ing Repo rrSmith and rhe Database thee Builder manual in C . Under ... liminary C Builder manuals Borland C compiler. (Strictly ...
The similarities reach deeper. The pre liminary C Builder manuals Borland gave me-Co mpo nenr Writer ... T he function 's. Watchdog and Application Messages. Manual launch.
INTRODUCING THE
"·········· ....
Intel 200MHz
Pentium" Processor with MMX,.i.c Technology
...... ,·' ..··...·
...·· ....·
~wl'.!8MB
~ 512KB HIGH·SPEED Pip.ilnc 11111'\l U..-he
ACCESSIBLE
Full - 1..en~Skx>
30 Vidro Adoprcrwith MPEG
MILLENNIATMMXE
I
M icron El ec t ro ni cs 1~1 has integrated its award-winning M ill ennia platfo rm with th e new MMX1 ~1 techn ology from Intel. Introducing rh e M ill enn ia MXE, rhe lates t system in th e M ill enni a se ri es rh ar's perfect fo r rhe m ost un comp rom ising hom e o r o ffi ce user. The M ill ennia MXE del ivers a signifi ca nt increase in p rocessin g speed ove r cl ass ic Pentium-based systems, imp rov ing your p rod uctivity. Featuring the exc itin g new MM X techn ology, th e Mill enni a M XE accele rates ex isting and e merging multimedia an d co mmuni cati o n so ftwa re, enri c hes yo ur Internet experience, and dram ati cally imp roves gra phics, video and audio qual ity. And the M illenni a MXE is full y compatib le with all your ex istin g applicatio ns. T har m ea ns yo u don't have to upgrade yo ur software until yo u're ready. Plus th e M ill enni a MXE redu ces yo u r cos t of own ership . W ith the MMX techn ology o nboard, yo u ca n benefit fro m eco no mical so ftware so luti ons fo r
multimedia and co mmunica tio n enhan cem ents th at currently require expensive hardwa re dev ices. Im prove yo ur Productivity. Experi ence clea r, co lo rful grap hics. Enjoy th e Inte rn et mo re. Ca ll to ord er yo ur new M ill enni a MXE and get th e mos t adva nced PC ava ilabl e.
Expan!tion Ba):·~
· 5·p:Jr Jimitrcl \\JrrJmyon ml\Mproc~~lf .1nd mJin mt·nwr y · J.}'t'JI limitrd pms- o nl~· 10y\1rm w.l1 r.1111\ · I·.!· oc l·rcJr01>tiunJI un·sitr )tf\kr Jpt·rmrnl Im ~1inu111k, l1up \~\ll'm\ · lO d.i~~ of fll't' Mil1UU · ~\ljJ1Jl i l·tl wfl\\Jll' ~UIJJMJrl fM ~Umin dt\kmp ~rs 1 ("n\S · l0·1IJy 1110m·}··lmkpoliq·
· 2H1uur1ri.hnil.1\,uppu11
........... '"' eu.- l"91Cf~1~la-:l~.. ,.;J ~~ M>TIJfll~t..n.l>~l l.rt>'l(tl"1"11'1!· 1 ·"l~)~l(«'Cl ~ 3'" l tlU$t
ffml V f CO">lt.:fl ct IMlrj · ·'I~
.on1iq ...........
.1 ,., .....,.,..J - ~...ori:: ....... . bOGt:--J ou
"4 \'ft!l,~OIC,C·'\.n; l.'>t~
· 1
Dccc.,...-" 1008 Bu1Ru~
~' (roa9~ F~ l ®G
~~~. Hoo.WMPCPGO \99l. N <t IWS
In the past two years, Micron Electronics"' has won close to two hundred awards for product performance, reliability and customer service.
ECONOMICAL DESKTOP SOLUTIONS
ll'oi1""1l11111Jii""'"'"""'.,il l001llll;,nai..i.
ol! SlOO
· 512KB pipeline burst cache, flash BIOS
· 12X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive
· IOOMB Iomega" Zip~ drive
· Sound Blosler" 32 Wovetoble 3D
stereo sound cord with speakers
· ·
TPoCoIl-6fre4e-bmitin3ilDowveridoeroa1esMktPoEpG,
4MB
EDO
RAM
· Microsoft> Mouse, 104-key keyboard
· Microsoh Windows" 95 &MS" Plus! CD
· MMX enabled sohwore: Adobe" Photo Deluxe,
Pod, Erase~ Blockbuster~ Enlertoinmenl
ff · &Billboara Music Guide 5-year/3-year Micron Power111 warranty
· 16MB EDO RAM · 1.6GB EIDE hard drive
· 15" Micron l5FGxt .2Bdp (13.7" display)
· Microsoh Works 9l CD
1,999 S
Businm ' - S6B/month
· 32MB EDO RAM · 2.5GB EIDE hard drive · 15' Micron 15FGx, .2Bdp (13.7" display) · Microsoh Office CDs
$2,299 Busines1 k.,. SIB/111011th
· 64MB EDO RAM · 3.l GB EIDE hard drive · 17" Micron l7FGx, .26dp (l 5.B" display) · Microsoh Office CDs
2,899 5 Busiiesskasa S99/month
POWER DESKTOP SOLUTIONS
1r·1o1~ IWll!1"""'1"'""' -"' llMl& l7Dil:1m0101t._______....,. llOO
· 512KB pipeline built cache, Hosh BIOS
· PCl 32-bil Ultra SCSI fost-20 controller
· 12X SCSI CD-ROM drive, 3.5" ffoppy drive
· IOOMB Iomega Zip drive
· Sound Blaster 32 Waveloble 30
stereo sound cord with speakers
· ·
TPoCoIlf6re4e-bmitinJilDowevridoerod1esMktPoEpG,
4MB
EDO
RAM
· Microsoft Mouse, l04-key keyboard
· Microsoh Windows 95 &MS Plus!CD
· MMX enabled sohwore: Adobe Photo Deluxe,
Pod, Erase~ Blockbuster Enlertoinmenl
ff ·5&-yBeiollbr/o3o-ryaeMorusMicicGrounidPeower warranty
· 16MB EDO RAM · 2GB Uhro SCSI hard drive · 15"Micron 15FGx, .28dp (13.7" display! · Microsoh Works 95 CD
2,899 5 1Wies1lt11w S!9/mOfllh
· 32MB EDO RAM · 4GB Ultra SCSI hord drive · 15"Micron I5FGx, .28dp 113.7" display) · Microsoft Office CDs
3,399 5 Businenk... Sll6/month
· 64MB EDO RAM · 9GB Fosl SCSl2hord drive · 17" Micron 17FGx, .26dp (l 5.B" display) · Microsoft Office CDs
s4/ 999 Busintsskasa S170/month
sno Wilh lnltl 200MHr Pttfa1m pl'CKtUOf...-··--··--·------···--···-····mdd
· 512KB pipeline burst cache, Hash BIOS · 12X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive · PCI 64bit 30 video, MPEG 2MB EDO RAM ·Toolfree minilower or desklop · Microso Mouse, I04-key keyboard ·Microsoft Windows$ 95 &MS""Plus! CD
ff ··M5i-cyreoosor/f3t-WyeoorrksM9ic5roCnDPower"' warranty
· 16MB EDO RAM · l.6GB EIDE hard drive
· 15" Micron I5FGx, .28dp (13.7" display)
1,699 $
Busine11 l10w SSB/month
· 32MB EDO RAM · 2.5GB EIDE hard drive · 17" Micron I7FGx, .26dp (15.8" display)
2, 199 5 Businossk<MS75/month
·Supports duol lnlel 1BOMHz Pentium Pro processors
· 256KB inferno! coche, Hosh BIOS
· 12X EIDE CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive
· 16-bit stereo sound &speakers
· PCI 64-blt 3D video, MPEG, 4MB EDO RAM
·Toolfree mini tower or desktop
· Microsoh Mouse, 104key ke~boord
ff
··M5i-cyreoosro/f3t WyeionrdoMwisc"ro9n5P&owMe rS"'
Plus! CD warranty
· 16MB EDO RAM · 2.5GB EIDE hard drive · 15"Micron 15FGx, .28dp (l 3.7" display) ·Microsoft Works 95 CD
52, 199 iLlliness~ase S75/monlh
· 32MB EDO RAM · 3.IGB EIDE hard drive · 17" Micron 17FGx, .26dp (15.8"display) · Microsoh Office CDs
$2,699 BusilenmS92/mcnth
DUAi. hlTll 200MHz PEHTIUM1 PRO PIOCESSOR
· 256KB infernal cache Hash BIOS · PCI 32bit Ultro SCSI Fosl20 controller · I2X SCSI CD-ROM drive, 3.5" floppy drive · 16-bit stereo sound &speakers · PCI 64-bit JD video, MPEG, 4MB EDO RAM · Tool-free mini tower or desktop · Microsoft Mouse, I04key keyboord · Microsoft Windows NT Workslolion 4.0 CD
ff ··M5-iyceroosro/3ft-yOeffoicreM·CiDcrson Power warranty
· 32MB EDO RAM · 2GB Ultra SCSI hord drive · 15" Micron I5FGx, .28dp (13.7" disploy)
s3,399 Business loasel133/monlh
· 64MB EDO RAM · 4GB Ukro SCSI hard drive · I7" Micron l7FGx, .26dp (15.8" display!
s4,749 Businmlmell62/ monlh
· l 28MB EOO RAM · 9GB Fusi SCSl-2 hord drive · 21 "Micron 21FGx, .26dp (20.0" disploy)
$6/ 999 Businessle.,.1220/month
·!00 l ltrci.. load, N""I"\ 10 !l617 ·Mon·fri 6mn-IOpn let lam-II" 1~0 · llllt111G1ix'd !ales Hom: bfri 6ao-7pm IMO ·Pbooc 10U93-l4l4 ·fax:10Unl424 ·l\rdw Di-~ fa.i: 10Un8991 ·l·hniial \uPl>"f A·"®le 24 H·.KS I 7Ooys · T.cMtal Soppoi1 Pbooe:BBB·Rl-MlPC ·ledinit~ \vppot1 £.inai 11chsupport.mric@niucn.1om
~1\tln
lOS-89 1-.WJO
p 01 WJ~Elfc:nr<e.~ .l,l '";lt9- Mcrane.et'ona·nQ(-IQo-Qf'....O l ill~OOfll"C:b7.,,.. Al ~o&Ml r9~,.,~
lll\d~~t4~"'""°"l'ICOCll, 1W'U90Ql'Qif'd.c»~rd"Wdr'? »air,~pCfre'r-l'ICltd.i»~t""'7f:Jn2~~Ntdlr9ctw;11t
~ l t/Ht ti:: Lkri::r'i tfW'd ~ rlll~~'JM9daher.W:t .......... -~bWcf'goo~~-rda;n;M!Owclsolm \.NM :;lt'C;IU tlu.a Ol'l~-
T,.,.""' ...... l.o;o..i~ -· ......, ~W'dlACXil1~gl ...... ~ Mc;rOld!,.W-.,, W~ Nl..ir..w.rw... ~ . . '-ill:.-.: ~1
cll.knd~ .u --...a~ tndlma!Urcl~~.,..,.,.~ ol .._~~
llTTiV.Hl<I
C irc le 161 on Inquiry C ard.
PENTIUM. PRO
PROCESSOR
tecture implementation hatndses the power .o (UNIX and NI) to reduce network traffic and dCJive('
a scalable, manageable, high-performance S'Olutton . IQ/SmartServer cures fat client performance problems without limiting user access to information.
IQNision works directly with relational databases and
Arbor's Essbase or can be implemented with its own
MDDB to deliver a complete OLAP solution. For robust
multidimensional and drill-down analysis, nothing is easier
to use or functionally as rich as IQNision. An intuitive
interface displays information in interactive charts or cross
tabs, allowing any user to visually slice and dice, drill up
Ill'
and down, nest dimensions, flip axes, and rotate dimen
sions - all with point and click simplicity.
executes your requests, refreshing the infor mation and publishing it to your intranet.
Special Offer! For a limited time, down load a fully operational copy of IQ/LiveWeb, valued from $4,000 to $20,000, absolutely free. See http://www.iqsc.com for details. Start the sparks flying! Contact us today for details on our industrial-strength tools.
SOFTWARE
800-458-0386 info@iqsc .corn h t t p ://www.iqsc.corn
Europc.ln Subskliori<s · Affiliat.., UK (4 4) 1·962·844·777, m"°' 33 ( I) 4 7«903 ·~. fuly. Doaa h·lia (39) 6-5 17·933 lnt.:ma1i<>"'l !Mtn'buio,.., Austroli· (61 ) 2·369 · 1932, 2.975.7rx,9, 2-<36·2788, C.nod..fnfonnotlon Aca!< (416) 620-5811 , Chile (56) 2·341-4785, Hong KonR (851) 2541 ·9900. Mexico (52 ) 5·575·60'18, Si n8·pon:(65) 298·3838, South Africa (2n 11 · 421 · 4800, Sp.iin (H J 50-27-H· I 1 For di<1nbutol'i 1n 111 other Poafic R<m countne>, coll (65 ) 334 1936. Euroi1·:>n coumnes oil the UK offk e. and all oth= call IQ Softwa~·, US. heodquanm.
EDITORIAL
INBOX
STATE OF THE ART
Cadillacs or Cherokees? 14
By Mark Schlack It's wise not to confuse newness with appropriateness.
19 BITE readers write about Copland, network co mputers, impolite robots- and use rs, and our 64-bit foru re.
BITS
Just How Fast Are Those
New MMX Chips?
26
Best of Comdex
27
The Networked House 28
Unhinged Notebooks
30
Better Backbones
36
Bad News for Broken
Portables
32 Improbable Research
38
Internet Faxing
34 Lessons in Data Mining 40
CTI Matures 82
By Alanf och
Integrating computers and tel epho nes is still tricky, but new hardware and development tools are making the job easier.
CTI, Piece by Piece 85
By John Si/ling Th ese basic building blocks can help you launch a successful CTI imple mentatio n.
Tools for Telephony Apps 91
By Michael Nadeau Here's how to find the right telephony development tool fo r your needs and skill level.
SPECIAL REPORT
APPLICATIONS SERV,ERS
Share the Wealth
123 WhichO:;? 125 .
.~
4 BYT E FEBRUAR Y 19 9 7
EVAL
LAB REPORT
WHAT'S NEW
On TV: The Set-Top Morphing PowerPC
40A By PeterWayner Ba ndai Digital's set-top box, a ni ce impl ementatio n of Apple's Pippin technology, is a Mac based Web browser.
Delphi Does C++ 42
By Rick Crehan Bo rl and's popular RAD tool sheds its Pascal beginnings and gets a new name : C+ +Builder.
3-D Mighty Mite 47
By Robert L Hummel Dynamic Pictures' Oxygen 202 is a single-slot PCI card th at can co mpete with 3-D graphics accelerators.
Your PC's Ringing-Answer It! 48
By Barry Nance With EtherPhone, you can turn yo ur Ethernet LAN into a phone system easily and inexpensive ly.
HARDWARE
13 Graphics Cards for Business
100 By Dorothy Hudson, Jim Kane, and]ohnMcDonough We test 13 high-end graphics
WEB PROJECT
NT Security 117
ByJon Udell How to make Windows NT a secure Internet platform .
COMPARISON
All 12X CD-ROM Drives Are Not Equal
141 By]acq11eli11e Emigh A look at the fi rst four 12X CD -ROM drives.
CORE
OPERATING SY STEMS
FaultTolerance for Windows Applications
51 By]oiio Carreira, Diamantino Costa, and]oao Gabriel Silva Here's a utili ty that provides fau lt to lerance so that mission crici ca l 32-bit Windows applicati ons can run reliably and co nrinu ously.
NETWORKS
Building Bridges and Secure Connections
55 ByJeffrey Fritz A look at che Poinr-to-Point Protoco l and how it firs into che corporate network.
CPUs
The Mac Goes Multiprocessor 59
By Tom Tl10mpso11 A new library and API enable preemptive multitasking and multiprocessing on Mac OS machines.
PROGRAMM I NG
Python Does Scripts and Objects
63 By Jeffrey P. Shell Python is a platform- indepen dent OOP language with capabilities ranging from simple scripting to sophisti cated object libraries.
cards that can really speed up the Windows interface and even have some low-end 3-D features.
SOFTWARE
Present a Businesslike Slide Show
108 By David Seachrist Present your case more effectively with one of these five graphics packages.
182 Two things for the modern j ack Kerouac to take on the road: DeLorme's Tripmate satel lite navigator and Millenia's Email Reader.
REVIEWS
Eudorable Web Mail 140
By Steven]. Vaughan-Nichols Eudora has a new, 32-bit Windows clie nt and enhanced filterin g optio ns.
Tune In, Turn On the Web 145
By Pete Loshin Marimba's Castanet aims to solve the Web's bandwidth problems by "broadcasting" pages and app lets over a distributed transmission system.
CODE TALK
Java's RAD Route to Data Access
192 By Rick Crehan Developing distributed data access applications? Visual Cafe Pro can handle some of the ugliness for you.
SERVICE
Reader Service Inquiry Reply Cards 144A-B, 144C-D, 176A-B
Index To Advertisers
Alphabetical Order 176
Product Category
178
Editorial Index
by Company
180
r
r"'
i"~i'- "'""- -
· i9:!Jli ~
PROGRAM LISTINGS
FTP: ftp.byte .com
From BIX: Join "listings/
frombytc97" and select the appropri·
ate subarca (i. e., " feb97").
THE BYTE WEB SITE and THE VIRTUAL PRESS ROOM
htt p :// www.by t c.co m
CHAOS MANOR
Of Bug-Hunting and a New Frontier
149 By j erry Pournelle Jerry offers hi s opinions on what's best for the desktop in the new age of graphics.
BYTE!ISSN 038().5280);. publiahed "'°"lh~ by The MeGraw·H1ll Comp.nies. Inc. U.S . .ubtcnber ra le $29.95 per year. In Canada and Mei:ico, $34 .95 per yoor. European surface mP subscriptiona $ 60. Uma:l $85. Non·Europoan aubscriptiona, $60 eurlace mail or $85 airmei. All toruignaobscriptiona aro payo.blo in U.S. funds !hat can bo drawn on a U.S. bank. Single copies $3.96In 1ho U.S.. $4.95 inCnnndo.Exocutive,Ed 1oriaJ. Clrculation , 11.nd Advertising Officoa: Ono Pheonix Mill Lano, Potcrborough, NH 03458. Pttriodicats postage paid at Potorborough,NH,and additional mai!ingofrices. Poatago paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada Poat lntomational PIJblioalionsMalProduc! S aloo AQ<o··ne<11 No. 246492. Rogiate red for G ST aa The McG t8W'HiD Compa.nies, Inc., G ST t l 23076673. Postmaater: Sond adQ-.,..clw'IJOS ond '1.ftnont quea1K>ns toBYTE Suba.cnpbol'\8, P. O. Bo. 552. H".ght:Jtawn. NJ 08520.
Printed in theUnited States ol America
FE BRUAR Y 1997 BY TE 5
CONTENTS BY PLATFORM
INDEX
WINDOWS
Better in Fits and Starts 26
We test a new Pentium hopped
up with Intel's MMX .
Delphi Does C++ . . . . 42
C + + programmers now have
the full power of Delphi in Bor
land's C+ +Builder.
3-D Mighty Mite . . . . 47
Dynamic Pictures' Oxygen 202
PC! board provides excellent
3-D graphics performance.
Fault Tolerance for Windows
Applications . . . . . . 51
A software utility provides a
measure of fault tolerance fo r
mission-critical applications.
CTI, Piece by Piece . . . 85
Wider applications support
and open APis arc making
more companies consider Win
dows NT for CTI systems.
Which OS? .. . . . . 125
NT Server offers an ever-grow
ing base of applications that
leverage the multiprocessing
namre of the OS.
Suite and Sour . . . . 131
BackOffice slugs ir out in the
fearures war with IBM Soft
ware Servers.
Power to the Server . . 133
SMP and economical prices are
turning NT and x86-based
machines into decent app lica·
tions servers.
Eudorable Web Mail . . 140
Eudora for Windows now has
32-bit code and improved sup
port for POP and MIME.
OS/2
Which OS? . . . . . . 125
Warp Server provides solid
applications-server capabili
ties, file and prim services,
management rools, remote
connectivity, and backup and
recovery.
Suite and Sour . . . . 131
The nine server components
within IBM Software Servers
let you scale a diem/server
implementation to your partic
ular needs.
MACINTOSH
Better in Fits and Starts 26
MMX Pentium vs. Power Mac:
See Bits for race results.
On N: The Set-Top Morphing PowerPC . . 40A Bandai Digiral's @World Web browsing machine could be the Macintosh for the surfing set.
The Mac Goes
Multiprocessor . . . . . 59
Multiprocessor Mac OS
systems can now run preemp
tive tasks on each processor.
UNIX
CTI, Piece by Piece . . . 85
The scalability and reliability of
Unix make it the traditional
choice for running CTI servers.
Which OS? . . . . . . 125
Sun's Solaris is easily customiz
able, which means you can
create applications servers that
are runed to your parricular
needs.
Power to the Server .. 133
For performance and reliabili
ty, RISC servers running Unix
excel as applications servers.
NETWORKS
Your PC's Ringing-
Answer It! . . . .
. 48
EtherPhone gives you a
pseudo-PBX where LAN
wires replace phone cords.
Building Bridges and
Secure Connections . . . 55
PPP provides a seam less way to
connect remote sires, thanks to
irs ability ro encapsulate and
move connectionless network
data packets through seri al
connections.
CTI, Piece by Piece . . . 85
Setting communications stan
dards throughout an enterprise
is one of the most fundamental
yet contentious tasks in a CTI
launch.
ActiveX ... . ... . .. . . .. 63,91
Applications servers . . . .123,
125, 131, 133
Applications suites .. . . .. 131
CD-ROM . . . . .. . . . . . .38, 141
Tools for Telephony Apps 91
Building CTI applications
requires choosing among three
classes of CTI development
Chips . .... . . . . . . . . .. .26, 59
Client/server .... 63, 123, 192
Computer telephony . .48.82,
8 5, 91
tools, which offer varying
degrees of control and
difficulty.
C++ . . . .. . ... . . . .42,91 , 192
Data mining . . ... . .. . . .. .40
E-mail . . . . ... . .. 66, 140, 182
INTERNET
E-mail, junk . .. . . .. . .... .38
57 Varieties of Internet
Fault tolerance . .. . .. ... .51
Faxing . . . . . . . . . 34
Now you can do ir without a
GPS . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .182
Net connection.
. Graphics 26,47, 100, 108, 149
Better Backbones to Shoulder
Bigger Network Burden 36
New high-speed links and ser
vices are on the way.
Graphics accelerators 47, 100
Image processing . .. .26, 149
Internet . . . . . .34, 36,40A.66,
117. 140, 145
On N: The Set-Top Morphing PowerPC . . 40A Bandai's @World is a Mac
ISDN .. .. .... . . . . . .. . . .. 55
Java . .. . .. .. . .14, 63,91,192
MMX . . . . . .. .. . . . . ..... .26
clone thar brings rhe Ner to
Mobile computing 30,32. 182
your TV set.
MPEG .... . . . .. . . . . . . .. 100
Your E-Mail Is Obsolete 66
The impact of rhe Internet on
your proprietary e-mail sys
tem? It's probably obsolete
now. Here's how to get back up
to speed.
Multimedia . . . ... . . .26, 100
Multiprocessing . .. .. 59, 133
Networks . . ... ..27, 28, 48, 55,
117.125, 123
OOP . . . . . .. . . .. . .. . . . . .. 63
Operating systems . . .. 14, 19,
NT Security . . . . . . 117
Windows NT security isn't per
fect. This month's Web Project
offers seven ways to make NT
safer.
Eudorable Web Mail . . 140
Better POP and MIME sup
port, plus new filtering plug
ins, make the new Windows 95
version of Eudora well worth
paying for.
51 , 59, 125, 133
PPP .... . ... . .. . . . . . . . . .55
Programming . .34,42,60,63,
91 , 192
Research, improbable . . . .38
RISC .. . . .. . .. . .. . . .59, 133
Security . . ... . . . . .. . ... 117
Server suites . . . . . .. . .. . 131
Scripting . . . . . .. . .. . . . . .63
Storage . . . .. . .. . . . ..... 141
Tune In, Turn On the Web 145
Castanet's "broadcasting"
system may solve Web band
width problems, courtesy of
Marimba.
3-D . . . . . .. . ... . . .. .47, 100
Video .. . . . . . .... .. .. . . . 100
Webcasting ... . ..... ...145
World Wide Web . . . . .. .40A.
66, 117.140.145
6 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
WE WANTED AN AD
THAT POKED FUN AT
THE COMPETITION.
UNFORTUNATELY,
THERE IS
NO COMPETITION.
4.6 GIGS
on 1 DISK
Additional disks under $170.
800.553.7070
to order or for a dealer near you .
Apex4.6
WHEN YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT STORAGE.
P1NNACLE &1cRo.
TEL 714.789.3000 ·FAX 714.789.3150 · www.pinnaclemicro.com
All prices based on MSRP. The Pinnacle Micro logo is a registered lrademark of Pinnacle Micro Inc. All olher lrademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.
C ircle 14 6 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 14 7).
I
I
February 1997, vol. 22, no. 2
EDITOR IN CHIEF Mark Sch lack
Editorin Chief'sAssistant: Linda Higgins
ED ITO RIAL
EXECUTIVE EDITORS
International: Rich Friedman
NewMedio:Jon Udell
MANAGING EDITOR
Jenny Donelan
NEWS
Peterborough :
News Editors: Davi d L Andrews,
Martha Hicks
Frankfurt :
Senior Editor:Rainer Mauth
REVIEWS
Director :David Essex Senior Technicol Editors: Rick Grehan,
Dave Rowell
Technical Editors: Russell Kay, Pete
Losh in
FEATURES
SeniorEditor/f<:otures :Alan Joch
Pc:tc:rborough:
Senior Technical Editorot Lorg e: Tom Thompson
San Matc:o:
SeniorEditor:Tom Halfhill
Lexington:
Senior Technical Editor. Edmund X. DeJesus
NEW MEDIA
Production Associate:Joy-Lyn S. Blake
SENIOR RESEARCHER
Row land Aertker
ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL EDITORS
Dennis Barker, Cathy Ki ngery,
Warren Williamson
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Jerry Pournelle
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Dick Pountain, Udo Flohr, Mark La Pedus
CONSULTING EDITORS
Stephen Apiki, Raymond GA Cote,
Trevor Marshall, Stan Miastkowski,
Barry Nance. Roberta Pourn elle.
Ellen Ullman, Peter Wayner
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
June Sheldon
DESIGN
Design Director:Charles Dixon Ill Assacio te Design Director/Design & Photography: Sharon Price Associate Design Director/Graphics: Joseph A. Gallagher Designers:Barba ra Busenbark,
Cindy Sands, Donna Sweeney
FINANCE AND OPERATIONS
Vice President:Cla udia Flowers
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
Advertising Production Manager.
Linda Fluhr
Se nior Advertising Production Coordinotor:Lyda Clark Advertising Production Coordinators:
Karen Cilley, Rod Holden
Senior Operations Coordinotor:
Lisa Jo Steiner
Advertising Graphics Manager.
Susa n Kingsbury
Graphics Production Coordinator.
Christa Patterson
FINANCE
Senior Financial Analyst:
Dia ne Henry
Systems Administrator: Peggy Dunham Jun iorFinanciol Analyst:
Dale J. Christensen
CIRCULATION
Director:Susan Blattman InternationalCirculation Manager.
Barbara Copcutt
Subscriptions Manager. Lynn Lagasse Assistant Subscriptions Manager.
Ch ristine Tourgee
Newsstand Manager:Vicki Weston Assistant Manager:Karen Desroch es CirculationAssistant:Jill Wood
ADMINISTRATION
Human Resources Administrator:
Pa t Burke
Receptionist:Agnes Perry
MARKET ING AN D PLANN ING
Market Information Manager.
Edward Relding
Market Information Coordinator:
Dyla n DiGregorio
Marketing Manager:
Carol Sanchioni
Assistant Manager. International Marketing and Special Events:
Arja Neuka m (603) 924-2636
Copyrights Manager:
Faith A. Ellington (603) 924-2525
Marketing Services Administrator:
Meredith Bickford
VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER
John M. Griffin
Publisher's Assistant: Donn a Nordlund
AD VERTISING SALES
NATIONAL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Lori Silverstein (614) 899-4908
Soles Assistant:
Susan Monkton (603) 924-2618
NEW ENGLAND
John Ferraro (617) 860-6221,
(212) 512-2 555
Jea nne Beeson (617) 860- 6349
NEW YORK
Michael Feinberg (212) 512-4811
Jill Pollak (212) 512-3585
MID-ATLANTIC/SOUTHEAST
Neil Helms(404) 843-4777
Kirstin Pih l (404) 843-4765
CENTRAL U.S.
Pau l Franchak (614) 899-4912
SOUTHWEST
Bert Panganiban (214) 688- 5165
Brian Higgins (603) 924-2596
SOUTH PACIFIC
Beth Dudas (714) 753-8140
Geancttc Perez (714) 753-8140
NORTH PACIFIC
Roy J. Kops (41 5) 513-6861
Li sa Farrell (415) 513-6862
INSIDE ADVERTISING SALES
Assistant:Vivian Bernier
(603) 924-2521
BYTE DECK
Brian Higgins (603) 924-2596
EURO-DECK
Mark Stone (603) 924-2533
REPRINT SALES
Susan Monkton (603) 924-2618
INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING STAFF
Sales Support:
Arja Neukam (603) 924-2636
See listi ng on page 177.
B I X G L 0 B AL C 0 N F E R E N C I N G SYS T E M A N 0 N L I N E C 0 IA M U N I T Y
ACTING MANAGING EDITOR Peter Olson
EXCH ANGE ED ITORS
Amiga Exchange:Joannt Dow Entertainment and Leisure Exchange:Rich Taylor IBM &chong.:Barry Nance Programmers Exchange:BiII Nicholls ProfessionalsExchange: David Recd TojerryExchonge:Je rry Pournc:: ll c: Windows Exchange:Kare n Kenworthy WritersExchonge:Wayne Rash Jr. MocinroshandOther &changes:At Large
INFORMATION ENGINEER Pttcr Ol50n
MEMBER SERVICES MANAGER Chuck Greenslit
BIX is the BIX Informa tion Exdiange. your best source for technica l advice.
BIX is owned and operated by Odphi Internet Services Corporat ion.
Find us on the Web at http://www.bix.com/ (all browsers arc welcome).
E-ma il our auto- responde r at info@bix.com or fax us at (617) 441-4902.
Dial us by modem ot (800) 695-4882 or (617) 492-8300 IV.34, 28.8 Kbps}.
Telnet to x25.bix.com or ca ll us (voice} at (800) 695-4775 or (617) 354-4137.
Con nect via packet networks to host BIX.
Look In the last few pages of this magazine for our advertisement.
We welcome your questions, comments, complaints, kudos, and submissions. MAIN OFFICE : One Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough,
NH 03458, (603) 924-9281.
son Mateo: 1900 O'farrell St. 1200, San Mateo, CA
94403, (415) 513-6912.
loingtM: 24 Hartwell Ave.. Lexington. MA02173, (617)
863-5t00.
OERMANYIEUROPE: Emil von Behring Strasst 2, 60439
Frankfurt. Germany,+49 69 5801 123.
ELECTRONIC MAIL: On BIX. send to "editors.. All BYTE
editoos and columnists also have individual mailboxes
on BIXforeasyaettSS.
MCI: 250-0135 BYTE Magazine. Many editors also have
individua l MCI addresses in their own names.
OTHERS:Many editors also are reachable through uunet.
ApplcLink, CompuServt, and numerous other services.
WEB :http://www.byte.com
U.S. fax: Editorial: (603) 924-2550
Advertising:(603) 924-7507
U.K. fax: +44171495 6734
SUBMISSIONS:
.Autho·.:Wewelco~ articleproposals and submissions..
Unacceptable manuscripts will be rctumcd if actom paniC1l by sufficient return postage.Not responsible for
lost ma nuscripts or photos. Vcndon:We welcome news ofyour new products;please call the News department orthe Reviews department at the earliest possible date. Wecannot be responsible for unsolicited product samples. ARTICLE REPRINTS: For price quotations on customized reprints of BYTE articles, contact Su san Monkton,reprints manager,,at (603) 924-261 8. (Minimum quantity: 500.).
fON 'CUSTOMER SE"RVIC
Inside U.S.. (800) 232-BYTE; outside U.S..
+609 426 7676. E-mail-based cuslomer service: mpcmvc @mcgraw-hill.com;Web -base d customer service: http~/www.byte.com/admin/m paddchg .htm. In ternational subscribers may also contact our inter national customerservice facility in Galway,Ireland.by calling +353 91 752792 or via fax: +353 91752793. For a new subscription, (800) 257-9402 U.S. only, E-mail: mpordm@mcgraw-hill.com or write to BYTE Subscription Dept.. P.O.Box 555, Hightstown, NJ 08520. Subscriptions are $29.95 for one yea r. $54.95 for two yea rs, and $74.95 for three years in the U.S. and Its possessions. In Canada and Mexico, $34.95 for one year, $64.95 for two years, $87.95 for three years. Internationally, US$60.00 for fast surface delivery, US$85.00for air delivery.Single-copy priceIs $3.95 in the U.S. and its possessions, $4.95 in Canada. Foreign
subscriptions and sales shouldbe remitted InU.S. fu nds drawn on a U.S. bank. Please allow six to eight weeks for deliveryoffirsfr.sue.
PHOTOCOPY PERMISSION: Where necessary, permissionisgranted by the copyright
owner for thost"1Jistered with the Copyright Oearance Center(CCC),222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA01923, to photocopyany articlehereinfor pcr>0nal or internal ref erence use only for the flat fee of S1.50 per copy of th· orticle or any part thereof.Correspondence and payment should be sent directly to the CCC. 222 Rosewood Dr.. Danvers. MA 01923. Specify ISSN 0360-5280, S1.50. Copying done for other than per>0nal orintemal refer ence usewi thout the permission ofThe McGraw-Hill
~~~r;;i~.~~fk ~~~~,~~~~i:b~u~~r~0;s~~~: ~~;h
Ellington, copyrights manager, (603) 924-2525. BYTE
Is available in microform from University Microfilms lntemotional, 300 North Zeeb Rd.. Depl PR, Ann M>or,
Ml 48106or 18 Bedford Row,Dept PR.1.Dndon, WClR 4EJ,U.K.
BYTE
tz
ADWuion I>{~AkGnrw·Hill C.ompattitJ
CopyrightC1997 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. BYTE and 11Y1E arc "1JISteredlrnd< marks oflhe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Trademarlc reg islered in the United States Patent and Trademark ornce.
~Member Audit BureauofCira.tl1Uon
OFFICERS OF TllE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES:
founder.James H. McGraw (1860-1948).
Chairman and Chief Executive Offictr.Joscph L Dionne; President and Chief Operating Offi~r. Harold W. McGraw Ill: Senior Vice President and GMcrol Counsel: Kenneth M. Vitt or; Execu tive Vice President
and Chief Financial Officu:Robc:rt J. Bahash ; Sen ior Vice Pr~idcnt. Treasury Operations: Frank D. Pcnglasc : President. Informat ion Services Group:Michael K. Hehir: Group Vice President, Informa tion
Tcchnology andCommunic:otionsGroup: Kevin C. Harold.
1 0 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Full Cou1se
for the Power
Hungry
The Multimedia WinBook XPS Profor only
92699
I IWmBookXP6Pro
..
.....................~ ............
· 133MHz Intel" PentiUJTI' Processa
· 12.1' Oua~Scan Cokx" Display
· 1GB remooble Hard Drive
· 16MB EDO RAM exp<nlable to 40MB
· 28.8PCMCIA ~
· 256K Syncburst l2 Cache
· Options Bay accepts 8X CD·ROM, 3.5' Floppy
Drive (both included) or Optional 2nd LithilJTl
Ion Battery
· 39 Watt Lithium Ion Battery
· Integrated dual-b.moo JXJinting stick. optional
~Ai.do ·
DrMl 16-bit plu;rarrl-plav
· Tm Tl?! II or one TV!ll 111 PCMCIA Slot
· PCI L.ocal-OOs PCMCIA Controller with GraJiiics
Actelerator
· Parallel. Serial. PS/2. and one 2-wify Infrared
JXJrt
· One-year extendable warranty
· Microsoft WindawS" 95 installed on all models
S2&99
WmBookfX
· 133MHz ln1ef" Pentium" Processa
· 12.1' SVGA Active Matrix Color · 256K Syncburst l2 Cache
· Options Bay accepts 6X CD-ROM. 3.5" FkWr Dm-e (txJth included) or Optional 2rd Lithium
Ion Battery · 59 Watt Smart Litl1ium Ion Baltery · Integrated dual-button pointing stick. optional
touchpad (shown) · Integrated Soundblaster Pro 16-bit Stereo Aufio
· One TY!E II and ooe Tl?! Ill PCMCIA Slot · PC! L.ocal-Ws PCMCIA Conuoller with Gra~ics
ActeleratD · 810MB ri:movable Hard Drive · SMB EDO RAM 0Ji!lilndable to 40MB
· Parallel, Serial. PS/2, Game JXlft. and one 2 Wfrf Infrared port
· One-year extendable warranty · Microsoft Wif'OONs~ 95 installed on all models
· 150MHz Intel· Pantiwif
Processor
· 12.1' SVGA Active Matrix Coloc
· 28.B Internal~
· 1GB rerroiable Hard Drive
· 16MB EDD RAM expandable to 40MB
· 256K Syncburst l2 Cache
· Options Bay accepts 6X CD·AOM. 35' FloWf Drive (both included) or Optional 2nd Lithium
Ion Battery
· 59 Watt Lithium Ion Battery · Integrated dual·OOtton JX)inting stick. optional
tru::hpad (shown)
· Integrated Sanlblaster Pro 16-00 Stereo AuJKJ
· One TY!E 11 and one TYJX! 111 PCMCIA Slot · PC! L.ocal-OOs PCMCIA Controller with GraJiiics
Actelerator
· Parallel, Serial. PS/2. Game port and one 2-
way Infrared JXJrt
· One-year extendable warranty
· Microsoft Windaws' 95 installed on all models
~ ~.;a9 I 9
IJ{x]radeto2GBHDO. 32ME RMHdd Si11)
Ifyou're hungry for a powerful notebook loaded with features, pick up the phone now to place your order! You can't find an award-winning combination of value and qualityanywhere else!
WmBook
COMPUTER CORPORATION
Designed ror
Microsoft WindowS95
WinBook ktrp$ winning...nnd win11ing...a11d winning...alfd wint1irtg...a11d wirming...and wittning...and wi1111ing...aml ll'illning...nntl winning...and wi1111i,1g...and winning...and 111i11ning...antl winnit1g...and winnfrlg...
Jmry1!1l6
PC[lp1op
&illr'stboi:t w.BoaiXP.XP5
L.,uipe.y,.'1Gm
Mlr1!1!1i. w.Boai XP5 P1 20
1611.lillm
l
o.:mi.1!1l6 w.l!aot XPS P100
16/11IMI
1lSTM
Circle 601 on Inquiry Card.
AD,lst19!1l WllllaatfXP133
®. w-. "-'11997 Poocmum!al Wllilooi FX/P133
We'll Tailor a Vetir Server
for Your Growing Business.
How will the Vetix EL server fit your business?
Custom Software. Micron ElectronicsTMwiU ship your Vetix EL series server pre installed with your choice of either No~~ lntranetWaWI or Microsofr!> Wmdows NT<l> Server-sa\1ng you rime and money.
Custom Hardware. The Vcrix EL server offers a variery of hardware oprions fac
tory-direcr and backed by Micron Electronics, a company with decades of exix:ri
encc in the electronics industry. We'll cusromizc your new Verix EL server to fit your business.
Custom Service and Su.Pport. With your purchase of aVetix EL server, you'll enjoy the right level ofsemce and suppon tailored to fir your networking needs. With every system we offer direcr 24-hour telephone supron and three network operating system incident resolutions. On-sire service opaons arc also available !Tom industry-leading computer service provider Digital Eqmpment Corporation. These options indude system setup and four-hour response suppon-as much or as little as you need.
Custom Pricing. The Vetix EL server is the economical server solution. Call 1-800-295-0543 ro speak wicl1 a sales representative, or visit our Web site to create and price your own server solution online.
MICRON VETIXTM EL SERVER SERIES
STANDARD FEATURES
· Intel 200MHz Pentium<l> Pro processor · Dual Pentium Pro ZIF sockets · 256KB L2 cache, flash BIOS ·Memory upgradable to 512MB
· Slots:1ISA, 3PCI, 1shored PCl/ISA · Adapte~ PCI 32-bitUltra SCSI Fast-20 controller · 12X SCSI·2CD-ROM drive · 3.5' floppy drive · 64-bit 1MB ISA video · 3Com9 3C905-TX Fast BherLin PCl l0/100-Bose-TX NIC · Full·size lower with l0drive bays · 15' Micron l5FGx, .28dp (13.7" display) · Microso~ Mouse, 104-key keyboard · NOS support (3 incident resolutions) ~ · 5-year/3-year Micron Power111 warranty
VET1xTM EL lOOON SERVER
· 32MB ECC EDO RAM
· 26B Ultra SCSI hard drive · Novell~ lntranetWaree4.11
(5 user license)
· 64MB ECC EDO RAM · 46B Ultra SCSI hard drive · Novell lntranetWare 4.11
(5 user license)
STANDARD FEATURES
· Dual Intel 200MH1 Pentium Pro processors
· 256KB L2 cache, flash BIOS · Memory upgradable to 512MB · Slots: 1ISA, 3PCI, 1shared PCl/ISA · Adoptec PCl 32-bit Ultra SCSI Fost-20 controller · 12X SCSl-2 CD·ROM drive · 3.5"floppy drive
· 64·bit 1MB ISA video · 3Com 3C905-TX Fast EtherLink PCl 10/lOO·Base-TX NIC · Full·size tower with 10 drive bays · 15"Micron 15F6x, .2Bdp (13.7" display)
· Microsoh Mouse, 104-key keyboard
tJ ·· NOS support (3incident resolutions) 5·year/J.yeor Micron Power warranty
PENTIUMePRO
PROCESSOR
VET1xTM EL 2000N SERVER
· 64MB ECC EDO RAM
· 128MB ECC EDO RAIA
· 46B Ultra SCSI hard drive
·Two 4GB Ultra SCSI hard drives
· Novell lntranetWare 4.11
·Novell lntronetWare 4.11
(5 user license)
(5 user license)
~)B!l iles leme Sl70/month ~ BU5ilesllmS~/month
VET1xTM EL 2000 SERVER
· 32MB ECC EDD RAM
· 64MB ECC EDD RAM
· 64MB ECC EDD RAM
· 128MB ECC EDD RAM
· 2GB Ultra SCSI hard drive
· 4GB Ultra SCSI hard drive
· 46B Ultra SCSI hard drive
·Two 46B Ultra SCSI hard drives
· Microsoh Windows NP Server 4.0 · Microsoh Windows NT Server 4.0
· Microsoh Windows NT Server 4.0 · Microsoh Windows NT Server 4.0
(10 user license)
(10 user license)
~ ~ > BusMilemeS146/nm!h
) BllliMl!l11111Sl63/month
[10 user license)
(10 user license)
~>eir.inesslmS176/month ~>allline!slea11S210/month
· With Sony' 4/8G8 SCSI DOS·2DAT to_pe backup drive...........odd $999
· Wirh Seogote Bodi.up En cBackup Soflwore....-..-................odd 5249
· ' ·rru llmlttd w.uu.n1yor1 mlcroprocrs.sor md m1ln memory
· J-rurllm!1rdri;11u-anly,!sttmwmi:i:r
'°"""' ' I·, l· or l·l"W opcklb.tl CIMllr Kn1cC' .l~ I« Mkn» dnl1op ~CDJ
· JO di)' d !>ft Mioon.,"?Pllnl
"l'P"' Im Mloon dnbap 'f"""
· JO-dlr""'T·bxttpol<y
· U·how: 1dudal i·JPPOft
... _ ... _ .. _ 1'h~·---·rd....,~lilc!7·--'-i-
...-..............,.,..
.._..,..._,.d_,,.._v_..~ i:-11 ... - . . -..... _... ..
· 900 l Kord>et Rood. Hompo, ID 83687 · Mon·ffi 60111-lllpm Sor 7om-5pm !Mn
· lntemotionol Sol" H"'"' Mon·fri 6om·7pm (Mil
· Ptione: 2118·893-3434 · fax: 2118·893·3424
· Pur"- Ordtr fax: 2118·893-8991
· Ted>nicol lvpp0<1 Am.hie 24 lb.n ADoy-7 OO)l AWttk · Pirone: 88~RX·MVPC · E-mai: 1ed!wppo11.meK@micron.com
~~
l OS.S9H970
l ·I 11::.n~fll
~ f:m )!cuoo
lOS.S9l·7l9l
9S·S00·70S·li55
01991MictM ElearCftQ., lrc.JJtqar~ MO'l)n6oacna1tl'l!X~ IOt ClftMlCtlloremX1 lnt{P09'~0t~~ AltutnaMSar·Sl:.i;.edlD ro'Ua:lq Pnc'MMldlQtOICI·
llOrtfi mayo. c:fWIOld wlll'IOul notlOI: priots do~ rouo. ~arid~· JO.day money~ po8c.y doe$ noc n:tl.OI rt:i..rn lttigtrt WIG ongin1! ~1\atldla'lg tnafO*t. ·PPkt <Jttf t:> Micron
bfarodpt«luet' anGboglnt lrorntNi11ol "1ipmelit. All 1a1t1 11t l'Jl)jt(tto -licfonEltC:trtlnk:1'cwrfOl ltm'l3andCXJf'Cti0n1°'16Jt, LMut pr1c11 ~Md on 36-monltlleast. lmtl, Intel lns.liOe end Pentium
are r9g11tor.a b'adem&r'U of lhe ~Corporation. Mlcrclolt, VltrO::Jw&.. \~ lff .rid in. Windows 1c:9:i are~t....a ~~ol Mlaololt Cor;xnllon. AJc:ttet NMol ll'llrQ, ll'adetnalkl and 'IQ"
5llH9dtlldematloa,. lhol~dtMir,.spectjvlcompanila
BYTE9702-0 IOY
Circ le 162 on Inquiry Card.
o.c.motr I ll~
Cadillacs or Cherokees?
In our quest to be current, let's not confuse newness with appropriateness.
all Comdex produced a defi viab le, and they all have problems. On
nite feeling of split person the sofnvare side, they have roughly the
ality in me, and I bet l wasn't same problem. In order to accommodate
the only one. How could BYTE the very diversity chat is their strength,
give Office 97 the Best of Comdex award these OSes have become complex and dif
and suggest that developers will soon be ficult to manage. They're all basically pro
writing to the Java virtual machine in prietary, and they ' re all fat clients, limit
stead of the very same Windows APls on ed in their interoperability.
which Office is built?
That brings us to Java. The most im
Let's start with the fact that personal portant decision today is not which desk
computers-both PCs and Macs-were top OS to adopt, but whether to stick with
never optimized for simple tasks. In the the general-purpose, proprietary desk
early days, these machines came into top paradigm of the past 20 years or in
companies on the expense accounts of stead go with thin clients, fat servers, and
number crunchers, sales presenters, and platform-neutral sofnvare, such as Java-,
others whose computing needs were un HTML-, and HTTP-based packages. At ly sofnvare; a package-tracking applica
predictable, occasionally intensive, and BYTE, we think the issue is so important tion is a good example. It's the perfect test
highly individual.
that we've devoted rwo covers in three case for Java: Build an application that
For that reason, today's applications months to it.
can run on any customer's computer. And
are overkill for many people. And even But life isn't always simple . When the add to you r company's revenues.
though it probably won ' t, Microsoft PC overtook the minicomputer and the But weigh the risks. Java's not yet ready
shou ld rearchitecc its massive products mainframe, these technologies didn't for many big bet-your-business projects.
the way Corel is building its Java-suite successor to WordPerfect: as a collection
The key decision is not which desktop OS to adopt, but
of applets that you instantiate as need ed. Why complicate your computer?
whether to stick with the paradigm of the past 20 years.
Still, let's not throw out the baby with evolve much beyond absorbing PC tech And the Java industry has to prove that
the bathwater. Millions of office work nology. Don't bet on chat happening with it can sustain broad interoperability with
ers (me, for one) actually do need the the PC-to-nenvork-computerevolution. out turning over the specification process
complexity that a suite such as Office pro If Intel, Microsoft, and their partners re for the language and the virtual machine
vides. It was just as evident at Comdex spond to competitive pressures and take to a standards body.
that high-powered, specialized periph substantial amounts of difficulty out of For years, we've been comparing lux
erals and applications can transform the managing the PC, that environment will ury-car desktop environments. Now we
general-purpose PC or Mac into an in evolve and remain viable for a long time. need to be concerned about these new
credibly powerful and inexpensive pro I hope these companies understand that sport/ utility vehicles as well. We will
ducci vity tool for graphic artists, engi failure to do so will ultimately consign need to master them both to navigate the
neers, multimedia developers, scientists, them ro niche status.
information-technology terrain of the
and a lot of ocher specialized users. Heck, On the Java side, we all have some tre lace 1990s.
for 510,000, you can turn your PC into a mendous opportunities to blaze new
broadcast TV studio.
ground, and not just as the champion of
It's become equally clear to me that Son of Host Computing. For example,
continuing to debate whether Windows, the growth of the Web and the Internet 05/2, the Mac, or Unix makes the best means that many developers work for
~
::c
desktop is not the burning issue it used non-IT companies that will be producing Mark Sch lack, Editor in Chief
0
to be. Ditto for processors. They ' re all products and services that are essential- mschlack@bix.com
14 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Now the incredible speed and brill" economy and price. The awardthan any laser-class, network c color printing revenue, Tektronix s
Call 800/835-6100, Ext. 1358. http:J/ww
Phaser 240 C 1996 TBldrott/x, Inc. All rights reserved
---Phaser 44D
Circle 163 on Inquiry Card.
Circle-pyramid logo Is a trademark of Imation 0 Imation 1996
COMPAQ
OR. TECHNOLOGY
maxell
J..MITSUBISHI
+·+++~~.++ +
Panasonic ·;;rMATION Borne of:JM Innovation
Do more with I es s.
Most operating systems leave little room for important things. Like your application.
With the QNX realtime OS you'll pack more functionality into less memory: Achieve more performance w ith less-expensive CPUs. And deliver better solutions at a lower price.
Better yet, QNX supports more PC hardware than any other realtime OS. Whether it's PC/104 or PCMCIA, embedded X86 or the Pentium" Pro, QNX lets you use it right out of the box. Get to run time in less time!
More scalable than ever! From low-end to high-end, QNX offers you the ultimate in scalability. Even your deeply embedded systems can boast a scalable POSIX RTOS, thanks to our new, exceptionally small Neutrino'" microkernel.
And if you need to add the capabilities of a high-end GUI to your low-end system, you can. Our award-winning Photon microGur· gives you a phenomenal front end, with enough memory left over for important things ... like your application!
www.qnx.com
Call 1 800 676-0566 (ext. 1040) or email info@qnx.com
~~ ~-------
The leading Rea/time OS for PCs
QN X Software Systems Ltd ., 175 Teren ce Matthews Crescent, Kanata. Onta rio, Can ada K2M 1W8 Voice : 613 59 1-0931 Fa .1c 613 591 - 3579
Europe : 49 Dove Park , Chorleywood, He r tfo r dshir~ . Vo ice : (44)(0)19 23 284800 Fax : ( 44)(0)1923 2858 68 Ema i l: QNXeur opeO qn x.com
0 ONX So h ·... ··r Sy \le fT\ \ lid 19'i6 010( . . . · C' Q· UC' · t'd l·e e t''1'Uorl ·nd N t' UH U'>O ·n d ·t<i o t o ... m ·uo GUI . . .. tr· ch ........ o l QPI Jl So ltw· rt' ~tlh !'l'l l lid . All OHIU H· lh m .u h btlong IO 11...... llf lP"""" 0 * """
Circle 149 on Inquiry C ard.
OpenDoc Opens Up
Funny you should review OpenDoc ("An Open Win dow for OpenDoc," Decem ber 1996). I recently received two commercial document processing products that use OpenDoc 1.1 on the Macin tosh: Digital Harbor WAV 1.0 and Nisus Writer 5.0. I've been using Apple's Cyber dog and find it excellent for mixing and marching Inrer net-access items. OpenDoc seems to be good at combin ing things on the same page- something I cou ld never get any version of OLE to do. Nisus Writer 5.0 is great at Japan ese word pro cessing, and WAY 1.0 simply amazes me. I've never seen text runaround or column formatting work so nicely. I expect great things from OpenDoc-based software. CurtRisor Bensalem, PA 72 677.365O@comp11serve.co111
CT or MRI?
I enjoyed " How Microchips Shook the World" (Decem ber 1996). However, the pic ture you included with the text box "Computed Tomograph y fo r Everyone" on page 70 does nor show a CT scanner, bur an MRI (magnetic resonance imag ing) scanner. While you could perhaps say that, in th e broadest sense, MRl is actu ally CT because it uses com puters to construct tomo graphic (i. e., slice) images of the body, CT no rmally refers to the modali ty that uses X
rays to make these images. The points that the text box listed in rega rd to CT are also va lid for MRI, however. Ala11 A . Hobso11, R. T. ahobso11@i11dy.11et
Memory Lane
In the rext box " Hardware Platforms with 64-bit Mus cle" (November 1996 Special Report, page 144) you men tioned that the Pentium uses 64- bit arithmetic operarions and internal daca paths. But don ' t Pentiums also have a 64- bit path to main memory ? In the article "The x86 Gets Faster with Age" in th e same issue, Tom R. H alfhill states rh acthe Cyrix 6x86 " handil y bears a comparab le Pen tium " bur that it can 't match the higher core speeds of the Pentium and lacks MMX.
Why should Cyrix arrempc to get the 6x86 to march rhe core speed of a Pentium when ic has the ab il ity to outrun the Pentium ac a lower clock speed? And right now, all proccesors lack MMX. In my opinion, the 6x86 is a becrer chip than rhe Pentium, and it's less expen sive, too. Chris Nightinga le cbris11@pla11et.eo11. 11et
Yes, it's true that the Pentium has a 64-bit 110 interface to main m em ory. The same goes for all fifth- and sixth generation x 86 processors.
Here's why it would be useful for Cyrix to make the 6x86 run at higher clock speeds: At 150 MHz, the 6x86 closely m atches the perfor
BYTE on Copland
mance of Intel's 200-MT-lz Pentium , but it can 't match the performance of the 200 M/-lz Pe11ti11111 Pro. lf Cyrix chips could achieve higher clock speeds, they could compete directly with Intel's latest CPUs instead of /11t e/'s last-generation CPUs. As I pointed out in my story, the 6x86 's lack ofMMX is n ot the main question-it's whether Cyrix can successfully design a CPU that 's fully compatible with MMX. If Cyrix doesn 't have access to the same intel lectual property that Intel and AMD do, it will be more difficult for the company to devise a compatible sol11 tio11.-Tom R. Halfhill, senior editor
As one who has been quick to criti cize the media for bad reporting with respect to Apple in the past, let me con gratulate you o n "Copland , Revisited" (November 1996 Special Report). You covered the good and the bad-as facts, without editorializing.
But while the comparison of Copland, Windows NT, and Unix in your Special Report contained an impli cit assumption that they are dif ferent beasts, I'm nor sure all readers understand this. There seems to be an assumption circulati ng that a single OS can cover the entire desktop-to-server continuum, one I don' t believe is necessarily justi fied. Give n Apple's srracegy, one might easily compare an enterprise environment with Copland desktops and AJX servers aga inst an NT Work station/ NT Server environ ment. Instead, man y peopl e insist o n comparing, for example, the Mac OS or Windows 95 against Unix. ]oeRagosta jo e.ragosta @dol.11et
ON THE WEB
Visit The BYTE Site! Search o ur archives. Dow11/ond articles. See i11d11stry press releases. Joi11 011-li11e co11fe rences
w ith other BYTE readers! See http:!/ 11J11J11J.byte.com.
