re— -
^^§s^^g ^=i^ii^w-
Stellar Performance
icron is fast becoming 1 the industry leader in # personal computer design, engi-
PD3 Millennia plus
• Intel 133MHz Pentium* processor
• 256K Micron SyncBursf cache, Flash BIOS
• PCI 32-bit Fast SCSI-2 controller
• 6X SCSI-2 CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• SoundBlaster 16 stereo sound & speakers
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB)
• Tool-Free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
• MS Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
A • 16MB EDO RAM • 1GB SCSI-2 hard drive •1S"Micron1SFGx l 1280Nl f .28mm
$ 3A99
(Business Lease Sl19/month)
B • 32MB EDO RAM • 2GB SCSI-2 hard drive •1S"Micron15FGx,1280Nl f .28mm
$ 4,499 (Business Lease 5153/month)
C • 64MB EDO RAM • 4GB SCSI-2 hard drive •17"Micron17FGx,1280NI,.28mm
0/4"" (Business Lease $213/month)
D*» 128MB EDO RAM • 9GB SCSI-2 hard drive •21"Micron21FGx,1600NI,.28mm
1 f/^r«#2# (Business Lease $369/month) 'Option 0 not available in desktop
P75 POWErStAHON
neering and manufacturing. Right off the production line, Micron PCs are receiving awards and critical acclaim for exceptional quality, record-breaking speed and dependable performance.
Everywhere you turn, Fortune
500 corporations, mid-size busi-
• Intel 75MHz Pentium processor
• 256K write-back cache, Flash BIOS •4XEIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• SoundBlaster 16 stereo sound & speakers
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB)
• Tool-Free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
A • 8MB EDO RAM • 850MB EIDE hard drive •15"Micron15FGx,1028NI,.28mm • MS Works Multimedia CD
1,899
B • 16MB EDO RAM • 1.2GB EIDE hard drive •1S"Micron1SFGx,1280NI,.28mm
• MS Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
A>/«J«7«# (Business Lease SB5/month)
C • 32MB EDO RAM • 1.6GB EIDE hard drive
• 17"Micron 17FGx, 1280NI,.28mm
• MS Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
«3/4r«#«7 (Business Lease $119/month)
• With 90MHz Pentium processor. add $100
• With 100MHz Pentium processor.....add $200
(Business Lease $71/month)
P90 POWERStAHON
• Intel 90MHz Pentium processor
• 256K write-back cache, Flash BIOS •4X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• SoundBlaster 16 stereo sound & speakers
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB)
• Tool-Free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
• With 100MHz Pentium processor.....add $100
A • 8MB EDO RAM • 850MB EIDE hard drive
• 15"Micron 15FGx, 1280NI, .28mm
• MS Works Multimedia CD
MgmfmJmJ (Business Lease $71/month) B • 16MB EDO RAM • 1.2GB EIDE hard drive •1S"Micron1SFGx, 1280NI,.28mm
• MS Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
$ 2A99
(Business Lease SB9/month)
i.mwi :ia Ehe e
DIT0RS' EDITORS' CHOICE CHOICE
:.MWi:ia
EDITORS' CHOICE
MM
djMMf
XL
bmirj
Pentium
nesses and home offices are dis-
covering the benefits of buying a
Micron computer.
P133 PowerServer smp
• Intel 133MHz Pentium processor
• Dual Pentium SMP ZIF sockets
• 512K write-back cache, Flash BIOS •Slots: 5 EISA, 2 PCI, 1 EISA/PCI
• PCI 32-bit Fast SCSI-2 controller
• 4X SCSI-2 CD ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB)
• Full-size tower with10 drive bays
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
A • 16MB RAM • 1GB SCSI-2 hard drive •1S"Micron1SFGx, 1280NI,.28mm
J,HHH (Business Lease $l36/month)
B • 32MB RAM • 2GB SCSI-2 hard drive •15"Micron15FGx,1280NI, .2Bmm
*TfrmfmJmJ (Business Lease S170/month)
• With second 133MHz Pentium processor....add $999
• With Windows NT Workstation CD add $249
P133 Home MPC Pro
The Ultimate Home Office Performance System
P133 Home MPC Pro
• Intel 133MHz Pentium* processor
• 256K Micron SyncBursf cache, Flash BIOS
• 16MB EDO RAM, 1.2GB EIDE hard drive
• 4X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• SoundBlaster 16 stereo sound & speakers
• 14.4 Fax/Modem, speakerphone, voice mail
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB) •17" Micron 17FGx,1280NI,.28mm
• Tool-Free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
• MS Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
• Microsoft Scenes: Sports Extremes;
Microsoft Bob CD; Microsoft Encarta 95 CD; Quicken Deluxe Edition CD; Microsoft Dangerous Creatures CD; Microsoft Golf Multimedia CD; Trial Subscriptions for CompuServe, America OnLine & Prodigy.
™mtc
EDITORS' CHOICE
May 16, 1995 P90 HOME MPC
EBB
c©
July 1995 P90 HOME MPC
%499
P75 Home MPC
• Intel 75MHz Pentium processor
• 256K write-back cache, Flash BIOS
• 8MB EDO RAM, 850MB EIDE hard drive •4X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy
• SoundBlaster" 16 stereo sound & speakers
• 14.4 Fax/Modem, speakerphone, voice mail
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB) •15" Micron 15FGx,1280NI,.28mm
• Tool-Free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS & Windows for Workgroups CD
• Microsoft Works Multimedia CD
• Microsoft Scenes: Sports Extremes;
Microsoft Bob CD; Microsoft Encarta 95 CD; Quicken Deluxe Edition CD; Microsoft Dangerous Creatures CD; Microsoft Golf Multimedia CD; Trial Subscriptions for CompuServe, America OnLine & Prodigy.
%999
pentium
Micron Electronics, Inc., 900 E. Karcher Road, Nampa, ID 83687 • Mon-Fri 7AM-8PM Sat 8AM-5PM (MT) 208-463-3434 • FAX 208-463-3424 • Purchase Order FAX 208-467-5384
International Sales 208-465-8970
International FAX
208-465-8993
l&l fr°ro Mexico Call
95-800-708-1755
From Puerto Rico Call 1*1*1 From Canada Call
800-708-1756 WtU 800-708-1758
© 1995 Micron Electronics. Inc. All rights reserved. All prices and specifics I ions subject to change without notice. Micron Electronics. Inc. cannot be responsible tor omissions and/or errors in typography or photography. "Mart; Your Place With The Leaded is a service mark ot Micron Electronics. Inc.. Intel, Intel Inside, and Pentium are registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation. Mcrosoft is a registered trademark and Windows. Windows NT and the Windows logos aro trademarks ot Microsoft Corporation. AD other company trademaiks aro trade names ot each respective company. Prices do not inducts shipping and handling. 30-day risk-free money back guarantee does not include return freight and original ship-ping/handli ng charges, applies only to Micron brand products, and begins from date of shipment. All returns require RMA numbers and must be shipped j n the original condition prepaid and insured. Lease prices based on 36-month lease.
• With 90MHz Pentium processor. add 5100
• With 100MHz Pentium processor. add S200
Its Your Call!
800-233-7027
MICRON
ELECTRONICS, INC.
The Future of Windows
Tm Micron Millennia
"Buyers looking for the fastest system money can buy will find it in the Micron Millennia."
PC Week, May, 1995
And the reason for the Micron PI20 Millennia's amazing ability to far outperform the com-^^^— petition? It's exclusive jPtPpR dynamic combination of Microns EDO (Extended Data Out) Memory and SyncBurst™ cache, providing significant performance gains over previous memory designs. Once again, another major breakthrough in computing performance innovation from Micron, the technology leader.
P120 Millennia
• Intel 120MHz Pentium® processor
• 256K Micron SyncBurst cache, Flash BIOS
• 4X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive
• SoundBlaster 1 " 16 stereo sound & speakers
• PCI 64-bit graphics accelerator (2MB)
• Tool-free mini-tower or desktop
• Microsoft® Mouse, 101-key keyboard
• MS-DOS® & Windows® for Workgroups CD
A • 8MB EDO RAM, 850MB EIDE hard drive
• 15" Micron 15FGx,1280NI, .28mm
• Microsoft Works Multimedia CD
A/^T«r«r (Business Lease SB9/month)
B • 16MB EDO RAM, 1.2GB EIDE hard drive
• 15" Micron 15FGx,1280NI, .28mm
• Microsoft Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
A/wr«r«r (Business Lease $107/month)
C • 32MB EDO RAM, 1.6GB EIDE hard drive •17" Micron 17FGx,1280NI, ,28mm
• Microsoft Office Pro 4.3 & MS Bookshelf CDs
fr/ \J*JZ? (Business Lease $140/montti)
. P133 Millennia add*f 00 ;
Circle 98 on Inquiry Card.
"The Millennia is nothing short of the best all-around PC available on the Market today "
PC Magazine, April 25,1995
According to PC Magazine's most recent Windows based tests, EDITH the Micron P120 CHOICE Millennia is a star per-May3o,i995 former." The Millennia
P120 MILLENNIA
garnered the highest Graphics WinMark score ever seen, in addition to a top-notch Winstone score.
pentium
MICRON
I ELECTRONICS, INC.
800-233-7027
This yard with V\0 f enCgS ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Mjcrosoft
ifflStart]
Microsoft
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY?"
- - i~*—^£m£.*~mm
nouhcing new Micfosoflf Office for Windows® 95.-,' I Software that doesn't hold you back. Software that presents fewer obstacles.
Five integrated applications, one entirely new approach to the way they work.
it's not merely an "upgrade:' It's not just about new features and new buttons.
It's about easier, more intuitive access to capabilities old and new.
Software that speaks your language, that answers your questions.
Now you have ja suite of productivity programs designed to take advantage of Windows 95.
Programs that let you focus on your work, not on your software.
Office
LTeKgrieClWWJnckwsr95...
Message from the Editor 53
Top 20 Small Systems ^k: ■ ■ ■ ^
Top 20 Software Products 64
Most Important Chips. ................ .. 74
Most Important Networking Products/.. 79
The Best Things On-line ^Ji^
Most Important Companies. .... .. Wrf. 99
Top 20 Technologies .............. ... 10!
Notorious Bugs. I
The 20 Most Important People .
20 Spectacular Failures
Noted and Notorious Hacker Feats..... 151
Features
MANAGEMENT
.37
Assets on the Line
BY SALVATORE SALAMONE
You can cut support costs if you've got an inventory of hardware and
software.
REMOTE ACCESS
You Can Take It with You 41
BY JEFFREY FRITZ
So you're working in Hooterville and that file you need is on a server at the home office in Chicago. No problem. With digital services like ISDN, and even analog technology, you can connect to the corporate network.
State of the Art
COMPUTER TELEPHONY
Collision! 199
BY RUSSELL KAY
Tying together telephones and computers is a great concept. New technologies, products, and standards are finally taking computer telephony beyond the concept stage and into your office.
■ ■ ■ i§> 1
Standard Issue 201
BY JAMES BURTON When there was just one phone company, standards and interoperability weren't even questions. Now we've got multiple answers.
Strategic Industry Alliances—203
A Checklist for Making CTI Decisions—206
Building Telephony Applications 211
BY JAMES BURTON As more organizations use computer telephony, those that don't may be at a competitive disadvantage. Here's a guide to development tools you'll need to construct computer telephony systems.
Telephony's Killer App 215
BYJOHNP.MELLOJR. It's going to take unique software to make telephony a gotta-have-it resource. Here are some of the contenders that might be natural-born killers, including PhoneNotes, FastCall, and VoiceView.
Wildfire: One Wild and Not-So-Crazy Helper—216
II
Web Search 223
BY JON UDELL Why wait for the Web equivalent of the Dewey decimal system? You can index your Web collection now. Here are a couple of ways to do it. Plus tips on naming, hot links, and the answer to the question, "What About WAIS?"
News & Views
PROCESSORS
P6 Weakness Revealed 24
People who buy the first computers based on Intel's P6 processor will be in for a surprise when they run 16-bit DOS and Windows applications. According to benchmarks, a Pentium runs 16-bit DOS/Windows programs faster than a P6 at the same clock speed, even though the next-generation P6 is supposed to be a "faster" CPU.
LITTLE THINKING MACHINES
PC Power Comes to the Calculator... 25
Texas Instruments plans to release a new calculator that's a whole lot smarter than its predecessors.
