSJQ5Xe,2200SX 2MB $119 4MB $249 £H| jgjg T1200XE, 1600 and 5100E 2MB $105 T3100SX, 32D0SX and SXC 2MB $105 4MB..- $169 T5200 mi. $169 13300SL 2MB $179 4MB„... a $329 T4400S* and T6400 2M8 $209 4MB i_ $349 T5100 T52OO;T5200CandTB5OO 2MB.. 2MB.. Zenith .... $109 .... $109 .... S5S9 NEC M3SlersPort386SLandSlC Mastersport386SX SttpersPort5X;266e;Sllm*Port S8penPort286;2B6e S6pmPort28«e;SHmsPort TBrbOSPort386;S86e 2MB „ $129 2MB ...$129 2MB $139 1MB Ut $109 4MB $293 1MB $89 UltraUtO 286F; III, SX/20 and Sl/20 2MB ..... $199 4MB...;. $449 PKiSpefiti 2S6 2MB $199 4MB ~ $333 ProSpeed366 2MB. $159 We also have memory for Zeos, Sanyo, Everex, Packard-Bell, Tl, Apple, Sharp, AT&T, Panasonic, Tandon, Epson, and more! cohpAity GUARANTEED Call First Source for the best price, quality, and support! Toll-free technical support Thousands of products in stock Same day shipping Overnight delivery Available You are never charged a surcharge on Visa, Mastercard, or Discover! All products are user installable and include installation instructions! We accept all international orders Purchase orders accepted Special pricing on volume orders Manufacturers warranties Delivery Guaranteed You get fast inexpensive, dependable delivery to anywher intti So pu don't liave to Monday thru Friday 8AM -5PM, Saturday 10AM- 3PM P.S.T. 1-800-535-5892 f i '€" or FAX your order! 1414-588-9872 international Orders 1-710-588-9866 BDCR R £ SB A R CM I N C, Bocaflam AT Plus 2-BMB memorr board for 286 & 586 IBM compatibles aaddrtes running is p to 55MHI. ProrWes omen- ttorut. eipaadedtUM FJtS 4.0) ami/or extended meson. Afco wppomoS/2. W/2M8 ,..;..„ ....,$189 H76MB ..^.....$349 H74MB .-. S2S9 M/8MB .._ $419 BotaBam AT I/O Plus 2-ftMB BieaoTi board, same as AT Hus wtttj 1 serial asd 1 parallel port ■/2MB ,_ ..$199 wmi $279 A 64OM80 16 CfliOf „ $69 3i $12110241763 16 COJOt „ — $119 i/Cft 1IBB 10241768 256 Color ^...„ $159 r-ftftM mgh-cotor $mm $26S MMlm color Card , ,.,.„. ,. $199 Internal, External, Send/Receive FAX For os e In these models: * Compaq SIT, ITJUTiUtt and P ort. 486c * TQSfliba T1000WXE/U, T1200; JUE, T1600, T2000SK; SXe, mOO; niOOe, mOOSX. T3200S(, T5100, TS200 * zwrtft StqwrsPort, RasttrsPert, IlDJsPort,snmsPort ^mtPmtmi * sbarp 6220, 6641 nm«!»att 2000,5000 ASTPremloffl Eworttve All Megahertz Modems Include: ♦fan insfatlaaon «ttti nisstrated esers oolde Foil S-fcar ntratf and toll-free tectolca] support ' Data coommtlatiMS coffiRre Hayes-compatible • Aoto-aoswef. auto-dlailng Foil or half dnpfex Airto adaptive eqalliatlofl 2400bps modem ; $149 V.02/V.42MS Modems : $210 9600bps Stffd/veccrM Fax Modems : $519 Qarvcnt) Podrt Modems for an? 8S232 9-pln serial port 2400bp$ B/UNP 5 — — _-.^- $229 9600bps FA172400UPJ Modem „.,„. $279 Mail orders to: First Source international 36 Argonaut, suite rao JUiSO Vie IO, CM 92G5G USA 714/588-9866 \ Terns and Cooawooi: Memorj products art ttitrt parti, manafactureR' part I RSfflbenarcf orlnur novcnlencc. Frtlghtclunjt 5 are non-refundable. A20% ! rstudrliB fee ntll be charged n an goa-deftcOn Mans, aaopeoed. and donnBtrrtzOon and patbglng. A Retnrsed Kercnaadlse Aattortratkw nmber : U required. Prices and avallaDintr art sublttt to change wtttaotrt notice. I Pvrtaasepiltes at toe tine of wderareflwl. flnt Sonne IrrtertatJonalanoot be responsible for errors In tfpographf or photograph. Heilllbeat any adnrtlstd price valid ante oa Identical brands, offer notgood for SIMMs or DRAM. Trademartsandreglsteredtradenartsareof tbelrrespecttntonipanltf . f Ci '" ■•'- wG: /'- ', \ BYTO8 308 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 Circle 208 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 209). Become a legend before your own time. What becomes a legend most? Find out for yourself as you pilot the legendary B-1 7 Flying Fortress and lead a 10-man crew through the same flak-infested skies that menaced the legendary fly boys of the Memphis Belle. The most complete and accurate bomber simulation ever produced, the B-1 7 Flying Fortress will have you negotiating 25 perilous daylight missions over Nazi- occupied Europe. You'll allocate crew members to their specific tasks. You'll devastate strategic targets in dangerous bombing runs. You'll take control of crew positions from pilot to bombardier. And you'll even customize your own Flying Fortress with historically accurate nose art. So pick up your copy of B-1 7 Flying Fortress today. And experience a flight simulation of legendary proportions. Circle 2 1 4 on Inquiry Card. Actual screens may vary. IM "SCRO PROSE ENTERTAINMENT • SOFTWARE For IBM PC compatibles! For more information about exciting MicroProse products, call1-800-879-PLAY ©1992 MicroProse Software, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 309 1 1 All Systems Include: • 4MB RAM on 32MB Motherboard • 2 Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game Port • 2 Floppies, 1.44 & 1.2 MB (3-1/2" & 5-1/4") • DynamicScan, Super VGA Monitor .28 DOT, 1024x768, Tilt & Swivel •1MB, Super VGA Card ! • 101 Keyboard, ! Non-Click or Click • Min. 200W Noiseless Power Supply • 8 Expansion Slot • Windows 3.1 and Mouse (2600DPI) • DX 486-50MHZ, 256K Cache, AD • DX 486-33MHZ, 256K Cache, AD • DX 486-33MHZ, 256K Cache, Ml • DX 386-40MHZ, 64K Cache, AM • DX 386-33MHZ, 64K Cache, AM • SX 386-33MHZ, 64K Cache. AMI ill $1,795.00 Al $1,495.00 R $1,595.00 I $1,195.00 I $1,095.00 [ $995.00 Option: Non Interlaced DynamicScs 1024 x 768, .28 DOT, 72HZ. Hard Drives: - Call For B m 72 SI Add.... 'VGA Monitor. $49.00 est Price 40MB 60MB 80MB 100MB 120MB 300MB 600MB 1.2GB| 25MS 17MS 14MS 19MS 14MS 14MS 14MS 14MS| 486-50MHZ 256K Cache Run Faster Than 200MHZ ■ 200MB, 14MS ■ Hard Drive Caching Card W/4MB RAM ■ Speed Less than .4MS ■ Expandable to 16MB RAM ■ Norton SI test higher than 300 •Windows, Accelerator • 1MB VGA RAM 32K Colors • 16MB, RAM with 256K Cache $3,289.00 • DynamicScan 72HZ, , Flicker Free • .28 DOT, 1024 x 768 • Tilt and Swivel The Best Application for File Server, CAD Station, Graphic Art, Data Base • Click or Soft Touch 101 Keyboard 310 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 \-/ > - MOTHERBOARD UPGRADES 486-50MHZ, DX 256K Cache $949.00 486-33MHZ, DX 256K Cache $569.00 386-40MHZ, DX 64K Cache $259.00 386-33MHZ, 64K Cache $239.00 386-25MHZ, DX..$198.00 386-33MHZ, 64K Cache, SX....$198.00 GRAPHIC CARDS Trident, 1MB $69.00 SpeedStar Stealth, 1MB $249.00 Renoir Hi Color, 1MB $189.00 Tseng Lab, 1MB RAM, 32K Colors $119.00 FLOPPY DRIVES Teac 1.44MB $51.00 Teac 1.2MB $57.00 JPN 1.44MB $52.00 JPN 1.2MB $58.00 Maxtor CALL Seagate CALL Conner CALL Western Digital ....CALL CASES & POWER SUPPLIES AT Mini Tower W/200W $66.00 AT Medium Tower W/200W $98.00 AT Big Tower Case W/230W $149.00 AT Baby Desktop Case W/200W $89.00 Sunshine DOT .28, 1024x768 $269.00 Sunshine N.I. SPVGA Monitor $339.00 DynamicScan .28DOT, 1024x768 $289.00 DynamicScan N.I. SPVGA Monitor.. $389.00 NEC 3FGX $639.00 NEC4FG $769.00 MODEMS & FAX Int. 2400 MNP ....$49.00 Int. FAX & Modem 9600/FAXS/R $79.00 Int. 9600 Modem $299.00 Ext. 9600 Modem $329.00 DYNAMICSCAN 386-33MHZ DX NOTEBOOK •Built in FAX, Modem •Scanner •1.44MB Floppy Drive, Printer Port, Serial Port Complete $2799.00 Memory CALL Printers CALL Autoswitch- FAX/Modem/Voice...CALL We Offer Any Custom Configuration. Lanstic. Novell Lan System. All Systems Include The Following Software Package That Even The Novice Can Use. • Word Processing • Data Base • Real Estate •Variety of Games and Educational Programs • Easy Menu • Lotus Tutor • Bible • Accounting • DOS Tutor Test a DynamicScan System yourself with a 30-day money back guarantee. With the purchase of any DynamicScan System, you will have access to unlimited technical support with our "800" DynamicScan Users Number. Warranty-1 Year On-Site Service to most locations. DynamicScan 10824 Page Avenue St. Louis, Missouri 63132 SALES/ORDERS 314-423-0044 FAX EXPORTING .314-426-4014 .314-428-7734 TECH SUPPORT AND RMA l-800-"DYNAMICSCAN USERS" Circle 224 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 311 CONTROL UP TO 96 PC FILE SERVERS WITH 1 KEYBOARD AND MONITOR USING... COMMANDER • Select via Keyboard • Dual access up to 250 feet away (optional) • No external power • Mix PC, PC/XT, PC/AT and PS/2 • "AutoBoot™" Feature boots attached computers without operator intervention • Shows PC power status 777 Tzzzzzzzzzzzzzzmzzzzz E 3 gggg __ gggjgi r^ 31 > v//^^>>}y///^>y/y, • PS/2 Mouse support available • Each unit accommodates from 2 to 8 PCs • Up to 12 units can be cascaded • Mounting kit available for 19" and 24" rack installation Dealer Program Available Cybex Corporation 2800-H Bob Wallace Ave. Huntsville, Alabama 35805 (205) 534-0011 — Fax (205) 534-0010 — PC, PC/XT, PC/AT and PS/2 are trademarks of international Business Machines Corp. 312 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 Circle 203 on Inquiry Card. r o m rm Bare Drive Kit $2099 16 Bit Kit $2249 FUJITSU i^p fc 513MB FJ2624A 12ms 3.5" HH Bare Drive Kit $1199 16 Bit Kit $1219 425MB FJ2623S i^»bl 12ms 3.5" HH ^^ Bare Drive Kit $1099 16 Bit Kit $1249 520MB FJ2266S fSSSfc 12ms 3.5" 1"H ^S^ Bare Drive Kit $1199 16 Bit Kit $1349 MICROPQLIS J£3> 340MB MC1664^ 15ms 5.25" HH Bare Drive Kit $1099 16 Bit Kit $1199 66omb <35In2S> MC1568/1588 16ms 5.25" FH Bare Drive Kit $1499 16 Bit Kit $1649 I^Tl 1034MB HS MC1598 14ms 5.25" FH Bare Drive Kit $2199 16 Bit Kit $2349 <^> 1354MB HS MC1528 14ms 5.25" FH Bare Drive Kit $2699 16 Bit Kit $2799 ALL BARE DRIVE KITS INCLUDE All mounting hardware, "Disk Manager" formatting/partitioning software If necessary, and HDI's Hard Drive Reference Manual with complete Installation instructions. COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS ALL 8 & 16 BIT KITS INCLUDE 16-Bit host adaptor hard/floppy "1 to 1" controller or Interface card, mounting kit (3.5" kit inc. beige & black bezels), rails, cables, all mounting hardware, "Disk Man- ager" software (if applicable) and manual. EVERYTHING YOU NEED! 40MB CP3000 Jfl|^ 25ms 3.5" 1"H **J& Bare Drive Kit $189 8 Bit Kit $229 16 Bit Kit $209 120MB CP30104 19ms 3.5" T'H Bare Drive Kit $379 8 Bit Kit $419 16 Bit Kit $399 209MB CP3204 Bare Drive Kit 16 Bit Kit 4H^ $609 $629 ADD 1MB RAM AS LOW AS $39 1MB x9 80ns $38 1MB x8 80ns $39 Add $2 for SIP MEMORY FOR EVERY SYSTEM! CD ROM DRIVES 600MB Internal External TALON $299 N/A SONY $389 $509 CHINON $399 $519 TOSHIBA $599 $699 Insight DRIVES Internatio 800/998-8040 PURCHASE ORDERS/NATIONAL ACCOUNTS 800/998-8014 FOR THE BEST PRICE. SERVICE & SUPPORT CALL: 800/99&S040 HDI SALES: 602/350-1128 FAX 602/350-1150 NATIONAL ACCOUNTS Purchase Orders 800/998-8014 FAX 602/350-1180 International: 602/350-1144 FAX 602/350-1188 APO/FPO: 602/350-1145 Order Status: 800/729-4490 WE SHIP VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS NEVER A SURCHARGE for VISA, MC or Discover! raFah'H Prices and availability subject to change without notice. All Hams NEW. PO's accepted from qualified buyer&Net 20. APO/FPO orders add $16 shipping. 30 Day Guarantee & 1-Year Replacement Policy may have some restrictions. Shipping Is not refundable. All trademarks are the prop- erties of their respective owners. 8.92 Hard Drives International Insight Distribution Network, Inc. 1912 W. 4th St, DepL HAO Tempe, AZ 85281 Eltech Systems have won three Best Buys since October... ... a testimonial to the company's reliability." Novell Labs Tested & Approved YOUR BEST BUY! PC W#RLD June 1992 All Systems Include: 6 Months ON-SITE Service 1 Year parts & labor warranty Life time toll free technical support 1 .2MB floppy, high-speed HD, 2 serial &1 parallel ports, SVGA cardw/512K, baby desktop case, 101 keyboard, 14" SVGA monitor 1024x768 0.39mm. \ MS-DOS™5.0&MS-Windows™3.1. MICROSOFT® WINDOWS™ COMPATIBLE 100% no risk, 30 day money back guarantee. 100% Q.C. & burn in. DOS 5.0 & Windows 3.1 installed. Gold authorized Novell Reseller, our Certified Engineers can help work out your network requirements. 386DX-25 I 486SX-25 CONVENIENT PHONE ORDERING! Wo high-pressure sales people. All Systems can be configured to your exact specifications and our trained specialists are available to discuss your applications and make system recommendations. Additional savings are available on upgrades to hard drives, monitors, and popular accessories. All systems MADE IN USA. Model 9870 386DX-25 4i 2MB RAM 4-J 64K cache 105MB SVGA System $^99 Model 4200 486SX-25 2MB RAM 8K cache 120MB SVGA System ^399 'SS^ Call and order yours today! 1-800-358-8330 Canadian Distr. 604-275-1119 Fax: 510-438-0663 Government Purchases Welcome GSA Contract No.: GS00K91AGS5086-PS01 The Intel Inside Logo is a trademark of Intel Corporation. All other trademarks are registered to the respective companies. Sales tax, shipping & handling are extra. Eltech ad 7/92 V.1 322 BYTE- AUGUST 1 992 486DX-33 Model 4330 486DX-33, 4MB Internal RAM, 64K cache, 120MB HD, SVGA System $1,599 486DX2-50 Model 4500DX2 486DX2-50, 4MB Internal RAM, 64K cache, 120MB HD, SVGA System $1,799 Mm, el ORDER NOW AND RECEIVE $599 VALUE FREE MS® DOS™ 5.0, Windows™ 3.1 , Microsoft® Works™ for Windows™, Microsoft® Serial Mouse, Mouse Pad and Anti-Virus shareware by McAfee *£S£A*CtiiNC 1X47266 Benicia St., Fremont, CA 945: Circle 207 on Inquiry Card. *8fa SiYES! BVTE Enter my one-year (12 issues) subscription 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 NAME COMPANY . ADDRESS. CITY . .STATE . ZIP Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Basic subscription rate is $29.95. (Mexico, $29.95 payable in U.S. funds.) Above rates are for US delivery only. Please see table of contents for international subscription rates. IW28 1 7P BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 42 HIGHTSTOWN, NJ POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE: BYTE Subscription Department P.O. Box 558 Hightstown, N.J. 08520-9409 NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES Ih,LLI,Im,I,III„,I,I,„LIIL,I,I,,„II,I Say Good-bye To The Language Barrier. Breakdown A global computing event that unites, under one roof, today's connectivity experts for one targeted purpose — to pronounce that networking is the universal language of choice. NetWorld 92 The United Nations Of Networking NetWorld 92 is the talk of the connectivity industry. A cutting-edge exhibition of conferences and seminars where hardware and software developments are introduced, discussed and demonstrated. A conference that speaks the language of productivity and translates ideas into action. Whether you communicate over LANs, WANs or wireless networks, or operate over diverse operating systems, NetWorld 92 is your primary venue for innovative products and services. Converse in many languages with industry- leading manufacturers and form a lasting connection that can translate into increased efficiency and sales. Educational Seminars A Universe Of Networking Possibilities NetWorld 92 presents an encyclopedic display of intensive educational conferences and hands-on educational seminars on internetworking. Digest state-of-the-art tech- nologies and processes that can propel your present networking plans forward, allowing you to expand software applications into new environments. And learn an unlimited vocabulary that will place you at the forefront of future strategies. Improve Your Communication Skills Don't isolate yourself and your company within the confines of yesterday's network architecture. NetWorld 92 lets you open your lines of network communication, resulting in bottom-line benefits to your company. For additional show information, contact Jodi Levine, Show Manager, at 201-346-1400 or Fax 201-346-1602. NETWSRLD 92 Dallas The Universal Language ^sSeSs^ October 13-15,1992 Dallas Convention Center Circle 562 on Inquiry Card. Foreign Buyer Program Bruno Blenheim Inc. • Fort Lee Executive Park • One Executive Drive • Fort Lee, NJ 07024 • 201-346-1400 • 800-829-3976 • Fax: 201-346-1602 NetWorld Expositions in the U.S. A. and Europe are owned, produced and managed by Bruno Blenheim Inc. NetWorfd is a servicemark of Novell, Inc. licensed exclusively in the U.S. A. and Europe to Bruno Blenheim Inc. HP Compatible Scanner Scan PI us It's Time to Get a Page Scanner, From $ 349 and up Why you need a page scanner ? Rotation, vibration, and unstable scanning speed are the worst enemies to a hand-held scanner making resolution higher than 150 dpi truly meaningless. Now, it is time to upgrade or buy a ScanPlus page scanner that really works for you. What is the usage of ScanPlus ? With HP ScanJet Series Emulation, you can scan directly with most software. For example, ScanPlus let you work with: Image Software : Picture Publisher /PLUS or PaintBrush IV Plus that allow you to edit and enhance your pictures. OCR Software . : WordScan, Recognita, OmniPage, TextPert or Readright that can turn any document into computer recognizable texts which can be edited, stored, and neatly filed. OCR software can type 1 0,000 characters within 2 minutes and save you hours of typing time and truly computerize your office operation. DTP software : Ventura or Pagemaker to produce great looking document. Presentation software : Lotus Freelance or Harvard Graphics to turn out beautiful and effective presentations. Raster to Vector Conversion : "Draftsman" to convert for AutoCAD and other drawing programs. Communication: ScanPlus lets you import images for your fax card turning your PC into a full-featured plain paper fax machine. Image Database: Using ScanPlus Color 3000, you can input images for your image database file and let your database display both texts and color images. / SPEC. Type : Desktop, Sheet-fed Resolution: 300 dpi, enhanceable to 1,200 dpi Scanning Area: up to 8.5"xl4" longer if S/W allow Scanning Speed: Single pass in color mode Scanning Mode: 1 . B&W / Halftone (1 bit / pixel) 2. Gray (8 bit / pixel) 256 gray 3. Color (24 bit /pixel) 16.8 million colors capability \ ♦ PLUSTEK USA, INC. 3350 Scott Blvd., #46 Santa Clara, CA 95054 In Canada (Ontario) Tel: (408)980-1234 Fax: (408)980-5184 Tel: (416)667-8092 322PC-2 BYTE' AUGUST 1992 Circle 568 on Inquiry Card. EasyCAD 2- the #1 Rated Number 1 in user satisfaction-PC Week poll. In competition against other top CAD software for performance, hardware compatibility, ease of use and value, EasyCAD 2 handily won the award that counts most-User Sa sfaction (1989, 1990). Now the best is even better. * You Pay Only $199.00 for the Program CAD Users Rate Number 1. PC WORLD said it best, "This easy- to-leam program is blindingly fast, and its flexibility, wealth of features and excellent user interface match those of professional programs cos ng thousands of dollars more." In fact, because it is written entirely in assembly language experts say EasyCAD 2's speed rivals CAD packages costing up to twenty mesmore. So why spend well over $2000 to get what EasyCAD 2 can deliver for just $199.00? Expanded, productivity- boosting associative dimensioning. EasyCAD 2's associative dimension- ing feature allows you to rotate, stretch or change the scale factor of a draw- ing and all dimensions are instantly updated to reflect the change. This includes ordinate, angle, radius and diameter as well as other dimension formats. You never have to erase or re-enter dimensions. Whisk through even the largest drawings. An enhanced memory manager lets you work through the largest drawings fester than ever. Plot to file means you can store drawings on disk now and send it to the printer later. And it supports PostScript printer fonts and line weight controls. More features, less money- guaranteed. No other CAD software gives you so many features for so little money (and a 30-day money back guarantee) : Customizeable pull-down menus, script and macro capabilities that automate complex* or repetitive tasks, DXF for exchang- ing drawings and files with other CAD programs and spread sheets. The list goes on. Call 1 (800) 874-4028 now for more information, plus the name of your nearest dealer. If you already own EasyCAD, ask about our special trade- up programs. EVOLUTION CAD 2 COMPUTING 437 S. 48th St., Ste. 106 Tempe, AZ 85281-9936 1(800)874-4028 © 1992 Evolution Computing EasyCAD2 is a registered trademark of Evolution Computing Circle 563 an Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 564). AUGUST 1992 • B Y T E 322PC-3 chifckreach (chfld-rech) n. 1. Formerly Foster Parents Plan, the largest non- sectarian sponsorship organization in the world. Founded in 1937 to help needy children and their families overseas. 2. A way to reach a child and family and release them from the crushing grip of poverty. 3. A wonderful thing to do. 4. An easy thing to do. 1 he above definitions do not come from a dictionary. They come from the heart. If you want to do something wonderful for a child and family >*f overseas that's not a handout, but something that will touch them for the rest of their lives, call 1-800-323-2822. Or fill out and mail the coupon below. -| * 1 1 ^ ^ \ Childreach. It'll do your heart ^h 1 \r\ X£*^\C\\ 1 YES! I want to know about Childreach . more Name Address City State Zip Phone M3011 Mail to: Childreach 155 Plan Wfcy Warwick, R 1 02886-1099 In duet rial Rack-mount Chassis, 8-20 Slots Transportable PC - 286/386/486 - 6 Slop. Single Board Computers - 286/386/436 386/486 Flatforms up to 50 MHz Programmable Power Supply Card S! ' ' • - Ilfll HI m* yfyriiiW ;'-|% "'^m ©1992 PCS 509 VALLEY WAY MILPITAS, CA 95035 TEL: (408) 263-0222 FAX: (408) 263-0321 = |r^= COMPUTER Circle 565 on Inquiry Card. Circle 567 on Inquiry Card. WHY BUY FROM PC IMPORTERS, INC.? Quality Products at Reasonable Prices In Business for Over 8 Years 5 Year Warrantee on Labor 1 Year Full Warrantee on Parts 30-Day Money Back Guarantee Toll Free BOO Number 5 Year Technical Support Next Day Shipping No surcharge on Credit Cards C.O.D. & P.O. Welcome At least 72 hour bum-In period Member of Better Business Bureau Exclusive Importer & Distributor of Quality Parts Systems are Assembled In USAI Snip International Orders of Any Size Order Number: CFA-52 ftfi&Q 286-1 2/16Mhz System Package Zero, Wait State Motherboard BIOS Shadow RAM Support, DM 4.0 lilt-In Setup. Math isTonS! pr Socket mansion Slpteil6-bt/8-bitAuto-swrtch) qabytes of RAM (Up to 4 Megl fa IDE Hard Drive, < 19ms Access ' 3 1/2" High Density Floppy Drive, or $1659 MONTHLY SPECIAL Order Number: CFA-86 486DX-33 Mhz System Package '^"ffiSrlBs .cessor. Weitek Socket (16-btt/6-bit.Auto-switch) ' "achelExp. up (0 256k) Meg) rive 'x768 by NEC ^-.600 resolution _ Btftw/1 fiegRAM i-tower Case W/200W power supply. 5 driv (Desktop Case Available at no charge) -Key Enhance^eyioard\ ertaf/1 Parallel/ 1 Game Port rosoft Compatible 3-button Hl-Rez Mouse baded wrtKMSDOS 5.0 5 drive bays MlnTtpwer Case W/200W c Order Number: CFA-64 $799 386SX-25 Mhz System Package Zero Wait State Motherboard AMI Extended BIOS, Shadow AM Support 7 Expa^ionSfots (lSbit/8-bit Auto-switch) 2 Megabyte ptJJBJM J70ns&Dldstar, Up to 1 rive, <19ms Access )rlve mr supply, 5 drive bays , Same Port Je3-bu onHI-l DOS 5.0 l-bu on Hl-Rez Mouse Order Number: CFA-89 $1999 16 Meg) 486DX-33 Mhz System Package » supply, 5 drive bays ort Hi-Rez rfhzadd+$89 Order Number: CFA-73 $ ^ "| QQ 386DX-33 Mhz System Package JStek Socku, t Auto-switch) ket -itch) star, Jp to 64 Meg) AMf^tended BIOS, Shadow RAM Support Mgth Coprocessor Socket rive, <12ms Access nternal Drive Cache 'rve urn Keyboard w/Plasilc amePort irtton Hl-Rez Mouse <769 resolution bays Many other companies promise to beat any price, we DO IT! Buy direct from the importer and savel Our systems are backed by • behind our products, and you know we are here to stay, not just a one shot deal. Visa & Master Card / CCO / Checks / P.O.s Da Mini-tower Case W/200W power supply, 5 drive bays 1 01 -Key Enhanced Kevrr" -* 2 geriar/ i Parallel / " Preloa32dwioff'~ board lez Mouse hz'add +$49 lpgradeto386DX-40 r products, and you k Prices are subject to change. 30 Day Money Back 5 year Warranty 5 year technical support Boston, MA 3 stay, i Member of warrantee and 30 day mi alers inquiries welcoi J Keyboard 0M PC Importers, Inc. Call 1-800-886-5155 Monday - Saturday: 9:00am to 5:30 pm EST FAX: (216) 464-3507 Kowloon, Hong Kong ly money back if you or not satisfied! We stand me. Aliequlpment is NEW with factory warranty. Made visa & mastercard In U.S.A. NO SURCHARGE C.O.D. AVAILABLE Cleveland, OH ♦ ADVERTISERS ♦!♦ Run a full- or half-page 4-color ad reaching a portion of BYTE's U.S. readers at unbelievably low rates — right here in this section! Call today to learn more about BYTE's unique Regional Advertising Section, located in our prominent Buyer's Guide. ♦ (603) 924-2651 or (603) 924-2637 322PC-6 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 SOFTWARE WORDSTAR 6.0 or 2000 REL 3.5 This is not a misprint! These are the W a exact same ones selling For over jj&N, | I $300.00 from our competitors. ^^V£s § We have thousands in stock **^ FOR SALE BELOW DISTRIBUTOR COSTI tAA LIST $495.00 ea tOO Y 3T T of AlERS WELCOME y T T Fast Trax Disk OpHmizer $ 1 4. 00 Lotus Metro 9. 00 Dos 5.0 49. 00 PFSProof 5. 00 PFS Graph 5. 00 Windows 3.1 99. 00 HARD DRIVES (2? Seagate micropolis CCV"f/? PART* ST351A CP3000 ST251-1 ST31 20A CP30104 ST31 44 A CP30174A CP3204 ST1 239A MC1664 MC1624 MCI 598 MC1528 SIZE 42MB (3.5"/l"H) 40MB(3.5Vl rt H) 40MB (5.257HH) 106MB (3.57 1"H) 120MB (3.571 "H| 130MB (3.571 "H) 170MB (3.571 "H| 209MB (3.57HH) 210MB (3.57HH) 340MB (5.257HH) 660MB (5.257FH) 1034MB (5.257FH) 1354MB (5.257FH) ACCESS 1IME 28MSec 25MSec 28MSec 1 8MSec 16MSec 16MSec 17MSec 16MSec 1 5MSec 15MSec 16MSec 14MSec 1 4MSec 1N1ERFACE IDE IDE MFM IDE IDE IDE IDE IDE IDE ESDI SCSI SCSI SCSI YOUR COST 1 99.°° 209.°° 219.°° 319.oo 399. oo 399.°° 529.oo 609.°° 599.°° 1,099.°° 1499.00 2 1 99 .oo 2699. 00 SYSTEMS 8088 XT 1 OMHZ W/640K MEMORY Hard drive, 360K floppy, Par-Ser-Clock, 1 2" Amber Monitor, 1 1 Key Keyboard. 6 month warranty. COMPLETE HARD DRIVE SYSTEMS: 30MB-$379 40MB-$399 MONITORS $59 12" GREEN MONOCHROME Tilt & Swivel Base 14" MONO/17L AMBER FIAT SCREEN ZZ~~. 14" VGA 640X480 (.41 Dot) 14" VGA 1024X768 (.28 Dot) 14" VGA 1024X768 (Non Interlaced).. VGA CARD 256K Exp 1MEG pCITIZEN NEVADA $99.°° ..$229.°° $289.°° ..$349.°° $79.°° (All Hard Drives have a 1 Year Warranty) C ompiterPeripheralsjsc "JEM0RY *?£FP ^ 2MEG exp 4MEG 1 6 Bit. 2MB expandable to 4MB. (Uses 1MB x IDips) Works with IBM AT, 386 and compatibles. Expanded, Extended, 4.0 Lim compatible 2MEG $79 4ME6 $ 1 59 TAPE BACKUPS 80286BASEDMACHINES: 8088 BASED MACHINES: 80287-6 6MHz 39.°° 8087-5MHz, 54. 00 80287-88MHz49.°° 8087-2 8MHz 79. 00 80287- 1 1 MHz 89. 00 8087-1 10MHz 129-°° 80287-XL99. 00 80386BASED MACHINES: 80387-16 16MHzl49.°° 80387-2020MHzl79.°° 80387-25 25MHz 1 89. 00 80387-33 33MHz 199. 00 80387-5X16 124. 00 80387-SX20144. 00 80487-SX20539. 00 iTl)\A/^M/^TCI^ Wangtec 5099EN24 drive, 6.5MB per W YVII^N^I CIV minu ^ pc 36 Con , ro || er/ Menu Driven Software, Easy installation, DC 600 cartridge. List $999.00 YOUR COST $299 3M DC 2000 (40M8) 1 3." DC 300XLP (45MB) 1 4." DC 6150 22." CABLES IBM PS/2 Keyboard extension 6ft 4.°° ea IBM PC Printer Par. 6ft 4.°° ea Modem Serial RS232 6ft 7.°° ea (All cables available call!) 101 Key IBM PC compatible 29.°° IBM 3270 99.°° (1 year warranty) CONTROLLERS IDEHD/Floppy 39.°°, 16BitHD&FLOPPY 1 :1 39. 00 , BBitHDonly49. 00 PCXTControllerO. 00 , 16BilHardonly 1 O.oo Super FLoppy (controls fourdrives) 1 .2, 360K, 720K& 1 .44 Drives 49. 00 FLOPPY DRIVES \ MITSUBISHI EPSON 1 year warranty 360K Full HT 5'/. ' ScOKtt HTS/i " 7200/2 " 1.2MB 3/2 " 1.44MB 3/2 " 5Vi " Brockets Compaq 360K $19 $39 $29 $58 $59 $5 $49 CLOSEOUT PRODUCTS STB Graphix Plus 2 Color & Mono Card $ I 9.°° Mono Card Text only 6.°° NEC cut sheet feed & guides 2500/3500 99. 00 384K Board for XT's, Par, Ser, Clock 99. 00 IBM 6450213 PC network adaptor 99. 00 Facit4565 Daisywheel 40cps Printer 299. 00 F-10 Tractors 99. 00 POWER SUPPY 1 50 WATT XT (DIRECT REPLACEMENT) .... 39: 200 WATT AT (DIRECT REPLACEMENT) .... 39. 5 Year Warranty MODEMS 5 Year Warranty H | -[[— ' □ Boca Modem 2400 Baud mnpaam Hayes compatible; supports extended AT Com- mand Set. Comm 1 -4 & IRQ 3-5 & 7. On board speaker, software & telephone cord. Internal $49 External $79 1200 baud internal $29 V.42 BIS MNP5 Hordwore add $30 H n nD Boca Fax Modem rmzEUnu Send & receive 9600 BPS fax & 2400 BPS Modem. Hayes compatible. On board speaker. Mirror fax software. Port oddress Com 1-4. $ 8 8 14.4 Baud V.32 Bis Add $200 NEW REDUCED PRICING ON OUR LARGE SELECTION OF MEMORY PRODUCTS comma MEMORY MODEL DESKPRO 286 DE5KPRO 286N, 386N. 386SX/20 DESKPRO 386/16 DESKPRO 386S DESKPRO 386/20, 25. 286E DESKPRO 386/20E/25E MEMORY ADDED 512K KIT 1MB MODULE 2MB MODULE OK BOARD 4MB MODULE 1 MB-2MB BOARD 2MB BOARD 1MB KIT 4MB- 8MB BOARD 4MB KIT 1MB BOARD 4MB BOARD 1MB MODULE 4MB MODULE 1MB MODULE 4MB MODULE 4MB BOARD 1MB BOARD 4MB BOARD 2MB MODULE 386/33, 486/25/33/33L 8MB MODULE SYSTEMPRO 32MBMODULE COMPAQ EQUIV. PART# 113012-001 118688001 118689-001 1 1 8700-001 118690-001 108069-001 108069W71 108071-001 108070-001 108072-001 113633-001 113634-001 113646-001 112534-001 113131-001 113132-001 113190-001 113644-001 113645-001 115144-001 116561-001 116568-001 YOUR COST 59." 1 79.»» 299.0° 348.0° 114.0° 343.00 239.0° 129.0° 269.0° 79.0° 209.0° 39.0° 199.0° 799.0° 129.0° 279.00 1 28.0° 389.0° In Touch with Tomorrow TOSHIBA TOSHIBA MODEL Tl 000SE & XE/LE Tl 000SE & XE/LE T2000SX T2000SX T2000SX/TI0001E T2000SX/TIOOOLE T2000SXE/2200SX T2000SXE/2200SX T2000SXE/2200SX Tl 200XE T1600 T3100E T3100SX T3100SX T3200 T3200SX T3200SX T3200SXC T3200SXC T5100 T8500or T5200&T5200C MEMORY TIM PS/2 MEMORY MEMORY ADDED 1MEG 2MEG 1MEG 2MEG 4MEG 8MEG 2MEG 4MEG BMEG 2MEG 2MEG 2MEG 2MEG 4MEG 3MEG 2MEG 4MEG 2MEG 4MEG 2MEG 2MEG BMEG TOSHIBA EQUIV. PART # PC14-PA83UU PC14-PA8312U PCIB-PA8316U PCIB-PA8317U PCPA8314U PC-PA8315U PC-PA2000U PC-PA2001U PC-PA2002U PC13-PA8306U PCB-PA8302U PC9-PA83401 U PC15-PA8308U PC15-PA8310U PC6-PA7137U PCI2-PA8307U PC12-PA8309U PC19-PA8318U PC19-PAB319U PC7-PA8301U PC10-PA8304U PC10-PA8313U YOUR COST 119. 169. 114. 179. 309. 609. 179. 309.o 619.o 109.o 109.o 109.o 99.o 193.o 193.o 99.o 193.o 109.o 209.o 99.o TOO. 419.o IBM PS/2 MODEL* PS/1.386SX 30-286 W0SX&N33SXIAPTOP 00 502&55SX,65SX 'oo 40SX,55SX,65SX,35SX,3: 'oo 50,50Z,55SX&60,65SX [oo 35SX.IS,40SX oo 70-E6l,06l,12l,P70 70-A21A61,B2l,B61 80-041 80-111.121.311.321 80-A21.A31 35SXLS&40SX AU.70s&80s 57SX,90,95,P75 MEMORY ADDED 2MB 512KKn 2MBKIT 2MEG 4MEG BMEG 1MBSIMM 2MB SIMM 4MBMODULE 2-8MBBOARD 1MB SIMM 2MBSIMM 2MBSIMM 1MBMOOULE 2MBMOOUI£ 4MBMOOUE 2-8MBBOARD 2- 14MB BOARD 4- 16MB BOARD COMPAQ PORTABLES & LAPTOPS LASER PRINTER MEMORY 2MB 4MB 8MB EQUIV. PART# 92F9935 30F5348 30F5360 79F0999 79F1000 79F1001 6450603 6450604 34F2933/87F9977 1497259/6450609 6450603 6450604 6450608 6450375 6450379 6451060 6450129 6450605 34F3077 34F301 1 6450902 6450128 6450130 YOUR COST IIP." 108." 