COME SEE US AT
Networks Expo, Dallas, TX; Sept. 12-14 1995 Booth #1696 & Networld + Interop, Atlanta, GA; Sept. 27-29 1995 Booth #5166
TM
Circle 287 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 288).
Web Site, Internet Gateway, and Workgroup Suite — All In One.
I
■
■
ft I ! I i i t i i mi t i ii i i i w ■ v v \v \ : .
Introducing Worldgroup Internet Server
On one PC, you can easily provide full access to and from the Internet. You can have a stunning Web site that engages a client/server workgroup environment. And you can provide a gateway to the Web for your modem and LAN users.
You can do all of this and more with the Worldgroup Internet Server — on a
single 486 or Pentium DOS machine. Minimal maintenance. Maximum impact. With airtight security and easy administration. Starting at $1,495.
You can add client/server databases, order entry, voice/image conferencing, and more with a quick "A:INSTALL" — no laborious HTML work.
Worldgroup is a trademark of Galacticomm, Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective companies.
Circle 292 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 293).
To use the Internet for real business, give us a call at 1-800-328-1128 (outside U.S. and Canada call 305-583-5990). Or browse us at http://www.gcomm.com.
MICROSOFT* W'IMXMS.
COMR\na£
brunswrlh NetVNfare
(^GALACTICOMM
Bringing your vision online
Step up to the best. DesignCAD. Only $99.
(competitive upgrade)
Now, for the first time in our ten year history of CAD software, we are offering a $99 competitive upgrade to DesignCAD. What does this mean? If you own any other CAD, Drawing, or Design software, you can step up to the best - DesignCAD. This is the complete, up-to-date package -not an older or limited version. For $99 you get your choice of the DesignCAD 2D for Windows (version 7.0) or the new Windows 95 version.
Why are we doing this? Why are we offering $349 CAD software for $99? Because we believe it's the best, and we're sure you'll find it a significant improvement. In fact, we're so sure you'll like it we're offering a 30-day money back guarantee. Get the DesignCAD Competitive Upgrade for only $99, try it out, and if you're not satisfied for any reason send it back for a refund, no questions asked.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Free Technical Support
■ i I J
EDITORS' CHOICE
YES! Send me the DesignCAD Competitive Upgrade for only $99.' am the owner of the following CAD, Drawing, or Design software:
I would like DesignCAD for: □ Windows 3.1 □ Windows 95 Payment Method:
□ Visa QMC QAmex □ Discover QCOD □ Check/Money Order
Card Number: Exp:
Name:
Address:
Address:
City, State, Zip: Phone:
Call, Mail, or Fax your order: American Small Business Computers, One American Way, Pryor, OK 74361 (800) 233-3223 (918) 825-7555 fax (918) 825-6359
^120
To get yours, call (800) 233-3223
v Card (RESELLERS- 2Rfi^
Circle 285 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 286)
One Portable CD-ROM Drive —Two Simple Steps
With the backpack quad-speed CD-ROM drive, you're one cable connection away from a world of multimedia business advantages: Plug it into your PC parallel port to access a universe of CD-ROM titles. Take it with you for portable data retrieval. Or share it with other PCs.
backpack
MicroSolutions
Call Toll Free-800.295.1 214
No compatibility problems with virtually any IBM-compatible PC— Windows, DOS or OS/2. No taking your PC apart to install this quad-speed drive. Just plug it into your PC printer port—plug your printer into the backpack. A simple solution from the backpack family of tape, diskette and hard drives.
NOW AVAILABLE WITH 16-BIT BUILT-IN SOUND OPTION!
I32W. Lincoln Hwy. DeKalb, Illinois 601 15 • Telephone 8 1 5.756.341 1 • FAX 8 1 5.756.2928 Circle 294 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 295).
PC MALL (800) 555-6255 Tiger Direct (FL) (800) 888-4437 USA Flex (IL) (800) 477-8323
W
^sa?
The Tympani - More Bang For Your Monitor Buck!
The Orchestra Diva is singing again. This time, it's about our new 17" Tympani monitor. Now, for $469, you can have a 17" it^t ^1/ screen » w ^ n two-thirds more Windows vHK# screen area than a 15" screen. Get a bigger, better and brighter image for larger text and more vivid multi-media impact.
All that extra screen area, with a maximum non-interlaced resolution of 1024x768, for an estimated street price of only $469!
More Screen For Your Buck
Even with a $469 price tag, the Tympani offers pincushioning control and Energy Star compliance, with DPMS power management.
For more features and performance, look to Orchestra's newest 15" and 17" displays, the French Horn II and the Tuba II.
You're In Control With Advanced On-Screen Display
The French Horn II and Tuba II support high refresh rates and have advanced On-Screen Display controls for adjust-
ing image geometry and color. Adjust the tilt/rotation, pincushion/barreling and trapeziod aspects, so your image is sharp, square and stable, just the way you like it.
Moreover, color balancing allows adjustment of Red, Green and Blue, so you can match your screen color to your printer output, or maybe just your mood.
Call us at (800) 237-9988 from 8:30am to 5:30pm, PST and ask a product specialist about the full line of Orchestra 14'; 15" and 17" displays as well as the Tempo Series of PCI and Vesa Local Bus video adaptors.
For all your monitor -™™-needs, Orchestra has a model BJhiI to lit your computing style. ^g|j^j For more information, or to find a dealer nearest you, call today The Diva is singing for Orchestra; let Orchestra perform for you.
(800) 237-9988
© 1995 Orcheslra MulliSystems, Inc. All trade names are trademarks ol their respective companies
MultiSystems, Inc. Technology in Concert
Circle 130 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 131).
E-mail messages are like fish: You don't want to let the big ones get away, but you need to screen out the little stinky ones. Eudora Pro has message filters that you can preset to separate the Big Mouths from the Barracudas.
Eudora Pro™ is like an Ultimate Cruising Machine. Since it uses TCP/IP, your messages glide effortlessly across WANs and through LANs, without having to pass through cumbersome gateways. That's why it's
the e-mail of choice for the ( x^^V^fcl >^/
Internet. ^\'SJf'h
When buying
proprietary e-mail,
you may just get
more than you
bargained for.
Over two million Mac and PC users aren't the only ones applauding Eudora. MacUser selected Eudora Pro as the best communications software of 1994.
Most proprietary e-mail applications have really great front ends (GUIs) and tons of features. But try pushing one through a gateway without getting something trampled on... like your message. Not a pretty sight!
Want security? Eudora Pro uses a sophisticated authentication system called Kerberos to guard your mailbox
For more information, contact your local dealer. For a listing of authorized Eudora resellers and distributors, call: 1-800-2-EUDORA ext. 6083; e-mail: eudora-sales12@qualcomm.com; fax: 619-658-1500; worldwide web address: http://www.qualcomm.com/QualHome.html.
Circle 307 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 308).
Is your system administration group balancing proprietary e-mail systems against low maintenance, interoperability and ease of use? Can't be done! Try an open system. Try Eudora Pro!
UALCO/WVA
The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc.
Circle 326 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 327).
DefactoRAID
High-Performance SCSI RAID Systems
Discover the best RAID price/performance in the industry. Raidtec is the affordable, open, SCSI-to-SCSI hardware RAID solution for complete data protection. Ideal for mission critical applications, document imaging & multimedia. It's time to re-visit the ultimate in high-
• Fast & Wide SCSI II
• RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 3/5
• Programmable RAID Level selection
• On-the-f ly hardware parity generation eliminates read, modify, write-back performance overhead
• Downloadable flash firmware
Remote alarms, configuration & monitoring
• Environmental sensor ports
• "Hot Replaceable" disk drive bays & power supplies
Single SCSI ID
• Solid state load sharing power subsystem
LCD control panel status display
availability storage. Contact Raidtec today at (404) 664-6066.
Tut Standard In Advanced Mass Storage Systems
Raidtec USA Raidtec EUROPE
10S Hembtee Park Dt* Suite C Glen Mervyn House • Glanmire
Rosvvell, GA 30076 Cork, Ireland
Tel.: (404) 664-6066 Te!.: (353) 21-821454
VAX: (404) 664-6166 ... FAX: (353) 21-821654
If you are looking to purchase a computer or computer-related product,
Computer Purchaser's Help Line is a research company that has been sourcing vendors for large corporate and government contractors for years. Now we are offering the same service to the public. We can give you access to vendors who normally do not sell to the public. If you have decided what product to buy, we can tell you who has the lowest price.
If you find a vendor who will sell you the same product for a lower price than the source we gave you, we will pay you $10!* You have nothing to lose! You just save $$$ on your purchases!
Just imagine how much you can save on your next Computers, Printers, Memory, Fax/Modems, Hard Disk Drives, CD-ROM Drives, Multimedia Upgrades, Plotters, Digitizers, Software, Networking Products...
To Save on Your Next Purchase, Calk
(900) 9-SOURCE
Mon-Fri 9-5 PST (900)976-8723
«B«fi
Our charges are only $4.99 for the first minute plus $1.99 for each additional minute. You can check on as many prices as you want with only one call.
Computer Purchaser's Help Line
All price guarantees are for 24 hours. The vendor who is offering you the lower price must sell nationwide and must offer the same price to everyone and have stock. You need to call us at (714) 852-8249 and give us the name of the vendor, phone number and your referral number. We will give you an approval number and mail you a check for $10.
182 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
m SciTcch **gija&» =-
Software for Science
MICROSOFT 8 FORTRAN POWERSTATION
Develop & run Fortran programs of virtually any size P . _ & complexity with Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation
;H( l|/l k/\N family of 32-bit development systems! Migrate '"' --- Fortran code from other platforms with little or no modification! Get unparalleled price/performance! Save time in code development and maintenance using the Windows integrated development environment. Call NOW to order or request a FREE Test Drive Kit!
DOS & Windows price $349
Windows NT price $519
EndNote Plus
Bibliography maker that creates bibliographies in your word processor. Comes with a collection of bibliographic styles for more than 240 leading academic journals. Choose from these or create your own. Flexible searching and sorting functions help you to organize your references. EndLink, sold separately, imports references downloaded from online or CD-ROM
directly into your End Note database. New Windows Version! Windows, Mac price ,
JMP 3.1
Statistical Discovery Software from SAS Institute, Inc.
Statistics is not just data reduction and analysis, it's data discovery. JMP's unique graphical approach to statistics allows you to see your data from many different perspectives quickly, easily. JMP's ever-growing list of statistical features includes: extensive linear ond
nonlinear model fitting, including regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and random effects
models. Statistical qualily control analysis, extensive survival analysis, and exclusive
integrated design of experiments.
Mac, Windows price $599
STANFORD GRAPHICS
With Stanford Graphics' Graph Gallery of 171 graph types, you'll always find the right graph for your technical data. Error bar charts, X-Y plots, bubble plots, histograms, 3D surfaces and contours, and curve fitting are just a few of the graph types available. Link your Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 or ASCII files directly into a powerful 4-dimensional spreadsheet.
Windows price $99
Windows NT price $229
"grffw*"
MICROSOFT® VISUAL C++
If you program in C or C++ and use MS DOS , Windows® or Windows NT™, Microsoft Visual C++™ (version 2.0) is THE product to use. Visual C++ features an optimizing compiler and a state-of-the-art Integrated Development Environment that includes a project manager, incremental linking; just in time debugging; books online and a whole lot more! Get outstanding value by enrolling in the subscription program.
Single product price $399
Subscription price $499
MathType
Upgrade your Equation Editor to MathType. Get the full-featured version of the Equation Editor that comes with Microsoft Word and many other Windows and Macintosh applications. MathType is as | easy to use as Equation Editor and you get a lot more features to help you work faster and produce better looking documents.
I Windows, Mac price $129
Upgrade from Equation Editor $89
MWfl
I' lit iu '■ ■■■ EXPOHENTGMMB.
IMSL EXPONENT GRAPHICS
2D and 3D graphics library for technical applications that includes a Fortran and C application programming interface, built-in GUI for Graph customization and hundreds of code samples. Works with Microsoft's PowerStation 32 and Visual C++ compilers.
NT price $895
Academic price $715
\M
SCIENTIFIC, ENGINEERING & TECHNICAL SOFTWARE IS OUR
specialty:
get expert technical
SUPPORT BEFORE YOU BUY.
To order or for more information call
1.800.622.3345
ask for our free 116-page catalog with more than 2,000 products!