BY E-MAIL
Address letters to editors@bix.com. To
reach i11divid11al BYTE edit ors, see The BYTE Site 011 the \Veb for a directory. Letters
may be edited for p11blicatio11.
BY FAX
(603) 924-2550
BY POST
Editors, BYTE, 0 11e l'hoc11ix Mill La11e, l'cterboro11gh, NH
03458
SUBSCRIPTION
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
U.S. 011/y: (800) 232 2983; i11tematio11nl: (609) 42 6-7676; orsee l11tp:/j 11Jw 11J./yyt e.co111/ admi11 /m pcstsvc.ht111 .
For ndvertisi11g a11d other 11011editorinl co11tncts, see page 10
orclick 011 the ln(ormatio11 link on
Th e BYTE Site.
FEBRUARY 19 97 BYTE 19
JTi\1
The Wrong Message
In "GroupWise Se nds a M es sage" (November 1996) Sreve Gillmor indicares th ar GroupWise 5 initially runs o nly o n Windows NT Serve r. Correctly stated, G\'i/5 actu ally run s only on Novell 4.x servers, for the simple rea son that GW5 requires NDS to be installed. It's definitely no t an NT Server-onl y GroupWare product. Phil Maloy Novell Tech11ical Services Group \Vare Support Departme11t pum 10/oy@11ovell.com
Steve Gillmor's original copy read: "The product will run 011 Windows NTservers when it ships, with Unix and OS/2 versions to foll ow." During the editing process, this state ment was inadvertently reworded to indicate that the initial release of G\V5 rims only on Windows NT, which is clearly incorrect. We apol ogize for the error.-Eds.
Web Matters
In "Web Surveys" (Ocrober 1996 Web Project), J o n Udell says that "if you're in need of a lightweight Unix SQL engine to use in conjunction with these, try msql (http ://www.bun yip.com / )." First, mSQL (note th e correct capitalization) isn' t free; it's shareware, and the author deserves all the help he can get to encourage people to pay for it. Your reference doesn' t do much to help him get th e word ou r. Second, mSQL is written and di strib llCed by DavidJ . Hughes, not Bunyi p. In the earl y days of mSQL's development, Bun yip made use of it as a back end in a product, a nd we offered to host th e mSQL mailing list, but there's no
lo nge r any me ntion o f mSQL on Bunyip's ho me page. The correct uni fo rm resource locator is lmp://\V\vw.hughes .com.au/software/. Jeff Allen jef(@b1111yip. com
Thanks for the imeresting article " Web Surveys." I' m using Omnicron Ohttpd serve r on Windows 95 and both Visual Basic plus ODBC and Perl/CG ! to explo re some ideas for talking to an Access data base. I've been un able to locate odbc.pm. Can you point me in the right directi o n? Michael Shellim mshell @cix.co 111p11/i11k. co. 11k
Since l wrote that article, I've upgraded from NT::odbc.pm to Dave Roth's newer and m ore full -featured Win 32::odbc.pm. The Win32: :ODBC hom e page is at http://www.roth.net/ odbc/, and there's an FAQ at http://www.roth.net/odbc/ odbcfaq.htm.-]011 Udell, executive editor
No Robots, Please
In the text box "Getting Along with Alta Vista" (November 1996 Web Proj ect) , Jon Udell forgotto mention that support for the fil e ro bot s . t xt is not auto matic. The indexe r might simpl y choose to ignore it. We have th e biggest com pllCer-virus infobase o n the Internet, and it has already been sucked by several co m petitors. In the process, they recursed through our entire directory tree, ignoring the exclusions. Bera versio ns, customer-support files, and so forth could easi ly have been taken along. A subdi rectory is never reall y a safe place to sto re confidential or pri va te darn. Pierre Va11deve1111e, M.D.
Ne11pre, Belgi11111 /Jttp :// w111111.datareswe.co m
Thanks for pointing that out. Obeying the directives in ro bot s . t xt is j11st good 111a1111ers, not a hard req11ire 111ent. I should have 111ade that clearer.-jon Udell, executive editor
HAL Speaks
"Unix Leads the 64-bit C harge" (November 1996 Special Report) failed to mentio n HAL Computer Sys te ms' HA LStation 300 seri es wo rkstatio ns. This computer has a 64-bit SPARC V9 pro cessor of HAL's own design and a full 64-bit vers ion of Sun 's Solaris OS, which was po rted by HAL and is com patible with existing 32-bir Unix applications. I hope that future articles about 64 bit computers, chips, a nd OSes will mention th e HAL· Station. More informa tion is ava ilable at http:// www.hal.com. Ed Pittman HAL Computer Systems cpfi a hat. com
Was That an NC?
A few mo nths ago, a glass ho use industry consortium defined th e network com puter {NC) as a J ava- ready disk less PC costing less than the price o f a good filing cabinet. It now appears ("Inside the NC, " November 1996) that the definiti o n is broad enough to include any computer that runs main stream Internet applications. Ho w lo ng before another article counts all the Java read y mac hines on rhe Inter net and declares th e NC a raging success ?
I wonde r: M y desktop easil y meets the criteria. But ii I tick the options that dis
ab le javascript and Java in Netscape, o r if I use GNN Press as my browser, does my NC turn back into a plain-old PC? If the NC is anything mo re interesting than an arre mpt to move the OS focus away from Micro so ft and toward Sun, I' ve yet to see a ny evidence of it. Marc Thibault 111arct @/Jook11p.11 et
The Java Race
"Sun Gamb les o n Java Chips" (Novembe r 1996) gives th e false impression that th e re a re o nly thre e horses in rhejava race: soft ware inte rpreters, just-in time (JIT) compilers, and Sun's unproven Java chips. There is, in fact, a fo urth horse: optimizing Java com pile rs that produce native code for convemio nal CJSC and RlS C processors. While they sacrifice run-time portability, their perfor mance on nontrivia l applica tions will almost certainly blow away the othe r alterna tives- and I do ubt that the market will be any more willing to sacrifi ce perfor mance fo r run-time portabil ity this rime aro und than it has in the pas t. john Navas }Na vas@NavasGrfi.D ubli11 .CA.US
Netspeak
I enj oyed Mark Sch lack's book review of Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace in the Octo ber 1996 issue (page 38). Howeve r, the auth o rs' point that the Internet should be treated as a series of printing presses a nd booksto res may mean protection in the U.S., but it has exactly the oppo site effect in other places. The current effo rrs of Scot land Yard to censor Internet
2 0 BYTE FEBRUAR Y 1997
Whatever you're creating on screen, Philips
Brilliance monitors wllf bring ·ou~ the best in you. Because the really clev~r thing',aboot ,'t hem is .thei pixel perfect display,cofferlng you inc~edil:i)y ~igh reso~ lution, colour «acc uriicy, 'contr:a~t ·and d >ilsJsfency
.e~ PHIUPS
right across the h!nge.Tiley are a'iailable 1n IS", ·11··
and 21 " sizes, which means that wheth,er you're a
design professional. office OI' small business iiser, or
BRIWAllCE®·a game freak .we have the.right kind of monitor for. ,
you. So why waste your talents on anything Jessi .
HIGH RESOLlinONMDJlrrDRS
' '«
Look ihto a Philips Brilliance monitor today. ..
'Circle 189 on Inquiry C.ard '(RESELLERS : 190):
PHlllP·S
Phllips Co nsumer Electronil!S Company
One Philips D r.i.ve
Post Office Box 148 10
· Knoxville, TN 379.14- 1'8 I0
(800) 835-3506.
·'
I1~ ~ iI 1
BYfE Customer Service/
Ordering Information
Belgium Denmark Germany Netherlands United Kingdom Italy Spain Sweden Switzerland France
Customer Service 0800 71260 8001 8934 0130 829 448 06022 4959 0800 973 195 1678 79415 900 943 539 020 793386 1552418 0591 6068
Orders 0800 71635 8001 7728 0130 826 112 06022 2146 0800 973 017 1678 76155 900 933539 020 791136 155 72 57 0591 6088
Other Intl
us
US/Canada/Mexico
+353 91 752792 1-800- 232-2983 609-426-7676
+353 91 771 385 1- 800-257-9402 609-426-5526
Fax:
International
us
+353 91 752793 609-426-7087
609-426-5434 609-426-5434
e-mail: new orders customer service address change
mporders@mcgraw-hill.com mpcstsvc@mcgraw-hill.com mpaddchg @mcgraw-hill.com
McGraw-Hill web:
//www.mcgraw-hill.com/multipub
Mail :
BYTE
BYTE
PO Box 555
Box 72
Hightstown NJ 08520, USA Galway, Ireland
~
A Division o{TheMcGraw·HillCompanies
Jli\lf1)!4____
providers in the U.K. are based on exactly this premise. In most European countries, you may not pub lish anything you want. You may, however, say whatever you want- and write it, too-if it's meant as person al communication.
In this context, compari- · son of the Usenet and e-mail via the Internet to ve rbal communication gives much more freedom to users. Arguably, the Web might be
considered to be publishing. But to consider e-mail between friends or messages to a Usenet group as publish ing seems to be stretching things. Is letter-writing or speaking to friends in public places also publishing? Should those activities be censored? That's the debate we should be having. The medium of communication is irrelevant. Maggie M11lua11ey Auckland, New Zealand
'I I
COVERSTORY
Netscape: The Strategy
Is Netscape's technology strategy on track? BYTE takes a
hard look at Netscape's server technologies and APls.
PLUS
Netscape Communicator
We review Netscape's new offering, which extends Navigator's reach with e-mail, conferencing, and
personal information management.
FEATURES
Globalizing Software
BYTE exam ines the technical underpinnings of distributed applications for multinational enterprises, including the international characteristics of major OSes, leveraging unified character encoding, and dealing with encryption-export restrictions in building electronic
commerce and other secure applications.
i Ill
Linux in a Gray Flannel Suit
We take an IS manager's view of what Linux can offer indust,rial-strength applications, bu ilt-in security
features, Internet protocol support. and low ha rdware requirements-and what it doesn't: guaranteed technica l
support, mature development tools, and SM P.
I 1 ~I I ' I I' I
REVI EW S
Hardware Lab Report
NSTLtests fast, 33.6-Kbps modems, with an eye on
effective throughput and compatibility; plus: the latest
on the emerging 56-Kbps standard.
C/S RAD in C++
We round up the latest tools-Blue Sky's Visual SOL, Microsoft's Visual C++, and Powersoft's Optima++
,, in this hot software development category. Mac Hardware Comparison
We get our hands on Apple's Power Macintosh 9500/200 and systems from DayStar Digital, Motorola, Power Computing, and Umax.
22 BYTE FEBRUAR Y 1997
Overtime or Overwrite?
Cut your overtime with Plasmon's DW260, the next generation of magneto optical drive. Ir uses LIMDOW technology co directly overwrite data, and so compared to conventional MO, it's fast. Also the DW260 protects your media invescrnent, because it is read and write compatible with existing non-direct overwrite
Fast Writing using Direct Overwrite
·
Software for Mac, Windows & Win'95 included
·
External & Internal drives available
MO disks from 600tv1B to 2.6GB.
And when your storage needs exceed your
desktop, Plasmon has a full range of direct
a-11 overwrite jukeboxes with capacities to 670GB.
Take a li ttle time to save a lot of time and order the
Plasmon DW260.
Over Write
FOR FURTHER DETAILS AND FREE WHITE PAPER ON LIMDOW, CALL 1 BOO 451·6845.
Corporate Headquarters: Plasmon Data, Inc., 9625 \:\'l. ?6th St. Mpls ., MN 55344
Tel: (800) 451-6845 or 612-946-4100: Fax: 946-4141; www.plasmon.com
<~) Plasmon
O ptical data storage solutions
M E D I A
DR I VES
JUKEBOXES
C ircle 2 00 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS : 201) .
SOFTWARE
BUS IN ESS IS ADOG-EAT-DOG WORLD.
UN LEASH THE POWER OF TWO UNBEATABLE NOTEBOOKS.
Do battle with two new notebooks that take the award-winning Micron TransPort "' design to new heights. The Micron TransPort XPE offers the latest in portable technol ogy built on the new Mobile Intel Pentium®processor with MMXTMtechnology. You get unprecedented multimedia capability, including dynamic full motion video, making this notebook the first true desktop replacement. The TransPort MRX gives you full-feature multimedia in an affordable notebook. Two aggressive new tools for today's business.
MICRON TRANSPORT XPE
THE TRUE N(}{;()MPPIJMISE DESKTOP REPLACEMENT.
2.1GB remMble hard drive 12.1" active matrix color <fJSplay, BOO x600 Motorola" Montana 33.6fax/modem
166MHz Mobilehtel Pentium processor will MMX
48MB EDO RAM (BOMB max.)
$4,999
150MHz Mobilel1tel Pentium processor will MMX
32MBEDO RAM (BOMBmax.)
$4,599
MICRON TRANSPORT MRX
FUllfEATURE MULTIMEDIA MADE AFFORDABLE.
133MHz Mobile ntel Pentium processor 16MBEDO RAM (48MB max.)
1.4GB removable hard drive 11.3" active matrix color display
S3,199
COMMON FEATURES
Intel 430MX Mobile PCI chipsel 256KB l2 pipelire burst cache
Pa graphics accelerator (1MB EDO RAM in MRX.
2MBVRA.M in XPE} Pick-&f'ointTMdual pointing devices Sound B~ i&bit stereo sound Built~n stereo~ and microphone Gard bus- and zoomed video-ready (XPE models only)
2infrared ~. 1!root, 1rear
&-video or mscWJeo output Built-in garre port (XPE models only) 2modular expansion bays (8X CDroM drive,hard drive,
3.5" ~drive, lilhlumlon balte!y)
Custom nylon caiying case
Mlcrosoft3 Windows" '95 Microsoft Office CD
MicronPower"' 5-year/'J-year warranty
OPTIONS
MicronDockTMmultimedia port replicator MicronExecutive desktop package 3COM 9 PCMCJAetllemetadapter, 11HJase.T Samsonite" lea1tlercarrying case upgrade 2nd intelligent litliu~on battery
2nd 1.4GB modtJar hard drive 2nd 2.1GB modtJar hard drive 16MB EDO RAM upgrade 32MB EDO RAM upgrade 166MHz Mobilel1tel Pentium processor with
MMX upgrade (XPE models on~) 3GBprimary hard drive upgrade(XPE models on~) 2nd 3GBmodular hard drive (XPE models on~)
Motorola Montana 33.6fax/modem
---.. . P.~f!~iH·J'!° P.~f!~iHl]1·
MICRON POWE~ WARRANTY
-"""" ~ n.eo~ Sysllm""2Ttt'
CALL NOW FOR DETAILED PRICING, OPTIONS AND FREE PRODUCT-DEMO DATA SHEET.
Micloo5.1JesH<m:
I-- 6am-1Cilrn. Sal 7an>O!m (MT)
Tedri:39.-11Vdlatje 24 HllJ'S Allat7 Dal' A-
T(jfree lrunMemJ: !l!HIDl(B.1755 ·Tol!r!e lrun Cimda: llX).l(B.175.!
!run l'lsb Rax llXl-7M-1756 ·lnlemalmll Fax: 20&all-7393
i'il!ma1l:rolSales:~70
Ol997MlctonBelctroniCS.K/.ar%fltl1eserveO Miaon8ed:Mioism~IO'ormsl:lnsc:rrm:nri~«~lifflr. Alllftf\l5eS&1es:.l;Jied&01'flllllllfy.
' * "~"C "": "-N ""f '"g'CtllSl', ~IOQ"OlyOl-O~<....ao.n.t.nr,o.pnilod<.diseWtte:jo}nirc1e1Sfr1t>mQoa"t"ao"f"s"hp"'"ne-nVl'.A"l"8~1i· e3:Cs"na"c";"ed"l"O"MI"C't"on*B'e"d"r0'1"C"s'°C"l".f'1"1"1'"dll!l!at(mlSltntj"CQ"'"d11ki:"l"'\sofW!.
Um irm tmeic! en J6.mootl'llwe. n. w.ei lnsiclt l.aQO lrd Penfiun a'! l"fQZStfrflll ~..i MMX ·· hdern-'.of C«pcnua\. Microsoft. VMoows. 'IM»ws NT n IN~ b1J n re;is:MO ~of llc:ro5oftCo'pcnt'al I.I cae senu mans. niernltURrt9!*ld hdlnWb nCll propettyd M ttspKtwt corro:ll'l'tl.
: 1'4IC:l=ION
MIGIWH ELECTRONICS
Circle 163 on Inquiry Card.
News & Views
MMX: Better in Fits and Starts
Tests of MMX systems and software reveal dramatic, but uneven, application per{ormance improvements.
ntel's new Pentium processor with MMX technology deliv ers a performance advantage over older Pentiums running at the same clock speed. But the perfor mance boosts BYTE saw while testing one of the first M.i\1.X-optimized applications running on an MMX PC were uneven com pared to overall improvements delivered by the Pentium Pro. To gauge MMX performance improve ment, BYTE ran Adobe Photoshop 4.0 on five systems, including three PCs from Polywell ((800) 999-1278), one of wh ich uses the newest Pentium processor (aka th e P55C) . The Windows versio n of the new Photoshop takes advantage of th e P55C's M.i\1X architecture. As noted previously in BYTE (see "x86 Enters the Multimedia Era," July 1996), the P55C has 57 new instructions to accel erate MMX-optimized applications' vid eo, grap hics, animation, and so und per formance. However, th e processor also provides 16 KB each for the primary in struction and data caches, double that of previous Pentiums. Intel reckons that even current applications not optimized for MMX will see performance boosts of 10 percent to 20 percent. Applications op timized for MMX should see even better improvement than that, depending on how aggressively they have been tuned . Except for applications optimized for MMX, today's Pentium Pro is still the per formance champ for 32-bit or floating point-intensive applications. Many multimedia and games develop ers are optimizing for MMX, as are Ado be competitors, such as Corel. BYTE saw impressive improvements in MMX-opti mized 3-D applications and games, but, unlike Photoshop 4.0, those app lications were in prerelease stage. Phoroshop has long had what Adobe
fwe-System Photoshop Face-Off
I·
Arbitrary Rotate
· 200-MHz Pentium with MMX
· 200-MHz Pentium · 200·MHz Pentium Pro
D C)'rtl 166·
. 200·MHz PowerPC 604e (Mac)
RGBtoCMYK
10
15
20
25
30
Seconds
All systems had 64 MB of RAM and ran In 1024- by 768-pixel, 24 -bit resolution, using Matrox Millenium cards (on the Pentiums) or the internal video of the Mac. limes shown (In seconds) were reported by Photoshop 4.0 (Mac and Windows NT versions), without counting redra w tini_es.
MMX's performance improvement is greater with some operations than with others. Results are in seconds; lower numbers are better.
calls a "bottleneck architecture," in which compute-intensive operations a re iso lat ed. This approach allows developers of hardware accc::lerators or multiprocess ing systems to write custom code to accel erate time-consuming processes. Adobe's claims that performance might jump two to six times with MMX processors made us wonder if Pentiums with M.i\1X tech nology will outperform a high- end Mac intosh. Phoroshop is often run on dedi cated workstations on a network. Could an MMX Pentium outperform a high-end M ac intosh?
The answer: no. Although MMX deliv ered dramatic performance in some op erations (see the chart above), overall, a high-end M ac still beats an MMX Pen tium. BYTE tested three 200-MHz systems from Polywell: a standard Pentium, an MMX Pentium, and a Pentium Pro. In addition, we tested Apple's Power Mac 9500/200 and a Cyrix P166+-based PC.
Using a h igh-resolution RGB image (8.1 7 MB), we copied the file to every system's local hard drive and installed Photoshop. We repeated each test at least three times, reverting to the original or
26 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
undoing the operation each time, using Photoshop's internal timer, and taking the arithmetic mean of the results. The tests are as follows.
Arbitrary Rotate. Sometimes used for squaring up scans and othenvise used as a special effect, arbitrary rotation uses floating-point calculations, which is why the Pentium Pro beatthe P55C in this test. We used 7 degrees clockwise.
Unsharp Mask. To overcome the loss of apparent sharpness in printed half tones, almost every image that passes through Photoshop has this filter applied. We tested this with two settings: first with the default values (50 percent, radius of 1 pixel, no threshold), and again with more-demanding custom values (50 per cent, radius of 10 pixels, threshold of 5). While these values were excessive for the image under test, a radius of several pix els and some threshold will normally be used in production . While most images need more than the default, the default test is one in which MMX really shines.
Gaussian Blur. This filter is often used to remove scanner artifacts and to throw distracting backgrounds out of focus. We used the default value of a 3-pixel radius. In this test, the MMX again beat all oth er systems.
RGB to CMYK. Normally the last step of every file being prepared for print. For this test, we used the default Photoshop color tables. The MMX chip had an advan tage over the existing Pentium architec ture, but it still fell behind the Mac.
For most production Photoshop users, the custom Unsharp Mask filter is the most important test. This filter is used regularly. RGB-to-CMYK conversion and Arbitrary Rotate are the next most impor tant tests.
Overall, even without weighting the results to reflect this, the high-end Mac intosh system beats the MMX Pentium. But the MMX system ($2996 as tested) de livered slightly better performance than the high-end ($4429 as configured) Mac in two tests. MMX definitely improves the performance of optimized applica tions, and ata cost of S550each (200-MHz version) for PC makers, the first MMX chips cost only $41 more than the current 200-MHz Pentium chip. The jury is still out on other MMX applications. BYTE will test more MMX-optimized applica tions in upcoming issues, but Photoshop 4.0 portends higher-performing Win dows programs to come.
-G. Armour Van Hom
Internet by the Numbers
More inb:resting numbers highlighting
the;lnternet's popularify,"as compiled by
Win Treese (treese@'OpenMarket.com):
in the October l996 issue ofScientific American·that contain toll-free phone
, numbers; 70
Wanted: Legacyt: ders
· Number of e-ma11 address entries per
person on the Mfr ahun.ni contribution form:2
legacy code returns as the latest fashion? ··
The so-called year-2000problem has reate&.,need'for COBOL programmers.
Pieter Ernst, a branclt manager in Woburn,
Massactiusetts, for General Employment
· Percentage ofcomlti In the'.Boston . ·Globe with Internet addresses: 63
Enterprises. a,Chicago-based technology search fl rm, confirms that his company . will even recruit qualified programmers '
· Pe,rcentage oftheJirst2p-ads appearing out of retirement Comments ~rnst:
In the October 1996 issue of
"We've primarily seen an increase in the
Scientific American tllat contain Web need for contractors. but we've seen
addresses: 7 5
·demand increase for full-time program
·Percentage ofthe.first20 ads appearing mers as we)I."
Office 97 Wins
Best of Comdex
'Q.."110~'.4' 'llb,,H1 f"
The most recent Com
dex may be remembered as
the one in which products based on dig
ital videodisc (DVD) and universal seri
al bus (USB) arrived in full force. Other
products that attracted a considerable
amount of attention were new Win
dows CE-based hand-helds, Java devel
opment tools and applications, and
speech-recognition programs.
In addition to winning Best of Show,
Microsoft's (Redmond, WA, http://www
.microsoft.com/office) Office 97 was also
named Best Application. It adds a wealth
of new features to its popular desktop ap
plications, plus the new Outlook e-mail/
personal manager/calendaring applica
tion. Finalists were Stratus's (Marlbor
ough, MA, http://www.strarus.com) Isis
for Database-ODBC, a database compan
ion that adds continuous availability and
protection against system crashes, and
Corel's (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, http://
www.corel.com) Office for Java, a Java-
based cross-platform application suite that's slated to ship in the first quarter of this year.
Best Technology winner was the Chi nese speech recognition from the Lexi cus Division of Motorola (Palo Alto, CA, http://www.mot.com/lexicus/). It deliv ers continuous voice dictation for people speaking the mandarin dialect; Moto rola hopes to commercialize the technol ogy in the first half of this year. The fi nalists in this category were Microsoft's Windows CE OS for hand-held comput ers and the emerging DVD storage stan dard from Hitachi, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Time Warner, and Toshiba.
Two new Web programs from one com pany won the Best Web Product category:
Contents
Improbable Research 38
Data-Warehouse Gotchas 40
Industrial-Strength Internet
36
Save Money on Fax Bills 34
The Cost of Laptop Ownership 32
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 27
Series a nd Apple Compurer's (C up erti
no, CA,http://www.newton.apple.com/ )
eMate 300, a ru gged 4-pound Newton
OS-based porrable designed fo r rhe edu
carion marke r.
Best Hand -Held wi nner was Philips'
(Sunnyval e, A, http ://ww\v.velo l.com)
Ve lo 1, a ha nd-h eld based o n rhe new
Windows CE OS wirh a built-in mode m
rh ar delivers stro ng PC con nectivity. The
finalists were Hewlett-Packa rd 's (Palo
_ _ _ _ o_ .
---·I !
__ -
, _] -'-
,- ·' ~
I
---- ··- '~
- - - -·--'
-,_ __!!__
---~' -· _!_
r
Alto, CA, lmp://www.hp.com/ handh eld) new Palm top PC for Windows CE, which offers a 640- by 240- pi xel display that's wider th a n rhar of o cher Windows CE devices, and rhe Apple MessagePad 2000, from The In for mati o n Appliance Divi sio n of Apple Co mputer {http ://www
Office 97's new print-preview features should save a few trees.
.newton.apple.co m/ ). The new Message Pad boasts a powerful 160-MHz Strong Arm processor.
Symanrec's (C up ertin o, CA, http: //
Communicato r a nd Consrell ario n, fro m .ri .com ) 5.1-pound Extensa 900 Series www_sy mantec.com) Visual Cafe Pro, a
Netscape (Mo unrai n View, CA, hrrp://www Notebook, which provides top -o f-rh e visual rapid a pplicati o n tool fo r de ve l
.ne rscap e.co m) . Co mmun icato r com line fea tures, such as a n eight-speed CD o ping a pplicari ons and applers th at con
bines rhe laresr Navigator browser (ve r ROM, a '12.1- or 11.3-inch display, and a nect to relational databases, won for Besr
sion 4.0) wirh e- mail , wo rkg ro up, a nd Zoom video PC Card slor. The finalisrs Development So ftwar e. Fin alis rs were
co nfe re ncin g softwa re a nd o rh er com were Fujitsu's (Milpiras, CA, hrtp://www Bo rl and's (Scotts Va lley, CA, lmp ://www
ponents, while Consrell a rio n is a new .fujitsu-pc.com) ulrralig hr LifeBoo k 600 .borland. co m) Open] Builder " Latte," a
cross-plarform desktop environment rhat
provides a new inre rface fo r customiz
ing a nd organizing informa rion. Finalises
were Vosaic, fro m Vosaic LLC (Ch icago,
IL, hrtp ://www.vosaic.com), whi ch deliv
ers high-qual ity streaming MPEG video over the Inrerner, and Digiral's (Lirtl eto n,
The
.Easiest '
Netw...o. .r'k
Connection
You'll
Ever
Make '
MA, hrtp :// a lra vista. so ftware.digital .com) Alta Vi sta Searc h My Com pute r
New solutions that enable additional telephone lines. you to use your home's exist Wyse Technology (San Jose, CA, http://
Private eXre nsio n, a powerful search tool for deskrop and Intranet applicati o ns thar
ing electrical AC wiring to www.wyse.com) is working on even-faster connect computers,·1Vs, and AC network solutions."T~e company says
costs about $3 0. Wyse Technology's (S an J ose, CA,
http://www.wyse.com) 200-MHz Srrong Arm 110 CPU-based Winrerm 4000 Series Enhanced Nerwork Compurers, which support th e new network -co mputin g model and offer access to legacy hard ware (and, soon, shared remote Windows applicatio ns), won for Best System. Final ists were th e upgradable Archistrat 4s NXS workstarion, by The Panda Project (Boca Raton , FL, http: //www.archistrat .com) , a nd Madura, by Flat Connections (Fremont, CA, http: //www.fla tconn ect .com), a syste m that crams a RISC pro cessor, a 33 .6-Kbps mode m, RAtvl, ROM
oth'er communications de vices have arrived, and some vendors are predicting faster, Ethernet-like speeds for 1997. The idea is that instead of running new wires th.rough your house to .,network a·printer, lV, and/or .modem, you connect th~se devices using trans~itter/receiver combinations that plug into your e)ectrical outlets. Then, to network a PC,lV, or print er, you simply pll!g,it into an AC ou_tlet.
Elcom Technologies (Malvern, PA. http:I/ www.elcomtech:com) already offers a range of products for connecting 1Vs, PCs, and other devices by sending signals over your home's AC wiring. Many of these products seli for $150 or less; for example, the com pany's ezOriline System ($129) enables you
that, through compression techniques and by building a controller chip with improved algorithms that reduce noise in electrical currents! it has built an adapter that sup ports network conne~tions that operat.e
at about 1oo Kbps thro.ligh electrical 0u_t
lets. By the end ofthe.y~ar, Wyse'hopes:to achieve speeds of 10 Mbps.
Wyse addresses security concerns with,a scheme that requires se.<;urity numbers for each authorized user. It isn't possible to send inf'otmation across distributor transform ers, so the current applications target the home and small office. Wyse's first prod ucts in this category will work with the com pany's Winterm thin-client devices. Look for other announcements of this type as
with aJ ava engine, and RSA security o nto
to access a computer modem or fax/tele more companies deliver easy and inexpen
a PC Card.
phone line running at up to 33.6.Kbps from sive networked computing solutions to the
The winner for Best La ptop was Texas
any room in the house without requiring home.
.-Jason K. Krause
ln srrum e nts' (Te mple, TX , http ://www
28 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Raidtec Fibre
Channel leaves
other data
transfer
technologies in
the dust...
·Up to 200MB per second data transfer -over 5 times SCSI
· Up to a Terabyte with a single FC-AL Controller
·Less than 504/MB
· Perfect for high data availability applications, including: video, imaging, Inter/Intranet sites, medical, & disaster avoidance
Picture your productivity gai ns from 200 MB/second data transfer in a loop that supports SCSI, RAID, and multiple virtual concurrent arrays up to 30 meters apart! Raidtec Fibre Chan nel products now include FibreRAJDTM Controllers and FibreArrayTM Enclosures. Easily configu re them for servers, racks or desktops. Call Raidtec, your logical next stop fo r: bulletproof Fibre solutions, 100% data uptime and data availability fo r up to a Terabyte data storage.
[Rl@D@te
Internet: http: //www.raidtec.com
C irc le 178 on Inq uiry C ard (RES
FibreArrayrn Subsystem
· Single or dual Port Bypass Modules · Simplified cabling, no termination
· Works with leading FC-AL controllers, Including Raldtec FibreRAIDTM-PCI
· 7 hot swap FC-AL drive bays, 3 hot swap fans, 3 hot swap n+1 power supplies
· Rackable/stackable - up to 16 FibreArrays per configuration
· Environment Array Manager · RAIDmanLITE management software
FibreRAI0°'-PCI
· 4000 I/Os per second · 112 Drives-1 TERABYTE per controller
· RAID 0, 1,10,3,5,6 - definable parity · Copper GLM Std, Fibre Optic Optional
· 8 -128 MB Cache · Global, dedicated, pooled spares
· RaidMAN administration software · RAIDWizardTM dynamic reconfiguration · Windows NT, Netware, UNIX, Mac OS
Raidtec Corporation (USA)
105-C Hembree Park Drive Roswell, GA 30076
Tel. 770-66+6066 Fax. 770-664-6166 eMail: raldtec@raidtec.com
ld.:.!C-'-i"\iidl;:;:;::
Raidtec Corporation (Europe)
Glen ~fervyn House, Glanmlre Cork, Ireland
Tel. 353-21 -821454 Fax. 353-21-821654 eMall: raldtec@glenm.ie
visual J ava deve lopment tool, and Bor land's C+ +Builder "Ebony," a C++ RAD develo pment tool.
Play, Inc. 's (Ranc h o Cordova, CA, http://www.play.com/), Trinity PC-based video-prod uction system fo r broadcast qua li ty p roducti on won for Best M ulti media H ardware. Finalists were miro's Wa lo Alto, CA, htt.p://W\¥w.miro.com) miroVideo DVl 00, which direcrly accepts digital camera output, and Ricoh's (West Caldwell, NJ, http:// www.rico hcpg.com) RDC-2 d igital ca mera, which sports an optio nal LCD viewer and records sound as we ll as video.
In the Best Mu ltimedia Softwa re cate gory, Apple's QuickDraw 30 1.5 won due to its cross-platform nature and ability to
Tl's Extensa notebook packs many features into a 5.1-pound package.
support multiple renderings from the same 3-D model. Finalists were Voice Pi lotTechnologies' (Miami, FL, dslach @ibm .net) Voice Pilot for Windows 95 voice command and d ictation progra m and MG I Software's (http: //ww w.mgisoft .com) MGI VideoWave, a consumer-lev el video-editing application.
T he awa rd in the Best Connectivit y Hardware category went to Xircom's (Thousand Oaks, CA, http://www.xircom .com) Card Bus Ethernet 10/100 Adapter, a 32-bit Ca rd Bus 10-/100-Mbps Ethe r net adapter. Final ists we re Cardinal Tech 1wlogies' (Lancaster, PA, http: // www .cardtech.com) 5210-Cardinal Upgrad ab le Modem, whic h is ISDN- and 56 Kbps-ready, and CNF's (Morgan Town, CA, http ://www.cnfinc.com) Digitari Uni versal Docksrari on fo r Notebooks, which provides connectivity fo r notebook com puters from a variety of vendors.
Winner of the Best Connectivity Soft ware award was IBM ' s (Armonk, 1'1Y, lmp://www.hursley.ibm.com) MQSeries commercia l messaging middleware,
I '1
A laptop's case hinges on two thin pieces literally and, at times, figuratively. For in stance, my ThinkPad's hinges snapped when I tried to use it after a hiatus of six months; another BYTE reader's laptop broke three times in two years; and many palmtop users are complaining on Usenet.
Jim Carroll of Computer Hut's service cen ter in Nashua, New Hampshire, says broken hinges are a common problem in many ven dors' portable computers. "It happens with all brands, including Compaq, IBM, and To shiba," he explains. "The hinges are the first things to go." Carroll attributes the prob lems to regular use, abuse, and sometimes even shoddy design.
In normal use. accumulated dust can im pede hinges to the point where the plastic casing breaks. Subsequently, tiny screws are free to rattle around and short out the elec tronics. Carroll says that when major elec trical components go on the fritz, it might actually be more practical to replace a lap top than to repair it. Once you notice the hinges getting tight, seek service right away, he advises. A preventive lubrication now can prevent big headaches later.
The hinges' small size makes them partic ularly vulnerable to damage from abuse or constant use. Things to avoid include clos ing the laptop's lid on a writing utensil, over-
zealously snapping the case open and shut, carrying the laptop by the lid with the case hanging open, and spilling a drink on the laptop.
In addition to complaints about laptop hinges in general on Usenet. we found hinge problem-related postings from Psion JA and Siena laptop owners. But Psion representa-
Broken hinges left this ThinkPad flat on its back.
tives reckon that less than 1 percent of Psion repair jobs are for broken hinges. Rich Bran deis, Psion operations supervisor, says that "many of those customers admit to having bent the hinges themselves."
An IBM spokeswoman says the current ThinkPad hinges are problem free. In any case, be nice to your portable's hinges; like you, they're probably under a lot of stress.
-Selinda Chiquolne
w h ic h provides re liab le data transfer between distri buted applicatio ns. Final ists were N terprise, from Exodus Tech no logies (Be ll evue, WA, http: // www .exodustech.com), which delivers Nf and Unix app lications on a Unix work.~tation, and Seq uel Technologies' (Be ll evue, WA, http://www.sequeltech.com) Sequel Net
Xircom's Ethern et 10/100 Adapter suppo rts t he 32-bit CardBus stan da rd.
Access Ma nager, w h ic h enab les net wo rk ad min isrrarors ro manage their In ternet usage.
Octopu s Techno logies' (Ya rd ley, PA, http://www.ocropusrech.com) Octopus for Windows NT, which offers real-time server and data protection, won for Best Utility. The fina lists were Acce leratio n Softwa re lnternationa l's (Seattl e, WA, http ://www.accelerarionsw.com) Super fasssr Windows acceleration software and Tre nd Micra's (C uperti no, CA, http: // www.a ntivirus.com) ScanMail antivirus program for Mic rosoft Exchange Server.
Best Peripheral winner was Seagate's (Scorrs Va ll ey, CA, http://www.seagate .com) fast Cheetah hard drive. Peripher al fi nalists were ViewSo nic's (Wal nu t, CA, http://www.viewsonic .com) PV140 View Panel, a 14-inch active-matrix LCD mon itor, and Delorme's (Freeport, ~1£, http:// www.de lorme.com) spiffyTripmate GPS receiver/software bundle.
30 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
c0 M p uT
N G
w
TH0 uT
L
M
T sTM
What makes a storage subsystem rough ? Is it the materials used? Superi or design ? 100% testing? Sure, it's all of that, and espec iall y the compa ny that stands behind it. Kingsron"' engineers took their sa me rugged, remova ble dri ve enclosures and gave them a metal-shielded plastic housing. T he result ? The roughest linle subsystem ever to be called a "lightweight'.
The Data Express.. DE90 still prov ides the superior cmling and reliabili ty you've come to expect from Ki ngston. Its c im-assisted, carrier-ejec t fea ture allows for the smooth removal an d insert ion of
the c<1rri er tens of thousands of times. Plus, it still mixes ;ind matches beautifull y with Kingston 's oth er rugged Da ta S ilo'" ex ternal expans io n chassis. And, since it's Kingston made, it's backed with
the industry's best service and support; including a genero us 7-year warranty.
Ask about the DE90 by ca lling a Kingston storage represe ntative ro ll-free at (888) 435-5439. Because in the world of darn storage, tough is a Kingston thing.
=~~ For more informa cion call di e Ki ngscon ac (888) 435-5439
or look for 11s on ih e nec:h([ p: /l www. kin gston .com/b .hcm
sos
Circle 143 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 144).
Kmgston Tt-chnol1.,. ry Compan\'. I76CO Newhopc- Stn:ct, Founr:i1n V.1llcy, <:A 92i08 USA. (714) 43; .26('().
0
() 1996 All n~hu r~rv1."t..!. Ki11..:~l 1 '1f1 Ti.:'l:hnoloi;',}' 1sa Tr.1Jcm:nk of Km~lon T1."( hn<1k'l-{y G 1111p,1 11y. All Tr,1<.lc11mrb and Reg1sttrcd Tradcmarh ate 1hc J1f\Jpt'M'\' of their tl·~pt'Ctive holden.
_ lM
Pricey Portable
Repairs to Stay
Parts Prices: Laptop vs. Desktop
You'll pay more for laptop parts.
Mobile computer users have always paid
Notebook
Screen
Motherboard
Hard Drive
a premium fo r the convenience of note
AcerNote Light 359
$1300
$900
$250
book computers, trading the benefi ts of mobility fo r an ex pensive techno logy that's usually one step behind the current generation of desktop computers in terms of features and performance. But many users don't realize that they also pay a pre mium for maintenance, with high costs fo r repairs and supp ort.
Compaq LTE 5250 IBM ThinkPad 760ELD Tl Extensa570Ce
$140.0 $1000 $1500
$1300 $ 1150 $ 1000
$250 $250 $250
Desktop PC
$235
$350
$185
Laptop price source: Computer Services of America. Desktop parts prices shown are averaged from a variety of vendors for a 14·inch monitor, a 120·MHz Pentium, and a 1.0B·GB hard drive. All prices are subject to change.
Suppo rting a mobile work fo rce is gen
erall y harder than suppo rting deskto p parts, and a higher fai lure race all com mo re. Lo ngtine esti mates that overall,
wo rke rs, according to Dick Caro, senior bin e to raise the o ve ra ll ma intenan ce parts for notebook computers cost 20 per
consultant for Arthur D. Little. One rea costs for notebook computers. "You have cent to 30 pe rcent mo re per repair than
son is th at mobile users often must oper more repair events for a laptop co mput parts fo r desktop . And that doesn't in
ate in three different modes: connected er ve rsus a desktop machine," says G reg clude the scree n, which can cost $ 1100 o r
to a network while in th e office, co m Longtine, vice president of Operatio ns more to repair in an active-matrix design.
municating with the office from a hotel, at Computer Services of America (Man Vendors also charge a premi um fo r "gen
and isolated in an air plane. "Those three chester, NH), a service management com uine" replacement parts.
environments need the right procedures pany that repairs portables. "The mean T he most common sites fo r notebook
and suppo rt fi les to allow fo r those dif time between fai lure is about ha lf that failures incl ude the screen, hard dri ve,
fe rent modes ofoperatio n," he explains. of desktop computers due to the mobil and main logic board, according to Long
Furthermore, new ge nerations of"cycle ity issue. When you're putting a notebook tine; the motherboard is vulnerable due
eating software" accelerate notebook ob computer into a suitcase, that has a pro to constant device connection and dis
so le sce nce .
found impact on repairs."
connection, which take their toll. Other
r--------------------------,
Higherpartsprices, moreproprietary
And when you need repairs, yo u'll pay
failure points include the keyboard, flop py drive, case hinges, po inting devices, modular drive bays, and PC Card slots.
Survey
Notebook users rend to need fast turn
around, and yo ur local reseller or service
Reluctant and Leery of Filing Electronically
provider probably can't handle notebook repairs. Because such repairs can take up
This month's survey indicates tharalthough users like the efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility of tax-preparation software,they prefer to mail their returns the old-fashioned way instead of fil ing them via modem to an intermediary. Users offered numerous reasons for their reluctance to fi le taxes electronically, including concerns over lackof security and the $14.95 filing fee in the U.S.The vast majority of users who will fi le electronically saidtheydo so to get their refund faster. Users who have to payexpressedno great desire to send that money to the government more quick ly. More on this next month.
to several wee ks, Longtine recommends buying the ve ndor's extended warranry when ava ilable. T he better programs in clude a loaner mac hine.
Don' t expect these costs to change any tim e soon. "Costs [to repair notebooks] will always be mo re expensive than fo r
deskto ps," says Lo ngtine. " Prices will
Will You ...
. ··use tax software agaiJ this year?
··· file your taxes electronically?
come down, but they' ll always be more than they are in the desktop market. "
N o netheless, no teboo k co mpute rs
make good econo mic sense fo r peopl e
who req uire co mp uting power on the
road. So, if you need a notebook com
puter, what does a serv ice expert recom
me nd ? Says Longtine: "I would bu y an
NEC [Versa] o r IB M [ThinkPadj. " An
But most users are stlll reluctant to send their returns electronlcally.
o ther o ptio n: Ru ggedi zed no tebooks, offered by ve ndors such as Badge r (Tam pa, FL), fie ldWo rks (Eden Prairie, MN),
ltro nix (Spokane, WA), and others, can
reduce fa ilures due to accidents or care
L - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - .J less use.
-Rob Mitchell
32 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
''They thought my new MultipathTM
Back-UPS® OfficeTM was just a big surge
suppressor - then the lights went out!'
At last. a safe place to plug everything: Mu ltipath Back-UPS Office for workstations, PC's and pe ripherals
I
Facing rhc darkness is hard, bur inc··irahlc: You have a
Mulriple peripher.i ls and darn lines ro and from your 1ysrcm an:
better chance of winning 1hc lottery than of escaping
viral, bur dangerous. Wirhour ihcm, you can'! do your job. However, if
power problems: They're 1hc
;i power sag makes your nmdem drop the
single la rgest cause of computer
Multipath .. Means Toa.I Power Protection
line wh ile you're downloading from the
data lo·s and ha rdware damage.
llack-UPS Office provides reliable
·
- I ...
lmemc1, or locks you r kcrl~md before )'ou\ ·e ..,..ed work. you lose rime, money
power for your em ire sysrcm.
J
and spend anoiher laic night ai 1he office
lnst:inr:tnl'ous battery back up cnsurc:s uninrcrrnptcd opcr:uion of your CPU, moniwr :in<l an externa l stor3ge device.
··IM ""' kant ~ ~·
to meet rour deadline.
-
! ·
I
Back-UPS Office protects your
Ft1ll·ri me surge su pprc~ i on and site-wiring
& ..c1 41u h to 1ntwN1modWl'I
entire system
fauh prmecrion spread a 1rue Multipath"
Umil now. protL'Ction for your enrire
s;ifc.·ty nc-c under an)' rem:iining inrrgrarC'd
system n:quired sevcr:il devices. Bur muhi
pcripher31s, like modems, primers, faxes and phone systems. Back-UPS Office also providr.:s i.:onvenicnr BlockS:ifr.:"' outlet spacing to handle :tll size plugs - even brg<· block transformers.
Unique Multipath protection keeps yo ur PC and cbta safe
Plugging a phone line: into your com purcr doubles your ''ulncrability to power
- ~---- I IL~ ' .:.=-·,I
'--·-=-=·.. -- - - u I ""~"' ~cf!ctl4A'S!> Otfa'· ~,_.~rm ~~ ,,iurcompu:i:o1 {rwribod po...r1onr'>TIJ~ptrltldi:t1 <*'°'1. scft po.u {IltttlJ. (O ~fT!firt f)'1ttm.
dcvicc prorecrion can lcare you ··ulnerahlc
10 li ne noise and unwamc<l J:u:i g.lirches ere·
aied by ihc voltage differential between out·
· .. k"tS. ·n1ose glitches are prc>v<·med with 1hc
ll.1ck-Ul'S Office common m hage rcferctl<."\:.
lh.--k-UPS Oftia:
rtX2nsmie
·"" '·.
Multipath'" protcc·
tion. clean, 5:1fc
jX>\\ \.'l'(O(.'\'Ct')'
~
problem : add any peripheral, and ir
triples. Even if your AC power-line is
shielded, when a surge hi1s an unprotert·
,., _
cd peripheral, ii can blaze down serial
- ~I\.,,.~ · I
&x·-UitSOf71cr\mrnpoa1Jnip :i nd data lin es,
Lr:~iiji[ii]i]~ n~ raii e"m' .4wft:Aon ~QP. 1'oor 0t :rr.:nxpdc.-wnsaiwst· yPoCu.r
J'-'tiphera~ and ins1:1m bJm'!)· backup 10 kc'ql your cutting cdg: system and OIS from crashing. It metns pmn.'Ction for less by inregr.iring rhc sa."lln· 1y of n suri;c suppn.-ssor ..;u1 the power of a UPS,
gtmamrcd up m$25,000.
....l:H'C:COM'Ot!X
"B«HA'S Off<· foj o" h (<> 11< . - - , . . .
of(«(im~mari:ttortd
fotft'IVO/dts4topworbtl). ""1" .Computtr Rttdcr New\
APC ,, a t won mo~ CW'Grdl (0-r rC"f1obWty
th on a ll ofM,. btol'tdr co mhtnit"d
__, .,,..__,..,. .u ..,.-n·· ... Cl -\l'l _ U,_..,,,...._J_.U~o
l""'f':"1 · ~""'-
-...~
.,...___
Circ le 132 on Inqu iry C a rd .
1-dl!Ordr. prolcaP!r of"'°"' '~ llteO"lf !to:+..~ _,,.,
llr""1d11tPS.£ "'"1#Mr\Mir,_.-/iCho-~ ~ lod.t)lil'S otlk'.r~ Jpntt.rm,.-~'*tr.rm:( M'*1pcft~
r---------------------
: Proteet yourself before you kick you r· I ~elf. Get your new Back-UPS Office : today (list price: S 179.99). or all APC : for a FREE 60·plge cc.log!
A ? C. L---------------------
AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION 888-BUV-APCC x 8022
h t t p :Jt w w w.apcc .c o m/8022.htm
(t0 0,..l7"11111 · (SX7U41-IAJOC'""'-rh.o ~GO~ · Ema.t~~
IJl~~ Wt 1t~P.ltn!'Jl USA
Dep1. A2
_ _lm
57 Varieties of Internet Faxing
The total expenditure by Fortune 500 com panies on international faxing is around $15 million per year, which accounts for 41 percent of those companies' telephone bills, according to a 1996 Gallup/Pitney Bowes survey. Meanwhile, options for routing international faxes over the Inter net rather than via more expensive phone lines continue to increase.
The Logiphone Group (Ra'ananna, Israel, +972 9 914360) has won the race to announce the first global Internet fax service that doesn't require users to have an Internet connection. Using PassaFax hardware developed by RadLinx (Tel Aviv, Israel, http://www.radlinx.rad.co .il), Logiphone is establishing a world wide network that will eventually encom pass 40 countries. PassaFax clients will pay $35 a month, plus local phone charges to connect to the Logiphone access num ber, to send international faxes.
Subscribers attach a PassaFax auto dialer to their fax machine or computer and send faxes as usual. Local faxes are transmitted over regular telephone lines, but long-distance and international fax es are automatically routed to a local In ternet service provider (ISP).
From there, PassaFax hardware sends the message over the Internet to the Pas saFax-equipped remote ISP in the desti nation city, where the data is converted back to a fax. The destination number is encapsulated in the header of the IP trans mission. During the IP handshake be tween the two PassaFaxes, the destina tion number is transferred and analyzed to remove international dialing codes and turn the transmission into a local call. The fax is then forwarded over regular phone lines, for which the user is also billed.
Logiphone's rivals are ailying with ISPs in many countries so they can offer Inter net faxing to subscribers . I-Fax, launched in May by Arel (Yavne, Israel, http:// WW\v.arel.co.il), and IP/ FaxRouter, from BrooktroutTechnology (Needham, MA, http://www .brooktrout.com/), launched in June, both operate in a way similar to RadLinx's PassaFax's. I-Fax and IP/Fax Router combine routing hardware with management software that monitors usage and-for ISPs-generates client billing invoices. Arel has signed an agree
J4 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Perls of Wisdom
although its content and list of authors are considerably expanded from the first edi
Although Perl 5, the much-evolved ver sion of the ubiquitous scripting lan guage, has been available for over two years, books about it are scarce. Up to now, if you wanted to use Perl 5's new advanced features, including compound structures, object-oriented abilities, dynamically linked
tion, still sports an image of a camel on the cover.
The new edition includes revisions to the first one, plus it adds almost 200 pages that cover Perl 5. The new edition is reorganized appropriately for Perl 5, which is itself a total rewrite and reorganization of Perl 4 that
modules and extensions, and improved vari· maintains almost perfect backward com
able scoping, you had to grovel through Perl 5's technical documentation w ith your Perl 4 book also open by your side.
patibility.
The primary author of Programming
Perl-2nd Edition is also the primary archi
Two books that now
tect and programmer of
help fill this void are Perl 5 Interactive Course,
Perl, Larry Wall. His writing is loaded w ith a refreshing·
by Jon Orwant, and
ly wry humor and a sense
Programming Per/
of companionship with his
Second Edition, by Wall, Christiansen, and
readers. Wall's coauthor Tom Christiansen has
Schwartz. These two
been lecturing about
books are radically dif ferent in style.
and teaching Perl since its early days; when
Each of the 14 chap·
Perl 5 arrived, he was
ters in Orwant's book
the bar.d of its new abil
has eight "sessions," each one ending in a four-question multiple· choice quiz and an exercise.
ity to do compound structures and deref erencing of variables.
Randal L. Schwartz,
Each chapter has its own
who contributed much
quiz and exercises as well.
of the work in putting
This book is rig idly orga·
together the first edi
nized. The author wrote it
tion, also assisted with
for the reader who prefers
the editing and man·
to learn in a classroom rath·
agement of this edition.
er than in a lab or in the real world. He as·
The Perl 5 distribution comes with a con·
sumes the reader has little or no program siderable amount of documentation in the
ming experience, yet he covers even the clever form of Perl Online Documentation
advanced features of dynamic linking, C (POD), a code-embeddable markup Ian· functions and libraries·as extensions to Perl, guage that you can use to generate Hyper·
and Perl as an extension to C programs.
text Markup Language (HTML), Postscript,
Orwant knows his material: He uses Perl and plain-text output. From now on , POD
in his work at MIT's Media Lab and is the will be the definitive documentation for Perl,
editor of the Perl Journal. But the book's since it's updated with new revisions and
weaknesses (i.e., the approach that favors additions to Perl. The second-edition Camel
classroom lessons over real-world ones) Book merges these documents w ith the
are due to the restrictions, planning, and first-edition text and also adds a welcome
editing inflicted by the publisher.
dose of humor and organization, as well as
Like other books by O 'Reilly &Asso· examples.
ciates, Programming Perl-2nd Edition fea·
The only fault with this book is that the
lures an engraving of an animal on its cov· examples may be too clever for the average
er. The definitive reference to the Perl 4 pro· Perl programmer. Otherwise, the Camel gramming language is affectionately known Book reigns again as the definit ive text
as the "Camel Book." The second edition, on Perl.
-Ben Smith
Perl 5 Interactive Course by Jon Orwant; Waite Group Press; ISBN 1·57169-064·6; $49.99
Programming Perl-2nd Edition byLarry Wall,Tom Christiansen,and Randal L Schwartz; O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN 1·56592· 149·6; $39.95
The next generation of Java Development tools is here now!
Sx increase in Developer productivity
SuperCcdc's incredible Flash Compi ler"' lets you see the resu lts of code cha nges
immediately and "work at the
rate yo u chink''. Forget about losing yo ur train of thoughc waiting for yo ur application co load. No wonder programmers can improve: their productivity
by up to 5 times in comparision
co t raditional "cdic, load , run , test" development environments!
It's as easy to use as drag-and-drop!
Why crank o ut endless lines of code when Su pcrCcde can gee rhe job done wich just a mouse click or cwo? As you'll quickly discover, we puc al l kinds of RAD produccivicy at yo ur fingertips . For example, our graphical Fo rm Edicor lets yo u create yo ur user interface using a drag-and-drop palecce of standard Java con trols while si multaneously generating all chc Java application code. lc's chat simple!
Seamless Java and C/C++ interoperability
\Vich SuperCede, you can leverage yo ur investment in existing CIC++ libraries. Other Java development environments require complex code and bridging algorithms co link CIC++ libraries into yo ur Java applicacion. SuperCcde is so simple that you jusc create your Java mechod and implement it in C++. It's that easy.
Portability and performance
SuperCedc's Flash Compiler generates yo ur choice of ei cher Java platform-independent ap plets or Wince! 32-bic machine code applications. The results? Standard Java applets chat ru n cross platform o r scand-alone Java applications thac run at C++ levels of performance.
Advanced debugging facilities
No other development cnvironmment offers such a comprehensive and inccraccive debugger as SuperCcdc Java Edition . Wich SuperCede, yo u can exami ne p roblems, m odify source code, update your program, and then use the BackTrack fearure to pop up the scack, and continue running all without rescarcing the application. Now chat's cooler chan RAD!
Available at leading retailers including:
~-
rnfm~~m~~~~ ~~
C 1996 As.ymetriJl Corporclion . All Rights ReMtrved Asyme trix i1 a reghtared trademark end the A1ymetri11 logo, Flo.sh Compiler, and SuperCode ore trcdemor\i.s of A!.ymetrix Corpocolion . A.iymetrix is registered in rhe USA and in corlo in clhef countries. Java is o trodcmorlt of Sun Microsyslems, Inc.. All other product and/or company names ore 1ho property ol 1hoir roipec!ive ownea.
D~
ASYMETRIX'
www.asymetrix.com Horth America: 800-448·6543; Dept. BT
206-462-0501
Circle 164 on Inqui ry Card
(DEVELOP ERS : 165) .
ment with EUNet, o ne oi th e la rgest pan-European ISPs, and has installations in the U.S. and the U.K. Brooktrout is ini tiall y focusing on inrracompany faxing.
For those who don't wanr-or need-
to use a fax machi ne, several companies offer Windows-based software solutio ns to cut your phone bills. FaxS torm Desk top, fro m NetCentric (Cambridge, MA, hnp: //www.netcentric.com/), and Inter-
Datapro ;Report
Better Backbones to Shoulder Bigger
Network Burden
Developments in the Internet service provider (ISP) marketplace will continue to unfold at a lightning pace over the next year.The activities of major service providers have centered around four areas:expanding the geographic reach of ISPs' Internet backbones, upgrading backbone capacity, delivering enhanced levels of service performance, and adding new services, including Web·site design, Web hosting,and content creation.