208."" 418.0 189. 01 349. 01 129.JLE KA 1MB MC-Mi KA 14C ■y. 1 PS8M1.111.I21 2MBMOOULE 6450379 120 PORTABIET1200XE 2M3M00UU PC13-PAS306U 115 INTX-J 4MBKIT M6O06 1(5 0SVI6SiRSv2QPC IMBKIT 01543A 4M3MOOULE PC-22-22 495 4UBMODULE KA m 1 161.311(321 PORTABLET16O0 2M3M0QUU PC3W8302U 115 RF&IG 16MBKIT NA 850 OS/16S(ES'12PC 2VBKIT D1354A 105 ULTRAttTESX?! 2MBMOOULE PC«21 275 COM PA I IB LE WITH: 1 PS280-A2t. 4MBMODULE 6451060 255 PORTABLET3I00E 512XKIT FC9-PA8341XJ 99 MACIIVIOEO KIT U0213 50 OSfl6S»RSf20PC 4M3KIT 01542J 215 8MBMOOUUE PC-44.22 705 •y.ANN TALLY 905, 1 A31,A61 2ma KJT PO-WSMIU 115 MAXIMA SOFTWARE NA 75 OSV20PC8RSV25PC IMBKIT 01643A 65 PROSPEED IMBMODULE PC- 21-21 145 PHILLIPS NUS 1 480. EVEREX. ESSELTE T-6 1 PS290,95(P75 2MBSIMM 6450902 130 1 (INSTALL IN PAIRS) 4BMS1MM 6450128 220 1 PS.2ALL70»iB0l 2«MBBOAR0 6450605 220 1 (UPGRADES 4.8MBBOARO 34F3011 400 1 WSTDSIMUS) 8MBBOARD 550 PORTABLE T3IO0SX 2MB M00ULE PC15 PAS3MU 4MBM0DULE PC15.PAB310II PORTABLE3200 3M9M0OULE PC6PA7I37U PORTABLET3200SX 2MB KIT PCI2-PA8307U 4MBKI1 PC12PA6309U 115 215 190 115 215 4MBKIT 01612A LSVI2 IMBMODULE O1054A SOOOSERIES 425E 4MBBDSET A2200A BM8BDSET A2201A 16MBBDSET A2202A 215 150 425 6*0 1,575 266 i386SX 16 PROSPEEOS)C2( PRTOSPEE0386 POWFRUATF 4MBMOOULE PC-21-22 IMBBD PC-43-21 4I.IBBO PC-43-22 2MB PC-31-21 BMB PC-31-22 1-3MBBO APC-H750J 450 185 385 200 875 • ■: « h " ;,:.:;' M . ' . - PACKARD BELL PB96O0 EPL7000 IMBMODULE N'A 2MB MODULE O3220II 3MBMODULE KA 10 230 ALR MEMORY ENTURA 1MB MODULE OTEBOOK16420 4MBMOOULE 12407970 1225 12407960 1,090 1 PS2 2-14MSBOAR0 34F3077 270 1 AU.70li80» 4- 16MB BOARD 34fJ0ll 380 8-16M8 BOARD 620 16MB BOARD 940 1 34F3077 IS INTERCHANGABLE WITH 6450605 1 RISC6000 I6MBKIT 4010 1.100 1 (NO BOARD 32MB KIT 4033 2,400 1 INCLUDED) SOMKIT 4036 4,500 1 L40SXtN33SSX 21/BSIW.M 79W999 165 1 LAPTOP 4MBSWM /JftOCO 340 PORTABLE TJ200SXC 2M8KIT P09PA83I8U 4MBKIT PCI9-PA8319U T44O0SX 2MBCARD PCPA20O3U 4MBCARD PCPA20O4U 8MBCARD PC-PA2005U PORTABLET5100 2MBMODUlEPC7-PA$301ll TSI00C P0RTABLET52O0C 2HBKITPCX-PA8J04U OESKTOP-TB5O0 SMBKITPa PA3313U 125 225 220 360 695 120 115 475 POWERFLEX IMBKIT (20CSX 2MBKIT 4MBKIT 16MBKIT POWER PRO 4MBKIT 16MB KIT POWER CACHE 2MB KIT 4864496E BMBKIT 32MB KIT 12901000 70 12902000 105 12904000 210 NA 785 12904000 210 12916000 750 I29O2O00 )10 12904*00 395 12916(00 1.400 345.375.433S, 4MBBDSET (I98229C 400S.425T, 8MBBDSET M36229B 40OOL400T 16MBBDSET H982290 TJUQQrvCCT HOOTO1C ui 540 '.575 3.250 ORTABLEPLUS 2-3MBBO H750475I 3MBBD750.)2)751 395 495 FUJITSU RX71000S IMBMODULE KA 7200M 2MBMODULE NA HPOESKJET PLUSS00 256KMODULE KA HPLASERJET MS) IMBMODULE C205SA 4MBMODULE C206M 16 DO 2MBMOOUVE 334449 4M8MOOULE 334453 25 95 14 1 75 E " 1 « | NCR MEMORY LAPTOP MEMORY CTSKFlPCIIAf, X 2».ffiKIT 3302-K1Ci2 2MSKIT 3279X119 IMBKIT 33OU105 2M0KIT 3304-K106 J162 162 102 162 630 180 270 SOHDWEa 3-ti a <;i ipfki iu tun unni ■ f j-wjvmim NCREXPBD POUSXTa BM3SIMM 79FI00I 60C 1 ■35SX T LS(40SX BMBSiMM 6450129 470 1 •50SX,90(K BMBSIMM WMPO 490 AST MEMORY BUSINESS' POWERVEISA IMBKIT 4MBKR" IMBKIT 12901000 70 I2SO4JQ0 205 i:si ;.:■:•: 805 COMMODORE LAPTOP 2MB MODULE 330650-01 ISC PC386SXUC20 BWBKH 33O4-K107 2MBUOOULE 3421X202 2-14MBEXPBO NA IP-.IID.IIP.I MBMOOUU 334743 P7S50 2M3MO0UE 3347JB 4M3MOOUL6 KA 85 1 75-J BHAV02W 512KKIT 500510-010 2MB KIT 500510 002 4MBKIT 500510008 25 35 105 205 1-32MBEXPBD 12427480 4- 2MBEXPBD 8-32MBEXPBO 16-32MBEXPB0 261 I2447J50 532 12467480 732 12487430 1,105 GOLDSTAR GS520 386SX' 16 IMBMODULE NA 4MB MODULE HA 135 350 PC486MC25 4.I4MBEXPBO KA 2MBKIT 3314-KID2 8MBKIT 33I4-KI04 2-14MBEXPBO KA 366 300 570 288 KOMCA 1-3MBMOOULE 3110 NECSII.ENrWRIfER 2MBMODULE 4892 MOI.90,290 50 1 7S 1 MMilAliMilAIMIihl'l 1 DESKPR02S6 512KKIT U3O12-O0I S 45 1 DESKPRO 1MB MODULE 113131-001 65 1 2S6E 4MBMO0ULE 113132-001 225 1 OESKPOO EXPBOARO 118700001 90 1 266H,3$6N BflAVO388SX<20 5I2KKIT 50O51O012 2MB KIT S00710-OO3 BMBKIT 50O824-O0I BRAV03B6SX 2MBKIT 5OO510002 4MBKIT 500510-008 BRAV04B&25 2MBKIT 500710-004 42 110 :; : « -■ 120 LEADING EDGE DIT 386SX IMBMODULE 2305M100 PACKARD BELL. MAGNA VOX i MfTSUBA PE286HB IMBMODULE HA 4MB MODULE NA 100 170 335 4-14MBFXPBD KA 384 OUVETTIPG-108 1-4MB KA 4PG-208 XYOCERA 1,2.4MB KA F800AT F12O0SA330O'A 1-4MB KA F820.F-1800.A IMBSIMM NA is B 43 1 55 1 DELL MEMORY 1 l^l'l lilli'-HlMlllV II 1225 310-2466 1110 316-2467 230 $SK$tn 42aSE.'OE, 4MBKIT 48&13ET 4MB MODULE 2A4200M2 1 OESKPflOP IMBSIMM II 8688 001 70 8MB KIT 5O0760-0O1 465 433TBSE/OES 8MBKIT 310-2468 420 PB386HBX IMBMODULE NA no 16MB KIT ZA4200-M8 999 F-5000 1 286N.3S6N 2MBSIMM 1 18689-001 110 266SX'20,38&25M. 4MBSIMM 118690001 210 1 4B6^3M,4B6SV25H, 8MBS1MM 126877001 460 PREMIUM.2B6 512KKIT 500510001 FASTRAM AOV-FASTRAM IMBKIT 500510-007 40 60 425TE'SE/OE 16MBKIT 32MB KIT 433E&425E 2MBKIT 3102469 790 N/A 1,750 310-2389 110 2MB MODULE N'A 4MBMODULE N'A PANASONIC 205 395 Z386a3(33E IMBMODULE 2A3800ME 2MB MODULE ZA36XWG 4MB MODULE ZA3B0CMK 75 115 220 OKIDATA LASER 400 IMBMODULE 70014701 118 LASER-BOO IMBMODULE N'A 35 1 1 SYSTEMPROlT4a6SX<25S.3B6aS.POfiTABLE48*C PREMIUM 512KK1T S00510-010 35 4MBKIT 310-2390 230 CF17O770/370 IMBMODUlE CT-BA1&S 2386/25,20 IMBMODULE ,' - 54 2MB MODULE KA 65 1 1 N0TE:6MBSIHHFORM,SYS1EMPROi WKST286.3B6SX 1MBKIT 500510007 60 BMBKIT NA 420 (INSTALLINPAIRS) SAMSUNG BMOOULE 2A3BO0M3 115 4MBMOOULE KA 290 | 1 PORTABLE SERIESONLV. 2MBKIT 500510-002 105 320N(212N IMBSIMM 3103203 165 4M3MOOULE ZA380IMX 210 PANASONIC 1 DESKPRO 1MBBOARO 106059001 216 4MBKIT 500510-OOB 205 2MB SIMM 310-3204 295 Z248.Z266LP,2LS 2MBMOOULE r-605-1 m KX-P4420 44504 IMBMODULE KXP-443'286209 136 1 1 3S&1S 2MBB0ARD 10KSW71 29( FAS1BOARD386 1MBKIT $00510-007 - 320LT8316LT 2MBKrr 310-2434 10S NOTEMASTEA 2MBMOOOE SNM002 210 Z386SX 2UBHOOULE KXP-441.28S210 180 1 U'SKIT 103071-001 70 PREMUM38&T6C 4MBKIT 500510-006 .:- 310-2494 210 386S IMBMODULE SNWM4 405 TURBOSPORT 1M8MODL.1E ZA3034Mt 170 3MSMOOULE NA as y 4MBBOAR0 105070-001 4*0 PREMIUM 512KKIT 500510-010 BMBKIT 3IO-2494 420 SANYO 386E 4MBWDULE ZA303SME m 4MB MODULE KA SO h> BWBBOAflO 106070 675 VW2KIT WKST.286 2MBKIT 500510-002 105 325P.O(333P.D IMBMODUlE 3I025O5 55 17,HB,ISNB 2MB MODULE MBC-NBMEM2 145 SUPERSPORT SX 2M3M3DLJLE ZAlSO-64 2MB MODULE 2A 160-86 185 44SO IMBMODULE KA 4455 1-2MBMOOULE KA 89 1 30 1 4MB KIT 108072031 215 PREMIUM 1MBKIT 500510-003 65 4MBMODIJIE 3I0-2H7 220 SHARP 2MB MODULE UMMl 165 QMSPS410 14MBMOD1IIE KA 50 1 1 DE5KPRO 1MBBOARD 113633-001 145 386 4MBKIT 5M510M4 245 325,31 0.32W.S.316 IMBKIT 310-2104 70 PC<220 IMBMODULE CI-62IB 122 SUPERSPORT IMBMODULE M180-66 5 v SHARP9SO0PS IMBMODULE KA 95 fl 1 386S 4MBBOAR0 113534-001 2T5 PREMIUM38&20 IMBSIMM 500718-001 55 316SX1210 4MBKIT 310-2273 220 PC-6640 2MB KiT NA 195 286.286E 2B6EONLY 2860NLY SUMSPORT MASTERSPORT 286 MASTERSPORT Sl.SLC 2MB MODULE 2A 180-64 135 STARLASER4 U.4M6MOOULE NA 120 1 IMBMODULE 113615-001 75 4MBPTOCUIJE 112531.001 230 1 DESKPRO 1MBBOAR0 113644-001 145 | 386.20. 20E 4MBBOAH0 113545-001 275 2542SE IMBMODULE 113131-001 75 4MBMODULE 113132-001 230 3841SSX IMBSIMM 5O071S-O02 CUPI032 IMBSIMM 500780-003 PREMUMSERIES 4MBSIMM 5007BO-004 386DESXTOP BMBKIT 500780-001 16SX.25.33 CUPIOBD 500818-001 PREMIUM IIOESKTOP3B6SW0 60 55 m 360 295 PC-4700B2-2M 1MBMOOULE C£47t PC-8M1 COLORSTAR 2MB MODULE NA TANDON NB3B6SX IMBMODULE NA 4MB MODULE NA 180 280 115 270 4MBtK)DULE Ml 80-71 4MB MODULE 2AII3-67 IMBMODULE ZA1JO-95 2MBMOOULE ZA180-64 4MBMODULE ZA1S0-7I IMBMODULE 2A-212-1 CALL IBS '.ii 390 MS STARIASERB I.2.4MBMOOULE MA CALL 1 Tl MICROUSER IVaMOOUtE MA 85 1 2MBKIT HA 175 1 yt&m KA 270 1 4MB KIT KA 350 1 EPSON MEMORY 1 BS3 IMBMODULE 4MB MODULE A80850I 1130 A80851I 365 DESKPRO 386/331 6SOCKETBD 116569-001 315 48SOESKTOP-25,25E,33 PREMIUM EOU(TYLT285E 1MBI.40DULE A80619I 116 Tl TECIBI321C IMNSIMM M 20 1 48625, 33, 33L 2MBMODULE 115144-001 130 SYSTEMPRO flMBI.IOOULE 116551-001 480 32MBMOOULE 116568-OOt 2.700 1 DESKPRO 486 33 H, 8SOCKETBD 129160 001 299 TOWER38&33TE,4B6)25TE,486/33TE PROCESSORCAROFOR 25(33 EQU1TYLT386SX 2MB MODULE EQUTTYItE IMBKIT A808361 225 A80809I 61 TRAVELMATE 2000 IMBMODULE 2568034-0001 TRAVEIMATE3000 2MBKIT 2566996-0001 110 145 2MBMODLJLE U-4-4 215 C-lfON-4 MANNESMANNTALLY904 PREMIUM EXEC IMB39MU S 386SX 286 4MB SIMM 503314 M3 1 IBS 386-25,20 2MBKIT A303I01 111 Wfi M J 1 AA 1 II 1 f If 1 48625H. ISM, NOTEBOOK 500814-001 FOR PREUIUB EXEC 286 i2 ONLY 386SX.20.25i 286 IMBKIT A80B231 66 If 17/111 rtii/i il ri/irr/it* n rice, call u If fl/if/lF/l 171 1 1 111 II '7 18&2JM.'. SYSTEM PRO IT, J84SX2J 25C IMBSIMM NA K 4865X'2S- 2MBK(T AS06I0I 116 ii you iiM u Of flu j)j S DCIOiv Oil OHM L IKiAVZW.JWkZSS 4MB SIMM 500814404 n 3 86SX.2Q - 8MBKIT A60S631 600 V . MOTHER BOARDS MOTHER BOARDS PRICES ARE NEGOTIABLE WHEN PURCHASED WITH CPU 4 MEMORY. I 0PTI 486DX-50 EISA (256K CACHE NO CPU, OK) 486DX-33 f : 5X IE NO CPU, OK . I UMC 4B6DX-50MH, KCACHE f.OCPU.OK) 486DX-50MHZ I •;:• -i ■. . 4S6DX-33MHZ I ETEQ 485D-> 486DX-33MHZ " 'I ■ '• " 386DX-40MHZ 386DX-40MHZ 1 :. : :: 3860X-2SMHZ 386SX-25MHZ ,..-r UMC 386SX-16MH2 (W-INTEL 80386SX-16CPLI. OK) CPU CHIPS EXPANSION BOARDS 64K CACHE. NO CPU. OK] -USA . 64K CACHE. NO CPU, OKI . . 64K CACHE, NO CPU, OK . . . 64K CACHE L N0 CPU. OK 256K CACHE, NO CPU. OK) . . . 64K CACHE, NO CPU. OK) 12BK CACHE, NO CPU, OK) . , , 256K CACHE. NO CPU, OK . . 64K CACHE.N0 CPU. OK) 128K CACHE, NO CPU. OK) . . . 256K CACHE, NOCPU t OK) . NO CPU. OK, NON CACHE) . W-AMD 80386SX-25 CPU, OKI . 995.00 I 825.00 I 450.00 I 395.00 I 250.00 I 200.00 Z20.00 I 270.00 200.00 I 215.0r 250.00 I 195.00 I 205.00 I 240.00 I 130.00 I 230.00 I 175.00 I 105.00 90.00 BSiOO 80386DX-16 INTEL 80386DX-20 INTEL 80386DX-25 INTEL 80386DX-33 INTEL a0486DX-33 INTEL 80486DX-50 INTEL 80486SX-25 INTEL 80486SX-20 INTEL 80386SX-16 INTEL 80386SX-20 INTEL 80386DX-25 AMD 80386DX-33 AMD 80386DX-40 AMD 80386SX-25 AMD 80286-16 80286-20 CALL NOW FOR LATEST SUPER PRICING I III RAMpAT!-/7ws •Upto16MBof memory ■Half-card plugs into 8-bit or 16-bit ISA expansion slots ■Hardware support torLIM 4,0 expanded memory ■Self installing software $175.00] | AST Rampage Plus $140.00 I BOCA Boards $CALL | Video Cards OAK— PARADISE— TRIDENT SCALL Call for resolutions available MATH CO-PROCESSORS | INTEL CYRIX IIT 8087 5MKZ INTEL 72.00 83087DX-16 16MHZ CYRIX 149.00 2C87-8 8MH2 IIT 59,00 1 8087-2 8WHZ INTEL 149.00 83O87DX-20 20MHZ CYRIX 149.00 2C87-10 10MHZ IIT 65.00 8087-1 10MHZ INTEL 195.00 83D87DX-25 25MHZ CYRIX 149.00 2C87-12 12MHZ ITT 69.00 80287-6 6MHZ INTEL 70.00 3D87DX-33 33MHZ CYRIX 159.00 2C87-20 20MHZ IIT 75.00 80287-8 8MHZ INTEL 80.00 830870X^0 40MHZ CYRIX 189.00 3C87-1S 15MHZ in* 129.00 80287-10 10MHZ INTEL 85.00 83S87SX16 16MHZ CYRIX 102.00 3C87-20 20MHZ IIT 129.00 80287-12 12 MHZ INTEL 80287XL 10MHZ INTEL 802B7XLT 12MHZ INTEL 80387SX-16 16MHZ INTEL 80387SX-20 20 HZ INTEL 95.00 82.00 82.00 ii'. Si 127.00 83S87SX20 20MHZ CYRIX 112.00 3C87-25 25MHZ IIT 129.00 83S87SX25 25MHZ CYRIX 82S87XL CYRIX 122.00 89.00 3C87-33 33MHZ IIT 3CS7^IO 40MHZ IIT 3S87SX-16 16MHZ IIT 139.00 170.00 89.00 80387DX-16 16MHZ INTEL 189,00 WEITEK 3S87SX-20 20MHZ IIT 99.00 8O387DX-20 20MHZ INTEL 189.00 3167-20MHZ WEITEK 330.00 3S87SX-25 25MHZ IIT 109.00 803B7DX-25 25MHZ INTEL 189.00 MHZ WEITEK 450.00 3S87SX-33 33MHZ ITT 150.00 1 80387DX-33 33MHZ INTEL 1B9.00 3167-33MHZ WEITEK 550.00 AMD 8W87SX-20 INTEL 434.00 4167-25MHZ WEITEK 600,00 80C287-10 AWD 75.00 I RAPID CAD 345.00 41G7-33MHZ WHTEK 750.00 80C287-12 AMD SO 00 | TECHNICAL SUPPORT ORDERS ONLY TOLL FREE 1-215-922-4640 B3 l^ 1 1-800-457-6937 m 1-215-922-0116 NON-CASH 4% ADDITIONAL ORDER TOLL-FREE FROM ANYWHERE IN THE USA OR CAHADA CALL FOR CURRENT PRICES AKO VOLUME DISCOUHTS PRICES AND AVAILABILITY SUBJECT IO CHANGE. ORDER LINES OPEN 6 DAYS MINIMUM ORDER $30 00«USA SHIPPING & HANDLING UPS GROUND S6 00-AIR S12 00-COD ADD S4 00»PA RESIDENTS ADD 7% SALES TAX«PREPAID ORDERS CALL FOR CONF)RMATlON»ALL RETURNS REQUIRE RMA# ANO ORIGINAL INVOICE RETURNS FDR CREDIT SUBJECT TO 2b% RESTOCKING CHARGE«RETURNED MERCHANDISE MUST BE IN NEW CONDITION AND RECEIVED WITHIN 14 DAYS FROM INVOICE DATE«INTERNATlONAL ORDERS WELCOMF-APO-fPO ORDERS WELCOME P O -SACCEPTED FROM GOVERNMENT AGENCIES'UNIVEflSlTIES;FDRTUNE IC00 COMPANIES-SUBJECT TO APPROVAL ALL MEMORY PRODUCTS ARE THIRD PARTY * ALL WORLD WIDE TECHNO LOGIE S PROD UCTS ARE 100% GUARANT EED ANO COME WITH LIFETI ME WA RRANTY EX CEPT 3 DAY WARRANTY ON CPU CHIPS ANO 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON MOTHER BOARDS WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGIES 21 s TuT m Sv^ il ^&^ ,9, ° 6 RESELLERS - VAR - PRICING ON REQUEST WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS 324 BYTE* AUGUST 1992 Circle 21 8 on Inquiry Card. TWO COMPUTERS CAN SHARE ONE B AC KPAC K. With Backpack, several computers can share a single tape drive. Backpack connects quickly and easily to the parallel printer port of any PC compatible or portable — without interface cards or tools! The Back- pack tape drive is also easy to transport, making it ideal for trans- ferring data from one computer to another. QIC 40 (40/ 120MB) and QIC 80 (80/250) tape, diskette and hard drive models are available. So share and share alike! Call today for more information. backpack MicroSolutions Computer Products 132 W. Lincoln Hwy., DeKalb, IL 601 15 815-756-341 1 Fax 815-756-2928 Circle 215 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 325 tf I intersys. ..The Towering Presence High Performance 486, 386, and 286 Computer Systems The Intersys family of computer system embodies an impressive combination of state-of-the-art design, superb engineering and unparalleled value. The result is the "flexibility, compatibility and reliability you expect from a leader in the field. Whether you need a sophisticated high-end 486 or an entry-level 286 system, there's an Intersys out there to suit your needs. Full software compatibility gives you a rich variety of options and ease of network interaction. Made with pride in the U.S.A., each and every Intersys product is backed by a unique 5-year warranty, as well as outstanding field support, both domestically and internationally. When you demand superior value, when you want built-in American For more information, or to order call: (800) 969-COMP ISS-l 000 The Basic Performer 286/20Mhz, 1Mb RAM, 1 .44Mb FDD, 40Mb HDD, 14" SVGA Mono Monitor $845.00 ISS-2000 The Enhanced Performer 386SX/25Mhz, 2Mb RAM, 1.2Mb & 1 .44Mb FDD, 100Mb HDD, 14" SVGA Color Multisync Monitor $1,395.00 ISS-3000 The Optimal Performer 386/40Mhz/64K, 4Mb RAM, 1.2Mb & 1.44Mb FDD, 125Mb HDD, 14" SVGA Multisync Monitor $1,595.00 ISS-4000 The Premier Performer 486/33Mhz/64K, 4Mb RAM 1 .2Mb & 1 .44Mb FDD, 200Mb HDD, 14" SVGA Multisync Monitor $2,295.00 ISS-5000The Ultimate Performer 486/50Mhz/64K, 8Mb RAM 1.2 Mb & 1.44Mb FDD, 200Mb HDD, 14" SVGA Multisync Monitc $2,895.00 The Intersys Warranty Seal is your assurance of American quality, backed by a unique five-year guarantee! (ZS) illterSyS 2461 W. 205th St., Bl 03, Torrance, CA 90501 , USA TEL: (310) 782-9731 , FAX: (310) 782-9815 326 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 Circle 210 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 21 1). Cyber Research, Inc. Data Acquisition and Instrumentation 1-800-394-3300 Products for Scientists & Engineers ifgigiBMBMgMBMaaElgJBIBJBIBMBJBIBIBMgM Save 30% or More with Metrabyte-Compatibles I I 1 Offer Expires 9/30/92 * FAX Coupon to qualify for Special Package Offer. Includes: Data Acquisition Board, Labtech Notebook Software w/ICONview and a Free matching Screw Terminal Panel and Cable. A $300 to $800 Saving!! Our new series of CYDAS Metrabyte-Compatible data acquisition and control boards offer both much lower cost and valuable added features; yet they maintain 100% Metrabyte-Compatibility. And each board comes with a 3-year warranty. Labtech Notebook is the undisputed industry standard for real-time data acquisition and display. Famous for it's ease-of-use, the new ICONview mouse-driven interface has made Notebook even easier to set up and use. #INST 200 $975 #CYDAS 16F #CYDAS 16 #CYDAS 8 #CYDAS 8P6 #CYDAC 02 #CYDID 24 #CYDID 24H #CYCTM 05 it GYM UK 16 100KHZ, 16-Ch. A/D Bd. 50KHZ, 16-Ch.A/DBd. 20KHz,8-Chan.A/DBd. 20KHz A/D, Prog. Gain 2-Chan. 12-Bit D/ABd. 24-Ch. (PI0-12) TTL I/O 24-Ch. (PI0-24) Dig. I/O 5-Ch. Counter/Timer Bd. 16-Ch. Multiplexer Panel Metrabyte Price $1165 $999 $425 $599 $299 $130 $185 $325 $399 Cyber Special Package Offer Price w/Labtech Notebook* $859 $2310 $1695 $799 $2144 $1649 $299 $1570 $1149 $349 $1744 $1199 $159 $1444 $995 $75 $1275 $995 $95 $1330 S995 $149 $1470 $995 $249 $1544 $1095 1 I 1 1 m JGynySMEM^^ MOTION CONTROL VIDEO CAPTURE Motion Control Systems make Motor Control Easy PC-based motion control may seem like science fiction to many people. Here at CyberResearch, it's one of our specialties. It can also cost a lot less than you think. Shown here is our CMCS 222A complete motor control system, which includes: • 2-Axis Stepping Motor Controller Board •Two High-Torque Stepping Motors, Size 23 • 40V, 3.5A Bipolar Chopper Drivers • Regulated DC Power Supply • Screw Terminal Panel with Cabling Maximum holding torque of 125 oz-in Rated for speeds of up to 7,000 steps/sec. I #CMCS 222A High Torque, 2-axis Size 23 Stepping Motor Control System .........$1595 VGA to Video Converter — VGA to your VCR Redlake's TapeCaster converts VGA [ screen output to video for applications such as recording animation and creating training tapes. The TapeCaster is extremely easy to use: no base addresses, no interrupts, no software required — just plug and play. • True, precise NTSC or PAL video timing. • Simultaneous VGA and video display. • Composite Video & Y-C (SuperVHS) output for use with equipment ranging from an inexpensive VCR to broadcast-quality professional video. #NTSC 200 TapeCaster - NTSC Video Output (For use with vcfts in theu.s.A.) $750 I #PAL 200 TapeCaster- PAL (European) Video Output $750 | COMMUNICATIONS RACK-MOUNT COMPUTERS RS-422 & RS-485 Serial Boards for Long-Distance [ For extended distances, or communication to multiple devices, the RS-232 serial communications standard is woefully inadequate. RS-422 signals can easily travel over 1, 2, or even 3 miles of cable. RS-485 allows up to 127 devices to be individually addressed using just 4 wires. These boards provide the advan- tages, while programming is virtually the same as for standard RS-232 serial ports. Questions? Call us toll-free for more information. #C0MH 038 RS-422/485 Serial Communications Board (XT Version) $149 #C0MH 039 RS-422/485 Serial Communications Board (AT Version) $154 #C0MH 037 Dual RS-422/485 Serial Communications Board (AT Version) $219 #C0MH 131 Quad RS-422/485 Serial Communications Board (AT Version) $395 #C0MH 135 Serial Communications Utility Software & Device Drivers $75 PC Systems Handbook for Scientists & Engineers tm m This Combination Tutorial/Catalog Includes !q?««| Many Examples of PC-based Systems The CyberResearch PC Systems Hand- book for Scientists & Engineers describes over 1400 unique and hard to find items for PC-based engineering. Packed with useful technical information and easy-to- read diagrams, this invaluable reference should be part of every engineer's library. Fax, Call, or Write for a complimentary copy. Circle 396 on Inquiry Card. K Systems Handbook I lor SiliTilif ti and Ir.gintm I New 19" Rack-Mount Computers & Peripherals CyberResearch, Inc. offers a complete line of rack-mount computers and I data acquisition hardware. Affordable EIA 19" rack-mount monitors, printers, | keyboards, surge protectors, UPS's, other peripherals can seem impossible I to find, but at CyberResearch, they've | been a specialty of ours since 1984. The rugged & reliable Elma keyboard I shown here is made in the USA. It | features extended 101-key layout, full- travel keys for touch-typing, and is only 1 rack-space (1 .75") high. Call for information. #01X 3010 Low-cost, Drawer-Mounted Rack-Mount Keyboard (not shown) $295 I #0IX 6010 Slide-out, Ruggedized Rack-Mount Keyboard w/locking drawer $395 The CyberResearch Advantage: SS FREE Application Engineering Everyday Low Prices a Broadest Product (2 100% Satisfaction Selection Guarantee Mailing Address: \ iResearcti V9J Worldwide P. 0. Box 9565 ) New Haven, CT 06535 | , ^ L (203) 483-8815 9 | Fax:(283)483-9824 ffl WSi ^M ( 80 °) 394-3300 Notice to International Customers You can buy direct from CyberResearch and save 50% or more! A majority of the leading brands of PC-based engineering products are available for export from CyberResearch at the same low prices as those enjoyed by our customers in the United States. Due to contractual restrictions, products from some manu- facturers are not available for export to certain countries. Please fax a request for quotation listing brand and/or perfor- mance requirements, and we'll fax back a prompt response. Circle 397 on Inquiry Card. SAVE 50% TO 70% SATISFACTION GUARANTEED 800-635-0300 386SX 60 Meg ^ ^ ^ NOTEBOOK H 99. Famous Manufacturer • 386SX 16 • 1 MB RAM Expandable to 3 or 5 MB • 60 MB High Speed Hard Drive • 1.44 3-1/2" Floppy Drive • VGA Screen High Resolution Backlit 640 x 480 32 Grey Scales • Removeable NiCad Battery, 2.5 hour • 110/220 AC Adapter/Charger • 82 Key Keyboard, True 101 Key Emulation • Serial, Parallel & External VGA Port • 7-1/2 lbs. • 10" x 12" x 2" OPTIONS: • Carry Case 39. • 2 MB Memory - expands memory to 3 MB or 5 MB 119. • 2400 Baud Internal Modem 79. • 20 Meg Hard Drive Notebook 999. 386SX 100 Meg 1199. • 16 MHz 386SX • 1 Meg RAM • VGA Backlit Screen • 100 Meg Hard Disk • 3-1/2" 1.44 Meg Floppy • Serial & Parallel Ports • 110/220 Volt Charger • External VGA Port • Battery • 15 lbs. > 12.9" W x 3.4" H x 14.9" L OPTIONS: • Carry Case 59. • 2400 Baud Modem 99. • 1 Meg Memory 99. • 4 Meg Memory CALL • Expansion Station CALL NEC 386SX Color Laptop • 16 MHz 80386SX • 2 MB Memory • 42 MB Hard Drive • 3-1/2" 1.44 Floppy » Display 64 Color Palette ► 640 x 400 EGA/CGA and VGA Mode Support 1S99. EVEN LESS V ^f^p J \ il 386SX Notebook Famous Manufacturer • 386SX 16MHz Processor • 40 Meg Hard Drive • 1 Meg RAM Expandable to 5 Meg • VGA Backlit Screen. 640 x 480 • 3-1 /2" 1 .44 Floppy • Serial & Parallel Ports • 110/220 Volt Charger 50/60 Hz • External VGA Port • Battery, AC Charger/Adapter • Power Saving Features • 1 2" x 10" x 2". 7 lbs. NEC Panasonic Tl Sanyo Toshiba Bondwell More! Famous Manufacturers LAPTOPS/NOTEBOOKS!! 286/386SX/386SL CGA/EGA/VGA 20/40/60/80 Meg Hard Drives Options: Case, Extra Memory Modems... Starting at OPTIONS: • 2400 Baud Modem • 2 MG Memory • Carry Case 1099. 69. 119. 39. • 128K Palm TOP • 58 Keys • 8 Lines, 40 Characters Screen Word Processor- Compatible with Microsoft Word. Agenda - Master Scheduler organizing with monthly, weekly & daily calendars. Data Base - Holds names, addresses, phone numbers. Can call through acoustic coupler. Calculator- Contains trig functions square and square roots. World - Supplies current times & phone num- bers for 400 cities worldwide. 486 SUPER VGA 105 MEG SYSTEM Portable Hard Drive • 6" x 1-3/8" x 8-1/2" • 2 lbs. • 20 Meg • Includes AC Charger & Battery • Connects to any printer port • Great for laptops & notebooks • 486SX 20 MHz Processor • 1 Meg RAM • 1.2 or 1.44 Meg Floppy • 105 Meg Drive 19 MS • 16 Bit VGA Card with 1 Meg • 14" 1024 x 768 Color VGA Monitor .28 DP • 1 Parallel + 2 Serial Ports. 1 Game • 1 01 Key Keyboard • Battery Backed Clock • Math Co-processor Socket • MS DOS + GW Basic • 3 Button Mouse 1199. 9 Years 386 & SX are trademarks of Intel Corporation TtueData PRODUCTS, INC. 775 Quaker Highway, Rte. 146A, P.O. Box 347, Uxbridge, MA 01569 to order: 1-800-635-0300 In MA 508-278-6555 All packages shipped UPS and A.P.O.'s. C.O.D.'s add $4.00. MasterCard and Visa add 2%. American Express add 4%. ALL RETURNS must have RMA# (call 508-278-6555). You may be subject to a restocking fee. Shipping/handling charges non- refundable. 1 year warranty unless otherwise noted. Prices/ terms/conditions subject to change without notice. Corpor- ate P.O.'s welcomed. International orders also accepted. MC, VISA, Amex, Discover 328 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 Circle 21 6 on Inquiry Card. PS/2 model 57SXLC-160 meg 3095 PS/2 model 70-120 meg 3195 IBM model 40-40 meg 1495 PS/2 model 70-A21 4195 PS/2 model 95-320 meg 14950 *** Monitor Extra *** camPAa DeskPro Models 386/25M 2225 386/33M 2395 486/25M 2650 486/33M 3175 486/50L120meg CALL *Call tor other models - Monitor Extra * BRAND NAMES LOW PRICES LEADER SINCE 1983 We export to Europe, Asia & the Far East We Honor Manufacturer's Warranties Call for details IVEREX- MEGACUBE EISA BUS 486-33 MHz System 8 meg, 128K Cache, ESDI 3695 486/33 MHz System 4meg,256KCache, 1.2 & 200 meg drives, SVGA Combo 2995 Step 386-33 MHz System 2 meg, 64K Cache, 1 .2 & 120 meg drives, 1024x768 SVGA Combo 2595 TempoLX386sx/16MHz Notebook 3 meg, 60 meg hard drives, VGA 1 695 H N V E L L SPECIALS Netware 386 V.3.11 5 users 695 10 users 1395 20 users 1895 100 users 3795 250 users CALL AST NOTEBOOKS Exec 386SX/25, 80 meg 2575 Exec 386SX/25, 120 meg CALL Exec 386SXC/25, 80 meg, color 3195 Exec386SX/25, 120 meg, color CALL OTHER NOTEBOOKS Tl TravelMate 4000, 386SX, 120 meg CALL Compaq LTE Lite 386SL CALL Toshiba 2200SX, 80 meg CALL Toshiba 4400SX, 80 meg CALL Toshiba 6400SXC, 120 meg CALL Toshiba 3300SL, 80 meg CALL Call for pricing on other brand name models AST Bravo 386SX25 model 1 1070 AST Bravo 386/25 model 2295 AST Premium 386SX20 model 1 1295 AST Premium 386/33 model 1 2225 CD ROM/Multi Media NECCDROM36M 385 NEC CD ROM 73M 580 Sound Blaster Pro 205 WE STOCK TOSHIBA CITIZEN OKIDATA EPSON HITACHI NEC TALLGRASS ALR ARCHIVE WYSE HOUSTON INSTRUMENTS MICROSOFT SUMMAGRAPHIC INTEL PC MOUSE CALCOMP Made in USA M§ Computers ® All systems include • Intel CPU with 4 meg RAM • Desktop or tower case • 2 serial, 1 parallel, 1 game (joystick) ports • 101 AT enhanced keyboard • 1 .2 (5.25") & 1 .44 (3.5") TEAC floppy drives • SVGA card w/1 meg & SVGA 0.28mm monitor • MS DOS 5.0 (complete w/manuals) • MS Windows 3.1 (complete w/manuals) & mouse 486/50 with 200 meg HD 2395 486/33 with 120 meg HD 1995 386/40 with 120 meg HD 1490 386SX/25 with 40 meg HD 1195 One year limited warranty NOVELL Authorized Dealer LAN BOARDS 8 bit Arcnet ....75 16 bitArcnet .160 Novell NE 1000 ..160 Novell NE 2000 ..175 8 port Active Hub .325 Token Ring Card .399 Token hub 4-port ..355 Call for other LAN Accessories LASER PRINTERS HP Laser NISI ... .3595 HP Laser HID ..CALL HP Laser III ..1495 HP Laser HIP ..CALL HP IIP Plus ..CALL OKI OL 800 ..CALL OKI OL 840 P.S. .1720 Panasonic 4410 ..CALL Panasonic 4450 .1295 NEC Model 95.... .1465 PRINTERS Epson LQ 570 ....289 Epson LQ 1170 ....565 OKIDATA ML320 ....315 OKIDATA ML390 ...460 Citizen, Panasonic ..CALL HARD DISKS CONNOR CP30104120meg CALL CP3204F 220 meg CALL QUANTUM Pro Drive 120 meg CALL Pro Drive 240 meg CALL MAXTOR, SEAGATE MICROPOLIS, MICRONET CALL FOR ALL MODELS Corporate Accounts Welcome Call for Discounts on Volume And Consultant Orders Exports Available Computerlane Outside California: 1-800-526-3482 Inside California: 818-884-8644* FAX: 818-884-8253 7500 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Canoga Park, CA 91303 Hours: Monday - Friday 9 -6, Saturday 10-6 Compaq is a Registered Trademark of Compaq. IBM is a Registrered Trademark of International Business Machines. ALL QUOTED PRICES ARE CASH PRICES ONLY Visa, MasterCard and American Express are higher Prices subject to change without notice. *Quantities are limited Circle 202 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 329 Multimedia PC PORTABLE desktop Built - in 9-'/2"1024 x 768 SVGA Color CRT Display (Shown with optional equipment) Standard Features: ■ Five 16-Bit Expansion Slots O lull length available) ■ 4 MB RAM Expandable to 32 MB ■ 120 MB IDE H.D.D. up to 500 MB available ■ 1 .2 MB F.D.D. and 1 .44 MB F.D.D. ■ 2 Serial / I Parallel Ports ■ I6-Bii 1024 x 768 SVGA Card with I MB RAM 1 01 -Key detachable Keyboard MS DOS 5.0 Nylon Carrying Bag Optional CD ROM / Tape Backup / Removable H.D.D. / Multimedia Kit We custom build each computer to your specifications MICROPROCESSOR POKTAHLK th'skiop POKTAHLK workstation i 486 DX-50 $3,235.00 $3,135.00 / 486 DX-33 $2,885.00 $2,785.00 / 386 DX-33 $2,245.00 $2,145.00 i 386 DX-25 $2,095.00 $1,995.00 Please call for infor- mation on our other fine products: 386DX-40 Notebook 386SX-25 Notebook 386/486 EISA/ISA Desktop Optional padded hard case lor shipping your computer as bag- gage or by common carrier • Call to confirm current pricing, product specifications and configurations. • All are subject to change without notice • Purchase orders subject to approval • C.O.D. terms and VISA / MASTER Credit Card honored • Prices do not include shipping and handling • Please add appropriate local lax • One-year warranty on parts and labor • Lifetime technical support • All trademarks and tradenames herein are properties of their respective owners To Order, Call: Mon - Fri 7:30am to 6:00pm (PT) 1 -800-888-5369 330 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 Bi-Link Computer Inc. 11606 E. Washington Blvd. Suite A Whittier, California 90606 Tel: (31 0) 692-5345 Fax: (31 0) 695-9623 Tech Support: (310) 695-5166 Circle 237 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 238). ACER 486SX - 16MB SIMM m x 36) 32MB SIMM (8m x 36) COMPAQ SystemPro - 32MB MODULE DELL 486'$ - 16MB KIT a simms) 32MB KIT <2 simms) MAC llfx - 64MB KIT (4 simms) MAC QUADRA 950 - 64MB KIT (4 simms) MAC llci,llcx,QUADRA 900 - 64MB KIT <4 simms) MAC QUADRA 700 - 64MB KIT (4 simms) SUN IPX,ELC - 16MB SIMM $ 599.00 $ 1,999.00 $ 1,599.00 $ 598.00 $ 1,198.00 $ 2,116.00 $ 2,076.00 $ 2,076.00 $ 2,276.00 $ 499.00 OTHER MEMORIES AVAILABLE... IBM COMPAQ HP LAPTOPS PS/1 - 2MB $ 68 DP 386/20,20E,25 - 1MB $ 66 Vectra QS-16 - 2MB KIT $ 129 AST EXEC. NB - 4MB $ 135 4MB $ 149 4MB $ 168 4MB KIT $ 229 COMPAQ LTE386 - 4MB $ 229 M30 - 2MB $ 92 DP 386S/16 - 1MB $ 66 Vectra 486 - 2MB $ 89 SLT386 - 4MB $ 168 M50Z,55sx,65sx,70 - 1MB $ 45 4MB $ 168 4MB $ 149 DELL 316,320 LT - 2MB $ 99 2MB $ 89 DP 286N.386N.S/20 - 4MB $ 149 8MB $ 299 EVEREX TEMPO - 2MB $ 78 M55sx65sx,70 - 4MB $ 149 M-SYSTEMS - 2MB 89 X-Statlon 700 Ser. - 2MB $ 89 IBM L40sx - 4MB $ 160 M70-A21.A61.121 - 2MB $ 90 4MB $ 149 4MB $ 149 MAC POWERBOOK - 2MB $ 104 M40sx,35sx - 8MB $ 299 8MB $ 299 8MB $ 299 NEC P.S. 286,386sx - 4MB $ 200 M57sx.90.95 - 4MB $ 155 DP 386/33,486/25 - 2MB $ 96 9000/400t,425t - 8MB KIT $ 495 P.S. 386 - 8MB $ 429 8MB $ 309 SystemPro - 8MB $ 315 16MB KIT $ 999 P.S. SX/20 - 4MB $ 200 M80-041 - 1MB $ 65 OK Exp Brd $ 335 32MB KIT $1869 PANASONIC CF170 - 1MB $ 55 M80-1 11,121.311 - 2MB $ 99 DP 386S/16 1MB Exp Brd $ 105 9000/425e - 8MB KIT $ 428 T! TRVL-MT 3000 - 2MB $ 80 M80-A21A31 - 4MB $ 195 DP 386/20,20E,25.25E 16MB KIT $ 828 TOSHIBA 1000 - 2MB $ 108 16-BIT OK Exp Board $ 128 1MB Exp. Board $ 105 2000SXE - 8MB $ 388 32-BIT OK Exp Board $ 155 APPLE 3200SXC - 4MB $ 160 AST DELL II.SLSE/30 - 1MB $ 32 5200 - 8MB $ 315 325D,P;333D,P - 1MB $ 45 Classic - 1MB Exp. Board $ 54 PRINTERS PREM. 386/20C - 1MB KIT $ 65 4MB $ 149 SE/30,llci,llcx,llsl.LC & PREM. 386/25 - 1MB $ 45 420,425,433 - 2MB KIT $ 90 Quad. 700,900 - 4MB $ 115 EPSON 6000 - 4MB $ 229 PREM. 486/25 - 1MB $ 45 4MB KIT $ 178 Quad. 700,900 - 32MB KIT $1120 HP ItPJIUIIDP - 2MB $ 108 PREM. II 486 - 1MB $ 45 8MB KIT $ 298 llfx - 16MB KIT $ 499 lllsl - 4MB $ 135 4MB $ 155 450DE.450SE - 2MB KIT $ 90 llfx - 32MB KIT $1156 IBM 4019,40296 - 3.5MB $ 140 8MB KIT $ 310 4MB KIT $ 178 Quadra 256K V-RAM $ 30 4029 - 4MB $ 135 PREM. II 1MB Exp Board $ 469 8MB KIT $ 298 LC 512K V-RAM $ 47 OKIDATA 400 - 2MB $ 129 PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE OTHER MEMORIES FOR: ACER, ALTIMA, APPLE, AST, CHAPLEL COMPAQ, DELL EPSON, EVEREX, HP, LEADING EDGE, IBM, NEC, NCR, OKIDATA, PACKARD-BELL, PANASONIC, PHILIP, SAMPO, SHARP, SILICON GRAPHICS, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, TANDON, Tl, TOSHIBA, TULIP AND ZENITH. om compiew cayaiob TERMS: C.O.D. CASH, VISA OR MASTERCARD. COMPANY AND UNIVERSITY P.O.'S ACCEPTED UPON CREDIT APPROVAL 414 CLOVERLEAF DR., UNIT B, BALDWIN PARK, CA 91706 TEL ( 818)855-5688 FAX (818)855-5687 ALL PRODUCT NAMES, TRADEMARKS AND REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY Of THEIR REPSECTTVE COMPANIES. Circle 219 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 220). AUGUST 1992 • BYTE 331 Circle 1 98 on Inquiry Card. AMT International (COMPUTERS & PERIPHERALS) 3074 LANDESS AVENUE ■ SAN JOSE, CA 95132 TEL: (408) 942-9695 ■ FAX: (408) 942-5509 VISA m LOWEST PRICES SAME DAY SHIPPING COMPAQ MEMORY DeskPr o 286-E, 386-20/20E/25 1MB 113131-001 $75.00 4MB 113132-001 $169.00 DeskPro 286N, 386N and 386SX 2MB 118689-001 $135.00 4MB 118690-001 $230.00 DeskPro 386S 1MB 113646-001 $99.00 4MB 112534-001 $195.00 DeskPro 386-33, 486-33 & SystemPro 2MB 115144-001 $185.00 AST MEMORY Bravo-286, Workstation 512K Kit500510-010 $59.00 2MB Kit 5O051CH502.... $150.00 Premium 386-16/20C 1MB Kit 500510-003 $75.00 4MB Kit 500510-004 $185.00 Premium 386-20 1MB Kit 500510-003 $75.00 4MB Kit 500510-004.... $185.00 Bravo-386SX 4MB Kit 500510-008.... $220.00 Premium 386-SX/25/33 & 466-25 1MB 500718-002 $60.00 4MB 500-780 $195.00 HEWLETT-PACKARD MEMORY VeclraQS/16S 1MB $65.00 4MB $185.00 Vedra QS/20PC, RS/25PC and 2DC 1MB D1640A $65.00 4MB D1642A $170.00 Vedra 486PC 1MB D2150A $75.00 4MB D2151A $165.00 IBM PS/2 MEMORY Models 30-266, Exp. Board 1497259 512K Kit 30F5348 $54.00 2MB Kit 30F5360 $95.00 Models 70-E61/121, 55SX, 65SX 1MB 6450603 $59.00 Models 70-E61/121, 50Z, 55SX, 65SX 2MB6450604 $99.00 Mcdeb 55SX.65SX, 34F3077 & 34F3011 4MB34F2933 $149.00 Models 70-A21 2MB 6450608 $99.00 Models 80-141 1MB6450375 $75.00 Models 80-111/311 2MB 6450379 $99.00 All Models 70 and 80 2-14MBw/2M34F3077.. $290.00 4-16MBW/4M34F3011... $350.00 Models SO, 50Z. S5SX & 60 2-8MB 1497259 $290.00 USER PRINTER MEMORY Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet IIP, 111 &IIID 1MB334748 $70.00 2MB33475B $99.00 4MB33477B $185.00 Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet IIP & IID 1MB33443B $75.00 2MB33444B $110.00 4MB 33445B $175.00 IBM Laser 4019 and 4019e 1MB 1039137 $95.00 3.5MB 1038675 $195.00 Canson LBP-811, 811R, 811T 2MB S63- 1880 $129.00 LAPTOP AND PORTABLE MEMORY TOSHIBA MEMORY 1MB Model 1000SE/XE $110.00 2MB Model 1000SE/XE $99.00 2MB Model T1200XE $99.00 2MB Model T1600 $99.00 2MB ModelT3100E $99.00 2MB Model T3100SX $99.00 4MB ModelT3l00SX $195.00 2MB Model T3200SX $99.00 4MB Model T3200SX $195.00 2MB Model 5100 $99.00 2MB Model T5200J8500.. $110,00 8MB Model T5200.T8500.. $299.00 ZENITH MEMORY 1MB SuperSport 286 & 286ES135.00 2MB SuperSport 286 & 286ES14O.00 2MB SuperSport SX/Alpha .. $140.00 2MB SuperSport SX/Beta ...