[M-F, 7:30am - 6pm CST)
(Fax 312.486.9234, 24 hours) See us on the Internet! Our URL is http://www.scitechint.com/scitech/
S<lTe(h Sti,ech Internatianal. Inc. 2525It.Elston Avenue, Chicogo, IL 60647-2003 Tel 312.486.9191 ^_^_ Reselleiscoll 1.800.622.3320 for a Confidential Reseller Piite List
Circle 309 on Inquiry Card.
CALL FOR MOREINFOR-MATION& FREE DEMO DISKS.
30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
GET
PERSONAL ATTENTION EACH TIME YOUCALL
Growing Your Software Business Can Be Puzzling. ••
Piracy Protection
Pne-Saks Evaluations
Software Rental
Watch The Pieces Come Together.
Version ^Updates
Complex licensing Schemes
r DALLAS^
I AC*
Introducing The ON Button™ For Your Software
Now you can protect your software by AH Buttons contain a unique 64-bit serial number:
controBingtherighttotise.
Buttons are microchips packaged in coin-shaped, stainless steel cans that contain critical
information to make your software run.
DS1420 ID Button':
Basic security.
DS1422 UniqueWore Button :
IK bit of memory separated into A, one-time-write pages.
DS1425 Multi Button :
2K bits of RAM can protect multiple applications.
DS1427 Time Button":
4K bits of RAM, along with a tamper-proof real time clock.
°2^tnX Buttons tie together the pieces off your business puzzle.
^ DALLAS
SEMICONDUCTOR
1 South Beltwood Parkway ♦ Dallas, Texas 75244-3292 ♦ TeL 800-258-5061 ♦ Fax: 214450-3869
Circle 306 on Inquiry Card.
Special Introductory Price $299.00
THE 2-LINE VOICE/DATA/FAX AND AUDIO SOLUTION YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.
_ wsEssammsm
tile £etup Vol ce m»ii Qata Com ro fax gpcakerPhone H^P
Line 1: MAILBOX
Caller ID: 0904 at 1345 B3926G00 / CLINTON BOB
j Curienl Mailboa: | DEFAULT"
H Diitinctivc ding On
Mutic / Mtg On Hold □ Enable PBX
D Fax Menage Find £J Voice Menage Fwd
[ Reset J |j t?uk J
RING-SPECIAL 3
Total Colli 5 Voice Mtgi 1
Fax Colli 5
SupeiVoice lor Windows, ESS AudioDrive and Windows are trademarks otthe Pacitic Image Communications Inc., ESS Technology, Inc., and Microsoft Corp., respectively. All other product names aretrademarksot their respectiveowners.
Voice Pro+2
The 1st Affordable 2-line VoiceMail/Fax/Data & Sound System
U&aU LteteJ UStiwJ .UtifcJ! UfettJ
The VoicePro+2 handles voice, voice-mail, fax and data calls on two separate phone lines simultaneously, while continuing to run your existing Windows™ applications. The VoicePro+2's internal 14.4kbps modem automatically manages your (ax & data communications while an independent 16-bit, multimedia compatible audio section plays .WAV files, FM synthesized MIDI music, entertainment or CD audio. An on-board fax discriminator/switcher connects a second modem orexisting plain-paper fax, allowing simultaneous 2-line transmission. Fax calls can be directed to either the internal modem or external device for added flexibility.
The VP+2 also provides unattended Caller I.D. and distinctive ring mailbox switching, adding extra versatility to each available phone line. Calls are routed however you desire, by ring type, by calling number, or both. PBX type switched "hook/ flash" calls are directed and managed by the VP+2's Auto-Attendant features. Additionally, you'll get a Full-Duplex speaker phone*, Voice & Fax Message Forwarding,Autodial Pager, full Fax-Back and Fax On Demand, and Message/Music on Hold.
No other system offers s o much i n one integrated, affordable package.
All of these features, plus easy upgrades to Remote Voice Recognition, Unattended Message Delivery and TAPI drivers for Windows '95 makes the VoicePro+2 the wise choice for your 2-line communications needs, bothnowand inthefuture.Wealso provide free technical support for the first 90 days and all the installation assistance you'll ever need.
Give us a call today and put the power of the VoicePro+2 to work for you! At a list price of $329, the VoicePro+2 is the most versatile and powerful device ever plugged into a single slot in yourcomputer. Includes:
Teledapter VoicePro+2 Message Center (TM), SuperVoice (TM)anrJ ESS AudioDrive (TM) software, cables and complete operating instructions. *Externalspeaker& microphone optional.
Minimum Fequitemenls: 386-33mhz and Microsoft Windows 3.1 for 2-line operation.
Teledapter Systems Inc.™
Making Tlie Pieces Fit
Sales: 1-800-997-PR02
Info: 1-512-392-6600
Fax-On Demand: 1-512-392-3991
184 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
Circle 330 on Inquiry Card.
Come To The Source
♦♦♦
X, i
Who owns patents and maskworks on the original CMOS 6502 microprocessor? No, it's not Rockwell. No, it's not NCR. These companies and over 30 others are
licensees of The Western Design Center, Inc. - WDC
,etnu*^
is the original source of this valuable technology.
This is the 20th anniversary issue of BYTE Magazine
and WDC is pleased to be celebrating the 20th
anniversary of the introduction of the 6502.
The founder of WDC was at the St. Francis Hotel,
San Francisco, in September 1975 where the 6502
was first sold for $25 (revolutionary pricing).
**»&»*
Irvf
\vUef^<
JL4K&
nftofaf
The 65C02 technology had an interesting beginning...having been used in many original consumer and game products such as Commodore, Atari, Nintendo and the ^fee /-?.* Apple II. The 6502 has now evolved into a family of compatible
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f%
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'ffyktih*
W,*^*
microprocessors and microcontrollers currently being ■ used worldwide in products such as the Super NES, heart defibrillators, pacemakers, dashboard controllers, and set top cable converters, to name a few.
WDC is continuing to evolve and is unveiling a system
level product based on our proprietary technology. Our
mission is to bring together the talents and creativity ofj ndividuals whg^
recognize this product as a^aradigm shifi^e are looking forwardJt6^earing .>
from men and women who wWlbpaiticipate in the continuing^ioneering
efforts of WDC We now look for something different as WDC unv^ls a new
system - affectionately called... \^ ^SCA CtMipf^M
The Mensch Computer represents functionality with boundaries and limitations
. for digital messaging. This is a solipl-kate computer,
Y : \ a Model A for the information superhighway.
tips
p/U
The Western Design Center, Inc. • E-mail wdesignc@indirectcom
2166 E, Brown Rd • Mesa, AZ 85213 • 602-962-4545 • Fax 602-835-6442
All products and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Circle 335 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 336).
Circle 296 on Inquiry Card.
The first true 32-bit client/server BBS -reserved for a few select MIS Managers.
Mustang Software's top secret project Wildcat! BBS re-write, code-named Atmihilator, is now available to 5000 select MIS Managers, offering a glimpse of this breakthrough 32-bit client/server technology - from the manufacturer of the world's most popular BBS software. And when you purchase one of the limited Pre-Release Atmihilator CDs for only $49, you'll save 75% off the regular purchase price later this year.
Interactive Multimedia Can Expand Your Company's On-line Experience
Atmihilator blends Windows 95 multitasking, NT robust server operations, and MAPI technology, with BBS technology to offer full on-line multimedia to every caller. And you never have to retrieve the information. Whether it's sent from a node on your LAN, a remote location, or an address on the Internet, it all shows up right on your E-mail system.
Deliver Even More Information - At Much Greater Speeds
Atmihilator's Preview CD will show how
the true power of client/server functionality
can be unleashed to provide users with broad,
BBS-based solutions. They'll learn how to
implement a BBS with a core information server,
and route that information using a number of
application clients. And be able to establish a true
distributed processing system that delivers more
information at greater speed, even on a single PC.
Call today. Your copy of Atmihilator is waiting.
Single PC Running Windows 95 or Windows NT
CLIENTS
Individual tattrtatte Programs
USERDATABASE
—; SERVER
A single executable
program mi a single
ctxnputef thai handles
3U requests for
FILEDATABASE
Security validation
is also controlled
at Hits lev-el.
« -
Local or Netwtuk PC Module Tel uel tom Module | ri Inet Server)
HTML Module (Well Sem't)
I
The client/senxr model of Atmihilator can be easily installed with the server and all clients naming on a single PC. The computer can operate under Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation or Server. Tliis configuration offers the most compact system and allows fortotal managementfiom the single BBS computer.
Buy The Pre-Release Annihilate*? CD For $49* And Save Up To 75° /o Off The Purchase Price
Instructions and information on the Prc-Release Atmihilator CD provides MIS Managers with an inside look into the future of BBS technology.
Purchase of the Pre-Release Atmihilatar CD establishes eligibility for a 75% discount off the manufacturers suggested retail price when Atmihilator is released later this year.
Only 5000 Copies Of The Pre-Release Atmihilator CD Will Be Mastered. Get The Inside Track And Stay On The Leading Edge Of BBS Technology By Getting Your Copy. Call Today To Reserve A Copy 1-800-663-7509
"Add $10 for shipping and handling
^SsEwc Connecting The World
som wc Mustang Software, Inc. • 6200 Lake Ming Road • Bakersfield. CA 93306
805-873-2500 • FAX 805-873-2599 • BBS 805-873-2400 • WWW:http://www.mustang.com
Although the BBS on tlieCD will k opcrati
at intended to be usedas a commercial BBS because it wilt' not have completed testing nor will it include ftil printed documentation. © 1995 Mustang Software, Inc. All names are trademarks of their respective companies.
i^MB [jfjr-rirtfs fn to rnfrf
Call today for free catalog
♦ Print servers
♦ Data switches
♦ Keyboard/video control
800-333-9343
P.O. Box 742571 ♦ Houston, Texas 77274 TEL 713/933-7673 ♦ FAX 713/933-0044
with a Rose keyboard monitor switch
Streamline your computer room by reducing excess equipment. Access up to 256 CPU's from a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Serve View is our best-selling switch, has every feature you can imagine, and installs in minutes. Compare price, features, performance, quality, and support and youll find Rose can't be beat.
Call us to discuss your application or to receive your free information kit.
m
ELECTRONICS
186 BY rE SEPTEMBER 1995
Circle 299 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 300).
'at booth S^ Expo and Convention
Copy ffctecfc>K
0**0*
Hmmmm^m
WIBU-KEY - Secure against systematic "crackers"!
WIBU®-BOX for LPT, COM, ADB, as card for (E)ISA slots
and as PC-Card (PCMCIA Type II)
WIBU-BOX is smallest ASIC based dongle!
Protection for DOS, Windows and networks without
requiring source code modification
Windows™, Windows™95+NT, Mac™OS, OS/2®, Novell
• CD-ROM Install-Shield
WIBU-KEY
The most complete palette of
copy protection hardware
Ca« o^lo 800-986-6578
Order your
evaluation
package
today!
MacOS
MICROSOFT WINDOWS-COMPATIBLE
IBU-KEY
uality in Software Protection
UIBU
SYSTEMS
WIBU-SYSTEMS GmbH Rueppurrer Strasse 54 D-76137 Karlsruhe, Germany Phone: +49-721-93172-0 FAX: +49-721-93172-22 CIS: 100142,1674
EUROPEAN SOFTWARE
!5 CONNECTION
1617 St. Andrews Drive, Lawrence, KS 66047 Phone: (913) 832-2070, FAX: (913) 832-8787 Techn.Support:(913) 832-1623, CIS: 71141,3624
Circle 313 on Inquiry Card.
See your business data in a
minute...
...with RegioGraph, the
desktop mapping system
The powerful GIS technology for business is used in RegioGraph for professional presentation and reports, regional analysis, site selection, sales district planning, market delineation and controlling.
Functions
Thematic mapping and shading; 2-D, 3-D pie charts, bar graphs; dot density maps; scaled symbol maps; 3-D prism and contour lines; portfolio technique: presentation of cross tables in maps; easy creation of sales territories; fast aggregation of maps and data; spatial selection and data filter in maps and data; geocoding of pointfiles (customers); unlimited number of layers; multimedia layer; ODBC/OLE; interface to SPSS; import capability of different graphic formats; digitizing module; high quality, scalable output.
VIW^N
MACON GmbH Schoenbornstrasse 21 D-68753 Waghaeusel, Germany Phone:+49-7254-983-0 FAX: +49-7254-983-290
Circle 314 on Inquiry Card.