Betterbackbones are already needed.Meanwhile, demand for bandwidth might increase as on·line services,suchas America Online, Prodigy,and Microsoft Network offer flat·pric· ing schemes (see the table below).
Asnapshot of activities in 1996 and proposed activities for 1997 highlight ho.w the ma jor ISPs are positioning themselves to offervalue' added-services for businesses:
Conce1 Atfirst,this was an internatlonal·JP.int ventur.e, between Washihgtoo,:D.C.-based
MCI and London·based Britisli Telecommunications (an to offer virtual nelviork services.
But MCI and BT will now merge and form a new company called Concert pie. Plans include expansion of the companies' Internet networks to include 20 Internet superliubs around the world. Concert will provide ISPs, telecommunications carriers, and busirresses with lntemet/intranet transport and access services on an international basis.
Pacific Bell/IBM Global Network. IBM (Armonk, NY) will install high·speed links be· tweeh i~s international backbone and the network of F.!acific Bell (San E'rapcisco):.
Cable &Wireless. This Vienna,Virgiflia-based interexchange carrle~ will a'.dd Web ser· vices,sµch as home·page design and hosting services, to NetWorth,the company's Internet product package,and expand its number of network-access points worldwide.
Internet Thruway. Northern Telecom (Raleigh, NC) is working to transfer data and Internet connections of long duration from the traditional voice network to a packet-/cell·switched data network. Thruway consists of adjunct switchesthat work with a telephone central of· lice to alleviate the strainof Internet traffic on the public-switched telephone network.
On-Line Service Charges
Consumer time on-line should increase due to flat pricing schemes.
Service
lnltlal cost per month Additional hours Free trial period
America Online $19.95 (unlimited) Does not apply 15 hours;$2.95 for additional hours
CompuServe $9.95 for 5 hours $ 2.95 per hour 1Ohours;$ 2.95 for $24.95 for 20 hours $ 1.95 per hour additionai hours
Microsoft Network
$6.95 for 5 hours $2.50 per hour 30days $19.95 (unlimited) Does not apply
Prodigy
$ 19.95 (unlimite.d) Does not apply First month
Diamond.Net. The St. Louis-based Diamond.Net is constructing a private, managed fiber-optic and satellite network using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and SONET/ SDH technology to accommodate the demands of a new generation of netWorkservices.
M FS, UUNET, and the World. MFS (Omaha, NE) had barelyfinished announcing that it would acquire UUNET when it revealed plans to merge with WorldCom (Jackson, MS). The plan for MFS and UUNET was to leverage MFS's extensive fiberfacilities with UUN ET's line of Internet products and services to offer businesses a range of Internet-access services. Now,with the addition of WorldCom,the combined company will offer local, long-distance, and Internet services. Mich ael Smith is lead analyst, network services, at the Datapro lnfotmation Services Group. For
more information about the full report. call (609) 764·0100 or contact http://www. datapro.com.
net Fax Exc hange, from NetXchange Communications (Migdal H a'Emeq, Israel, http ://www.nrxc.com), were both launched in "1 996. In October, Open Port (Chicago, IL, lmp://www.openport.com) announced Harmon y ISP. All three prod ucts, which remain transpa rent to the user, allow corp orations to explo it their internet connections.
NetCentric's FaxStorm is based o n the company's POl'ware tec hnol ogy, soft ware that runs at the point of presence (POP), where pho ne line meets Intern et connection at the IS P's operations center. From the desktop, FaxSto rm compress es, encry pts, and transmits faxes to a POP ware server, which routes the fax over the Internet to the POl'ware server closest to its final desrinarion.
NetCenrric has allied with Concentric Network Corp., a U.S.- based ISP cover ing both th e U.S . and Canada that has offered an Intern et faxing service since last Augusr.
Similarly, NetXchange has developed a simple fax -tra nsport protocol , call ed SFTP, that lets a company 's network serv ers manage faxes by acting like switches. The company's Internet Xchange for Fax software determines the most cost-effec tive de li very route-via telephone lines, private LANs, or the Intern et.
The newest version, specificall y tai lored to the ISP, has already been acquired by ISPs and telecommun ications firms in several countries. AimQuest, a consor tium of wor ldwide ISPs and telecommu nication s companies covering the U.S ., Euro pe, and th e Far East, is to establish a global fax network for its members using NetXchange's techno logy.
Open Port's Harmony also incorpo rates a least-cost routing fac iliry for cor porate fax in g, and the company offers
Harmony ISP ro ISPs. At press time, no in·
formation was available as to how many !SPs were using Open Port's technology, bur a company spokesperson said to ex pect an announ cement this year.
The success of these va rious solutions will depend in pa rt o n their ab ility to anract a large global netwo rk of ISPs so that use rs aren' t limited in the number o f destinations they can se nd faxes to. Choosing from among th e various op· tions offered depends on your particu lar circumstances, either as a business use r or a ho me user. The good news is that a wealth of soluti ons a re emerging to low er you r telephone bill. -Tania Hershman
3 6 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
WE FINALLY MADE A WORKSTATION
e
ust I
everyone e I s e's.
We finally made a worksta ti on just
as practical , reliable, a nd affo rd ab le
as eve r yo ne else's. With o ne minor exception: it's better.
Introduci ng or. The
only workstation that can combine industrylead ing CPU and
$7,495
HIPS RSOOO I BOHHz processor
32-blt double-buffered graph ics
Hardware texture mapping
Image processing engine
Video compression engine
W eb· lntegrated user environment
64HB ECC SDRAH
lGB SCSI system disk
17" monitor, 1280xl040
IOOB aseTX/IOB aseT Ethernet
CO-ROH
graphics performance with breakthrough video and im agi ng capabilities. W hy? Because 02 is the only work station based on an innovative Unified Memory Architecture.
Every 02 mac hin e comes standard with afuUsetofweb-authoringtoolsaswellas a personal web serve r. So as soon as you plug it in, you can communicate yo ur ideas to anyone, anywhere, on any computer. If yo u want the performance of
02 comes standard with the MIPS"' R5000TM a worksta tion combined with the power of
SiliconGraphics·
ComputerSystems
chip, and is also availa ble with the much the web, look for 0 2. It isn't hard to find . more powerful MJPS®RlOOOO'" CPU . Best For more information, visit our Web site of a ll, 02 is designed to be an extrovert. or call 800 . 636.8184 D ept. LS0055.
See what's possible
www . sgi . com/02
~ 0 19't6 Sibcon ~Inc. ADfi&hu rHerwd. Silicon GnpNc1 ind rhcSlicon G~ lol'Q M't reibtr:r1!d~ . 0 1, anctSH~t'1 pot.&l*vetn~
of Silicon Gr;aphlc.1, Inc. MIPS and the MIPS RJSC CenlflC!d Pc._.- logo an:! rrf 1t~ lndcnurlcs, :and R10000 and RSOOO :are lndmwiu, of MJPS Tec:hnologia. ll"IC..
Circle 151 on Inquiry C ard.
_ _ (1
- - - - - - - - - 1 I M P R 0 B A B L E R E S E A R C H I - -- - - - - - - ,
cd-rom review
Ode to a Grecian Disc
Perseus 2.0, an industrial·strengtli int~r· actiye guide to ancient @l r,ee~ oulture from its archaic period to tlie era of.Al· exandel' the 'Great-lives up to its.title.of Comprehensive Edition. The GllH~0M. , offers fopr disc!,!, contait1 in~r25,000 im·· · ages'ofvases, scljlpture,arcl!iteoture,and sii'es. It also contains a hypertext cnro._ riological history, an encyclopedia othi!l torical and.mytliological characters am:J. places, the complete works of 31 anc5i~nt Greek authors (displayed if\ both English and Greek), and other resources. By us· ing the included maps, ericyolopedia, and history references,you can-completely im' merse yourselfin the era.
But while you shouldn 't j udge a CE> solely by its interface, Perseus's leaves you w ith a poor impression of the work. The encyi:lopedia, along wi~h mostof the navigational aids,collected texts;and oat· alogs, and are in black and whjte. Fortu· nately, other parts of the CD·ROM sup·
Perseus's interface combines black and white with color.
port color, such as the scanned images of vases and sculptures.
However, Perseus also has the annoy· .,·ing habit of-making winqows.disappear:.. 'Clicking on.the Tools and Refe'renceir· _icon makes the Gateway window (whosE;l ·
icons steer-y9u to texts, map,s, 11nd'other
·~ s'g(:ird~'fna\erial) vanish, l'flaking it ciifflculf
· tO: pick up'information'froin tlie encyclq pedia and use it to locate a passage in · the text. Persesus offers a treasure trove of information, but its clumsy interface makes you feel like lndianajones on a dig, looking1for clues among the rubble. -Tom Thompson
Peruua2.0, Yale U.niversity Press, lll~w Haven,CT; (203) 432-0980;
fax; (203) 432-0948 Comprel\ensive Edition, $960;
Conc,i!H! Edition,$150
Advances and Retreats in Computing
The Security of Imaginary Numbers
The government's paranormal R&D efforts have resulted in a commercial spin·off. Get ready for a truly foolproof data-security protocol called PGP·Y, which stands for Pretty Good Parapsychology.
The mechanism is simple. You imagine that you've transmitted data to someone; that person then imagines that he or she has received that data. Using PGP-Y, any type of information can be transmitted over the Inter
net with complete security. The key is that the data is transmitted
high over the net work-so high that it actually travels above the network. The data is also transmitted telepathically. For those who mistrust electronic funds, there's also a scheme for transmitting cash and gold plate telekinetically, but that won't be commercial ized until sometime in the future.
Net Abuse: Announcing Project Whacko
0 n some days, the surge of unsollc· ited junk mail Inflicted on e·mall users everywhere seems to reach epic proportions. Some of It comes from banditos who use fake sending addresses that are difficult to trace. Inspired by such incidents, we announce the creation of Project Whacko, an ongoing research effort to Induce electronic junk mailers to whack themselves out of existence. We wlll publish and disseminate the besttech· niques users come up with.
Here are the principles of Project Whacko;
1) The goal of Project Whacko Is to prune the population of Indiscriminate junk-mailers.
2) Project Whacko schemes will use judo/jujitsu principles to redirect the evil actions of electronlc·junk·mallers back to the putrid perpetrators.
3) Project Whacko schemes will themselves never involve the sending
of indiscriminate electronic junk mall. Please send your responsible Project
Whacko scheme to marca@lmprob.com.
Coming: Superfast, Cheap Boxes
Parallelized network computers based on obsolete hardware will change the way you compute while sav· ing you money. The genius of the Inter· net CheapBox is that It takes plles of obsolete computers-everything from 8088 machines to Mac Centrlses-and, through the magic of parallel process· ing, converts them into attractive, inex pensive, 5· by 5· by 5·foot jet-black Internet CheapBox cubes that run Java applets with 100 to 300 times the power of a Pentium PC.
CheapBox Inventor Jarrod Charron has left his nominal employer (AT&T) to form a consulting company, CheapBox Enterprises, that will license this tech· nology and assist Fortune 1000 compa· nles In building their own CheapBoxes. The company plans to sell Its own Inter· netCheapBoxforabout$350through CompUSA, Sears, and Staples. Tests of a preliminary beta version of the CheapBox 2000 show that the device lives up to its hype and is likely to slgnif· icantly crimp sales of the low-cost, stripped-down workstations that tradl· tional workstation vendors are current· ly planning.
Plugged Professionals
0 ccasionally seen posted in news· groups: inquiries from computer profes· sionals who want to be "plugged into" the job market. The problem is a lack of standards. There are no generally accepted plug specifications or cabling standards. If your organization has found or developed a proven set of standards, please get in touch with me.
Marc Abrahams is the editor of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can reach him al marca@lmprob.com.
38 BYTE FEBRUAR Y 19 97
200MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR Il l II l'flWrn rn r;l 21 llOSIHVI11
· 32MB Error Correcting Code (ECC} EDO Memory (512MB Max}
· 256KB Integrated L2 Cache
Dell introd uces a new line of Pentium Pro processor-based servers custom built from the ground up for your network applications and high volume re source-sharing.
Both the PowerEdge 2100 and 4100 feature high-speed ECC EDO memory as well as Ultra/Wide SCSl-3 support for wickedly fast read/write to their hard drives. And both have Intel's LANDesk"' Server
· Integrated PCI Ultra/Wide,SCSl-3 Controller Manager v2.5x. The dual-processor capable 4100 also features redundant, hot-plug hard disk drives,
· 2GB Fast/Wide SCSl 2Hard Drive [7200RPM. Bms) (12GB Max)
· BX SGSI CD-ROM Drive
· 3Com· 10/1oo PCI Ettiemet Adapter
· Intel· LANDesk Server Manager v2.5x
power and cooling for a higher level of network security. And through 1/31 /97, the PowerEdge 2100 includes Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 (10 Client Access Licenses) at no extra charge.
Best of all. they're backed by our award-winning on-site· service and 7 x 24 dedicated server tech support line. Call to order yours today. At prices like these you can't afford to wait.
· 6 Expansion Slots: 3 PCI, 3EISA
· 6Drive Bays: 3External s.29: 1 3 Internal 3.5"
· 3Year Limited Warrantyt
· Microsof!S Windows N~ Server 4.0
200MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR
Ill II f'[)\Vffll ['H]E 21()[1SI11'.'I H
· 64MB l:rror Correcting Gode (ECC) EDO
Memory (512MB Max!
· 256KB Integrated l2 Cache
Business Lease~: $144/Mo.
Order Coda #250022
I
'f~ ,
'
· lntegra~ed PCI Ultra/Wide SCSl-3Controller · 4GB Fast/Wide SCSl-2 Hard Drive I [7200RPM. ,ams] (1'2G~ Max)
· BX.SCSI CO-ROM Drive
· 3Com 10/ 100 PCI Ethernet Adapter
· Intel LANDesk Server Manager v2.5x
· 6 Expansion Slots: 3PCI, 3 EISA
200MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR [l[LL f'll\"11 Hf\ll;\ l'rlll SfR'."R
· Dual Processor Capable Server· · 64MB Error Correcting Code (ECC) EDO
Memory (lGB Max) · 512KB Integrated L2 Cache
· 6Drive.Bays:3 External 5.25'.
3Internal 3.5"
· 3 Year LimitedWarranty · Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
$4599l
· ZIntegrated PCl'Ultra SCSl-3,Contrdllers
· 4GB Fast/Wide SCSl-2 Hard l'Jr1ve [7200RPM, Bms) (24GB Max)
Busipess lea~e: $166/Mp.
Order Code#250014
· BX SCSI CD-ROM Drive · Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 Ethernet Adapterl · Intel LANDesk Server Manager v2.5x · 8Expansion Slots: 5 PCI. 3 EISA ·· 1ODri,ve Bays: 4External 5.25'. _6Hot Plug · OirectlinelM Network OS S.upport · 3Year Limited Warranty
* Mkrosoft Windows NT Server 4.0, add $799.
Del.(
800-822-6057
http://www.dell .com/buydell
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm CT· Sat 10am 6pmCT Sun 12pm-5pm In Canada: call 800-233-1589
I I Keycode #01191
PENTIUM.PRO PAOCl!.llOA
Business Lease: $252/Mo. Order Code#200159
lNon-discoJOtable promotiooal pricing tkw a ccmplete copy ol oor Guarantees or Llmited Warranties,please 1mte Dell USA LP.. One DellWay.
am lhnl Roel lX 71'X!1. OWsin) an<VJ90d l>f Wling G""'1. ~ 'lhs oo-·te pans and laba seMc. pru.idod l>f09ital Equipn"11 Coiporation ard
is availabJe in 19 metrc~iofitan areas. · Prices specificatlOllS va hC 1n the uS ooly and subje<:t to change without notice lnu?I. tne Inlet Inside
""11nm Pro logo ard P!!nt"'11 are registered uademarls and LM'llesk and the Intel lANOest logo ara trademarls of Int~ Corporatm M<rosoh and Windaws HT are 1egistered trademart:s of Mrcrosoft Corporation. 3Com is a registered tradomart: of 3Com Corporation. Directlina 1s aregistered service marl of 0.11 Compuler Corporarion.«l1997 Dell Computer Co'IJO(ation. All rights reserved.
INCLUDES
...
_ _Im
40 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Lessons Learned in the Data Mine
Alan Pal/er, director of research at the Data Warehousing Institute, tells how to avoid the pits in your data -spelunking adventure.
all yo ur purchasing togerher to ger o ne of rhe mosr im porranr and profitable bene fits o f a data warehouse, which is being able to show yo ur ve ndors all that you're buying from them , which lets you get bet ter discount rares.
BYTE: What are the most co111111011 prob lems and solutions i11 a successful data warehottse implementation? Paller: One of the more difficult prob lems, especially in a large data warehouse, is gettin g th e various divisions of a co r poratio n to arriv e ata common set of def initio ns for data- for objecrssuch as sales, customers, and products. Take an insur ance company, fo r example. It has a prop erry-and-casualry division, and it proba bly has a health-a nd-life division . Those di visio ns have completely differe nt kinds of prod ucts. So th e data ir keeps for rhe products is completely different from one division to the oth e r.
Defining what exactl y is th e "custom e r " becomes difficu lt. Is th e cusromer a company, o r is the custo mer an indi vidual? Or is the customer that piece of building you're insuring? There arc good reasons fo r the differences in defi ni tions, and there's no easy solution to how yo u create a corporate-wide common set of data definitions.
Th e answer ro the question of how you deal with rh ar problem is not a fun o ne, but it's th e simpl est one anyone has ever fou nd : You agree ro disagree, an d you build separate data marts for each of the divisio ns. Then you find the few things that are com mo n, like paya bl es or re ceivab les-orga ni za ti o ns th at yo u owe mo ney ro or collect money from-and you make corporate-wide databases with th ose. You ge t an added bonus when you identify common su ppliers: You can draw
BYTE: What'sa nothercommon gotcha, and how ca11 you overcome it? Pa lier: One of my favo rites is w hen a pair o r gro up of ve nd o rs says, "O ur prod ucts wi ll work we ll rogerher." Ir's quite common to hear from a ve ndo r that ir has a strategic a lliance with anothe r vendor and th at the products will work togeth er. Well, many times they don't.
So, the on ly rime you get a strategic alliance that's viab le is when it's client driven-when a customer says, "I' ll buy th ese two products o nl y if they work well together and if a nd o nl y if yo u agree ro make th e interface between the products part of yo ur product." Bur the cusromer has to be mi ghty big to persuade a com pany ro do thi s. You should also make rhc ve nd ors prove that their products work we ll together and guarantee in writing rhar th ey'll continue to work together for ar least three yea rs.
BYTE: What are other caveats for cus tomers who have already rolled out their data warehouses? Paller: As soon as data warehouses be come worthwhi le, importa nt people de pend on th em. And so all rh e things rhar yo u have to do for a big business system become impo rtant. You have to have se curiry rhar's rea l, schedul ing to automat ically upd ate ir and veri fy the update, and backup and recovery. The amount of mon ey th at people are spending on that part of dara warehousing will grow proba bly to 50 percent of all in vesm1enr in data warehousi ng. Most people do n't budge t for this, bur they sho uld.
For more i11(qrmatio11 011 the Data Wareho11si11g Institute, send e-mail Jo tdwi @aol.com.
Bandai Digital's @World Web-browsing system nwy one day be the Mac network computer for corporations. By Peter Wayner
On TV: The Set-Top Morphing PowerPC
Macintosh with o nl y 5 MB of RMvl a nd a 66-M Hz Powe rPC 603 p rocesso r har d !)' see m s exc iting. Ser it on a TV wirh an Internet hookup, however, :md a $499 Mac c lo ne begins ro ma ke g reat se nse . Based on App le's Pippin rechnology, Ba n dai Digital 's (fl World runs softwa re fro m its internal CD- RO;vl or the Intern et. Ir's a well-implemented unit that sho uld in filtr ate the ser- rop-box marker and mighr even steal mark er share fr o m games man ufacrure rs, such as N intendo. Porrabiliry is @ World's grear srrengrh. Stripped of mulrit as kin g cod e, irs lea n Mac OS firs in I Ml.I of RAM . Yer all the srandard Toolbox calls are available, in cluding such popular ex tensions as Quick Time and Quick Draw, so Mac a pplica rio n s run with few mo di fications. As a rcs ulr, software fo r @ World shou ld be easy ro come by. The @ Wo rl d unir itse lf comes wi rh a sli ghtl y rerooled versio n of the Spyglass Inte rn e t browser, and irs fl:i shy inrroducror y CD was prod uced
TECH FOCUS
Porting Mac Applications
If you're a Mac programmer with a CD Recordable (CD-R) device, you can port a
Mac application to an @World CD-ROM in about 15 minutes. But you'll probably want to modify it first to use more than the controller's trackball and "mouse" buttons.
An @World CD-ROM carries a version of System 7.5.2. Astripped-down Pippin program replaces Finder, but you can add extensions to the CD-ROM. The system re boots each time you insert a new CD.
You'll also need a license and a dongle. The @World unit authenticates each disk
it runs, looking for a digital signature that
only the dongle can produce. Bandai is planning to make the licensing costs en couragingly low.
Housed around a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, Bandai's @World
Web PC runs modified Mac software. The keyboard is optional.
with 1'vlacro med ia and QuickTime, rwo we ll-understood multimedia too ls.
The unit's Mac compatib iliry exte nds ro hardw:ue. You can co nn ect standard Apple ink-j cr p rinters, kev hoa rd s, and mi ce to @ \Xlo rld , altho ugh App le Desk rop Bm (ADB) devices require an adapter. The @_ World unit is also nctworkab le, runningApp leT..1 lk through its se ri a l port.
The grap hi cs subsystem, ho wever, dif fe rs from that o f a basic Mac. The unit spits ou t a video signal in sta nda rd 1'.rrsc, S-vid eo, or sra ncbrd VCt\. The di sp!Jy on 1'.rrSC TV has fewer pixels than o n a col or mon itor, but ant ia li as in g h a rdware keeps th e image readabl y cri sp.
T he game-l ike interface controller has a trackball for manip ulating the mouse pointer and a four-position button for sta nd a rd video act io n. Ni ne o th e r but rons must be programmed for a partic
ul ar application. An op ti o na l 569 key board lets yo u type e-mai l or enrer Web addresses. \Xlith o ur it, )'O U ha ve ro "ry pe"
o n a sc reen keyboard using th e trackball.
T he <ii Wo rl d u n it comes with a 28 .8
Kbp s Motorola m ode m a nd cab les fo r se ttin g up a Web browser. As a n o ption, Bandai provides its own lnrern et se rvice (AtWorld.Net), w h ic h cosrs S 19.95 per
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
* * *
* * * IMPLEMENTATION
*
*
m o nrh . I had the browser up and running within 20 minutes.
Bandai is ta rgetin g th e retail se t-top market for starters, but th e co mpan y also has plans for th e corpora te desktop. With a VGA moniror and the optional keyboard, @ World would make a perfect $750 net work-computer workstation sirri ng on an AppleTalk network. Ill
Peter \\'l.1y11er is a BYTE co11s11/ti11g editor wlw lives i11 Balti111 ore. You ca11 reac/J /Ji111 byse11d i11g e-mail to pcw@access.dlgex.net.
* ** * * Outstanding
****Very Good
** .. Good
* * * Fair
Poor
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 40A
now/
It's like
oneb
management da es/ se s shar
collabora e an wor together/
yo (no needing o ans e quest
~ 199; Microsof t Corporatron. 1\ll r1gtns reserved_ 1crosof t and Where do )Ou \~ an t to go tod ay? are registered tra dema rks anel Outlool-. is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
n or a I· n ves1·n
OU
e 0 ny/
,
work less/
I ·
r ad.
Now/ ~.,,lie .J._,uit J' ';c« ~:·7 is here. It's smarter, friendlier and webbier. Every application has significant improvements natural-language formulas in Microsoft Excel and "freehand" table drawing in Word , to name a few. There's also a new program, 11 11: O 111uoh d!:Sh1"·p 11 1t1111 u1«1r1 llh~ that will thrill your control freaks and just plain organize everyone else. The friendlier part comes in the form of 2-'._: ,, ~~0>1"ot::ir1h . intelligent critters who watch what your users do and offer suggestions, hints and walk-th roughs (so you're less lil<e ly to be called, paged, or treed by a cranky mob). As for webbiness, not only can your people 111 c.r,rn.1v 111 h !(, \/vt;I) Sil e'; from inside any app, they can 11 1st:or' :wp.t;.;ll!l!:.;:, from any one document or spreadsheet to any other. And they can ;- :;1. ... 111111 11E HTr<v!I . All using what they already know. He!ID. !I.Jr 1·_£'..'.' You'll be happy to know that 50% of Office 97 code is shared among apps. Plus , more housework is done at install . And the Network Installation Wizard is your friend. Now/ pinch yourself.
Wh11r" 110 yo~ "''"t tog" torlay? · www . mlcrn~uft . co m nlllce
Microsoft®
www.microsoft.com/office/97/nowI
Borland's popular RAD tool fin ally leaves its Pascal beginnings behind. By Rick Crehan
Delphi Does C++
orland 's clie nr/se rv er rapid a pplica ri o n d eve lopment (RAD) system, Delphi, is in rhe process of mu raring. Nor th at what ir is becoming is wholly unre lared to rh e o ri gin a l, bur Borland has replaced a largesecri on o f Delphi's DNA. Specificall y, Bo rland rook Delphi, rurn ed irs fo und ation language fr o m o bjecr orienred Pascal ro C+ +,a nd called rhe resulr first Ebony (a code name) and now c+ + Builder. Even a mo derarely arrenrive passerby would misrake C+ + Builder fo r Delphi. There's th e speedbar, the tabbed com p o ne nr pale rte; be low is rhe Object ln specror windo w, fo rm window, and cod e window. The fun cti on of each is unchan ged. One o f Delphi's example programs-Fishfind , which demon srrares rhe use o f a database grid control, image, and memo fie lds-is repIi cared in its entirety asa C+ + Builder demo. Addi ti onall y, Delphi's rool entourage, includ in g Re p o rrSmith a n d rhe D atab ase Explorer, also accompanies C+ + Builder. Th e lnre rBase se rve r fo r NT has been replaced wirh the Local InterBase server rhar runs o n NT o r Wind ows 95 . (For rh ose who may be po rtin g from Delphi ro C+ + Buil de r, C+ + Builder 's Loca l lnter Base se r ve r runnin g on Win 95 appears compatible wirh Delphi's Inter Base NT server. I successfully ran a cou ple o f simple Delphi applicati ons using the C+ + Builder InterBase server.) The similarities reach deeper. The pre liminary C+ + Builder manuals Borland gave me-Co mpo nenr Writer 's Guide a nd Database Applicari o n Developer's G ui de- are chapter- fo r- chapter equiv ale nts ro rhe co rrespo nding Delphi man uals. Acru all y, they are secti o n-fo r-sec ti o n e qui va lents. T he co de ex a mpl e snipper give n in rh e Delphi manual fo r using the Da ta Se t s and Dat aSe t Co unt properties of the TDatab ase component
C++ Builder retains Delphi's multiwindowed view of code, objects, and application GUI.
(written in 00 Pascal) is reincarnated in thee++ Builder manual in C+ + . Under srand, this is a good thing: It's a testimo ny to th e compatibility of rhe two sys tems.
N ot rharth ere's any need to abando n Ob ject Pascal; C++ Build er 's DCC3 2 co mpiler can handl e Objec t Pasca l code generated in Delphi. I ex perimented with
mix ing C+ +and Object Pascal code in a sample project and encountered no dif fi culti es doing so.
Th e found ati o n ato p whi ch c+ + Builder stand s is Bo rl and 's 32-bit 5.0x C+ + co mpiler. (Strictl y spea king, rh e documentati on says yo u musr recompile objecr code and lib ra ry modules fo r pro gra ms bu ilt with C++ 5.0 1 o r earli er.) H owever, ro suppo rt such th ings as C+ + Builder co mponents, Bo rl and has had ro extend the compiler with several key wo rds, all o f which sho uld be fa milia r ro De lphi deve lo pers. Fo r exa mpl e, the _ pr ope r ty keyword precedes the dee-
larati on o f a property fie ld within a class definiti on. This allows rh e compiler and linker ro generate all the in fo rmation nec essary ro provide the property inspecror
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
* ** **
* * * * * IMPLEMENTATION
wh at it needs to correc tl y display pro p
erties associated with a component.
These arc rh e days o f rh e morphin g
integrated deve lo pm ent enviro nment,
w he n rh e same deve lo pm ent syste m rh at bu ilds C+ + code a lso builds J ava code (or even Pascal code, as in th e case of Me tro we rks Code Wa rri o r) . In th at se nse, C+ + Builde r, rh o ugh pe rh aps un ex pect ed, is ar leasr logical. liJ
Rick C rehan is a BITE senior technical editor. He is coauthoro(Thc Clicnr/Scrve rToolkit fo r CIC++ Programmers(Nob/eNet, 1996). Yo tt can reach him at rlck _g @blx.com.
42 BYT E FE B RUA RY 1997
***** Outstanding
**** Very Good ***Good **Fai r *Poor
Power, Procluctivity and Precision!
Also included:
· Eight powerful utilities · 32,000 clipart images and symbols · 1,000 photos · 1,000 TrueType* and Type I fonts · Over 450 CorelDRAW"' templates · 250 30 models
Exceed the boundaries of traditional design w ith CorelORAW'" 7. Created·for the professional illustrator, graphic artist and desktop ·publisher, CorelORAW 7 includes Corel PHOTO-PAINT'" 7 for photo editing and bitmap creation and CorelOREAM 30 7 for 30 · modeling and rendering. Optimum perform'ance is top prioritywitn faster open, save and redraw across all applications. lnteractive'tools and utilities give you on-screen feedback, making the design process more intuitive. Explore your creative potential with CorelORAW 7 and attain the impossible!
_........................
Call 14 hours a day Or order via llltem et!
http://WWW.inslghtcom
http://www.corel.com Call now for faxed literature!
1-61J-na-0s26 ext. Jbso Document #, ·,085
Coret CorelORAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT are either tra.domarks·or roglslorecf trademarks Of Corel Corporation ii:i Canada, the United State!} and/or other countries.
All other product and company no'.ines are trademarks or registered trademarks of thel(respective companies.
Circle 136 on Inquiry Card.
Dr Solomon's
90.7%
Dr Solomon's
99.0%
Dr Solomon's
97.0%
You want the best virus detection software for your computers. Just look at the facts.
In study after study, cesc afcer cesc, one virus dececcion sofc ware wins out against the rest - Dr Solomon's. T he fact is, Dr Solomon 's anti -virus scan· ners give you superior de tec tion and repa ir of all varieties of viruses - polymorphic, "in the wild," boot sector, stealth and others. The n umbers prove it, aga in and aga in.
Dr Solomon's Ant i-Virus Toolkit is the international leader in virus detection, with over 3 million users wo rl dwi de.
The Anti-Vi rus Toolki t is ava ilable on all platforms including: Windows 95, Win dows NT, W indows 3.x, DOS, NetWare, Macintosh, OS/2 and SCO UNIX.
Make sure you know the facts about anti-virus software. Because wh en it comes to choosing the best, the decision isn 't even close.
For free
evaluation
please visit our
web site at:
www.drsolomon.com
Dr Solomon's Software, Inc. USA =I 800 590 1194
Dr Solomon's Softwa re Lrd., U.K. = +44 1296318 700
Dr Solomon's Software, Germany, GmbH · +49 40 25 19 540
IT Secure, India = +9 1 22 643 1233/1246
Priority Darn Systems Lrd., Ireland = +353 I 284 5600
lvfemory Masters, Kenya = +254 2 75 1 916/743934/223543
Grupo ASISA, Mexico = +52 5 392 4155
Data Alen International BV, Netherlands = +3 I 70 307 7111
Bysupport South America = +56 2231 0308
lnfo nnation Securiry AB, Sweden = +46 8580 I00 02
CSS Compurer Services, Zimbabwe = +263 4 304 822
For a complcre lisring of all wo rld wide distributors: please fox your requesr ro 617-273 -74 74
Circle 192 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 193) .
DR SOLOMON'S
The internationa l leader in vi rus protection
Dr Solomon's Software One New England Executive Park Burlington, MA 01803
(800) 590-1194
The Oxygen 202 delivers top-notch 3-D graphics performance in less space. By Robert L. Hummel
3-D Mighty Mite
· · ·· hile high-performance 3-D graphics-accelerator cards aren't yet commodities, the era of proprietary graphics
adapters is nearly over. The latest entry into this burgeoning field is Dynamic Pic tures' new Oxygen 202, a $2795 single slot PCI card that delivers competitive performance.
The 202 accelerates 3-D graphics func tions, and it includes 24-bit z-buffering and perspective-correcttexrure mapping. As a slim three-quarter-length card, it's smaller than competing cards. Equipped with two of Dynamic Pictures' scalable Oxygen processors running in parallel and 16 MB of synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), the 202 is a more powerful version of the single-chip, 8-MB Oxygen 102 ($1495). Dynamic Picn1res has also announced the four-chip, 32-MB Oxygen 402 ($4995).
The 202 supports a wide range of vid eo resolutions and refresh rates. At a 32 bit pixel depth, the 202 resolves 1280 by 1024 pixels at a 75-Hz refresh rate. Drop ping the pixel depth to 15 bits (32,000 col ors) boosts the resolution to 1600by1200 (60-Hz refresh).
Dynamic Pictures provides OpenGL
!'l\O!Yeefl and.Accel canl$ "*"1e5!ed in I :ZOO.MlllT~r
SlilStation SMPPtntiUrii l'rO · ·11\e lntenSe 30 "5 testeil
In a ~equfliped I~ f0.41.0.
lllellima'202ralied8adtf.......1 lntease '311 !\i!l'.!l lhe!! ~ ~ Pnnebic T~sCDRS
CAlf~,sl~'bat lflel bii:t'to GlatspHd with IBM's ViS!iiDtilll Dali [Jjllorw (Dl 3:0) . .sll
The Oxygen 202 is part of Dynamic Pictures' scalable 3-0 graphics accelerator family. The 202 uses two Oxygen chips in parallel.
and Heidi drivers for Windows NT 3.51 500TX-based cards in the dust, and it was
and 4.0, and it promises Windows 95 driv tied with a similarly priced 16-MB Inter
ers for early this year. The 202 contains graph Intense 3D card. With the CDRS
its own VGA subsystem, but you can still view set, the 202 beat several Glint cards,
use a separate card for two-monitor oper but it lagged about 10 percent behind Ac
ation if you change a jumper on the 202 cel's Glint card and about 15 percent be
card . The card also has a connector thar hind the Intense 3D.
su pporrs stereoscopic viewing equipment.
The 0>..}'gen 202 doesn't break new
To gauge the Oxygen 202's perfor price/ performance ground among 3-D
mance, we ran Viewperf 5.0 with the DX 3.0 and CDRS 3.0 view sets in true-color
mode at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution . (This industry-standard OpenGL graph ics-performance benchmark is available
from http://www.specbench.org/.)
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
*** * *
* * *
* IMPLEMENTATION
*
* * * * PERFORMANCE
We tested under the same conditions graphics accelerators. But it provides ex
we recently used to compare 3-D graph cellent performance at a price compara
ics workstations (see "Affordab le 3-D ble to that of other high-end offerings
Workstations," December 1996 BYTE) . and in a compact form factor. Ill
The host system was a Tri-Star dual 200·
MHz Pentium Pro system with 128 MB Robert L. H11mmel (S111/i11a11, NH) is an elec
of memory running NT 3.51. With the trical e11gi11eer, programmer, a11d cons11/ta11t.
DX view set, the Oxygen 202 left Glint You ca11 reach him at rhummel@monad.net.
* * ** *
Outstanding
****Very Good ***Good **Fair *Poor
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 47
With EtherPhone, a telephone plugged into your PC instantly gets call transfer, conferencing, and other PBX fun ctions. By Barry Nance
Your PC's Ringing-Answer It!
here 's been a lo t of noise about makin g phone ca ll s over the Internet, th ough in fact the Intern et's usefulness for that purpose is Limited. On a smaller sca le, however, it makes a lot of se nse to use yo ur LAN to make internal phone calls. If the organization isn't too big, you might even be able to forgo an expensive, single-purpose PBX telephone syste m. That's th e idea behind EtherPh one, which adds t ele phony to an ex isting Eth ern et LAN . An ErherPhone-based LAN offers Windows 95 users these PBX rype features: voice mail, an automated phone attendant, internal and external calls, call transfer, call ho ld , conference calling, and even music-on-hold . Ether Phone supports Telephony API (TAP!), and you can log calls in a database, such as M icrosoft Access. EtherPhon e co n verts the digitized voice signals to TCP/IP data packets (see the Tech Focus). You replace the standa rd Ethernet net work interface card (NIC) in each PC with Phonet's ISA-bus JOBase-T network
TECH FOCUS
Speech as LAN Data
The key concept behi.nil EtheWhone is LAN ' telephony integration (LTI). Unlike com puter telephony integration (CTI), LT1 inter l~aves voice packets with file-sharing ·..''packets·i:hrough the l:AN wire.
The biggest drawj>ack to sending voice
signals as.data packets on an Ethernet LAN is the potential for time lags on a busy net work, something a more expensive asyn chronous.transfer mode (ATM) LAN would not encounter. Phonet engineers circum vent the problem by using faster, digital signal processor-based (DSP) hardware
with an Analog Devices ADSP-2105-and algorit:hms designed specifically forvoice as-LAN-data.
Administering EtherPhone is as simple as assigning people IP addresses and phone extensions.
adap ter card and acid Windows 95 client software. Eac h EtherPhone card has RJ45 (network), Rj-11 (phone line), speaker, and microphone porrs. The client soft ware allows users to dial, answer, hold, transfe r, and otherwise manage phone ca lls.
You need a separate Windows 95 PC running Et herPbone server sofnvare to distribute calls to the clients. This se rver
has from o ne to fo ur cards, each raking up to four outside phone lines. With the max imum 16 concurrent calls, the LAN's band width is pretty we ll maxed out.
I set up a 133-M Hz Pentium PC as an EtherPhone server, connected it to the public telephone network, and plugged a standard phone into each EtherPho ne client PC. The server kept up with voice as-LAN-daca, even when the client PC was busy running various Windows pro
grams. But, with just one outside and nvo inside calls under wa y, the server needed to be dedicated to telephony. Simi larl y, a
486 client PC had a hard time keeping up while running other Windows p rograms.
I was generall y pleased by Phonet's marriage of Ethernet and telephony tech nologies. Ma ny functions have no on-line
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
** ** **
* IMPLEMENT~TION
h e lp , a nd t h e software occasiona ll y burped and had to be restarted. But the drivers were reliable: I didn't lose a sin gle phone call to software bugs.
Despite sk impy doc umentation, occa sional glitches, an d a narrow platform focus, EtherPhone isa good choice if you can't afford a PBX for your sma ll office and you wanr to present a professional
image to customers over the phone. Iii
Barry Nance is a BYTE co11s11/ti11g editor. You ca n reach him by sending e-mail to barryn @bix.com .
48 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
***** Ou1s1anding
****Very Good ***Good * *Fair *Poor
You Don't Have To Use
Brute Force To
WWW.globetrotter.com
Make Sur
for
a
FREE
FLEXfm
For
are. for Windows offer
FLEXIm®
The Elegant Solution You don't have to use the brure force of a baseball bat- or dongles for that matter to make sure only licensed, paying users have access to your software. There's a much more elegant and cost-effective solution: FLEX/m from GLOBEtrotter.
The De Facto Standard FLEX/mis bundled in over $15 billion of installed UNIX"and Windows· software products, making it the de facto standard in license management. And in 1995 alone, FLEX/m was used to ship over $3 billion in software licenses over the Internet. That makes it the de facto standard in electroniccommerce for software, too.
Even Works With Dongles If you still want to use dongles, FLEX/m significantly reduces the number you need at a customer site by allowing low-cost dongles to be used as "network dongles," and by sharingdongles across different products.
Your Customers Will Like It In an independent survey, users preferred FLEX/meighteen-to-one over other license managers. And all of us know customers really don't care for dongles. With FLEX/m, your customers benefit from:
· Floating licenses allowing licenses to be shared over
a network, wh ile
_.....,,,,,,,,,lt:atlool u.-..,._~~~~~~~~~~~ /lllOf R.EXllJ 1t,fll0
Key Features:
WithFLEXlm
you can:
fairly compen
sating the
vendor with a
higher price
per license.
· Fully functional evaluation software
· Limitsoftware
11se to licensed
11sers
· License software in netu ways to gain new markets and customers
while the vendor knows the software wi ll stop after aspecific date.
· Built-in license compliance
· Leverage the Internet and CD-ROMs to increase sales while red11cing selling and manufacturingexpenses
customers don't need to buy expensive license metering utilities to verify they
· Reduce the cost ofproductevalttation programs
comply with vendor license terms. · Installing software where it is most
· Significantly reduce the1tSe of expensive dongles
appropriate from a hardware
or administration perspective, while protecting your software.
Windows, UNIXandJava
/
Askaboutourwhitepaperon Electronic Commerce For Software
If your company develops products on ( multiple platforms, you should know _ FLEX/m runs on Wmdows, UNIX and Java.
For More Information Call us at 408-3 70-2800, email us at info@globetrotter.com or visit our website at http://w.vw.globerrotter.com.
) GLOBEtrotter
,/ Electronic Commerce For Software ~
hrrp://www.globerrorrer.com Email: info@globc1rorrer.com Telephone: 408-370-2800 Fax: 408-370-2884
We'll be happy to arrange a demo and show you how to make sure all your users are licensed.
FLE.X/m is a reglltcred tr.1denurk and ..Ekctronic CJmmcrce For Software" is a tr.Jdermrk of
GLOBE/rotter Sof1w:1rc. All 01hcr tradema rks are
thr:: property of 1hcir respt:'C'l ivc 0\\11cn:.
Circle 188 on Inquiry C ard.
A library offers reliable operation for Windows 95 applications. By ]oiio Carreira, Diamantino Costa, and ]oiio Gabriel Silva
Fault Tolerance for Windows Applications
n increasing number of busi ness-critical applications are being targeted for the low end PC market and gene ra l purpose OSes, such as Windows 95 and NT. This class of programs includes on line transaction processing (OLTP) and data-warehousing applications, control systems, and other business-critical solu tions fo r the finance, telecommun ica tions, retail, and health-care markets. But moving to such systems poses a problem. How can the PC guarantee the continuous availabi lity and data consis tency required for these mission-critical app lications? Despite the desktop PC's lower costs, running such applications without any fault-to lerance support can be risky- even dangerous. It is possible, however, to use software to implement a certain level of fau lt tol erance fo r desktop PCs. A special library that we've written, called Win FT, pro vides fau lt-tolerance support for Win 32 applications. WinFT performs auto matic detection and restarting of failed processes; diagnosis and rebooting of a malfunctioning or strangled OS; check pointing and recovery of critical volatile data; and preventive actions, such as soft ware rejuvenation (i.e., when an appli cation or OS is restarted to get a clean in ternal state).
WinFTParts
\X'inFT is a library of function that pro vides fault-tolerance support for Win dows app li cations that must run fo r long periods of time or nonsto p app li ca tions, such as database servers and con trol systems. Win FT was implemented as a set of objects developed with version
s.o ofrhe Borland c++ compi ler. !ruses
the Win 95 subset of the Win32 AP! and is availab le as both a static and a dynam ic link library (DLL) . The modules and related functions that make up the \Vin-
FT lib rary are shown in the table "WinFT Functions" on page 52.
The checkpointing modules set up and keep track of critical data structures that the programmer declares. They also keep track of the declared da ta stm ctures and manage the task ofsaving this data to disk. In addition, the modules recover the data
FT exceptio n-hand ling module provides a simple AP! for yo ur use.
WinFTSetup
A TC hkp ob ject, which manages data check pointing, is used throughout an application. Yo u create this object with the TC l1 ko() function . T he function 's
Watchdog and Application Messages
Manual launch
Windows kernel
0 On nonnal launch, WlnFT creates a
daemon watchdog process.
f) Watchdog starts target application.
e Application se1ds messages and gets launch status from.watchdog.
Hard drive
e If the watchdog falls to get periodic
messages, it kills the appHcation and relaunches iL
0 The rejuvenated application restores
volatile data from files saved on disk.
0 In severe <:ases, the watchdog can order the system to be rebooted.
A message-passing scheme tells the watchdog if the process is hung up or is experiencing problems.
when the program restarts after a crash. The watchdog modules set up process
es that monitor the activity of other pro cesses to check for execution problems. A mission-critical app lication uses Win FT's message- passing functions to indi rectl y signal the watchdog process if it's caught in a loop or sta lled waiting on an OS call. If you don't want to bother with the task of wri ting exception-handling code within your applications, the Win-
first parameter lets yo u specify a direc tory path and the name of the checkpoint file that stores the critical data. If you want to save a copy of the checkpoint file on a remore system, yo u specify this path in TChkp ( l 'ssecond parameter. This lets you restart the application from a back up PC in case of a serious crash.
The three checkpointing methods Cr i t i ca l ( ), Che c kPoi nt ( ) , and Re c over() shou ld be use d accord ing to
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 51
Core Operating Sys tems
WinFT Functions
. ~ .~··
Exception hanclirg
TChk~;:TCh~p(char ·name. char *apath .
int made. 1nt amode . BOOL *error l
BOOL TCh kp: : Checkpoin t( l
BOOL; TChkp : : Crit1cal {void *data. int.size)
BOOL TChkp: : Reco ver( )
TNDClfent * lnitW atchDt u i~t
~
idle_cnt2_rejuv. uint errors_z_restat t .
uint t i me_ref. uint restarts_2_reboo l
voi d Clo seWatchD( I
BOOL TWPCl 1ent : : fmAn ve ( voi d)
BOOL TW DCl i ent ::Er r or Cin t e rr_cod e )
BOOl TWDC11ent: : ldle(vo j dl
BOOL TWDCli ent : : SetlmAl i veTi rneout (ui nt timeo ut)
int TWDCl ienti : Get S.tartMode{voidJ
BOOL ln i tX ce ptionHandling ( )
Cre-a~e checkpoinfi.IJQ object, assign backup data files
Declare criticaldata structures
Save data to disk
Restore data after asystem crash
· , Create watchdog proc_ess
Terminate watchdog monitoring Send periodic "I'm Alive· messages to watchdog process Send error messages to watchdog process Send idle messages to watchdog p rocess Assign time-out interval to detect hung processes
Determine cause of application start and perform recovery ifnecessary Exception-handling function and macros
some rul es th at a re inruitive but sho uld be clea rl y stared . The first step is to de cl a re rh e criti ca l da ra stru ctures using Cri t i ca l ( I . Yo u invoke this method as ma ny times as necessary, providing th e function with a pointer to the critical data structure and its size in byt es.
Youcall Ch eckpoint( l tosaveallcrit ical data structures on disk and use Re cove r ( l to refill th ese da ra stru ctures using dara fr om th e fil e. After an a ppli cati o n starts and all th e critical stru ctures a re d ecl ared, you mu st d etermine wh eth er th e a pplicati o n sho uld recove r dara from th e disk. This is in case th e appl ica ti o n is resta rted du e to a n error. A Ge t St ar tM ode ( l metho d, described later, fetch es thi s in fo rm a ti o n from a H/0 Cl i en t objectthat's managed by a watch dog process.
Let Loose the Watchdog
Th e watchd og can be a separate process, with n graphical interface rhar lets you set up all the pa ra meters interacti vel y, o r a hidden process la unch ed through In it \·J a tch 0 ( ) . Ini t Wa t ch O( I crea tes the
rno clie nt object and a daemo n-style
process that monitors the health of a spe cific applicatio n. When th e applicati o n is fi rstlaunch ed, Ini t Wat c hD( I checks to see if it was launch ed directly by the user. If so, l nit Wa t c i1 0 () neve r returns, but instead launches an oth er instance of rh e a pplicnti o n.
Th e pa ren t p rocess th en turn s itse lf into a watchdog process that monitors th e newl y laun ched applicati o n . Whe n
th e second in stance o f th e applica tion calls 1ni tW a t ch O( ), it detec ts th atth e a pplicati o n was laun ched by th e watch dog. In this case, 1n i tH at c hD( l returns, a nd real application code exec utes.
Within the applicati o n, you use Win FT' s wa tchd o g me thod s I mA 1 i ve ( l , Error(), and ld l e( l to send messages ro the watchdog process. These messages ca n be " I' m Ali ves" (also ca ll ed hea rt beats), er ror messages, o r idl e no tifica ti o ns, and the wntchdog daemo n handles th em in di ffe rent ways. Peri o di c hea rt bea t messages tell the watchd og th at th e applicati o n is active. Erro r notificati o ns cover those situations where th e appli cati o n is srill active bur is detecting errors a nd having problems getting a jo b do ne.
Finally, if th e applicati o n is idl e-due to use r in activi ty or th e abse nce of clie nt requ ests (if it's a server applicati o n) - it sho uld send idle messages to th e watch dog so th a t it ca n ini tia te maintena nce or preve nti ve acti o ns, such as so ftwa re rejuvenation . The figure "Watchd og and Application Messages~ o n page 5 1depicts rhe interactio n between a Windows ap pli cation and th e watchdog process and between tht: watchd og and th e OS. The applicatio nuses Ge t St ar tM ode ( I tosee wh y rhe watchdog started it a nd decides if recovery acti o ns, such as reading the cht:ckpo int fil es into memo ry, sho uld be pe rfo rmed.
Recovery Routes
The wa tchd og ra kes rwo acri o ns, based o n da ta rece ived fro m rh e user a ppli ca
ti on . The first is a simple relaunch of the applicati o n when a specified threshold of successive error messages is reached o r because th e " I' m Ali ve" time-our expi res (i.e., the applica tio n is hung up).
The o th er, mo re drastic, acti o n is to re boot th e machin e when successive appli cation restarts fail to clea r the pro blem . This typical ly occurs when an applicati o n keeps reporting OS e rro rs and rejuvena tion of the OS is a likel y sol uti o n. To guar antee th at th e applicati o n launches no r mall y afte r a syste m reboot, you sho uld place the ap plicati o n's execurable fi le in the Windows Sta rtup Folder.
Win FT was used successfull y in th e field as a support libra ry for a n industri al-control applicatio n running under Win 95 . The applicatio n's availability was in creased, and it w::is ::ible to prov ide non stop real -rime service.
Win FT seems to be a promising solu ti on fo r th e increasing number o f appli cations that need to run perpetu::ill y, such as control systems a nd servers in client/ server ap plicati o ns. Ir is publicly ava ilable from th e 13YTE Web site (http://www.byte .com/a rr/download/download.htm), and the latest updates a re available from the Depend able Sys te ms G ro up Web p::ige
rn (http ://dsg.dei.uc. pt).
Joiio Carreira, Diam an tino Costa, a11d Joiio Gabriel Silva wo rk at the Dependa ble Sys tems G roup i11 the Department ofIn fo rmatics E11gi11eering al the U11iversit y of Coimbra in Portugal. }oiio Carreira ca n be contacted at jcar@eden .dei.uc. pt .
52 B Y TE FEBR UA R Y 199 7
Tf C
l I I Ii I
I
If I
T (T
·CUSTDMIZABU OHR lllTERfACE.
·llll IDRE THAii Diii lllH AT ATIME, Tl IULTIPU VIEWS.
·DESIGll om TAHU
11111111111111111/1111111111I111'111111 .
can!
EXTRACAD !LI for Windows 95 is a drawing and design
environment that is highly productive, flexible and versatile . Th e Windows ' 95 interface makes it easy to learn with drop-down me nus,
di alogue boxes, ico ns and button s e nabling you to perfo rm eve n com plex operations simply by cli cking the mouse button .
.,,--DPTIDNAl 01-GIJAL TDD LS I DIGITAL ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
I ANALOG E11ECTRONIC LIBRARY I INTERIOR DESIGN LIBRARY
·255 lAYERS, WORK 011 MORE THAii OllE lAYER AT ATIME.
·llPORT Ill Olf & Bltlllap.
·EXPORT TD Olf,HPGl·2 B POSTSCRIPT fORMIT.
C heck out our demo version on www.finson.com or email us on finson@ finson.it
Finson SRL Via Montepulciano 15-20124 Milano Italy 'IEL ++39 2 66 93 590 FAX ++39 2 66 98 70 27
FILL OUT-THE COlJ?ON NOW ! AND SEND IT BY F.AX OR MAIL
r - ----- - ~-------------- - -~-~----------------- - ,
l TITLE
QTY PRICE
I "="' · ExtraCad Ill for Windows'95
$79.00
TOTAL
_ !·enclose ... ' a cheque
(0/J W:U!NJ~@!M jl turn ON y'our computer
I _D1_gita_I E-::1::-ec--,tr_onl_c,_l-:'.':lb_ra_ry_-t----11-'.::$--:19.07"0:--+--- Plense debit Ill)' I~ · _A_n_7a_lo~7g_E_le_ct_ro_ni_c_llb_ra_ry....._-t----11-S-179_.o_o_-t-_ _ VJSA credit card ·
Interior Design library Postage and packing
$19.00
$5 .00
Visa SWilch MastercIard " ·,
BTE0297
Name
Card Issue no.
llllRIJIH canll1uratlaa: IBM-compatible PC,,1
486 66 Ml:iz OPU , Windows '95 (or later) , BMB of RAMf
lcrosoft·compatible mouse, VGA graphics ca d. RICHmU~ld : Pentium 90 MHz,CPU ,
,, 16 MB of RAM, SVGA graphics card.
Address Town/City Post Code
Country Tel
9iud Holder .Name ( ii different)
Card No. l
Card Expiry Date
"'
L----·
-- - ----~-
Circle ~ 7'.? ohf'nquiry C,ard (RESELLERS: 173).
Model CRT Size/Viewable Dot/Aperture Grille Pitch Horizoritll F~ue_ncy Video Input Bandwidth Maximum Resolution
Optimal Re solution
TCO·Certlfled MSRP..
·Aperture Grille
0.25mrn 0.28mm· 0.25mm 0.25mm· 0.25mm
30-115 kHz 30:107 kHz 30-95 kHz 30-96 kHL 30-86 kHz
250 MHz 230 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 135 MHz
1800x 1440 f600x 1280 1600x1280 1600x1280 1600 )( 1280
1800 x 1440 1600 x 1200 1600x 1200 1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 @76Hz @85Hz @76Hz @77Hz @80Hz
Yes $2,195
Yes
Yes
$999
$799
Announcing theViewSonic PSIS21" (20" viewable) monitor. It's tl1e latest innovation from \fiewSonic~ the recognized leader in color monitor technolob'Y·
And It's a mega hit.
More power to you.
Talk about unbelievable numbers: Resolutions up to 1800 x 1440 at a 76Hz refresh rate. Awhopping 250MHz video input bandwidth. Ahorizontal scan rate up to IISK.Hz. And a 0.25mm dot pitch. All high water marks in tl1e indust1y.
It's the new standard for high-end CAD, document imaging :md other precision-oriented applications. The text is the sharpest available today. ·111e images are Oicker-free, virtually elim inating eye strain. It displays more information faster than anymonitor you've seen before and with 13NC and VGA connectors youcan easilyswitch between
two separate systems.
Compared to other monitors there is no comparison.
After winning the Byte Spring '96 "Best of Comdex" and "Best of PC Expo" awards. the perfom1ance is obvioll5ly rated the highest in the industry, but tl1e price is not- it is a real mega value. It comes with ARAG~ anti-reOecti on, anti glare screencoating, a limited 3 year warranty on CRT, parts and labor (the best in tl1e business), and an optional Express Exchange' Service program that insures 48 hour replacements.
If all this doesn't convince you tliat the Viewsonic PSIS is trulya "mega monitor," tl1en seeing it certainlywill. Call (800) 888-S583 and ask for agent 1307 for your nearest dealer.