$140.00 COMPAQ MEMORY 1MB Portable LTE 286 $125.00 2MB Portable LTE 286 $150.00 1MB SLT-286 $140.00 4MBSLT-286 $350.00 NEC MEMORY 1MB Prospeed286 $170.00 2MB Prospeed 386 $240.00 ZENITH MEMORY Zenith Z-386/20/25/33 & 33E 1MB ZA36/3800ME ... $90.00 2MB ZA3600MG $140.00 4MB ZA3800MK $205.00 Zenith Z-386 SX 2MB Z-605-1 $125.00 MATH COPROCESSORS INTEL 8087-5 MHz $70.00 8087-2 8MHz $70.00 8087-1 10MHz $135.00 802876 6MHz $79.00 80287-8 8MHz $79.00 80287XL 8/IOMHz $89.00 80287XTL 12MHz (Laptop)..,. $99. 00 80287-10 10MHz $89.00 80C287-12 12MHz $109.00 80387SX-16 $129.00 80387SX-20 $135.00 80387DX-20 $140.00 80387DX-25 $185.00 80387DX-33 $195.00 80487SX-20 $435.00 WEITEK 3167-20 20MHz $300.00 3167-25 25MHz $375.00 3167-33 33MHz $475.00 4167-25MHZ $575.00 4167-33MHZ $700.00 CYRIX 82S87XL $69.00 83D87-16 $125.00 83D87-20 $125.00 83D87-25 $130.00 83D87-33 $140.00 83D87-40 S145.00 83S87-16 10\/ $95.00 83S87-20 JO A S99 -°° 83S87-25 J $105.00 IIT 2C87-8 $59.00 2C87-10 $69.00 2C87-12 $72.00 2C87-20 $78.00 3C87-20 $120.00 3C87-25 $125.00 3C87-33 $130.00 3C87-40 $139.00 3S87-16 10V $85.00 3S87-20 [O A S95.00 3S87-25 J $101.00 AMD 80C287-10 $35.00 80C287-12 $69.00 SIMM MODULES IBM TYPE ADD $2.00 FOR SIPPS 4Mx9-80 $125.00 4Mx9-70 $129.00 1Mx9-60 $38.00 1Mx9-10 $35.00 1Mx9-80 $36.00 1Mx9-70 S36.00 256x9-70..... $10.00 256x9-10 $9.00 256x9-80 $10.00 256x9-60 $12.00 APPLE-MAC 1Mx8-70 $35.00 1Mx8-10 $32.00 1Mx8-80 $34.00 4Mx8-80 $110.00 DRAMIMGX1 1 MGX1-120NS $3.00 1 MGX1-100NX $3.50 1 MGX1-80NX $3.60 1MGXI-70NX $3.65 1 MGXI-60NX $3.75 DRAM 64X1 4164-150 $0.85 4164-120 $0.95 4164-100 $1.50 4164-80 $2.00 DRAM 64X4 4464-15 $1.50 4464-12 $1.99 4464-10 $2.50 DRAM 256XI 256XM50NS $0.85 256XI-120NS $0.89 256XM00NS $0.99 256XI-80NS $1.10 256XI-70NS $1.20 S56XI-60NS $1.25 DRAM 256X4 256X4-100NS $4.00 256X4-80NS $4.25 256X4-70/60NS S4.50 256XI-STATIC COL 51258P-10 $0.99 AAA 2800-08 $1.29 AAA 2800-07 $1.35 AAA 2800-60 $1.55 1X4-80 ZIPP $15.00 1X4-80STTZIPP $17.00 1X4-70STT ZIPP $19.00 466-33 w/ 64k cache • 4MB RAM- 1.2 & 1.44 • 130 HD • VGA • SVGA28 Monitor • 101 KB • Mini-Tower Case • DOS 5.0 $1 569.00 VGA41 14' $225.00 SVGA 28 14' Int $280.00 SVGA 28 14' Non-lnt $349.00 SVGA 25 14' Non-lnt S510.00 SVGA 28 17' $850.00 486-33 w/ 256k cache $899.00 486-33 w/64k cache $539.00 486SX-20/25 $259/295.00 1X4 4X1 STATIC 366-33 w/ 64k cache $239.00 386-25 Non-cache $220.00 386SX-16/25 S120/145.00 BocaAT* $115.00 Boca XT or 30 S115.00 Otchidl6/32 $269.00 Orchid 6/16 $159.00 'Rampat $95.00 Simmply Ram $189.00 Tl Ram PS/2 S199.00 514402-80 (1x4) STT, ZIPP CALL 514400-80 (1x4)ZIPP CALL 514400-80 (1x4) DIPP CALL 51440O60 (1x4) SOU CALL 514100-80 (4x1) SOJ CALL Mini-Tower $70.00 Mid-Tower $89.00 Full-Tower $119.00 Desktop $95.00 44MB,28ms,IDE $190.00 89MB, 14ms, IDE $270.00 130MB, 15ms. IDE $329.00 210MB. 15ms, IDE $539.00 1.2MB, 5.25' $58.00 1.44MB. 3.5' S58.00 2400bps Internal $49.00 9600bps Internal $299.00 9600bps Int S/R Fax $85*00 2400bps Modem $99.00 ^0dW} Girl Scouts Care for the Earth f H, Girl Scouts have a ilH^^"^Kl Hfc, '^m tradition of caring for the Ws ^M Hk \ yjk earth. For 80 years we've I \'S } ' Jti&h B^-* ^L~ been recycling, planting trees and cleaning 1 beaches. " This year, millions of Girl H IXjSjMP*^^ Scouts nationwide are working to help care for our environment. . Hi EWnwEM J SI Wm£ c Wmm Won't you join us? Call your local Girl Scout council to find f\\ out how. ^fM GIRL SCOOTS _- , 3» 332 BYTE- AUGUST 1992 a-lap "experts in portable intelligence 11 PRICES COULD BE LESS BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS AD, SO PLEASE CALL FOR OUR MOST CURRENT PRICES TOSHIBA MEMORY T1000SE, T1000LE, T1000XE, T2000, T2000SX, T2000SXE, T2200SX V 2MB..$ 88 4MB..$188 8MB..$348 'ALL CARDS ARE FAST 70ns l UPGRADED NOTEBOOKS LAPTOmSIOTEBOOKIVEMORY AST COLOR EXEC 386SX/25C 120MBW/8MB RAM AST COLOR EXEC 3B6SX/25C 80MB W/ 8MB RAM AST COLOR EXEC 3B6SX/25C BOMB W/ 8MB RAM AST PREMIUM EXEC 3B6SX/25 120MB W/ 8MB RAM AST PREMIUM EXEC 386SX/25 80MB W/8MB RAM AST PREMIUM EXEC386SX/25 60MB W/8MB RAM EVEREX TEMPO/LX 386SX/20 1 20MB W/ 5MB RAM NEC PROSPEED 486SX/C 120MBW/20MB RAM TEXAS INSTRUMENTSTM3000 WinSX 120MB W/6MB TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TM3000 WinSX 80MB W/ 8MB TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TM3000 WinSX BOMB W/6MB SHARP PC-B800/1 20MB COLOR W/ 8MB RAM SHARP PC-68B1/B0MB COLOR W/ 8MB RAM SHARP PC-B700/12OMB W/8MB RAM SHARP PC.67B1/B0MB W/ 8MB RAM SHARP PC-B200/40MB W/3MB RAM TOSHIBA T3300SU80MBW/ 8MB RAM TOSHIBA T3300SL/1 20MB W/ 8MB RAM TOSHIBA T4400SX/B0MB LCD W/10MB RAM TOSHIBA T4400SX/B0MB PLASMA W/1 0MB RAM $3708 $3286 $3006 $LOW $LOW $LOW $2246 $LOW $3006 $2676 $2506 $CALL $CALL $2016 $2376 $ 956 $LOW $LOW $LOW $LOW WOW! APPLE POWERBOOK 1 00/140/170 2/4/BMB. SCALL AST PREMIUM EXEC 4MB (70ns LP) $126 COMMODORE CLT2B8/388 2MB (70ns LP) $86 COMPAQ LTE /3B6s, LITE/20, LITE/25 1 MB/4MB $98/$198 WOW! COMPAQ LTE/386S. LITE/20, UTE/25 8MB $456 NEW! COMPAQSLT/28B4MB $326 COMPAQ SLT/3B6S 4MB $218 COMPUADD COMPANION/SX 2MB (70ns) $58 EVEREX TEMPO/LX 2MB/4MB (70ns LP) $66 GRID 1720/1750 2MB $98 IBM L40SX 2MB/4MB/8MB (70ns LP) $98/$1 56/$328 IBM N33SX 2MB/4MB (70ns LP) $96/$15B IBM N51SX 2MB/4MB/8MB (70ns LP) $CALL NEW! IBM N51 SLC 2MB/4MB/8MB (70ns LP) SCALL NEW! MAGNAVOXMETALIS286/366SX4MB $246 NEW! NEC ULTRALITE 286F 4MB $226 PANASONIC CF1 70/270/370 1MB/2MB $5B/$8B SANYO MBC -17NB/1 8NB 2MB (70ns LP) $66 SHARP PC-6800/8B41/88ei 2MB (70ns) $5B SHARP PC-e700/6761/6e00/6661 2/4MB (60ns LP) $CALL NEW! SHARP PC-8501 COLORSTAR 2MB $148 TANDY 1500HD 1MB $58 TANDY 281 OHD/381 0HD 2MB $66 Tl TRAVELMATE TM3000 2MB 70ns). $58 TOSHIBA T1200XE 2MB $78 WOW! TOSHIBA Tl600/3100E/r5100 2MB UPGRADE $96 TOSHIBA T3100SXfl"3200SX 2MB/4MB $98/$146 WOW! TOSHIBAT3300SL/T4400 2MB/4MB/6MB/8MB $LOW ZEOS 286/3B6SX NOTEBOOK 2MB (70ns) $66 ZENITH MASTERSPORT SX/SL/SLE /SLC 2MB (70ns) $96 WOW! f FKLNITOPSRAM MEMORY GRIDGRIDPAD512K/1MB $128/$198 HP95LX512K/1MB/2MB $128/$198/$398 MOMENTA PENTOP 512K/1MB $128/$198 NCR 3125 NOTEPAD 512K/1MB $128/$198 POQET512K/1MB $12B/$198 SHARP PC3000/3100 512K/1MB $12B/$198 SHARP PC6700/674 1/6781 512K/1MB/2MB $128/$198/$398 SHARP PC6800/6841/6881 512K/1MB/2MB $128/$19B/$398 TOSHIBA T3300SL 512K/1MB/2MB $128/$198/$398 NOTE: ALL OUR SRAM MEMORY CARDS CONFORM V TO PCMCIA/JEIDA/JEDEC STANDARDS J LASER PRINTER MEMORY APPLE LASERWRITER tl/IINT/l INTX 4MB BROTHER HL-4/4V/4VPS 2MB/3MB/4MB BROTHER HL-8E/8D/8V 2MB UPGRADE CANON LBP 8II/8IIR/8IIT2MB/4MB C. ITOH-6 2MB/4MB UPGRADE EPSON ACTION LASER PLUS 2MB/4MB EPSON ACTION LASER II 2MB/3MB/5MB EPSON EPL-4100 /8000 2MB/3MB/5MB EPSON EPL-6000 2MB/4MB UPGRADE EPSON EPL-7000 2MB/3MB UPGRADE FACITP80602MB/4MB UPGRADE HP LASERJET ll/IID 2MB/4MB UPGRADE HP LASERJET IIP/I IPWlll/IIID/lllP 2/3/4MB HP LASERJET FAX 1MB/2MB/3MB/4MB HP LASERJET IlISi 1 MB/4MB UPGRADE HP DESIGN JET PLOTTER 1MB/4MB UPGRADE HP DESKJET+/500/500C 256K UPGRADE IBM/LEXMARK 4019/E 2MB/3.5MB IBM LEXMARK 4029 (ALL MODELS) 2MB/4MB KYOCERA F800/600A/600T 2MB/4MB KYOCERA F1200S 2MB/3MB/4MB KYOCERA F3300/3300A 2MB/3MB/4MB MANNESMANN TALLY 905 2MB/4MB NEC SILENTWRITER 2 MO DEL 90/290 /SB0/S80P 2MB NECSILENTWRITER2 MODEL 95 2MB NEC SILENTWRITER 2 MODEL SB2P 2MB OKIDATA OKILASER/400 2MB UPGRADE OKIDATAOKILASER BOO/820 2MB/3MB/4MB OKIDATA OKILASER 830/640 2MB UPGRADE OLIVETTI PG-10B/208 2MB/4MB UPGRADE PACKARD BELL PB-9B00 2MB/4MB UPGRADE PANASONIC KX-P441 0/4430 2MB/3MB/4MB PANASONIC KX-P4420/4450i 2MB/3MB/4MB PANASONIC KX-P4450 1MB UPGRADE PANASONIC KX-P4451 2MB/3MB/4MB PANASONIC KX-P4455 2MB UPGRADE QMS PS410 2MB/3MB/4MB UPGRADE QMS PS815/825 2MB/4MB/BMB UPGRADE QMS PS1700 1MB/4MB UPGRADE SHARP JX-9500/9700 1 MB/2.5MB/4MB SHARP JX-9500PS POSTSCRIPT 1MB UPGRADE STAR LASER PRINTER 8 2MB/4MB UPGRADE STAR/STARCRIPT 4/4III 2MB/4MB UPGRADE TEC 1305B 2MB/4MB UPGRADE Tl MICROLASER/PLUS/17/TURBO/XL 1MB TOSHIBA PAGELASER6 2MB/4MB UPGRADE UNISYS AP9210 2MB UPGRADE $168 $138/$176/$206 $138 $116/$196 $128/$206 $128/$206 $11B/$1 88/3258 $11B/SlBB/$258 $128/$206 $126/$166 $12e/$208 $116/$196 $108/$148/$166 $76/$1ie/$158/$168 $66/5178 $66/$176 $58 $118/$178 $108/$158 $138/$216 $15B/$196/$236 $1 56/31 98/S23B $126/5208 $136 $118 NEW! $118 NEW! $116 Sl3B/$176/$208 $156 $116/$196 $126/$206 $14B/$166/$226 $118/$1 58/3198 $118 NB/Vi $118/$158/$196 $136 $138/$178/$206 $158/$236/$316 $66/$176 $108/$208/$336 $58 $14B/$1BB $148/$238 $126/3206 $56 $128/$208 $116 NOTE: IN THE VERY SUM CHANCE THAT YOU DO FIND A BETTER PRICE ON ANY MEMORY UPGRADE, PLEASE LET US KNOW. SHARP PC-6220 4 LB. NOTEBOOK 20MB HDW/3MB $758 40MB HDW/ 3MB $958 60MB HDW/ 3MB $1258 SHARP PC-6781 80MB HDD W/ 8MB RAM ONLY $2,378 tote-a-lap 550 Pilgrim Drive , Ste.F, Foster City, CA 94404 PHONE : (415)578-1901 FAX: (415)578-1914 ORDERS ONLY : 1-800-9-LAPTOP (PRIOR APPOINTMENTS ARE NEEDED FOR WILL-CALLS, PLEASE) TERMS AND CONDITIONS: All sales final. We charge a 25% re-stocWng fee on all re fused shipments and pre-approved returns. Piloas are subject to change w/out notice, and reflect all cash discounts. Warranty on ell marchancSse, except memoiy upgrades, Is thru the original manufacturer only, unless previously agreed upon and stated on our invoice. All software, plus all merchandise that Include a rombios, are not returnable for credit, and are subjoct to an even exchange only. We accept purchase orders from credt-worthy institutions, although prices may be slightly higher on some items. We will not ship to any account with an overdue balance. Purchase prices at the time of sale are final. Memoiy upgrades guaranteed 100% compatible. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE LISTED IN THE TOSHIBA TECHNICAL INFORMATION GUIDE AS "THE LEAST EXPENSIVE MEMORY MANUFACTURER APPROVED FOR TOSHIBA LAPTOPS AND NOTEBOOKS" 111 TOSHIBA T5200/T8500 2MB/8MB UPGRADE $88/$298 TOSHIBA T5200 200MB HD UPGRADE $798 ALL-MEMORY UPGRADES COME WITH A LIFETIME WARRANT & A 48 HOUR EXCHANGE GUARANTEE I HDD UPGRADES ASK US ABOUT HARD DRIVE UPGRADES, UP TO 200MB, FOR YOUR BRAND OF LAPTOP OR NOTEBOOK, $88 1MB RAM UPGRADE SHARP PC-6220 Tl TRAVELMATE TM2000 COMPUADD COMPANION HDD UPGRADES 40MB $388 60MB $598 EVERYONE CLAIMS THEY WILL BEAT ANY ADVERTISED PRICE. WE DONT EVEN CLAIM IT. INSTEAD, WE JUST DO IT. YOU BE THE JUDGE! SEHABLAESPANOL pregunte por Hector Circle 231 on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 333 Ik) ways to plant a tree for Global ReLeaf Now there are two ways you can plant a tree for Global ReLeaf. You can dig in and do it yourself. Or, you can pick up the phone and dial 1-900-420-4545. You see, even a single tree can make an important difference in the kind of world we live in and the kind of future we leave behind. Trees provide shade, help keep our air and water clean, and reduce heat-trapping CCMn the earth's atmosphere, which is a major factor in global warming. That's why we've made it easy for you to do your part for Global ReLeaf. When you call our special Action Line, the $5.00 charge actually pays for planting a tree while supporting Global ReLeaf action across the country. And, we'll also rush you detailed information on Global ReLeaf. So, pick up the phone and start planting. Earth needs all the trees you can plant. And that's why we need you. GU©5AL. >E#LEAF The Americanx^ Forestry Association P.O. Box 2000, Washington, DC 20013 1900-420-4545 Citizens caring for trees & forests since 1875 *en&4M& utM &faee, (979 Microdevices 8 2233 Samaritan Drive, San Jose, CA 95124 BUY WITH CONFIDENCE FROM JDK • 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE • 1 YEAR WARRANTY TOLL-FREE TECH SUPPORT [ UPRIGHT CASE $99 95 Mounts 3 floppy and 4 hard drives Accommodates std. & mini motherboards . 2 digit LED display I CASE-100A $99.95 [PS-MOTW 250Wp. supply $129.95 1 PS-300TW 300VV p. supply $1 49.95 I CASE-50 Mini 286-slyle case $59.95 CASE-70 Std. 286-style case $89.95 I CASE-120 $199.95 iMini-upright case w/200 W power supply [POWER SUPPLIES U/L approved tri'S^ SB 1 10/220VAC, 50/60Hz ^J&^—* I PS-150 8088 150 watt .._.. 7.:$69.95 PS-200X 8088 200watt $89.95 PS-200 286/386/486 200 watt $89.95 PS-250 286/386/486 250 watt $ 129.95 LPS-300 286/386/486 300 watt $149.95 , MOTHERBOARDS $499 [1024X768 NON-INTERLACED I VGA PACKAGE 0.28mm dot pitch monitor & high-resolution VGA card Resolution up to 1024 x 768 in 256 colors* 512Kb video RAM expandable to 1Mb I VGA-PKG-1024N $499.95 VGA-PKG-1024+ 1024x768 interlaced VGA pkg . VGA-PKG 640x480 interlaced VGA pkg VGA-M0N-1024 1024x768 interlaced monitor ... | VGA-M0N-1024N 1024x768 non-interlaced mon. • Note: Requires 1Mb RAM For 1 024 x 768 in 256 colors 95 $469.95 $349.95 $349.95 $389.95 2400 BAUD MODEM • Internal data modem • Hayes AT compatibility • Incl. ProComm software MCT-241 $49.95 9600 BAUD EXTERNAL MODEM • CCITT V.42bis/V.32/V.22bis/Bell 212A & Hayes | AT compatible • Asynchronous / synchronous PR0-96E $399.95 FAX/MODEM/PHONE SWITCH • Save phone line charges! • Supports fax, modem, phone and answering machine from 1 phone line I FAXM-SWITCH $119.95 FAX-SWITCH Without modem connection $89.95 BREADBOARD 0N-A-CARD Soldcrless breadboard with I/O, decode & timing circuitry I PDS-601 8-bit card $79.95 PDS-611 16-bit version $89.95 WIRE-WRAP PROTOTYPE CARDS I JDR-PR2 8-bitwith I/O decode layout $29.95 I JDR-PR10 1 6-bit with I/O decode layout $34.95 I PORTABLE IC TESTER Tests the following 14 to 20-pin devices: 74 series TTL, 40 & 45 series CMOS & 41/44 series DRAM up to 1Mb Identifies unknown part numbers M0D-H1C $ 129.95 20MHZ CACHE 486SX ■ 20MHz Intel 80486SX CPU • 64Kb cache memory on board (expandable to 256Kb) • Expandable to 32Mb on-board using 256Kb, 1Mb or 4Mb SIMMs (0Kb installed) • Includes Intel's "Vacancy" socket MCT-M486SX $549.00 MCT-M486-50 Mini-size 50MHz cache 486 $ 1 295.00 MCT-M486-33 Mini-size 33MHz cache 486 . $895.00 MCT-C386-40 Mini-size 40MHz cache 386 . $499.95 MCT-C386-33 Mini-size 33MHz cache 386 . $449.95 MCT-M386-25 Mini-size 25MHz 386 $349.95 MCT-M386SX-20 Mini-size 20MHz 386SX $299.95 MCT-M386SX Mini-size 1 6MHz 386SX $249.95 MCT-M286-16 Mini-size 1 6MHz 286 $149.95 MCTM286-12 Mini-size 1 2MHz 286 $129.95 k MCT-TURB0-10 Mini-size 1 0/4.77MHz 8088 .. $69.95 16-BIT VGA CARD $d0 95 8/16-bit 8088 and 286/386/486 compatible 640 x 480 in 16 colors 320 x 200 in 256 colors 256Kb video RAM MCT-VGA-16 $49.95 MCT-VGA-1024+ 1024x768, 512 Kb VGA card $149.95 MCT-FDCHD 1 .44Mb floppy controller $49.95 MCT-FDC-ED 2.88Mb intelligent floppy controller $79.95 MCT-IDEFH 1 6-bit IDE hard/floppy controller $29.95 MCT-IDEI0 1 6-bit IDE floppy/hard multi I/O $69.95 MCTCIDEFH 1 6-bit IDE CACHE controller $299.95 MCMDE-8 8-bit IDE controller $99.95 MCT-A10 Serial/parallel/game port card $49.95 MCT-AI0+ Two NS1 6550 serial/par/game port . $89.95 DFINET-400 1 6-bit Ethernet card $149.95 GATEKEEPER PC securily card $49.95 L PC0DE Diagnostic displaycard $49.95 ^ UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER Programs EPROMs, EEPROMs, microprocessors, PROMs, PAL/GALs and other PLDs; tests logic & memory devices Optional adaptors available for PLCC, PGA, QFP and multiple DIP devices Includes host adaptor card and cable M0D-EMUP $699.00 $119 95 EPROM PROGRAMMER Programs 24-32 pin EPROMs & EEPROMs from 16K-1024K Hex to OBJ converter Vpp 5, 12.5, 12.75, 13,21 & 25V mr ^ — M0D-MEP* $119.95 MOD-MEP-4* 4-EPROM programmer unit $ 1 69.95 MOD-MAC Host adaptor card& cable $29.95 •Note: Requires host adaptor cord $39 95 EPROM ERASER Quickly and simultaneously erases up to 4 standard EPROMs DATARASE II $39.95 \ I 84Mb DRIVE PACKAGE CP-30084 84Mb, 19ms IDE hard drive, 16-bit floppy/ hard disk controller, cables and instructions | HDKIT80 $319.00 IDE HARD DRIVES $319 PART* BRAND CAP. SPD. TYPE PRICE CP-3000 Conner 42Mb 28ms 3.5" IDE $199 ST-351A Seagate 42Mb 28ms 3.5" IDE $209 CP-30084 Conner 84Mb 19ms 3.5" IDE $299 ST-3096A Seagate 88Mb 16ms 3.5" IDE $319 CP-30104 Conner 120Mb 19ms 3.5" IDE $379 ST-3144A Seagate 131Mb 16ms 3.5"IDE $399 CP-3204F Conner 212Mb 16ms 5.25" IDE $599 FLOPPY DRIVES IFDD-1.44A 1 .44Mb, 3.5", Beige $79.95 I FDD-1.44X 1 .44Mb, 3.5", Black . $79.95 FDD-1.2 1.2Mb, 5.25", Beige $89.95 FDD-360 360Kb, 5.25", Black $79.95 FDD-2.88A 2.88Mb 3.5" drive, Beige .. $ 149.95 FD-505 5.25" & 3.5" combo drive $199.95 DYNAMIC RAM PART* SIZE SPEED TYPE PRICE 41256-80 256K x 1 80ns DIP 1.69 41256-60 256K x 1 60ns DIP 2.39 414256-80 256K x 4 80ns DIP 5.95 1M8-80 lMxl 80ns DIP 5.99 1M8-60 IMxl 60ns DIP 6.49 41256A98-80 256K x 9 80ns SIMM 14.95 41256A98-60 256K x 9 60ns SIMM 16.95 421000A98-10 IMx9 100ns SIMM 39.95 421000A98-80 IMx9 80ns SIMM 45.95 421000A98-60 1Mx9 60ns SIMM 49.95 424000A98-80 4Mx9 80ns SIMM 169.95 424000A98-60 4Mx9 60ns SIMM 174.95 MATH CO-PROCESSORS Each co-processor includes a manual, software guide and Intel's lifetime warranty iny PART* SPEED PRICE PART* SPEED PRICE 8087-2 8087 80287-XL 8MHz 5MHz 12MHz 129.95 89.95 94.95 80387-SXP 80387-DXP 80487-SX <25MHz 33MHz 20MHz 119.95 199.95 499.95 ENHANCED KEYBOARD » V -H3 $49" BTC-5339 101 /102-key enhanced layout $49.95 14 95 3-BUTTON MOUSE ajsil • Accuracy 290 -1450 DPI Opto-mechanical design 9^k • Windows 3.1 compatible JDRMOUSE-3 $14.95 n^ ^ MOUSE-PAD $4.95 CALL FOR YOUR FREE , : _ JDR CATALOG TODAY! FOR PC'S, SOFTWARE, MONITORS, DISK DRIVES, KEYBOARDS, MODEMS, . ** CABLES, CONNECTORS, ICS, COMPONENTS, PROGRAMMERS, ^Jv: - TEST EQUIPMENT, TOOLS & MORE! ] NOW ORDER 24 HOURS A DAY! 800-538-5000 Toll-free Fax ordering 800-S38-S00S local 408-559-1200 BBS 408-559-0253 AUGUST 1992 •BYTE 335 Add-In Boards Add-In Boards New Cef^&Miti&h, Bc&uL l^hteOudei Sva; a4v Ofae SIGMA SIX TM Six-in-One I/O Board V 1 Mbps NE 2000 Ethernet LAN V 9600/2400 fax modem V Super VGA non-interlaced (70 Hz) V Flash Disk (DOS in ROM) V 2 Serial, 1 Parallel port V Dual IDE FD/HD Controller V Software Configurable Interrupt Lines (IRQ) V Windows Accelerator AMT Advanced Micro Technology, Inc. 123 University Pkwy., Pomona, Ca. 91768 Tel: (714) 598-6120 • (714) 598-7716 Circle 291 on Inquiry Card. MOTHERBOARDS 4B6DX-50MHz w/256K Cache $950 4B6DX2-50MHzw/256K Cache SB50 4B6DX-33MHz w/64K Cache S525 3B6DX-40MHzw/64K Cache S239 3B6SX-25MHz $129 HARD DRIVES IDE: 40MB, BOMB, 120MB, 200MB, 340MB, 450MB, 520MB SCSI: 200MB, 340MB, 450MB, 520MB, 667MB, IGB, 1.3GB, 1.7GB, 2GB VGA BOARDS 16-bit 1MB True Color (16.B million colors) S195 16-bit 1MB Hi-color (32,000+colors) $150 16-bit lMBSuperVGA(256colors) $69 ATI Graphics Ultra, Orchid Fahrenheit, S-3 Windows Accelorotor, etc. LASER PRINTER MEMORY HP LASERJET 11,110, IIP, IIP+, III, HIP, 1IISI 1MB/2MB/3MB/4MB FROM $69 IBM LASERPRINTER Panosonic, Oki, Epson, Toshiba, Brother, C-ltoh, NEC, Sharp, QMS, Star, Tl, etc. ALSO AVAILABLE Floppy Drives, Tope Drives, Ethernet Adapters, Keyboards, Mouse, Monitors, etc. LAPTOP & NOTEBOOK MEMORY Toshiba 1000, 2000, 2200, 3300, 4400, 6400 Series Toshiba 1200, 1600, 3100, 3200, 5100, 5200, B500 Series 1MB/2MB/3MB/4MB/BMB/16MB FROM $95 Compaq LTE, LTE/Life, SLT Apple PowerBook, AST, AT&T, Bondwell, Epson, Everex, Goldstar, HP Palmtop, IBM, Librex, Leading Edge, Mognovox, NEC, Packard Bell, Ponosonic, Poqet, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Tl, Zenith, etc. MODEMS & FAX/MODEMS 2400bps, Modem, Infernal/External S39/SB9 9600bps Modem, Internal/External S275/S325 9600/2400bpsFAX/Modemw/V.42bis, Internal/External S69/S1 1 9 9600/9600bpsFAX/Modemw/V.42bis, Internal/External S295/S345 14,400bps Modem w/V.42bis, Internal/External S325/S375 1 4,400bps FAX/Modemw/V.42bis, Internal/External S345/S395 SIMMS lMBx9-70/60/50ns SSSCALL 4MB x 9-70/60ns SSSCALL ATLAS INDUSTRIES, INC. 1-800-ATLAS-ll m-mw AD m * (310) 478-6920 FAX (310) 479-2334 • 1 1601 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1820, LA., « 90025 508 Circle 297 on Inquiry Card. QQft RVTF . ATTnTTSTlQQ? Industrial PCs and Data Requisition • Industrial Workstation and Monitor • Industrial Computer Chassis • All-in-one Plug-in CPU Card • RAM/ROM Disk Card "Free 114 Pages Master Catalog for Your Inquiry" • Data Acquisition & Control Series • Industrial I/O Series • IEEE-438 Interface Card • 8/16 Port RS232 Interface Card • Application Software Package n Xiom MEASUREMENT & CONTJXX AXIOM TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. 20416 East Walnut Drive Unit H Walnut, CA 91789, USA ® TEL: 714-598-9495 ' FAX: 714-598-9975 Circle 276 (RESELLERS: 277) on Inquiry Card. Disk and Drive Emulators New PCE/2-SR SRAM Emulator Multiple models, EPROM, Flash, battery backed SRAM technologies Capacities from 180K to 14MB, Single and Dual disk emulation under MS DOS Autobooting— on-board programming 418 West County Road D St. Paul, MN 55112 CURTIS, INC. MS DOS is a trademark of Microsoft 612/631-9512 FAX 612/631-9508 Circle 241 on Inquiry Card. Let your "true colors shine through" when you advertise your computer products in BYTE's HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SHOWCASE our newest, affordable, 4-color advertising section! Call for more details: (603) 924-2695 or (603) 924-2598 Add-In Boards • Communications/Networking Your Single Slot Solution COMBINATION MUITIPOKr BOARD 3 Parallel, 4 Serial Ports with Single Slot Expansion [n&* 1 Ideal for anybody with a PC who keeps running out of slots. Simple to install. Simple to use. Save slots and money. Perhaps the last I/O board you'll ever need. Features • Supports Windows, Multimedia, OS/2, Novell and DOS applications • For single-user, multiuser & networking — including network servers • 3 Centronics parallel ports • 4 serial ports, full handshake • ISA, EISA compatibility • Ports easily configured • Easy connect remote panel Diagnostics software included. Find out more. Call 1-800-782-7428. STAR. People and products you can depend on. Star Gate Technologies, Inc. • 29300 Aurora Road • Solon, OH • 44139 • 21 6-349-1860 FAX: 216-349-2056 • BBS: 216-349-2904 • INTERNET: custsvc@sgtech,com Circle 285 (RESELLERS: 286) on Inquiry Card. PC/AT Dual Port Comm. Coprocessor GMM Sync2/CCP™ • High Performance 16 bit Microprocessor. • 80X86 code compatible • I or 2 Serial Ports with Full Duplex DMA •Uses 8530 or 85C30 SCC chip •256k Dual Ported RAM (5! 2k, IHeg - optional) • 8k, 16k. 32k. 64k Window Size (Programmable) • RS232/RS422/RS485/V.35 • SOURCE CODE DEBUGGER Kit Available. GHH Products Are AH Made in USA. Other PC/AT & PS/2 8530 based products available. Extremely competitive pricing. Call for additional information Glillil (714)752-9447 FAX (714)752-7335 GMM Research Corporation 1 8092 Sky Park South, Unit E Irvine CA 927 1 4 Circle 243 on Inquiry Card. NEW! SUPER FAST SPEED! Order Toll-Free 1-800-282-4835 PCSS-8F INTELLIGENT SERIAL COPROCESSOR • The PCSS-8F is a new faster ver- sion of our popular PCSS-8I Intelligent Serial Coprocessor. A new real-time status port yields higher data throughput. • Up to 128K bytes of Dynamemory for on the fly allocation and re- allocation of buffer memory. Does not use any computer memory. • Eight RS-232 channels per card. (RS-485 or RS-422 optional) OEM & Dealer Inquiries Welcomed! ^^^^^^^^ DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE* SOFTWARE P.O. Box 2310 • Bay St. Louis, MS 39521-2310 U.S.A. ' P \C Order Toll-Free 1-800-282-4835* Fax: 601-467-0935 ■ ■ ■" ■^• INC - Mississippi* Technical Support 601-467-8048 ■ iU,UJ,M)J/,. ns/Networking • Computer Systems You Need This Y7\WW ¥j^ ¥7* 128 Pg. Catalog- H §W Hz §*, I And It's Yours M. A IJbfl^ L-com is your prime source of Interconnection ' products for the computer and service industry. This is just a partial listing of what we offer: • Coaxial cable assemblies w/BNC, TNC, "N", Twinax • Data cables with DB9, 15, 25, 37 & 50 connectors • SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 cable assemblies & terminators • Printer cables for PC, AT, etc. • Telco and modular cables, all kinds and lengths • IEEE-488 cables, adaptors and switch boxes • D-Sub adaptors and gender changers • Coaxial connectors and adaptors of all types • Modular plugs, adaptors, accessories and tools ' • Economical cable testers and breakout boxes • Data boosters, buffers and sharers • Rack panels equipped with feed-thru connectors • Baluns and networking products • Wide variety of specialty coaxial switch boxes Call for FREE catalog! Specify -BYTE Leonfl TEL: 508-682-6936 FAX: 508-685-6467 1755 Osgood Street, North And over, MA 01845 Circle 275 on Inquiry Card. LET YOUR COMPUTER DO THE TALKING! Integrated Voice/Fax Mail integrates major voice/fax applications plus program control into one full-featured high performance software. PC- AT/386/486 based. Menu driven. Easy to use. Full support for Rhetorcx, New Voice, Dialogic, TTI and Intel voice and fax hardware. Supports up to 24 voice lines and up to 8 fax lines. 4 voice lines £ocn Hardware l Software starts rrom JJ)/^)U Tel: (818) 368-6132 Fax: (818) 368-7859 SigmaTech Software 24 hours demo lines; 818-368-4566 or 8 1 8-368-8848 10801 Bismarck Ave., Norlhridge, CA 91326 USA (Uesellers/Dealers/OlMs/Private labels are welcome) I Auto-Attendant I Unlimited Audiotex I Voice Mail I Call Processing I Telemarketing I Fax Mail I Fax-on-Demand I Fax Broadcasting I Party/Chat lines I Talking Yellow pages Circle 298 on Inquiry Card. BLAST YOUR MESSAGE THRU! Voice Mail •Telemarketing • Call Processing Multi-Line (voce solution) $995 SINGM- LINE (BigmOutti) $295 For Sales or Information: Call 1-800-685-4884 CALL: (510) 522-3800 • FAX: (510) 522-5556 TALKING TECHNOLOGY, INC. -^= 1125 ATLANTIC AVE. • ALAMEDA. CA 94501 Hi ^Transform your PC/XT/AT/386 I into a multi-line processing ti command center;i$ifelligently a process your sales, 1 , inquires, and messages. ^/ » Complete package. 8 ,j%** (Developer/OEM packages available) VISA-MC-AMEX-COO Circle 261 on Inquiry Cord. Single Board Computer ACI U.S.A. i arvuHw; A rn TEL:617 - 938 - 8020 I-OUU-OOU-/\l^l-J Fax . 617-938-8037 SC286-16MHZ 1/2 size SBC SC386SX-25MHZ 1/2 size SBC SC386DX-33MHZ 64KB Cache SBC SC486DX-33MHz 64KB Cache SBC All include: 2 serial ports & 1 parallel port Floppy controller IDE hard djsk interface Watch Dog Timer UNIX and DOS verified Also Available: Industrial Rack-Mount PC Chassis Backplane: 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20-slot International Tel: 886-2-7582571 (Taiwan) Fax: 886-2-7589615 Circle 245 on Inquiry Card. Circle 289 (RESELLERS: 290) on Inquiry Card. AUGUST 1QQ? RVTF ^7 I ! $ Computer Systems Computer Systems • Disk & Optical Drives Integrated Design Group 486 20-50 MHz Made in U.S. A 4S6-50MHz EISA 5-year Factory Warranty Highest performance motherboards on the market. Complete system/installation documentation. Complete and barebones systems available. DX-2 66 MHz available soon 486 DX 33 MHz/64 K Cache $615.00 486 DX 50 MHz/64 K Cache $CALL 486 SX all models $CALL 486 DX-2 50 MHz $CALL 486 33-50 MHz EISA $CALL 256 K Cache upgrade $65.00 SIMM Modules per Meg $35.00 I.D.G. (800) 964-4434 400 1 2th Street, Modesto CA 95354 FAX: (800) 964-4329 Circle 287 (RESELLERS: 288) on Inquiry Card. rraiex \DCEffl6SC LNEWEIi $apt\ ML 1386' GIM11S94 50/33 tics- eXAUNX,nc'OM§@®tH %— computer hardware INTERNATIONAL eXF COMPUTER HARDWARE Make every tolesperswpMtnble /W,5W)Ar own smewepartmnmom scratch Success Guaranteed! Qrjki F today anireciive \me}monagers guide. 