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Modems and stat

bility. Our statistical

muxes, to go.

multiplexers handle

Infotron offers a

from 4 to 32 channels

complete line. And now,

in a range of models -

with our unique dis-

with full provision for

tributor warehousing

expansion .

program , we can have

All with the same

any of them on your

high quality that earns

doorstep within 48

us top marks in per-

hours of your call. 48 hours, formance and reliability from

max. Just say the word.

our present users.

Add competitive pricing, and

Full system flexibility.

we start making real sense.

lnfotron modems combine

Then add our 48-hour delivery,

1-800-345-4636 ra~dhv~a:enec~etd~~1?a-

fo~~~. and we're hard

To find out more. Your lnfotron distributor. There are lnfotron distributors nationwide, ready to give you more information, provide equipment and offer expert advice on the best way to meet your needs. For the name of the distributor near you, dial toll-free 1-800-345-4636 and ask for ISO . Or write Infotron Independent Sales Organization , 9 North Olney Avenue, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 .
lnfotron. First in performance and reliability.

See us at Interface, booth #1542

CIRCLE NO. 2 ON INQUIRY CARD

A CAHNERS PUBLICATION

Mini·Miara

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS
35 Prime answers DEC with 4-MIPS supermini 38 CAD/CAM leaders team up to expand market share 43 Heard on the Hill : Tax simplification plan is complex
for high tech 47 Networks 1.0 provides IBM compatibility 55 Efficient Prolog pushes Al into wider market 60 Burroughs enters UNIX systems market

CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL

p. 111 . . . Cover courtesy of Priam, 65 System integrator rebounds with large government orders

Concept and photography by Imagination.

66 Corporate and financial briefs

INTERNATIONAL

79 Personal computer fever spreads to China 85 Pacific Perspective: U.S. unitary taxes deemed
harmful to trade
88 Overheard Overseas: IBM learns from its mistakes

p. 38 .. . . CAD/CAM leaders' share p. 47 . . Providing IBM compatibility

*EUROPEAN NEWS: E1 E2 E3 E3

Two French giants acquire industrial superminis
Vendor 'ports' UNIX from COLI ntry to COLI ntry
MS-DOS program generator is for non-programmers
Tenfold growth seen in micro software sales

E6 Olivetti, ICL plan to distribute UN IX systems

E7 Automation helps Germans take on Japanese printers

EB UNIX 's growing popularity spawns diverse shows
*Appearing in the European edition only

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS (ISSN 0364-9342) is published monthly(with 4 special Digest issues) by Cahners Publishing Company, Division of Reed Holdings, Inc., 221 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02116 . Norman L. Cahners, Chairman; Saul Goldweitz, President and Chief Execu1ive Officer; Ronald G. Segel, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. MINIMICRO SYSTEMS is published by the Cahners Magazine Division: J . A. Sheehan, President; William Platt, Executive Vice President. Circulation records are maintained at Cahners Publishing Co., 270 St. Paul St. , Denver, CO 80206. Second class
postage paid at Denver, CO 80202 and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to MINI-MICRO SYS-

2

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

VOL. XVIII NO. 2 FEBRUARY 1985

INTERPRETER
91 Software integration: Who's on first? Software makers seek wider customer base, third-party software developers and vertical markets

VERTICAL MARKET INTEGRATOR
101 'Rugged' minis meet North Slope challenge Construction company uses Tl minis to streamline tasks in Alaskan Pipeline projects

FEATURES

109 Feature Highlights

111 Half-height drive packs 70M-byte power
High recording density, fast access times and standard interface allow cost-effective, hard-disk-drive upgrades to multiuser, multitasking systems

123 SCSI bus eases device integration Serving as a subordinate interface bus and traffic cop, the Small Computer Systems Interface permits varied system and peripheral links
135 Varied drive interfaces mystify integrators If you're using ST506/412, SA1000, SMD or QIC-02, it's time to take a close look at ESDI, SCSI, IPI or OIC-36
149 UNIX emerges as a universal tool kit With UNIX shells appearing atop proprietary kernels, UNIX itself looks less like an operating system and more like a programming environment
164 Operating systems table

DERl\RTMENTS

4 Editorial Staff 11 Editorial 14 Letters 19 Breakpoints 178 New Products 194 Calendar 197 Classified Advertising

198 Career Opportunities 203 System Integrators' Notebook 204 Index to Advertisers 205 Market Track 206 Artful Intelligence 207 Mini-Micro Marketplace

p. 101. Minis meet frosty challenge

~f. "~: ... c
: .'

~ - : ,

-

'.

. .

.'.< "r·, '":', : .. ·«;~:s

.r

~

~ ,.,. ,, ........ h

p. 123 ... . Easing integration jams

p. 149 . ... . ... . . .. Viewing UNIX

TEMS, 270 St. Paul St. , Denver, CO 80206. MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS is circulated without charge by name and title to U.S.and Western European-based corporate and technical management, systems engineers, and other personnel who meet qualification procedures. Available to others at the rate of $65.00 per year in the U.S.; $70.00 in Canada and Mexico: $95 surface mail in all other countries: air mail surcharge, $35.00 (16 issues). Special DIGEST issues, $15.00. Single issues $5.00 in the U.S.: $6.00 in Canada and Mexico: $7.00 in all other countries. © 1985 by Cahners Publishing Company, Division of Reed Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved .
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

~ I WliPA MP
3

·Full Bell 212A compatibility (0-300, 1200 baud) with remote digital loopback and internal self test.
· 16 character security password.
·Designed for use with either "dumb" terminals or PCs.
· Synchronous and Asynchronous transmission modes.
· Internal storage of nine names and numbers to forty characters in length.
· Exclusive ability to "Reboot" your computer.
·User-friendly h.elp menu.
· Rack mountable version available.

Free "SuperScout" Communications Software
This unique $249 software value allows data file transfer using a sophisticated error checking protocol. It also gives automatic access to COMPUSERVETM, Western Union's EASYLINKTM and 13 other data bases without individual sign-up or monthly minimum fees.

A very broad warranty r
The 212AD is a proved-in-service product whose high reliability allows Bytcoi:µ to
offer an Immediate Unit Replacement Warranty within the first two years of ownership. Details on request.

Contact Bytcomjor additional information

e· and name of your nearest distributor.

·

Software Supplied.By

'.~·

S- t.PER~ SCO- UT N ·=·

CIRCLE NO. 3 ON INQUIRY CARD 4

STAFF
Vice President/Publisher S. Henry Sacks
Editor-in-Chief George V. Kotelly
Managing Editor James F. Donohue
Assistant Managing Editor Bruce J. MacDonald
Senior Western Editor: Jerry Borrell San Jose. (408) 296-0868 Senior Editor: Lori Vallgra
Senior Projects Editor: Rick Dalrymple
Western Editor: Carl Warren Los Angeles, (213)826-5818 Senior Associate Editor: David Simpson Associate Editor: Frances T. Granville Associate Editor: Lynn Haber Associate Editor/Research: Frances C. Mlchalski Associate Editor: Tom Moran
San Jose, (408)296-0868 Associate Editor: Gregory Solman Associate Editor: Michael Tucker
Associate Editor: Jesse Victor Assistant Editor: David Bright Assistant Editor/New Products: Eileen Mllauskas Assistant Editor/Research : Pamela Gorski Assistant Editor/Research: Megan Nlelds
Contributing Editors
Raymond C. Freeman, Jr. Freeman Associates Tokyo: Nell Gross
Taiwan : Charles Hintermeister London: Keith Jones, (011-441-661-3040)
Tokyo: lchlro Kakehashl · Data Communications: Walter A. Levy
Frankfurt: Maureen O'Gara United Kingdom: Tim Palmer Washington, D.C.: Stephen J. Shaw
(202) 387-8666 Gene R. Talsky, Professional Marketing Management Inc.
Editorial Production
Senior Copy Editor: Arsene C. Davignon Production Editor: Mary Anne Weeks Assistant Copy Editor: Sharon Hassell Word Processing: Kathleen Ewing Administrative Assistant: Nancy Norton
Edltorlal Services
Terri Gellegos
Assistant to the Publisher: Linda L. Lovett
Executive Editor, Cahners Computer Publications
Alan R. Kaplan
Art Staff
Art Director: Vicki Blake Assistant Art Director: Cynthia McManus
Artist: Anne Tregay
Director of Art Dept. : Norm Graf
Production Staff
VP Production : Wayne Hulltzky Supervisor: William Tomaselli Production Manager: Lisa Sisterhenm
Composition: Diane Malone
Editorial Offices
Boston: 221 Columbus Ave ., Boston, MA 02116. (617)536-7780. lrvlne: 2041 Business Center Dr. , Suite 109, Irvine, CA 92715. Los Angeles: 12233 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064. San Jose: 3031 Tisch Way, San Jose, CA 95128. New York: 33 Arcadia Dr. , Dix Hills, NY 11746. London: P.O. Box 37E, Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 SRO, England.
Reprints of Mini-Micro Systems articles are avail· able on a custom printing basis at reasonable prices in quantities of 500 or more. For an exact quote, con tact Art Lehmann, Cahners Reprint Service, Cahners Plaza, 1350 E. Touhy Ave., Box 5080, Des Plaines, IL 60018. Phone (312)635-8800.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

HIGH-PERFORMANCE COLOR GRAPHICS SYSTEMS.
We're looking good for a lot of good reasons.
Our family of high-performance, raster graphics display processors and subsystems are recognized worldwide for their ability to cost-effectively reduce the picture-processing workload of host computers.
They' re being used to find oil, design motorcycles, treat hospital patients, compose magazines, and trace the movement of military troops. And as many applications as there are now, there are many more to come.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPANY.
For over a decade, LexidataT" has been advancing color graphics

THE LEX 90 FAMILY. IT LOOKS AS GOOD TO THE EXECUTIVE AS IT DOES TO THE DESIGNER. LEX 90'" is Lexidata's newest family of raster display processors. Its
Lexidata's own monitor enclosure design features a unique, ergonomic tilt and swivel movement with smooth and easy operation. All monitor connections and peripheral power supplies are located in the enclosure's base.
performance excites designers. Its cost-effectiveness excites business executives.

with every essential graphics primitive including vectors, text, circles, arcs, polygons, and area fills.
OUR RESOLUTION: A SYSTEM FOR EVERY NEED. We offer a variety of systems with a variety of resolutions - medium, high, and medium/high. The latter refers to our exclusive SimulRes feature which allows simultaneous display of 640 x 512 and 1280 x 1024 images on the same screen. ATrue Color configuration offers two buffers of 640 x 512 x 24 with an 8-bit color lookup table for each color. And where high performance with high resolution is vital, there's a LEX 90 model that can support up to 24 planes of 1280 x 1024 display memory at 6oHz non-interlaced refresh. For petrochemical surface

technology, especially in the area of computer-aided design (CAD), where our high-performance systems are being successfully integrated by both OEMs and end-users.
Computer-driven command and control battle simulators are using Lexidata graphics systems to display 3-D terrain appreciation maps . (Courtesy ofThe Singer Company, Link Simulation Systems Division)
We've set some very high standards against which we measure all our systems. And we see to it that our systems are built cost-effectively by us so they can be priced cost-effectively for you.

Everybody in the LEX 90 family speaks to one another. Both the hardware and software architec-
tures of the LEX 90 family have been designed to accommodate growth. As your application be-
comes more complex, your LEX 90 system can easily be upgraded. Adding processors or memory is
never a problem. Or an unreasonable expense.
Every model in the LEX 90 family shares this flexible and compatible hardware/software architecture. You'll never have to sacrifice your initial investment should you wish to enhance your LEX 90 system's performance. And what performance!
The basic display controller writes vectors in 600ns per pixel and processes multiple read/write and arithmetic instructions concurrently. And LEX 90's software and firmware provide designers

·
modeling requirements, there's GEOVIEW,TMa three-dimensional geological interpretation package. And for solid modeling applications on the LEX 90, the extraordinary capability of our patented SOLIDVIEW'" technology is
available. INTRODUCING U.S. PATENT
..._. NO. 4,475,104. SOLID MODELING
WITH A SOLID FUTURE.
SOLIDVIEW is Lexidata's patented z-buffer technology for the generation of 3-D graphics and display of solid models. It's part hardware and part
Using Lexidata's SOLIDVIEW, Honda design engineers view 3-D solid models of motorcycles as they would appear in real life in seconds. (Courtesy of Honda Asaka Research & Development Center)

Copyright 1985 Lexidata Corporation. All rights reserved. LEX 90 and GEOVIEW are trademarks of the Lexidata Corporation. SOLIDVIEW is atrademark of the Lexidata Corporation and is

firmware. And the sum of those

WHAT WILL INDEPENDENT for lab work and classroom in-

parts is a faster, simpler, more pow- SOFTWARE COMPANIES THINK struction. And classes are kept

erful and more

OF NEXT?

small to allow maximum inter-

interactive sys-

The support of Lexi- action between instructor and

tem for solid

data display systems trainee.

modelers than

by third party soft-

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK.

any other.

ware companies is a Lexidata systems are hard at work

Other systerns rely heav-

good example of their popularity.

around the world, helping companies realize

ily on your host computer.

Lexidata-compatible software pack-

their goals in a variety of appli-

They offer

ages are available for

cations that in-

slow processes

mechanical design/

clude CAD/CAM,

that require

analysis, business

petrochemical,

huge amounts LEX 90's SimulRes enables the designer to graphics, mapping,

of memory. But mix theory with reality by allowing the and geological inter-

SOLIDVIEW simultaneous display of a wireframe model pretation. And there's

shares the

-with-th-e rea-l-life-pro-duc-t. - - - - great potential for

workload with the host. Parallel many more. So if you're an inde-

defense, medical, and graphic arts. These companies have found powerful, cost-

processing means that a smoothly pendent developer, come explore

shaded solid object can be dis- with us applications of our

played in just a few seconds.

advanced technology.

An integrated piping design as displayed by Lexidata's patented SOLIDVIEW system. (Courtesy ofDIS/ADLPIPE, Inc.)

Students at the Royal College of Art in Kensington, England, use Lexidata's SOLIDVIEW to create designs such as these first-class passenger train seats.
INTELLIGENT SOLUTIONS.
If your application requires a lowcost, color or monochrome terminal with PLOT 10'" or VT-lOOTM emulation, there's Lexidata's Series 2000. This 1280 x 1024 graphics terminal features a powerful 16/32-bit 68000 microprocessor. Of course, like all Lexidata products, the Series 2000 is compatible with a variety of leading application software packages.

SOLID SUPPORT.
Once you've become a Lexidata customer, we'll provide you with support through our growing worldwide sales and service network.
You'll also be able to take advantage of our specially tailored training courses in Lexidata hardware and software. Hands-on training includes equal amounts of time

effective solutions that can do the job for them now, yet grow with them later, keeping pace with rapidly expanding needs.
If that sounds like your kind of company - or your kind of customer - then we should talk.
Call us at 1-800-472-4747. In Massachusetts, call 617-663-8550. Or write Lexidata Corporation, 755 Middlesex Turnpike, Billerica, Massachusetts USA 01865. TWX: 710-347-1574. In UNITED KINGDOM call: Lexidata Ltd., Hook (025672) 3411. In FRANCE call: Lexidata SARL, Rungis (1) 686-56-71. InJAPAN call: Lexidata Technical Center, Tokyo 486-0670.
laLEXIDAT~
LOOKING GOOD

covered by U.S. P:uem No. 4,475,104. Lexidata is a trademark of the Lexidata Corporation. PLOT IO is atrademark of Tektronix, Inc. VT-100 is atrademark ofDigital Equipment Corporation.
CIRCLE NO. 5 ON INQUIRY CARD

·- . · c-......

THE MORE YOU KNOWABOUT UNIX; THE TALLER THE IDWER XP STANDS.
The engineers at NCR are now convinced that UNIX is the best operating system in the industry.
Of course, to convince these reliability fanatics, UNIX had to endure thousands of hours of grueling tests. But that's simply the price any component must pay to get into an NCR product.
And it's a better UNIX for the experience.
The NCR-enhanced UNIX in the Tower XP is the first UNIX of true, commercial reliability.
It virtually never PANICs. Consequently, neither do your customers.
So that this UNIX might be all things to all users, we employed the Tower XP's menu builder to create the five faces of UNIX. A remarkable case of multiple menu personalities. One for each of five user levels, from sophisticated user to data duffer.
And our UNIX speaks ' a language for each of five programmer
types: Business BASIC, Pascal, Fortran, C, and Cobol.
Team this powerful operating system with the Tower XP's other prodigious features; consistent error logging, extensive remote and in-service diagnostics, Automatic Power Failure Recovery, and more, and you've got a monumental mixture. Capped by NCR's towering commitment to OEMs.
The more you know about Tower XP, the better NCR looks.
'IDWERXP. BUILT FOR SYSTEMS BUILDERS
BY NIT·PICKING FANATICS.
OEM Systems Division
NCR Corporation, U.S. Data Processing Group, OEM Systems Division, USG -I, Dayton, Ohio 45479. Nationwide (800) CALL NCR. In Ohio (513) 445-2190. In Canada (800) 268-3966. ·UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.

Multibus Users: You'D think we're
taking you for a ride·.·but we can put you in the fast track.

DTC's New Turbo-Disk Controller
We admit it DTC's new Turbo-Disk is unbelievable. In fact, if we didn't make the controller ourselves, we'd have a hard time believing its remarkable performance.
Thke, for example, how Turbo-Disk speeds up UNIX'" operation in multi-user systems. Or how it interfaces to any existing MultibusTM System. Or even how Turbo-Disk automatically adjusts for variable cache memory sizes. But that's not all. Because you11 also have a hard time believing Turbo-Disk's expandable high-speed disk caching memory... from 256 KB all the way up to 1MB. Not to mention intelligent buffering of most often used files. Still, the most unbelievable benefits of Turbo-Disk are what it can do for your system. This incredible controller will not only alleviate disk 1/0 bottlenecks, but dramatically enhance system throughput in multi-user applications. The result· you can build the UXJrld's greatest Multibus computer.
DTC's RAM, Single-Board Computer and Controller Boards.
And while you're building that system, you should consider DTC's other boards. Like the world's fastest 512 KB or 2 MB dynamic RAM board. Or the industry's most powerful Multibus 68000 SBC and fastest memory-mapping implementation possible.
Last but not least, choose from DTC's series of data storage controllers which offer command linking, consecutive sector transfer, multiple controller addressing, a 2.0 MB host transfer rate, to name just a few features.
We know it all sounds too good to be true. But seeing our great family of Multibus boards is truly believing. Contact OTC today, or your local Hamilton-Avnet or Arrow distributor.

Data Technology Corporation 2775 Northwestern Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95051 Tel: (408) 496-0434 Telex: 4940763 DTCSC
Data Technology Corporation Arabella Street STA, 30/7 D-8000 Munich 81 West Germany (089) 918-047
Eastern Regional Sales 15 Wiggins Avenue Bedford, Massachusetts 01730 Telephone : (617) 275-4044
*Multibus is a registered trademark of Intel. "'UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Labs.
10

RAM

CPU

MMU

TURBO-DISK

World's Fastest 512 KB or 2 MB Dynamic RAM Board
· Gives minimum read access of 20 msec
· Improves system performance
· Combines dynamic RAM with 4 KB of distributed cache on board
· Self initializing during power up

Industry's Most Powerful Multibus 68000 SBC
· 12.5 MHz with 256 KB or 1MB of on-board no-wait-state RAM
· True dual ported memory
·Dual bus architecture allows for future upgrade to 68020
· Full UNIX implementation

Fastest Memory Mapping Implementation Possible
·Allows for up to 128 context switches
· Allows for virtual memory implementalion
· Real time battery backed up clock

The Final Ingredient for the World's Greatest Multibus Computer
· Dramatically enhances system throughput in multi-user applications
· Alleviates disk 1/0 bottleneck
· Expandable high speed disk caching
· Interfaces to any Multibus system

RAM, TURBO-DISK, MMU & CPU are all IEEE 796 Compatible.

CIRCLE NO. 7 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

EDITORIAL

A REDESIGN FOR YOU

This issue of Mini-Micro Systems incorporates several graphics changes and editorial additions. These modifications aim at making the magazine more visually appealing and more intellectually interesting. Most of the alterations, however, are subtle in nature and deal with appearance. In fact, unless you ' re adept at typography, you might even miss the changes at first glance.
But why modify an established and successful publication? Readers and advertisers recognize Mini-Micro Systems as the leading monthly computer magazine in its field . The answer is that we're making the changes to benefit you , our readers-value-added OEMs , value-added system integrators and value-added users.
In short, we've selectively instituted distinctive graphics and type faces throughout the magazine to present a more modern, more attractive and more readable look . And we've added editorial content to give you more useful and practical information . Keeping pace with expanding computer technology calls for periodic magazine analysis and implementation of updated graphics and text. The result ? Printed information in Mini-Micro Systems looks neater, reflects comprehensive information and, more important , helps you do your job better.
Our editorial concept, purpose and thrust, however , remain unchanged. Mini-Micro Systems' articles serve system integrators who are actively involved in the purchase of computers , peripherals , software and systems. Our total editorial package helps system integrators evaluate, select, configure, integrate and implement minicomputer and microcomputer systems by providing a balanced mix of news stories, interpretive articles, integrated-applications information , feature articles and new product announcements.

Besides brightening up the magazine's look, new editorial columns expand our computer-coverage universe. One such column is "Market Track ." This one-page , staff-written overview of the computer marketplace reviews several market research reports available from leading consulting companies. The overview spotlights product and technology market trends and forecasts , primarily on unit shipments and sales.
Another new column is " System Integrators' Notebook." This one-page , staff-written summary describes helpful application hints that solve knotty system interface and operation problems. These hints are based on actual product and system integration and usage pitfalls encountered on the job by our readers .
Yet another new column is Artful Intelligence , our crossword and word arrangement puzzles. To lighten the magazine's technical dryness , but on an educational level , the two puzzles employ computer-industry words and terms. The intent is to offer our readers an opportunity to relax while testing their computer terminology skills.
Two other comprehensive assessments of microcomputer and data-communication developments-PC Perspective and Communications Carrier-will appear aperiodically in the Features section. These analyses, both contributed and staff-written, will focus on methodologies and applications that represent innovative system-integration techniques.
Note on the front cover, however, that the Mini-Micro Systems logo stays the same. Easily recognizable in the past , this same logo will represent the magazine in the future as well , with improved graphics and editorial. The goal is still, as always , to satisfy our readers' needs. Let us know how the new look affects you.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

George V. Kotelly Editor-in-Chief
11

Mini-Micro Systems is the only advertising vehicle to reach the complete value-added market for mini-micro computers, peripherals, software, data communication products, supplies and services.
Who are these key prospects? Over 130,000 systems integrators, value-added OEMs, value-added resellers, and value-added users who purchase hardware and software products to configure mini-micro computer systems .

For more information on our market and our magazine, call or write Mini-Micro Systems, 221 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02116 (617) 536-7780.
···l·lll1ral1·&e··

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS: 221 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA 02116 (617) 536-7780/Chicago: (312) 635-8800/Dallas: (214) 980-0318/ Denver: (303)388-4511 /Los Angeles: (213)826-5818/ Mid-Atlantic: (609)751-0170/0range County : (714)851 -9422 /Northern California & Northwest: (408)243-8838/Southeast: (404)955-6500
Cahners Publishing D Publishers of 32 specialized business magazines in Building & Construction D Electronics & Computers D Foodservice D Manufacturing D Medical/Health Care D CIRCLE NO. 106 ON INQUIRY CARD
Based on the 13th Annual Mini-Micro Computer Market Report

Going out fbr a drive? navdlight.

Now you don't have to go out of your way to find a complete line of fast, accurate floppy disc drive diagnostic and alignment tools.
Dysan makes them all . And they're all so compact they fit in a briefcase.
Which makes them perfect for field service. Or (without the briefcase) for your test bench . For instance, our Digital Diagnostic Diskette (DDD"') with appropriate software lets you zip through digital tests like head positioner linearity. Head radial alignment. Diskette centering. Head azimuth alignment. Index timing . All in just minutes. And you get the results right on the screen of the machine you're testing. Our Interrogator"' is a DDD packaged with menudriven software and instructions that simplify drive tests on the IBM® PC and XT, Zenith Z/H 100 Series, Osborne® 1 (and more to come). The hand-held Performance and Alignment Tester (PAT-2+"') and the DDD enable you to step through a

complete series of drive diagnostic tests. Plus performance tests like read/ write data handling capabilities and rigorous head positioner testing . Or you can use the PAT-2+ as a drive exerciser with our Analog Alignment Diskette (AAD"') and an oscilloscope for precision drive alignment. Dysan's drive diagnostic and alignment tools. Whether you go out for a drive or just walk over to the test bench, take them along . For more information or to place an order, call toll free, 800-551-9000. Dysan Corporation, 5201 Patrick Henry Drive, PO. Box 58053, Santa Clara, CA 95050, (408) 988-3472 .
Dysan·
Somebody has to be better than everybody else.

Dysa n is a registered t1ddemark, DOD, Inierrogator, PAT ·2 +, and AAO are tradem arks of Dysan Corpor.Hion . IBM and Osborne are registered 1rademarks of International Business Machines Corpora1ion and Osborne Computer Corpomtio n , respectively.
© 1984 Dysan Corporation
CIRCLE NO. 8 ON INQUIRY CARD

LETTERS

DISTRIBUTORS SOUGHT

PRICE CORRECTION
To the editor: We appreciate your coverage of the
new Sun-2/50 Desktop SunStation (MMS, January , Page 60). While the article content was very good , there was a typographical error in the price of the system. You showed the price as $19,900 rather than the' actual list price of $9 ,900.
The Sun-2/50 , introduced in November , was the first full-function workstation to be priced under $10 ,000. Obviously , this is a breakthrough in the industry and it's unfortunate that this was not clear in your article. Jackie Rae Marketing Communications Manager Sun Microsystems Inc. Mountain View, Calif.

compatible measurement and control interface board to be customized by small plug-in modules.
In the application discussed by Mr. McGinness, the Multibus approach could be reduced to just two boards: the processor board and a single interface board such as our DMS531 Multibus -compatible 1/0 system. The DMS531 is userconfigured with plug-in CMOS analog and digital 1/0 modules , and I estimate that this alternative approach would reduce the total power dissipation to a maximum of 25W , thus allowing a battery supply to be used as in the CIMbus approach.
When using the same costs quoted by Mr. McGinness , the price of the Multibus system is reduced from $4, 181 to under $1 ,600 , almost half the price of the equivalent CIMbus configuration.

SPEAKING FRANC-LY
To the editor: I certainly do not wish to belittle the
enormous size of the worldwide COBOL investment of $100 billion (MMS , October 1984, Page 207). Yet, in comparing COBOL to other major financial expenditures , the figure of $36 billion given for the gross national product of Switzerland is badly in error. The 1984 Swiss GNP is estimated at 225 billion Swiss francs . At current exchange rates this [figure] corresponds to $93 billion. While the Swiss may not be quite as wealthy as is sometimes assumed, they aren't that poor!
A.P. Speiser Director of Research Brown, Boveri & Co. Ltd. CH 5405 Baden, Switzerland
CIMBUS VS. MULTIBUS
To the editor: I was interested to read the article
written by Steven McGinness of National Semiconductor Corp. (MMS , October 1984 , Page 125) in which he expounded the virtues of his company's CIMbus range of products when compared to an equivalent Multibus solution .
Although I can understand the bias of the article , I feel that he did not give the Multibus approach enough consideration in the light of recent developments . For example , both Intel and my own company have designed an on-board internal bus structure which allows a multibus-

Geoff Readman Sales and Marketing Director Di-An Micro Systems Ltd. Cheshire, England
RONALD FRANK, 1934-1984~ 1 A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE
Ron was best known as Computerwor/d's cominunications editor for 10 years. I knew him before then , when he was a technical editor for Honeywell , and after he le.ft CW in 1979 to publish his own newsletter , Telecom Times and Trends, and contribute to Datamation. He also published in Mini-Micro Systems .
Ron could invariably be found at industry conferences typing away in the press room. His copy was tight , trenchant and perceptive, a reflection of himself. Ron was what he wrote about.
My favorite Ron Frank story dates from the mid- l970s. I was the dinner speaker at a Digitronics Users Conference in St. Louis , and Ron was there to cover the conference. After the dinner, Ron and I drove off in his rented car for a private drink. Ron insisted on driving, but he was too small for the seatbelt, and the car's warning buzzer would not shut off unless Ron drove standing and leaning against the seat back. It must have been a very uncomfortable trip, but Ron was determined to make it and c!id.
Ron also was determined to be the best data communications writer in our business and he was. We'll miss him. -Alan R. Kaplan , Executive Editor

14

Team-Up With Vectrix Now and Share Our Growth and Success in Graphics.
Customer acceptance and satisfaction resulting in greater than anticipated growth are prompting us to expand our family of international d ist ributors. If you're an established distributor with a strong graphics/electronics background and possess the technical resources to handle our expanding line of graphics products, then we want to talk with you. To learn how you too can share in our growing graphics product sales, contact us immediately. Inquiries should be sent to Elizabeth StotlerFerrill , International Sales Administrator at Vectrix Corporation, 2606 Branchwood Drive, G reensboro, North Carolina 27408. Phone (919) 288-0520, Telex 574417
Vectrix International Distributors
Terry G ray, M anaging Director Microprocessor Applications Pty., Ltd. 48 Rutland Road, Box Hill Victoria 3128. Australia Telex 31187 C liff Cawood, Director Systems Link Pty., Ltd. 216 South Wing Benmore Gardens Complex Benrnore Road Sandton 2010 , Johannesburg Republic of South Afr ica Telephone 783-1177
CIRCLE NO. 9 ON INQUIRY CARD MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

1. High Speed (MicroCAD Software)

lfnl !!1£111£111 1!111 Ill llUll!ll !111111

·.+....ID -.---- -- =011

=un

.· ~

,·+_m,.

:1:
,.!- ..

· I T S!

__,..,
:: Ir ·"" "" -j
llDD ,1(11
""17GO ,700
,..."" " ID _, .I
l!IXJ -t- . 5
:..:.. t·4"
:: t ·'
laD0 ........ . 2
m119a:1 1 .1
""

2. Dual Display Mcx:les (Energraphics Software)

3. Simplified Processing (AutoCAD Software)

4. 9 Bit Planes (Courtesy WSI Inc., Bedford.- MA)

5. 16.8M Color Shades (Courtesy Catherine Del Tito, Wave Graphics)

6. High Resolution (Courtesy University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Depts of Computer Science and Radiology)

Six reasons why professionals continue to choose Vectrix
for quality IBM XT/PC graphics.

Even though IBM offers a color processor frees your computer to con-

What you will find most surprising,

graphics card, professionals still choose centrate on other tasks.

however, is the price. Our VX/PC

Vectrix. It's not surprising. Especially

But that's not all. Our 9 bit planes

Board Set was designed with the OEM

once they've seen us in action. Profes-

in mind. So when comparing the

sionals know that our VX/PC Board

performance of Vectrix with the

Set delivers the quality and perfor-

competition, check the price

mance they need for serious color

too. You'll like what you see.

graphics.

For more information, contact

The VX/PC Board Set provides

Vectrix Corporation, 2606

advanced features that help simplify

Branchwood Drive, Greensboro,

sophisticated graphics design. Besides add an extra dimension ofsharpness and North Carolina 27408. Phone (919)

displaying 512 simultaneous colors

clarity to your image that must really be 288-0520. Telex 574417.

from a palette of 16.8 million, the

seen to be appreciated. That's why it's not

VX/PC supports an extensive library of surprising to see Vectrix color cards in ...... ~

l +...; on-board graphics macros for ease of applications such as medical imaging, ~ '

"V'

vec u .lA programming and fast design, as well weather satellite data mapping, com- ..........

as full emulation of the IBM color

puter aided design and drafting, and

card. And, an on-board 16-bit micro- graphics arts, to name a few.

IBM XT, lBM AT. and IBM PC are trademarks ofintemationa l Business Machines Corporation. White Plains, NY.

,11111111 THE COMPUTER GRAPHICS COMPANY Distributor inquiries welcome.

MicroCAD is a trademark of Imagimedia Technologies. Inc., San FranclSCO, CA.

AutoCAD is a trademark of AutoDesk, Inc.. Sausalito , CA.

EnerGraphics is a trademark of Enertromcs Research. Inc., St. Louis, MO.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 10 ON INQUIRY CARD

15

What kind of decision-maker are you?

It's a rare bird that will boldly stand up and look at problems sessions conducted by expert industry leaders. There are

right in the eye.

sessions that will help untangle the problems you face, then

But when it comes to problems as complex as communications suggest practical solutions that you can use to fulfill your day to

systems, information systems, or integrated office systems, you day responsibilities and help you plan for the future.

need more than just stout-hearted resolve. You need the facts.

Also at INTERFACE will be more than 300 exhibits with the

That's why if you're responsible for influencing or specifying latest products. Talk with exhibitors about your specific prob-

your organization's office systems integration purchases. you lems and needs. They'll be happy to tell you how they can help

should attend The 13th Annual INTERFACE '85 Conference & you . That's why they're there.

Exposition.

If you don't have the facts to confront your communications

You can learn the facts at INTERFACE. INTERFACE is present- problems , you might as well have your head in the sand. Attend

ed for people who are expected to confront and solve issues like the 13th Annual INTERFACE '85 Conference & Exposition.

INTERFACE®'85 local area networking.Desktop sys-
tems integration. Networking. Specialized carrier systems. These, and

For more information about attending The 13th Annual INTERFACE '85 Conference &Exposition,

related issues, are examined from both technical & senior manage-

MARCH 4-7 1985 ATLANTA . GEORGIA

call (617) 449-6600. Or write The 13th Annual INTERFACE '85 Con-

ment perspectives at INTERFACE.

ference & Exposition, 300 First

The prestigious Conference has

Avenue. Needham. MA 02194.

Presented by TME llTERFACE HOUP. I·.. world's leading producer ol computer conlerences and expositions including INTERFACE. FEDERAL DP EXPO , COMDEX/Winter. COMDEX/Spring,

COMDEX/Fall, COMDEX/Europe. COMDEX in JAPAN , the nationwide COMPUTER SHOWCASE EXPDs and The BYTE Computer Shows.

300 First Avenue. Needham. MA 02194 · (617) 449-6600

16

CIRCLE NO_ 11 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

The TI 855 microprinter. No other printer says better
so many ways.

Feature for feature, no other microprinter can match the versatility, compatibility, reliability and productivity of the OMNI 800· Model 855 microprinter. Here's why. Two Printers In One. With the TI 855 you get the speed of dot matrix draft copy. Plus the precise clarity of the most advanced matrix technology for letterquality print. It's two printers in one - at one low price. A Great Family Name. Texas Instruments is known for providing the world with the industry standard for printers the TI 810. TI builds the same reliability into every 800 series microprinter. Both the 855 and the data processing Model 850 are part of the expanding TI line of high-performance, low-cost microprinters.

Hardware Compatible. The TI 855 microprinter is compatible with all major PC hardware. And it provides both serial RS232C subset and "Centronics-type" parallel as standard interfaces. Software Compatible. The TI 855 uses industry standard escape sequences for compatibility with virtually all third-party software. And for those with proprietary software needs, a model is available with ANSI standard escape sequences. Tough Font Modules For Quick Char· acter Change. Three font modules can be inserted into the front of the printer at one time, and are accessed individually. Each contains both draft- and letterquality character sets. They're easier to use, more reliable and more durable than traditional metal or plastic daisy wheels.

Copyright C> 1984 Texas Inscrumencs · Trademark of Texas Instruments

More Productivity Than Any Other

Microprinter. The 855 offers both fric-

tion and tractor paper feed, to handle all

types of word and data processing applica-

tions. A quick-change snap-in cartridge

ribbon. Raster and mosaic graphics. And

intelligent printing which maximizes document throughput - regardless of format.

Get the printer that makes for better information systems. For more information

visit your nearest TI authorized dealer or write Texas Instruments Incorporated, P.O.

Ji Box 809063, Dept. DPF-00000, ·
Dallas, TX 75380-9063 . Or call

toll-free: 1-800-527-3500.
TEXAS

INSTRUMENTS

Creating useful products

and services for you.

29 LJ BO-R2

Get on the fast track.

For low cost UNIX· applications.turn to Perkin-Elmer's 7350A supermicro.

Perkin-Elmer gives you a head start in the growing world of UNIX system computing with the fastest supermicro in its class~· And we can keep you ahead because we're a Fortune 300 company with nearly a decade of experience with the UNIX operating system.
Move forward confidently with a fully sµpported, cost-effective solution; up to five users can share a single system. For the long haul, go the distance with the broadest range of compatible superminicomputers available today.

Why risk your future with start-ups or upstarts? Let Perkin-Elmer help put you on the path to success.
Choose the fast track: call 1-800-631-2154.
Or write to the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Two Crescent Place, Oceanport, NJ 0775 7. In NJ call (201) 870-4712 .
' UniPlus, UN IX , RM -COBOL and SIBOL are trademarks o f UniSoft , AT&T Bell Laborat ories. Ryan -Mcfa rland and Software Ireland, respectivel y
· · tn nine N IX benchmark tests, the ""550A outperformed the published results of similar supermicrocomputers in its price range , while com paring favorably wilh many Other larger and more cost ly systems. Prices and specificati ons subject t0 change Without nmice

SPECIFICATIONS & OPTIONS

· 8M Hz MC68000

· 512KB to 3MB RAM

· Floppy Disk

Ii

· 15MB or 28MB Winchester

· 12" or 15" Monochrome. 13" Color Graphics Monitors

· 4 x RS-232C ports (Ethernet optional)

· UniPlus · port of UNIX System Ill

· MenuMaker/C Shell/AT&T Shell

· Word Processing. Spreadsheet. Relational DBMS. Graphics Libraries

· C. FORTRAN. BASIC-PLUS. RM -COBOL: SIBOL ·

· System prices start at $5.115 (quantity 100. U.S. only)

PERKIN-ELMER
CIRCLE NO. 12 ON INQUIRY CARD

BREAKPOINTS

APPLE EYES $300 MILLION MACINTOSH ORDER FROM FRENCH GOVERNMENT Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, Calif., was sitting on the brink of a $300
million, 250,000-unit Macintosh order from the French government at press time. The contract, if Apple snares it, could be a plum. The Mitterand government, seeking new ways around France's mounting economic and unemployment crises, wants to set up computer centers in each of the country's 36,500 cities, towns, villages and hamlets so that children and adults alike can become computer literate-and hence employable. Such an unparalleled undertaking could put at least six Macintoshes in each center. The "workshop" scheme is the brainchild of France's 3-year-old, government-backed World Center for Computer Sciences and Human Resources, which recommended the Macintosh. The choice of a foreign machine has raised numerous objections from French companies such as Groupe Bull and Thomson CSF, which protest that the award should go to a national company. For that reason, Apple founder Steven Jobs and president John Scully were in Paris recently, discussing ways to give Apple a little French polish-either by way of joint venture or local manufacturing.- M. O'Ga1'1t

JAPANESE SHOWING BATTERY-POWERED MICRO WINCHESTER DRIVES JVC Electronics Ltd., Tokyo, is quietly showing a lOM-byte, 31h-inch half-
height, battery-powered Winchester disk drive to selected OEMs. Dr. Peter Horn, managing director of research and development for British microcomputer manufacturer Advanced Computer Techniques (Holdings) Plc., says the drive has an unusual interface and that it sacrifices performance in favor of low power. Reportedly, the JVC drive operates at about 1,200 rotations per minute, more than halving the industry-standard transfer rate offered by ST506 interfaces; has a 7.5W start-up power requirement; and operates at 2.5W. Matsushita Communications Industrial Co. Ltd., Yokohama, Japan, and YE-Data Inc., Tokyo, have also reportedly shown similar drives to portable computer manufacturers.-C. WarrP11

PHOENIX READIES PC-AT-COMPATIBLE ROM BIOS, MACINTOSH TOOLS Phoenix Software Associates Ltd., Norwood, Mass., this month plans to
introduce an IBM Corp. PC-AT-compatible basic input/output system (BIOS) in ROM. The company, which claims to have written the majority of MS-DOS ports for PC-compatible manufacturers, also will offer GWBASIC, utilities, MS-DOS and code for the PC-AT keyboard's 8042 processor. That system software, bundled with the ROM BIOS, will carry a license fee of $420,000. The company claims the PC-AT-compatible ROM BIOS takes into account IBM's implementation of the Intel Corp. 80286 processor. The company also will sell a PC-AT motherboard design. Reportedly, the company plans to branch out beyond IBM's universe to provide software development tools for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh.- L. Valigra

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

19

BREAKPOINTS

INTEL EPBOM CHIP ERECTS BARBIER TO SOFTWARE PIRATES A 128K-bit, keyed-access, EPROM semiconductor due this month from
Intel Corp., Folsom, Calif., is said to control access to its own instructions and thereby thwart efforts of would-be software pirates. Two such semiconductors are used together, each containing an encrypted number. When the numbers of the two match, the memory can be unlocked. Intel is scheduled to present a paper on the device at this month's International Solid State Circuits Conference in New York.-L Valigra
CORVUS TO OFFER BESELLEBS A BABE-BONES UNIX COMPUTER Next month, Corvus Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., ·plans to provide
system integrators and value-added resellers a stripped-down version of the Corvus Concept, a 10-MHz Motorola MC68010-based UNIX computer. Codenamed "Mercury," the new product should be priced at less than $7,000 and support as much as 4M bytes of internal memory. Features include a speedy direct-memory-access disk drive controller that can handle two floppy and two Winchester disk drives. Resellers can add their own UNIX, although Corvus recommends using the Berkeley UNIX Version 4.2 on the system.-C Warren
SWISS COMPANY TO LAUNCH TWO COLOR PRINTERS FOB IBM PCs Hermes Precisa International SA, Lausanne, Switzerland, is launching
four matrix printers for use with IBM Corp. PCs. Among them are two color models, one printing at 240 characters per second (cps) and the other at 480 cps. The other two models are black-on-white printers running at 120 and 480-cps. All four are part of Hermes' PC-Printer series and should be available from Hermes Products Inc., Linden, N.J., by midyear.- K. ,J )Jp->.'
SONY PACKS 540M BYTES ONTO A COMPACT, BEAD-ONLY OPTICAL DISK With the market for optical-disk technology expected to heat up this year,
Sony Corp., Tokyo, is ready to introduce its compact ROM disk drive, the CDU-1. The 4%-inch-diameter drive stores as much as 540M bytes on spiral tracks, has an average access time of 50 msec and can transfer data at 150K bytes per second. Evaluation models should be available this month with a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) for $1,600, with production scheduled to begin in March. OEM price is expected to be $225 in quantities of 1,000. Sony also will offer a duplication service to translate data from tape to the compact disk ROM for as low as $6 each for 10,000 copies. - C. Warren
WANG ENTERS MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY AGREEMENTS WITH CHINA Wang Laboratories Inc., Lowell, Mass., recently extended its Asian
operations with three joint-venture agreements with China valued at $150 million. One venture is for assembly of Wang's Professional microcomputer

20

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Only our Macrolink Intelligent Disk Controller (MIDC) offers full software and disk pack compatibility with the P-E IDC system. Using such advanced features as on-board ECC logic and micro-coded bit slice technology, MIDC corrects errors of up to 11 bits without operating system overhead. And when you plug this single-board controller into your Series 3200 CPU, you

can mix or match four SMD drives from independent suppliers to put up to 2400 Mbytes on line.
MIDC is shipped from stock with installation manual, cables and a one-year limited warranty. Of course, it comes complete with the high reliability, tested performance and attractive
pricing you'd expect from the world leader in P-E interfaces.
Find out about the largest familyofP-Ecompatiblesgoing-

including memory, COMM, tape and more. Call today for prices and details. MACROLINK INC.
1500 North Kellogg Drive, Anaheim, CA 92807. Telephone (714)777-8800.
TWX 910-591-1671. Installed and serviced
nationwide-call for details.
W~a-·ai fniil<CiJC(f@11.H. fnl1"..,-.@
CIRCLE N0.13 ON INQUIRY CARD

Everything for Perkin-Elmer systems, except the computer.

ntroducin ......lru with te appetite.

/

-

When Irwin came out with the Irwin 110 and 210 tape drives, both of which fit IO megabytes of formatted capacity in a DC-IOOOTM cartridge, a lot of people said we bit off more than we could chew.
A lot of people ate their words. Now we're backing you up with the Irwin 125 tape drive-20 megabytes of formatted data on a DC-1000 cartridge.
The Irwin Recipe: Simplicity, Reliability, and Ease of Use.
Because the Irwin 125 has a standard minifloppy interface, it daisy chains right onto your existing controller - without any additional cables, controllers or hardware. Add a simple software driver and an applications program for file transfer or streaming, and the Irwin 125 is ready to go.
And if you are PC DOS compatible we'll provide you with all the software required-without charge!
Irwin's closed-loop servo technology guarantees simpler operation, media interchangeability and greater reliability. With an error rate of 1 in 1011 and MTBF greater than

12,000 hours, the Irwin 125 is one of the most reliable, troublefree back-up drives available anywhere today.
The Biggest Surprise is the Little Price.
Best of all, the cost of the Irwin 125 tape drive is about the same as a floppy disk drive. And it provides from 20 to 40 times the storage capacity on a single cartridge.
For those who don't need 20 megabytes of storage capacity, there's the Irwin 110, a 5 'A-inch half-high and the Irwin 210, a 3 Yi-inch form factor. We put a big byte in every backup we build.
If we've whetted your appetite, perhaps it's time you ordered a 125 tape drive for evaluation.
Irwin Magnetics. We back you up with integrity.
The DC-1000, 185 feet of .150" width tape, is a trademark of the 3M Company.

Irwin Magnetics

TM

2311 Green Road

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105

313/996-3300

TWX 810-223-6050

CIRCLE NO. 14 ON INQUIRY CARD

BREAKPOINTS

in Xiamen, China, a "special economic zone" which allows tax breaks for foreign investors. Wang expects to assemble about 30,000 units there and later to spread its business throughout China. Another agreement calls for a joint venture between Wang and China's Ministry of Electronics Industry, a government organization responsible for computers, to produce low-end Wang VS computers and software. The contract is worth about $50 million over the next three years. The third agreement is to manufacture 50,000 Wang Office Assistant systems in Shanghai over the next five years and for Chinese-language software development. Wang also has a 200,000-squarefoot manufacturing plant in Taiwan.- L. Valigr'a
PEBSYST TUBNS IBM PC INTO COMMUNICATIONS FBONT-END PBOCESSOB The Persyst subsidiary of Emulex Corp., Costa Mesa, Calif., plans to
introduce this month the model DCP-88/VM variable-memory distributed communications processor board. The board adds an extra 8088 microprocessor and as much as 512K bytes of memory to an IBM Corp. PC or compatible for handling such communications tasks as systems network architecture, bisynchronous, 3270 and other mainframe protocols. The $695 board can support up to four multiprotocol communications lines and a high-speed parallel port for a 600-line-per-minute printer. Because the system uses the onboard 8088 and memory, programs for the DCP-88/VM can operate independently of the system processor.-
C. Warren
PEBKIN·ELMEB ADDS LOW-END, HIGH-END SUPEBMINIS Perkin-Elmer Corp. (P-E) plans to bolster its superminicomputer family
early this month with low-end and high-end systems. The low-end "slimline model" 3203, which lists for $16,600, supports as many as 16 users in commercial and scientific environments. The more powerful 3260 MPS can contain as many as 10 processors and is targeted for heavy numbercrunching applications. Both machines run P-E's proprietary OS/32 operating system and should be compatible with the company's other superminicomputers. Prices for the 3260 MPS begin at $185,000. The 3203 and 3260 MPS are slated for March and April availability, respectively.-
D. Bright
NETWORK SEBVEB HOUSES UP TO 14 IBM PC CABD SLOTS California Network Systems, Milpitas, Calif., late last month introduced
the NetServer communications system that provides eight or 14 IBM Corp. PC card slots, with one slot allocated as the bus master. The network server is for use with other new products from the company such as a local-areanetwork interface card and an 80188-based board that supports systems network architecture I synchronous data link control protocols at speeds as high as 9,600 bits per second and that interfaces with I/O

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

23

BREAKPOINTS

channels on the IBM PC, PC/ XT and PC-AT . Software for the board converts an IBM PC or compatible into a gateway to an SNA network. The board sells for $990 and the NetServer, with eight slots, sells for $2,170, both in OEM quantities of 500. The software is $580 in OEM quantities.- L. Valigra

IBEX PUTS NINE-TRACK, l/z-INCH TAPE ON IBM PC/XT, PC-AT SYSTEMS Ibex Computer Corp., Chatsworth, Calif., plans to introduce next month a
low-profile, V:a-inch , reel-to-reel tape subsystem that connects to an IBM Corp . PC/ XT or PC-AT computer system. Priced at $5,950, the TS-100 subsystem relies on a special direct-memory-access controller card that plugs into the PC. Backup software for the system, provided on a floppy disk, is compatible with the PC-DOS operating system syntax . An available controller can match IBM's bus to the industry-standard Pertee interface, so any V:a-inch tape drive can be plugged in. The controller is priced at $2,300 .- C. Warren

SOFTWARE LINKS IBM MAINFRAMES TO DEC VAX MINICOMPU~ERS FlexComm Corp., Seattle, expects to offer software next month that links
IBM Corp . mainframes to Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) VAX superminicomputers and other systems. Called FlexLink, the package reportedly enables transparent communications without regard to the specific machines or operating systems. Prices range from $15,000 for a DEC VAX-11 / 780 link to $40,000 for an IBM 3081 link. A kit for making the physical connections is optional. The company's products now intermix systems from IBM, DEC, Apollo Computer Inc ., Gould Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. The company also is developing links to Honeywell Information Systems Inc. and Data General Corp. minicomputers for late 1985 availability.-D. Bright

DRIVETEC CLOSES DOORS Disk drive manufacturer Drivetec Inc., Milpitas, Calif., ceased operation
in mid-January. The company was preparing for March shipments of a new 3.3M-byte, 5%-inch flexible disk drive but failed to land a large contract with Wang Laboratories Inc. for the drive. After that disappointment, Drivetec's investors declined to put any more money into the 2-year-old company, according to a Drivetec spokesman.- D. Bright

TECH FILES: A QUICK LOOK AT INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS

RANDOM DISK FILES: While one segment of the microcomputer industry is looking for low-power Winchester disk drives, another wants more capacity in a small form factor . To meet this demand, drive manufacturers Matsushita Communications Industrial Co. Ltd., Yokohama, Japan, YE-Data Inc., Tokyo, and Rodime Pie., Glenrothes, Scotland, all are expected to unveil 31/:a-inch drives ranging in capacity from 30M to 50M bytes. Rodime's model

24

MINI -MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

IBMSUJlix:based
system ofthe future is the CIES system of today.
"Let's wait and see what IBM does." Sound familiar? Maybe some of your customers are holding off on a UNIX-based system purchase until IBM introduces its own version. You can't blame them, in a way. Their nightmare goes something like this: The ink isn't even dry on the contract they've signed with you when, suddenly, the new IBM is unveiled in all its glory. What a machine. It supports 12 terminals, or maybe even 40. Not only that, each of the 40 users can run a different job simultaneously. What engineering. The 10 MHz processor performs with no wait states. What a big memory. Up to 2 MB RAM, upgradeable to 8 MB. And get this. A hard disk from 84 to 300-plus MB. Along with a 500 KB floppy and a 20 MB cartridge tape drive for backup. Maybe you should tell them that the systems of their dreams are available from you, today, at an affordable price. Better yet, they've already had two years of on-thejob experience and refinement engineering. They're the 680/100 and 680/200 from CIE Systems. And if they say they're more comfortable with a big company, tell them that
multi-national C. Itoh & Company,' Ltd., with $60-billion in sales and over 125 years of experience, is behind CIES. Just write or call for the whole story. CIE Systems, Inc., 2515 McCabe Way, Irvine, CA 92713-6579. (714) 660-1800.

'" CIES 680 is a Trademark of CIE Systems, Inc. UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories
® IBM is a Registered Tradema rk of International Business Machines Corp. © 1984 CIE Systems, Inc.

~ A C./TOH ELECTRONICS COMPANY

CIESystems
tttjfilltr-A~

CIES SYSTEMS SALES OFFICES

Southwest
2515 McCabe Way Irvine, CA 92713 (714) 660-1800

Northeast Executive Mews, M64,
1930 East Marlton Pike Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 (609) 424 -6925

North Central 1 Cross Roads of Commerce
Suite 305 Rolling Meadows, IL 60008 (312) 392-1331

South Central 17311 Dallas Parkway, Suite 230 Dallas, TX 75248 (214) 248-8355

Southeast 4501 Circle 75 Parkway Suite 1190 A Atlanta, GA 30339 (404) 953-1876

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 15 ON INQUIRY CARD

New England 400 Amherst St., Space #41 Nashua, NH 03063 1603) 881-7031

Northwest 2700 Augustine Dr., Suite 238 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408) 748·0452
25

MORE LESS
OUTPUT INPUT

The Benson 8-90 gives you quick, accurate output on plain or clay-coated paper. It's quiet enough to keep right next to your drawing board.

Benson's B-90 is the only convenient , high-resolution plotter.
This dry-toner technology monochromatic plotter gives you great resolution-240 DPl-and it's perfect for a quick, hassle-free print-out of your latest revision.
The B-90 is not an electrostatic plotter. Impressions are made when the thermal head heats the smudge-
free ink-coated polymer on a roll. You can plot on plain or clay- coated paper, roll or fanfold; whichever you prefer for penciling in your changes.
The B-90 does not have to be level to operate, and it's lightweight. There are no chemicals to spill in transport. So it's perfect for field work.
Benson's B-90 makes it easy to get more output-when and where you need it.

How much do you invest to get more? Only$6995.

The B-90 requires less from you:

· Less money. Thousands of dollars

less than its closest competitor. And

supplies are less expensive,

too-since the 8-90 uses plain or

clay- coated paper (a lot

_ ___._ _ __ _ _ _..

cheaper than electrographic paper), no toner, and wide efficient rolls of inked polymer.

· Less attention. The 8-90 has

Benson reliability built-in. We've

designed and produced it to

the same strict standards as

our other plotters. And there are

no toner pumps or complex

drive mechanisms. The Benson

8-90 is very quiet. You can

rely on the B-90 to give you

trouble-free, unobtrusive operation.

This hand just changed the toner on

"their" electrostatic

· Less mess. You could rub the inked

plotter.

polymer roll all over a white shirt and

it wouldn't leave a mark-the ink

won't leave the polymer film until

heated by the thermal head. There

arennoohtoosneesrs. ,Anlloypouumdpos,isand_ __,__ _ _ _ _ _ _..

change the inked roll cartridge ... in seconds,
without getting anything on your hands.