Companies from Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany together at COMDEX/Fall'95
Kleinmann GmbH
AmTrieb 13, D-72820 Sonnenbuehl, Germany Phone: +49-7128-9292-0, FAX +49-7128-9292-92
Computer Cleaning Products
Not for Endusers. Exclusive with private Label.
Circle 315 on Inquiry Card.
.vVU
ikijj.
. ^ PENTIUM^ , MOTHERBOARD
With Built-in Adaptec SCSI-2/IDE
Controller. Accomodates 75,90 or
100MHz CPU's.
3 PCI, 5 ISA Slots, 128Mb Allowable.
Cooling Fan Included.
MB-P54AS $419
Pentium Motherboardw/o CPU
%AltexEle€tronit$
1-800-531-5369
10731 Gulf dale • San Antonio, TX 78216
210-828-0503 • FAX :210-340-2409 Hours 8am-6pm M-F, 9-5pm Sat CST
10705 Metric Blvd. • Austin, Texas 78758
(512)832-9131 • FAX: (512) 835-1328 Hours8am-6pm M-F,9-5pmSatCST
(Sadaprec*
AHA-1542CF 16-Bit SCSI-2 Host Adapter (BusMaster) $219
AHA-1542CFK Kit includes Adapter Card, OS Drivers & Cables $285
AHA-2842VL 64 Bit SCSI-2 VL Bus Adapter Kit (Drivers,Cables,Adapter) $269
AHA-2940KT PCI Local Bus SCSI BusMaster (RISC-based SCSI I/O) $339
NET WORK MasterView
CPU Switch allows One Console to ACCESS Six Servers/CPUs. Cascadeable, built-in buffer, Auto-ScawfJIanual Selection(3-40 sec. scan intervals), supports VGA to MultiSync. Perfect for access to File Servers, Trouble-shooting or Routine Monitoring. LED indicators.
CS-106 AT Only $299
CS-104 AT or PS2 $279
VIDEO SEPARATOR is a fast flexible solution for VGA duplication. Video Signal is enhanced for long distance broadcasting up to 210 ft. (Daisy Chainable)
VS-104 4 to 1 $129
VS-108 8to1 $189
CABLE ASSEMBLIES
11 342IH-35 North • San Antonio, TX 78233 1 5207 Midway Road • Dallas, Texas 75244
210-637-3200 • FAX:210-637-3264 (214) 386-8882 • FAX: (214) 386-9182
Hours 8am-8pm M-F, 9-5pm Sat CST Hours 8am-7pm M-F, 9-5pm Sat CST
TERMS: For CO.D. orders add $5 per package. Minimum $25. Cash or Cashiers Check only. For orders under $99 add S3 handling charge. Orders §99 or more no handling fee. All shipping is FOB San Antonio, Texas and will be added to your invoice. Texas residents add 7-3/4% sales tax. All returns require RMAfl and must be returned in original condition. A 15% restocking fee will be assessed on product returned in non-resa|eable conditipn. No returns on memoiy, cut cable or custom cable assemblies Prices subject to change without notice. We are not responsible lor typographical errors.
CORPORATE, INSTITUTIONAL & GOVERNMENT POs WELCOME. NET 30 TERMS AVAILABLE UPON APPROVAL.
NETWORKNG
NfTC 10BASE-T/BNC Adapter Card features software selectable I/O, interrupt & PROM address (Jumpeitess). NE2000/IEEE 802.3 compliant with LED indicators for activity & link detection. Supports NOVELL, Microsoft, Artisoft, FTP and PC/NFS. Compatible with all Bus systems, 10Mbps transfer & is FCC certified. 300-017-01 10BaseT/BNC Adapter (8/16bit) s^vHI $®
400-006-01 16-Port10BaseTHub &J&\ $264
400-004-01 8Port10BaseTHub [■T^R $135
700-003-01 Ethernet Bundle Pak (8Poit Hub and 4 Combo Cards) MKSpS $249
BOCA 16-Port Ethernet 10BASE-T Hub With 10Base-2 and AUI connections. Automatic partitioning upon excessive colfision detection with automatic restoral upon correction. Compact, fits easily on a desktop. Includes AC adapter, BNC-T Conn and 5 Yr Mfg Warranty.
BDCH
28.8KBPS V.34 MODEMS
MV.34I 28.8Kbps Internal $174
M1440E 14.4Kbps External 106
MV.34E 28.8Kbps External 225
SE1440 14.4Kbps Modem, VoiceMail,
Speakerphone 169
M1440I 14.4Kbps Internal
Modem & Sound Card 82
•=6 ft 10 ft
$3.99 $4.99 3.99 8.99 1-9 10+ $2.99 $2.54 2.99 2.54 2.99
2.75
2.99
'Please fill in ' with length desired
Printer Cables
PPC301-* Parallel Piinter Cable
(DB2510 36P) $2.99 $3.99
DB-25 Line Cables (Wired Straight Thru, Shielded w/ Thumbscrews)
25MM-* 0825 Male to Male 25MF-" DB25 Male to Female Extension Cables 5MM-6 DSP M to M (6 foot) KEC-6 Keyboard Cable (6 loot) PS2-KEC6 PS2 Keyboard Cable (6 loot) 3.39 PS2-KA AT Keyboard on PS/2
(MD6P to D5S) 2.89
MEC-6 Monitor Extension Cable 2.99 PS2-MECQ VGA Monitor Cable (6 loot) 3.39 AC Power Cords 1-9 10+
ACPC-02 PC Power Cotd, W $2.49 $2.23
ACPC-03 Monitor Power Adapter, f 2.29 1.99 ACPC-04 Monitor Power Extension (6') 3.69 2.75 Drive Cable Assemblies Each
HD-IDE 40S-40S Single IDE Haid Drive CaMe $1.49 DFC-U Univeisal Cable Set (5 Connector) 2.95 2HDIDE Dual IDE Hard Diive Cable 2.99
YAD-4 Disc Drive T Adapter 4P 1.99
SCSI Cables
SCSI-RC Three IDS 50-Pin Sockets (2) SCSI-DC 50-Pin Cent (M) - 50-Pin Cent (M) SCSI-II 50-Pin Cent (M) - 50-Pin Hall Pitch SCSMI3 50-Pin HP to 50-Pin Hall Pitch (3) SCSI-2HH 50-Pin HP to 50-Pin HP (B) SCSI-EC6 50-Pin Cent (M) ■ 50-Pin Cent (F) Gender Changers & Adapters 1-24 25
ATSCA 9P (F) to25P (M) Adapter $2.49 $2.04 PCSCA 9P(M)to25P(F) Adapter 2.49 2.04 TGC-9 9P Ultrathin Gender Changer 2.69 2.45 TGC-25 25P Ultrathin Gender Changer2.99 2.75
LINE EXTENDERS/BUFFERS
Non-Powered Parallel Line Extender safely transmit data up to 1300 ft. over 4Pair phone line without data loss. Compact, FCC Approved. 30' cable
PLE100 DB25MtoDB25M $49
PLE110 DB25 Mto36 Pin Cent. M 49 IC-9V200 9V/200mA, A C extends to
2000' 6.25
AUTO SWITCH/BUFFER -Powered Auto Switch with a optional Buffer Card. Takes data at full speed, cutting wait time. AS-411P 4 to 1 Parallel AS-811P 8 to 1 Parallel AS-251P 2 lot Parallel (Compact) AS-451P 4 tot Parallel (Compact) AS-RAM-256K 256k Ram Buffer AS-RAM-1M 1Mb Ram Buffer AS-RAM-2M 2 Mb RAM Buffer
$4.95 7.99 29.95 29.95 34.95 9.99
IC-9V300
$79 119 25 49 $59 129 215 9V7300mA, AC Adaptor 6.25
BEN220
BEN210
BE2000/2
BEN120
BEN110
BEN1VL
BEN1P1
$264 $135 $67 $70 64 73
& LONGSHINE
BOCA 16-Port Ethernet 10Base-T Hub
BOCAHUB-8 (Eight Port) 10Base-T Concentrator
BOCA 10BaseT/2 Adapter Card
BOCALANcard Combo Plug & Play (16-bit) RJ45 & BNC
BOCALANcard TP Plug & Play (16-bit) RJ45 Only
BOCALANcard VLB Plug & Play(32-bit) RJ45 Only
BOCALANcard PCI Plug ft Play(32-bil) RJ45 & BNC 83
ETHERNET ADAPTER CARDs are NE-2000/NET BIOS compatible, CSMA, IEEE802.3 protocol, distributed bus, 10Mbps, supports PC-LAN, MS-NET, NOVELL, built-in high performance transceiver drivers for OOl, NDIS, SCO UNIX, TCP/IP and has 8 IRQs for flexibility and on-board ROM socket. LCS-8634MI 16-Bit NE2000 Ethernet Adapter (BNC, SGL Chip) LCS-8634L-T 16 -Bit Ethernet Jumperless Adapt. (RJ45 Only) LCS-8634TBA 16-Bit Ethernet Adapter (AUI.BNC.TP Conn.) LCS-8934TBA 32-Bit Ethernet Adapt. (AUI, BNC.TP Conn.) LCS-8834-2 PS/2 Ethernet Card (AUI/Cheaper Port, 800 meters)
Transceiver 10Base-T (AUI to RJ-45) 5 Yr Mlg Warranty
Transceiver for BNC. Connector 5 Yr Mfg Warranty
8 Port 10Base-T Repeater (AUI.BNC.TP)
12 Port Repeater w/2 Transceivers 3COM Etherlinklll "Parallel Tasking" 16-Bit 10BASE-T Network Adapter. SNMP Manageable designed for ISA or EISA base Boards. Includes User Guide andAutoLink Software diagnostics and drives. 3C509B-TP 10BASE-T 16-Bit Ethernet Adapter (RJ-45) j $139
3C509B 10BASE-T 16-Bit Ethernet Adapter (BNC) ■ $149
3C509B-TP 10BASE-T/2 16-Bit Ethernet Adapter (RJ-45/BNC) 3M*1 11 * 5139
LCS-883T-T LCS-883T3 LCS883R-T8 LCS883R-2
$34
36
48
109
140
$42
'$62
SM
189
CATEGORY 5 VOICE/DATA CABLE
VDC5-4 Level5,4 Pair, Unshielded CL-2 PVC
VDC5-4P Level 5,4 Pair, Plenum
MP-8S 8-Pin RJ45 Plug (Solid) __
1-99' 100-999' 1000'
.$016 $0.11 $90
0.50 0.38 270
0.38 0.30 0.25
POWER PROTECTION
BC "Personal" & "PRO" Battery Back-Up Systems provide excellent basic power protection, guards against blackouts/brownouts, surges or spikes thus saving data and hardware! Designed for Home or Small Office application. Features micro- processor controlled "Pulse Width Modulated Waveform" for increased backup time. $25K Ultimate and 2 Yr Mfg Warranty. j ^^ •—^
BCPERS-280 280VA/175W Personal UPS (2 Outlets) $104
500VA/350W Personal UPS (4 Outlets) 181
550VA/375W LAN UPS (4 Outlets) 197
850VA/570W LAN UPS (4 Outlets) 305
1400VA/990W LAN UPS (6 Outlets) 446
BCPERS-500 BCPRO550 BCPRO850 BCPRO1400
TRIPP LITE
OMNIPRO LINE INTERACTIVE UPS
Designed for the Poor Power (Voltage Sags/ Brownouts) Environment. Combined Line Interactive Technology and New Microprocessor Controlled standby UPS (On-Board UPS (Voltage Regulator) design keeps your computer working through extended brownouts without draining battery power. Line
Interactive voltage correction from 91 to 140 AC, back to 120V nominal. Offers Pulse Width Modulated Output, Spike and RFI/EMI filtering, 5 second restart delay, automatic inverter shutdown and Ultimate Lifetime Insurance.
Happy 20th BYTE!
MEMORY
1MEGX9-70 $47
4MEGX9-60 199
4MEGPS2-60 197
4MEGPS2-70 194
8MEGPS2-60 385
16MEGPS2-60 698
1MEGX1-70 $7.00
44256-70 7.00
Call for Current Pricing
"Voyager 64"
High Speed Graphics Accelerator to 1600 x 1200 resolution PCI Bus, 2Mb DRAM, "Green PC Savings".