50 MHZ 80486 ISA/EISA 23 MIPS Faster than Compaq & Dell EISA/ISA BABY SIZE MADE IN USA ' ISA SYSTEM BOARD EISA UPGRADABLE BOARD MODEL CACHE MIPS 486DX/50 64K 23.0 486DX2/50 64K 486DX/33 64K 486SX/20 64K 386DX/40 64K 386DX/33 64K OK Base Board System 1150 1350 23.0 15.0 9.0 10.8 8.3 945 745 480 340 330 1145 945 540 530 MODEL CACHE MIPS 486DX/50 256K 23.0 486DX2/50 2564K 23.0 4B6DX/33 256K 15.0 OK Board 1599 1399 1199 Base Systeir 1799 1599 1399 All bare systems include a baby desktop, IDE 2s/1p, 101 -keyboard, 200 Watt power supply. Tower system with 250 Watt power supply add $150. FCC Class B, UL, TUV are available. FEATURES • 64/256K Write Back Cache • Burst Mode Design - Shadow RAM on Video & BIOS - 64MB 32 Bit Memory Expansion • Baby-size with Eight Expansion Slots ■ 100% UNIX, OS/2 & Novell Compatible • One Year Full Warranty • Made in USA 386SX with IDE/2s/1p MODEL 386SX/33 386SX/25 386SX/20 BOARD 210 199 185 Base 410 399 385 FEATURES • 256K Write Back Cache • Burst Mode Design • Upgradable Architecture (66 Mhz) • 64MB 32-bit Memory Expansion • Proprietary Local for Video - 100% EISA/ISA Compatible • One Year Full Warranty • Made in USA TECHNOLOGY POWER ENT., INC. 47273 Fremont Blvd., Fremont, CA 94538 Tel: 510-623-3818 FAX: 510-623-3840 All names mentioned above are trademarks of their respective companies. Prices are subject to change without notice. Circle 262 on Inquiry Card. Rackmount Solutions RACKM0UNT COMPONENTS - QTY 2 5 PRICING Rackmount Chassis 1 9"x7"x17" S183 Rackmount VGA Monitors S531 Rackmount Monitor Shelf $113 Rackmount Keyboard Shelf S88 RACKMOUNT PLATFORMS- Oty 1 Pricing RMS286-12 S549 RMS386-33 S1095 RMS386SX-16 S795 RMS486-33 S1695 System Platforms include 7" Rackmount Chassis, 200W Power Supply, Motherboard, 1.0MB Memory, IDE, FDC, 2-Ser, Par, 1.2MB or 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive, 1 Year Warranty RACKMOUNT CHASSIS - 15 Models up to 20 Board Slots SLOT CPU BOARDS - 486, 386, 386SX, 286 RACKMOUNT MONITORS - Super VGA and Monochrome RACKMOUNT CABINET- Modular from 21* to 96' high I'M \MUEY TECHNOLOGY inc. 2468 Armstrong Street Livermore CA 94550 (510) 447-2030 FAX: (510) 447-4559 Circle 282 on Inquiry Card. Circle 268 on Inquiry Card. LOW-LOW-LOW ALR ^Applc comPAa AST =^everex- and others Computer Systems / Notebook / Complete Network Solutions LAN Cards/other products 3COM, Novell, Anthem, Gateway, Proteon & others Hard Drives/Floppy Drives IDE (Netware Ready)/SCSI Also available for IBM, Compaq, Apple Memor /Upgrades DRAMS, SIMM Modules Math coprocessors Laser Printers/Scanners Plotters/Digitizers/Software 44912 Osgood Road, Fremont CA 94539 USA Phone: (510) 651-5101 Fax: (510)651-5241 SURAH 386/486 ISA/EISA Compatible Computers AMI/Mylex Motherboards lOMega Bernouli Drives CD ROMS Tape Backup Mini-SCSI • Parallel to SCSI Host Adapter Trantor Systems Pocket Fax Modem 5URHH inc. 1-800-543-1001 Nationwide Orders UK Fax: 081-855-9657 11Q RVTF - Anr.TNTlQQ') Circle 260 on Inquiry Card. SHARE A SIGEN 250MB PORTABLE TAPE BACKUP & REDUCE COST/USER No controller card required. Connects to parallel port. Installs in less than 3 minutes. Great for Laptops. 9.5 MB/min transfer rate. Capacity 60/100 MB 1/4" cartridge 250/500 MB 1/4" cartridge 1200/2000 MB 4mm DAT Supports DOS, OS/2 Novell 286, 386 ^^i, Unix, Xenix Industry standard SYTOS Plus software and for file server based NLM and VAP Tapeware. Phone (408) 737-3904 • Fax (408) 737-39 10 Circle 263 on Inquiry Card. Data Acquisition • Keyboards • Memory/Chips/UpgradesW I Memory/Chips/Upgrades NEW, FREE 288 PAGE DATA ACQUISITION & CONTROL CATALOG/REFERENCE GUIDE FOR I8M PC/XT/AT, PS2, MICROCHANNEL COMPUTERS AND COMPATIBLES. * SIGNAL CONDITIONING * COMMUNICATION * INDUSTRIAL CONTROL * PC INSTRUMENTS * SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE "uiaiiillBJ METRABYTE SEND TODAY FOR YOUR FREE 268 PAGE KEITHLEY METRABYTE CATALOG 440 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton.MA 02780 Tel:(508)B80-3000 TLX:5039B9 Fax:(508)880-0179 Circle 251 on Inquiry Card. The Intelligent Solution For Data Acquisition m- DAP 2400' ANALOG I/O DIGITAL I/O •Inpuls lo 235K samples per second ■Outputs lo 250K samples per second FIT and FIR-filtering Digital Signal Processing at IO MIPS 16 MHz CPU with DRAM to 512K Send for FREE catalog. Or call us at (206) 453-2345 Data Acquisition Processor'" ■WUUlWIUHWHmmiffl 20 MHz DSP with SRAM to 96K DAPL™ Operating System • 100+ standard ctmnv.inds •custom lVIiPrcnsTAR commands inC ^'"""j'-*" Laboratories/ 22(55 116th Avenue NIC Hellevue, WA 9800-1 FAX (20(5) 453-3199 Circle 253 on Inquiry Card. CUSTOM KEYBOARD PRODUCTS • Custom Key Imprinting— all brands! • Custom Colored keys for IBM® DEC®, Wyse®, Key Tronic®, Cherry®, and more! • Full color keyboard templates made co your exact specifications. • Custom and stock keytop label kits for software support &. languages. • Custom membt^ne &. full-travel keyboards. • Express turnaround services. • A total line of keyboard enhancements. CUSTOM HOTLINE from the leader in Keytop Innovations™ H °m CORPORATION 800 937*1337 EQ Box 230 •Dept. BYTE Cornville, AZ 86325 602 634-7515 FAX 602 634-4620 JV Memory Superstore ... mukectsource, I^^ For the absolute best price & service call (800) 800-7056. mmwwm 4MB x 9-80/70*** S130.00 4MB x 9-60 S136.00 256K x 9-80/70 S11.80 1MB x 9-80/70 (9 chip) S36.50 1MB X9-80/70 (3 chip) S33.50 1MB x 36-70* S170.00 2MB x 36-70' S268.00 4MB x 36-70* *•* S560.00 Call for best price on a 30-pin & 72-pin Modules, 2, 4, 8 & 16MB "used in PS/2. Compaq, Dell & otherhigh-endsystems(386& 486} Canon 1MB S125.00 LBP 8II/8IIR/8IIT 4MB S190.00 Epson Action Laser 2MB S125.00 Action Laser II 2MB S138.00 HP LaserJet IIPJIPPIs.lll.HIDJIIPJUID.IMsi 2MB S112.00 4MB S178.00 HP DeskJet S78.00 ■71WTMI Sun EPC/IPX*** 16MB S490 Dell486 IBM RS6000 HP Apollo Silicon Graphics Next 16MB.. 16MB.. 16MB,. 16MB.. 16MB.. ...S560 ...S690 ...S690 ...S690 ...S520 •MHIIiMl ■RnWdH^jji^jigfjijyj^ Apple Power Book* AST Premium Exec. AT&T Safari Bondwell B310 Compaq LTE386S/20 LTELite/20.5 4MB.. 4MB.. 4MB.. 1MB.. ...S260 ...S210 ...S365 ...S139 IBM 4029*** Sharp JX9500 OKI Laser 0L400 0L800/820 Panasonic KXP4420, 4450I KXP4455 KXP4410 4MB SI 65.00 1MB S75.00 2MB S120.00 2MB S135.00 4MB S210.00 2MB S135.00 2MB S195.00 4MB S215.00 1MB 2MB 8MB 1MB ! 1MB : 4MB S278 S248 S88 4MB S148 4MB S578 S88 2MB S138 S88 4MB S268 S330 ■hi g-l^i ' -lUU I ,— IU PS/2;35SX/LS,40SX,50Z,55SX/LS,57SX, 65SX/LS.70.70A21 ,B21 ,B61 ,90,95 2MB S89 4MB S170 8MB S268 DeskPro386/20.E,25,S/16,N,SX20,33M 2MB S89 4MB S170 8MB S268 LTE/286 SLT/286 Goldstar GS520 HP 95LX, Poget PC, Grid Pad SRAM Card 256K S128 512K S158 Flash Memory 1MB S248 2MB S318 Packard Bell, Magnavox, Mitsuba*** 2MB S150 4MB S290 Toshiba - T1 000SE/LE/XE.T2000SX, 11 000LE, T2200-SX, T2000SXE 1MB S88. 2MB S138 4MB S268. 8MB S478 Toshiba - TI200XE 2MB S88 Toshiba -T4400 SX/SXC. T3300. T6400 2MB S198 4MB S348 6MB S488 8MB*S698 Zenith Masters SL 2MB S126 Memog^cv (soo) soo-7056 OR (805)339-0305 FAX (805) 339-0353 , m p| Volume Discounts tar Corporations, U U VARs, Government and Universities. Circle 273 on Inquiry Card. ^ r ^ yf Desktops, Laptops, Notebooks, Laser Printers MEMORY UPGRADE KITS FOR IBM CANON COMPAQ TOSHIBA HP AST PANASONIC Tl EPSON OKIDATA THS MONTH'S SPEC ALS IMLMEMQBV HEWLeTT-PACKAFlP MfMORY PANASONIC MEMOflY TOSHIB A LASER 4019 4019c IIP III tltO IMP 1MB 2MB 3.5MB S79 109169 LASER 4029 1MB/2MB/4MB $69 99 179 1MB 2MB 3MB 4MB S69'99/149'179 IIIID 1MB/2MB/4MB $75 109 189 KX-P 4420/4450) 1MB/2MB/3MBMMB S79 109 149 1B9 KX-P 4410^4430 1MB/2MB/3MB/4MB S99 129 169 199 T1OO0 LE.SE/XE 1MB/2MB S89129 T310OSX/32OQSX 2MB S1 19 CALL TOLL FREE 24 HOURS 1-800 444-1 341 BPS INTERNATIONAL 1 16 W. Service Rd., Suite 152, Chain plain, NY 12919 Fa XJ (514) 695-481 1 Tel .( 5 1 4 ) 695- 1 569 Circle 248 on Inquiry Card. Circle 279 (RESELLERS: 280) on Inquiry Card. 2059 Camden Ave,, #330 San Jose, CA 95124 rnncim 408-559-0603 1MB SIMM 80ns $31 4MB SIMM 80ns $130 —MATH CO-PROCESSORS— 80287-XL ' 5 82.35 83S87-25 s l 17.65 80287-XLT s 82.35 83D87-33 M64.71 80387-SX25 s l 20.75 83D87-40 M89.91 80387-DXP s 199.00 2C87-12 s 64.71 80487-SX s 475.00 2C87-2G 70.59 TYPE PKG. 80ns 60ns 256K x 1 DIP 5 0.82 M.12 256K x 4 DIP s 4.52 s 4.76 lMxl DIP s 3.82 s 4.17 256K x 9 SIMM s 10.59 s 11.47 1Mx9 SIMM S 31.O0 s 38.21 ^Mx9 SIMM M 30.00 S 139.15 LOW "« WAREHOUSE ,J erchandise with prior '™™ USJf Minimum order SI 00.00. Returns require RMA; non-defective returns subjet PRICES! 15% restocking fee. ICs PROMPT DELIVERY!!! Same day shipping (usually) Quantity one prices shown for June 21,1 992 Memory for almost ALL computers 80486, 50 MHz $750 _ DYNAMIC RAM 4M Board for hp LJ's W/2MB $1 25.00 SIMM 4MB 70 ns 131.50 1MB 40 ns 70.00 1MB 53 ns 58.00 1MB 60 ns 39.00 1MB 80 ns 33.00 4Mx1 80 ns 19.50 1MX4 80 ns 20.00 ■lMxl 70 ns 4.25 1.75 4.60 SIMM SIMM SIMM SIMM 4 Mbit 4 Mbit 1 Mbit 41256 256Kx1 80 ns 44256 256Kx4 80 ns 4464 64Kx4 100ns 1.25 EPROM D28F010 128Kx8 150 ns $24.00 27C1000 128KX8 200 ns 6.30 27C512 64Kx8 120 ns 4.75 27128 16Kx8 250 ns 2.95 STATIC RAM 1 Mbit 128KX8 Real $21.50 62256LP32KX8 100 ns 5.60 Sat. del. on Fed-Ex orders received by: Th:S-2 1-4 lbs $6.25 Ft: P-1 11b $17.00 j FED-EX COD +$5.00 OPEN 6 V: DAYS, 8:00 AM-8:00PM • SHIP VIA FED-EX ON SAT. : MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED, INC | 24,000 S. Peoria Ave., Beggs, OK 74421 MasterCard/VISA or UPS CASH COD -No minimum order. ( Q1 f}\ 267-4961 I $1 for packing materials. Shipping and insurance extra. V / fcVi ■ ww ■ Circle 292 on Inquiry Card. Circle 252 on Inquiry Card. Memory/Chips/Upgrades • Miscellaneous Hardware • Multimedia Multimedia • Programmable Hardware ROM BIOS UPGRADES AMI ♦ AWARD ♦ PHOENIX ♦ MR BIOS With our six years experience in the Rom Bios Business, you can be sure we will direct you to the CORRECT SOLUTION for ALL YOUR ROM BIOS UPGRADE NEEDS. We are a FULL STOCKING BIOS DISTRIBUTOR, and we have THOUSANDS OF ROM BIOS UPGRADES. We have the Bios Upgrade for you, whether you have an Original IBM Computer or one of the many Compatibles on the market. FEATURES OF A NEW BIOS ♦ SUPPORT FOR 360K. 720K. 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB AND 2.88 MB FLOPPY DRIVES ♦ COMPLETE SETUP IN ROM ♦ VGA AND SVGA SUPPORT ♦ NOVELL AND NETWORK SUPPORT ♦ FASTER I/O SPEED ♦ DOS 5.0 SUPPORT ♦ SUPPORT FOR 46 DIFFERENT HARD DRIVES, PLUS TWO USER DEFINED ♦ IDE DRIVE SUPPORr ♦ FULL OS/2 SUPPORT ♦ PASSWORD PROTECTION ♦ FULL WINDOWS 3.1 SUPPORT ♦ LATEST VERSIONS, AND MORE.... SMART MICRO TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. "YOUR ROM BIOS UPGRADE SOLUTION" | c.o.o.l 143 Triunfo Canyon Road • Wcstlakc Village • C A91361 Fax (805) 371-0012 ORDER (800)422-9979 Local (805) U710055 • FREE (.'dialog ■ Corn. & Unit. 1'Os arc welcome • Drnlcn; welcome • Volume discounts Circle 284 on Inquiry Card. ROMX-2XL EPROM EMULATOR ORDER TOLL-FREE 800-282-4835 • Reduces development time. • Emulates thru megabit eproms. • Battery Backed, autoemulate. • Communication software included. OEM & Dealer Inquiries Welcomed! ^^^^^^« r DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE P.O. Box 2310 • Bay St. Louis, MS 39521-2310 U.S.A. J E K inc Fax:601-467-0935 Mississippi & Technical Support 601-467-8048 Circle 246 on Inquiry Card. REDUCE PC FAN NOISE BY 98%... THE SILENCER is an electronic device which monitors the internal temperature within your PC/Laser Printer and reduces the fans speed (and noise) to ensure proper cooling is achieved - BUT NO MORE. . .Typical noise reduction is 80% to 98% . . . Easy to install; built-in fail-safe, and 3 year warranty. THE SILENCER has to be heard (or not) to be fully appreciated. Take advantage of our 30 DAY NO RISK TRIAL OFFER... and join the thousands of PC users worldwide who now enjoy THE SILENCER. Mini-12VDC Silencer $69.95 Fail-Safe DC-Silencer 99.95 Laser Printer Silencer 99.95 AC-Fan Silencer 99.95 To Order Call 1-800-S1LENCE QUIET TECHNOLOGY INC. P.O. Box 18216 West Palm Beach, FL 334 16 Dealer Inf o./Fax: 407/683-6200 Circle 269 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 270). —^ »fM» -W^*~~ ■*-/*#, BiriVS^rnTimliSli *A4M SuperSound i Mi. i ■li GUI Editors from $49 I ^zH Best Value! Easy To Use Too! Digital Audio Authoring Workstations $239 - $640 Having Problems Willi liig Name Products or I TJieirTeeh Support - Try UsAnd He Pleased. Developers of Windows 3 Joolbook, Visual Basic use our DLLs, Create SuperSound, SoundBlaster, Covox, Disney Sounds; Import sound files from Mac, Amiga IBM-PC DOS DIGITAL AUDIO from $20 ^"ErpSTSf USA Made High Quality,30 Day Money-Back Guarantee • LIKE HAVING A CASSETTE TAPE RECORDER IN A PC. • No Extra Charge for Technical Support on our products. • Fastest, easiest Editors with the most features for the price. • DOS Extender Version • Up To 16 MB Working Space. • Simple hardware / software Installation- NO DMA jumpers. • Programmer's Libraries for Popular languages. Products by Silicon Shack, 4760 Castlcwood Drive, San Jose, CA 95129 Ph:408 - 446 - 4521 FAX: 408 - 446 - 5196 Tech. Info./Qrders: 800 - 969-4411 Ask for FREE PRODUCT CATALOG. rr J;iji,in. Inc. •|VI:(uJ)»72.5J<>I F.A-X: (10)959.1214 » Supers™™!. a i ir.(X) with S«W.(K) oupon Toward Purchase ol Packer Card Win Printer, Cost Effective 800 DPI Laser Printing -Host-lLised Processing. The More Pov Paster the Printing Speed. -MaiJe-tor Windows Printing 'Printing Versatility - .1 W.ns with: Windows Direci Driver. PostScript I- *H()() Dl'l Laser Printing.- 1 I'age-Per Minute ♦Upgrade Kit for your HP LaserJet Series Printers Available il Your Computer. The nilalor. PCL4 <:■■ For Order. Catalog and Price Quotes Call: Empire Computech 1-800-446-1967 Mon - Sat, 9am - 6pm %6H Hemuisa Ave. Rancho Cucamonga. CA y 17.1(1 Tel:7|.l~J6f>-l4(X) Fax:7l.L.|66-l4l)vJ il ir.nti.-n.iiiK.->. .ire rrjtlvm.irks nl itu-ir n.'-.jxxliie imnci Circle 295 on Inquiry Card. NEW! Virus Protection Power The card that provides a comprehensive and continuous protection automatically! Why choose Ihe AVP card and not ihe leading anti-virus software? Because unlike anti-virus software: AVP docs not occupy RAM memory... AVP docs not waste lime scanning your drives.. AVP is not vulnerable to viral infection... AVP provides an optional password to prevent the unauthorized use of your computer... AVP does not require software and therefore you will not need constant updates, nor can it be inadvertantly deleted AVP is easy to install, easy to use and easy to pay for! The Card...don*t leave your computer without it! Order NOW for only: pi us tax if applicable $59.95 VISA. MasterCard accepted. Dealers Welcome Call 24 hours a day (415) 244-9999 or fax your order to (415) 244-9279 Circle 293 on Inquiry Card. ^ For Your Development Needs! MODEL 9000 EPROM PROGRAMMER ■ Quick Pulse and intelligent algorithms. ■ Programs Eproms (up to 4Mb), EEproms&MPLPs. ■ Upto57Kbaud. ■ Ultra Fast! ORDER TOLL-FREE 800-282-4835 OEM & Dealer Inquiries Welcomed! m mm ^ m ^^ mw DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE _ -, P.O. Box 2310 'Bay St. Louis, MS 39521-2310 U.S.A. F K inc Fax:601-467-0935 ' Mississippi & Technical Support 601-467-8048 Circle 247 on Inquiry Card. Programmable Hardware Tape Drives • Communications/Networking «- --■"■■. V"' Hardware for IBM PC/AT, Micro Channel, li'kv" '"'i \ Sun ' Macintosh * DEC, and NeXT, Software for DOS, Windows, UNIX, VMS, 1 menu- and icon-driven environments. IEEE 488 extenders, analyzers, converters, analog I/O, and digital I/O. \iltriittW ttttttW ) Call for your free IEEE catalog Dtech lOtech, Inc. • 21 6.439.4091 • Fax 21 6.439.4093 Circle 249 on Inquiry Card. UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER, EMULATOR, & TESTER TUP-400 $745.00 NEW TUP-300 $575.00 ■ New Improved hardware and software. ■ The most complete PC-based Universal Programmer, Programs PLD (PAL, GAL, FPL, EPLD, PEEL, MAX, MACH...), E(E)PR0M, {up to 16Mbit), Flash EPROM, BPROM, Special PROM, MPU (87XX, 68XX, Z8, PSD301, PIC16XX, TMS320EXX, UPD75PXXX, HD637XXX...). ■ Covers DIP, PLCC, QFP,S0P, and PGA with 8 to 84 pins. GangProgamming adapters available also. ■ EPROM EMULATION capability. ■ Tests digital ICs and DRAMs (SIMM/SIP adapter available). ■ Free software updates and new device added upon request. ■ IC Manufacturers' approval. ■ 1-year warranty, 30-day money-back guarantee, CALL TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION. Distributors are welcome! I We accept Trade-ins for ANY programmer. I Call about our Rent- a-programmer/emulator plan. Tribal Microsystems Inc. Tel (510) 623-8859 | 44388 S. GRIMMER BLVD., FREMONT, CA 94538 FAX (51 0) 623-9925 Circle 264 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 265). SUPERPRO® now $599 (US only) Over 2,000 devices, desktop programmer for your IBM PC with high speed & reliability • Easy to use menu driven Software. • Universal programming tor E(E)PROM, Flash E(E)PROM, Bipolar PROM, PAL, FPL, PEEL, GAL. E(E)PLD, & Microcontroller, etc. • Test TTL/CMOS logic ICs, & memory (DRAM/SRAM). • Life time free Software updates on BBS & technical support. • 1 year Hardware warranty & 30 day money back guarantee. • Developed & made in U.S.A. • Call for demo disk. Distributors are welcome!! E{E)PROM programmer to 4-Mbit • ROM MASTER: $149 E(E)PROM programmer 4 gang version • ROM MASTER/4: $239 757 N. Pastoria Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408)524-1929 FAX (408) 245-7084 BBS (408) 245-7082 XEITEK Circle 266 on Inquiry Card. MICROCONTROLLERS • C Programmable • Data Acquisition ■ Control /Test ► Excellent Support ►From $159 Qty1 * New Keyboard Display Modules Use our Little Giant™ and Tiny Giant™ miniature controllers to computerize your product, plant or test department. Features built-in power supply, digital I/O to 48+ lines, serial I/O (RS232 / RS485), A/D converters to 20 bits, solenoid drivers, time of day clock, battery backed memory, watchdog, field wiring connectors, up to 8 X 40 LCD with graphics, and more! Our $195 interactive Dynamic C™ makes serious software development easy. You're only one phone call awayfrom atotal solution. Z-World Engineering 1724 Picasso Ave., Davis, CA 95616 (916) 757-3737 Fax: (916) 753-5141 Automatic Fax: (916) 753-0618 (Call from your fax, request catalog #18) Circle 267 on Inquiry Card. 9 Track/3480 Tape Subsystems 1/4" DAT 8mm Optical • Best Quality • Lowest Prices 800/1600/3200/6250 BPI CALL 1-800-859-8856 A, Laguna Data Systems 23151 Alcalde Drive, Suite B-3, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 Tel: 714-586-3010, Fax: 714-586-5538 Circle 250 on Inquiry Card. THE BEST 9-TRACK? WELL, WE HATE TO BOAST. But, if you insist... 800-729-8725 OV£RLRND am TEL: 619-571-5555 ■ FAX: 619-571-0982 ■ EUROPE: TEL: 49-6172-35027 • FAX: 49-6172-35028 Circle 255 on Inquiry Card. Desktop 9-Track Tape Subsystem #1 -selling 9-track system on desktop. Qualstar's low cost 1/2-inch 9-track Streaming tape systems bring full ANSI data interchange to IBM AT, PS/2 or Macintosh, giving your micro the freedom to exchange data files with nearly any mainframe or minicomputer in the world. Systems include DOS or Xenix compatible software, coupler card and cables. High reliability 1600 or 6250 BPI capability may be used for disk backup as well as data interchange. Call us today! For details and to order: Fax (818)882-4081 * Phone (818) 882-5822 9621 Irondale Ave., Chatsworth CA 91311 ©1 989 Qualstar Corp. All product and company names and trademarks are the exclusive property of their respective owners. flURLSTRR Circle 257 on Inquiry Card. EM320 W I w DEC VT320 Emulation for Microsoft Windows 3.X 1 132 column display • Cut and paste ' Kermit file transfer • Windows style help • Local or ANSI color ' Multiple instances • Automatic window sizing • Double high/wide characters • LAT, INT 14 or TCP/IP support • Modem dialer/Phone book • Command language • International character sets Diversified Computer Systems, inc. (303) 447-9251 FAX (303) 447-1406 Other products: EM320DOS, Tektronix 4105 DOS Circle 242 on Inquiry Card. ATIOITST 1QQO . RVTF CAD/CAM • Data Acquisitions What have Mercedes, Motorola and 3M in common? They all make high-quality products. And they all use our PC Board Software. EAGLE 2.6 Schematic • PCB Layout Editor • Autorouter Many many other well-known big companies as well as middle- sized and small businesses use EAGLE for designing their PC boards. Why? □ Unlike many other PCB programs, EAGLE has virtual- ly no limitations. You can design any board on your AT compatible computer which can be manufactured. □ EAGLE is veiy low priced and already with the first layout you will receive an immediate return on your investment. □ EAGLE is veiy easy to under- stand and to use. This again saves you money. What do experts say about EAGLE? The Dec. 91 issue of EDN listed EAGLE as one of the best products of the last six months. Electronics World + Wireless World: "...it will quickly become the sort of tool that you cannot live without..." But we want you to find out yourself. Call for our working demo which comes with the original manual. EAGLE Demo $ 12 EAGLE Layout Editor $399 inc. drivers and libraries Schematic Module $399 Autorouter Module $399 6 To order call toll-free 1-800-858-8355 CadSoft Computer, Inc. • 801 S. Federal Highway Delray Beach, FL 33483 • Fax (407) 274-8218 Circle 283 on Inquiry Card. DSP ■ >■.,:., , ■ ^M PP0*^ : : nKTBOMMTS; Digital This eight-p processing Macintosh sonar, audi possible c Instruments chips devel innovative a 6504 E ( Signal Processing on age brochure describes plug-in c ; boards and software for F NuBus computers. Real-time o, acoustic, and vibration sign n the PC with DSP boards integrates the powerful floating oped by AT&T and Texas Instr irchitectures on the plug-in DSP National Instruments Jridge Point Parkway, Austin, TX (512) 794-0100 300) 433-3488 (U.S. and Canada Fax (512) 794-8411 the PC ligital signal >C AT and analysis of als is made . National '-point DSP uments into boards. 78730 ) Education • Engineering/Scientific • Mathmaiical/Stafistical EARN YOUR COLLEGE DEGREE AT HOME In Compute*- Science Get the opportunity and earning power a college degree confers— without leaving home and without spending thousands of dollars. * Approved for tuition reimbursement by leading corporations * ALL COURSES BY CORRESPONDENCE * Most courses interactive * Approved Ada course available * Qualified instructors available on telephone help lines AMERICAN INSTITUTE Phone: 1-205-323-6191 *FAX: 1-205-328-2229 2101 BYX Magnolia Ave. • Suite 200 • B'ham, AL 35205 COMPUTER CIENCES Tbeteadnyedxe oflvarnlng Circle 281 on Inquiry Card. 4^ Make this your "leap" year with JiMP®Statistical Discovery Software I nis application can do the jobs of as many as six sepa- rate programs and do them all well. Yet it is not overly complicated or bulky. ..We believe that JMP is an excellent value and will make short work of all but the most demanding mainframe-oriented data-analysis chores. " MacWEEK Call today for a free demo disk and Points of Interest from the leading name in data analysis softwarc.SAS Institute Inc. 919- 677-8000. Fax 919-677 8166. JMP is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc. Copyright © 1992 Circle 254 on Inquiry Card. Circle 258 on Inquiry Card. Programming Languages/Tools RS-232++ Greenleaf Comm++™ Asynchronous Comm Class Library Q C++ class library for DOS, Windows 3.x and OS/2. □ Device independence through inheritance. ^ Supports Zortech, Microsoft 7.0, JPI and Borland C++. Q IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 and compatibles. a COM1 ..COM8, and DigiBoard. Baud rates to 115,200. XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS flow controls. XMODEM, Kermit file transfer protocols. VT52, VT100 subset, ANSI & TTY terminal emulation. Hayes modem control classes. Line and link level controls & status. ^ Extensive examples help you get started with OOP applications using communications. ■ FREE Source Code ■ FREE Unlimited Support ■ No Royalties ■ Money-Back Guarantee ■ Top Rated Documentation m% greenleaf CALL (800)523-9830 NOW! ■7'l ■far- Circle 244 on Inquiry Card. 'Makes your CTSRs smaller than you could imagine." Mark Davidson, Computer Language CodeRunneR] The #1 TSR Library for C and ASM ■ 300+ functions in highly optimized assembler ■ Auto-Disposal of initialization code and data ■ Hotkeys, schedulers, fast background COMs ■ Safe DOS use from TSRs, Network Friendly ■ Online hypertext help, Quick start templates ■ Swap apps or graphics to EMS/XMS, spawn ... Pick of the Professionals "cream of the crop" Tom Swan, PC World "highly useful" R. Bradley Andrews, DDJ "not only solves problems, it inspires new possibilities. It is destined for the programmer's Hall of Fame" Joe Campbell, Author C Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications the size of any program you create with CodeRunneR Will aStOUnd yOU" Mark Davidson, Computer Language "excells in its TSR capabilities, coexistence with other DOS applications and support" Victor R. Volkman, The C Users Journal "professional development tool that'll let you create COmpaCt, faSt TSRS" Gary Entsminger, Micro Cornucopia mnint~-\ Omega Point, Inc. **■■■» J 25 Birch Rd., Framingham, MA 01701 Omega Point. Inc. 508 877-1819 FAX: 508 877-0915 Programming Languages/Tools • UNIX APL Complete APL system $60. PC, 386, WINDOWS. Ken's new APL for teaching and research. Uses ASCII. Shareware and documentation $24. Source $90. Iverson Software Inc. 33 Major St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2K9 Phone (416) 925-6096 Fax (416) 488-7559 . / Circle 294 on Inquiry Card. Cross Assemblers, Simulators, Disassemblers Processor Families: 8051 8096 8048 Z80 64180 6301 6805 6800 1802 6811 6502 68k 8085 6801 Z8 Join Thousands of Satisfied Customers Worldwide. Call: PseudoCorp 716 Thimble Shoals Blvd., Newport News, V A 23606 Tel: (804) 873-1947 • Fax: (804) 873-2154 Circle 256 on Inquiry Card. YOU CAN TRUST YOUR TAR... WITH THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR.. QIC02" t„. ....... $ 99 ss SCSI' «p. ».i.«. »99^s DtmJmr imtfmlrlmt Wmltomml UNIX TAR FOR DOS Transfer large files between UNIX & DOS with ease on floppy or data cartridge. DOS-TAR'" can read or write standard UNIX or XENIX "tar" media on your DOS PC Your UNIX or XENIX computer can read DOS-TAR '"media with standard "tar". Automatically converts file name and lilo data when translering from UNIX to DOS, or DOS to UNIX. SCSI driver is incredibly fast and reliable. Supports most SCSI tape drivers including 8mm Exabyte, 4mm Dat, Reel-to-Reel, 1/4 inch OIC-24. OIC-120, QIC-150. OIC-525. The OIC-02 driver supports many controllers such as Everex, Archive. Wangtek, Archive Fast Tape, and more. Can backup NOVELL*" or LANTASTIC '" networks. Automatic unattended scheduling capability. Can position tape to any file mark you want. Tape Drivers Stream in most cases with state-ol-the-art double buffering. DOS easy Iront-end menu system with full color control, etc. ■ Ability to "SALVAGE" Data from a failing hard disk with bad sectors. Volume number checking on restore prevents restoring out of sequence ■ Non-destructive restore, option prevents clobbering existing files. - True Verification mode. - Master & Incremental Backup capability. - ERROR RECOVERY from corrupted media 9m VISA* CACTUS INTERNATIONAL* I XL Circle 296 on Inquiry Card. Circle 299 on Inquiry Card. ATTOTTST 1QQ? . RYTF QAQ Utilities • Windows Windows • Books/Publications Dive Deeper Into Your Hard Drive than ever before | jfejjftg i si?.- USE No more DEBUG - Finds & executes controller's on-board firmware. No more FDISK - Full featured partition table creator and editor. No more SETUP - View and edit BIOS drive type table, set CMOS. No more FORMAT - DOS format with operating system transfer. No more BIOS DRIVE TABLE LIMITATIONS Custom drive types for any bios. For Complete Information: 1-800-926-8299 Limited Time Offer $99.95 FAX BBS IrivePrd anal Hard Drive Setup 303-443-3323 303-443-9957 HOUSE Circle 278 on Inquiry Card. JOIST DOS like operation! Copy, delete, move and more! You can operate files just like MS- DOS commands. Rcq. Windows Environment 3.5 & 5 (2DD) disk include $58,00- (until end of Sept., $49.50-) VISA/MC/AMEX tectamm, Inc 401. AvalonDrive South San Francisco, CA 94080 tel: (415) 873-5188 Circle 300 on Inquiry Card. ILLUSTRATION BY: JOANNE COUGHLIN © ColorFax ColorFax for Windows - only for those who view the world in color. 4*r Black Ice Software, Inc. x f| Crane Road, Somers, NY 10589 II Tel: (914)277-7006 Fax (914) 276-8418 M/C / Visa / C.O.D. / Check VIDEO FRAME GRABBERS RECORD TO VCR AND TV MONITORS. PCX, TIF, GIF, and more file formats. IBM PC/XT/ AT Compatible, NTSC & PAL VGA VIDEO GALA $695.00 Three boards in one: 1} Its a SuperVGA board which replaces your existing graphics board. 2) It has recordable output to VCRs and TVs. 3) Live video in a scalable window and frame grabbing in 24 bit true color. GALA GS $595.00 Greyscale (256 shades) real timeframe grabber. 512 X 512 resolution, 640 X 480 optional. HRT 512-8 $995.00 Multifeatured (LUT, video output, overlay etc) high performance industrial model with a free image processing library. Rock solid Real time capture, 512 X 512 with 256 shades of grey. Both PAL & NTSC supported as well as non standard rates. V HIGHRES TECHNOLOGIES ISC. P.O. Box 76, Lewiston, New York 14092 U.S.A. Tel: 416-497-6493 Ext. 0101 Fax: 416-497-1636 Dept. 0101 Circle 302 on Inquiry Card. BYTE Breaks the 4-Color Price Barrier with the Hardware/Software Showcase See how affordable it is to advertise to BYTE's 500,000 computer professionals in this section! ■ Call for more advertising information: (603) 924-2695 or (603) 924-2598 ar sk otscounr No clubs, memberships, or cards to return. Just the books you want at really great prices! COMPARE Call toll free for titles you don't see or to get catalog! List Ours* Windows 3.1 Secrets, IDG, 980 pgs, 3 disks, 20% off 39.95 31.95 Windows 3.1 Intern, 800 pgs.l disk NEW! 39.95 34.05 PC Intern, Abacus, 1320 pages, ldisk NEW! 59.95 50.96 Running LANtastic, Bantam, 608 pages 27.95 23 . 85 Borland's C + + Handbook, 2nd Ed., Bant.,896 pages 29.95 25.55 Turbo C + + f or Windows Inside and Out,OSBO,450pgs 27.95 23.76 Object Vision Developer's Guide, Bantam, 640 pages 26.95 23.05 Clipper 5: Developer's Guide, M&T, 1349 pgs, 1 disk 44.95 38.20 Paradox 3.5 Power Prog Techn, IDG, 754 pgs, 1 disk 39.95 33.95 Windows 3 . 