Winner ViewSonlc P81 5
June 1996
Winner
VlewSonlc P81 5
June 1996
ViewSonic~'
'91-g, E09 7970 ?~· 1X'9 C(:.g. 7956 · Cdl ~.scr.:· a 1~'9. frjg 73~9 .z:..:-c.1 j2' J' ttr"d'r! ?res a"lJ sce:"'calv-.s ~ io ~~~ sro.: n:tO? · ··~tSAP a:;('J. .....nii'1 1 ;f!;7 r:~ w.w.~ ei:19)")(.crm · ©ve.-.&r.cfnrwa:on 1996. ·997 · · 'r(]'3 !t.'50',<t\J · Co'roa·e ra~es a'\J n.,"B - sta:ro teen ce cre ~e<A.1t; rt m '£.S>eC.\'E w1oa;\'S
Circ le 157 on Inquiry Card (RESE LLERS : 158).
An update on the PPP protocol and its use within enterprise networks. By Jeffrey N. Fritz
Building Bridges and Secure Connections
onnecting a remote machine as a node on an enterprise network or to the Internet in vo lves the use of some tricks of the trade. Modems and ISD N termi nal adap ters are often used for remote network access, but they aren't really net work devices. Rather, they are ser ia l devices operating over circuit-switched tel ephone connection s. This contrasts with directly connected network nodes, which are based on pac ker-based con nectionless topologies. Given this differ ence, a serialized protocol is required to move connection less network packets over the connection-ori ented telephone network.
Real-World Connections
For remote LAN access, the protocol of choice is the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF's) Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) . PPP is defined in RFC 1134, "The Point-to-Point Protocol: A Pro posal for M ulti-Protocol Transmission of Data grams over Point-to-Point Links" and RFC 1661, "The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)." These RFCs provide a standard ized method for transporting multipro tocol datagrams over poi nt-to -point links.
The PPP algo rithm moves network packe ts over a modem or ISDN link by placing them inside a high-level data-link control (HDLC) frame. Th e algorithm then transfers the frames over th e circuit switched con nect io n to the nerwork . Once the packets arrive at their destina tion , the PPP a lgorithm removes them from the frames and pl aces them on the network. Inte restingly, both ISDN and PPP employ the same HDLC-based frame structure, as shown in the figure "Frame Formats" above.
PPP can operate over a variety o f seri al devices, as well as over just abo ut any serial link, including those using analog
modems. But when it comes to PPP per formance, throughput is important. For decent PPP connections, the connection should use nothing less than a 14.4- Kbps (V. 32bis) modem on both ends; 28.8-Kbps
based package, such as NetManage'sCha meleo n or Novell's LAN Workplace for Windows, is installed in the remote PC. The PC is then connected via the se ria l port to a modem or terminal adapter.
Frame Fonnats
Flag Addre5s Control
101111111 111 111111111111'
HDLC frame fonnat
fnfonnation
ttt11nmntmnm 16-blt checksum Flag 111
PPP frame fonnat
Fla~ Addres$ Control Protocol
lnfonnatlon 16-bit checksum Flm
11111111 11 11 1.111111111111111111111111111
mttmtnnnn11111
Flag Address Control
llllllfll 1111111111111111
ISDN frame fonnat
lnfonnation
mm 16-blt checksum Flag
DIllDIMllllI I
0Flagbits D Since PPP Is point· D The control bits D The protocol
Indicate the to-point, no address
indicate that the
field Identifies
start or end is required. ISDN
next field contains the protocol
of a frame. embeds two addresses infonnation.
encapsulated
that uniquely Identify
in the frame.
a device.
Both ISDN and PPP use the same HDLC-based frame structure, which expedites the process of routing frames through a network.
(Y.34) or fas ter modems are highly rec ommended. ISDN devices generall y have sufficient throughput (64 Kbps on two B channels) to do a good job of su ppo rting PPP sessio ns.
On an enterprise network, a commu nicationsserver and a bridge/ router bank provide access for PPP connections. T hese same tools are used by an Internet service provider (ISP) offering Intern et access. Th e user's PC establishes a connection to the network through PPP client software runnin g on the PC.
The sa me method app li es whether modems o r terminal adapters are used on the remote side to connect to the In ternet or to an enterprise network. A PPP
PPP packages generally include dialer software, which handles the task of estab lishing the te lephone connection . Once the conn ection is made to the network, PPP negotiates the Link Control Protocol (LCP) and au thenticates the remote de vice. If these negotiations are successfu l, the network session begins.
Bridging Issues
Termina l adapters and modems are not the only devices that have the ability to supp o rt PPP. A PPP connection can also be made through a remote side bridge or router that supports PPP internally. With a bridge or router, the remote PC is co n nected via a nerwork interface card (N IC)
FEBRUARY 19 9 7 BYTE 5 5
Core Networks
over a small LAN between the PC and the ISDN device. The negotiation process works in much the same manner to bring up a PPP session with a bridge or a rout er as it does with a modem or a terminal adapter.
An enhancement to PPP, called Multi link Point-to-Point Protocol (MP), is de fined in IETF RFC 17 17, "The PPP Multi link Protocol (MP) ." MP has the abi lity to aggregate multiple ISON B channels for enhanced throughput. Ir can handle a maximum of 384 Kbps (six Bchannels) before compression, which is certainly a respectable throughput rate in anybody's book.
PPP can be used whether the serial con nection is provided by bridges or routers. But there are differences between PPP connections over bridges and those over routers. Bridges tend to be simpler to con figure but provide fewer capabilities than routers. The figure "Stacks Compared" above shows a typical PPP bridging stack and a PPP IP routing stack.
Note that rhe same interface appears at the top and bottom layers of both stacks. Whether bridging or routing is in use, the network protocol is always on the top layer. The bonom layer is the PPP framing on the B channels. That is, the layer is ISDN layer 2, where the PPP packets are placed in HDLC frames.
The difference between bridging and routing stacks occurs when the control protocol is in use. A bridging stack uses the IETF-defined Bridge Control Proto col (BCP). BCP, which operates on layer 2, is responsible for examining the pack ets and determining their destination. A routing stack operates on layer 3. It sup ports many of the functions that are typ ically found in routing, such as time to live, least-cost routes, parallel links, pro tocol filtering, and other functions.
While BCP supports all protocols, rout ing stacks must be created to support spe cific protocols. For example, the IP Con trol Protocol (!PCP) is an !ETF-defined protocol that performs the routing net work functions for TCP/ IP. If !PX is imple mented in the router, then the !PX Con tro l Protocol (IPXCP) is used in place of, or in addition to, !PCP. Simi lar control protocols are being developed for other network protocols.
Secure Conduits
The IETF has defined two protoco ls for security over PPP connections. The Pass
Stacks Compared
:,. .
Bridging stack
IP, IPX, AppleTalk protocols
Bridge Control Protocol IBCPI
Compression (optional)
Multilink
I -~,!i
l~ I
IP routing stack IP protocol
i1
L
IP Control Protocol llPCPI
·~1I It.~l Compression (optional!
~ I
Multilink
I
l!\I ~. I PPP frames on Bchannel
l Ln ~ .... ---------
-~ · ::u
Both stacks present the same interfaces;this allows easy integration of devices into a large network.
word Authentication Protocol (PAP) and Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) are both specified in RFC 1334, "PPP Authentication Proto cols ." PAP and CHAP are often included as internal protoco ls in ISDN network devices.
PAP and CHAP both support the au thentication of remote devices. Howev er, PAP provides on ly a basic authentica tion level. Under PAP, an identification, a password, and account pairs are repeat edly sent by the remote device to the au thentication device. This is done until authentication is acknowledged by the authentication device or the connection is tt:rminated.
Since PAP sends passwords "in the clear," there's some risk that the connec tion's security may be compromised. For example, a hacker could record the legit imate user 's PAP log-in sequence and then play back the recorded log-in at a later time to gain access to the network. Since PAP has no rime-out function, the hack er is free to use repeated trial-and-error attempts.
CHAP is a more robust authentication protocol. The CHAP algorithm depends on a calculated value, or "secret," that's at least 1 octet in length and is known only to the authenticator and the remote access device. Because the CHAP secret is nevt:r sent over the link, it's high ly effec tive against playback and tria l-and-error anemprs.
Instead of sending the secret, CHAP
sends a "challenge" to the remote unit attempting to connect to the network. The remote unit responds with a value calcu lated by a common algorithm used by both devices. The authentication de vice checks the response against its own calculation of the expected value. If the values march, the authentication is ac knowledged ; othenvise, rhe connection is terminated. RFC 1334 expects each new challenge va lue to be unique, which pre vents an attacker from using a previous ly intercepted response to obtain network access.
CHAP and PAP help ensure that the cor rect remote device has dialed in to the net work. You should remember, however, that both protocols authenticate only the remote device. They do not authenticate the user or the calling number.Therefore, they should always be used in combina tion with other security methods, such as log- in sequences and caller ID. Addition al security measures, such as Kerberos, the Termina l Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS), and the Re mote Authentication Dia l-In User Service (Radius), should be used to supplement PPP security. El
Jeffrey N. Fritz is a telecom11111nicatio11s engi neer for \Vest Virginia University's Teleco111 m11nications and Network Services depart ment. He is theauthoro(Remotc LAN Access: a guide for networkers and the rest of us (Man ning Press/Prentice-Hall PTR, 1996). You can co11tact him at jfrltz .wvu .edu.
56 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
We put the
·
(Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks according to original Berkeley acronym)
·
·
.l"lttxStakTM - Maximum performance at a minimum price.
Inexpensive Cost Per Megabyte.
If you need the protection RAID has to offer, but the expense has been holding you back, then Artecon's new desktop .l1f1!<Stak is your solution. For about the same price as many standard 3.5" drive subsystems. .l~tak gives you all the bene fi ts of RAID. By purchasing the RAID system to fit your needs, you can expand incre mentally without the limitations or cost of a pre-configured box. And .l1f1!<Stak is the only desktop RAID solution that offers the high availability and redu ndancy once available at the more exoensive enterprise level.
Removable, Redundant and Reliable.
.l1f1!<Stak gives you the utmost in reliability with features like true hot plug remov able disk drives. Independent front-removable power supplies and rear removable cooling fans provide both high availability and easy serviceability. Optional hot plug removable .l\ft!<RAlD controllers can be configured for dual failover provid ing you with the extra redundancy needed for mission critical appl ications. .l1f1!<Stak supports RAID levels 0, 1, O+1, 3 or 5 for complete flexibi lity and opti mal performance in your environment.
1-800-USA-ARTE
http://www.artecon.com
Superior Price-Performance.
Don't let the low price of the r.========= == ======o
.l1f1!<Stak fool you Exceptional performance and excellent trans fer rates are packed into our com pact 3.5" form factor. .l~tak outruns the other RAID S')'Stems on the market with a 486-DX2
-3000
1 : ~...=-1
...1000
0
I/Os Per Second - Maximum Reads
processor resulting in extremely
fast transfer rates at all RAID levels. Fast-wide end-to-end interfaces, multiple drive
channels and custom ASICs contribute to maximum performance at a minimum pnce .
Investment Protection.
With .l1f1!<Stak, you can incrementally upgrade into the RAID system of your choice
as your needs grow. From a single desktop unit to a powerful server configuration,
you never sacrifice your original .l\fl!< investment. Desktop RAID systems start at
4GB and can be expanded easily and incrementally to over 1OOGB. And,
.l1f1!<Stak is compatible with virtually any platform including Sun, HP, SGI,
Macintosh and PCs running Windows NT/Windows 95.
So call Artecon today and see how we stack up!
E-mail: stakad@artecon.com
E nterprising solutions for your enterprise.ni
Artecon ~TM'---------' PO Box 9000, Carlsbad, CA 920 18-9000
(6 19)93 1-5500 FAX (619) 93 1-5527
email: sales @artecon.com
A Member of the Nordic Group of Companies
Nlhon Artecon 81-03-5 458-8260 Artecon S.A . France 33 -1-6918-1850 · Artecon B.V. 31 -53-4832208 Artecon U.K. 013 44 636390
Artecon and the Artecon logo are registered trademarks al Artecon, Inc. All other lrademarks are proprie tary to their respective manufacturers.
C irc le 1B1 on Inquiry Ca rd .
Compaq~ HP,.IBM·...
I I
,,.
When you can get award-winning price/performance
solutions customized to fit your needs
SERVERS WORKSTATIONS LAN S RAID ST0 RAGE
"We dare you to compare"
Why choose pre-configured systems and thei r many limitations? 5.A.G. Electronics can provide you with award-wi nning custom configured filcservers, workstations and storage solutions at a price the
industry cannot beat. S.A.G. is the undisputed price/ performance industry leader!
Why compromise on qua lily?
S.A.G. incorporates only the highest quality componems in all of it systems: Imel and AMI motherboards, Adaptec. CMD. and AMI comrollers, and Seagate IBM and Fujitsu hard dri ves. The best quality componems ensures the most reliable svstem. Perfo rmance, reliability and customer satisfaction is \vhat we arc all about. "Your concern is our concern."
Why does S.A.6 . win so many awards?
SAG. has won an unprccedemcd 3 PC Magazine's Ed itor's Choice Awa rds in 19961These awards arc based on \1erformance, price, quality and service. Let SAG. bui d you a custom performance system based on the s<1me principals that have ea med us th ese award s.
Need a Web Server?
Companies like Business \\'eek Magazi11e are choosingSAG. Electro nics as their high perform ance web ser\'Cr prmoder'
w~ w S.A.G. provides a5Year Limiled Warranty t CHOICE .GHOmE .CHOICE
,....,..r ~t.1:. 1'~
~ G ST~
100
1~?0 19% SAG Sil !66i'.-:IV'I
f.U-A)~ 199~ ~csn1sor-
Al & r on · ·lte · nd <& )'tu ui r ndt'd wuran1l u a rt u·ll·blt . Luu· o p11ont
a·aUahlc: llc:1u rn · may bt i ubjrc1 10 rcu od.ln1t fn . RMA · ft'l t.01 ltt a cq u l1t" d ~drv'.cnhn't'no1 bttnapptO\'td by 1J>t"r«1ttaJ
Communka1toro ComtrJlWol\. '!"hoot ck'l'kt"I alt no1, and m.ay no1l>t ulltfo! lof ~ 01 ka>t. or wad o r kucd until the apoiro\'11 o f1 M r ec hu bttn ot.11.111nrd
Quad Pro 200MHz
1 1rt.l~ProPn:c!lilll. tlj). ~ 4
156! Cocre
m 64MB c:1 4w1 ~om.Ill
ff.11111fYro IGB SIJ~ 16)l'CI,141USA
~«39t01JN
9.IGB 11!XHPl.I IJtro \Vile Hmd !me
Ma1ro1 6Mll \'/WA Vdeo. l'CI
';ooi14GBOA!~
c~l'Oc~1 0;100
Dual Pro 200MHz SMP Dual Pro 200 RAID 5 Rackmaunt Server
DWI Cca,1111t tll!llltt11 lilauge11!1ISrslt·1n·nr·
W:lfllqaOli~Yriih
SJ.'lllll'OllllQi¢1
1r1~ l'i.'lli.m Pro 200YJiz
l'iocelsa,1Jwllllil~2 Cl'UI
311.~ d60 Ill Wil [Jp:Mi!Je b 5111,\B.K!Stq:oled
Irrqt 111Seres n1 2a Bit aBVR>J,\
l~oollarl
· ~;cJ~llnWil!
5emr Soilwme lncl.xled
~....d. 'ii;.!!~
S)Wll
111113PmsnPro100!'Jiz Proce5l«, lJJqailie ~ 1(!1)1
Mui ·processing file Server
I ~td Penti.m ~o 100!1.Hz ~oc!llQ, lJJqailie ro 2CflJs
6411\B d60111 [00 Wi lqxnl:lE b5111,\B, KC
Sw:tal
64!\B d60111 HXJ Wil
lqxn!ile b 256.\\!J((Stw.<lal
s·o~: (4111'.l,(4)llA
Sbtl:(4)11'.l,IJ)llA
!.W 5 ,WC£(~
~19401.boWa
· l~illil.lllCad
· illd 10/10011'.I hheme1 51Jis:(3)11'.1,(l) llA
4.4GB 1100 RPM UV/ HD S!lly81 mROM
0:34.3GB 7100 RPM ~mo Wli!
Hmd~
C~ll'.lf!lm;l 0/100
Dilnro:l 11iB [00 Vdeo
Crt.:roller
4Gll 1100 RIMUho WO; HD (11jE11tll'.l fiMtl 10/100 llmml 1MB l'(I Vdco
!?,tood.flw!'./,·;m
\art Bl CDi{\11
\art 81(])RO.~
lu.1i!CC1<1, JOOWutt
53450
L\q©; ~ 91(~ ltro Wcelciiooo
s3900
!tjtmd, fkwr.11~
lJBayCilsl,300 Wwi Wnb;~~
57449
kfo,ixnd,flw!'. !'iw
!ixbmr.1300 'll!ill i'oo"ef 5<ro"ef (11S1·ilhSlleP.ois
54100
Alpha 500 Graphics 1[II( SOlVilz l4fct Cftl
IMBllA'AC~
256 ~&6
64MB ol 60lllRl.M10 IGB
SIJll: (4)11'.l, (2)11A
· 294D 1Jtro vrr.~ srn
~
1art s, rorov.
i!roiiie l18S!iiesll811\S'IF.IJI. ·3D·1'1i!o
9.lGB 7200 RPM ~lro V!ile tmll:m
K!oi!ood. flw!'.h'i:w
lae 300 l'lilttf'w."ef
56513
Alpha 433MHz Available
EL
More Server Power , for Less
Circ le 171 o n Inquiry Card .
AbOCl Our Name: Saint Antbo1y Gulde
1.800.989.3475
SAC Dtctroolcs · 451A1do'l!IStrett ·""1bAllklY11. N.lOll4l 50"6ll<AJ55 ru 51JU89-0tlll Hoin: m.t-7~ llGWJfrilJ) m
CSA Schet!ale·CS·J5f.J103D b11p :11 sageIec.cD11
CPl:J:s ·
A new library and AP! enable preemptive multitasking and multiprocessing on Mac OS systems. By Tom Thompson
The Mac Goes Multiprocessor
oday, deskto p computer designs are flirtin g with clock speeds of 300 MHz, unheard of just a year ago. However, to keep a computer 's design both simple and affordable, its system bus-where the memory and certain peripherals hang out-typically dawdl es along at a frac tion of the processor 's speed. Because of the design and cost constraints, it's going to be difficult for even faster systems to realize significant gains in performance. There's an alternative design that can achieve large performance boosts in spite of the slower bus. This is multiprocess ing (MP) , where the system has two or more processors that improve through put by working in concert to divide and conquer a job. Of course, there's a catch: Some hardware modifications are neces sary so the processors can properly share the system bus and the peripherals. Also, the OS software requires changes so it can operate the multipl e proc esso rs. Fur thermore, it may be necessary to modify the application software so it divvies a task into sections for use by the various processors.
Technical Issues Solved
MP's cost and performance advantages led Mac OS vendors to tackle these hard ware and software issues. In May of 1995, Apple Computer and DayStar Digital (a Mac OS licensee and hardware design er) announced the joint development of an API, the Apple MP API, that resolved the software situation . In October 1995, DayStar addressed the hardware sirua tion by shipping a four-processor Mac compatible, called the Genesis MP, fol lowed by two-processor systems in June 1996 . This was followed by Apple's two processor Power Mac 9500/MP in August. Another Mac OS vendor, UMAX, has begun shipping multiprocessor systems, too. Both Apple and UMAX have licensed
MP hardware designs from DayStar. It's worth examining how DayStar and
Apple deal t with some of the technical diffi cu!ties in implementing MP on a Mac OS system. For the hardware, changes to the existing system architecture to add
same block of memory. This simplifies the software design because it makes it easy to share data and code librari es. The API also assumes a cache-coherent model , which reli eves the programmer of th e chore of updating the processor caches.
.·M~~· O.~'.MP ·~i:~~~e~ture·
..... ...... Malnp~r
--~~~~~--~
r
· Main thread of MP tasks creates
MP tasks, can use OS services.
Cooperative
multitasking
MP tasks wait In global queue until
scheduled by the
kernel. Tasks
blocked waiting on
VO or other tasks
MP
aren't scheduled.
task
Multiprocessing tasks execute preemptively, even on a single-processor machine.
MP support were rather small. Most of the PowerPC processor fami ly has on chip support for an 11-processor MP archi tecture. Surprisingly, the ASICs used in the originalPower Mac 9500 (introduced in 1995) had bus arbitration support for a two-processor MP design built in . Four processor designs such as DayStar's Gen esis MP require exrra glue logic.
The hardware model the Apple MP API uses assumes that the processors share the
The model assumes that on ly one pro cessor needs access to 1/0 devices, timers, and external interrupts (although each processor can interrupt one another).
While this design's shared memory sounds like symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), it isn ' t. An SMP architecture assumes that everything is shared, includ ing the 1/0 devices, which isn' t the case with the Apple MP API. Another differ ence is that in an SMP system, portions of
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 59
Core CPUs
the OS can migrate to other processors to balance the load. This isn't possible in a Mac OS MP design because much of the OS code is nonreentrant. The Apple MP AP! overcomes these problems by restrict ing what code certain processors call.
The Apple MP API
The Apple MP API consists of a shared library that implements the API functions and a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that manages the low-level MP hardware for both the program1m:r and th e API itself. When an MP-aware application uses MP services, the Mac OS Code Frag ment Manager automatically connects it to the MP library. The MP library next locates the appropriate HAL for the giv en hardware configuration. The proces sor that's already executing code at this point is anointed as the main processor, while the other processors are designat ed attached processors. The main pro cessor runs the 680x0 emulator and the Mac OS and manages device 1/ 0. The MP API uses the HAL to bootstrap the oth er processors and install a lightweight preemptive scheduler on all the proces sors (as shown in the figure "Mac OS MP Architecture" on page 59). The MP AP! provides kernel services that implement MP task coordination a nd messaging. Note that the MP kernel isn't an execut ing task like a daemon; it is simply a set of service calls.
The Apple MP API provides calls that query the system for the number of processors, create/terminate MP tasks, allocate memory, and manage task syn chronization. When an application cre ates an MP task, the MP kernel assigns it to a global task queue. When a currently executing task gets rescheduled, the pro cessor's scheduler checks this queue and runs the next pending MP task for a max imum interval of 10 milliseconds. This permits the kernel to perform load-bal ancing for MP tasks. Task coordination is accomplished through supplied queue,
~\."
WHERE TO FIND
Apple Computer ..C'!pcrtino, CA
. (408) 996-1010 . http ://www:a.pplc.c:om/
DayStar Digital Flowery Branch, GA
(770) 967-2077 mp@daystar.c:om http://w-.daystar.com/
· ~ Fiie Edit Control D11t11 Window
PowerfraHPPC (MPTa sk 0H 49£260)
MPLlbrery Ox4887BO (PPC) flask
J nn1ste1:~..1o ,,.,_., ·~· I ~ : lono !2
,I> p: 0Taskl>3ta· [0xooooc !() the~ :w.. Ox006B I
r !
Powerfra11P
MPltbreru Ox4887BO (PPC) flesk
'----------~ i ~------~~
I> ~~----~,_-~-~--~-..,.-,...,.---~-,.---
~-: Ci'ilitiff'Stulf.~~""'~"li""'t'c:o
I> - - ---'-- - - -- !
. -
r Th e f ol lowlnQ s tateinant I s: axecu te:d once , i n
p · <sToskOataPtr>lhePol""Offlet4tf"';
finished · fal se; ""I l e< !finished ) (
MPllal tOnOueue< p->oppToTosl<, <vo i d - - · .. i tch( -age) (
case k Tl1Crec le :
break ;
case kTMRun :
p->workfunc:t ion< p->parou >;
cose~;;;:.It : finished · true;
t1Plla i lOnQueue< p sw i tcf'I( HSSOQe
case kTMCreo br"eOk j
case kTttRun : p- 'llOl"kF
co.se~~ll finished breok ;
f"°ti} f o,Aueue ( p
re l~< noErr >;
)
I Source
Ti
I I.-
I Source
Metrowerks CodeWarrior provides source-level debugging on MP tasks.
semaphore, and critical region Al'I calls. You should use these calls, since they help the kernel schedule and control MP tasks. Because the main processor also runs a scheduler and executes MP tasks, the Apple MP API performs symmetric pro cessing even if the OS doesn't.
MP Limits
When writing a Mac application to use MP tasks, keep in mind the Apple MP API's limitations. First, an MP task can't exe cute 680x0 processor code. That's because the 680x0 emulator runs only on the main processor. Also, an MP task can't make direct calls to the Mac OS or Tool box because of the nonreenrranr code problem and because some of these func tions consist of 680x0 code. This also explains why the main processor handles all the 1/0: The File Manager and certain low-level 1/0 code use 680x0 code.
From these restrictions, it bt:comes obvious that MP tasks are most suitabl e for Power PC compute-intensive code. Fortunately, a lot of work, such as image editing, digital video effects, 3-D model ing, and simulation, fit into thi s catego ry. Furthermore, an MP-aware applica tion isn ' t locked out of using the OS. The application's main task executes on the main processor and can avail itself of OS services. The MP tasks executing on the attached processors would use the syn chronization calls to notify the main task
when data should, say, be spooled to di sk or placed on the sc ree n.
It's up to you to determine how to best partition the job so that MP tasks make the best use of system resources. Idea lly, you want each MP task accessing memo ry at different times to make the most effi cient use of the system bus. To help in this area, version 11 of Metrowerks Code Warrior provides so urce-level debugging of MP ta sks (as shown in the screen shot). While this involves some extra work on your part, the results can make the effort worthwhile: On a four-pro cessor system, the performance of MP applications can be boosted by 2.5 to 3.5 times. Desp ite the formidable limits placed upon the MP architecture by the Mac OS, the Apple MP API offers a prac tical MP solution . It's important to know that Apple plans to carry over the MP AP! into furure versions of the Mac oper ating system. This will preserve yo ur MP coding efforts and will provide better per formance because these future releases will offer OS-level support for symmet ric multiprocessing. llJ
The author tha11ks David Sowe ll, Chris Cook sey, a11d David Methve11 ofDayStar Digital for their help with this article.
Tom Tho111pso11 is a BITE se11ior tee/mica/ edi tor at large. Yo11 can reach him by se11di11g e mail to tom_thompson@bix.com.
60 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
lets you do do it
ore,
ess · do it for
Announcing the AutoView Commander;
the keyboard/video/mouse switch with all
the right stuff! More ways to select attached
/ /~? ./. / ~~, ~
servers with convenient on-screen menus, traditional Cybex push-buttons or a quick keyboard
.i'! .
sequence. Better design for easy reconfiguration
without powering down the switch or attached servers.
And best of all .. . it costs less than many comparable switches.
Now that's good stuff.
One Company. One Solution. Cybex.
--
Feature
-
Cybex
· Maximum Number of Servers
64
Internal On-Screen Server Selection Yes
... - Server Selection Push-Button -
Server Status LEDs
= -
Hot Pluggable
-+
:J 1 i
8-Port MSRP
-
-
--
Ye s Yes Yes
$895
I Apex
I
RCI
I I
Rose
I
64
64 256
·
Yes
No
Yes
No. No·-- No
No
No I Yes
No
No
No
$995 $1,400 $1,495
Cybex Computer Produ cts Corpora tion 49 12 Resea rch Dri ve Hu ntsvi lle, Alaba ma 35805 USA (800) 93CYBEX (29239) · (205) 430-4030 fax http://www.cybex. com
All prices per respective manufacturer on November 26, 1996. AutoView is a trademark of Cybex Computer Products Corporation . Cybex is a registered tradema rk of Cybex Computer Products Co rporation. Banyan is a trademark of Banyan Systems Inc. Netware is a regis tered tradema rk of Novell Inc. Lantastic is a registered trademark of Artisoft Inc.
Come see us at Comnet, Washington. D.C., Feb. 4-6 at Booth #1612
Circ le 139 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS : 140).
... and all you had to do was protect your software.
__I _ _!__
The threat is real. The piracy rate in many co1111tries is over 90% - in the U.S. it exceeds
25 %. Piracy costs yo11 sales a11d revenue.
Why risk yo ur success? Srop p1racy before
it affects yo ur ·bottom line. Sentinel"' means security and success to over 20,000 developers.
Ir can ro yo u, roo. Receive yo ur FREE guide: How to stop piracy and increaseyour software sales. Call 1-800-852-8569 or visit
www.rainbow.com.
:iEllilnEL
Softvvare Protection
The It] solution to pfracy
tf.ffAINBOW T f C I I I l I Ci I f I
TEL: ( 714 ) 450. 7300 ·FAX: (7 14) 450·74 50 · EM AI L: sentinel@rai nbow.com ·FRANCE: (33) 1 4143 2900 ·GERMANY: (4 9) 89 3217 980 · U.K.: (44) 1932 579200 01997 Rdmbo..v Technologies. Inc. Scnlincl ''°a re-g~ tered 1radema rk cl R.Jinbow Tec hnotoglc1. DJstrlbulors locattd wo tldwidt. call or v/J lt our wtb sil t for a compftlt. liulng.
Circl e 15 0 on Inquiry Card .
This language can handle simple scripting jobs or build large OOP libraries. By Jeffrey P. Shell
Python Does Scripts and Objects
py·thon \ lp i - lth an\ n <1836) 1 : a large constricting sna ke 2 ca p : sho r t fo r t he Br i t i s h comedy tr oupe "Mon t y Python' s Fly i ng Ci rcu s " 3 cap: a pow er f ul modern object-o rie nt ed programmi ng (OOP ) 1angu ag e
ython, the third definition in the fictional dictionary entry, is an ideal language for many of today's computing tasks. It's been used to build client/server data bases and Unix system administration tools, create Common Gateway Interface (CG!) scripts, embed objects, and facili tate rapid applications prototyping. Its dynamic range and variety of hooks make it su itable across many boundaries where one programming language halts and another is needed. Incidentally, the name Python derives from the second dictio nary definition, not the constricting snake of definition one-although as a pro gramming language, Python is ab le to "coil" itselfaround a variety of platforms. That's because, like many of the new pro gramming languages today, Python com piles to neutral byte code. Unlike Java, however, this compilation happens on the fly, as modul es are imported into the Python interpreter. The interpreter performs automatic ver sion checks against the source code file's modification date and fetches the most recently generated byte-code file. The version-control process is almost invisi ble to the programmer and is evident only when a triggered compilation slows the launching of a program. Python offers strong interplatform operability. A majority of Python pro grams written on one platform can run effortlessly on another. Python imple mentations exist for almost all flavors of
Unix, as well as for the Mac OS; Windows 3.1, 95, and NT; OS/2; th e BeOS; and NextStep. Even though you can write Python programs specifica lly to features of each GUI, Tkinter has been adop ted as the language's standard GUI. Tkinter (for Tk interface) in turn uses Tk, which is Sun Microsystems' graphics toolkit. Tk is typically operated by Sun's Tool Com mand Language (TCL) but is in fact usable by other scripting languages such as Python and Perl.
Python Features
Python got its start through its powerful scripting features. It is often presented as
shell scripts or simple function-based pro grams. They can also be full-blown object-oriented applications handling large jobs. This tremendous scalabili ty allows Python to be adapted to any num ber of tasks where you would normally use two or three languages to craft a solu tion. Because Python's capabilities range from the simple to the sophisticated, what might start out as a simple Python script can blossom into a large-scale module of object classes, while maintaining the same code simplicity.
Despite its power and range, Python is an easy language to use. One of the major influences on Python's appearance is a
1El1
f.
File "tcl.h" has been modified ~ince t.he last ti~e. it was sav!!d· Do you want to save it before exiting the
application?
.
' ·· T
,,
.,
Save File
Discard Change~J
Returrn To Editor
Python uses Sun's standard Tkinter GUI so that programs can execute on many platforms.
a bridge between Unix shell program ming and C programming. That is, Py thon is ideal for projects that are too com plex for the normal shell tools to handle, but not so complex that they are worth writing in C or C++. Because Python is a very high-level language, it provides the programmer with complex data types unavailable in shell scripts or program ming languages, such as dictionaries (associative arrays) . System-administra tion scripts, mailing-list automation, and other sophisticated tasks can often be written using re latively little code.
Another of Python's strengths is that it is scalable. Python programs can be short
smaller language called ABC. ABC was designed as a more modern BASIC, pro viding some high-level data types in a small, robust language. Like BASIC, ABC was constructed as a teaching language and has many nice touches for program ming simplicity. These same features appear in Python. For example, Python
has no beg in and end statements or
braces. Code grouping is done through indentation, and the Newline character acts as a command separator.Acommand can sprawl over many lines if necessary, or multiple commands can fit on one line. This format practically forces good pro gramming style, which in turn produces
FEBRUARY 19 97 BYTE 63
Core Programming
neat, maintainable code whil e conserv ing space. Most seasoned programmers converting to Python are surprised by this at first, but they soon grow used to the freedom it brings. Sec:: " Operator Over loadin g in Pyth o n" for an example .
Pyt h on is a n easily exrendable lan guage. T he co re of Python is written in C, a nd rh e so urce code:: is fre ely avai lable, along with a co mplete AP I fo r ex tending rh e language. This lers yo u boost the speed of a common ly used function or hook Python b yt e-co d e fi lc::s to la rge , already-made binaries such as imaging libra ri es or to platform-specific APis like Microsoft founda ti on C lasses (MFC) or th e Mac OS Toolbox.
H aving grow n up in th e age of the Inte rn e t, Pyr hon comes sta nd a rd with many modules that impleme nt objects for use with mos t TC P prorocol s. These Internet-savvy modules e nabl e Python to implement easy Web- ire maintenance an d admin ist ratio n progra ms, and they a ll ow you to wr ite s m a rt agents and impl eme nt m any other se rver tasks. Pyth o n ca n be both server and client. O n the se rver side, Python ca n process HTTP reque sts, filter in co ming mes snges nnd mnil , access large databases, perform as a CG! cript, be embedded in Hype rtext Markup Langu age (HTML) if rhe se rver a ll ows it, or serve up its own o bj ec ts. O n the client s id e (es pecia ll y throu gh use of Tkinte r) , Python can be a client for a ny TCP fo rm at, including HTML. It can a lso transm it objects ove r the network to other Python servers/ clients o r exist as a platform-neutral data base fro nt e nd, w hich m a kes it a g reat inrran er asser.
Because of its scriprlike nature, Python is a natu ra l as a n e mbe dd e d language
Python at a Glance
·Cross- platform : It uses Sun's Tkinter as the GUI and generates machine indepedent byte code.
·Scalable: It can implement simple shell scripts or build complex object-oriented libraries.
· Extendable: It can hook directly into other binaries such as the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) library or the Mac OS Toolbox.
· Embeddable: Because of its script like nature, it can be embedded in HTML, groupware environments, and databases.
inside la rge compil ed programs such as d a tabases, m ul t im e di a ap pli catio ns, groupwa re environments, virtual worlds (both textand.3-D), and HTML documents.
In terms of secu ri ty a nd to day ' s con cern with distributed lnttrner applica tions, Java definitely exce ls. Because Py thon is mo re of a scriptin g language, ir can have lots of freedom with rh e loca l file syste m, which creates security risks. Furthermore, Pyth o n a ll ows many ways to dynami call y invoke commands read from a n y fil e type, even a TCP suck e r. Pytho n d o es have a restricted mode th at "fakes" man y of the standard fun ctions and modules but ac tua ll y uses only those deemed "safe." If a n attempt is mad e by th e code to access restri cted material, an e rror is raised and th e use r is a lerted.
For a programming language, Pytho n is flexib le. lasses a nd meth o d references in Python arc treated as first-class objects. Thar is, new methods and member vari ables can be add ed to a class at any time, a nd a ll existing a nd futu re instances of classes are affected by these changes. Thi s wa y, a scheduled eve nt on a se rver pro gram can cha nge a va ri abl e in the class definition that defines each user's privi leges. Thus, w hen stancbrd offict: hours end, access co uld be broad e ned auto maticall y to ce rtain use r with a single line of code such as use rC l a ss . r es t ri c · ti o n s=3 . All ex istin g a nd future in stances of Jse r Cl a ss are updated a nd use this new va lue unti l th e class variable is changed aga in . A programmer mai n taining th e code for the se rver co uld log in and be all owed to add or update classes and methods without hav ing ro rake the server down . Pyth o n is also a language of " nothin g bur hoo ks." A progra mmer has books into almost eve ry aspect of the sys tem a nd can read or overload th ese attri butes to further rn sro mi ze their code.
Ready to Slither
Th e standa rd di srriburio ns of l'yrho n ha ve ove r 120 read y- made modul es, in cluding Interne t lib raries, cryptography, var io us DBM imple me ntations, regular expression a nd st rin g ha ndling, tex t for matting, math, file handling (including full Posix fi le handlin g), code profiling and d eb ugging, ob jecr persistence an d storing, an d Tkinrer. Often included in th ese di strib utions are many demo nstra tions of Pyrhon 's u e for clienr /servc:r applicati o ns, Web se rving, a nd e mb ed ding. Also ava ilabl e a re free mod ules fo r
Operator Overloading in Python
impon: string class addSquare :
def _ init_(sel f ,value· ] l : s e lf . valu e - val ue
def _ add_ Cs elf . otherl: if type(otherl
ty pe ( "a be " ) : ot her - string . atofCot he r l
return self. value**2 + ot her **2
_r add_ - _ad d_
Asimple class with operator overloading example in Python. _ add_ (self,otherl overloads the+ .~mbol when an Instance of addSquare is on the left. _ radd_ overloadsthe+ symbol when the Instance is on the right. The _ add_ method checks the other object being added, and if it's a string, it converts itto a floating point. The class adds the squares of the two objects. (the"- " denotes special methods).
use with SQLand o rherdaraba cs, a nd an ex tended version of Python called Numerical Pytho n, which allows for fast, high-l evel math co nstru cts. The Mac OS version in c lud es support fo r the Mac Too lbox and App le Eve nts. Ir can crea te AppleScripr-sryl e a pple rs on CfM-cnpa ble a nd Po werl' C machines. Th e Win d ows version allo ws use of MFC and has a Netscape plug-in to run Python applers. An Acri ve X / Explorer interface a nd a n OpenDoc conta iner a re curre ntl y in rhe w o rks. Supporr fo r Silicon Gra phics' GL and Sun's Audio Device is also standnrd, making P)'th o n ready rou se rig ht our of the box.
Python is avai lable comp le t ely as fr ee ware, made possible by contributions ro the Python Software Activity (PSA), a legitimate o rga nization whose proceed s support Python financially. A growing fle e r of volunteers a nd specia l-inte n:sr groups (SI Gs) help in maintaining Python code and ex tending it into new pl atforms and fie lds, ma kin g Pyth o n a nea rly uni versal soluti o n to most progra mming problems. You ca n access th e:: lnrerner at http: //www.python .org a nd comp. Jang .python for complete information about Pyrhon. [1J
Jeffrey l~ Shell is i11 charge of object teclmolo giesa11d Pytho11 fJrogram 111i11gat Cy11apses. J-le ca11 be reached al jeff@cynapses.com .
6 4 BY lE F EBRUARY 1997
DATA MARTS COME DELIVERED
IN ACHOICE OF BOXES... OURS OR PANDORA'S.
MULTIPLE VENDORS . . . MULTIPLE HEADACHES Today,many data warehouse projects become a"Pandora's Box" because they're built with tools from many vendors. Even the best tools can become a nightmare if they haven't been designed and tested to work with one another. And what happens when you have a problem? Your data warehouse vendors are experts only intheir own environments. .. not in each others.The solution? ASmartMart111 data mart from Information Builders.
THINK SmartMartTM... THE SMARTER DATA MART
SmartMart provides all the tools,technology and services you need to build, use, and manage adata mart. .. in one proven and affordable package. You get tools for data extraction and movement, transformation, multidimensional data storage,
reporting and analysis, Web access,and data mart administration. You'II also get the consulting services you'll need to guarantee afast, trouble-free implementation. And because SmartMart is a complete, single-vendor solution, all components are integrated and fully tested to work together so you avoid the cost and delays associated with piecing together technologies from multiple vendors. It's the closest thing to a data mart in a box. Best of all, SmartMart's open architecture ensures full integration with your enterprise information systems...now and in the future.
CALL THE BUILDERS For complete information on our SmartMart data mart program,including afree white paper "The Data Mart: ANew Approach to Data Warehousing", call 1-800-969-INFO.
http://www.ibi.com
_..,. 800·969·1NFO In Canada Call 416-364-2760
lnf~rmation
Builders
Sman:MJrt is. a tn.dcmar* or lnfonnJ.tion Builders, Inc:., NY. NY 2 12·736~"'433 E-nuil: info@ibi.com Circle 602 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS: 603).
'
Your
E-Mail Is
OBSOLETE
Internet-based messaging promises new cures for enterprise e-mail blues,
but is it ready for your business?
By Michael Nadeau
-mail has grown from a mere convenience to a mission-critical application. Ir's the backbo ne for collecting and disseminating corporate informa tion and for crucial communications both within and outside a company. For many businesses, it's also a mess. Some co mpanies have as many as five or six different e mail systems, each with its own proprietary protocols and formats. This can be an expensive administrative nightmare, bur, more impo rtant, it is an enormous barrier to exchanging, a rchiving, and retrieving viral corporate information. Salvation may be within reach, thanks to e-mail syste ms based on Internet standards. The core Internet protocols provide a lowest-common-denominator environment for sending key messaging functions across different e-mail architectures while opening the door to communicating with the outside world. Right from the start, the Internet was built for large-scale impleme nrations. lrs proven family of protocols Ices yo u se nd and receive e-mail to or from anyone with an IP connection. SMTP has proven its messaging reliability over almost two decades. Post Office Protocol (POP) and Intern et Message Access Protocol (IMAP) both handle message retrieval , and the lates t version of IMAP lets yo u rev iew messages and attach ments before downloading th e m. You can leave entire mes sages, or parts of messages, on the server for easier archiving and sharing of messages. Application Co nfig uration Access Protocol (ACA i'), an evo lving sr:rndard, will let you create add ress books, use r options, and o ther data for universal access. Finally, Lightweight Directory Access Protoco l (I.DAI') pro vides a structure for small, fast, a nd easy-to-implement clients. The result? If you use e- mail only for messaging, the bene fits of Internet e-mail are ready for yo u to use today. Even more important in the long run , Internet e-mail will be rhe basis for new types of collaborative applications. H oweve r, there are trade-offs if yo u commit to Inte rnet e-
GG BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
0 Poor lntercompany Communications
Your e-mail server probably sends messages in a proprietary format that the rest of the world doesn't speak. It also may not handle standard POP3 communications.
@) Destructive Gateways
Your gateways may strip useful formatting from incoming messages. The result is corrupted or undeliverable files.
ouri Ways Proprietary E-Mail StumHles
@High Costs
Proprietary e-mail systems can be
resource-intensive, with constant
demands for new software and
administrative support.
To maintain good performance in a growing company, you may be continually adding newer and faster servers.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 67
Cover Story Your E-Mail Is Obsolete
mail tod ay. Key fea rures of p ro p r ietary mail systems, such as group schedulin g and calendaring, are still unp rove n. Also, Inter net e-mail doesn'rrell you whe n or ifa mes sage is delive red o r provide a guara nteed delivery time. If you rely o n th ese ca pa bilities, Internet e- mail will probabl y dis appoint you.
Whethe r yo u 're w ill ing ro ma ke th e plunge to Internet e- mail today o r you' re making plans fo r rhe fu ture, here a re some key conside rati o ns fo r ma kin g the tra nsi ti o n as smooth as possibl e.
Integrated Messaging
Internet vs. Proprietary Messaging
................................................................................................................................
Who Has the Edge?
Scalability
Internet
I II,
The Internet was designed for very-large scale implementation.
Pro prietary
II '
Varies from produc t to product, but
generally requires additional server and
ad ministrative support.
Featu res
While possible to imple ment features commonly found on proprietary systems, standards are not complete.
Key features, such as group scheduling, are field proven an d highly integrated into the messaging environment.
Messaging is at rhe hea rt of any enterprise network, a nd th e Intern et, with its ubiq ui to us presence a nd co mmon standa rds, can be rh e o bvi o us messagi ng so lution, especiall y for uni fyi ng a nd redu cing th e number of di sparate systems you o perate. Furth erm o re, Inte rn et messaging opens up communicati o n wirh business contacts outside the enterprise.
So me co m pa ni es, m os tl y s mall bu si nesses with few legacy syste ms, are ado pt ing a pure Inte rn et solution. Most busi nesses, howeve r, ca n' t just th ro w o ut their old messaging systems. Their fea tures, plus rh e investm ents in equipment, train ing, and other resources, ensure the continued use of legacy messaging systems fo r th e fo reseeable futur e. The tri ck, the n, is to integrate Intern et messaging with th e pro prietary syste ms in a way th at max imizes the benefits of bo th. (See th e fi gures on page 69 fo r a comparison of th e different architectures; see the rexr box " M anaging Multiple M esse ngers" o n page 76 for an examp le.)
Indeed, Intern et support may be avail abl e eve n if companies a re n't looking fo r it. Compa ni e th arwant tosti ck with soft wa re th ey ha ve tod ay will be ab le to do so, because eve n ifthey buy a solution from a proprieta ry syste m vend o r, the protocol suppo rt and administration roo ls, includ ing directory sy nchro nizatio n, will likely be th ere. Some ve nd o rs do nor ye t suppo rt the la test Intern et p rotoco ls, suc h as IMAP4, bur virtua ll y all a re expected to by the end o f this qu arter. (See rhc text box " Inte rnet Sta nd ards" o n page 72 .)
Th e r efore co mp a ni es rh a r wa nr to move slowly in to a n Intern et messagi ng system ca n d o so throu gh th e ir current supp liers. Those th at wa nt to be mo re aggressive can bu y a pure Intern et system and maintain interop erabili ty fo r bas ic fun cti o ns with legacy systems.
Administration tools Solid tools just beginning Competition and years of revisions make
to appear.
for robust options.
Reliability
No control over rou te of message or means of verifying delivery.
Provides notification of delivery and guaranteed delivery time.
Choice of clients
Uses any POP3 cli ent.
S ome, but not all, allow choice of POP3 · compliant clients.
Cost to own
Requires less server and administrative support.
Requires more servers and administrative support, but varies from product to product.
Proven track record Key standard s and prod ucts are new to market.
Years of in- the-fi eld use.
External comm uni cations
Can send and rece ive e-m ail to or from anyo ne with an IP con nection.
Key vendors have either partially or fully implemented ability to send and receive messages over an IP connection .
Message integrity·
Attachments and common ly used formats arrive intact.
Attachments must be converted at a gateway server- a potential point of failure.
Performance
Variable delivery time.
Can guarantee delivery (or notify failures) wi thin a matter of seconds.
S ecurity
Standards not yet finished. Relatively high level of security within t he network.
·The ability to retain message formatting and structure.
As compani es rush ro bu ild int ra nets, they th emselves pro vid e T CP/I P co nn ec ti vity to their netwo rks and to th eir e mp loyees' des ktops. Bur changing infra stru cture rakes rim e. Ass umin g th e infra stru cture is in place, however, three key issues e me rge fo r ado pting an In te rn e t based e- mail syste m : sta ndards, cost, a nd fl ex ibility.
The Standards
Every system, o n bo th th e server and cl ient side, must have a co mm o n la nguage fo r data tra nsmissio n a nd retri eval, po pu lar fil e fo rm ats, directory servic es, security, and certain added fea tures. Here, the Inter net is strong because it. standards are wide
lyavailable and in some case have been used lo nge r than proprieta ry standards.
As a res ult, the leading pro prietary mes saging syste ms, such a Lotus's N otes and Microso ft Exc ha nge, alread y have inte gra ted th e bas ic Inte rn et protoco ls into th eir p rod ucts or will do so sho rtl y. N o vell, with Gro upwise 5, has ado pted Inter net sta nd ards as th e native platform. (On th e o th er ha nd, pure Inte rn et messaging pro du ct , li ke So ftwa re.cam's Post.O ffice and Ne tscape Commu nicatio ns' Suire Spo r, wo rk with p ro prieta ry systems beca use th ey also na ti ve ly suppo rt esta b li heel interoperability sta nda rds such as X.400 and MA P!.)
Ve nd ors ei th e r im pl e me nt Inte rn e t
68 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Your E-Mai l Is Obso lete C over Story
Although the structures appear similar, proprietary mail architectures must use gateways to convert messages to their own formats.
Proprietary E-Mail
User agent
! Submission ! Relay
I . Delivery ! Access
I
-+ Mall
Mall
traagnesnfet r
traagnesnfet r -
.._ ....--1 - . . -
User - - agent
Gateway - --
Basic message-handling systems all include a means of submission, one or more points of relay, and a message store for user access.
Internet Mail
! SMTP ! SMTP
-+ User
traMnaslfler ~traMnasifler
agent
agent
agent·
User agent
"""',
.. '--- . '
............
...__
_..., ,,,,tf
MReFsCs8a2g2e:
--------
MIME
On the Internet. submission and transferuse SMTP protocols, while
POP or IMAP protocols handle useraccess to the message store.
sra nd ards natively, as Novell docs, or by co n versio n throu g h a g:i reway, in th e mann er of Microsoft o r Lo ru s. In both c:ises, the commitment is stro ng. " [Sup port of In te rnet standa rd s] is a core co m ponent of cc: Mail moving forward," according to Mike Maier, a cc: Mail prod uct manager at Lo tu s.
The Costs
The cost of Inte rn et e-mail is close ly tied to sca lability. As th e number of us ers and locatio ns with e-m ail impl eme nta tion s increases, what happens to you r hardware :ind soft\va re costs? Will )'Ou need more server and more people to ad minister yo ur system' H ere again, rhe Interne t
crowd claims a n advantage rh ar propri etary-systems vendors refute.
In :i typical proprietary syste m, a se rv er ca n support a given number of people a nd fea tu res. Intern et messagin g is mu ch m ore scalab le. " Th e Internet is alrea dy l:i rger rhan what a nyo ne 's ente rprise has to deal with," notes Kevin Carosso, vice president of e nginee ring at e-mail and fax soft\vare vendo r Innosoft (\Xlest Cov ina, CA). Thi s sca la bil ity especia lly pays off wh en a co mp:iny extends messaging se r vices to a remote loca tion . Often, an IP connection is a ll th a t 's requi red a t the remo te end; rhe headqu arters server ca n handl e the inrernal managem ent.
Proprietary ven do rs argu e th at to pro
vide eq ui va le nt func tion ality-schedul ing, fo r in stance-Internet systems wo uld require extra servers, too. Howe ver, fnter net messagi ng is mo re flexible about where a company pl aces its se rve rs.
Cost was the main reason that consult ing firm Pyramid Solutions (Troy, Ml) chose lpswitch's !Mail Server over Microsoft Excha nge. This small com pany tarred o ut with Microsoft Mail. As em ployees con nected to th e Internet, "switching to a pure Inte rn et sys tem made more sense for us," says se nior systems engineer Jerry Palardy.
Pyra mid has 50 employees in two offices a nd in seve r a l customer loca ti ons. The Microsoft ol urion wo uld have req uir ed se rve rs a t the remote loca tions and cost about $7000. The Internet mai l server cos t $700 a nd was in sta ll ed o n hardw a re a lrea d y in place. Pala rd y say the comp any is happy with the system, but acknowledges th a t Exchange might ha ve m ade more se nse if Pyramid were a larg er co mpany.
The administrative ove rhead ge neral ly is less wi th an Internet y tern because pro prietary systems mu st duplicate so me of the services th a t a re already in th e Inter net infrastructure. Tasks associated with ma intaining a message store in a propri etary system, such as a rchiving a nd com pressi ng the data, are not necessary in an Intern et enviro nm ent.
On th e other hand , in e nvironm ent with mul tip le mes ag ing systems, addin g administration too ls for each to a propri etary sys t em is so mew hat more com plex. Vendors of proprietary systems have a we ll -deve loped arsenal of to o ls to ease th e a dmin istra tiv e tas ks , whi le o nl y recentl y has there been any reason ab ly good sofrware to manage Internet mes sagi ng. Still, Internet messaging sho ws rea l pro mise th at it can reduce a co mpa ny 's messaging overhead cos ts.
One Size Doesn't Fit All
Ve nd o rs of messaging products have to con idert\vo different co nstituencies with in an o rga ni zation: the use rs and th e peo ple w ho manage the svste m. Both want cho ices in the products they use, and the solution for both must be in sync.
A compan y mi ght sta nda rdi ze o n o ne or rwo mess ag ing a rchi tectures, bur it wo uld be impractical, if not impossible, to require all empl oyees to use th e sa me mes saging client. Peop le work in di fferent enviro nm ents, depending o n their jobs. A salesperson, for example, might spe nd
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 69
INTRODUCING AFLIGHT
OF THE IMAGINATION.
SUPERIOR 133MHz PRODUCTIVITY
Offering a 133MHz Pentium processor. PC/ architecture and an enormous 2GB
hard drive, this is a powerful tool.
STUNNING 12. t· DISPLAY Combine a brilliant 12.1; BOO x 600
display with Zoomed Video technology,
16·bit sound and full-motion video for sensational presentations.
FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATION Tailor your computer to meet changing needs in seconds. The SelectBay lets you swap a 1ox· CO-ROM drive with a modular floppy drive, an optional second hard drive or an optional second lithium /011 battery.
~.~
·~
BUILT-IN 28.BKbps MODEM
With a voice/fax modem you can stay in touch with the world quickly and efficiently. Other features
include a speakerphone and answering machine.
INTRODUCING APOWERFUL ADDITION TO THE TECRA"FAMILY. Packed with cutting-edge
technology, th e new Tecra SIOCDT has the power to make your ideas fl y. Tackle any of today's complex software applications
with a powerful 133MHz Pentium processor, 16MB of high-·peed EDO memory and a massive hard drive up
to 2. 1 billion bytes. There' also 16-bit stereo sound, a !OX* CD-ROM drive and full-motion video capability to
enh ance any mu ltimed ia presentation. Top it all off with the expansion capabiliti es of the Desk Stat ion V Plus,
~:jjB and you've got a notebook that will take you to new heights. For mo re in fo rmati on visit the Toshi ba
~~;,:;.;;: website at http://computers.toshiba.com, or for a dealer nea r you, call l-800-457·7777.
P.~.'1~iHQ1"
01996 Tosn!>a Amenca lnlonna:>on Sys!ims, Inc. An speo:lc.alJORS and availab:ity are sub,ec1 to ch.ange. * 10X avetagt speed. AD produe'.s nd:caleel by lrademarll; symbois are tradema.1ted andl0t regtStered by the·r resp«b'/'O ~es. Intel lns:de end PentllMTI Pro:;e:ssor logos are trademarks ol ln!el Corpotitt>on.
COMPLETE WITH
LANDING GEAR.
\
POWERFUL OOCK/NG
The optional Desk Station VPlus provides instant conneclion toyour desktop setup and Includes stereo speakers. a SelectBay· as well
as slots for PCCards, PC/ and /SA cards.
TECRA 510COT ANO 510COS · 133MHz (2.9v) Per.tillm' proctSsor, 256KB l2 caclle · 12.1'di3. coioldispl~ywith800x600r esolution
., your choice of 2t1ive-mainl (con or OSTll dual-scan (COS)
· 2.1billion byte (·2.02GB) removab~ HOO icon. 1.3 billion byte (·1.26GB) removable HOD (COS)
· 1ox· CO·ROM standard
· Oplional SelectBay baHery pack
TECRA 500COT ANO SOOCS · 12DMHz (2.9') Plnlium' process0<. 256KBl2 cache
· 12.r d!a. color display r.ith 800 x 600 resolution
in you r choice of o:til~·matrix (Con or OSTll dual·SC2n (CS)
· 1.3billionbyte (·f.26GB) removable HOO
· 6X CD·ROM on CDT (oplional on CS)
ALL MODELS · PCI symm-bus art:Meclure
· 161.18 of EOO ORAM expandabl! 10 14'MB
· SeJ;ctBaf suwans 3s·floppy dnve.
CO-ROMO! opliorul ~ond harddrive
· HiOVideo· PCI Qraphics CO!ltroller.2M6 video memory
· 16·bil Soun~ Blasle,. Pro compalible syslem wilh slereo speakersand microphone
· Suppans two TYJI' II or O!le Typt 11116-btt PC Cards.