SVGP64 Voyager 64 PCI 2Mb Accelerator
$199
CATEGORY 5
19"Patch Panels With 110 Blocks Part# Desc. 1-4 5-9 10+
PP824-5 8 Wire, 24 Port S99 $96 $89 PP848-5 8 Wire, 48 Port 209 194 181
| PP896-5 8 Wire, 96 Port 399 372 347 CATEGORY 5 (100Mbps Standards)
, Colored Cable ONLY (No Boot)
| * Simply fill in with one of following cable
colors desired: 70 (Gray) 73 (Green) 71 (Black) 74 (Red) 72 (Blue) 75 (Yellow)
AltexNo. Length 1-9 10-49 50+
73-66 -3 3 ft $4.00 $3.56 $3.20
73-66 -7 7 ft 5.25 4.67 4.20
73-66 -15 15 ft 7.80 6.93 6.24
73-66 -25 25 ft 11.03 9.80 8.82
73-66 -50 50ft 18.25 16.22 14.60
Wall Plates for Inserts l=lvory W=White
Part# KWP-1 KWP-2 KWP-3 KWP-4 KWP-6
Description 1-9
1 Port
2 Port
3 Port
4 Port 6 Port
$1.49 1.49
1.49 1.49 1.49
10-24 25-99 $1.34 $1.22
1.34 1.34 1.34 1.34
1.22 1.22 1.22 1.22
ftfc -..,,.(, , J. «: . :
110TypeRJ45 Jack INSERTS Available Colors: Ivory, Black, Red, Green,
Yellow, Orange & Blue KJ-110WH White $5.50 $5.00 $4.58
Other Type inserts Idvory KP-IN Blank Insert $0.30 KP-INW Blank Insert 0.30 KP-BNC BNC Feed through
Insert 3.00
KP-BNCW BNC Feed Thru
Insert 3.00
KP-ST ST Insert 6.50 Wall PlateMountlng Boxes MB-IV Ivory $2.50
MB-WH White 2.50
W=White $0.25 $0.20 0.25 0.20
2.73 2.50
2.73 5.91
2.50 5.42
$2.27 2.27
$2.08 2.08
HARD DRIVES
<SS> Seagate
IDE
ST-3491A 428Mb @ 15ms IDE $189
ST-3660A 545Mb @ 1 4ms IDE ., 209
ST-3780A 722Mb @ 1 2ms IDE 269
ST31220A 1.08Gb @ 9ms IDE 349
SCSI <55> Seagate
ST31230N 1.05Gb @ 9ms $629
ST32550N 2.14Gb FSCI
BARRACUDA 1,149
ST15150N 4.0Gb FSCSI 1,649
ST410800N 9Gb FSCSI
BARRACUDA 2,899
MXT-7420A 420Mb @ 14ms $189
MXT-7540A 540Mb @ 12ms 209
MXT-7850A 850Mb @ 14ms 259
MXT-71050A 1.05Gb @ EIDE 319
MXT-71260AT 1.2Gb @ 12ms 349
188 BYTK SEIH'KMBt-U I99S
Circle 284 on Inquiry Card.
TOOLS
Available on DOS, MS Windows, Windows NT, OS/2 PM, SCO Unix, Interactive Unix, Solaris on
Intel and SUN SPARC. Your applications written with the GSS Graphic Tools are portable to all platforms.
32 bit technology also on DOS through support of Pharlap DOS extender, Lahey Fortran LF90,
Watcom C, Watcom Fortran, MS Visual C/C++, MS Fortran Powerstation and Metaware High C/C++.
GSS*GDT
Graphics Development Toolkit enables you to develop applications in a device and system independent way. Based on the ISO CGI standard GSS*GDT supports a variety of input and output devices through device-specific CGI drivers. GSS*GDT is completely integrated into the underlying windowing system and comes with more than 160 callable C and Fortran functions. Furthermore, it is compatible with the Graphics Development Tools from IBM and SCO.
CGMStoMl
Computer Graphics Metafile is the ISO/ANSI standard for system independent storage of vector and rasterbased graphical information. CGM is part of the worldwide CALS and ATA initiatives that optimize industrial processes and is implemented in hundreds of applications. Together with our partner, Henderson Software Inc., whose president Lofton Henderson is the technical editor of the CGM standard, EMATEK offers a complete product line of CGM tools. MetaGen: The C function library to generate standard
compliant CGM metafiles. MetaTran: The C function library to interpret CGM
metafiles. MetaCheck: The tool to check CGM metafiles for
standard conformity. MetaPrint: CGM printer driver for MS Windows. HSIview: Metafile Interpreter for MS Windows and
CGM/WMF Converter. GSS*CGM: The high level C and FORTRAN function
libraries to interpret and convert CGM
metafiles via GSS*GKS and GSS*GDT.
•^Standard
GSS*GKS
Graphical Kernel System is a C and FORTRAN function library that enables you to develop portable graphic applications which include for example user interaction, coordinate transformation and object segmentation, based on the ISO GKS Standard. GSS*GKS, which is installed in large quantities on the DOS platform and has been proved successful for years, is now available for the graphical user interfaces and therefore offers the software developer a smooth transition to the new windowing systems.
CGI Print Manager for Xll
Windows NT shaked the UNIX community decently. But on closer examination it is the numerous small features which make NT attractiv and which the UNIX system does not possess. For example the Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI) is one of these features and allows every hardware manufacturer to develop device drivers and to deliver them with his devices. Hence every customer can, at any point, install additional drivers himself thus optimizing the use of his software. Up until now this is impossible under UNIX. But EMATEK has just developed a print manager for Motif/X11 on the base of the Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) standard. The final product will allow each X11 -based application to address printers, plotters or output files through the CGI device interface. In addition, CGI as an ISO standard adheres to the UNIX open systems' philosopy.
GSS*EasyChart
This brandnew library for MS Windows provides you with functions to easily integrate business charts and graphs into your application. For an incredibly low price you can view your datasets as pie, bar, line, step or schedule charts and customize each detail. Enhance your existing application with presentation graphics capabilities. Business Charts and Graphs supports various C and Fortran compilers.
Training & Consulting
Our training & consulting group deals with a variety of activities ranging from customer consulting to training in the use of graphical standards as well as designing and developing graphical solutions.
Circle 317 on Inquiry Card.
EmatekGmbH
Subbelrather Strasse 17- D-50823 Cologne, Germany
Phone: +49-221-512074-Fax: +49-221-529666
Email: gsscgi@ematek.de
A sign of Quality for over 12 Years
When disaster strikes your computer, he prepared with aduanced technology from micro 2000...
LL COMPUTER EQUIPMENT will eventually fail. ^It may take years before your hard drive crashes. It may be months before you have any serious data loss, problems with your memory or experience chip failure. Then again, it could be today!
At MICRO 2000 we are constantly thinking ahead to provide you with the products you'll need to protect yourself from hours of frustration and downtime. Our expanding line of products can assist you to recover data from a crashed disk when all the others have failed.
We can help you diagnose what's wrong with your PCs in a flash, on-site or remotely—without a modem!
Tech Support you can count on in the crunch...
Good products are one thing, but how about someone to walk you through the tough stuff? Even though a large percentage of our clients are professional technicians and power users, we regularly receive calls from beginning users who need help getting started. After all, these are tomorrow's power users and technicians.
Advanced technology based on what you need...
You can help us to serve you. If you use any of our products, please let us know what you like about them, or what improvements we could make. We try to make each new version fulfill as many needs and wishes as possible, as your business and success are important to us. Give us a call or write to us with any comments.
IVIICRO
EQQQ can 1-800 861-8008
THIS IS A MUST-HAVE TOOL for PC Service Technicians everywhere. Supply your customers with this inexpensive software and let MICRO-SCOPE CLIENT diagnose what's wrong with their PCs without leaving your office! When your customer calls you with a service problem, simply have him boot his PC with the Micro-Scope CLIENT floppy disk in drive A and select either the Quick Test or the Extensive Test. Then just look up the resulting error codes in the CLIENT manual and you'll know exactly what's wrong and be able to bring the correct replacement chips, drives, cables, etc. CLIENT also reports the exact system configuration so you can insure compatibility. Saves time and money!
M',
[TCRO-SCOPE CENSUS LETS YOU keep track of hundreds or even thousands of computers and know each one's exact hardware and system configuration at a glance. Many technicians and MIS Directors use this software tool to save hours of downtime in companies with multiple computers.
Simply load the supplied disk into each computer on site (up to 100 PCs recordable on each disk). CENSUS automatically records complete system information and assigns each PC a unique ID number. The data can now be downloaded from the disk into any database program so it's ready to retrieve at a moments notice. For even greater productivity and speed, use CENSUS in combination with MICRO-SCOPE CLIENT to remotely diagnose each PC and arrive with the exact parts required, fully compatible. You'll be in and out in a flash with a greater profit margin.
o i
|UITE OFrEN THINGS AREN'T what they seem. The rated speed and efficiency of a computer can be misleading—and sometimes absolutely false. You should know exactly what you're getting for your money!
Imagine walking into a computer store, pulling out your COMPUTER CONSULTANT diskette, placing it into the A drive of a computer and having detailed, 100% accurate information about the PC. In a matter of minutes you could test every PC in the store, and knowing the exact configuration of each, determine which one was best for your needs without all the sales hype. That's what COMPUTER CONSULTANT can do for you.
AT LAST—EXTENSIVE AND FOOLPROOF lidata recovery for everyone! The only comparable service to 911-RECOVER is a professional data recovery company, which could take several weeks and cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Avoid the downtime and worry by using 911-RECOVER right in your own office. 911-RECOVER reads right down to the bit level even if the directories and File Allocation Tables are damaged. It can recover data that has been damaged by other "recovery software." Does not need DOS intact to function. If the data is physically on the drive, it can be recovered.
mm
iiiophs wiiin any PC &
WM\\
lafca
call now lor information on special Pricino:
1-800-66Q-8008
Br Fa» (818) 507-8397 HflW^
1100 East Broadway, Suite 301, Glendale, California Phone 818/547-0125 • Fax 818/547-0397 International Orders please call: Micro 2000 Australia: 61-42-574144 Micro 2000 Europe (UK): 44-462-483-483
Fuim o/s independent diagnostic software...
Call for upgrade pricing & complete new features list!
MICRO-SCOPE Universal Computer Diagnostics was developed to satisfy the expanding need for accurate system diagnosis in the rapidly growing desktop computer market. Patterned after super-mini and mainframe diagnostic routines, MICRO-SCOPE runs independently of any standard operating system, and is therefore at home on any machine in the Intel world. Speed, ease-of-use, and razor sharp accuracy are a few of the advantages that arise from this system independence. Jerry Pournelle awarded MICRO-SCOPE & POST-PROBE the User's Choice Award in the May 1994 issue of Byte Magazine: "You name it, this tests it. If you maintain PCs you'll love it."
♦ LOW-LEVEL FORMAT— Performs Low-level format on all drive types including IDE drives. This function cannot hurt IDE drives. ♦ USE CONTROLLER BIOS— Program will access BIOS format built into any hard disk controller—even Controllers yet to be invented. ♦ O/S INDEPENDENT— Does not rely on O/S for diagnostics. Talks to PC on hardware level. All tests are full function regardless of O/S (i.e. Novell, UNIX, OS/2). ♦ TRUE HARDWARE DIAGNOSTICS— Accurate testing of CPU, IRQ's, DMA's, memory, hard drives, floppy drives, video cards, etc. ♦ BATCH CONTROL— All tests, even destructive, may be selected for testing. ♦ ERROR LOGGING —Automatically inputs errors during testing to an error log. ♦ AUTOMAPPING — Automatically bad sector maps errors found on hard disks. ♦ IRQ DISPLAY —Show bits enabled in IRQ chip for finding cards that are software driven. (Network, Tape Backup, etc.) ♦ IRQ CHECK—Talks directly to hardware and shows I/O address and IRQ of devices that respond. ♦ MEMORY EXAMINE —Displays any physical bit of memory under 1 Meg. Vei7 useful for determining memory conflicts. Very useful for determining available memory space. ♦ SECTOR EDITOR —Allows the editing of any sector of floppy or hard disk media (even track 0). ♦ AND MUCH MORE... We don't have enough space here for everything this software can do!
.-Jl,^
First Inr Universal P.O.S.T. Card far Ail PCs!
The only power-on sell-Test card you need to debug any "dead" PC...