1 Prog Ref-Vol 1-4, MSPress,2280 pages 122.80 104.38 Waite Group Visual Basic Super Bible, 744 pages 39.95 33.96 Undocumented Windows:Prog Gd to Resvd API Funcs 39.95 33.96 Design of OS/2, 400pgs 40.95/34.81 Using OS/2 2.0 24.95 21.21 ♦add S3.25 per book UPS shipping in US. Call for other shipping rates or see catalog. We carry books from over 35 publishers and specialize in heavy technical books for users, developers and trainers. Our experienced staff can find the books you need. Two for one UPS shipping in the US for 4+ books. We ship worldwide fastest or cheapest. CompuBooks Vie Discount Computer Book People Route 1, Box271-D Cedar Creek, TX 78612 , USA Order Line (800) 880-6818 8 AM - 5 PM CST Mon to Fri GMT+5 Voice & FAX 512-321-9652 GO CBK 24 hrs.on CompuServe Circle 271 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 272). 9AA DVTC . ATTHITQT 1QQO Circle 274 on Inquiry Card. THE BUYER'S MART A DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THE BUYER'S MART is a monthly advertising section which enables readers to locate suppliers by product category. As a unique feature, each BUYER'S MART ad includes a Reader Service number to assist interested readers in requesting information from participating advertisers. Effective January 1,1992. RATES: 3 issues-$625 6 issues-$600 12 issues-$525 13 issues-$500 Prepayment must accompany each insertion. VISA/MC Accepted. AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Advertisers must furnish typewritten copy. Ads can include headline (23 characters maximum), descriptive text (250 characters is recommended, but up to 350 characters can be accommodated) plus company name, address and telephone number. Do not send logos or camera-ready artwork. DEADLINE: Ad copy is due approximately 2 months prior to issue date. For exam- ple: November issue closes on September 8. Send your copy and payment to THE BUYER'S MART, BYTEMagazine, 1 Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more information calll Margot Gnade at 603-924-2656. FAX: 603-9244-2683. ACADEMIC COMPUTING ACCESSORIES BAR CODE LEARN PARALLEL PROCESSING Transputer Education Kit $396 Kit includes ready-to-use PC add-in board with T400 transputer. 1MB of RAM, and PC interface. Complete with Occam2 and C compilers, assembler, source-level debuggers, example programs, and 1500 pages of documentation (incl. schematics). Expandable ! Computer System Architects 100 Library Plaza, 15 North 100 East, Provo UT 84606-3100 (800) 753-4CSA (801)374-2300 FAX(801) 374-2306 Inquiry 701. HEWLETT PACKARD Buy - Sell - Trade LaserJet ColorPro DeskJet DraftPro RuggedWriter DraltMaster Electrostatic Plotters • Monochrome and Color HP 9000 Workstations and Vectras also available. T. E. Dasher & Associates 4117 Second Ave., S. Birmingham. AL 35222 Phone: (205) 591-4747 Fax: (205) 591-1108 (800) 638-4833 ACCESSORIES Inquiry 705. ASSEMBLER PRE-PROCESSORS PRINT BAR CODES/BIG TEXT FROM YOUR PROGRAM Add b a r codes and big graphics characters t o your program. Print from ANY MS-DOS language. Bar codes: UPC, EAN, 2 of 5, MSI, Code 39. Epson, Oki, IBM dot matrix text up to W. LaserJet up to 2". Font cartridges not required. S179-S239. 30-day $$ back. Worthington Data Solutions 417-A Ingalls St.. Santa Cruz. CA 95060 (408) 458-9938 (800) 345-4220 RADIOACTIVE? Plot it on your PC with The RM-60 RADIATION MONITOR Serai or printerport. Detects: ALPHA • BETA • GAMMA • X-RAY. MicroR, 1000 times the resolution of standard geiger counters. Excellent (or tracking RADON GAS. Find sources. New: Version 2.B + WINDOWS. Plot: • Background • Cosmic Rays • Clouds • Foods CallMrite for PC MAGAZINE review. • TSR • GM Tube VISA/MC/EURO Phone orders. Not satisfied? Full refund. 800-729-5397 or Tel/Fax: (302) 655-3800 Aware Electronics Corp. P.O.Box 4299, Wilmington. DE 1 9807 $1 49.50 CUT RIBBON COSTS Re-ink your printer ribbons quickly and easily. Do all cartridge ribbons with just one inker! For crisp, black professional print since 1 982. You can choose from 3 models: Mapua| £2qq | n ker-S39.50 Electric E-Zee lnker-S94.50 Ink Master (El ectric)-S1 89.00 1000s of satisfied users. Money-back guarantee. BORG INDUSTRIES 525 MAIN ST., JANESVILLE, IA 50647 1-800-553-2404 In IA: 319-987-2976 LISTEN up you ASSEMBLER nuts! S-ASM Structured Assembler Preprocessor * Adds high level verbs to 286 Assembly code * Generates the most efficient code ever * No registers are used in verb generation * Can preprocess any size source program * Increase your productivity by 400% or more $49 Limited Time Special Offer so ORDER TODAY!! Software Tools, Inc. 825 East Roosevelt Road Suite 182 Lombard. IL 60148 Call (708) 776-7061 for Info. Inquiry 706. BAR CODE LABELING SOFTWARE On EPSON, IBM, OKI dot matrix or LaserJet. Flexible design on one easy screen. Any format/size. Up to 120 fields/label. 18 text sizes to 3"-readable at 100'. AIAG, MIL-STD, 2 of 5, 128, UPC/EAN, Code 39. File Input & Scanned logos/symbols (PCX)— $279. Other programs from $49 30-day $$ back. Worthington Data Solutions 417-A Ingalls St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (408) 458 -9938 (800) 345-4220 Inquiry 702. BAR CODE READERS Keyboard emulation for PC/XT/AT & PS/2's, all clones and any RS-232 Terminal. Transparent to your operating system. Available with Steel wands, Lasers, Slot & Magstripe Readers. Same day shipping. 30-day money-back guarantee. One-year warranty. Reseller discounts available. AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 2190 A Regal Parkway. Euless, TX 76040 (800) 648-4452 (817) 571-9015 FAX (817) 685-6232 BAR CODE PRINTING SOFTWARE • MS/PC DOS SYSTEMS • 9 & 24 PIN DOT MATRIX • H-P LASER JET/PLUS/SERIES II • MENU-DRIVEN or MEMORY RESIDENT • CODE 39, I 2/5, UPC A/E, EAN 8/13 • BIG TEXT & BAR CODE SOFTFONTS AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 2190 A Regal Parkway, Euless, TX 76040 (800)648-4452 (817)571-9015 FAX (817) 685-6232 KEYBOARD, VIDEO, MOUSE, AUDIO Extend signals from PC with EXTENDER Split signals with COMPANION/PC EXPANDER Switchsignals among PCs with COMMANDER Boosts signals up to 600 feet. Control up to 96 PCs with one keyboard, monitor and mouse. CYBEX CORPORATION 2800H Bob Wallace Ave.. Huntsville. AL 35805 Phone: 205-534-0011 Fax: 205-534-0010 BAR CODE READERS For PC, XT, AT, & PS/2, Macintosh, and any RS- 232 terminal. Acts like 2nd keyboard, bar codes read as keyed data. With steel wand-$399. Top rated in independent reviews. Works with DOS, Xenix, Novell, Alloy, -ALL software. Lasers, magstripe, & slot badge readers. 30-day $$ back. Worthington Data Solutions 4 1 7-A Ingalls St.. Santa Cruz. C A 95060 (408) 458-9938 (800) 345-4220 Inquiry 703. PORTABLE BAR CODE READER Battery operated, handheld reader with 64K RAM, 54 key keyboard, real-time clock, 2X16 LCD display, and built-in calculator. Supports WAND, CCD, and LASER. Built-in program generator supports multiple programs and data files. Interfaces to PC & PS/2 keyboards, RS-232 terminals, and HAYES compatible modems. 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 2190 A Regal Parkway, Euless, TX 76040 (800)648-4452 (817)571-9015 FAX (817) 685-6232 TAKING PC OVERSEAS? We've Got 220V/ 1 15V Converters All Wattages Your Converter & Cable Connection Source! Cables • Books • Computer Batteries No. California's Largest "In-Stock" Computer Supplies & Parts Inventory (800) 321-4524 (CA) (800)548-7135 (US/Can) ELECTRONICS PLUS inc. Inquiry 704. PORTABLE READER Battery-operated, handheld reader with 64K static RAM, 2x16 LCD display, 32-key keyboard, Real- Time-Clock. Wand or laser scanner. Program prompts and data checking through its own key- board. Easy data transfer by RS-232 port or PC, PS/2 keyboard. Doubles as On-Line Reader. 30-day $$ back. Worthington Data Solutions 417-A Ingalls St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (408) 458-9938 (800) 345-4220 BAR CODE READERS Complete line of bar code reading hardware and software for PC/XT/AT/PS/2 & terminals. Reads all major symbologies (39, I2/5, UPC/EAN). Laser scanners, badge slot & mag stripe readers. We can assist in any stationary or portable application. 30-day SS back. 1 year warranty. Reseller discount. We speak Spanish! BARCODE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS 9190 Palm Canyon Dr., Corona, CA 91719 (714)277-1917 FAX: (714) 277-1005 Inquiry 707. AUGUST 1 992 • BYTE 345 THE BUYER'S MART BAR CODE BAR CODE CAD PRINT & READ BAR CODES! The Standard Edition of KNOW-WEDGE for CODE 39 Complete with Stainless Steel Wand. Includes FREE barcode printing software! ONLY $159.00. For alternative hardware or software solutions CALL COMPUTER RESOURCES GROUP 629 Silverdale Drive, Claremont, C A 91711 VOICE: (714) 624-8734 BBS: (714) 626-1054 VARIANT MICROSYSTEMS BAR CODE READERS DELIVER WAND/LASER/MAGNETIC CARD CONNECTIVITY - Keyboard wedges (Internal/External) for IBM PC/XT/AT, PS/2, and portables • RS232 wedges for WYSE, Link, Kimlron terminals • Bar code and label printing software • Full two-year warranty • 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee • Extensive VAR/Dealer Discounts 46560 Freemont Blvd., Suite 206/Freemont,CA 94538/(510) 440-2870 800-666-4BAR FAX: (415) 623-1372 Draws Air Conditioning Duct Parametrically Inside AutoCAD 3D Package $325 2D Package $125 o -:• Round, Rectangular, Flex Duct >- <-» ^ ^ *;• Reducers, Spinins, Extractors q f 52 o %♦ Radius, Rounded, Mitered Corners °«^° ^ ♦ Rises, Drops, Transitions, Tees zio^S »- ♦ Duct Editor, Pop-Down Menu < g o S MC SQUARED CAD SUPPORT GROUP 8 (512) 824-4106 Fax: (512) 824-4633 Inquiry 708. nquiry712. Inquiry 718. BAR CODE WEDGE & WAND: $188 (List S300) AGGRESSIVE PRICING!... Software-transparent PC KEYBOARD EMULATION WEDGE DECODER autosetects all popular bar codes, with STAINLESS STEEL, RUBY-TIP WAND (RS-232 add $30). MAGNETIC STRIPE readers/writers. PORTABLE READERS. OPTICAL MARK {test form) readers. TIMECLOCKS & facility entry security. LASERS, CCD scanners, slot (badge) readers, SOFTWARE lor bar code printing. Reseller discounts. 30-day money back. DATA HUNTER 6181 Medford, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 (714) 892-5461 Fax 71 4-892-9768 LABEL SOFTWARE...$299.95 WYSIWYG for HP, Epson andpopularTHERMAL/TTR. Print from ASCII, Screen, Command Line or Database. PORTABLE SOFTWARE $199.95 RS422/RF MGT SFT S999.95 DOS/NOVELL/UNIX - Easy to use - Most Popular HWD Also Inventory - Tool - Warranty- Asset $999.95 ea. WINTERCAMP TECHNOLOGIES PO BOX 1875, Ramona CA 92065 (619) 788-9660 FAX (619) 788-9690 Inquiry 713. BASIC LANGUAGE TOOLS PCB & SCHEMATIC CAD-$195 "EASY-PC" for single-sided and multilayer boards to 17"x17" with up to 1500 ICs including surface mount. Phenomenally fast and easy to use. Over 11,000 copies sold. Needs PC/XT/286/386 HERC/CGA/ EGA/VGA. Output to laserjet/inkjet/dot matrix printer, pen-plotter, photo-plotter and NC Drill. Not copy protected. VISA/MC/AMEX welcome. For full info circle inquiry # or contact us directly. NUMBER ONE SYSTEMS LTD. Harding Way, St. Ives, Huntingdon, Cambs, England, PE17 4WR Tel: 011-44-480-61778 Fax: 011-44-480-494042 Inquiry 719. I. T. S. Bar Code Solutions Bar codes are easy using our FULL line of readers & printers. They plug and play with your existing CPU/printer/terminals/ software systems in your office, store, truck, factory or warehouse. ITS' bar code DOS programs print on matrix or laser printers. 30 day refund. 1 year warranty. OEM/VAR/ Dealer discounts. International Technologies & Systems Corp. 655-K North Berry St., Brea, CA 92621 - Western USA 13 Welwyn Court, Richmond, VA 23229 - Eastern USA (800)228-9487 (714)990-1880 (804)741-6725 (FAX) 990-2503 BASIC TOOLBOX -$99 Advanced BASIC library for the serious MS BASIC PDS 7 & 7.1 and QuickBasic 4.5 programmer. Complete library com- prised of nearly 350 routines including the following: file manipulation, string handling, mathematical, input fields, bit arrays, mouse, array management, memory manipulation, dos routines, list boxes, 2-D file scrolling/windowing, more. CALL (409) 832-6510 AMERICAN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP PO Box 1375, Beaumont, TX 77704 VIEW CAD DRAWINGS SirlinVIEW allows non-CAD users to view AutoCAD DWG, DXF & HPGL files on PCs. Print, Plot, attach notes and hyper-link between files. Change views and layers. Accurate! Query databases to locate & highlight objects on the screen. Also, linkable SirlinVIEW/LIB allows developers to add viewing capabilities to their own applications. Sirlin Computer Corporation 25 Orchard View Dr., Ste.14, Londonderry, NH 03053 (603) 437-0727 Fax: (603) 437-0737 Inquiry 709. Inquiry 714. Inquiry 720. PC BAR CODE SPECIALISTS Bar code readers designed for fast, reliable, cost- effective data entry. They emulate your keyboard, so scanned data looks just like it was typed in! Choose from stainless steel wand, laser gun, card slot reader, and magnetic stripe scanner. Also, powerful Bar Code and Text printing software. Great warranty. Generous dealer discounts. Seagull Scientific Systems 15127 N.E. 24th, Suite333, Redmond, WA 98052 1 -800-758-2001 206-451-8966 BASIC Pop-Ups Want to add text-based mouse integration, pull- down menus, pop-up windows, scroll bars and much much more to your Quick-Basic Programs? Then order the IB Library NOW. Only US$40. Includes library, demo program with source and documentation. Easy and quick to use. Dual Media. UHLIK Software GPO Box 1842, HobartTas 7001 , Australia Inquiry 715. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AUTOCAD USERS Increase your productivity with AutoMate/PRO™ graphical display list software for Release 10(386) 1 1 & 12. • user definable icon menus • movable, resizable bird's eye view • real-time anti-aliasing • magnifying glass • real-time pan & zoom • Quick Menu • True Clean feature • enhanced shading support • supports VGA & TIGA at any resolution Only $295. Money-back guarantee. Call Vermont Microsystems 1-800-354-0055 1-802-655-2860 Inquiry 721. CAD/CAM BAR CODE LABELER 2.1 Supports laser, bubblejet and dot matrix printers; menu driven, easy to use. User definable resolution/height, 1 or many copies/ batch. Supports 16 symbologies. Print functional, low cost bar code labels! $99.00 SJ Programs 1127 S. Patrick Drive, S.18, Satellite Beach, FL 32937 TEL: (407) 984-1900 FAX: (407) 777-7600 Inquiry 710. BE YOUR OWN BOSS The Resellers Development Program contains the inside industry information you need to start your own computer products sales business fast, guaranteed! How to set up accounts, order product catalogs, get financing from the nation's top computer product distributors. Unlimited opportunity. The Resellers First Resource Company 1 860 E. Pass Rd., Gulfport, MS 39507 1-800-524-4909 (601)896-1775 Inquiry 716. CONTOURING MOTION CONTROL FROM A PRINTER PORT! _ _ _ a fi-i/i/ lndexerl_PT rM software $249 NEW VERSION 3 visa/mc • Controls up to six step motors simultaneously. • Linear and Circular Interpolation. • New features to accommodate machine control. • Easy-to-use DOS device driver. Super Manual. • CAD-CAM interface available. . . ... -. Corporation, 1422 Arnold Ave. Abil itv SvstGms *^< ^ 19001 (215) 557-4338 ' * FAX: (215) 657-7815 Inquiry 722. CD-ROM DATA INPUT DEVICES Bar Code. Magnetic Stripe Readers & SmartCard Encoder/ Reader for microcomputers & terminals, including IBM PS/2 & others, DEC, Macintosh, AT&T, CT, Wyse, Wang. All readers connect on the keyboard cable & are transparent to all software. UPC & 39 print programs, magnetic encoders, & portable readers are also available. TPS Electronics 4047 Transport, Palo Alto, C A 94303 415-856-6833 Telex 371-9097 TPS PLA 1-800-526-5920 FAX: 415-856-3843 Inquiry 711. 346 BYTE -AUGUST 1992 NEW! Power Tools for AutoCAD® GT Express Professional™ 3.0 The Leading Display List Software. Includes: • Up to 1280 x 1024 resolution and 256 colors • TIGA, VGA, Super VGA, 8514/A, SPARC • Flexicon ™ - User Definable Menus • Powerful Utilities • AutoCLlC™ - Productivity Breakthrough ARTIST SOFTWARE Free Demo Disk 1-800-999-9678 Fax # 612-631-7802 Inquiry 717. CD-ROM DRIVE & 10 FREE DISCS High Performance CD-ROM drive: DOS/MPC: Encyclopedia, Atlas, Mammals, Shareware, Danger Hot Stuff, Games II, Wild Places, World View, Crossword Cracker, Demonstration Disc. S499.00 (Plus Freight) Free Catalog (Overseas send $5.00) Hundreds of discs and optical products. CD ROM. Inc. 1 667 Cole Blvd., #400, Golden, CO 80401 Orders: 800-821-5245 Questions: 303-231-9373 Fax: 303-231-9581 Inquiry 723. CD-ROM COMPUTER SYSTEMS DATA/DISK CONVERSION * Simtet MSDOS CO-ROM: Find what you need, when you need it. 550+ meg in 8300 files have the best utilities, applications, editors, programming tools, source code, etc. Thoroughly indexed, BBS ready. Produced June 92. $24.95 * Unix/MSDOS Source CD-ROM: Stop reinventing the wheel. 600+ meg of source code, internet comp. sources.*, Simtel Unix- C, lots of MSDOS source. Thousands of complete working programs i n C. Asm, Pascal, etc. March 1992. $39.95 •ISO9660, fully guaranteed. visa/MC/COD S&H S5, S10 air overseas. WALNUT CREEK CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes Suite 260 Walnut Creek C A 94596 1800 7869907 +1500 947 5996 +1 500 947 1644 (fax) Inquiry 724. COMMUNICATION/VOICE MAIL MULTIPROCESSOR BASED SYSTEMS OS $50 up; Lan/Wan Batch job Qing & Scheduling $99, Remote Control $50 up. Multi-PC's: e.g. 486-33=$999, 386- 33=$699. 286-20=$365; (case + 1Meg+ 1.44FD/IDE + 10). Components; Multiprocessor, Transputer & accelerator cards. Svga, Hd, Ram, MultiPc housing, switches & cables, etc. Apps: Neural Nets, Distributed Apps., Al. Your single source for Lan/Wan/Pc multiprocessing. MB Scientific 7432 Lake Willis Drive, Orlando, FL 32821 PH: (407) 238-1451 FAX: (407) 238-0324 Inquiry 730. QUALITY CONVERSIONS t oo r from virtually ANY TAPE OR DISK FORMAT! Horan Data Services converts and translates data to/from 9-TRACK TAPE, 3480, 8MM, 4MM, V<" CARTRIDGES AND ALL SIZES & DENSITIES OF DISKETTES. Thousands of formats supported including EBCDIC, ASCII, databases, dedicated and PC word processors and typesetters. Call 1-800-677-8885 Hours 8:00 AM t o 5:30 P M Eastern Time 817 Main Street, Third Floor, Cincinnati OH 45202 Inquiry 736. CROSS ASSEMBLERS VOICE/FAX MAIL HEADQUARTERS Affordable; Full Featured; Menu Driven Voicemail • Bigmouth $195 • Faxmouth $99 ■ Telemarket $79 • Tavis Talk 4 Liner (Hardware/Software) $1495 •Ta vis Voice/Fax Mail (Hardware/Software) $1995 • Custom Software Application Specialist (KCI) K.I.S.S. Communications, Int'l 34 Robbie Ave., North York, Ontario M3H 1 Y4 Voice (416) 633-0351 Fax (416) 638-8512 Inquiry 725. CROSS ASSEMBLERS Fast, reliable with unlimited length of source code. Conditional assembly, complete set of arithmetic and logical operators. Optional listing with sorted Cross-reference Table. Price S100.00 each. SIMULATOR-DEBUGGERS/DISASSEMBLERS We offer excellent full-function simulators with built-in disassemblers for the 8048/49, 8051/52, 8080/85, and Z80 controllers, and now for the 8096 and 80C196, with their unique features fully supported. Prices from S200 to S300 each, with S50.00 discounts for XASM + SIM packages. Lear Com Company 2440 Kipling St.. Ste. 206, Lakewood CO 80215 (303) 232-2226 FAX (303) 232-8721 COMMUNICATIONS Inquiry 731. CROSS DISASSEMBLERS IBM PC4— TO-*HP FILE COPY FASTER EASIER TO USE Update version uses windows: Call for free demo! IBM PC HP File Copy allows IBM PCs, PS/2, compatibles to interchange files with Hewlett-Packard Series 70, 80, 200, 300, 1000, 9000s. Oswego Software Box 310 708/554-3567 Oswego, IL 60543 FAX 708/554-3573 Inquiry 737. SDLC, HDLC AND X.25 SUPPORT Use Sangoma haidware and software to provide cost effective, robust and easy-to-use SDLC, HDLC and X.25 links from MS-DOS, UNIX, PC-MOS, etc. All real time communication functions performed by intelligent co-processor card. Full function SNA emulation packages also available. Sangoma Technologies Inc. (41 6) 474-1 990 1 -800-388-2475 Inquiry 726. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE ASSEMBLERS/DISASSEMBLERS 8051, 8048, 8096, 8080/85, Z80/180, SPARC, 6800, 6809, 68HC11, 680X0, 65C02, 9900, OTHERS COMPLETE OPTIMIZED DEVELOPMENT TOOL SETS FOR THE ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL CALL (408) 773-8465 relms/LOGISOFT PO BOX 61929, SUNNYVALE CA 94D88 FAX (408) 773-8466 Inquiry 732. CONVERSION SERVICES Convert any 9-track magnetic tape to or from over 3000 formats including 3%", 5'/", 8" disk formats & word processors. Disk-to-disk conversions also available. Call for more info. Introducing OCR Scanning Services. Pivar Computing Services, Inc. 165 Arlington Hgts. Rd., Dept. #B Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 (800) Convert DATA RECOVERY DIAGNOSTIC RS232 DATA ACQUISITION READ DATA FROM ANY SERIAL DEVICE directly into ANY PC application-as if typed in! No hardware, No programming! Many advanced features, 2-way I/O etc. CALL FOR FREE INFO. DOSver. $129, Windows $199. 100% Guaranteed! T.A.L. - SOFTWARE WEDGE 2022 Wallace Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130 (800)-722-6004, (215)-763-2620, Fax:215-763-9711 Inquiry 727. Lst yr dta? We can find it. • Unsurpassed success rate • Fast turn around • Priority service available • Clean room • Expertise in DOS, OS/2, Novell, Macintosh, Unix, Xenix, Sun, DEC, Wang, Banyan Vines and more ONTRACK DATA RECOVERY, INC. 6321 Bury Drive, Eden Prairie. MN 55346 MN:1-800-872-2599» CA: 1-800-752-7557 COMPILERS Inquiry 733. DATA/DISK CONVERSION SECRET WEAPON for TECHNICIANS ONLY Florida Engineer Robert Hurt has developed YOUR new Secret Weapon to resurrect dead PCs. PocketPOST test card is LOADED with features to reduce your troubleshooting time, but small enough to hide in your pocket. Includes 180-page pocket- sized manual PACKED with secret info, diagnostic software, and FREE tech support. Experts say PocketPOST is a "potent weapon against computer ills." (Computer Shopper, May 92). Compatible with XT, AT, ISA, EISA, MicroChannel. Call NOW for details. DATA DEPOT Inc. 1710 Drew Street #5, Clearwater, F L 34615 813-446-3402 FAX 813-443-4377 Inquiry 738. EDUCATION FS: PASCAL Compile your Pascal Program for 32-bit 80386 protected mode. Forget about memory limitations. Gain speed. Fully compatible with TP 6.0. Royally-free Dos extender. Over 250 new functions. Starting with $150. 30-daymoney-back guarantee. To order call: 1-800-934-FSDC 1-718-520-4197 Fax: 1-718-575-8038 Frontier Software Development Corp. 68-30 Harrow St., Forest Hills, New York 1 1 375 Inquiry 728. COMPUTER INSURANCE CONVERTING YOUR DISKETTES? ENTRUST THEM TO US! 2500 Word Processor & Computer formats, 3% ", 5V4 ", 8" Disks, Mag Tapes, Mag Cards, Cartridges, Cassettes & 8 MM Custom Conversions, Programming & Applications Development DISK DUPLICATION OCR SCANNING SERVICES Call us for Quality, Best Prices and Quickest Turnaround Time. COMPANY COMPENDIA, INC., 55 6. Washington St., #237, Chicago. IL 60602 TEL: 1-800-374-DISK FAX: 312-419-1390 Inquiry 734. B.S. & M.S. In COMPUTER SCIENCE The American Institute for Computer Sciences offers an in- depth correspondence program to earn your Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science at home. B.S. subjects covered are: MS/DOS, BASIC, PASCAL, C, Data File Processing, Data Structures & Operating systems. M.S. program includes subjects in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. AMERICAN INST, for COMPUTER SCIENCES 2101 -BY Magnolia Ave. South, Ste. 200, Birmingham, AL 35205 800-767-2427 205-323-6 1 9 1 ENTERTAINMENT INSURES YOUR COMPUTER SAFEWARE Computerowners coverage provides replacement of hardware, media and purchased software. As little as $49 a year covers accidents, theft, power surges and more. One call does it all. Call 8 am-10 pm ET. (Sat. 9 to 5) TOLL FREE 1-800-848-3469 (Local 614-262-0559) SAFEWARE, The Insurance Agency Inc. Inquiry 729. THE #1 CHOICE in disk & tape conversion for many leading corporations, government agencies, law firms, and companies in every industry- wo rid-wide. Free test • Satisfaction guaranteed Graphics Unlimited Inc. 3000 Second St. North. Minneapolis, MN 55411 (612) 588-7571 FAX: (612) 588-8783 1-800-745-7571 Inquiry 735. Vegetable Garden Design SPROUT! Planting tool produces a graphic vegetable garden plan with correct plant and row spacing. Contains database for 7 climate regions. Prints out garden layouts, calendars, shopping lists, and reports. IBM ... $59.95 Macintosh ... $79.95 Abracadata, Ltd. PO Box 2440, Eugene, OR 97402 To order or request free catalog Call (800) 451 -4871 FAX (503) 683-1925 Inquiry 739. AUGUST 1992 .BYTE 347 THE BUYER'S MART ENTERTAINMENT FONT HARDWARE/COMPUTERS FREE GAMES! 53 Games on 15/5.25" or 8/3.5" disks. It's FREE! You pay only $5.00 shipping and handling per collection. Credit cards only. Foreign add $5.00 per package. Call Today! SMC SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (619)931-8111 ext.511 Inquiry 740. Free Font Program (with minor restrictions) • NewFase 3.0 • Scalable fonts on-the-fly for WordPerfect 5.1/5.0 • In- finite font effects • WYSIWYG previewer • Supports most printer/fax boards • 150 font library • Network version available • Basic package includes 40 fonts • Cyrillic and API available • Regular $79 • Call now for FREE working program with minor restrictions "(NewFase) does what the best software utilities are supposed to do: save you time and money, and make your work look good." Karl Siegnell, Capital PC Monitor, 1 1/90 MicroPress 4 1 Witherspoon St., Princeton, N J 08542 TEL 800-935-5599 FAX 609-497-0917 Inquiry 745. EVB - II 68030 and 68EC030 32 bit Microprocessor Trainer and Development System with 32 Bit User Bus, Upload, Download, Assembler and Disassembler Onboard. The EVB- 11 uses \he SeiiatPortof a Terminal or PC and is similar to 8 and 16 bit units featured in many popular books. Other 8, 16 and 32 bit systems are available. Phone URDA, Inc. 1-800-338-0517 or 412-683-8732 Inquiry 751. HARDWARE/COPROCESSOR Go, NEMESIS, Go Go - a Zen game. So appealing, it has endured 4,000 years. So useful governments study it. NEMESIS Go Junior entices novices of any age. NEMESIS Go Master Deluxe satiates the addicted. Windows, Macintosh and DOS versions available. Chaos Manor User's Choice Award (BYTE/1990) Toyogo, Inc. (800) 869-6469 PO Box 25460-Y, Honolulu, HI 96825-0460 (808) 396-5526 fax: (808) 396-41 26 Inquiry 741. FINANCIAL SOFTWARE Digital Quad Maps Local Street Maps, State Maps, and World Maps in DXF, PCX, PICT, PIC or TIF Formats. Gigabytes of Map data available M icnMgs &_C A D ™ (303) 988-4940 Inquiry 746. DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR DSP products for the IBM PC AT. OurTMS320C25 and TMS320C51 based boards, with extensive software, feature 250 Khz multi-channel A/D and D/A, up to 192 Kwords RAM, very high throughput to PC RAM and disk, and are priced competitively with traditional Analog IO boards. Call us about your applications. D ALAN CO SPRY 89 Westland Ave., Rochester, NY 14618 Ph/FAX (716)473-3610 HARD DRIVE REPAIR Inquiry 752. INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING BrainMaker: "The most fascinating computer soft- ware I've ever seen... learn about this stuff." John Dvorak, PC Mag. Predicts stocks, bonds, sales, inventories. Comprehensive manual. Menus. 12,000 sold. PC or Mac. Still only $195! Free Flyer: 800/284-8112, 916/477-7481 California Scientific Software Inquiry 742. Pre-0wned Electronics, Inc™ THE Independent Provider, serving the Dealer, Professional, Corporate, Government, and Educational Buyer since 1985 APPLE II* & MACINTOSH SYSTEMS * PARTS • EXCHANGE REPAIRS Call for a Catalog.. 800"274-5343 INT'L: 617-275-4600 • FAX: 617-275-4848 205 BURLINGTON ROAD • BEDFORD, MA 01730 Inquiry 747. Portable, Rack-Mount Industrial Computers & Single Board Computers Desert Microsystems offers ruggedized portable and rack- mount industrial computer systems. The PortaRack is 30 lbs., 8-slots, aircraft aluminum, 200 Watt power supply, and can be rack-mounted or carried: Rack-mount computers ot 8, 10. 14, and 20-slots with passive backplane or motherboard design. Extended two-year warranty standard. All U.S. made. Desert Microsystems, Inc. P.O. Box H, Moreno Valley. C A 92556 (800) 633-0448 FLOW CHARTS HARDWARE Inquiry 753. INDUSTRIAL SOFTWARE Have you seen the latest breakthrough in software diagramming? ADS Diagrammer'is a Microsoft windows 3.0 drawing tool that allows you to create complex software diagrams faster and more easily than ever before! Call for your free trial disk today! $250 Atlantic Design Systems 77 Sprucewood Dr.. Gilford, NH 03246 Phone: (800) 745-6095 or (603) 524-2943 Fax: (603) 524-3657 Inquiry 743. TM ASCI BUYERS CLUB If you're tired of paying inflated prices for computer parts and accessories, join the ASCI BUYERS CLUB 1 " Low WHOLESALE prices on all of today's most wanted hardware items. SAVE ON: Cases, Motherboards, Drives. RAM Chips, Video Cards. Modems and much, much more!!! EXAMPLE: TRIDENT SVGA Card (8900 Chip Set) 1MB S73.60 INFINITI 2400 Baud Modem W/Software S37.95 ALL ITEMS FACTORY NEW WITH ONE YEAR WARRANTY. FREE MEMBERSHIP WITH FIRST ORDER OVER S25.O0. CALL OR WRITE ALC0 Sec/Com., Inc. P,O.Box7049.Hicksville. NY 11802 800-238-ASCI Tel: 516-935-1602 Dealer Inquiries Welcome FAX: 516-935-5231 Inquiry 748. RUN A PLC, CNC, 0ATA LOGGER ON YOUR PC using our PCLog environment PCLog is entirely written in C. It easily transforms your PC into a system that runs industrial applications. DON'T WAIT! Download your free DEMO now at (142)453165 ELSIST Electronic Systems Via Brodolini, 15, 15033 Casale MT0, Italy PH, 142/451987, FAX. 142/451988, BBS. 142/453165 Inquiry 754. LANS FLOW CHARTING 3 friendly! • High resolution print outs... ,. 1 -«..,«..«>«. .M-^. i 0NLY v ^-^^v • Multi-page charts... 1 S250 1 portrait or landscape X_^/ jy^_ ' Import/export capabilities r^FLEXiBLE*) • 35 shapes. 10 fonts, 4 line styles Call for free demo disk! PATT0N & PATT0N 800-525.0082 ext. 1317 Software Corporation 485 Cochrane C r„ Morgan Hill, CA95037 See our ad on page 104 Inquiry 744. MYLEX MOTHERBOARDS 386 33MHz, 64k IDE, 2SP&PP S 595 386SX 20MHz, IDE, 2SP&PP 349 486 50/33MHz, 64k cache (baby) ISA 1 1 95/895 486 50/33MHz, 128k, EISA 1995/1495 GXE020 B EISA/TIGA Graphics Adapter 1179 DCE 376 EISA/SCSI Adapter 695 LNE 390 Network Interface for EISA 32-Bit 325 2 Year Warranty Factory Service EXALINX, Inc. Beautiful Buffalo, New York USA (800) 992-5469 FAX (716) 882-9650 Inquiry 749. HARDWARE/COMPUTERS The $25 Network Try the 1st truly low-cost LAN • Connect 2 or 3 PCs, XTs, ATs • Uses serial ports and 5-wire cable •Runs at 115Kbaud • Runs in background, totally transparent • Share any device, any file, any time • Needs only 14K of RAM Skeptical? We make believers! Information Modes P.O. Drawer F. Denton, TX 76202 817-387-3339 Orders 800-628-7992 Inquiry 755. LAPTOP COMPUTERS WINDOWS FLOWCHARTER $129 RFFlow 2.0 is a professional drawing tool for flowcharts & org. charts. Requires Microsoft Win- dows. 100 shapes auto adjust in size. Diagonal lines and curves. Auto line routing and re-routing. Click on a shape to bring up a sub-chart. Move charts to other apps. via the Clipboard. Call for free trial disk. RFF ELECTRONICS 1053 Banyan Court, Loveland, CO 80538 Phone: (303) 663-5767 FAX: (303) 669-4889 SC/FOX™ EMBEDDED COMPUTERS PC Parallel Coprocessor Plug-in Boards: 15 MIPS avg50MIPS burst, using the SC32 32-bil CPU orthe 16-bit Harris RTX 2000'". VME Master/Slave System Controller SBC: 18 MIPS avg 70 MIPS burst, uses RTX 2000 cpu, SCSI, 2 ser, 1 ptr ports, to 640K bytes. Stand- Alone Single Board Computers: 18 MIPS avg 60 MIPS burst, 3U or 100x 100mm Eurocard- size us ing either SC32 o r RTX 2000. Ideal (or embedded real-time control, data acquisition, robotics, and signal processing. OEM software development system included. SILICON COMPOSERS INC uis) 322-8753 208 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306 Inquiry 750. SAVE!