WINDOWS DEVELOPMENT
Delphi and VB Turn 32 26
New versions of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Basic have stronger client/server and OLE development capabilities for 32-bit programs.
BYXE SEPTEMBER 1995
Reviews
ON-LINE SERVICES
Gateways to the Internet 229
BY GEORGE BOND
A veteran Internet roamer finds that the Big Three on-line services offer adequate but pricey gateways to the Net.
Convenience, but at What Price?—229
MSN: Desktop Internet—231
NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS
Presentation Quality 233
BY EDMUND X. DEJESUS IBM's slick new screen technology turns the ThinkPad 755CV into a remote-control color presentation panel.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Networking at Warp Speed 235
BY BARRY NANCE
If OS/2's technical advantages don't wow you,
maybe Warp Connect's networking goodies
will. This 32-bit OS bundle includes peer services, LAN requesters, a slick approach to over-the-wire installation, and a passel of handy programs.
COLOR PRINTERS
.239
To Print a Rainbow
BY TOM THOMPSON
Second-generation color lasers from Apple and Tektronix set new standards for print quality, network connectivity, and ease of maintenance.
GRAPHICS ACCELERATORS
.243
3-D Graphics Go Zoom
BY GREG LOVERIA Intergraph and Omnicomp offer two different routes to the land of glorious photorealistic images—a workstation and a plug-in PC card.
Core lectinol
CPUS
Endian Issues 263
BY WILLIAM STALLINGS Different processors have incompatible memory-storage arrangements, but the PowerPC can handle them all.
PROGRAMMING
TheJoyofJ 267
BYD1CKPOUNTAIN
Successor to APL, the J language extends its ancestor's expressiveness and power. And you don't need a special keyboard.
PROCESSOR TRENDS
New 486 Chips Deliver Inexpensive Power 30
The 486 might be reaching the end of its life, but it isn't dead yet. AMDhas developed twonew chips that shatter 486 speed barriers and offer Pentium-level performance at low-end prices. Meanwhile, Cyrix has developed an unusual new CPU that's a cross between a 486 and a586-class chip.
MULTIMEDIA
.32
Interactive Music Videos Arrive for Macs and PCs
New interactive CDs, such as Todd Rundgren's "multimediaalbum" The Individualist, will bring the humble audio CD into the era of i nteractive content delivery using desktop multimedia systems.
NEW PRODUCTS
What's New 286
Dell's new Latitude XPi P90T notebook combines low-voltage Pentium power with impressive battery life. Plus, Micro Energetics' Nightware provides power management for printers; Horizons Technology's LAN record meters software for NetWare LANs; and more.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Springtime at Sun 271
BYDOUGTAMASANIS
Many of the concepts in Sun's experimental Spring
system will bloom in Solaris.
NETWORKS
Tuning In to ISDN 273
BY JEFFREY FRITZ
Satellite and radio technology are breaking the earthly
limits of terrestrial ISDN.
Opinion:
.275
Pournelle: Of COM Porte & Digital Frogs .
BY JERRY POURNELLE
Jerry explores painless dissection with Digital Frog, then settles down for more bloodless surgery as he tries to make communications software work under Windows 95.
Books & CD-ROMs:
How to Optimize Your PowerPC Code 33
BY TOM THOMPSON, ALAN JOCH, AND
RICH FRIEDMAN
Writing faster native code; plus, commerce on the
Internet, and pool and nostalgia CD-ROMs.
Commentary: Dreaming of the Future .... 330
BY DOUGLAS ENGELBART Can digital technology make a better world? Improve our collective IQ? In the dreams of this visionary inventor it can.
Editorial by Raphael needleman 10
Letters 18
Readers' comments on the BYTE Network Project, Internet censorship, and the trouble with Microsoft.
Reader Survey 282
READER SERVICE
Editorial Index by Company 328
Alphabetical Index to Advertisers ...324
Index to Advertisers by
Product Category 326
1 nquiry Reply Cards 132A, 326A
BUYER'S GUIDE 291
Mail Order
Hardware/Software Showcase Buyer's Mart
PROGRAM LISTINGS
FTP: ftp to ftp.byte.com
From BIX: Join
"Hstings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "sep95."
From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.
Bulk Rate
US Postage
PAID
McGraw-Hill
Third class mail enclosed, edition codes: W1C, W1D, W1E, W1F, WIG
BYTE (ISSN 0360-5280) is published monthly by McGraw-Hill, Inc. U.S. subscriber rate $29.95 per year. In Canada and Mexico, $34.95 per year. European surface maii subscriptions $6 0, aiimail $85. Non-European subscriptions, S60surface mail or S85 airmail. All foreign subscriptions are payable in U.S. funds thatcan be drawn on a U.S. bank. Single copies S3.50 in the U.S., $4.50 in Canada. Executive, Editorial, Circulation, and Advertising Offices: One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. Second-class postage paid at Peterborough, NH, and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 246492. 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 552, Hightstown, NJ 08520.
COVER IMAGE: BRIAN DAY ©1995
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE
BYT Contents by Platform
Index
This page presents the articles in this issue according to computing platform.
DOS/WINDOWS
P6 Weakness Revealed 24
There's something weird about running 16-bit DOS and Windows applications on Intel's new-generation P6 CPU. The software would actually run faster on an old-time Pentium PC.
Delphi and VBTurn 32 26
Upcoming versions of visual development tools from Borland and Microsoft will let you build 32-bit programs that take advantage of new features and interface elements in Windows 95. Another 32-bit bonus is NT compatibility.
New 486 Chips Deliver Inexpensive Power 30
You don't have to buy a Pentium to get better-than-486 performance. AMD and Cyrix have designed new high-speed CPUs that blow Intel's 486 out of the water. Systems based on these new chips promise to be inexpensive.
Interactive Music Videos Arrive for Macs and PCs 32
The new CD Plus format will bring multimedia music discs you can play in your PC.
Assets on the Line 37
Keeping track of all the hardware and software in an organization can be a full-time job. Vendors are designing products that can help.
Building Telephony Applications 211
New development tools, many of them based on Visual Basic, can help you construct a voice-processing system.
Telephony's Killer App 215
What's it going to take to make telephony a technology everybody's got to have? Some of these PC applications might do it.
The BYTE Network Project: Web Search 223
Windows NT tools help index the BYTE Web site.
Gateways to the Internet.... 2 2 9
Which on-line service has the best Web browser—America Online, CompuServe, or Prodigy?
Presentation Quality 233
IBM's innovative display technology sharpens up the ThinkPad.
TO Print a RainbOW 239 12/600 and Tektronix's Phaser 540. The
New color lasers from Apple and Tektronix give you better output, and they're easier to maintain than last year's sub-$l 0,000 color lasers.
3-D Graphics Go Zoom 243
We review two different ways to get glorious graphics on a Windows machine. One's a complete system, one's an accelerator board.
Pournelle: Of COM Ports
and Digital Frogs 275
Jerry goes to Microsoft for another Windows 95 dog and pony show. Back home, he uncovers more anomalies in the new operating system.
Preview: Impressive Battery Life in a Laptop Pentium PC 286
Dell's new Latitude line of lightweight computers—based on the new low-voltage Pentium—really knows how to wring the juice out of a battery.
Building Telephony Applications 211
Want to construct a voice-processing system? You don't have to abandon your favorite operating system to do it. Several telephony development tools run under OS/2.
Networking at Warp
Speed 235
IBM has made its 32-bit operating system even more enticing by adding peer-to-peer networking, LAN requesters, and a ton of communications goodies. Plus, the new configuration process makes network installation a breeze.
Pournelle: Of COM Ports
and Digital Frogs 275
Jerry checks out "nifty" Warp Connect and likes the way it handles multiple tasks and windows.
MACNT0SH
Interactive Music Videos Arrive for Macs and PCs...... 3 2
New discs in the CD Plus format will mean you can play "multimedia albums" on your Macintosh. One of the first comes from longtime Mac user Todd Rundgren. His new CD will even let you play video director.
To Print a Rainbow 239
Tom Thompson reviews two new color laser printers: Apple's Color Laser
output, he finds, could mean bad news for makers of dye-sublimation printers.
Building Telephony Applications 211
OmniVox (from Apex Voice Communications), Apprentice (from CTI Information Services), and 1VS Builder/Server (from MediaSoft Telecom) are Unix-based tools for telephony.
Springtime at Sun 271
Wondering what future versions of the Solaris operating system will be like? SunSoft's new Spring, an OS equivalent of the "concept car," will give you someclues.Many of the features ofSpring will eventually migrate to SunSoft's commercial system.
NETWORKS
Assets on the Line 37
New products and collaborative efforts will help you keep track of your enterprise's hardware and software.
You Can Take It with You 41
Accessing the corporate network from afar no longer requires magical incantations and good-luck charms. Here are some tips on picking the right mix of access technologies.
Standard Issue 201
Here's a guide to the various standards, APIs, technologies, and industry politics that you need to know about before you plug your phone system into your LAN.
Telephony's Killer App 215
A survey of the software that could make the integration of telephones and networks an essential business resource.
Networking at Warp
Speed 235
IBM adds peer-to-peer capabilities to OS/2 and throws in a bunch of other goodies.
Lab Report:
16 Fast, Reliable RAID
Subsystems 248
Looking for storage systems that cut down network downtime? This review will help you find the right stuff.
Tuning In to ISDN 273
ISDN Radio is cutting the copper umbilical cord and offering users real communications freedom.
Asset management 37
ATM 41
Calculators 25
CD-ROM 32, 275
CPUs 24, 30, 263
Display technology 233
Education 275
Frame relay 41
Graphics 239, 243
Indexing 223
Internet 223, 229
ISDN 41, 273
Macintosh 32, 239
Multimedia 3 2
Networks....37, 41, 235, 273
Notebooks 233, 286
On-fine services 229
Operating systems ...235, 263, 271, 275
OS/2 21 1, 235, 275
P6 24
PowerPC 263
Printers 239
Programming 33, 201,
211, 267
RAID 248
Remote access 41
Security 41
Servers 201 , 248
Storage 24 8
Telephony 199, 201,
211, 215
Unix 21 1, 271
Videoconferencing 235
Windows 24, 201, 211,
215, 275
Wireless 273
World Wide Web 33, 223,
229
BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
BACKUP
THE #1 SELLING RECORDABLE CD SYSTEM BY PINNACLE MICRO
2 out of 3 *<*ordable CD
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THE PINNACLE RCD-1000 IS 3 DRIVES IN 1!
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1.
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3. Tape Backup Replacement
The RCD-1000™ is virtually 3 drives in I - making it the ultimate storage device for only $ 1295. With the flexibility of Pinnacle's RCD-1000, the applications are endless. It's even plug-and-play compatible with Windows 95! As a CD Recorder, the RCD-1000 allows you to master your own CD that can be easily transported across town - or across the globe. As a double-speed CD-ROM player, it can read virtually thousands of educational, multimedia or audio CDs. And with Pinnacle's new Backup Utility, you can now replace your tape drive with a system that pro-
TAPE IS OUT. OPTICAL IS IN.
• Tape is slow
• No random access
• Five-year shelf life (Avg.)
• Too many different formats
• Reliable?
• Recordable CD is fast
• Random access
• One hundred-year shelf life
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THE NASDAQ STOCK MARKET"
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RCD-1000™ internal with SCSI controller & software
$1295
RCD-1000™ extern! u>M SCSI controller & software
$1495
Includes: Recordable CD software, valued at over $500,
as well as the new UP! Multimedia CD with 100
Startup Motivational Videos, a $59.95 value, and
2 pieces of FREE Recordable CD media!
vides a more reliable solution and fast random access to your data for only $ 19 per disc, or 3 cents per megabyte. Each disc boasts 650 MB of data, audio, and video storage capacity.
The RCD-1000 is perfect for creating and mastering your own
multimedia titles, interactive games, or even mixing your own audio CD of favorite tunes. You can back up accounting records,
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business plans, charts and graphs, or confidential information on CDs for decades - safe and secure. The RCD-1000 system is simply the best way to store, archive, distribute and create information. Best of all, it's now affordable - it's recordable!
*PC internal version
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All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks of Their Respective Owners.
Tel: 714-789-3000 Fax: 714-789-3150
Circle 81 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 82).
New Back-UPS: $ II9 blackouts, brownouts
"*%' i I J ust don't have the time for power problems on "ISpJ your PC? Don't worry. They'll always make the Microsoft time for you. It's not if a power problem will Compatible occur? but when. Due to household appliances, poor wiring, bad weather or even other office equipment, power problems are as inevitable as death and taxes. You can't run, but you can hide, behind APC protection. That's why we've just introduced new models in our award-winning Back-UPS line, now delivering reliable protection for just $119.