Vfihis is the only card that will function in every system on the market. The J. documentation is extensive, and not only covers the expected POST Codes for different BIOS versions, but also includes a detailed reference to the bus signals monitored by the card." — Scott Mueller from his globally recognized book, 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs, Second Edition*
♦ Includes pads for voltmeter to attach for actual voltage testing under load.
♦ 4 LEDs monitor +5vdc -5vdc +12vdc -12vdc. ♦ Monitors Hi & Lo clock and OSC cycles to distinguish between clock chip or crystal failure. ♦ Monitors I/O Write and I/O Read to distinguish between write and read errors.
♦ Monitors memory write/ read to distinguish between address line failures and memory chip failures. ♦ Monitors ALE for proper CPU/DMA operation.
♦ Monitors Reset to determine if reset is occurring during POST, indicating short. ♦ Monitors progress of POST without POST codes. ♦ Reads POST codes from any IBM or compatible that emits POST codes. ISA/EISA/MCA.
♦ Compatible with Micro Channel computers. ♦ Dip switch allows easy selection of I/O ports to read. ♦ Includes tri-state LOGIC PROBE to determine actual chip failures. ♦ Manual includes chip layouts and detailed POST procedures for all major BIOS's. ♦ AND MUCH MORE... call for more details.
IVIICRO
Govt. Serv. #: GS-00K-94AGS-5396
Circle 301 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 302).
Rock 'n'Roll is big business with a need for powerful software solutions. ^^ & 3
DATA
•Sage*
When you choose the DataFlex application development system, you can count on delivering powerful solutions. DataFlex's greatest strength is in the language, a 4GL strong enough to sustain anything you can build on it. Powerful enough to take you far beyond the point at which most other products leave you stranded.
0ver350,000 installationsand 2,000,000users in 40 countries make DataFlex a proven solution for a wide range of business applications for companies like Mercedes-Benz, Coca-Cola, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
"DataFlex's greatest strength is in the language itself. I like knowing my customers, from the Pittsburgh Symphony to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, can depend on their DataFlex-based applications to manage their veryhecticschedules. I, as the developer, can focus on the business requirements of the application, rather than the underlying language capabilities and systems."
Randy Slapnicka
Event Software Corp.
DataFlex means business. We speak your language because we want you to speak ours. Call us today for a free information kit.
In the United States, Phone 1-800-451-3539 For Sales Information
DATA ACCESS
CompuServe: GO DACCESS - Internet (WWW): http://www.daccess.com
C O
Circle 325 on Inquiry Card.
pre-printed forms
mips TransForm™ Scanning Station
Now, Go From Paper To Electronic Forms
Automatically.
Introducing TransForm?" As incredible as it sounds, you can now scan your paper forms into fully editable, electronic forms in minutes. Thanks to its artificial intelligence, TransForm senses boxes where data is entered and lets you type into them directly. Each form you create with TransForm can be filled or merged with variable data, E-mailed and faxed. What's more, all your forms can be filled and printed from nearly
Call the mips authorized dealer near you.
DocuPrint, Sweden: 46-8-283390
any computer platform. ■ Another benefit: with TransForm, you can quickly make changes to forms at any time and print out new forms when you need them. No more throwing away stacks of obsolete forms! ■ And for convenient form storage, our mips FormShuttle™ and SmartSimm™ use flash memory to hold up to 200 forms and insert right into your laser printer. Since forms stay printer-resident they'll print much faster. ■ Find out more today: QAA a QQQ a QCAA
mips Technologies GmbH, Germany: 49-6127-3845
DOMINION BLUELINE, Inc. Canada: 1-800-561-1237
Patriot Group, Houston, Dallas PC:\Forms>lnc, Wisconsin: San Antonio, TX 1 -800-753-0781 1 - 800-786-8827
inip!> =
Dataline America, Inc.
(619)679-4070 • Fax (619) 679-4073
LASER INKJET
COMPUTER CHECKS
CONTINUOUS FEED CHECKS AND CHECK SAVERS ALSO AVAILABLE
AS LOW AS $24.95
CALL: 1-800-239-4087
FAX ORDERS: 1-800-774-1118 <r ^
(PLEASE CALL FOR A FAX ORDER FORM) *^\
• QUICKEN
• SIMPLY MONEY
• MICROSOFT MONEY
• MANY MORE!
LASER AND CONTINUOUS FEED CHECKS AVAILABLE IN:
• BUSINESS SIZE
• BUSINESS SIZE with Voucher
• WALLET SIZE
Available in Singles and Duplicates.
Choose From 4 Stylish Colors!
Destener
MC.VISA&
AMERICAN EXPRESS
ACCEPTED
How to Order j
o
1. Enclose reorder form or voided check from <5 existing check supply, noting c
2. Include deposit slip from existing check supply.
3. Enclose payment check.
4. All orders will be shipped within 7 working days.
5. Complete the order form and mail with items 1,2, & 3 to: Designer Checks • P.O. Box 13387 • Birmingham, AL 35202
Circle 316 on Inquiry Card.
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE 193
in the time it's taking to build this
L1S&
/J21S.
CLARION
Introducing Clarion for Windows™ the only Rapid Application Development environment and programming tool that delivers the promise - Productivity, Performance and Maintainability - for both 16 and FOR WINDOWS™ 32 bit applications.
YouVe More Productive - because you write less code than other RAD tools. Any visual design tool can draw a user interface object. But Clarion's templates generate the functionality behind the objects, creating not just a button but a business solution, such as a look-up or a record update.
Your Applications Fly - because Clarion delivers a higher level of performance! Our optimizing compiler creates applications that perform tens of times faster than Visual Basic™ or Power Builder™ applications. And, going from prototype to application is quick and easy. Your end users will love it!
Maintenance is Simplified - because only Clarion's development environment is designed to cut the time needed for
long-term maintenance. Change an option in the data dictionary, such as a Referential Integrity
constraint, and your application is automatically updated, evolving to meet your end users *w r» i * {^1
needs. Plus, Clarion is an expressive, compact language that's easy to learn and read. ™*W*^
Better. Faster. Smarter. That's Clarion for Windows. Call today for a FREE TRIALPAK CD 1-Bflfl.99G.fl7Q4 and let us prove that Clarion delivers what it promises. ' ^ U U LLU U/Ul
Copyrights) 1995 TopSpeed Corporation. All products and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Circle 343 on Inquiry Card.
r S-^r i
CORPORATION
Circle 318 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 319).
Examples of Multi-Server-Network-Centers
ONE FOR ALL
Single access system
- Basic units available for 2*, 4,8,12, 16,24, and32CPUs
- Remote control optionally
- distance up to 328 ft (100 m)
- highqualityvideoathighresolution and refresh rate
- mixed use of serial and PS/2 mice within onesingleunit
- microprocessor-controlled keyboard and mouse emulation forerror-free booting
Multi access system
- Basic units available for 8,16, and 32* CPUs
- access from consoles on upto four locations to many CPUs without interfering each other(real matrix)
- allfeaturesofthesingleaccess system build in
CPUr CPU2 CPU 3 CPU4 CPU 5 CPU8 CPU7 CPU.
ill
and all on one
on
CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3 CPU 4 CPU 6 CPU 6 CPU 7 CPU
m ws p& m
£=233 l— U E=2fj E^-U
TheonlyrecommeMedsystembyCompuServeInc.andMicrosoftC.EJ
MultYCon
See us at:
Networks Expo, Dallas Networld & Interop, Atlanta Systems, Munich (Germany) Comdex Fall, Las Vegas
Distributors and system integrators worldwide welcome!
.p.-- ipprj
ff^'
North America: ELSNERTechnologiesCompany
5020 Mark IV Parkway
76106 Fort Worth Texas
Tel.: 1-800-243-2228
Fax: 1-817-626-5330
Mail: CompuServe 75457,1377
International (Germany): PolyCon Data Systems
Tel.: +49-5204-9134-21 Fax: +49-5204-9134-22 Mail: CompuServe 100020,1571
Finalist
1024 CPUs under control using the
MultYcon Console Switching and Management System
Save monitors, keyboards, and mice!
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STATE OF THE ART
Colli
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Despite cultural differences and compatibility problems, integration of computers and telephony is fast becoming reality
The wait is over. After years of broken promises and incompatible "standards," CTI (computer telephony integration) is ready. Hundreds of vendors have introduced products—from headsets, to vertical-market telephony applications, to development and design tools, to turnkey phone systems—that will enable your telephones, computers, and networks to work together.
Tying together today's two most important connectivity technologies isn't a new idea. CTI's promise has been discussed for years. But radically different technologies, competing interests, and incompatible standards have, until recently, put the connection process on hold. Now all that is changing.
Look at the histories and business practices of the telephone and computer industries, and you might wonder how they could ever find common ground. For a variety of technical, economic, and legal reasons, the two industries have walked vastly different paths. But the potential has become too great to ignore. Savvy computer users now realize that harnessing the link between phone and computer can increase users' efficiency and improve customer relations—two code terms for making money.
In "Standard Issue," James Burton discusses the basic technical issues of CTI. Architectural and standards issues are far from settled, and the company that wants to use CTI has to make important decisions concerning a bewildering variety of APIs, standards, protocols, and hardware configurations. Burton sorts through this mass of conflicting information and three-letter acronyms, identifying the major issues and players.
In "Building Telephony Applications," Burton looks at the
types of applications that CTI makes possible. Since CTI is still in its early stages, it's probable that you'll have to develop your own custom CTI application. Burton discusses what you should look for in evaluating and choosing a development toolkit.
Finally, in "Telephony's Killer App," John P. Mello Jr. looks at several of the most interesting new telephony applications to be found. ■
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STATE OF THE ART
Standard Issue
Integrating your computers and phones? Here's a guide through the maze of design approaches, technologies, standards, APIs, and industry politics.
JAMES BURTON
Things used to be so simple. There was only one type of light bulb. Gasoline was all leaded. Mustard was only yellow. Now incandescent lights are being replaced with fluorescents and halogens, gasoline has at least three octane ratings, and mustard fills three shelves at the supermarket. It's the same with telephones and computers. When they didn't need to talk to each other much, a modem was more than sufficient. But now, the business advantages of computer-based call control are forcing this unnatural bond. Springing up to cement the union are myriad APIs and hardware designs. Without an understanding of how they work and which are most likely to succeed, you could wind up with a CTI (computer telephony integration) system destined for the scrap heap.
CTI Architectures
Today's CTI systems generally fall into one of four different architectures or configurations, based on their approach to making the actual connections and managing calls. (See the figure "Four CTI Architectures" on page 202.)
Phone-centric systems are the easiest to implement; they only require a direct link from the phone to an external adapter that connects to the PC's serial or parallel port. They don't require extensive changes to an existing phone system. Users can have direct control over call routing (known as first-party call control). To transfer a call, for example, the user just clicks on an icon, and the PC sends a message to the switch that emulates a command from the phone requesting the switch to transfer the call.
Many PBX vendors offer adapters that give that kind of control to the PC. Unfortunately, these adapters don't provide a connection to the phone line and can't be used to connect data or fax lines to the PC.
Server-centric systems connect your telephone switch to a server on your LAN. Here, the phone system becomes another
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE 201
FOUR CTI ARCHITECTURES
Phone-Centric
The phone is linked via an external adapter that connects to the PC's serial or parallel port (and soon via a USB [universal serial bus]). The PC is not directly connection to the phone line, but rather to the adapter.
Such systems are easy to implement and don't necessitate extensive changes to an existing telephone system.
Today's adapters don't provide a connection to the phone One and cannot be used to connect data or fax lines to the PC. This will change with USB.
Switch
Server-Centric
Here the phone lines connect to a switch, which in turn connects to a telephony server on the LAN. The LAN server manages call routing, although it has to have the switch perform the actual transfers.
No physical connection is needed between the phone and the desktop PC. Third-party call control is good for workgroups and call centers.
The server can't perform automated, intelligent switching of different types of calls—fax, voice, and data.
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Voice-Server
Phone lines are connected to a board in a voice server that sits on the LAN. The server gets the voice or data call, but not control information—just the opposite of what happens in the server-centric configuration.
1 This config-
uration provides access to the media stream (e.g., voice, data, and fax).
A phone line can only control a call that it has received or placed; it can't send other types of instructions to the switch. This architecture can be too slow for call-center
PC-Centric
The telephone line and the phone itself are connected directly to an add-in board in the PC. The telephony board emulates the phone to the switch.