· Less hassle. The 8-90 comes with a standard Centronics 8-bit parallel interface, or you can use the standard Benson parallel interface or Versatec emulator.

Get more-for less. The B-90 is ..__ __

the right choice for quick, trouble-free output.

This hand just changed the

- benson
Plotters that Perform. ·:~..,,, ..

smudge-free inked roll on the Benson B-90. Guess which hand can go right back to work?

2690 Orchard Park Way . P.O. Box 32059 San Jose, CA 95152-2059 Telephone: 408-945-1000. Telex: 176887 Answerback: BENSON SNJ
IN EUROPE: Z.I. Petites Haies 1, rue Jean Lemoine. 94015 Creteil. France Telephone (1) 898.92.05. Telex: 210 845
©1985 Benson, Inc. 8·90 is a trademark of Benson, Inc.
CIRCLE NO. 16 ON INQUIRY CARD

BREAKPOINTS

is expected to use the Small Computer Systems Interface.-C. Warren

To match the enhanced transfer rate of l.8M or 2.4M bytes per second in the Eagle disk drive from Fujitsu America Inc ., San Jose, Calif., MDB Systems Inc., Orange, Calif., has developed the model MLSI-DKll Storage Module Device (SMD) interface, capable of handling data rates up to 2.5M bytes per second. The $2,330 controller has a 22-bit address architecture, allowing direct address and transfer of as much as 4M bytes of data. It is designed to be transparent to Digital Equipment Corp.'s operating systems and can accommodate two physical drives and four logical drives. The controller is expected to be available in quantity this quarter.-C. Warren

MICRO FILES: Atari Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., demonstrated its new ST series of Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh-lookalike computers at the recent Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The computers use the same processor chip as Macintosh and employ internal software programming that mimics the Macintosh's interactive capabilities. Dubbed the "Macalikes" by show attendees, the ST microcomputers are priced from $399 to $599 and should be available in the second quarter of this year.-S. Shaw

CHIP FILES: Harris Corp., Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc. have submitted the first applications for copyright protection of microprocessors under the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act that was signed into law last November. Under the application procedures established by the U.S. Copyright Office, each company was required to submit a $20 filing fee, four copies of their chips and a visual representation of the mask designs, either a photograph, plastic overlay or composite plot of each design layer. The companies' applications are currently under review at the Copyright Office, which is required under the new law to either accept or reject the applications within 60 days . A decision is expected in early March.- S. Shaw

NOTES FROM OVERSEAS: Pacific Telesis, one of the first Bell Operating Companies to develop a yen for foreign waters, is going to take the plunge into Britain's value-added networks business. Step one is the acquisition of the year-old U.K. electronic mailbox start-up Kensington Datacom for an estimated $1.2 million. Step two will be eliminating the software bugs Kensington has been having with its service. The takeover is Pacific Telesis' first in an expected series of acquisitions and joint ventures.-M. O'Gara

Taiwan's Multitech Industrial Corp., one of the country's largest manufacturers and distributors of computer equipment, has become the exclusive Taiwanese value-added reseller for AT&T Corp.'s 3B series of 32-bit, UNIX-based computers. Multitech chairman Stan Shih says he expects Taiwanese sales of the 3B2, 3B5 and 3B20 computers to reach $3 million by the year-end. In order to support the series, Multitech plans to

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

27

BREAKPOINTS

develop a Chinese version of UNIX-the world's first, according to Shih. Multitech has already paid $43,000 for a source license from AT&T, says Shih, which gives Multitech the legal right to undertake modifications necessary in the conversion process . An additional fee of $25,000 will be paid to AT&T for what Shih calls "unlimited" copy rights . Multitech's version of UNIX will eventually become an independent product, says Shih, able to run on computers outside the 3B series. It will also be able to accept English language input, he says. The firm also plans to develop a wide range of Chinese-language utilities for UNIX.-C. Hintermeister

The second of three phases of Japan's Fifth Generation Computer Project is about to begin officially, although the research is actually already under way. The research is to continue until 1991, and has $11 million in backing from the Japanese government. Kazuhiro Fuchi, director of Japan's Institute for New Generation Computer Technology, the organization established by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry to supervise artificial intelligence research, said the first phase, which officially ends in March, produced a prototype relational database machine for rapid execution of multiple operations. The second phase involves testing parallel tasking functions and translating information from Japanese to English.-I. Kakehashi

The French are developing their own 200-megaflop supercomputer, scheduled for completion by 1988. The project unit has been christened Marisis and will be a collaborative effort shared by Groupe Bull, Sintra, the French National Research Institutes and the universities of Nice and Rennes. The initial project calls for the development this year of a 50-megaflop version, dubbed Isis, followed in 1987 by a low-end 30-megaflop version, code-named Maria. Marisis itself will consist of one to seven Isis units run by an operating system called Mariane.- M. O'Gar 'i,
Japanese manufacturers have stepped up production of 32-bit microprocessors after watching the warm reception given to sample shipments of Motorola Japan's MC68020 and National Semiconductor Japan's 32000 Series. NEC Corp. expects to have its own 32-bit devices in production in 1987. Hitachi Ltd. has already shown prototypes of its 32-bit, Motorola-compatible devices, and plans to start production late in 1986. Hitachi is working with Motorola on a second-source contract to build the MC68020. Fujitsu Ltd. recently expanded its second-source contract with Intel Corp. for production of the 80386, which is to be ready by mid-1985. Sales of 32-bit processors could exceed $100 million in 1987, according to industry sources. Asked about the threat from domestic competition, a spokesman for Motorola Japan observed that most of the devices are two years away, and added, "We don't intend to just wait for them to catch up ." - I. Kakehashi

28

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Viasyn (v-1' uh sin) n. [L., uia, a way or road; Cir., syn, together or integrated], forrnerly Cornpul)ro. 1. n. a twelve year old n1anufacturer ofmicroprocessor systems, subsysten1s and components, notab 1y 1n ulti -u s er corn puter s used in business, science and i n d u st r y. 2. a dj . r e 1ate d to Viasyn, fonnerly CompuPro, quality, i.e., possessing extraordinary reliability, performance,
modularity and ruggedness. See Co1npuPro (previous name).

V/ASYll
3506 Breakwater Court Hayward, California 94545 (800) 367-7816 (Outside California) (415) 786-0909 (California)

Viasyn is a trademark, and CompuPro is a registered trademark, of Viasyn Corporation .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1980

CIRCLE NO. 17 ON INQUIRY CARD

29

Take a nice, long drive with NEC.

NEC 8" Winchesters have twice the industry standard MTBF.
Is 24,000 hours too much to ask?
We don't think so. But then we're the only disk drive producer who could dare ask this question. Because we're the only one who has a disk drive MTBF of 24,000 hours. And not just in the lab but proven in the field.
We did it on our 8" Winchester drive. Which makes our 8" Winchesters two to three times as reliable as anybody else's.
You can expect superior reliability from NEC drives in any size. And that includes our 51/411 and our new 31/211 drives.
We go to greater lengths in building and testing.

NEC has been designing disk drives

for over 25 years. We were one of

the first to develop magnetic record-

ing devices way back in 1959. Today,

we're a worldwide company with

8 billion dollars a year in sales.

Obviously we're here to stay.

And we have the resources to give

you the support you need to stay

competitive. Along with the drives. Not

just today. But also down

the road.

Isn't it time you got

started with NEC? Just

call 1-800-343-4418. (In

Massachusetts call

617-264-8635.) Or send

us the coupon.

And find out why

more and more

OEM's are say-

NEC 9" Winchester

ing, "NEC

has a 15 millisecond seek time .

and me:'

~1

NEC 8" Winchesters store up to 167.7MB .

NEC 8" flex ib le

drives are compact

and have 24000

MTBF.

NEC 511·" half-height

Winchesters provide

12.91-25.83MB .

NEC 5 1'4'' floppies

offer up to 1.6MB

capacity.

NEC 3 112" floppy drives are ready for delivery.

Our drives are more reliable because we take extra care. From the initial design through manufacturing and testing.
One reason is our "zero-defects" policy. The goal is nothing less than perfection. That's why every NEC drive is subjected to a 24 hour burn-in before testing. And our floppy disk drives are assembled automatically.

AMD Please send me more info.rmation on:

Floppy Drives

Winchesters

0 31/z''

0 8"

O 51/4' half-height 0 5 1/4' half-height

~EC

0 8"

09"

Name _ _ _ _ _._ _ __ Title
CAodmdrpeasnsy_ _ _ _ _ _ __

Mf

n-111-.... .

City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

Sta te _ _ _ Zip _ _ _ ~J1~ ~~o;r;;,~th~~:ft;t~':'e~~~c

Te l (

Department 1610

Boxborough , MA 0 1719

CIRCLE NO. 18 ON INQUIRY CARD

COMDEX brings you the whole computer industry under one roof -hardware, software and everything else you need
to improve the profitability of your business.
~~mD~}~~7WINTER '85 March 21 · 24, 1985 Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, California
Presented by THE INTERF~E 6ROUP. loc.. world's leading producer of computer conlerences and expos1t1ons including The Nationwide COMPUTER SHOWCASE EXPOs. COMDEX /Winter. COMDEX / Spring, COMDEX/Fall. COMOEX /Europe, COMDEX 1n JAPAN . INTERFACE. FEDERAL OP EXPO & CONFERENCE and THE BYTE COMPUTER SHOWS . ' 300 First Avenue. Needham. MA 02194 · (617) 449-6600

32 -

CIRCLE NO. 19 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

.....,.
BP-2000 HIGH SPEED BAND PRINTER
(

M-100L MATRIX PRINTER

B-600 MEDIUM SPEED BAND PRINTER

:\ ¥~

.· FOR THE j\.RTS

·

I~

8010 MATRIX PRINTER
/h ./
:.·tt.:~::-!f.."::::;!i~!..!:.!:; ===~=.~:·!, ·l··-···· ··-M·pll.-·hlpoCrn.
.. ::-~~,=.,:·:·~:ir t:l:!!:!.~..,. ..-~·~-~...
~!~.~·...:-:n::.."..:=:'.:·~-~ -
· · - - · - - - · · .. . - ... -111...
:=.:..w.-..,";!: 1~"...:..i-:.~.~:m:..u,":1:.:;::" ..
~..!:: ::::. i":.'.~"::·..:. '::.,":;:r'!.--.-:::.:·.· :·::- !·.:-..."..'.!..'.!u::..::·:~.·:,-'.-""''._. .__,,...._. -..u.,., ·-.,·-.·
. .i ... -..J 1. - , _ . - u ... -1·. I 1-1.& ' ' " ' ·
~Th::;-"
~:.~ \
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DP-35 DAISYWHEEL PRINTER

8020 MATRIX PRINTER

DP-55 DAISYWHEEL PRINTER

CIRCLE NO. 20 ON INQUIRY CARD
1-=nl DataP.roducts printers.
~ Noboay puts ideas on paper so many ways.
DATAPRODUCTS CORP. ,6200CANOGAAVE.,WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91365. (818) 887-3924. IN EUROPE, 136-138 HIGH ST. , EGHAM , SURREY, TW 209HL ENGLAND.

Why Not Both?
In 1982, Storage Technology introduced the industry's first low-cost 6250 bpi tape subsystem . Operating at 50 ips with a full start/stop capability, the 2920 established a new price/ performance standard for 'h-inch magnetic tape drives.
Now we've enhanced this 2920with an added 100 ips streaming capability. Combined with the 2920's existing start/stop capability, it makes this device the most versatile, low-cost tape subsystem on the market today.
The 2920's innovative mechanical design coupled with an extensive LSI implementation provides outstanding subsystem rel iability and simplicity-of-service. It performs equally well whether off-loading a disk drive or executing a sort/merge. As a start/stop device. the 2920 features a very fast 5 ms start time. As a streamer, the 2920 will back-up a 100 MByte disk in 2.7 minutes using less than one reel of tape.
For a well rounded tape subsystem that can handle all of your tape needs-at a price you can afford -with performance and quality you can appreciate. contact OEM Marketing at Storage Technology Corporation . (303) 673-4066, and inquire about our 2920 Tape Subsystem's new dual-speed feature. Or write Storage Technology Corporation . OEM Marketin g, Mail Drop 3N , Louisville, Colorado 80028.

The 2920 OEM Tape Subsystem Features:
· Dual-Density 6250/1600 bpi
· 50 ips Start/Stop
· 100 ips Streaming
· Automatic Threading
·CMOS LSI

CIRCLE NO. 21 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO \NDRLD
NEWS

Prime answers DEC
wilh 4·MIPS supennini

The Model 9955 claims performance comparable to the VAX 8600. Delivery is scheduled to start this month, two months ahead of VAX.
David Bright, Assistant Editor
Responding to Digital Equipment Corp. 's (DEC) announced price/pe rformance standard-setter, the VAX 8600 superminicomputer, Prime Computer Inc. has introduced a 4-millioninstructions-per-second (MIPS) machine. The Natick, Mass ., company's new 9955 model incorporates faster emitter coupled logic (ECL) circuits and several other improvements to better its previous high-end 9950 system 's performance by as much as 60 percent .
The VAX 8600 is about the same size as the VAX-111780, but is said to provide as much as 4.2 times the older machine's performance .

At the same time , it costs $20,000 less. The $351,000 price tag includes 4M bytes of RAM , a 315M-byte Winchester disk drive and an enhanced
.I
·I

Although both machines use the same size chassis, Prime's new 9955 superminicomputer outperforms the 9950 that it replaces by as much as 60 percent. The 9950 can be upgraded to the 9955 for $45 ,000 .
version of the Primos virtual memory operating system.
DEC won't give a performance rating for the 8600, but industry sources put it at 4 MIPS. Prime's 9955 should appeal to end users and value-added resellers (VARs) who want comparable performance at a significantly lower price, says product marketing director Wendy Wheeler.
The entry-level VAX 8600, however, includes 12M bytes of RAM , a 456M-byte Winchester disk drive and provides 4G bytes of virtual memory , compared to 512M bytes on the Prime 9955. While DEC is scheduled to begin 8600 shipments in April , Prime plans to get a two-month jump by starting shipments this month.
Despite the revamped price/performance structure and early shipments,

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

35

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

Wheeler expects Prime's target customers to remain split evenly between business and scientific environments, with 80 percent going to end users and 20 percent going to VARs. About half of Prime's $600 million business comes from outside the United States.
Five-stage pipelined processor
The 9955 replaces the 9950 , which was the company's biggest revenue producer. Like the 9950, the 9955 employs 64K-bit RAM chips to support up to 16M bytes of main memory . Wheeler says Prime won't use 256K-bit

RAMs to boost memory for about a year, when the chips should be more affordable. As on the 9950, the 9955's five-stage pipelined processor overlaps five instructions in each 80-nsec cycle: cache access, instruction decode, effect ive address formation, virtual memory mapping and instruction execution. Time is saved with the processing of several operations at once.
Much of the improved performance of the 9955 is obtained through the use of more advanced ECL, which cuts the main memory access time from 84 nsec to 58 nsec. In addition , a bank of six

Motorola Inc. ECL Macrocells e nables the system to perform multiplication in less than half the time of any other Prime system .
Other performance enhancements include an increased cache memory, the addition of branch cache memory, a la rger high-speed address buffer , soft error recovery , quad- precision floating point capability and operating system refinements. Due to the hardware and software refurbishment , the new system supports 254 terminals , nearly twice the 9950's capacity of 128 te rminals.

DIC VAX 86001 The - · supennlnl standanl

The top-of-the-line VAX 8600 superminicomputer replaces the 7-year-old VAX-11 /780 superminicomputer as Digital Equipment Corp.'s flagship product. DEC officials continually point out that the new machine (formally code-named "Venus ") delivers as much as 4.2 times the performance of the 11 /780, which until now has served as the de facto industry standard . While DEC rates the 11 /780 (which it still sells) at just over 1 million instructions per second (MIPS) , the company has yet to provide an actual MIPS performance rating for the 8600. "Our customers want transactions accomplished per day, not instructions per second ," explains president Ken Olsen . Industry sources put the performance rating of the 8600 at a little more than 4 MIPS.
To reach banks and other customers in high-transaction environments , DEC is promoting the 8600 as a key part of the VAXcluster, which loosely links as many as 16 VAX processors or hierarchical storage controllers . In several areas , such as print and batch queueing and file sharing , the VAXcluster performs much like a distributed system. Bruce Ryan, manager of the VAX marketing group , contends that a VAXcluster can equal the performance of IBM Corp. 's 3084 high-end mainframe at a much lower price . A $6 .7 million VAXcluster comprising seven 8600s, one 11 /780 and 40G bytes of disk storage provides the same power- 30 times that of a single 11 /780- as a $10 million IBM 3084 configuration with 40G bytes of disk storage, says Ryan .
Although the 8600 is the first VAX to use emitter coupled logic chips , four-stage pipelining and a write-back cache memory , it incorporates the VAX instruction set and thus is compatible with all other VAXes , including the MicroVAX microc;;omputer, according to DEC officials . The 8600 has a dedicated memory bus and an optional , second input/output

bus to speed high-volume applications. The superminicomputer requires VMS 4.0, the latest version of DEC's proprietary operating system .
Despite its increased power, the 8600 is about the same size as the 11 /780 (and its faster sister VAX, the 11 /785 , introduced last April) and is said to consume just slightly more electricity.
Configured as the basis of a VAXcluster, an entrylevel system with 12M bytes of memory, a hierarchical storage controller, star coupler, VMS and DECnet licenses, a 456M-byte disk drive, a tape drive and a console terminal lists for $576,000. A processor with 4M bytes of memory and VMS is $351 ,000.
Although DEC had been criticized for delaying the new system's announcement by two years , Olsen says the system was actually no more than six months late , which , he jokingly adds, is right on schedule for him : " My wife says I'm six months late in every project I start at home ." Nevertheless, customers will have to wait until at least April-nearly six months from the product's formal introduction- for volume shipments to begin.
Meanwhile, DEC is facing increasing pressure from IBM. IBM recently filled in its mainframe line with two new computers: the dual-processor 4381 Group 3 and the 3083 CX, which is the 308X-family's entry-level processor. The 4381 Group 3 is said to better the previous top-of-the-line 4300 processor's performance by as much as 70 percent. The 3083 CX can be field-upgraded to all other processors in the family to enhance performance tenfold . With respective prices of $825,000 and $830,000, the two new mainframes fall into the high end of the VAX 8600's price range. In addition, Big Blue has lowered 4361 Group 4 and 5 prices by 10 percent. A Group 5, which competes in performance with the $195,000 VAX-11 /785, now sells for $180,000.

36

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

The central processor's bipolar cache memory has been quadrupled to 64K bytes, resulting in an access time of 40 nsec . The cache memory secondguesses the processor by storing frequently used data and program instructions within the processor, instead of in main memory. The information the processor is looking for can be found in the cache in more than· 90 percent of all cases, thereby increasing system efficiency .
The use of branch-cache memory is a technique borrowed from the mainframe world. The IK-byte branch cache augments the pipeline structure by acting as a second type of instruction prefetch. By predicting program branching, it helps to make sure that the correct instruction is in the pipeline .
The 512-word segment table lookaside buffer, which is four times the size of the 9950 buffer, stores frequently used virtual-to-physical address translations so that the operating system can find the necessary physical address 99 percent of the time.
When a parity error is detected , the soft-error recovery function reloads the problem location from memory

YAX.a THI OLD AllD THI lllW

Logic
Word length (bits)
CPU cycle time (nsec)
MIPS
Maximum memory (Mbytes)
Virtual memory (G bytes)
Cache memory (K bytes)
Price

11/780 Schottky TIL 32
200
1.1 32
4
8
$145,000 (w/2M by1es memory, VMS)

11/785 Schottky TIL 32
133
1.6 32
4
32
$195,000 (w/2M by1es memory, VMS)

8600 ECL 32
80
32
4
16 write-back
$351 ,000 (w/4M by1es memory, VMS)

'DEC has not given a MIPS rating to the 8600 but says the system's performance can be as much as 4.2 times that of the 111780.

without halting the system. The quad-precision floating point
capability is built into the instruction set. Prime's FORTRAN compiler has been enhanced to take advantage of the quad-precision feature. The other machines in the 50 series achieve this capability through software , thereby maintaining software compatibility be-

tween the new system and other systems in the group .
The YAX 8600 uses some similar performance-enhancing features as the 9955, such as four-stage pipelining and an 8-byte lookahead buffer. but officials at both companies stress that relative throughput is the only true performance qualifier.

Faster operating system

COMPARING PRIMI HIGH-lllD SYSTIMS

Logic
Word length (bits) CPU cycle time (nsec) MIPS Maximum memory (MbytH) Main memory access time (nsec) Virtual memory (Mbytes) Bipolar cache memory (1K bytes) 1/0 bandwidth (M bytes per sec) Price

9950 ECL
32 80 2.5 16 84
512 16 9 $371,000 (w/4M by1es memory, 315M-by1e disk drive, Primos)

9955 (replaces 9950) advanced ECL, Motorola ECL Macrocells 32
80
4.0 16
58
512
64
9
$351,000 (w/4M by1es memory, 315M-iby1e disk drive, Primos)

To ensure software compatibility

among machines, all Prime 50 series

users will receive a free copy of the

new Primos 19.4 operating system that

the 9955 requires. Primos 19.4 includes

programmer productivity aids and im-

provements that boost FORTRAN

performance even on the older ma-

chines.

Although the new system is more

powerful than the unit it replaces , it

uses the same chassis, which measures

53 by 53 by 35 inches. By swapping

CPU boards , the 9950 can be upgraded

to the 9955 for $45 ,000 .

While Prime competes against IBM

Corp. in the CAD/CAM area , Prime's

general strategy is to coexist with Big

Blue. In line with that strategy, the

company has simultaneously intro-

duced Prime/SNA, a series of subsys-

tems that tie Prime systems to IBM 's

Systems Network Architecture and a

Performer terminal required to run the

SNA products.

D

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

37

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

CAD/CAM leaders team up
to expand market share

Lori Valigra, Senior Editor
IBM Corp. 's march into the computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) market is becoming increasingly intrusive. The company already ranks second in direct system sales, and now it is signing on its top competitors as value-added resellers (VARs) of IBM equipment. IBM stands to increase its market penetration by the move, and its VARs will benefit from IBM's brand name.

tends , is the $15 billion scientific and engineering computer market, into which CAD/CAM systems are sold. That means IBM is going after the main customer base of large minicomputer makers-Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) , Data General Corp. (DG) and Hewlett-Packard Co. "CAD/CAM is a pawn being used by IBM to win the scientific/engineering market chess game ," explains Foundyller, "and the VA Rs are the key to the kingdom."

McDonnell Douglas is reselling IBM 4361 computers and 5080 terminals with its own Unigraphics II CAD/CAM software.

The newest VAR is McDonnell Douglas Corp. 's Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology Co., St. Louis , Mo. That company is part of the McDonnell Douglas Automation Co . (McAuto), which ranks fifth in the CAD/CAM market , according to figures from Daratech Inc. , a Cambridge, Mass . , CAD/CAM market-research concern . McDonnell Douglas joins top-ranking Computervision Corp. and General Electric's fourth-ranking Calma Co. as IBM VARs.
IBM looks for a bigger prize
But the symbiosis of IBM and its competition should lead IBM beyond the $2 .8 billion CAD/CAM market , projects Daratech president Charles M. Foundyller. The real prize, he con-

Foundyller expects IBM to make VA Rs out of as many of its competitors as possible in its effort to get IBM equipment into scientific and engineering environments. Historically , IBM has sold "closed ," complete systems , and thus customers wanting to add value turned to DG and others for bare-bones computers. Now that LBM has made its equipment attractive to VARs, Foundyller says, engineers will begin to specify IBM's brand more and more .
The VAR agreement , which is for the United States only , although the two companies are working to extend that to other countries, calls for McDonnell Douglas to integrate, market and install systems for e11d users, and to train them. The company will pur-

chase IBM 's 4361 minicomputers and mainframes, 5080 raster terminals, mass-storage devices, operating systems and utilities. To those IBM products, McDonnell Douglas will add its Unigraphics II mechanical CAD/CAM software, which runs under IBM's VM/CMS operating system . The company plans to debut its system at next month's National Design Engineering Show in Chicago.
Sales should double
Although McDonnell Douglas jumped to its fifth-place market position by reselling CAD/CAM systems based on DEC and DG computers, it's expecting the IBM products to help double sales over the next two years. McDonnell Douglas' Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology Co. was expected to reach $105 million in revenues by the end of last year, a 50-percent increase over 1983. The company planned to deliver 174 CAD/ CAM systems and about 900 graphics workstations last year.
The target market for McDonnell Douglas' systems is $50-million-ormore companies with IBM equipment installed, and those needing discrete manufacturing applications.
"We expect IBM to emerge as the leading CAD/CAM supplier in two years, during which time our business will double," says John J. Clancy, a senior vice president at McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas will continue to market the DEC and DG products, but it is not certain that the IBM equipment will supplant the DEC and DG products. Buyers develop a brand loyalty and generally stick to it , notes George F. Meister Jr., senior vice president and general manager of the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Technology Co. "The customer many times has a preset notion of what he wants. If that's IBM, then we were not in the competition until [now . And if the preset notion holds true], we won't see much migration from DEC or Data General equipment to IBM. "
Daratech's Foundyller agrees that customers have a brand-name preference, but he says price considerations also are important. For example, he says McDonnell Douglas will quote the

38

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

IBM RAllKS SICOND IN THI CAD/CAM MARKIT
(1984 PROJECTED CAD/CAM, CAE SALES- U.S.MARKET)

550 500 450 400

350

Izll
0

300

:::i

...I

i... 250

200

150

100 50

AUTOTAOL 2.6%
DAISY 2.9%
MENTOR 3%

SOURCE: DARA TECH INC.

price for the brand requested by a customer, but also will supply a quote for a more economic brand. "They have converted some people," from brand preferences to more economical systems, says Foundyller.

offering more than IBM in service , support and training.
Like McDonnell Douglas, DEC is touting more comprehensive offerings as its best defense against IBM. DEC has gained promin.ence in CAD/CAM

mostly through its resellers. The com-

pany claims it gives resellers a wide

choice of low-end to high-end comput-

ers , all of which are compatible.

"Long-term, we 'll concentrate on a

narrow product line, for example

CAD, and offer one system [solution]

from small to large machines," says

Kenneth H. Olsen, DEC president.

Late last year , DEC rented the Hynes

auditorium in Boston to show 8,000

customers how its computers work

over networks and run common soft-

ware. Olsen says that is one way to

combat IBM's advances. "IBM does

not have the spectrum we do ," he

claims.

IBM has moved into the industrial-

automation market with a series of

products ranging from microcomputers

to mainframes, not 'an of which are

compatible. One recent example in the

low-end CAD/CAM market was the

introduction of the PC/ES engineering

and scientific version of the PC, which

runs PC-DOS. It runs different pro-

grams than IBM's earlier laboratory

computer, the System 9000, based on a

Motorola Inc. MC68000 processor and

running either the XENIX UNIX-like

operating system or an IBM-proprie-

tary operating system (MMS, Decem-

ber 1984, Page 38).

The IBM-based McDonnell Douglas

system is scheduled for delivery next

quarter. The 5080 terminal initially

will be driven by host system software.

In the fourth quarter, McDonnell

Douglas plans to incorporate a high-

level interface module to support the

5080. The company also plans to con-

vert other CAD/CAM programs for

use on IBM systems. Those include

solids, robotics and printed circuit-

board design packages.

0

Price seems high
Analysts question the comparatively high price of a McDonnell Douglas system. The price for a four-terminal system with disk drives, a plotter and McDonnell Douglas' Unigraphics II software-$600,000-is about double that of IBM's CAD/CAM offering, a 4300 series system with four terminals and running the CADAM Express interactive 3-D computer-graphics augmented design and manufacturing program. But the company claims it is

UNISOFT IS PORTING SYSTEM V TO MC68020
Motorola Inc., Tempe, Ariz., is working with Unisoft Systems to transport UniSoft's UniPlus+ version of UNIX System V to Motorola 's new MC68020 chip family. The chips involved are the MC68020 32-bit microprocessor , the MC68851 paged-memory management unit and the MC68881 floating-point coprocessor. Motorola will use the resulting system as a demonstration model. UniSoft is bringing in Silicon Valley Software , Palo Alto, Calif., to provide FORTRAN and Pascal compilers for the system .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

39

EMULEX'S LEVEUGE GIVES COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS
TOTAL SCSI CONTROL.

INTRODUCING MEDALIST, CHAMPION AND nnEIST
With Emulex's wide range of SCSI controllers for both disk and tape, you now have the leverage you need to boost real 1/0 power and flexibility into your system 's design.
Our compact Medalist, Champion and Titleist controllers give you this leverage through a long list of high-performance features . Features everyone has learned to expect - and get from Emulex.
Our SCSI-based microcontrollers offer you a convenient vehicle to build , update, mix or interchange different types of peripheral storage devices to your mini/micro computer systems. With Emulex's unique commitment to full SCSI development and support, the Medalist, Champion, and Titleist take advantage of the widest range of advanced SCSI enhancements. Enhancements like arbitration , disconnect/reselect, and full SCSI Copy
All of these powerful controllers include the following highperformance features that give you extra leverage. · Custom MOS VLSI chips that
increase reliability, reduce power consumption and lower costs. ·A 14 KB data buffer to ensure high performance in disk and tape operations. · Support of two ST506, or ESDI drives and one )4" tape drive. · Automatic self-test as part of each power up. ·On-board operation configuration switches. · Fault and activity LEDs. · An on-board front panel con-
*Tit1eist MT02 requires +12 VDC .

nectorfordrive status indications. · Medalist and Champion con-
trollers perform defect media management. ·Only +5 VDC power required~ Now let's take a closer look at the specifics of each new Emu lex controller.

nnEIST TAPE/SCSI
CONTROLLER.

MEDALIST ST506/SCSI DISK CONTROLLER.
The Medalist combines SCSI with the popular ST506 Winchester disk drive interface. This gives you a wide selection of full or half-height 5)4" disks to choose from , varying in capacity from 5 to 140 megabytes. The Medalist also supports 16 Read/Write heads.
CHAMPION ES DI/SCSI DISK CONTROLLER. With Champion , you can interface two serial-mode ESDI 5)4" Winchester drives to the SCSI bus. These large capacity drives support up to 10 MBits-persecond disk transfer rates, higher bit densities per track and range from 110 to 380 megabytes. The Champion also features hard and soft sectoring capability
CIRCLE NO. 22 ON INQUIRY CARD

Titleist is a high-performance,
W' streaming tape controller
compatible with the QIC-24 stan-
dard tape data format. The versatile Titleist controller has been quality engineered to interface
to most of today's popular )4" streaming tape drives of various capacities.

OTHER EMULEl/SCSI PRODUCTS THAT ADD TO YOUR LEVERAGE.

Emulex/SCSI host adapters are available for 0-Bus and Unibus systems, IEEE 796 Multibus systems, the IBM PC, PC/XT and PC/AT and "compatibles '.' Userdeveloped SCSI host adapters developed by other vendors are also viable for use with Emu lex/ SCSI controllers.

GET YOUR MAXIMUM SCSI LEVERAGE FROM EMULEX.

With Emulex's unparalleled com-

mitment to full SCSI develop-

ment and support, and with our

wide range of products, you

have the leverage you need for

full SCSI control.

For detailed information on

Emulex/SCSI products, call

toll-free (800) 854 -7112. In Cal-

ifornia (714) 662-5600. Or

a ewrite Emulex Corporation, 3545

Harbor Blvd ,

P 0 . Box 6725,

®

Costa Mesa,

EMULEX CA 92626.

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

H EARD ON THE HILL

Tax simclification _plan Is comp ex for high tech

Stephen J. Shaw
Washington Editor
Like most political compromises , there's a little to like, a lot to hate and several unresolved questions in the Treasury Department's plan to overhaul and simplify the federal tax system .
The announcement of the plan in late November by Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan set off a mad scramble among trade associations, economists and corporate tax planners to assess the impact of the proposed changes. Although opinions vary on how the plan will affect different segments of the computer industry, there are at least two points on which everyone agrees: The plan , billed as a " tax simplification" measure, is anything but simple , and it promises to alter profoundly the way computer and other high-technology companies make their basic business decisions.
Treasury's plan is "a collection of about 22 trial balloons," as characterized by one computer industry executive. Released without the strong support of President Reagan, the plan's sweeping provisions are likely to undergo extensive revisions as politicians and industrialists react . In the House of Representatives, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D.-111., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , has already indicated that he will oppose any tax legislation that does not raise additional revenue to reduce the federal deficit. Those with special interests, including computer industry associations and company executives, have stated that they endorse the concept of a simpler tax system , but do not want to lose existing deductions and credits.
Specifically, the Treasury proposal calls for the following modifications to the U.S. tax system:
· Reduction of the maximum corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 35 percent
· Increase of the capital gains tax

rate from 20 percent to 35 percent
· Elimination of the 60-percent exemption on profits from long-term capital gains
· Elimination of the Accelerated Cost Recovery Schedule that allows businesses to depreciate investments on equipment more quickly
· Elimination of the investmenttax credit that allows companies to deduct up to 10 percent of the cost of new equipment
The plan's most obviously attractive features for the computer industry a re the reduction of the overall corporate tax rates and the retention of the R&D tax credit . In endorsing the plan , Vico E . Henriques , president of the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association, says that these two provisions will redress a tax imbalance imposed on high-technology companies. " For too long, major high-tech companies have suffered under high effective taxes. We've been paying more than our share , while at the same time our products were contributing to productivity in every economic sector. The Treasury proposal would move the nation toward a much more fair tax system ," Henriques says .
On the minus side , the increase in the capital-gains tax could dry up venture-capital funds needed by start-up computer companies. The tax rate on capital gains had been reduced from a whopping 49-percent rate in the early '70s to its present 20-percent level. This downward trend is credited with raising the amount of investment capital available to fund new companies, from approximately $50 million in 1977 to $4.1 billion in 1983 , according to estimates prepared by the American Electronics Association (AEA) .
" The capital gains differential is the very lifeblood of America's high-risk, high-tech companies. Not only does it free growth funds and make these companies more attractive as investments, but by stimulating the growth of job-creating , tax-paying companies ,

it helps reduce the federal deficit ," comments Dean 0. Morton, AEA chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co.
In opposing the capital-gains provisions on behalf of the industry association, Morton points out that the 1978 reduction in the tax rate allowed venture-capital money to boost employment prior to the cut. To reverse the downward trend of capital gains taxes now , he says , would jeopardize the continued growth of the electronics industry at a time when U .S. trade deficits are increasing sharply .
The proposed increase in capitalgains taxes is slightly offset by allowing the rate of inflation to be considered in computing the tax. For instance , investors would be able to reduce their taxable gains on stock sales by deducting the amount of inflation during the time they held the stock. But the amount saved will be relatively insignificant when compared to the increased tax liability. "Despite the inflation indexing, Treasury is simply going in the wrong direction in its treatment of capital gains," comments Stephanie Biddle , vice president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
The elimination of an accelerated schedule for equipment depreciation and the IO percent investment tax credit could slow sales of computer systems and related equipment by effectively adding the increased tax to their cost. Biddle notes that without the current tax incentives, the decision to purchase expensive office-automation equipment must now be based on a different set of economic calculations.
The largest challenge facing computer equipment suppliers and system integrators is to determine the bottom-line impact of these proposed tax changes on their individual companies .
The Treasury plan is expected to be submitted to Congress early this year. It will be corisidered alongside two similar measures authored by Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y . and Sen . Bill Bradley, D-N .1. Observers predict that some combination of the tax measures could be enacted as early as June .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

43

ITTAKESTWO TO TANGO...
BLOCK MODE DMA&MSCP.

Andromeda's talented new disk controller and memory duo will have your PDP-11/23,
PDP-11/73 or MICRO/VAX I dancing to a faster rhythm.

Block Mode DMA, Ole!

Block Mode DMA gives you

almost twice the Q bus thruput.

But you need a combination

Block Mode DMA controller

and memory team.

Our UDCl 1 Universal Disk

Controller and MM22 Block

Mode DMA memory are perfect

partners. And with a 30 nano-

second access time, the MM22

leaves the competition with two

left feet.

.

Our UDCl 1 supports MSCP and lets you control any combination of up to four Winchester, cartridge, and floppy drives-with just one controller. Best of all, it gives you a 50°/o greater data transfer rate than the DEC controller, plus the ability to use the fastest, highest capacity drives available!
It's your turn to lead.
As either a DEC OEM or user, the UDCl 1 and MM22 combo have many more features to make your system an even better performer. Please call us today for details or assistance with your special requirements.

MSCP is a great step, but...

DEC's Mass Storage Control
Protocol gives your system some ttehrerl·ifficconnetwro1m1eor,vaens.dUonthfoerrtsulni.akteely, it, limit your drive options and performance.

-

Andromeda Systems , Inc.

9000 Eton Avenue

Canoga Park, 818-709-7600

CaTliwfoxrn:i9a1901-340944-1248

Copyright 1984, Andromeda Systems, Inc.
DEC, PD P-11/ 23 , PDP-11 173 , MICRO /VAX I and MSCP are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

~- ANDrtOMED~
_,. SYSTEIVIS

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 24 ON INQUIRY CARD

45

Being able to promise OEM's a 234MB, 8-inch Winchester Disk or a lOOMB, ~ -inch Tape Drive is one thing. Being able to deliver on that promise has always been something else. Now, we can do both. Send us your order, and we can send you our Mercury* 234MB Disk Drive that features embedded servo technology, a choice of SMD or SCSI interfaces, and average access times as low as 20 ms. Our disk drive also offers microprocessor control, assuring you of fail -safe operation. Or tell us you want the highest capacity ~ -inch streamer available and we'll ship you the Flashback* lOOMB Tape Drive. It has
QIC-2 interface and QIC-24 or 11 interchangeability. With either drive, you get the same outstanding reputation for design
simplicity, data integrity and reliability that comes with Memory Systems' 16 years of design and manufacturing experience. But maybe most importantly, you'll get the drives themselves. For more information, or to order an evaluation unit, call 1-800-521-3278, Telex #810-223 -6011.

nutthcun
tclccu1n

The Mercury 234MB Disk Drive and Flashback lOOMB Tape Drive. These high-capacity storage peripherals are available today.

· Trademark of Northern Telecom Limited

CIRCLE NO. 25 ON INQUIRY CARD

Cl Northern Telecom 1984

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS
Networks 1.0 provides
IBM compatibility

Single-Board Z80-Based
1/0
Powerhouse

Keith Jones, European Editor and Marjorie Stenzler-Centonze, Associate Editor
IBM Corp. is set to ship software for its PC Network broadband local area network (LAN) . In anticipation , a small army of IBM 's competitors in the commercial microcomputer market is adopting Microsoft Corp. 's new Networks 1.0 software to provide compatibility with IBM's networking scheme.
Networks 1.0 runs under the new MS-DOS 3.l operating system , and Microsoft , Bellevue, Wash., claims any program written for MS-DOS 3.1 can run under IBM's PC-DOS 3.1, expected to be available this quarter. PC-DOS 3.1 will support IBM 's equivalent to Networks 1.0, the PC Network program, also due out this quarter. Both software products support access to file and printer servers over LANs for multiple workstations.
IBM's competitors do not need to

use the same LAN hardware as IBM does, according to Microsoft sources, because Networks 1.0 is hardware-independent. Manufacturers can achieve compatibility for their network cabling and interface cards, provided their interface and driver software are implemented to a leve l eq uiva lent to Layer 4, the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking standard model defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) .
Networks 1.0 takes hold
Manufacturers of networking products as well as major computer systems vendors are preparing products to support Networks 1.0. Michael D' Addio , president of Corvus Systems Inc. , San Jose, Calif., an early Networks 1.0 licensee, says the new software will give LAN vendors a standard. Ralph Ungermann, president of UngermannBass Inc., Santa Clara, Calif:, agrees:

ONE EXAMPLE OF NETWORKS 1.0
D WORKSTATION B

~~~~~~!~~~---''

D

c WORKSTATION

SERVER A

D WORKSTATION 0

r
~llcus" / ~ Ailabg ~()" Dirita1 I
I ---p~~IS!QOR I
Powerful hardwa~
to do the complete data acquisition and control job for OEMs and systems integrators with single board reliability··· at a fraction of the cost.
· Z80 CPU · 8231A Arithmetic Processor
· STD Bus compatible
· 3 Discrete buffered analog inputs: high-speed 30µSec conversion 33KHz throughput rate 12-bit bipolar/unipolar
· 4 Programmable counters/timers
· 56K x 8-bit RAM, ROM or EPROM
· 2K x 8-bit EEPROM · 1OEXP and MEMEX through STD bus
· 2 Buffered RS232C ports
· 5 Byte wide parallel 1/0 ports
· Jumper selectable interrupt priority
· Real-time clock - battery-backed
· 2 SPOT relay contacts · Software library options
· ARCUS can be ordered less than fully populated

Networks 1.0 supports any brand of hardware running MS-DOS 3.1 . Networks 1.0 redirects inquiries to the location of the device housing the file . That means files held locally on the computer are addressed via the MS-DOS 3 .1 BIOS. Files on servers are addressed by a network device driver.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Power Solutions, Inc.
25 Main St., P.O. Box 878 Kennebunk, ME 04043 (207) 985-2926
Instrumentation and Control Design
CIRCLE NO_ 26 ON INQUIRY CARD 47

:M'MtllOGle.at Rellabllttf

212~ Afi ri'tOd8smpeweade

di~I signal processor
originally engineered for

'.d\fr very

co~ custom modem systems. We now have

applied this advanced technology to a standard Bell

212A compatible product. You get clear, error free transmission despite varying phone line conditions.

Other features Include auto dial/answer, remote digital

loopback, full duplex 300 bps and 1200 bps asynchronous operation and 1200 bps synchronous operation. In

a few minutes you'll discover our modem has all the bells and whistles you could ask for. Yet, at a surpris-

ingly low price.

CTS Field Reliability
Wt warranty our 212AH modem for two years, and we demand our distributors service and support your needa lmmedlately. Once in the field, our modems
operate with alt data terminals, more than 100 type$ of
computers and are Hayes compatible.

48

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS
" Networks l .0 will offer the applications programmer standards to which he can write software and know it will run on different pieces of hardware across different networks."
Microsoft's group manager for systems product marketing , Leo Niko ra , explains that manufacturers wanting compatibility with Networks 1.0 will receive the necessary interfacing information. He adds that they can follow IBM's lead, if they wish , and implement some Networks 1.0 functions in firmware for faster performance.
The PC Network (MMS , October 1984 , Page 37), includes a PC adapter card with ROM and an interface IBM claims is equivalent to Level 5, the session level of the OSI model. The protocols on the IBM card are licensed from Sytek Inc., Mountain View , Calif., says Sytek director of systems engineering, Gregory Ennis. These protocols implemented by IBM on its adapter card interface with the PC-DOS 3.1 operating system.
Philip Buggins, technical director of Microsoft Ltd. , Windsor, England , says the PC Network program is the same as Networks 1.0, except that IBM has written its own server software.
MS-DOS 3. 1 works with a Networks 1.0 module called the redirector , which determines whether a file is held locally or on a file server. If the file is local, a file inquiry from an application program is directed to the basic input/ output system (BIOS) , an existing MS-DOS feature normally customized by a manufacturer for this specific configuration of 1/0 units . But if the file is on a server, the inquiry is directed to the network device driver, part of the interface implemented by the manufacturer for communication with a server or servers. MS-DOS 3.1 p rovides the user with commands to access files on the server.
Once a computer is connected to the se rver , the user can access files and printers attached to that server as if they were on his own workstation . He can then run an application program that uses a file on the server, accessing it over the network .
Like each workstation , each server runs MS-DOS 3.1 and is equipped with a device driver. The Networks 1.0 soft-
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

"At last theres al}jghj)erformance &A"disk drive with Fujitsu quality. From Fujitsu, ofcourse~

Finally there's a 51.4" disk drive that
offers you the kind of high-performance features and quality components generally found only in larger, more expensive drives.
It's from Fujitsu, of course. We worked very hard to perfect this drive, so we could offer you a product that is competitive in price, yet still superior in quality.
So we designed it with proven technology, using standard ferrite heads and oxide recording media.
Then we proved it in the field. And today, based on actual operating experience, we now back all our 51.4 " drives with a specified MTBF of more than 20,000 power-on hours.
So you can design them into your system with complete confidence.
You'll get a top-notch performer, too. With from 31to86 megabytes of capacity, 33 millisecond average positioning time, and a 625 kilobyte-per-second transfer rate!
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MODEL CAPACITY (MB) Unfo1matted AVERAGE POSITIONING TIME (msec) TRANSFER RATE (KB/sec)
INTERFACE
POSITIONING MtTHOO

M2241 31
33
625 ST506/ SA4000 Rota1y Voice Coil

M2242 · M2243

55

B6

33

33

625
ST506/ SA4000 Rotary Voice
Coil

625
ST506/ SA4000 Rotary Voice
Coil

CIRCLE NO. 28 ON INQUIRY CARD

We also offer a full line of steppermotor, standard performance 51.4'' drives. With capacities from 13.3 to 26 megabytes. Plus half-high models with 6.6 and 13.3 megabyte capacities.
To assure you prompt delivery, we have just completed a new plant, adding 220,000 square feet to our 51.4" manufacturing capability.
So give us a call today, at (408) 9468777. Or write Fujitsu America, Inc., Storage Products Division, 3055 Orchard Drive, San Jose, CA 95134. We're your one-stop, full-line disk drive supplier. We've got the sizes and the capacities. We've got the performance. We've got field-proven reliability.
And we can deliver. Fujitsu Storage Products. Maximum Performance. Maximum Quality.
FUJITSU AMERICA. INC.
FUJITSU
49

If you've only seen our fine print, you're missing some great lines.

When people try C.Itoh Electronics' high perform-

working with the customer. And work with you we will.

ance daisywheel or dot matrix printers, they're quite

To develop products that meet your specifications.

impressed. So impressed, in fact, that our line of printers

In addition to developing and marketing our own

just may be the most widely used in home

unique lines, we buy products from many

and business-nationwide.

U.S. and international manufacturers and

But our commitment to

sell them to the worldwide

the electronics industry

market. So you can benefit

doesn't end there. You see,

from a world of experience

we also offer OEM's and

and the latest developments.

end-users a wide variety of

We also recognize the

state-of-the-art electronic

· importance of outstanding

products. All with the

support to all of our customers-

same reliability and perform-

0 EM's, Systems Integrators,

ance that has everyone

Distributors, or End-Users.

talking about our printers.

And don't forget the solid

For starters, there's our

backing of C.Itoh, our $60

line of clearly superior

billion parent company with

Liquid Crystal Displays.

125 years of experience and

Thin, lightweight and

offices worldwide.

compact, they come in an

So call or write C.Itoh

almost endless array of

Electronics for more informa-

modules to satisfy virtually any

tion on our lines of high perform-

application.

ance printers, LCDs, disk drives,

Then there's our selection of Mini-

CRTs, or plotters. And find out what

floppy and Microfloppy Disk Drives.

you've been missing. C.Itoh Electronics,

They offer exceptional reliability and easy-

Inc., Headquarters, 5301 Beethoven St. ,

to-integrate high density storage.

LosAngeles, CA90066, Tel (213) 306-6700,

We sell a full range of CRT monitors, too.

Telex65-2451, TWX910-343-7446,

And each delivers unprecedented levels of

FAX (213) 390-1188.

character clarity. Finally, there's our CIE 2400/3600 plotters.
Available in 24- and 36-inch models, they provide the fastest 400 DPI performance on the market today.
Of course, it takes more than a great product to make a sale. There's also that little intangible called

<> C.ltoh Electronics Inc

CIRCLE NO . 29 ON INQUIRY CARD

Get It Right BEFORE You Buy

Check out business computer systems and equipment at -
CENTRAL

At The Conference
Increase profits and productivity. Dozens of how-to sessions, hands-on short courses, and seminars conducted by industry leaders.
Bonus Show
Also attend Info/ Software in the adjoining hall of O'Hare Exposition Center. FREE! with your Info/ Central registration.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT EXPOSITION & CONFERENCE
O'Hare Exposition Center Chicago, Illinois

Registration Information
Use the coupon below to receive full information about Show registration (only $5 when you pre-register) or at the Conference (schedule and fees will be sent.) Or phone 203/ 964-8287 . Telex: 649400 CAHEX WU STD.

February 20-22, 1985
See Hundreds of Suppliers Together All at O'Hare Exposition Center

--------------------~-, Detach and return to Info/Central , Media Services , Cahners Expos1 tion Group, 999 Summer Street, P.O. Box 3833 , Stamford , CT 06905.

Is your firm choosing computer equipment or systems? Get current and complete information while at the same time reducing legwork. You 'll sleep easier knowing that you've personally reviewed the alternatives!
Info/Central: The all-business computer and communications Show. Your opportunity to get it right before you buy.

O Send me registration material for Show & Conference. O I want to exhibit at the Show. Send me information.
8
Title--------------------

Info/Central: Bringing hundreds of suppliers together at O'Hare Exposition Center. So that you can see, test and compare new technology at your convenience.

Firm ____________________ Address,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

First Time In Chicagoland Area
More than 40,000 business and professional people attended New

City________ State -----Zip - - - -

---------------------- York Info last year.And now Info/Central, new this year to Chicago,

~M

J

shares the same resources and expertise.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 30 ON INQUIRY CARD

51

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

ware for each server deals with the security problems posed by multiuser access to files . It can assign passwords to directories and permit access to a file only if a workstation has permission to use it. MS-DOS 3.1 specifically deals with the problems created should several users try to inquire into or

update a file simultaneously. The operating system provides file locking for applications like word processing , and record locking, which synchronizes access between various users in applications such as order processing.
Plans for Networks 1.0 include its integration with Microsoft's UNIX

Standard Format ... Interchangeability Guaranteed!
It's easy to see why OEMs are getting excited about The Mainstreamer! - At $1850~ the price is right! - At 57% smaller than Cipher, the size is right! - At 53% lighter than Cipher, the weight is right!
The times demand smaller, lighter, more cost-competitive OEM designs. And the Mainstreamer is right for the times. - Storage of up to 136M bytes per reel. -Transfer rates of 20K to 160K bytes/second. -800 bpi NAZI, 1600 and 3200 bpi PE. - Cipher/Pertee interface. - Internal diagnostics. - Mounting options: door, drawer or table top.
The IBEX Mainstreamer. It's simple, reliable and quiet. It's right for your systems of the future, because it's Right for the Times.
Call, TWX or write today for the rest of the story.
·oEM quantities, 1600 bpi PE format, domestic prices.

IB EX
Right for the Times

IBEX COMPUTER CORPORATION 20741 Marilla Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818) 709-8100 TWX 910-493-2071

IBEX COMPUTER CORPORATION Eastern Regional Office : 2 Industrial Way Salem , NH 03079 (603) 893-7036, 893-7037

CIRCLE NO. 31 ON INQUIRY CARD

52

System III-based operating system ,

XENIX . The protocols in Networks

1.0 will enable a workstation running

under MS-DOS 3.1 to use files on a

server running under XENIX, and

vice versa.

Some of the microcomputer suppli-

ers Microsoft lists as implementing

Networks 1.0 are Digital Equipment

Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Texas In-

struments Inc ..and Intel Corp. Manu-

facturers of networking products that

will supply interface cards for Net-

works 1.0 implementers include 3Com

Corp., Davong Systems Inc., Corvus

and Ungermann-Bass.

One company already shipping a

networked microcomputer system em-

ploying Networks 1.0 is Applied Com-

puter Techniques (Holdings) Pie.

(ACT) , Birmingham , England, whose

products are sold in the United States

through Apricot Inc., Santa Clara ,

Calif. ACT's system, Apricot Point 32 ,

uses a Corvus Omninet network inter-

face card with a transfer rate of 1M bit

per second. The network uses the

CSMA/CD protocol over a baseband

bus. An ACT spokesman declined to

say when Point 32 will be available in

the United States.

Digital Research Inc., Pacific

Grove, Calif., has its own network

product , called DR Net , which was

introduced last April as part of its

Concurrent DOS operating system .

Digital Research's vice president of

European operations , Paul Bailey , says

DR Net provides all the features of

Networks 1.0. He adds that the multi-

tasking capabilities of Concurrent

DOS enable any workstation on a net-

work to act simultaneously as a server

and a workstation.

D

LOOKING AHEAD IN MMS
Be sure to watch for these editorial highlights in corning issues of Mini-Micro Systems.
· The April issue will include reviews on minicomputers, mini software and UPSs.
· MMS's Spring edition of the Peripherals Digest will appear April 19.
· Office automation will be featured in the May issue.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Dafasa111m
does m1mom-e
wifh 11111e11mos~
For nearly two decades, oataram has been leading the way in memory technology, supplying more memory than any other company to leading minicomputer manufacturers, end users, systems houses, OE Ms and others throughout the world. Experience that translates into superior design and reliable performance for you today. That means more for you - more ca pacity, more capability , more reliability, and more performance with more savings...so you can get more from your minicomputer.
want to learn more? contact oataram at <609> 799-0071 today.
Dataram satisfies all your VAX, 0 -Bus, and UNIBUS memory requirements.
~
oataram corporation o Princeton Road o Cranbury, New Jersey 0851 2 D (609l 799-0071 D TWX: 510-685 -2542
DEC. VAX. UNIBUS. and O·Bus are t r ademarks of 0 191 tal Equipment corporat1on.
CIRCLE NO. 32 ON INQUIRY CARO

S' you thought your customers woqld lov the multi-user package you designed.

Too bad you didn't know about North Star's Dimension. The system that lets you customize business solutions-
without compromising performance or IBM compatibility.

Customizing multi-user computer packages for vertical

What's more, you don't have to worry about discount com-

markets used to mean compromising either price or per-

puter stores undercutting your profit margin. Because we're dis-

formance . But no more . Because now there's Dimension·· tributing Dimension exclusively through a network of selected

from North Star.

resellers, and supporting them with software tools, a technical

Dimension is a perfect fit for virtually any market you can name. Its architecture is designed specifically for the

hotline, training and documentation, co-op advertising, and reliable after-the-sale service.

multi-user environment, with each individual user having

To find out how this remarkable system and

his or her own 8088-2 microprocessor, plus access to a cen- your software will give you a multi-user system

tral 80186 server processor that controls the system's shared for vertical markets superior to anything that's

resources . As a result, up to 12 Dimension users can simulta- available today, call North Star's sales

neously share data, files, software and expensive peripherals. And to make Wn.tm. g your OWn propn·etary SOftware
appJications as easy as pie, Dimension's new PC-DOS com-
patible operating system was designed utilizing popular

department at (415) 357-8500.

D im IBM

ension is a is a registe

rterdadtermadaermk aorfkNoofrth"S~ tar C~qmputers,

Inc. .,,,f:-

IN nternao tionral tBuh sineS ss Mlachtin:esJ . l:c.. r~ r..

f "'

multi-user standards. Plus, the operating system already runs
dozens of the best selling software titles for the IBM PC/XI The brightest alternative to PCs:·

including multi-user applications right off the shelf.

© 1984 North Star Com puters, Inc ., 14440 Catalina Street, San Leandro, CA 94577

54

CIRCLE NO. 33 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTE MS/February 1985

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

Efficient Prolog pushes Al
into wider market

levels. Also, since Prolog information searches have been less flexible and therefore slower, Quintus optimized Prolog by analyzing the cases in which

normal Prolog searches are inefficient.

Tom Moran, Associate Editor

the experienced user. It requires a Quintus claims the result is a speed

LISP or Prolog shell to assist less- three to four times that of previous

Quintus Computer Systems Inc., knowledgable users . Prolog is a higher- Prolog versions run on the same hard-

Palo Alto, Calif., is announcing this level language that is easier to under- ware.

month an advanced development sys- stand than LISP, but does not afford Morris adds that: "If you really want

tem for artificial intelligence (AI) ap- complete programming control at all to do something significant [with AI)

plications software. The company

claims that Quintus Prolog Release 1.0 offers a significant price/performance

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO BOOM BY 1991

improvement over previous versions of

the Prolog logic-programming lan-

guage , and that this will give AI a

wider market appeal. Quintus Prolog

includes an integrated development

system designed to speed applications

programming and save the expensive

D 300

NATURAL LANGUAGES

time of artificial intelligence program-

0 COMPUTER AIDED INSTRUCTION

mers .

CJ PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
AND SUPPORT

g ~

Polishing Prolog's image

c:J EXPERT SYSTEMS
200 D AUTOMATIC

C\/
"'

According to vice president of mar-

PROGRAMMING

keting Carolyn Morris, Quintus is tar-

c:JTOTAL

geting machines with "some fairly

hefty capability," because the compa-

ny wants users to see Prolog's poten-

100

tial. "LISP has been around a long

time, and there are a lot of people who

think Prolog is a toy, so [we want to

offer] a system with a lot of features so users can develop applications that are not toys."

1983

1988

1991

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Because LISP is a low-level lan-

guage, closer to assembly language Artificial intelligence will grow slowly at first, but eventually penetrate

than Prolog, LISP is more powerful for most or all of the computer market.

D19ltal lqulpment Corp. taps Al ..ttware

Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), is putting the final touches on agreements with a number of independent producers of artificial-intelligence (Al) software to market jointly Al software packages on DEC's VAX and personal computer systems.
The agreements represent one of the first full-fledged moves by a major manufacturer to support and market Al software from independent vendors. The arrangements are also a logical extension of DEC's announcement in June of its VAX LISP programming environment, an implementation of COMMON USP, which, in turn, is a widely recognized version of the standard LISP programming language that is becoming the de facto standard for Al

programming applications. According to DEC, cooperative-marketing
agreements have been reached with: · Carnegie Group Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa, for SAL and PLUME packages · Gold Hill Computers, Cambridge, Mass., for GCLISP · Inference Corp., Los Angeles, for ART · Prologia, Marseilles, France, for Prolog II · Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Rey, Calif., for Interlisp Other manufacturers have reached similar
agreements with Al software producers. -Stephen J. Shaw

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

55

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U.S.A. AND CANADA DISTRIBUTORS
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MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

you have to have a certain performance level. Quintus feels very much that [Quintus Prolog] is a headliner, not just in the area of [performance of] logical inferences per second (LIPS), but also in the area of core requirements." Core requirements for other AI systems can range from 8M bytes to I6M bytes of RAM and from 32M

bytes to 64M bytes of virtual memory. Quintus' development environment runs in IM byte of RAM, and run-time applications run in as little as 5 I2K bytes of RAM .
Morris also says that intelligence can be built into existing computer systems in a modular way. "Expert systems are only one application. You could drop

[a workstation with] Prolog in between a human and a computer system and extend the ability to logically manipulate the system."
Analysts are cautiously optimistic about the future of artificial intelligence. Ken Bosomworth, president of International Resource Development Inc. (!RD), a Norwalk , Conn., market research group, says: "It's going to be a while before AI is [near] approaching either the personal computer or office automation market of today. We see some fast growth, but it's not going to be a billion-dollar market in the next year." !RD predictions show the AI market will total $275 million by 1988 and slightly more than $1 billion by 1991 , not including large military purchases.
The first major practical application of AI may be natural language interfaces, which would allow people and computers to converse in English as opposed to structured computer languages. Prolog is efficient at parsing sentences, a requirement for natural language systems, says Peter Brown , director of market planning for Quintus.

Prolog defines relationships
In Prolog the programmer creates a series of logical relationships and defines rules for the interaction of the relationships. A typical statement in Prolog might be: "works (John, Mary)" which indicates that John works for Mary . Programming in Prolog remains at the level of problem solving and therefore frees programmers from concerning themselves with how the computer is manipulating the data.
Quintus Prolog operates on Digital Equipment Corp. 's VAX minicomputers under Berkeley UNIX Version 4.2, Convergent Technologies Inc.'s MegaFrame and Sun Microsystems Inc. 's MC68000-based Sun 2 workstation. The development system requires 1M byte of RAM to run and includes a text editor interface said to reduce most editing operations to one keystroke , a
style checker to detect input errors, a comprehensive debugger and an incremental compiler that permits selective compiling of part of a program. A C

58

CIRCLE NO. 35 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

I simply can't be bothered making comparisons.

I make informed purchase decisions. Show me how Falco gives me better priceperformance, more features,
. m and better '!}1e~~~J~~n
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Company _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
City/State/Zip _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Phone _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
I am an D Integrator D OEM D End User
800-835-8765 (in California call 800-538-5383)

CIRCLE NO. 36 ON INQUIRY CARD

Data Products
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1286 Lawrence Station Road, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

MINI-MICRO WORLD
NEWS

Proceulft9 LIPS

The Japanese invented the term logical inferences per secon,d (LIPS) for what once were called 'procedure calls per second .' The logical inference process begins with the goal of a statement, then sorts through facts and rules until the program finds evidence that the goal is true or false .
For example , to answer whether John works for

Mary, the system would gather all statements with the word "works" and then examine those statements until it finds "John" attached to one of them. Prolog then examines the information attached to "John" in the context of "works ," either proving or disproving the original proposition .

language interface lets programmers call C programs from within Prolog.
Quintus designed its latest Prolog to be compatible with its previous release, DEC- I0/20 Prolog, which lacks a text editor and has a less-sophisticated

debugger. Quintus Prolog is also compatible with C-Prolog, which was developed at the University of Edinburgh. Scotland, by Fernando Pereira, one of the founders of Quintus.
The Convergent and Sun versions of

Quintus Prolog will be priced at $8,400

each, and Prolog for VAX systems will

be $17 .500. The versions should be

available now . Quintus is negotiating

OEM contracts and will also distribute

Prolog through direct sales.

D

Burroughs enters UNIX systems market

Marjorie Stenzler-Centonze Associate Editor
Dipping its toe into a fast-growing market, Burroughs Corp., Detroit, Mich., introduced the model XE 550, a multiprocessor computer system running UNlX . ln so doing , Burroughs gave the XE 550's developer, Convergent Technologies Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., another outlet for its OEM computers. Prices for the XE 550 range from $43,000 to $102,855.
This market is entirely new to Burroughs, said Robert Holmes, senior vice president of worldwide marketing . Holmes says the growth of UNIX as a standard for the multiuser system mar-
The Burroughs XE 550 is based on the MC68010 processor from Motorola , but includes auxiliary processors based on Intel's 80186 .

ket influenced the company's new strategy. The market for UNIX-based systems, which totalled about $2 billion in 1984, is expected to reach about $7 billion in 1988, according to Yates Ventures, Palo Alto , Calif. President Jean Yates says the majority of UNIXbaseo systems funneled through system integrators cost $25,000 to $50,000. Most systems sold by manufacturers are priced from $50.000 to $100,000, she explains.
The heart of the XE 550 system is the Application Processor (AP) board, which executes the CENTlX, UNIXlike operating system and application programs. The XE 550 supports multiple APs , each based on the Motorola Inc. MC68010 virtual memory processor and housing 5 I2K bytes of memory , expandable to 4M bytes . The APs each run their own CENTlX kernel, which. in turn, supports as many as 16 users. AP boards include a memory management unit with 3 1/iM bytes of virtual address space per user. CENTIX is an enhanced version of the UNIX System V operating system.
The XE 550 : features and future
Burroughs expects its XE 550 to open opportunities in the educational market, in state and local governments

and in distributed data processing envi-

ronments, where demand is strong for

UNIX-based applications software.

Other components of the XE 550

include several Intel Corp. 80186-

based processors that offload tasks

from the AP. The File Processor , for

example, assumes file-oriented data

management processing for the AP. It

has 256K bytes of memory, expand-

able to 768K bytes. The Storage Pro-

cessor supports tape drives, while the

Terminal Processor handles terminal

activity on the system.

Software for the XE 550 includes the

centreSPHERE productivity tool,

which comprises spreadsheet. word

processing. applications development ,

database management, administrative

functions and networking program

components. Language support in-

cludes COBOL 74, FORTRAN 77,

BASIC. Pascal and C.

Prices for an entry-level, 12-user sys-

tem with 21/2M bytes of memory and

75M bytes of Winchester disk storage

start at $43,000. A high-end, 32-user

system with 8M bytes of memory and

345M bytes of disk storage is priced at

$102,855.

The XE 550 system is an extension

of the XE 520 introduced in May 1984.

The XE 520 is a shared resource pro-

cessor using Burroughs' proprietary

BTOS operating system; the XE 550

provides hoth a UNIX environment

and connections to the shared resource

BTOS environment.

0

60

M INI-M ICRO SYSTEMS/ February 1985

11983 we made history with the world's first IEEE-802 broadband Local Area Network, and no one has topped us yet. Today, our Token/Net'" is the only 802.4 network with a record of proven performance. It was Token/Net that linked the computing and manufacturing equipment of Allen-Bradley, DEC, Gould, Hewlett-Packard, IBM®and Motorola at the 1984 National Computer Conference. And it is Token/Net that provides technology for the GM/MAP project and IEEE-802.4 compatibility for Allen-Bradley's VistaNef" products.
If you're wondering why no one has caught up to us, the reason is simple: we helped develop the technology behjnd the standard. So while other companies are scrambling to get their prototypes off the drawing board - we're delivering. And because our highperformance network meets a standard that has been endorsed by IBM and virtually every other major computer manufacturer, your investment in our LAN technology is secure. If you're ready to marshal the full resources of automation , call us today at (617) 890-1394, or write 303 Bear Hill Road, Waltham, MA 02154, telex 951793.
Concord Data Systems
Leading the Communications Revolution
or Token/Net is a trademark Co ncord Data Sys1ems, Inc . IBM is a registered trademark of Internati onal Bu siness Machines Corp . VistaNet is a trademark of Allen-Bradley Co.
See us at Interface, Booth #2110
CIRCLE NO. 37 ON INQUIRY CARD

To Craft Quality Products, We Hire Quality People

Since Quantum Corporation began, we've made no secret about our formula for success-to provide innovative, high performance fixed disk drives of outstanding quality at the lowest possible cost.
The key to that formula is quality. Because no matter how cleverly a product is designed, or how little it costs, it's useless unless it performs consistently and reliably. And the key to quality is to have everyone dedicate themselves to that principle.
That's why Quantum hires only those individuals who demonstrate, through their experience and enthusiasm, that they share our commitment to quality. Since such people are, by their nature, rare, we reward them with excellent incomes, comprehensive benefits, advanced equipment, and modern facilities.

Listed below are some of our current openings:
· Mechanical Design ·engineers . · Electrical Design Engineers · Controller Design Engineers · Production Engineers ·Magnetic Recording Head/Disk Engineers
If you share our dedication to quality, and you have a background in any of the areas mentioned above, then you belong at Quantum. Send your resume to QUANTUM Corporation , Human Resources, 1804 McCarthy Boulevard, Dept. MMS,Milpitas, CA 95035 . We are an equal opportunity employer, m/f/h/v.

CIRCLE NO. 38 ON INQUIRY CARD

~ ii~i Maxell Gold.
Precious metal
for your
31h" and 51/i"
high density disk drives.

Prospecting for quality? Tap into the Gold Standard. Maxell. We were the first to make the 51/4" high density floppy commerically available. And this same technological expertise is reflected in the superb performance of our 31/2" microdisks. Maxell Gold. Industry leaders in durability and error-free performance. Quality your drives can depend on.
maxell8 IT'S WORTH IT

Maxell Corporation of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonachie, N.J. 07074 201-641-8600

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 39 ON INQUIRY CARD

83

NEED STREAMING TAPEFOR THE PC? SYSGEN DELIVERS.

Install a Sysgen TM SC4500TM
tape controller and the basic (nonintelligent) streaming tape drive of your choice.
You've got the fastest, most intelligent, most cost effective back-up system around for the PC, XT, ATTM, or PC-workalike.
The same controller that drives Sysgen's top-selling tape back-up
systems. Unbundled. You get a proven, reliable, high performance microprocessorbased single-board controller with QIC-24 data format. You get data transfer to the tape at rates of up to 3.75 Mbytes per minute. You get automatic error correction . (Sysgen's high-speed "verifyon-the-fly" technology verifies data accuracy as the controller is writing, so users don't have to wait for the tape to rewind to verify.)
Trademarks:Sysgen, SC4500-Sysgen, Inc.; AT- Internationa l Business Machines Corporation.

You get fast "image" back-up. And you get intelligent, fast "fileby-file" back-up.
The controller is so intelligent, it turns dumb peripherals into the
smartest buy. Advanced, local-intelligence architecture means you get all this performance with less burden on the system CPU, using less expensive basic (non-intelligent) tape drives. Your system cost and system electronics are minimized. Power requirements are minimized.

Result: greater economics and reliability.
The controller fits any PCcompatible full-length slot. It runs any standard basic drive with DCAS or QIC-36 interface.
It is the most economical way you will find to integrate tape backup into a PC-class system.
And it is available now. For more information, including specifications, and the name of your local rep, call Sysgen direct: (415) 490-6770.
47853 Warm Springs Blvd. Fremont, CA. 94539

SYSGEN N C 0 R P0 R A T ED I

MINI-MICRO \NORLD
CORP O R AT E AND F INANCIAL

:J.S:.-· inlegtalor rebounds large 9overnn1ent orclen

Stephen J. Shaw Washington Editor
Despite a morass of legal problems with the U.S. government, Virginia system integrator C3 Inc. is rebounding with millions in federal contracts.
Initially, two suspensions from conducting business with various federal agencies and a current grand jury investigation contributed to the company's first revenue decrease and net loss in its I I-year history during the fourth quarter of fiscal 1984, which ended almost a year ago on March 31, 1983. Since then , however, C3 has won several government contracts worth potentially $155 million. It further bounced back in December with its first service and maintenance agreement with a computer manufacturer, Convergent Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
The suspensions, imposed by the Army for alleged contract irregularities, delayed the issuance of delivery orders under existing contracts and put subsequently awarded contracts in abeyance, according to the company.
Awards reverse revenue drop
The new contract awards have helped to reverse a drop in revenues caused by the suspe nsions and investigations. While the company's 1984 fourth quarter revenue was down 33 .8 percent, to $15 . 1 million, compared with the same period a year earlier , revenue has since been edging up to reach $18.3 million in the second quarter of 1985 . The company's backlog of orders from government contracts that a uthorize future purchases rose to $230

GOVERNMENT CONTRACT PROBLEMS

20

CAUSE C3 NIT INCOME DROP

18.3

16.5 15.4

15

3Izii
.... 10

12.9

i

~

5

2£_

1.4

0

----------- -

-

-

-

-

-N°ETiNcoMe

13 '

0.4

( 0.4)

2ndQ

ENDING

FY'84 9/30/83

3rdQ FY'84 12/31183

4thQ FY '84 3/31/84

1st0 FY'85
6/30/84

2nd0 FY'85 9/30/84
SOURCE: C3 INC.

million by the end of last year, compared with $80 million at the beginning of the year.
The company's tribulations began in late 1982 when it was suspended from doing business with any agencies of the executive branch of ~he U.S . government. The Army had accused C3 of making false claims and statements concerning a contract with the Defense Supply Agency to furnish minicomputer systems to the Army's Material Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM). The company denied the charges and the Army lifted the suspension within two weeks . However, the suspension was raised conditionally , pending completion of further investigations by the Army and the U .S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
C3 was suspended again in January

1984, this time for alleged improper conduct in connection with another Army contract to provide computer equipment and follow-up support to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The company was also informed that it could face permanent debarment from doing business with any Department of Defense agency. Debarment would have prevented those agencies from not only awarding new contracts to C3 , but also from renewing or extending existing agreements. The potential revenue loss to the company would have reached hundreds of millions of dollars.
C3 fights back
After answeri ng to these new allegations, C3 was successful in getting the Army to drop the debarment proceed-

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

85

MINI-MICRO WORLD
CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL

ing. In terminating the proceeding and lifting the temporary suspension, however, the office of the Army's assistant advocate general asserted that C3 had overcharged the Army on the White Sands contract by approximately $425,690. The Army's contracting office unilaterally reduced the contract price by $343,838, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except for the contract modification , the company states , no other action on this issue has been filed by the Army , but C3 has submitted clai ms to the Army totalling $1.36 million for systems software and maintenance services already performed on the White Sands contract.
At approximately the same time , the company filed a lawsuit with the U .S. Claims Court over the earlier DARCOM contract dispute . C3 sought a $1.7 million payment from the Army that the company stated was due for equipment, maintenance and other services. The company also sued for interest payments , attorneys' fees and assorted costs. The government countersued in May for $9.4 million , alleging fraud and misrepresentation by C3. The Army claimed that C3 had overcharged on the DARCOM contract by delivering equipment that had not been authorized . C3 insists the equipment delivery had been authorized.
An Army spokesman said that both lawsuits were stayed temporarily in June so that they would not interfere with a federal grand jury investigation into both the White Sands and DARCOM contracts. Although a spokesman for the U .S. attorney's office refused to confirm or deny whether any

to uncover overcharges," the report

states .

Despite the threat that the grand

jury investigation could spark another

round of government litigation and

civil lawsuits , C3 aggressively pursued

and won several major computer con-

tracts last year. The contracts include:

· The agreement with Convergent

to allow C3 to act as the service com-

pany for Convergent's line of work-

stations and supermicrocomputers.

· An agreement with the Navy to

provide up to 200 minicomputer sys-

tems , including software, training and

systems maintenance. The contract

could be worth as much as $70 million

John Ballenger, president of C3 Inc .. says government contract problems have been devastating to company morale .

over the 10-year term of the agreement.
· An option that was exercised on an existing contract with the Army for delivery of 541 videodisk memory sys-

tems . The contract is valued at $5 .3

million.

grand jury investigation was under- · A three-year contract with the

way, the company stated that it has Navy to supply, install and support up

received and responded to a subpoena to 1,500 terminals and printers for inte-

for documents .

gration into Burroughs Corp. comput-

C3 president John Ballenger says he . er systems in the Navy Supply Com-

hopes the grand jury investigation will mand . The value of the agreement

be completed by the end of March. could reach $7 million .

"This is a tough enough market any- · A contract with the General

way and these investigations have just Services Administration to supply , in-

made it tougher. In terms of this [in- stall and maintain up to $73 million

vestigation] dragging on, it's been dev- worth of office-automation equipment

astating to our morale."

at GSA offices throughout the United

Report supports C3

States during the next 9 years . C3 will provide up to 4,299 N-Gen and

According to a 1984 report prepared Megaframe series workstations, manu-

by the New York stock brokerage com- factured by Convergent, and associ-

pany Rooney , Pace Inc., C3 is likely to ated peripheral devices , including

be found innocent of all charges. " We printers, plotters , magnetic tape units,

speculate that C3 is being victimized by disk drives , RAM expansion boards

a small investigatory group determined and software.

0

BRIEFS
Financings
Attache Software Inc., an Ann Arbor , Mich. , developer of personalcomputer accounting software, has received $4.4 million in a second round of venture capital financing , bringing total funding to $6.6 million. The company , founded in Sydney, Australia , in

1982, moved its headquarters to the United States last year. Investors include Michigan Capital a nd Service Inc ., State of Michigan Employees Retirement Systems and First Ohio Capital Corp. Each of the six modules in the Attache accounting package can be used separately, integrated together, or linked to such business programs as Lotus Development Corp. 's Lotus 1-2-3 and Ashton-Tate's dBASE II .

Celerity Computing, San Diego, Calif. , recently received $8.5 million of venture financing to help bring its 32-bit UNIX-based engineering workstation to market . Investors included Hambrecht & Quist, Oxford Ventures and Southern California Ventures .
Charles River Data Systems, Framingham, Mass ., and Datapoint Corp., San Antonio, Texas , have signed agreements making Datapoint both an

66

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

at the salesperson s~ enyou want the leading new Qrice~ erformance, ·· . : ml.llti-user
supenmcro.

To find out, rearrange the letters below, one letter per box, to form five common computer words. Then unscramble the circled letters to see what the salesperson says.
REZO
DODD
SEMITURLU
DDDDDDDDD
WARTOSEF
DDDDDDDD
TYMEBAGE
DDDDDDDD
CIRYESE
DDDDDDD

1r ffl1S NO PEcKS RJt<
P~lt:E/PERRJRMllNCC.
"

00000 000000 000
Still playing guessing games about who makes the best price/ performance supermicro? Here's a clue.
It's the latest generation of multi-user supermicros, from the company known for the high-performance System 8000 family. Here's another clue. Our new family of three systems provides up to twice the operating speed of its predecessors, with an 11.l MHz CPU, and a 32 KB cache memory. Plus, it easily supports up to 40 users.
Got the answer? Now get the exciting details! Call our toll-free number (800) 841-2255. Or write: Zilog Systems Division, 1315 Dell Avenue, MS C2-6, Campbell, CA 95008.
*U NIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. Zilog is li censed by AT~ Technologies.
Answer: "OM..L S;J!J;iS l!Oj!Z

Zilo~ g

an affiliate of EJ/(ON Corporation

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 40 ON INQUIRY CARD

67

CCAEMACS.
THE MOST POWERFUL
EXTENSIBLE SCREEN
EDrrOR FOR UNIX
ANDVAX/VMS.

No other system editor gives you the power, speed and functionality ofCCA
EMACS'."Or makes editing so easy. Close to 4oo built-in commands let you do
any task with only a few keystrokes. Even the kinds of things that are difficult or impossible to do with other editors. And with our Common Lisp-based extension language, Elisp; you can customize CCA EMACS to meet your program needs.
CCA's proprietary display management system provides exceptional performance. Other powerful features include the ability to edit up to 200 files simultaneously and advanced windowing, which enables you to manage concurrent processes and move information from one window to another. All of which makes it easy to revise major software and documentation.
CCA EMACS also has two extensive recovery facilities to protect against system failures.
Any user can quickly utilize all the power ofCCA EMACS. Because it's supied by both in-depth printed manuals and a full online documentation pac e that includes a tutorial.
C A EMACS runs on Berkeley UnixN (4.lBSD and 4.2BSD), Bell Unix
(System ill and System V), XenixN and VAX/VMS'."It requires 5ooK of
address space. Prices for a license range from $380 to $850 for Unix to $1900 for VMS.
Volume discounts and an academic license program are available. For more information or to get a trial copy, please call our sales staff at
1-800-222-0214. In MA, call (617) 235-2600.
Unix, VAX and VMS and Xenix arc trademarks ofBcll Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation respectively. CCA EMACS and Elisp arc trademarks of CCA Uniworlts, Inc.
CCA Univvorks,lnc. ~ A Crowntek Company 20 Williams Street, Wellesley, MA 02181

68 EEL;:) 1\

J H 926

CIRCLE NO. 41 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO WORLD
CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL
investor in , and an OEM customer of, Charles River. Datapoint contributed an undisclosed amount to Charles River's $5 million, third round of common stock financing and will use Charles River's Universe 68 supermicrocomputer system in a forthcoming product.
Digital Sound Corp. of Santa Barbara, Calif., has acquired $5.7 million of venture capital to manufacture its recently introduced DSC-2000 Voice Server voice messaging system. Investors include the General Electric Pension Fund Trust and Brentwood Associates. Digital Sound, Santa Barbara, Calif., also makes the DSC-200 audio data conversion system .
DMA Systems Corp., has obtained $7 .1 million in venture capital to increase production of its model 360 halfheight 51/4-inch, removable cartridge disk drive. The Goleta, Calif., company's venture funding now totals $25.7 million . New investor Aetna Life Insurance Co. joins Brentwood Associates, Boston University and other early investors.
Milpitas , Calif.-based Drivetec Inc., which manufactures a 51/4-inch halfheight floppy disk drive with a storage capacity of 3.3M bytes, has raised $7 million in a private stock placement. Drivetec will use the proceeds to boost inventory of the drives and buy more manufacturing equipment. Participants in the funding include Concord Partners, the Nordic American Bank and Hambro International.
Graphics systems supplier Mosaic Technologies Inc., Billerica, Mass., has received $9.6 million of venture capital for increased production and continued new-product development. The investors include Atlantic Venture Co. Inc. , John Hancock Venture Capital Management Inc. and E.F. Hutton Investment Partnership.
The Eastman Kodak Co. has invested $20 million in Sun Microsystems Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., graphics workstation vendor. The investment represents a 7-percent ownership in the company. In a separate financing, Sun received a $27 million line of credit from First National Bank of Boston and
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

No Paper Wait.

Waiting gets you nowhere. Waiting wastes time. .... For speed and ease of programming, direct

It wastes money.

menu access lets you arrange page and print formats

.... To save both, Tally presents the MT400

with just a few front panel commands. And there's

FlexiForm printers. And to help you boost efficiency, always the ideal paper handling choice for the

these high volume, high speed serial

work you do. Because FlexiForm

printers have productivity features

printers can have tractors that push

you won't find anywhere else.

and pull, friction feed, a quick-tear

.... For about half the cost of a line

bar, automatic feeders for single

Printer, a Tally FlexiForm will whip through paper work at up to 300 LPM.

MT440L

sheets and more. .... Waiting for important information is the last

.... You'll produce draft copy at a consistent

thing you want. So wait no more. Call Mannesmann

400 CPS. Your correspondence will have a high

Tally today for information on the world's best

resolution, professional look. From inventory

engineered serial printers: (206) 251-5524.

reports and spreadsheets to business graphics and

bar codes, nothing in their class is engineered to MANNESMANN

perform like FlexiForms.

TALLY

CIRCLE NO. 42 ON INQUIRY CARD

COMPAQ" is a registered trademark and COMPAQ DESK PRO is a trademark ofCOMPAQ Computer Corporation. IBM " is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporaiion. UN IX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Labs. " 1984 COMPAQ Computer Corporation. All rights reserved.

Now you don't have to compromise to

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one or two diskette drives. One or two

Pick the new COMPAQ DESKPRO" fixed disk drives. Or new options like

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lot more computer for your investment. high-speed 8087-2 co-processor and

One that runs thousands of the most internal tape backup for either the

popular programs right off the shelf- lOM-byte or 30M-byte fixed disk.

at speeds two to three times faster. One UNIX':based operating systems? We

with a dual-mode monitor (amber or run them today. PC DOS Version 3.0?

green) to display text and graphics. One That, too. Networking? Can do. Multi-

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MINI-MICRO WORLD

1raAein£! tJoGll aF~:!:e;::an

J

11144 or VAX?

CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL
Bank of the West. The monies are for working capital and to sustain the com-

Get the performance benefits of an 11/73 by using Abie's Microverter Plus.

pany's expected growth.

At the same time, you can hang on to your investment in UNIBUS* peripherals! You benefit because

TeleSoft, a San Diego , Calif., developer of Ada language compilers and software tools , has attracted $2.2 mil-

· With MICROVERTER PLUS, you can use 18-bit UNIBUS

lion of venture capital. The company

DMA devices with up to 4 mb of Q-Bus memory · MICROVERTER PLUS is compatible with PDP-11/73 ,
L.51-11123, and -11/23+ processors · MICROVERTER PLUS is software transparent to RSTS/E,

said it will use the funds to "retire" existing debts and as working capital. Investors include Accel Partners and Adler & Co.

RSX-11 , UNIX;· and DSM* · MICROVERTER PLUS can help increase your communi-

Contracts

cation capability · All at a fraction of the cost of a new system

By 1988 , most of the 51/4-inch and smaller Winchester disk drive platters

UPGRADE with a MICROVERTER PLUS from ABLE. Call us toll-free at 800/332-2253 (outside California), or 800/225-3332 (inside California)

shipped will use thin film media , predicts analyst Jim Porter , author of Disk/Trend Report. Ampex Corp.,

ABLE COMPUTER, 3080 Airway Ave., Costa Mesa CA 92626

Redwood City, Calif., one of the key

(714) 979-7030, TWX 910 595-1729, TELEX 668307

players in that market , recently signed

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a one-year, $3.3 million contract with

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Tulin Corp., San Jose, Calif. According to the contact terms , Ampex will sup-

SONEX

ply Tulin with alar thin film plated media for use in Tulin's high-capacity half-height 51/4-inch Winchester disk drives .

Archive Corp., Costa Mesa , Calif., will supply $6 million worth of its 1/4inch half-height Scorpion streaming tape drives and controllers to Micro Design International over a one-year period . The drives will be used as backup devices in Micro Design 's IBM PC, PC/XT and PC-AT storage upgrade kits. Archive has already begun deliveries.

In a $10 million contract, La Com-

mande Electronique will distribute

Ashton-Tate's business software prod-

SONEX kills disk drive hum. ucts in France. French-language versions of the Culver City, Calif., company's packages-the Framework

SONEX acoustical foam's absorption
coefficient is four times .that of conventional materials. Send for the tests, charts,
specs, and color examples from 3800 Washington Ave. N.,
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or call 612/521~3555.

integrated system, as well as the dBASE II and dBASE III database management systems-will be included in the distribution .
Culver City, Calif., electronics distributor Hamilton/Avnet wants to make sure its customers have immediate access to Intel Corp.'s new CHMOS

lllllruck/usa 256K-bit, dynamic random-access
techniques with foams memory chips , says executive vice pres-

CIRCLE NO. 44 ON INQUIRY CARD

72

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

'~f'.':E' ~
Z7 millivvatts.
knoYvn for Teac's traditional cost of ownership.
- ST DJgita1 Cassette Series takes advantage of reac's over 30
.L~IA-'ry in tape transport technology to provide high speed and high capacity along with high dependability.
Teac's experience as a leader in the production of rotating memory systems is backed by proven field performance and cost competitiveness.
East (617) 475-7311 South (214) 221-8714 Midwest (312) 351-9124 Rocky Mountain (602) 242-4025 (303) 337-6329 (801) 532-2111 Northwest (408) n7-1424 Southern California (213) 726-0303
SD-510 Half-High 5 %-lnch Winchester Disk Drive 12,76 MB unformatted, 10 MB formatted storage cap, 5 MB per sec, transfer rate. Industry standard ST-506 interface.
FD-55 Series 5 %-Inch Half-High Floppy Disk Drives Capacities from 250 KB - 1.6 MB. 2 new LSl's, 4.9 watts operating power. Brushless DC Direct Drive Motor.

FD-35 Series 3.5-lnch Micro Floppy Disk Drives
Capacities from 250 KB - 1 MB. Interface Compatible with 5 Y. · Floppy Disk Drives, Power Saver Version : 1.72 watts Read/Write, 2.9 watts Seek, 27 milliwatts Waiting.

MT-2ST Half-High Digital Cassette Streaming Tape Drive Backs-up 20 MB in 4 min. Industry standard QIC (02) interface.
Low cost media,

TEAC®
Instrumentation and Computer Products Division.
COPYRIGHT 1984, TEAC CORPORATION OF AMERICA 7733 TELEGRAPH ROAD, MONTEBELLO, CA 90640

CIRCLE NO. 45 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO WORLD
CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL

UniSoft has built UnixTM into 90 microcomputers (and the list is

growing) from 60 manufacturers. That's more Unix porting and

supporting than anyone else. And more manufacturers who

have saved time and money, because of our experience. UniSoft

can typically do the job for one fifth of the in-house time and

expense. When the port is over, we don't vanish. Our standard

family of services includes on-line updates, maintenance,

software checks on our mainframe, and documentation (the

clear, understandable kind). We also offer application and

communications software.

Doing more. Being faster. Offering complete support. We

know that this is exceptional behavior from a systems software

house. But the exceptional is standard at UniSoft. (415)
o-a__ B-_i l_ _ 644-1230, 739AllstonWay, Berkeley,
-11!$j · - CA. 94710. Building System V now. · :;

Call or write for Your Building Plan.

- · - · _-_ - = .:

74

Unix 1s a trademark of Bell Laboratories.

CIRCLE NO. 46 ON INQUIRY CARD

ident Edward Kaniger. The company has placed a $31 million order with Intel , Santa Clara , Calif., for the chips.
Rodime Pie., Glenrothes, Scotland , best known for providing Compaq Computer Corp. and other companies with its 31/2-inch Winchester disk drives, now supplies Convergent Technologies Inc. with 51/4-inch Winchester disk drives. A $5 .5 million contract calls for drives, with capacities of up to 53M bytes, to be integrated into Convergent's MiniFrame UNIX computer system.
Industry monitor
Data General Corp., Westboro , Mass., has entered into its first distributor agreement in the People's Republic ~ of China. Under the $10 million agreement, Data General will supply its Desktop Generation microcomputer and Eclipse MV/4000 superminicomputer systems, as well as sales and service training, to the Tianjin Computer Co., Tianjin. Long-range plans call for the establishment of a service center, manufacturing and system assembly at Tianjin and joint development of Chinese versions of Data General terminals.
To expand its penetration of the worldwide programmable controller market , General Electric Co., has signed Wuxi Electric Apparatus Co., Wuxi , China , to distribute GE controllers in China. Wuxi will set up eight regional offices.
In a three-year agreement, Xidex International, Mountain View , Calif., is helping the Shanxi Provincial Electronic Industry Corp. set up a 51/4-inch floppy diskette assembly facility in Shanxi Province, China. Xidex is providing hardware , raw materials and technical support. The plant's initial capacity will be more than one million floppy disks per year to fill local requirements. Export opportunities are also being considered . China United Trading Corp. Ltd. , New York , brought together the two companies.
0
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Parallel computer. Unparalleled capability.
Introducing the Flex/32 MultiComputerTM. A revolutionary parallel computer with performance that's scalable from supermini to supercomputer - a capability for growth beyond the needs of any apglication.
An entry-level Flex/32· system starts you out with two 32-bit superminis, 2 megabytes of local memory, 128 kilobytes of common memory and two VMEbus interfaces. That's more power than two standalone superminis. But that's just the beginning.
Each Flex/32 MultiComputer cabinet can contain up to twenty supemuni CPUs, each with 1 megabyte of RAM and a VMEbus interface, each performing more than one million instructions per second. And since there's no limit to the number of cabinets you can connect, Flex/32 can be configured and reconfigured easily as your applications demand. In fact, Flex/32 is the most change-tolerant system available today.
What's more, since Flex/32 is a MultiComputer, it can provide true concurrency in processing. Which means it can run many programs at precisely the same instant in time. That's the kind of teamwork you need in largescale real-time and scientific applications.
The Flex/32 comes with the software tools you'll need to help make the best use of its outstanding processing capabilities. Like our concurrent UNIXTM System V operating systems. And languages like C, our own Concurrent CTM, FORTRAN 77 with ISA extensions, RATFOR and the Flex/32 ConCurrency Simulator. A performance evaluation option is available to enable you to tune run-time performance for optimized applications.
The Flex/32 MultiComputer. The only general-purpose MultiComputer. No other system offers more performance and more capability for growth. So contact us today for more details.
FleX<ible
Computer Corporation

facts behind Hitachi's superior drive.

A landmark in Hitachi's powerful drive to simplicity are these new half-height rninifloppy disk drives. Using proprietary technology, Hitachi makes reliability not just an advertising adjective but a demonstrable fact with specific benefits.
One PC board that does the work of three
An outstanding example of how Hitachi's drive to simplicity increases reliability is the PC board problem.
A minifloppy drive normally has 2 or more PC boards. But the more boards and chips and parts, the greater the manufacturing costs, the greater the power consumption, and the greater the possibilities of problems.
Hitachi's engineers and research team decided to do something about those boards. First, Hitachi used its bipolar MOS expertise to create a new custom LSI which processes the I/O signals, controls the stepping motor, generates timing pulses and includes the write circuit. Second, hybrid IC's were designed

for the read amplifier, waveform shaper and peripheral circuits. By developing such a new custom LSI and hybrid IC chips, Hitachi created one single PC board that more than does the work of the previous three.

This automatically reduces power consumption, manufacturing costs and, even more important, increases reliability and working life. Compared with our previous drives, total parts have been reduced by more than half.

HFD516C

76

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

·JfuMANICATIONTM

Closing the distance A normal motor requires a
specific distance between the rotar and stator. That distance naturally diminishes efficient use of energy and can cause problems in high power consumption. By using a new design and a flexible printed board (FPC), Hitachi radically reduced that distance. So the drive is thinner and the torque is higher. Since energy efficiency is increased, power consumption is reduced. The brushless DD motor offers virtually noiseless operation, the highest rotational accuracy, and a longer working life.

Clamping during disk
rotation Clamping occurs the
moment the motor starts rotating after the drive lever is locked. Since the disk is turning during clamping, centering is exceptionally precise.
8" floppy data compatibility Hitachi now offers a
minifloppy diskdrive, HFD516C, that has the same capacity as 8" floppies - 1.6 Mbytes. This is clearly a powerful convenience for transferring data and incre~ses applications and the versatility of your drives. Your entire system's size can be reduced.
High access speed Access speed depends upon
the head positioning device because head positioning is crucial for all read/write operations. With a steel belt and hybrid step motor, Hitachi's . track access time of 3ms (96 tp1 model) is unsurpassed by any minifloppy drive on the market today. And head positioning is extremely accurate.

The critical trio:
value, reliability, quality When it comes to value,
these drives are far ahead of the rest because Hitachi's ultra-modern production techniques set industry standards for efficiency. If you choose the 0.5 Mbyte, 1 Mbyte or 1.6 Mbyte model, capacity differs but reliability is identical. That's because Hitachi reliability goes beyond impressive specs. It's grounded on reliability proven not just for 5 years but for over 5 decades. The bottom line is that Hitachi's drives and other OA products offer the very best investment in quality today.
Hitachi's new half-height minifloppy drives - HFD505C/ 510C/516C. Driving toward simple superiority.

@HITACHI

CIRCLE NO. 48 ON INQUIRY CARD

Hitachi America, Ltd.

. ...

Industrial Components Sales & Service D1v1s1on

50 Prospect Avenue, Tarrytown , N.Y. 10591-4698,

Tel : (914) 332-5800

In the highly competitive disk drive/ rotating memory marketplace, the future belongs to those manufacturers who best integrate their system electronics with IC's. System integration not only reduces manufacturing costs but it dramatically improves performance and reliability as well. Silicon Systems is the company that can provide you with the 'ApplicationSpecific IC's· (ASIC's) that will give you the jump an the competition today.
Just check the record : no other company has produced more disk-drive read/write

circuits and associated ASIC's. Whether you're producing rigid disk-drive systems, the micro-floppies, or tapes and streamersSilicon Systems can provide you with a selection of standard read/ write IC's along with a line of data path, support logic, and motor control circuits.
And when you 're ready for your own custom IC's, Silicon Systems has the analog and digital design capability, the Bipolar and CMOS process technology, and the experience to produce the optimum chip design for your system solution. Custom

IC's we 've produced have included everything from read/ write electronics to spindle motor control, analog data processing, digital bus interface, servo control functions, and more.
For complete product information, send for our Rotating Memory brochure .
Silicon Systems, 14351 My ord Road, Tustin, CA 92680. (714) 731-7110.

~H~ J(IiNfNiOaVmATOJ~INTrEGJRfArTmIONr

Circle 170 for production information

Circle 171 for career Information

MINI-MICRO \NORLD
INTERNATIONAL

Personal co111puler fever sprea· to China

Lori Valigra, Senior Editor
China-with one billion people, millions of bicycles and rudimentary capital machinery-hardly seems a comer in high technology . Its 100 or so computer companies contributed only $417 million to the country's economy, or 0. I percent of the gross national product, in 1983.
But China's government wants to build a home-grown computer industry and to modernize capital equipment in more than 400,000 outdated factorie s. To do both , it has on tap billions of dollars in foreign reserves to buy technology and manufacturing know-how . With that potential bonanza before them, foreign companies are rushing at a frenetic pace into China to do business.

Personal computers already are beginning to play a big role in education , factory automation, weather stations and other vertical applications. The Chinese are buying as many personal computers as they can get, because microcomputers are low -priced and pass through U.S . export controls quickly-about six months after an export license is requested .
"China has a crying need for microcomputers, and we are trying to sell them here, " says Pete Sillari , a represe ntative of retailer Computerland International at its Beijing (Peking) office.
Jumping in early to meet the demand for personal computers are IBM Corp., which recently set up a Chinese subsidiary, and Apple Computer Inc. , which is stepping up distribution activi-

ties. Datamedia Corp. , Digital Equipment Corp., NEC Corp., Intel Corp. and others also are making forays into the Chinese market.
At the end of 1983, 30 ,000 microcomputers were being used in China, says Chen Liwei, chief engineer at the Admin.istration of Computer Industry of the Ministry of Electronics Industry in Beijing. The ACI is the primary government organization behind China's computer industry. Chen says most of these are 8-bit machines , but he adds that 16-bit machines are becoming popular, too.
Chen is not sure how much money China will spend on computers and related equipment this year. Market research is a discipline that has hardly ever been used in China's socialist system .

Computer retail stores are popping up in China as personal computers become popular.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

79

MINI-MICRO WORLD
INTERNATIONAL

To date, most American companies have shipped complete systems into China. But that is likely to change soon for two main reasons . First, the Chinese were expected to impose a 100percent import duty on all fully configured systems as of January 1. This would make locally assembled machines comp<iratively less expensive . Second, the Chinese prefer to gain manufacturing expertise, and so they want to assemble imported knockdown kits. Apple, IBM and others intend to export knock-down equipment .
The IOO-percent import tax on fully configured personal computers will encourage the domestic Chinese computer industry, says Chris Brown, deputy director for the National Council for U .S.-China Trade in Beijing. The pattern was set when the Chinese placed import restrictions on 8-bit microcomputers. Brown explains the Chinese then began bringing in kits and, once they were able to make the 8-bit computers themselves, they restricted imports of kits as well. Now this could happen with the 16-bit computers.
Brown says manufacturers of counterfeits already are shifting their assembly base into China. A Western diplomat says there is a tremendous

Apple, whose computers are often counterfeited in China, and its distributor, Sime Darby, recently showed the real systems to attendees at the China Comm industry exhibition in Beijing.

illegal trade in knock-down IBM PCcompatible systems brought in from Taiwan . He says the Chinese started importing counterfeits probably because they couldn't get sufficient quantities of microcomputers because of American export restrictions. "They [the Chinese government] don't like imitations coming in, but haven't denied their importation because it is a way of getting computers ," claims the Western diplomat.
Apple and IBM have found a readymade market for their machines because the Chinese have been purchasing counterfeit IBM PCs and Apple II computers , or have been obtaining real ones illegally (not through the proper U.S. export control channels) for years. And the Chinese have their own imitations, the most popular of which is the Great Wall, an IBM PC-compatible. Another machine , the Venus, is Apple-compatible.
Imitations outnumber real Apples
Apple only recently began formal sales into China through distributor Sime Darby, a $2.5 billion Singapore company. There are 50,000 to 75,000 real Apple computers installed in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and more than 300,000 Apple II imita-

Microcomputer makers rush to set up Chinese assembly

To get personal computers to the Chinese market more quickly and in greater numbers, many manufacturers besides IBM Corp. and Apple Computer Inc . plan to set up joint ventures aimed at assembling their microcomputers on the mainland .
Wang Laboratories Inc, Lowell, Mass ., may sign a joint venture early this year with the Beijing Wireless Communication Plant, a telephone-switching-system maker that wants to move into computers , according to a Wang source . Initially, Wang plans to assemble about 10,000 personal computers a year in China. The source says the Chinese government predicts they need 50,000 units a year He adds that Wang expects to sell some software, but that generally, "Chinese people don't want to buy software. They think software should be free because it is intangible , so they copy it."
The Wang source says a major aim of local assembly is to improve the market share . He says Wang expects to double Chinese sales yearly over the next two years to reach more than $40 million in

mid -1985. Wang has installed 200 VS and 2200 computers and more than 1,000 personal computers in China in one year, he claims .
Datamedia Corp., Pennsauken , N.J., hopes to manufacture its MC68010-based 932 UNIX microcomputer in China. But there are several factors limiting volume production , explains Raymond S. Shimrak, director of international sales at Datamedia. "There 's no climate control , power is intermittant , there 's lots of dust and there 's no static electricity control." Air conditioning is a luxury, he says .
NEC Corp. also is considering assembling its 8086-based PC9801 F personal computer in China, but only after it has developed a method to handle Chinese characters , says a company spokesman .
A source at Western Digital Corp ., Irvine, Calif., says the company plans to begin assembly of hard disk controllers for personal computers in China this month . Last year the company sold 2,000 units , and this year it plans to sell 5,000 to 10,000 units . The products will come in through Hong Kong in kits .

80

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

same number of personal microcomput But personal computers - no matter how they're strung toget er - 't offerthe features and performance ofthe DBS 16. Designed for business from the bottom line up, the DBS 16's networking capabilities are built in from the beginning. Sixteen bit processors and exceptional datatransfer techniques offer speed and power. So the system expands- from one to 28 terminals - with ease. Inexpensively.
Your customers become clients, returning time and again as their computing needs expand.
As time goes by, they - and you - will be glad they bought DBS 16's expandability. Other multi-user micros offer fewer bits, fewer bytes, less storage, and proprietary buses that limit their usage.
And they still cost more. Face it. There isn't any (fair) comparison to the DBS 16.

ESPRIT DBS 16 SPECIFICATIONS · 1- 28 users via terminals · 1-7 80186 16 bit microprocessors (8 MHz) · Up to 3.58MB RAM (up to 512KB per 80186) · From 720KB to 105MB of 5.25" disk storage · 6 slot Multibus' expansion unit ·Optional tape subsystem ·Concurrent DOS and MP/ M·86 multi - user
operating systems
Computer Products, Inc.
Peace of Mind Technology

For more information, call us at 1·800-ECP-4685 . In Pennsylvania, call 215-628-4810. Or write to P.O. Box 425, Welsh Road & Pa rk Drive, Montgomeryville, PA 1893 6. TLX 846419 DBS MMLL.
Concurrent DOS and MP/ M·86 are products of Digital Research Inc. ®Multibus 1s a registered trademark of Intel Corp.
CIRCLE NO. 49 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO WORLD
INTERNATIONAL

tions, claims Jon Covington, international markets manager for Apple, Cupertino, Calif. Covington says Taiwanese manufacturers make about 40,000 counterfeit Apple Ils each month. Those imitations are priced at $500 to $700, as much as half off the tag on the real machines.
Sources say some university students also are producing copies and are becoming quite resourceful at it. For example, says one source, some parts, such as 64K-bit memory chips, are hard to come by . As a result, he says, some individuals are purchasing extra memory with large machines and then using that memory in microcomputers.
"There's not a lot we can do here

about the fakes," says Covington. " One of the main reasons we [exhibited at a recent convention] in China is that we wanted the Chinese to experience what a real Apple is , and what the reliability and service are."
Covington says genuine Macintosh computers also are being sold in China . "We don't know who sells them . Most come from the United States, and some from Hong -Kongand Singapore. The Chinese can bring them in free of duty. " Covington says it takes 24 hours to get a computer export license in Hong Kong .
To combat some counterfeit produc-
tion in state-run Chinese factories, Apple 's Covington says his company plans

to provide genuine Apple kits for assembly in the factories. He says the government won't halt production of counterfeits because that would mean a loss of jobs; the Apple kits will provide assembly work in some of those factories.
Covington says that , if Apple approaches the Chinese market through proper distribution channels, software package offerings and development expertise , its business in China could be $40 million yearly. But he points out that Apple still doesn't have enough Apple Ils and Macintoshes to supply U.S. buyers.
Last November, IBM set up IBM China Inc. , a wholly owned subsidiary

To upgrade its 400,000 factories and to narrow its more than 10-year lag in industrial technology. China is pushing its local computer industry and acquiring resources from more developed countries.
Local computer manufacturing efforts have been hampered by reliance on slow, manual labor, which drives the price of the computers up and causes them to be less reliable, explains a Western diplomat.
Adding to manual labor problems is China's general lack of experience in turning a laboratory design into a producible, commercial product. Chris Brown, deputy director in Beijing for the National Council for U.S.-China Trade, explains that although R&D expertise is strong at the very top layer of Chinese research institutes, this expertise has not filtered down through the management structure. "There's a great discrepancy in the lab versus the factory," he says.
To give a shot in the arm to its modernization efforts. the Chinese government has opened 14 cities to foreigners . These so-called "special economic zones" are test beds of capitalism that are set up to attract foreign investment. They offer lower tax rates (15 percent compared with the usual 30 to 50 percent) and better services (transportation, telephone , etc.).
Because the Chinese are so eager to innovate, Western diplomats, U.S. companies and Chinese industry sources all have expressed concern about the sluggish import control procedures. Each end user must complete an 18-page statement about how the equipment will be used and detail its performance parameters.
Depending on the complexity of the machinery, it takes from six months to two years or more to ship equipment into China. A semiconductor plant in Wuxi

(near Shanghai) has been waiting for more than a year for capital equipment purchased from the United States. In the meantime, part of the plant remains idle. Chen Liwei, chief engineer at the Chinese Administration of Computer Industry, says it took one year for a research institute to get power-supply and network-control products from a U.S. company. The equipment has been delayed because of rules imposed by the U.S. Commerce and COCOM , a European organization that controls the export of high-technology goods to Communist countries.
Personal computers, however, take only about six months to go through import channels, which makes them attractive purchases for the Chinese . Capital Steel and Nail Co. near Beijing , has been buying personal computers to help modernize its factory . Since 1979 the company has imported 126 minicomputers and 450 microcomputers, says Chen. Fourteen of the minicomputers are used for staff training , 41 for production control and business management and the remaining 71 for process control.
One U.S. company became a value-added dealer for IBM Corp. PCs so it could automate some of its and China's exploratory activities . Western Geophysical, Houston, sells a color IBM PC/XT with 512K bytes of memory. English-language software for geophysical applications ranges in price from $250 to $12 ,250 .
John Y.B. Hood, business development specialist at the company , explains that Western Geophysical has been exploring in China for five years, and has an IBM 3033 mainframe there to process data for oil exploration . The company also is a value-added dealer for Sperry Corp.'s IBM PC-compatible computer.

82

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Mast companies experience the
same thing when they start tying remote terminals to their minicomputer:
Much higher phone bills. But now there's an inexpensive solution to that costly problem: The new Codex 6002 Intelligent Network Processor: This low-cost multiplexer will save you money even if you're using as few as two terminals. The 6002 boosts operating efficiency, reduces the number of needed lines and protects data from errors due to line disturbances. And it can handle any mix of up to 16 asychronous "terminals': including graphics terminals, word processors and personal computers from virtually any manufacturer: Plus, only with the 6002 can you add asychronous equipment without worrying if your multiplexer is compatible or not. So not only will it save you money now, but also later as your network grows and grows. The Codex 6002 Intelligent Network Processor: It's just one of our many products that enable minicomputer users to develop and efficiently manage a growing network. To learn more about the 6002, call 1-800-821-7700, ext. 892. Or write: Codex Corporation, Dept. 707-92, 20 Cabot Boulevard, Mansfield, MA 02048.
codex ® MOTOROLA INC. - S y s..... an:x.,
See us at Interface booth #1940.
© 1984 Codex Corporation.

ADD SOME MUSCLE TO YOUR SYSTEM POWER

You'll immediately notice the difference with the Facit 4570 or 80 CPS NLQ printing.

Matrix Printer.

Integrated in your word and dataprocessing systems,

Just try to lift it! Its 92 lbs (42 kg) speaks for its rugged- its software intelligence and printing capability will

ness. Built for professional heavy-duty operations round

convince you of its competitive edge.

the clock. Featuring Facit's unique Stored Force Flexham-

Italic, bold and elongated characters with 16 different

mer Printhead with all-perfect, non-deteriorating printouts

fonts, monospaced or proportional, are easily selected from

Prm· throughout its average 1,000,000,000 character

service life!

·

the keypad or host computer. Equipped with Facit's Cut ter~ Sheet Feeder, the Facit 4570 can be manually or

Perfect Facit 4570 has all the essential qualities that
define it as your central printer with large-

automatically fed from two magazines. So when performance and reliability are vital

F A C I T volume printouts. As well as the handling of
printouts from several word. processing

parts of your system ·building, Facit 4570 Matrix Printer will add more muscle to

workstations. At a speed of 250 CPS draft

your own product.

Head Officp: Facit AB. S-17291 S1mdl>yberg. Sweden. Phone: (8) 7643000. USA: Facit Inc. P.O. Box 334, Merrimack. NH 03054. Phone: (603) 424-8000

AUSTRALIA: EAi Electronics A~~ociates Pty Ltd., 427-3322. AUSTRIA: Ericsson Information Systems GmbH. 0222-43 95 01. BELGIUM: Ericsson S.A., 02-243 82 II. CANADA: Facit Canada Inc., 416-821-9400. CYPRUS: LBM (Lillytos) Ltd. DENMARK: Facit A/S, 02-92 24 00. FINLAND: OY Facit, 90-77001. FRANCE: Facit S.A.. 1-780 7117. GREATBRITAIN: Fadt. 0634-4017 21. GREECE:Computer Application Co., Ltd., 01-67197 22.HONG KONG:Gilman & Co. Ltd.. 5-790 95 55. TCELAND :Gisli J.Johnsen HI-:354·1731 JI. INDIA: Forbes forbes Campbell & Co. Ltd .. 22-2680 81. TRELAND: Me mory Ireland Computers Ltd.. 1-98 97 33.ITALY: Facit Data Products S.p.A., 0039-63 63 31.]APAN Ell'Ctrolux (Japan) Ltd.. 03-4 79-3411. THE NETHERLANDS: Ericsson Information Systems B:V.. 03480-70911. NEWZEALAND: McLt·an Information 1t·chnology Ltd., 501-801, 501-219. NORWAY: Erksson Information Systems A/S, 02-3558 20. PORTUGAL: Rrgisconta Sarl, 1-56 0091. SINGAPORE:Far East Office Eqpts Pte Ltd., 745 82 88. SPAIN: Facit, 91-45.71111. SWEDEN: Ericsson Information Systems Sverigr AB. 08-29 00 20.SWITZERLAND: Ericsson Information Systems AG, 01-3919711. USA: Facit Inc., 603-424-8000. WE,-ST GERMANY: Ericsson Information Systems GmbH. 0211·7993 :ll.
CIRCLE NO. 50 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO WORLD
INTERNATIONAL

of IBM World Trade Americas/Far been selling PCs in China through now , and about 1,000 of those are East Corp., with operations in Beijing seven authorized dealers. Sources say licensed. and Shanghai. Previously, IBM had there are about 10,000 PCs in China Although IBM disclosed little about
PACIFIC PERSPECTIVE
U.S. unitary taxes
deemed ha11nful to l1ade

lchiro Kakehashi
Tokyo Correspondent
It should be dawning on American state legislators that Japan's large electronics manufacturers were serious when they threatened to relocate capital investment unless unitary tax laws were rescinded.
The unitary tax is levied on all earnings made by a multinational corporation with operations located within a state, regardless of how much of the earnings were made in that state.
In the past few months , Sony Corp., Kyocera Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. have shipped capital investments from unitary-taxing California to non-unitary tax states. And NEC Corp., one of the largest Japanese electronics investors with nine manufacturing facilities in operation or under construction in the United States, decided to build a $12.24 million plant in McDonough, Ga. , partly because Georgia does not levy a unitary tax . Georgia gained 200 jobs.
The importance of the tax to Japan arises from the fact that electronics contributes even more than automobiles to Japan's economic growth. The Japanese are especially concerned about retaining operations in Silicon Valley. Akio Morita , Sony's chairman, toured the United States in May with a delegation from Keidanren , the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations. They visited 23 states, of which 12 , including California, actively enforce a unitary tax.
The delegation 's lobbying effort rankled some states' unitary tax supporters, who accused the Japanese

group of putting unfair pressure on state legislators. The Keidanren, in turn, said its mission was not much different from that of business groups from other countries who try to convince Japan to liberalize its trade policies.
The Japan-U .S. Businessmen's Conference, a private group led by Norishige Hasegawa, chairman of the Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co., and Edson Spencer, chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell Inc. , lists the unitary tax among factors most harmful to international trade.
European countries have joined in the unitary tax criticism. The sub-
ject of the tax was broached through diplomatic channels early last summer at Europe's Economic Summit. Following appeals there by Britain and Japan, the Reagan administration undertook a study of the issue .
The gist of the study was that , while the federal government regards the tax as a " disincentive to foreign investment," there is not much it can do to get states to abolish the tax. The U.S. Treasury Department has pledged to help states improve tax-collection efforts and find other ways to raise revenue , without resorting to the unitary tax. Frustration over the inaction caused Japanese foreign minister Shintaro Abe to submit a formal note to urge the federal government to move more strongly to ease the trade friction .
The states with unitary taxes have argued that worldwide unitary taxation is the only way to keep rtrnltinational companies from hiding their profits to avoid taxes.
A Keidanren survey of leading

Japanese companies found that California has a special appeal for investments. Eighty-eight companies would spend more than $5.71 billion on expansion that would create more than 11,000 jobs in California if the state would drop its unitary tax law, according to the survey. But the California legislature ended its last session in August without acting on a bill that would have changed the law. About 400 Japanese companies have subsidiaries in California.
According to Kyocera, it decided to build a $30 million integrated circuit package and ceramic components plant in Vancouver, Wash., because of California's unitary tax. Sony has announced plans to spend about $20 million for a disk-making plant in Terre Haute, Ind. , after having exacted pledges from Gov. Robert Orr and a bipartisan legislative committee that the state would abolish a unitary tax that is on its books, but is not being imposed.
Oregon has been the most recent focus of Japanese relocation investment money. Oregon's legislature has decided to end its unitary tax next year to attract business. As a result, Fujitsu is building two facili-
ties near Portland. The pair represe nts about $170 millioh in capital spending.
For Oregon , however, abolishing the tax was an expensive move. The state had gained almost $35 million of its $145 million in tax revenue last year from the unitary tax . Oregon's governor said he expects to recover some of that in additional personal income taxes and other, indirect, taxes that will be generated by the new employment the Japanese expansion will bring.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

85

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86

CIRCLE NO. 51 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

"Mother Nature, You're Under Arrest. "
Winchester-based mass storage rs no longer at the mercy of the elements Wrth environment-independent Ranger. you can say hello to a whole new world of portable and severe-environment data processing applrcatrons. Ranger's unique suspension system, acoustic dampening and heat dissrpatrng frame and contamrnatron isolated HOA lock out all the bad guys including shock. vrbratron, heat. humrdrty, norse. drrt, strctron. magnetic fields and radro frequency
Stamp Out Designer Siege Mentality.
Ranger brings a welcome breath of fresh arr to portable product design. The compact I 625" X 4 O" X 5. 75" form factor and ultralight 2 lb. package grves designers room to maneuver. elrmrnating the stress of having to compromise on critical product features because of weight, srze or environmental constraints. Every durable detarl of Ranger's layout, from the posrtionrng system's opposing thermal loops to the shock and vibration isolated HOA, 1s configured for accurate. reliable performance, ease of manufacture and an exceptronally long service life
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CIRCLE NO. 52 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO WORLD
INTERNATIONAL

the activities of the new company, it announced that it would:
· Form a joint-venture facility with China's Ministry of Electronics Industry to assemble and test Chinese-character 5550 Personal Computers
· Cooperate with the Ministry of Machine Building Industry and the Beijing municipal government to establish a center for data services and customer education
· Work with the Ministry of Electronics Industry on several software development projects
· Install several Series/l computers throughout China to demonstrate industrial automation.
To celebrate IBM China's formation , IBM agreed to give away 100 5550 workstations valued at $1.7 million to Chinese universities. The com-

pany also held a large party at the how seriously IBM is committed to

Great Hall of the People in Beijing. China," comments Computerland's

That party was " a gesture [to show] Sillari .

D

TEKTRONIX ADDS 3-D SOLIDS MODELING
Tektronix Inc. , Wilsonville, Ore. , has added 3-D solids modeling to its line of color raster terminals for computer-aided-design/computer-aidedmanufacturing (CAD/CAM) applications. There are three terminals in the 4120 series, but the 3-D solids modeling element is found in the top-of-theline 4129. Tektronix begins the series with the 2-D 4125 terminal ($19,950); next in line is the 3-D wireframe 4128 terminal ($25,000). The 4129 goes for $35,000. Users can upgrade within the 4120 series and from the established Tektronix 4l15B 2-D color terminal with "field kits" (printed circuit boards) which range in price from $3,000 to $10,000. Industry sources say Tektronix needed color 3-D solids modeling to compete in the design-engineering terminal field with companies like Megatek Corp. , San Diego, Calif., which already provide that capability on their terminals.

OVERHEAD OVERSEAS

IBM learns from its mistakes

Tim Palmer
European Correspondent
As unquestionably as its Personal Computer was a failure there, IBM Corp.'s new PC-AT is shaping up to be a big success in Europe, market observers say.
The low price for high performance of the PC-AT may show that IBM intends to leave little opportunity for manufacturers of compatibles to undercut it. The potential customers for the PC-AT not yet covered by IBM are those seeking support for more than three users; IBM only offers a three-user version of the XENIX, UNIX-like operating system.
IBM's decision to delay the European launch of the PC until January, 1983-more than a year after its U .S. introduction- set the stage for poor sales in markets like Britain , Italy and, to some extent, West Germany. In the interim, companies marketing machines like the Victor Technologies Inc. model 9000 sold computers for a full year without

competition from IBM. The PC has been a modest success
in Britain, where the installed base is estimated by market researchers to be approaching 60,000. In France, the French daily newsletter Le· Courrier de /'Jnformatique quotes internal IBM sources as saying that the company came close to
hitting its 1984 target of 40,000 machines sold. About 9,000 PCs were sold in 1983. But West Germany , usually a market which votes the IBM ticket all the way, absorbed , at best , 7,000 PCs in 1983, and the latest figures suggest that IBM sold just over 20,000 PCs there in 1984. In Italy , the Editrice Italiana Software SpA market group estimates just 4,200 PCs were sold in 1983, and 18,000 in 1984.
A comparatively high price for the PC also made sales sluggish. To sell more machines , IBM reduced PC prices in Europe several months before its first price cut in the United States. Unlike their U .S. counterparts, European small-computer users place much more impor-

tance on getting value for their money than on whether or not a machine has an IBM badge.
This is why the PC-AT, which offers a lot of power for the money , will be a better sales performer for IBM than the PC. Even in the United States, where the PC has been an enormous success, analysts project more success for the PC-AT.
For those doubting the pennypinching attitude of European users , particularly on the Continent, a good example comes from the West German subsidiary of ICL Pie., London. ICL sells its System Ten small business computer worldwide as its standard retail point-of-sale terminal controller and concentrator. But according to Dieter Kruschel , director of corporate affairs at the German subsidiary, "our [European] customers liked the terminals but they thought the System Ten was too expensive . We had to write [more powerful] control software for the baby ICL 1500 terminal computer in order to win their business."

88

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

ROTARY VOICE COIL ACTUATOR provides 40 millisecond typical average access for the 21 and 36 MB capacities and a 30 millisecond average typically for the 48, 67 and 86 MB models (includes head settling).

L DEDICATED CLOSE-LOOP SERVO SYSTEM for added positioning accuracy and maximum system performance.

L

INTERFACE FLEXIBILITY: Two industry standard interfaces ST506/412 and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI). The ST506/412 interface is available in all capacity versions up to 86 MB. The ESDI is

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T

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MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

89

~\

We've seen it happen again and again.

dramatically improved responsiveness -with

An OEM commits to a UNIX supermicro supplier the ability to expand all the way to 40 users (even

on the strength of big promises and low prices.

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Months are spent developing or port-

With separate 16-bit processors to

ing software . For a while, everything

handle terminal and disk 1/0, Plexus

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systems run rings around the single-

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© t984. UN IX is a trademark o f AT&T Bell Laboratories.

CIRCLE NO. 54 ON INQUIRY CARD

INTERPRETER
An analysis of news, issues and trends affecting the computer industry

SOFTWARE INTEGRATION: WHO'S ON FIRST

Software makers seek wider customer base, third-party software developers and vertical markets

Lynn Haber, Associate Editor
With the total combined value of integrated and integrating software shipments expected to exceed $1 billion by 1988 , the question facing developers is not whether to integrate , but how .
A recent market report prepared by Venture Development Corp. , Wellesley , Mass. , indicates that shipments of integrated packages will increase from 425 ,000 units in 1983 to over two million in 1988 and those of integrating packages will skyrocket from 20,000 units in 1983 to 1.6 million in 1988. By year end 1983 , approximately 40 vendors participated in this relatively young software market , up from less than five in 1982.
"' a~ft: I.!. t":',;mr. :ic:
""' lf> 11'-IM
IBM Corp.'s TopView software provides the capability to integrate unmodified software and also provides additional functionality to unmodified applications . (Shown above on the company's Personal Computer AT.)

" At some point, integrated software and integrating software will merge into a flexible package that will allow the user to do any number of functions without the limitations currently inherent in these products," says Leone Pease , market analyst for Venture .
Demand for integrators to increase
According to industry watchers, the development trend in this technology is towards operating system environments, or software integrator programs , as opposed to integrated software, which incorporates three o r more functions on a single disk .
Software integrators can be divided into 1) those products that unify applications and provide multiwindowing to existing unmodified software packages, like DesQ from Quarterdeck Office Systems, Santa Monica , Calif., but do not necessarily provide uniform user interface , and 2) environment management products that provide a co mmon user interface and data transfer betwee n operations o n custom-written applica-

DesQ, the multiwindowing software integrator from Quarterdeck Office Systems, allows users to run existing PC-DOS and MS-DOS applications.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

91

INTERPRETER

tions . Typical is the Visi On System from VisiCorp., San Jose, Calif., which includes VisiOn Plan for financial analysis, VisiOn Graph for business graphs, and VisiOn Word for word processing.
Two factors influencing the surge in software integrating products are advances in hardware technology and IBM Corp. 's announcement this past summer of its upcoming TopView software integrator. TopView is designed to integrate unmodified software and also provide additional functionality to modified applications. It will reportedly be available for $149 in the first quarter of 1985.
"Most users compare anything they buy to IBM," says Pease. "Other companies will be forced to keep up or keep ahead." Independent software developers will also be likely to feel
GOOD TIMES FOR INTEGRATED/INTEGRATING SOFTWARE

ripples in the marketplace, should hardware vendors start marketing their own software packages, she adds .
Developers ignore hardware limitations
In their enthusiasm to devise a better integrating product, software developers have ignored hardware limitations imposed by today's technology, according to Todd L. Corenson, a principal at Enlon Associates, a Cupertino , Calif., marketing research and software development company.
"In many cases you find that software developers aren't perceiving hardware limitations and proceed with concepts that shouldn't be implemented on something like an IBM PC," he says. "What these developers are looking for is a popular user device on which to implement a product."
Windowing is an example of a software concept which is limited by today's hardware technology. Originally developed at Xerox Corp. 's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), windowing is a graphics-user interface design based on bit-mapped environments. Windowing works best when implemented on more powerful processors and displayed on a high-resolution screen.
"Developers are attempting to implement windows on machines that don't have the capability to fully support them and don't provide full functionality," contends Corenson. "The problem is that people then see these things and say they aren't useful, but they haven't seen these concepts implemented on machines designed to support this type of software."

To window or not to window

Although many industry analysts concur that

windowing is a reasonable approach to integrat-

ing products, the preferred hardware on which

to implement this concept is only beginning to

appear in the marketplace.

Many of the integrated or integrating soft-

ware products available today target 16-bit

machines, most commonly the IBM PC, PC

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

compatibles and Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh. Integrating products typically require

INTEGRATED SOFTWARE INTEGRATING SOFTWARE
SOURCE: VENTURE DEVELOPMENT CORP.

512K bytes of RAM and a hard disk, and integrated software about 256K bytes of memory and, depending upon the product, either a floppy or hard disk.

IBM's recently released PC-AT, based on

Shipments of integrated packages will increase from 425,000 Intel Corp.'s 80286 microprocessor, is a dream

units in 1983 to over two million in 1988 and integrating packages machine for software developers. The PC-AT

will skyrocket from 20,000 units shipped in 1983 to 1.6 million

reportedly delivers almost five times the user

in 1988.

memory and more than twice the data storage

92

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

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CIRCLE NO. 55 ON INQUIRY CARD

Finall"f, a computer graphics system
1 defies obsolescence.

Open architecture is the key. The new Perigraf 1 starts with a standard Q-bus. Moves on with replaceable modules. Adds slots for major expansion. And then gives you a steady stream of new Peritek cards and software for new applications. Perigrafs open architecture brings you possibilities never dreamed of before. Look: o Color or monochrome displays, dot graphics or alphanumerics, low to high resolution, one or more display channels-selected from a comprehensive line of display controller cards. o A single unified bus or a split bus for multiprocessing. o A single-width enclosure for most current uses. Or a double-width enclosure big enough for the largest super micro configuration.

o A unified plug-in storage
module (a hard disk and two floppies) that you can unplug and replace in less than a minute. You can switch modules for diagnostic testing. Replace for instant repair. Change modules to change the entire software environment instantly.
o Cluster up to six Perigrafs, linked by OMA for parallel data transfer at up to 250,000 bytes per second.
o Network our Ethernet com-
bined with a dedicated VO processor
on a split bus to maximize speed. o Comprehensive development
software included. An image editor. GKS-compatible software. Vector de-jagging routines. System exercisers. System diagnostics. All brought together by popular operating systems like the multiterminal RT-11 Version 5.
Summing up, Perigrafs entire

open-architecture design was conceived to accommodate technological advances readily and adapt to new applications requirements easily.
Basic $14,500.00 price includes
IV73 CPU, 512 Kb RAM, 2 RX50 type
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VO, RT clock and graphics interface.
Find out more. Contact Peritek Corporation, 5550 Redwood Road, Oakland, California 94619. (415) 531-6500.
Peritek
CIRCLE NO. 56 ON INQUIRY CARD

INTERPRETER

capacity previously available on the company's Robert Lewis, product manager for Frame-

PC.

work, an integrated software product from

The degree of functionality a user can derive Ashton-Tate, Culver City, Calif., believes inte-

from windowing is, in part, dependent upon the grated software development is approaching

level of software integration.

the limit of what the current generation of

For example, the VisiOn System employs hardware can support.

what is known as "tight" integration. This "I think the trend in integration is toward

means that applications which run on that prod- increased ease of use, but today's hardware

uct are specifically written for Visi On. To imposes speed limitations and memory limita-

control multiple activities, VisiCorp uses win- tions," says Lewis. "As memory gets larger and

dows on the screen, which enables the user to cheaper and as CPU power increases and costs

view different documents at the same time and decrease, I think we'll begin to look for the

also to transfer data between windows.

incorporation of things like artificial intelligence

On the other hand, DesQ is based on "loose" to facilitate getting jobs done, and adaptive

integration. While Quarterdeck claims a user · types of programs that will learn individual

can select from over 150 unmodified off-the- work styles."

shelf packages, not all the software will achieve Venture's Pease says, "I think the hardware

full windowing functionality. Only applications vendors will determine the future of software,"

accompanied by an "agent," an interface be- but adds, "the software independents are going

tween DesQ and the program, allow the pro- to drive the hardware people into staying on

gram to run in windows. Programs running top of technology."

without an agent operate full screen. Quarterdeck currently offers 12 agents. (see "Software Customizing encouraged

packages supported by DesQ," below).

Stifled by hardware, yet determined to keep

Taking a different approach, Cullinet Soft- pace with the competition, developers of inte-

ware Inc., Westwood, Mass., decided not to grated software are busy devising ways to up-

employ windows in Goldengate, its integrated grade their products.

software product. Maurice B. Shore, senior One trend of particular interest to the system

systems engineer at Cullinet, believes that win- integrator is to encourage independent software

dowing is a reasonable way to approach inte- developers to customize these software products

gration, but that a well-designed integrated for vertical market segments.

product eliminates the need for windows.

Therese Myers, president of Quarterdeck,

"Windowing also takes some of the comput- says that DesQ, the company's multiwindowing

ing resources which could otherwise be put software integrator, will address special markets.

toward some of the functionality within the '"Eventually, there'll be products like DesQ for

system," he comments. "I don't feel that be- physicians, DesQ for lawyers, etc., always using

cause certain products have come out with independent software developers' products as

windowing, products that don't use this ap- the tool," she claims.

proach are missing the mark, or are technically In a similar fashion, Lotus Development

or functionally inferior."

Corp., Cambridge, Mass. , announced last Sep-

'Most users compare anything they buy to IBM. Other companies will be forced to keep up or keep ahead.'

Software ........ supported llty DeaQ

Data management: dBASE II (Ashton-Tate) All releases
through 1983 pfs:file (Software Publishing) All
releases through 1983 pfs:report (Software Publishing) All
releases through 1983 Graphics:
Fast Graphs (Innovative Software) Releases 1.1, 1.11 Integrated:
1-2-3 (Lotus) Release 1A

Spreadsheet: Multiplan (Microsoft) Release 1.06 SuperCalc/SuperCalc2 (Sorcim)
Release 1.12, 1.0 SuperCalc3 (Sorcim) Release 1.0 VisiOn Plan (VisiCorp) Release 1.2
Word processing: MultiMate (Multimate International)
Releases 3.11 , 3.20 pfs:write (Software Publishing) All
releases through 1983 WordStar (MicroPro) Releases 3.2, 3.24 , 3.3

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

95

INTERPRETER

According to industry analysts, the trend Is towards operating system environments or software integrators.

Ashton-Tate's Framework integrated software for the IBM PC reportedly allows users to place "frames" containing graphs, documents or spreadsheets anywhere on the program's "desk" work area.
tember plans to release proprietary data on Symphony, the company's integrated software product, to encourage third-party software developers to cater to niche markets.
Another popular way of broadening the appeal of these products is via a micro-to-mainframe connection which enables users to tap into the corporate database.
"People favor a systems approach rather than having their PC sit there by itself," says market analyst Pease. "This concept has almost become a market requisite."
Cullinet, a major supplier of corporate database software and applications, considers its micro-to-mainframe concept true integration, as opposed to a link. "There's links and then there's mainframe-micro integration. I haven't seen anything other than the Information Database-Golde ngate concept that really satisfies that idea," asserts Vic Morris, Cullinet vice president of marketing and international operations .
As a standalone, integrated software product, Goldengate offers word-processing, database, spreadsheet, graphics, and information management functions. Used with the company's microto-mainframe Information Database (IDB) software product , which resides in the mainframe, provisions are in place to access additional internal data sitting on any number of different databases, according to Morris.
If a company is a customer of Cullinet's Information Relational Database Management System (IDMS/R), the three mentioned products can be integrated into a complete corporate information system.

"We're approaching integration from the point of view of giving people flexibility but having control, and letting it reach back into applications and databases because many organizations have tremendous investments in their applications and databases," says senior systems engineer Shore.
Lotus recently entered a joint venture with Informatics General Corp., Woodland Hills, Calif., to link virtually any IBM mainframe database with Lotus' 1-2-3 and Symphony packages. The price of the currently available micromainframe product Answer/Lotus is $45 ,000 , including connections to one mainframe and 50 PCs, according to an Informatics spokesman.
Shore explains one difference between Cullinet's approach to mainframe integration and that of Lotus. "It boils down to comfort from the user's point of view , and being able to feel like that data is sitting on your hard disk even though it's on the mainframe ."
From a user's standpoint the number of vendors involved is also a consideration , according to Shore. "We provide a single-vendor, singlesupport source as opposed to having one vendor for the link, a vendor for a microproduct and a vendor for the database, " he says.

Integrating concepts still evolve

Despite the tradeoffs and compromises in the

various approaches to integration, the concept of

creating a working environment most natural

and comfortable to the user is here to stay .

"As users become more sophisticated , they're

going to demand a more sophisticated product.

They will also want something that can be used

immediately ," says Pease. "That's why expand-

ing to vertical markets and more open integrat-

ing environments will gain popularity."

The exploratory environment, characterized

by' the integration of operating system, applica-

tions, programming language and data, will be

the next generation of integrating environments ,

according to Enlon's Corenson.

"The exploratory environment allows you to

dynamically make modifications to applications

and to determine how these modifications affect

the applications or environment ," he explains.

"This enviroment is for the system integrator

and for those in general who are developing

specific applications or enhancements to applica-

tions." Corenson concludes.

D

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 816 Medium 817 Low 818

96

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Building New UNIX Networks

Mainframes to Micros
I NTERACTIVE Systems Corporation and its OEMs are introducing a series of new products that allow users to distribute their computing tasks among central computers, departmental computers, and personal computers running UNIX and /or PC DOS .
Announced To Date
First, INTERACTIVE introduced the Workbench (IS /WB) and IS / 3 systems for distribution by its own sales force to DEC users . IS /WB is a set of key UNIX tools running as extensions to DEC's VMS operating system. IS /3 is an enhanced version of the standard AT&T UNIX operating system for PDP and VAX computers. Both support INed , a proprietary full-screen editor that is the primary user interface on all INTERACTIVE operating systems . Both systems also support INmail, an electronic mail system , and INnet , a networking package that links computers so that they share resources and exchange mail .
At the 1983 Fall COMDEX , SCI Systems demonstrated a new family of multi-user microcomputers (SCI 1000) running IN I ix, which is a version of IS / 3 with INed. SCI offers INmail and INnet as applications.
At the UNIFORUM show in early 1984, IBM demonstrated PC/ IX, a version ofIS/3 with INed, on the IBM PC XT, IBM PC XT/370, and the IBM PC with Fixed Disk Expansion . At the same show, INTERACTIVE demonstrated software that allows personal computers running PC DOS to act as intelligent terminals to any system running INed .
In June, IBM announced that INmail , INnet,

and INfort, INTERACTIVE's Fortran 77 compiler, were available as applications for PC / IX. In July, IBM announced VM/ IX, a version ofIS / 3 with INed, which runs as a guest operating system on their Virtual Machine/System Product (VM/SP) . And at the fall Expo '84 in LA and UNIX Expo in NYC , IBM announced and demonstrated PC/ IX on the new IBM Personal Computer AT.
The Net Effect
INTERACTIVE is the only company to offer a complete network of UNIX-based operating systems, utilities, and applications for building corporate communications systems . Our products provide compatibility across a wide range of processors, making virtually any configuration of PC's, minis , multi-user micros , and mainframes possible. We are also unique in offering fullservice support and maintenance , as well as extensive training programs to assist our customers in implementing UNIX networks . Watch for more on our latest developments in the next INTERACTIVE UNIX Update .
Software Tools for System Builders. For more information, contact:
INTERACTIVE
Sr'STEMS CCfflQRATO..I
2401 Colorado Ave., 3rd Floor Santa Monica. CA 90404 Telephone (213) 453-UNIX
TWX 910-343-6255; Telex 18-2030

UNIX is a trademark of AT&T BeH Laboratories. DEC. VMS . PDP. and VAX are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation . IN /ix is a trademark of INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of Intern ational Bu si ness Machines Corporation.
CIRCLE NO. 57 ON INQUIRY CARD

IOMEGA HAS REMO
REGIONAL AND DISTRICT SALES OFFICES: SOUTHEAST (305) 755-1060; SOUTH CENTRAL (%14) 458-2534;

E MASS STORAGE ISSUE.
WESTERN (714) 855-1211 ,(408) 263-4476; NORTH EMT (617) 933-2000;MIDWEST (312) 397-4134; EMTERN (103) 359 -9858.
CIRCLE NO. 58 ON INQUIRY CARD

1elevideois the multiuser system
·for companies who ectto

TheTeleVideo Personal Mini Family

Growingcompaniesneedacompu- only runs PC software, but also
ter system that will grow right along hundreds of popular, fast mini-

Your TeleVideo dealer has the Personal Mini. Arrange to see it today

with them. Simply and economically. computer and multiuser programs. by calling toll free, 800-521-4897.

A computer system that lets

Without destroying your established In California, call 800-821-3774.

people communicate and share

PC environment.

Ask for operator 10.

resources. Even work on the same

And, unlike less advanced net-

The TeleVideo Personal Mini.

file simultaneously.

works, the Personal Mini never

The growing business computer.

The TeleVideo· Personal Mini,.
Family is that system.
Runs PC, mini and multiuser softw.ire.
With the TeleVideo Personal Mini,

sacrifices performance or speed regardless of how many workstations are on line.
Build on your original PC investment.

Regional Sales Offices: Northwest
(408) 745-7760, Southwest (714) 476-0244. Southcentral (214) 258-6776, Midwest (312) 397-5400, Southeast (404) 447-1231, Mid-Atlantic (703) 556-7764, Northeast (617) 890-3282, East (516) 496-4777. Rocky Mountain (408) 745-7760.

users of IBM· or TeleVideo PCs, XTs, and portable computers can

Even our system expansion costs
are substantially less than what you'd

share data, as well as expensive

pay to add new IBM PCs. And your

peripherals, like printers and plotters. original investment in hardware,

The Personal Mini dramatically software and personal computer

increases computing power. So it not education is never lost.

IBM is a registered 'rademark of International Business Machines

VERTICAL MARKET

INTEGRATOR

Applying integrated systems in industry, engineering and commerce

1RUGGED' MINIS MEET NORTH SLOPE CHALLENGE-
Construction company uses Tl minicomputers to streamline payroll processing, job-cost estimating and other tasks in Alaskan Pipeline projects

Gary Whitney and Thomas Hughes Wright Schuchart Inc .
Until 1982, Wright Schuchart Harbor Co., a Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, construction company, found payroll processing and job-cost reporting burdensome and expensive. The company, which builds two- to three-story oil-drilling modules for companies drilling for the Alaskan Pipeline, employs people at various sites on Alaska's North Slope. Because oil companies have strict reporting requirements and because labor in Alaska is expensive, Wright Schuchart must closely monitor payroll and job costs. But the company's information-processing methods were cumbersome.
For example, to process its payroll, the company had to mail the data to Wright Schuchart Inc. headquarters in Seattle. There, a mainframe computer processed the data , and the company's data-processing center produced the employees' checks. Finally , headquarters' employees mailed the checks back to Prudhoe Bay, where they arrived barely in time to meet payroll.
In a move to stream line procedures, company officials decided to try using minicomputers to provide on-site , standalone computing power. They believed that such power would be essential for any future, large job contracts on which the company might bid .
After winning one such contract in 1982 , Wright Schuchart officials outlined their require-
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Wright Schuchart uses Tl minicomputers
to process
payrolls for employees drilling oil for the Alaskan Pipeline .
101

VERTICAL MARKET INTEGRATOR

Using reliable computer equipment is especially important on Alaska's North Slope, where temperatures can dip as low as - 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wright Schuchart Harbor Co. uses a Texas Instruments 990 model 7 and Timberline software .

ments for a payroll-processing minicomputer system. Although the company's main concern was to process payrolls and print the checks on a timely basis, company officials also wanted a system that could generate job-cost reports, equipment-cost reports , accounts payable and purchase orders. Moreover , the selected system would have to perform in a construction trailer while outside temperatures dipped as low as - 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Software generates payroll
Because of time constraints, the company's project team reviewed systems from only three vendors . After the review , the team members chose a Texas Instruments Inc. 990 model 7 minicomputer with construction-management software from Timberline Systems Inc. Wright Schuchart officials believed that the Timberline software, which runs only on TI hardware , would meet their needs because it generates joband equipment-cost reporting, payroll, accounts payable and purchase-order generation. As for the hardware, the 16-bit, 512K-byte, multiuser, multiprogramming 990 model 7 was rugged enough to operate in sub-freezing temperatures without special adjustment. The price to Wright Schuchart for the initial TI system with the Timberline software was around $60,000.

To process the payroll , codes are assigned to each worker's daily activity . Wright Schuchart uses these labor and material codes for cost-vs .budget reports, expense forecasts and cost overrun and underrun estimations. The forecasts enable employees to monitor a job, identify problems and correct mistakes before they become serious. TI printers provide hard copies of payroll or expense forecasts. In addition , the system acts as a project-management tool that can generate accurate and frequent job-cost reports. With the Timberline software, users can access self-prompting screens; user-designed reporting of variables ; and multiuser, real-time and batch processing. Timberline also offers documentation and nationwide, toll-free telephone support.
One-source hardware persuasive
Another factor in Wright Schuchart's choice of the TI system was that the hardware a ll came from a single manufacturer. The other two systems that Wright Schuchart had reviewed had included a mix of hardware-terminals, printers and disk drives-from different vendors. But using hardware from different vendors would have meant relying on several vendors to service the hardware-a big constraint in the harsh climate in which the systems would be working. Although company officials emphasized software in their selection of a system, they found that TI could provide the reliability and support of a large, established vendor on a timely basis in a rugged , difficult-to-reach area.
In addition, TI offered short lead times between ordering and installing the equipment. For example , Wright Schuchart's Seattle office received the hardware for the Prudhoe Bay project two working days after it was ordered . After the equipment's arrival, TI and Timberline trained Wright Schuchart employees in Seattle on the system for two days. The company then shipped the system and trained personnel to Prudhoe

102

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

VERTICAL MARKET INTEGRATOR

Bay, and the system began to produce its first payroll four days later.
TI offered what Wright Schuchart considered better maintenance coverage than the other two vendors reviewed . In one instance , an employee at Prudhoe Bay discovered a hardware problem in the minicomputer at 4:30 a.m. and called Tl's office in Austin, Texas, to order a replacement part. TI shipped the part on the same day from Austin to Seattle, and Wright Schuchart shipped it from Seattle to Anchorage and from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay, where it arrived by 7 o'clock that night.
System sits on man-made island
Wright Schuchart has used TI minicomputers at other construction sites in Alaska besides the Prudhoe Bay project. For example , its subsidiary, Arctic Slope Wright Schuchart , used a TI Business System 672 minicomputer on-site at the construction of Mukluk Island, a man-made island 700 miles from the North Pole. The 16-bit model 672, part of Tl's Business System 600 series, offers 256K to 2M bytes of memory and can support 16 concurrent users. For the Mukluk Island project , Wright Schuchart leased the system from Tl. To buy a typical configuration, including a 256K-byte memory, a 43M-byte disk, a terminal and a dual controller would have cost around $30,950.
While Wright Schuchart was building Mukluk Island 26 miles offshore, employees set up a base camp on Thetis Island , eight miles from shore. A helicopter carried the TI system and the printer to Thetis Island , where employees placed them in a typical construction trailer surrounded by 1.25 million cubic yards of dusty gravel destined for the construction site. Despite the low temperatures inside the trailer and the dust caused by the gravel , the 672 was able to produce joband equipment-cost reports and to process a payroll. The trailer lacked an air-conditioning or air-filtering system, so employees did occasional-

At Mukluk Island, 700 miles from the North Pole, Wright Schuchart used a Tl Business System 672 minicomputer to report job costs.

ly have to clean dust from the machine 's own

built-in air filter.

Wright Schuchart employs TI equipment in

typical office environments, as well as in harsh

climates. In Anchorage , the company uses a

Business System 86 I for accounting applications.

In the home office in Seattle , a model 872A

upgraded from 43M bytes to a 138M-byte capaci-

ty uses Timberline's AccuBid estimating pack-

age. AccuBid handles quantity surveys in auto-

matic , manual or combination modes. The

screen display changes to reflect data as it is

entered, and users can choose whether to view

the estimate on the screen or on a printout.

In Seattle, Wright Schuchart uses a model 372

for inventory , and, in Anchorage , Alaska, the

company uses a model 861 upgraded to a capaci-

ty of 435M bytes . Wright Schuchart leases equip-

ment from TI when needed .

0

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 819 Medium 820 Low 821

Gary Whitney is manager of information systems at Wright Schuchart Inc . Seattle. He was previously with Lockheed California Co. and Hydraulic Research Textron . Thomas Hughes is project leader of construction information systems at Wright Schuchart . He was formerly with Boeing Computer Services .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

103

The Power ol aMini,
The Cost ol aMicro,
The Clout of UNIX.

Introducing The Perfect System Builder
With the VISUAL 2000, we've designed the perfect tool for system builders and integrators. A multi-user computer system that supports more terminals, offers more expandability, and gives you more configuration flexibility than any other system in its price range. Truth is, it outperforms a lot of higher priced systems as well.
What that means for you is an important competitive edge in delivering integrated business solutions. An edge that comes not just from the VISUAL 2000's surprisingly low price. But from its higher technology. Technology that gives you ...
Power to support more on-line users in demanding applications-up to 16 independent terminals or workstations.
Flexibility to accommodate a remarkable variety of application requirements, thanks to a11 open architecture, compatibility with mainstream industry standards, and a full spectrum of configuration options.

Expandability that can take you further than any other system in its class-an unrivaled upgrade path to protect your system investment.
Put the Full Power of Inters 286 in Your Systems
The Intel 286 is today's chip of choice for UNIX-based systems. Only the 286 gives you: on-chip memory management; an instruction set optimized for multi-tasking; pipelined architecture; and an optional 287 numeric coprocessor which can speed up floating point by a factor of 10. What do these features mean to the end user? Faster response time, more users supported, and lower system cost.
A "Mainframe" on a Single Board
The VISUAL 2000's single-board baselevel design is the key to higher performance, greater reliability and lower cost. A single high-density board includes the 286 CPU; 512KB-2MB of RAM; controllers

for Winchester, floppy and streaming tape; an intelligent communications processor; six RS-232 ports; and a parallel printer port. There's even a realtime clock with battery backup. A few short years ago a system with these features might have been called a mainframe.
From a Multi-User System to a Multi-System Network
With the VISUAL 2000 you never pay for more system than you need, and never have to settle for less. Up to 6 megabytes of RAM. 4 Winchester disk drives. Floppy. Streaming tape backup. And mainframe communications. All in a small stand-up enclosure which looks right at home ne> toa desk.
Use it as a central processor for inexpensive video terminals, or as a database manager for a cluster of intelli1 gent workstations or personal computerf including VISUAL'.s own IBM®-compatitl COMMUTER'".
And if a fully expanded VISUAL 2000

isn't enough, you can connect up to 254 systems in an ARCNET® local area network.
In all configurations, the VISUAL 2000 achieves an exceptional ratio of price/ performance.
Software: A Complete System Builder's Tool Kit
Ultimately, the strength of a system is the strength of its software. And there too, the VISUAL 2000 really shines. Start with XENIX'", Microsoffs enhanced version of UNIX'", which gives you everything you expect from UNIX plus greater speed, reliability and ease of use in business applications. Then add all the tools you need to deliver end-user applications quickly and easily. Languages such as C, SMC BASIC, RM/COBOL'", TOM BASIC'", SOFTBOL'", and MicroFocus Level II COBOL'" to give you instant compatibility with hundreds of proven business applications. Plus sophisticated system foundations such as INFORMIX'" database

management and Real\fl/orld'" modular accounting. And professional productivity software such as 20120'" spreadsheet modelling and XED'" word processing.
The Bottom Line
High performance. Superior flexibility. Extensive software. And low cost ... VISUAL 2000 systems start at under $10,000, suggested list. No one gives you more in a UNIXbased multi-user system.
And when you consider that VISUAL has long been a leader in video terminals, and can supply a full range of compatible terminals and workstations, we think you'll agree that VISUAL is the system builder's system supplier.
The VISUAL 2000. It began with a better design.
And ifs available now to help you
build better systems. But don't take our word for it.
See for yourself. Call VISUAL today.

~ Seelo<you""'"'
Visual Technology Incorporated 540 Main Street, Tewksbury, MA 01876
For more product information call 1-800-341-5400 (1-800-462-5560 in MA) or 1-617-851-5000.
ARCNET· trademark The Datapoint CorpJUNIX trademark AT&T Bell labs/XENIX trademark M terosofVIBM· trademark International Business Mac hines/COMMUTER trademark Visual Technology Incorporated/AM/COBOL trademark Ayan- MacFarland/TOM BASIC trademark The Ofhce Manager/SOFTBOL trademark Omtool CorpJM1croFocus Level II COBOL trademark M ICroFoc us/INFOR MIX lrade mark Relalional Database Systems/AealWorld trademark ReaM/orld Corp/20/20 trademark Access Technology/XEO trademark Computer Concep1s Lid

CIRCLE NO. 60 ON INQUIRY CARD

·UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. UNIFY is a trademark of Unify Corporation.
Copyright© 1984, Unify Corporation, Lake Oswego, OR 97034

UNIFY isn't only the fastest and
most powerful of all UNIX*~based
data base management systems-
it's also one of the simplest to use.
Which is why some 75 percent of
those who see our manuals and buy
a DBMS, buy UNIFY.
UNIFY guides the nonprogrammer through data base development with minimal steps, comprehensive menus, on-line HELP, elementary Query By Forms capability, and clear documentation.

UNIFY expedites applications development for users of all skill levels with features like PAINT, for effortless forms design; SQL, the powerfuC English-like query language; and a menu-handler that lets you quickly compile screens, queries and reports into menus customized to each user.
And for the skilled programmer, UNIFY offers the most extensive host language interface, for limitless flexibility when you need it.
All of which makes it mighty easy to see why UNIFY has been selected by more computer manufacturers than any other UNIX-based DBMS.
Judge for yourself. Send for our demo kit-disks, tutorial and reference manuals, all for only $150that shows you how to build virtually any application. Contact UNIFY, 4000 Kruse Way Place, Lake Oswego,
OR 97034, 503/635-6265.

CIRCLE NO. 61 ON INQUIRY CARD

UnlFW® THE PREFERRED DBMS.

We're the # 1 ter:minal co___~._,~..A

Kimtron delivers terminals that are not only pretty and smart. but so reliable they seldom fail . Kimtron technology enables many useful features to be available at no extra cost like user selectible Hidden/Embedded attributes. so you 're not limited to Embedded attributes as you are with the others . Plus. we make the only low-cost terminals to take true Ergonomic standards that extra step - to provide adjustable display height in addition to swivel and tilt. Kimtron terminals are designed to be flexible and compatible to systems like IBM PCfXT/AT, DEC. DG , and many more to avoid obsolesence.

Kimtron KT-7 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes $595

Wyse 50 No No No No Yes No No Part No No No No
$695

Qume 102 No No No No Yes No No No No No No No $695

TeleVideo 925/925E
No No Yes No No No No No Yes No No No $995/$ 795

Features IBM PC Emulation Option DEC VT- ! 00/ANSI X3 .64 Option TeleVideo 925 Emulation DG D 100/200 Emulation Option 14 inch screen available Amber option at no extra cost Selectible Hidden/Embedded Attributes Programmable Function Keys in NV M Bi-Directional Aux Port 96 Business Graphics Characters 4 Page Memory Option Height Adjust. Tilt & Swivel Suggested Retail Price

CIRCLE NO. 62 ON INQUIRY CARD Kimtron. a 5-year technology leader - we're going places and want you to join the Kimtron family of satisfied users. For more information about our KT-7 or KT-10. call the Kimtron Corporation . (408) 727- 1510
NOTE, The a bove comparison is based on m.lorm a hon avmlable at the hme ol preparahon and is sub1e ct to change without prior notice IBM. DEC . TeleVideo . DG. Wyse and Qume are trademar ksot IBM Corp . D1i;;ptal Equipment Corpe· ra tion . Televid eo Systems. Inc . Data General Corporation. Wyse Technology. and Qume Corporation

_ 2225 - IMartin Avenue Santa Clara . C A 95050 408-727-1510 TWX 910-338-0237
-_ _-H i m t r o n

FEATURE ·HIGHLIGHTS

70M bytes and quick access .. .p.111
SCSI
U - 9 J CONTROLLERS
II ~PR~NT I
SERIAL AND LINE PRINTER(Si
FLEXIBLE AND RIGID DISK DRIVEiSI
SCSI handles multiple devices . .p.123

DISK DRIVES: HALF-HEIGHT DRIVE PACKS 7011-BYTE POWER . . . . . ·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Converting single-user , Winchester-based systems to a multiuser, multitasking environment presents a problem : How can you enhance disk performance to meet the demands of the multiuser environment? One answer is an ST4 l 2-based half-height disk drive packing 70M bytes and boasting an average access time of 25 msec.
CONTROLLERS: SCSI BUS EASES DEVICE INTEGRATION . ... ..... ............. 123
The Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) is getting a lot of attention these days , not least of all for the wide range of benefits and options it offers system integrators . Some of those benefits include service to multiple hosts and devices, full arbitration and messagepassing . Our in-depth look at the SCSI bus also includes a chart of all the major players , from chip-set manufacturers to disk and tape drive makers .

-

-

-

- - ~--~-

.~,,- ..-... -_- - - - - - - '
'
A close look at disk interfaces . .p.135

UNIX takes on new shapes . . p.149

INTERFACES: VARIED DRIVE INTERFACES MYSTIFY INTEGRATORS . ............. 135
New tape and disk drive interfaces are beginning to replace the old mainstays . If you're using ST506/412, SAlOOO, SMD or QIC-02, it ' s time to take a close look at ESDI , SCSI, IPI or QIC-36 .
OPERATING SYSTEMS: UNIX EMmGES AS A UNIVmSAL TOOL KIT ... . . ........... 149
The movement to make UNIX the minicomputer operating system standard seems stalled , but a notable new trend is under way : UNIX is emerging as a versatile programming environment, providing users with a common software tool kit adaptable to a wide spectrum of machines. Nevertheless, UNIX isn 't the only game in town. Our feature also includes a comprehensive listing of all operating systems and their characteristics. (p. 164)

M INI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

109

'Jake afast step forward
in backUp.

Introducing FasTape, the fully

assembled subsystem from Archive. Now systems inte-

grators, VARs, VADs and

OEMs can add streaming

tape to their Winchester disk-

based systems almost as

fast as you can say"backup'.'

Get Serious.

You can't turn a PC into an

effective engineering work-

station, office automation file server, small business accounting system or any sort of "serious" computer without backup.
Today's advanced personal computers have more power than yesterday's minis, and with 20MB to 100MB Winchesters, they have backup needs to match.
FasTape is the answer. It's the serious solution for serious data.

It's About Time. Until now if you wanted to add tape backup to your system, you had two choices. You could take the time, invest the money and put up with the aggravation of selecting a drive,
bending metal, specifying a power supply, adding a fan, building a controller and developing software. Or you could pay a small fortune to have a subsystem house do it for you.
Now just cal I Archive.

We've done all the work

for you. So you save time.