In the next three months, more
THAN 30,000,000 PCS WILL BE HIT BY POWER PROBLEMS...
Who needs power protection? If you use a computer, you do. A study in a recent PCWeek showed that the largest single cause of data loss is bad power, accounting for almost as much data loss as all other causes combined. Every PC plugged into an outlet is vulnerable. In fact, you have better odds of winning the lottery than of escaping the sting of power problems. One study found a typical PC is hit over 100 times a month, causing keyboard lockups, hard drive damage, and worse.
Simply put, if power problems are the least of your troubles, you've got one chance to keep it that way. You insure your car and home with the best policy you can afford. It just doesn't make sense to leave your PC (which is at far greater statistical risk) vulnerable to loss or damage.
Why a $ 119 APC UPS costs less
THAN A $9." "SURGE PROTECTOR"...
Contrary to most people's belief, a PC alone already has more protection built into it than a low-end "surge suppressor," which is -. :;■ V usually nothing more than a well « packaged extension cord. In other ^ words, going without any protection is just as good as underspending on one of the most important PC decisions you'll make.
And since sags and blackouts represent more than 90% of power problems likely to hit your computer, even quality, high-performance surge suppressors are iterally powerless to protect you from data loss.
That's why you need instantaneous battery backup power from an APC Uninterruptible Power Supply to prevent
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After a raging fire which took 18 trucks to subdue, Michael Benolkin, director of the Systems Division at Correa Enterprises, Inc. didn't expect much. "While rummaging through the ashes, we heard something beeping. Our four APC units were still in action, while two UPSes from another brand were history. We're still using these same APC units at our new office location - they still work like a charm! We're impressed with the ruggedness, reliability, and product support offered by APC."
Brian Krause, Network Manager for Goodyear Airship Operations, knows how critical APC protection can be." The night of the All-star game a tornado came through our blimp hanger and took out our roof. Our airships demand absolute communication so I protect our local and remote servers with the most reliable protection I can find: APC. APC's PowerChitte software shut our server down in an orderly way... closed out all files nice and neatly. When we reconnected, everything came back up perfectly, without a hitch."
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UK: (+44) 753 511022 Ireland: (+35)391 702000 Latin America: (+1)401.789.5735 Japan: (+83)5295 1988
Circle 344 on Inquiry Card.
EDITORIAL I!
aphael Needleman
Old Enough to Know Better
You'd think that after 20 years o-f writing about com puters, we'd have learned a thing or two
With this issue, BYTE celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Like most of you, we've been studying the microcomputer business for a long time. I like to think that in 20 years we've learned a lot—not just about computers and the computer market, but about how new markets grow. And most important, how events in the various technology markets can be used as lessons for other industries.
Computers don't cost jobs. If you look at specific markets or companies (say, for example, Smith Corona's typewriter business), you will of course see the elimination of jobs and even entire markets. But the computer industry as a whole is growing rapidly and is a key engine behind job growth in several service industries, such as banking and medicine.
Thanks to advancing technology, many industries are changing more quickly than they ever have. With change comes disruption, competition, and the decline of companies and people who don't track the change. But change also carries opportunity and growth for those who can adapt to it.
Preemptive marketing works. Just ask Adam Osborne, who preannounced his Osborne Model II portable computer while still sitting on a warehouse of Model Is. Anticipation of the Model II killed what was left of the Model I's sales. In the process, it killed Osborne Computer itself. Of course, giving the market a whiff of vapor can work to your great advantage—witness the hypefest that preceded the Windows 95 launch. Auto manufacturers have been preannouncing products and vague "concept cars" for years. Sure, it's slimy. And it can bite you if you manage it wrong. But that's the way marketing works today.
Technology doesn't always fix problems. Boys will have their toys, but sometimes they have been known to get carried away. Witness Denver International Airport, which is otherwise known as the world's largest bug. The problem: Airline baggage handling is slow, expensive, and error-prone. Denver's solution: A computer-
ized baggage system that avoids the evidence of mis-routed luggage by ripping it to shreds. Hint: If the process is fouled up, a computer won't fix it—it will just automate the problems.
The paperless office? Yeah, right. Paper grows on trees—and also in your office. There's a tale that when NASA used to receive satellites from the manufacturer, they came on two trucks: one for the space vehicle and one for the documentation. Now, we have made great strides in indexing and document retrieval in the last 20 years, but people still want their books—and their magazines, thank goodness. Electronic distribution is an additional channel for information, but it cannot replace all other media.
There's always one more bug. There is no such thing as a bug-free computer product. It's the unfortunate nature of the beast. Therefore, if you're going to release a product into the market, you should know ahead of time what you will do if the worst happens. Of course, this applies to all industries, not just technology. Intel didn't realize this until too late, and confidence in its Pentium took a serious dive for a long while. But when Intuit found out about the bug in its TurboTax program, it followed the L.L. Bean model: The company took the product back and fixed it. People still trust Intuit. Be honest with your customers.
Support your customer. Thanks in no small measure to the golden era of free telephone support for computer products (now gone, alas), a whole generation of consumers now expects companies to offer telephone help-desk support. From refrigerators to mutual funds, if a product can possibly confuse somebody, it will. But if confused customers can call you, in their darkest hour of need, and you can rescue them, you'll have built a stronger relationship—and improved your chances for future business.
It's a Webbed world. You say you can't possibly think of another feature to add to your widget? Put Web functionality in it. Everybody else is, after all. Warning: This may not work for the home appliance industry. But then, you never know. ■
&■
Raphael Needleman, Editor in Chief (rafe@well.com)
lO BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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\MB
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Raphael Needleman
PUBLISHER
David B. Egan
Editor in Chief's Assistant: Linda Higgins
EXECUTIVE EDITORS
Rich Friedman, Jon Udell
MANAGING EDITOR
Lauren Stickler Thompson
NEWS Peterborough:
News Editors: David L. Andrews, Martha Hicks
New York:
News Editor: Salvatore Salamone
San Mateo/West Coast:
Senior Editor: Tom Half hill Frankfurt:
Senior Editor: Rainer Mauth
PRODUCT REVIEWS
Director: Stanford Diehl
Senior Technical Editors: Rick Grehan,
Douglas Tamasanis
Technical Editors: Rex Baldazo,
Susan Colwell, David Essex,
Dave Rowell
Reviews Assistant: Lisa O'Neil
STATE OF THE ART/FEATURES San Mateo:
Features Editor: John Montgomeiy
Peterborough:
Senior Editor: Alan Joch
Technical Editor: Russell Kay
Lexington:
Senior Editor: Edmund X. De Jesus
SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR
At Large: Tom Thompson
SENIOR RESEARCHER
Rowland Aertker
ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL EDITORS
Dennis Barker, Cathy Kingery, Mark Reynolds, Warren Williamson
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Jerry Pournelle
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Stephen Apiki, Dick Pountain
CONSULTING EDITORS
Nicholas Baran, Raymond GA Cote, Trevor Marshall, Stan Miastkowski, Barry Nance, Roberta Pournelle, Ellen Ullman, Peter Wayner
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
Tammy Grenier, June Sheldon
DESIGN
Design Director: Charles Dixon III
Associate Design Director/Design &
Photography: Sharon Price
Associate Design Director/Graphics:
Joseph A. Gallagher
Production Manager: David R. Anderson
Desktop Prepress Manager:
Virginia Reardon
Designers: Barbara Busenbark, Jan Muller,
Donna Sweeney
Design Assistant: Cindy Sands
EDITORIAL INTERN
Jeff MacClay
BIX Interactive On-line Service
MANAGING EDITOR
Christine Taylor
EXCHANGE EDITORS
Amiga Exchange: Joanne Dow Entertainment and Leisure Exchange: Rich Taylor
IBM Exchange: Barry Nance Programmers Exchange: Bill Nicholls Professionals Exchange: David Reed Tojerry Exchange: Jerry Pournelle WIX Exchange: Karen Kenworthy Writers Exchange: Wayne Rash Jr.
20TH ANNIVERSARY SECTION CONTRIBUTORS
Art Director: Brian Day, Fisher & Day Copy Editor: Ellen Bingham Best Books & CDs Photography: Dennis Bettencourt Photography Page Headers, Digital Imaging, and Manipulation: John Lund Studios Staff Photograph: Britain Hill
FINANCE AND OPERATIONS
Director: Claudia Flowers
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
Advertising Production Manager:
Linda Fluhr
Senior Advertising Services
Representative: Lyda Clark
Advertising Services Representatives:
Dale J. Christensen, Karen Cilley,
Rod Holden
Operations Assistant: Lisa Jo Steiner
Advertising Graphics Manager:
Susan Kingsbury
Graphics Production Coordinator:
Christa Patterson
FINANCE
Senior Financial Analyst: Kathleen Deguise Systems Administrator: Peggy Dunham Junior Financial Analyst: Diane Henry Production Assistant/Purchaser: Agnes Perry
MARKETING AND PLANNING
Director: L. Bradley Browne
Administrative Assistant: Ar ja Neukam
Marketing Communications Manager:
Rob Mitchell
Marketing Art Director:
Stephanie Warnesky
Market Research Manager: William Zhao
Copyrights Manager: Faith Kluntz
Assistant Manager, Marketing Events:
Carol Sanchioni
Marketing Services Administrator:
Meredith Bickford
CIRCULATION
Circulation Manager: Paul Ruess
International Circulation Manager:
Barbara Copcutt
Subscriptions Manager:
Lynn Lagasse
Subscription Source Specialist:
Christine Tourgee
Newsstand Manager: Vicki Weston
Assistant Manager: Karen Desroches
Back Issues: Jill Wood
Direct Accounts Coordinator: Ellen Dunbar
Publisher's Assistant: Donna Nordlund
ADVERTISING SALES
VP/Sales:
John M. Griffin (212) 512-2367 Peterborough, NH (603) 924-2663 Administrative Assistant: Terry Ouellette (603) 924-2635
NEW ENGLAND
Sanford L. Fibish (617) 860-6344 Merle Model (617) 860-6221
MID-ATLANTIC
Michael Feinberg (212) 512-4811 Susan Rastellini (617) 860-6265
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Mary Ann Goulding (404) 843-4782 Margot Swanson (603) 924-2651
MIDWEST
Lori Silverstein (614) 899-4908
Ed Ware (603) 924-2664 SOUTHWEST, ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Jennifer Walker (214) 701-8496 Kevin Lary (603) 924-2527
SOUTH PACIFIC
Beth Dudas (714) 753-8140 Mark Speros (714) 753-8140 Brad Dixon (603) 924-2574
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INSIDE ADVERTISING SALES
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THE BUYER'S MART (1 x 2) and HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SHOWCASE
Ellen Perham (603) 924-2598 Mark Stone (603) 924-2695
REGIONAL
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BYTE DECK
Brian Higgins (603) 924-2596
EURO-DECK
Joseph Mabe (603)924-2533
INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF
See listing on page 325.
PERSONNEL
Human Resources Administrator: Patricia Burke Assistant: Fran Wozniak Receptionist: Beverly Goss
TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE
Mark Lavi
MEMBER SERVICES MANAGER
Kevin Plankey
BIX, owned and operated by Delphi Internet Services Corporation, is a worldwide, low-cost, on-line information service featuring industry news, downloadable software, powerful electronic mail, previews of upcoming BYTE articles, the full text of published issues of BYTE, and source and/or executable code for BYTE benchmarks and noncommercial software mentioned in feature articles. BIX also offers unmatched "conferences" on virtually every computer-related topic imaginable, where you can share information with thousands of other computer pros. To subscribe via modem, set your communications software to full duplex, 7 bits, even parity, 1 stop bit, and then call (800) 695-4882 or (617) 491-5410, or telnet to x25.bix.com and type "bix" at the USER NAME prompt. At the Name? prompt, type bix.ville. For more information, call (800) 695-4775 or (617) 354-4137 (voice); send a fax to (617) 491-6642; or send Internet mail to info@bix.com.
How to Contact the Editors
We welcome your questions, comments,
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main office: One Phoenix Mill Lane,
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BYTE
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Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: Joseph L. Dionne; President and Chief Operating Officer: Harold W. McGraw III; Senior Executive Vice President, and Secretary: Robert N. Landes; Senior Vice President and General Counsel: Kenneth M. Vittor; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer: Robert J. Bahash; Senior Vice President, Treasury Operations: Frank D. Penglase; President, information Services Group: Michael K Hehir; Executive Vice President, Publication Services: Norbert Schumacher.