°' N Cards 32-btt CardBir.; Caras
· FIR(fas1 Infrared) comp!iam pons (front and bad() · lmeQrakd Ar. adaj)l:r
· ~nndaos' 95 or Windows' for WorkQroups
· 3·year llmiled warranly
· TolHree lechnlcal support - 7days aweek. 24 hours aday
In Touch with Tomorrow
TOSHIBA
C irc le 15 4 o n Inquiry C ard .
Cov e r Story Your E-Mail Is Ob sole t e
Internet Standards
The Internet was set up for messaging, so messaging standards lie at its very heart.These standards evolve to accommodate new tasks users want to perform, and to simplify interfacing applica tions with the Internet.
TCP/IP and SMTP The core Internet transmission protocol is TCP/IP, which carries all Internet traffic. Mail traffic has its own protocol,SMTP,which supports only the rudimentary text format. Still,this standard has worked reliably for about 18 years and has been supported by virtually every major messaging system.The figure below shows the basic model for SMTP.
SMTP gets your messages only as far as the client, however, and does little else. It does not, for example, guarantee delivery, issue a return receipt, allow "unsending; or carry attachments-all common features in proprietary messaging environments. However, other Inter net standards exist for these and other features.
POP and IMAP Once a message reaches the client, two other standards come into play. Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Pro· tocol (IMAP) determine howyou retrieve amessage.POP's latest ver sion , POP3 , is rather limited. It requires that messages be kept in a store on a server. When you want messages from this store,you have no choice but to download them all to your local system. Still, POP3 is an important link between Internet and proprietary e-mail systems because all the major vendors support it.
The latest version of IMAP, IMAP4, gives you more choices than POP3 on how to retrieve messages. With it, you can check the mes sages in the store before downloading them.You can then select what you want, even just part of a message, and leave th e rest on the serv er. Messages stay there until you delete them.These features are impor
tant conveniences, but they also make it easier to archive and share messages-something proprietary systems already do well.
Most vendors and analysts expect that IMAP eventually will replace POP3 although they currently coexist on many implementations. (For example, Microsoft and Lotus currently support POP3 in all the ir messaging products and will have IMAP4 support in the first quarter of this year.) The significance here is that, as with a pure Internet e mail system, proprietary servers like Microsoft Exchange or cc:Mail will support any POP3- or IMAP4-compliant client.
ACAP and IMSP Beyond IMAP is Application Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP). ACAP enhances IMAP by letting you set up address books, user options, and other data for universal access. At this wri ting, no Inter net or proprietary products have implemented ACAP because the Inter net Engineering Task Force (IETF), the group responsible for devel oping Internet standards, has not yet approved the final specification. A final spec should be out early this year,and implementations will like· ly follow soon after.In the meantime,some Internet products use Inter· net Messaging Support Protocol (IMSP) , a less robust standard than ACAP. However, IMSP will probably fade away in favor of ACAP. (For more information on POP, IMAP, and ACAP, see "E-Mail Grows Up" in the December 1996 BYTE) .
LDAP For ACAP to do its job,it needs to work within astandard directory ser vices structure. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) pro· vides that structure.LDAP is asubset of the X.500 directory commonly used in many LANs. (See the figure below.) It runs over TCP/IP and uses a simplified data representation for protocol elements. LDAP clients are, therefore, smaller, faster, and easier to implement than X.500 clients. LDAP is vendor-independent and works with, but does not require, X.500. (See "LDAP Unites the Internet" in the December 1996 BYTE.)
TheSMTP Model: Internet Messaging
SMTP
User
commands/replies
arid maU
SMTP provides a mechanism for getting mail from the sender'shost to the recipient'shost and nothing more.
An LDAP server translates LDAP-client requests into X.500
requests, chasing X.500 referrals, and returning results to the client
The Internet
Standards Picture
Standard Status
SMTP
Widely deployed
POP3
Widely deployed
IMAP4
Soon to be widely deployed
IMSP
Deployed mainly among native Internet products
ACAP .
IETF spec expected late 1997
MIME-··.
' ·,·;;.
S/MI ME..
Widely deployed
Spec.n<;>t finalized, but some implementations exist
LOAR
Widely deployed
Calend~in g/ IETF spec expected mid-1 gg7 Scheduling
Fax
IETF spec expected mid-1997
EDI
IETF spec expected late-1997
Voice
IETF spec expected mid to late 1997
Receipt
IETF spec expected.
Notification mid-1997
7 2 BYTE FEBRUARY 199 7
New Features in PKZIP tor Windows Version 2.50
,.. Ability to create .ZIP files that span multiple diskettes ,.. Create a Windows self-extractor ,.. Self-extractor can span multiple diskettes ,.. Long file name support for Windows 95 (16 and 32-bit) and
Windows NT (32-bit) ,.. Integration with Windows 95 & NT Explorer ,.. Plus additional features
Other PKWARE Products
Put Your Executables on a Diet
PKLITE1M increases your valuable disk space by compress ing DOS and Window 16-bit executable (.COM, .EXE and .DLL) files by an average of 45%. The operation of PKLITE is transparenl , all you will notice is more available di sk space! Price 46
The growth of the Internet and the increased use of World Wide Web browsers are creating a greater need to compres and uncompress data files . Saving disk space and saving on-line phone charges are big benefits of compressing data files with PKZIP®for Windows. PKZIP for Windows compresses files an average of 50-70% with many large text and database files compressing well over 90%. PKZIP's simple
Software developers. . ave disk space and media costs wi th smaller executables. You can di stribute your software in a compressed form with PKLITE Profcssiona l.rn PKLITE Professional gives you an extra option to compress fil es so that they cannot be expanded by PK LITE. Thi s discourages reverse engineeri ng of your programs. Price 146
Put Compression Imo YOUR Applicauon
point-and-click interface lets you easi ly compress one file or all fi les
The PK WARE Data Compression Library®products
on an entire hard drive, and store them in the .ZIP file. PKWARE provides the best and fastest data compression technology on the market, try it and see!
allow you to incorporate data compression technology into your software applications. The application program controls all the input and output of data, allowing data to be compressed to or e:dracted from any device or area of memory.
PKZIP for Windows allows you to easily open files created with PKZIP for DOS Version 2.04g. PKZIP is also compatible with
The all-purpose Data Compression Algorithm compre.%es ASCII or
Windows 3.1 or higher, Windows 95 and Windows NT.
binary data quickly. The routines can be
PKZIP for Windows $49, PKZIP for DOS $47 plus shipping and
u ed with mot compatible: language
hand lin g .
compilers. Separate
To order call (414) 354-8699
DOS, DOS32, Windows, OS/2, Win32.
or visit our Web Site http://www.pkware.com
UNIX and Macintosh versions are available!
{iKWia:K
The Doto Compression Experts®
9025 N. Deerwood Df1ve I Brown Deer. WI 53223 USA
Ft\X: 414·354·8559 BBS: 414-354·8670
Call for pricing.
1992·1996 PC World World Class Award 1996 Government Computer Nows
Bett New Product Award at FOSE Flnt11/1 t 1995 Computer Cu"ents Readers Cho/co Award
\& \
~
=
1993 Sherewaro Industry Award
1992 Premiere Computfng Magazlno Award
1992 Dvonlk/Zoom Am1n1
-~ m~ !ll!!lll BY 2-97
Em ail: lnfo@pkware.com
Copyn gh1I9'J6 PK WARE. Inc. All Ri g h t~ H.~~ n c d All 1r.Wc miirk:- or registered trndemark..o; nrc property o r 1hcir respecti ve owners.
Circle 148 on Inquiry Card.
Co ver S t o ry You r E-M a il Is Ob sol ete
computing time in an applications suite. Other employees might only occasional ly use a computer, to access the Web through a browser or check e-mail through a dedicated reader. Any Internet, propri etary, or hybrid messaging system, there fore, must support mu ltiple types and brands of e-mai l clients. Through adher ence tO POP3 and, evenruaUy, IMAP4, vir tually all currently available products pro vide this flexibi lity.
This was important to Jeff Luck, man age r of network and support systems at Pennsylvania State University's Contin uing and Distance Learning department. Three years ago, the university had no POP3 system in place, so Luck chose Microsoft Mai l for his 350 mostly Mac users. He liked its user interface, direc rory services, and integration with other applications. The capability that let him leave messages on the server was impor tant, too, as many people worked on mul tiple computers and needed access tO mail from all of them.
POP3 Flexibility
A year and a half later, the university standardized on Eudora Li re and POP3. Rather than move with the university, Luck upgraded to Quarterdeck Mai l 4.0 (formerly Microsoft Mail for the Mac). Accord ing to Luck, moving tO Eudora Pro would have cost three times as much. Quarterdeck Mail lets him keep all the fea tures he has now and have POP3 access to the rest of the university system. Luck says he will consider moving tO a native IMAP4 system when the univers ity does, espe cially if it means handi ng off responsibili
lo.I
llGW HGW HG\I/ HGW HGW HG\11 HG\I/ HG\I/
~. . Di... 8/'Zl/$(11:001'11)
~~'"·°'- !ll'".u"6(1l>24i>J.CI
~Sct.A:@Gf0.-<i1J.,.O., 8'~(11 Z7F1<i
~~-·OM.... !115.1$(1();16AMJ
PB¥1le!C4\1°"''"'.,·0>l'i ll/30196(12-51 f'l. J 2
RC1..-od61@(;00<tp\tJa<o01. ll/2S/$(1127F11) I
~-DMIL. !1151$(10:2,AMJ ~
~~-Di... ~(12:511'11J 2 ~-OM... 8'25/96(11:27PM) 1
SI- Holl""'
8J26i"';SJl11SPUI 1
Novell's Groupwise 5.0's universal mailbox lets you manage not just e-mail messages, but faxes, documents, and phone messages.
ty of the mail server for his department. On the back end, the people managing
the system want to be ab le to mix and match servers and tools. Someone using Innosoft's PMDF e-Ma il Interconnect Internet backbone, for example, might want to integrate a Microsoft Exchange server with it.
Interoperabi lity is not enough, how ever. You should be able to centrally man age the entire hybrid system, and this is where synchronization is important. You should be able to remotely configure and administer both servers and clients. Most major vendo rs now offer this capability,
using the Web as the medium for remote administration .
Directory synchronization is critical, too. Vendors that use their own directory se rvices protoco ls, including Banyan's StreetTalk and Novell's NDS, have inte grated the LDAP standard. Control Data's lntraSrore Server has native X.500 support.
For some people, Internet messaging administration tools don't stack up to those in proprietary systems. Paul Hoff man of the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC) expects the Internet to reach parity by the end of the year. Companies such as Ipswirch and Software .com now offer full
Have Your Calendar Call
~Y. ~~-~~~~~-~
S cheduling and calendaring have existed as messaging appli cations for years. They are keeping millions of people tied to IBM PROFS, OfliceVision,Digital Equipment's All-in-One, and other mainframe-based systems. "Seven million OfficeVision users already have group scheduling ~ says Jim Burnham, director of mar keting for calendaring and scheduling at Lotus. "They aren't about to move off it until similarfunctionality is available in clienVserver systems.· So why is it taking so long to bring scheduling and calendaring to Inter net messaging?
Lack of standards, of course. Several scheduling and calendaring applications exist for Internet messaging that adhere to the Versit vCalendar and vCard standards. But those standards cover only the most rudimentary functions-viewing a calendar and name-and-
address information, respectively.To be competitive,vendors of those applications extend the standard using proprietary specifications. Therefore, scheduling meetings with clients or partners by e-mail unfortunately is not possible unless they happen to be using the same software as you. Even if you and your outside collaborators happen to be in sync today, the chances that you'll remain that way in the future are slim.
As a result, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is working to extend the Versit standards so that you can not only view the infor mation, but actually schedule your own and other people's time. It will perform free- and busy-time searches; the specification will define a standard way to access calendaring and scheduling information from popular legacy systems.
Lotus has proposed its own Versit extensions to the IETF, called Inter net Calendar Access Protocol (ICAP), and expects to demonstrate a working ICAP server by the time you read this. Microsoft, Novell, and other companies also have proposed specifications, but all promise to support whatever the IETF decides, perhaps as early as this spring.
74 B Y TE FEBRUAR Y 1997
~ ~!ffi!j I~I·i
EDITORS'
CHOICE
C over S tor y You r E-Mail Is Ob solete
ui res of administrari o n rools. Also, rools designed ro handle d is parare messaging sysrems, such as Loru s's SofrSwirch o r Hewletr-Packard's OpenVisio n, now ac commodare lnrerner proroco ls.
Messaging's Missing Links
While rhe lnremer fu lfills rhe basic require menrs fo r e nte rpri se mes aging roday, compani es are beginning ro demand fea tures rhat ir can nor yet deliver easil y. The mosr significant are scheduling (rhe abili ty to access calendars and plan schedules on-line) and calendaring (rhe ability only ro view a calendar). M ainframe and Unix based messaging systems, such as IBM 's OfficeVi ·ion and Digiral Equipmenr's All in-One, have offe red gro up schedul ing and calendaring for ove r a decade . Busi nesses have come ro depend on rhis capa bility and are loath ro give irup. Ultimate ly, Intern et mes sag ing mu st nor only prov id e group scheduling and ca lendar ing, bur provide backward co mpatibil ity with legacy systems. You can' r jusr srrand milli ons o f users who may lack any other migration path.
Vendors of both Intern et and propri etary syste ms are now providing rhis com patibi lity, bur on an ad hoc basi . Notable examples include Novell's Groupwise, Lotus Nares, and Microso ft Exchange. Versit is a standards-setting organizarion found ed by Apple, AT&T, ll.IM , an d Si emens to promote systems intero per abi li ty. The widely adopte d Versir vCa l endar and vCard open standa rds, which provide a common way ro view a ca lendar and an address book, re pecrively, usual ly supp ort rhe e efforts. T hey do not pro vide a means ro actually schedule meetings or oth er eve nts. Similarly, group chedul ing is now an integrated parr of applica tion suites, such as Microsoft Office 97 and Lotus's SmarrSuite 96. They now provide integration points to th e lnrcrnerand o th er messaging sysrems by way of APis. (See rherexrbox"HaveYourCalendar allMy Ca lendar" on page 74 .)
Coming Attractions
Other desired feature s includ e e-ma il based fax ing, paging, and voice. The goal for se ndin g fax over an IP co nn ectio n is nor just to save rhe cost of th e ca ll, bur also to make ir a desktop fun cti on-to make ir as simple as ending a n e- mail me age. Paging can perform two fun rion : ro alert someo ne roan imporrant message o r to notify system administrator of a problem.
Managing Multiple Messengers
Derrick Ho, a manager of corporate network plan ning at NECls Systems Advanced Engineering department (Mountain View, CA), recently faced inte· grating Internet messag ing with proprietary systems to maximize the benefits of both. NEC had already standardized on cc:Mail not an ideal solution for Ho's 100-person department,many ofwhom depend on VMS systems. Besides, some people wanted to use Eudora to read their mail from Japan.But most worrisome to H0 was requiring two full· time people to manage the mail servers."That is ridiculous," he says.
Ho moved his department's messaging to lnnosoft's PM DF. This allowed him to get
rid of separate servers for each system the department uses. Instead, PM DF provides a channel for each system. (See the figure below.) Itfurther eases administration by sim· plifying modifications. Particularly trouble· some was making changes to VMS's send mail, through the obscure sendmail.cf file . "You have to be very good at hacking send· mail.cf to modify your system to your liking;· says Ho. "Not very many people are able to do that."
Why didn't Ho just wait for similar capa· bilities from Lotus or Microsoft? "We're not going to deal with [the Lotus and Microsoft solutions] until they come out~ he says. "They have to be better than PMDP.'
PMDF: Handling Messaging Babel
Proprietary e-mail and messaging systems:
· LotusNotes ·MS.Mail · cc:Mail · Groupwise ·Novell MHS
· DaVlncl · Futums · Notework
· Beyond Mall
Digital MailBus: · TeamUnks ·Mail Works · All-In-One
Other services: · Fax servers · Directory services · Web browser · X.400
IBM: ·PROFS · SNADS · OV/400 · OV/MVS
Others:
·Unix Mail
·Pagers ·Others
· POP client/server · DEC Windows Mail
· IMAP client/server ·Gold Mail
·VMS Mall
· X.500
· Pathworks Mail · PMDFMail
PMDF is one product th at t ries to handle multi- platfo rm messag ing, either directly through SMTP/MIM Eor through platform-specific add-on modu les.
Voice co uld be in th e form of an audi o attachment, like VocalTec's lnterner Voice M ail 3.0, o r making rea l-tim e voice con tac t over a n IP co nnection through th e deskrop interface.
All these funcrionsare currently avai lable for Internet messaging systems, usually as thi rd-party add-ons. However, no formal standards ex ist. As a result, the recipienr needs compatible functionality, or the mes sage must carry some kind ofnm-rime mod ule, the method that VocalTec uses.
Co mmim;es within the Intern et Engi neeri ng Task Fo rce (IETF) are working on pecifica ri on , likely as exten ions of the Multipurpo e Intern et Mail Extension (MIME) for mat, fo r a ll these fea tures. Th e ta bl e "The Internet Standards Pi e
tu re" on page 72 provides estimated dates fo r completion. When wide-sca le impl e mentatio n of th ose sta nd a rds will rake effect is anyone's guess.
When these feature s are ava il able, you will likely access them through a uni ver sa l mailbox. Already ava il able wi th a num ber of products a universal mailbox looks a lot like an ordinary mail box with files and fo lders. The difference is it ca n man age mu lrip le message type . In Novell Groupwise 5, fo r exa mpl e, users can per form document-manage ment tasks, send a fax, schedu le appointments, mai ntain a ta k Ii t, o r p erfo rm ot her function s through the mailbox. (See the screen on page 74. ) Folders can be publ ic or pri va te and are accessi bl e ro people who are tr::iv
76 BYTE FEBR UAR Y 1997
The Windows Nf Collection
· Fast serial ports via SCSI · 2 -32 ports p er SCSI ID
· Native COM p orts via Ethernet · 8-32 ports per TCP/IP session
· Low-cost ports for PC/ bus
At Central Data, serial communication is not a side business. It's our only business . For over fifteen years, we've been designing innovative, rock-solid serial ports for UNI X®systems .
Now we 're excited to announce a full line of solutions specifically optimized for Windows NT.® Our NT Collection provides you with three interface options : Ethernet, SCSI , or the PCI bus . All three are packed with benefits .
· Full RAS support · Native COM ports tor simple setup
and administration · High-speed rates of 115K baud
for fast modem connections · Surge protection on all lines for reliability · Easy field upgrades · External expansion provided by
SCSI and Etherlite units
To fu lly app reciate our seri al port artistry, evaluate one of our solutions FREE for 30 days. Call 1-800-482-0397, or view our website at http://www.cd .com/. See how Central Data has turned NT connectivity into a work of art.
The EtherLite Difference
The EtherLite''" Port Server is·not your typical termiAal server. A siAgle TCP/IP session carries traffic for all the EtherLite's native COM ports, compared to the conventioflal one-session-per-port method. The obvious benefit is less overhead at the host, and less
traffic cm Etherne,t.Also, Etherlite prooucts
do net carry the eurden of telnet, rlogiri, reverse telnet, an(;! other prqtoools which do not apply in the normal NT environment. This makes EtherliteJess expensive, much easier to c0nfig1:rne, al'ld·ver.y efficient even at high baud rates. To read our white pa13er use} http://www.cd.com/etherwht.html.
Email : c·lnfo@cd .com · http ://WWW.cd .com/ · 1602 Newton Drive
Champaign, IL 61821-1098 · 217·359-8010 · 800482--0397 · Fax 217-359-6904
01996 Cor:ara! Data Corpcwat100 AJI ngtrts rO"~ved Conlral Oa a product names are l1JdCTnJ11'.S ot Central Datil Cofpora:ion.
W1(1(JOWS N T 1~ a reg.stereo 11acsemark oi Microsolt C0tpora1100.
01her 1 radcn~1 i..s a1e the pf0per1y QI ~11 1espec1rve IX>Sdcrs
Circle 160 on Inquiry Card.
C over S tory Yo ur E-Mail Is Ob solete
Security: Who's Cot the Key?
Companies must communicate with the outside world by e-mail. Yet the thought of moving company data freely to and from a company network is fright ening to information technology (IT) man agers. In a typical intranet, valuable company data is shielded from the outside by a firewall, which sits between the network and an externally accessible server. Nothing gets through-except e-mail.
Existing encryption schemes,such as RSA, can ensure secure transmiss·on of data In fact, an extension for encryption to the MIM E for mat,SIMIME, is based on RSA and has broad industry support, butthere's acatch.Encryption requires two keys, public and private. The pri vate key encodes the message, and the pub-
lie key decodes it. The recipient must have access to the public key to understand the mes sage. (See the figure below.) The problem is how to make those keys available to only the people you want using them.
Some trusted entity must hold those keys in escrow and assign certificates that act as a digital signature, identifying users of those keys . That entity is as yet undetermined. It could be agovem ment body,such as the U.S. Post O ffice, or an independent organization set up explicitly for the purpose. Verisign (Mountain View, CA) is a commercial enter prise that handles certificates. Some mes saging products, such as Netscape's Suite Spot 3 .0, come with a certificate server for internal use. Third-party products, such as
Nortel's Entrust, also allow companies to build internal certificate-management appli cations.To ensure compatibility from one cer tification scheme to another, companies will likely cross-certify, according to Ron Rosen thal, director of new initiatives at Harbinger Enterprise Solutions (Atlanta, GA), a ven dor of electronic -commerce p roducts and services.
The d ilemma: Companies can build and manage internal certificate systems-which gives them control, but at the c ost of added administrative overhead- or they can off-load that chore to a third party but lose the secu· rity of controlling the d istribution of certifi cates. For many companies, neither choice is satisfactory.
f)
Key escrow server
@
Encryption
for transmission
nils simplified diagram shows the
basics of a secure messaging system.
0 When a message Is sent, It Is
enc:iypted at the desktop using a
public-key scheme, such as RSA. ·
6 The sender checks with a local or
remote certificate server to get the
recipient's public encryption key.
E> At the sender's messaging
server, the message is encrypted again using, say, the
RSA-based SIMIME protocol
0 At the same time, a copy of
the message goes to an
authentication server, which
might reside at the sender's or at a third-party locatiOn.
0 The recipient's messaging
server decrypts the SIMIME
encryption and 0 checks with
the authentication server to ensure that the message has
not changed during transit.
fl Anally, the message Is decoded at the desktop using
the recipient's public key.
Authentication server
eling or working from a remote location. Another a rea th at is generating interest
in some quarters is Electronic Data Inter cha nge (EDI). This is a common way for businesses to perform purcha ing trans acti o ns and is usually done over a secu re, dedicated link . Th e ab ility to carry on ED I tra nsactions through Internet mes sagin g a nd the Web co uld dramatically reduce th e required overhead. Instea d of cond ucting on -line transactions with just the most important suppliers and cus tomer , a company could do so with most of them. Some companies a re now acco m plishing EDI over th e Internet using pro prietary softwa re from vendors suc h as
H arb inger. Asta ndard specification is clue from the IETF sometime this yea r.
But lack of a standard protocol is not the m ajor ba rri er to Inrern er-base cl ED I. Because of th e se nsi tive data and large size of transactions, security must be tight. The techn ology ex ists for encrypting data a nd authenticating people, but practical issue , such as managing certificates (to verify identities) and encryption keys (to decry pt mess:iges), are unresolved. (S ee the tex t box abo ve, "Security: Who's Got th e Key?" )
What to Do?
Describing the move to intranets an d Inte rn et-sta ndards- based messaging as a
mad rush would be only slightly hyper bolic. The benefits of lower overhead and un iversal commun ications, nor to me n tion the greater c ho ice of products, a rc quire compelling.
However, most businesses are not quite ready to embrace Internet messag ing. Rel uctance to give up something that they kn ow works for something with a relative ly short track record is part of th e reason. The greater hurdle remains the lack of standa rds for mission-critical applications, such as sc heduling/calen daring or document manage ment. Stan dards for most of th ese fe a tures should be in pl ace by rhe e nd of th e yea r, bur
78 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Save big money
every month by
allowing all
your users
to access the Internet
at!hi:. ;gh;~-:~~:_::::z:cit:5::::=::::::~
Manage accessto the corporate LAN easily with menu-driven network management tools such as Telnet, integrated SNMP and call-detail records.
digital speed using a single-user Internet account with a static or dynamic IP address. Only the ZyXEL Prestige ISDN remote access routers, with their unique single-user accou nt feature give your company
this kind ofTSDN affordability. In fact, Prestige ro uters have so
many features - such as dial-on-demand, bandwidth-on
demand, spoofing and call control - at such a reasonable
price, they help make ISDN accessible even to small
offices, home offices and branch offices.
1\vo analog ports allow users of the Prestige 128
Connectyour branch office LANs into one secure and easily managed
wide-area network.
to share ISDN connection with fax machines, modems
and other analog devices. It's like an office in a box.
MP/PPP, bandwidth-on-demand, analog dial-up support, bridging
Prestige 28641 functions as a mini-server with features and routing capabilities - ideal for
such as V.34 connectivity, V.110, V.1 20 and X.75 - ideal for
small office/home office users and telecommuters.
telecommuters. Prestige routers include multiprotocol IP and IPX*
routing, transparent bridging, robust user-authentication security
and many sophisticated network management features.
Plus, the legendary ZyXEL reliability is backed by
informed, pro fessional support. The next step in
ISDN accessibility is he re.
Call today.
800-255-4101
www.zyxel.com
ZyXEL
The Prestige 28641 with V.34 capability allows remote modem users on the
Save money.Multiple users accessing the Internet using one single-user account (SUAJ - great for SOHOs.
ACCESSING INTERNET &INTRANET
road to access the corporate network using analog modems.
WORLDWIDE:
NORTH AND SOUTH AME RICA:
Th i: 886.35.783942
Thi: (71 4) 693-0808
f ax: 886.35.782439
Fax: (714) 693-8811
·
E-mail : sales@zyxel.hine t.ne t E- mail: sales@zyxel. com
v V.34 Connectivity'
v Single-User Account (SUA) v S!T or UInterface
v BACP/BAP/CCP
v IP/IPX Routing and Bridging v PAP/CHAP
v Unlimited #of Users ti' Telnet and SNMP
v Optional AppleTalk·
"' Analog Port(s)1
v PPP/MP
ti' Hi/fnmLZS· (Stael" Compression
' Available in Prestige 28641
' Twu poru Pr~tige 128; one port Prestige 2864I
Sp<?<ifica1ions a"' subject tochangewithc<it notice.
·~ nro wilh
Ne!Wre
ZyXEL is n registe red trade mark of ZyXEL Comm unications Corp. Other trade marks :1nc.1 registered trade marks Jrc the property of the companies wit h \.,.·hich they are associa ted.
Circle 166 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS: 167).
Cover Story Your E-Mail Is Obsole te
Gateway Hell
E·mail isn't just text. Attachments such as images, application·specific files,or even videos are common. Proprietary mail systems have their own ways to accom modate common file types and provide a means to build compatibility with other types, through Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI). MAPI in itself, however, is not a protocol standard.That, and the fact that it is controlled by a single company, Microsoft, makes some companies nervous. "MAPI is being downplayed to a tremendous extent~ says John McFarlane, Software.com CEO.
By contrast, the Internet has Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), a standard way to represent document formats so that all Internet clients, including both browsers and mail readers, can recognize them. Each MIME
type is identified by its extension, such as .!Jct
for text or .html for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). MIME currently covers a wide range of formats, orInternet Media Types, including Microsoft Word , Unix tar, QuickTime, ZIP, Postscript, RealAudio, and Macintosh PICT.
Proprietary messaging systems can and do support MIME. However, the MIME at· tachrnents must go through a conversion process at a server gateway, and this is a con· troversial point between Internet and pro· prietary messaging advocates. "Gateways are designed to lose in format io n ~ says Paul Hoffman, director of the Internet Mail Con· sortium. The proprietary side claims that gateways are relatively sound-as long as they are "properly configured ~
Barbarians at the Gate
When a MIME attachment hits a gateway, the gateway determines its type and automatically
Formatted text, before gateway
Text, after gateway
E·mail isn' t just text. Attachments such as images . application· specific f i les . or PvPn
WheJt Items must pass through a gateway, the gateway may strip out formatting from the original.
converts the document to the appropriate equivalent format. The conversion also strips out data deemed unnecessary. If the gateway makes a mistake,however, the recipient of that document has no way of recovering that mes· sage, other than to ask the sender to deliver it by some other means.Even if the attachment converts properly, it could lose its structure. For instance, you might send a snazzy-look· ing Word document with handsome fonts and a carefully planned format as an attachment, only to have the recipient see it as a block of regular text. " Structure is information, too,' says Hoffman.
Hoffman admits that a well·designed gate way will lose only unimportant data. Howev· er,you still have to depend on gateway integri· ty with proprietary systems. This potential point of failure does not exist with pure Inter· net messaging.
But sending attachments by an all·lnter· net route is not bulletproof, either. Because
of the Internet's distributed nature,each mes· sage travels through a number of different servers before reaching its destination. Nei· ther the sender nor the receiver has control over those servers, any of which is capable of introducing errors or losing data. The Inter· net architecture also makes it difficult to guar· antee a maximum time for a message to reach its destination-a necessity for some com· panies. "Guaranteed delivery is the most fun· damental thing an e·mail system must do," says Scott Welch , president of e-mail ven· dor SoftArc.
Legacy Roadblocks
Mainframe·based legacy systems, such as IBM's OfficeVision, are more problematic in the way they handle attachments. They usu· ally treat attachments as disconnected routable files that require recipients to manu· ally seek and re1rieve them. Companies such as Lotus,Digital Equipment, and lnnosoft offer gateway products from systems such as PROFS or VMS Mail, but that adds complex· ity. Converting addresses from, say, Digital's limited two·part format to an Internet equiva· lent can be tricky.
It is conceivable that attachments could become irrelevant. Using Java or ActiveX scripts, it is possible to embed special data types within the body of a mail message. In fact , this feature is available now in Co· ordinate.corn's BeyondMail 3.0. It allows
you to send multimedia elements as ActiveX
scripts. For now,however, this capability itself is proprietary. Netscape is talking up the benefits of sending Java applets by mail. And last November, Lotus demonstrated a cc :Mail prototype written entirely in Java It was just a "proof of concept:· but Mark McHarry, press· relations manager at Lotus Development, says "that is the future for us."
wide spread implementatio n will take lo nger.
What sh o uld yo u d o tod ay? Small com p anies with little l egacy overhead are free to ch oose an y p ath th at m eet s their cost, feature, and scalability n eeds. As lo ng as th ese co mpanies require on l y basic mes ·agingcapabilities, intern et e-mail m ay be th e best ch o ice. B y year's end, th er e will like ly be st andar d s th at address missing elem ents in Internet messaging.
Manage rs for deparm1enrs or divisi o ns within larger compa nies sh ould b e aware of co rpo rate-messagi ng pl anning. C hoos in g a co mpatible path co ul d save effo rt, m o ney, and headaches.
Fo r lar ger co mpanies, t he issue is large l y o ne of pu lling together disparate sys tems and providj ng e-mai l access to the
outside w o rld with minimal upheava l for u se r s and administ ra tors al ike . Fortu n atel y, thi s is doable now. Building from either proprietar y o r st andards -based backbon es, co mp ani es ca n en sure uni vers al e- m ai l access and cho ice in both cli ent softwa r e and admini strative tool s. Wh at i s n o t p oss ible at thi s time is ro duplicate the r e l iabil ity, perfo rm ance, and feature sets of established propri et ary m essagin g syst em s in an all-native-Inte r net environm ent.
In any implem entation where reli abili ty o r securi ty is of th e utmost concern, pro
pri etary system s that ust: a standard d edi
cated p ho ne co nnectio n rath er than the distributed Intern et infrastru cture are still the safest bet. I nternet messaging w ill eventuall y catch up to p ropri et ary system s'
reli abili ty and security, but p arity is at least a year away.
Sti ll , the d ay whe n all enterprise m e · saging i s based o n Internet standard s seems inevitabl e. " I would be surprised if by the turn o f the century both Lotus and Microsoft w ere n ' t (native l y ] SMTP based," says the IMC ' s Hoffman . Those two compan ies say th at th ey' ll do what th ei r cusromers want. What those cus tome r s are saying is clear : Moving to Internet m essaging is nor a question of i f
rn it's a question of w h en.
Micha el Nadeau, a form er BYTE senior editor and author of Th e BYTE Guide ro CD-RO M (second edition, Osbom e/McGraw-Hill, 1995), writes exte11si11ely about the Int ernet. You can reach hi111 at m_nadeau@conknetcom.
80 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Introducing the BayStack 301 Ethernet Switch. The fastest , most affordable way to segment your network .
Ne t wo r k growth can be a real bottle. Mor e users. More traffic . l n t r a n e t s. M ul ti me di a. You name i t.
Now you can affo rd a new pl a n of attack-divide your network int o s m a ll e - m or e ma nageab le segments with t he BayStack 30! Et h e rn et Sw i tch . Eac h segme n t from one to thousand s of users-gets de d ica ted IOMbps. And yo u get rwo lOOMbp s ports for servers and backbones. Wit h no IP a dd re s ing ha s !e s and no table configuration.
BayS t ack 30 1 is pa rt of th e Ba yS t ac k~ family, so you'll bui ld your n etwork righ t t he first time . And it's a ll managed b y Op ti vi t y ~
So vis it our We b s it e at ww w. b ay n e twork s .com/co qu e r/1 2 for yo u r fre e gui d e to t he Fun d amenta ls of Sw it chi n g o r ca ll 1-8 00 -8- BAYNET
of yo u r ne t work t o d ay. l' ...
·JI
BnyStack int<g-rntcs liul1s, rout ers, switches, and Optivity network
mar:a ge meut in tl stack11blc. standards-based system.
.... .;....__
,_. -·
r ~;.~.... ,11 .~I~
4:1 1996 Gay Netw o rk s, I n c . " Peop l e connect with u s" i s a trademark of Bay Netw o r k s, In c .
· ~
Bay Networks
Peo p le c o nnec t w ith u s
Circle 604 on Inquiry Card.
Just be cause you r
work
·
15
complex
doesn ' t mean
it has to be di fficu lt
Amoco is savin8 5% per project or up to 20 million dollars by usin8 \lisio to plan and manage th eir oil explo ration. Other companies use it to save time or increase productivity. You' I/ find lots of companies have adopted \lisio: Chrysler, National Semiconductor and Fluor Daniel.for example.
To get your work done. you 've always needed CAD . But then along
comes Visio! Technical. a Wind ows-based drawing program that's actually easy to learn and use. Our S martShapes~ technology lets you create 2-D technical drawings that are both intuitive and intelligent. You can make changes easily, work with Autodesk AutoCAD files. publish drawings across the Internet. and create custom sol uti ons with bui lt-in Visual Basic for Applications and OLE Automation . Make things easy on yourself for a change. Call 800-24-VIS IO. ext. E28 or visit www.visio.com. For corporate eval uation call 800-VISI0-07 .
Visualize your busi ness"'
«'.11997 V1s.10 Cotporatron Vis:o, the IOUf·~hapos logo, ttc V1s11J logo. and 1tie V1su<thrn Voll' bu1111ess logo are e:ther1eg1s1cred 1Tarl!!m.1rks or Nl1enlilr ~~ of Vis o Corpou111on 1n 1h(l UMod S1a1es aoo/u other coun1ues All other uMcmiuks, ·111110 n:tmes 01 comp.inv nanes referenced here.n are u~ed tot irtt·n11 l1G1111>., only and are 1he property or 1ho11 rospectrvn owner~
How to Make the World's
Fastest CPUs
Enter a world where dust is your enemy, day and night run together, and blazingly fast CPUs are born. By Tom Thompson
he amber halcyon lights show you right away that
Fab 6 is another wo rld. The lights cast an eerie glow
that makes everything neither bright nor dull, like a
stretch of deserted expressway at 3 a.m. But unlike
the real world, the light inside Fab 6 never varies. The natural
rhythms of sunrise and sunset go unnoticed, so that once inside
this strange environment, you quickly lose track of time.
Fab 6 is housed inside a
long, low building at Digital
Semiconductor's Hudson,
Massachusetts, campus. The
fabrication facility is one of
the most sophisticated and
closely managed manufac
turing operations anywhere
in the world. It has to be. The
main output of Fab 6 is Alpha
processors, the fastest gener
al-purpose CPUs now on the
market. Recently, the facil i
ty has also begun to manu
factu re StrongARM chips,
which power a new genera
tion of hand-held devices.
These processors have fea
tures as small as 0.35 microns,
as thin as any commercial
processor die on thepiarket
today. In this land of/minute
tolerances, a spec of dust one
quarter the thickness of your
hair can be your worst enemy.
This fab, like dozens ofoth
ers throughout the world, isa
highly specialized combina
tion of ph oto lithograp hic
i;; ~
faci lity, chemical plant, as
(I
z
sembly line, and testing cen
'0" ter. Most remarkable is the level of quality thatthese facilities pro
:ui:
Vl
duce. Software may crash, hard drives may freeze, but most of us
t;:
"'0a":'
take the reliability of our CPUs for granted. Manufacturing a pro cessor that consists of millions of transistors whose structures are
.;;
~
smaller than the wavele ngth of green light presents formidab le challenges. Yet the manufacturing plants that assemble or fabri
(!)
§ cate these complex devices produce tens of thousands a month,
:i: Q.
and at a reasonable cost.
This impressive achieve ment is possible through a combina tion of art and science, including scrupulous attention to detail plus the use of complex and expensive manufacn1ring equipment. To see how this is done, come with us inside Fab 6.
Step 1: Come Clean
Before you enter Fab 6, you must make yourself worthy. First, you w a lk across ma ts of tacky adhesive that strip par ticles fro m your shoes before you're anywhere near the actual manufacturing pro cesses. Next, you don your. bunny suit, the white jump suit that traps any dust, skin particles, and lint that may be clinging anywhe re from your neck to your toes. A clear shie ld covers your face and eyes, a soft helmet wraps around your head. For good measure , once yo u're dressed you must pass through a short tunnel lined with nozzles that blast you with compressed a ir in a final attempt to rid you of contamination. There are reasons for this slavish attention to cleanli ness. During fabr ication, any contaminants that land on a wafer-the sheet of sil icon that's the found ation for a chip- can ruin the processors built on it. For example, a dust mote glow ing in a beam of sunlight can
damage hundreds or thousands of circuits. Even a smoke parti cle, measuring in at 0.5 microns, can short out a pair of lines in a nascent processor.
Fab 6 isn't entirely contamination free, but it's clean enough for its manufacturing processes to be cost effective. The air is rigorously filtered so that each cubic foot contains no more than one 0.1-micron-size particle. Because ink, paper, and graphite can generate contaminants, Fab 6 is a true paperless office. Every-
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE BONA 3
World ' s Fastest CPUs
where, large, flat-panel plasma screens a nd networked PCs display th e current state of the operation. Workers ca rry palmtop computers and PDAs for jarrin g notes about problems enco untered dur ing the work day. The staff e nte rs the in fo rm at ion into a large o n-lin e data base that helps docu ment probl ems and provides statisti ca l analysis fo r qu ality control. Since a system crash coul d result in a disastrous loss of trackin g in for ma tio n, the compan y uses Open VMS run nin g on a fault-to le ran t VAXcl uster with disk-shadow ing.
Step 2: Meet Your Brothers in Arms
Fab 6 diffe rs fr o m most manufacturing p la nts beca use fo r th e mosr pa rt , machines o utnumber people. Thro ugh o ut th e plant, robotic arms pick up , move, and position wafers during the va ri o us pr ocess in g stage . To move wafers in bulk, special racks carry two doze n wafers at a time. An automated materials-hand ling system tran spo rts wafers overhead on a netwo rk of ra ils th at shuttl es racks of wafers from o ne part o f th e fac ility to another. T his machinery minimizes potential defects that co uld occ ur due ro inadve rtent ro ugh hand ling by humans.
Fa b 6 uses sil icon wafers 8 inches in diameter, o nto which successive layers of c hemicall y-treated, or " doped," sili co n, ox id e, a nd metal a re appli ed (see sidebar below). These la yers asse mble the circu its that make up th e processo r. The fab process continu ous ly repeats severa l basic o pera tions, w hi ch gradu all y build la ye r upo n layer of material on th e wafer. Th e add ition of these layers is an intricate procedure: Ir can rake as few
"Bunny suits" help control contamination. Aspec of dust the quarter the thickness of your hair can ruin dozens of nascent processors.
as severa l weeks to two mo nths for the workers at Fab 6 to app ly all th e neces sary materials. A wafer may ultim ate ly ca rr y dozens of mi cro processors o n its sur face .
Differem techniques deposit material
o n the wafer. A gas-ox id atio n process stacks layers o f silicon and sil icon diox ide (a good in sulato r) ove r th e e ntire wafer. Sputter ing a ppli es metal layers over th e wafer. In sp utteri ng, the wafer and a target of the desired metal, such as
Building transistors, 1·ayer by laver
How do you make a transistor with features 1000 times smallef than a human hair? You carefully ;wply layers of chemically treated silic<i onto the surface of a silicon wafer.
The story above describes1he six main steps in the manufacture of a high·eod processor. ThefoUowing explains the physical cl'ii!!ilgesthat tum silicon into a CPU. Fli'ststeps The fabrication process most commonly ased today is CMOS (com plementary metal oxide semiconductor). In CMOS chip vendors design the pr.ocessor logic so that it.uses pairs of transistors. The logic uses only one transi11to~ at a time to conserve power. These transistor-pairs are
made of complement~ry materials, as shown in the figure "The Goal: CMOS Transistor Pair~
Today's processors use silicon because it is both plentiful and rela tively c~eap: .Beach sand is made of pulverized silicon dioxide.Another advantage to silicon is !hat its oxide makes an excellent insulator, whieh simplifies the fabricatien process. As the name semiconductor implies silicon is neither a good conductor nor a good insulator. But by adding trace elements to silicon, yeu can change its electrical properties so
that it becomes conductive. More on that in a moment.
'The silicon used in the fabrication process comes from tile wafer itseJf. The wafers are rnade by sawing slices from a silicon ingot grown under
BONA 4 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
World's Fastes t CPUs
Machines outnumber people: Robotics everywhere pick up and move wafers through the various processing stages.
cobalt, tungste n, o r aluminum, are placed in a vacuu m chamber. Ions bombard the metal target. Metal atoms dislodged from the target by this bombardme nt condense on the wafer's surface.
Step 3: Create Processor Circuits
H owever, it isn ' t e nough simp ly to deposit layers of material on the wafer. To build the patterns that assemble the pro cesso r circui ts, t he fa brication process must be able to selectively apply materi al onto the wafe r. T his is accomplished with photo lith ography, a procedure that ph orograp hi ca ll y t ra nsfe rs patte rns
onto a surface fo r etching.This tec hnique is similar to the photolithography trad i tionall y used to etch the plates that print newspapers and magazines. H owever, to bui ld a processo r ' s microsco pi c fea tures, the fab's photolithographic oper ation must be done wi th great precisio n and consistency.
A machine applies a thin laye r of pho tosensitive material (commonly called a photoresist) to the wafers. At this point, the wafe r mi ght have a laye r of metal, si licon ox id e, or d oped silicon o n it. A machine d ispenses the photoresistas a liq ui d o nto t he wafe r. The wafe r is t hen rotated at several thousand RPM to even
ly distribute the photoresist across its sur face. Next, the wafer is allowed to dry.
A dev ice called a stepper projects the des ired patte rns o nto th e wafe r. T he patterns are called masks because t hey block areas o n the wafer fr om exposure to light. The masks consist of glass plates with chromium patterns imprinted onto them, and are several times large r than the image projected o nto the wafer. Using larger masks makes their defects easy to spot, which in turn reduces patte rn defects on the wafer. A special lens red uces the patterns to the desired size.
A ro botic arm p icks up a wafe r and shuttl es it into th e ste pp e r, wh ic h is responsible fo r making the pattern expo sures. It exposes the circuit pattern at one spot o n the wafer, the lens steps to a new location, and repeats an ex posure at this spo t. This methodica l stepping process packs as many p rocessor patterns as pos sible onto one wafer. As mentioned ear lier, laying these pattern s onto the wafer must be done with great precisio n. Each processor req uires many separ ate, pre cisely aligned patterns to build its work ing elements. The number of exposures varies depending on the complexity of the processor. H owever, one misaligned or blurred exposure can render the proces sor's circuits useless.
Fab 6 uses deep ultraviolet light to make the exposures o n the photo resist. T he fun ky yellow lighting that illuminates cer tain areas of the fab serves a purpose: This color's wavelength doesn' t carry enough energy to trigger chemical reactions in the photoresist. T his in turn simplifies han dl ing of the wafers.
W here the light strikes the wafe r, it causes chemical reactions that change the po lymers (large molecul es) in th e photo-
controlled conditions.The.precision of this growth is such that each ingot,
which is 6 to 8 inches in diameter and up to several feet long, is literally·a
giant crystal. One of the initial steps isto add afine layer of silicon dioxide,
called the field oxide, to the wafer surface.Next, workers add a photore
sistto the surface. Later,an
etching step removes sec tions of the field oxide.The desired trace elements are added to the exposed areas of silicon using the ion implantation,as shown inthe figure "Starting Point:
The Goal: CMOS Transistor Pair
Gate Electrode
I
Source
Drain
I ~ P+
P+
Silicon di::::nsulators
Photoresist for Arsenic
Implantati on ~
Crystals with a charge
The trace elements, callee dopants, esfablish the silicon's conduc~v
ity by placing charge carriers in the material ~s crystalline lattice. The
adaition otarsenic to the silicon creates a crystal with an electron sur
plus. The extraelectrons
can migrate about and
Gate Electrode
I
Source
Drain
N+
N+
P-substrate
Field oxide
carry acurrent Thus, the
material is known as negative,or n·type mate rial. Adding boron to the mix creates a crystal with an electron shortage,
making it a positive,or p
type material. The latter
FE BRUARY 1997 BYTE BO N A 5
*NEW 4.3GB Hard Drive (9.Sms)
* ZOTD Trinitron Monitor (19.0"
v.i.s., .26dp, 1600 X1200 max. res.)
· Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
· NEW12X EIDECD-ROM Drive
· Sound Blaster 16 PnP Sound Card
· Allee ACS-290 Speakers with Subwoofer
· Mst Office 95 Pro with Bookshelf
* MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition
Upgrade Coupon*
· MSWindows N Workstation 4.0/
3oDaysFree Support/MS Mouse
· 3Year Limited Warranty' with1Year
l~§~I
On-site· Service
* 33.6 U.S. Robotics Telephony
Modem. add $149.
* 32MB SDRAM Memory
· 512KB Pipeline Burst Cache
· 3.2GB Hard Drive (9.5ms)
· 17LS Monitor (1 5.7' v.i.s.)
* Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
· NEW 12X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
· AWE32 Wave Table Upgrade Card
· Altee ACS-290 Speakers with Subwoofer
* 33.6 U.S. Robotics Telephony
Modem
· MS Office 95 Pro with Bookshelf
* MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon
· FREE Norton/Visio Express Software Suite..
· MS Windows 95/30 Days Free Support/MS Mouse
· 3Year LimitedWarranty with 1Year On-site Service
tfo· acompleie a>py of our cuarantces or Li1111ted Wammtoes. please wnteDell USA l P. One Dell Way, Round Rock. TX 78682 'Business leasing arranged by Leasing Group. Inc. " fot a lim11ed tomo f\\1th qualifying purchase), receive a coupon fOf a free MS Office 97 upgrade {e1Lhe1 P1ofcss1onal or Small 3usiness Ed111onl on CO only !no documentation included) after release from Microsoft Call for details ·· Norton/Visio Exp-ess Software Suite 1s available ooly on Dimensionsystems purchased with the combination of MS Olficc 95 and M1c1osoh Windows 95. Visio Exprnss 4.0is an OEM version and asubset of V1sio 4 0. Software does
not include documentation and may di ffer hom retail yers1on. .\Qn-s1te serV1ce p1ov1ded by BareTee Service Cort10iat1on. On-site ser.ice may no1boavailable1n ceitain remo1e locations ·Prices and specificallO'lS valid in the U.S. only and subject to change w11hout notice The Intel Inside logo and Penuum are registered uadcmarks and MMX 1s a trademark of Intel Corporauon MS. Microsoft and Windows are registered uadema1ks of Microsoh Co1poration 3Ccrn and Etherlmk a1e registered uadema1ks of JCom Corporation Trinilfon isa rCf.j1s1cred uademark o! Sony Corporation (t)l 997 Oell Computer Corp01ation All rights reserved
* 32MB SDRAM Memory
· 512KB Pipeline Burst Cache * J.2GB Hard Drive (9.5ms)
· NEWBOOHS Trinitron Monitor (13.7" v.i.s.)
* Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
· NEW12X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
· AWE32 Wave Table Upgrade Card
· Altec ACS-90 Speakers
· MS Office 95 Pro with Bookshelf
* MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon
· FREE NortonNisio Express Software Suite
· MS Windows 95/30 Days Free Support/MS Mouse
· 3 Year Limited Warranty with 1Year On-site Service
* Upgrade to 64MB SDRAM. add$275.
PICTURED SYSTEM
* 16MB SDRAM Memory
· 256KB Pipeline Burst Cache
· 2.1GB Hard Drive {12ms)
* NEWBDDHS Trin itron Monitor (13.7" v.i.s.)
· 64-bit PC! 2MB DRAM Video
* NEW 12X EIDECD-ROM Drive
· MS Windows 95/30 Days Free Support/Dell Mouse
· 3Year Limited Warranty with 1Year On-site Service
* Upgrade to 32MB SDRAM. add $139:
'/c Upgrade to a 3.268 Hard Drive (10.5ms). add$79.
* Upgrade toa 17LS Monitor (15.7" v.i.s.J. add $175.
* 3Com· Etherlink" Interface Combo PC/ Card. add $135.
* Upgrade to 512KB Pipeline Burst Cache, add $25.
***** BEST
RELIABILITY AND SERVICE
- PC WORLD, December, 1996
Buy a Dell"' computer. and according to the latest PC World subscriber su rvey, you' ll have fewer problems with it than you will with virtually any other major brand . And in the rare event you do have a problem, these readers went on to add that you still won 't have a problem. Because you'll experience one of the shortest times to reach a support person, one of the swiftest resolutions of your problem and one of the highest customer satisfaction rates in the industry. By the way, th is year's survey saw service and support dwi ndli ng away, with most other major computer makers being downgraded . Which should tell you something loud and clear about the competition . Apparently, the only way they know how to cut costs is to cut corners.
800-225-4895
http://www.del l.com/buydel l
Mon-Fri 7arn-9prn CT · Sat 10arn-6prn CT Sun 12prn-5prn InCanada: call 800-233-1589
I I Keycode#01187
World 's Fastest CPUs
A stepper projects patterns-called masks-onto wafers. These patterns help build the processor circuits.
resist to m o no mers (small mo lec ul es). While the polymer m:iterial is insoluble, the mo nomers are easily removed usi ng solvent .
T he mo nom ers :ire then w:ished away, leav ing a pa ttern of roug h ph oro rcs ist ove r o th e r areas. T his re maining laye r lets rh e chip designers selecti ve ly implanr ce rta in material or selective ly remove (etc h) materia l from rhe urface. Fo r examp le, a si lico n la yer might unde rgo
imp la n ta ti o n so th a t it ac hi eves rhe requ ired co nductive properties, while a mer:i l la ye r might be etched to remove most of the ma teri a l exce pt where it makes e lecrrica l co nn ectio ns ro other cir c11 it e lcmc nrs.
Step 4: Perform Implanting or Etching
Alrhough there are a number of ways ro p lace doped ili co n o n th e wafer Fab 6
distinguishes it elf from many ot her fa b fac ilities because it uses ion impl antatio n. This technique relies o n an impla nta ti o n unit-basicall y a v:icuum chamber-rhat uses a n e lec tri c field to accelerare ions o f the desired mare ri;:il roward the wafer. When the io ns strike the wafer's sur face, th ey become embedded in rhe silico n, changing its electrical properti es. Fab 6 uses a rse nic to make negative (o r n- ry pe) regio ns on rh e wafer, and boron to make positive (or p·t)' pe) regio ns. Io n impl an tatio n a llows rh e tec hnicians to control rh e a mount of io ns wirhin the do ped regio ns o n th e wafer. This is do ne by lim itin g th e size of the close (determined by the number of ions launched at the wafer) a nd how fa r th ey penetrate th e surface (derermin ed by th e vol rage intensity).
On e aclvanrage o f io n implantarion is that it ca n be perfo rmed near roo m tem perature. This re lative ly low tempera ture prevems fine features already built on rhe wafer from blurring. By comrast, hi gh rem perarure imp lantatio n processes ca n cause finesrrucrure ro blur as features mclr o r diffuse into o ne a no th er. The down sid e to ion impla nrati o n is rhar it dislo c:ites the ato ms at the w:ifer'ssurface. T his can be corrected hy a short exposure at hi gh temp eratures, in a process known as annea ling. Ovens he ar the wafe rs to around 1000 C for a few seconds; th e wafers a re th e n rap id ly cooled. Th e a nn ea ling process a ll ows rhe s ur face atoms ro rec rys ta ll ize imo th e ir p rope r orientation, while minimi zing the po Si bl e detrim ental effects of diffusio n.
The etching ope ration removes mate ria l from th e wafer. Ar Fab 6 ro bot ic a rm s carry th e wafers in a quartz rack, w hich imm erses the wafers in a n ac id bath. T he wafer a re alternatel)' dunked
material conducts because electrons can migrate between the posi" ' . (making a p·n·p transistor). The sandwich layer, known as a gate, con·
live vacancies (known as holes) in the lattice.These two types of rriate· trols the flow of current through the device. The other layers are the
rial are necessary because they're used to build junctions that will selec· source, where the current enters the device, and the drain, where the
lively conduct when the proper voltage or current is applied. A Iran· current exits. Note that we're using the term sandwich loosely here: As
sister consists of several
you can see in the figures,
such junctions made of these dissimilar materials .
Bipoloar transistors are made by sandwiching a p·type layer between two n·type layers (making an n·
Starting Point: Photoresist for Arsenic Implantation
Gate Electrode
Nwell
I
Gate Electrode
~-sub~rnle /
the various layers are lab· ricated adjacent to one another. Normally the charge carriers are attract· ed to one another at the boundaries between the
p·n transistor) , or sand· wich jng an n·type layer
Silicon dioxide insulato rs
Field oxide
n· and·p·type materials, and to the connections at
between two p·layers
the source and drain.This
OONA 8 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
·High Resolution 768 x 576 Pixel Images captured in 24-bit co lor utilizing a 410,000 pixel CC D.
· zMB Built· In Memory stores up to 38 images in economy mode.
·PC Memory Card support lets you store hundreds of images
·Dual Lens Design uti lizes a wide -angle 35mm and te lep hoto 55mm lens, as well as macro optics for close-up photography.
·LCD Monitor (optiona l) allows yo u to view images before and after you capture them.
·Fully Automatic Features like Autoflash, Autofocus, and Autoexposure make picture taking effortless.
Still Mode captu res St ill w ith Sound Mode
high res images in allows you to take a
vivid 24-bit color.
picture whil e recording
Exclusive macro
capability lets you take pictures as close as 1cm away.
10 seconds of digital sound.
a:] l Sound M ode uses
the ROC-2's built-in
Conti nuous Shooting rec ords the movements of your sub je ct in 1 second interva ls. Play back as
Document Mode
microphone to record QuickTime or AV/files.
utili zes a sharpeni ng pure digital sound in
(Requires use ol PC cardsto
filter to capture
8-bit, llkHz WAVE fi le tra nsfer data to your computer.)
razor-sharp images format.
of text and graphics.
111111·
RICOH CORPORATION· 475 Lillard Drive · Sparks, Nevada 89434 ·Tel 702.352.1 600 ·FAX 702.352.1615
Circle 605 on Inquiry Card.
World 's Fastest CPUs
in baths of hydroc hl oricacid, hordistilled warer, and hydrofluoric acid to remove the desired material. Vertical air flows carry the fumes away from the technicians and equipment.
When implantation or etchin g is com plete, th e wa fers then move to a rinsing machine that app li es a stripping so lu tion to remove the remaining photore sist. The wafers a re now ready to under go a new round of treatments. Another laye r of material is app lied, and th en the deposition photolithography, implan tation , a nd etc hin g operati o ns modify thi s laye r so that it forms a patte rn that becomes ye t ano th er part of th e pro cessor's circuit .