~~~~~~~~~~~ And mone~

FasTape is a complete solution, includ-
ing W streaming tape drive, power supply, switch selectable 1151230VAC, enclosure, cables, and utility software, with controllers available to interface FasTape to your system.

We!ve Got Your Number. As the industry's leading manufacturer of 14" streaming tape drives we're able to offer 20MB, 45MB and 60MB backup systems at low OEM pricing .
As a tried and true OEM supplier we also understand what it takes to make you successful. Like controller/formatter boardsIBM PC, SCSI and QIC-02- technical support, fast delivery, volume pricing and a very reliable product. You've Got Our Number. Take the first step. Call Archive today at (714) 641-0279 and you can have a FasTape system up, running and fully integrated in less than a megasecond. Or write for more information. Archive Corporation, 3540 Cadillac Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
ARclfIVE
Out front with backup.
CIRCLE NO. 63 ON INQUIRY CARD

DISK DRIVES

HALF-HEIGHT DRIVE PACKS 70M· BYTE POWER

High recording density, fast access times and standard interface allow cost-effective, hard-disk-drive upgrades to multiuser, multitasking systems

David W. Basehore and Henry B. Hazebrouck, Priam Corp .
System integrators attempting to convert their existing single-user, Winchester-based , computer systems to multiuser, multitasking environments confront a serious problem: How to enhance disk-drive and system performance without significantly increasing hardware complexity and cost. The biggest challenge involves low-end , 51/4-inch, full-height and half-height drives. Typical low-end Winchesters with storage capacities of SM to 20M bytes and average access times of 85 msec fall short of- the performance levels needed for multiuser , multitasking applications. Achieving a higher drive density , on the other hand, might require sacrificing system compatibility by using an interface other than the standard ST506/412.
However , Priam Corp. 's Model 20 I halfheight 51/4-inch Winchester disk drive surpasses the minimum storage density and access-time specifications required for multiuser environments , yet uses the industry-standard ST4 I2 interface. Incorporating 70M bytes of unformatted storage with an average access time of 25 msec, it achieves this performance with a closedJoop servo system and conventional Winchester MFM recording schemes and design techniques.
To understand the problems and tradeoffs involved in configuring single-user computer systems for multiuser, multitasking applications, consider a typical low-end IOM-byte Winchester drive that's being used in a single-user wordprocessing application. System integrators can easily configure the hardware to accommodate

additional users. The only trade-off might be a slight reduction in the system's operating speed and the amount of storage available to individual users.
But , if multiuser applications expand to include image processing , the memory capacity needed to display a single picture could take up

Stress analysis helped achieve
fast access
times for the Model 201 drive . This computer-generated model of stress distribution shows the relative stress on a solid version of the drive 's rotary arm (A) , with the highest stress indicated in violet and the lowest in dark blue. In a later redesign (8) , cutouts redistributed and reduced stress , and improved
access time .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

111

DISK DRIVES

1M byte of storage . In that case, several system users would quickly run out of disk space. In fact, one user's application might, by itself, require the Winchester's whole storage capacity. Such applications require about 30M bytes of storage. Indeed, industry consensus places the minimum storage requirement for multiuser sys-

terns at SOM bytes. Multiuser environments, moreover,· demand
speedy access from a Winchester drive, as well as large memory capacity. A drive's average access time critically affects multiuser performance . System integrators, for example , attempting to configure a 32-user, shared-resource system with

FROM INITIAL LAYOUT TO PRODUCTION, CAD/CAI KllPS DRIVE Oii TRACK

DRIVE SPECIFICATIONS

MECHANICAL

FROM MARKETING INPUT

, - - - - -C-AD/-CA.E.-...--------+-_ _ _ __...__ _ _ _ ____

I

WIREFRAME DESIGN

I

I

SOLIDS MODELING

I

NASTRAN MODEL

I

I

ANALYSIS

I

I

NO

I

BUILD HARDWARE TEST
NO

FABRICATE PC BOARD TEST

NO

YES

PRODUCT ELECTRICAL/ MECHANICAL INTEGRATION
RELEASE DESIGN TO MANUFACTURING

PRODUCTION

MANUFACTURE DRIVE

, - - - TESTING- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1

I I

.-----~~--~~----.
COMPUTER-CONTROLLED

I

TEST AND BURN-IN

~----.

I
I

OF DRIVE NO

FIND PROBLEM

1,

AND REBUILD DRIVE

I

I

I

L ----------

I YES_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __J

BOX AND SHIP

112

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

DISK DRIVES

a drive that accesses data in 85 msec would encounter a significant throughput bottleneck. For instance, with a drive specifying an average typical latency of 8. 33 msec and transferring data in less than 2 msec, a typical disk request can be processed in about 95 msec.
This figure would allow approximately 20 seek
Computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAE) guided the design of the Model 201 from initial layout to final testing and production. A wireframe model (A), with mechanical subsystems highlighted in color, maximizes the limited space in the half-height form factor. A solids model (8) allows prediction of drive access time and aids in actuator balancing for the production version (C) .

operations per minute for each of the 32 users. In a system operating environment using UNIX, for example, where as many as 45 seek operations might be necessary to obtain data, it could take more than two minutes for one user to retrieve a file-dearly an unacceptable .situation.
Faster access aids system performance
Fortunately, because acce·ss time consumes almost 90 percent of seek operations, improvements in this specification can dramatically enhance system performance. In a 32-user network, for example, a drive with an access time of 55 msec performs nearly 30 seek operations each minute. An access-time improvement to 30 msec accommodates approximately 47 seeks per minute-the minimum level consistent with adequate multiuser performance.
Processing power also improves with faster access time. A faster access reduces the processor's idle time-the time it consumes waiting for disk I/Os to finish. And the gain in processing power becomes especially significant for system integrators trying to improve overall system performance using the same central processor or configuring virtual-memory systems.
A higher performance Winchester, however, can't just be dropped into a computer-system without considering disk-controller and interface compatibility. System integrators configuring multiuser systems can only maintain compatibility with the SM- to 20M-byte drives currently in use by upgrading with a Winchester that incorporates the ST506/412 interface. Although it limits data-transfer rates to SM bits per second (bps)-a figure some argue is too slow for multiuser networked environments--the interface has become the standard for personal computer systems. And as personal computers continue making inroads into multiuser environments, system integrators face a difficult decision: Maintain compatibility with existing Winchester controllers at the SM-bps transfer rate by using the ST506/4 I2 interface or choose a higher performance interface, like SCSI or the proposed !OM-bps ESDI, and integrate new hardware.
Maintaining ST4 I2 compatibility serves two purposes. First, it preserves system compatibility with a known, reliable and industry-accepted interface standard, allowing a system to be integrated more easily and brought to market sooner. Second. it makes available the variety of full-height 5 1/4-inch Winchesters that deliver 30msec access times and greater-than-SOM-byte storage capacities. Although these full-height drives meet certain system application needs and packaging requirements, a half-height version also offers certain benefits.

System integrators configuring multiuser systems can only maintain compatibility with the 5Mto 20M-byte drives currently in use by upgrading with a Winchester drive that incorporates the ST506/412 Interface.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

113

DISK DRIVES

For example, two half-height, high-capacity drives mounted in place of a low-capacity Winchester can significantly improve storage density and system performance for multiuser applications. If data is spread over the two drives , overlapping seek operations reduce effective access time by having one drive seek the next string of data while the current string is being read by

the other drive. Such a configuration can accommodate more users sharing the same resources than a system integrated with a single full-height , high-capacity Winchester. If, on the other hand, one half-height drive meets system storage and access requirements, then the additional halfheight space can be used for tape backup systems -an essential requirement for multiuser systems

How the drive uro··ln on the rl9ht track

The Model 201 uses a two-step process to access a track on one of its four drive platters. Seek mode moves the actuator to the desired track. Position mode centers the head precisely over the track.
In seek mode, the drive controller tells the drive how far it must move the actuator to reach the right track . The microprocessor sends the desired head velocity (as a function of the seek distance) to the power ampllfler, which enable~ the head to move the correct distance. The microprocessor monitors track crossings by using data from the

track-crossing generator. If the actual head velocity. as measured by the tachometer. does not equal the desired velocity after comparison by the summer circuit. the velocity-error signal slows down or speeds up head movement.
In position mode, the lead/lag compensator prevents head oscillation as it zeros-in on the track. The position-error signal guides corrections when the summer circuit indicates that the head output voltage does not equal the constant reference voltage .

POSITION MODE SUBSYSTEM

TRACK

POSITION-ERROR SIGNAL

ACTUATOR CONTROL SYSTEM

SEEK MODE

, -S9EEK. . - - - - - - - - SUBSYSTEM

/~/

/

- VELOCITY-ERROR SIGNAL

POWER AMPLIFIER

CONSTANT REFERENCE
VOLTAGE

,--------
1
I I I I I I IL __

DIA DESIRED-VELOCITY CONVERTER
SIGNAL

MICROPROCESSOR

PREAMPLIFIER

MEASURED-VELOCITY SIGNAL

LEAD/LAG COMPENSATOR

POSITION DEMODULATOR

ELECTRONIC TACHOMETER

DIGITAL
-TRACK·
CROSSING DATA

114

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

For the small lab, it's often sink or·swim. Here's help from Perkin-Elmer.

First, we assessed your needs. The smaller lab is often a hectic
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Then, we made an affordable solution.
With recent advances in computer

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And all the support you need. Our LIMS for the smaller lab is
genuinely easy to use. And to expand, if the need arises. It's also very easy to begin . We will work closely with you to choose exactly what you need For complete information , talk to your Perkin-Elmer representative today. For literature, please call 1-800-762-4000.

With great flexibility. The 3205 ·can support as many as
16 channels of simultaneous data collection in a multi-user C/LAS (Chromatography Laboratory Automation System) environment. An integrated LIMS-C/LAS system wh ich incorporates both information manage ment and chromatographic data handling is also available on the 3205.