This configuration provides a direct voice path from the phone into the PC, which is useful for I/O operations. Ultimately, it can eliminate the PBX entirely.
This isan expensive sol ution, beca use considerable processing power is required in each PC. If the system uses proprietary phones, it's even more costly.
part of the computer network, and you don't need a physical connection between the phone and individual desktop PCs. The LAN server, not the switch or the user, is responsible for routing calls (thus, it's termed third-party call control).
To transfer a call, the user clicks on the transfer icon, which sends a message to the server requesting that it transfer the call. The third party (the server) sends a message telling the switch where to route the call. The server's processing power lets it screen and route incoming calls. For example, caller-ID information may help route the call to the proper person. Third-party call control is particularly helpful in workgroups and call centers.
But the server-centric model manages only call control. The switch-to-server link is for status and requests only. It doesn't carry the voice path and in no way physically connects a phone line to the server. For a server to send and receive faxes and
data, a physical phone line would have to be connected to a fax-modem board in the server.
Voice-server systems are a variation on the server-centric model. Where server-centric systems deliver call-control links but not the calls themselves, voice-server systems deliver the calls directly, but not a separate control-and-status link.
In a voice-server model, phone lines from the switch connect to a board in the voice server. Depending on the board's capabilities, the lines can be analog, ISDN, or proprietary digital. The board can do anything that the phone it replaces can do; for example, it can issue a flash hook to transfer, conference, hold, call park, call forward, initiate call pickup from another office, and so forth. Digital phones usually have other features, such as speaker-phone control and caller-ID display.
With the phone line going into a voice server, you get the media—that is, the
voice path, or the data path for faxes and modem calls—but you don't get all the information and control that's available on the server-centric model. For example, a phone line can't force the switch to take control of another call; it can only control a call that it has received or placed. It can't tell the switch to forward a call from the next office to another phone.
In a server-centric call-center application, the server receives the caller ID and tells the switch where to send the call. In the voice-server model, on the other hand, the call is sent to the server, which must then answer it and transfer the call. But this is just too slow for a call center.
PC-centric systems have the telephone line and the telephone itself connected directly to an add-in board in the PC. The telephony board emulates the type of telephone that the switch is designed to support, whether analog or proprietary digital.
When we have isochronous Ethernet or
202 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
Standard Issue
STATE OF THE ART
Strategic Industry Alliances
Versit
An important alliance is Versit, formed by Apple, AT&T, IBM, and Siemens in 1994. It aims to define a comprehensive solution, enabling the development of configuration-independent CTI applications that work in direct-connect or client/server configurations.
Versit will support PDAs (personal digital assistants), personal computers, pay phones, proprietary digital phones, and servers. The planned Versit CTI Encyclopedia will define terminology, configurations, feature sets, call flows, protocols, the Versit TSAPI (Telephony Server API) procedural API, and object classes.
In June, Versit released its first specifications on the World Wide Web (www.versit.com).
ECTF
In April, Dialogic, Digital Equipment, Ericsson Business Networks, Hewlett-Packard, and Northern Telecom formed the ECTF (Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum) to promote an open, competitive market for CTI. ECTF is the first consortium of end users, vendors, systems integrators, and software developers to work toward implementing CTI based on international standards.
ECTF will promote implementations for CTI elements and will also deal with both call-control and media-stream-processing issues. The forum will not select or promote specific CTI technologies (as Versit has), but it will work toward interoperability among standards and technologies.
ECMA/CSTA
The ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) has formulated a standard, called CSTA (Computer-Supported Telephony Applicatons), to enable computers and telephone systems to communicate.
ButCSTA is not an API—it's a communications protocol specifying how to make the connection between a phone switch and a computer. "The problem," according to Dialog-ic's Carl Strathmeyer, "is that while switch vendors all claim to support the CSTA standard feature set, they all implement them differently." For example, the transfer command might mean one function for one vendor's CTI product but trigger a different response from another vendor's system.
HBHMi
ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) data pipes going directly into our PCs, which looks to be the long-term prospect, we'll use PC-centric telephony systems. For the shorter term, however, we'll see fax-modem boards with telephony features that will provide an interim solution.
TAPI Dancing
Beyond network configuration, there are issues of APIs to iron out before you can point and click your way through the phone network. Two leading APIs (Microsoft/ Intel's TAPI and AT&T/Novell's TSAPI), plus an emerging technology (Tmap from Nortel, formerly Northern Telecom), are designed to bring them together.
The most widely known current standard is TAPI (Telephony API). Developed by Intel and Microsoft to support both client and server telephony, TAPI's key attributes are its tight integration with Windows, support for coexisting multiple applications, telephone network independence, support for all the different CTI configurations, and access to the information carried over the telephone line. Of course, it can also dial, forward, transfer, and perform other signaling operations. TAPI supports a wide variety of telephone networks, including PSTN (the Public Switched Telephone Network), PBXes, ISDN, cellular, and Centrex.
Besides supplying support for first- and third-party call control, TAPI provides a
software interface for accessing media streams (i.e., the information carried end-to-end over the telephone network). This means TAPI can support applications such as answering machines, voice mail, conferencing, faxes, voice recognition, and data. TAPI also supports a wide range of telephone-switching equipment, such as legacy PBXes, voice servers, and PC-based switches, as well as a variety of network connections, including isochronous LANs and ATM networks.
To date, TAPI has been implemented on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Microsoft has announced the TAPI implementation for Windows NT, which will allow suitably equipped NT machines to be computer-telephony clients (for the end user) or telephony servers on a network. TAPI allows desktop PCs to be either physically connected clients of a switch system or logically connected software clients of a Windows NT server.
So, if the phone and PC are physically connected at the desktop with, say, a Corn-dial TAPI adapter, TAPI interfaces between the Windows application and the Comdial hardware. In a server environment, TAPI interfaces with the server application running in the NT server.
This is where Microsoft and TAPI have a big edge over TSAPI—tight integration into the desktop PC's OS, combined with tight integration into the server OS. This is a big win for developers because they can
easily port their software from first-party to third-party applications.
"Since TAPI is a standard part of the Windows family, developers and customers don't have to pay extra or try to figure out how to install a bunch of plumbing to enable their applications," says Charles Fitzgerald, a product manager in Microsoft's Personal Systems Division.
TSAPI, Anyone?
TAPI's main competitor, TSAPI (Telephony Server API), was developed by AT&T and Novell. TSAPI is an API for call control, call/device monitoring and query, call routing, and device/system maintenance for workgroups on a NetWare network. It integrates NetWare services with the functionality of a telephone PBX.
TSAPI uses the link between the PBX and the NetWare file server to create a logical connection at the workstation between the individual phone set and the desktop computer. This link enables an application to deliver the full capabilities of the phone system, control calls from either end of the call, or give a third party complete call-control and monitoring abilities.
Using TSAPI, many software developers are delivering client/server applications that provide desktop dialing, visual voice mail, integrated messaging (i.e., fax, voice mail, and E-mail), conference-call bridging, sales-call restriction, and data/ call synchronization. For example, the NetWare Telephony Services product from Novell is designed to provide easy server-based administration of a CTI environment. It also enables applications to generate usage reports, as well as access and share central network databases.
However, TSAPI has a problem: It does not provide media access—that is, it does not provide a physical connection between the PC and the phone. Consider this scenario: A fax call comes in. Because TAPI accesses the call directly, it's smart enough to recognize a fax tone and can automatically transfer the call to a designated fax application on the user's PC.
A TSAPI-based server, however, would have no direct way of knowing what kind of call it is. It might, perhaps, recognize the calling phone number as a fax line that it already knows about. But even then, it can't transfer the call directly; it has to instruct the switch to do so.
TSAPI's designers evidently assumed that only call control really mattered. Now they're playing catch-up. Versit, an industry consortium (see the text box "Strate-
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STATE OF THE ART
Standard Issue
The End of the PBX
LAN M
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(Public Switched
Telephone Network)
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SCSA server
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SCSA server
We'll say farewell to the PBX as we know it when SCSA (Signal Computing System Architecture) servers on our networks are linked to each other and to the telephone company's central office.
gic Industry Alliances" on page 203), has adopted TS API as a cornerstone of its CTI solution and says it will develop extensions to handle media-control services.
A wide range of PBX companies and ISVs (independent software vendors) support TSAPI. Many PBX manufacturers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan—including Alcitel, AT&T, Comdial, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Mitel, NEC, Nortel, and Siemens/ ROLM—have committed to developing NetWare drivers for their PBXes.
TSAPI supplies support for multiple desktop OSes, including OS/2, Windows, UnixWare, and the Mac OS. In addition, Versit has announced that it will extend TSAPI support to include Windows NT.
Tmap Ties APIs
With the CTI world choosing sides, users need a bridge to unite the two main telephony APIs. Tmap provides that link between TAPI and TSAPI, and it has been adopted by the ECTF (Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum). Tmap was developed by Nortel, which worked closely with Intel and received support from both Microsoft and Novell.
Tmap enables TAPI-based applications to work with PBX systems designed to support TSAPI. By translating TAPI programming calls to TSAPI requests, Tmap also lets TAPI-compatible desktop applications run on networks using NetWare Telephony Services. Developers can now build applications for the universal Windows client, which enables users to use whatever back-end server they choose.
Susan King, director of CTI at Nortel, explains that the company "created Tmap with the intention of easing developer con-
fusion and has made it available to the industry free of charge."
Extending Tmap to the ECTF umbrella was a natural extension, and the ECTF will be able to define Tmap's evolution based on input from multiple vendors, which should ensure its viability in the marketplace. King notes that Nortel "has agreed to evolve Tmap based on the ECTF specifications and future iterations of TSAPI and TAPI."
Bringing in Resources
The real bottleneck in cross-platform interoperability is not the API but the lack of a resource model for the API to call. Every switch vendor implements a different model for each telephony command. Two different models are vying to become an architectural standard.
SCSA (Signal Computing System Architecture) is an industry initiative started by Dialogic and now supported by more than 260 companies. SCSA is a comprehensive hardware and software architecture for building call-processing systems with multiple technologies and standard interfaces. The architecture covers many facets of system design, from low-level bus and hardware interfaces to high-level software APIs.
With SCSA, developers can integrate multivendor components within standard PCs or larger computer systems using the VME bus, which enables them to create computer-telephony systems ranging from medium to very large in size. The hardware-independent SCSA software model is compatible with TAPI and TSAPI.
The SCSA TAO (Telephony Application Object) Framework is the software
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Overseas Offices: StatSoft of Europe (Hamburg, FRG), ph; 040/ 4200347, fax: 040/4911310; StatSoft UK (London), ph: 01462/482822, fax: 01462/482855; StatSoft Pacific (Melbourne, Australia), ph: (03) 663 6580, fax: (03) 663 6117; StatSoft France ph: (1) 45 66 97 00, fax: (1) 45 66 06 51; Available from other Authorized Representatives worldwide: Sweden: AkademiData Scientific ph: 018-210035, fax: 018-210039; Finland: Statcon Oy ph: 24-334678, fax: 24-333867; Belgium: Texma NewTech ph: 010 61 16 28, fax 010 61 69 57; South Africa: Osiris ph: 12-663-4500, fax 12-663-6114; Japan (Macintosh): Three's Company, Inc., ph: 03-3770-7600, fax 03-3770-7784; Japan (Windows): Design Technologies, Inc., ph: 03-3667-1110, fax: 03-3668-3110; Italy: Prompt SRL ph: 49-893-3227, fax: 49-893-2897; Poland: Companion Oprogramowanie ph: 12-369680. fax: 12-360791; Taiwan: Intelligent Integration Corp. ph: 2-759-1791, fax:2-759-1790. StatSoft, the StatSoft logo, STATISTICA, andScrollsheet are trademarks of StatSoft, Inc.
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STATE OF THE ART
Standard Issue
portion of SCSA. This object-oriented architecture provides an open infrastructure that lets independent applications share a pool of discrete telephony resources— generally, call channels and data-stream-processing resources.
This is particularly important because one of the big issues (and common requirements) of telephony is real-time transmission. Computer-telephony resources require more complex resource management than does simple data transmission, which can often tolerate minor delays. This is comparable to a conversation stopping in midword and your having to wait for an indeterminate amount of time for another packet of wisdom to finish the word.
Client applications to a TAO server running in a client or desktop PC typically call the server through an SPI (service provider interface), which converts one type of service to another. (Tmap, which converts TAPI to TSAPI, is a good example.) Usually the SPI is in the client software, but it can be in the telephony server.