Steps: Finding Fault
The wafers are periodically inspected for defects that might have occurred during th e etchin g process, and fo r a ny residual photoresisr. An inspection machine auto matically sca ns the wafe rs for rhese prob 1e ms , a nd a lerts tec hnici ans, w ho u se hi gh-po wered microsco pes to a nalyze trouble spots. Information o n th ese defects is entered into th e fab's on-line database. Statistical analysis of this data is done constantly to id entify potential probl ems in any part o f th e ma nu factur ing process.
Once all the laye rs a re a ppli ed , the co mpl e ted w afer is r ea d ~' to und e rgo electrica l checks. The fir st res t is ::i para 111 e rric analysis, which is a n ove r al l assess ment of rh e qu a lit y o f th e wo rk d o ne on th e wafer. A restin g mac hin e inse rts electr ical probes o nto rest circuits pl aced in th e scribe lanes adjacent ro each processo r. Th e purpose of th e scrib e lane is ro provide a n area where th e wafer is cut ro fr ee th e ind ivid ua l procc::s ors .
An implantation unit uses an electric field to embed trace elements in silicon and change its electrical properties.
This va luable real estate al o serves do u ble-duty by ho lding th e parametric rest circuits. T he rest circui ts co nsist of low de nsity transistors (the re are o nl y hun dreds of them occup ying an area rha r no rm all y holds milli o ns of tra nsistors), whi ch und ergo a set of electri ca l res rs. If th e wafer passes th e para metri c tes ts, th e ove rall qu ali ty of the wafer 's ma nu fac rur e is co nsidered good, a nd it goes on for mo re extensive resting. If the
wafer fai l the test, there's no salvation technici ans scrap it.
The nex t set of electrical tests checks the integrity of each processor on th e wafe r. Thi s is called th e probe t est, because the re t machine places tiny sets of probe o nro the processor. One set of probes inj ects sig nals into it, and other probes mo nito r th e resulting output sig nals genera red by the processo r. A pro cesso r that fai ls th ese tests is marked by
means that no current flows through the transistor. If you apply a cur gate material so thata temporary conductive channel appears between
rent of, the proper polarity to the gate, the stanpoff between the charge the sc;iu_rce and drain elec;:.tr9des, and current flows through the transistor.
carriers d_isappears and current flows throi.igti:the transistor. A tran CMOS Pairs
sistor thus acts as a valve or switch in a digital circuit.
CMOS designs use complementary pairs of FET transistors. The p-chan
Mostprocessor circuits
nel FET is made in a
are madeoffield.effecttran Next Step: Aluminum Deposition Becomes the First Metal Layer
sistors (FETs). In this de
large well of n-type material implanted into
sign, the gate material has
the wafer. The n-chan
an insl!lated electrode
nel FET uses the doped
attached to it. Applying the
wafer substrate itselfto
propervoltage (not current)
makeihe gate channel.
to this electrodecreates an
Manysuccessive steps
electrical field that arranges the charge carriers in the
N-well
P-substrate
of exposures,etchings, and implantations are
SONA 10 BYTE FEBRUA RY i 997
Together for the first time anywhere.
Introducing (drumroll)
Inferno"networking software...
a new Bell Labs innovation. First operating system that lets all kinds of devices chat or share info with each other over any network (Internet , telecommunications, LANS , et al) . Now video game can talk to computer; cell phone can access e-mail; voice mail via TV, etc. (Really) Download Inferno from Lucent home page today - develop apps a.s.a.p. Could change the way you work - all together.
lucent Technologies 8 ·11 L«bs lnnov·tlona 600 Mounrain Avenue Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636 www.lucent.com/inferno 1- 8 8 8 - 4 - L u c e n t
We make the things that make communications work:"
W or ld ' s Fastest C PU s
rhe resr appa ra tus wirh an ink d o r. Sub sequ ent resting usuall y identifies approx imately I 0 perc ent of rh e p rocesso rs o n rh e wa fe r as defective.
Step 6: Assemble Separate Dies
A lase r bea m lices thro ugh rhe wafer 's cribe lan es, carv ing ir up into individu al slip s o f s il ico n, o r di es . Each d ie has a single processo r o n ir. Defective dies ger lisca rd ed ; viable processo r d ies mo ve ro a chip ca rri er. Another mac hine co n nects a lumi n um wi res rh ar :irrach t he d ie ro rh e carri e r' s sig na l pin s. Th e carr ier is ·ca led in a n atm os ph ere rhar co nsists o f nitrogen, because this inerr gas can reduce rhe e ffec ts o f ox idati o n withi n rh e chip earne r.
The p roce so rs un de rgo a fi nal ba rrer y o f e lectri c:i l c hec ks th a t is id e nti ca l ro th e pro be rest. ext, the processo rs a re rested ar a va riety of cl ock speeds. Slight va riati o n in th e fabri ca ti o n p rocess ca n subtl y affect th e qu ality of the p rocesso r's interna l w o rk ings. Th is is wh y som e processo rs begin ro malfunction at hi gh er clock fr equcn c ie t ha n ot he rs. Such p rocesso rs work pe rfectl y we ll at lower clock speeds, and arc thus so ld w ith a low er clock rati ng. Processo rs th at fun ction at hi gher fr equenci es a re ·o ld at th e h igh er clo ck ratin g. (This is a l o a w arnin g ro
Final Assembly
Rigorous test ing, using machines and hum an inspect ion, find s defect sin abou t 10 percent of the processors produced at Fab 6.
th ose enterp rising hardwa re h;ickers wh o rarcher up th e clock speed of the ir d esk top computers: th e processo r is probably ope rat ing o ur o f irs wl e ra nccs a nd w ill cause e rrors.)
The o per;itin g cost of such a co mpl ex chi p fo un d ry require th at it o perate con tinu o usly. The entire fa bric:itio n process i :i li ving thing, in th at t he wo rke rs arc always app lying c:i refu l ad just ments ro rh e vario u ma1rn fac turin g o perations
described he re. Th e e ad ju trn enrs help reduce defects, and so improve th e yield o f the numbe r of usa ble processo rs pe r wafe r. T he improv e d yie ld s lowe r the ove ra ll cost o f ma kin g t he processors, which means more a fford:ib le :ind mo re
m po werfu l sy rems fo r tlu: end use r.
Editor 's 1 ore: Theauthorwishes to thank Dig ital Semiconductor's Fab 6 for itsassistance in making thi>article possible.
Tom Th ompso n is a BYTE senior tec/111ical editorat large, a11d has a BSEE degree {ro111 t/Je U11iversityo(Me111phis. 1N. /-/ecan be reached at tom_thompson @bix.com.
Di e le c t r i c Di e le c t r i c
required before the CMOS pair ot1ransistor are fully assembled. Now tha~ the transistors ate made, they must be connected togeth·
er into useful circuits. More processing steps add tungsten plugs that establish electrical connections to.the transistor's sources, gates, and drains. Then fab workers deposit a layer of aluminum on to the wafer, as shown in the figure "Next Step: Aluminum Becomes the First Metal Layer.' Another etching step strips away most of the aluminum, except for specific connections between transistors.
Typically,an insulating diaelectric is placed over the first aluminum lay· er, and then more exposures, metal deposits, and etchings build suc cessive aluminum interconnection layers, as shown in ' Final Assembly: The various layers of aluminum wire all the transistors together into adders, multipliers, bus interfaces, inslruction decoder, and other log' ic units that make up the processor.
SO N A 1 2 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
0296898 $24.95
0239940-XX $59.95 Hardcover/Counts as 2
0433003 $45.00 Hardcove r
0464618 $49.50 Counts as 2
0514879 $34.95
0576173 $30.00 Hardcover
0203466-XX $45.00 Hardcover/Counts as 2
8820812 $29.95
8820901
8821495-XX $29 .95 Counts as 2
9117864 $45.00 Hardcover
882138X $32.95 912190X-XX $65.00 Hardcover/Counts as 2
9119549 $39.95
5870339 $40.00 Hardcover
-E.
0305617 $55.00
8821231 $34.95
9120628 $39.95
9120989-XX $69.95 Hardcover/Counts as 2
8821428 $29.95
As a member ot the Computer Professionals' Book Society.·· you'll
enjoy receiving Socie!Y bulletins every 3
4 weeks containing exciting offers on the
Jatest books in tile field at savings of up to
SO°A. off of regular publishers' prices. rr
you want the Main Selection, do nothing and it will be shipped automatically. If you want another book, o~ no book at all, sim
ply return the reply form.to us by the date specified. You'll have at least 1'0 days to
decide. If you ever receive a book you
don't want due to late _delivery of the bul·
letin, you can return it at our expense. Plus you'll be eligible for FREE books through our Bonus Book Program. Your only obllg·
alion Is to purchase 3 more books during
I~\! next 2 years, after which you may
cancel your membership at any time.
II you select a book thaf counl8 es 2 ctiolces, write the booR number in,one box end XX In the next. All books are soiteover unless otherwise noted. Publishers' prices shpwn. A shipping/han dling charge and sales tax will be added to all orders .
II coupon Is missing, wrtte to:
Computer Professionals' Book Society A Division of The McGrew-Hiii Companies
P.O. BOX549
Blad<liek, OH 43004-9918
5872757 $49.99
0055602 $50.00
0633010 $60.00
9121101 $44.95
r---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------, Computer
Professionals'
A Division of The McGraw-Hi// Companies
Book Society
P.O. Box 549, Blacklick, OH 43004-9918
DYES! Rush me the books indicated below for just $4.95 (plus shipping/handling & sales tax) . Enroll me as a
member of the Computer Professionals' Book Society according to the terms outlined in this ad. If not satisfied, I may return the books within 10 days for a full refund and my membership will be cancelled. I agree to purchase , just 3 more selections at regular Society prices during the next 2 years and may resign anytime therafter.
Code f's ol my books lor $4.95
II you order a book that counts as 2 choices. write the book number In one box end XX In th e next.
a a a a a BILL ME (FREE book not available with th is payment option.) Charge my: MC Am.Exp. VISA Discover
a Check or Money Order enclosed made payable to : The McGraw·Hlll Companies
SPECIAL OFFER1 Prepay you order by check, money order, or credit card and receive a 6th book FREE.
0 YESI I wa nt the FREE BOOK indicated to the right. my Introductory payment ol $4.95
CODE I ot my FREE BOOK
plus $4.95 S&H and applicable sales lax is enclosed.
, l·· '··,
Address/Apt.# - -- - -- - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - - -- - -- --
City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ __ __ _ ,State - -- -- - - - -- -
Zip _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ ~.Phon e _ __ __ _ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ __ _~
Otfei vaJkt Sor new members only, sub~ 10 accep1anco by CPBS. U.S. orders are shipped 4rh Class Book Posl. Canada must remi1 in U.S. funds drawn on
U.S. banks. Applicants outslde the U.S. and Canada wUJ receive spocinl ordering Instructions. A shlpptnglhancmog charge & sales tax wtll bo addod to on
orders. 0 1996 CPBS
~ "B'Phone: l ·61 4·759-3666 (B:30 om kl 5:00 pm EST Monday-Friday) ·
Fax: l ·614·759.3749 (24 hQurs a day, 7 days a week) BYP297C
----------------------------------------------------------- - - ---- - ---------------------~
CTI
Matures
The "integration" component ofCTI
still isn't easy, but there's more help than ever
for getting computers and telephones
to work together efficiently.
omputers and te lephones a re n vo fundame ntall y dif fe re nt rechnol ogies, yer rhey hav e som erhing in com mo n : When th ey work togeth e r, we work mo re effi cie nrl )' in applicatio ns that hinge o n cusrorner se rvice a nd timely information. Unfortunately, integ rating comp urers and relephones can seem abo ur as easy as herding butrerfli es. For rhi s reaso n, so me comp ani es are o nl y beginning to take ad va ntage of computer telephony integ ratio n (CTI). Trad itio n all y, call-center operators have benefited mosr from mergi ng co m puters and telep ho nes. H oweve r, CTI also makes po sibl e fax back sys te ms, interact ive voice-response imp lementatio ns, and a numbe r of specialized ve rri ca l app licatio ns. Fo rrun a tely, th e ha rdwa re, so frwarc , a nd integratio n rcc h niqu es fo r CTI a rc maturin g. For exa mp le, special-purpose add in boa rd s ler you add PBX se rvi ces inside a fl se rve r. The co n so lidari o n of ca ll-switching and netwo rk-serve r functions makes the im ple mentario n and maintenance of CTI app licatio ns easi er. In so me cases, in cludin g large-sca le call ce nters, you may need a m o re e laborate arch itec tur e with a sta nd-a lone CT I se rver co nn ected to a PB X a nd a database o n a mainframe o r di stributed across a nu mber of ervers. Mo re marnre hardware a nd connec ti o n sta nd ards he lp th ese imp lementati o ns, too. We asked a vet e ran CTI systems integ rato r to o urlin e th e bas ic components of a CTI implementation and ex plain how to make th e ri ghr choic es. His reporr, "CTI, Piece by Piece," begins o n page 85 . Once you have rhe hardware in place, yo u' ll need to deve lop end -use r applicatio ns. Depe ndin g o n the programming rnl enrs of your dcvelo prm:nt tea m and th e projecr's deadline, procedural languages, grap hi cal applicarions-deve lop rm:nt e nviro nm ents, relephony components, and visua l-progra mmin g too ls shou ld g ive yo u th e powe r yo u need . "Tools for Te lephon y Ap ps," o n page 9 1, describes wh ere eac h of these a lre rn atives shin es o r run s o ur of steam . We also as ked n,vo developers of CTI sysrems-one who cho e to prog ram in C+ + ;the ot her who used visual-pro gra mmin g rools-ro tell us how rh ey made their develop ment dec isio ns. Their perspectives can he lp yo u foc us yo ur c ho ices when it's ri me ro develop yo ur CTI applicario n. With new har !wa re and a wea lrh of developmenr tools, CTI is eas ier, bur srill o ne of rh e rrickiesr integra ri o n tasks we face. At leasr rhe butterflies are now flutt erin g in th e same clirecrion.
- Alan Joch
82 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Today
Traditional telephone
l
CTI, Piece by
Piece ... 85
Stitching together a basic CTI system is still tricky. Here's help around the rough spots.
Closer Ties
Traditional telephones, with caller ID, are still an essential component of computer telephony integration (CTI), but a new class of telephone/computers that include the Java
en run-time environment will be launched in
applications this year.
Public telephone networks aren't the only platforms for communications. The Internet will
en play a larger role in if the new generation of
smart phones becomes widely used.
Telephone-switching functions between PBXes and LAN servers are becoming more tightly integrated. In some cases, companies can centralize both functions within a single server.
Coming Soon
en applications are becoming
more varied, ranging from large scale call centers to interactive voice-response implementations, fax-back services, and systems that use e-mail to send data to customers across the Internet. A wide range of development tools now support these efforts.
Smart Telephone
Tools for Telephony Apps ... 91
There's a telephony development tool for almost any need or skill level.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 83
MORE DEVELOPERS PROTECT.
~~~:.~~~~~~~. -~,_. . .-.·~.~lMPROORTEECTS tBuetcill~imzionolgong2ya5,f0Hu0lAl-g-ScPautepst,aoc1mk.5s-AmthSeIiCcrmoonstEa2dv..a·.nc,.e'd!>~i_
protection into thesmallest keyin the world.
HNSATSLP SNtou.d1y! Rates . ·· .~)
Arecent test conducted bytl1e National Software
Testing Labs, the world'sforemost independent lab, compared the flag.~hip products of leading software protection vendors.*·11ie result? HASP
was rated tl1eclear overall winner- and number one in all the major comparison categories.
These days, more and more developers are choosing to protect their software against
piracy.They're protecting more products, on more platfo1ms,with better protection - and sellingmore as a result.
And more of these developers are protecting with HASP Why? Because HASP offers more security, more reliability and more features than anyother product on the market.
NSTL TEST RESULTS, OCTOBER 1995t HASP supports the most advanced platforms, including all Windows 32/16-bit
Scori ng Category Securi ty Ease of Learni ng
Aladdin HASP
9.3 9.1
Rainbow Sentinel
6.3 7.1
environments, OS/2, DOS, Mac, Power Mac, NEC, UNIX and LANs.
To learn more about how you can protect better - and sell more - call now to
order your HASP Developer's Kit.
Ease of Use
8.3
7.2
Versatility/Reatures 10
8.7
Grow With Aladdin!
Comp atibili ty
6.7
6.5
Speed of API Calls 0.9
1.2
Final Score
8.5
6.5
·for a full ~)'of the N!>l l n.1>0rt. 0011tact your loc~ l lASPdistrihutor.
The fastest growing company in the industry, with over4 mil lion keyssold to 20 thousand developers worldwide, Aladdin issetting the standard for software security today.
North America lnt'I Office
Aladdin Aladdin
Knowledge Knowledge
Systems Systems
Inc. Ltd.
Tel: Tel:
(800) 223 4277, 212-564 5678. Fax: +972-3-636 2222, Fax: +972-3-537
5271926-5.6E4-m33a7i7l:.'E"~·"mJla.ils:alhc:lsS@Jla.kSsa.bro@m us.aks.com
Circle 130 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 131).
n 1aID I 1-800-223-4277
www.aks.com
:6
~~
I~
Gennany
FAST Software Security AG Tel: + 9 8') S<) 42 21-37, F:tx: +49 8') h'9 · 2 21-40, E-mail: info@fast·ag.de
United Klngdom Aladdin Knowledge Systems UK Ltd. Tel: +44 1753-622266. Fax: +·14 1753-622262, E-mail:salcs@aldn.oo.uk
..
Japan Benelux
The Professional 's Choice
Aladdin Japan Co., Ud. lei: +81426-6o 7191. fax: +81426-6o 7194. E-mail:salcs@aladdin.co.jp
Aladdin Software Security Benelux B.v. Tei : +3 124-64 19m , F<Lx: +3 124-645 1981, E-mail: 100526.nSii """m'"""""oom
· Aladdin Russla OOS 9230588 · Australia Ct'.nab 03989856e:i · Orile Mo~ 02 7'350J41 · Dina Sharrj\11LR 0216"311828 · Czech Allas01 i'ti6065 · 0etrnartt BereRl:SB'I039577Jl6 · ~ ~02 J«l.1632 · FH.lOO D Systnls 08703520 · France I A0859885 · Greece lhbailOl 6756320 · HongK.ooglfastrvs02~ · tn0a ~o1121~8254 · r,atr P¥tnetOa:a02251 4738C · Korea Dae-A02~6':481 · Miexlc:o SiSott52087472 · Ntw l ealand Trarn:nv 04$66014 1 Poland Systr1C<m001480273 · Portugal Ftf.1Jfrm.tial 014 11 G2G9 · Roman!a Ro ln:eractrto 064 140283 I Sin98P01'e OR 065 ~788 1 South Alrica Ule Rou1 011 ~ii}: 1 Spaln PC IQ11hv.lre 03 4493193 1 Switzerland °"39 061 71fi9?21 a Taiwan Toco 02 5~9676 I Turkey J.~~obeta 0312 .:6706J,5 · Yugoslavia A.sys 021 6?3920
o~ ~.~~ 1 1:1 l\llr,.1~ n'!Q1'A'iP'a a~~ct~ r.~S,-,wr1;11:1A.10h'ltJ01.drQ!l!:Swtnorrnn1nlNtrn«M l.'l'lfm. lr.'.J1: &r-.t1« tr;tQC·11'~01J«kCVNO'1c. , UXtli.rmk8':» MSn~m1~tt~llr,~1n.:16n~-~<!lllf
Stitching together a basic CTI system is still
tricky. Here 's help around the rough spots. ByJohn Si/ling
CTI, Piece by Piece
f yo u hea r computer tele phony integrati o n (CTI) and killer applicatio n in th e same se nte nce, yo u ' ll probabl y think of call centers. The ability to have an incoming ph one ca ll and an associated data fil e arri ve almost simultan eously at someone's desk can improve customer service. And if you implement the system correctl y, it also can reduce communica ti o ns costs for your company. H owever, call centers are only the tip of the CTI iceberg. The mergi ng of com puters and communicatio ns means you can fa,x fo llow-up in fo rmati on to a cus to mer, schedul e call -back times, se nd sa les quo tes via the Interne t, and transfe r ca ll s- vo ice co nnectio n a nd d a ta scree n-to so meone else in yo ur co m pany. CTI also underli es many ingenious ve rti ca l-mark e t a ppli ca tion s, like a health-care system where cardi ac patients can hold a telephone to th eir chests and relay electrocardiogram dara to distant telephony servers (see th e text box " Vi sual Tools to the Rescue" o n page 92). Unfortunatel y, launch ing a CTI imple mentati o n still isn ' t easy. Fo r exampl e, most o f th e savings in communicati o ns costs deri ved fro m CTI can be found at the beginning of th e call, during the call setup. H o weve r, th e se cup a lso is th e point where many companies fa ce th eir fi rst CTI d isa ppointment. A poorl y de sig n ed implem enta ti o n ca n ac tu a ll y increase the time it rakes to answer and process incoming ca lls. Complications arise bccause CTI still requires you to integrate fundamentally di ffere nt types of co mputer a nd co m muni catio ns systems and technologies. Some integration help comes as APis such as Teleph ony Server AP! (TSAPI) , Tele phony API (TAP!), and Java Telephony AP! (JTAl'l) evolve. Also, automatic call dis tributo r (ACD) a nd PBX ve nd o r s a re opening up their system architectures ro development too ls th at suppo rt industry standards. But to ac hieve th e promise of reduced costs and to embrace adva nced
How Phones and Computers Work Together
Oa The PBX/ACD sends the phone call to the appropriate phone set as ···
@ ... which sends a call record to the CTI server. This server acts as a traffic cop to coordinate voice and data communications.
@ The server accesses a CTI
database that contains caller ID Information and the addresses of LAN PCs. This database may reside on the CTI server, on another computer, or on a mainframe.
Ob ··· database Information about the caller travels to the appropriate PC.
The CTI server is typically the linchpin that coordinates sending phone calls and data files to a target desktop.
CTI capabil ities, you need to und erstand th e basic structure of a CTI implementa tion. H erc's an ove rview.
The Basics
The fi rst step in develo ping a bas ic CTI application is to add auto matic number identificati on (AN I) service to incoming calls fro m your telephone company. ANI attac hes call er ID with th e voice call as it's being sent to your AC Do r PBX. Phone co mpanies ty pically charge yo u fo r th e basic AN Iservice, then add an additio nal cost fo r each call. N ore that th e launc h of a CTI proj ect is a great time fo r yo u to review yo ur rel ationship with yo ur tele ph one company. At the least, make sure th at yo urs bill s each ca ll in 15-seco nd inc re me nts. So me custo mers a re still be ing bill ed in 1-minure incre me nts, whi ch adds to the cost of th e CTI appli
cati on and oth er telephone activities. When the call arrivesatyourco mpany,
your AC D o r PBX strips off the ANI data, combines it with an internal phone exten sion, and sends the caller info rm ati on to a CTI server.The CTI server compares the caller ID and phone extensio n with its database to find th e right PC. Next, th e CTI serve r ge nerates a data record and sends it to a customer data base that may reside within the CTI server, o n another compurer at th e same locati on, o r even on a mainframe host system in another geogra phi ca l are a. Thi s data reco rd requests that the customer information associated with th e caller's number goes to a specific PC in th e company-a tele marketing representative's, for example.
CTI servers-the traffic cops that direct vo ice and data to th e rightdesktops-tra diti onall y have been Un ix boxes because
FEBRUAR Y 1997 BYTE 85
CTI, Piece by Piece
of that platform's scalability and relia bility. However, a new generation of Win dows NT servers is gaining ground thanks to econom ical hardware costs and steady incn::ases in the number of CTI app lica tions that are being developed or ported ro that platform. The nex t version of Microsoh 's TAP! may provide better co ordination between Windows NT and TAP! clients (see the text box "Building Bridges with TAP! and TSAPI" below).
You can team a CTI server with an ACD or PBX. In this way, you preserve your investment in existing telecommunica
tion s ha rdware, while adding th e CTI capabilities yo u need. Alternativdy, you can install multifunction servers in place of PBXes, thanks to chips from compa nies such as Dialogic and Mitd that can perform ACD/ PBX-like switching tasks sending incoming calls to an interactive voice-response (JVR) board or to a per son's desktop, for example. You will need to install the proper telephony-interface cards to connect the CTI server to the phone network and to the internal phone system. The CTI server's plug-in boa rds handle such chores as !VR, voice mail, and
fax on demand. Board vendors also are merging switching functions and tele phony capabilities, such as IVR, onto sin gle boards, thereby reducing th e number of add-in boards and integration woes that CTI enginec:rs need to contend with.
Another alternative is to useanACD in lieu of a CTI server. Aspect Telecommu nications, for example, can support CTI functionality directly in its ACD. The ACD acts like a transaction link server, where the ACD system itself takes on the role of the CTI server and provides routing infor mation to a host system. This offers a
Building Bridges with TAPI and TSAPI
Your computer network and your phone net work were not designed to work togeth· er. You can link the two systems at the applica· lion level,butfirst you need a common interface with which to build the applications. The two most significant of these interfaces are Tele· phony API (TAP!) and Telephony Server API (TSAPI). Both perform essentially the same function-they enable the construction of PC based telephony applications that operate inde· pendently of the telephone network. Both are independent of the method of connection direct serial link, add-in board, vo ice server, or switch-to-host link-between computer and phone system. (See the table for a comparison of features.)
They attain that independence by abstract· ing the hardware layer, thus sidestepping the need to write code specific to each proprietary switch (and there are many) while taking advan· tage of each system's unique capabilities. This pleases deve lopers, but it also allows cus· tamers to keep their existing equipment. And both provide a means for extending the speci· fication. Beyond these points, however, each takes a different approach.
TAPI
Microsoft and Intel were the primary develop· ersof the originally client-based TAPI. TAPI 2.0, however, is built into both the Windows NT Server 4.0 and the Windows NT Workstation 4.0, which allows the OS to function as either a telephony client or server. (Windows 95 cur· rently has built-in support for TAPI 1.4 applica· lions, which are compatible with TAPI 2.0.)
In practice, TAPI 2.0 is focused on the desk· top-a PC and a phone. That is, TAPI assumes
the desktop to be one end point of each call. It preserves the ability to do third-party call con· trol (calling from one desktop on behalf of an · other). The specification allows for several tele phony applications to run simultaneously-over either a single or multiple phone lines-on a client or server PC. It provides a means to dis· tinguish different media streams (data, voice, fax) and route calls to the appropriate applica tion or device. Incoming faxes, for example, go to the fax application or machine.
TAP! is part of the Windows Open Services Architecture CWOSA). Like other WOSA ser vices, such as those for printing or display,TAPI has two interfaces.The first is the API for devel· opers writing the software. The second is the service provider interface, which provides a means of connection to a specific device-in TAPl's case, the telephone network. With TAP! 2.0, you can build applications for Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), ISDN, PBX, and IP networks. Want your applica· lions to reach out over the Internet? TAPI can handle that, too. It essentially sees the Internet as just another service provider. OtherTAPIfea· tures include support for Unicode,ActiveX con· trols, and Intel's universal serial bus (USB), a 12-Mbps port that can connect up to 127 devices to a single PC.
Microsoft has announced several planned enhancements for TAP! 2.0. They include a remote-service provider, intended to speed development of client/server telephony appli· cations; remote administrative tools to aid with client/serverconfiguration issues and reports; and Windows Telephony Service extensions for client access. (The company expects these features to appear in the next beta version of Memphis. At about the same time, Windows 95 will gain TAP! 2.0 support.) TAP! is closed :
TAPI vs. TSAPI
Server· or client-based Required serv:er-. ,. Supported OSes .
TAPl2.0
Both Wih.dowsNT Windows NT, Windows 95 1
32-bit support 16-bit support Call-center support High-speed bus support Third-party call support Media stream routing Connection types supported Exte nsi bl e
t/
f/ 2
t/
USB
t/
t/
ISD N, PB X, PSTN, IP
t/
1 Release to coincide with next beta release of Memphis. 2 Application s must be based on Win t6 and be lullyTAPI 1.3-compliant.
3 Because TSAPI uses only the server model, bus support on t he desktop is irrelevant.
v - yos
TSAPI
Server
NetWare
Windows (all),
Unix, Mac,
OS/2
t/
t/
t/ N/A3 t/
PBX, Centrex t/
8 6 BYTE FEBRUARY 199 7
cost- effecti ve way to ge nerate a bas ic
screen-pop en application.
H owever, a transacti o n-link se rver
works only if the en application does not
need a fr ont end to the host system data
base. A CTIserver can program front-end in fo rmation to recti fy sho rtcomings in a host system's database. T his fr om-end service is a benefit if a customer's calling from number is missing fro m the host sys
tem's database or in a cellular operation where the customer may be calling fro m a number of different phon es. A front end CTI se rver database can correct th ese
sho rtcomings in the host system with out your having to rewrite the host sys tem's applicatio n.
In ad dit io n, if yo ur CTI application needs to access a number of host systems to supply the fi rst data screen, preload ing the CTI serve r database will provide a single GUI even if your CTI application connects to a variety o f hosts, such as a 3270, 525 0, or telnet-supporting system.
Anyway yo u look at it, fro nt-end load ing the CTI serve r is a much better alter native than either rewri tin g th e host sys tem's database o r trying to synch ronize
several host systems. Add itionally, you ca n mo dify the fr o nt-e nd database in th e CTI ser ve r wit h si mpl e additions, modificatio ns, and deletio ns as changes to the host system take effect.
What's Inside
Th e processi n g p o we r yo u nee d fo r yo ur CTI server depends on the size of yo ur applicati o n. So me co mpanies can fol fill their serve r needs with inexpensive 486-based systems (see " When C+ + Is Right" on page 93 ). Whatever processor yo u choose, ta ke advantage o f today's
Microsoft controls it,which makes developers of telephony products nervous. Microsoft claims that since many other companies (more than 40) have contributed to the TAPI specifi· cation, it is effectively industry-defined and, therefore,open. However,where independent organizations define and approve other indus· try standards,Microsoft remains the final arbiter ofwhatTAPI is.
TSAPI
Server-based TSAPI,developed by Novell and AT&T,is designed to integrate PBX or Centrex phone systems with Netware networks. The only physical link in the system is between the NetWare file server and the phone network. Applications built with TSAPI havealogical link between the PC and the desktop phone. You can control calls through the applications from either end of the connection or hand off that control to a third party. A servertelephony model also eliminates the need for additional hardware to connect desktop PC to phone. This can save a lot of money in a large organi· zation,but there is atrade-off.Because there's no physical connection between the PC and the phone, TSAPI applications cannot identify different mediastreams as TAPI can.Thus,with TSAPI, you cannot automatically route a fax to a fax application, for example.
The TSAPI specification has wide industry support, especially among PBX and Centrex vendors,virtually all of which offer NetWare driv· ers for their systems.Just as important, TSAPI supports all the major OSes, including Win· dows (all versions), the Mac OS, OS/2, and Unix. This, obviously, appeals to companies building cross-platform t.elephony applications.
TAPI, the Mediator
Phone senices TAPI provides hooks into applications
and communications systems. Unlike Microsoft with TAPI, Novell and AT&T have handed over the TSAPI specification to the European Computer Manufacturers Asso· ciation (ECMA), which developed the Com· puter-SupportedTelecommunication Applica· tions (CSTA) standard on which TSAPI is based. ECMA is currently working on Phase II of the CSTA specification,due to roll out some
time this spring.Slated improvements to TSAPI include access to voice services, so that you can perform all functions ofyour phone system (e.g., play or record a message) from within a TSAPI application . Phase II will also allow TSAPI applications to transfer data with calls, so that, for example, help-desk personnel can take information from a customer and transfer that data and customer to another person. In addition, Novell is working with Sun Microsys· terns to support its initiative for JTAPI, the API for building Java-based telephony applications.
Pros and Cons
TAPI is by far the more popular interface fortele phony applications. For many companies, its tight integration with Windows is a plus, but more important is the fact that.both client and server components come bundled with the OS. Novell charges $26,995 for a 250-seat TSAPI implementation (including a NetWare run-time module) . For businesses with NT-based net· works, TAPI is a no·brainer for a server-based telephony model.It also makes sense for small companiesthat tend to use adirect connection between the PC and phone.
Thanks to its multiplatform support,TSAPI is bettersuitedformorediverse environments run· ning on a NetWare backbone. And despite its cost,TSAPI actually is cheaper to implement in non-Windows NTenvironments. The alternative there is client-based TAPI 1.3, which requires an add-in board on each PC. Michael Nadeau is a freelance author who writes extensively about communications, the Internet, andstorage technologies. You can contact him at m_nadeau @conknet.com. editors @bix.com.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 87
CTI Pieces
link PCs to Phone Networks
You can connect a PC to a phone system in one of four basic ways. The phone-cen
tric model requires an external adapter or tele
phone that is connected through the PC's ser
ial port. It is easy to configure, but could be
limited in terms of how much information and
control it supports from the PC. In the PC-cen
tric model,the phone line terminates on a card
in the PC or on the motherboard itself. This
model maximizes the information and control
delivered to the PC.
The switch-to-host model establishes a
logical connection via the LAN between the
PC and phone (see the figure on page 85)_
The voice-server model uses ordinary
lines between the server and the PBX or key
system. This model allows the routing of infor
mation to the server via the LAN and then trans
mission over the phone network.
-M.N.
Alternative Connections
lo w cos t s fo r RAM a nd di s k- sto r age capacity, especiall y if the CTI serve r will act as a fr o nt end to a host system. The rule of thumb is to install th e max imum am o unt o f RAM th e syste m can handle and bu y at least a 5-GB ha rd driv e. The last thin g you want is to rake d o wn a CTI server to upgrade RAM and storage capac ity when each is so chea p ro install at the beginning. For reliabili ty, many CTI appli ca ti o ns require a RAID subsyste m o r a redundant CTI serve r that can a utomat-
icall y step in if the prima ry serve r fa ils. Several meth ods are available to con
nect your CTIserver to your ACD o r PBX. So me AC D a nd PBX vend o rs provide a direct co nnection betwee n ACD o r PBX a nd th e CTI se rve r, bur this is typicall y with pro prieta ry syste ms. O thers prefe r th at you connect the AC D o r PBX to th e CTI serve r using a LAN a nd TC P/IP. In either case th e AC D or PBX ve nd o r will suppl y th e interface card to its produ ct. TCP/ IP is beco ming the de facto sta nda rd
Does CTI Pay?
H
ow do you determine if the computer telephony integration (CTI) project you're con·
sidering is cost-effective? The first step is to determine your current call setup ti!'lle.
Here's how we did that calculation from one recent customer.
First we timed how long it took the customer's operators to recite a canned greeting. Typ ically, that greeting took 7 to 10 seconds to say-plenty of time for even a slow network to query a host system and return the proper screen. We then tested the hostsystem's response time and determined that the first data screen to come up during a peak incoming calling hour was an average of four seconds. Not bad, considering this was a call center of about 400 operators, and the host systems were in another state.
Using this example, it would take 24 seconds to set up the call : 8 seconds to greet the customer, 12 seconds to gather the customer's home phone number, and 4 seconds to query the host system for the first data screen. This 24 seconds was the actual setup time of the incoming call and the time that a CTI application must reduce to achieve any return on investment
Using this information, we estimated that. by capturing the customer's automatic num· ber identification (ANI) , and prompting the host system for informatiori"during the time the operator is greeting the customer, we could reduce the setup time of each call by 16 sec onds. We calculated that our customer could take approximately 164 more calls per day before adding more staff (based on the fact that the average call was 7 minutes long and each operator took an average of 55 calls a day).
for connecting PCs to CTIservers a nd CTI se rv e rs to the AC D o r PBX . X.25 was prevalent when terminals ournumbe rd PCs on th e des ktop. Un fo rtunately, se ri al
interfaces between PCs and the en server
still exist, but no o ne should co nsider doing this today.
CTI pro jects o ft en fo rce companies to establish interface and co1111ectivi ry stan dards fo r the way CTI comp onents com municate. This is an area where th e infor matio n systemsa nd telecommunicatio ns depar tments may clash. If your company is like most, you' re using the communi cations stacks provided by th e netwo rk OS (NOS ). H ow eve r, th e connecti vity interface o f th e ACD/ PBX will be limited and may fo rce th e CTI applicatio n to use a n inter face pro tocol that is no t sup ported by th e current informa tio n sys tems' netwo rk plan.
A CTI launch sho uld be a catalyst fo r settin g a compa nywide sta ndard if o ne does no r ex ist. If yo u alread y ha ve not do ne so, this will be th e most costl y part o f th e CTI applicati o n a nd may require you to purchase new hardwa re and soft w a re. Jn additi o n , yo u sho uld design, config ure, a nd de pl oy th e da ta trans port p ro tocol (suc h as TCP/ IP) in con junctio n with your physicalcabling plant. This is no simple task, so plan accordingly. Mista kes and lack ofcommunicati o n a nd understa nding berween the info rmati on systems a nd communicatio ns grou ps, as
BB BYTE FE B R U ARY 1997
STATISTICA (automatically configures iL<elffor Wi11dotl's '!5/NT !long file names, etc. I or 3. 1) · Acomplete data analysis >)Stem with thousands of nn screen customi1;ibfe, prL'Senlation-quality graphs fuU)' integrated with all proce dures · Comprehensive 1Vi11do11·s support, OIE (client and server} , DDE, cus 1omizablcA111o7i'1sk toolhars, pop-up menus · Multiple data-, results-, ;md graph windows wit htlt1!11-gmj1b link' · The largest selection of ~ttisti cs and graphs in a single S)~lem; comprehensive implementations of: Exploratory techniques \\ilh adv.meed brushing; muhi-way tables \\ilh banners (prescntmion-<1u:dity reports) ; . nonpar'Jmctrics; distribmion fitting; multiple regression; gcncr:tl nonlinear esti mation; step\\ise logiVprobit; gencr:tl Ai~COVA/MA~COVA; stl1misc discrimimml anal)'sis; log-linear anal)'sis; confirmmory /explomtory factor anal)'sis; cluster an:tly~is; muhi<limcnsional sc:tling: c:monical correlation; item anal)sis/rclia bility; correspondence anaf!·sis; survival analysis; a large selcuion of time series modeling/forecasting techniques; strucrnr:tl equation modeling with Monte Carlo simulations; and much more · On-line Electro11ic Mmuwl with comprehensive illlroductions to each procedure and examples · ll)l>ertext based Slt1fs Atl11isor expert system · Workbooks with multiple A11tn0/1e11 documents (e.g., graphs, reports) · E.xtensive dat:i managemclll facilities (fast spre'Jtl,heet of unlimllcd capacity with long fonmuas, Dmg-1111tl-Drofl, tlutofill, Au/o-lleailculate, split-screen/variable-speed scrolling, advanced Clipbo:trd su1> po11, DOE links, hot links lo grnphs, rclatiomtl merge, data 1·erification/clemting) · Powerful Slit11.\71Gt li4SIClanguage (profes,ion:tl dcvelopmelll environment) \\idt matrix opcrntions, full gmphics support, and intcrf:ice lo cxtcm:d progr:uns (DI.Ls) · Baich commmtd language and editahle macros, flexible "tum-kc( :utd automation options, cuslOm-dcsignL-<l proced ures cim be added to floating 1111!0 T11sk toolbars · All output displa~·cd in Scrollsheets' (dynamic, customiz:tble, prese111ation-qu;dity t:diles 11'id1 instant 20, 30. and multi ple gmphs) or word processor-style report editor (of unlimited capacity) thm combines text and graphs · Extremely large anali~is designs (e.g., correlation matrices up to 32,000x32,000, 1im.,tlly unlimited A~OVA designs) · Megafile M:mager 11'ith up to 32 ,000 variables (8 Mb) per record · Unlimited size of fil es; extended ("quadruple") precision; unmatched speed · ~:xchangt'S data :md gmphs \\; th other applications 1;a UDE, 01.E, or an C.\1ensive selection of fil e imporVexpot1 faciliti es (incl. ODBC access 10 virtu:tlly all data 'Jascs :u1d mainframe fill-:;) · Hundrecl' of types of graphs, incl . categorized multiple 2D and 3D gr:iphs, ternary 2D/3Dgraphs, mat rix plol,, icons, and unique m11hiv:1riatc (e.g., ~ ll ) gmphs · Facilities to custom-design new gr'Jph types and add them penna nenily to menus or 1oolbars · Un-screen grnph customiz:ltion with adl'anccd clrawing 111ols (e.g., scrolling :md editing of complex objL'Cts in 32x rc:cl zoo m mode), compound (nested) OLE documents, /./11/tiple-Grt1/Jb AutoLllyout Wizard, templates, spL>cial elTccts, icons, page l2you1 control fo r slides and printouts; unm atched speed of gr'Jph redraw · Interactive rotation, perspec tive and cross-sections of 31l displays · Large selection of IOols for gr:iphical cxplor:llion of data: extensive brushing tools \\id1:mim:ttion, fiuing, smoothing, overla1ing, spCClml planes, projections, layered compressions, nmked subsets · Price $995.
Quick STATISTICA (for Windows) · Asubset of S7il1'/.\"/'IGI; compre hensive selection of b:i:;ic statistics and the full :unlytic and prcsentation-qu:dity gr.1phics capahilllics ofSlil11S71("1 · Price $495.
STATISTICA lndustrtal System (requirt-s S1itnS11Ctl or Quick ~7it 11.\71CA) · The largest selection of industrial statistics in a single package; quality control ch:1m (rC'Jl-timc data acquisition options) , process capability an al)~i s, R&I!, sampling pl:u1s, and an e.xtremcl!' comprehensil'e selection of cxperimcnt:tl design (DOE) methods · Flexible tools to customize :utd automate :tll an:tl)= and report' (incl . "tum-kci" system options, and tools to add custom procedure:;) · Price $995.
STATISTICA/lllic (for Macilllosh) · Price $695 (Quick - $395).
Domestic sh/h S12 per product 30-day mont1· ha<k guarJHlL'C.
STATISTICA has received the highest rating In
nrst EVERY comparative review ofstatistics software
In which It was featured, since its release.
R statSoft'
2300 E. 14th St. · Tulsa, OK 74104 · (918) 749-1119 Fax: (9181749·2217 · WEB: http://www.statsoft.com e-mail: info@statsoft.com
Statsoft Lid. (London , UK], ph: +441767/600166, fax: +441767/600144 Statsoft GmbH (Hamburg, Gennany), ph; +49 40/4200347 , lax: +49 40/4911310 Statsoft France (Paris, Franca), ph: +33 01-45-185-999, lax: +33 01-<l!H85·285 StatSolt Polska Sp. z o.o. (Poland), ph; +4812-391120, lax: +4812-391121 StatSoft Italia (Padova, Italy), ph: +38 49-893-3227. lax: +38 49-893-2897 StatSolt Pacific Ply Lid. (Australia), ph; +613 9521 4833, lax: +613 9521 4288
The complele lino of Sla!Sotl products and training/consulting services are available fr Hungary, India, Japan. Koren. Malaysia. Mexico. The Ne1her1ands. New Zealand, Nor\ Please contact your nearest Slatsoft office for the authorized represenlalive nearest y
CTI , Piece by Piece
well as poor project management, can lead to improper specification of tech nologies, which could haunt your CTI application fo r years.
Accuracy Counts
The mai n job of the CTI server is to man age the routing cable information-the ACD or PBX phone extensions and the network LAN and WAN addresses of each PC. le is important that you program a detailed and precise routing table into the CTI database. You need only check and double-check the work of the person who
entered the addressing data. Neverthe less, accurate routing-table input can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the CTIdevelopment and deployment cycle. Errors in rou ting tables can lead to disaster because a single mistake can take down two CTI positions at a time as a phone call and a data screen travel thei r separate ways through your company.
Once all the preceding items have been addressed, your next critical decision will be what CTI software development tools you'll use to create custom applications. If you have unlimited information sys-
rems reso urces and a talented coding team, you may choose Visual Basic, Del phi, PowerBui lder, C, or C+ +. Or yo u may choose ca nn ed development GUI tools (see "Tools for Telephony Apps"on page 91).
Before you start any GUI development effort, yo u sho uld sit down with yo ur operators to get a detailed understand ing of just how incoming calls flow and how the operators interface with cus tomers. This may sound basic, but we've been involved in a number of CTI fixes where thousands of dollars were spent on the best equipment onl y to have the CTI proj ect fai l because no one asked th e operators how the calls flowed once they answered the phone.
Plan for the Future
Once you've established the fundamen tal building blocks of a CTI appl ication, customer-service improvements and cost savings can be just one more app lication away. For example, we recently expanded
We couldn't beat these reviews if we'd written them ourselves! (We didn't!)
·11 you need a high-speed, easily configured and combined to garner the highest overall score and
expandable system at a good price, the DTK APRI- to outpace the field in two of the five applications
31M system is an excellent value.·
tests. It finished...a close second in the remaining
-Windows NT Magazine, Feb. 1997 three individual tests." "The DTK APAl·31M/P200
' The APRl's all·SCSI peripherals, AMI BIOS, is a price/performance leader, and an excellent
Intel 440FX chipset and proprietary motherboard value...·
- Computer Res~ller News, 9/2196
Now, DTK's APRl-32 has DUAL Pentium®Pro processors!
The ultimate system for workstations and DTK has combined the most advanced tech
servers, it's DTK's new APRl-32, with dual lntelz nologywith sensible pricing. It doesn't take aWall
Pentium&Pro 200MHz processors and an inte Street analyst to recognize that the APRl-32isa
grated Wide SCSI controller!The power of the wise choice!
new Windows~ NT Workstation ver. 4.0(shipped
with the APRl-32) and DTK's newdual proces
sorsystem makean idealnetworking combination.
Your new APRl-32 canbe
custom-configured with up to
384MB ofEDO DRAM and a
3D or 2D PCIgraphicscard.
And, wit h the Seagate
PENTIUM.PRO Wide SCSI hard drive with 2,
0 0
0
.,"
··· ·
4 or 9 gigabyte capacity(2GB
is standard), theAPRl-32 is an unbeatable work
station/server system.
All DTK systems are FCC-certified and UL
Listed. Technical support from our network
savvy specialists is free .
APRl-32
· DUAL Intel 200MHz Pentium" Pro processors w/256KB internal cache
· Up to 384MB EDO RAM on board
· 3COM Network Card · AMI Flash BIOS · 6X SCSI CD-ROM drive · 2GB/4GB/9GB SCSl-2 or Wide
SCSI Seagate Hard Drive · PCI 64-bit Graphics Accelerator
with 2MB or 4MBRAM · 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Drive · MS Mouse and MS Keyboard · MS Windows NT Workstation v. 4.0
"· 2-Yr. Ltd . Warranty (On Site Option) 1
U- DTK Computer
Nationwide (800)289-2385 · -w.dtkcomputer.com
The Intel lnsJde Logo and Pentium a1e regis1ered tradema1ks and the Pentium Pro Processor Logo is a lril1emark of lnlel Corporation. The OTK
monl1or logo Is a registered trademark or OTK Computer Inc. All other product names and company nam6 used nereln are lor klenulicat!On
purposes only and are the prol)trty of lhe1r respeclive owners. C 1997 OTK Compuler Inc.
WHERE TO FIND
Aspect Telecommunications Corp.
San Jose, CA (800)541-7799 (408) 325-2200
fax: (408) 325·2260 http://www.aspcct .com
Dialogic Corp.
Parsippany, NJ (201) 993-3000
fax: (201) 993-3093 http://www.dialogic .com
Microsoft Corp.
Redmond, WA
(800) 426-9400 (206) 882-8080 fax: (206) 936-7329 http://www.microsoft .com
MitelCorp.
Kanata, Ontario,
Canada (613) 592-2122 fax: (613) 592-4784 h t t p ://www.m i tet.com
Novell, Inc.
Orem, UT
(801) 222-6000 fax: (800) 668-5329 http://www.novcll.com
a basic CTI application into a system called computer and interactive voice response (CIVR) . CIVR prompts the customer for specific information prior to the opera tor receiving the ca ll. This ca n result in cost savings greater than the traditional CTI application because some callers may not need to speak to a person to get the information they want. If a caller needs a live operator, a simple keypress will cor rectly route the call and ID information.
The best CTI project targe ts present needs while building for the future. Don't fall into the short-vision trap. Ill
john Si/ling is aco11s11ltant fo rcall-center devel opment at Logica, a systems integrator. You can reach him c/o edltors @blx.com.
90 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Circle 222 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 223) .
There's a telephony development tool for almost any need or skill level. By Michael Nadeau
Tools for Telephony Apps
he days of creating telephony applications using the Hayes AT command set are long gone. Today, you have just as many choices of telephony development tools as for any other rype of app lication programming. At the lowest levels, you can use a procedural language such as C to write code that speaks directly to the telephony hardware. Or you can work in a graphical development environment and avoid actual coding altogether. Com ponent software and visual programming tools let you build telephony applications by linking ready-made modules. Choosing the right tool from this mix of approaches, however, isn't always easy. In this article we'll discuss how the major rypes of programming tools fo r CTI com pare. We'll also look at two companies that chose different approaches-low level procedural programming versus visual too lkits-for CTI development.
Block by Block
Inevitably, your choice of development tool will represen t a trade-off between power and ease of use. Writing your soft ware in C, for example, puts you in full control of all the telephony hardware's capabilities but requires a high level of ski ll (see "When C+ + Is Right" on page 93). C is generally the language of choice for OEMs developing applications fo r resale. At the other end of the spectrum, visual programming tools offer drag-and drop application construction but little hardware control (see "Visual Tools to the Rescue" on page 92).
Fort un ate ly, component software offers a middle ground for developing telephony applications. Several compa nies, such as Pronexus, Artisoft, and Tech nically Speaking, sell telephony-specific ActiveX components. Microsoft has tightly integrated ActiveX controls with its Telephony AP! (TAP!) spec. Compo nent software presents a graphical devel opment environment and all ows pro grammers to avoid having to code much
Internet Telephony
RMI
Java application Java applet
JTAPI
Java nm-time environment
0 New generations of computer
telephony systems may use Java Remote
Method Invocation IRMIJ to access
telephony applications on a remote host.
f) The remote server, which 1t1aY support
TSAPI, TAPI, Sun's XLT server, or other telephOllY interfaces, uses the switch·to
host link to communicate requests and
responses lo the lelepho_ny subsystem.
.;
Component-based CTI, with telephony APls like Sun's JTAPI, is easier than writing C code but more robust than drag-and-drop tools.
of an application's internal plumbing. With software components, you can cre ate larger app lications by combining smaller, more specialized programs. T his leav es programmers hav ing to code only those functions unique to their programs, using the component soft ware's native language or a variery of oth er too ls. The benefit of using components can be rapid development with a high lev el of customization.
Component building blocks are becoming widely availab le. Microsoft boasts that over 1000 ActiveX controls are now available. The company recent
ly turned over control of the ActiveX spec to The Open Group (http://www.open group.org), an industry standards-setting consortium. It, in turn, has set up the ActiveX Working Group (http://www .activex .org/), which is entrusted to develop the ActiveX standards. As an open standard, ActiveX should see broad industry support.
Java Telephony
ActiveX has competition on the horizon in the form ofJTAPI, the Java Telephony API proposed by Sun Microsystems, which developed the spec with a handful
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 91
Tools for Telephony Apps
of companies, including Intel, Lucent Technologies, Nortel (Northern Tele com) , and Novell. It is essentiall y a set of reusable telephone call-control objects. Java-based telephony applications will run on any computer with a Java virtual machin e and a ]TAP! telephony subsys te m . Because the y are base d on Java, ]TAP! objects are independent of any operating system and hardware platform and are therefore portable from one plat
form to another (see the figure "Internet Tel ephony " on page 91).
JTAPI defines a set of class lib raries con sisting of a core group of telephony capa bilities and a set of extensions that devel opers can use as needed for individual applications. For example, o ne se t of extensions handles tasks such as call rout ing and setting up conferences among groups of callers.
One of the more promising applica
tions of JTAPI will be a new generation of hybr id phones that combine tradi tional teleph one service with a Web capable device yo u can use for browsing a nd e-mail. Sun says it is developing, along with Nortel, an Internet telecom municati ons device that uses JTAPI to link to other phon es, desktop comput ers, and network computers via the Internet. JTAPI works with other tele phony APls, such as TAP! and Novell's
Visual Tools to the Rescue
Some CTI systems only seem like lifesavers. For thousands of car diac patients, CTI actually is an essential tool for keeping them a~ve. The Paceart Associates transtelephonic electrocardiogram (ECG) and arrhythmia monitoring systems let patients send heart monitor information to their doctors over the telephone by holding tl'le receiver to their chests.
Paceart's add-on to the Paceart System, called CardioVoice, com· bines interactive voice response (IVR), voice mail, fax-on-demand, and outbound messaging into a comprehensive patient support sys t·m. CardioVoice was written in Microsoft Visual Basic and uses Artisoft's (formerly Stylus's) Visu al Voice Pro telephony toolkit and Microsoft Access database. ~sual Voice provides a high-lev el interface to standard telepho· ny and fax features. The toolkit contains custom controls (VBX, QLE Control,and DLL versions) and a graphical Voice Work· bench. Visual Voice supports a variety of telephony equipment, including TAPl-compliant hard ware, multiline voice· response boards, and single-line fax/ modem/voice boards.The devel· opers used assembly language to code the portion of the system that does real-time collection of tlie ECG data.
"Visual Voice gave us a simple yet powerful toolkit to leverage our expertise in Access Basic and develop quickly~ according to Dr. Michael Bergelson, Car dioVoice's chief designer.
CardioVoice has two major components: proprietary CardioVoice Phone clients and an unattended "receiving station " telephony server, which is normally located in the physician's office. The pro· prietary CardioVoice phones (desktop, portable, or cellular) are actu ally pacemaker and ECG transmitters. By attaching special elec trodes to the phone handset and either holding them with both hands or pressing them to their bare chest, patients can easily transmit fre· quency-modulated heartbeat data to a receiving station. The receiv ing station converts the analog data to digital form and transmits the patient's name, phone number, and heart rate to the attending physician's alphanumeric pager. The physician can then dial into the
receiving station and have the patient's ECG plot faxed back to them. The basic Paceart system runs on a Windows PC. Receiving sta·
tions are typically a Pentium-class PC with 16 MB of RAM running Windows 95. The Dialogic Proline/2V telephony card that's used in the system can handle two analog lines simultaneously. The 16-bit Dialogic cards support such features as caller ID, global dial-pulse detection (optional), TAPI, and WAV audio.
The setup generally uses only one or two lines. This allows the developers to deploy the system on an inexpensive Windows 3.11
or Windows 95 PC. For reliabil ity, the designers use redundant phone lines and often connect two telephony servers that work in tandem to minimize downtime if the PC or telephony card fails.
Currently, more than 450 pacemaker and arrhythmia cen· ters are using the Paceart sys tem to monitor about 75,000 patients every day. The system's primary users are people who wear pacemakers and others who are considered at-risk and require intermittent cardiac monitoring. Each patient has a unique voice-mail box that enables patients and physicians to communicate efficiently. Car· dioVoice can also make sched· uled calls to subsets of the patient database to confirm appointments, send medication reminders, and relay test results.
Dr. Jay Erlebacher of Cardi ology Consultants is an enthu siastic user of CardioVoice pri marily because it is convenient for physicians and patients. "In the past we had to rely on a service bureau to distribute the loop recorders to the patients, attend the phone uploads of the data, and deliver the results to us. This whole process would often take sev eral days. With CardioVoice and our own Paceart loop monitors we can be monitoring a patient and receiving results in a day or less without being at the mercy of an unresponsive and expensive ser vice bureau ~ Joe Tartaglia is the vice president of High Caliber Systems (New York City), a developer of custom computer telephony systems. You can reach him at Joe T@HighCaliber.com.
9 2 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Telephony Services AP! (TSAPI), to invoke telephony capabilities.