Perkin- Elmer Corp.. Main Ave (MS-12). Norwalk. CT 06856 U.SA Tel (203) 762-1000. Telex 965·954
Bodenseewerk Perki n-Elmer & Co.. GmbH. Postfach 1120, 7770 Ueberl ingen . Federal Repu blic of Germany. Tel: (0755 1) 811 .
Perkin-Elmer Ltd.. Post Office Lane. Beaconsfield. Bucks HP9 1QA. England Tel Beaconsfield (049 46) 6 16 1

PERKIN-ELMER

The science and computer company.

Where solutions come first.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 64 ON INQUIRY CARD

115

No claims. No boasts. Just straight and provide greater drive durability. manufacturing and quality programs.

facts and commitments from

"A buffered seek mode and

" Microscience test equipment

Jeffrey Liu, president of Micro-

science, on our growing family

of half-height Winchester disk

drives.

"By introducing the new

HH-725 20 MB 5.25" and HH-312

10 MB 3.5" half-height Winchester

disk drives to our product line,

we now offer the proven quality

and performance most OEMs

need in volume today.

"Combined with our HH-612 10

MB 5.25" half-height disk drive,

Microscience now provides a

product family of

superior

quality

and better

perfor-

mance than

any other drives

available.

"Time after time, we have

proven that Microscience has the

performance, quality, and price

personal and portable computer

manufacturers demand.

"The secret is the way we design

and manufacture drives for you.

"Microscience disk drives have

extremely low

voltage require-

HH-612 TYPICAL STARTING CURRENTS

ments because small business

-5

.. 4

~;,; oeicie~ctl

~ 3 i.... I/

~ titie_n

"' 2 ~

highly accurate proprietary micro-
processor-con trolled closed-loop servo positioning system keeps the head precisely on track. This maintains data integrity through a wide range of operating conditions regardless of thermal expansion, system hysteresis, or long-term wear.
"Microscience drives are not limited to functioning horizontally. Because of the growing use of portable computers and increasingly compact packaging, we designed our Winchester drives so you can use them in almost any position .
" While volume production is important, what you 're really concerned about is the quality of product you use in your system or application. We have made a major commitment to