An SCSA server can have many different operations and calls going on, and it has to be able to support them all in real time to avoid annoying delays; this is kiown as dynamic resource sharing. For example, say two calls come into an SCSA server at once. One caller uses an interactive voice-response system to retrieve data from a database linked to the server, while the second caller requests a fax back.
The SCSA server needs to handle both calls simultaneously. And it has to be able to hand off the fax call for data-stream processing when the second caller sends the appropriate command (and has turned on his or her fax machine).
The model makes it simple for an application to pass call-data streams between different processing resources (e.g., recorders, recognizers, and phone ports) and also between applications. This allows, for example, an E-mail message to become a database query or another transaction.
A Checklist for Making CTI Decisions
ith the maze of technologies, products, and standards to choose from, what are you to do when faced with designing a system or picking components? Consider the following issues when choosing a CTI (computer telephony integration) platform:
• Flexibility of the network. Is it compatible with TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and NetBEUI?
• Applications. Is the
environment robust enough for multimedia and telephony applications development?
• Multitasking. Does the environment allow for multiple and simultaneous functions to avoid putting calls on hold?
• Reliability. Is the environment stable enough to ensure that a mission-critical application, such as call control, won't crash?
• Open design. Is the API compatible with a wide
range of PBX systems?
• Media stream. Will
the environment handle multiple media devices, including fax, data, voice, and video equipment?
• Pricing. Is the API bundled with a comprehensive operating environment?
• Scalability. Does the environment support a range of form factors, platforms, and multimedia applications, as well as high-volume user traffic?
SCbus (a part of the SCSA initiative) also allows servers to work together more easily. If you have multiple SCSA servers, for example, one server may need resources from another. In this situation, the time slots of the two servers aren't contiguous, so a hyperchannel is used to give one server access to a time slot in another server. SCbus supports this bundling of time slots, which is especially useful for transmitting services such as video.
"SCSA solves the fundamental problem in CTI today—developing a common resource model," comments Carl Strath-meyer, director of marketing at Dialogic and chairman of the CTI trade association ACTAS (Alliance of Computer-Based Telephony Application Suppliers). "Until now, developers would have to modify their software to work with each switch vendor's resource specifications. With SCSA and the ECTF, it's very encouraging to see industry vendors finally agreeing to a single open architecture that software and telephone-equipment vendors can build around in total confidence."
Green with MVIP
An older alternative to the SCSA hardware platform is MVIP (Multivendor Integration Protocol), which is another digital auxiliaiy bus. The SCSA TAO software environment supports both.
MVIP is based on the Mitel ST bus reference design and was defined in 1990. It's a bus developed for use in computer-telephony servers as well as to allow videoconferencing workstations to hop from an ISDN or Tl adapter card to an H.320 videoconferencing codec.
MVIP uses a distributed switching model that's similar to modern PBX architectures and makes software development easy, and bandwidth and CPU utilization
highly efficient. (However, SCbus offers even more bandwidth than MVIP.) It's used in telephony servers and for distributed computer-telephony systems.
If It's Plug-and-Play, Whose Plug?
Besides a software API and architectural platform, CTI needs a standard mechanism for connecting peripheral devices. The RJ-11 phone jack can't carry the load, and the RS-232 serial port is too cumbersome. To address these limitations, two new contenders have emerged: USB (universal serial bus) and GeoPort. Both will be used in phone-centric designs, because the phone line connects to an adapter or to a phone with a built-in interface.
USB was jointly developed by Compaq, Digital Equipment, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Nortel. It has a multidrop interface and uses a single connector for phones, modems, keyboards, mice, game ports, serial devices, digital audio, printers, and scanners. It has a built-in port for connecting to PBXes, ISDN lines, Cen-trex systems, and even POTS (the industry acronym for "plain old telephone service"). With the vendor support that it has, USB will become a standard feature on most PCs by mid-1996.
The USB specification will simplify and improve the performance of PC-to-peripheral and PC-to-telephony applications. It will bring support for new computer-telephony integration capabilities—communicating mixed-media information, including sound, images, and data—and will eliminate the need for special add-in telephony connections.
USB runs at 12 Mbps, compared to the standard PC serial port's speed of 115 Kbps. It also offers isochronous and asynchronous data transfer, a star-hub architecture that allows a single PC-port con-
206 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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STATE OF THE ART
troller to link up to 63 digital peripherals, and automatic recognition and configuration of external USB-based peripherals.
GeoPort, the other contender, is Apple's point-to-point interface. It suppoils phone/ PC connection, as well as devices such as Apple's digital camera. In a CTI architecture, GeoPort provides the connection between the PC and the phone, as well as a flexible means of attaching peripherals via a single, compact, mini-DIN connector.
GeoPort is a cross-platform interface that delivers voice, data, audio, and video communications over any analog (POTS) or digital (PBX or ISDN) telephone line to a PC. It provides a flexible, scalable architecture for multiplexing several dozen simultaneous data streams, such as the 24 channels found in an ISDN primary-rate interface.
Versit opted for Apple's GeoPort architecture, which allows isochronous communications as fast as 2 Mbps. The Versit GeoPort provides up to 200 times the bandwidth of traditional serial ports.
Bye-Bye, PBX
We believe the recipe for a successful CTI system will likely include the following:
• Architecture: SCSA
• API: TAPI (for some NetWare users, the Versit version of TSAPI)
• PC operating environment: Windows NT for mission-critical CTI applications
• Physical interface: USB
The future of CTI will consist of departmental and workgroup solutions where SCSA-based servers operate behind existing switch systems. The trend toward increasing intelligence in call control will result in a platform-independent API that will enable cost-effective applications development. The next step will put the switch-ing technology into the PC server.
Emerging CTI applications are transport-independent—they don't rely on the underlying switch architecture. Once we arrive at the stage where the phone is just another part of the PC, transport-independent CTI applications are running over isochronous Ethernet or ATM, and SCSA servers are connected directly to the PSTN, we can finally say good-bye, once and for all, to proprietary PBXes. ■
James Burton is the CEO of C-T Link, Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts. You can reach him on the Internet at jburton@internetmci.com or on BIX c/o "editors. "
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STATE OF THE ART
Building Telephony Applications
Dozens of development tools, many based on Visual Basic, can help you create a voice-processing system
JAMES BURTON
Press 1 to speak with a sales representative. Press 2 to reach technical support. Press 3 to listen to some lovely Muzak...." We' ve all had firsthand experience with infuriating voice-menu systems that drone on and on with options we don't want to hear. But that's not a fair summary of what computer telephony is all about. Modern, well-designed telephony applications can do much for an organization—and for those who call it.
What is a telephony application? At its simplest, it's the automation of the handling of telephone calls: answering the phone, greeting the caller, and responding to a request—all without a human operator. As it grows more complex, it incorporates many other functions, including digit capture, storing and forwarding of voice messages, database access, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, storing and forwarding of fax data, fax response, dialing out, and tracking usage statistics.
So far, the most successful voice-processing applications automate existing manual functions. These usually show a rapid, measurable payback. This is probably a transitional stage, however. It reflects the relative newness of CTI (computer telephony integration). As more organizations create a wider variety of applications, we will begin to better understand how CTI can serve us. In a few years, we'll be using applications that we haven't even thought of now. As more organizations use telephony, those that don't may be at a competitive disadvantage.
It's Not Just New Software
While most of us think of applications primarily in terms of software, it's important to factor in hardware when you're dealing with telephony. The profusion of telephony standards (see the article "Standard Issue" on page 201) means that you must know what hardware you're going to run
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE 211
a.-tt-'fr- ..- ----- —*
your telephony application on before you create it—and even before you pick a development tool or environment.
In addition to the hardware you'll run your application on, consider the external hardware and software you'll connect to. Look at the interface to the telephone system and the external database. What kind of PBX do you have? What kind of phone lines link you to your local telephone company's central office? What other services are available? You may have analog or digital line options. Switching and information services, such as DID (direct inward dialing) and caller ID (widely but not universally available), are important to know about at the beginning.
In addition to selecting the appropriate services, you need to make sure that the voice-processing boards and the applications generator support those services. Also, it's important to know how many telephone ports you'll need. You can determine this by estimating the telephone traffic during the busiest hour of the day and deciding on the quality of service you need. Then you can consult telephony traffic tables to find out just how many ports you'll need. If you're connecting to the telephone network through a PBX, the same basic considerations are required, although you may find yourself constrained by the services and capacities your PBX will support.
One last external factor you need to consider is any existing databases—customers or orders, for example—you will use with the telephony application. You'll want to
Sitting Pretty
he Henredon Furniture Company (Morganton, NC) had seven customer-service representatives, each struggling to handle 150 dealer inquiries a day about stock availability. The volume of calls meant that many callers were getting busy signals. Others were put on hold for extended periods. West Coast dealers were especially upset be-
cause customer service ran on East Coast hours, which made late-afternoon and weekend inquiries virtually impossible.
To help spread the load, Henredon used Ease from Expert Systems (Atlanta, GA) to implement an interactive voice-response inquiry system. This enabled dealers to find out about such things as case goods, fabrics, upholstery frames,
product availability, order status, and other sales data.
The voice-response system handles 480 calls per day and generates 11,000 transactions. The high availability of the system is another major benefit. Since installing the system, Henredon has added fax-response capability so that dealers receive a hard copy of order status and inventory information.
pick a development tool that integrates easily with your database and gives reliable access to the information you need.
Telephone-Taming Toolkits
OK, you've opted to go the computer telephony route, and you've got an idea of the hardware and other software you'll connect to, so what's next? A variety of development tools is available, ranging from simple programming libraries through telephony utilities to comprehensive applications generators.
These tools assist in building telephony applications for a variety of operating environments and with a variety of programming methodologies. The table "Applications Generators for Telephony" on page 213 gives summary information about many toolkits. Some have the ability
i
Calling Dr. Blue
righam and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA) has made a major commitment to computer telephony. Using the Visual Voice applications generator from Stylus Innovation (Cambridge, MA), it has implemented five voice-processing applications. According to technology planner Pashe Roberts, the hospital environment, with its small departments, creates the need for many small-scale voice-processing applications.
The five applications at Brigham and Women's cover a variety of functions and areas. One lets nurses call in and report a specific environmental problem and its location. With another one, expectant mothers can register for childbirth classes. A third application aids the hospital's telecommunications technicians. They can
test the quality of a phone line by calling into the system and recording a message; the system calls them back, and they can listen to their message. The fourth application lets a centralized monitor provide audible information, via telephone, about the operational status of the client/server network. With the latest application, HMO subscribers can verify referral numbers.
One big reason the hospital selected Visual Voice was that Visual Basic was already used extensively within the hospital. The hospital had developed a special Visual Basic driver to tap into one of its primary database systems, one written in MUMPS.
The hospital plans to add new telephony applications. Among the projects it will undertake are desktop telephony using TAPI (telephony API), plus text-to-speech and speech-recognition systems.
to implement or integrate with voice mail, fax processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech converters, telephony switching (e.g., conferencing and call forwarding), and data communications capabilities. As with any software project, good tools can cut the development time and cost substantially. They often enable organizations to build their own applications rather than seeking outside help (see the text box "How Much Will It Cost?" on page 214).
Picking the Right Tool
All these tools aren't designed to do the same job. The right voice-processing applications generator is the one that best matches your experience and skills and the needs of a specific application. Most vendors are offering or planning multiple products that support multiple methods. Among the factors you should consider are the programming skills of your developers, what platforms you want to use, what telephony features you plan to use in your application, and the quality of support provided by the vendor.
Menu-driven or script-based? If some or all of the development will be done by people with little programming experience, it makes sense to pick a menu-driven product. With these, you construct your application by connecting specific functions—for example, answer phone, play prompt, or get digits—which are commonly referred to as actions. Governing each action is a set of parameters that is presented to the user in a menu, typically giving defaults and other choices. Menu-based applications generators require a minimum learning investment, and they are useful when you need to create an application rapidly.
If the application is complex, however,
212 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
□ Menu-driven ^ GUI
& Programming language 1/ Speech editor
Building Telephony Applications
STATE OF THE ART
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTK 213
STATEOFTHEARTi:
uilding Telephony Applications
e
a menu-driven applications generator may not have all the functions you need. Although many of them are comprehensive, they're limited to those features the vendor has decided to include. Connectivity is frequently the most limiting factor.