\ LAPTOPS * NOTEBOOKS \SAVE! TOSHIBA • EVEREX • ZENITH • AT & T • TAN DON AST • SHARP • BONDWELL • ALR • LIBREX PANASONIC • ALTIMA • LEADING EDGE PACKARD BELL • SAMSUNG • NEC • Tl • COMPAQ • We ALSO carry accessories and software • Computer Options Unlimited 12 Maiden Lane, Bound Brook, NJ 08805 (800) 424-7678 Need Help?: 908-469-7959 9-9 M-F 9-5 Sat. 6 days Worldwide Sales Inquiry 756. 348 BYTE • AUGUST 1 992 LAPTOP COMPUTERS PROGRAMMERS TOOLS SECURITY IBM CONVERTIBLE MEMORY-128K $79 256K $225 MODEMS-Standard $75 Enhanced $ 1 7 5 CRT ADAPTER-for monitors $99 SE RIAL/PARALLEL ADAPTER-$120 MONITORS-Monochrome $59 Color $109 COMPACT Carrying Case $39 ENHANCED LCD-S79 BATTERY-$98 HARD DRIVES-20 Meg-$495 40 Meg-$695 MORE ACCESSORIES AVAILABLE COMPUTER RESET P.O. Box 461782, Garland, TX 75046 Phone (214) 276-8072 BBS & FAX (214) 272-7920 Inquiry 757. LAPTOP PERIPHERALS C and C++ DOCUMENTATION TOOLS • C-CALL ($69) Graphic-tree of caller/called hierarchy. « C-CMT ($69) Generate, insert, update comrrent-blocks. • C-METRIC ($59) Path complexity, lines/stmts/comments. • C-LIST ($69) List, action-diagram, reformat programs. » C-REF ($59) Local/global/parameter cross-reference. . C-DOC ($199) All 5 as 1 DOS program, <=15,000 lines. • Professional ($299) <=150,000 lines, DOS, OS/2. Windows. SOFTWARE BLACKSMITHS INC. 6064 St. Ives Way, Mississauga, ONT, Canada L5N-4M1 (416) 858-4466 Inquiry 763. FIGHT PIRACY! • EVERLOCK3.0 • SOFTWARE COPY PROTECTION New Option Board Safe-New Remote Registration New CPU LOCK-CD ROM LOCK and more • EVERKEY HARDWARE LOCKS • Az-Tech Software, Inc. Call for a 201 East Franklin, Richmond, MO 64085 FREE (816) 776-2700 Demo (800) 227-0644 FAX (816) 776-8398 Inquiry 769. LAPTOP PERIPHERALS NEW LOW PRICES ON: ' Battery Powered Printers Portable Hard Drives Laptop Expansion Systems Backlites AND MORE! Callforfree catalog AXONIX CORPORATION (800) 866-9797 DON'T DEVELOP NETWORK APPLICATIONS without NPPC, a powerful library sub-routine package that handles all the details of NetBIOS or IPX programming! NPPC suppoits high-level program communications at the message level for all server/ client and peer-to-peer models. If you are using C or Assembler, NPPC allows you to write a single application that runs on BOTH IPX AND NetBIOS without any modilications. NPPC is compatible with any true NetBIOS emulator, therefore applications written with NPPC will work with most LANs in the marketplace. We offer a 30 day money back guarantee. NPPC for IPX or NetBIOS: $195.00, with source: S395.00 SOFTWAREHOUSE CORPORATION 326 State Street. Los Altos, C A 94022 (415) 949-0203 FAX: (4 1 5) 949-0208 THE ULTIMATE COPY PROTECTION • Completely menu driven Quite Simply • Defeats all Hardware/Software Copiers The Best • No Source Code Changes Ways To • Mulltiple Layering Protect Your Valuable • No Damaged Media Software Investment • Fultl Hard Disk & LAN Support • Unlimited Meter ng. FREE Demo Disk STOPVIEW'" STOPCOPY PLUS'" (800) 879-2224 BBI COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC. (301) 871-1094 14105 Heritage Lane, Silver Spring, MD 20906 FAX: {301) 460-7545 Inquiry 758. Inquiry 764. Inquiry 770. ACOUSTIC ADAPTERS NEW 9600 bps • World Wide Data Connection • To 9600 bpserrorfree (w. V.32A/.42 modem) • For Executives, Journalists, Sales Professionals • RJ-11 Modem Connection • Self Test, Auto On/Off • Smallest, Most Adaptable, Made in USA • Call for lowest price in the industry Information Machines Woodland Hills. CA (818) 884-5779 FAX: 818-884-5853 Inquiry 759. MANUFACTURING/DISTRIBUTION SQL 4GL CIM SOFTWARE CimFacts consists of a family of SQL 4GL integrated applications for organisations in manufacturing and/or distribution. The SQL relational database is integral to CimFacts. DOS & UNIX supported. Dealer Program Available. Call for 18 page brochure. • Bill Of Materials • MRP & Inventory Control • Numerical Control Programming • Cost Estimating • Process Planning • Product/Process Costing • Shop Floor Control • Purchase Processing/Invoicing • Just In Time (JIT) Scheduler • Accounts Receivable/Payable _, _ 3300 S.Gessner Dr., Suite 150 CimFOCtS Houston, Texas 77063, USA Tel (713) 784-4016 Inquiry 760. Boost Your BASIC with ProBas! w Adds 938 new commands to QB and PDS ««- Written in assembly for speed «*■ Gives your programs a professional look «*■ Easy to use, money back guarantee «*■ Other add-ons for BASIC, C & Visual Basic avail. FREE DEMO Disk AND BOOKLET TeraTech (800) 447-9120 x128 Dept 128. Suite 360. 3 Choke Cherry Rd., Rock ville. MD 20850 Int'l (301) 330-6764 Fax (301) 963-0436 BBS (301 ) 963-7478 Inquiry 765. PUBLIC DOMAIN FREE SOFTWARE for IBM® TRY US! GET 15/5.25" or 8/3.5" disks full of our best selling software-FREE! Games, Windows™, utilities, business, educational, religion, home/health. Pay $5.00 shipping/ handling per collection. Credit cards only. Foreign add $5.00 per pkg. Call today! SMC SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (619)931-8111 ext.511 Inquiry 766. Cop's CopyLock II The professional software protection with TRUE Machine Install. Option Board safe. Supports OS/2, Windows and Trace. LINK Computer Int'l: +45 31232350 US/CAN: 800-344-2545 Fax: + 45 31238448 FAX: 408-923-7061 Inquiry 771. BIT-LOCK® SECURITY Piracy SURVIVAL 10 YEARS proves effectiveness of powerful multilayered security. Rapid decryption algorithms. PARALLEL or SERIAL port-transparent security device. Complemented by economical KEY- LOK™ and multifeatured COMPU-LOCK™ including countdown, timeout, data encryption, and multiproduct protection. (Dos/Unix/Mac). Also, access control. MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS 3167 E. Otero Circle, Littleton, CO 80122 (303)770-1917 ROM BIOS UPGRADES YOUR SALES MESSAGE about the special computer product or service that you provide belongs in print THE BUYER'S MART can help you reach computer professionals and produce valuable inquiries for your company! Call MargOt Gnade for more information 603-924-2656 Fax: 603-924-2683 Inquiry 761. AMI, PHOENIX & MR BIOS Upgrade your IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible. Also 386SX & 386 versions. Supports 2 user-defined hard drives, 101/102 KB, 360, 720, 1.2 & 1.44 floppies, setup in ROM. All Video, Windows 3.0 Diagnostic in ROM AMI 286 & 386 versions only. CALL. New version just came in. Advanced Software 8 Stiles Road, #1 A. Salem. NH 03079 800-835-2467 603-898-2362 Fax: 603-890-1185 NEURAL NETWORKS Inquiry 767. SALES/MARKETING TOOLS OPEN SYSTEMS ? Technical Crime is both Profitable and Low Risk AM/CrySys™ gives you the Banking Industry Solution US Govt. Approved Methods Max. Performance, Min. Memoiy External & Internal Keys Key Manager and Distributor Protect, Authenticate Data Files, Bases, Media, Messages Multiple Interlocked Arming Interlaces and Utilities N L I Systems Inc. PO Box 103, 5051 Nesttun, NORWAY Int'l: +47 5 1 5620 Fax: +47 5 1 5621 Inquiry 772. SHAREWARE i860/486 NEURAL NETWORKS Industrial strength, no frills, neural training tools aimed at high-end platforms and experienced users. Special features for developing networks with enhanced robustness and stability. Converges reliably. We needed a good training system, were dissatisfied with the commercially available ones, so wrote our own. Interested? Also available: C- Library and pretrained neural network systems for financial forecasting. Contact: Jeffrey Owen Katz, PhD, SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT SERVICES, INC. 20 Stagecoach Road, Selden NY 1 1 784 51 6-696-3333 Inquiry 762. Sell More with SALES ALLY Client & Prospect Management Database. Word Processor, & Notepad Autodialing, Reports, Alarms Invoicing, Sales Forecasting, Networks. • PC Magazine Editors' Choice • PC Computing "Best Product" • Mobile Office Mag Annual Award Call for FREE Information Packet. SCHERRER RESOURCES, INC. 8100 Cherokee Street, Philadelphia, PA 19118 215-836-1830, $395 (Visa/MC/Amex) Inquiry 768. THE AMISH OUTLAW SHAREWARE COMPANY • •••••••• FREE ••••••••• WITH EVERY ORDER YOU WILL RECEIVE A GREAT NEW GAME NOT LISTED IN OUR CATALOG ABSOLUTELY FREE ALL DISKS HAVE EASY-TO-USE MENUS SIMPLY TYPE "GO" TO ACCESS PROGRAMS $3.00 PER DISK t-9 - S2.50 PER DISK 10-UP 3.5" AN0 5.25" DISKS SAME PRICE {IBM PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SHAREWARE ONLY) 3705 RICHMOND AVE., STATEN ISLAND, NY 10312 l-(BOO) 947-4346 or (718) 317-0198 FAX 1-(718) 966-4766 Inquiry 773. AUGUST 1992 •BYTE 349 THE BUYER'S MART SOFTWARE WANTED SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPERS Experienced software industry executives are seeking opportunities related to software developed for commercial marketing. If you have such software technology, please consider a business relationship with a group of well-financed software professionals. For a confidential assessment of your software product, please respond, using the Reader Ser- vice Inquiry Card. You will be contacted promptly. Inquiry 774. SOFTWARE/ACCOUNTING The C Graphics Handbook Roger T. Stevens Topics covered include: clipping techniques, 3D graphics in C++, plotting pixels in 16 color modes, drawing horizontal and vertical lines in both 16 and 256 color modes, filling polygons and rounded rectangles, sample programs for ROM BIOS services in C, and a disk of the C source code. Paperback: $39.95 July 1992, c. 800 pp./ISBN: 0-12-668320-4 ACADEMIC PRESS Book Mktg.Dept. #08082, 1250 Sixth Ave..San Diego, CA92101 CALLT0LLFREE 1-800-321-5068 Inquiry 779. RAINDROP TM FAST, compact PrtScrn Utility for end users AND developers. Hardcopy as fast as 10 sees. Average binary size - 6 kbyte. 14 video graphic standards. Scale, rotate, colorize and more. 'CALL' from user-written programs. Complete 9- & 24-pin dot-matrix, inkjet, and laserjet library $44.95 + S3 s/h. ECLECTIC SYSTEMS 8106 St. David Ct„ Springfield, VA 22153 (703) 440-0064 Fax (703) 455-8965 Inquiry 785. dBASE BUSINESS TOOLS • GENERAL LEDGER • PURCH ORD/INVNTORY • ORDER ENTRY • ACCOUNTS RECVABLE • JOB COSTING • JOB ESTIMATING • BILL OF MATLS • SALES ANALYSIS • PAYROLL • ACCOUNTS PAYABLE S99/S198 ea. + S&H dATAMAR SYSTEMS Cred. Card-Check-COD 8586 Miramar Place, San Diego, CA 92121 (619) 452-0044 (800) 223-9963 Inquiry 775. SOFTWARE/BUSINESS TIFF, PCX, TARGA, GIF, DIB, BMP, WMF, WPG AccuSoft Image Format Library Import, export, convert, display and print images. DOS & Windows versions included in one low priced, royalty free package. Sample applications with complete source code. Compatible with all major C, C++ compilers and all Windows languages. Supports all flavors of each format up to 24 bits/pixel. 30 day satisfaction guarantee. $295 AccuSoft Corporation 160 E. Main St., Westboro, MA 01581 (800) 525-3577 (508) 898-2770 FAX (508) 898-9662 Inquiry 780. FORTRAN GRAPHICS GRAFMATIC - FORTRAN callable graphics Library for creating 2-D and 3-D graphics, contour plots and solid models. PRINTMATIC and PLOTMATIC provide high resolution FORTRAN callable printer and plotter drivers for your graphics. NO ROYALTIES. $249.95 ea. Supports Microsoft/Lahey/RM FORTRAN compilers Jewell Technologies, Inc. 130 Nickerson St., Suite 105, Seattle, W A 98109 1 (800) 284-2574 (206) 285-6860 Inquiry 786. SOFTWARE/MATHEMATICS DATA ENTRY SOFTWARE Full featured, heads-down data entry with two-pass verification, edit language, operator stats, much more! Designed for the PS/2®, PC, XT, AT or compatibles. PCs from $395 LAN version available FREE 30 day trial Computer Keyes Tel: 206/776/6443 21929 Makah Rd„ Fax: 206/776-7210 Woodway, WA 98020 USA: 800/356-0203 SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION graphics library for VGA and ET4000 Super VGA boards. Over 75 routines callable from MS FORTRAN. Up to 1024x768 in 256 colors. 2-D & 3-D w/perspec- tive. Gouraud shaded polygons. Hidden surface removal. Animation. Mouse & joystick support. Scale and rotate text. Store/retrieve in PCX format. $100 postpaid. No royalties. Call for free demo disk. AEROSOFT CORPORATION 5562 Bells Ferry Rd„ Suite 233, Acworth, G A 30102 Tet/FAX: (404) 917-1309 Inquiry 781. Mathematical Modeling On Your PC Science Engineering Business • Faster, Easier, more Powerful than other methods • Nonlinear Algebraic and Differential Systems • Solve For Any Parameter Values • No Programming • Complex • Vectors • Natural Mathematics Editor • Simulation • Optimization • Graphics New Chico Solver 2.3 (916) 342-3279 Only S399 Full refund for 30 days if not satisfied. VISA/MC/PO# Chico Software Company PO Box 5174, Chico. CA 95927 SOFTWARE/DATA COMPRESSION Inquiry 787. SOFT W ARE/P AC K AGING Double your hard disk ZIPIT™ > Continuous floppy archive of huge files. > Automatic creation of self-extract file. > One-step imploding of directory trees. > Transfer huge files between PCs. > Send $49. Visa/Ms/Check/MO. DIRTRAN SYSTEMS INC. PO BOX 1207, ROSLYN PA 19001 Phone (800)995-2501 Fax: (215) 659-2029 Inquiry 776. SOFTWARE/ENGINEERING PostScript from C c_ pslib function library Order today for $195.00 and receive FREE source code! Barton Creek Software 2222 Western Trails Ste 106, Austin, TX 78745 51 2-441-8354 Fax 512-444-4554 Inquiry 782. FREE SOFTWARE PACKAGING CATALOG Eveiything you will need to Package, Distribute, and Ship Your Software!! From manuals and binders to mailers and shippers LABELS • LABELS • LABELS Foryour diskettes, plain or custom printed dot matrix or laser printer. . . free samples •••FREE CAT ALOG-" Hice & Associates 8586 Monticello Dr., WestChester. OH 45069 Phone/Fax: 513-777-8586 Inquiry 788. SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC Analog Circuit Simulation • PC and Macintosh CAE • Extensive Model Libraries • Schematic Entry • Waveform Analysis • SPICE Simulator • Report-Quality Plotting • Monte Carlo Analysis • Full SPICE programs starting • Parameter Sweeping at $95. Complete systems • Filter Design from $990 Call for your Free Demo and information kit. P.O. Box 710, San Pedro, CA 90733-0710 /»• A m gCf\ff 310-833-0710, FAX: 310-833-9658 Inquiry 777. FREE TECHNICAL REPORT! Just request info about the "CAD/CAM Developer's Kit" Series C Libraries for CAD/CAM, Engineering and GIS Applications, 650+ routines for DXF input/output, graphical display, line/ arc/el!ipse/NURB spline construction/editing, and much more than can be described here. Phone or FAX (617) 899-4350 for more information. Building Block Software, Inc. 371 Moody Street, Waltham, MA 02154 Inquiry 783. Weather Monitor & Weatherlink! The ultimate in weather monitoring systems! A state-of- the-art weather station and a PC link allow you to view, record, summarize, and graph weather information. The perfect marriage of computer and weather technology. DAVIS INSTRUMENTS 3465 Diablo Avenue, Hayward, CA 94545 1-800-678-3669 FAX 1-510-670-0589 by 2 o Inquiry 789. CAE SOFTWARE ■ ECA-2: Analog Circuit Simulator • AC, DC, Transient Analysis •MonteCarlo, WCA • Interactive/full nonlinear ■ SAUNA: 3-D Thermal Analysis • PC Bds, heat sinks, & enclosures • All HT modes • Thermal parameters library ■ ACTIVE: Switched Cap & Active Filters • Order 1-50 of 5 cascaded filters • (45) topologies • (8) Types For FREE demo call: Tatum Labs Inc. 1287 North Silo Ridge Drive, Ann Arbor Ml 48108 (313) 663-8810 Inquiry 778. 350 B YTE • AUGUST 1992 "The Ultimate CAD/CAM/CAE Graphics Engine" TG-PROFESSIONAL v.4.0 the most complete C/C++ toolbox of 20 & 30 geometric routines available today! Over 800 routines including NURBS, OXF, Graphics, Surfacing. Hidden Line, Volumes, Areas, Transforms. Perspectives, Polygon (Int/Union/Diff). Clipping, Tangents. A utilities libraiy with Graphics routines for drawing using BGI or MSC Graphics and more. Full source. 30 day guarantee. USA $500.00, Foreign $565.00US. Use MSC, Borland C/C++. WATCOM C/386 or Metaware High C/C++, Technical information available. Disk Software Inc. 2116 E . Arapaho Rd., Suite 487, Richardson, TX USA 75081 Phone:214-423-7288 • 800-635-7760 • FAX: 214-423-7288 Inquiry 784. FREE CATALOG A great selection of scientific software products for plotting, non-linear curve fitting, chemical equilibrium, simulation, statistics, symbolic algebra, and more. Prices from $150. Call: 1-801-943-0290 MicroMath, Salt Lake City, UT 84121-0550 Inquiry 790. SOFTWARE/SCIENTIFIC UTILITIES VT^X Scientific Desktop Publishing • Equations • Tables • Graphics • Scalable Fonts • Supports most printers • WYSIWYG previewer • Foreign Languages • Special Symbols • Font Effects • Indices • Only $299 "T^X of Tomorrow'-Notices ofAMS, March 1991. MicroPress, Inc. 68-30 Harrow Street, Forest Hills, NY Tel (609) 497-0008 Fax (609) 497-0917 FREE UP MEMORY Dynamic Memory Control will cure your RAM CRAM problems on the fly by freeing up memory. Loads and unloads TSRs and device drivers including network drivers, without having to reboot. Eliminate multiple CONFIG/AUTOEXEC files. Even converts TSRs and drivers into self-removing programs. Order from: The Connection $69 1-800-336-1166. Adlersparre & Associates Inc. 501-1803 Douglas St., Victoria, BC V8T 5C3 Tel: (604) 384-1 1 1 8 Fax: (604) 384-3363 Inquiry 791. Inquiry 796. SOF WARE/SORT OPT-TECH SORT/MERGE Extremely fast Sort/Merge/Select utility. Run asan MS- DOS command or CALL as a subroutine. Supports most languages and file types including Btrieve and dBASE. Unlimited file sizes, multiple keys and much more! MS-DOS S149. OS/2, XENIX, UNIX $249. (702) 588-3737 Opt-Tech Data Processing P.O. Box 678 - Zephyr Cove, NV 89448 PEN PLOTTER EMULATOR FPLOT turns your printer into an HP pen plotter. Fast hi-res, no jagged lines. Vary line width, color. Screen preview - zoom, pan. Works with most CAD programs. Supports most printers. Requires DOS 2.1 or higher. $119+$3 S&H. VISA/MC/Chk/MO. FPLOT Corporation 24-16 Steinway St., Suite 605, Astoria, NY 1 1 1 03 71 8-545-3505 Inquiry 792. Inquiry 797. SOFTWARE/VOICE/FAX MULTI-VOICE® TOOLS Multi-Voice Tools is a complete development Toolkit for Pascal or "C" to access all the features for most speech processing boards available today. It helps you write MULTI-LINE VOICE APPLICATION systems in minutes. A number of programming examples are provided. All programs and libraries are delivered with source code. Dialogic, Rhetorex, Pika, VBX: $599. Watson (Single Line): $99. ALSO AVAILABLE: Fax Programmer's Toolkit ($199). Based on CAS specifications. Visa/MC accepted. ITI Logiciel 4263 Cristophe-Colomb, Montreal, Quebec, Can. H2J 3G2 TEL (514) 597-1692 FAX (514)526-2362 Sorry, Anti-Virus Software Compare anti-virus software and the ViruStop PC ImmunizerCard ViruStop Leading Software Occupies Ram NO YES Needs constant updates NO YES Vulnerable to virus infection NO YES Takes time to scan drives NO YES Can be deleted NO YES Password Function YES NO Network Compatibilit YES Requires Special Version Cost (S&H extra) S69 $80 and up, plus the upgrade costs MULTIX, INC. 4203BeltwayDr, Suite 7, Dallas TX 75244 Tel: (214) 239-4989 Fax: (214) 239-6826 We accept MasterCard and VISA Inquiry 798. STATISTICS VISUALIZE YOUR DATA MCA+ transforms most marketing and social science data to easily understood perceptual maps. Communicate complex relations with ease using presentation quality charts. Most printers supported. Demos available. Bretton-Clark 89 Headquarters Plaza, Morristown, N J 07960 (201) 993-3135 FAX: (201) 993-1757 Why You Want BATCOM! BATCOM is a batch file compiler that transforms your .bat files to .exe files to make them faster. BATCOM extends DOS with many new commands so you can read keyboard input, use subroutines, and much more. In addition, BATCOM protects your source code. No royalties! Only S59.95. Order today! Wenham Software Company 5 Burley St., Wenham, MA 01984 (508) 774-7036 Inquiry 793. Inquiry 799. " WINDOWS NCSS 5.x Series - $125 Easy-to-use menus & spread sheet. Multiple regression. T-tests. ANOVA (up to 10 factors, rep. measures, covariance). Forecasting. Factor, cluster, & discriminant analysis. Nonparametrics. Cross Tabulation. Graphics: histograms, box, scatter, etc. Reads ASCII/Lotus. Many new add-on modules. NCSS 329 North 1000 East, Kaysville, UT 84037 Phone: 801 -546-0445 Fax: 801 -546-3907 A Hyperlmage/document management system under MS-Windows T ^3.x Displays multiple windows of images and documents in true color or with color matching. Associates text info, images or symbols to any pixel inside an image. Easily switches from image to image through successive levels of detail. Finds a point inside an image by entering its name e.g. address. Organize images and files in a network/relational database. Users can design their own information templates and search with multiple keys. Include a powerful editor, File security & Treesearch. Link to clipboard. Pan and zoom within images. Work with PCX, BMP, TIF, GIF, Postscript file Formats. Network Vers. Avail. Friendly Information Systems, Inc. 34 Bow Avenue, Dedham, MA 02026 -» _ _ _ (508) 486-0003 or (617) 329-1620 $350 Inquiry 794. Inquiry 800. TRANSLATION WORDPERFECT UTILITY SOFTWARE LOCALIZATION Since 1980. ID0C has translated hundreds of packages for the world's most prominent computer firms: Ashton-Tate, Borland, HP, Sun Microsystems, Novell and many more. We offer FULL SOFTWARE ADAPTATION WITH IN-HOUSE ENGINEERING, TRANSLATION INTO ALL MAJOR LANGUAGES WITH IN-HOUSE LINGUISTS, DTP SPECIALISTS, AND EDITORS. With production and sales offices in Los Angeles. Dublin. Milan. Buenos Aires, and Tokyo (Fall 92). IDOC is the leader in worldwide translation services. I DOC, an International Documentation Company 1-800-336-9898 (U.S.) 353-1-284-4223 (Europe) 10474 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 404. Los Angeles. CA 90025 FONT/FAX Driver for WordPerfect! •NewFase • Scalable fonts for WP • WYSIWYG previewer • Supports most printer/FAX boards • Basic Package includes 40 fonts • $79 (plus S/H) • 1 50 font library available • Yes! Cyrillic (Russian) and APL fonts • Activate INTEL SatisFAXtion board within WP! Call 800-935-5599 for FREE working demo! MicroPress 41 Witherspoon St., Princeton, N J 08542-3225 TEL 800-935-5599 FAX 609-497-0917 Inquiry 795. Inquiry 801. We know our children won't get very far in the world without a good, working knowledge of the "3 R's" That's why school is such an important part of their lives. But there's another part of their education that's just as important to their future — physical education. The healthy hearts they develop now will go a long way toward helping them grow into healthy adults. And the good fitness habits they learn can stay with them for a lifetime. So let's encourage our children to exercise their minds. But let's be sure they do the same for their bodies. The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports _ AUGUST 1992 -BYTE 351 YOUR DIRECT LINK ADVERTISER CONTACT INFORMATION To order products or request FREE information, call advertisers directly or send in the Direct Link Card by mail or fax! Let them know you saw it in BYTE! Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 65-66 289-290 195-196 68 291 67 292 198 558 190 409 73-74 72 230 297 75 104-105 199-200 237-238 450 271-272 402 80-81 82-83 78-79 76-77 279-280 404 399 201 299 283 84 85 86 219-220 438-439 87 410-411 274 88 304 91 89 90 413 202 577 92 187 241 395-397 203 93 232-233 147 800-451-4319 337 617-938-8020 320 800-FONE-ACP ABACUS SOFTWARE ACQUIRE ADVANCED COMPUTER PRODUCTS ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES 138,139 800-222-9323 ADVANCED MICRO TECH 336 714-598-6120 ALADDIN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM 191972-3-5375795 ALTEX ELECTRONICS 314,315 AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE 342 205-323-6191 AMERICAN MEGATRENDS 101 AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS COMPUTER AMRAM AMT INTERNATIONAL APPLE COMPUTER INC APPLE COMPUTER INC APPLE COMPUTER INC APPRO INT'L INC 322NE-2 408-732-6091 APPROACH SOFTWARE 263800APPROACH APS TECHNOLOGIES ASP COMPUTER PRODUCTS AST RESEARCH INC ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC ATLAS INDUSTRIES INC ATLAS INDUSTRIES INC AUTODESK INC AUTODESK INC AUTODESK RETAIL PRODUCTS AXIOM 800-828-9264 85 918-825-4844 339 408-559-0603 332 408-942-9695 17 19 21 300 800-235-3707 182 800-952-6277 169 211 416-756-0718 316 800-ATLAS-11 336 800-ATLAS-11 86 800-445-5415 87 800-445-5415 108 800-228-3601 336 88-62-91 7-4550 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 235 Bl LINK COMPUTER 330 BIX 359 BLACK ICE SOFTWARE, INC 344 BLACKWELL S/W BORLAND INT'L BORLAND INT'L BORLAND INT'L BORLAND INT'L (INT'L) BPS INTERNATIONAL BRENT COMMUNICATIONS BUFFALO PRODUCTS BULLDOG COMPUTER PRODUCT BYTE CARD DECK BYTE REPRINTS BYTE SUB MESSAGE BYTE SUB MESSAGE 94UK-9 11 12,13 15 CIV 339 94UK-10 317 301 262 258 294 94IS-30 CACTUS INTERNATIONAL 343 CADSOFT COMPUTER, INC 342 CANON USA INC 102 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CO 162 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CO 163 CITITRONICS 331 CLARION SOFTWARE 94IS-32 COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP 117-124 COMPEX 94IS-31 COMPUBOOKS 344 COMPUCLASSICS 100 COMPUSAVE INT'L 313 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 36 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 82,83 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 140 COMPUTER QUICK 94IS-16 COMPUTERLANE UNLTD 329 COMTECH COMP 322MW-3 COPIA INTERNATIONAL COREL SOFTWARE CREATIVE LABS INC CURTIS INC CYBER RESEARCH CYBEX CORP CYBEX CORP (INT'L) CYRIX 148 39 173 336 327 312 Cill 201 94-95 DATA ACCESS CORP 209 96-97 DATALUXCORP 146 433 DAWICONTROL COMPUTER SYSTEM 94IS-28 800-523-2702 800-888-5369 800-227-2983 914-277-7006 0865-791-738 800-331-0877 800-331-0877 800-331-0877 800-444-1341 0423-566972 800-345-2356 800-438-6039 603-924-2596 603-924-2525 800-257-9402 800-257-9402 800-525-UNIX 800-858-8355 800-221-3333 800-234-4232 800-234-4232 818-855-5688 305-785-4555 800-345-1518 714-630-7302 800-880-6818 800-827-1994 602-437-8208 800-CALL-CAI 800-CALL-CAI 800-CALL-CAI 415-861-8330 800-526-3482 612-884-2144 708-682-8898 800-836-SCSI 800-998-LABS 612-631-9512 800-394-3300 205-534-001 1 205-534-001 1 800-451 -FLEX 800-DATALUX Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 98 99 100 101 101 303 188 552 570 102 242 204-205 414 224 572-573 191-192 CHI CIV 110A-B 110C 110D-J DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DIGITAL CONSULTING INC 357 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322MW-1 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322SO-2 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC (N.A.) 192,193 DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER 341 111 202,203 DPT DRHUGGLE& PARTNER GMBH DYNAMICSCAN DYNAMITE DYNATEK AUTOMATION SYSTEM 302 94IS-18 310,311 322SO-3 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 800-626-8260 510-438-9046 510-438-9046 800-274-4DRI 303-447-9251 407-830-5522 0241-403114 314-423-0044 800-352-8778 252 416-636-3000 206 ETVALUELINE/ELEK-TEK 306 * ELONEX 94IS-4 207 ELTECH RESEARCH 322 295 EMPIRE COMPUTECH 340 555-556 EVOLUTION COMPUTING 563-564 EVOLUTION COMPUTING 322PC-3 282 EXALINX, INC 338 800-395-1000 081-452-4444 800-358-8330 800-446-1967 322NE-5 602-967-8633 602-967-8633 716-883-2000 FAST ELECTRONIC GMBH FIRST INT'L COMP FIRST SOURCE INT'L FRAME TECHNOLOGY FRAME TECHNOLOGY G GATEWAY 2000 GATEWAY 2000 GLENCO ENGINEERING GMM RESEARCH CORP GRAMMAR ENGINE, INC GRANICOR GREENLEAF SOFTWARE GREY MATTER LTD GTEK INC GTEK INC GTEK INC H HARD DRIVES INT'L HEWLETT PACKARD 302 HIGH-RES TECH 108-109 HONEYWELL KEYBOARD DIV (N.A.) 248 HOOLEONCORP 429 208-209 103 106-107 243 281 293 244 408 245 246 247 94IS-21 49-89-539800-20 94IS-19 88-62-717-4500 308 800-535-5892 127,128 800-U4FRAME 129 800-U4FRAME CII.1 49-62 217 337 342 340 343 94IS-7 337 340 340 321 25 344 181 339 110 IBM CORP 30,31 407 ICONOGRAPHIC SYS 94UK-14 579-580 IEPS 322NE-6 111 INTEGRAND RESEARCH 218 287-288 INTEGRATED DESIGN GROUP, INC 338 113 INTEL CORPORATION 26,27 114 INTEL CORPORATION 44,45 112 INTEL CORPORATION 159 177 INTEROP 92 FALL 219 210-211 INTERSYS 326 249 IOTECH 341 294 IVERSON SOFTWARE, INC 343 JAMECO ELECTRONICS 184,185 JDR MICRODEVICES 335 800-523-2000 800-523-2000 800-562-2543 714-752-9447 614-471-1113 415-244-9999 800-523-9830 0364-53499 800-282-4835 800-282-4835 800-282-4835 800-998-8040 800-752-0900 ext. 3158 416-497-6493 800-445-6939 800-937-1337 800-PS2-2227 0280-823573 209-651-1203 209-549-2354 800-228-5949 800-538-3373 800-538-3373 415-962-2592 800-969-COMP 216-439-4091 416-925-6096 800-831-4242 800-538-5000 Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 430 JEN ELECTRONICA 94IS-29 K 116 KEA SYSTEMS LTD 98 800-663-8702 251 KEITHLEY METRABYTE 339 508-880-3000 117-118 Kl NGSTON TECH 96 800-835-2545 416-417 KINGSTON TECH 94IS-14 714-435-2667 418-419 KINGSTON TECH 94IS-15 714-435-2667 508-682-6936 800-859-8856 800-548-4778 800-683-6696 800-927-3772 800-662-9866 L 275 L-COM, INC 337 250 LAGUNA DATA SYSTEMS 341 119 LAHEY COMPUTER SYS 172 164-165 LANDMARK RESEARCH INT'L CORP 105 225-226 LAPINE 318,319 178-179 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (N.A.) 271 180-181 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) 271 182-183 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (N.A.) 281 184-185 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) 281 217 LODE STAR COMP 298,299 122 123 420-421 273 278 215 252 213 214 253 124 578 422 132 423 424 800-662-9866 800-875-7568 M MAGIC/MSE (INT'L) 111 MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 322NE-A-B 516-435-1199 MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 322NE-1 516-435-1199 MARK WILLIAMS CO 167 800-627-5967 MATHSOFT INC 215 800-628-4223 MATHSOFT INC 220 800-628-4223 MCGRAW HILL NRI (N.A.)240A-B MEGADATA 94IS-12 MEMORY SUPERSTORE 339 MICRO HOUSE 344 MICRO SOLUTION COMPUTER PRODUCTS 325 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD 339 MICROPROSE SOFTWARE 307 MICROPROSE SOFTWARE 309 MICROSOFT CORP 8,9 MICROSOFT CORP 34,35 MICROSOFT CORP 74,75 MICROSTAR LAB 339 MICROWAY 245 MINNESOTA COMPUTER EXCHANGE 322MW-2 MINOLTA GMBH 94IS-25 MINUTEMAN 107 MIX SOFTWARE 94IS-22 MORTICE KERN (MKS) 94IS-17 N 125-126 NANAO USA CORP * NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 94IS-32A-B 254 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 342 434-437 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS UK LTD 94UK-3 127 NEC 40,41 562 NETWORLD DALLAS 322PC-1 569 NETWORLD DALLAS 322SO-1 212 NEVADA COMPUTER 323 560 NEW ENGLAND ELECTRONICS * NORTHGATE COMPUTER SYSTEM 149-153 61 OKIDATA 222,223 296 OMEGA POINT, INC 343 431 ON TIME MRKT/ KARSTEN PETERSEN 94IS-20 128-129 OPTIQUEST 194 130 OUTPUT TECHNOLOGY CO 47 255 OVERLAND DATA INC 341 516-589-6800 800-800-7056 800-926-8299 815-756-3411 918-267-4961 800-879-PLAY 800-879-PLAY 206-453-2345 508-746-7341 612-894-9811 0511-77000 221 800-800-5202 800-433-3488 800-433-3488 0635-523545 800-366-0476 800-829-3976 800-829-3976 800-654-7762 322NE-3 508-454-9192 800-345-8709 800-OKIDATA 508-877-1819 040-43-7472 800-843-6784 800-468-8788 800-729-8725 * PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS 231 131 PANASONIC 78,79 133 PATTON & PATTON 104 553 PC IMPORTERS INC 322MW-6 619-597-3200 ext. 2112 800-742-8086 800-525-0082 800-288-8989 352 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 561 567 571 134-135 136-137 138 425 139-140 141 142 568 401 143 565 120 144-145 256 PC IMPORTERS INC 322NE-6 800-288-8989 PC IMPORTERS INC 322PC-6 800-288-8989 PC IMPORTERS INC 322SO-6 800-288-8989 PC POWER & COOLING 97 800-722-6555 PERISCOPE COMPANY, THE 212 800-722-7006 PHAR LAP SOFTWARE INC 77 617-661-1510 PHILIPS MONITORS 94IS-2.3 PINNACLE MICRO 137 PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS PKWARE INC PLUSTEK USA, INC POLYHEDRON SOFTWARE LTD POPKIN SOFTWARE & SYSTEMS INC PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 276-278 PROGRESS SOFTWARE PSEUDOCORP 800-553-7070 131 800-LASER-ON 38 414-354-8677 322PC-2 408-980-1234 94UK-10 0865-300579 186 322PC-5 408-263-0222 67-69 800-445-7899 800-421-8006 176800-4PROGRESS 343 804-873-1947 146 QUA TECH INC 257 QUALSTARCORP * QUARTERDECK OFFICE SYSTEMS 269-270 QUIET TECHNOLOGY 296 341 256A-T 340 800-553-1170 818-882-5822 310-392-9851 800-SILENCE R 147 RAIMA CORP 81 800-327-2462 148-149 RAINBOW TECH 133 714-454-2100 228-229 RALIN WHOLESALERS 303-305 800-752-9512 * REASONABLE SOLUTIONS 94IS-32A-B 503-776-5777 574 RECORTECINC 322SO-5 150 ROSE ELECTRONICS 63 800-333-9343 Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 153 559 258 426 151 152 263 298 259 186 284 154-155 156 157 158 285-286 159-160 161 162 163 551 189 S'NW ELECTRONICS 172 SAI SYSTEMS 322NE-4 SAS INSTITUTE INC 342 SEIKO INSTRUMENTS GMBH 94IS-13 SEQUITER SOFTWARE INC 251 SHARP ELECTRONICS CO 145 SIGEN 338 SIGMA TECH SOFTWARE 337 SILICON SHACK 340 SIMPLICITY COMPUTING 148 SMARTMICRO TECH 340 SOFTLINECORP 94IS-11 SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES 287 SOFTWARE SECURITY INC 200 SONY (N.A.) 143 SPECTRUM S/W(N.A.) 103 SPSS INC 183 STARGATE TECH 337 STATSOFT 265 STORAGE DIMENSIONS 243 STRATEGIC MAPPING 109 SUMMAGRAPHICS CORP 273 SUMMIT MICRO DESIGN 322MW-5 SUNSOFT 2,3 260 SURAH INC 338 176 SYMANTEC (ZORTECH) 197 166-167 SYSTAT INC 99 203-929-0790 919-677-8000 061-022970 403-437-2410 800-BE-SHARP 408-737-3904 818-368-6132 800-969-441 1 800-275-6525 800-422-9979 718-438-6057 800-333-0407 408-738-4387 800-543-2185 800-782-7428 800-967-4246 408-985-7400 800-729-7866 408-739-6348 800-227-9227 ext. 123 800-543-1001 800-228-4122 708-864-5670 261 262 300 62 TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC 337 800-685-4884 TECHNOLOGY POWER ENTERPRISE TECTAMM TEKTRONIX TEKTRONIX TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 338 510-623-3818 344 81-3-5374-7890 236 503-685-3585 237 503-685-3585 22,23 800-527-3500 Inquiry No. Page No. Phone No. 168 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 171 800-527-3500 64 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 233 800-527-3500 * TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 71,72 800-627-8700 169 TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 73 800-627-8700 170 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC 174,175 800-457-7777 231 TOTE-A-LAP 333 800-9-LAPTOP 268 TRI VALLEY TECH INC 338 510-447-2030 264-265 TRIBAL MICROSYSTEMS 341 510-623-8859 216 TRUE DATA PRODUCTS 328 800-635-0300 427 TULIN TECHNOLOGY 94IS-20 408-432-9057 u * UNISTOR 432 UNITRON * UNIXWORLD 160A-B 714-581-3442 94IS-27 31-4937-90005 289-291 800-257-9402 ext. 29 239-240 VENTURA SOFTWARE INC 283 800-822-8221 171-172 VERBATIM CORP 165 405 VERIDATA 94UK-4 041-248-1119 * VERMONT CREATIVE SOFTWARE 7 800-848-1248 173-174 VIEWSONIC 213 800-888-8583 w 428 WALKER, RICHER & QUINN 94IS-9 206-324-0407 175 WATCOM PRODUCTS INC 29 800-265-4555 403 WESTPOINT CREATIVE 94UK-7 0743-248590 * WINDOWS/DOS DEVELOPERS JOURNAL 94IS-32A-B 913-841-1631 218 WORLDWIDE TECH 324 800-457-6937 X 266 XELTEK 341 408-745-7974 267 Z-WORLD ENGINEERING 341 916-757-3737 * ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS 89-94 800-523-9393 234 ZYXELUSA 285 714-255-4101 * Correspond directly with company. BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF Jennifer L. Bartel, National Sales Manager, 14850 Quorum Drive, Suite 380, Dallas, TX 75240, Tel. (274) 701-8496 LizCoyman, Inside Advertising Sales Director, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458, Tel. (603) 924-2518 NEW ENGLAND SOUTHEAST SOUTHWEST, NORTH PACIFIC: Campbell, CA SOUTH PACIFIC: Costa Mesa, CA ME, NH, VT, MA. Rl, CT ONTARIO NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, MS, AR, LA, KY ROCKY MOUNTAIN SILICON VALLEY, HI, WA, AK, ORANGE COUTY \ CANADA & EASTERN CANADA MaiyAnn Goulding (404) 843-4782 CO. OK. TX W. CANADA SAN DIEGO COUNTY Michael Lamattina (617) 860-6344 Patricia Payne (603) 924-2654 Jennifer Walker (214) 701-8496 Bill McAfee (408) 879-0381 Beth Dudas (714) 753-8140 j Patricia Payne (603)924-2654 McGraw-Hill Publications Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574 Joseph Mabe (603) 924-2662 Jonathan Sawyer (603) 924-2665 McGraw-Hill Publications 4170 Ashford-Dun woody Rd., Suite 520 McGraw-Hill Publications McGraw-Hill Publications McGraw-Hill Publications 24 Hartweli Avenue Atlanta, GA 30319 14850 Quorum Dr.. Suite 380 1999 South Bascom Ave., Suite 210 15635 Alton Pk^y., Suite 290 \ Lexington, MA 02173 FAX: (404) 252-4056 Dallas, TX 75240 Campbell, C A 95008 Irvine, CA 92718 | FAX: (617) 860-6899 FAX: (214) 991-6208 FAX: (408) 879-9067 FAX: (714) 753-8147 EAST COAST MIDWEST NORTH PACIFIC: San Francisco, CA SOUTH PACIFIC: Los Angeles, CA NY, NYC, NJ, DC , DE, MD, VA, WV, PA IL, MO, KS, IA, ND, SD. MN. NORTHERN CA, OR, ID MT, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, AZ, Kim Norris (212) 512-2645 Wl, NE, IN, Ml OH WY, NORTHERN NV, UT NM, SOUTHERN NEVADA Ariane Casey (212) 512-2368 Kurt Kelley (312) 616-3328 RoyJ. Kops (415) 954-9728 Alan El Faye (213) 480-5243 Barry Echavarria (603) 924-2574 Ed Ware (603) 924-2664 Leslie Hupp (408) 879-0381 Jonathan Sawyer (603) 924-2665 McGraw-Hill Publications McGraw-Hill Publications Joseph Mabe (603) 924-2662 McGraw-Hill Publications 1221 Avenue of Americas— Two Prudential Plaza McGraw-Hill Publications 3333 Wilshire Boulevard #407 Regional Advertising 28th Floor 180 North Stetson Ave. 425 Battery Street Los Angeles, CA 90010 Brian Higgins (603) 924-2651 New York, NY 10020 Chicago, IL 60601 San Francisco, CA 941 11 FAX: (213) 480-5249 Larry Levine (603) 924-2637 FAX: (212) 512-2075 FAX: (312) 616-3370 FAX: (415) 954-9786 BYTE Publications | One Phoenix Mill Lane i Peterborough, NH 03458 Peterborough, NH Office: Inside Sales FAX: 603-924-2683 Advertising FAX: 603-924-750" Hardware/Software Showcase The Buyer's Mart (1¥2) BYTE Deck EURO-DECK BYTE International Direet Mark Stone (603) 924-2695 Margot Gnade (603) 924-2656 Brad Dixon (603) 924-2596 James Bail (603) 924-2533 Response Postcards Ellen Perham (603) 924-2598 BYTE Publications BYTE Publications BYTE Publications Ellen Perham (603) 924-2598 BYTE Publications One Phoenix Mill Lane One Phoenix Mill Lane One Phoenix Mill Lane BYTE Publications One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, NH 03458 Peterborough, NH 03458 Peterborough, NH 03458 One Phoenix Mill Lane Peter orough, NH 03458 Peterborough, NH 03458 INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF Ron Cordek, Managing Director, European Operations McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. , Wimbledon Bridge House, One Haftfield Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3RU, England, Tel: 44 81 545 6278, Fax: 44 81 545 6294 GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, UNITED KINGDOM SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES JAPAN KOREA AUSTRALIA, HONG KONG AUSTRIA Michele Hams (44 81 545 6269) Zena Coupe Masaki Mori Young-Scoh Chinn INDIA, INDONESIA Christina Barion Christina Barion (44 81 545 6270) A-Z International Sales Ltd. McGraw-Hill Publish ng Co. Jes Media International PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. 70 Chalk Farm Road Overseas Corp. K.P.O. Box 576, Seoul, Korea SINGAPORE, TAIWAN, Wimbledon Bridge House Wimbledon Bridge House London NW1 8AN Room 1528 Tel: (02) 545-8001/2 ASIA, PACIFIC COUNTRIES One Hartfield Road One Hartfield Road England Kasumigaseki Bldg. FAX: (02) 549-8861 Liwen Lee Wimbledon, London SW19 3RU Wimbledon, London SW19 3RU Tel: 44 71 284 3171 3-2-5 Kasumigaseki Candice Lo England England FAX: 44 71 284 3174 Chiyoda-Ku MALAYSIA AcerTWP Corp. Tel: 44 81 545 6270 FAX: 44 81 545 6294 Tokyo 100, Japan Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd 19-2, Lane 231, FAX: 44 81 545 6294 TELEX: 892191 ISRAEL Tel: 81 33 581 9811 H.K. Lin Fu Hsing North Road \ TELEX: 892191 Dan Ehrlich FAX: 81 33 581 4018 5th Floor, Bena Tower Taipei 10445, Taiwan FRANCE, FTALY Ehrlich Communication International 160. Jalan Ampang R.O.C. BENELUX Zena Coupe P.O. Box 1 1 297 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: (886) 2 713 6959 \ Ellen Pardede A-Z International Sales Ltd. Tel Aviv 61112, Israel Tel: (03) 262-4592 FAX: (886) 2 715 1950 Batenburg 105 70 Chalk Farm Road Tel: 972-52-586 245 FAX: (03) 262-4591 3437 AB Nieuwegein London NW1 8AN Tel: 972-52-586 246 The Netherlands England FAX: 972-52-585 685 Tel: 31 34 0249496 Tel: 44 71 284 3171 FAX: 31 34 02 37944 FAX: 44 71 284 3174 AUGUST 1 992 .BYTE 353 YOUR DIRECT LINK PRODUCT CATEGORY INDEX For FREE product information from individual advertisers, circle the corresponding inquiry numbers on Your Direct Link Card! To receive information for an entire product category, circle the category number on Your Direct Link Card! Category No. Category No. Category No. Inquiry No. Page No. Inquiry No. Page No. Inquiry No. Page No. HARDWARE 574 559 551 RECORTEC INC SAI SYSTEMS SUMMIT MICRO DESIGN 322SO-5 322NE-4 322MW-5 275 217 JDR MICRODEVICES L-COM, INC LODESTAR COMPUTER 335 337 298,299 2 ADD-IN BOARDS 260 SURAH INC 338 212 NEVADA COMPUTER 323 262 TECHNOLOGY POWER ENTERPRISE 338 153 S'NW ELECTRONICS 172 291 ADVANCED MICRO TECH 336 * TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 71,72 69 AMERICAN MEGATRENDS 101 169 TEXAS MICROSYSTEMS 73 72 ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC 211 268 TRI VALLEY TECH INC 338 15 MEMOR Y/CHIPS/UPGRADES 297 ATLAS INDUSTRIES INC 336 216 TRUE DATA PRODUCTS 328 68 ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES 138,139 276-277 AXIOM 336 432 UNITRON 94IS-27 292 AM RAM 339 410-411 COMPEX 94IS-31 * ZENITH DATA SYS 89-94 279-280 BPS INTERNATIONAL 339 187 CREATIVE LABS INC 173 85 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CO 162 241 CURTIS INC 336 6 DATA ACQUISITION 86 CAPITAL EQUIPMENT CO 163 552 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322MW-1 232-233 CYRIX 201 570 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322SO-2 251 KEITHLEY METRABYTE 339 433 DAWICONTROL COMPUTER SYS 94IS-28 204-205 DPT 302 253 MICROSTAR LAB 339 572-573 DYNAMITE 322SO-3 429 FIRST INT'L COMPUTER 94IS-19 * NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 94IS-32A-B 208-209 FIRST SOURCE INT'L 308 302 HIGH-RES TECHNOLOGIES 344 113 INTEL CORPORATION 26,27 115 JAMECO ELECTRONICS 184,185 114 INTEL CORPORATION 44,45 430 JEN ELECTRONICA 94IS-29 7 DISK & OPTICAL DRIVES 115 JAMECO ELECTRONICS 184,185 124 MICROWAY 245 69 AMERICAN MEGATRENDS 101 117-118 KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY 96 136-137 PERISCOPE COMPANY, THE 212 APS TECHNOLOGIES 300 416-417 KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY 94IS-14 146 QUA TECH INC 296 191-192 DYNATEK AUTOMATION SYS 252 418-419 KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY 94IS-15 228-229 RALIN WHOLESALERS 303-305 * HARD DRIVES INT'L 321 273 MEMORY SUPERSTORE 339 285-286 STARGATE TECHNOLOGIES 337 215 MICRO SOLU COMPUTER PROD 325 252 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD 339 261 TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC 337 127 NEC 40,41 284 SMARTMICRO TECH 340 427 TULIN TECHNOLOGY 94IS-20 139-140 PINNACLE MICRO 137 218 WORLDWIDE TECH 324 403 WESTPOINT CREATIVE 94UK-7 141 PIONEER COMMUNICATIONS 131 263 SIGEN 338 16 MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE 4 COMMUNICATIONS/NETWORKING 186 SIMPLICITY COMPUTING 148 161 STORAGE DIMENSIONS 243 187 CREATIVE LABS INC 173 199-200 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 235 260 SURAH INC 338 433 DAWICONTROL COMPUTER SYS 94IS-28 * COPIA INT'L 148 246 GTEK INC 340 243 GMM RESEARCH CORP 337 111 INTEGRAND RESEARCH 218 245 GTEK INC 337 8 DISKETTES/DUPLICATORS 269-270 QUIET TECHNOLOGY 340 275 150 L-COM, INC ROSE ELECTRONICS 337 63 156 171-172 SONY (N.A.) VERBATIM CORP 143 165 * UNISTOR 160A-B 298 SIGMA TECH SOFTWARE 337 285-286 STARGATE TECH 337 17 MODEMS/MULTIPLEXORS 261 TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC 337 10 GRAPHICS TABLETS/MICE/PEN INPUT 112 INTEL CORPORATION 159 234 2YXEL USA 285 108-109 HONEYWELLKEYBOARD DIV (N.A.) 181 228-229 RALIN WHOLESALERS 303-305 163 SUMMAGRAPHICS CORP 273 234 ZYXEL USA 285 5 COMPUTER SYSTEMS 289-290 ACQUIRE 337 11 KEYBOARDS 18 MONITORS & TERMINALS 558 APPRO INT'L INC 322NE-2 96-97 DATALUX CORP 146 125-126 NANAO USA CORP 221 73-74 AST RESEARCH INC 169 248 HOOLEON CORP 339 128-129 OPTIQUEST 194 230 ATLAS INDUSTRIES INC 316 NORTHGATE COMPUTER SYS 149-153 425 PHILIPS MONITORS 94IS-2,3 219-220 CITITRONICS 331 173-174 VIEWSONIC 213 87 COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP 117-124 577 COMTECH COMPUTERS 322MW-3 12 LAN HARDWARE 19 MULTIMEDIA 96-97 DATALUX CORP 146 98 DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) CM) 199-200 BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC 235 84 CANON USA INC 102 99 DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) CIV 110A-B 203 93 CYBEX CORP CYBEX CORP (INT'L) 312 cm 187 552 CREATIVE LABS INC DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 173 322MW-1 100 DELLCOMPUTER CORP (N.A.) 110C 134-135 PC POWER & COOLING 97 570 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322SO-2 101 DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) 110D--J 260 SURAH INC 338 295 EMPIRE COMPUTECH 340 101 DELLCOMPUTER CORP (N.A.) 111 302 HIGH-RES TECHNOLOGIES 344 303 DELL COMPUTER CORP (N.A.) 202,203 13 LAPTOPS & NOTEBOOKS 568 PLUSTEK USA, INC 322PC-2 224 DYNAMICSCAN 310,311 228-229 RALIN WHOLESALERS 303-305 206 ETVALUELINE/ELEK-TEK 306 237-238 Bl LINK COMPUTER 330 259 SILICON SHACK 340 ELONEX 94IS-4 224 DYNAMICSCAN 310,311 62 TEKTRONIX 236 207 ELTECH RESEARCH 322 429 FIRST INT'L COMPUTER 94IS-19 * TEKTRONIX 237 282 EXALINX, INC 338 * NORTHGATE COMPUTER SYS 149-153 403 WESTPOINT CREATIVE 94UK-7 429 FIRST INT'L COMPUTER 94IS-19 152 SHARP ELECTRONICS CO 145 * GATEWAY 2000 CII.1 168 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 171 20 PRINTERS/PLOTTERS 110 287-288 210-211 GATEWAY 2000 IBM CORP INTEGRATED DESIGN GROUP, INC INTERSYS 49-62 30,31 338 326 170 231 405 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC TOTE-A-LAP VERIDATA ZENITH DATA SYS 174,175 333 94UK-4 89-94 409 199-200 399 ASP COMPUTER PROD BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC BUFFALO PRODUCTS HEWLETT PACKARD 182 235 317 25 225-226 LAPINE 318,319 422 MINOLTA GMBH 94IS-25 557 MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 322NE-1 MANCHESTER EQUIPMENT CO 322NE-A-B 14 MAIL ORDER 61 130 OKI DATA OUTPUT TECHNOLOGY CO 222,223 47 420-421 MEGADATA 94IS-12 195-196 ADVANCED COMPUTER PROD 320 PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS 231 578 MINNESOTA COMP EXCHANGE 322MW-2 197 ALTEX ELECTRONICS 314,315 131 PANASONIC 78,79 303-305 560 NEW ENGLAND ELECT 322NE-3 198 AMT INT'L 332 228-229 RALIN WHOLESALERS * NORTHGATE COMPUTER SYS 149-153 201 BULLDOG COMPUTER PROD 301 426 SEIKO INSTRUMENTS GMBH 94IS-13 553 PC IMPORTERS INC 322MW-6 219-220 CITITRONICS 331 62 TEKTRONIX 236 237 561 PC IMPORTERS INC 322NE-6 202 COMPUTERLANE UNLTD 329 TEKTRONIX 567 PC IMPORTERS INC 322PC-6 395-397 CYBER RESEARCH 327 571 134-135 PC IMPORTERS INC PC POWER & COOLING 322SO-6 97 552 570 DIGITAL MEDIA LABS DIGITAL MEDIA LABS 322MW-1 322SO-2 21 PROGRAMMABLE HARDWARE 565 PROFESSIONAL COMP 322PC-5 115 JAMECO ELECTRONICS 184,185 293 GRANICOR 340 354 B YTE • AUGUST 1 992 YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343! 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! BVTE h [ mati __ ,.._,_ | Yes, 1 want \rMi± infon ion on the folk )wing products! Fill out this coupon carefully. Please Print. A. What is your primary job D. What operating systems are you i. function/principal area of currently using? (Checkall that apply) responsibility? {Check one) 12 Q PC/MS-DOS 15 3 Unix 13 -J DOS+ Windows 16 U MacOS \\ Name 1 Q MIS/DIP 2 □ Programmer/Systems Analyst 14 lJ OS/2 17 □ VAXyVMS E. For how many people do you I! Title 3 LJ Adminstration/Management 4 Z) Sales/Marketing influence the purchase of hardware 5 Z) Engineer/Scientist or software? :; Company 6 a Other 18 Q 1-25 20 □ 51-99 B. What is your level of manageme responsibility? 7 □ Senior-level 9 Q Professional nt 19 3 26-50 21 Q 100 or more Address LJ Please send me one year of BYTE Magazine for $24.95 and \ City State 2 ;„ 8 □ Middle-level C. Are you a reseller (VAR, VAD, bill me. Offer valid in U.S. and ■ Phone Fax Dealer, Consultant)? 10 □ Yes 11 Q No possessions only. August 1992 | 89 96 99 | Product Category Disks & Optical Drives 7 Multimedia 19 Educational 30 Shareware 42 Information Diskettes/Duplicators 8 Printers/Plotters 20 Engineering/Scientific 31 Software Duplication 43 Circle the numbers below for Fax Boards/Machines 9 Programmable Hardware 21 Entertainment 32 Spreadsheets 44 information on (he entire category Graphics Tablets/Mice/ Scanners/OCR/Digitizers 22 Graphics 33 Unix 45 of products you're interested in. Pen Input 10 Tape Drives 23 Macintosh 34 Utilities 46 Hardware Keyboards 1 1 UPS 24 Mail Order 35 Windows 47 Accessories/Supplies 1 LAN Hardware 1 2 Software Mathematical/Statistical 36 Word Processing 48 Add-in Boards 2 Laptops & Notebooks 1 3 Business 25 Miscellaneous Software 37 General Bar Coding 3 Mail Order 14 CAD/CAM 26 On-Line Seivices 38 Books/Publications 49 Communications/Networking 4 Memoiy/Chips/Upgrades 15 Communications/Networking 27 Operating Systems 39 Recruitment 50 Computer Systems 5 Miscellaneous Hardware 16 Data Acquisition 28 Programming Languages/ Miscellaneous 51 Data Acquisition 6 Modems/Multiplexors 17 Database 2g I ools 40 Monitors & Terminals 18 Security 41 Inquiry Numbers 52-233 1 Inquiry Numbers 409-590 I 1 Inquiry Numbers 766-947 I Inquiry Numbers 1123-1304 52 78 104 130 156 182 208 409 435 461 487 513 539 565 766 792 818 844 870 896 922 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 ■ 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 i 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 84 110 136 162 188 214 415 441 467 493 519 545 571 772 798 824 850 876 902 928 1129 1155 1181 1207 1233 1259 1285 ■ 59 85 111 137 163 189 215 416 442 468 494 520 546 572 773 799 825 851 877 903 929 1130 1156 1182 1208 1234 1260 1286 I 60 86 112 138 164 190 216 417 443 469 495 521 547 573 774 800 826 852 878 904 930 1131 1157 1183 1209 1235 1261 1287 ; 61 87 113 139 165 191 217 418 444 470 496 522 548 574 775 801 827 853 879 905 931 1132 1158 1184 1210 1236 1262 1288 ; 62 88 114 140 166 192 218 419 445 471 497 523 549 575 776 802 828 854 880 906 932 1133 1159 1185 1211 1237 1263 1289 | 63 89 115 141 167 193 219 420 446 472 498 524 550 576 777 803 829 855 881 907 933 1134 1160 1186 1212 1238 1264 1290 l 64 90 116 142 168 194 220 421 447 473 499 525 551 577 778 804 830 856 882 908 934 1135 1161 1187 1213 1239 1265 1291 : 65 91 117 143 169 195 221 422 448 474 500 526 552 578 779 805 831 857 883 909 935 1136 1162 1188 1214 1240 1266 1292 ; 66 92 118 144 170 196 222 423 449 475 501 527 553 579 780 806 832 858 884 910 936 1137 1163 1189 1215 1241 1267 1293 1 67 93 119 145 171 197 223 424 450 476 502 528 554 580 781 807 833 859 885 911 937 1138 1164 1190 1216 1242 1268 1294 | 68 94 120 146 172 198 224 425 451 477 503 529 555 581 782 808 834 860 886 912 938 1139 1165 1191 1217 1243 1269 1295 j 69 95 121 147 173 199 225 426 452 478 504 530 556 582 783 809 835 861 887 913 939 1140 1166 1192 1218 1244 1270 1296 } 70 96 122 148 174 200 226 427 453 479 505 531 557 583 784 810 836 862 888 914 940 1141 1167 1193 1219 1245 1271 1297 : 71 97 123 149 175 201 227 428 454 480 506 532 558 584 785 811 837 863 889 915 941 1142 1168 1194 1220 1246 1272 1298 j 72 98 124 150 176 202 228 429 455 481 507 533 559 585 786 812 838 864 890 916 942 1143 1169 1195 1221 1247 1273 1299 ; 73 99 125 151 177 203 229 430 456 482 508 534 560 586 787 813 839 865 891 917 943 1144 1170 1196 1222 1248 1274 1300 j 74 100 126 152 178 204 230 431 457 483 509 535 561 587 788 814 840 866 892 918 944 1145 1171 1197 1223 1249 1275 1301 5 75 101 127 153 179 205 231 432 458 484 510 536 562 588 789 815 841 867 893 919 945 1146 1172 1198 1224 1250 1276 1302 j 76 102 128 154 180 206 232 433 459 485 511 537 563 589 790 816 842 868 894 920 946 1147 1173 1199 1225 1251 1277 1303 77 103 129 155 181 207 233 434 460 486 512 538 564 590 791 817 843 869 895 921 947 1148 1174 1200 1226 1252 1278 1304 Inquiry Numbers 234-408 1 Inquiry Numbers 591-765 1 I Inquiry Numbers 946-1 122 1 Inquiry Numbers 1305-1479 234 259 284 309 334 359 384 591 616 641 666 691 716 741 948 973 998 1023 1048 1073 1098 1305 1330 1355 1380 1405 1430 145 • 235 260 285 310 335 360 385 592 617 642 667 692 717 742 949 974 999 1024 1049 1074 1099 1306 1331 1356 1381 1406 1431 1456 ': 236 261 286 311 336 361 386 593 618 643 668 693 718 743 950 975 1000 1025 1050 1075 1100 1307 1332 1357 1382 1407 1432 1457 : 237 262 287 312 337 362 387 594 619 644 669 694 719 744 951 976 1001 1026 1051 1076 1101 1308 1333 1358 1383 1408 1433 1458 J 238 263 288 313 338 363 388 595 620 645 670 695 720 745 952 977 1002 1027 1052 1077 1102 1309 1334 1359 1384 1409 1434 1459 \ 239 264 289 314 339 364 389 596 621 646 671 696 721 746 953 978 1003 1028 1053 1078 1103 1310 1335 1360 1385 1410 1435 1460 : 240 265 290 315 340 365 390 597 622 647 672 697 722 747 954 979 1004 1029 1054 1079 1104 1311 1336 1361 1386 1411 1436 1461 • 241 266 291 316 341 366 391 598 623 648 673 698 723 748 955 980 1005 1030 1055 1080 1105 1312 1337 1362 1387 1412 1437 1462 : 242 267 292 317 342 367 392 599 624 649 674 699 724 749 956 981 1006 1031 1056 1081 1106 1313 1338 1363 1388 1413 1438 1463 : 243 268 293 318 343 368 393 600 625 650 675 700 725 750 957 982 1007 1032 1057 1082 1107 1314 1339 1364 1389 1414 1439 1464 l 244 269 294 319 344 369 394 601 626 651 676 701 726 751 958 983 1008 1033 1058 1083 1108 1315 1340 1365 1390 1415 1440 1465 ■ 245 270 295 320 345 370 395 602 627 652 677 702 727 752 959 984 1009 1034 1059 1084 1109 1316 1341 1366 1391 1416 1441 1466 I 246 271 296 321 346 371 396 603 628 653 678 703 728 753 960 985 1010 1035 1060 1085 1110 1317 1342 1367 1392 1417 1442 1467 1 247 272 297 322 347 372 397 604 629 654 679 704 729 754 961 986 1011 1036 1061 1086 1111 1318 1343 1368 1393 1418 1443 1468 j 248 273 298 323 348 373 398 605 630 655 680 705 730 755 962 987 1012 1037 1062 1087 1112 1319 1344 1369 1394 1419 1444 1469 j 249 274 299 324 349 374 399 606 631 656 681 706 731 756 963 988 1013 1038 1063 1088 1113 1320 1345 1370 1395 1420 1445 1470 : 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 607 632 657 682 707 732 757 964 989 1014 1039 1064 1089 1114 1321 1346 1371 1396 1421 1446 1471 f 251 276 301 326 351 376 401 608 633 658 683 708 733 758 965 990 1015 1040 1065 1090 1115 1322 1347 1372 1397 1422 1447 1472 ; 252 277 302 327 352 377 402 609 634 659 684 709 734 759 966 991 1016 1041 1066 1091 1116 1323 1348 1373 1398 1423 1448 1473 s 253 278 303 328 353 378 403 610 635 660 685 710 735 760 967 992 1017 1042 1067 1092 1117 1324 1349 1374 1399 1424 1449 1474 I 254 279 304 329 354 379 404 611 636 661 686 711 736 761 968 993 1018 1043 1068 1093 1118 1325 1350 1375 1400 1425 1450 1475 : 255 280 305 330 355 380 405 612 637 662 687 712 737 762 969 994 1019 1044 1069 1094 1119 1326 1351 1376 1401 1426 1451 1476 | 256 281 306 331 356 381 406 613 638 663 688 713 738 763 970 995 1020 1045 1070 1095 1120 1327 1352 1377 1402 1427 1452 1477 i 257 282 307 332 357 382 407 614 639 664 689 714 739 764 971 996 1021 1046 1071 1096 1121 1328 1353 1378 1403 1428 1453 1478 258 283 308 333 358 383 408 615 640 665 690 715 740 765 972 997 1022 1047 1072 1097 1122 1329 1354 1379 1404 1429 1454 147< ) YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343! C= TJ ID 3D co i=t o E" > S3, ■ > 5 " ^ 2 > ^ m O O ^ DB ? S CD O o "3 i °° Q m S«0 r - CO ^^ i - m 00 "^^ "D > f m U D9 c/> > a SO) a J3 m 530 co m m § m *T3 - 5 2 S> > ■ 5 m m > > 3 a 5 o m -< m co See reverse side for card. 1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category. 2. Print Your Name and Address Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343. 3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies! BYTE si YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343! Yes, I want information on the following products! 1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category. 2. Print Your Name and Address Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343. 3. Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies! BVTE ;a Fill out this coupon carefully. Please Print. Name Title Company Address City State Zip Phone Fax A. What is your primary job function/principal area of responsibility? (Check one) 1 G MIS/DIP 2 □ Programmer/Systems Analyst 3 Q Adminstration/Management 4 G Sales/Marketing 5 3 Engineer/Scientist 6 □ Other B. What is your level of management responsibility? 7 □ Senior-level 9 □ Professional 8 □ Middle-level C. Are you a reseller (VAR, VAD, Dealer, Consultant)? 10 □ Yes 1 1 □ No D. What operating systems are you currently using? (Check all that apply) 12 Q PC/MS-DOS 15 O Unix 13 □ DOS + Windows 16 □ MacOS 14 Q OS/2 17 □ VAX/VMS E. For how many people do you influence the purchase of hardware or software? 18 □ 1-25 20 □ 51-99 19 Q 26-50 21 a 100 or more □ Please send me one year of BYTE Magazine for S24.95 and bill me. Offer valid in U.S. and possessions only. August 1992 \ 89 96 99 \ Product Category Disks & Optical Drives 7 Multimedia 19 Educational 30 Shareware 42 Information Diskettes/Duplicators 8 Printers/Plotters 20 Engineering/Scientific 31 Software Duplication 43 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 of products you're interested in. Pen Input 10 Tape Drives 23 Macintosh 34 Utilities 46 Keyboards 11 UPS 24 Mail Order 35 Windows 47 Accessories/Supplies 1 LAN Hardware 12 Software Mathematical/Statistical 36 Word Processing 48 Add-in Boards 2 Laptops & Notebooks 13 Business 25 Miscellaneous Software 37 General Bar Coding 3 Mail Order 14 CAD/CAM 26 On-Line Services 38 Books/Publications 49 Communications/Networking 4 Memory/Chips/Upgrades 1b Communications/Networking 27 Operating Systems 39 Recruitment 50 Computer Systems 5 Miscellaneous Hardware 16 Data Acquisition 28 Programming Languages/ Miscellaneous 51 Data Acquisition 6 Modems/Multiplexors Monitors & Terminals 17 18 Database 29 Tools Security 40 41 Inquiry Numbers 52-233 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 104 130 105 131 106 132 107 133 108 134 109 135 110 136 111 137 112 138 113 139 114 140 115 141 116 142 117 143 118 144 119 145 120 146 121 147 122 148 123 149 124 150 125 151 126 152 127 153 128 154 129 155 156 182 208 157 183 209 158 184 210 159 185 211 160 186 212 161 187 213 162 188 214 163 189 215 164 190 216 165 191 217 166 192 218 167 193 219 168 194 220 169 195 221 170 196 222 171 197 223 172 198 224 173 199 225 174 200 226 175 201 227 176 202 228 177 203 229 178 204 230 179 205 231 180 206 232 181 207 233 Inquiry Numbers 234-408 234 259 235 260 236 261 237 262 238 263 239 264 240 265 241 266 242 267 243 268 244 269 245 270 246 271 247 272 248 273 249 274 250 275 251 276 252 277 253 278 254 279 255 280 256 281 257 282 258 283 284 309 285 310 286 311 287 312 288 313 289 314 290 315 291 316 292 317 293 318 294 319 295 320 296 321 297 322 298 323 299 324 300 325 301 326 302 327 303 328 304 329 305 330 306 331 307 332 308 333 334 359 384 335 360 385 336 361 386 337 362 387 338 363 388 339 364 389 340 365 390 341 366 391 342 367 392 343 368 393 344 369 394 345 370 395 346 371 396 347 372 397 348 373 398 349 374 399 350 375 400 351 376 401 352 377 402 353 378 403 354 379 404 355 380 405 356 381 406 357 382 407 358 383 408 Inquiry Numbers 409-590 409 435 410 436 411 437 412 438 413 439 414 440 415 441 416 442 417 443 418 444 419 445 420 446 421 447 422 448 423 449 424 450 425 451 426 452 427 453 428 454 429 455 430 456 431 457 432 458 433 459 434 460 461 487 462 488 463 489 464 490 465 491 466 492 467 493 468 494 469 495 470 496 471 497 472 498 473 499 474 500 475 501 476 502 477 503 478 504 479 505 480 506 481 507 482 508 483 509 484 510 485 511 486 512 513 539 565 514 540 566 515 541 567 516 542 568 517 543 569 518 544 519 545 520 546 572 521 547 573 522 548 574 523 549 575 524 550 576 525 551 577 526 552 578 527 553 579 528 554 580 529 555 581 530 556 582 531 557 583 532 558 584 533 559 585 534 560 586 535 561 587 536 562 588 537 563 589 538 564 590 570 571 Inquiry Numbers 591-765 591 616 592 617 593 618 594 619 595 620 596 621 597 622 598 623 599 624 600 625 601 626 602 627 603 628 604 629 605 630 606 631 607 632 608 633 609 634 610 635 611 636 612 637 613 638 614 639 641 666 642 667 643 668 644 669 645 670 646 671 647 672 648 673 649 674 650 675 651 676 652 677 653 678 654 679 655 680 656 681 657 682 658 683 659 684 660 685 661 686 711 662 687 663 688 664 689 665 690 691 716 741 692 717 742 693 718 743 694 719 744 695 720 745 696 721 746 697 722 747 698 723 748 699 724 749 700 725 750 701 726 751 702 727 752 703 728 753 704 729 754 705 730 755 706 731 756 707 732 757 708 733 758 709 734 759 710 735 760 736 761 712 737 762 713 738 763 714 739 764 715 740 765 Inquiry Numbers 766-947 766 792 767 793 768 794 769 795 770 796 771 797 772 798 773 799 774 800 775 801 776 802 777 803 778 804 779 805 780 806 781 807 782 808 783 809 784 810 785 811 786 812 787 813 788 814 789 815 790 816 791 817 818 844 819 845 820 846 821 847 822 848 823 849 824 850 825 851 826 852 827 853 828 854 829 855 830 856 831 857 832 858 833 859 834 860 835 861 836 862 837 863 838 864 839 865 840 866 841 867 842 868 843 869 870 871 872 873 896 922 897 923 898 924 899 925 874 900 926 875 901 927 876 902 928 877 903 929 878 904 930 879 905 931 880 906 932 881 907 933 882 908 934 883 909 935 884 910 936 885 911 937 886 912 938 887 913 939 888 914 940 889 915 941 890 916 942 891 917 943 892 918 944 893 919 945 894 920 946 895 921 947 Inquiry Numbers 946-1122 948 973 949 974 950 975 951 976 952 977 953 978 954 979 955 980 956 981 957 982 958 983 959 984 960 985 961 986 962 987 963 988 964 989 965 990 966 991 967 992 968 993 969 994 970 995 971 996 972 997 998 1023 1048 999 1024 1049 1000 1025 1050 1001 1026 1051 1002 1027 1052 1003 1028 1053 1004 1029 1054 1005 1030 1055 1006 1031 1056 1007 1032 1057 1008 1033 1056 1009 1034 1059 1010 1035 1060 1011 1036 1061 1012 1037 1062 1013 1038 1063 1014 1039 1064 1015 1040 1065 1016 1041 1066 1017 1042 1067 1018 1043 1068 1019 1044 1069 1020 1045 1070 1021 1046 1071 1022 1047 1072 1073 1098 1074 1099 1075 1100 1076 1101 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1106 1082 1107 1083 1108 1084 1109 1085 1110 1086 1111 1087 1112 1088 1113 1089 1114 1090 1115 1091 1116 1092 1117 1093 1118 1094 1119 1095 1120 1096 1121 1097 1122 Inquiry Numbers 1 123-1304 1123 1149 1124 1150 1125 1151 1126 1152 1127 1153 1128 1154 1129 1155 1130 1156 1131 1157 1132 1158 1133 1159 1134 1160 1135 1161 1136 1162 1137 1163 1138 1164 1139 1165 1140 1166 1141 1167 1142 1168 1143 1169 1144 1170 1145 1171 1146 1172 1147 1173 1148 1174 1175 1201 1176 1202 1177 1203 1178 1204 1179 1205 1180 1206 1181 1207 1182 1208 1183 1209 1184 1210 1185 1211 1186 1212 1187 1213 1188 1214 1189 1215 1190 1216 1191 1217 1192 1218 1193 1219 1194 1220 1195 1221 1196 1222 1197 1223 1198 1224 1199 1225 1200 1226 1227 1253 1279 1228 1254 1260 1229 1255 1281 1230 1256 1282 1231 1257 1283 1232 1258 1284 1233 1259 1285 1234 1260 1286 1235 1261 1287 1236 1262 1288 1237 1263 1289 1238 1264 1290 1239 1265 1291 1240 1266 1292 1241 1267 1293 1242 1268 1294 1243 1269 1295 1244 1270 1296 1245 1271 1297 1246 1272 1298 1247 1273 1299 1248 1274 1300 1249 1275 1301 1250 1276 1302 1251 1277 1303 1252 1278 1304 Inquiry Numbers 1305-1479 1305 1330 1306 1331 1307 1332 1308 1333 1309 1334 1310 1335 1311 1336 1312 1337 1313 1338 1314 1339 1315 1340 1316 1341 1317 1342 1318 1343 1319 1344 1320 1345 1321 1346 1322 1347 1323 1348 1324 1349 1325 1350 1326 1351 1327 1352 1328 1353 1329 1354 1355 1380 1356 1381 1357 1382 1358 1383 1359 1384 1360 1385 1361 1386 1362 1387 1363 1388 1364 1389 1365 1390 1366 1391 1367 1392 1368 1393 1369 1394 1370 1395 1371 1396 1372 1397 1373 1398 1374 1399 1375 1400 1376 1401 1377 1402 1378 1403 1379 1404 1405 1430 1455 1406 1431 1456 1407 1432 1457 1408 1433 1458 1409 1434 1459 1410 1435 1460 1411 1436 1461 1412 1437 1462 1413 1436 1463 1414 1439 1464 1415 1440 1465 1416 1441 1466 1417 1442 1467 1418 1443 1468 1419 1444 1469 1420 1445 1470 1421 1446 1471 1422 1447 1472 1423 1448 1473 1424 1449 1474 1425 1450 1475 1426 1451 1476 1427 1452 1477 1428 1453 1478 1429 1454 1479 YOUR DIRECT LINK CARD For free product information, mail your completed card today. For quicker response, fax to 1-413-637-4343! Pittsf USA O DO m > DB ~0 O o BU FIRST CD" P- 00 o X o m DO « m r— en ^^ ^ CJl if) CD m ^ ^ > O o CO L o m XI < o m m > o CO -< > o o ESS ML PERf CO CO IE m GO ^33 CD CO m m EPLY MAIL MO. 176 PITTSFIELD, MA See reverse side for card. 1. Circle the Numbers on Your Direct Link Card Circle the numbers which are found on ads and articles in this issue or circle the product category number and receive information on all advertisers listed in that category. 