and tooling have been carefully

~~~~~:r~:.o meet o7 ur exlalct~ ing

:::;/1'/ '.'This .ensures
//!:. M1crosc1ence

~

ships only zero

defect half-height

Winchester product that does

not eat away at your profits . ..

and your reputation.

"There's a lot more I could

say about the Microscience half-

height Winchester disk drive

family. But what will convince

you is using a Microscience drive

in your application.

" For more straightalk regarding

your half-height Winchester

needs, cal I or write us today."

President, Microscience International Corporation

and portable 1

computers

2 4 s s 10 12 14

don 't have TIME AFTER TURN-ON (Seconds)

the luxury

of excess power or cooling

capacity.

" We've used procedures and

components that will be power

misers, yet they still provide long-

term performance and reliability.

" Our drives feature a thermally

isolated stepper motor for precise

head alignment and optimum seek performance. A proprietary
· · · Microscience linear actuator assembly was em-
ployed to ensure data reliability
· · · International 575 E. Middlefield Road
· · · Corporation Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 961-2212

Area Sales Offices: Orlando, FL (305) 339-8283 · Boston , MA (617) 229-5823 · Mountain View, CA (415) 961-2212 International Sales Office: Munich , West Germany, Tel. 0894315669, TTX 5213442 Distributors: U.S. - Gulf Stream, Weatherford, North East Peripherals, Orion · International - Multilek, Canada · Pericomp, Australia · Dataguild,
U.K. · Wide Trade Foundation Ltd., Hong Kong

DISK DRIVES

where multiple users rely on the same database.
The Model 2Q I incorporates four thin-film-
media platters to achieve its 70M-byte storage capacity. Seven disk surfaces are used for data and one for servo-positioning information. A spindle with an internal motor permits the packaging of all four disks in the standard half-height form factor.
To help achieve 25-msec average access time, a low-mass rotary actuator positions the heads, and a closed-loop servo system ensures that the actuator moves precisely to the desired track. Using the low-mass actuator enables the drive to operate on less power and run cooler-as evidenced by its typical-power-dissipation specification of less than 20W . System integrators. therefore . probably won't have to upgrade power supplies when converting existing computers to accommodate this drive.
Servo increases access times
The closed-loop servo system also plays a major role in achieving fast access times . Model 201 incorporates a dedicated, rather than embedded. servo system. Conti nuous monitoring of head and track positions feeds data back to the servo circuits for head-position corrections. In contrast, embedded servo systems open all media surfaces for data storage, but do not read servo information on a continuous basis. They provide position data only one or two times per revolution for ST506/4 I2-compatible drives instead of the several thousand times of a dedicated servo. A dedicated servo thus permits the actuator to move to a given track faster than an embedded servo.
The closed-loop system serves another function as well. The increased accuracy achieved using this technique allows data tracks to be spaced more closely together, maximizing the amount of data that can be stored on a disk. Model 20 I's track density specification of 1,000 tracks per inch and recording density of 10,000 bits per inch more than compensates for the storage capacity lost by dedicating one media surface to servo data.
A "fine-track" feature prevents data from being written unless the heads are precisely on track. Thus, if the servo head leaves the servo track by more than approximately 100 microinches, the drive will not perform a write function.
In addition, the servo system easily tracks most of the thermal distortions encountered in open-loop drives. Model 201 's approach results in typical drive error rates of one soft error in 10 billion bits (I in I010) and one hard error in I trillion bits (I in 1012).
Several mechanical aspects of the drive help

isolate it from shock and vibration, suiting it for transportable-computer applications . A dedicated landing zone ensures that the heads don't touch portions of the media where data is recorded, and an automatic carriage lock keeps heads on the landing zone. High-damping shock isolators between the frame and head-disk assemb ly guard against head and data damage. The actuator assembly incorporates a counterweight. reducing the effects of external shock and vibration. With the exception of the preamplifiers, the e lectronics for the drive, including eight semicustom LSI chips. are packaged on one printed-circuit board.
Model 201 's 70M-byte storage capacity and ST4 I2 interface make it a natural choice for IBM Corp. PC/XT- or AT-based applications that currently employ a full-height 5 1/4-inch Winchester drive and a full-height floppy disk drive. Two half-height floppies, the half-height Model 20 I and a half-height, 1/4-inch tape cartridge backup system can be housed in the same space as the full-height Winchester and floppy disk drives. Replacing one of the floppy disk drives with another Model 20 1 Winchester provides the computer with full data image backup. So configured, severa l single-user computers with limited resident-storage capabilities can be networked to one Model 201-based IBM PC with improved performance over individual PC/XT or AT systems.
Although the PC-DOS operating system limits Winchester storage to two 32M-byte drives, con-
1pec .._ r y
· Manufacturer: Priam Corp ., 20 W. Montague Expressway, San Jose, Calif. 95134
· Product: Model 201 half-height 5 1/4inch Winchester disk d rive
· Storage capacity: ?OM bytes unformatted
· Average access time: 25 msec · Transfer rate: SM bps · Recording density: 10.000 bpi · Track density: 1,000 tpi · Average latency: 8 .33 msec · Rotational speed: 3,600 rpm · Recording method: MFM · Control: Closed-loop servo · Interface: ST412 · MTBF: 20,000 power-on hours · MTTR: 15 minutes · Dimensions: 1.62 by 5.75 by 8
inches · Weight: 4.5 lbs

Using the low-mass actuator enables the drive to operate on less power and run cooler.

MINI -MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

117

DISK DRIVES

troller man ufac tu rers like A da ptec Inc. , Milpit-

as , Cali f., prov ide cont rolle r boards that circum -

vent this storage limit . For insta nce, the

compa ny's AC B-20 IOA co nt roller boa rd can

pa rtit ion a large d rive into as many as eight

logical dis ks, each with as much as a 32M-byte

ca p aci ty.

A no ther applicatio n for the Mode l 20 I is a

sha red-logic wo rd-processing, o r o the r multiuse r,

multitasking, compute r syste m. Such a syste m

might prese ntly se rve multiple use rs with a high-

performa nce 14- inch disk dri ve, 400M bytes of

storage and 25- to 30- msec average access time.

In the sa me space as the 14- inc h d rive, several

Mode l 20 Is ca n furni sh the sa me, if no t greater ,

storage capacit y. Ove rlapping see k operatio ns

wo ul d reduce access times. Altho ugh this config-

uration requ ires an inte lligent co ntrolle r boa rd

wit h special algo rithms capable of sto ring data

for quick access, the performance advantages

outweigh the increase in ha rdware co mplexity.

The overall cost a nd powe r dissipation of

mult iple 20 1 dri ves wo uld be comparab le to that

of the high-performance 14- inch unit . Moreover,

a fai lure in one d rive wo uld no t jeopardize the

entire database , as might happe n were the 14-

inch drive to fai l.

A ha lf- height , high-capacity Wincheste r, such

as the Mode l 20 1, ca n ope n up new applicatio n

areas for single-use r syste ms. The most o bvio us

example is that of a portable compute r a imed at

scie nti fic applicatio ns. Dro pping in the ha lf-

height , 70M-byte Wincheste r in place o f a ha lf-

he ight floppy a llows a large amo unt of d ata to be

stored fo r later processi ng. And if the ha rdwa re

is upgraded to include a highe r-pe rformance

processor, the n high-leve l progra mming la n-

guages, the UN IX o perating syste m and power-

ful number-c runching and data- processing capa-

bilities ca n be integrated with in a sma ll ,

lightweight port!lble computer.

D

David W. Basehore 1s manager of adva nced development eng ineering and Henry 8. Hazebrouck is a staff engineer at Priam Corp ., San Jose, Calif. Previous ly, Basehore worked at Ampex Corp on Winchester drives and at IBM Corp , where he spec ialized in disk-drive technology . He holds a B.S. In mechanical engineering from Penn State University and an M S. 1n mechanical enginee ring from Syracuse University . Hazebrouck designed disk-drive actuators and magneti c tape transports at Ampex before he came to Priam. He hold s a B.S. in mechanical eng ineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 822 Medium 823 Low 824

Let us prove how Cromemco systems can increase your satisfaction with UNIX System V.
Call, or visit, one of our Official System Centers today:

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Artemis Computer 602 / 957-0469 Sy1tem1 Solutlons, Inc. 602 / 224 -0026 ProfeHlonal Data Systems, Inc. 602 1 265 -6656
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In Connecticut:
Datacraft, Inc. 203 1 673-6952
In Florida:
Automated Computer Systems 305 / 594 -3819 Computer Centre 813/ 484 -1028 Royal Data, Inc. 305 / 267 · 1960
In Georgia :
Cromemco, Inc. 404 / 391 - 9433 System· Atlanta 404 / 928 -0240 Klerulff Electronlu 404 1 447 -5252
In llllnol1:
Commercial Data Sy1tem1 309 / 797 -9401 Computerland 3121 967- 1714 Southern Exchange, Inc. 404 / 921·2662 Alpine Computer Center, Inc. 815 / 229 - 0200 Cromemco, Inc. 3121934 -0650 Alternate Computer Services 312 1 893 - 1992
In Indiana :
Memory Bank, Inc. 312/ 891·1064 219 / 931 -0203 Harbourtown Sales 317 I 877·4900 Microcomputer Speclall1t1, Inc. 219 / 762-8541
In Kan1a1:
Tradewlnd Systems 316 / 624 -8111
In Louisiana:
Muse Data Technologle1 5041 293 . 0320 Standard Sy1tem1, Inc. 318/ 625·861 3
In Maryland:
Dynamic Data Proce11lng
301/ 589 - 8950
In Ma11ochu1ett1:
Klerulff Electronics 617 I 667-8331

Cromemco, Inc. 61 7/ 938 . 7010 In Michigan: United Mlcra1y1tem1 Corporation 313 / 668-6806 Jepson Group, Inc. 616 / 698 -8700 Automated au1lne11 Con1ultant1 313 / 478-0557 In New Jersey: Klerulff Electronics 2011575 - 6750 In New Mexico: South West Computer Stores, Inc. 505 I 292 · 6568 In New York: C.C.S., Inc . 212 / 986 -7520 ·Trexl1, Inc. 914 / 268 -5161 In Ohio: Lucas Office Equipment & Service, Inc. 5131 433-8484 Odyuey Systems, Inc. 216 / 526-9933 (ISIS) Innovative Systems / Integrated Software 419 / 531 -0220
In Pennsylvania: Modular System Design 412/ 521-6700 In Texas: Klerulff Electronics 2141343-2400 Gunn Enterprises 713 / 781-6911 Procomp 713/ 266 -3648 Computer Cro11road1 of America 214 / 231-6108 In Virginia : SMS Data Product· 703 / 827-0640 Bu1lne11 Communications Sy1tem1 703 1 344 -5563 VCA Corporation 703 1 281-4666 In Wash ington: Klerulff llectronlc1 206 / 575-4420 In Weit Virginia: Sy1tem1 Support 304 I 166 ·7762 In Wlaconsln: -C-om-p-ut_e_r_W_o_r-l_ d _ __ 414 1 733-9547 lay Tech of Wlscon1in, Inc. 414 1 846 -3038 computer world 414 / 499 -9983

lNTHNATIONAL In Australia:
Mlnlcomp Software & Education 61-1/957- 6800 ln1y1tem1 P/L 61-3 / 690·2899
In Canada1
Cro-CorP Computer Solution· 403 / 286 -8459 D. E. Sy1tem1 613 1 729-5164 future Electronics 610 / 421. 3251
In Ca i to Rica :
Control Electronlco 506 / 23 -50 -17/ 24 . 44 . 44
In England:
Jarogate Ltd. 44-1/671 - 6321
In Greece:
Algorithm Ltd. 30- 1/ 933 - 8463
In Hong Kong:
Vanda Computer & Equipment 8529 348702-5
In Italy:
C.N.l .A. 39 -51/ 375009 1359406
In Japan :
A1ahl Gla11 81 -3/ 218 -5848
In l1rael:
Information Sy1te m 1 Ltd. 03-775111
In Mexico:
Mlcromex, S.A. / DE C.V. 905 / 687-8886 / 8913 I 905 1 536 -5503 In Mld-Ea1t:
Multi Media Video, Inc. CA USA 408 / 727- 1733 Natio nal Computer Sy1tem Karachi 4, Pakistan Computer System Marketing Center Jedd ah 21431 , Sa udi Arabi a 966 1 2-651 -7707 966 1 2-653 -0580
In The Netherla nd s:
Rocomp B.V. 31 -40 1 524055
In Norway:
Micro Sy·tem1 A/ S 47-2 1 41 - 69 -76
In Scotland:
Micro Centre Complete Micro 44-311 556 - 7354
In Sweden:
Dotrol1erlng Konau lt AB 46 -8 / 753 - 3090 In Weat Germany:
Cromemco OmbH 49-6196 1 481606 Dlgltronlc Computeraysteme GmbH 04103 / 88672 / 73 Cosy- X Computer System· OmbH 2173 / 52071 / 72 Comlcro Deutschland 49-21 51/ 795577
~rn~mco · \JI VI I l'fJ·

118

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/ February 1985

UNIX is a trademark or Bell Laboratori es. IBM is a trademark or International Business M1t. chines Corp.

CIRCLE NO. 66 ON INQUIRY CARD

Cromemco e

INTRODUCING THE PRINTER THAT MAKES THE BEST IMPRESSION
Oii AllYSYSTEM.

Most printers have been de- PDP-11;M or any other Digital sys- pendence is rivalled only by its change,so can the LA210.

signed to work best with just one tem,as well as the IBM environ- general versatility.

Flick a switch and the LA210

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For applications with reams shifts to an 18x33 matrixforcrisp,

So if you bought different

And you don't need to worry of output,like business account- near -letter quality copy at upto

systems for different reasons, about spending alot of money ing or complex scientific pro- 40 characters per second.

you also ended up buying differ- for anew printer for each system. gramming,the LA210's9x7 dot Or let your host computer

ent printers.And matching each printer to its system.
Now there'sthe LA21orM Letterprinter, compact and flexible enough to do the job of 2

THE tA210 DEUVERS WHAT YOU NEED WHERE YOU NEED IT.
The LA21 O'ssystem inde-

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240 characters per second,or a cally under program control.

full double-spaced page every

There'smore,too. With its

10seconds.

standard Courier type face,the

But when your needs

LA210 can print 11 languages,

printers.Or 3.Or 4.Because the

LA210 gives you aserial interface to match Digital'sown complete line of systems,and an available parallel interface for the IBM personal computer and compatibles.You can even

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Which means,quite

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IBM1sa regostered tradematl< of International Business Machines Co<poration.Epson MXBO and Graftrax are tradematl<sof EpsonAmenca,lrc.

plus Digital'sVT100TMline draw- mosaic graphics,and the MX80 Add the optional bi-direc-

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CIRCLE NO. 67 ON INQU IRY CAR D

c.
D.

Computer users are demanding additional input devices from you. Key Tronic can help you meet the demand for these input devices, and minimize your development costs.
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CIRCLE NO. 68 ON INQUIRY CARD

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CONTROLLERS

SCSI BUS EASES DEVICE INTEGRATION
Serving as a subordinate interface bus and traffic cop, the Small Computer Systems Interface
permits varied system and peripheral links

Carl Warren, Western Editor
The Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), unlike other interfaces, is a complete bus structure that is subordinate to the rest of the system architecture. As such, it provides system integrators with a wide range of integration opportunities and alternatives.
The SCSI specification "is one created by technicians, and that has caused a menu selection : a real short-order cook's nightmare ," says Mike Kirby , vice president of marketing at Data Technology Corp., Santa Clara , Calif. " Which SCSI implementation do you choose? And when you've chosen, how do you know that you have the right one? In some cases, full arbitration isn 't required, nor are many of the sophisticated commands. What may be needed is the more simple SASI. "
System architecture requirements and cost determine the integration alternatives. Interfacing requirements vary from application to application. Personal computers and smaller business systems typically require a "dumb" controller with just enough electronics to match the devicelevel electronics on the storage device . As system capability and performance increase , intelligent interface bus designs , such as the Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI) and SCSI, become more important to the system integrator. (See "An historical note: A standard is born ," Page 124 .)

SCSI HOST ADAPTm IS COMPLEX
SCSI BUS
HOST BUS: MULTIBUS S100 IBM PC VMEBUS Q-BUS
An SMS/OMTI implementation of SCSI combines
microprocessor, cache memory, ROM firmware and a host
adapter, that matches the controller to virtually any system bus configuration .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

123

CONTROLLERS

System integrators can benefit from SCSI in the more complex system architectures. Unlike single-user systems requiring only low levels of intelligence such as that provided by SASI, these

architectures call for an interface bus that permits the addition of mass storage, optical storage, local area networks (LANs), printers , plotters , modems and other devices . Additionally,

The SCSI system architecture is hierarchical by design . Thus one or more host computers can be attached to the SCSI bus via host adapters, and a number of peripherals such as storage devices, printers and modems can also be hung onto the bus with appropriate controllers. Additionally, a gateway to a local area network can be attached to the bus as well.

A LOOK AT SCSI ARCHITECTURE

SCSI BUS

SCSI CONTROLLERS

- i b! \ PRINT

SERIAL AND LINE PRINTER(S)

DISK

FLEXIBLE AND RIGID DISK DRIVE(S)

TAPE
DATA COMMUNICATIONS

STREAMING AND START/STOP TAPE
DRIVE(S)
LOCAL AREA NETWORKS, PACKET SWITCHING, MODEMS

Joeeph V. Jaworekl Peripheral Concepts Inc.
Keeping pace with the rapid growth of Winchester disk capacity is the standardization of generic input/output (110) buses such as the Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI). The continued advancements in storage technology, particularly In higher transfer rates, continues to fuel the success of SASI and the formal effort toward standardization known as the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) .
SASI got its start in 1979 as a way to solve the interface problems associated with then-emerging 8-inch Winchesters. Working closely with Data Technology Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., Shugart developed a general-purpose interface which was based on IBM Corp.'s 110 channel architecture. What made this "new" Interface exciting was that it could accept host adapters, thus allowing the easy adaptation of Shugart's SA-1000 8-inch Winchester to

different makes of microcomputers regardless of the
system bus structure. The extended version of SASI is known as SCSI.
As SASI was implemented by a variety of manufacturers and became a de facto standard, users asked for formal standardization. In 1981, at the urging of NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio, Shugart took SASf to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for consideration. The American National Standards Committee (ANSC) X3T9.2 was assigned the task of developing a refined document for its parent committee, X3T9.
The ANSI committee didn't want to use a company
name like Shugart in a standards specification. Thus was bOm the name Small Computer Systems Interface.
Moreover, the committee outlined a number of enhanceme11ts to the original SMI specification. These enhancements, however created differences
belweeh SASf and the pJOp088d SCSI standard.
Specifically, SASI is implemented as a single-host

124

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CONTROLLERS

SCSI provides an easy method of eliminating cost-consuming interfacing tasks by providing a rich set of commands and a defined bus structure. Because system integration can take longer than product development, the use of SCSI can lessen the time to market. Besides these benefits, SCS I offers a number of other advantages, including service to multiple hosts as well as devices, and full arbitration and message-passing.The latte r eludes bus contention problems while maximizing use of system architecture.
Avoiding rocks and shoals
An intelligent interface helps integrators avoid the rocks and shoals of integration. But it can be costly in terms of performance. Because SCSI is intelligent , command latencies must be included in the performance calculation. Therefore , SCSI will be much slower than an interface direct ly under the control of the host CPU . On the other hand, controlling the input/output (I/O) with the CPU makes the processor unavailable for other tasks; SCSI relieves the CPU of these slow I/O functions . In addition, SCSI provides special command and hardware bus arbitration functions, such as disconnect/reconnect, thus allowing many devices to communicate with a host or multiple hosts and devices. That makes it beneficial for powerful multitasking and multiuser business systems.
The SCSI industry is still young and developing and manufacturing sources are limited . Finding more than one sou rce for interfaces if you're

Who's putting SCSI Into action

Chip sets

Controllers Subsystems Systems

Smart peripherals

Disks

Tape

Adaptec

Adaptec

Emu lex

Advanced Micro Devices
Data Technology

Adaptive Data Systems
Data Technology

Innovative Data Technology
NCR

Emu lex Intel

Data Processing Technology

Sys gen Xebec

National Semi· conductor
NCR

Emu lex Ko nan NCR

Shugart

Priam

SMS/OMTI
Western Digital
Xebec

Science & Communications
Shugart
SMS/OMTI

Data General
Datapoint
Digital Equipment
Intel
NCR Perkin-Elmer

Amcodyne
A.l.M .
Atari
Cogito
Cynthia Peripherals Control Data

Archive
Cipher Data Kennedy
Lancore
Northern Telecom
Rosscomp

Point 4 Data
Sperry
Texas Instruments

Fujitsu America
Iomega
Mega vault

Tandberg Wangtek

Northern Telecom

Priam

Quantum

Sysgen
Vermont Research
Western Digital
Xebec

Shugart
Vermont Research
Vertex Xebec

interface bus with no arbitration. SCSI is for multiple hosts and supports bus arbitration plus
~ COM PUTER-+---- DISK CONTROLLER-----1-

COMPUTER SYSTEM

HOST ADAPTER

SASI DISK CONTROLLER

r

HOST BU S

SASI

OR BACKPLAN E INTERFACE

DRIVE-LEVEL INTERFACE (ST505 , ETC.)

A typic81 SASI Interface configuration consists of a host system with adapter, controller and devices. This is still the most
common SAS/ implementation and
established the methodology for interfacing
devices with differing host systems.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

disconnect/reconnect for multiple devices. Additionally, the SCSI specification includes commands for printers, optical disks, tape drives and CPU-to-CPU transfers.
The ANSC X359.2 committee has been working closely with the European Computer Manufacturers' Association (ECMA) to encourage the use of SCSI . The ECMA committee expects adoption of SCSI in 1985. Finally, the International Standards Organization (ISO) committee TC-97 has also adopted SCSI as a working document, allowing their SC-13 committee to begin work towards an ISO standard.
The adoption of the SCSI specification by these standards organizations doesn't guarantee product success. It does, however. provide the potential manufacturer with a common set of guidelines from which to work.
Joseph V. Jaworski is president of Peripheral Concepts Inc.
125

CONTROLLERS

'The answer to where to put the cache isn't clear...'

going to use SCSI can be a problem. Because of that, says I. Dal Allan, ENDL Consulting, Saratoga, Calif., there is a clear need for a multifunction SCSI controller. With it, says Allan, who is chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X3T9.3 interface committee, many attributes can be emulated to ensure multiple sources for SCSI controllers and adapters. To meet this need, Priam Corp., San Jose, Calif., has a series of SCSI controllers that employ a compatibility mode. By using ~ual in-line package (dip) switches, users can tailor the controllers to match one of three SASI controllers available from Data Technology, SMS/OMTI and Xebec.
Allan explains that the multipurpose capability limits the liability of the system integrator. "Since the industry is at the early stages of intelligent interfaces, the system integrator needs a method of building towards greater capability. Emulation of other controllers and functions is a relatively inexpensive way of solving the problem," he says.
Multiple devices share the bus
The purpose of SCSI is to join mismatched devices electrically so that signals from one can be translated and used by the other. But SCSI

does more than act as an electronic translator. This interface defines a complete bus system whereby definite electrical paths and communication protocols are clearly determined. Thus , like any bus or backplane , other devices can be added to take advantage of the distribution of signals and information.
It is because SCSI is a full-fledged bus that many industry observers consider it an important step forward in system architectures. "The SCSI bus methodology greatly enhances a system integrator's ability to build systems," says SCSI forum chairman Joseph Molina. "The use of a bus-oriented design with arbitration and communication protocols will greatly simplify most integration tasks," he says.
An SCSI controller can support as many as eight peripherals. The ability to turn the bus over to an initiator to send a message to a target becomes important as the number of devices grows on the SCSI controller or within the total system architecture.
In operation, the initiator requests use of the bus; if it is available, the initiator passes a message to a target (e.g., another host, storage device or printer), then disconnects from the bus. The return message, such as an electrical handshake to indicate that the message got to the

WIU · . . . . . . .'1191R A . . . .. .

~ SINGLE.USER
SINGLETASK

~

MULTIUSER MULTITASK

CONTROLLER

BUSINESS SYSTEMS

A main feature of Adaptec's SCSI is its ability to support multiple hosts and devices and thus multiple tasks. In a typical single-user environment, the relationship is one-to-one; as tasks are added, so are the number of disk accesses threatening a

major 110 bottleneck. SCSI allows multiple tasks to address any of several storage devices. 110 channel bottlenecks are avoided by arbitrating bus data transfers with disconnect/reconnect capability within the SCSI bus controller.

126

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

ARTIFICIAL INTEWGENCE: TEK INTRODUCES A
NEW SOURCE OF POWER.

Tek's new personal 4404 Al development system bypasses one of the last bottlenecks to making artificial intelligence systems commonplace. That bottleneck: the high price and scarcity of Al compute power.
The powerful, 32-bit 4404 supports three major development languages. The Smalltalk-80 TM programming environment is standard . Franz LISP and Prolog are available as options . And Tek

supports the industry-wide Common LISP standardization effort. Standard contigu-
ration also includes virtual memory, expandable hard disk mass storage and much more. Its new windowmanaged display is everything you expect from a world graphics leader.
But what really makes the 4404 a major new force in Al is its price: at less than $15,000, it is the first personal Al development system.

The power of Tek is behind it. Thanks to Tektronix technology, Al specialists and
worldwide service organization , the 4404 is truly the first
Al system you can use without reservations. And it is only the beginning of Tek's growing commitment to the Al community.
For more information, contact your nearest Tektronix · field office. Or call toll-free 1-800-547-1512 . In Oregon , 1-800-452-1877 .

Smalltalk-80 1s a trademdrk of Xerox Corporation Price stated is for U.S. domestic, quantity one OEM prices and leasing programs (U .S. only) are available. Copyright © 1984. Tektronix, Inc . All rights reserved . HUT-101
CIRCLE NO. 69 ON INQUIRY CARD

COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

CONTROLLERS

other end, uses the same path to acknowledge receipt. The connect device typically holds the bus until the message passing is finished. Device priorities can be established , however. This priority arrangement determines which device has precedence and can take control of the bus . This is all handled via the bus arbitration scheme that is part of the microcode in the SCSI controller hardware.
Hierarchy by design
One of the noticeable attributes of SCSI is the attention to system architecture hierarchies , says

Larry Boucher, president of Adaptec, Inc. , Milpitas , Calif. " A controller , or interface , isn't a lonely item. Rather , it is something that is a part of a larger whole , or system. The SCSI bus specification clearly reflects how system architectures go together-and , for that matter, are extended."
To this end , the SCSI bus is hierarchical by design . System integrators can attach a host computer or multiple host computers to the SCSI bus via the host adapters. The adapters tailor the host bus to match the electrical and software characteristics of SCSI.

···r···....lwe llat el ··-faclwen

Adaptec Inc.
580 CottQnwood Drive
Milpitas, CaHf. 95035
(408) 946-8600
Clrcle 700
Adaptive Data Sptemalnc.
2627 ~$1~d
Pomona, cam 917~
{714) 594-5858 Circle 701
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. 901 Thompson Place P.O. Box 3453 Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086 (408) 732-2400 Circle 702
Amcodyne Inc.
1301 South Sunset Street Longmont, Colo. 90501 (303) 772-2601 Circle 703
Appllecl Information ......... 776 Sycamore Drive
.......Milpitas, Calif. 96035
(408) 263-9321
cnt.704
3540 C&dillac Ave. Costa Mesa, C811f. 92626 (714) 641 -0279 Circle 705

Atari Inc. 60 Ea8t ?lumeria Drive P.0 Box 50047
San Jose, Calif. 95150 (408) 942-6790 Circle 708
==-~
9815 Carrot! Canyon Road P.O. Box 85170 San Diego, Calif 92138 (611) 693--7284 Circle .,..,,
CoOIO .,...... Corp.
~ lanker Road San Jose, Calif. 95131 (408) 942-8262
Clrcle 708
Control Data Corp. 8100 South 34th Ave. S. Minneapolis, Minn. 55440 (612) 853-8100
Circle 708
~· -440-0.GCoemneprt,ertler 0 ve
Westboro, Mass. 01580 (617) 36H911
Clfcle 711

Detlpolnt Corp. 9725 Datapoint Drive San Antonio, Texas 78285 (515) 699-7000 Circle 712
Data
Procelalng Technology 132 Cadage Drive P.O. Box 1864 Maitland, Fla. 32751 (305) 830-5522 Ctrcte 713
m s Dala Technology Corp. Northwestern Pkwy. Santa Clara, Calif. 95051 (408) 496-0434 Circle 714
Digital Equipment Corp. 146 Main St. Maynard, Mass. 01754 (617) 897-5111 Clrcle 715
EmulexCorp. 3545 Harbor Blvd. P.O. Box 6725 Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626 {714) 662-5600 Circa.711
,........ Amertca Inc.
3055 Orchard Drive 8an Jose, Calif. 95134-2017 (408) 946-87n Cltole717

Innovative
Data 'ntchnology
4060 Morena Blvd. P.O. Box 178160 San Diego, Calif. 92117 (619) 270-3990 Circle 718
Intel Corp. 2625 Walsh Ave. Santa Clara. Calif. 95051 (408) 987-8417 Circle 719
Iomega Corp. 4646 South 1500 W. Ogden, Utah 84403 (801) 399-2171 Circle 720
Kennedy Co. 1600 Shamrock Blvd. Monrovia, Calif. 91016 (213) 357-8831 Circle 721
Konan Corp. 1448 North 27th Ave. Phoenix, Ariz. 85009 (602) 257-1355 Circle 722
Lancore Technototles Inc. 31324 Via Colinas Westlake Village, Calif. 91361 (818) 991 -5100 Clrcte723

128

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CONTROLLERS

Because SCSI is for multiple-device environments , techniques that speed the transfer of data can be implemented in a cost-effective and system-efficient manner. For example, RAM buffers can be placed in the SCSI controller to allow the rapid collection and transference .of data between devices using direct-memory-access {DMA) methods. Moreover, algorithms for error correction and data location quickly can be embedded in the system to make maximum use of the RAM cache buffers.
Implementing cache systems and using highlevel system algorithms, however , add to system

overhead. Cost is determined by how much memory is added and where it's located in the system architecture. According to Richard Barrett, president of Adaptive Data Systems Inc. , Pomona , Calif., adding RAM cache to the controller or host adapter can boost costs as much as 40 percent, due to the additional expenses of added memory and logic. The cost also is determined by whether the cache is used in a multihost system with many controllers and adapters.
System integrators can save money by using existing RAM in the host system . But that reduces the amount of available system memory

...,,........... l·pl···....···

........." 6431 Independence Ave.
Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367-2668 (818) 884-7300 (800) 634-2858
Clrcle 724
Natlonel Semloonductor Corp.
2900 Semiconductor Drive
Santa Clara, Calif. 95051 (408) 721-5000 Clrcle 725
NCR Corp. 3718 North Rock Road Wichita, Kans. 67226 (316) 688-8510 Clrcle721
Northern Telecom Inc. Memory Syatema Division 100 Phoenix Drive P.O. Box D Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106 {313) 973-4692 Circle 727
Perkin-Elmer Corp. 2 Crescent Place Oceanport, N.J. 07757 (201) 870-4500 Clrcll721

Point 4 Data Corp. 2569 McCabe Way
Irvine, Calif. 92714 (714) 863-1111 Circle 729
Priam Corp. 20 W Montaque Expwy. San Jose, Calif. 95134 (408) 946-4600 Clrcle 730
Quantum Corp. 1804 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, Calif. 95035 (408) 262-1100 Clrcle 731
Roucomp Corp. 16643 Valley View Ave. Cerritos, Calif. 90701 (213) 926-5533 Circle 732
Science Md Communications Inc. 352 A University Ave. Westwood, Mass. 02090 (617) 461 -0200 Circle 733
SMS/OMTI 557 Salmar Ave. Campbell, Calif. 95008 (408) 370-3555 Circle734

Shugart Corp. 475 Oakmead Pkwy Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086 (408) 737-7900 Circle 735
Sperry Corp. P.O. Box 500 Blue Bell, Penn. 19424 (215) 542-4011 Clrcle 736
Syagen Inc. 47853 Warm Springs Road Fremont, Calif. 94539 (415) 490-6770 Clrcle 737
'Dlndberg Data Inc. Suite H, 571 N. Poplar Orange, Calif. 92668 (714) 978-6771 Circle 738
Texas Instruments Inc. Data Syatema Group 12501 Research Blvd P.O. Box 2909 Austin, Texas 78769 (512) 250-7111 Circle 739

Vermont RHearch Precision Park North Springfield, Vt. 05150 (802) 886-2256 Circle 740
Vertex Peripherals 2150 Bering Drive San Jose, Calif. 95131 (408) 942-0606 Circle 741
W&ngtek 41 Moreland Road Simi Valley, Calif. 93065 (805) 583-5255 Circle 742
Western Dlgltal Corp. 2445 McCabe Way Irvine, Calif. 92714 (714) 863-0102 Circle 743
Xebec 595 Pastoria Ave. Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086 (408) 732-7330 Circle 744

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

129

Irma gets a new look

If you've got an IRMA.. board, we've got
the technology to make it do mainframe graphics.
ForteGraph (for 1RMAN) lets you create
mainframe graphics with a single PC keystroke.
With a compatible monitor, you1l get true 3279 model S3G emulation. From color quality and screen print speed, right down to pixel resolutions.
ForteGraph (for IRMA) is quick and easy to install. It's

entirely soft-loaded, so for any upgrades, you'll replace a diskette, not a PROM.
Dip into a palette of software, like GDDM! SAS/
GRAPH®and ISSCO's TELLAGRAF."'Create pie and bar charts, histograms and con-
ceptual drawings.Or paint up a storm with your own ,_ . custom-designed ~ characters. Even ~==:::;;;;;;._--;foreign language
fonts and scientific notations can be used.

IBM"'
MAINFRAME
3274'6 CONTROLLER
FORTE GRAPH
· · ...lMIASYSTEMS

THE FORCE IN MICRO TO MAINFRAME COMMUNICATIONS
See us at INTERFACE '85, March 4-7, Georgia World Congress Ctr., Atlanta, GA, Booth 324
2205 Fortune Drive, San Jose, CA 95131 (408) 945-9111 Telex 275973 TOLL-FREE HUfLINE (800) 233-3278
© Forte Data Systems. IRMA is a trademark of Digital Communications Associates. lnc.1GDDM is a product of International Business Machines. SAS/GRAPH is a registered trademark of SAS Institute, Inc. TELLAGRAF is a trademark of Integrated Software Systems Corporation. fBM is a registered trademark of fntemational Business Machines.
CIRCLE NO. 70 ON INQUIRY CARD

CONTROLLERS

and ties up an 110 channel when any transfers are made to or from the cache. Additionally , in multiple-host architectures, the system integrator must choose one host in which to implement the cache, since it is too expensive to implement in all hosts. "The answer to where to put the cache isn't clear ," says Barrett. " Basically , it depends on the needs of the overall system architecture and not just adding RAM for a frivolous reason. "
One method of maximizing system gains with SCSI , suggested by Daniel Loski , product line manager for SMS/OMTI , Campbell , Calif., provides a complex implementation of SCSI that employs controlling firmware in ROM, the host adapter and microprocessor control with cache memory . This strategy takes advantage of SCSI's ability to be matched to a foreign host bus via the adapter, but handles the cache buffering as well.
Chip sets speed design
Almost coincidental with the growing acceptance of the SCSI interface bus is the availability of very large-scale integration (VLSI) chip sets that handle the SCSI-defined protocols. Don Redman, Xebec's vice president of engineering, notes that low-cost VLSI eliminates 90 percent of the design work required for creating an SCSI controller or host adapter. He says that means controller manufacturers and system integrators can get products to market much quicker. He says upgrading SCSI by adding the various commands can be accomplished by changing the microcode of the protocol chip or, in some cases , the firmware on the SCSI controller.

conjures up new needs ," says Dal Allan. " Nothing is by the numbers. That may be the beauty of SCSI, since it does allow tailoring. "

Command set a key element

Among the commands that make SCSI rich in

features are those that allow the formatting of

storage devices and that provide the ability to

read and write to and from peripherals and to set

special file marks for locating data either on

storage devices or LANs. Additionally , provi-

sions are made for directing output to various

hard-copy attachments or storage devices and

for allowing the copying of data from one ma-

chine to another or the sending of data to other

hosts.

Currently, the bulk of intelligent controllers

are still in the single-user SASI class. Most of the

SCSI manufacturers have yet to release their

products. What can be expected by mid-year are

numerous announcements of peripheral devices

sporting SCSI interfaces.

D

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 825 Medium 826 Low 827

Wondering Where To Turn Next?

Software lacking
Redman sees problems in SCSI software. He notes that currently no software exists to take advantage of the command structure of SCSI, and he sees no help on the horizon. According to him , the problem is similar to that with LANs. He explains that , like a LAN , SCSI implementations also have a transport and presentation layer, and software must take this into account. "That 's where the problems lie, and consequently will cause the majority of SCSI implementations , at least initially, to be single-host with multiple targets ," says Redman.
His assertion is based on the fact that most operating systems are 1/0- bound and tend to rely on specific ports or addresses. Currently no operating system exists that uses the intelligence built into interfaces such as SCSI. Moreover, most mechanical devices are inefficient and represent high system overheads in moving data. Thus , a mismatch in performance occurs.
Most companies supporting SCSI believe the problems can be overcome. " Each application
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Turn To
Mini-Miaral1s1e··
Career Opportunities Section
CIRCLE NO. 71 ON INQUIRY CARD
131

This is a success story. Starring the industry's #1 half-height 514'' streaming tape drive. And you.
The right time for backup. The systems you're designing today need backup more than ever. That's because they're being used in more important applications than ever. For accounting and word processing. As engineering workstations. And multi-user, multi-station systems. With more complex software. Growing data bases. Winchesters that have 10MB to over 100MB capac-

ouout

ity. And customers who demand

industry. With a more reliable motor

dependability and the simplicity of

- brushless DC. A better loading

tape backup.

mechanism - fewer moving parts.

The right time for Archive.

Proprietary LSI. And the dependability

The time's right for Archive. We've got the right product for you. At the right price. With the right

that comes from devoting over three years to building 14" streaming tape
drives and nothing but W'

support. Put our half-height Jl,i''

streaming tape drives.
Wf!ve got you covered.

streamer into your system and

We've got the right

you've got 20 to 60MB of fast (four to nine minutes), convenient backup with a single cartridge.

~

- -

-

· ...:-- .
-·
......

approach to system

· -1 integration, too. We

..

l -::: ,"!

build a half-height drive wrth the industry-standard

We build the

most dependable

511.i'' drive in the

>

.

j

QIC-36 Basic Inter-

~

face. Use our SCSI, IBM PC or QIC-02

CIRCLE NO. 72 ON INQUIRY CARD

controllers/formatter boards for simple, quick system integration.
No matter how successful you are we've got the manufacturing capacity to meet your volume needs, including a new off-shore plant to support you worldwide. Nobody's shipped more half-height 514" tape drives than Archive. No one ever will.
Write your own success story.
We'll put you out front in tape backup. With the support you need to ensure system success. Just dial (714) 641-0279. And backup is on the way. Archive Corporation, 3540 Cadillac Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Telex: 4722063.
ARcww:
Out front with backup.

UIETLY BUILDING THE BEST
Some people prefer performance to promises. To those we quietly offer our family of 30MB, 51MB, 72MB and 85MB 51;4'' Winchesters.
You see, we have an old fashioned attitude. Performance ought to speak for itself. That's why we're quietly becoming a leader in high performance 5~" Winchesters. With volume deliveries of very reliable drives. To a diverse customer base which includes some of the most successful OEM's in the business.
We could brag more about specs and design integrity. We could holler about our great manufacturing capability.
Yeah, we could shout with the best of 'em. But we'd rather build the best of 'em. Call us for a quiet conversation. Vertex Peripherals, 800 Tasman Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 943-9530. Eastern Region Sales, (617) 435-5348. Midwest Region Sales, (612) 784-0347. Western Region Sales, (714) 937-0384.
VERTEX
QUIETLY BUILDING THE BEST
CIRCLE NO. 73 ON INQUIRY CARD

INTERFACES

VARIED DRIVE INTERFACES MYSTIFY INTEGRATORS
Confusion exists in the disk and tape drive interface market as emerging products begin to replace older ones. If you 're using ST506/412, SA1000, SMD or QIC-02,
it's time to take a close look at ESDI, SCSI, IPI or QIC-36

I. Dal Allan, ENDL Inc.
New disk and tape drive interfaces usually evolve out of extensions made to existing interfaces, with modifications geared to new requirements. However, the cost of introducing a new interface can be enormous. The expense is not limited to hardware, but extends throughout the whole system-from software to customer engineering. But the most significant, immediate requirement, as well as one of the most expensive, is the need for new controllers.
Established interfaces provide a controller infrastructure that can attach to many host buses , without having to add or modify the software drivers already in place . It takes several years for such an infrastructure to evolve . Longevity of an interface directly relates to the ability of controller and peripheral manufacturers to continually extend the interface's application to new products.
On small disk drives , the most recent de vice interface is the Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) for high-performance 51/4-inch rigid disk drives. ESDI's roots can be traced as far back as the original SA800 floppy disk interface from Shugart Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif. The SA800 spawned the SA400 , which changed into the SA450 when double-sided recording was introduced . The SA450 is the most popula r 5 1/4- inch floppy interface and has been adopted by the new generation of 31/2-inch floppy disks.

DISK HIVE INTERFACES SPAN PERFORMANCE RANGES

BUSINESS COMPUTER

PERSONAL

COMPUTER SINGLE-T MULTI·

USER

USER

I MINICOMPUTER
REGULAR SUPER

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The major disk drive interfaces include SA450, ST506!412, ESDI, SMO, SAS/, SCSI and IP/ .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

135

INTERFACES

Fig. 1. The ESDI interface extends the capabilities of the ST506/412 interface .

The STS06 interface is the de facto standard for low-performance Winchester disk drives. Seagate Technology (at that time Shugart Technology) first introduced the STS06 on a S1/4-inch Winchester as a hybrid of the SA1000 Winchester and the SA4SO floppy disk interfaces. Seagate subsequently improved performance with its ST412 by buffering the step counts. STS06 is now available on 31/2-inch Winchester disk drives .
ESDI extends the STS06/412 interface . The data rate limitation of SM bits per second (bps) on the STS06/412 is adequate for low-performance, low-capacity , S1/4-inch products, but is inadequate for S1/4-inch disks with capacities and performance comparable to those of high-performance 8-inch Winchesters .
ESDI has step and serial modes of operation on disk, plus a tape mode . ESDI most closely resembles STS06/4 l 2 in the electrical cable , connectors and line names . Onboard logic (Fig. I) bears little resemblance .
Putting the data separator on the driveinstead of on the controller-so that non-returnto-zero (NRZ) data can be used between controller and device is the key difference between

ESDI and previous S1/4-inch interfaces. Instead of one signal intermixing both clock and data pulses , as with modified frequency modulation (MFM), ESDI uses a SO-percent duty-cyle , clock signal. This means that NRZ data bits can be complete bit cells in terms of time. Unlike STS06/412 , the drive-not the controlle rprovides the reference clock .
Because NRZ transfers are less susceptible to jitter and noise than are MFM transfers, all large-diameter, high-performance OEM Winchesters use NRZ data. In addition to adding NRZ clocking to the data cable, ESDI replicates on the data cable rotational information from the control cable so that each drive 's position can be monitored radially. This capability increases performance in multiple-disk configurations.
ESDI added two ways to replace the STS06/ 412 missing clock sector scheme, (i .e . , a missing clock pulse means that a sector has been located) : sector pulses and address marks on both the control and data cables.
There are two ways to position an actuator: step mode and serial-command mode . The latter is the preferred method when using an ESDI interface. Serial-command mode goes beyond

STS06/412 VS. IUI

CONTROLLER

DISK

CONTROLLER

DISK

ST506/ST412 "A" CABLE (34-PIN)
STEP DIRECTION IN WRITE GATE

DRIVE SELECT 1-4

HEAD SELECT 2"·22

READY

..........

TRACK 0 SEEK COMPLETE INDEX

WRITE FAULT

.........
> >

SERIAL MODE ESDI "A" CABLE (34-PIN) TRANSFER REQUEST"
... COMMAND/DATA·
...... ~BIT~!;IATE

READ GATE DRIVE SELECT 2"-22*

:>

.........

HEAD SELECT 2"-2· READY

>

TRANSFER ACKNOWLEDGE"

CONFIGURATION/STATUS DATA"

.......

INDEX ATTENTION' SECTOR/BYTE CLOCK/AM FND

ST506/ST412 "B" CABLE (20·PIN)

WRITE DATA

....

DRIVE SELECTED

...

READ DATA

ESDI "B" CABLE (20·PIN)

..................

ADDRESS MARK ENABLE WRITE CLOCK WRITE DATA

.........

DRIVE SELECTED

READ DATA

READ CLOCK

COMMAND COMPLETE'

SECTOR/BYTE CLOCK/AM FND

INDEX

.......

RESERVED' RESERVED'

'STEP MODE DEFINITIONS DIFFER

136

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

COGITO'S NEW PT925.
TWICE THE CAPACITYAT HALF THE POWER

Cogito's new PT925 half-height Winchester disk drive gives you 25MB of storage capacity on two state-of-the-art media platters - that's twice the capacity of Cogito's previous 12MB model CG912.Yet its low power consumption of only 12 watts is half the power required for regular drives. Compatible with the industry standard ST412 interface to allow you upward migration, the PT925 has a new optimized ruggedized design with increased sway space which extends the effectivity of the threeaxis shock mounts to withstand forces exceeding 40 Gs, making it ideal for portable and transportable computer applications. The PT925's dedicated head landing zone with secure automatic actuator lock protects your customers' data

while Cogito's new high-performance media is impervious to degradation caused by temperature or humidity.
The management ofCogito Systems Corporation brings you years of experience and success in the high volume production of a quality family ofWinchester disk drives.
For more information, call or write Cogito Systems Corp., Sales Dept., 2355 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95131, Telex 171023 (408) 942-8262.

COGITO
CIRCLE NO. 74 ON INQUIRY CARD

You callt build tomorrowsI systems withyesterdays drives.
You've seen one small-disk drive, you've seen them all, right? Not exactly. One disk drive stands above all the rest.
It comes from Maxtor. The company that refuses to produce disk drives merely as good as everybody else. Instead, we set new standards by producing the only 5~" disk drives worthy of the next generation of supermicros. Winchesters with 65 to 380 megabytes of storage. And average access times of less than 30 msec. And we don't mean prototypes. We mean full production. So, you can build the systems of tomorrow, today. And that can be a big advantage. For you. Or your competition. Maxtor Corporation, 150 River Oaks Parkway, San Jose, California 95134, (408) 942-1700, TELEX: 171074. Eastern Regional Sales O~fice: (617) 872-8556. Southwest Regional Sales Office: (714) 859-3100.
CIRCLE NO. 75 ON INQUIRY CARD
C> Maxtor Corporation 1984
·

INTERFACES

the step-mode ability to allow seeking directly by cylinder address. Serial commands are also available to enable the transfer of parameter, drive configuration, status and diagnostics information. This capability means that ESDI controllers can reconfigure automatica lly to handle different drives .
SMD hangs on, but for how long?
The over-5 1/4-inch disk drive interface market is more confusing than the 5 1/4-inch and smaller market. The SA800 was the first floppy interface, and became the SA850 on double-sided diskettes. The SA850 grew into the SAlOOO interface for Shugart's 8-inch Winchesters. The popularity of SA800/850/ LOOO interfaces is waning because the product growth of disks that use them is waning.
The Storage Module Drive (SMD) interface incorporates the data separator and is the on ly interface that is appropriate for disk drives from 51/4 inches through 14 inches. This unusual situation exists even though SMD has always been considered an expensive, difficu lt interface to implement. SMD is the de facto standard on high-performance Winchesters, and only recently became available on high-capacity 51/4-inch disks.
Originally introduced by Control Data Corp. (CDC) , Minneapolis , Minn., for a removable pack disk drive, the SMD specifies a 1.2M-byteper-second transfer rate and 20,160 bytes per track. Manufacturers have consistently improved the SMD interface and the latest version permits a 3M-byte-per-second transfer rate and 50,400 bytes per track.
Two distinct, yet derivative, interfaces were introduced to provide low-cost alternatives to the SMD interface. The first was the SA4000, used on low-capacity 14-inch drives, and the second was the Rigid Disk Interface (ROI), used for 8-inch drives. Neither met with great commercial success, due in large part to competition from 51/4-inch products.
The HSMD (Fujitsu Ltd.) and SMD-E (CDC) are enhanced versions of SMD that provide more diagnostic and error-reporting capabilities. They have improved SMD's longevity , but SMD cannot support emerging disk-drive technology for long. Drives with transfer rates of 3M bytes per second will be available this year, and faster drives will be available next year. The Intelligent Peripheral Interface (I PI) wi ll gradually replace the SMD interface, largely because the IPI can accommodate higher transfer ra tes.
SASl/SCSI incorporate intelligence
In the late 1970s, a number of drive manufacturers introduced intelligent interfaces to facili-

IPI INTmFACE COMPRISES FOUR LEYB.S

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2
DEVICE-SPECIFIC COMMANDS TIMING CRITICAL
PHYSICAL ADDRESSING PHYSICAL VOLUMES

DEVICE-GENERIC COMMANDS TIMING INDEPENDENT
BUFFERED COMMAND STACKING
QUEUING LIMITED SPECIFIC COMMANDS
LOGICAL ADDRESSING
PHYSICAL VOLUMES

COMMAND PARAMETERS

MESSAGE PACKETS

BUS CONTROL COMMANDS

LEVEL 1 STATE MACHINE AND BUS PROTOCOL

LEVEL 0 CABLES, CONNECTORS AND DRIVERS/RECEIVERS

tate OEM integration. Shugart subcontracted the development of the Shugart Associates Systems Interface (SASI) and made the specifications free ly avai lable. SASI became the preferred interface for OEMs that wanted to attach SA 1000 and ST506 disks which had bee n difficu lt to integrate - largely because they did not include data separation in the drive.
A large SASI aftermarket developed when independent controller houses started providing it as a vehicle for attaching floppy disks, Winchesters and 1/4-inch tape cartridge drives. T he changes and differences that began to appear led to an industry effort to standardize . The resu lt is the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI). SCSI extends SASI's capability by providing more functiona lity and continues to isolate OEMs from changes in drive technology.
IPI addresses performance requirements
Manufacturers producing high-end drives recognize the performance limitations imposed by the SMD interface. This resulted in the development of the IPI , which provides two types of command sets to meet two diverse market needs.
IPI is defi ned in levels (Fig.2). Leve l 0 refers to the mechanical and electrical characteristics of connectors, cables, drivers and receivers. Leve l I represents the state machine , the bus protocol and control and status byte information. Levels 0 and I constitute the physical interface.
Level 2 refers to device-specific commands that provide timing-critical operations. Level 3 refers to intelligent commands which provide buffered operation and device management. The physical interface plus one of the two com mand sets defines either an IPI-2 (level 2) or IPI -3 (level 3) interface .
IPI targets applications where there is a large

Fig. 2. The IPI interface is defined in four levels. Levels 0 and 1 make up the p hysical interface. The physical interface plus one of the two command sets define either an IPl-2 (level 2) or IPl-3 (level 3) interface.

M INI -M ICRO SYSTE MS/February 1985

139

INTERFACES

Fig. 3. The physical interface of the
IPI is based on a
state machine with five lines for control, one attention line and two bus bytes plus parity.

installed base of SMD or equivalent products. Thus, it offers a path for migration. This differs from SAS! and SCSI, which are predominantly used in new applications and do not need to provide a migration path.
IPI-3 is device-generic and not unlike SCSI in isolating software from device technology. IPI-2 is device-specific, but, because the IPI-2 and IPI-3 use the same physical interface, it is possible for system integrators to mix device-specific and device-generic implementations on the same cable.
The !PI is the only viable device interface for future high-performance disks because the latest announced version of SMD-E has a maximum data transfer rate of only 3M bytes per second. The !Pl extends this to IOM bytes per second over distances to 200 feet. Over shorter distances, RS485-class driver/receiver testing indicates that 22M bytes per second over a 50-foot cable is achievable.
The physical interface of the IP! is based on a state machine with five lines for control, one "attention" line and two bus bytes plus parity (Fig. 3). A 50-pin cable with shield incorporates a total of 24 lines. There is a high level of noise immunity between the cable conductors, because every signal has a corresponding ground which protects it from interfering with another signal.
The two bus bytes operate differently for control and data-transfer operations. When transferring data, the two buses operate in parallel to provide double-byte transfers. Thus the interface ach ieves an effective data rate of IOM bytes per second at 200 feet with only a 5MHz repetition rate in the drivers and receivers. This compares with a repetition rate of 24 MHz on the fastest SMD-E. As new driver and receiver families are introduced, the !PI transfer rate will increase accordingly.

IPI SO·PIN CABU GROUl9 INCRIASIS NOISI IMMUNITY

MASTER

SELECT OUT MASTER OUT SYNC OUT

.......... SLAVE

~

SLAVE IN

~

SYNC IN

ATIENTION

<:)1 BUS A BITS 0-7 +PARITY
< BUS B BITS 0-7 +PARITY

>
if>

"16-BIT PARALLEL IN DATA TRANSFER MODE

The buses are unidirectional when used for control, with bus A running out from the controller and bus B running in from the peripheral. There are no turnaround delays, in contrast to bidirectional buses . Recognizing control and responding with status can take less than one µ.sec. The most significant factor in turnaround time is not the interface but the length of the cable.
With most disk interfaces, it is necessary for the controller to manage the gaps between fields on a disk . This requires the controller to recognize sync-byte detection schemes and to provide the write-splice adjustments necessary on disks built by different manufacturers . With IPl-2 , gap management is the responsibility of the drive , so that the idiosyncrasies of a particular drive are masked from the controller. Because turnaround time and gap management directly affect the size of disk gaps, IPI-2 allows smaller disk gaps than are presently in use, thus increasing usable data storage.
Disk drive manufacturers usually provide a flaw map of media defects in their own specific format. IPI-2 offers a major advantage in that it establishes an agreed-upon definition for the flaw map. With IPI-2 , the manufacturer is required to provide a flaw map that can be read by a controller supporting the IPI-2 interface. This provides an added degree of compatibility between IPI-2-based disk drives.
The IPI-2 is a new interface , and thus will require a high level of technological development. A number of disk manufacturers are participating in a chip development program , the goal of which is to produce silicon chips that will facilitate implementation of IPl-2. When the chip prices get low enough, it will be possible to transfer IPI-2 from large Winchesters down to many disk drives of different sizes and capacities. If this occurs, controller and system manufacturers can develop product lines that can grow and expand without having to make major hardware changes every few years.
A host system capable of supporting both command sets can intermix IPI-2 and IPl -3 peripherals on the . same daisy-chain cable. This would ease the burden of migrating from devicespecific 1/0 with existing software to intelligent 1/0 with new general-purpose software.
Any interface that lowers the cost of software maintenance and development is a major boon for OEMs. IPl-3 controllers will eliminate the need for hosts to handle error recovery, error correction, buffering, defect management , etc. IPI-3 also offers queueing, chaining, multiplexing large data transfers, and dual-port and multiport management. All these functions reduce the software 1/0 burden in complex system configurations .

140

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

HOW TO DOUBLE YOUR CONTROL WITHOUT DOUBLING YOUR NTROLLER.

I f your plans for controlling disk and tape drives call for two boards and two CPU slots, you can now cut your plans in half.
And use the SPECTRA 25 LSI-ll emulating multifunction controller instead. You'll get all the control of separate disk and tape boards in just half the space. Half the slots. Half the spares. While using less power.
SPECTRA 25 is the smarter way to handle SMD/Winchester and Y2-inch tape drives, and it's the first and only multifunction controller designed for DEC Q-BUS® computers.
Its block-mode data transfer capability can increase your throughput by up to 50%. And it performs Error Correction Code (ECC) independently of the operating system. All 32 bits worth.
SPECTRA 25 fully emulates DEC's RM02/5 and RM80 disk subsystems, and TS 11 tape subsystem. It can run two SMD disk drives and four tape drives, in any combination. Plus an E2PROM lets you easily reconfigure while the controller is in your system.
But SPECTRA 25 puts something else in your system, too: proven reliability. Because you're working with half as many parts and pre-tested ICs.
You're also working with excellent documentation that's regularly updated. And the most comprehensive one year warranty in the industry. All backed by responsive nationwide service.

SPECTRA25 is the multifunction controller that doubles your control. And your advantage on the competition.
Before you look at Emulex or Dilog, consider the SPECTRA 25 from Spectra Logic. It could be all the controller you'll ever need. For further information on our expanding family of controllers for DEC Q-BUS and UNIBUS® computers, call or write us today.
TSll (4 drives)
2.0MB/scc
Spectra Logic Corporation, 297 North Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043, (415) 964-2211, TWX 910-339-9566, TELEX 172524 SPL MNTV. International Sales Office: The Netherlands (31) 23 273744, TELEX 71080 SPECL.

A Cipher Data Products Company.
CIRCLE NO. 76 ON INQUIRY CARD

01984 Spectra Logic Corporation

Quality Performers Century Data Systems now

These compa_ct, fixed/

introduces its new C-Series, a line of higher capacity, 8-inch disk memories. These memories are available in a variety of models to offer OEMs the versatility

removable 8-inch disk memories are the perfect match with large personal computers, microcompu-
ter systems or transaction-oriented systems.

they want, along with the quality and reliability they have come to expect.
This new family of high performance, 8-inch disk memories uses advanced technology and provides compact, reliable mass storage. For example, our new 8-inch Winchester, the C2476, is the ideal choice for computer systems utilizing disk memories in multiuser and multi-task environments which require fast access to large files of data. The C2476 stores 476 megabytes in significantly less cabinet space than previously available models and has an average positioning time of 15 milliseconds.

All C-Series products fit in our new, standard 8.5-inch wide package. OEMs using large disk
memories can now standardize on one compact package for installation
in computer cabinets, equipment pedestals, or on desktops.
Like all our disk memories, the new 8-inch product line is reasonably priced, easy to install, and includes the quality and performance OEM systems require. We invite your inquiries. Write or call: Century Data Systems, Product Marketing, 1270 N. Kraemer Blvd. ,
Anaheim, CA 92806 (714) 632-7500.

The C2075, our initial C-Series offering, is an 8-inch fixed/removable disk memory containing 80.2 megabytes of storage. Continuing this line of disk memories is the C2120, our new 122.9 megabyte fixed/ removable disk. Both of these disk memories provide OEMs with powerful new sales tools. The fixed Winchester disk portion of the device provides highcapacity, reliable, on-line storage while the removable cartridge extends the on-line storage and provides faster, more convenient backup than tape.

Specifications ifMfWifJB··GJflW

'"""'""""~~c.===""'1 53.5

87.8

475.9

i;.....;.;;,;,;;,.;;..=;.,._----.i l-!!!!!i!~!!....! ;..:.::::z.:::.i=......; megabytes

Positioning time, average Interface Transfer rate

32 mlllseconds SMDILMO 1209
ld~sec

32

15

miliseconds mllHseconds

SMDILMD ESMD

1209

1859

kilobytes/sec kilobytes/sec

New roducts

~ Century Data Syst~m.~

142

CIRCLE NO. 77 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

INTERFACES

IPI-3 commands are transferred as message packets and are not interpreted until they reach the controller memory. Thus it will be possible to replace the IPI physical interface with one of different technology, yet not change the IPI-3 software.
The same is not true of IPI-2 because it uses the physical interface for timing-critical operations. Commands are not transferred separately, bu-t are an extension of the bus controls that manage the interface. Parameters associated with the command are detailed in content , fixed in format and limited in number.
IPI-3 message packets are self-defining and require extensive parsing of the packet. Although this flexibility allows much room for future growth and expansion, it requires a large initial investment in microcode to interpret commands and generate responses. IPI-3 is designed for the software programmers who need to know only the generic characteristics of peripherals, and who want to provide commands in a language not unlike that used by a high-level compiler. The parsing requirements of IPI-3 commands are similar to those during the compile phase of any high-level language .
The need for controllers external to the host bus will define the market for standalone controllers with an IPI-3 interface . IPI-3 controllers will not be cheap , but they will offer a new high in throughput by providing performance that maximizes system bandwidth. This will be especially noticeable in configurations where there are several IPI-3 controllers , each with multiple devices attached .
All three recent interfaces-ESDI , SCSI and IPI-were defined by industry prior to their introduction. The cost of introduction and the difficulty of OEM evaluation make it advantageous for vendors to agree in advance upon an interface. An OEM can then establish multiple sources at the evaluation stage. Product success will depend more on quality , performance and other capabilities rather than the ability to "hook it up. "
Tape drive interfaces are less confusing
There is less confusion about interfaces in the tape drive market than in the disk drive market. For example. the Pertee interface has been the de facto standard for 1/2-inch , reel-to-reel tape drives for many years .
When manufacturers introduced 1/4-inch tape cartridge drives, each company incorporated a different interface. As a result, 1/4-inch tape drives encountered a significant delay in market acceptance. The formulation of QJC-02 as the de facto standard interface led to an explosion in the demand for 1/4-inch tape cartridge drives.

DISK DRIVE INTERFACES RU.ATE TO DISK DIAMDERS

-3112-INCH
-51/·-INCH
8-INCH

J--1 SA400

SA450

t-

ST506/ 412

8-8-B

ROI

9-INCH,

-101/2-INCH, ETC.

SMD

l

:I

SA4000

-14-INCH

'--------'

ESDI]

SMD-E

The industry subsequently agreed on the QIC-36 de facto standard interface because it provided better cost/performance for controller houses.
Once 1/4-inch tape cartridge drives become available with the SCSI interface , QJC-02 will probably fall in popularity because SCSI allows the same physical cable to connect both disks and tapes. The IPI can share disk and tape drives, too, but it is an unlikely interface for 1/4-inch tape cartridge drives because its cost/ performance characteristics are more suited to high-performance, large-computer installations. Small-to-medium-scale installations most commonly use 1/4-inch tape drives. Future 1/2-inch tape drives , however, will include the IPI-3 command set. (Cipher Data Products Inc. has announced an IPI-3 1/2-inch tape streamer.)
The demand for independent controllers at the host bus interface will create a demand for tape drives with IPI-2. Controller manufacturers have a vested interest in encouraging industry to use an interface that allows the combination of disk and tape drives. Controller houses can maximize their value-added input by integrating backup and restore functions between disks and tapes attached on the same cable.
Currently, a high-performance controller for disk and tape requires an SMD interface and a Pertee interface . A single IPJ-2 interface supporting disk and tape will reduce board costs by eliminating one of the two interfaces.
The battle lines are drawn
The availability of SCSI in silicon is beginning to have a significant impact upon device interfaces. When it is possible to integrate SCSI within a

Disk drive interfaces are usually associated with diameters, but some-such as the SMD and enhanced
SMD-span a
variety of disk sizes .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

143

VME-SMD DISK-TAPE-CONTROLLER INTERFACES

DON'T WAIT! IT'S AVAILABLE
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CIRCLE NO. 79 ON INQUIRY CA RD
144

peripheral at the same cost as a device interface,

will the market swing away from device interfac -

es? Will integrated SCSI become a " device"

interface on low-to-medium-performance pe-

ripherals? If available at the same price as ESDI

and SMD interfaces , SCSI could prove more

popular than either, because it is easier to inte-

grate . It is less likely that this will happen with

high-performance peripherals because SCSI is

not as effective as high-end interfaces in configu-

rations that include more than one disk drive pe r

subsystem.

The adoption of IPI-2 on lower performance

devices would have many ramifications . Com-

patibility between all device interfaces would

mean that a single interface could attach disk

and tape drives of any size and capacity. If that

happens, the major impact would be on ESDI

and SMD.

SCSI and SMD more immediately threaten

ESDI as a standard for disk and tape drives. A

significant number of the systems that could

incorporate the ESDI interface will use SCSI.

LSI chips available now make it feasibl e to

implement SCSI on the disk and tape drives.

ESDI advantages are limited primarily to inte-

grators who implement only 51/4-inch products

because it does not offer a migration path to

higher capacity products in the 8-inch or larger

form factors. At this time , the only 5 1/4-inch

drive with an 8-inch drive interface is the SMD

Dart from Applied Information Memories

(AIM). If AIM is successful in marketing the

drives , other manufacturers will follow suit and

adapt SMD to the 51/4-inch form factor.

ESDI thus faces a challenge from the past

(SMD), -a challenge from the present (SCSI) ,

and a challenge from the future (IPI-2). SMD

offers a bridge between 51/4-inch and 8-inch

disks; SCSI offers intelligence; and IPI-2 promis-

es a new era of interface compatibility.

D

I. Dal Allan is the founder of ENDL Inc ., Saratoga, Calif., an independent organization specializing in marketing and engineering consultation on interface issues. He is also publisher of the ENOL Letter, a monthly newsletter on interfaces . He has been involved with computer systems and mass storage ' architecture for over 15 years as an employee of IBM Corp ., Sperry Corp. and Priam Corp. He is vice chairman of the American National Standards Committee X3T9 .3 for peripheral interfaces .

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 828 Medium 829 Low 830

M INI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

The only reason you're not using Pioneer's disk drive tester already.

If you still haven't seen the Pioneer hard disk drive tester in action, it's time
to take a look. And judge for yourself. Beginning with the price tag, every
aspect of the Pioneer QualifierTM is

designed to meet your requirements for pocketbook and performance.

It's the only tester to interface with

any and all SMD drives.

It's the only one with a hefty 20-

megabit per second capability. Even at

triple the price.

It's the only one that can read and

transfer Fujitsu's error map right into

your computer._In seconds.

It's the only one that will format to

your custom specs. And it does it at one

megabyte per second. Over five times

faster than by computer.

It pinpoints your errors to a specific

media sector. And separates the correct-

able from the uncorrectable. So you can

detect and log either set.

California). Rep opportumhernailable

_.i1- Rionaar Have you ever seen a tester that does
all Athnadt?also checks the address mark capability of your drive? And isolates

C!)C!GtCh

Qualifier is a re-'lislered trademark.

CIRCLE NO. 80 ON INQUIRY CARD

We not only do medium-capacity Winchester disk drives extremely well, we do more ofthem than anybody.
Our 51/." drives are now as popular a choice as the 8"drives that served as our entree.
The ability to deliver in large volumes is vital to the OEM customers we cater to. When you order, you expect to get as much as you want exactly wh.en you want it. It had better be there, on time, and it had better be good. Every time.
When you're trying to get as many systems as possible out the door, the last thing in tlie world you need is a rare disk drive.
SW'drives, from 20 to 40 megabytes. 8"drives, from 10 to 85 megabytes.
Quantum Corporation, 1804 McCarthy Boulevard, Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 262-1100, TWX 910-3382203. Eastern Regional Sales Office: Salem, NH (603) 893-2672. Western Regional Sales Office: Santa Clara, CA (408) 980-8555. European Sales Office: Frankfurt,West Germany 069-666-6167.
OUAMUID
Quantum products are distributed in the United States by Arrow Electronics, Inc.
CIRCLE NO. 81 ON INQUIRY CARD

I
Leading the way in
touch technology
Touch technology is leading the way for more people to use computers in more ways than ever before . .. and Carroll Touch has been leading the way in touch technology for over a decade.
By using touch, you interact with your computer by simply touching the screen. With touch input systems, there are no command languages to learn and no typing skills to master.
When touch makes sense - with casual users, or in a harsh environment- we've got the touch. We're putting people in touch with these remarkable systems in applications ranging from industry, education and the military to public information and office automation .
Carroll Touch can lead you to the touch system that's right for your product. We design and manufacture hardware for a variety of standard monitors and terminals as well as custom designs. Get in touch with us to find out more.

Carroll Touch
a subsidiary of AMP Incorporated
In Touch With Technology
P.O. Box 1309 Round Rock, Texas 78680 512 244-3500 Telex 881906

OPERATING SYSTEMS

UNIX EMERGES AS A UNIVERSAL TOOL KIT

With UNIX shells appearing atop proprietary kernels, UNIX itself looks less like an operating system and more like a programming environment

Michael Tucker, Associate Editor

The drive to make UNIX the minicomputer industry's single operating system seems stalled, but Ma Bell's favorite child might still become the standard programming environment. Market analysts and computer system integrators suggest that UNIX will become a kind of "lingua franca"-a universal language providing users with a common software tool kit adaptable to a wide spectrum of machines. They point out that several · leading minicomputer manufacturers have chosen to offer UNIX shells-some licensed from AT&T Information Systems-running concurrently with their proprietary operating systems, avoiding the commercial and technical drawbacks of going with a native (dominant) UNIX alone.