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Copyright© 1995 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. BYTE and BVrt are registered trade-marks of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Trademark registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
^S
Member Audit Bureau of Circulation
14 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
For years, tapping into the full potential of client/server computing was something people could only wish for.
Introducing
n^m%.
Personal Computer Power Series" 800 Super Client
The first class o f personal computers to brin g you
the full potential o f client/server a p plications .
For true client/server computing, there are just two benchmarks a PC needs to meet: first, deliver enough power to the desktop to handle a complex flow of information from multiple sources; second, run advanced applications using rich content formats, such as voice, video and advanced graphics.
Introducing the IBM Super Clients, the new PowerPC-based Power Series family and the PC 700, designed to maximize your current investment. Super Clients put the power of a high-end
workstation, plus cutting-edge communications and management features, in an affordable, easy-to-use personal computer.
T)\e new Power Series famil y o f Super Clients — the revolution of PowerPC chi p per formance .
The open-ended performance of PowerPC RISC microprocessors, such as the fast and powerful 133MHz 604 chip, makes the Power Series family ideal for client/server environments. Combine this with your choice of robust 32-bit operating systems—OS/2® Warp Connect, 1 AIX,® Windows NT™ and Solaris® 1 —and you get the horsepower, reliability and security you need. And the Power Series family is very affordable; even with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive and 16MB memory, prices start at just $2,795 (monitor not included). 2
'When available. 'Operating systems priced separately (Power Series only). Entry-level PC Direct price. Dealer prices and product availability may vary. 3 ln Canada, call 1 800 465-3299, enter #'s 45225 and 45226 for Power Series family and 45228 for PC 700. IBM, OS/2 and AIX are registered trademarks and Power Series, PowerPC, Sensory Suite, NetFinity and There is a difference are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other company and/or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. © 1995 IBM Corporation.
Super Clients.
Personal Computer 100 Super Client
And Power Series systems are available with Sensory Suite" software so you don't need add-in boards or chips to exploit graphics, music, speech or video.
PC 700 Super Client - an enhancement to your current Investment .
The PC 700 delivers the blazing power of 133MHz Pentium® processors for faster data access and network communications, plus advanced multimedia digital sound capability.
And as more advanced collaborative applications become available, you will be able to enhance your system to take lull advantage. PC 700 prices start at $2,200 (monitor not inckitlerl).-
AikI IBMs NetFinity," built in to the PC 700, lets you get better control over your PC systems and lower the total cost of ownership of your client/server network.
To find out more about IBM Super Clients, call us at 1 800 IBM-4fviX" enter # 8473643 for the Power Series family and # 8463468 for PC 700, or see our World Wide Web site at http://www.pc.ibm.com
There is a difference™
LETTERS
The BYTE Network Project
I enjoyed Jon Udell's article on establishing a World Wide Web site ("Hello, World," July), especially the sidebar titled "Don't Dis the Host." I, too, use and prefer text-based Internet access. Udell called himself a "knuckle-scraping Neanderthal" for preferring text browsers. Thanks for affirming that there are still some fellow Paleolithic types out on the Internet.
Erik Farquhar forcfithar@ocsit.bitjfolo.eclu
Nice to see you guys on the Web. I noticed at the end of your "Hello, World" piece that you mentioned eventually trying out OS/2 and Unix servers. I would find a comparison of Mac vs. other operating systems useful. The freeware MacHTTPd and its commercial incarnation, WebStar from StarNine, are the obvious choices, and Apple offers bundles with all the necessary Internet server software. If you are going to give the other platforms a shot, don't pass over the Mac.
Mark Eaton morke @ n wlink.com
Point taken. I tend not to think of the Mac as a heavy-duty server platform since the OS still lacks robust memory protection and preemptive multitasking. But serving up HTML documents, at least on a modestly trafficked Web site, need not be a particularly demanding server application. Thanks for the reminder. — Jon Udell
I was told that the BYTE Web site would be operational within a couple weeks. Is it ready yet?
Gene Belanger Houston, TX
Yes, our Web site is up and running, and it provides a link to our FTP server from which you may download BYTE's benchmark source code and executables. Our URL is http://www.byte.com/. — Eds.
MacThanks
I just wanted to thank you for Tom Thompson's expertly written and in-depth article about Apple's upcoming Copland
operating system ("Apple's New Operating System," June). Your articles about Macintosh technology have always been excellent, and I look forward to reading them. See if you can sneak some more in. In a world holding its collective breath for Windows 95 (or 96), it was refreshing to read about the state of the next MacOS. Christopher Gervais cgervais @ e world, com
Free the Net
I was much interested in Arun Mehta's Commentary on "freedom" of the Internet ("Radio Free Usenet," July). My daughter is in Croatia, my sister is in Tennessee, and I am in Atlanta, and we all communicate through E-mail transmitted via the Internet. And now I can send messages to Mr. Mehta in India. He was correct that the old U.S.S.R. had to choose between the benefits of PC technology and the risk of losing control over information. The world is racing ahead toward a global system, and yet some people are still in the dark ages.
Shelia Perkins Atlanta, GA
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mehta's assessment of the Usenet system. I am particularly concerned about the threat posed to Usenet by the ignorant and misguided efforts of some members of the U.S. legislative bodies.
Richie Trenthem
Memphis, TN
trenthem® rhocles.edu
I want to thank Arun Mehta for his Commentary. I share his concerns about the Exon amendment in particular and Net censorship in general.
Dave Parker dlparker@dlpincOO.com
Eighty-six U.S. Senators voted to approve a legislative measure that could make people liable for statements they make in E-mail messages that would be protected in a conventional letter. Senator Hatch (R-Utah) characterized the proceedings as "a game, to see who can be the most against pornography and obscenity. It's a political exercise. " — Arun Mehta
Tsunami Benchmarks
Your news story about the Power Macintosh 9500 ("Apple's Tsunami: PCI Power," July) includes a table of benchmark results. The floating-point results for a Power Mac 8100/100 are just one-third (.375) as fast as the 90-MHz Pentium baseline. If this were really true, I'm sure Intel would not have downplayed the Pentium's floating-point performance.
Steve Willie sfw@mcs.com
The Power Mac 8100/100 used an older floating-point library that was much less optimized than the library shipping with the PowerMac 9500. An update to System 7.5 provides this new library to existing 60]-based Power Macs.
— Tom Thompson
Not Building for Windows 95
I read your sidebar about Microsoft's Windows 95 Migration Planning Kit ("How Best to Migrate to Windows 95," July). Any search tool that requires you to already have Excel, Word, and Power Point installed will be "cluttered and counterintuitive." And I think you were too easy on Microsoft when you called their Windows 95 payback spreadsheet "an incomplete business-analysis tool." It's not incomplete, it's totally useless. I'll stick to Windows 3.11 while this first wave of Windows 95 drowns all the early adopters.
George Morgan Syracuse, NY
Hey, I think you guys down at BYTE are a little biased toward Windows. You praise Windows 95 when it had not even been delivered. Don't talk about how good it is and just totally ignore a real 32-bit operating system like OS/2.
Michael Bernstein
Rockford, IL
insanity® rockford. com
We don 7 ignore OS/2. See this month's review of Warp Connect ("Networking at Warp Speed, " page 235).— Eds.
We want to hear from you. Address correspondence to Letters Editor, BYTE, One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458; or you can send E-mail via the Internet or BIX to editors @ bix.com. Letters may be edited.
18 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
Exabyte's nem 8mm XL tape drive is the perfect union ft f canacitu and reliability
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LETTERS
The Trouble with Microsoft
Microsoft "could reshape the Internet" ("The Greatest Show on Earth," July)? I hope not. They reshaped the world of operating systems and look what good they did to it. Thanks to Microsoft, we need a 486 to efficiently edit a plain ASCII file, so we can expect to need a direct Tl connection to The Microsoft Network to send E-mail. Fortunately, Microsoft won't reshape the Internet so easily. MSN is not exactly loved by many Internet users, and it won't exactly be welcomed into the Internet community.
The trouble with Microsoft is that speed and bugs don't really affect their products' success. Windows is the best example. The same could happen with MSN.
Petros Raptis
Athens, Greece
prapti @ leon.nrvps. cuiaclne-t. gr
ISDN Lives
I want to compliment you on Sal Salam-one's wonderful Core Technologies article "ISDN and Analog Access in One Package" (July). The entry of all of these modem manufacturers into the ISDN market will be good for ISDN. Salamone correctly pointed out that ISDN products are difficult to configure. I believe that these new ISDN product manufacturers will become instrumental in forcing the industry to adopt a simplified "plug and play" approach to ISDN.
Keep up the good work.
Paul D. Cook
Pa/tine, IL
p.cook@ computer, org
I'd Never Be Without You, But...
Yours is the one computer magazine I'd never be without. That said, I suggest you reconsider comparative product reviews. Printers, monitors, and VGA cards are mature products, and even if we don't own the best laser printer under $5000 or the best 17-inch monitor, the ones we have are good enough.
On the other hand, the review of telephony products in the May issue ("Small-Scale Telephony") was worthwhile because the field is very immature and products often differ significantly or have
significant flaws. These are the types of products we need to know about.
Andrew Mayo andre\\>@ geac .co.nz
Arithmetic 101
In your review of the Tadpole PI000 ("Red-Hot 100-MHz Portable Pentium," June), you claim it is " 110 percent to 120 percent faster" than your reference machine. That would make the Tadpole over twice as fast as your 90-MHz baseline. I
think you meant " 10 percent to 20 percent
faster."
John Smythe Gainesville, FL
Mr. Smythe is absolutely correct; we apologize for the error. — Rex Baldazo
In "Break Up Your Network" (June), the author multiplies bits/second times bits/byte to arrive at a bandwidth in bits/second. I must be missing something here because I end up with a result of bits-squared/byte-second.
Andy Feibus
VP Technology
Process Systems and Integration Inc.
amf@psi2.com
The arithmetic is correct, but the units got scrambled. The error is in the label "Kbps, " which is kilobits/second. It should have been "KBps, " which is kilobytes/second. With that substitution, the units will cancel correctly.
— Brett Husselbaugh
FIX
We regret the following errors from our June roundup review of SQL tools ("Simple SQL"):
We stated that IQ Software's IQ for Windows does not provide a facility for resolving ambiguous join paths. IQ prevents ambiguous join paths by supporting rule-based table joins. The rules are stored in its repository. In reporting the print speed of IQ for Windows, we timed the speed of a query and print, instead of printing directly from the query screen. IQ's print speed is much faster than represented in the report. And IQ will indeed let you insert criteria from a static list.
Because of incomplete information supplied by IQ Software, the features table on page 220 contained errors. It should go like this:
IQ Software released version 5 of IQ for Windows soon after we completed our review of version 4.0. Version 5 adds significant enhancements and features. ■
COMING UP IN OCTOBER
YOURNEXT PC
Current PCs are built on a 15-year-old architecture. We look at the technologies that are going to bring computer hardware into the 21st century.
WINDOWS 95
The rubber meets the road as we test Windows 95. Plus, we'll look at some of the upcoming 32-bit applications especially designed for Windows 95.
LOTUS WORDPRO REVIEWED
Lotus has upgraded Ami Pro, added groupware features, and renamed it WordPro. We test this new addition to SmartSuite.
CATCH THE WAVE
A close look at the Power Mac 9500, code-named Tsunami, which finally weds PCI and the PowerPC.
FAXES ARE SERVED
Fax servers are no fun to install, but the payback makes it worth the hassle.
20 BYTK SEPTEMBER 1995
FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS
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GET WHAT THEY NEED.
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The first thing Norton Utilities will do for you is optimize your system for Windows 95 with a Pre-installation Tune-up.
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Circle 93 on Inquiry Card.
16-BIT SOFTWARE STALLS THE P6
P6 Weakness Revealed
When running legacy applications, a fast Pentium may outperform the first P6 processors
Why Legacy
The Pentium currently outperforms the P6 when running 16-bit programs under Windows 3.1 due to a comb/nation of factors. They include the design of the P6 and the hangover of legacy DOS and Windows code.
As described in "Intel's P6" (April BYTE), instructions passed to the P6 are converted into equivalent micro-operations that are loaded into a 40-element circular buffer. Instructions in the buffer pass to the execution unit, which processes between three and five instructions simultaneously, if the data for the specific instruction is available.