Drag-and-Drop Apps
Alth ough telep ho ny com ponents are gaining ground, many companies also opt fo r a n application roolkit when deve l o ping intern al telep hony programs . These products are sometimes called application generators, th ough that term is mo re accurately associated with their
text- or fo rms-based predecessors. Appli cation too lkits are highly graphical envi ronments that let you build software by linking telephony fun ctions. These tool ki ts, which often use a flowchart meta phor, let you select common funcrio ns such as "pick up receiver" or "send fax"-that a re represenred as icons or menu choices. You drag and drop these choices into place. No programming skill is required, but yo u d o need to under
sta nd sy ntax a nd logic-how all th e pieces of your appli cation interact .
It is possible to create complete appli cations in this manner. But what happens when some feature o r customization you need can't be done wi th a toolkit? You can ex tend the toolkit's capabilities in a num ber of ways, depending o n the specific pro duct. In most cases, you can incor porate C or Visual Basic routines into the applicati o n that the too lkit creates . In
When C++ Is Right
Dr. Quiz makes house calls. Or more accurately, office visits to Pfizer, Time Inc., Coach Leatherware, and other large compa· nies. The good doctor is actually a custom-built interactive voice response (IVR) system used by Professional Motivation Technolo· gies (PMT), which provides training services. Graduates of the company's program call a special number to take a quiz that rein· forces and measures the caller's understanding of training materials. The responses help managers measure the effectiveness of their instruction efforts and improve their return on their training investment.
Few Tools
JABS Technologies, the system's designer and developer, built Dr. Quiz from the ground up with· out using any of the various CTI toolkits or application generators on the market. "When work on Dr. Quiz began over three years ago, there weren't many tools avail able for the Windows NT plat form,· says Jorge Balmaseda, JABS president. So JABS and codeveloper High Caliber Sys tems, a New York City-based sys tems integrator, wrote the soft
ware using Microsoft Visual c++
4 .2 and Dialogic's software development kit. Microsoft SOL Server 6.5 stores responses and other data.
Multithreaded
Balmaseda says the development environment gave him complete control over system availability, scalability, and extensibility. Windows NT provides a stable platform with sophisticated event-logging and performance monitoring. It allowed JABS to build a multithreaded application as a service that runs in the background whenever the PC is running. (Dr. Quiz runs on a 486/66 PC with 32 MB of RAM and NT Workstation version 4. A Dialogic 121 /B telephony card can handle up to 12 analog lines simultaneously, although the software
was designed to handle at least 10 times that number, according to Balmaseda.)
For high availability, call processing can be manually switched over (locally or remotely) to a standby PC if the primary PC happens to go down. The manual switch-over is accomplished using Nrs Ser vice API. A remote watchdog PC automatically monitors the main system through Nrs remote procedure calls. This standby PC can take over operations if the main system goes down. Line counts can
be increased by increasing tele phony card densities in the PC or by adding more PCs.
One ofthe biggest problems the developers faced when building the system was the lack of multithreading in the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) Open Database Con nectivity (ODBC) classes. The programmers ended up drop· ping MFC in favor of directly using the ODBC API for all data· base access.
Plugging Leaks
Memory leaks that occurred only
after hundreds of calls had been
made also stalled the develop·
ment process. What are Bal
maseda's primary words of wis
dom to those people starting to
develop their own CTI applica
tions? "Test, test, test. And then
test again~
In the end, however, the inter
active voice-response system has saved the company hundreds of
worker hours. When PMT started out four years ago, students
received and returned quizzes by fax, but as business grew, faxing
thousands of tests each month and grading them by hand became
a time· and resource-consuming nightmare. Quizzes now are grad
ed on-the-fly, scores are automatically entered in the database, and
PMT can feed analytical reports back to clients in a matter of hours
instead of weeks.
- Joe Tartaglia
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 93
Tools for Telephony Apps
other cases, customization requires you to use the toolkit's own proprietary scripting language.
There are two basic kinds of toolkits. The classic application toolkit takes a pro prietary approach; to change the code the toolkit produces, you either must know the proprietary language or go back to the drawing board and reconstruct the program. Having a proprietary language can be an advantage because it is designed strictly for telephony applications. Some are similar to more popular languages such as C. Examples of proprietary-lan guage toolkits include MediaSoft Tele com's IVS Builder Pro and Apex Voice Communications's OmniVox. IVS Builder Pro is particularly interesting in that it allows you to generate Unix appli cations using the Windows GUI environ ment. Anyone who has built applications using development software such as PowerBuilder or Gupta will likely be comfortable using this type of toolkit.
The other category of toolkit is often referred to as visual telephony. These products are usually based on a version of Microsoft's Visual Basic (Pronexus's VB Voice 32 uses Visual C+ +) enhanced with telephony-specific extensions. You can modify applications created with visual telephony toolkits by modifying the Visual Basic code it outputs or by using prepackaged routines, or reusable objects, available from a number of ven dors-really just another form of com ponent software. Visual telephony has obvious appeal to any developer already familiar with Visual Basic. Artisoft's Visual Voice (see screen on page 96) and Voysys's VoysAccess are examples of visu al telephony environments.
Easier Still
A new breed of telephony application builder is emerging. These products are actually closer to shrink-wrapped appli cations than to more traditional devel opment environments. You install them much as you would any common Win dows program. Pull-down menus and dialog boxes let you customize the appli cation. Examples include lconics's AJarm WorX+ and Algo Communications's PhoneKits (see screens at right).
These products package basic tele phony functions into a single application. You could use such a package as is, cus tomize the look and feel, or write your own controls and functions. Alarm
AlarmWorX+ lets you build an event-monitoring and notification application by filling in templates.
el Line Button
I
~ Conference
~
!:~·1 Forward
Transfer
Instant Transfer
UnPark
~'ii Monitor )
~ Hold
lLJ
~PlckUp
~
~Release
u:J
With PhoneKits, you can build telephony applications by dragging and dropping icons that represent different phone functions.
WorX + is a Windows-based multimedia alarm-management system that monitors events and notifies, through a Dialogic telephony board, the appropriate people by phone or fax. You modify the program
by filling in templates, clicking on selec tion boxes, typing in dara at prompts, or choosing items from a drop-down list. Early this year, Iconics expects to make available ActiveX controls that provide
94 BYTE FEBR UARY 1997
Tools for Telephony Apps
the individual functions of Alarm
WorX+ in componentized form .
PhoneKits, also Windows-based, is intended primarily for OEMs or VARs. Compaq, for example, used it to create the telephony applications bundled with the Presario 7100 series PCs. The product is essentially a packaging of generic tele phony features. PhoneKits is designed to help OEMs or VARs avoid having to rein vent the wheel when developing their applications; they can instead focus their efforts on value-added features and build ing a unique user interface. Developers must create those features using what Algo calls Phone Object Controls, which are standard DLLs. Last fall, Algo pre viewed another Windows telephony product called Workgroup Attendant. It lets you set up voice menus that allow callers to, for example, connect to the appropriate person to retrieve specific information. Workgroup Attendant lets you build the CTI application by simply dragging devices into an outline.
Testing CTI Apps
Once you've built your CTI application, be prepared for a testing cycle that can be an order ofmagnitude more difficult than testing traditional desktop programs. Here are some things to keep in mind when testing CTI applications:
First, consider an outside service to help you evaluate a system beyond the unit-testing phase. For example, some, like Interactive Quality Services, will
The TAPI Examiner lets you analyze a hardware device
to determine which Visual Voice features it supports.
develop a test suite for you and then flood your application with thousands of calls. The company will then fax you detailed statistics on port availability, response time, failures, and other critical factors. Services like these are great for final inte gration and regression testing. This lev el of stress-testing will also help you find
memory leaks that reveal themselves only after thousands of cycles.
Second, make sure your test environ ment matches your production environ ment. This goes for hardware (comput er and telephony), operating systems, and application software.
Third, use testers with a variety of skill
Killer Apps, Today and Tomorrow
El~ctronic administrative assistants . an.d lnternet)-into a c.ommon in.box. Users
: A new class of products including Wildfire, can reSf)Ond to messages !TIOrE) effiCiently.
from.Wildfire Communications, manage all
aspects of dailytelephone communications. Hybrid PCs/telephones · .
. u·sing speech recognition, these programs The telephone won 't-disappear, but' CTI .. help you ·quickly connect with key contacts applications will begin ·to repl~ce' "dumb"
and increase your overall availability for handsets.These devices wilrgive us Internet
· important communications. During a single .access and let us control inbound and out
call into the system; for example, Wildfire can bound messages using GU ls instead of
screen, route, and announce incoming calls, arcahe key combinations . AT&T, lnfGear,
"voicecdial" outgoing calls, schedule and Nortel, Sun Microsystems, and others have
remind you of action items, and create on announced Internet communications
. the:fly conference calls from any phone.
. Unified messaging
devices, which should ship in the first half of this year and·.sell for ~bout $500.
Single desktop application combines all your Distributed call centers
· messages-voice,fax, e-mail (private network Companies can save money by creating vir
tual call centers that route calls to idle agents all.around the country as if they were in one place: The virtual centers will replace tradi tional centralized call centers with hundreds · of telemarketing agents waiting to take .incoming customer calls.
Merging voice and dat~ networks
Five years from now, communicating via a Web browser and a URL will become more prevalent than making a phone call. Howev
er, if after browsing a Web site you need to
contact a sales representative, you'd only click a button to speak-and see-some.one: This will become possible only when high bandwidth networks that blend voice, video1 and data become common.
96 BYTE FEBRUARY 19 9 7
The Server That HP,
Dell And Compaq
Will Introduce Next.
ECC Memory
Segmented Passive
Backplanes
Up to 4 Pentium Pro systems on one
20-slot backplane
Dual Redundant
Power Supplies
Hot-swappable
--.-~.;;;._--100% Fault Tolerant
css
Fault-Alarm
Monitor
System
Hot-Swap Drive Trays
CSS Powered Cooling System
But Why Wait?
CSS Labs is delivering what the other guys can't.
Because other companies simply offer dual processors in their systems. But P~tfHL!~~~O CSS MaxPRO Series servers feature multiple Pentium Pro Processor power and customized passive backplanes for true computer redundancy. The competition can't say that.
In addition, MaxPRO servers offer 100% fault tolerance, and hot-swappability. Which adds up to zero downtime, another distinction the competition would like to claim.
Let's also not forget how easily MaxPRO servers fit into your network. Thanks to our open architecture, there are no restrictions on network configuration, and MaxPRO servers are certified compatible with today's most popular network operating systems. That's one more statement not
all our competitors can make.
And when you consider that we offer world-class service and support for hardware, software,
and compatibility issues, there's no reason to wait for those other guys to duplicate our servers.
After all, why wait for a copy when you can own the original?
Call CSS Labs at 800-852-2680 to configure your next-generation server.
:·-· . See us at Networks Expo, Boston, Feb.18-20, and at CEBIT, Hanover, Gennany, March 13-19
...
.;; ""'
:;;==
MICROSOFT. IVINDOWSNl cm1PATIBLE
Key Code BYT0297
~....-......-..
~~ Where technology is ahead of its time."'
~~~ 1641 McGa w Ave . · Irv i ne , CA 92614 L ABORATORIES, INC. Phone (714) 852 -8161 ·Fa x (714) 852 -0410
800-852-2680 Interne t : http : // w ww . cs s labs . com
M ax PRO is a lrndomnrk ot CSS Laboratories, Inc . Intel Insi de and Pentium Pro arc tra d emarks of Inte l Corp . All 01her manu f o.clurer, brand or prod uc t nomes oro tr adomarks ot lhoir respective owne r s . C l 997 CSS L abora l orios . Inc . All rights reserved .
C irc le 137 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 138 )
Tools fo r Telephony Apps
APPUCATIONTOOLKITS
EASE4.2 Expert Systems Atlanta, GA (770) 642-7575 fax: (770) 587-5547 http:f/www.EASEy.com/
IVS Builder Pro 2.6
MediaSoft Telecom Montreal, Quebec (514) 731-3838 fax: (514) 731-3833 h t t p ://www.mediasoft.c a /
MasterVox Mastermind Technologies Arlington, VA (703) 276-9300 fax : (703) 276-9301 http://www.mastcrmlnd tech.com/
OmniVox2.0 Apu Voice Communications Shennan Oaks, CA (818) 379-8400 fax: (818) 379-841 O h t t p ://www.apcxvoicc .com/
Show NTel Technically Speaking
WHERE TO FIND
Southborough, MA (508) 229-7777 fax: (508) 229-8777 http://www.tedupk.com/
VISUAL TELEPHONY TOOLKITS
VBVoice32 Pronuus Carp, Ontario, Canada (613) 838-0033 fax : (613) 839-0039 http://www.pronuus.com/
Visual Voice 3.0 Artisoft Tucson. AZ (520) 670-7100 fax : (520) 670-TIOl http://www.artisoft.com
VOSS Parity Software Development Sausalito, CA (415) 332-5656 http://www.paritysw.com/
VoysAccess 1.2 Voysys Fremont, CA (510) 252-1100 http ://www.voysys.com/
COMPONENT SOFTWARE
ActivcX Microsoft Redmond, WA (206) 882-8080 fax: (206) 93-MSFAX http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ ie3/activcx.htm
JTAPI
Sun Microsystems (JavaSoft Division) Mountain View, CA (415)960-1300 http://jovo.sun.com
CTI HARDWARE
Dialogic Parsippany, NJ (201) 993-3000 fax: (201) 993-3093 http://www.dlalogic.com
Wildfire Communications Lexington, MA (617) 674-1500 fax: (617) 674-1501
http://www.wlldfir.c.com"
levels and a vari ety of phone and fax equ ipme nt. N ovice users will alert you to confusing elements of the user interface a nd will ma ke mi stak es yo u never dreamed o f. Together these mixed-skil l gro ups may unc o ve r prob le ms that would oth erwise probably go undetect ed in more for mal tests.
Finall y, watch out fo r those "extra ser vices" on your pho ne lines. Call waiting, ca ll answerin g, and even ca ll e r ID can cause problems w ith your CTI applica tions. M ake sure the li nes you are using are as vani lla as possible.
The good news is th at no marter what kind of deve lopment environment you use, and no matte r w hat degree of p ro grammi ng and testi ng muscl e yo u can d evo te to app licat io n develo pme nt, you' ll likely fi nd th e right tool for ge ner
m ating telephony programs.
Michael Nadeau isa writera11da fonnerBYTE editor who coversco1111111111icatio11s teclmolo gy and the ln tcm et . You ca11 rea ch him at m_nadeau @conknet.com or b y sending e mail to edltors @b lx.com .
.... . \. I
Highlights:'f
· Integrates seamlessly into Windows 95
· Mounts NFS drives from Explorer ar Network Neighborhood
· Supports file and record locking
· Allows central authentication with a single server running PCNFSD for all NFS connectivity
· Prints to NFS or LPD print servers
· Allows login to all systems with asingle login name and password or different
d1ilJst)1if nct
login names for each system
""""lft"d9trttt!f$1P,,
· Allows single-operation logout of all systems 408.366.8933
accessed through Network Neighborhood · Fine tunes performance parameters
http ://www.dist inct.com Fax: 408.366.01 53 E-mail: byte@distinct.com
for each server yau access
Fastfacts: 408.366.2101
lll: 1 1ta'!12m ll illlr. · 1·1 nbn ltcblb{wuf.ri l'!tlia:(.odat'!1~11:"J1.bJ Q.~ W. 'i 1~1:a:izh' kDD1=mll . ft'tl::imll!as:o:1·1·u·1
C ircle 174 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 1 75) .
98 BYTE FEBRUAR Y 1997
Highlights:
· TN3270 Emulation-Models 2.3.4 and 5(for IBM Mainframes)
· 31796 Vector Graphics &3279S3G
· TN5250 (24x80. 27xl 32) (for AS/400)
· VTS2. VT100. VT220. VT320 &VT420 emulation (for DEC and UNIX Systems)
~ Free Evaluation Copy Available at···
· Customizable keyboard layouts. poppads and session profiles
· VBA'" Advanced Scripting Language
d1ilJst)1if nct
· ODE. HLLAPI. EHLLAPI. WinHLLAPI and Visual Basic'M
· Available for Windows 3.11. Windows 95 and Windows NT
408.366.8933
WWW: htt pNwww.disti nct.com
Fax:
408.366.0153
E·mail: bytemag@distincl.com
faslfacts: 408.366.2101
Circle 176 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 177) .
Everything You Need
Now there is a way for to you get everything you need-data protection, increased performance, and a great price.
DPT introduces the RAIDstation3 kit, a new cost-effective RAID kit to secure data and increase performance for entry-level servers, or workstations running important storage-hungry and performance demanding applications like video editing, CAD or electronic pre-press. You get all the features normally found in expensive, high-end RAID subsystems, all for an estimated street price of $1,099 *! Just add your own SCSI disk drives and you're ready for RAID.
You don't need to be a RAID expert to set up your system. With DPT's free RAID installation software, Storage Managerr'. simply answer a few questions, click on the drives you want included in the disk array, and you're in business. Nothing could be easier!
Call us today and ask about our one-time-try-it-you1l-like-it "lntimate Deal" offer on the new RAIDstation3 kit, or ask for the DPT reseller nearest you.
i i.DPT. 1-800-860-4589
Dlstrlbuted ProcoS>lng Technology
·tsrimarcd Htoct price. P:ice doo-5 no t i'1clude d1jir. dm·iJ.
140 Candace Drive, Maitland, FL 32751 ·Tel: 407-830-5522 Fax: 407-260-6690·sales @ dpt.com·http://www.dpt.com
Other outstanding SCSI products from DPT
- ®~CACHEiv @llil'lillITRAIDiv ®".riY.~HEil' RAID KIT
Circle 141 o n Inqu iry C a rd .
_J
13 Graphics Cards for Business
Ha-r ~. w-a r·e ~·. '·. '
Professional-level 2-D graphics cards grow increasingly sophisticated. Most now have low-end 3-D feat ures . By Dorothy Hudson, Jim Kane, andjohn McDonough
f th ere is one system compo nent that makes the speed of the Windows interface bear ab le, it is th e 2-D grap hi cs accelerator card. We all take it for grant ed and expect ve ndors to keep cutting prices, improving pe rform ance, and adding new features such as hardware enhanced video playback and 3-D accel eration. Asa result, today's graphics cards not on ly accelerate Windows app lica tions, they let yo u vi ew video clips and eve n play 3-D games. For mainstrea m professional use, however, it is resolution, co lo r d epth , and stra ight 2-D pe r for man ce that still matter most. Co upl ed with one of the 17- or 21 inch monitors we tested last month (see " Big Screens for Bi g jobs," J a nuar y BYTE) , a new grap hics accelerator can enhance work efficie ncy as well as view ing pleasure by increasing the amount of data you can put on one screen. Besides increased perform ance at high reso lu tion, yo u get enhanced video playback for multimedia a pplications and 3-D game acceleration. H avi ng just tested 13 PC! graphics accelerator cards, we can tell you some thing about the current state of2-D graph ics performance. All our test cards sup port 24-bit colo r at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution or above and with high refresh rates. (This typically requires 4 MB ofcard memory.) With this in common, there is still much to differentiate the boards in terms of the ir video and 3-D capabilities. Some also have special fea tures like TV display and suppo rt fo r multiple moni tors. The best news is that you do n't have
to spend much money these days to get a good card.
In fact, our Best Overall cho ice, th e GrafixSrar 450 from VideoLogic, costs only $149 when loaded up with 4 MB of memory. The GrafixStar 450 and other
BEST
Vldeologic GrafixStar 450 Provided the best 2-D performance of any card we tested-and also had the lowest price ($149 with 4 MB of EDO
DRAM). The card uses S3's 64-bit Virge accelerator chip.
low-cost cards like th e $159 H ercules Dynamite 128 bo th provide excellent 2 D performance. At the oth er end of th e price sp ectrum is th e 8-MB Integrated Micro Solutions (IMS) Twin Turbo I 28P8, which provides 24-bit color at 1600- by 1200-dpi reso lution for $599.
Performance Factors
The biggest factor in graphics card per formance is the acce lerator chip set. In our tests, the best performers use 53 's new Virge chip set, wh ich accounted fo r th e three top 2-D pe rform ance spots. N ot all Virge cards did well: STB's Velocity 3D hung at th e back of th e pack. M atrox 's M ill ennium, a former champ, still do es well with Matrox's MGA-2064\V accel e rato r, a nd Hercule s' Dyn amite 128/ Video took fifth place using anoth er new chip set, Tseng Labs' ET6000. Architt:c rural bus width- as in 64 bits versus 128
bits-appears not to matter. Acard'sgraphics accelerator chip plays
a big part in its performance, but so does the Windows driver software. Driver code most likely acco unts fo r the STB Velocity 3D's slower performance compared to other Virge-based cards. The top-notch perform ers joc key fo r position from month to month as vendors come out with new driver software.
H avi ng more graph ic s m e mory increases capabilities and perfo rmance. The type of memory is important, but less so tha n it used to be. Whereas dual ported VRAM always provided better per forma nce for higher resoluti o ns and color depths than DRAM, there are new er and less ex pensive alternati ves such as extended data o ut (EDO) DRAM, multi bank DRAM (MD RAM), and sy nchron ous DRAM (SD RAM) th at do nearl y as we ll.
3-D and Video Capabilities
The latest graphics cards have o n-board 3-D accelc::rators that mainl y aid gam ing performanc e. W hil e dev e lopmen t of low-end 3-D graphics accelerators has been dri ve n by the computer games mar ket, the ga mes th emselves illustrate how far 3-D grap hics has come. As is happe n ing with multimed ia, 3-D imaging tech niques may eventua lly turn up in main stream app lications.
3-D acce lerario n on the grap hics card helps th e syste m' s CPU turn a mathemat ical model of a 3- D object into a 2-D rep resentation. Quickly shading, app lying texture, and accurately represen ting object d epth affect the speed at which still images are rendered, but these kinds of
100 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
EXPANSION CONNECTOR
Some cards have connectors for adding
things such as a hardware MPEG
decoder. Some connectors are propri
etary, so you should check out the expan
sion options before you buy the card.\
\ \
/ VIDEO MEMORY
/ More memory means higher
/ resolut ion and more colors. It
/
can also mean somewhat better
/
performance. Memory perfor·
mance matters most at the high
resolutions and color depths;
dual·ported memory chips such
as VRAM or Window RAM are
MONITOR INTERFACE I Most graphics adapters provide a single connection to monitors based on the standard D-shell, 15·pin VGA connector. The Matrox cards have a connector for a cable with BNC coupling s for the monitor.
Illustration based on ELSA's Winner 3000-L
GRAPHICS ACCELERATORI This chip (or chip set) does most of the work, providing hardware acceleration for execution of low·level graphics operations. As with CPUs, higher clock speeds and wider data buses improve performance. Newer chip sets ohen include hardware assistance for displaying 3·0 data and video streams.
\ VIDEO BIOS At start·up, your system looks to the video BIOS firmware on this chip for identification and con figuration information. The BIOS provides a known set of low·level graphics interfaces for DOS·based sohware. Windows programs interface through the sohware drivers each vendor provides for its graphics card.
' eus INTERFACE
The main benefit to a system w ith a PC! bus is faster graphics performance. PC! has largely displaced VESA VL and ISA cards, but you can still buy them for older systems.
operations also affect the smoothness of an imated 3-D sequences, particularly at greater resolutions and color depths.
For the games market, Microsoft's Direct3D (D3D) API for Windows 95 promises to be important because it pro vides games developers with a common AP Ithat is mon:: or less independent of any graph ics chip. All the cards we tested were D3D-capable. T he cards that do best on our D3D Tunnel tests, such as the AT! 3D Xpression, the Matrox Mystique, and the Matrox Millennium, are excellent choic es for game-type environments.
Microsoft aJso supports the OpenGL 3-D AP! in Windows 95 and NT. Current boards have some OpenGL hardware acceleration capabilities, but they still have a long way to go compared to high-end 3 D cards. Our testing for OpcnGL showed rhat some of the cards arc faster than oth ers, bur there's not much spread.
If you use video clips in multimedia presentations, you should check out a graphics accelerator with MPEG hardware acce leration. It will speed up and smooth out playback by efficiently compressing and decompressing graphics and sound data. The Matrox and Number Nine adapters, and the Virge VX-equipped adapte rs (STB Systems Velocity 3D, Dia mond Stealth 3D 3000, ELSA America Win ner 3000-L) have integrated video com ponents , and some others have MPEG options or at least software MPEG players.
The cards with hardware MPEG help attain the full-screen playback rate of 30 frames per second, which provides the appearance of full-motion video. While current MPEG hardware decompression is imperfect, overall it's sti ll better than software-based video playback. Current sofrvvare MPEG decoders arc just on the edge, with performance that's perhaps
adequate for short video clips in reference works, such as a CD-ROM encyclopedia. With the availability of TV-tuner daugh tercards on some graphics boards, it seems that the sky 's the limit for viewing video on your PC screen.
While performance is the primary factor to consider when buying a graphics card, bundled software can make a card easier to configure and use. Most of today 's adapters have utilities for installing drivers, changing resolutions on-the-fly, zooming in and panning around rhe desk rop, and even creating virtual desktops larger than the screen.
Contributors Dorothy Hudson, project manager/NSTL
Jim Kane, project manager/NSTL
John McDonough, technical writer/NSTL
DaveRowell, senior technical editor/BYTE
FE BR U A R Y 1 99 7 B YT E 1 0 1
_J
11
G RAp H
c s
Ac c E L E R AT0 R s
he 13 cards we rested in th is Lab Report offer a wide range of capabilities to acce lerate your system into the world of multimedia or high-resolution 2-D CAD ap plications. For our Best Overall ratings, we looked only at th e mai nstream 2-D perfor mance of the cards. Though many of these cards tout 3-D capabilities, our roundup does not include some of rhe best low-end Direct3 Dcards because they
Will Direct3D Conquer All ?
If you follow Internet newsgroups such as comp.graphics.api.opengl, you may have noticed the intense and ongoing debate concerning the relative merits of Microsoft OpenGL. Microsoft Direct3D, and Silicon Graphics' Cosmo OpenGL. The debate, between the principals of the Microsoft OpenGL and SGI Cosmo OpenGL camps but also including other knowledgeable parties, has been intense.
The two Oper:iGL implementations have very different target audiences. Microsoft maintains that its rendition suits all per formance levels, from simple Windows 95 VGA systems to high-performance NT workstations. The software giant offers ven dors several approaches to create optimized OpenGL libraries that yield fairly impres sive performance. SGI, on the other hand, has targeted Windows 95 systems lacking 3-D graphics accelerators in particular, as an adjunct to its Web applications. Cosmo is a software-only solution that SGI believes can surpass software-only Direct30 imple mentations. It is also cross- platform, enabling a greater degree of integration among Web applications based on the Cosmo line of products.
Despite differences in their views on OpenGL's future, both parties agree that OpenGL has multiple advantages over Direct3D, and that Direct3D has no lock on the future of any PC 3-0 market. Despite its high-end history, OpenGL need not sac rifice good performance for rendering
don'tsupport 24-bit color at 1024 by 768 reso lution . Neither does th is report include professional-level 3-D accele ra tors costing $2000 and up. However, we did measure 3-D performance for both th e Direct3D and OpenGL AJ'ls.
With that in mind, we chose Video Logic's GrafixStar 450 as the Best Over all graphics accelerator. The GrafixStar 450 costs on ly $149 (as configured fo r resting with 4 MB of EDO memory). Bet
3 - D AP Is
accuracy. For example, OpenGL implemen tations don't have to provide subpixel accu racy, and OpenGL applications don't have to use it. Like game APls such as Direct3D, OpenGL can obtain high performance by sacrificing details that aren't necessary in a real-time video environment. Programs running under Cosmo OpenGL have provid ed performance similar to that of unaccel erated Direct3D. We can hypothesize that accelerated solutions would also be com parable.
Programmers find OpenGL code easier to write and debug. OpenGL presents a completely abstract environment; the pro grammer can assume that an appropriate screen exists and that OpenGL will make a program's graphics requests fit that screen. Direct3D presents to the program (and pro grammer) all the hardware details; a pro gram must examine them all and fit itself to that set of features. In OpenGL, all opti mizations are in the device driver; any OpenGL program will run on any hardware at any resolution. In OirectJO, you can tune a program to particular screen resolutions, but a particular graphics adapter might not support those resolutions.
OpenGL is not dead in the high-perfor-· mance games arena, and Direct3D is not necessarily the API ofchoice for future pro grammers. What remains to be seen is where each group will take its approach to 3-D graphics and how users will react.
-Steve Platt, managerof electronic publications, NSTL
ter than that, the GrafixStar 450 easily performed the best running NSTI's Imer Mark benchmarks, which measure the 2 D graphics performance yo u' ll get with Windows business app licati o ns.
The GrafixStar 450 is based on the 64 bit S3 Virge accelerator chip found on sev eral other cards in this review. Video Logic credits its fas t performance to its well oprimized graph ics drivers. Though it doesn't use the video-enabled VX version of th e Virge chip , rh e VideoLogic card can smooth video with the addi ti o n of optional hardware-assisted MPEG video via a ScenicJLPB connector (usesS3 's pro p r ietary Scenic Highway bus, a hi gh bandwidth connectio n that increases per formance by keep ing th e video playback stream off the system bus). The Grafix Star 450 also shin es in our features an d usabi lity ratings. Vid eoLogic's Sma rr Tools utility lets yo u configure your dis play, set a virtual desktop, and build yo ur own toolbars.
Next in the Best Overall pecking order, and in lnterMark performance, is ELSA's Winner 3000-L. It sup ports 16 milli on co lors at 1280 by 1024 resolution with an 83-Hz ve rtical refresh rare . The Winner 3000-L gets our highest usabi li ty score because it was easy to install and has a comp lete, well-written user man ual. Given that ELSA designs and mar kets capable 3-D ca rds, it's no surprise tha t th e Winner 3000-L did well in our OpenGL3-D testing. Designed for CAD and desktop publishing professionals, it u ses a n S3 Virge VX 64- bit graphics processor and came loaded up with 8 MB of AANl, which helps to justify its $527 price. The card's 3-D capabi lities accel erated Gouraud shading, texture map ping in 24-bit co lor, and accele rated z buffering. The Winner 3000-L supports the Direct3D, HEIDI (u se d in so m e Autodesk appli cations), and OpenGL 3 D APls.
The H ercules Dynamite 128 has rh e second lowest price (5159) and provides good performance for Windows app li cations. The card uses a 128-bit Tseng Labs ET6000 accelerator chip with 4 MB
102 BYTE FEBRUARY 199 7
LAB RESULTS
GRAPHICS
ACCELERAT0 R
RATINGS
BEST OVERA LL
Videologic CirafixStar 450 There are many affordable 64-bit graphics acce lerators, but few can match the GrafixStar 450's combination of Windows graphics acceleration and low price. Put simply: This is the lowest-priced card we tested and it sti ll has the best performance nu!llbers running NSTL's InterMark benchmark. The GrafixStar 450 uses the 64-bit 53 Virge accelerator chip with a built-in 3-D engine, and (t su pports up to 4 MB of EDO DRAM. It also supports Microsoft's Direct3D AP!. VideoLogic backs the GrafixStar 450 with a five-year warranty and a technical support hotline.
WEIGHTING
Videologic GrafixStar 450 ELSA Winner3000·l Hercules Dynamite 128Mdeo Diamond Stealth 30 3000Xl Matrox Millennium Number Nine Imagine 128 Series 2e ATI 30 Xpression+ PC2TV STB Velocity 30 Matrox Mystique Koutech KW·546 IMS Twin Turbo 128P4 Number Nine Imagine 128 Series 2 IMS Twin Turbo 128P8
PRICE
$149 $527 $159 $299 $499 $349 $219 $299 $229 $259 $399 $499 $599
TECHNOLOGY
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **.** **** ****
IMPLEMENTATION
***** **** **** *** *** *** **** · **** ****
·*·**
'*** **
PERFORMANCE
***** ***** **** **** **** **** *** *** *** **.* **** *** ****
FEATURES
**** **** **** **** **** *** **** **** **** *** ** *** **
USABILITY
**** ***** *** *** ** *** *** **** ***** *** ** *** **
OVERALL RATING
*****
****
****
****
****
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
*****Outstanding ****Very Good ***Good
**Fair
*Poor
of MD RAM. The Dynamite also surprised us with good OpenGL performance, giv en that Hercules doesn't supply acceler ated drivers for OpenGL.
The Diamond Stealth 3D 3000XL gen erated impressive numbers in our Inter Mark and OpenGL tests. The Stealth 3D 3000 pumps it out with 53 's Virge VX accel erator chip and 4 MB of VRAM. Matrox's Mi ll en nium a lso provided good 2-D graphics performance.
Direct3D Performance
If you need a good 2-D accelerator that also kicks on games, the Matrox Mystique ($229) provided the best D3D performance in this roundup. Matrox highlights the 64 bit card's fast frame rates for 3-0 texture mapped games, but the Mystique does well e nough in 2-D applications. Our test card came with 4 MB of synchronous graphics RAM (SGRAM), which is single ported memory with graphics-specific fea tures such as block writes and dual bank
support. Its dual-bank feature opens two pages of memory at the same time, which accelerat es operations such as screen bits, double buffering, 3-D rendering, and video playback. Matrox also offers option al add-ins for hardware MPEG, live video in, NTSC/PAL output, and a TV tuner.
A.TI Technologies' 3D Xpression ($219) and Matrox's pricier Millenn iu m ($499) are also strong 030 accelerators. The more affordable 3D Xpression uses A.Tl's 3D Rage II chip, which ac celerates Microsoft's D3 D API for fast game action. The 30 Xpression can be fitted with add ins such as a TV tuner or a hardware MPEG decoder. With its older graphics chip, the Mi ll enni um didn't score as high as the Mystiq ue in the D3D tests, but the older card uses 8 MB of Window RAM to prove it can move 3-0 frames faster than most cards on the market. With 8 MB ofWRAM, you can work in true color at a high reso 1ution of 1600 by 1200 pixels. Like the Mystique, the Mil lennium has many
optional multimedia add-ins and comes with th e helpful PowerDesk utility for easy in stallation.
UnderOpenGL
OpenGL is becoming the prevalent AP! for professional 3-D applications such as CAD and visualization. Both Windows 95 and NT provide built-in OpenGL support. T here wasn't much spread in our View perf OpenGL test resu lts, but some cards did better than others. The ELSA Winner 3000-L had the top numbers, but the STB Systems Velocity 30 also did well.
The Velocity 3D ($299) uses an 53 Virge VX chip and comes with 4 MB of dual ported EDO VRAM that can be upgraded to 8 MB with a 4-MB DRAM module. We tested an 8-MB Velocity 3D. With its fast 220-MHz DAC, the Velocity 3D can sup port resolutions of up to 1600 by 1200 with respectable refresh rates. This is one of the best cards for NT 4.0 users running OpenGL applications.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 103
_J
High-Res True Color
Many of the cards we tested support resolutions up to 1600 by 1200 pi x els, some with visually comfortable high refresh rates. Integrated Micro Solutions' Twin Turbo 128P8 (shown below; note the array of memory chips) and Matrox's Millennium have the memory (8 MB) and logic to support that high resolution with 24-bit color (for a palette of over 16 mil lion colors).
What's on Tonight?
ATl's 30 Xpression+ PC2TV has both composite video and 5-Video outputs, so you can display software on a large screen TV-a nice demo setup for a confer ence room because you can use the same display for both computer and VCR
sources.To compensate for the lower reso lution on aTV, the card uses antialiasing to keep the image sharp.
With the card's PC2TV feature you can also record computer graphics output to a VCR.This provides an inexpensive and con venient way to distribute multimedia pre sentations and training materials.
For information junkies, the ability to surf TV channels while working at a PC can be invaluable.While you won't see TV tuners as a regular system component any time soon, you can buy expansion cards that pro vide this capability. One that we tested and liked isATI Technologies' ATl-TV, which we tried in conjunction with All's 30 Xpression graphics card.
ATl-TV is an ISA-bus card that connects by ribbon cable to a proprietary connector found on Video Xpression and 30 Xpression graphics cards. The card holds ii TV tuner (it's well shielded), avideo decoder chip, and ateletext decoder chip.The ATl-TV card has external CATV, composite video, and S Video inputs.ATI provides Video Player soft ware on a CD-ROM . This capable program
supplies a varied suite of functions and appears on-screen as a window that you can fully maximize.
With the card and its software, you can zoom in on video and capture images or movie clips to disk. The card can display closed captioning (NTSC), but it can also store the text, so you can scroll through it later. Also, it can read the captions in the background and pop up the TV image when a caption includes keywords you've speci fied. The ATl-TV can scan through all avail able channels and display thumbnails of each program in an array of windows; you click on one to watch in foll-screen mo.de.
You can use the card's video capture fea ture to grab still or moving images from VCRs, camcorders, and laser discs for mul timedia presentations. Your system won't take a performance hit when displaying TV programs because frame rate viewing is achieved with no CPU loading.However,the streaming video capture frame rate will depend on CPU speed, av;iilability of sys tem memory, and hard disk performance.
104 BYT E FEBR UA RY 1997
I
n rating graphics cards, we put strong emphasis on per formance. In this roundup, that emphasis is on the kind of 2-D graphics performance that matters with Windows business and profession al applications. Because hardware accel eration o f 3-D operations is fast becom ing a standard feature on 2-D graphics cards, we also tested 3-D performance. We don't yet factor that performance into
our ratings process because ofDirect3D's debatable worth for business applications and because OpenGL applications are typically high-end. However, you may want a good 2-D card that also works with a program that uses the Direct3D or OpenGL APis, so we provide the results from our 3-D testing.
We ran the NSTL InterMark test suite to measure the mainstream 2-D perfor mance of the cards. The InterMark tests
Viewperf OpenGL 30 Test Results (1024x768x24)
All 30 Xpression+ PC2TV ElSA W'1111er 3000-L STB Velocity 3D
~Sl.OWER
, e zii
Hercules Dynamite 128/Video
VideolorJc CrafixSbr 450 Koutech KW-546 Diamond SteM!h 3D 3000XL
1LS&
Matrox Mileruium
Hmnber lf'11e lmagiie 128 Series 2
MatroxMystique
IMS Twin Tllbo 1281'4
Hmnber Nile lmagiie 128 Series 2e
IMS Twin Tllbo 128P8
FASlll...
loll
kU
Jl1J
ll~
m
:l~J
·~
.UI
J!:l .CDISlO riewstl
DllD
.~!1)
riewstt
{11)
2
4
Microsoft Tunnel Direct3D Test Results
All 3D Xpression+ PCZIV Diamond Stealth 3D JOOOXL ElSA W'rmer 3000-L Hercules Dynanite 128Nldeo IMS Tm Tllbo 1281'4 IMS Tm Tllbo l28P8
164 ~S-LOWElRimlllliiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiii-~~FA:IS~TEBll!::
· 140
!II~
· 64'1480116 · 10141768124
Koutedl KW·~
Matrox Milerilm
Malrox MyslilJie
Hllllber Hine lmaPie 128 Series 2
H1111ber Hine Imagine 128 Series 2e
!Jl.'t
STB Velocity JD
VideolorJc CrafixSlar 450
Frames persecond 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
R~ from the two modes Iha! most boillls cai nn Gouraud shading, specmar lighl'@ts, and texture mapping on.
·Neitflef llS board could COffllllele tbe l!st in 640x480tl6 mplaJ mode.
use images from applications like Corel Draw, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word for Windows, displaying a variety of Win dows-based images ranging from straight text to 2-D and 3-D bar charts to complex full-color drawings. We used the Inter Mark results as the weighted perfor mance portion of our Overall Rating.
We used the OpenGL Performance Characterization committee's Viewperf to test OpenGL performance, which is important for visualization systems, CAD, and advanced image generation. View perf is a freely distributed benchmark with a growing set ofapplication-derived viewing scripts. Viewperf runs the scripts in each data set, or viewset, and measures output in frames per second. Each viewset is rendered in several modes: wireframe, flat surface, smooth surface, and texrnre mapped. A weighted geo metric mean represents how fast the card can render the variety of scenes.
Microsoft's Direct3 D Tunnel tests how well a card with Direct3D drivers performs in a game-like environment. We ran it at four different resolutions com mon for Direct3D systems: 640 by 480 pixels with 256 colors, 640 by 480 with 65,000 colors, 1024 by 768 with 256 col ors, and 1024 by 768 in full color. Not all the boards could run all the tests.
Features and Usability
Our ratings include scores for features and usability. Features we value include high resolution and color depth, high ver tical refresh rates, and utility software. We gave high usability scores for excep tionally clear and complete documenta tion and easy-to-use installation software. A card received a good rating if we deemed the average person could install it without referring to the manual.
Eval11atio11s ;,, this report represe11t the j11dg ment of BITE editors, based on tests co11 d11cted by NSTL, foe., as doc11mented i11 a recent iss11e of their 111011thly PC Digest. To p11rchase a copy ofthe full report, co11tact NSTL at 625 Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, PA 19428; (610) 941-9600; editors@11stl.com. For as11bscriptio11, call (800) 257-9402. BYTE Magazine a11d NSTL are both operating u11its ofThe McGmw-Hill Companies, Inc.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 105
GRAPHICS ACCELERATORS FEATURES
ATI Technolog ies 3D Xpression+ PC2TV
Price as configured (US$) Overall Rating
$219 ***
SPECIFICATIONS
Accelerator chip set
ATIRagell
Graphics BIOS author and version
ATI
Video playback chipor chip set Auto bus sensing
.,,
Standard RAM/as tested/maximum RAM (M B) 2/4/4
RAM type (VRAM/DRAM)/speed (ns)
SDRAM/35
Board height x length (inches)
2.5x 6
Diamond Multimed ia ELSA
Stealth 3D 3000Xl
Winner 3000-L
$299 ****
$527 ****
Hercu l es Dynamite 128Nideo
$159
****
IMS Twin Turbo 128P4
$399
***
S3VirgeVX
Diamond Multimedia V1 .0
.,,S3ViRGEVX
S3VirgeVX ELSA 5.02.00 Integrated
Tseng Labs ET 6000 TwinTurbo 128
Hercules A3J
IMASv. 2107
.,,Integrated
.N,,/A
41414 VRAM/60 6.875 x 4.2
6/6/6
4/4/4
VRAM/50; DRAM/40 MDRAM/10
4. 125 x 6.875
3.75 x 7.25
4/4/4 VRAM/60 5x 5
IMS Twi n Turbo 128P8
$599 ***
Twin Turbo 128 IMSv.2107
.N,,/A
8/8/8 VRAM/60 7.5x g
GRAPHICS CONNECTOR
BNC
Supports multiple adapters
Maximum horizontal frequency Supports DirectDraw (accelerated drivers) Supports Direct3D (accelerated drivers) Supports OpenGL (accelerated drivers)
..1,,2,, 0.6
...1,,,,6,,0
3-D ACCELERATOR FUNCTIONS Interpolated (Gouraud) shading Texture mapping Mipmapping Z·buffering
....,,,,,,,,
....,,,,,,,,
UTILITY SOFTWARE Video mode selection Zoom utility Board diagnostics Adjustable vertical scan Adjustable center screen Windows utility for changing resolution VESA BIOS
.......,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
.,, ....,,,,,,,,
WIN DOWS DRIVERS SUPPORT 16·bit DIB format 32-bit DIB fonnat Transparent bit maps Font caching Supported pixel per inch options Supported DI Bcompression RLE4 RLE 8
........,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
...,,,,,, ..,,,,
JPEG
MONITOR SUPPORT
Digital Multisync Analog Multifrequency Fixed ·frequency
....,,,,,,,,
....,,,,,,,,
.,,
.,,
3...,,,0,,,0
..1,,,,00
.9,6,
.9,6,
....,,,,,,,,
....,,,,,,,,
.,,
...,,,,,,
BI OS
.......,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
..,,,,
.,, .,,
..,,,,
.,, .,,
....,,,,,,,,
....,,,,,,,, ....,,,,,,,,
........,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
........,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
.....,,,,,,,,,,
.,,
.,,
.,,
.,,
..,,,,
..,,,,
GRAPHICS MODES SUPPORTED (All NON INTERLACED)
640 x 480 colors/vertical refresh
16.7 million/200
800 x 60 0colors/vertical refresh
16.7million/200
1024 x 768 colors/vertical refresh
16.7 million/120
1152 x 882 colo rs/vertical refresh
16.7 million/100
1280 x 1024 colors/vertical refresh
16.7 million/85
1600 x 1200 colors/vertical refresh
64K/5 8
16.7 million/160 16.7 million/16 0 16.7 million/120 16.7 million/85 16.7 million/85 65K/80
APPLICATION DRIVERS (HIGH EST RESOLUTIONS SUPPORTED)
AutoCA D
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
Microsoft Windows NT
1600 x 1200
1600 x 1200
IBMOS/2Warp
1280 x 1024
1600 x 1200
SCOOpen Systems XWindow
1600 x 1200
N/A
CUSTOMER SUPPORT Warranty length (years)/coverage Toll-free phone Phone On·line address
Inquiry number
5/P, L,F, R N/A (905) 882·2600 http://www.atilech.ca
1064
5/P, L.R (BOO) 468·5846 (408) 325-7000 http://www.diamondmm .com 1066
16.7million/354 16. 7 million/227 16.7million/1 38 16.7 million/10 9 16. 7 million/83 64K/85
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 Optional
3/ P,L,R (800) 272-3572 (408) 935-0350 http://www.elsacom
1067
16. 7 million/120 16. 7 milli on/ 120 16. 7 million/75 NIA 65K/60 NIA
1600 x 1200 1280 x 1024 12BO x 1024 NIA
5/P, L. R (800) 532-0600 (510) 623·6030 http://www .hercules.com 1068
16.7 million/120 16.7 million/120 16.7 million/100 16,7millio n/ 100 16. 7 million/50 65K/75
16.7million/120 16.7 million/120 16. 7 million/100 16.7 mi llion/100 16. 7 million/90 16. 7 million/75
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 N/A
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 N/A
5/P,L, R
5/P, L. R
(888) 467·8282 (888) 467·8282
(408) 369·8282 (408) 369·8282
http://www
http://www
.integratedmicro.com .integratedmicro.com
1069
1070
· BYTEBost
V · yes: NIA· not appr.cablc.
Wa rra nty: P = parts: L= labor: F= fre~ ht to repair center ; R =return to customer.
***** Outstanding **** Very Good
*** Good ** Fair
* Poor
106 BYTE FEBRUA RY 19 9 7
Koutech Systems KW· 546
Matrox Graphics Millenn i um
$259
$499
***
****
Matrox Graphics Mystique
$229
***
Number Nine l ma gl ne128 Series2
$499
***
Tseng Labs ET6000 Tseng Labs 0.16 lntegraled
2.251414.5 MDRAM /36 2.9375 x 7.375
MGA·2064W Matrox Graphics Flash BIOS Integrated
"'41818
WRAM/60 3.75 x 7
MGA·1064SG Matrox Graphics Flash BIOS Integrated
"'41414
SG RAM/70 3.75 x 7
Imagine 128 Series 2
NumberNine 3.02.01 lnlegrated
.....
41414 EDOVRAM/6 0 4.25 x 6.875
Number Nine Imagine 128 Serl es2e
$349
***
STBSystems Veloclty30
$299
***
Vldeologic GralixStar l i l 450
$ 149
*****
Imagine128 Series 2 Number Nine 3.00.04 Integrated
"'41414
EDODRAM /60 4.25 x 6.875
S3VirgeVX STB 1.01 Integrated
"'41818
VRAM and DRAM/60 3.875 x 8.75
S3 Virge S32.3
NIA
.....
21414
EDODRAM/35 4.215B x 6.30
BO
"'
"'
"""'''
"""""""'''''''
..... ..... .....
..... ..... .....
"'
"'II'
16.7 million/90 16.7 million/90 16.7 million/70 N/A 641</60 N/A
""11'' 0 """''' "'
"' """"'''' ""'' "'..... ""''
.....
II'
"'..... "'
651</200 651</200 651</120 651</120 651</110 651</85
"'
110
"""''' """"'''' """"''''
""'' "'II'
.....
"'
"'II'
"'II'
"'
651</200 651</16 0 651</120 651</100 651</75 256160
"'135 "'
"'
""''
""""'''' ""'' "'.....
..... .....
II'
.....
"'II'
16.7 milion/150 16.7 mili on/150 16.7 milion/150 16.7 mili on/150 651</11 8 651</83
"85' """''' "' "' """"'''' ""'' ""II'''
.....
..... .....
"'.....
16.7 million/150 16.7million/1 50 16.7millionl t 50 651</140 651</ 110 256/83
81. 7
"""''' """"'''' ""'' """"'''' """'''
"'
II' II'
II' II' II'
"'II'
16. 7 mill ion/160 16.7 million/147 16.7 million/120 16.7 milli on/85 16.7 million/85 651</80
"'81.9 ""''
".""...'''.
"'..... .""""",.'''''
...I,,,I...' .",.'
II'
.....
.,. .",.'
..... .....
16.7 million/150 16.7 milli on/ 120 65K/ 100 651</90 256175 256/60
1280 x 1024 1280 x 1024 1280 x 1024 N/A
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200
N/A 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 N/A
1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 1600 x 1200 N/A
1600 x 1200 N/A t600 x 1200 NIA
3/ P,L,R NIA (3 10) 699·5340 http://www .koutech.com 1071
3/P, L, R (800)361 -1408 (514) 969-6320 http://www.matrox. comlmga 1072
3/P, L,R (800) 361-1408 (514) 969·6320
http://www.matrox .comlmga 1073
5/ P, L (800) 438·6463 (617) 674·0009 http:llwww.nine.com
1074
5/ P, L (800) 438·6463 (617) 674-0009 http:llwww.nine.com
1075
Li letime/ P, L, R (888) 234·8750 (972) 234-8750 http:l/www.stb.com
1076
5/P, L, F,R (800) 578·5644 (415) 875·0606 http ://www. videologic.com 1on
FEBRUA RY 1997 BYTE 107
Today's graphics tools help you present your arguments and data with polish and professionalism.
Present a Businesslike
ByDavidSeachrist Slide Show
· · ·· e used to call them business gra p h ics programs. People used them primarily to cre ate individual, data-driven
charts. Over rime, these packages shifted their focus to cohesive, multiple-slide presentations organized via outlines and slide sorters. GUls, e pecially Win dows, were an enormous step forward in producing more elaborate and effective graphics, which enhanced and focused spoken presentations.
For the November 1996 BYTE, NSTL tested a group of multimedia authoring tools that allow the integration of video, sound, and Internet links into presenta tions. But most presentations don't re quire that much apparatus, nor the rime needed to create it. Thus, there's a firm place for these mainstream presentarion graphics progra ms : Adobe Persuasion 3.0.2, Corel Presentations 7.0, Software Publishing's Harvard Graphics4.0, Lotus Developm ent's Freelance Graphics 96 Edition for Windows 95, and Microsoft's PowerPoint 95 7.0.
For this review, we chose programs that offer an individual slide-editing en vironment, a slide sorter, an outlining en vironment, extensive charting (including organizational charts), drawing capabil ities, and automated slide-show func tions. We didn't include programs better suited for multimedia applications, such as Astound's (Palo Alto, CA) Astound for Windows, or programs designed for more intensive authoring, such as SFD's (San Bruno, CA) Quovis line.
By the time this review sees print, Adobe, Lotus, and Microsoft will have released new updates. Final versions of
these pac kages were unavailab le when we did our testing, but we discuss what's coming in these new versions.
Using the Software
With presentation graphics now standard in office suites, it's reaching a more di verse group of end users, and thus creat ing a demand for still more features and greater ease of use. Therefore, despite all the bells and whistles in these products, NSTL's test scenario is based on an inter-
Corel Presentations 7.0 This package offers state-of-the-art
features, Internet functions, the
images and graphics tools that made
Corel famous, and usability that's
among the best. And, with a price
tag under $100, it's a bargain, too.
mediate user who only occasionally cre ates and gives short presentations-slide shows that include bulleted text charts, data charts, organizational charts, and clip art.
Some use rs are mo st comfortable working with words to organize their thoughts, while others like to organize the slides with a graphical interface. All five reviewed programs help both types of users by offering a word-based out line view as well as a sl ide-so rter view of a prese ntation. All five sli de-editing environments provide easy access to pro gram commands via scree n icons and menu structures.
Presenting on the Web
The ability to save presentations in Hy pertext Markup Language (HTML) and publish them to rhe Web has considerable potential. All software vendors are scram bling to build in Web compatibility, but there's still plenty of room for improve ment in every program. Harvard Graph ics and Adobe Persuasion rnrrcntl y offer no Web-publishing features.
Corel Presentations, Freelance Graph ics, and PowerPoint 95 all save to HTML files, but none offers a strea mlined meth od of saving to a Web server. Powe rPoint 95 requires an add-in : either th e Power Point Internet Assistant or the Power point Animation Publisher and Player, both offered free o n Microsoft's Web site (http://www.microsoft.com) .
Corel Presentations 7.o
Corel Presentations offers state-of-the art features, Internet functionality, a host of graphics too ls, and usability that's eclipsed on ly slightly by two of the oth er programs. With a price tag under $1 00, Presentations is clearly the bargain of the bunch.
Presentations certainly shows its Cor el heritage with its extra graphics and drawing features (e.g. , the ab ility to in terface directly with T\XIAIN-co mpatible image scann ers), an automatic bit-map tracing feature, the broadest gra phics im porr/export capabilities, and I 0,000 clip art images. Presentations is th e only pro gram of the five that allows pixel editing of bit maps.
Corel performs screen updates faster than any other program in this group, and it's especially impress ive with a com
10 8 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
1 Corel Presentations gives you an I overview of the slide structure and helps
/ you pick out styles and slide types.
I
- - - -- · , Lotus Freelance ' Graphics has the best charting tools of any of these products, present· ing options in a way that makes them fast and easy to choose.
lets you preview slide formats and
designs.
unique Meeting Minder feature com· bines a displayed agenda and a note· taking module for recording meeting minutes.
Adobe Persuasion ' is a complete
package. but its GU I is somewhat behind
the times.
- Windows 95 Slorl Menu. Seuinos · Control Panel - Nelwo1k ... · ldcnlific ahon Section
' Freelance's TeamShow simplifies the process of making a remote pre· sentation over a LAN or via modem .
All these packages offer extensive help in preparing a slide presentation, including style and content templates and wizards, graphics and charting tools, and clip art.
plex Windows Metafile graphic. In print speed, Corel is second only to PowerPoint in returning control to the user.
The templates that come with the pro gram are good, bur there isn't che diversi ty of slide layouts that the other packages offer. Presentacions is the only reseed pro gram chat doesn't allow yo u co pasce in charts and have them take on a cemplace's color scheme automatically.
Presentations lets you break a pie-chart slice into a column chart, which is helpful when you want to show the individual items that make up a slice . The program currently supports chart builds, in which individual chart elements (e.g., the bars in a bar graph) ap pear in successive slides.
Of all che programs tested, Corel Pre
sentations is che mosc Internet-ready. It comes wich HTML saving capabilities out of che box , and it supports HTML frames, which lets you access individual slides from a page that has both che table of contents and the slide.
Adobe Persuasion 3.0.2
Persuasion has been in this market since the late 1980s, bur it's che on ly program here not designed for Win 95. This hurt it in virtually every scoring criterion. For examp le, although Persuasion 's on-line help is quite complece, the help system's context-sensitivity isn't as intuitive as that of produces that are designed specifically forWin95.
Also, unlike the rest of the group, Per
suasion doesn't distribute content outlines, and it doesn't let you browse through clip art previews to find an image. However, it does have floating text and object tool palettes that allow you to edit while the cools remain on-screen, and it supports chart builds.
By the time this review sees print, Ado be shou ld have unwrapped version 4.0, which wi ll still be targeted mainly at peo ple who make presentations on a regular basis. The new version wi ll be the first major upgrade since Adobe acquired Aldus in 1995.
Version 4.0's most significant features are more distribution options, including more Web presentation functions. But in stead of HTML, Adobe will use its own
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 109
So ftw are Lab Rep o rt Prese ntati on Graph ics
portable document formar (.pdf files) for viewing wirh Adobe Acrobat. Persuasion's interface will move closer to that of other Adobe graphics products, such as Photo shop. And even though the new product will support some Win 95 features, such as long fi lenames, it still won't be a 32-bit application.