Moreover, software developers claim to have overcome the system degradation that marred the first UNIX implementations. OEMs can now purchase coresident UNIX-like environments that approach the performance of native UNIX systems .
Even its strong advocates seem resigned to UNIX's becoming a guest in many houses rather than the overall .owner. "Frankly, I don't see UNIX so much as an operating system as an operating environment," says Peter Marvit, manager of laboratory services for the market research firm of Yates Ventures, Los Altos , Calif. "In fact, I think the term 'operating system' is becoming obsolete. I know that could get me lynched by some people, but what happens in three years when the specific operating system of

Rising from the ashes of a nearly extinct effort to be the minicomputer industry's only operating system, UNIX may become instead a standard programming environment. Market analysts and computer system developers are suggesting that UNIX will be the computer world's universal language .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

149

OPERATING SYSTEMS

"I think the term 'operating
system' is becoming obsolete," says Peter Marvit. manager of laboratory services for the Yates Ventures market research company.

any one machine becomes much less important than communications between machines? [When communications become] in fact, more important than even the characteristics of individual hardware?"
Marvit continues, "When that happens, I'll want to be able to sit down at my terminal or my phone and access information easily, from one resource to another, without operating systems getting in my way."
Analysts debate UNIX as tool box
Many market analysts seem reticent about UNIX's chances of becoming the prevailing, native operating system. They are, however, more enthusiastic about it as a programmer's basic tool kit that every hardware vendor would offer so that buyers could rapidly transfer programs-and the trained personnel that engenders-from one machine to another.
"UNIX is definitely not becoming the industry standard ," says Damian Rinaldi , manager of the software and systems information program for research company International Data Corp., Framingham, Mass. "Rather, it is becoming an industry standard. In fact, there really hasn't been a commercial demand for it. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people knocking down any vendor's door for UNIX-based systems."
Even Brian Boyle , managing analyst of software for market research company Gnostic Concepts Inc., San Mateo , Calif., praises the operating system with faint damns . 'T m afraid UNIX is a bit like what Winston Churchill said about

democracy. It's a very bad form of operating system, but the others are so much worse. I think it is probably going to be the industry standard, but by defau It ... for the same reason that certain bars in New York get popular because everybody goes there. It's a trendy product."
He notes that most buyers are interested in UNIX's shell (its user interface) rather than its kernel. ''There are good technical reasons for going with UNIX, but unfortunately those aren't the reasons pe'ople are buying it. .. most people see it as an appliance. In the majority of smaller systems sa les where the buyer is usually an end user-and some 60 percent of UNIX sales were in that range last year-people aren't buying UNIX but rather what's on top of UNIX : utilities, commands, software tools."
As a result, he says, "UNIX as a guest operating environment is one of the places we see a growth market. Harris is doing it, IBM is doing it, Apollo is doing it ... they're all running UNIX on top of native operating systems. In some ways. UNIX has become almost.. .a universal bridge between systems, allowing the relatively easy migration of software and programmers from one machine to another."
Marvit "grees. "Look at it from the programmer's point of view. You sit down at a terminal and it looks like UNIX to you. You don 't care that it's actually a virtual machine and there's another operating system under it. Computers are, after all, nothing more than different levels of abstractions. If the top happens to be UNIX, and the middle level some native operating

Software hu111anl··· UNIX

Do your customers long for a UNIX that doesn't drive their non-programming staff stark, raving mad?
Recently , MENU , an online database operation provided by International Software Database Corp ., ran a search of its listings for user-friendly interfaces currently on the market for system integrators wishing to make UNIX a wee bit less terrifying . Its findings include :
· Softshell from Logical Software Inc . Softshell is a full-screen interface to UNIX with which users enter commands through the screen or line by line . This interface will gently and progressively ease the uninitiated user into UNIX with helpful advice and kindly prompts at appropriate moments . Available for all Bell Labs ' UNIX-based systems
· The Menu System from Softest Inc . The Menu System is a user-friendly interface to UNIX that can provide customized menus for individuals or groups . English is the user language . Available for Digital

Equipment Corp .' s PDP-11 , DEC 's VAX , Intel Corp .'s Intel 8086 , and Motorola lnc .'s Motorola 68000 .
· MIMIX:SHELL from Touchstone Software Corp MIMIX SHELL provides UNIX users with an operating environment that blends MS-DOS and UNIX capabilities into one interface. Designed particularl y for naive users , MIMIX :SHELL has a menu-driven simplicity Available for Bell Labs · UNIX-based machines .
· Office Menu Tool Ver-1.0 from Unisource Software Corp . This system allows the user to construct a menu system as a UNIX interface . Menus can be constructed for various levels of user expertise , each with a help screen and unique descriptions . Available for IBM PC/XT and most compatibles
For more information about .MENU , contact The International Software Database Corp , 1520 S. Coll ege Ave , Fort Collins . Colo . 80524

150

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

OPERATING SYSTEMS

HOW HARRIS VIEWS YUi
Harris Corp. envisions VUE as the blending of UNIX and VOS. VUE is a System V environment with Berkeley enhancements over a modified Harris proprietary VOS kernel, and aside a VOS shell.

prietary operating systems. Two common approaches to the problem have been either to run UNIX as an application on the proprietary system or to modify the proprietary kernel so that it supports a UNIX shell and UNIX capabilities in addition to the native shell.
Software developers have made significant progress in overcoming the problems of running UNIX as an application-particularly below the multiuser level. For example , Whitesmiths Ltd., Concord, Mass., offers Co-Idris, a UNIX-compatible e·nvironment that runs as an MS-DOS job on the IBM Corp. PCIXT. Co-Idris provides over 100 utilities, C and Pascal compilers, and the ability to switch between the guest and native operating systems without rebooting.
The president of Whitesmiths, P.J. Plauger, has been associated with UNIX since its beginnings. He bristles at any suggestion that making UNIX an MS-DOS application program somehow tarnishes the operating system. "Does it degrade performance? Obviously it does. The missing qualifier is in the degree. The question should be, 'Does it degrade performance intolerably to run UNIX on top of something else?' I think the answer is no, and thafs shown in that we have grown-ups who earn good money doing just exactly that with Co-Idris."
Vendors prefer coresidence

system, the bottom level is still chips and bits."
Performance is key Issue
The one thing that could make hash of such rosy predictions of the operating system's future as a common language is UNIX implementations' terrible reputation. In the rush to make every machine on the market UNIX-compatible, vendors brought out UNIX emulations that, in certain cases, degraded overall system performance by as much as 50 percent.
"Coresident operating systems were the first response of the mini vendors, " notes Laura Stuart, director of small systems research for the Yankee Group, Boston. "Typically, the performance of the coresident system was less than that of either UNIX or the proprietary system alone. The first company I know of that successfully put UNIX on top of a native operating system was Apollo, and now their AUX concurrent system is roughly equivalent in performance to native UNIX... but not everyone's been that successful. Let's just say that coresident operating environments are something that many vendors would very much like to do ."
Still, developers are confident they can overcome the difficulty of grafting UNIX onto pro-

For minicomputer vendors , the coresident approach i's the clear favorite-partly because of technical considerations ("After all," says one software specialist who prefers not to be named, "there's not that much to it. So you're making a few of your calls look like UNIX calls. So what?") and partly because it least resembles the disastrous UNIX implentations of the early days.
Charles River Data Systems Inc., Natick, Mass., for example, stresses the distinction between imitating UNIX and "implementing" it as a genuine user interface. The company markets a UNIX product known as UN/System V over its own UNOS operating system. Designed specifically for the company's Universe 68 machines (though, technically, capable of running on almost any 32-bit minicomputer), UN/System V uses licensed AT&T code to make the alreadyUNIX-like UNOS indistinguishable from UNIX System V with Berkeley Version 4.2 enhancements. In fact, Charles River offers three shells: Bourne, C and proprietary.
Asked if UN/System V degraded computer performance, Jim Isaak, director of product marketing for Charles River, replies, "No. There is no degradation because there is no emulation. This is an implementation of what amounts to a native system ."
Isaak is also chairman of the IEEE Pl003

"UNIX as a guest operating environment is one of the places we see a growth market," says Dr. Brian Boyle of Gnostic Concepts Inc. "In some ways, UNIX has become almost a universal bridge between systems."

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

153

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Operating Systems Committee and a member of the /usr/group standards committee. Speaking in those roles, he says, "Much of what people call UNIX isn't. They're actually talking about the shell, the tools and so on...The /usr/group committee focuses on that. You don't define a UNIX standard by trying to standardize the kernel , which is perhaps best left to the creative genius of programmers, but rather by standardizing the shell a user actually sees."
Vendors play the UNIX shell game
Other minicomputer vendors who are already marketing or have announced at least one UNIX product running atop or beside a native operating system include Digital Equipment Corp. , Prime Computer Inc. , Harris Corp., Apollo Computer Inc., Stratus Computer Inc. and several others. IBM may have endorsed the approach, at · least on the microcomputer level , with its IBM PC/IX, which runs a UNIX implementation from Interactive Systems Corp. , in addition to native MS-DOS . But IBM remains silent on anything related to UNIX, and a company spokesman says only , " UNIX is an operating system that is offered and supported on selected IBM products."

on·· YUi

TWIN SYSTEMS

VOS APPLICATION

UNIX APPLICATION

VOS JOB CONTROL INTERFACE

UNIX SHELL INTERFACE

VOS RUN-TIME ROUTINES

UNIX RUN-TIME ROUTINES

VOS SYSTEM SERVICES

UNIX SYSTEM SERVICES

VUE Is meant to bean "unapologetlc" offering of both UNIX and the Harris proprietary system. The two shelfs are highly compatible-files may be exchanged freely, and users can switch from one environment to the other without logging
off.

The Harris implementation is designed to bring UNIX to the company's superminicomputers. Offically titled "VUE" (VOS/UNIX en-
vironment), it is a System ·v environment with
Berkeley enhancements over a Harris proprietary virtual operating system (VOS) kernel, alongside a VOS shell. The two shells are highly compatible-files may be exchanged freely and users can switch from one environment to the other without logging off-and so Harris' customers have access to both VOS' real-time capacity and UNIX-based software.
Harris also stresses the difference between implementation and emulation. "There are two key points I want to make," says Charles Maule , · director of product marketing, computer systems divisio.n, Fort Lauderdale, Fla . " First , that VUE

"Does It degrade performance? Obviously it does, " says Whitesmiths president and UNIX guru P.J. Plauger. "The missing qualifier to your question is in the degree. "
is real UNIX; it teally is AT&T System V.. .not a look-alike, not something ported on something else .
"Second, that we wanted to achieve coresidence with our proprietary operating system because we wanted to give our customers both UNIX and VOS . We wanted to break down the wall between the two operating systems . The reason we did it was to make certain we didn't have an apologetic offering in either area. "
Harris is attempting to bring VUE to a very broad range of engineering, scientific, aerospace, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM),-office automation and other markets where Harris superminicomputers might function as the link between workstations and mainframes. It might be an omen of UNIX's eventual fate that the company is also using the " multiuser" system to enter the singleuser market. VUE was officially introduced less than a month before the announcement of new Harris engineering workstations , the Station 10 and the Station 20, which have native UNIX operating systems.
Apollo , of Chelmsford , Mass . , introduced its minicomputer UNIX product, AUX, in 1983 to run with the Apollo proprietary system, AEGIS , over a modified proprietary kernel , now titled Domain. Apollo's early entry into the UNIX shell arena is reflected in AUX's System III-like environment. The company has announced plans to extend and upgrade it. "In our next major software release," says Mark Hatch , AUX product manager , " we'll be providing two more shells , a System V and a Berkeley 4.2 . The user will be able to choose between four separate shells. And, we have complete command transparency. You can pipe utilities between environments in pretty much any combination you'd like.
" Why is it advantageous to have all four

154

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

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DOMAIN HAS T· STRENGTH OF AN AUX

New players lay bets
Prime, Natick, Mass., which had been hanging back in the UNIX market, got into the fray with what may be accurately called a vengeance. The company recently brought in some very tough out-of-town software muscle, Human Computing Resources of Toronto, to help develop a UNIX environment to run over the PRIMOS operating system on Prime's 32-bit and larger machines.
The new UNIX/PRIMOS is expected to be on the market sometime early this year. As of press time, Prime had not made an offical announcement of the product and so declines to reveal the new environment's cost or even its name. The company does, however, reveal that UNIX/ PRIMOS will be a System V environment, licensed from AT&T, with Berkeley enhancements. It will support both the C and Bourne shells and over 160 UNIX commands.

AUX, Apollo Computer's minicomputer UNIX product, runs with the Apollo
proprietary system, AEGIS, over a modified
proprietary kernel titled Domain . The company has announced plans to extend and upgrade AUX.
"I think Prime sees UNIX as an operating system interface standard," says Ross Summers, Prime product manager for UNIX. "In fact, I think that's what will be important about UNIX -that it will be an interface standard."

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

157

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Stratus USF from Stratus Computer, Marlboro, Mass. , was announced just last October. Stratus USF is a System V environment running over the proprietary operating system Stratus VOS . Its particular claim to fame is that Stratus has long maintained an interest in hardwarebased fault-tolerant systems. Application programs can be ported to USF without programmers concerning themselves with the esoterica that software-based, fault-tolerant systems demand. Company officials speculate that Stratus USF may be one of the most fault-tolerant UNIX environments on the market.

And still other vendors are hinting they have UNIX shells in mind for the near future . Sandra Humphrey, UNIX product marketing manager for Modular Computer Systems Inc. (MODCOMP) , Fort Lauderdale , Fla., notes, " MODCOMP is certainly working on something. Our customers are interested in UNIX, but they don't want to give up the real-time capacity of our proprietary operating systems. It's a 1highpriority project for us. "
AT&T's feelings on UNIX as a coresident operating environment are understandably
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158

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

OPERATING SYSTEMS

UNIX systems and planning at AT&T Bell Labs , Murray Hill, N .J ., says, " I think coresident UNIX is neither good nor bad . On small machines , I think you ' re better off going with UNIX as a native system ... but in the minicomputer range , and certainly in the supermini range, it gets a bit fuzzy. I think you can go either way.
" For minicomputer companies, I think it's a very positive way to provide UNIX to existing customers. It's very attractive, if you want to provide UNIX to your embedded users."
As for UNIX's future as a standard tool kit ,

Crume says , "I believe UNIX as a native operating system will always be with us.. .though it is true that UNIX provides far more than an operating system. It provides an operating environment.. .and a consistent environment ."
Native UNIX finds champions
Native UNIX has its defenders outside of AT&T as well (see "An opposing view: Why Perkin-Elmer feels that UNIX will stand alone ," Page \.60 ). Several minicomputer vendors-notably Gould Inc. and Perkin-Elmer Corp.-offer UNIX only as a native operating system.

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MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

159

OPERATING SYSTEMS

All ·····kl ..._,.., ....... 1er fee.. UNIX ............

C.J. Morrie, Perkin-Elmer Corp.
While some companies in the marketplace feel that UNIX is becoming a subset of a proprietary operating system, Perkin-Elmer Corp., Oceanport, N.J., does not. The reasons are myriad, and our customers substantiate this view. Most proprietary operating systems fit in a specific niche that the vendor is filling. Many are aimed at "real-time" and others at "business," even though the vendor refers to the system as general-purpose. UNIX is a great operating system for applications that include software development and on-line interactive processing.
We decided to Implement a pure UNIX port-called XELOS-because it offered significant advantages. It is substantially easier to port the unique UNIX features directly to hardware, and this tends to run faster than a port placed on top of a proprietary operating system. The pure port of UNIX can optimize the attributes of the hardware instead of working through another operating system.

The advantages of buying a system from a vendor with pure UNIX is that, should users need to move to different hardware. they can do that without making major changes to the application or worrying about the vehicle it sits atop. Some of our new customers who have required increased power have ported their applications without hardship because their previous vendors used a generic UNIX port.
Perkin-Elmer's proprietary operating system, OS/32, is oriented to real-time applications with a high degree of data communications, IBM networking and a powerful database manager. Our OS/32 customers have told us that they want the proprietary operating system for their production environment but are serious about using a UNIX system that provides the same languages for software development. UNIX is currently the system of choice at a great many research labs and universities. The result is a growing pool of programmers that are conversant with UNIX. We intend to continue to develop and maintain both 05132 and XELOS.

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"A lot of minicomputer companies see UNIX

as a competitor," says Robert Gintz, manager of

UNIX product marketing for Gould , Fort Lau-

derdale, Fla. , "But we don't. Essentially , we see

it as an addition . It's something we can offer as

well as our own proprietary systems. Customers

can have the computer with the best native

operating system for their unique purposes. "

AT&T's Crume suspects that the discussion of

rival operating systems, with or without UNIX ,

may be a waste of time. "Some people get a bit

angry when I raise the point ," he says, " but the

whole industry's short of programmers. Well ,

maybe we could all pick up a little staff, if we

pulled some programmers off writing all those

new operating systems and put them to writing

application software ."

But whatever UNIX becomes, native operat-

ing system or programmer's standard tool kit , its

future is probably best described by White-

smiths' Plauger. " Way back at the start of all

this," he says , "when we were writing UNIX , I

used to tell people that it was not the answer, but

it was the bottom half of the answer, and that's

even more true today . UNIX will always be with

us in some form. The concepts it introduced are

just too important to be ignored ."

D

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 831 Medium 832 Low 833

MINI -MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

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18001854-7488 .. N<ltionwide 18001 232-1661 .... California 17141 966-1661 . . Corporate

CIRCLE NO. 88 ON INQUIRY CARD

1985 FAR EAST
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TOURS

Two Business and Computer Technology Tours for Manufacturers/Distributors/Reps/Retailers/Buyers/Marketing Executives

March Computer Technology Tour
Date: March 22 to April 6, 1985 Visit: Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong Attend Trade Shows and Exhibitions:
- Japan COMDEX Exhibition - Japan Science and Technology EXPO - Hong Kong lnfotech Show

May Computer Technology Tour
Date: May 19 to June 2, 1985 Visit: Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong Attend Trade Shows and Exhibitions:
- Japan Micro Computer Show - Japan Business Show - Japan Science and Technology EXPO

Program Highlights
· Half day seminar in each country · Business meetings with computer companies in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong · Visit computer showrooms · Visit factories · City and shopping tours · First class hotel accommodations · Direct flights to Japan from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and
New York via Pan Am, Northwest Orient or Japan Airlines · Optional tours to China, Thailand and Singapore
Price
· $2668 from the West Coast, $2925 from Chicago and $2,945 from New York based on double occupancy. Price includes airfare, hotel accommodations, daily American
· breakfast, four dinners, transportation to/from show grounds and airport/hotel transfers, and all business programs as outlined above.

For further information or a detailed brochure, please return coupon or call:

D March Computer Tour

D May Computer Tour

Name:
Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ City: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ State: _ _ _ Zip: _ _ __ Telephone: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

Robert Chang Computer Technology Tours COMMERCE TOURS INT'L, INC. 870 Market Street, Suite 708 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 433·3072 (800) 845-4485 Outside California (800) 321-7271 in California

162

CIRCLE NO. 89 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Only Microware's OS-9 Operating System Covers the Entire 68000 Spectrum
MICROWARE'S OS-9

ROM-BASED CONTROL SYSTEMS

FLOPPY-DISK USED
PERSONAL
COMPUTERS

HAND-HELD COMPUTERS

SMALL SYSTEMS

Is complicated software and expensive hardware VAX and PDP-11 make coordinated Unix/OS-9 software

keeping you back from Unix? Look into OS-9, the development a pleasure.

operating system from Microware that gives 68000 systems

SUPPORT FOR MODULAR SOFTWARE

a Unix-style environment with much less overhead and

· - AN OS-9 EXCLUSIVE

complexity.

Comprehensive support for modular software puts OS-9

OS-9 is versatile, inexpensive, and delivers outstanding a generation ahead of other operating systems. It multiplies

performance on any size system. The OS-9 executive is programmer productivity and memory efficiency. Applica-

much smaller and far more ef-

tion software can be built

ficient than Unix because it's written in fast, compact assembly language, making it ideal for critical real-time applications. OS-9 can run on a broad range of 8 to 32 bit systems based on the 68000 or 6809 family MPUs from ROM-based industrial con· trollers up to large multiuser systems.
OS-9'S OUTSTANDING C COMPILER IS
YOUR BRIDGE 10 UNIX

Key OS-9 Features At A Glance
· Compact (16K) ROMable executive written in assembly language
· User "shell" and complete utility set written in C · C-source code level compatibility with Unix · Full Multitasking/multiuser capabilities · Modular design - extremely easy to adapt, modify, or
expand · Unix-type tree structured file system · Rugged "crash-proof" file structure with record locking ·· Works well with floppy disk or ROM-based systems · Uses hardware or software memory management · High performance C, Pascal, Basic and Cobol compilers

from individually testable software modules including . standard "library" modules. The modular structure lets you customize and recon· figure OS-9 for specific hardware easily and quickly.
A SYSTEM WITH A PROVEN
TRACK RECORD
Once . an underground classic, OS-9 is now a solid hit. Since 1980 OS-9 has been ported to over a hun-

Miaoware's C compiler tech-

dred 6809 and 68000

nology is another OS-9 advantage. The compiler produces systems under license to some of the biggest names in the

extremely fast, compact, and ROMable code. You can easily business. OS-9 has been imbedded in numerous consumer,

develop and port system or application software back and industrial, and OEM products, and is supported .by many

forth to standard Unix systems. Cross-compiler versions for independent software suppliers.

OS-9TM

MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORPORATION 1866 NW 114th Street Des Moines, Iowa 50322 Phone 515-224-1929 Telex 910-520-2535

Microware Japan, Ltd 3-8-9 Baraki, Ichikawa City Chiba 272-01, Japan Phone 0473(28)4493 Telex 299-3122

OS-9 is a trademark of Microware and Motorola. Unix is a trademark of Bell Labs.

CIRCLE NO. 90 ON INQUIRY CARD

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

SUPPLIER ALC'l'ON

OPERATING SYITEll

GENERAL INFORMATION

MINIMUM

MEMORY

LANGUAGES

µP

(BYTES)

SUPPORTED

68000

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, DIBOL, FORTRAN-n , PASCAL

PRICE

AREAS
OF
USE

GENERAL FEATURES

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APPLIED

PC/NOS

INTELLIGENCE

8086/8

256k

· $250FRONT·
END; $650 BACK-END

·· ·

APPLIED SYSTEMS
BOSTON SYSTEMS OFFICE

UMO

CENTRAL DATA
CHARLES RIVER DATA SYSTEMS
COMPUPRO

COM PU PRO COMPUPRO

808618, 68000
8048/ 51 , 8080/5, 64k 8086/ 8, F8, 6800/ 2 / 5/ 9, 1802/ 5, 6502, F8, 68000, Z8ooo, OTHERS Z8001
68000
8085, 808618, 80286
8085/ 8088
8085/8088

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN ASSEMBLER, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, COBOL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, FORTRAN, PASCAL
ADA, ALGOL, ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, LISP. FORTH, FORTRAN, MODULA-2, · PASCAL, PILOT, PL/I, PL/M, SNOBAL LANGUAGES COMPATIBLE WITH CP/M-80 OR CP/ M-86
LANGUAGES COMPATIBLE WITH CP/M-80 OR CP/ M-86

· ··
· ·
·

CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGY

8086, 80 186

256k

ASSEMBLER , BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL

CREATIVE SOWTIONS
DESTEK GROUP

DES RT

68000

MICRO-VAX, MV 4000, MV 8000, Z8ooo, 32016, 68020, 8086/8, 80186/8, 80286

192k

FORTH BASIC, C, PASCAL

$500

· · · · · · ·

DESTEK GROUP
1N

MICRO-VAX, MV 4000, MV 8000, Z8000, 32016, 68020, 808618, 80186/8, OTHERS

ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY MANAGEMENT

DEVICES SUPPORTED

FEATURES

FILE MANAGEMENT

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··· ··· ·· ·· ··

········ ···
· · ·· ···· ······

· RUNS WITH MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M AND CPI M-86, TURNINO THE OS INlO MESSAGE-BASED, MULTI USER LAN OS. ADDS LISTED ATTRIBUTES TO BASE OS CAPABILITIES.

· ·
·· · · ··

·· ·· ·
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

· ·

·

· REAL-TIME UNIX-LIKE OS

WITH MINICOMPUTER-LIKE

RESOURCE·MANAGEMENT ANO

FILE SYSTEM. USER-FRIENDLY

COMMAND LINE INTERPRETER

AND FULL DEVELOPMENT

FEATURES .

· · ·

,.

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

SUPPLIER DESTEK GROUP
DIG ITAL EQUIPMENT DIGITAL EQUIPMENT DIGITAL EQU IPMENT
DIGITAL RESEARCH
DIGITAL RESEARCH

OPERATING SYSTEM

GENERAL INFORMATION

µP
Z80, zaooo.
32016, 68020, 808618, 80186/8, 80286

MINIMUM MEMORY (BYTES)

LANGUAGES SUPPORTED
ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL

PRICE

LSl - 11

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN

LSl-11

ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, FOCAL, FORTRAN

LSl - 11

ASSEMBLER, PASCAL

808618, 80186 8086/8, 80186

ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS
ASSEMBLER. APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS

DIGITAL RESEARCH
DIGITAL RESEARCH
DIGITAL RESEARCH
DIG ITAL RESEARCH
ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
EYRING RESEARCH
FORTH

8080/5, Z80
8080/5, Z80 808618, 80186 8080/5, Z80 808618
8080/5, 8086/8, 6809, 68000, 1802/5, LSl-11

ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS
ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS
ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS
ASSEMBLER, APL, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, OTHERS
c
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, FORTH , FORTRAN , PASCAL
ASSEMBLER FORTH

GOULD AMI

PERSONAL CP/M

S83 (Z80)

64k

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C,

PASCAL, PLM

AREAS
OF
USE

GENERAL FEATURES

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· · · ·

HEMENWAY 166

68000

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, PLM

·
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY MANAGEMENT

,.......
DEVICES SUPPORTED

.-'-:.. ~ATUR~

FILE MANAGEMENT

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·

·

ROM-BASED EXECUTIVE.

r

·

· ···· · ·· ········ ·

I_

~~ ~ · 1~ · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

· · ····· ·

·· ·····

J
EXECUTE ONLY LICENSE,

$30 (100).

i_

~ff~ · · · · · · · · ·.·: · · · · · · · · · · · ·

· · PC/XT WITH 512k

-,

RECOMMENDED. RUNS

CPIM-86 ANO PC-DOS APPLICA-

TIONS CONCURRENTLY.

I-

L.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · PC/XT WITH 512k

RECOMMENDED. RUNS

CP/M-86 AND PC-DOS APPLICA-

TIONS CONCURRENTLY. RETAIL

'=

· · · · · · 1-·f:t~

[~

(":. " :
[;:·,:

·

·

·

·

~.: I'

·

· · · · ·

VERSION OF CONCURRENT DOS.
· CP/M-80 VERSION 3.0; OFFERS -1
RAM MEMORY BANK SWAPPING FOR >64k lOfAL MEMORY.

·

·········· · ·····

· MOST WIDELY USED 8-BIT OS

CURRENTLY ON THE MARKET.

~

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · --.- -.- --.-

,'

[::- <

· · ·········

· · · · ·

~ ~!';

I
I"-\:

.· 9j ·

~ ·

_B

· ·

FOR REAL-TIME TASK USE INCWOING CONTROL SYSTEMS AND COMMUNICATIONS
SUPPORT.

· · ··· ···· · · · ··· · · ·

I

f;,{; !'Ii\
,··<: kL·:')

·k· ~i · · 1·::. I, I

·· ······

.I
OPTIMIZED FOR HIGHPERFORMANCE REALTIME APPLICATIONS WITH INTERACTIVE ON-LINE DEVELOPMENT AIDS AND DATABASE SUPPORT.

I-

· ·

· · · ·· · ·· · · · · · · · · · · ·

AVAILABLE ON-CHIP WITH CPU AND MEMORY INTERFACE

LOGIC AS THE S83 PROCESSOR.

PERSONAL CP/M COMBINES

FEATURES FROM CP/M-80

VERSIONS 2.2 AND 3.0

(CP/ M PLUS).

~ !·'~ ·

·~···· ·

Li~

r-:.,

r~~

..;;..

· · · · · · · ·

!-C

CONFIGURATIONS INCWDE !

DISK- AND ROM-BASED VER-

SIONS. IN USE IN INSTRUMENT

AND PROCES8-CONTROL

SYSTEMS.

.J

I

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

187

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

SUPPLIER HEMENWAY

OPERATING SYSTEM

GENERAL INFORMATION

MINIMUM MEMORY (BYTES)

LANGUAGES SUPPORTED
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, PLM

PRICE

AREAS OF USE

GENERAL FEATURES

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ASSEMBLER , BASIC, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL

HUMAN COMPUTING RESOURCES
HUMAN COMPUTING RESOURCES
HUNTER& READY
HUNTER & READY
HUNTER& READY
HUNTER & READY
HUNTER & READY
HUNTER & READY
HUNTER & READY

ASSEMBLER, C, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER , C, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER , C, PASCAL, PLM
ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL ASSEMBLER , JOVIAL
C, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL, PLM

IBM
INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING
INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING
INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMMING
168

ASSEMBLER , C ASSEMBLER
ASSEMBLER , C, PASCAL ASSEMBLER, C, PASCAL ASSEMBLER , C, PASCAL ASSEMBLER, PL/M ASSEMBLER , PL/M

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY MANAGEMENT

PERIPHERAt IMNAGEMIHT :

DEVICES SUPPORTED

FEATURES

FILE MANAGEMENT

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· · ·

· ·

SILICON-BASED MSP/68000
NUCLEUS AND REAL·TIME

DEBUGGER. MAY USE MSP/

68000 FILE-MANAGEMENT

COMPONENT.

·· ·

········ ·· ···

· · PASSWORDtSECURITY AND SPOOLING ARE OPTIONS. SUPPORTS 128M BYTES OF VIRTUAL MEMORY. RUNS ON MODELS 6, 26 AND MICR0f26.

If

·

[_

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I-

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·· · ·· ·· ·
·· · · ·· · · ·
·

· · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · ·

· · DERIVED FROM AT&T SYSTEM V. AVAILABLE TO OEMs ONLY.
· · SUPPORTS MEMORY PAGING . BASED ON BERKELEY 4.1 BSD UNIX. AVAILABLE TO OEMs ONLY.

,-

=

i
if

·· ···· · ·· ····· ·

· ·

· ·

I

i_

~

·· ··· · ·· ····· ·

'

· ·

· ·

I_

· · · · · · · · · · · ·

· ·

OPTIONAL FMX COMPONENT

SUPPORTS A PC-DOS-

COMPATIBLE FILE SYSTEM

EXTENSIBLE FOR REAL·TIME

APPLICATIONS.

<
3
:..
I~

·
·
·

····· ·
·· ···
· ··

· · · · · ·

· · · · BASED ON INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS CORP IS/ 3, A SYSTEM Ill-BASED UNIX.

·

HAS PRIORITY SCHEDULING,

UNLIMITED TASKS, TASK

COORDINATION AN01NTERRUPT

PROCESSING.

· ·

· · · · · · ·

ALLOWS 32 MEMORY POOLS VIA DYNAMIC MEMORY ALLOCATION. SUPPORTS 16 CPUs.

·

· · · · · · ·

FIRMWARE VERSION OF

MTOS-68k.

·

-I_ t<~:/

·

· ··
· ·

·

· · · · · ·

FIRMWARE GENERATOR

VERSION OF MTOS-68k.

_I

· ·····

HANDLES EIGHT CPUs. HAS DYNAMIC MEMORY ALLOCATION.

· ··

·
'----'

OFFERS PRIORITY SCHEDULING AND 110 DRIVERS.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

169

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

I_

SUPPLIER

OPERATING SYSTEM

INDUSTRIAL

MT0$-86MP

PROGRAMMING

GENERAL INFORMATION

µP 8086/8

MINIMUM MEMORY (BYTES)
10 .Sk

LANGUAGES SUPPORTED
ASSEMBLER, C, PL/M

PRICE $ 11,000

AREAS OF USE

GENERAL FEATURES

(/)
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0
<.awzw..:J
Cl

Izw-
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IL
5
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·

· ·

IN DU STRIAL

MTOS-86 / PC

8086/8

9k

PROG RAMMIN G

ASSEM BLER, C , PL/M

$495

· ·

·

INDUSTRIAL MTOS-86

8086/8

9k

PROGRAMMING RESOURCE

REPORTER

$11 .000

·

INDU STRIAL

MTOS·86UP

8 086 / 8

9k

PROG RAMMING

ASSEMB(ER, C, PL/M

$7000

·

·

I

INFOSPHERE SPHERE

LSl-11 , Z80 , 6809, 16k 68000, 8086/8

SPHERE

$500

·· ·

INTEL INTEL

iRMX51 IRMX86

803 1AH, 80C3 1, 2.2k 8032, 8044, 8051AH, 80C51 , 8052 , 8751H

8086/8, 80186/8 , 13.Sk·

80286

40.Sk

ASM 51, PL/M 51

$3000

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, FORTRAN, PASCAL, PL/M

$6000

·· ·· · · · · · ·

, LANTEC H SYSTEMS
MARK WILLIAMS

µ NETix

8086/8

256k

COHERENT

LS1-11 , z0000, 68000, 8086/8

256k

MI CROSOFT

MS-DOS 2.0

8086/8, 80 186/8, 48k 80286

MICROSOFT

MS-OOS3.0

8086/8, 80186/8, 64k 80286

MI CROSOFT MICROSOFT
MIC ROWARE SYSTEM S MOTOROLA MOTOROLA MOTOROLA

MSX-DOS XENIX
OS-9

Z80
z0000. 68000. 8086/8, 80186/8, 80286
6809,68000

64k 5121<
64 k

RMS08 RMS68K SYSTEMV/68

6809 68000 68000

8k 32k 3IMk

MOTOROLA

VERSADOS

68000

384k

170

ASSEM BLE R, C ASSEMBLER, C

$130

· ·

· I

$500FOR IBMPC

· · ·

· · ·

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C , COBOL, FORTRAN , PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL
BA SIC
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL
BASIC, C , COBOL, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, MPL
ASSEMBLER , PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C

-
-
-
-
$250 $2700 $490 $1695

· ·

·· ·

·
·· ····

··· ···

· ·

·· ·

J

·· ··

ASSE MBLER, C, FORTRAN , PASCAL

$2000· $2345

· · · · · · ·

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY

PERIPHERAL MANAGEMENT

FILE MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT

DEVICES SUPPORTED

FEATURES

VI
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COMMENTS

J

· · ····

·

· · · · ·

·

HANDLES 255 CPUs ON

MULTIBUS. HAS DYNAMIC

I

MEMORY ALLOCATION.

·

·

· · · ·

·

· · · · ·

·

IBM PC VERSION OF MTOS-86.

DEBUGGING TOOL CAPTURES STATUS OF TASKS, SERVICES AND DEVICES.

·

·

· · · · ·

·

· · · ·

·

HANDLES 2048 TASKS. ALLOWS

32 DYNAMICALLY ALLOCATED

MEMORY POOLS.

·· ····

·· · ···

INTEGRATED ROM-BASED DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM FOR

EMBEDDED REAL-TIME

APPLICATIONS.

J

I

·

·

·

TRANSPARENT SUPPORT FOR DISTRIBUTED BITBUS

MICROCONTROLLER SYSTEMS.

· ··· ·······

· · · · · ·
··· ·········

· · ·

····· ·

·· ·····
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·· ··· ·

· · SUPPORTS BUBBLE MEMORY, 8087, 80286 NUMERIC DATA· PROCESSOR EXTENSIONS, 80130 OS EXTENSIONS AND PSCOPE DEBUGGER.

·

PRICE INCLUDES µNETix STAND

ALONE, ONE WINDOW. MOST IBM

PC/XT ADD-ONS SUPPORTED.

· · UNIX-COMPATIBLE SYSTEM. PRICE VARIES WITH HARDWARE. IBM PC PRICE INCLUDES C COMPILER.

·

1.

· · · ·

····· ·

· ·

· · ·

·

· · ALL THE FEATURES OF MS-DOS

2.0 WITH THE ADDITION OF

NETWORKING HOOKS.

[

· · · ··

··· ·

· · ·

·· ······ ·· ·· ····

·

· · UNIX SYSTEM Ill WITH ENHANCEMENTS. AVAILABLE

FROM OEMs.

····· ·

·· · ··

I_

· ··

·

-=-=

J -- -.

· ·

· · ·

·

· ··

·

· · · · · · · · · · ·

· · · · · ·

·

· · UNIX SYSTEM V IMPLEMENTATION.

l

· · ·

· ·· ·· · · ·

·

· ·

· · · · · · USED IN VERSAMODULE SBC OR CUSTOM-DESIGNED HARDWARE

USING 68000.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

17

....-

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

SUPPLIER
MULTI SOLUTIONS

OPERATING SYSTEM
S1

GENERAL INFORMATION

MINIMUM

MEMORY

LANGUAGES

µP

(BYTES)

SUPPORTED

Z80, 68000, 68010 3lc
8080/5, 8086/8

BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL

PRICE
S280l9&0

AREAS OF USE

GENERAL FEATURES

U)
~
...I
IwC
iS
...I C(
IwzwC
Cl

.zw....
2
IL
9
I>ll
Ill Q

w
:E
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.:..
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IC

.....
IC
0
IL IL
::>
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Cz l
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0 0 IC IL
5
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· · · · · · ·

NATIONAL SEMI GENIX CONDUCTOR

32016

512k

NATIONAL SEMI STARPl.EX H Z80A

NA

CONDUCTOR

f'·

PHASE ONE

OASIS-8

Z8o

56k

SYSTEMS

PHASE ONE SYSTEMS

Oll&t·

68000, 8086/8

2S8k

NV PHILIPS
RCA MICROSYSTEMS
RTCS/ REAL-TIME COMPUTER SCIENCE
RYANMcFARLAND

ORM SYSTEM
·~ PC/i RMX

68000, 68010

40k50k

1805

9Clk

8088

256k

~
~j '

9900/5, 68000

128k

S&H COMPUTER SYSTEMS

PRO/TSX-PLUS

DEC PROFESSIONAL 350 (LSl-11 /23)

128k

ASSEMBLER, C,

-

PASCAL

ASSEMBLER, BASIC,

-

FORTRAN, PASCAL

AND OTHERS

·· ···

· ·

· ·

ASSEMBLER , BASIC, COBOL

$850

··· ··

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL

11495

··· ··

c

$15 ,000

····· J

BASIC, PASCAL, PUM

$300

· ·

C, FORTRAN, PASCAL, PU M

$995

·· ··

COBOL

$1700

·

· · ·

BASIC, C, COBOL, DBL, DIBOL, FORTRAN-77, MACR0-11 , PASCAL

$900

·· ····

S&H COMPUTER SYSTEMS

1'11X-PWS

DEC PROFESSIONAL 300SERIES (LSl-11 /23), ALL MICRO-PDP-11 S

12'k

BASIC, C, COBOL, DBL, DIBOL, FORTRAN-77, MACR0-11 , PASCAL

$2000

· · · · · · ·

SGS-ATES
SANTA CRUZ OPERATION

..SUNIX
t,!~~

28002
zaooo. 68000,
808618, 80286

512k
S12k

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C , COBOL, PASCAL
c

$1595

·· ···
·· ···

_I

SMOKE SIGNAL OS9

6809

64k

ASSEMBLER, BASIC,

$200-

··· ··

C , COBOL, PASCAL

$500

",)), ;L
SMOKE SIGNAL
r:i-;r,,'h;"
SMOKE SIGNAL REGULUS

68000, 68008, · I 68010
68000, 68008, 68010

1-. ·1 .:..
256k

ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN , PASCAL

lllDOr UGO
$995

··· ··
··· ··

17 2

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY

Pl.........U. llANAGIMINT

FILE MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT

DEVICES SUPPORTED

FEATURES

Ill
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COllMENTS

· · · · · · ·

·· · · · · ·· ·

-· · ·

·

· · ·

· · · PROVIDES MEMORY PM1NG. ALL VERSIONS CCJMAlmBl.E.

EXTENSIVE UTILITIES; EITHER

MENU OR COMMAND DRIVEN.

IBM PC VERSION, $485.

I~

···· ··· · ·

· · · · ·

·

· · DEMAND-PAGED UNIX SYSTEM

REQUIRES 20M-BYTE DISK.

· ·

····· ·

·

· · · ·

·

·

RUNS ON STARPLEX R

DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM. PRICE

DEPENDS ON CONFIGURATION.

,-

·

·

····· ·· ········· ·

· ··········· ···········

~. t_::.;'.:;;;:! ·i

·· ·· ··· ·· ··

· ·

·

·

UNIX COMPATIBLE.

i_
·

···· · ·· ···

RUNS ON MS2000 WITH3\<HN· DISK DRIVES.

·

·· ·· ··

· · · · · · · ·

· · OS IS A PRECONFIGURED VERSION OF INTEL'S RMX-86 OS FOR THE IBM PC/XT AND COMPATIBLES.

· · · · · · · ··· · ·

· ·

· · · · · · · · SUPPORTS 3780/2780 COMMUNICATIONS. COBOL

COMPILER, $1250.

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

·

ADAPTIVE SCHEDULING ALGORITHM MINIMIZES

TERMINAL RESPONSE. RT-11

COMPATIBLE, IT SUPPORTS UP

TO 4M BYTES OF MEMORY.

VIRTUAL DEBUGGER HAS

SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION

DECODING AND DATA-

WATCH POINT.

· · · · · · · · ·

·

·

·

·· · · · · ·

· · ·

·

· · · ADAPTIVE SCHEDULING ALGORITHM MINIMIZES

TERMINAL RESPONSE. RT· 11

COMPATIBLE, IT SUPPORTS UP

TO 4M BYTES OF MEMORY.

VIRTUAL DEBUGGER HAS

SYMBOLIC INSTRUCTION

DECODING AND DATA-

WATCH POINT.

····· ····· ··
· · · · · · · · ·· · · ·

· · · · · · · · · · ·

·

· · UNIX SYSTEM .

I

· · · · MICROSOFT XENIX SECOND SOURCE .

·

······ ·· ········ ··

·

····· ·· ········ ··

···· ·

· · · · · · · · · · ·

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/Febru ary 1985

173

OPERATING SYSTEMS DIRECTORY

SUPPLIER

OPERATING SYSTEM

SOFTECH

p-SYSTEM

MICROSYSTEM~

SOFTWARE

pSOS-68K

COMPONENTS

GENERAL INFORMATION

MINIMUM

MEMORY

µ. P

(BYTES)

LS1-11 , z00, 6502, 64k 6809, 68000, 8080 8086/8, 9900

LANGUAGES SUPPORTED
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL

68000

4k

NA

PRICE $250
$3000

AREAS OF USE

GENERAL FEATURES

UI
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a: z w
w 0

Iz -
w ::E
11.
9
w
>cw

w
;:::E::
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0 z
Cii
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· ·

·

· · ···

SOFTWARE DYNAMICS

SOOS

SYSTEMS& SOFTWARE

REX-80180

SYSTEMS& SOFTWARE

REX-80186

TECHNICAL SYSTEMS CONSULTANTS

FLEX

TECHNICAL SYSTEMS CONSULTANTS

UNIFLEX

6809 000015, z00 8086, 80186 6800/9
6809, 68000, 68010

56k
2 .5k 4k 20k
512k

ASSEMBLER, BASIC
ASSEMBLER, C, PUM
C, PUM-86
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C , FORTRAN , PASCAL
ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL

$782 $2750 $3750 $250
-

·· ···

· · · · -I

· ·

· ·

· ·

· ·

-I

·· ···

TELESOFT

ROS

68000, 8086

320k576k

ADA, ASSEMBLER

-

· ·

-I

UNISOFT SYSTEMS

UNIPWS+

68000, 80286

2561<

ADA, BASIC , COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL

$750$1500

·· ···

US SOFTWARE MTK UTC/MOSTEK M!OS-80 VENTURCOM VENIX

Z80, 6502, 6800/9, 1k 68000, 8085, 8086

Z80

64k

LSl-11 , 808618, 80186, 80286

128k

VOLITION

MOS

Z80, 68000, 8080, 60k·

8086/8

64k

WHITESMITHS CO-I DR IS

LSl-11 , 68000 , 68010, 8086/8, 80186, 80286

128k

WINTEK

UCSDPASCAL 6800

58k

WINTEK

WIZRD

6800

32k

NA

$250

· ·

·

-I

LANGUAGES COMPATIBLE WITH CP/M
BASIC , C, FORTRAN-77, PASCAL

$325$495
$900$5250

··· ·
· · · · · · ·

ASSEMBLER, MODULA-2, $595

· ·

·

PASCAL

ASSEMBLER , C, PASCAL

· · · · · $695 FOR IBM

·

PCWITHC

AND PASCAL

ASSEMBLER ASSEMBLER, BASIC, C

$675 $495

· ·

· · ·

·

174

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MEMORY MANAGEMENT

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0

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zzCJ
:uCci

~ ztw-
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Cw J
(/)

9aw:
u
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PERIPHERAL MANAGEMENT

DEVICES SUPPORTED

FEATURES

z

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FILE MANAGEMENT

...J <(

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w(/)
u...:J:
0 w
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· · · · ·

COMMENTS

·· ··

· · · · ·

· ·

·

AVAILABLE ON FLOPPY OR IN

PROM . PR ICE IS FOR 5-COPY

LICENSE. UNLIMITED LICENSE

I

IS $12,000.

·

·· ····

· ·

· · · · · ·

· PRICE INCLUDES BASIC

COMPILER AND EDITOR.

·· ····

· ·

·· ·

RUNS ON SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTERS .

· ·····

· ·

···· ··· ······ ·· ·····

AVAILABLE FOR VARIOUS HARDWARE SYSTEMS.

I

· ·

· · · ··

·

· · · · · · · · · MODELED AFTER UNIX BUT

WRITTEN IN ASSEMBLY

LANGUAGE. KERNEL AND

DRIVERS FOR 68000 VERSION

RESIDE IN 45k.

I

· ·

·· ··· · ·· ···· ·

PRICE DEPENDS ON CONFIGURATION.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · UNIX WITH BERKELEY ENHANCEMENTS. PRICES ARE FOR SINGLE-USER AND MULTIUSER VERSIONS, RESPECTIVELY.

· ··

· · · ·· · ·· ·

···· ·

MULTITASKING KERNEL USES AS LITTLE AS 100 BYTES OF MEMORY.
·

·· · ······ ·

··· ·

· · UNIX, WITH BERKELEY ENHANCEMENTS AND REALTIME EXTENSIONS, RUNS ON IBM PC/COMPATIBLES.

· ·

···· · · ·····

PASCAL-LIKE p-COOE SYSTEM. PRICE INCLUDES LANGUAGE COMPILERS, SCREEN EDITOR AND UTILITIES.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · SOURCE UNIX V7, SYSTEM Ill AND V COMPATIBLE. FILE SYSTEM IS V6 COMPATIBLE. SUPPORTS ALL V6 SYSTEM CALLS EXCEPT PTRACE.

I

· ·

· · · · · · · · · ·

·

.. · · · ·
··· ·

RUNS ON SPRINT 68.

MINI -MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

175

Let's hope so. Because your systems depend
on disk drives. So it's important to have a disk drive supplier you can depend on.
And that's where NEC comes in.
At NEC, we're always driving ahead.
With newer drives. Drives with more storage capacity. More reliability. Drives that keep pace with the latest technology.
How do we do it? With more experience. We've been designing disk drives a long time. Way back in 1959, we were one of the first to develop magnetic recording devices. Plus, we've got plenty of other

Our 51/4'' drive gives you more capacity in less space, for less money.
can be sure there will be more. Drive into the future with NEC. You have a lot to look forward to with NEC.

s/

resources. We're an $8 billion company.

To find out more just call 1-800-

And that means we're in this business

343-4418. (In Massachusetts call

for the long run.

617-264-8635.) Or fill out the coupon

· We just doubled the capacity of our 51/411 half-height drives.
No one thought we could improve

below.
And find out why more and more OEM's are saying, "NEC and me~'

on our 51/411 Winchester half-

,-----------------------------

heights. But we did. We doubled

our efforts. And we ended up

doubling

the

tracks

on

our

51

/

4

11 ·

The result?

You guessed it. 25.83MB instead Title _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

of just 12.91MB. If you need other disk drives,
we also make a new 31/z" floppy, 8" Winchesters and floppies, and 9" Winchesters. And you

Company _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Address _ _ _ _ _ _ __ City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

State _ _ _ Zip _ _ _ NEC Information Systems, Inc.

1414 Massachusetts Avenue

Tel (

_ _ _ _ _ Department 1610 Boxborough , MA 01719

CIRCLE NO. 91 ON INQUIRY CARD

NE\N PRODUCTS
SYSTEMS

Eileen Milauskas , Assistant Editor

Multluser systems support Pick 05
· 68000 CPU · Dual-bus architecture · Supports 4 to 40 users The Pick operating system, with a database management system and a procedural query and report-writing language , provides the basis for the models 6801100 APX and 680/200 APX multiuser systems . Operating at IO MHz , the systems ' 68000 CPU achieves zero wait states. The dual-bus architecture-Multibus and the Intel Local Bus Extension (iLBX)-sends data between the CPU and memory at l9M bytes per sec-
ond . Intelligent 1/0 controllers, standard on the 680/200 APX , incorporate an 8088-2 microprocessor with 64K bytes of RAM and 32K bytes of EPROM memory. The 680/ 100 APX supports four to 16 users and comes with 5 l 2K bytes of RAM, one 500Kbyte floppy disk drive and as much as 92M bytes of Win-

chester disk storage. Support-

ing as many as 40 users , the

680/200 APX provides 5 l 2K

bytes to 2M bytes of RAM

and as much as 336M bytes of

hard disk storage. Model 680/

100 APX, $17,000-$30,000;

model 680/200 APX, $35 ,000 .

CIE Systems, 2515 McCabe

Way, P.O . Box 16579 , Irvine ,

Ca lif. 92713-6579 , (714) 660-

1800 .

Circle No 300

lma9l119sydem Interfaces with IBM software
· 15 by 19 by 5 inches · 30-second image scan · 200-dpi horiz~ntal scan
line
The Model 700 word image processing system, based on flat-bed scanner technology , works with proprietary software to capture and process images. It interfaces with IBM PC word-processing and database-management software to create documents that integrate images , text and numbers . Operating as a front-end peripheral with the IBM PC/XT or PC-AT, the system consists of the Model 210 graphic scanner, the Model 111 imaging interface , software and cables. Scanning is initiated from the personal computer and takes less than 30 seconds. Selectable halftone patterns and three contrast levels provide for continuous tone scanning and imaging. Horizontal resolution is 200 dpi ; vertical resolution is selectable at 200, 150 or 100 lpi. Weighing 21 pounds, the unit measures 15 inches by 19 inches by 5 inches . $4,000. Datacopy Corp.,

1215 Terra Bella Ave ., Mountain View, Calif. 94043, (415) 965-7900. Circle No. 301
Supermlnl store·
160 bllllon bytes
· 4G-byte virtual memory
· l2M-byte main memory · 16K-byte write-back
cache Delivering performance as much as 4.2 times greater than the VAX-111780 , the VAX 8600 is expandable to 32 million bytes of main memory and 160 billion bytes of online storage. Supporting 512 communication lines directly, the system runs under the VMS operating system and utilizes emitter-coupled logic (ECL). The processor includes an 8-byte look-ahead instruction buffer and a 16Kbyte write-back · memory cache. The instruction set consists of 16 32-bit registers, 304 basic operations, 32 priority interrupt. levels and nine addressing modes . Virtual memory address space is 4G bytes . An entry- level system includes the CPU; integrated floating-point accelerator; 12M bytes of main memory; an integrated controller and adapters for 104 asynchronous communications lines , synchronous lines and line printer ports ; HSC50 mass storage server and star cou-

pier; a 456M-byte RA81 disk drive ; TA78 magnetic tape transport; and console terminal. Prices start at $576 ,000 . Digital Equipment Corp., 146 Main St., Maynard, Mass . 01754, (617) 897-5111.
Circle No. 302
Converts hanl copy to data.....
· Scans, vectorizes documents
· Reduces vectors to primitives
· Divides drawings into layers
Model 4991 SI Graphics Input Workstation transforms existing maps and engineering drawings into CAD database files. After scanning, interactive graphics structuring software executes n-point registration and arc/line/text/symbol replacement operations. Other editing capabilities include eliminating smudges, adding detail or dimension information and layering drawings for separate storage, display and manipulation. Host interfacing software supports IBM's CADAM, Computervision's CADDS 4X and Tektronix's PLOT 10 TekniCAD. $150 ,000. Tektronix Inc., P.O . Box 500, Beaverton, Ore . 97077, (503) 644-0161.
Circle No 303

178

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

FIVE AGAINST ONE
It Hardly Seems Fair

Five against one is just as unfair in a busi-

ness environment as it is on court. IBC's Multi-Star I;rM five

ausbearsbkuest-ball'.....-~:;;;a;i-,.

iness computer-priced as low as a single

user personal computer

with all of the attributes of a

true multi-user system

has the full court

advantage.

The Multi-Star isn't

just another single

user personal com-

puter that can be

"Networked" to

pretend you

have multi-

user capabil-

ities. It is a

true multi-user

business sys-

tem like the

high priced

multi-user minicomputers of

old. And, a low

cost "Dumb" CRT

terminal is all that

you need for each

user.

Sophisticated

multi-user

software with

big system features such as

record locking, user account-

ing, privilege levels, and

system security provide

capabilities well beyond

those available on any personal computer.

There are hundreds of multi-user business accounting software applications
available right now as well as word processing, spread sheet, and data
base software.
The Multi-Star I is the smallest member of the IBC multi-user family. Software compatible systems with up to 16 users and 167 megabytes of hard disk storage are also available.
IBC has been manufacturing high-
performance, multi-user microcomputers since 1979. Their reputation has been built on quality,
performance, and reliability. To
find out more about the multi-user business
systems that is priced like a
single user personal
computer, please call
or write:
I8C
Integrated Business Computers 21621 Nordhoff Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818) 882-9007
Telex No. 215349

CIRCLE NO. 92 ON INQUIRY CARD

NEW PRODUCTS
DISK/TAPE

Winchester drive upgrade· PC to XT
· SM-bps data transfer rate
· 8S-msec average access time
· !OM-byte. storage capacity
Equipped with a controllc;:r, utility software and a halfheight, S1kinch Winchester disk drive, the DiskSystem increases the capability of an IBM PC or PC compatible to that of an IBM/XT when using DOS 2.0. Storing lOM bytes. the drive transfers data

at SM bps . Track-to-track ac-

cess time is 18 msecs; average

access time is 8S msecs . With

a faceplate, the drive fits a

standard S 1/4-inch slot.

$I ,09S . 12 Interface Inc.,

21101 Osborne St., C:anoga

Park. Calif. 91304. (818) 341-

7914.

Circle No 304

Diak drive employ· DC drive motor
· l 64K-byte storage capacity
· 48-tpi track density · S,S36-bpi recording
density
Storing I64K bytes and compatible with Apple microcom pu te rs , the S 1/4-inch FD-100 minifloppy disk drive utilizes a direct DC drive motor to reduce noise. The

single-sided , double-density drive employs Group Code Recording (GCR). Track density is 48 tpi and recording density is S,536 bpi. Track-totrack access time is six msecs; data transfer rate is 2SOK bytes per second . The Track0-sensor feature prevents disk damage by reducing friction inside the mechanism. The FD- I00 is only 46mm thick and weighs 4.29 pounds. $90, quantity 100. Multitech Industrial Corp., 9FL. 266, Sung Chiang Road, Taipei 104, Taiwan, Republic of China . (02) SSl-1101.
Circle No 305

3 1/2·IMh drlvea suit HP computers
· 48S-msec average access time
· SOOK-bps data transfer rate
· Double-sided, doubledensity
Providing mass storage options for HP personal computers are three double-sided , double-density, 31/2-inch microfloppy disk drives . The single-drive 9 I22S , offers 71 OK bytes of formatted storage capacity; the dual-drive 9122D, stores 1.4M bytes and comes as standard equipment on the HP Touchscreen Personal Computer. The 9114A , a portable , battery-powered 31/2-inch disk drive , holds 710K bytes and transfers data between the Portable and the Touchscreen Personal Com-

NEW PRODUCTS
DISK/TAPE

puter. All three models read , write and format in a singlesided format. Average access time is 48S msecs ; the average data transfer rate for the three drives is SOOK bps . $79S, model 9114A; $96S , model 9122S; $1 ,270 , model 91220. Hewlett-Packard Co., 3000 Hanover St., Palo Alto, Calif. 94304. Circle No 306
Haff·hel9ht drive operates at two speeds
· 96-tpi track density · SOOK-, 2SOK-bps data
transfer rates · Brushless direct-drive
motor
Giving systems designers the benefit of two standard formats in one package, the

YD-380-1714 51/4-inch disk drive's dual-speed feature allows operation with either the current standard format for S1/4-inch media or the new high-capacity S1/4-inch media. The drive reads and writes on either the standard IM-byte, double-density , double-track format or the new high-capacity I .6M-byte unformatted/ 1.2M -byte formatted disk. Data transfer rates are SOOK and 2SOK bps ; track density is 96 tpi. As many as four drives can be daisy chained. A read and write head design , steel

belt head positioning and a brushless direct-drive motor provide a 12,000-POH mean time between failures (MTBF) . $200 , OEM quantities. C. Itoh Electronics Inc., S30 I Beethoven St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90066 , (213) 3066700.
Circle No 307
Disk drive features closed-loop ..rvo
· 20M-byte storage capacity
· 9,036 bpi · 8S-msec average access
time
Simplifying system upgrades by utilizing the STS06/ 412 interface , the model 724 S1/4-inch half-height Winchester disk drive features a

closed-loop servo positioning system. With a track density of 720 tpi, the drive stores" 20M bytes. With a recording density of 9,036 bpi, the drive achieves an 8S-msec average access time and a SM-bps transfer rate. The printed circuit board includes four LSI devices and two 8-bit microprocessors. The read/write head is positioned with a stepper motor/band actuator system . $SOO, OEM quantities . ~hugart Corp. , 47S Oakmead Pkwy .Sunnyvale. Calif. 94086 (408) "/33-0100. Circle No 308

NEW PRODUCTS
PRINTERS

Desktop laser printer produces 300·dpi resolution

· Prints eight ppm · 150-dpi business
graphics · 16 resident fonts
Working with both singleand multiuser systems, the low-cost LN03 desktop laser printer combines the features of a line printer , a dot-matrix printer and a daisywheel. Printing 8 ppm or 333 cps, the unit is I0 times faster than conventional printers . It generates 300-dpi resolution in text mode, twice that of average dot-matrix printers, and 150-dpi resolution for business graphics .
The printer's input cassette and output tray can each hold up to 250 sheets of standard letter-size paper. This is 21/2 times the input capacity of most laser printers and 12 times the capacity of most output systems. The unit prints on standard 81/2-by-l Iinch paper , European Standard A4 paper, 16- to 24pound paper and tranparencies.
Sixteen resident fonts permit two modes; the vertically aligned portrait mode, with as many as 120 cpl (characters per line) and the horizontal landscape mode, with a maxi-

The LN03 hardcopy laser printer for personal computers and multiuser systems prints eight ppm, a rate ten times faster than conventional printers .

mum of 150 cpl. Optional fonts are available in precoded ROM cartridges or in host media that are downlineloadable to I28K-byte RAM cartridges offering 24 fonts per page.
Accommodating a monthly print volume of 3,500 pages, the non-impact printer requires access from only two sides for maintenance . Replaceable components, international control panel symbols and explanatory flip

cards mounted on the printer are provided .
Driven by an onboard controller, the laser printer is furnished with a serial interface with a selectable baud rate to 19.2K. It is compatible with applications written for the proprietary LQP02 letterquality printer, the LA 100 pi::inter and the LNOI laser printer. $4, 195 . Digital Equipment Corp., 146 Main St., Maynard. Mass . 01754, (617) 897-5111. Circle No 309

Electrostatlc plotters produce 508 dpl
· .25-ips to . 1-ips plot speed
· 24-. 36- and 44-inch plot widths
· Sensor capabilities
The 9800 series of electrostatic plotter~ operates at 508 dpi. Plot speed for the 24-inch model is 0.25 ips; for the 36-

inch model, . 15 ips and for the 44-inch model, 0. I ips.

Sensor capabilities monitor paper, toner and concentrate levels; concentrate adjustment control is automatic. A built-in paper media cutter and self-diagnostics are standard. An optional Graphware 2400 dedicated element-processor which accepts Virtual Device Metafile graphics data for raster-image generation is optional. The plotters and Graphware can be interfaced to superminicomputers and

mainframes. $44,485, 24-inch model ; $61,875, 36-inch model; $79,875, 44-inch model. Benson Inc., 2690 Orchard Park Way, P.O . Box 32059 . San Jose . Calif. 951522059, (408) 945-1000.
Circle No 310
Multlmode printer offers software compatlblllty
· 371/2 cps in letter-quality mode
· 75 cps in near-letterquality mode
· 180 or 150 cps in dataprocessing mode
Compatible with Anadex, Epson and DEC escape codes, the model 7035 multimode printer stores as much as 43 letter-quality fonts online. The printer operates at 37112 cps in letter-quality , 75 cps in near-letter-quality and 180 or 150 cps in data-processing mode. It supports 32 ASCII code-selectable linedrawing graphics characters in the 150-cps and 180-cps speeds. In the graphics mode, buffer capacity is 4. 7K bytes standard, expandable to 12. 7K bytes in 2K-byte increments. Dot-addressable graphics produce 72-by-72 and 144-by-144 bit-mapped dpi. Courier and Trend word processing fonts and eight international character sets are standard. Standard features include bar-code capability, compressed pitch at 10, 12, 13.3, 15 and 17.1 cpi; horizontal and vertical tabs from one to 255 positions; vertical line spacing; front and bottom paper feed; adjustable tractor feed from three to 151/2 inches and Centronics parallel and RS232C serial interfaces. $1,695. Qantex Printer Products, North Atlantic Industries Inc., 60 Plant Ave., Hauppage , N. Y. 11788, (516) 582-6060 or (800) 645-5292. Circle No 311

182

MIN I-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

At CalComp, we believe a digitizer

Ergonomics even extend to accu-

should be easy to use. For everyone. In

rate operation of the unit. Here,

every application.

human engineering combines with

As a result, our new 9100 features

the patented electromagnetic

a special ergonomic design ideal for

technology to deliver ±.005" accuracy

both left- and right-handed opera-

with a resolution of 1000 lines/inch.

tion. The cursor's slim body promotes

Performance is verified with automated

accurate cross hair placement, even at

testing, detailed in an accuracy certi-

severe operating angles. And the signal

fication printout and brochure shipped with

cable exits the cursor behind your hand,

every unit.

away from the work area.

CalComp innovation puts new digitizing

Tu keep all hands happy, we've con-

productivity in your hands. The new

cealed the 9100 digitizer's control elec-

9100 digitizer is available in a range of table

tronics in the frame. And table edges are

sizes, with 4- and 16-push-button cursors, pens,

smooth so they'll never snag clothing.

Thenew9100digitizer. and a wide choice of options. For details

We've also included a handy accessory tray to keep

call toll-free 1-800-CALCOMP, ext. 156. Or

digitizing tools in easy reach and a pen /cursor holder that can be mounted anywhere on the 9100's uniquely
constructed frame.

25 CALCQM P write CalComp, 2411 W. La Palma Ave., P.O. Box 3250,
Anaheim, CA 92803 .

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/Feb ruary 1985

19s919aq A Sanders Company

CIRCLE NO. 94 ON INQUIR Y CARD

183

NEW PRODUCTS
TERMINALS

Dlaplay termlnal emulates IBM 3101
· 14-inch screen · 25 lines of 80 or 132
characters · DEC VTIOO , HP
2622A emulation
Meeting data entry requirements in multiuser environments , the CIE-7100 display terminal emulates the Digital Equipment Corp. VTIOO and HP2622A terminals and terminals recommended as multiuser add-ons to the IBM PC-AT. Replacing the IBM 3101 display terminal , the CIE-7100 can be used as a data entry device with the proprietary family of multiuser UNIXor Pick-based computers. The terminal works with the IBM ASCII protocol converter as well . Features include a 14-inch, non-glare screen that displays 25 lines of 80 or 132 characters and a bidirectional RS232C port. CIE Systems Inc., 2505 McCabe Way , Irvine , Calif. 92715 , (714) 660-1421.
Circle No 312
Termlnals emulate Tektronix 4010, 4014
· 665-by-288-pixel resolution
· 4,096-by-4 ,096 addressing
· 14-inch , 132-column di splay

The Freedom 240 Graph-

ics/ANSI Video Display

Terminal and the Freedom

210 Graphics/ASCII Video

Display Terminal both offer

14-inch, 132-column alpha-

numeric displays with 665-

by-288-pixel resolution and

4,096-by-4,096 address-

ability. Both emulate the

Tektronix Inc . 4010 and

4014 graphics terminals .

The Freedom 240 is compat-

ible with the Digital Equip-

ment Corp. VT220 and

VTIOO terminals; the Free-

dom 210 emulates the Tele-

Video Systems Inc. 950 and

ADM 31 terminals. $1 ,395 ,

model 240; $1,295, model

210 . Liberty Electronics,

625 Third St. , San Francis-

co, Calif. 94107 , (415) 543-

7000 .

Circle No 313

Termlnal emulates ASCII termlnals
· 14-inch, 132-column display
· 32 function keys · One page of screen
memory
Compatible with the Wyse Technology 50 , TeleVideo Systems Inc . models 925 and 910, Lear Siegler Inc. models ADM 3A and 5 and the ADDS Viewpoint , the Link 25 provides 32 programmable function keys and non-volatile storage capability . Its 14-inch screen displays 132 columns . One

page of screen memory is

standard. Reduced intensity

is non-embedded; 'reverse

video , underline, blink and

blank are embedded attri-

butes. The unit offers a

green or amber screen and

performs full editing ,

smooth or jump scroll , hori-

zontal split screen , screen

saver and business graphics

functions . The keyboard is

DIN-standard . $599. Link

Technologies Inc., 2260 Par-

agon Drive, San Jose, Calif.

95131, (408) 943-0142/-

0143.

Circle No 314

Converts IBM PC to multiuser system
· 20 function keys · 25-line display · IBM PC character set
Converting IBM Corp. PC/XT ,-AT or other compatibles into a timesharing, . multitasking and multiuser computer system, the KT-7/PC data display terminal offers a 256 IBM PC character set including graphics characters . Features include a green , nonglare , 12-inch screen with a 25-line scrollable and directly addressable display; an attribute-selectable user line; a low-profile IBM PC keyboard with three adjustable heights and a tilt-andswivel monitor ; a bidirec-

tional printer port and 20 programmable function keys stored in non-volatile memory . $895. Kimtron Corp., 2225-I Martin Ave., Santa Clara , Calif. 95050, (408) 727-1510. Circle No 315
VDT compatllale
with TeleVldeo
termlnals
· 16 function keys · 424 bytes of memory · Bidirectional printer
port
Compatible with TeleVideo System Inc.'s 925 , 950 , 912 and 920 terminals, the ADM 12plus video display terminal offers a detached , low-profile DIN standard keyboard with 16 function keys , shiftable to p'erform 32 programmable , non-volatile functions. A variable-format display memory provides two 80column-by-24-line standard pages , an 80-column-by-48line-long page or a 158-column-by-24-line-wide page . Editing capabilities include variable-speed smooth , vertical and horizontal scrolling and five video attributes: underlining , reverse video , reduced intensity, blinking and blanking. The baud rate on the bidirectional printer port is independently set. Lear Siegler Inc., Data Products Division , 901 E . Ball Road , Anaheim , Cali f. 92805, (714) 778-3500.
Circle No 316

184

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

II Not long ago, PC Magazine called MOBS Ill "The most complete and flexible data base management system available for microcomputers." That's a powerful statement. But then, MOBS Ill is an amazingly powerful software package. So powerful,in fact, that it lets you build mainframe-quality application systems on your micro or mini. MOBS Ill is not for beginners. It's for application developers with large data bases or complex data interrelationships who want to define data base structures in the most natural way-without resorting to redundancy or artificial constructs. It's for professionals who can appreciate its extensive data security and integrity features, transaction logging, ad hoc r query and report writing capability and its ability to serve multiple simultaneous users. And if you want the power and the glory that only the world's most advanced data management system can provide, MOBS 111 is for you. For information on MOBS Ill and our professional consulting services, write or call Micro Data Base Systems, Inc., MOBS/Application Development Products, 85 West Algonquin Road, Suite 400, Arlington Heights, IL 60005. (800) 323-3629, or (312) 981-9200. MDBS III. ABSOLUTE POWER.
WE'LL GIVE YOU THE POWER.
YOU TAKE THE GLORY.

. .

..

,. · . · . ,

I .. "

CIRCLE NO. 95 ON INQUIRY CARD

NEW PRODUCTS
DATACOMM

Multlplex:er works with DIC Ul·ft
· Eight or 16 asynchronous serial lines
· DEC DHI 1 software compatible
· Programmable data rates to 38.4K bps
Achieving a 38.4K-bps data rate . the Model 309 8- or 16channel asynchronous multiplexer uses an EIA RS232C or CCITT V.24 interface to link the DEC LSI-11 Q-bus to multiple local or remote terminals and peripherals . Packaged on a single dual-height Q-bus module , Model 309 is compatible with all DEC DH 11 software and with Q-bus extended 22-bit addressing and four-level vector interrupt structures. The 192character FIFO receiver buffer and the on-board OMA controller reduces CPU overhead . The receiver-buffer fill level required to generate a receiver interrupt is software programmable. The transmitter buffer areas can hold 64K bytes of data and can be relocated over the address space. The board operates in halfduplex or full-duplex mode and measures 5.2 inches by 8.9 inches . $995, 8-bit model ; $1,595, 16-bit model. Grant Technology Systems Corp., 11 Summer St . , Chelmsford, Mass. 01824, (617) 256-8881.
Circle No 317
Moclem operates at 2,400 bps
· Smartmodem 1200 compatibility
· Stores six 37-digit numbers
· Links to dial-up, dedicated lines

The autodial/auto-answer MT224AD modem conforms to the CCITT V.22 bis standard at 2,400 bps and to the Bell 2I2A and 1031113 standards at 1,200 and 300 bps. By utilizing the Haye s Smartmodem 1200 command, the modem becomes compatible with most microcomputer communications software. It stores six 37-digit telephone numbers in battery-backed memory and detects busy or dial tones. Additional commands allow the unit to redial a busy number until it connects , or to link to alternate numbers . The modem operates in synchronous or asynchronous modes and connects to dial-up or dedicated telephone lines. Features include 10 status LEDs, analog , digital and remote digital loopback test modes and free online time for CompuServe , NewsNet , The Source and other information retrieval services . $949. Multi-Tech Systems Inc., 82 Second Ave . S.E .. New Brighton, Minn. 55112. (612) 631-3550.
Circle No 318
Interface unit llnks IBM 3270,
non-IBM hosts
· Supports 7- or 8-bit ASCII modes
· 110 bps to 19.2K bps · VTIOO, ADM-3A emu-
lation Allowing IBM 3270 terminal users to toggle between IBM and non-IBM host sessions, the Matchmaker 2000 interface unit makes minicomputers, personal computers, microcomputers , PBXes , public packet-switching networks, information and elec-

tronic mail services accessible to 3270 users . It resides between an IBM 3178, 3179 , 3180, 3278 or 3279 terminal and the IBM 3274 or 3276 cluster controller. In 3270 mode it is transparent; an RS232C cable links the unit directly, or via modem, to the ASCII device. It supports 7or 8-bit ASCII character modes to allow interfacing at 110 bps to 19.2K bps . The unit furnishes VTlOO and ADM-3A terminal emulation for ASCII compatibility. Weighing three pounds, the unit measures 6 1/ 2 inches by 9 1/ 2 inches by 11/ 2 inches . $695 . Manufacturing Technologies Inc., System Division , 6481 Global Drive , Cypress, Calif. 90630 , (714) 220-1004.
Circle No 319
Moclem offers trlple compatlltlllty
· 300 or 1,200 bps · Originate , answer
modes · 20-number directory The Dia1Net3000 Model 3012T+ autodialing modem provides three-way compatibility-Bell 212A or Racal Vadic 3400 at I ,200 bps or Bell 103 at 300 bps-in both originate and answer mode . The unit automatically sets for compatibility with a calling modem and automatically sets speed and compatibility mode to match when dialing the remote modem. It operates under either computer or terminal control and the autodialer supports pulse and tone dialing. Numbers within the 20-number directory can be

linked so that the modem dials alternate numbers in a specified sequence . $795 , standalone unit; $745 , card module . Micom Systems Inc., 20151 Nordhoff St ., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311 , (213) 998-8844.
Circle No 32.0

Bridge boosts data-transfer
rate·

· 1,000-packet-per-sec-

ond transfers

· Interconnects broad-

band channels

· Transparent packet

routing

Increasing data transfer

rates between networks by

more than 600 percent over

the previous version , the Net/

One Local Bridge provides

store and forward intercon-

nection of multiple Net/One

networks in the same geo-

graphic location. The bridge

functions as a packet-switch-

ing node between Ethernet/

IEEE 802 baseband , fiber-op-

tic baseband and broadband

systems and executes virtual

circuit and datagram packet

transfers at 1,000 packets per second . It supports downl-

oading of software configura-

tion information by a single

network management console

(NMC) into network inter-

face units (NIUs) throughout

the internet. Sixteen local

bridges can be supported on

an internet. Transparent and

dynamic packet routing pro-

vide automatic adaptation to

topology changes . $9 ,850.

Ungermann-Bass Inc., 2560

Mission College Blvd., Santa

Clara, Calif. 95050, (408) 496-

0 I 11 .

Circle No 32.1

186

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