If instruction B references a particular register, and instruction A, which precedes 8 in program flow, also writes to that register, B must wait for A to complete. Therefore, the fewer the dependencies, the faster the
TOM R. HALFHILL
Trick question: When is a Pentium faster than a P6? Surprise answer: When it's running 16-bit software, including DOS and Windows 3.1. Intel's latest benchmark testing reveals that a 133-MHz Pentium consistently outruns a 150-MHz P6 when executing the 16-bit code found in today's most popular software. Even a 100-MHz Pentium runs neck and neck with a 150-MHz P6.
Theoretically, the sixth-generation P6 chip should blow the fifth-generation Pentium out of the water. The P6 has three-way superscalar superpipelines, speculative
P6 Faster in Raw Performance but Slower for 16-bit Applications
SPECint92
SPECfp92
Windows 31
Windows 95
Windows NT
250
The P6 outruns the fastest Pentiums when measured by low-level 32-bit benchmarks, as seen in these SPECmark estimates from Intel. Although Intel initially planned to introduce the P6 at 133 MHz, it's now likely the chip will debut this fall at speeds of 133,150, and 166 MHz.
'Intel estimates. All numbers are based on a 256-K8 secondary cache.
Pentium 100 MHz 31 Pentium 133 MHz
Although the P6 outruns the fastest Pentiums in low-level 32-bit benchmarks, a 150-MHz P6 is outraced by a 133-MHz Pentium and matched by a 100-MHz Pentium when running 16-bit programs under Windows 3.1, as seen in these preliminary benchmarks from Intel. With 32-bit Windows 95 or Windows NT, however, the P6 meets expectations. As of this writing, Intel has not permitted BYTE to run our own benchmarks on the P6.
I P6 150 MHz
execution, out-of-order execution, additional registers, 2.2 million more transistors, more headroom for higher clock speeds, a closely coupled secondary cache, and a higher price tag (see "Intel's P6," April BYTE). But some of those fancy features actually slow down the P6 when running 16-bit code.
The problem, says Intel, is with today's installed base of software, not with the chip. The P6 is optimized for 32 bits. When Intel engineers began designing the P6 about four years ago, they figured everyone would be running 32-bit software by now. After all, Intel's first 32-bit x86 processor (the 386) dates back to 1985. But the industry hasn't moved quite as fast as Intel and others expected: Most PCs today run 16-bit Windows. When Intel ran the SysMark application-level benchmark programs on a P6, old-generation software embarrassed Intel's next-generation chip.
It's certainly not unusual for a new processor to deliver less-than-optimum performance unless old software is recompiled to take advantage of the new design. That's especially true of RISC processors. While the P6 is still a CISC chip, it adopts several RISC-like techniques. However, it's definitely unusual for a new CPU to run old software slower than existing CPUs that share the same
24 HVTE SEPTEMBER 1995
Code Snags the P6
instructions can be delivered to the execution units.
To conserve on the P6's transistor count, Intel decided to shadow (i.e., allow multiple independent instances) the "true" registers as full 32-bit entities only. The result is that any instruction that alters any part of a register will hold up a following instruction that uses any part of the same register, even if the instructions are logically independent. An ADD AL, 6 holds up a MOV BX.AX.
If this were a completely 32-bit world (as Intel's engineers had hoped it would be by now), any instruction referencing a register would be held up by, at most, one preceding instruction, and the P6 would "fire on all cylinders." Similarly, if all programs manipulated the CPU registers only 16 bits at a time, the P6 would per-
form well. Unfortunately, a great deal of code, especially in the DOS and Windows world, manipulates registers as 8-bit entities here, 16-bit entities there, and sometimes 32-bit entities. This "mixing" of data sizes bogs the P6 down, because it has to spend so much time "piecing" the 32-bit registers together from 8- and 16-bit sub-units.
Another source of friction for the P6 arises from the ever-dreaded segment registers often manipulated in 16-bit DOS and Windows programs. Again, to skirtwhatwould have been a tremendous multiplication of complexity, the P6 engineers elected not to virtualize the segment registers. So, whereas general CPU registers can be shadowed, only one global instance exists for each segment register. The result is that the arrival of a segment
register load instruction "serializes" the CPU: No other instructions can proceed until the load completes.
Furthermore, any instructions that had already been started but appear in the program flow after the segment register load instruction must be dumped and restarted. The "tear it up and start from scratch" tactic is necessary because the source for all instructions and data following the segment load is in question.
Ironically, none of this would be of any significance if the designers of the P6 hadn't made a few excusable miscalculations. In one of the larger mispredicted branches we've ever seen, the P6 engineers in 1990 estimated that most code today would be 32 bits, and that the standard for chip technology, including the Pentium, would be at 0.6 micron running
at around 100 MHz. However, hardware again outpaced software. Today's typical PC runs a mixture of 16-bit code on 32-bit OSes. Meanwhile, the latest Pentium is produced on a 0.35-micron process and soon will run at 150 MHz.
The first P6 will not be manufactured on a 0.35-micron process, however. Instead, Intel says it will make the first P6 chips on a more conservative 0.6-micron process. Once it has worked the bugs out at 0.6 microns, Intel says it will move to a more aggressive 0.35-micron process. The company estimates there will be an eight-month period when a similarly clocked Pentium will outpace the P6 in the special circumstances we've described. But once Intel moves to 0.35-micron manufacturing, the P6 will race ahead. — Rick Grehan
basic architecture. (For more information on why this is, see the text box "Why Legacy Code Snags the P6.")
The P6 lives up to expectations with 32-bit code. Intel's benchmarks show that it easily outperforms the fastest Pentiums when running 32-bit applications on a 32-bit OS, such as Windows 95 or Windows NT. Interestingly, however, the P6 does much better with NT than it does with Windows 95. Intel says that there are vestiges of 16-bit code in the Windows GDI (Graphical Device Interface), while NT is thoroughly 32-bit.
The P6's poor showing with 16-bit software is probably not as serious as it seems. High prices will initially limit the P6 to servers and workstation-class desktop systems, whose performance-minded users will almost certainly be running 32-bit OSes and applications. If the P6 follows an adoption curve similar to the Pentium's, it will not appear in mainstream PCs until 1997. By then, 80 percent of new PCs will ship with a 32-bit OS, according to International Data (Framingham, MA). And Windows 95 should accelerate the migration to 32 bits.
Intel says the P6 will get a performance boost when the company moves from its current 0.6- to 0.35-micron process. That raw performance boost should let the P6 outperform the Pentium in running legacy 16-bit software. Until then, anyone who is contemplating the purchase of a P6 should be forewarned: If you're running 16-bit software, the Pentium delivers more bang for fewer bucks.
CALCULATORS
PC Power Comes to the Calculator
. o\
v^
£;■
.»^
The TI-92 has a 240-by 128-pixel display. You can split the display to view two applications simultaneously. It includes a QWERTY I keyboard and an I/O port for 1 data transfer. It's about the I size of a videocassette tape. Ti ((800) 842-2737; fax (817) 774-6074; ti-cares@ti.com) says 1 the TI-92 will sell for about $200.
Iigh-end math capabilities such as symbolic calculus and Euclidean geometry are migrating from PCs to $200 calculators. Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) says it will release a new calculator called the TI-92 later this year. This calculator delivers interactive geometry, symbolic manipulation, statistics, and even 3-D graphing with an easy-to-use graphical interface.
TI collaborated with the creators of the Cabri Geometry II software at the Uni-versite of Joseph Fourier as well as the au-
thors of the Derive algebra that's published by Soft Warehouse in adding the interactive-geometry and symbolic-manipulation features. Thanks to those joint efforts, you can not only determine the integral (that's the area under a curve for those of you who haven't been to calculus class lately) of a curve, you can also get the formula that's used for finding the integral (e.g., the TI-92 will tell you that the formula for determining the integral of x2+2x+2 is xV3+x2+2x).
TI says that the new calculator (see the photo) lets teachers equip a math lab much less expensively. The reaction from BYTE's college interns to the new calculator was universal: "I want one."
—Dave Andrews
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE 25
NEWS & VIEWS
WINDOWS 95 DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Delphi and VB Turn 32
Visual development tools from Borland and Microsoft will soon let you create 32-bit programs that take advantage of the new features and UI (user interface) elements in Windows 95. In mid-September, Microsoft (Redmond, WA) plans to release 32-bit Visual Basic 4.0. Borland International (Scotts Valley, CA) says it will release a 32-bit version of Delphi within 90 days of the commercial availability of Windows 95. These products add stronger support for client/server development and OLE integration. Another 32-bit bonus is Windows NT compatibility. Windows NT 3.5 can be both the host and the target of VB 4.0 and Delphi.
Although the 32-bit code these tools generate will not run on 16-bit Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft and Borland will continue to support their 16-bit versions. Both VB 4.0 and Del-
T Visual SourceSafe, a source code management tool that Microsoft recently acquired from One Tree Software, helps programming teams using the Enterprise version of Visual Basic 4.0 create complex, distributed applications.
phi make the migration to 32-bit Windows development relatively simple. In many cases, you can recompile existing 16-bit code.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to Windows 95 migration will be the transition to OLE-based custom controls. You can't use 16-bit VBXes (Visual Basic custom controls), which played a major role in VB's success, to build 32-bit software. Instead, you'll use 32-bit OLE controls (formerly called OCXes) that improve on VB's component architecture. Fortunately, many third-party developers have started migrating their VBXes to the OLE model.
Borland's new version of Delphi, when used with Microsoft's Control Development Kit, can create custom controls. However, VB 4.0 cannot do this. This gives Delphi an advantage over VB.
Because VB 4.0 still relies on a run-time interpreter, Delphi will also maintain its per-
formance lead. VB's interpreter is the same Object Basic engine that's found in Microsoft Office's VBA (VB for Applications), but interpreted VB programs generally are not as fast as programs created with Delphi's Object Pascal compiler. In fact, the new version of Delphi will share Borland C++'s 32-bit optimizing compiler.
Although VB cannot build OLE controls, both VB 4.0 and the new version of Delphi will let you create OLE automation objects. These are stand-alone code libraries that expose their routines to other OLE-aware programs.
In VB, you create these objects with a new type of module called a class module, containing as few as three lines of code. Public variables in this module become properties, and public subroutines and functions become methods. Other OLE-aware programs can browse these modules, modify
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their properties, and call their methods. This lets VB create distributed objects for three-tiered client/server systems. You can isolate business rules in OLE objects, separated from both the front-end client application and the back-end enterprise server.
Also new to VB 4.0 is an add-in architecture that's similar to Adobe Photoshop plug-ins. Previously, outside developers had to hack VB to add design-time utilities, such as code formatters and debugging tools. Microsoft now formalizes that architecture by letting OLE-based add-ins appear on a VB menu.
A new IF...THEN statement in VB conditionally compiles blocks of code. If a program calls functions available only in the full Win32 API (e.g., OpenGL graphics), you can tell VB to ignore that code when targeting the Winl 6 API.
Client/server developers will appreciate the new 32-bit database engines in Delphi and VB. Delphi will have 32-bit asynchronous I/O, new drivers for DB2, deferred updates for transactions on multiple tables, and the ability to execute transactions against local dBase and Paradox files. The new Enterprise Edition of VB 4.0 will include the Jet 3.0 database engine and other client/server features.
Of all the 32-bit improvements, however, perhaps the most important one is the move to 32-bit OLE controls. Unlike VBXes, which are closely tied to the VB architecture, OLE controls will be supported by a number of development tools. This will give visual programmers much more power at their disposal. —TRH
26 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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Circle 92 on Inquiry Card.
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■fffigfc
Perfect.
Your mind recalls information visually. But can a client/server database advance that far?
Well, IBM's exclusive Query By Image Content (QBIC) technology for DB2* should open your eyes. It actually lets you locate a range of records based on shape. Or color. Or even texture. Which can translate directly into faster access to
data-including Can your softw
multimedia — to help you make better business decisions.
Not that such advances should surprise you. IBM has led the way in databases as long as there have been databases. (Indeed, DB2 is at work in over 90% of the FORTUNE 500?)
And DB2 has a long history of offering useful innovations for information management, such as tools to manage your database remotely, pull information from disparate databases, and replicate corporate
data across a number of different locations.