2. Print Your Name and Address Answer questions "A" through "E" and mail or fax card to 1-413-637-4343. 3- Product information will be rushed to you from the selected companies! BYTE m For FREE product information from individual advertisers, circle the corresponding inquiry numbers on your Direct Link Card! To receive information for an entire product category, circle the category number on your Direct Link Card! Category No. Category No. Category No. Inquiry No. Page No. Inquiry No. Page No. Inquiry No. Page No. 247 GTEK INC 340 32 ENTERTAINMENT 256 PSEUDOCORP 343 249 264-265 266 IO TECH TRIBAL MICROSYSTEMS XELTEK 341 341 341 213 214 MICROPROSE SOFTWARE MICROPROSE SOFTWARE 307 309 148-149 176 64 RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES SYMANTEC (ZORTECH) TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 133 197 233 267 Z-WORLD ENGINEERING 341 * TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 22 33 GRAPHICS 175 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS WATCOM PRODUCTS INC 23 29 23 TAPE DRIVES 92 COREL SOFTWARE 39 69 250 255 AMERICAN MEGATRENDS LAGUNA DATA SYSTEMS OVERLAND DATA INC 101 341 341 103 125-126 FRAME TECHNOLOGY FRAME TECHNOLOGY NANAO USA CORP 129 127,128 221 41 67 SECURITY ALADDIN KNOWLEDGE SYS 191 257 QUALSTAR CORP 341 162 PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS STRATEGIC MAPPING 231 109 415 106-107 FAST ELECTRONIC GMBH GLENCO ENGINEERING 94IS-21 217 62 TEKTRONIX 236 154-155 SOFTWARE SECURITY INC 200 24 UPS TEKTRONIX 237 132 MINUTEMAN 107 42 SHAREWARE 134-135 PC POWER & COOLING 97 34 MACINTOSH * APPLE COMPUTER INC 17 * REASONABLE SOLUTIONS 94IS-32A-B * APPLE COMPUTER INC 19 SOFTWAI * APPLE COMPUTER INC 21 44 SPREADSHEETS 402 166-167 BLACKWELL SOFTWARE SYSTAT INC 94UK-9 99 78-79 BORLAND INTERNATIONAL 15 * MICROSOFT CORP 8,9 25 BUSINESS * MICROSOFT CORP 74,75 402 BLACKWELL SOFTWARE 94UK-9 35 MAIL ORDER 90 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 140 201 BULLDOG COMPUTER PROD 301 45 UNIX 102 562 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC (N.A.) NETWORLD DALLAS 192,193 322PC-1 88 304 COMPUCLASSICS COMPUSAVE INT'L 100 313 299 CACTUS INTERNATIONAL 343 569 NETWORLD DALLAS 322SO-1 413 COMPUTER QUICK 94IS-16 178-179 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (N.A.) 271 133 PATTON & PATTON 104 408 GREY MATTER LTD 94IS-7 180-181 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) 271 148-149 RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES 133 120 PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE 67-69 182-183 LIANTSOFTWARECORP (N.A.) 281 162 STRATEGIC MAPPING 109 PROGRAMMER'S SHOP SOFTLINE CORP 276-278 94IS-11 184-185 424 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) MARK WILLIAMS CO MORTICE KERN (MKS) 281 167 94IS-17 26 CAD/CAM 189 SUNSOFT 2,3 70 AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS COMP 85 36 MATHMA TICAL/STATISTICAL * AUTODESK INC 86 258 SAS INSTITUTE INC 342 46 UTILITIES 75 104-105 283 555-556 563-564 AUTODESK INC AUTODESK RETAIL PROD CADSOFT COMPUTER, INC EVOLUTION COMPUTING EVOLUTION COMPUTING 87 108 342 322NE-5 322PC-3 158 159-160 166-167 SPSS INC STATSOFT SYSTAT INC 183 265 99 438-439 433 164-165 278 CLARION SOFTWARE 94IS-32 DAWICONTROL COMPUTER SYS 94IS-28 LANDMARK RESEARCH INT'L CORP 105 MICRO HOUSE 344 37 MISCELLANEOUS SOFTWARE 142 * PKWARE INC VERMONT CREATIVE SOFTWARE 30 7 27 COMMUNICATIONS/NETWORKING 579-580 431 EPS ON TIME MKT/KARSTEN PETERSEIS 322NE-6 94IS-20 242 DIVERSIFIED COMPUTER 341 162 STRATEGIC MAPPING 109 47 WINDOWS 148-149 RAINBOW TECH 133 190 APPROACH SOFTWARE 263 428 WALKER, RICHER & QUINN 94IS-9 38 ON LINE SERVICES 271-272 89 BLACK ICE SOFTWARE, INC COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 344 82,83 28 DATA ACQUISITION 450 COPIA INTERNATIONAL 359 148 302 407 HIGH-RES TECHNOLOGIES ICONOGRAPHIC SYS 344 94UK-14 254 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 342 116 KEA SYSTEMS LTD 98 * NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 94IS-32A-B 39 OPERATING SYSTEMS * MICROSOFT CORP 34,35 434-437 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS UK LTD 94UK-3 125-126 NANAO USA CORP 221 102 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC (N.A.) 192,193 300 TECTAMM 344 * MARK WILLIAMS CO 167 239-240 VENTURA SOFTWARE INC 283 29 DATABASE * QUARTERDECK OFFICE SYSTEM 256A-T 402 82-83 BLACKWELL SOFTWARE BORLAND INT'L 94UK-9 12,13 40 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/TOOLS 48 WORD PROCESSING/DTP 91 COMPUTER ASSOCIATES 36 404 BRENT COMMUNICATIONS 94UK-10 * COPIA INTERNATIONAL 148 76-77 BORLAND INT'L (INT'L) CIV * PACIFIC DATA PRODUCTS 231 121 MAGIC/MSE (INT'L) 111 80-81 BORLAND INTERNATIONAL 11 147 RAIMA CORP 81 404 BRENT COMMUNICATIONS 94UK-10 151 SEQUITER SOFTWARE INC 251 94-95 DATA ACCESS CORP 209 GENERA 102 244 DIGITAL RESEARCH INC (N.A.) GREENLEAF SOFTWARE 192,193 343 30 EDUCATIONAL 408 294 GREY MATTER LTD IVERSON SOFTWARE, INC 94IS-7 343 49 BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS 65-66 ABACUS SOFTWARE 147 119 LAHEY COMPUTER SYS 172 274 COMPUBOOKS 344 * AMER INST FOR COMPUTER SCI 342 178-179 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (N.A.) 271 * UNIXWORLD 289-291 * MCGRAW HILL NRI (N.A.) 240A-B 180-181 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) 271 * WINDOWS/DOS 182-183 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (N.A.) 281 DEVELOPERS JOURNAL 94IS-32A-B 31 414 ENGINEERING/SCIENTIFIC DR HUGGLE & PARTNER GMBH 94IS-18 184-185 121 423 LIANT SOFTWARE CORP (INT'L) MAGIC/MSE (INT'L) MIX SOFTWARE 281 111 94IS-22 51 MISCELLANEOUS 281 GRAMMAR ENGINE, INC 342 296 OMEGA POINT, INC 343 * BYTE CARD DECK 262 164-165 LANDMARK RESEARCH INT'L CORP 105 138 PHAR LAP SOFTWARE INC 77 * BYTE REPRINTS 258 122 MATHSOFT INC 215 401 POLYHEDRON SOFTWARE LTD 94UK-10 * BYTE SUB MESSAGE 294 123 MATHSOFT INC 220 143 POPKIN SOFTWARES SYSTEMS INC 186 * BYTE SUB MESSAGE 94IS-30 157 SPECTRUM SOFTWARE (N.A.) 103 * PROGRAMMER'S SHOP 276,278 188 DIGITAL CONSULTING INC 357 166-167 SYSTAT INC 99 144-145 PROGRESS SOFTWARE 176 177 INTEROP 92 FALL 219 AUGUST 1 992 • B Y T E 355 EDITORIAL INDEX For more information on any of the companies covered in articles, columns, or news stories in this issue, circle the appropriate inquiry number on Your Direct Link Card. Each page number refers to the first pages of the article or section in which the company name appears. IS pages appear only in the International and U.K. editions; UK pages appear only in the U.K. edition. Inquiry No. Page No. 1000 Adaptive Solutions 112 1180 Adobe Systems 42,249 1280 Alpha Research 66 American Megatrends 293 AMIX 18 Analog Devices 269 Ansa 32 1105 Apple Computer 18,224, 1132 261,266 978 Approach Software 255 Ariel 269 1221 Artisoft 264 Ashton-Tate 32 1182 AST Research 46 AT&T 269, 293, 94IS-5 1151 ATI Technologies 95 Austin Code Works 295 1293 Compatible Systems 76 1320 Complus Network 94IS-14 1290 Compulink Management Center 76 Computer Associates 18 1310 Concord Communications 204 1160 Concurrent Computer 201 1225 Core International 238 1147 Corel Systems 42,95 1179 1002 Corollary 112 1154 Creative Labs 95 Cypress Semiconductor 18 D 1161 Data General 201 Data Management Technology 94IS-5 1106 Dataproducts 224 1322 Davis A/S 94IS-16 1163 DEC 141,177,201 1162 DiabData 201 1164 Digital Research 201 1226 Dynatek Automation Systems 238 1165 Encore Computer 1107 Epson America 201 224 F Factorum 94UK-2 Fox Software 32 Free Software Foundation 288 Inquiry No. Page No. G 1325 GADC 94IS-18 1150 Gateway 2000 95 1181 Gazelle Systems 46 1108 GCC Technologies 224 GEC Hirst Research 94UK-15 General Videotex 10 1299 Genus Microprogramming 80 GeoWorks 18 1297 Gpf Systems 80 Granite Communications 18 Graphics Unlimited 94IS-5 H 1 1 66 Hewlett-Packard 1 8, 1 61 , 1 77, 1311 201,204 Hyperception 269 1328 Hypertec Europe 94IS-20 1307 Autodesk B 8b 1003 I IBM 18,112, 1222 Backus-Naur 265 1167 154, 201, 247, 1156 Bell Atlantic 95 1223 94IS-5, 94UK-2, Bell Labs 360 94UK-11 Berkeley Systems 18 1004 ICL 112 1318 Blue Chip Technology 94IS-" lllumind 295 1177 Borland International 32 1304 1301 Imara Research Index Solutions 84 84 c 1168 Industrial Programming 201 1288 Cache Computers 70 Informix Software 94IS-5 Casio Computer 18 1305 Ink Development 84 Cayman Systems 257 Integrated Information 1159 Charles River Data Systems 201 Technologies 18 Chips & Technologies 293 1169 Intel 201 249, 269, 1224 Ciprico 238 94UK-11 1273 CMS Enhancements 64 Intermetrics 269 Comdisco Systems 269 InterOptica Publishing 266 1001 Compaq Computer 112 ,247 1277 Iomega 65 1274 Keydata International 64 1306 Knowledge Revolution 88 Kodak 94UK-11 1300 Language Systems 80 1279 Laser Magnetic Storage International 65 1109 LaserMaster 224 Leading Edge Products 295 1227 Legacy Storage Systems 238 1111 Lexmark International 224 1157 Logitech 95 1005 Lynx Real-Time 1170 Systems 112,177,201 M 1110 Mannesmann Tally 224, 1317 94IS-10 Marantz 94UK-11 1178 Mark Williams 37 Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics 94IS-5 1302 Meca Software 84 1006 Meiko Scientific 112 1327 Memsoft 94IS-20 Meridian Data 94UK-1 1 1296 MetaCard 80 Inquiry No. Page No. 1285 Microcom 70 1079 Microft Technology 94IS-8 Micromega 94UK-11 1228 MicroNet Technology 238 1229 Micropolis 238 976 Microsoft 18, 32, 95, 1152 255,259 293, 94UK-11 Micros Systems 18 1171 Microwave Systems 201 1008 MicroWay 112 Mission 94UK-11 1172 Modular Computer Systems 201 Momenta Data Systems 269 Mortice Kern Systems 295 Motorola 18, 269 1292 Motorola Codex 76 Moving Pictures Expert Group 94UK-11 N Nantucket Software 18 National Instruments 269 1009 NCUBE 112 1112 NEC Technologies 224,249 1312 Network General 204 1113 NewGen Systems 224 New Technology 94IS-5 Next 18 1313 Novell 204,255 Olivetti 94IS-5, 94UK-2 1148 Ontrack Computer 95 1323 Orac Information Systems 94IS-16 Oxford University 154 P 1324 PACT 94IS-16 Palm Computing 18 Panasonic 94UK-11 1010 Parallan Computer 112 1011 Parsytec Computer 112 1272 PC Brand 64 Philips Electronics 195, 94UK-11 1275 Pinnacle Micro 65 1289 Positive 70 1298 Powersoft 80 Programming Research Group 154 1314 ProTools 204 1075 Psion 94UK-5 Q 1114 QMS 224 1326 Qtronix Computer 94IS-18 1173 Quantum 201, 94IS-5 1131 Quarterdeck Office Systems 249 1291 QuickComm 76 Quorum Software Systems 18 R 1012 Radius 112 1078 Ranger Computers 94UK-5 Rioch 94UK-1 1 Riva 94IS-5 1319 Robocom 94IS-12 1174 RTMX-UniFlex 201 Inquiry No. Page No. Samsung Electronics 18 Sequiter Software 259 Silicon Graphics 18 1303 Slate 84 1309 Software Bisque 88 1153 The Software Toolworks 95 Sony 195 94UK-11 Spectral Innovations 269 1149 STB Systems 66,95 1284 Storage Dimensions 295 1308 Stylos Development 88 1013 Sun Microsystems 18,136, 177, 249, 257, 94UK-11 1183 Symantec 46 1321 Symicron Computer Communications 94IS-14 T 1155 Tandy 18,95,249 1316 Tatung 94IS-10 Teac 94UK-11 1295 TechWorks 76 1276 Tecmar 65 Tekdata 94UK-11 1315 Telecommunications Techniques 204 1281 Telephoto Communications 66 1115 Texas Instruments 18 224, 269 That's Corp. 94UK-11 1014 Thinking Machines 112 Thinking Software 266 Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories 253, 94IS-5, 94UK-2, 94UK-15 3M 288 u 1282 Ultra-X 66 1283 Univision Technologies 66 1294 USRobotics V 76 1175 VenturCom 201 1278 Vision Logic 65 1158 Visual Solutions 95 w 1077 Widget Software 94UK-5 1286 Windata 70 1176 Wind River Systems 201 Within Technologies 18 1146 WordStar International 95 1 271 Wyse Technology 64 x Xanadu 1116 XANTE Xcelerated Systems Y 1076 Yellow Computing 18 224 257 94UK-5 Zenith Data Systems 249 356 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 en-Based EXPO L'-^il LvullL c( the Veciii Los Angeles September 21-23, 1992 Based EXPO 7 Conferences, 1 Spectacular Event! 1. Restructuring Business Processes Conference 2. Developing/Programming for Pen Conference 3. Systems Integration Conference 4. Windows for Pen Conference 5. Mobile Computing Conference 6. Hardware Technology Conference 7. Reseller Opportunities Conference Learn from Pioneers in the Pen Field... ♦ Conference Chairman: Ed Yourdon ♦ Research Chairman: Portia Isaacson, Dream IT, Inc. ♦ George Barlow, Distributed Micro Systems ♦ John Butler, Microsoft Corporation ♦ Madeline Duva, C1C ♦ S. Jerrold Kaplan, CO Corp. ♦ D. Bruce Walter, GRiD Systems ♦ Plus Many More! PLUS { a comprehensive Exposition spotlighting over 1 00 leaders in the Pen developer community including... American Management Logitech Systems, Inc. MicroSlate, Inc. Byers Engineering Company Momenta CalComp Digitizer Products Group Communications Intelligence Corp. (C1C) FTG Data Systems Fujitsu Personal Systems, Inc. * PenSoft Corporation GRiD Systems Corp. PenWare, Inc. * IBM Corporation * Scriptel Corporation Ink Development Corp. WACOM Technology Kurta Corp. Co-Sponsors NCR Corporation * NEC Technologies Notable Technologies * PEN PAL Associates* PenMagic Software, Inc. Circle 1 88 on Inquiry Card. Call Julie Adler at (508) 470-3870 for exhibiting information. A3YCYB HOW DO YOU GET A JOB WITHOUT EXPERIENCE? AND HOW DO YOU GET EXPERIENCE wrraouTAJOB? Most young people have one answer to this problem. They avoid it until they're out of college. But they could be getting solid work experience while they're still in col- lege. With your company's help. And ours. We're Co-op Education. A nation- wide program that helps college students get real jobs for real pay, while they're getting an education. But we can't do it without you. Those real jobs have to come from real companies. Like yours. For more information on how you can participate in this valuable program, write Co-op Education, Box 775E, Boston, MA 02115. Not only will you be giving stu- dents a chance to earn money and pick up the most valuable kind of knowledge, you'll be giving yourselves a chance to pick up the most valuable kind of employee. Co-op Education. You earn a future when you earn a degree. CoukU a Public Service of This Publication ©1987 National Commission for Cooperative Education Introducina BlXnav File Join Show Personal Services Other Help vS- T V- J f' ; l-,v''V'v'v' :Ma£ lip Whs - jbbwj^ Se-rVices'- Jem ^¥^ A Service #f General Videotex Corporation 8§|lft ;J. ■.:; fillip Software Libraries Background Downloading Powerful Search Feature Hypertext to file downloads, mail addressing, and user information A WINDOWS NAVIGATOR FOR BIX BIX Covers Computing Right! Not only does BIX have great information, now it has a great user interface. When you are up against a brick wall and need answers to tough programming questions fast, BIX has the solutions you need! Other online services cater to end users and computer neophytes. BIX serves computer pros like you! On BIX, you don't have to pan through mountains of trash to find the golden nuggets. You get fast answers from people who know computing. BIX's Exchanges cover all aspects of computing in all platforms and computer languages. And BlXnav makes using BIX as easy as your other Windows applications. Lots of New Files BIX publishes hundreds of new files each month. You can find files by date or keyword, and you can even download them in the background with a simple click. BIX is Affordable Subscribe to BIX for only $13 per month. Connect to BIX locally via Tymnet for only $3 per hour. :i: Or, choose the 20/20 Plan, where $20 per month covers your first 20 hours of evening or weekend access. Additional time is only $1.80 per hour on the 20/20 Plan.* Once online, you can download BlXnav for only $9.95. Join BIX Now! Using any communications program, dial 1-800-695-4882. Enter "bix" at the prompt. When you are prompted for alarlcarp aulos a via lion basic tjbs bra borland brief c.lanijuaije plus.plus users cad chaos.manor cheos circult.ee llsr clipper cobol HZ. commodore contact cpm cpus cubicomp data. center desktop. pub desqview digital digltalk disaslers engineering financial focus forth lorlran frombyteB4 frombyte85 frombyteOG frombyleQJ IrombyteSS frombyteSS frombyteSfl frombyte31 frombyte92 games gomes2 genetic grophicdlsp iiiim. radio hamlllon hobby A,.,-,..,. a . Ibm.at Ibm.dos Ibm. drives ibm.oE?. Ibm.pc Ibm.ps Ibm.utiis Ibm. windows impulse inovatronics j.and.l jlblink lans law leland lexicon Uani. software lisp logitech macintosh magma mansfield manual manx.aztec mathematics medla.cyber mi cio bo tics microcode microsoft madula.?. music neural. nets next ill mi ibi ssi f^m othe outd para; pasi pc.w pick poet post prolt prott "Name?" enter "bix.navigator" and complete the online registration. Pay by credit card for immediate access. For additional information call 1-800-695-4775 or 617-354-4137. BIX is a service of General Videotex Corporation, 1030 Massachusetts Avenue, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. 617-491-3342. *Rates listed apply for evening and weekend access from within the contiguous 48 states. Daytime access from within the contiguous 48 states is billed at $9 per hour. Circle 450 on Inquiry Card. STOP BIT JIM M A N Z The Productivity MacGuffin Organizational productivity hasn't benefited from the PC revolution. Here's why. During the last presidential election year, while most Americans focused on flags and furloughs, I went out on the hustings to speak on the sub- ject of computers and white-collar productivi- ty. Following this ordeal, I vowed never to ad- dress the issue publicly again. But that's proven to be impossible. The subject keeps cropping up, and no one in our industry can afford to ignore it. Alfred Hitchcock invented a term to describe the object in his films around which all the action revolves. He called it the MacGuffin. It could be a missing body, a bottle of wine that is not really a bottle of wine, or whatever. Organizational productivity is the MacGuffin of the computer industry. It is the miss- ing return on investment after more than a decade of heavy spending on information technology. During the 1980s, companies spent almost a trillion dollars on new information technology, but productivity in the services sector actually declined. The situation has grown more serious since my lone- ly lecture tour. Global competition has intensified, and most companies regard increased productivity — mea- sured in terms of lower cost structures, reduced cycle time, and speed to market — as absolutely essential for survival. The situation is even more serious for companies in the computer industry. If our customers are focusing with renewed vengeance on productivity, and if we still can't show how our products help deliver it, there is some question about our own survival. Fortunately, some good news is at hand. Fortune re- cently carried a story about workgroup applications en- titled "Here Comes the Payoff from PCs." It talks about time savings of up to 90 percent from groupware. Of course, one story in Fortune does not constitute a trend — especially when it's hot on the heels of still another arti- cle by Peter Drucker in Harvard Business Review on the new productivity challenge. Some may even take the combination of the two as a negative indicator. But clearly something is happening on the white-col- lar productivity front. In fact, two things are happening: networks and mobile computing. With growth rates of about 40 percent a year, they have become the twin en- gines for growth in the computer industry. Both trends are related directly to the quest for improved productivity. Over the last 1 years, many companies have fallen into the trap of technology for technology's sake. This has not been entirely their own doing. They have had ample encouragement from members of our industry, who have never hesitated to trumpet their latest product release with no thought to customers' business goals. In all the ex- citement, people lost sight of a few simple economic truths. The first is that real value in an organization is gener- ated not by machines, but by people. It applies not just to computers, but to the steam engine, the printing press, and the pencil. The second principle is that the greatest value is generated not by individuals, but by teams. Given these two principles, there was no reason to think that PCs, by themselves, would increase produc- tivity. The PC revolution may have even made things worse. As Arno Penzias, the Bell Lab's Nobel prize win- ner, points out, there is a net loss in productivity when in- dividuals must run errands between isolated machines. It is no coincidence that networks and portable com- puters are booming at a time when companies are at long last realizing gains from their computing investments. Networks and portables — and the applications that both need — address the basic organizational need for coordi- nation and collaboration. Networked applications enable people to share information and work. Correctly designed applications enable people to work together even though they are not always connected (it is another fundamental truth that people are not always in their offices). Industrywide numbers on productivity gains are still not in, but there is mounting evidence of tangible gains. One of Lotus's customers, a worldwide consulting firm, has connected its entire organization and uses networked ap- plications to leverage expertise. Knowledge throughout the firm, regardless of location, can be applied to every customer account. As a result, it is winning new accounts. Another customer, a computer company, uses net- worked applications to capture and preserve the "intel- lectual capital" in its product development process, en- abling people to move from project to project without the costly start-up time. These are the sort of real, tangible gains our customers have been looking for all along. We are clearly getting closer to the elusive MacGuffin. ■ Jim Manzi is president and CEO of Lotus Development Corp., a developer of applications software and infor- mation services in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can reach him on BIX c/o "editors. " 360 BYTE • AUGUST 1992 ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD OSAKA ©1992 ; r 11 - 1 -: — - ~ ^ 1 j 11 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^MH±1 I nu^H a • ■— ••. . -. .« ^^^5^^3HH^HH Actual dealer price may vary. Lease : $126/Mo. It's simple. The Dell 325NC costs up to $635 less than the Toshiba notebook. The Dell notebook has a color display. The Toshiba notebook is black and white. Our notebook has one-year nationwide lapside service included in the system price. If needed, a technician will get to you usually by the next business day . A (He'll either tix or replace the system and transfer the data if possible.) Dell is one of the most awarded PC companies in the world. in .tel. Toshiba T3300SL Dell 325NC $4,034 $3,399 Black and White Color VGA Display 1386SL, 25MH; i386SL,25MHz 4 MB RAM, 80 MB HD 4 MB RAM, 80 MB HO Battery life: 3 hm us Battery life: 3 hours 8.3"xll.7"xl.7" 8.5"xll"x2.3" 5. 9 lbs w/battery 7. 1 lbs w/battery Return to dealer for service. On-site lapside service. MS-DOS 5.0/Microsoft Windows 3.1/Microsoft BallRiint'" Mouse Over two-thirds oi' the FORTUNE 500° now buy from Dell. Hmmmm. Give it some thought. Okay, that's enough. Now give us a call and order a Dell 3 2 5NC today. 800-348-6150 WHEN CALLING, PLEASE REFERENCE #1 1E71. 7AM 9PM CT MON-FRI, 8AM-4PM CT SAT, I0AM-3PM CT SUN. IN CANADA, CALL 800-668-3021. IN MEXICO, 91-800-900-37. ^Source: Toshiba suggested retail price as of 5/5/92. BEFORE MAKING THE FORTUNE 500, DELL WAS JUST AN OUTSIDER LOOKING IN. This year, Dell Computer Corporation broke into the FORTUNE 500 for the first time ever. Amazingly, it took us less than eight years to build an $890 million international business. Which, in all likelihood, includes taking many customers from the better-known companies mentioned in this ad. This makes Dell, cunently, one of the fastest growing computer companies in the FORTUNE 500. And then some. Hooorah. Yahoo. So what? So, it's simple. We've made a lot of computers. And those computers, well, they've made a lot of noise in the customer satisfaction polls. In fact, we beat IBM and Compaq in every PC Week Customer Satisfaction poll we've ever competed in. We also managed to win 53 product awards in 1991 alone. Why? Maybe it's because of our toll'free technical support. Maybe it's because we usually cost 10-20% less than our larger competitors. Maybe it's because that price includes service which can get a trained technician to your home or office usually the next business day. A Or maybe, just maybe, we make a better computer. That could be why over two -thirds of the companies in the FORTUNE 500 now buy from Dell. So, you see, we were part of the FORTUNE 500 even before we were part of the FORTUNE 500. We'd like to be a part of your company too. Why not give us a call? *6 AM-midnight toll-freephone support available beginning 8/1/92. O Leasing arranged by Leasing Group, Inc. Outside the U.S., prices and configurations may vary. i386 and the Intel Inside Logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation. FORTUNE 500 is a registered trademark of The Time Inc. Magazine Company. Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows and BollPoint are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. AService provided by BancTec Service Corp. On-site service may not be available in certain remote locations. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. ©1992 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. NOW WE'RE JUST AN INSIDER LOOKING DOWN. Year- over-year % change in revenue for the most recently reported fiscal years \ D0LL 800-348-6151 . WHEN CALLING, PLEASE REFERENCE #1 1 E72. HOURS: 7AM-9PM CT MON-FRI, 8AM-4PM CT SAT, 10AM-3PM CT SUN. IN CANADA, CALL 800-668-3021. IN MEXICO, 91-800-900-37. Circle 98 on Inquiry Card. THE BEST COMPUTER IN AMERICA, POUND FOR POUND FOR POUND AND A HALF. At just •ut 3. 5 lbs, the Dell* 320SLi offers features and junctions usually reserved jm systems twice its ueight. So call and order one today. At this price, it shouldnt be a heavy decision. You're not die only one working late. Dell's toll' free support lines are now open 6 AVI to midnight cum day* There's clso nationwide on-site service and a 24-hour TechFax" line. & Comes standard with everything you need to run e\en the most hardcore software: MS-lX)S*5.Q,Miavsoft*WindoivrXl and a keyhx.ird mouse Thus not all you'll find in here. There's room j or a modem, coprocesst n; 120 MB hard drive and up to 10 MB of HAM. ■ $2,149 LEASEO :$80/MONTH \ We call it a notebook, but it's actually smaller. Jitst 7-V-i" x ITaiicl only l l A" thick. So you might actually be able to fit some kiefs in your briejcase. Maybe even a sandwich or twcj. This small number qets you all these lig numbers: 20 MHz i386"'SL/wx:tf.ss(V, 2 MBofRAM, CiOMBliarddrhe, VGA Reflectiie (9.5", 640x480) LCD, external 3. 5" floppy drive and up to 4 hntrs ofwnkfrom the NiMH battery. Your hands don't get smaller just because your computer does. So Dell gave t/ie 32CISL/ a full 85-l