Consider, too, whether you want a tool that uses a graphical interface or a character-based interface. GUI-based applications generators appeal to the point-and-click oriented. As with many other visual programming tools, you build an application by connecting action icons together.
For organizations with in-house programming expertise, products using a scripting language will typically provide more flexibility to the developer than menu-based products. The price you'll pay is an increase in development and support times. Also, some vendors' menu-based and scripting-language products are compatible with each other, but others aren't. If this is important, check it out.
Consider whether you want your programmers to learn a new language, or whether you want to use one of the many popular voice-processing tools based on Visual Basic, such as Stylus Innovation's Visual Voice or Pronexus's VBVoice. Many applications generators also let you include your own C functions.
Processing platform. Most voice-processing development systems create applications for one operating environment. You should choose your platform and tool carefully. Windows 3.1 is an inferior multitasking OS, for example. For telephony systems that have many ports, or for critical-performance applications, DOS-based applications generators typically produce
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the best results. These systems don't actually use DOS as the run-time OS; instead, they rely on their own embedded OS, which is designed specifically for voice-processing applications and is extremely efficient.
The vendors that have been around the longest are Expert Systems, SpeechSoft, Telephone Response Technologies, and U.S. Telecom. Although all their products have improved, they're still essentially identical to what they were offering 10 years ago. For example, they still use DOS. Although there's significant pressure to migrate to other OSes, the reality is that DOS-based systems provide performance
How Much Will It Cost?
he price tag on an applications development tool is only one part—and maybe a small part—of the final cost of your telephony application. Two other important considerations are run-time fees and how many telephone ports your system will use. To determine your true costs, you'll want to figure out your expenses on a per-port basis. The price leaders are Stylus Innovation (with no run-time fees) and SpeechSoft, while Apex Voice Communications, Cascade Technologies, Expert Systems, Mas-terMind Technologies, Parity Software, Technically Speaking, Telephone Response Technologies, and U.S. Telecom are higher. The differences are smaller than they ap-
pear, however, because virtually all the vendors also sell voice-processing boards, and most bundle a board in their basic systems. If you need only a few ports, for example, you can get a starter kit from TRT, SpeechSoft, or U.S. Telecom for less than $1000. All kits include a Dialogic board.
Another difference is how options are priced. Most vendors have a laundry list of options, all priced extra. A few bundle everything in the basic product.
Voice-processing products from Edify, Big Sky, and Voicetek are at another level. These are expensive systems from total-solution suppliers. Consider them if you need a package that includes applications development, training, and ongoing support.
TAX MAN
ackson Hewitt Tax Service (Virginia > Beach, VA) issues loans secured by anticipated tax refunds. This year, the company generated $14 billion worth of refund checks, which generated many calls from banks to verify that it had issued the checks. Most of these calls came during a two-week period.
The company created an interactive voice-response system using the Provide applications generator from Telephone Response Technologies (Roseville, CA). The programmer, Lee Perkins, learned the package and set up the entire application in less than two weeks. He used the forms-based package rather than the scripting language, believing that the ease-of-use and support benefits of the forms-based product would outweigh the time needed to learn it. According to Perkins, TRT's documentation made the package easy to learn and use.
and capability that are comparable, or superior, to systems based on Windows 3.1, Unix, or OS/2, and they're less costly. ■
James Burton is CEO of C-T Link, Inc., a computer telephony consultancy based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can reach him on the Internet atjburton@internetmci.com or on BIX c/o "editors."
214 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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CARD 103
STATE OF THE ART
Telephony's Killer App
It'll take an irresistible new application to make computer-telephony integration happen everywhere. Will one of these apps do it?
JOHN P. MELLO JR.
We'll never look at telephones the same way again. New and innovative systems are tying the easy voice connections of the phone system to the data transfer and manipulation power of computer networks. The combination is extraordinarily seductive.
Over the next five years, we'll see our phones and computers transformed from separate boxes into a seamless entity that will integrate data and voice. Before this can happen, users have to want the change. What's likely to sell them on the idea is an application that captures the imagination and provides immediate productivity rewards—in other words, a killer app.
"The killer app revolves around new ways of doing telephony through intelligent computing," explains Ron Charnock, vice chairman of the Multimedia Telecommunications Association (Washington, D.C.). "It's thinking of telephony as a computing resource and less of a telecommunications resource."
A phone call will become a digital entity that can interact with other digital entities on our desktops and networks. It will carry contact information about its originator and trigger the assembly of data from computer files. It will become data itself and give our organizations crucial information about their operations.
No More Baffling Buttons
Current phone systems are a pain for most users, whose skill with advanced telephony features drops off drastically when they need to use more than the 12 buttons on the standard phone keypad. For those folks, the killer app will turn those incomprehensible extra phone buttons and multi-key operations into friendly screen icons. § "Businesses are spending anywhere from g $100 to $1000 for these fancy business
1 phone sets, and people don't use them,"
2 says David Goodtree, a senior analyst with 8 Forrester Research (Cambridge, MA).
continued
SEPTEMBER 1995 BYTE 215
Telephony's Killer App
"The killer app will replace those sets with $30 software that people will use."
Killer apps will integrate many diverse forms of messaging. Electronic mail will convert to voice mail, and voice mail to text. The system will read received faxes over the phone, and pager messages will become voice mail. "The killer app is any type of application that unifies your current business solutions with the telephony environment," notes Michael Durant, a senior product manager with Novell.
Does telephony's killer app exist now, or is it waiting to be invented? A number of new, powerful, and intriguing applications are already out there, and it's too early for the marketplace to render a verdict. Let's look at some of the contenders.
Phone, Take Notes
The killer network app may very well be PhoneNotes, telephony groupware from Lotus Development that sits on top of Notes. PhoneNotes supports applications that enable users to tap into a Notes database through a Touch-Tone phone. One such application, Mobile Mail, lets a user access, create, forward, or edit Notes documents and play documents over the phone through text-to-speech technology.
"One of the attractive features of Notes is the increase in productivity it gives you through greater mobility," explains Peter Klante, Lotus's director of marketing for Notes companion products. "This is a logical extension to that. It turns the most ubiquitous client in the world—the telephone—into a Notes client."
Data for Dialing
Some observers believe the guts of a killer app lie in the exchange of simple data. Versit, a joint development initiative by Apple, IBM, AT&T, and Siemens to develop CTI standards (see "Strategic Industry Alliances" on page 203), has laid the groundwork. One of those standards establishes a protocol for the exchange of electronic business cards. "This is really, really important and potentially a killer app," says Jerry Michalski, managing editor for the newsletter Release 1.0. "If every time people touch electronically, they can swap their latest contact information, they can suddenly communicate much more efficiently."
It will also eliminate what Michalski calls mode-switching friction—what you encounter when you try to mix media such as voice mail and E-mail with contacts outside your organization. Once these elec-
One Wild and Not-So-Crazy Helper
0
, ne measure of a white-| collar worker's status is often a personal secretary or executive assistant. A killer app may replace human helpers with an intelligent agent that would be totally digital. Wildfire Communications has incorporated this idea into a product called Wildfire, a HAL-Iike presence eavesdropping on every call you make. What makes Wildfire such an exciting and powerful application, however, is that you don't need a computer to use it. You can link up with Wildfire from any phone, even a cellular or pay phone, or have it call you wherever you are. No matter where you are, you have full access to its capabilities.
You can tell Wildfire to sort your messages and play them back to you, or you can ask it to play a message from a sender by speaking his or her name. You can respond to a message immediately by simply saying the messenger's name or number. Wildfire will dial it for you, or send a message to the caller's pager. If you're on one call and receive another, Wildfire "whispers" the caller's name in your ear and lets you decide whether or not to interrupt your current call or relay a specific message to the new caller. It will schedule and remind you of
follow-up calls, and it will forward calls to different numbers (cellular, hotel, home, etc.) based on your schedule. And Wildfire will let you prioritize contacts so it can screen your calls during hectic times.
During a Wildfire session, you call up the agent by simply saying "Wildfire" and pausing. Suddenly, a female voice announces "Here I am!"—the signal that Wildfire is waiting for your instructions. "It acts like a person you'd want to work with, as opposed to acting like a machine," says William J. Warner, CEO and founder of Wildfire Communications. "There are a lot of telephony applications that are Touch-Tone-based that act like machines. That's not what people want. They want to be able to talk to their assistant and get stuff done."
The software uses several speech-recognition technologies that add up to a natural, conversational feel for the user. For example, here's a typical Wildfire dialog for setting up a contact:
User: Wildfire. Wildfire: Here I am. User: Create a contact. Wildfire: What kind? User: Person.
Wildfire: What's the name? User: John Mello. Wildfire: Once more.
User: John Mello.
Wildfire: Which phone number
should I add?
User: Work.
Wildfire: What's the number?
User: 555-1212.
Wildfire: Got it.
Wildfire uses discrete speech recognition to understand responses to its questions, such as what kind of contact and which phone number, because these responses are single words. When the user gives the new contact's name, however, the system uses trained speech because it needs to learn a new pattern. The system uses a speaker-independent continuous recognizer for numbers.
As impressive as Wildfire is, however, some industry insiders think it lacks one crucial component that a true CTI killer app needs: a seamless connection to what's happening inside the computer on the knowledge-worker's desk. Wildfire handles phone functions with elegance, but it doesn't connect to the data that's the lifeblood of an organization's operations, or to applications the worker may have running.
Wildfire runs on a dedicated server, a 90-MHz Pentium box with 128 MB of memory and 16 digital signal processors from Texas Instruments. Prices start at $50,000.
tronic calling cards become widespread, they can be a bridge between the desktop and the handset. When you check your voice mail, the calling card information is sent to your PC, and a screen pop displays the information. To return the call, just click on the phone number. You'd rather send E-mail? Click on the person's E-mail address. Fax? Web home page? Just click away. Mode-switching friction is reduced to zero. "The calling card protocol is so low-end and so simple you can do anything with it," Michalski contends.
It's Voice—No, It's Data
For this electronic calling-card idea to fly, it has to become easier to send data over
ordinary phone lines. One promising development is a modem-based technology called VoiceView from Radish Communications Systems. VoiceView lets a user switch between voice and data transmission on an analog phone line, without losing his connection, as long as there's a VoiceView-enabled modem at both ends of the line.
Exchanging voice and data on one line isn't a new idea. Two years ago, Multi-Tech (Mounds View, MN) introduced a hardware/software product that allowed users to send voice and data simultaneously. But the MultiTech product was pricey, and the parallel approach caused some degradation of the voice portion of
216 BYTE SEPTEMBER 1995
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STATE OF THE ART
Telephony's Killer App
the call, so it didn't win wide acceptance. In contrast, VoiceView is inexpensive, doesn't degrade voice, and is being bundled with a number of modems.
Companies that have hopped on the Radish vegetable cart include Boca Re-
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Dialing Redirect Answer Codes
Dial Main
Dial
Other
Aurora Systems' FastCall endows Windows applications with telephony services. This screen shows a call-center telephony application. The program uses identification of incoming calls to trigger functions, such as popping up a contact record.
search (Boca Raton, FL), U.S. Robotics (Skokie, IL), Hayes Microcomputer Products (Atlanta, GA), Diamond Technologies (Anaheim, CA), and Zoom Tele-phonics (Boston, MA). In addition, Microsoft includes driver support for VoiceView in Windows 95. Considering its support in Windows and the number of modem makers adopting Aurora's technology, industry pundits expect Voice-View to make a big splash in the market. Some analysts project that as many as 10 million modems will incorporate Voice-View by 1998.
Launch My Apps
Another way to enhance the network pipe is through off-the-shelf middleware, such as
FastCall from Aurora Systems. FastCall, which works with TAPI (telephony API) and TSAPI (telephony services API), endows almost any Windows application with telephony services, such as identification of incoming calls, creation of "screen pops" from customer records, and simulation of a phone's button functions on a computer display.
FastCall uses the identification of incoming calls to trigger functions selectively within Windows applications. For example, a call from a certain contact can be linked to a record in Lotus Organizer so when that contact calls, FastCall launches Organizer and pops the contact's record on the screen. Or the program can be trained to bring up a spreadsheet program or a personal finance manager when a bill collector calls. Or you can set it up to launch Tetris whenever a certain long-winded acquaintance calls.
FastCall has killer app potential because it works across a broad array of switching equipment, APIs, and applications, and it's transparent to the user. According to Paul GaspaiTO, CEO and cofounder of Au-
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