DB2 meets open industry standards too, working seamlessly on OS/2® AIX?HP-UX® Sun Solaris® OS/400® MVS, VM and VSE-and soon on Windows NT™ and Siemens Nixdorf SIN IX® Its broad scalability ensures that your database will deliver speed and efficiency from
any size server. are do this? From two users
to over 100,000. From megabytes of information to terabytes. To make your business information more accessible—and more usable—just contact us at 1 800-IBM-3333, ext. GA 061, or come visit our web site at http://www.software.ibm.com. You'll find out why, for so many of the world's leading companies, DB2 is the shape of things to come.
S#luti#ns l'#r a small planet
In Canada, please call 1800-565-SW4U. Outside North America, please contact your local IBM office. The IBM Home Page is located at http://www. ibm.com. IBM, DB2, OS/2, AIX and OS/400 are registered trademarks and Solutions for a small planet is a trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. All other company and/or product namesare trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.© 1995 IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.Three green bottlesdesigned by Jasper Morrison.
NEWS & VIEWS
PC PROCESSOR TRENDS
New 486 Chips Deliver Inexpensive Power
The 486 is reaching the end of its life, but it isn' t dead yet. Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale, CA) has developed two chips that shatter 486 speed barriers and offer Pentium-level performance at low-end prices. Meanwhile, Cyrix (Richardson, TX) has developed an unusual CPU that's a cross between a 486 and a 586-class chip.
Although AMD's new processors run internally at 120 and 133 MHz, they use clock-divided buses to remain compatible with existing motherboards. The 120-MHz 486 has a 40-MHz bus and delivers integer peiformance comparable to a 75-MHz Intel Pentium (see "AMD's 120-MHz 486: Bargain Power"). It began shipping this summer.
AMD's 133-MHz 486 chip, which is due later this year, has a 33-MHz bus and a 16-KB unified write-back cache, which is twice as large and more efficient than the 8-KB write-through caches found on most 486 chips. However, due to its slower bus and the diminishing returns of pushing an older design to higher clock speeds, the 133-MHz 486 will offer only marginal performance improvement over the 120-MHz chip.
Cyrix is trying to get around the problem of the 486's diminishing returns by introducing a hybrid design called the 5x86 (formerly known as the Mlsc). The 5x86 will likely ship in volume by the end of this month.
Depending on your point of view, the 5x86 is either a souped-up 486 or a stripped-
down version of the Ml, Cyrix's 586-class processor. Gone are the most advanced features that are supposed to make the M1 perform 30 percent to 50 percent faster than a Pentium: superscalar pipe-
up the Pentium and the sixth-generation P6? One reason: Both AMD and Cyrix are late in delivering their fifth-generation chips (neither the AMD K5 nor the Cyrix M1 will ship in quantity before 1996).
AMD's 120-MHz 486: Bargain Power
'Note: The BBBI (integer) and BBBF (floating-point) indexes compare pertonnance per dollar and are not pure performance indexes.They are calculated by multiplying each system's respective integer and floating-point index by 1000 and dividing by the cost of the chip. Higher numbers are better. Prices of the chips are subject to change.
BYTE's native-mode benchmarks indicate that a system from USA Flex ((800) 872-3539) based on AMD's 120-MHz 486 processor achieves integer performance comparable to that of the more expensive 60-MHz Pentium. The system lacks the FPU performance of a Pentium, however. The USA Flex desktop PC with 8 MB of RAM, no monitor, a 545-MB hard drive, a 354-inch floppy drive, a 256-KB write-back cache, a mouse, and a 1-MB DRAM video accelerator card costs $1049. —DA
lines, speculative execution, extra registers, and a 64-bit data bus. Retained are several features typically found only in fifth-generation microarchitectures: branch prediction, data forwarding, an independent load/store unit, an 80-bit FPU, 64-bit internal data paths, and a 16-KB unified write-back cache.
Internally, Cyrix's 5x86 runs at 100 MHz. Bus speeds can be 25, 33, or 50 MHz. Like a Pentium OverDrive, the 5x86 fits in a 32-bit 486 socket. Future versions will fit into 64-bit Pentium sockets and attain core speeds of as high as 200 MHz.
Why bother with sub-586 designs when Intel is ramping
Several vendors, including Cybermax, Liuski Systems, USA Flex, and Vobis, say they will use AMD's 120-MHz 486. However, at press time, major system vendors such as Compaq, which already uses AMD processors in some systems, had not committed to using AMD's new 486 chips. One vendor, which requested anonymity, said it would not use the 120-MHz 486 because it thinks Pentium prices will drop dramatically this fall.
Prices to PC manufacturers for these crossover chips range from $120 for AMD's 120-MHz 486 to $147 for the Cyrix 5x86 (in quantities of 1000). That means complete systems can sell for under $ 1500, which
Whatever^ 1 i Happened |£3H
TPs Rio Grande Chip?
(see "Tl Charges Into the Notebook CPU Wars," April 1994 BYTE, p. 36)
Texas Instruments hoped that manufacturers of sub-notebooks would flock to its Rio Grande chip, a 486SX-class processor that integrated a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus interface and memory controller with aggressive power management and low power consumption (3.3 V). But two factors helped shelve the chip.
One was that as Tl was preparing to release the 486SX-class chip (it had no FPU), the company's notebook partners were shifting to higher-performing 486 processors. Also, it turned out that customers weren't buying a lot of subnotebooks at the time because notebooks that weighed less than 4 pounds had too many compromises.
Tl is back in the notebook and consumer markets with an 80-MHz 486-class processor called the TI486DX2, which should enter volume production this month. Tl cites the first-quarter 1995 Storeboard Channel Tracking Service, which reported that 57 percent of PCs sold through retail channels in the U.S. were based on 486DX-class processors.
—DA
is a key price point in retail channels.
The pumped-up 486 chips should prosper in low-priced desktops and notebooks. For corporate and technical users, however, true 586-class chips look like a better buy. They're a safer long-term investment, and they offer superior performance, especially for floatingpoint tasks. —TRH
30 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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NEWS & VIEWS
INTERACTIVE COMPACT DISCS
Interactive Music Videos Arrive for Macs and PCs
When you play Todd Rundgren's The Individualist interactive CD in a multimedia desktop system, you get the equivalent of a music video accompanying each song. Yost can instantly cue to any audio track chorus or verse by highlighting an interactive lyric text. The CD also has footage of a live performance taken from Rundgren's vidoo No World Order Tour. This lets you play video director by choosing among foar different camera posit custom music videos of the show.
CD-ROM Notebooks Proliferate
Imagine listening tu glorious digital stereo on your car's CD audio system. But when you arrive home and put the same CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive, you can listen to the audio, plus view interactive music videos, lyric sheets, artist biographies, and interviews. The CD+ (also known as Enhanced Music Compact Disc) format lets you do all the above and brings the audio CD into the era of interactive content delivery using desktop multimedia systems.
CD+ addresses the problem with today's interactive CDs, in which the lyrics, photos, graphics, and video are stored on track I. When you play track 1 of current interactive CDs on a standard audio CD player, the resulting grating, buzz-saw sound can damage the speakers. The new CD-I- format eliminates this problem. CD+ is a two-session format that works on current-generation multises-sion CD-ROM drives and all standard audio CD players.
CD-l- lets content producers put audio tracks of first^session \ audio as standard CD-DA (Red Book Compact Disc Digital Audio) alongside CD-ROM computer data that was recorded in a second session An audio CD player that encounters the lead-
out end of the audio session won't try to play the computer data. Todd Rundgren, a well-known cybertainer in the music industry, is making his new CD, The Individualist, available only in CD-I- format. Rundgren describes The Individualist (see the screen), which should be available by the time you read this, as a "multimedia album" designed to run on both PCs and Macs. With the CD in a multimedia desktop system, you get the equiv-, ~, alentof a music video with each song.
Major industry players—including Apple, Microsoft, Philips Electronics, Sony, and the Recording Industry Association of America, which is the trade group that represents U.S. record labels—have endorsed the CD+ Blue Book specification. Microsoft is also backing CD-I- with its release of Symmetry, a CD-I- development and authoring tool that supports WinG graphics acceleration, WinToon cartoon animation, and Surround Video. Macromedia (San Francisco, CA) also expects to release its Director Enhanced CD Toolkit for the Mac and Windows this fall. However, CD-I- is not the only interactive CD format. Content producers are also using ActiveAudio's Track Zero format, which was announced last year. Track Zero has advantages over CD+. Unlike CD+, which requires a multisession CD-ROM drive, Track Zero works on single-session CD-ROM drives as well. And although Microsoft says it will include full CD+ Blue Book support in Windows 95, the company hasn't said if it will support the format in Windows 3.1 or NT. ActiveAudio already has drivers for the Mac, as well as the three versions of Windows.
Whether they use Track Zero, CD+, or another format, these new interactive CDs are another example of how PCs and Macs are becoming entertainment appliances.
— Greg Loveria
WebAddr interactive COii
For more information on Microsoft's latest lists of CD+-compliant multisession CD-ROM drives for Windows, goto:
http://www.eden.com/ cdplus/index.html.
Mac and PC users can view ActiveAudio releases at http://quicktime.apple.com/ qtmusic.html and get additional information on the Track Zero specification at http://quicktime.apple.com/ AAJv1ENU.HTM.
• Multimedia presentations
• Distributed databases
• Entertainment to go
• Increased weight
• Shorter battery life
• Higher cost
The number of notebooks with integrated CD-ROM drives will almost double in the next year, according to InfoTech, the international CD-ROM consultancy (Woodstock, VT). At the Computex show in Taipei, which should portend what you'll see in retail outlets this fall, practically every notebook vendor showed at least one CD-ROM-equipped portable. Sales of CD-ROM-equipped hand-held models will probably be less than notebook PCs, although InfoTech says gaming machines could change that forecast.
is V ' 1 K Si i J i I -.M li I ■ R I 995
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The XJACK connector is U.S. Patent Nos. 5,183,404, 5,336,099 and 5, 338,210, property of Megahertz Corporation. ©1995 Megahertz Corporation. Megahertz, the Megahertz logo, XJACK and Linking Your Worlds are all registeredtrademarks of Megahertz Corporation. Megahertz is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Robotics Corporation. Megahertz is licensed by Spectrum Cellular Corporation. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Circle 107 on Inquiry Card.
NEWS & VIEWS
NOTEBOOK TRENDS
Bigger LCDs Mean Better Images to Go
Bigger screens, more pixels. That's the trend in notebook screens as LCD manufacturers satisfy consumers' desire for bigger displays, especially for users whose notebook is their primary computer. The 10.4-inch VGA AMLCD (active-matrix LCD) is common in notebooks today, and some notebooks with bigger 11.3-inch passive-matrix displays such as the Austin Vista notebook from IPC Technologies (Austin, TX) are already available. Expect more 11.3-inch AMLCD notebooks to reach the market this year and next as screen manufacturers such as Hosiden, Sharp, NEC Electronics, Hitachi, and others achieve volume production.
Notebook displays that are larger than 11.3 inches diagonal will require a new notebook format. Apparently, that is what notebook vendors have in mind. Display manufacturer Mitsubishi Electronics America (Sunnyvale, CA) is working to redesign its existing 12.1-inch XGA (Extended Graphics Array) display to make it more suitable for notebooks.
"Various companies have informed us that there may be a new notebook size coming out in the next year or so that will take a 12.1-inch display," says Dale Maunu, product marketing manager at Mitsubishi. He declined to name specific companies. Screen manufacturers that will or already have 12.1-inch displays include Hosiden, Sharp, NEC Electronics, IBM, Hitachi, and Toshiba.
Because the 12.1-inch display offers about the same viewing area as a 14-inch CRT monitor, manufacturers also hope to sell some of these 12.1-
inch displays with desktop computer systems. Expect to see these larger LCDs with high-end workstations where desk space is limited or mobility is important.
Displays that are 12.1 inches and larger are not a new item. Most display makers have made prototypes or are in limited production of larger-size displays. However, 12.1-inch displays are costly, power-hungry, and heavier than 10.4-inch displays. Screen manufacturers are working to reduce the cost and weight of the displays and improve performance. And notebook manufacturers are investigating ways to make their laptops lighter and thinner to accept the new large displays.
One way display makers hope to reduce the prices of their larger displays is through improving their manufacturing efficiency. Most manufacturers say larger motherglass sizes are the best way to improve efficiency, because more displays can be processed at the same time. To reduce weight, display makers plan to use thinner glass, more compact electronics that drive the video, and smaller backlight tubes.