If the process of trying to reach the decision makers in the computer industry is overwhelming you with media data, start relaxing . You do not have to buy space in every computer magazine published. Cahners Publishing has developed a sophisticated controlled circulation system for Its three computer publications which delivers the largest audience of documented buyers of computers and related products in business and industry. Cahners computer publications guarantee you documented purchasing power, heavy passalong readership and over one million readers each month with minimum duplication. Take control of your advertising dollars and reach the decision makers.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Sales Offices Atlanta, (404) 955-6500; Boston, (617) 536-7780 Cherry Hill, NJ, (609) 751-0170; Chicago, (312) 635-8800; Dallas, (214) 980-0318; Denver, (303) 388-4511; Irvine, (714) 851-9422; Los Angeles, (213) 826-5818; New York, (212) 686-0555; San Jose, (408) 243-8838; Wayne, PA, (215) 293-1212.
CIRCLE NO. 96 ON INQUIRY CARD

Mini-Micro Systems

· -

The leading magazine for computer pro-

fessionals in the value-added market who

integrate, configure and implement mini-

micro computers and computer-based

systems.

Business Computer Systems The magazine for the buyers of business computers, peripherals, software, supplies and services for business applications-The Business Computer Management Team .

PC Products The product review and evaluation magazine for the business users of IBM PC's and compatible computers.

Cahners Publishing Company
D Publishers of 32 specialized business
magazines in Building & Construction D Electronics & Computers D Foodservice
D Manufacturing 0 Medical/Health Care D

187

NEW PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE

Software creates networks for Software

three·operating systems

tranden
VAX clata

· Exchanges electronic mail
· Transmits data at 19.2K baud
· Supports Bell, Hayes modems
With Connectables Network software, previously isolated computers, including IBM Corp. PCs and compatibles. UN IX-based systems and the Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh, can share information . Structured as three packages-PCworks for IBM PCs, UniHost for UNIX- and XENIX-based computers and MacLine for the Macintosh computer-the software enables the computers to exchange electronic mail , transfer files or use the disk or printer attached to the UNIX system to print reports and backup files .
Used alone, the PCworks software connects the IBM PC and compatibles to various computers and information services; the MacLine software similarly connects a Macintosh computer. With MacLine's graphics terminal emulator. the Macintosh doubles as an interface to graphics applications implemented on other computers. Both packages can be used to dial up and access an information system that supports an ANSI, TTY or Digital Equipment Corp . VTIOO or VT52 terminal. PCworks transmits data at 9 ,600 baud ; MacLine transmits at 19.2K baud .
Both · software packages support Bell 103 and 212A modems and the Hayes Microcomputer Products Smartmodem 1200 with auto-dial support. In addition, MacLine supports the Apple · modem 300/1200 with autodial support. PCworks and MacLine require an RS232C

· Audit trail capability · Error detection/correc-
tion · Access control

· I,
~·~
cable and I28K bytes of memory on an IBM PC or PCcompatible and a Macintosh computer. respectively . PCworks runs on a DOS 2.0 operating system with 280K bytes of disk storage and requires an asynchronous adapter.
Acting as a command server for t he PCworks and MacLine packages, UniHost software enables the UNIX system to respond to filetransfer, mail and remote printing requests from con-

The Connectables software builds a network out of the IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and UNIX-based systems .
nected PC or Macintosh workstations and act as an interface among the three systems. UniHost supports 9.600-baud transmission speeds and standard dial-in modems and requires 30K to 60K bytes of disk memory space, a seria l log-in port and an RS232C interface cable . $195, PCworks or MacLine; $295, UniHost. Touchstone Software Corp., Suite 207, 909 Electric Ave .. Seal Beach. Calif. 90740. (213) 598-7746. Circle No 322

Providing information access and transfer in a controlled environment , The VAX: Information Server transfers data between DEC VAX minicomputers and various personal computers. It runs as an application on the VAX VMS operating system, Releases 3.0 and above . Communicating over asynchronous lines, it supports ASCII terminal emulation and embeds in the application programs, making the personal computer a front-end processor. The software suits IBM PC and PC compatibles running PC-DOS; DEC Rainbows running MS-DOS and CP/M-86; and Lee Data personal computers running MS-DOS operating systems. Features include access control , error detection and correction and audit trail capability. $12,000. Linkware Corp., 77 Rumford Ave . . Waltham, Mass. 02154. (617) 894-9330.
Circle No 323

ANSWERS TO JANUARY'S PUZZLES

188

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

It's called Cyclone~"' A high-capacity, highreliability Winchester/tape storage system that's priced to blow your socks off.
For starters, Cyclone's 5Y4" Winchester packs formatted capacities from 36 up to 120 megabytes.
So you can use your Q-Bus based system (PD~-11/23 , ll/73 , MICRO/PDP-11 and MicroVAX~) for applications that require large amounts ofstorage. At the lowest cost per megabyte.
But, ofcourse, we offer more than the highest capacity for the lowest price in DEC-compatible storage.
For instance, Cyclone has faster throughput. And access times are twice as fast as·an RL02 's.

It's compatible with DEC's Digital Storage Architecture (DSA). And its Y4-inch start/stop tape drive emulates DEC's TSV05/TS11.
For your commercial applications, there's the tabletop StacPacTM- in addition to the rackmount version that's popular with the industrial and scientific users.
And no matter what kind ofsystem you're building, Cyclone features a comprehensive selfdiagnostic system, Customer Service Hotline and Rapid Module Exchange'"' program.
To see what Cyclone can do for your Q-Bus system, call the Qualogy sales office nearest you. And hang on to your socks.

QUA LOGY
Formerly Data Systems Design

Region al Sales Offic es: Eastern Regional Sales: Norwood. MA {6171769-7620. Southcentral Regiona l Sales: Dall as. TX 12141980-4884 . Northcentral Regional Sal es: Chicago. I L

(3 12} 920-0444. Western Regio n al Sales : Santa Clara. CA (408} 727-3 163 . Dlsllibutors Worldwide . Co rporate Headquarters : 2241 Lundy Av enue. San Jose. CA 95 131

Literature Ho tline : 800-556-1234 ext. 86: In California 800-441-2345 ext. 86.

TM Cyclone. StacPaca n d Rapid M o d u le Exch ange are trademarksofQual ogy. ln c.4'QEC, PDP. and VAX are registered trademark s of Digi ta l Equ i pmen t Corporation© 1984 Q ualogy. In c.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 97 ON INQUIRY CARD

189

NEW PRODUCTS
SUBASSEMBLIES

~

¥

........

1111· 488 Interface
has software

packa9e

· IBM/XT, -AT, PC compatible
· 14 maskable interrupts · SK-by-S EPROM
The PC-4SS IEEE-4SS interface for the IBM/XT, -AT, PC and compatible computers comes packaged with software that allows high-level

languages to support instrumentation, printing and plotting applications. . The software allows standard word processing and spreadsheet programs to interface with IEEE-4SS peripherals. Application programs or compilers can use the 640K-byte memory space; an SK-by-S EPROM is standard. Three programmable OMA modes, single, demand, or burst, are supported. Independent of DOS, command and data transfer routines provide transportability to other operating systems. The memory-mapped interface furnishes programmable hardware interrupts that support 14 interrupt conditions at six interrupt priority levels . The unit transmits and receives 64K-byte arrays at 300K bytes per second. $395. Capital Equipment

Corp., 10 Evergreen Ave., Burlington, Mass . OIS03, (617) 273-1S1 S.
Circle No 324
Keyboard reco9nlzes voice commands
· IBM PC-, XT-compatible
· SK bytes of ROM · 16K bytes of static
RAM The lntroVoice Ill intelligent voice/keyboard for the

IBM PC or /XT recognizes words or short phrases and allows voice and keyboard data input concurrently. Operating independent of the operating system in recognition mode , the keyboard allows an unlimited vocabulary size in subsets of 100 with the utility software written in PC-DOS and operable with MS-DOS. The Utility Program creates, edits, trains and tests a vocabulary and activates recognition. A correction feature enables on-line editing of text . Hardware includes a 16-channel audio spectrum analyzer , an S-MHz 6S03 microcomputer , 16K bytes of static RAM and SK bytes of ROM . $1,495 . The Voice Connection, Suite C, 17S35 Skypark Circle , Irvine , Calif. 92714, (714) 261-2366.
Circle No 325

WE'RE LOOKING FOR OEM/ VAR PARTNERS WHOSE DETERMINATION
TO SUCCEED MATCHES OURS.

Here's our card. We're New Channels, a division of Cincom Systems. And

we're looking for qualified OEM's and VAR's interested in partnering with one of

the world's most successful independent software vendors.

EB

~~
~ Mon~A~~
~~10~~13-562-2300
TWX 010-461-2132

A partnershiP with Cincom means access to proven products. Like TOTAL~ the industry's most reliable DBMS which is portable across more than 50 different mainframe and minicomputer systems. And MANTIS ~our powerful 4th Genera-

t o TAL..

tion Application Development System that enables

oata ease Management system you to build applications faster, more efficiently

Apptication~!:~entsystem and with more quality than any other system.

EE c·1ncom A partnership with Cincom means at-
tractive pricing policies designed specifically to help you both build your application and maximize its sales potential once it has been introduced to the market.
We provide the technology and the software industry expertise. We back up our commitment with unparalleled support for you and your customers.
If you're serious about an OEM/VAR venture, Call

Bret Schultze, Marketing Manager for New Channels today at 1-800-543-3010 for additional information. It could be the beginning of a productive and profitable partnership.

Sus~ems
® , , 11l

CIRCLE NO. 98 ON INQUIRY CARD

190

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

"Tell me what you want in a custom OEM modem, and
I'll give it
to you in 60 days."
Weldon S. Bankston National OEM Sales Manager CTS DATACOMM
"I'll give you Computer Aided Design capability."
Using Computer Aided Design equipment our engineering staff can create the custom electrical interfaces or unique board configurations you demand. Then, within 60 days, you'll have a prototype modem. Standard RS232C, TTL or custom interfaces are also available.
"I'll give you a high performance, quality modem at a competitive price in whatever quantities you need."
CTS' signal processor/ micro processor approach to modem design is so unique and reliable we've applied for a patent with over fifty claims. And years of experience in OEM support manufacturing with the latest in sophisticated production equipment insures your modem will be of the highest quality and at the best price and on time.
"And I'll give you 89 years of reliability and stability."
CTS Corporation has supplied the communications industries since 1896 when it began manufacturing wooden, hand cranked, wall mounted telephones for rural communities. Today, for your current modem needs, we can give you design flexibility, experienced engineers, advanced technology, reliability and a competitive price. And all within 60 days. Call Weldon at 408-356-3868 or write us and find out more about what you can get.

DATACOMM Products Division 6900 Shady Oak Rd.
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
612-941-9100

New to the industry since 1896.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CIRCLE NO. 99 ON INQUIRY CARD

191

UNITRONIX distributes DIGITAL computers

As a member of Digital Equipment Corporation's network of independent computer distributors, Unitronix can defir.ie your needs and help you choose the right Digital computer system for your company. Best of all, Unitronix provides fast delivery of your Digital computer from our mu !ti-million dollar inventory.
Powerful systems using these CPUs ... tailored to your needs

·Micro 11 · PDP-11/23+ · PDP-11/24 · PDP-11/44 · PDP-11/73

· MICROVAX I ·VAX 11/725 ·VAX 11/730 ·VAX 11/750 ·VAX 11/782

COMPLETE DATA SYSTEMS
with Unitronix-developed standard, customized and custom applications software

192

CIRCLE NO. 100 ON INQUIRY CARD

NEW PRODUCTS
LITERATURE

Data sheet describes D/A converter

A four-page data sheet describing !LC Data Device Corp. 's DDC-1250 12-bit, 35nsec hybrid digital-to-analog converter contains features, applications and specifications of the product. The data sheet covers block - diagram descriptions, dynamic characteristics and glitch, input coding, analog output ranges and external operational amplifier. The text also describes offset trim, output compliance, layout precautions , and power supply decoupling. Illustrations include a full-size photo, a block diagram and five figures highlighting key features . ILC Data Device Corp., 105 Wilbur Place, Bohemia, N.Y 11716, (516) 567-5600. Circle No 326
Gulde explalns voice, data appllcatlons
The Tl " Voice/Data Applications Guide" discusses how to make the most efficient use of a Tl facility . The literature provides an introduction and also outlines voice and data applications over Tl facilities such as PBX tie-lines , offpremises extensions, drop and insert networks, synchronous and asynchronous data, Bell DDS Data Port, CAD/ CAM and video teleconferencing. The guide details Tl network requirements and highlights the company's Tl voice/data multiplexer , D/I MUX. Coastcom, 2312 Stanwell Drive, Concord, Calif. 94520. (415) 825-7500.
Circle No 327
Directory focuses on free software
The Free Software Catalog and Directory concentrates on

ROBERT FROEHLICH

free software libraries such as

the CP/M Users Group

(CPMUG) and the Special In-

terest Group for Microcom-

puters (SIG/M). The resource

includes games , business pro-

grams , educational software,

word processing, time-saving

utilities and automation and

productivity-enhancing pro-

grams. The text offers de-

scriptions of over 5,000 pro-

gram files and explains where

to get free software from over

2,000 sources and how to use ,

alter and transfer free soft-

ware. $9.95 . Crown Publish-

ers Inc., One Park Ave . , New

York. N.Y. 10016, (212) 532-

9200.

Circle No 328

Catalog detalls Multllaus products
A short-form catalog, describing over 75 Multibus products from single-board computers to multitasking systems, relates the products to application areas and computer systems . The catalog covers 8085- , 8086- and 80186-based boards and the new ZX-186/30 single-board computer that accomodates IM byte of dual-ported RAM. Descriptions of floppy, floppy/Winchester, serial 1/0, serial communications and parallel 1/0 controller boards are included . Zendex Corp., 6700 Sierra Lane. Dublin, Calif. 94578.
Circle No 329

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Business Computer Management Team - action noun,

v

v,

_,,,

u ,, v

-

(biz · nis kam · pyoo ·tar man· ij · mant tern) 1. Those

managers who beyond their traditional sphere of influence

make up the team responsible for evaluation, selection and

acquisition of computers, peripherals, software and related

products and services for business use throughout their

organization. 2.Influential decision makers that advertisers

must reach to sell computer products into U.S. business.

(see Business Computer Systems)

BUSINESS COMPUTER SYSTEMS - Our circulation is the market.
Boston (617) 536-7780 · Chicago (312) 635-8800 · Dallas (214) 980-0318 · Denver (303) 388-4511 · New York/ Mid Atlantic/ Southeast (215) 293-1212, in New York (212) 724-1790 ·North California/ Northwest (408) 243-8838 · Southern California (714) 851-9422
[fl A O:l.hners Publication

CIRCLE NO. 101 ON INQUIRY CARD

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

193

REGIONAL SALES OFFICES

CALENDAR

BOSTON
Robert K. Singer National Sales Manager
Norma E. Lindahl Assistant To The National
Sales Manager
John J. Fahey Regional Manager Katie Kress Sales Coordinator 221 Columbus Ave . Boston, MA 02116 (617) 536-7780
PHILADELPHIA
Stephen B. Donohue Regional Manager 1873 Route 70, Suite 302 Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 (609) 751 -0170
ATLANTA
Larry Pullman Regional Manager 6540 Powers Ferry Rd ., Suite 170 Atlanta, GA 30339 (404) 955-6500
CHICAGO
Robert D. Wentz Regional Manager Marianne Majerus Sales Coordinator Cahners Plaza 1350 E. Touhy Ave. P.O. Box 5080 Des Plaines, IL 60018 (312) 635-8800
DALLAS
Don Ward , Regional Manager 13740 Midway Suite 515 Dallas , TX 75234 (214) 980-0318
DENVER
John Huff Regional Manager 270 St. Paul St. Denver, CO 80206 (303) 388-4511
LQS ANGELES
Len Ganz Regional Manager 12233 West Olympic Blvd. Suite 236 Los Angeles, CA 90064 (213) 826-581!~
ORANGE COUNTY
Debra Huisken Regional Manager 2041 Business Center Dr. Suite 109 Irvine, CA 92715 (714) 851 -9422
SAN FRANCISCO
Frank Barbagallo Northwestern Region Sales Manager Rick Jamison Regional Manager Janet Ryan Regional Manager Kathleen Maxwell Sales Coordinator Sherman Building, Suite 100 3031 Tisch Way San Jose, CA 95128 (408) 243-8838
AUSTRIA
Elan Marketing Group Neutor g. 2 P.O. Box 84 1010 Vienna, Austria Tel : 43-222-663012 or -638461

BENELUX
Elan Marketing Group Boschdijk 199B 5612 HB Eindh·oven The Netherlands Tel: 32-40-455724
ISRAEL
Elan Marketing Group 13 Haifa St., P.O. Box 33439 Tel Aviv, Israel Tel : 972-3-252967 or -268020 Telex: 341667
JAPAN
Tomoyuki lnatsuki General Manager Trade Media Japan Inc. R. 212 Azabu Heights 1-5-10 Roppongi Minato-ku, 106, Japan Tel : (03) 587-0581
TAIWAN
Mr. Donald H. Shapiro Trade Winds, 2nd Floor 132 Hsin Yi Road , Sec. 2 Taipei, Taiwan
UNITED KINGDOM
Elan Marketing Group 5th Floor, Suite 1O Chesham House 136 Regent St. London W1 R 5FA Tel: 437-6900 Telex: 267653
SWEDEN
Elan Marketing Group Humlegardsgatan Nr. 5 11446 Stockholm, Sweden Tel: 46-8-677243 or -676243
WEST GERMANY
Elan Marketing Group Sudring 53 7240 Norb/Neckar, West Germany Tel: 49-7451-7828
Mini-Micro Marketplace Norma Lindahl 221 Columbus Ave. Boston , MA 02116 (617) 536-7780
Direct-Response Postcards Carol Flanagan 221 Columbus Ave. Boston, MA 02116 (617) 536-7780
Career Opportunities Peggy Gordon Recruitment Advertising Manager P.O. Box 10277 8 Stamford Forum Stamford, CT 06904 (203) 328-2550
Cahners Magazine Division J.A. Sheehan, President William Platt Executive Vice President T.M. McDermott, Vice President Electronics/Computer Group Tom Dellamaria, VP/Production Ira Siegel, VP/Research
Promotion Staff Susan Rapaport Marketing Communications Director Mary Gregory Promotion Manager Liz Phillips Promotion Assistant
Circulation Denver, CO: (303) 388-4511 Sherri Gronli Group Manager

194

MARCH
4-7 FOSE Software '85 Conference and Exposition, Washington, D.C. Convention Center, sponsored by National Trade Productions inc. Contact: Jill Nieman Boesch, National Trade Productions , Suite 400, 2111 Eisenhower Ave. , Alexandria, Va. 22314, (800) 6388510 or (703) 683-8500.
4-7 Interface '85 Thirteenth Annual Conference and Exposition, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, presented by The interface Group Inc. Contact: Peter B. Young or Linda M. Yogel, The Interface Group Inc., 300 First Ave. , Needham , Mass. 02194, (617) 449-6600.
6-8 DEXPO Europe '85, Olympia 2, London, organized by Expoconstil International Inc. Contact: Expoconsul International Inc., 55 Princeton-Hightstown Road, Princeton Junction, N.J. 08550, (609) 799-1661.
6-8 Integrated Services Digital Networks Conference, Baily's Park Place Casino Hotel, Atlantic City, N.J., organized by Information Gatekeepers Inc. Contact: Michael O'Bryant, Information Gatekeepers Inc. , 214 Harvard Ave., Boston, Mass. 02134, (617) 232-3111.
11-13 Exploding the UNIX Myth, Orlando, Fla., sponsored by Gartner Group Inc. Contact: Lynn M. Bentley, Marketing Manager, Gartner Group Inc., P.O. Box 10212, 72 Cummings Point Road, Stamford, Conn. 06904, (203) 964-0096.
11-15 XENIX Operating System Workshop, Chelmsford, Mass., presented by Intel Corp. Contact: Rhonda Carney, Intel Corp., Customer Training, 27 Industrial Ave., Chelmsford, Mass. 10824-3688, (617) 2561374.
12-14 SEMICON/Europa '85, Zurich , Switzerland, sponsored by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute (SEMI). Contact: Pamela Merritt, SEMI, Suite 212, 625 Ellis St., Mountain View, Calif. 94043, (415) 964-5111.
13-14 Eleventh Annual Computer Fair, University of Washington, Seattle, sponsored by University of Washington Academic Computing Center. Contact: Thomas Bennett, Ph.D, University of Washington Academic Computing Center, 3737 Brooklyn Ave. N. E., Seattle, Wash. 98105, (206) 543-5728.
18-20 COMTEL '85, Infomart, Dallas, sponsored by International Computer and Telecommunications Conference. Contact: Serena Bryan, COMTEL, Suite 600, 13740 Midway Road , Dallas, Texas 75244 , (214) 4587011.
20-22 CAD/CAM Seminar, Inn of Westchester , White Plaips, N. Y., sponsored by Frost & Sullivan Inc. Contact: Frost & Sullivan Inc.. , 106 Fulton St., New York, N.Y. 10038, (212) 233-1080.
20-22 Independent DEC Users Society (IDUS) '85 Conference, Killington Conference Center, Killington, Vt.,
sponsored by mus. Contact: Sheila Hopkins , mus,
Suite 4, 3657 Post Road, Warwick, R. I. 02886, (401) 738-4430.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CALENDAR

20-22 International Spectrum Conference, New Orleans, sponsored by International Database Management Association (IDBMA). Contact: IDBMA, 9740 Appaloosa Road,-San Diego, Calif. 92131, (619) 578-3152.
25-27 Third Annual Conference on Optical Storage of Documents and Images, The Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C., sponsored by Technology Opportunity Conference (TOC). Contact: Judy P. Hanson, TOC Coordinator, TOC, P.O. Box 14817, San Francisco, Calif. 94114-0817, (415) 626-1133.
25-28 IEEE lnfocom '85, Washington, sponsored by the Technical Committees for Computer Communications of the Societies. Contact: Tom Stack, Program Chairman, IEEE Infocom '85, P.O. Box 639, Silver Spring, Md. 20901, (301) 589-8142.
26-28 European Information Technology and Office Automation Exhibition (INFO), Olympia, London, sponsored by B.E.D Exhibitions Ltd. Contact: Sandra Paul, British Information Services, 845 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022, (212) 752-8400.
26-28 COMDEX-in-Japan, Harumi Exhibition Center, Tokyo, produced by The Interface Group Inc. Contact: Peter B. Young (U.S.A.) or T. Shinohara (Japan), The Interface Group Inc., 300 First Ave., Needham, Mass. 02194, (617) 449-6600 or (800) 325-3330; in Japan: Kashiwabara Bldg. 2F, 1-3-3, Kyobashi, ChuoKu, Tokyo 104, Japan, 03-271-0246.
27-30 PBC Show '85/lnfotech '85, Hong Kong Exhibition Centre, organized by Hong Kong Exhibition Services Ltd. Contact: Overseas Exhibition Services Ltd., 11 Manchester Square, London, WlM 5AB, England, 01-486-1951.
28-29 Minnesota Joint Computer Conference (MJCC), Radisson South Hotel, Bloomington, Minn., sponsored by the Association of Systems Management (ASM), the Association of Computing Machines (ACM) and the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA). Contact: Mick Williams, c/o Standard Iron, 4990 N. County Road 18, New Hope, Minn. 55428, (612) 533-1110.
31-(3) SOFTCON, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, sponsored by Northeast Expositions. Contact: Northeast Expositions, 822 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167, (617) 739-2000.
APRIL
2-4 1985 IEEE Microprocessor Forum: "Pathways to Design Productivity," Bally Park Place Casino Hotel, Atlantic City, N.J., sponsored by the Philadelphia Electric Co. Contact: Gerald W. Gordon, Philadelphia Electric Co., 2301 Market St., N3-1, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101, (215) 841-4676.
2-4 UNIX Systems Exposition '85, Palais des Congres, Paris, organized by Network Events Ltd. Contact: Network Events Ltd., Printers Mews, Market Hill, Buckingham, MK18 lJX, England, (0280) 815226.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Montreal International Software Market

300, Leo-Pariseau, Suite 1919 P.O. Box 1119, Place du Pare Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2W 2P4

Please send me more information on MIM 85, in English D, in French 0. I intend to attend as a participant D, an _exhibitor D.

Name - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Title - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Company Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

City----------------Country _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Postal Code _ _ __

Telephone

Telex _ _ _ _ __

I am a software producer D, buyer D, distributor D, manufacturer D.

Types of product - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Please print
B-002-USA-MM

CIRCLE NO. 102 ON INQUIRY CARD 195

llllini·lllliara 1111···
Most Useful Publication
An independent survey across the readership of 25 publications shows Mini-Micro Systems to be the most useful publication for information about data communications systems and equipment.
On June 15, 1983, Universal Data Systems, a division of Motorola, Inc., asked 25 publications, including those listed below, to provide 200 subscribers' names for a media preference study. UDS combined these names with 300 UDS customers and 2000 UDS distributors to create the sample audience of over 7000.
QUESTION: Of the publications listed, which do you find most useful for information about data communications systems and equipment?

RESPONSE:
Publication
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS
Data Communica tio ns Datamation Computerwo rld EO N Com puter Design El ect ronic D esign El ect ronics El ect ronic Engineeri ng Times MIS W eek Com puter Decisio ns Digital Design Communicati ons News El ect ronic News Business Com puter Systems Systems & Softwa re Info rm ation Systems News Telepho ny Com puter Systems News TE&M
For copies of the complete study, contact your regional sales managE"r. Listing includes only those publ1cat1ons with greater than 1% response.

%ofTotal
9.75 %
9.55 8. 12 7.93 6.89 6.82 6.76 5.72 4.68 4.61 4.03 4.03 3.64 3.25 3.12 2.99 2.60 2. 14 2.01 1.1 7

Milli·Miera lgSll!lllS

fii1 Cahners Publishing Company Ii.ill 22 1 Columbus Avenue, Bosto n, MA 02 116
(617)536-7780

D Publi shers of 32 special ized business magazines in Bu ilding & Constructi on D Electroni cs & Computers D Foodservice D Manufacturing D Medical/Health Care D

Regio nal Sales Offices: Bosto n-16 17)536-7780; Ch icago-13 12)635-8800; Dallas-1214)900-03 18; Denver-1303)388-451 1; Los Ange les-1213)826-5818; Mid-At lantic-1609)751-0170; O range County-(7 14)85 1-9422; Northern Ca lifornia & Northwest-1408)243-8838; SoutheaSl-1404)955 -6500
CIRCLE NO. 103 ON INQUIRY CARD

·This Publication is available in Microform.

CLASSIFIED ADS

software

D-M-DRIVER

DISK in MEMORY for ll · M Call 415 · 420 · 9579

Pn.-ito

1238 JoHphlne St.

.,,y.: steTilS Berlleley, Celllornl1 9470 3

CIRCLE NO . 225 ON INQUIRY CARO
hardware

rH.~E~p\~~N& L-0-ET~

Computer

~ -0-

Systems

-~

SAVINGS ON ALL
SERIES 200/500 WORK STATIONS
98365 9000 Non-HP memory 9020S 9826A and peripherals
CALL OR WRITE FOR DISCOUNT PRICES
graphla
·Y·~··· m··er 80123051 Portland . OR 97223 USA 503-241-0202 lnt11n1tlon1I Sal11 Ttl113110·143

CIRCLE NO . 226 ON INQUIRY CARD

inventions wanted

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Product Promoters
wanted 10 display concepts at national technology trade show
Call: 1-800-528-6050 X831

1·-·-vou-·-·1 CIRCLE NO. 227 ON INQUIRY CAllD

i NOTICED !

'THIS SPACE!I

so will

i

your customers when you

I 1

i advertise in

Mini-Micro

Systems

i 1

Classified j

1Call: Linda Lovett

I

'1 -

·

-

617/536-7780
· - · - · -·- · -

·

.
_J

Copy
Deadline:
Call 617/536-7780

Space reservations and
advertising copy must be received by the 10th
of the month preceding the issue date. Camerare ad y mechanicals must be received by the

15th of the month pre-
ceding the issue date. For example, to appear
in the February issue, copy must be received by January 10; mechanicals by Januar~ 15.

University Microfilms International
Plca' c 'end add iti onal informati on for - - - - - - - - - Name:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ (n,tituti on,_ _ _ _ _ _ __ Streel___ _ _ _ _ _ __ CitY - - - - - ' - - - - - Statc_ _ _ _ _ _ Zip_ _ 300 North Zeeb Road Dept. P.R. Ann Arbor . Mi . 48106
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ORDER FORM
Mini-Micro Systems classifieds reach more mini-micro people

Rates:$90.00 per column inch (non·commissionable) 6x program earns 5%. discount; 12x program earns 10%discount.
There is no charge for typesetting classified listings. Plan approximately 50 average words to a column inch, 8 lines of approximately 38 characters per line (3 inch maxi-
mum). Please send clean typewritten (double-spaced) copy.

Category: The following categories are available; be sure to specify the category you wish to be listed under: Business Opportunities, New Literature, Selling , Buying ,
Trading, Seminars, Services, Software, Supplies &Accessories. (Other categories may be employed at our discretion.)

Run this ad in

(number issues) Reader Inquiry No. YES D NO D

Ad size 1 col. wide by _ _ inches deep Under

(category)

Check enclosed for$

(Pre-paid orders only)

Signature - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - Name _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ Title Company _ __ __ _ _ __ _ Telephone No. _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ Address _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
City _ _ __ _ _ _ _ State ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Zip _ _ _ _ _ __

197

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES/ RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

Rates

Page 3/4

Y2

Y3

Y4 Col. Inch

1 x $4,475 $3,425 $2,340 $1,750 $1,170 $120

3 x 4,235 3,300 2,245 1,690 1,105 110

6 x 4, 105 3,200 2, 175 1,625 1,075 105

9 x 3,985 3, 100 2, 110 1,575 1,040 100

12 x 3,850 3,005 2,050 1,560 1,015 95

15x 3,735 2,915 1,985 1,510 980 85

18 x 3,590 2,800 1,910 1,495 950 80

24 x 3,525 2,750 1,875 1,430 925 75

Circulation
Over 122,000 technically sophisticated professionals in computer operations/systems management, data communications, engineering management, systems engineering/integrators, educators and systems programming specialists.

Recruitment Hot Line
(203) 328-2550
Call your ad inwe'll set the type
at no charge.
Mail Film to:
Peggy Gordon
Recruitment Manager
CAHNERS PUBLISHING CO. 8 Stamford Forum P.O. Box 10277 Stamford, CT 06904

SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

Discover a whole new dimension in professional growth at Computer Horizons Corp. Learn
why we are among the top 15 software services firms in the country with a client list that includes numerous Fortune 500 leaders. Currently, state-of-the-art projects include development of software modifications to meet specific client applications, as well as developing solutions to client problems relating to software computer design, evaluation and analysis.

If your background includes experience in any of the following areas, we definitely have the opportunity for you.
HARDWARE: DEC, HEWLETI PACKARD, INTEL 8080, IBM PC, TANDEM, DATA GENERAL, HONEYWELL LEVEL 6
SOFTWARE: UNIX*, VAX, RSX, DPL, GRAPHICS, CAD/CAM, DPS, TPS, DEC NET
LANGUAGES: "C", SHELL, KERNAL, PASCAL, FORTRAN, TAL, ANY REAL TIME ASSEMBLERS COMMUNICATIONS: X.25, SDLC, SNNNCP, FAULT TOLERANCES

Opportunities exist in our offices in: New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Miami , Orlando, Detroit, Cincinnati , Denver, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Our excellent salaries are above industry average with a superior benefits package including

health and dental insurance, unlimited tuition refund, relocation assistance and much, much

more.

Please call or send your resume to:

Tammy Knauer

National Recruiting Director

In New York Call (212) 371-9600

Outside of New York Call (800) 847-4097

C::J COMPUTER HORIZONS CORP.

747 Third Avenue, Department MM1 - 2 New York, N.Y. 10017
An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F · UXIN is a trademark product of Bell Labs

CIRCLE NO. 240 ON INQUIRY CARD
198

Which one of our computer-related positions is right
for you?
Find out In the National Business Employment Vkekly.
Every week, the National Business Employment V\eekly, published by The VVall Street Journal, contains hundreds of the best executive, managerial and professional positions lrom all across the country. Tup jobs in every field, including career opportunities in virtually every area of computer technology. At salaries from $25,CXXJ to $250,CXXJ.
-PLUS ...weekly editorial features covering every aspect of career advancement. Articles on writing resumes, interviewing. salary statistics, regional employment trends, and much more.
LOOK FOR OUR SPEQAL FEBRUARY 24Tif "IDP & COMPUTER ENGINEERING" ISSUE WHICH Will. INCLUDE ADDITIONAL CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY
AND RELATED EDllORIAL:
Pick up a copy of the National Business Employment V\eekly at your newsstand today. Or we'll send you the neX1 eight issues by first class mail. Just send a check1or $32 to:
National Business Employment Vkekly, Dept. E, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10170.
CIRCLE NO. 241 ON INQUIRY CARD
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

New, free 1985 Survey shows sharp increases in salaries for computer professionals

With a strong economy, salaries for many computer professionals have soared since I 984 - in some cases as much as 22%1
Our most comprehensive Survey ever
The new 1985 Computer Salary Survey and Career Planning Gulde is based on contacts with more than 48,000 information processing and computer professionals and 35,000 firms that hire them. Included is a review of salaries at sixty-three different position and experience levels. So no matter if you're in programming, systems analysis, design, software, communications, operations, sales, marketing or management;

you 'll learn whether or not your salary is keeping pace with your peer~-and what you can expect to earn as you advance.
In addition, the new Survey includes a number of comprehensive charts, exhibits and graphs which are designed to help you get a thorough understanding of emerging career trends and what you could do to capitalize on them.
Free to computer professionals
The new 32-page Survey is free . Since 1966, we have distributed more than five hundred thousand Surveys to people who not only want success, but are determined to realize their fullest career potential.

You owe it to yourself-especially if most of your career lies ahead-to contact us today.
Call today
To get your free copy, call the Source Edp office nearest you. Or if you prefer, write our headquarters address, which is listed below. Either way, we'll mail a copy to you in strict confidence, without obligation.
Write : Source Edp Department MM -I P.O. Box 7100 Mountain View, CA 94039
(When writing, please include your title.)

Call today

Alabama

Birmingham Arizona

. 205/322-8745

Phoenix . . ...... 602/279-1OI0

Tucson .

. 6021792-0375

California

Northern

M ountain View 415/969-491 O

Sacramento .... 916/446-3470

San Francisco . . 415/434-241 O

Walnut Creek .... 415/945-191 O

Southern

Fullerton

... 7 14/ 738-1313

Irvine

714/833-1 730

Los Angeles

Downtown .

213/688-0041

South Bay . . 213/540-7500

West

. 213/203-8111

San Diego .

. 619/231-1900

San Fernando Valley 818/781-4800 Colorado

Denver .

. 303/298-8268

Englewood .

. 3031773-3700

Connecticut

Danbury

. 203/797-0590

Hartford .

. 203/522-6590

New Haven

203/787 -4 595

Stamfor.d .

. 203/967-4888

Stratford . . ..... 203/375-7240

Waterbury . . ... 203/574-5633 Delaware

Wilmington ...... 302/652-0933

District of Columbia

Washington D.C. . . 202/293-9255

Florida

Fort Lauderdale . . . 305/491-0145

Jacksonville . . . . . . 904/356-1820

M iami ........... 305/624-3536

Georgia

Atlanta/Downtown 404/588-9350

Atlanta/North . . . 404/953-0200

Atlanta/Perimtr.-400 . 404/255-2045

llllnols

Chicago/E. Loop .. 312/861-0770

Chicago/W. Loop .. 312/346- 1280

Oak Brook .

. 312/986-0422

Rolling M eadows .. 312/392-0244

Indiana

Fort Wayne ....... 219/432-7333

Indianapolis

317/631-2900

Iowa

Des Moines

515/243-0191

Kansas

Overland Park .

91 3/888-8885

Wichita ........ 3 16/688-1621

Kentucky

Louisville .

. 502/581-9900

Louisiana

Baton Rouge . . . 504/924-7183

New Orleans . . . . . 504/561-6000

Maryland

Baltimore ......... 301 / 727-4050

Greenbelt ........ 301 /441 -8700

Towson . ......... 301 /321-7044

Massachusetts

Boston .

. ... 617/482-7613

Burlington

... 617/273-5160

Spring field ........ 41 3/739-4083

Wellesley ......... 617/237-3 120

Michigan

Detroit .

313/259-7607

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Grand Rapids . . . . . 616/459-6539

Lansing ....... 517/484-4561

Southfield

.. 313/352-6520

Troy .

. ...... 313/362-0070

Minnesota

M inneapolis

West ........... 6 12/544-3600

Downtown ... 612/332-6460

St. Paul .......... 6 12/227-6100

Missouri

Kansas City ..... 816/474-3393

Clayton

.. 3 14/862-3800

St. Louis ......... 3 14/576-4444

Nebraska

Omaha . . . . . . . . . . 402/346-0709

New Hampshire

Nashua

.. 603/888-7650

New Jersey

Cherry Hill . . .... 609/482-2600

Edison . . . .... 20 I /494-2800

Lyndhurs t

.. 20 I /939-4300

Morristown . . . 201 /267-3222

Paramus

. 20 I /845-3900

Princeton .

609/452-7277

Somerset .

20 I /469-9444

New Mexico

Albuquerque ...... 505/247-4270

New York

Albany .

.... 518/482-2035

Buffalo.

716/835-9630

New York City

Grand Central .... 212/557-86 11

Penn Station . . 212/736-7445

Wall Street . . . 212/962-8000

Rochester ..

716/263-2670

Syosset. LI.

. 516/364-0900

Syracuse

3 15/422-2411

White Plains .

914/694-4400

North Carolina

Charlotte ..

704/552-6577

Greensboro .

. 919/379-1155

Raleigh

. 919/847-7605

Winston-Salem . .. 919/724-0630

Ohio

Akron .

..... 216/535- 1150

Cincinnati

. 513/769-5080

Cleveland ..... 2 16/77 1-2070

Columbus.

. 614/224-0660

D ayton Toledo .

...... 513/461-4660 419/242-260 I

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City .... 405/722-741 O

Tulsa

.. 918/599-7700

Oregon

Portland . . . . . . . . . 503/223-6 160

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg . . . . 71 7/233-8066

King of Prussia . . . . 215/265-7250

Philadelphia

215/665-1717

Pittsburgh

4 12/261-6540

Rhode Island

Providence .... 40 I /75 1-0065

South Carolina

Columbia

. . . 803/256-7446

Greenville

803/271-7044

Tennessee

Nashville .

615/256-0625

Texas

Austin

... 512/479-0720

Dallas

Central .

214/954-1 100

North .

. 214/387-1600

Fort Worth

817/338-9300

Houston

Downtown . . . 713/751-0 I00

Galleria/Post Oak .. 713/439-0550

San Antonio . . . 512/342-9898

Utah

Salt .Lake City ..... 80 I /966-3900

Virginia

Mclean .

703/790-5610

Washington

Seattle . . ...... 206/454-6400

Spokane ......... 5091838-7877

Wisconsin

Green Bay .

. 414/432-1184

Madison

608/251-0 I 04

Milwaukee

... 414/277-0345

Canada:

Alberta

Calgary

403/279-1940

Edmonton .

. 403/459-1 153

British Columbia

Vancouver . . ... 604/222-1 155

Manitoba

Winnipeg

. 204/942-1151

Ontario

M ississauga ....... 416/848-3344

Toronto

Royal Bank Plaza . 416/865-1125

Sun Life Centre ... 4161591-1110

Willowdale .... 416/495-1551

Psersoonneul Serrvcicees~~ p"'
The world's largest recruiting fi rm devoted exclusively to the computer profession.
Client companies assume our charges.

199

Software Engineers!
Xerox Has Texas Size Opportunities
Xerox, pioneer in reprographics and innovators in the creation of the office of the future, invites you to join our team in Dallas, Texas - one of the fastest growing high-tech centers in the Southwest. Our Information Products Division has exciting challenges for Software Engineers who want a great place for both their lifestyle and their life's ambition.
TeamXerox is a collaboration of our proven resources and your resourceful mind . And you can be a part of it . We are seeking professionals with the following credentials:
·1 -10 years product development experience with recent experience on Mini/Micro computers with office automation software. ·Must have experience with Assembler language and either PASCAL or C languages. ·A BS or MS in Computer Science is highly desirable.
The successful candidates will apply their software development skills in the following areas:
·PROFESSIONAL WORKSTATION ·ELECTRONIC TYPING ·COMMUNICATIONS
Qualified candidates must have U.S. citizenship or be a registered alien.
TeamXerox in Texas. It's our resources . Your resourceful mind . And a great place for both . Send your resume to : Xerox Corporation, Information Products Division, MS 180, Dept. MMS-285, 1301 Ridgeview Drive, Lewisville, Texas 75067. Xerox is an affirmative action employer.

More and more advertisers of minicomputers, microcomputers, CRT terminals, printers, disk drives, memories, modems, distributed data processing systems, etc., are consistently turning to
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS.
Call
Peggy Gordon
at
203-328-2550.

_ _ _XEROX CIRCLE NO. 242 ON INQUIRY CARD 200

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

* COMPUTER Communications NEW DESIGN HIGH VISIBILITY

We have immediate opportunities available with both our Washington,
DC and nationally based clients. They are in urgent need of SOFTWARE .ENGINEERS/SOFTWARE SYSTEMS ENGINEERS. This is your opportunity to join highly visible teams of professionals involved in design and development of State-of-the-Art in Voice & Data Communications and Soft-
ware Display. Immediate positions exist for Project Mgrs. and Software and Systems Engineers. We are looking for people with 3+ years experience in Analysis, Simulation & Modeling; The Writing of Software Specifications; Software QA & Software V&V. Particular areas of interest include:

· VOICE & DATA COMMUNICATIONS · REAL:flME SOFTWARE DEV. · OPERATING SYS. & DRIVERS · SOFTWARE CONFIG . MGMT.

· COMPUTER DESIGN · TELECOMMUNICATIONS
· TEST SOFTWARE · SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING

If your experience includes: FORTRAN, ASSEMBLY, STRUCTURED FORTRAN , JOVIAL or UNIX/C and you are interested in investigating these exciting opportunities please send your resume today or call

800-336-3755 in VA call (703) 790-1284
STAFFING CONSULTANTS
8027 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA 22180
ALL FEES PAID BY CLIENT COMPANIES

CIRCLE NO. 243 ON INQUIRY CARD

s~ DeYelopers
. .8 0 0 - 231~s920

tnJ Inviting resumes from Individuals in more highly technital computer
related vocations $uch as: PHO Computer Scientists, Operating Sys-
tem Developers, D;lta Base Developers, Porting Specialists, Networks
and Telecommunications, Architecture, Artificial lntelligepee. Graphics
Systems Developers, Microcoders arid Firmware Developers, COmpiler Development, etc. Special inter6$1 in emerging technology such
:as novel architecture, UNIX, ADA, etc. Similar interest. in scientific
applications develapers including military, process control, data acqui· isltion, telemetry and c.ommunications, CAD/ CAM, simulation and
modellng, etc.-we are a professional employment firm managed by
graduate engineers. Fees ate paid by the employer. AU geographic
·locations. Send resume or call D.A'.: Redwine and ask :for our free
:resume workbook &career planner.

,9 ScientificP(acement,lnc.

:

P.O. Bo~ 19949CW, Dept. MMS2' .HOIJ$ton,1'X77224 713/496·6100

'

· UNIX ls a1rade!N!rl<of Bell Labs

CIRCLE NO. 244 ON INQUIRY CARD

SENIOR PROGRAMMER ANA· LYST. Will develop, implement, operate and refine programs for
financial accounting data base (FRS); personnel data base
(PER/PAS); and student record system. employing image
resource inquiry and view. To
use the following : HP3000 mini-computer (SERIES 68)
and VIEW 3000 and IMAGE
3000 software. Required: BS
degree in Comp Sci or Comp Info Syst. plus 2 yrs. experience; or MS degree in Comp Sci or Comp Info Syst. Knowledge of COBOL and FORTRAN. Knowledge of management information systems, data analysis and design of data base systems. $24,390/yr.. 40-hour week. Apply at the
Texas Employment Commis· sion, El Paso, Texas, or send
resume to the Texas Employ· ment Commission, TEC Build· ing, Austin, Texas 7ff778, J.O. #3650 879. M Paid by an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Hardware design engineer. Microprocessor-based controller design for electrical power plant applications, involving power electroncs, hardware and software design. Requires MSEE. 40 hrs per week, $23K per yr. Apply: KS Job Service, 552 State Ave., K.C., KS 66107. Refer to J074B786.
CIRCLE NO. 245
ON INQUIRY CARD
ENGINEERS
Choice positions available in New England and Nationwide. If you earn $25,000 or more we have a more rewarding job for you .
Networking · Communications ATE Engineers · Tools & Utilities SW
Real-Time SW · Memory Design All fees & expenses paid. Call or send resume to :
~PERSONNEL
1492 Highland Avenue Needham. MA 02192 (617) 449-3840
Serving the high tech industries.

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Northern Telecom &
New Hampshire ...A Great Career Combination
Northern Telecom Inc. is the largest supplier of fully d·gital telecommunications systems in the world. Our Network Support Systems Division in Concord, New Hampshire manufactures and markets a large and comprehensive line of telephone test equipment from portable instruments lo fully automatic test systems that support and improve network performance.
1985 Career Opportunities
Software Development Engineers - Several opportunities exist in this group, from design through implementation . BSCS or MSCS plus working knowledge of UNIX/C or MACRO 11 / RSX11M+, or VAX/VMS , and Intel assemblers .
Hardware Design Engineers - Design micro computer based systems and instruments. BSEE. MSEE preferred, plus extensive design experience in telecommunications, digital signal processing, and some software background.
Sustaining Software Engineers - Design and maintain application software for large telephone test system. Will travel occasionally. BSCS, plus 2 years programming experience with C / UNJX or MACR0-11 , RSX-11M +
Components Engineer - Develop component spec's, select and qualify electrical/ mechanical components and vendors. BSEE, plus 3 years experience in component related activity. Computer data base generation and management knowledge desired.
Mechanical Engineer (Electronic Packaging) Design system and instrument packaging using knowledge of EMl / RFI and structural and thermal requirements. BSME, plus 3-5 years experience.
Quality Engineer - Develop environmental testing. systems reliability and EMI testing . Ensure products and test plans comply with commercial specifications. BSEE, plus 3-5 years systems reliability or test engineering experience.
We can offer an excellent salary and a complete benefits program including tuition assistance. company matched savings and stock plans. medical/ dental coverage, etc. Please send yo ur resume in confidence to :
Manager, Staffing Northern Telecom Inc. Network Support Systems Division
Box 649 Concord, New Hampshire 03301
An equal opportunity employer m/ f/ h/v
· ----· We hiretalent
.....6 nutthcm I ~ tCICCIJl11
·CIRCLE NO . 246 ON INQUIRY CARD
201

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES/ RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

RESUME FORWARDING SERVICE

To have your resume forwarded on to the company of your choice, simply write in the box at the right the name of the company that interests you.
Complete the following brief resume and mail to: Peggy Gordon
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS P.O. Box 10277 8 Stamford Forum Stamford, CT 06904

Forward my brief resume to:
(Never more than 3 companies, please) (Please type, or print using all caps in dark ink.)

1.

Last Name

First

Middle Initial

Home Address (Street, City, State, Zip)

Home Phone (Area Code)
2. EDUCATION INFORMATION: Schools Attended

Other (Area Code)

Name

Location:

Degree:

Name

Location:

3. EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION:

Degree:

Name & Address of Present Employer (Will not be contacted) Position (Please give brief description of your title and current job assignment)

Length of time with current employer - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4. Are you willing to relocate?

What are your geographical p r e f e r e n c e s ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

5. Please Check One:

U.S. Citizen

Permanent Resident _ _ _ _ _ _ Student Visa _ _ _ _ __

6. Foreign Language
Read - - - - - - - - - Write - - - - - - - - - Speak - - - - - - - - -
7. Please indicate current salary _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

*Please Sign Here

Date

·Your signature will authorize us to forward the above information on to the

company of your choice, in the strictest confidence. Your current employer

will not be contacted .

2-85

202

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

SYSTEM INTEGRATORS'

NOTEBOOK

Tips that make dollars and sense

BATCH Fl1 ES SOLVE
INTEGRATION TASKS

Carl Warren, Western Editor
The IBM Corp. PC operating system, PC-DOS, or its complementary operating system, MS-DOS from Microsoft Corp. , Bellevue , Wash., can be used as a powerful frontend for solving many integration tasks. Both versions employ a command language that provides considerable system control. For example, to simplify task location and management , employ the PATH-setting function in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that DOS looks for when the machine turns on. Proceed as follows to locate applications virtually anywhere on the hard disk:
PATH C:\tools;C:21 ;C:tools\ master ;C:\tools\ utilitie s;
This line tells DOS to first look in the directory called Tools , then Directory 21, back to Tools and its subdirectory master , and back again to Tools and the subdirectory utilities. Besides calling applications directly, you can invoke other batch files that , in turn, search other directories and subdirectories and even switch directories for storing information.
To make the batch process even more efficient, consulting software engineer Robert Anton Byers , La Crescenta , Calif., recommends invoking Ashton-Tate's dBase III along with a menu command file . According to Byers, the powerful database manager package serves as an excellent "shell" around the operating system and applications. The newest dBase III release , Version 1.1 , no longer requires the distribution disk to be inserted into the main floppy drive; it can reside on the hard disk, thus providing full turnkey operation. Byers says that , when using Version 1.1, dBase command file should display a menu of application choices, and employ the CASE statement to determine selection:
DO CASE CASE= " 1" RUN "WS"
The key is the "Run" verb. This causes dBase to look for the named application-in this case Micropro International Corp. 's WordStar-and then run it. Once you're finished running the application, an automatic return to the dBase environment is executed, thus allowing another choice to be made . dBase stores all the information and keeps track of the proper pointers to allow a return to dBase. Byers says that , besides allowing the direct call to an application, files in sub-directories can be called by specifying the DOS PATH using proper syntax (\parent directory\subdirectory\ application) or by establishing the PATH routes at bootup. Byers does warn, however , that dBase is sensitive to the

length of the directory name, which shouldn't exceed seven

characters.

. If you' re planning on adding a hard disk to a portable

computer such as Compaq Computer Corp. 's portable,

consider providing. a parking mechanism for the read/write

heads. Consulting engineer Richard Steincross, of RMS

Laboratories, Long Beach , Calif. , offers a simple solution

for system integrators using Western Digital Corp. 's Model

WD1002-WX2 controller for the PC and compatibles.

Steincross recommends using the WX2 utility that Western

Digital Corp. supplies with the board for moving the heads

back to a safe zone. The utility accepts parameter com-

mands that direct disk drive operation. An example of the

parameters to pass are:

WX2, Blocks:17, Cyl:306, Heads:4 idc

Step:O, c:O , Seek, Step:O, c:305, Seek, Quit

This parameter file tells the WX2 utility that 17 data

blocks exist, the drive has 306 cylinders with four read/write

heads, the drive should make zero steps and the identifier

for the C drive is 0. The final parameter settings direct the

controller to move the head to cylinder 305 and stop. The

park mechanism is invoked by installing a batch file called

PARK.BAT, which is used to call the parameter file and, if

desired, a message file that displays: "The hard disk can

now be transported ." Steincross admits that the method

isn't necessarily elegant, but it does help avoid damage to

the drive.

Some notebook jottings: If you're having trouble reading

data on a floppy disk , don't be too quick to blame the drive.

The problem might lie with the spindle hole protector found

on some disks . The adhesive holding the rigid protector on

the disk sometimes melts as the temperature in the drive

goes up, depositing a gooey substa.nce on the clamping

mechanism fingers . This condition results in mis-clamping

of disks, which can cause read and write errors. The

solution is simple: Use a cold-degreasing compound spray.

If you're wondering how to make Micropro's WordStar

word-processing software work on an IBM PC or similar

machine with a serial printer, install WordStar for the

parallel printer driver. Then, use the MODE function in

DOS to set the line printer (LPTl) to equal the desired

serial communication port COMl or COM2. The DOS

command MODE LPTl: = COMl : does the job, but don't

forget to use the mode function to set the proper baud rates,

parity and handshake .

D

Interest Quotient (Circle One} High 834 Medium 835 Low 836

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

203

ADVERTISERS INDEX

Able Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 72

Alloy ... . . . . . .

. ...... . .. .. . .... .. 152

Andromeda System s .

. . . .............. 44-45

Archive Corp. . .

. . . . .. . . ....... 110, 132-133

BASF . . . . . . .

. .. . .. . .... . ......... E4-E5

Benson ..

. .. . . .. .

. .. 26

Bytcom .

. ..... . ... . ....... . ............ .4

C. ltoh Electronics . . . . . ...... . ..... . ...... 50

Cahners Exposition Group .... . .. . ..... . ....... 51

Calcomp . . . . . . . .

. ...... . ..... 183

California Computer Group ...... .. .. .... ..... 161

Carroll Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. ..... .. 148

CCA/Uniworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ . . . ... .. 68

Century Data Systems . . . . . . . . .

. ... .. 142

CIE Systems . . .

. .. . . . . . . ..... .. ... .. ... 25

CIE Terminals ...... . . . .. . ........... .. . . ... C3

Cincom Systems ...... .. . . ... . ....... .... .. 190

Cipher Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. ... 180-181

Codex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .... 83

Cogito . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .. 137

Commerce Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 162

Compaq Computer Corp . . . . . . . . . . . .

. 70-71

Control Data-OEM .. . . .... .. ............ . . .. . 89

Concord Data Systems .. . .. . .. . .. .. . ... . . .... 61

Craig Data Cable . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .... .. ... 160

Cromemco

. .. .... .. . . . ..... 118-119

CTS Datacomm . .

. . .. .... . ..... . ... 48, 191

Dataproducts ....... . ... . ... . ... .. ......... . 33

Dataram . . . . . . . . .

. ....... ... .......... . 53

Data Technology Corp. (OTC) ... ... ........... . 10

Digital Equipment Corp . . . . . . ........ .. 120-121

Dysan .... .. .. . .......... .. . .. .. . .. ........ 13

Emulex . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. ..... 40-41

Esprit Computer Products . .. . ....... . .. . ...... 81

Facit .. . .

. ........... . . ......... . ..... 84

Falco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . ............ 59

Fle xible Computer .. . , . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 75

Forte Data Systems . . . .

. .. .. ..... 130

Fujitsu America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 49

Genicom . .

. .. . . . ...... . . . .. . ... 93

Gould (CSD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 5

Heurikon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .. 58

Hitachi .............. . .. . ....... . ..... . .. 76- 77

!BC/Integrated Business Computers . . . . . . . . . . 179

Ibex

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 52

lllbruck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 72

lnfotron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. ....... .. .... 1

lnmac ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ .. . 144

Interactive Systems . . . . . . . . . .

. ..... 97

Interface . .

. .. ... ...... . .... .. . . .. 16, 32 , 86

Iomega Corp. . ... . . . . . ..... .. .... ... ..... 98-99

Irwin Magnetics

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... .. . 22

Keytronic .. .. . .. . ... . ... . ........ .. . . ..... 122

Kimtron

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Lapine Technology . . .. . .. ... . .... .. ..... .. .. 87

Lexidata ........... . ... .. . . . ... ........... 6-7

Macrolink ...... .. . . ..... .. . ...... .. ........ 21

Mannesman Tally ... . ............ . .. . ........ 69

Maxell Corp of America . ... .... : .... . ... . ..... 63

Maxtor Corp. . . . . .

. .. . . ... ......... .. 138

Micom

.............. . ..... C2

Micro Data Base Systems, Inc...... .. ... .. .. .. 185

Microscience International .

. . . . . . .

. 116

Microware . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . 163

Mini-Micro Systems . .. ....... 12, 131 . 187, 193, 196

Montreal International Software

............ 195

NCR Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. ..... 8-9

NEC .... :. ...

. ....... 30-31 , 176-177

Northern Telecom

. . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 46

North Star Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 54

Nova Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 155

OMTI (Div. of Scientific Micro Systems) ... . .. . .... 42

Peritek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Perkin-Elmer (Data Div.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 18

Perkin-Elmer (Instrument Div.) . . . .. . .. . ... .. . . . 11 5 Pioneer Resea~ch . ......... . .. ~ ......... .. . 145

Plexus . . . . . . .

. ......... . . . . .......... 90

Power Solutions

. . . . . . .

. . . ..... . .. 47

Qu~ogy .. .. . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . ... ..

. .. . 189

Quantum Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .62 , 146-147

Quantum Software Systems . . . .

. .... 151

Silicon Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. ......... 78

Spectralogic . . . . . . . . . . .

. . .. . . ... 141

Stallman ........ . .. ......... . ..... . .... .. . 144

StorageTek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 34

Sysgen . .. ...

. .. . .............. 64

Tab Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. 156

TEAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . ... ....... 73

Tektroni x . . . . . . . . .

. . ............. 127

Televideo Systems . . . . . . . . . .

. .. 100

Texas Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . 17

Unify Corp.

. . 106-107

UniSoft

...... . . .. . ... . . . . . ... ....... . .. 74

Unitronix . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... .. . .. ........ .. . 192

Universal Data Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4

Vectri x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .. . ... 14-15

Vertex Peripherals . . . . .... . . .. . .. . . . ...... 134

Viasyn (formerly CompuPro) . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .29

Visual Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. .... 104-105

Xebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56-57

Zilog ... ... . ... . . . .. . . .. . ... . . . . ... . ... . 67

See p . 197 for Classified Advertisers See p. 198-202 for Career Opportunity Advertisers See p. 207-208 for Mini-Micro Marketplace

204

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

MARKET T R ACK

Sharon Hassell Assistant Editor
Market-standard tltle eludes UNIX
The market for all UNIX-based
computers will grow from 19 ,000 units
shipped in 1984 to 264,200 in 1988 , according to a study by International Resource Development Inc. (IRD), Norwalk , Conn. However, while the number of units shipped will more than triple by 1988, UNIX will become a standard operating system only in the supermicrocomputer arena, rather than become a mass-market standard, the study says. Supermicrocomputers will account for 90 percent of all UNIX-based units shipped in 1988.
The study blames UNIX's limited mass-market expansion on a number of factors, including the wide use of Microsoft Corp. 's MS-DOS operating system and MS-DOS-based applications software. According to IRD , MS-DOS is so prevalent in today 's personal computer market that converting to a UNIX operating system "does not make sense."
Even with supermicrocomputers, the study says, many users will avoid UNIX-based products in favor of those using MS-DOS with networking enhancements-DOS 3.1 for exampleand mainframe vendors will give great-

er prominence and marketing support to their own proprietary operating systems.
A widely established local area network (LAN) protocol such as Ethernet, or a protocol from IBM Corp. 's PC Network , could be the major roadblock in UNIX's growth as a multiuser operating system. The study claims it is often less expensive to link computers to LANs than it is to tie personal computers to a supermicrocomputer host that runs UNIX. Although multiuser systems can support a larger number of users at a lower cost-per-user than a LAN, this only applies to a comparison of their original purchase prices.
And, according to IRD , there exists more than 3 million IBM PCs and compatibles, and they aren't wearing out. Therefore , the cost of buying a file server or of converting a personal computer into a file server added to a LAN might be cheaper than buying a new multiuser system, even if the systems were to use the personal computers as terminals, according to the study. An additional advantage is that LAN users wouldn't need to buy or learn new software.
The study also says that the incorporation of UNIX features, such as its file directory system, into non-UNIX systems is an obstacle to its acceptance as a standard . The study adds that the

Supe....lcrocomputers dominate UNIX shipments

1984

1986

1988

Ma i nframe s Standalone personal computers Superminlcomputers Superm icrocomputers

300 1,700 5,000 72,000

700 4,000 8,000 160,000

1,200 10,000 13, 00 240,000

Tota l

79 ,000

172,700

264 ,200

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INC.

UNIX operating system is no more or no less portable than is MS-DOS.
PCB 111arket to reach $13 bllllon by 1993
Once a borrower of methods and machinery from photography , metal finishing and laminating, the printed circuit board (PCB) industry is developing a technology all its own. As a result , the PCB industry will boost shipments tenfold from 1983 to 1993 to reach $13.7 billion, according to a recent study by Frost & Sullivan Inc., New York.
The study says new PCB machinery is being designed to produce the much denser patterns of conductive lines and insulation spaces required by microprocessors and other very large-scaleintegrated (VLSI) semiconductor devices, while keeping waste to a minimum .
The increasing need for high-density applications will mean that the use of boards with multiple circuit layers will grow at a rate even faster than the PCB market as a whole, the study says. From 25 percent of total U .S. sales in 1983 , multi layer boards will claim 41 percent of the market in 1993. Singlesided and flexible circuits will drop from 17 percent of the total market to 14 percent o.ver the forecast decade .
Other highlights of the study include a discussion of the new materials being used to make PCBs. These include Teflon and ceramic substrates, and aqueous-based photosensitive materials, which can be disposed of economically in an environmenta lly acceptable manner. Higher-density input/output connections with surface attachments will also affect the PCB industry, according to the study. This method will do away with large mounting holes that take up valuable circuit space on PCBs .

The total market for UNIX-based computers will increase threefold from 1984 to 1988. Supermicrocomputers will account for more than 90 percent of all UNIX-based units shipped in 1988.

Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 837 Medium 838 Low 839

MINI-MICRO SYSTE MS/February 1985

205

ARTFUL INTELLIGENCE

By John K. Young

ACR0 S S
1 List of options
4 Combining form meaning "motion pictures"
8 Kind of chart
9 Movement, up or down, of text on screen
10 Cut and paste, e.g. 12 Kind of screen display
15 His name means "watchful" 17 Name for unknown person
on legal papers
19 Small infiammation on eyelid
20 They are controlled by egos and superegos
22 What each new computer development causes
23 Triumphant look salesman may give to losing competitor
24 System of points satisfying given conditions
26 Device for measuring thickness·of wire
28 Molybdenum (Chem .)
29 Plain product
31 Exist
33 Prepare final manuscript
34 Patterned on the model of
38 Information
40 Printed circuit board 41 The Computer _ _ _ __
42 Statement

44 Wings at right angles
46 What technicians do to move wires through tight places
48 Thatch for native huts in Malaya
50 Pattern
53 When in doubt
54 Statement
55 Transfer to another section of storage

D0 WN

2 Flattering opinion of oneself

3 Support group for new computer owners

4

display

5 A port

6 It is not clear (Latin abbr.)

7 In addition

8 Sharp voltage change 10 Electronic _ _ _ _ __

11 Storage medium

13 Entry in account

14 Computer novice

16 President of Syria

17

data

18 Kind of command you can give advanced computers

21 Special FORTRAN function

23 Found on tree

25 Eye's pigmented , vascular · layer
27 Forest open space
30 Calling for great accuracy
31 Calculates total of
32 This memory formerly called "core"
35 Dry run
36 Erbium (Abb.)
37 Time needed to accelerate magnetic tape to operating speed

39 Disc's concentric circles
43 Robot that can fix computers
45 Smear with grease
47 Function
49 What some graphics tablets use
51 News-gathering syndicate (Abb .)
52 Compass direction of Boston from Burlington , VT

K cA p T c0 A KA ERB

T p HuL HAMEs BGB

E L B A c y E R p c Nuu

R E B E RDG0 R

0 cs

M u

R0 A R0 K

D y

s NM0 Tc A L F E T E

NTT KKAHT F0

R B

A T EEHsDAERp s0

c L y R M D E R B A R

0 0

EpFNLTy pAp

M T

D uA B EMAR F N

A M

0 H c T wN F

NADR L

MT EMu L A T 0 R0 KQ

206

ASCII Baud Boot Break Broadband Bus Busy Cable Carrier Character Code

Data Dataset Echo Emulator Handshaking Interface Item Key Mainframe Mark Mode

Modem Pack Parity Port Spreadsheet Tap Terminal Topology Traffic Tube

Solution will be printed next month

An swers to January 's puzzles can be found on Page 188.
Interest Quotient (Circle One) High 840 Medium 841 Low 842

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

·Floppy and Hard Disk Drive Enclosures for all Major Micros.
·Xebec Controllers Optional ·Custom Design Available ·Class 'B' Certification Support
Can Be Provided ·Call For Pricing and Catalog
Microware, Inc.
41711 Joy Road · Canton, Ml 48187 (313) 459-3557

ZX-5000TM
liXTENCED RANGE"'" SURGE SUPPAEElllDRB

The ZX·SOOO Extended Range series surge suppressors/ . provide · the most advanced protection available on the market spikes, su disturbances.

1\X6"J:\.

SlJllON DESIGNS INO
COMPUTER SECURITY DIVISION

300 North Tioga· Ithaca,NY 14850

(:1:)7·277'4X11

for more Information call your regional sales manager
OR NORMA LINDAHL AT (617) 536-7780

SAM, The Smart Amblen1 Tempcnturc Mon11or f Power ( 'ontroller . measures compulcr room tcmpereturc and lcu your tompu1cr know too! AulOmatK: power-down is a simple 1.sk 1( your mini-computer gels 100 hot for comfon. There's no threat o( compu1cr damage or lou or da1a with
SAM watching over your system.

FNtures:

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· Aulo HI/Lo Te mpc11tutc SlOHIC · <.'ompac1S1tc 2y, ·· ,. , y, ~ ,.r

· Standud RS-232 ln1crf.:c · Bwh-tn Aiadiblc Wamm1 Alarm

·Metal C1)c · One Year W1run1 y

~ 101 W. 31 ST., N.Y., N.Y. 10001 (212) 947-5533

Single Board Computer

FAST

- 6MHz Z808 ' CPU

' POWERFUL ~ 64K to 2561< RAM , 2K to 64K ROM

<..... SX') and 8" Floppy Controller. SASI

r.; 2 RS-232. Centronics Port

FLEXIBLE - .SO-pin 1/ 0 Ex~nsion Bus.

SMALL

- 5¥.'' x 10"

' fh1:v'tit~

DAVIDGE CORPORATION 292 East Highway 246 PO . Bo,x 1869 Buellton, CA 93427
·zeo .. 11o .~1~·&dt·~·k olZ·loQ

(805) 688-9598

CIRCLE NO. 203 ON INQUIRY CARD

CIRCLE NO. 204 ON INQUIRY CARD

CIRCLE NO. 205 ON INQUIRY CARD

'---------------------------------L------~~~--~~~~--~~~--~~~-~~--~~~~~~~~---:20=-==-"1

MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

To Advertise: Call Norma Lindahl 617-536-nso

HIGH INQUIRIES LOW COST
· Sell products and services directly · Introduce new products · Investigate new applications · Develop new sales leads
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS DIRECT RESPONSE POSTCARDS

~:~~~tveim:anc~ 9G0'.""'°4_~-·"-:..._,·~-"=.1::::::""'

device 1s the basis

'- --~--

othfaat csohn1ptrpomlsg tshyestqeumality'-'..~

·__-,

-·-~ ·..,____

...~ ·

~ ~,. ofhandl;ngatterthe l)foduct
leaves your dock. Abusive hand·

"~

~~

ling I.urns this device a bn~ht red. ....

~

warntng your customer to mspect

lor possible damage. If you control

quality inside your plant. why not

control 1t after 11 leaves.

· Reduce damage service cost. returns. dead Inventory Create customer goodwill & protect the quality product you manufacture
I I Ca!I 1·8CJ0.5'27·94i7 fOf" eppt;c.itlon l nl~.tion I · hst of our Fortune 500 customers. MEDIA RECOVERY, INC.
1435 Round Table Drive, Dallas, Teus 75247

CIRCLE NO. 207 ON INQUIRY CARD

HIGH INQUIRIES LOW COST
Sell products and services directly Introduce new products · Investigate new applications · Develop new sales leads
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS DIRECT RESPONSE POSTCARDS

ORDER FORM

Call Norma Lindahl
(617)536-7780
CIRCLE NO. 210 ON INQUIRY CARD

In addition to 10 MHz, the NEW MBx8000 SBC features a single width SBX connector for adding standard expansion modules, such as the SBSxFDC Floppy Controller. MBx8000 maintains all the capabilities of its predecessor, the MB8000: Z8001/Z8002 CPU 4/6/10 MHz; 32K/128K/512K DRAM; up to 48K static RAM or EEPROM: up to 128K EPROM; 2 RS-232 ports; 40 parallel 1/0 lines; six 16-bit counter-timers; etc. ZSOOOTM Zilog. SINGLE BOARD SOLUTIONS, 7669 RAinbow Drive, Cupertino, CA 95104. (408) 253-0181
CIRCLE NO. 211 ON INQUIRY CARD

Advertise in the MINI-MICRO MARKETPLACE
Please run my advertisement in the following issues

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1985

1x 3x 6x 12x 18x

$660 $595 $575 $560 $545

24x

48x

$525

$505

MATERIALS
1. Glossy photo with 50-75 words. We will typeset your ad at no charge.
2. Camera ready artwork. 3. Film negatives: right reading emulsion side down .
AD SIZE: 2% rr x 3Y,. rr
208

COMPANY
ADDRESS
CITY
TELEPHONE
SIGNATURE
Space reservation by the first week of the month proceeding issue date. D Materials enclosed D Materials to come D Please send information
Send to: Norma Lindahl, MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS 221 Columbus Ave. Boston, MA 02116
15% Agency commission to accredited agencies. Please specify agency.
MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS/February 1985

Ne has an ~~er ·T ~
PIBrl·Mntcemr wnopraktt·ebdl1.e ~~~~f~~~~~ ·

Withdataprocessingprinting at 350 CPS and a price tag of
under $2,000, the0 1
priBnteesridfoers tshpeeperdi,ceth. e CI -3500, Model 20

delivers letter quality printing at a swift

87 CPS-more than twice the speed of

So fast fiOr most daisy wheel printers. And you also

get the capability for high

-ris resolution graphics, up to

So fiewd0lla.&.. 1

e 240 X 144 DPI.
The quiet, office

friendly CI-3500, Model 20 is as

flexible as it is fast and affordable.

For instance, a convenient interface

cartridge allows you to change your

printer's personality simply by

changing cartridges.

An operator changeable cartridge

compatible with the IBM PC graphics

printer is standard. Alternate cartridges compatible with other printers, such as DEC-LAlOO,® are also available.
A similar font cartridge accom modates multiple font and character sets, so you can avoid costly PROM installations.
The CI-3500, Model 20 Serial Printer from CIE Terminals. Never has an IBM-compatible printer worked this fast for so little. To find out more, just write or call CIE Terminals, 2505 McCabe Way, Irvine, Ca. 92714-6297. (714 )660-1421. Or call toll -free 1-800-624-2516.
OITllM/NAU AC/TOHELECTRONICS Cl:AMPAN Y
® DEC-LA JOO is a Reg istered Tradema rk of Digital Eq u ipment Corp. IBM is a Reg iste red Tradema rk of Inte rnationa l Business Machines. Inc.
© 1984 C IE TER MI NA LS. INC

CIRCLE NO. 104 ON INQUIRY CARD

D
-0
NewUDS
9600 bps
· Fastpoll Cuts On-line Training .Time 33°/o

The new 9600 bps fastpoll modem from Universal Data Systems means extra throughput for your pdlled multipoint network! Until now the fastest on-line training time available anywhere has been 12 milliseconds. Since training time is non-productive time, UDS h~s increased system throughput by trimming the training cycle to 8 ms, producing a corresponding increase in overall system efficiency.
The device is suitable for operation over unconditioned four-wire leased lines in either fastpoll or

conventional CCITT V.29 mode. Integral test features allow for system performance evaluation and fault isolation within the communications link.
The UDS design incorporates LSI and microprocessor technologies to achieve significant size and power consumption advantages. For detailed specifications, contact Universal Data Systems, 5000 Bradford Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805. Phone 205/837-8100; Telex : 752602 UDS HTV.
'·'

$1995 Quantity One

lnq~iry Hotline: 800/633-2252, Ext. 360.

Iii Universal Data Systems
® MOTOROLA INC.
Information Systems Group

UDS modems are offered nationally by leading distributors. Call the nearest UDS office for distributor listings in your area.

DISTRICT OFFICES: Atlanta, GA, 4041998-2715 · Aurora, CO, 3031368·9000 · Bellevue, WA, 2061455-4429 · Blue Bell, PA, 2151643-2336 · Boston, MA, 6171875-8868
Columbui,'oH , 6141895-3025 · East Brunswick, NJ, 2011238-1515 · Glenview, IL, 3121998-8180 · Houston, TX, 7131988-5506 · Huntsvllle, AL, 2051837-8100 · Mesa, AZ.,

60218200011 ·Minnetonka, MN , 6121938-9230 ·Mountain View, CA, 4151969-3323 · Richardson, TX, 2141680-0002 ·St. Louis, MO, 3141434-4919 ·Sliver Spring, MD, 301 1942-8558

Tampa, FL, 8131684-0615 ·Thousand Oaks, CA, 8051496-3777 ·Tustin, CA, 7141669-8001 ' · Wiiiowdaie, Ont, Can, 4161495-0008 · Ypsllantl, Ml , 3131483-2682

'

CIRCLE NO. 105 ON INOUiRy_CARD

Created by Dayner/Hall , Inc., ..Yiriter Park, Florid a