"While the market demands smaller and lighter notebooks, it also wants the largest screen available," says Greg Gonzales, who is director of portable products at IPC Technologies ((800) 338-1571). "Our weight target is still under 6 pounds." Given those parameters, Gonzales says, the current strategy is to design notebooks that are wider, but about 1.5 inches thick, or about 0.5 inch thinner than today. —Chris Chinnock
Microchip's fuzzyTech-MP Explorer includes hardware (shown) and software that lets you explore fuzzy-logic programming.
The fuzzyTech-MP Explorer ($295) is a combination of software and hardware for learning how to develop a fuzzy application. Though I have seen fuzzy logic applied to decision-making systems such as fuzzy-logic-based spreadsheets, the fuzzyTech-MP Explorer from Microchip Technology (Chandler, AZ, (602) 786-7200; fax (602) 899-9210) concentrates on using fuzzy logic in system control applications. The hardware side of the Explorer is the fuzzy-Lab, a small circuit board powered by an AC adapter and populated with LEDs, push buttons, a pair of potentiometers, RS-232 circuitry, a socketed PIC-family processor, and a thermistor/resistor pair (bonded together in a plastic sheath). One output pin of the PIC processor is connected to the resistor. By varying the duty cycle of a pulse wave outthat pin, you can heat the resistor. Via another I/O pin, the PIC processor reads the thermistor's temperature. The processor on the fuzzy Lab "talks" through the serial port to the Windows-based fuzzyTech development system. The idea is to produce a fuzzy-logic control program that can heat the thermistor to a target temperature and keep it there.
This sounds simple, but fuzzyTech's tuto al will show you that this is not the case. In the tutorial, you operate the heating manually. I quickly discovered that when you turn the heater up too quickly, you overshoot the optimum temperature. If you back off too fast, it undershoots as it cools down. (I discovered that I would make a lousy thermostat.) The next step is to activate the fuzzyTech development system. You define "crisp" values: real-world inputs and outputs (e.g., temperature and duty cycle). The crisp inputs are read into the system and "fuzzified" into linguistic terms: A temperature of 30°C might "fuzzify" into the linguistic term too cold. Linguistic terms pass through a set of IF...THEN statements that you construct. These statements determine output linguistic terms. The output is "defuzzhled" into a crisp output value that controls the amount of current going into the resistor. All this lime, you're learning fuzzy-logic fundamentals: how Id define linguistic terms, how crisp input values convert ita membership, within linguistic terms, how output linguistic terms convert to crisp output values, and so on. Best of all, you can see if what you've learned works using the included fuzzyTech Software.
The fuzzyTech development system provides a visual IDE (integrated development environment). Your system's details are all saved in an FTL (fuzzy technology language) source code file. Once your program works properly, you can output PIC16xx-compatible source code. (You need a separate product to assemble the source code into executable code.) You can even build a simulation in C and use fuzzyTech to control it The product uses Windows messages as the communications route. Source code for this interface is provided. Microchip includes a sample program that uses this technique. It simulates using a crane to unload boat cargo and uses fuzzyTech to control the crane's motor. If you want to get your fuzzy feet wet, I can think of no better way than this.
32NA 2 BYXE SEPTEMBER 1995
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NEWS & VIEWS
ALL-IN-ONE COMPUTERS
Computer-TV Hybrids Invade the Den
Front View
This fall, look for a wave of new PCs and Macs that integrate TV, stereo, and CD-ROM. At the fifteenth annual Computex Taipei exhibition, numerous vendors, including Acer, EliteGroup, Mitac, and Tatung (all from Taipei, Taiwan), showed PCs that typically integrate a 14- or 15-inch monitor, a 486- or Pentium-class CPU, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, a TV receiver card, video in ports for VCRs, stereo, a dual- or quad-speed CD-ROM drive, 16-bit sound, integrated amplified stereo speakers, and, naturally, remote control. Apple, which already sells an "all-in-one Mac" for the education market, will release a system for the home this summer, the Performa 5200 CD series, which will include a PowerPC 603 processor running at 75 MHz.
Richard Chen, who is the product marketing director for Elite-Group Computer Systems (Taipei and Fremont, CA), which developed ac power the Vertos system (see the figure), says these all-in-one computers will appeal to people in homes with limited
Space (e.g., in Japan) Keyboard/mouse
Volume H-phase Brightness Contrast
Power LED
Phone tines
(Digital answering machine and speakerphone are included) ^
m< w 1
Ports Line
and to college students who are living in small dormitory rooms. He also says the all-in-one systems (aka monoputers) should be sold as the second, not the first, TV someone buys. " If retailers try to sell these as if they were a TV, people would wonder why
they should have to pay $2500." Combining a TV, stereo, telephone answering mats-inch monitor chine, and other appliances taier'thfs'year) 01 ' in a pc presents a challenge for the interface designer, says Karen Steinwachs, group product manager at Epson (Torrance, CA), which plans to release a monoputer this fall. "It will be interesting to see how the GUI and the remote control converge," she says.
"Vendors will have to integrate PC functionality with the normal home/audio way of interacting with devices." She also predicts that as all-in-one systems get 3-D graphics and 3-D sound, they will become even stronger competition to stand-alone games platforms such as Sega. —DA
Remote-control sensor
Microphone Headphone
Expansion slots
EliteGroup's all-in-one PC typifies the type of machines you should see this fall.
BEST OF COMPUTEX
TAIPEI—The fifteenth annual Computex Taipei show held in June featured a wealth of PC, notebook, peripheral, and component introductions, many of which will reach the world's retail shelves this fall. Editors at BYTE and 0&1 BYTE, which is the Chinese-language version of BYTE, surveyed the show to find the best hardware and software products. Here's what they found:
Best System (system motherboard or chip set)
Winner: The Flexus (+886 2 782 7292; fax +886 2 788 3862) 586F57, which is a high-speed Pentium motherboard that supports Pentiums running at up to 170 MHz internally.
Runners-up: Via Technology (+886 2 218 5452; fax +886 2 218 5453), for its green PC chip set, and AsusTek (+886 2 894 3447; fax +886 2 894 3449), for its P/I-P55TP4XE, which supports a variety of Pentium processors.
Best Portable:
Winner: Acer (+886 2 545 5288; fax +886 2 545 5308), for its AcerNote 950, which includes a 10.4-inch active-matrix screen, a built-in CD-ROM drive, a touchpad mouse, and an Intel Pentium chip. Runners-up: Dual (+886 2 788 3919; fax +886 2 783 0023), for its 100-MHz Pentium-based PMD 5500 Pentimedia II with a built-in CD-ROM drive, and Kapok (+886 2 298 2651; fax +886 2 694 8787), for its notebook PC, which also has a CD-ROM drive.
Best Peripheral:
Winner: Up-Safe (+886 2 694 8181; fax +886 2 694 8787), for its DS-500 disk-size UPS (uninterruptible power supply), which fits inside a PC server's expansion slot.
Runners-up: ViewSonic ((909) 869-7976; fax (909) 869-7958), for its 15GA 15-inch multimedia monitor with built-in microphone and speakers, and Mi-croTek's (+886 35 772155; fax +886 35 772598) PageWiz 300-dot-per-inch scanner.
Multimedia Hardware:
Winner: Umax (+886 2 517 0055; fax +886 2 517 2017), for its 192-bit MaxMedia CD/Pro graphics accelerator card, which uses three 64-bit graphics chips.
Runners-up: Acer's Vuego six-speed CD-ROM drive; Aver (+886 2 226 3630; fax +886 2 2214538), for its live-video frame-grabber board for PCs, and Lead-Tek (+886 2 248 4101; fax +886 2 248 4103), for its Proview GD 400 3D graphics card, which uses Nvidia's NV1 multimedia accelerator chip.
Multimedia Software:
Winner: U-Lead (+886 2 764 8599; fax +886 2 764 9599), for Media Studio Pro 2 integrated multimedia editing software for Windows. Runners-up: Prolab (+886 2 517 0750; fax +886 2 517 0760), for Media Folio, which is an image-pro-Gessing, video-processing, atfd authoring tool you use with Windows; and Far Stone's (+886 2 777 2435; fax +886 2 777 1720) SmartCD Instant software, which is a plug-and-play CD player for all CD-ROIvJ drives.
Connectivity:
Winner: D-Link (+886 2 916 1600; fax +886 2 914 6299), for its DFE-812TX100Base Hub and DFE 500TX 10/100-Mbps PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Fast Ethernet Adapter. Runners-up: CNet (+886 35 785158; fax +886 35 785159), for its CN9100 Ethernet-to-ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switching hub, and Moxa (+886 2 910 1230; fax +886 2 910 1231), for its asynchronous terminal server.
International Product:
Winner: Logitech (+886 2 746 6601; fax +886 2 7621943), for its Fotoman Pixtura digital camera. Runner-up: Miro (+886 2 999 8116; fax +886 2 999 8140), for its miroVideo DCI TV multimedia special-effects system.
—Katie Sung
32NA 4 BYXE SEPTEMBER 1995
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CAME IN.
Dell's featured digital artist is Sanjay Kothari of New York, NY.
You can now be the proud owner of a 75MHz Pentium processor-based system for less than you or our competition ever thought possible.
Our Dell Dimension P75 includes a robust 540MB hard drive, 8 megs of RAM, and a crisp color monitor. Then, for multimedia and graphics skills, the P75 has 64-bit PCI video performance with 1MB of DRAM.
So.theysaygoodthingscometothose who wait. And when you call and order today, your wait will be over.
D0LL
TO ORDER, CALL
800-247-5X4
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0 Business leasing arranged by Leasing Group. Inc. *Prices and specifications valid in the U.S. only and subject to change without notice. The Intel Inside logo and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. MS-DOS, Windows and Microsoft are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ©1995 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.
The new Compaq Contura notebooks. Powerful DX4 and keyboard. All in one remarkably affordable, elegantly processors asjast as 100MHz. Up to 720MB of storage capacity. efficient little package. Finally, a line of notebooks that ex-A docking base that lets you use an external monitor, mouse eel in the oddest of places. Like wherever you happen to be.
nmrn Reuisiv-iv.l U.S.
The new Compaq Contura.
With an optional docking base, you gain easy network access and connection to peripherals.
Affordable
Powe RFUL
Porta b le
Pick Three.
COMPAQ
NEWS & VIEWS
STORAGE TRENDS
Coming: Better Data Management Tools
The demand for increased storage capacity never seems to end. And this ever-increasing demand brings a need for tools to better manage the data.
The growing use of client/ server applications and the downsizing of legacy applications to LANs are two prominent contributors to increased storage requirements. Today, companies typically store about 18 GB of data on their LANs (seethe figure "Growth of Corporate Storage Needs"), according to Strategic Research (Santa Barbara, CA).
Additionally, data-storage requirements are increasing as users download files from the Internet. The size of downloaded files is also increasing as users download graphical files from the World Wide Web as well as WAV and AVI files, which can be large. About 42 percent of users say they typically download files that are 2 to 5 MB in size, 19 percent say they typically down-
Growth of Corporate Storage Needs
1995
1996
1994
13G0 18G0'**G0
load files between 5 and 10 MB, and 9 percent say the typical file size is between 50 and 100 MB. This is according to a survey of 300 users conducted for 3M by Fleishman-Hillard Research.
All this downloading and downsizing has sparked a demand for integrated data backup, restoration, and migration tools. Typically, PC and network utility software vendors developed such tools. But now, companies known for their data-storage hardware products are getting into the act.
Within the last year, Seagate Technology (Scotts Valley,
NEW 4.6-GB OPTICAL DRIVE CHALLENGES MAGNETIC
Pinnacle Micro (Irvine, CA) expects to release a new MO (magneto-optical) drive this month that's less expensive than magnetic hard drives. Also, it offers performance improvements over previous MO drives. Pinnacle says that with the new performance improvements, its 4.6-GB Apex drive will compete directly with magnetic hard drives as a primary storage medium. The Apex features removable storage cartridges and is also compatible with current 2- and 2.6-GB MO drives.
One improvement Pinnacle made is in data transfer speed. The company uses the same high-speed read-channel ICs (with some tweaking to support the optical format) found in magnetic hard drives to gain a respectable 6-MBps data transfer rate. The higher 4.6-GB data density is achieved by slightly increasing the recording area on the disk (without increasing the actual size of the 5VS-inch disk), using smaller-size bits to store data, and using smaller heads. The smaller heads also helped lower the seek time to between 15 and 17 milliseconds. And Pinnacle lowered the time required to write data to the drive by implementing direct overwrite instead of the two-pass write operation used in other MO drives.
The Apex may prove popular as a stand-alone storage device for power users as well as in optical jukeboxes. At a list price of $1695 (which includes a 4.6-GB cartridge), the drive offers a cost per megabyte of 37 cents compared to 58 cents per megabyte for a $2500 4.3-GB magnetic hard drive.
Ray Freeman, an analyst at storage consultant Freeman and Associates (Santa Barbara, CA), says the Apex drive will be "immensely attractive" if it lives up to its advance billing. Says Freeman, "The Apex should stimulate additional demand for optical storage and generally give optical storage a shot in the arm."
—DA
CA) has acquired Palindrome (which sold data backup and management systems) and Frye Computer (which sold network and system management software). And 3M's Data Storage Tape Technology Division (St. Paul, MN) is working with developers to bring simpler data management tools to the desktop user.
Seagate's actions illustrate the trend to integrate data management with network management. Other companies, notably IBM and Microsoft, are also active in this field with their systems management efforts. Combined data/network management tools yield numerous synergies. One example is that you can link an HSM (hierarchical storage management) system to a network traffic-analysis product so that a large-scale file migration is delayed if a traffic-analysis tool senses the network is stressed. Additionally, if the two types of tools are linked, your backup program could monitor hard drive capacity and send an alert to a network management console when a disk approaches a threshold level.
In some ways, the 3M efforts target the other end of the scale: the desktop user. For example, one alliance 3M has is with Chili Pepper Software (Atlanta, GA), developers of Infinite Disk, an HSM-based file management package used with 3M's Travan minicartridge tape technology.
Most HSM packages on the market are designed for network administrators to use and are fairly complex. But because Chili Pepper designed its program for the desktop user, In-
finite Disk is easier to use than other programs. For example, one feature lets you designate how much hard disk space you need freed up when loading a large application. The program lets you enter the amount of disk space required by the application and then lets you specify how to move files off the hard drive. For example, you can specify TIFF and BMP files not used in 30 days.
Another desktop data management software product that will be available later this year comes from a 3M alliance with PGSoft (Pacific Grove, CA). The new utility lets you transfer, record, and play back data, audio, video, and other types of multimedia files without having to move them onto a hard drive.
Essentially, a tape drive appears as a "T" drive to the system, letting you click on a tape icon in File Manager to see what files are on tape or to drag and drop files in either direction (tape to hard disk or vice versa). You can open any file on the tape as you normally would (as if it were on the hard drive). This feature is handy for CAD users who don't want to make room for a large file every time it's needed. Opening files off the tape drive is slower than opening a file on the hard drive, but 3M uses caching techniques to reduce the performance hit.
Data backup, restoration, and migration tools have been around for many years. But the complexity of many of the products and the continuing explosion in the amount of data that must be managed are prompting the industry to develop easier-to-use tools for both the network administrator and the desktop user.
— Salvatore Salamone
32NA 8 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1 995
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the fastest, most poweM
III personal computer in the world.
W.W. still all boils down
X.o one thing.
Imagine having the power to do all the things that a Macintosh does so well, at workstation-plus speeds. The power to push not only the limits of your computer, but the limits of your creativity as well. To accomplish in minutes what once took hours. To have a tool on your desk flexible enough to change when your needs do. Giving you the freedom to grow. The freedom to adapt. It's the power that comes with the Power Macintosh 9500. The heart of the most powerful desktop publishing solution ever created.
^Assvr\ess Professiona/s,
Vwancial Consultants,.
tabling Directors.
Communicators,
FKccountanfs,
You.
Imagine having the power to use your computer for videoconferencing from one city to another with just a few clicks of a mouse. To see video run as smoothly onyour computer screen as it does on your television screen. To create documents and presentations that contain photos, music and film, as well as words, numbers and graphics. It's why Macintosh is more popular than ever with businesspeople. And why now, with the Power Macintosh 7000 series, you have the power to take your ideas farther than ever.
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Now the only thing more
powerful than a Macintosh
is your imagination.
Introducing the new family of Power Macintosh computers.
Vision, meet reality. Introducing the new family of Power Macintosh" personal computers. The professional Macintosh" family. Faster than a speeding brainwave. More powerful than a burst of inspiration. And more flexible than any computer in the world.
Your ideas have never been given so much room to grow.
At the core of these machines lies the rocks-like-a-hurricane PowerPC" processor. It's so fast that the new, ultrahigh-performance 604 RISC chip tested up to twice as fast as a dual 100 MHz Pentium chip? It's also built onto a replaceable daughterboard, ensuring you an easy upgrade path.
But as far as we're concerned, the true test of a computer's power is what you can actually do with it. And in the case of these machines, it may very well be anythingyou can imagine.
The Power Macintosh 9500 is the heart of the most powerful publishing solution ever to land on a desktop.Your favorite software runs faster than ever before, which means you produce results faster than ever before. And we've moved to industry-standard PCI architecture for even greater flexibility.
In terms of raw horsepower, the Power Macintosh 8500 flies through processing-intensive jobs like CAD/CAM, 3-D modeling and 3-D rendering. It features NTSC/PAL video-in/video-out capabilities, as well as CD-quality stereo sound. It's never been easier to create on-line movies in minutes.
High-end performance. Low-end price. It's what makes the Power Macintosh 7000 series perfect for any size business. Like all Power Macintosh computers, they come with built-in high-speed Ethernet networking.
The power of RISC means more power for everything you do: searching a database, pulling together a videoconference, updating a spreadsheet created in the Windows OS. Everything.
It all happens faster on a new Power Mac'." So you spend more of your time exploring results, and less time waiting foryour computer to catch up with you.
After all, it's really not about how powerful the computer is. It's about how powerful the computer makes you. The power to turn inspiration into solutions. Ideas into products. Vision into reality. The power to be your best!
Engineers,
Architects, Scientists,
Research Analysts, Educfc
Explorers, Theorists,
You.
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Imagine having the power to take an idea and actually turn it into something you can see in minutes.To manipulate sound and video as easily as you now handle text. To spend your energy exploring creative solutions, rather than waiting for your computer to perform them. Now factor in the practical simplicity and built-in functionality of a Macintosh, and you've got a machine that can maximize your most valuable resource: time. The PowerMacintosh 8500. The shortest distance between inspiration and reality.
True 600 dpi
Apple' Color PholoGrade
ColorSync 2.0
12ppm black, 3/>pm color
Windows 3-1 compatible
Motor PostScript* Level 2
Built-in Ethernet for Novell Applelalk or TCP/IP networks
The Power Macintosh 8500.
120 MHz PowerPC 604 RISC processor
Processor upgradable via daughterboard
3 PCI slots
3 expansion bays
8 DRAM sockets
16MB to 512MB of 'DRAM
1GB or 2GB Fast SCSI hard disk
Built-in video-in/video-oul capabilities up to 30 frames per second
Built-in 10Base-7 and Mill Ethernet
The Power Macintosh 7200 and 7500.
3 PCI slots
Built-in lOBase-TandMUI Ethernet
7500
100 MHz PowerPC 601 RISC processor
Processor upgradable via daughterboard
3 expansion bays 8 DRAM sockets
16MB to 512MB of DRAM
Built-in vieleo-iii
7200
75 or 90 MHz PowerPC 601 RISC processor
4 DRAM sockets
For more information, visit us §u the Internet al http://wicw.apple.com.
The power to be your best.
'I'eijorimtme bencb»t<trh Imsal <m Market Presence Incs "Nmr Madnlusb 'J50D lists Jur I'liblishiirijuitv 1995. %l')')5 Ajijik Cwti/mler. Inc. All rights re.sencd. Apple, th>Aj; ColorSync, LaserWriter, Macintosh aud "'Ik'jnmvr to beyuitr lifsf'w
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a Imthmirk of international Husmess Maclmies Curponilioii. used under license tk-refmrii, ,-W Apple products arc designed to be accessible to indinduals with dimlnliiy To lairu more (l ! .S. only), aill H00776-2Jii or TDD SOO S.tU>22i
BOOKS & CD-ROMs
OPTIMIZING CODE
Gary Kacmarcik
How to Optimize Your PowerPC Code
TOM THOMPSON
The PowerPC market is growing, and many books covering the programming of this processor are being published. Optimizing PowerPC Code by Gary Kacmarcik tells how to write faster native code. The book starts with functional descriptions of the PowerPC 601 's architecture and instruction set. The author describes such features as cache operation and branch prediction logic.
Once this groundwork is complete, Kacmarcik moves on to optimization tricks. Some of these are standard fare: using right shifts to replace multiply operations and multiplication to replace expensive divide operations (for numerous divide operations, multiplying with a reciprocal is faster). Other tricks involve mixing the instruction stream so that all the execution units are kept busy and avoiding pipeline stalls by modifying certain code structures, such as loop unrolling and code pasting (i.e., placing code-block duplicates elsewhere in an algorithm to increase the number of independent instructions that can be sent to execution units). Finally, there are nitty-gritty details about specific register dependencies and what can be done to avoid them.
It's important to note that this subject is discussed at a fairly high level. For example, the loop-unrolling examples are in C, although certain sections are peppered with assembly language output. Also, there's no treatment of development tools or a specific machine environment (e.g., the Power Mac's code implementation). However, the broad treatment Kacmarcik uses lets these techniques be applied to all PowerPC systems.
OPTIMIZING POWERPC CODE
Tom Thompson is a BYTE senior technical editor at large who is the author o/Power Macintosh Programming Starter Kit (Hayclen Books, 1994). You can reach him on AppleLink as T. THOMPSON or on the Internet or BIX at tom_thompson@bix.com.
Gary Kacmarcik Addison-Wesley ISBN 0-201-40839-2
$39.95
ESTABLISH A WEB BEACHHEAD
MARKETING ON THE INTERNET: MULTIMEDIA STRATEGIES FOR THE WORLD WIDE WEB by Jill H. Ellsworth and Matthew V. Ellsworth
John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-11850-8, $24.95
In the search to find yet another angle for an Internet book, the Ellsworths key off the current hot topic: commerce on the Net. Unfortunately, the book never addresses the question of how profitable on-line companies are. Instead, the authors quote gee-whiz statistics about how fast the Net is growing and imply that growth equates to profits for companies on the Net. Buying studies have yet to prove that's true, however.
But if you're a true believer in Net commerce, or are afraid that you're letting a business opportunity slip by, this book provides a handy starting point for establishing your company on the Net. At its best, the book offers practical advice on what makes a homepage attractive and easy to navigate. At its worst, it's a rehash of Net introductory material that you'll find in dozens of other books.
Most appealing are the step-by-step examples of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code that show you how to format ASCII text and embed hypertext links for documents you want to publish on the Net. The authors also show how the same HTML text appears when viewed by different Web browsers. The core of Marketing on the Internet: Multimedia Strategies for the World Wide Web offers solid advice for busi-nesspeople itching to establish a Web site. But, like the Net itself, you'll have to sift through some extraneous material to get to the good stuff. ■ — Alan Joch
SHOOT POOL
AND/OR
RELIVE THE SIXTIES
VIRTUAL POOL Interplay Productions, 17922 Fitch Ave., Irvine, CA 92714, (714) 553-6655, $39.95
If you like to play pool, you'll love the Virtual Pool CD-ROM. Its developers really sweated the details. All the physics of the real game are there, such as friction, cushion response, and cue ball spin. You can line up a shot by "walking" around the table, move closer, back away, and even attempt a trick masse shot.
In addition to eight-ball, you can play nine-ball, rotation, straight pool, and snooker. You can play against your computer, against a friend, or with other players via a modem or over a network. Virtual Pool runs under DOS 5 or higher on PCs with at least a VGA card, 2 MB of RAM, 2 MB of hard disk space, and a Sound Blaster-compatible sound card.
HAIGHT-ASHBURY IN THE SIXTIES
Compton's NewMedia, 2320 Camino Vida Roble, Carlsbad, CA 92009, (619) 929-2500, $49.95
During the 1960s, the San Francisco district of Haight-Ashbury was a center for youth rebellion, the antiwar movement, and major cultural and artistic experimentation. Free love, flower power, hippies, and great music flourished. Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties captures many of the personalities of the time, including Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, as well as music from the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. There's even an adventure game that lets you explore Haight St. The CD-ROM runs on an MPC with Windows 3.1 or a Mac with System 7.0. — Rich Friedman