Lotus Freelance Graphics 96
Freelance Graphics 96 is a major upgrade from version 2.1, which NSTL eva luat ed for BYTE's last report on presentation graphics (in the January 1995 issue). Boosts in charting and collaborative-computing features, as we ll as interface enhance ments, such as live slide thumbnail preview in the outline view, make this a comfort ab le, feature-r ich environment for novice presenters.
The package comes with a wide selec tion of slide layours and backgrounds thar look beauriful when disp layed in 16-bit (64,000 colors) mode. Freelance Graphics offers easy app lication of slide transitions, but you can't preview the effecrs.
NSTL's usability tesrers liked doing live editing with floaring cool paletres, which are used in severa l of these programs, bur they fo und Freelance's Infobox, a floa ti ng property d ialogue, to be the best inrerface of the bunch. Because it's context-sensi
tive, on ly those commands that apply ro
the selected object are available to the user. And because you can airer object and text properties in real rime, you can see changes happen.
Freelance has a nice selection of spe cialized diagramming tools. Yo u can cre ate process and conceprual diagrams with the other programs, but Freelance Graph ics does most of the work for you.
The program a ll ows point-to-point
connection (for rwo remote computers on ly) via either modem or a LAN connec tion, and multipoint capability is planned forrhe next release of the program. A wiz ard-like interface made establishing a pre sentation conference easier rhan with rhe other programs.
Freelance Graphics 96 was a major up grade, and rhe new fearures going into rhe next release aren't spectacular. Freelance Graphics 97 supports HTML frames, and it has a File Save inrerface for saving HTML fi les to a Web server. Uniform reso urce locator (URL) links to Web sites can be ac cessed directly from a presenrario n. Lorus adds 14 new SmarrMasters co the current 120, and Locus Notes users wi ll like the enhanced presentation library and review darabase. The new version continues sup porr fo r rhe elecrronic filing cabiner and now supports Notes 4.0's Team Rev iew feature.
Harvard Graphics 4.0
Harvard Graphics was the versarility win ner in our previous tests, bur it has not kept up with the others o n rhe Inrernet front, and its performance is o nl y slightly above average. In ge nera l, we found Harvard Graphics a little less helpfu l, and its op erations required a few more steps, than rhe ocher programs. On-line help is com plete and we ll designed, but ir lacks a nat ural -language search engine.
Harvard Graphics' templates are quite good, but there an: fewer backgrounds. This is the onl y product that doesn' t al low you to animate bullet items during the bui ld process-for example, co have them bounce onto the screen from the left. Clip art generally has to be ungrouped and the background object made transparent if you want it co take on the background color of the slide, a cumbersome process.
On the plus side, Harvard Graphics comes with Harvard F/ X cools, which al lows special effects, such as shaping text to cu rves and extruding and blending graphical objects. Harvard Graphics was the fastest of the bunch, and background color reproduction in the NSTL quality test fi le was superb. Color text is more impres sive in the other four programs, however.
Microsoft PowerPoint 95 7.0
PowerPoint has been a key p layer in de fin ing and developing presentation graph ics since its first appearance in 1987 as a Macintosh app lication that had no chart ing or outlining capabi lities. But the pro
gram introduced the world ro WYSIWYG
slide formatting and, more important, it promoted rhe concept of combining many slides into a single file as a coherent presen tation. Many of the features and cools that we now take for granted originated with Power Point.
PowerPoint 95 is a busi ness communi cations tool, not just an authoring pack age, and it's useful for meerings of many kinds. It's currently the only program of t his group that all ows mu ltip le remote
users ro view a presentation via a TCP/IP
connectio n with the presenter and audi ence runn ing t he fu ll version of the pro gram . (Unfortunately, the presentat ion conference feature doesn' t work via TCP/ IP if your network also has NetWare IPX drivers insralled.) And although Power Point offers a wizard co set up rhe presen tation conference, users can 't browse for computer names.
The program goes far beyond the oth ers in one area of meeting use . You can display your meeting agenda as a bu lleted list and type minutes directly into Power Point's Meeting Minder. T he program also
PRESENTATION GRAPHICS
BEST OVER ALL
Corel Presentations 7.o An extensive feature set, great graphics cools, and good usabiliry make this a winner.
Corel Presentations7.0 Lotus Freelance Graphics 96 Edition Harvard Graphics 4.0 Adobe Persuasion 3.0.2 Microsoft PowerPoint 95 7.0
RETAIL/UP· GRADE PRICE $95/N/A $355 /$105 $289/$99 $395 /$129 $339/$1 09
TECHNOLOGY
**** **** *** ** ****
IM PLEMENTATION
**** **** *** *** ****
PERFORMANCE
**** *** *** ** ***
EASE OF LEARNING
**** ***** **** *** *****
EASE OF USE
**** ***** **** **** *****
*****Outstanding ****Very Good
*** ** Good
Fair *Poor
N/A = not a pplicable.
OVERALL RATI NG
**** **** ****
*******
110 BYTE FEBRUARY 199 7
Software Lab Repo rt Prese ntat ion Graphics
F E A T U R E S
D.ESIGN AND CONTENT Design and content automation No. slide templates: topics/backgrounds/layouts Edit slides globally/individually No. clip-art images/sound clips/video, animation clips
OUTLINER Import text Outline expand/collapse Number of outline levels Preview slide from outliner
ELECTRONIC PRESENTATIONS Number of transition effects Set transition speed Preview transition effects Presentation rehearsal Bullet building/dimming Chart builds Animate objects
INTERNET FEATURES Open and save to HTM L Save to Internet server Support for HTML frames Create linked table of contents Include transitions Link URLs to slides B rowser p lug-in available Multipoint presentations using TCPllP
CHARTING Number of data-driven chart types Breakout pie/column chart Chart assimilates slide master attributes G raph noncontiguous ranges Sort pie slices Include chart data as table
DRAWING Number of drawing tools (/ shapes) Use shapes with text Manipulate anchor/control points Image control of bit maps Rotate objects to any angle Mirror or flip selected shapes
COLORS/ FILLS Choice of fill patterns, gradations, blend styles G radient text and graphics fill B it-map text and graphics fill
PRINT OPTIONS Print outline Layout, print speaker notes, handouts
FILE MANAGEMENT OLE client, DDE O LE server Set OLE 2.0 Object options Add OLE Controls (OCXes) Preview clip-art symbols Open multiple presentations Automatic file backup File details/descriptions, search Compress show for transport
IMPORT/EXPORT CAPABILITY Number of presentation-import filters Number of text-import filters for outliner Number of data-import filters for charting Number of graphics-import filters
WORKGROUPSUPPORT Automatic routing Revision management Share files between PC and Mac Simultaneous viewing on LAN Lotus Notes support
MISCELLANEOUS Number of undo levels Global search and replace Macro record and playback
Adobe Persuasion
Design only 42/0/ 16 t/ 500 / 139 / 32
RTF t/ 256
16
.9,.7
.,.
t.,/.
97 97 97 97
11
...,,,...
8 Anchor 90° increments t/
t/ Graphics G raphics in background
.,.
t/
t/
.,,
97 7 5
18
1 t/
Corel Presentations
Harvard G r aph i cs
t/ 11 /'12 (213CD) /6 t/ 10,000/ 471 /0
t/ 12/31/15 t/ 500 10 / 0
RTF
.,.ASCII
8
4
53 t/ t/
t/
t/
".,",
t/
t/ Limited
10 t/
t..,,/,.
15 t/ t/
t/ t/ t/
..,,..
G r a p hi c s
..,,..
t/ t/
.t,/.
t/ t/ ti'
.t,/.
3 49
5 29
..,,,,
10 t/ t/
13
.,. .,.Add-on
t/
On LAN 7
.t,/. ..,,..
10
.,. .t,/.
t/ t/ t/ t/
.,.
t/ t/
t/ t/ t/ ti' 2 1 3 13 t/
.,,
10 t/
ti' = yes:97 = planned fornext ve rsion;MO= users can choose to open or edil objects inplace.
Lotus Freelance Microsoft
Graphics
PowerPolnt 95
t/ 30/120/ 12 t/ >700 / 17 / 79
.,.A S C II
.6,.
27
..,,..
.,.
97 97 t/ 97 97 97 97
t/
.,.19/85/24
>1100/137/4
.R,.TF
5 97
....4,,,,....9
.9,.7
Free add-in 97 97 Free add-in Free add-in
.9,,7
t/
10
9
.,.
t..,,/..
..9,,,,7 .,,
9/37
t.,/. .t,/.
t/
.....5,,,,,.,.../22
t/ Graphics
t/ t/
t/ t/
97 t/ t/
.t,i.'
t/ Graphics 97
.,.
t/
.,.
t/ MO
.9,.7
t/ 97 ti' ti'
3
3
1
1
5
3
18
17
.t,/. ..,,..
.,. ...,,,..,
10
.,,
.1,.60
97
FEBR U ARY 1 9 9 7 BY TE 1 11
Software Lab Report Presentation Grap hies
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Freelance
(408) 536-6000
Graphics 96
fax: (408] 537- 6000
$355
http ://www.adobe.com
Lotus Development Corp. Circle 978
Cambridge, MA
on Inquiry Card.
(800) 343- 5414 fax: (617) 693-0968
PowerPoint 95 7.0
http://www.lotus.com $339
Circle 976
Microsoft Corp.
on Inquiry Card.
Redm ond, WA
(206) 882-8080
Harvard Graphics 4.0 fax: (206) 936-7329
$289
http://www.microsoftmm
Software Publishing
Circle 979
Corp .
on Inquiry Card.
San Jose, CA
(800) 336- 8360
Presentations 7 .0
fax: (800) 582-6000 $95
http ://www.spco.com Corel Corp.
Circl e 977
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
on Inquiry Card.
(613) 728-8200
fax: (613) 761-9176
Persuasion 3.0.2
http://www
$395
.wordperfcct.com
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Circle 980
San Jose, CA
on Inquiry Card.
has an Action Items functi on that creates another bulleted list to remind meeting participants of assigned tasks.
Powe rPoint's performance is inconsis tent. It's sluggish at perfo rming certain screen updates, but its print spooler is th e fas test of all the reviewed programs.
With the new PowerPoint 97, Microsoft is mak ing PowerPo int easier to learn and use while meeting the needs of even more types o f use rs. The Office Assistant is an animated progra m guru th at lets you know if you're performing a task inefficientl y and suggests a different method. Experienced use rs ca n turn off the Office Assistant.
Power Point 97's new an d improved orga ni zatio nal tools include a n Expand Slide feat ure that fl o ws bulleted text onto the nex t slide when o ne slide becomes too crowded. Also, sl ide miniarures can no w be displayed in the o utline view. The draw ing too ls are beefed up substantially. Auto Sh a pes include five new fo rms, and th e program connects r.vo AutoSha pes with a line . Move o ne shape, and the line auto maticall y stretches and remai ns connect ed to the other.
In additi o n, t he Meeting Minder has bee n e nh anced to send actio n items to the Microsoft Office scheduling program. Finall y, th e Intern et functi o nali ty, which now req uires add-in p rogra ms, is inte gra ted directly into PowerPoint 97.
Good Tools, Every One
Our tests show th at an inte rm edi ate-level computer user ca n create stunnin g prc: se ntatio ns quickl y an d easil y with an y o f
TEMPLATES
Anatomy of a Template
Creating your first presentation is a daunting task: There are so many choices, and you're
not sure how to proceed. Today's presentation-graphics programs offer considerable assis-, tance, in the form o~.design templates and content outlines. that help you create good-look
ing and effective slide shows.
For the design-challenged user, ready-made templates designed by graphic artists pro
vide a fast jump-start. Prior NSTL evaluations of this type ofsoftware have shown thattesters
0
· prefer programs that ease or eliminate design decisions. Step-by-step dialog boxes and au
tomation tools, along with complete, on-line help, assist the user in making such decisions.
Whether they're using Corel's PerfectExpert, Freelance Graphics' SmartMasters, Harvard
Graphics' Quick Pre~entations, or PowerPoint's
AutoContent Wizard, self-prompting tools give
casual business users a much-needed hand in
making design decisions.
Template files generally have two tiers, or
layers: a background or bottom layer, and a
slide-layout layer. Both layers have an effect
on the text and graphics that appear on the
slide (i.e., topmost) layer. The background lay
er can contain a graduated or colored fill, a
company logo, or other graphics, but its main
function is simply.to repeat whatever is placed
on it on every slide iifthe presentation. The
Corel's content outliner guides you through a presentation.
slide-layout layer determines where to posi
tion blocks of text ;i.ild graphical placeholders on.the slide, as well as what text font, size,
and style attributes to ~se..
For the "idea" side of the presentation-adding the content to the design-help was pre
viously limited to providing some organizational tools, such as an outliner. Now most pro
grams also offer professional help in creating and structuring the content of a presentation
for specific purposes, such as a sales pitch, a budget proposal, a benefits explanation, and so
on. (Sec the sample slide above.) The programs accomplish this feat by including content
outlines for these topics and by using the program's text-placeholder function. Freelance
Graphics and PowerP_oint 95 offer the best selection of content outlines, followed by Harvard
Graphics and Corel Presentations. Adobe Persuasion offers none.
th ese five products. Lo tu s's Freelance Graphics and Microsoft PowerPoint 95 are bette r for novices, while Corel Prese nta tions and Ha rvard Graphics offe r better too ls for those with some graphic-design ex pe rience.
Corel Prese ntatio ns, Lotus Freelance Grap hi cs, and Microsoft PowerPoin t a re all hi ghl y capable programs. These thrt:e competitors have been lea pfrogging o ne a nother 's fea tu re sets for severa l years. Eac h boasts superiority over the ot hers in certain fea ture catego ri es, hut NSTL rates Core l Presentations 7.0 as th e fea rnr es champ io n.
Ha rvard Grap hics a nd Adobe Persua sio n currently lack the Web-publishing fea tures of the other programs. In th e end, the re's nothing in a ny of th ese packages th at would make us suggest that yo u switch fr om o ne to ano ther. But if you ' re a first-
tim e buyer loo king for a presentation grap hics program, Core l Prese ntati o ns' power, usability, and price make itthe pick
of the lot. rn
David Seaclnist has tested all major categories ofge11eral busin ess software at NSTL for 10 years, co11ce11trati11g 011 desktop publishing 1111d graphics. Yn11 can retzch him by sending e mail to dseachrist@prodlgy.com.
Eva/11atio11s in this report represent the j11dgme11t of llYTE editors. /1ased i11 plzrt 011 extensive tests co11d11cted by NSTL, foe., as documented i11 a re ce11t issue of its 111011t/1/y s'oftw:ire Digesr. To p11r c/Jasea cop)·of~lmt report, with NSTI:sow11 eval 1wti()11sand da1<1, contact NSTJ,.at 625 Ridge Pike, Co11s/1oliockq1, PA 1 428; (610) 941-9600 · fax
-o; (610) 94 1- < 0 11 the lntl!met editors a 11stl
.com. Fo r a s11 /Jscriptio11, call (800) 257-~402 . BYTE 111agazi11ea11d NSTL areboth operating units ofThe McGraw- Hi// CompllJzies, file.
112 B YTE FE BRUARY 19 97
JUNE 3-7,
1997
Taiwan's IT exports in 1996 shall reach USS 25 billion, making it the third largest IT producer in the world. Whether it's monitors, notebooks, mainboards, scanners, keyboards, mouse devices, CD-ROM drives or multimedia kits, there's hardly a sector where Taiwan is not a potent force. The future of 3Cs is closel y intertwined with that of Taiwa n.
COMPUTEX TAIPEI is your link lo 1he world's most comprehensive IT sourcing center. COMPUTEX TAIPEI is al so the entire world of Information Technology in microcosm, coming from Asia's technical leader.
To be on-line with the future, plug in COMPUTbX TAIPEI!.
COMPUTEX
TAIPEI
THE I 7TH TAIPEI INT'L COMPUTER SHOW
0
tZD
O.~tu1 i¥n:
Cllluhtenol--1-C-·· (tE1Mj SHsinyl Rd., 5'<. 5, Toiptl, TalwJn, RO.C. let 886-2-725-1111 , Fu: aa&-2·725-131· llltJI: /twww.co1np1l11l1lp1l .org
hl,.i~--(TU) http:/twww.co1np1t11 .co"' .tw
TaljlllWlll~llMIC.whlllMtloolll·
T..,..1tot·1-c.tw(T1CC)
/.Or mmr r.1. li ibi1ion informnlim1, 11lrtut:tllftlt1 cl Cl -:TRA.
··Impact IQ
External ISDN modem
The s mart way to acc ess the Internet
· Designed to connect PC and Macintosh syste ms to ISDN
BR! services · Delivers 200.400 bps
throughput fo r penk performnncc
· Combines IETF CCP amt Stacker LZS dut.n com·
·...
pression ..; t11 l 28K bps . :: · · · ' ' :
Multilink PPP dntn sessions und
high-speed seri rd intcrfnce
· 'l\vo analog ports ullow fax or phone calls during data
sessions · Includes In ternet Passport, a s uite of Internet
son\\ta re including web browsers. e-mail. Intern et
Service Provider (ISP) software a nd Internet telephone
$316.81 CDW72846
llltenu~t connectivity rrquir~,11 act'C8!t 11cn 1ices from an Int ernet acrc.sa prm1ir/11r.
WHY
PAY
8GB tape backup
... Up to 30MB per minute (com pressed) backup speed
RETAIL?
... SGB on single 'l'H·1 tape ... Ca n be used wi th multiple PCs · Includes back up software for Windows, Windows 95 nnd DOS ... Includes free TH.1 cartrid ge
A. 2-year wa r rnnty
CDW'$etts $536.95_ c_DW7-0965 _ _
Forlessr
$547 .31 backpack pd/cd 650MB rewritable
storage and CD·ROM drive ... ..... ........
CDW 70962
$589,03 backpack pd/cd wilh buill·in sound ...
CDW 76712
HARDWARE, SOFTWARE & PERIPHERALS AT DISCOUNT PRICES
NETWOAKINQ PRODUCTS
m:rmJI
lnt1anetWare Upgrades
S·uscr CO . . ..................... 328.53
10.uscr CD .
. .... 579.32
25-uSCf CO ................. . .... 979.32
SO-user CD .. . .................. 1245.68
100-user CO
........ 1869.03
250-user CD . . .......... . ....... 3349.95
lntranetWare
S·USOr CD .
. ... 089.00
iD·uscr CD .
. 1389.96
25·usorCD .
.· 2289.38
SO·usor CO .
.. .. 3284.31
GroupWlse VS.O
5·usor CD .
. . . 487.85
I Q.user CD . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . 959.82
25-user CO .
. ... 2339.69
SO·user CD .
. .. 4556.35
1()().user CD . .
. . 8916.25
M1nageWise V2.1
5-user CD . . ..
.. 539 .40
10.user CD . . 25-user CD.
' ·. 889.86 . ... 1349.8 1
LAN WorkPlace VS .O
Single-user CO ...... . .... . ....... 169.52
10..usor CD .. .. . .. . .. .. ..... . ... t345.99
IOO·user CD . .. . . ............... 4677.48
BackOffice Server V2.0 Vorsk>n upg CO .
Comp upg CO ...·.. Full ver5ion CO 5-dent license. 20·chen1license. . . . . Windows NT Server V4.0
. 689.55 ........ 1589 .10
. 19J9. t4 ... 1179.39
.. 3739.30
Upg + 5-dienl license CO .·. .. .. .. .. 377. 15
Upg + 10-Ctient license CO .......... 499.73
Comp upg - 5-dion1 1icensc CO ...... 378.82
Comp upg + 1G-cliont licoose CD. . . 508.26
Server + 5-cfient license C O
. 746.28
Server · Hkllen1Hconse CD . . ... 1029.76
Slngle-<lient license upg . .
. . 17.19
Single-client license ..
. . . . . , 34.32
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation V4.0
Version upg CO .
. ............ 129.53
Slngle-clienl upg .
. ........ 239.49
Futf version CO .
. . .. . 279..20
Microsoft SOL Server V6.5
Ser..er + 5-dient license CD ......... 1239. 19
Server · 1D-dienl lb:tnsc CD . . . .. 1168.06
Server+ 25-clienl license C O .
. 3534 .84
5-cllont license . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 659 .16
2o-dienl license. . . . . . . .
. 2099 .23
Mlcrosott Systems Mgmt ServerV1..2
SMS Server CO..
. ..... 817 .59
5-cllenl llcense . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 239.46
Microsoft SNA Server V2.11
SNA Server CO .
... 359.59
Slnglo·clicnt licenso..
... . 57 .06
20-cllcnt license pack . . . . . . . .. '. 859 .40
Microsoft Exchange V4.0
S-clicn1 license .
. 311U1 1
20-client license. . . . .
1034.04
Mtcrosoft Exchange Server V4 .0
Sofvor + 5-dienl license CD .
. . . 889.76
Server + 10-client license CO . . . . .. 1219.78
Server + 25-dient license co .
. t 928.12
""
3C900 ElherLink XL PCI 10BT .. .. .. 109.16
3C900 EtherLink XL PCI I OBT 5-oack .. 479.8 1
3C900 Ethemel XL PCI combo .
. 129.85
3C900 Ethemet XL PCI combo 5-pock .. 586.64
3C905 Fas1 Ethe1Unk XL PCI 10/tOOBT 136.95
3'.;00;Fasl B"e<l.ttXLPO 1(}'HXD!~ 806.42
OlflceConnect 8-port hub. . . . . . , , 114.-1 5
·
NETWORKtNG PRODUCTS
OfficeConnect B·pM hub. 1BNC port·.· 147.1 9
5"'8rS!aci< 11 Hub 12-port 10BT
.. 509.66
5""'rStack II Hub 24-port 108T ·..·.. M9.28
5"'8rSlack 11 Hub 12·port 1OOBT . . . 1247.2 1
S14>0rS!ack 11 Hub 48·port 1OOBT . . . 4809.62
S~rS tack II Swl1ch 1000 12·port Ene!1 989..70
SuperS!ack II Swllch 1000 24·port Enel 2498.60
SuperSlack 11 Hub TR 12-port .. . . .. . 1179.92
SuperStack 11 Swllch 2000 TA 12-port . 5349.47
N«KJ · 3Com LAN PC CarcJ? Cati CDW todayl
Altlsoll"
o LANta1t1c VT..
Slartor kit 3.S- + CO . . Add-on kit 3.5" + CO .
. . 249.29 .... . . . . 129 .83
I ·user comp upg C O . , . 10-uSClr comp upg CO .
. ... 56.56 .. 236.56
ModemShare V7.0
1 shared port. unfimitecl users ... . . . . 87 .91 4 shared pons. unlimited users . . . ... 289.24
32 shared ports, unllrniled users . .. . 1569 .25
·+"fl·
AirMetro starter kit . . ... .
. ..... . 386.01
ExpandVieW 4-port . . . . . . · .
. . 99.12
OmniView PS/2 4·port . . · .
. .. . .. 245 .52
OmnNlow 6·port serlol .
. . . . 24 6.66
Porashare 95 PC oxponslon peck . . . 36.20
Parashare 95 starter kit . . . . · .
. 71 .61
BCJCR
IOAT55 ISNEISA Vo 2 serial I parallel .. 46 .63
-·
BOCAHUB-8 fl.port IOBT .
. · 89.71
BOCAHUB-16 Plus 16-port 108T . . ... 225.23
BOCAHUB·24 Plus 24-port ! OST .. . . . 359.53
C1111S111111
CiscoPro CPA201 personal office ISDN . 2J g. 15 C lscoProCPA761 access roulor ISDN .. 479 .58
CiscoPrOCPA766 occoss rouler !SON . . 6 14.74
CisooPro EtherSwilch 12002S-port lOOT . 3415.60
ClscoPro EihorSwi1d1 1600 Slael< sys1em . 3369.64
COMPAQ.
Ne1emgen1 tOBT PCI conlroller .
. . . 99..2 5
NoteUlgent 10/100BTX PCI controUer... 134.·5 NeteUigont 2000 8-port lOBT repealer . . 4n .16
Notemgent 2000 HH>ert 1oaT repeater . 554 .67 Ncdgenl 5000 1(}'100BTX &port sw!:dl . 10 I 8.77 ~50 121 (}' 1 00BTX 12-p:irt......,,,. 31 14.08
PlJ~~~
Dcsl<Dircct 10/100Mbps PCI ...
. . 149.65
DeskOirect 10/ 100Mbps PCI Ii-pack ... 789.83 Je10iroc1 prinl servor 10BT ~temal .. .. 309..33
JetOlrcci pnnl server 100T/8NC internal 355.45
JetDiroct EXPlus print server. exlemal . . 294 .64
JetOirect EXPlusJ prinl sorvor, external. 459.04
lnfel.
EtherExpross PR0/1 O· PCI combo . . 1l4 .0J
~ PACY10+ PCI <XJTtlO 5-pack . 549.34
EtherExpress PRO 100 PCI.
. 129.64
ElherExpress PAO 100 PCI S·pack .... 569..28
Express 1008TX 12·Port sta.ckable hub 1549.82
E;ii:p1oss 100 STX switching hub. . . 31 85.23
Ne1PottExpcess PRO Enot in1oma1 .. . . . 259.02
NetPortExprnss PAO Enot ex1emal . .. . .. 367.14
Qll..JN<svs"
Corrbo EtMrl 6 LAN card . . ... ..... 35.53
Corrt>o Ell1erPCI LAN card
.. .. 66 .12
Corrbo PC/Eth ornot card 1OBT . . ... 92.23
PC Cord LANmodom 100T .
. 287.22
EthorFast 10/ I OOBTX LAN card ..
. . 92 .23
E1horFnst 1008TX 12-port hub . . . .. 1089.03
IJ·"J.!·I 4ili·iij ·[.j ·llI3f
SMC'
ElhorEZ ST 10BT hub . . .
. . 16.ID
ElhorEZ BTC 1oeT hub
118.20
ElhorEZ 16TC 10BT hub . . ElhorEZ lOBT ISA. ·
. .. :144. 12
. ·..· 92.03
ElherEZ 10BT ISA 5-paci< · . · .
. ·. 369 .03
EthorPowor 10BT PCI ·.··. . . ,, . .. . 117.39
ElhorPowor 10/100BTX PCI . . . . .. .. . . 139.0I
TlgorSlack 10BT 12·port hub , . ,. ,., . . 489 .58
TigerStack IOBT 26-port hub · ... . . ·. 858.25
DATA STORAGE
~~~~.
Jumbo J50 350MB TBU Internal . .... , . 45.82
TlOOOE BOOMB TBU eX1emal
159.18
iomega
Z;p drive IOOMB paraUol
.. 119.95
Z-ip drrve 1OOMB SCSI , .. . . .
. .·. 199.95
Oillo Easy 800MB Travan intemaJ . . . . . . 99.95
Oitlo Easy BOOMS Travan axtemaJ . .. . . 149.95
Jez drlvo 1GB internal SCSl-2 .
. . 399.95
Jaz drive 1GB cxlemal SCSl-2 ...... . 499.95
Jaz drive 1GB caruidgo . . . . ..... . .. . 124.95
Dino drlvo 2GB internal . . . . .
149.9S
Ditto drtvo 2GB oxtomal. . . . . ...... 199.95
0 1110 drivo 2GB cartridge ,.. .
. ... . 19.95
SONY.
SDT·5200 OOS-2 DAT Internal. . . . . . . . 676 .90
SOT·SOOO OOS-2 OAT lnlemal. ... . · . . 995. 41 SOT-5000 ODS.2 DAT oX1emal . . . . . 1199.37 SDT·7000 DDS.2 DAT in1emal. .....·. 926.30
4ls,,cMd"
EZ135 135MB IDE internal EZ135 135MB external .· . EZ1 35 135MB cartridge... . . . . EZflyor 230MB SCSI external . EZFtyer 230MB external EZFtyor 230MB cartridge .
·!1!5Wlj ·it.
.. 11 0.23 . .... 119.21
19.99 . 289.47
... 289 .· 7 . . ?9 .39
ADS Cadot AM/FM stereo data rocelver , 66. 15
ADS TV Superscan 2 PC to TV converter 219 .t l
Connoclix OuickGam lor Windows . ....... 97.39
Connectix Color Ouickcam '°'Windows 219.91
EXP BX CD w/game pen PCMCIA . . . 3n.51
EXP BX CD w/sourd mod\Jte PCMCIA.. 491.8-1
MicrosoMions 4X CO pa raHel ... . ..... 219 .67
Microsolutions 6X CD w/sound parallel · 357 .76
Microsolutlons BX CO parallel . . .. . .... 219.09
NEC 4Xc 4X CD 7-disc changer extemal. 354.&0
NEC 6XI 6X CO internal . . . . .. . .... . .. 239.81
NEC BXI BX CO internal SCSl·2 . ... . ... 227. t7
NEC axo ax co exiemal SCSl·2 . . ... 308.75
Panasonic portable 4X CD SCSI . ... . . 299.00
Sony portable 4X CO Olscman· ...... . 299 .Ba
ax SunMoonS lar CO Internal IDE/ATAPI 135.2.a
SunMoonSlar BX CO partnblc . . .
1 1q1 e1 .1; 1u3 +
. 269 .83
Alps Oosktcp Glide?oint . . . . . .... H .h
Alps GlkiePotnt Windows 95 keyboard ... 95..51
cal:aTp Cln>oW"Q Sla<e noo wpr.,ssue pm.. 195.,.
aix:nl>Dr;w.t"gstlr!l 12"12"""""""'pm. 21 9.41
Epson PhotoPC dig taJ camera ... ... . . . 399.00
Epson AcUonScannlig Sys1em II .. . . . . 376.41
Epson ES1000C co~or scanner . . . · 584 .61
Epson ES1200C Pro color scanner . 1 138~56
H9YOOll Packard ScanJel 4s . .
. . 198.4 1
Howloll Packard ScanJel 4p .
. ... 499.90
Howloll Packard Scan.Jet 4c ..
, 857.90
Ko<tak OC20 Digital Science Camera .. . 199.00
Kodak DC25 Dlgilal Science Camera . .. 499.00
Kodak OCSO Digital Science Camera. .. 199.00
INPUT DEVICES
LOQiloch MouseMan 96 . , . , .
. .. .. 55.51
Logitoc:h Cordless MouseMan 96 .
. . 5 1..22
Logitoth SurtMan 1n1eme1con1rot!er .··. 84.58
LOlji1ech TrackMan Marble.... .. · . .·.. 14.78
Logitoch PageScan Co&ot Pro scanoer.. 307.76
Miao1ek PageWiz compact scanner . . 91. 17
Microtok ScanMaker E3 color llalbed .,. 309.28
Microlek ScanMaXer E6 std. color ftalbod 5~ . 72
M icrotek ScanMaker 351 Plus , .. , . , , . 729 .66
Play Snappy vkSeo still cap1uro . . . . . . 195.97
Umax PageOtfice Color scanner .. , , .. 23 9.88
Umax Vista·S6E scanner . ...... , ... , 289 .93
Umax VLSta ·S12 scanner .. . ...·.. , .. 709.2 1
Visioneer PaperPort VK scanner . . .... 277.2 1
Vlsiooeer PaperPort Ix scanner . . , .... 289.92
Mag lnnovision OX1595 PnP 15' .28mm 34 9.28 Mag lnnovision DX1795 PnP f f .2&nm 629.55 Mag lnnovlsion DX15T 15' .26mm . . . . 39'.49 Mag lnnovlsion DX1795E 17" .2Bmm..· 529.00 Magnavo· CM2099 14· .28mm ... .. . . 248.14 Magnavo;ii: CM2015 15· .28mm ·· . . . . . 289.87 Magnavo;ii: CM121s 1s· .28mm .... . . . 316.80 Magnavo;ic 1078 11· .28mm........ . . . 574.0 Magnavox 20CM64 20" .31mm .· ....· 849.00 NEC XV 15+ 15' .2Bmm ·.··..·· .. · .. 429.81
NEC XV17+ 1r .2Bmm · · .·· . .. .. ... 759 .~
NEC XE21 21· .28mm . · . . . . . . · · . . . 1705.69 Sony Multlscan 15sx 1s· PnP .25mm . · 369.34 Sony Multiscan 15sfll 15" PnP .25mm .. 429.44 Sony Multiscan 200sf 17" .25mm · . .. .. 747.36 Sony Muttiscan t7sell 1r PnP 2Smm . 929.76 Sooy Mu111scan 20sfll 20· PnP .J0mm · 1559.14 VoewSoolc 1SGS111 15· 21mm ........ 359.07 ViewSonic 17GS 1T 27mm . . . . ... 616 .79 V.awSonic G810 2,- _25mm , . . . . . . . 1417 .89 ViewSonlc P810 21· .25mm .. . , .... 1469 .44 VlewSonk: PB15 21· .2Smm···.. .. .. 1639 .92 VlewSonlc PTB10 2 1· .JOmm .....· . · 16:14 .19
VIDEO BOARDS
ATI 30 Xpression & PC2TV PCI 2MB .. 155 .7 2 ATI Graphics Xpresslon ISA 2MB . .. . .. 95 .87 AT/ Graphics Pro Turbo PCI 2MB , .... 179.13 ATI Video Xpression Plus PCI 2MB .. .. . 90.87 Diamond Stealth 30 2000XL 4MB PCI. . 176.43 Dlamord SpeodStan;4 2200 2MB ISA . . . 94 .84 Mattox MiUennlum PCI 2MB WRAM ... 179.31 Matrox Minennium PCI 4MB WRAM.. .. 249. 15 Matro;ii: Mystique PCI 2MB WAAM . . . .. 167.7 1
·Wi·'·HWJ3·Miffl·fi ·F
infel.
Intel OverOrive OX4175 ............. 139.08
Intel OvcrOrive OX41100 .
. . 179.34
Intel OverOrive Pentium 63MHz . . .. . 138.Ci6
Intel OvorOrlve Pentium 83MHz . .... . . 189.27
nm.oOM!Flrtm1ll'.rl3Miltf.Ub56l5lO . 240.45
lr<ot <M!rOrt."O P<YltUn 125MH.H4'1J lor$5. 249.45
lntnle>.urn.ePerD.m 1~tinJh~ 3 1q 20
..-.J~Pu'tun 166M-tz1..pg b'Y100 . 456.23
3Com Elhertink lllC . . . . .......... 135.U
3Com Elher1ink Ill 28.a Enet 10BT . . . . . 374.05
Hayes EZ.Jack V.34 33 .6 wffax . . .. 206.42
M-Ogahortz Courie< 33 .6 .
259.87
Megahertz 33.6 cel ular .
. . 248.93
Megahertz 33.6 cenular wlXJACK ... 248.93
Moloro&a Montana 33.6 cellular ..... . . 226.29
Simple 33.6 cellular . .
. . .. . 157 .14
Slmplo 33.6 Communicator w/Slmpk).Jack 179 .94
Xlrcom 33.6
.. . 224.96
Xlrcom 33.6 Ethernet 1OBT .
. . 309.52
Xircom 33.6 Ethernet combo . . . ..... 334.50
MACROMEDJA. Director
Multimedia Studio 2
For Windows 95 and NT
WHY
Everything you need to ,,,I create pl'Ofesslonal
' multimedia projects from the ground up
SETTLE
::::~
· Directnr V5.0-Powerful authoring tool for multimedia nnd the Internet · Extreme 3D-~D solution for design and multimedia
FOR
LESS?
Withthe USRobotics BigpicturcTM Vide_o Kit you can hove a true vtdcophonc 0 · in your own home. The Kit's
· Mncromcdin xRes--High resolution image editing and oompositing · ShockwnveTM for Director-Features integration into the
CDW®
pov.·erful color camera and
33.6K bps voice/video fruunodem let you see and speak clearly with people on the
most popular browsers, cross-platfo nn playback, hotlinks and
the other end (other end ofronneclion
more · Sonic Foundry Sound Forge XP-Awanl-winning, general PWJl06C oound editor
SERVICES YOU
must also be camera-equipped to sec called party). Just think of the fun you11 huv<>- you'll finally be a ble to see people you've only known throu~h e-moil.
$458,45 Upgrade,CD
COW66963
CD $888,75 COW66961
BEi IER!TM
Captu re video cli ps or sna p favori te photos into your PC to
create 1m electronic a lbum. Then use the U.S. Robotics 33.6K bps mod em and the software in this kit to send mcmomblo
images to frie nds and family.
CDW"' CARRIES OVER 20,000 PRODUCTS. IF YOU DON'T SEE IT, CALL!
TOSHIBA
noes Satellite a S.telllte Pro NotebooU
51100 SMB B10MB 11.3° dual ...1499.68
110CT 51100 BMB B10MB 11 .3" active .2059.53
ax:cal511001M381!Ml113d.d6XCD , .1939.6'
420CDS511001M3811Ml 113<1.Je16XCD .2149.63
43:XDT511001M31.2f(ll! 113aMl6XCD .2868.39
<CJ'.ll5S'12'.l1EMI 1.a:Jl 113'd.d 1(Jl(CD . .2'49.03
43XDTS'12'.l1EMl1.a:Jl113'a:M1(Jl(CD ..3279.39
~~NJ'.\~~.=a 11 .:r adivo ..3959.01
IUXlJT51150 11Ml 1238113llCM6XCD .4958.73
Tecni Notebooks
500CS 51120 16MB 1.26GB 12.1· dual .2'19.29
!DXDrS'12011M31aGl121"<0.e6XCD ..4166.53
51CX:X:SSll:n11Ml 1.a::B 12.l"dS 1()1(CD . .Je36.17
510CDTSll:n 11Ml2.1Gl 121" Do 1(Jl(CD . .4899.82
T.D'.DT5113311Ml1.1Xll12.1"aM>6XCD . 5289.11
73'.XDT511501IM32GB 12.1" 0...6XCD . .5689 .~
AST
AscenU. Nolobooko
A415112016M8 1G811 .3" cll116X co . .2138.«
M25112016MB1G81 2. 1" d.,6XCO . .2679.22
J2051 100BMBs.oMB 11 .3"dual . ....1174.24
J20511008MB800MB 11 .3" dual .... .1257 .71
J30 51100 SMB BOOMS 10.4" dual ... . .1589.43
J30 51100 BMB BOOMB 10.4" octive ...1695.33
J50 51133 BMB BOOMB 10.4" oc11va .. .1899.00
JSS 51133 16MB 1GB 11 .3 · ac1ive .. .. ·2239.97
P30511008MBBCXMl11.J"!lJal4XCO ..1919.84
P30 &1008MB 1.2GB 11.3' WOl4X CO . .2084 .97
P40 &120 16MB 1GB 11.3' edMl 6X CD ..3028 .70
P40&12016MB2.1GB 11 3 oaillo6X CO .3399.18
P50511338MB800t.tl 113 oaillo4XCO .2999 .74
P50 51133BMB 1.2GB 113 oaillo4X CO .3236 .67
P5051133241JS 1GB 12.1" oct... 6XCO ..3689.92
P5051133241JB 2.1GB 12. 1" oaillo6XCD .3999 .14
~~1~?J~~ 12~~~~1~~i°C'o~.....181 9 .22
9312 51166 24MB2.5GBBXCO . ·. ...19 15.79
9315 51166 32MB 2.SGB BX CO ......1915.79
931B 5/200 32MB JGB BX CO ...... .2199.86
=~~~12~:l tth"i: :xint:i~ ..1359.31
9308 51166 24MB 2.SGB BX CO ...... 1647.54
9314 5/200 24MB 4GB BX CO . . . ... .2009.36
e.....,Desklopo
LC 5 100 51100 SMB 6JOMB . . . . . ..1004 .99
LC 5100 51100 16MB 1.2GB . ....... .1049 .11
LC5133511336MB630MB .
.1189.91
LC 5133 51133 16MB 1.2GB .. ..... . .1258.75
LC 5 166 51166 16MB 1.2GB MS 5100 51100 16MB 1.2GD ..
. . 1579.55
. .1118.99
MS 5100 51100 16MB 2. 1GB .
.1199.93
MS 5133 51133 16MB 1.2GB . ... ..... 1327.11
MS 5133 51133 16MB 2 .1G B ......... 138 9.25
Bravo Mlnl-towora
MS·T510051100 16MB 1.2GB ..
.1174.24
MS·T 5 100 51100 16MB 2. 1GB ...... .1285.01
MS·T 513351133 16MB 1.2GB . . . . 1397.35
MS·T5133 5113316M8 2. 1GB . . . . . . 1509.98
COMPNJ.
Armada Nolebooka
1120 511 00 BMB 810MB 10.4" dual ..·.1499.00
11 20T 51 100 8MB 810MB 10.4. acttvo , . 1999.00
4110 51100 DMD 810MB 11 .3" dual ....2499.00
41100 51100 BMB 810MB 11.3" duel . .2899.00
41 20 51120 18MB 1.0BGB 11.3" dual ...3099.00
4120T 51120 16MB 1.0808 11.8" acUvo J749.00
4130T r..1 133 10MD 1.0000 11 .0" octlve 4"10.00
LTE 5000 Seriu Nolobooka
5200 !:w' 120 BMB 1.35GB 10.4 " actlvo . .4801.37
5250 51120 16MB B10MB 10.4" ac1ivo . .31 99.00
5280 51120 16MB 1.35GB 11.3· active .3899.00
5300 51133 16MB 1.35GB 12. 1· aclivo .4399 .00
5380 5113316M82.16GD 12.1· eclivo .5499.00
~ ~~~·~~~~~ ......1119.00
5100l1200511008MB 1.2GB . . . . . 1119.00
5100/1200 51100 16MB 1.2GB ... . 1229.00
5120l1200511208MB 1.2GB .
. 11 39.00
5120/1200 51120 16MB 1.2GB
.1239.00
51 3311200 51133 16MB L2GB ..·.. 1389.00
5133125005113316MB2.5GB
. . 1549.00
516&1200 51166 16MB 1.2GB . ...... 1639.00
516612500 51166 16MB 2.SGB . . . ... . 1799.00
5200/2500 5/200 32MB 2.SGB ...... .2209.00
6181Y1200'CO &180 16MB 1.2GB BX CO .2099.00
6200'2500'CO &200 16MB 2.5GB BX CO .2599.00
COMPUTERS
·'§'=B'i.='
~ ,:n
ThlnkPad No1ebooks
366Ell511008MB54WB 10.4°WOl4XCO .1 578.9 5
365X 51120 BMB B10MB 10.4" ac11va . .2369.14
365X 51133 SMB 1.0BGB 11 .3· dual ...2249.0 8
365X0511008MB B1CMI 10.4" d.B 4X CD . .2009.42
365X0511208MBB1Cf/B 10A"od>le4XCD 2499.0<I
365XO 51120 IM3 11B'.lB 113 a.a 4X CD . .2299.39
365X05113JBMB 11B'.l810A"d.e4XCD .2999.80
365X0511331M! 1:Bl8 11 3 d.e6XCD . .3479.05
560 51100 SMB e10MB 11.3" dual .....2786 .08
560 51120 8MB 810M8 12.1" active ...3745.64
560 51133 SMB 1.08GB 12 .1 " octive . ..4195 .15
760E 511208MB B10MB 12. 1° active ..4459.26
760E 51120 SMB 1.2GB 12 .1· active ...4S114 .59
760E 51133 16MB 1.08GB 12.1" active .5056.50
76:El5113J11Ml 1l!t'll 12.1"d.e4XCD .53.S .59
76:El5113J 11Ml2.1GB 12. 1" act.e6X CO . 5799 .38
760E 51150 16MB 2.1GB 12. 1" ac1ivo . .5714.3 7
760EL 51100 SMB B1ClMB 11 .3" d ual .. .259&.U
70CElll51100IM!81CJ.fl 12.1° act.e4XCD .4615.23
760EL 51120 8MB B10MB 11 .3' dual ...2609 .17
760EL 51120 SMB 1.08GB 12.1· activo .4389.50
760EL 51133 16Mll1.08GB 12. 1" adivo .4499.112
Apliva Series Desklops
C32 51133 16MB 1.2GB 6X C D .......1497.13
C33 51133 16MB 1.6GB ex C D ...... .1699.74
C65 51166 16MB 2GB BX CD ... .... .1957.48
C73 5/200 16MB 2.SGB ex CD ... ... .2097.53
564 51166 16MB 2.SGB BX CO ..... .1999.80
566 51166 16MB 3.2GB BX C D ..... . .2099.00
S74 5/200 16MB 2 .SGB BX CD .
.2149 .00
S7B 5/200 32MB 32GB BX C D
...2399.00
PC300 Series Oesklops
PC330 51133 16MB 1.2GB 3 bays ..... 1499. 12
PC340 51100 BMB BSOMB 4 bays . . .999.45
PC340 51100 16MB 1.2GB 4 bays .. . .12 15.04
PC340 51133 16MB 1.2G B 4 bays ·....1340.05
PC350 51100 16MB 1.2GB 5 bays . . .1310.6 1
PC350 51 133 16MB 1.2G8 5 bays . ....1556.4 1
PC350 51133 16MB 1.6GB 5 bays ·... .161 9.06
PC350 51133 1GMB 1.6GB 5 bays 6X CD1799 .92
PC3SO 51166 1GMB 1.6GB 5 bays .....1819.89
NEC
Versa Notebooks
2400 51100 BMB B10MB 11 .3" dual ... .1699.00
=511008MB11B'.l8113d.B6XCD .2199.00
4200 51100 6MB 6 10MB 10.4" actwe ...2499.00
42:Jl&1331M! 1.00GB 10.4° activo6XCO .3199.00
ro:Di 51100 11Ml 1.croe 113 d.e6X CD .3499.00
B01CH5113311Ml 1.croe 113d.e6XCD .3799.00
00Di5113J 11Ml 1:Bl812.1"d.e6XCD . "499.00
llXllX5113311Ml 1.«Gll 12.1°a:M6XCD .4799.00
~ Tuw;
IHSTRUMEl<TS Extensa Notebooks
510C0511008MBB11Ml 113d.B6XCD ..1929.70
570COT511008MB 12G810.4° d.e6XCD .2698.55
8JXD5113JBMB81CMI 12.1" d.B 6XCD .. 1929.70
6'3XDS'13311Ml 1.4GB t2. 1"d.010XCO . .2894 .07
EHXDTS-i33. ttM32.1CE 113d.e 1(tl((l) . 3659.23
;!,~F.HTS
TrtivolMate Notebooka TM6020 51120 8MB UJ6GB 11.3" aaive .3179.09
TM6030 51133 UIMB 1.35GB 12.1" aaive .3655.85
TM0050 51150 16MB 1.35GB 12.,.""""' . .3848.03
[J!J~~
~~~1~~M~.~TBxco . ..1529.75
520 51133 16MB 1.2G B .. . ..... . ..1279.84
520CD 51133 16MB 1.2G B BX CD . .·.1534.6 5
520MC· 51133 16MB 1.2GB BX CD ...1717.86
VOC1nl 525 Seriff Ml n ~1owers
525CD 51166 16MB 1.6GB BX CO . . . .1894.94
525!.ICx 51166 16MB 1.6GB BX CO . . 2094.49
525CD 5/200 16MB 2.SGB BX CD . .. .21 96.3 1
525MC· 5/200 32MB 2.5GB BX CD .. .2584.40
IHITACHJI
E100D 51100 BMB B10MB 11 .3· dulll ..1899.00 E133T 51133 16MB 8 10MB 11.3" dual ..2699.00 M12lJT51120 11Ml 1GB 11.8°oct..4XCD . .3699.00 M1 3JT 51133 UMI 1GB 11 .8° oaillo 6X CO .4399.00
ALPS
MD-201 0 colot prinler . · . · · · . . . · . . .499.00
M0-4000 cOOr printer/scanner .
. .699.00
brother.
HL-720 laser . HL·730 Jasor . ...·· .
.349.81
. ...... .399 .99
MFC- 1950Plus O·ln- 1 MFC-4550 5-ln· 1 ...... . MFC·6550mc 6-ln-1 .. . .
.. .499 .99
.....799 .99
.. .999.99
canon·
BJ-30 monochrome .
. . .265.50
BJC- 70
BJC-24 0 WC-620 . . . . BJC-4100 . .
.297.28
........ .... ..... .179.00
.399.00
. ... . .. .229.00
BJC.4200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .279.00
MultiPASS 800 muttl-lunction . . . .. ... .449.00
MultiPASS C2500 color mulli·funcUon ...599.DO
EPSON"
OFXSOOO+ . . . . . · . . . . . .
. · ...1387.25
FXe70 . . . .
. .289.45
L0870 . . .
. . .439.03
L02070 . .
. . .379 .04
L02 170 .
. . .599.00
l..)(JOO . . . . . . ..
. .165 .41
~~~~ ~ ·200
.... ::m:gg
... ..... .... .:: S1y1uo Color 500
~~ ~~ ~~-:
. . . . . 2 7 9 .0 0
i~~;:gg
== m~~~
HP Desk.Jet 400 printer . · . . . . . . . . . . .17 9.00
~~
~~t;tepritr;:t~I ~~I~~ :: :~~:~
HP Oes"-Jel 820Cse cok:lr printer · . .. ..399.00
HP LoserJel SL Xtra printer . . . . . . . . .399.00
.. HP LaSoOrJot ~,_\,E_rlnler . . . . . · . . . . . . .769.89
~~~~: ~~':;::'Fu~ :::~;:~
Jotprintor 1020 Jotprintcr 2050
~Fr'u~e~~?~ .
Optra E ... . Optra LX+ .. Oplm N .... Optra A+ OptraRn+ Optra Rt+
ML184 Turbo Ml.320 Turbo ML321 Turbo ML395 ML520 . ML521 . ML590 ML591 . . ..
g~~·~ .
OL610o OU! 10o
l.EX.M1\RK
...... 149.74
....... . ... . .......249 .83
. .. ..338 .40
..·· · .... .. .. .. ..5909.7,
. ..499 .48
. .. . ....1897.68
. .. .... .2688.22
. ..12511 .19
. .1479.44
.......... . .1479,44
Ol\I~
.228.2B
. ... .. .3 17 .15
. .445.72
. . ...1005 .20
. . .379.94
. ..509.02
.445.72
. ...599.67 . .. .299.00 .. ...399.00 . ...497.lJ
..669.5 3
HARD DRIVES
~Seilgatl!
631MB Fasl·ATA .. . .
. .. .129.89
1.0BGB Fas1 SCSl·2 . . . . .
. .279.25
1.2GB EIOE·2 . .... . .. ... . .. .. .... .208.93
2. 1GB FaS1 ATA·2 .. . . .. . . . ... ... .. .289.47
2. 1G8 u11r.i wido SCSl·3 .. ... ........604 .12
2. 14GB Fas1 SCSl-2 .. .... ... ... ... .766.02
4.29GB Fas1 SCSl-2 .. .. ... .. ... .. .1037.11
9GB Fas1 SCSl·2 .. ...... ... .... ..1897.53
3Z1i WESTERN DIGITAL
Caviar 853MB EIDE .... . ·........ . .169.94
Caviar 1.2GB EIDE . . ............. . .217.15
Caviar 1.6GB IOE . . .....··...... .. .238.47
Caviar 2.1GB EIOE·2 . . ..·····... . . .298.38
Caviar 2.SGB EIDE-2 . ... . .... ·.. .. .316.80
CaYiar 3. 1GB EIDE . . .
. ..349.03
AcculogK:: SIOE-4+ wlpar 2 serial game . . .27.95 Acculogfc SIOE-3+ w/on-b03rd BIOS ... .37.45 Adaptec AVA 1505 SCS l -2 CD Kit ·.. ...·-48.42 Adaplcc 1542CP SCS I Ma.slor Kif ···. ..249.65 Adaptec PC! Ultra W ldo SCSI Kit ..... .289.43 Promise EIDEMAX ISA 2HD on-bid BIOS ..25.28 -ErEZm·Wl4H'.lmbdBKJS(HO . .49.42
(DHayes
ACCURA 336 V.34 ifllomal w/fwc ·.· . . .139.13
A CCUAA 336 V.34 extomaJ wnax .... . .149.29
ACCURA 336 OSVD inl omal . . . . .. .168.17
ACCURA3360SV0 exlemal . .. .... . .184.51
n
ACCURA 336 V.34 voC<J ln1omaJ ·.·. · .158.
OPTIMA 336 llusUiess Modem o"1omal .239.56
@ MOTOROLA
BitSURFR ISON adapter lntomoJ . .... · .259.90
BltSURFR ISON adaplor external ..... .259.18
BltSURFR Pro ISDN tormJnal adaptor .. .:M8.69
ModemSUAFA V.34 28.8 inlomal .. ... .109.62
ModemSURFR V.34 28.e OX1Bmal ·. ...· 126.65
OoaneSURFR V.34 28.B ln1omal ··· ···· 109.09
On9neSURFR V.34 28.6 oxtemal ····. . 1'¥1.0 2
VoicoSURFR V.34 28 .8 lntornal ····. . .. 149.63
llh'lalllltlai
Sportster Series
14.4 lnlemal wtfax .
. .. . ..44 .12
V.34 33.6 lnlemal w/fnx . .. ·.··. .·.·149.48
V.34 33.6 external wnnx
..169.29
Voice V.34 33.6 internal wlfax ... .·.169.29
Voice V.34 33.6 external w/fax ..·.·.··189.40
Winmodem V.34 33.G internal wno.x ....11 4.93
ISON 128K lormlnal adapter ......·.. .229.66
Courter Sctrtes
V.34 33.6 in1orno1wnax
. ·· ..200.ee
V.34 33.6 oxtomal wltax
.. .239.57
I-modem ISDN V.34 l axmodem mtomal ..289,14
1-moaem ISDN V.34 raxmooem external .344 .74
.M1M ·\l.l 1t.'d 119.
=~~:~ i>N·,; ::: : : ~::!~ 83cl<-UPS Pro 420 PNP ....229.25
Bnci<·UPS Pro 650 PNP ....287.44
Smart-UPS 700 .. .... ... .359.89
I
Sman·UPS 1000 ....... ..49&.62
Srnilrt·UPS 1400 .........6 19.50
SurgeArrest Personal
. HS .25
SurgcArrcsc ProlessionnJ
.... .2e .2 t
Surge.Arrest Nerwork .
. .29 .10
This means you can run many of your VAX and MOTIF applications on the same hardware that runs Microsoft Excel or Word, Oracle, Adobe Phoroshop; plus engineering and graphics applications such as Pro/
Engineer, Microstation, AuroCAD, Softimage and Ligh twave.
Plus, Digital's FX!32 makes it possible to run 32-bit WIN95
and NT applications o n the Alpha. Over the last IS
years we have designed systems for thousands of
satisfied customers including many prestigious insti
tutions. Our technicians are expert at configuring the fou r
Alpha operating systems we support.
- System Performance
Microway understands the importance of balancing fast C PUs with eq ua lly fast caches, memory and periphera ls. Microway's exclusive 2MB SRAM cache, fed by a 288-bit wide memory system, boosts performance by up to 30%. Its 64-bit PC! bus is driven by a state-of-the-arc Digital chip set that feeds 32 and 64-bit PC! sockets. To take adva ntage of these reso urces, Microway installs the best graphics and hard disk controllers ava ilable, including control le rs approp ri ate for 2 and JD Grap hics Wo rkstations and RAID powered Servers.
Numeric Performance
Microway produces one of the finest nu me ric optimized compilers - NDP Fortran. Si nce 1986, hundreds of applications have been ported to the X86 with it, including industry standards like MATLAB and ASPEN . O ur latest RISC schedu ler has a number of features that take advantage of the Alpha's quad-issue capability. Run ning on a 500 MH z 21164 that bursts at I gigaflop, a doc product kernel we use for compiler testing runs at a mind boggling 940 megaf!ops! ! !
For a complete description of the optimization fac ilities provided by NDP Fortran orC, our Screamer Sys tems and motherboard pricing call 508-746-7341 or visitour WEB Site at: http://www.microway.com.
Digit" I, Alpha, OpenVMS ""d Digital UNIX TM Digital.
MICTOwaY-_®_________
NT, Excel anJ Word TM Microsoft. T_ie_c_h_n
_:_
·c~-
c~
-"
:_
··
-~N
,_
)~
_
:_·_
'~"
"_
~_":_
:_ic
_·~_
;
:_
:_:_M
_~c
-·~
_
:
Corporate Headquarters: Research Park, Box 79, Kingston, MA 02364 USA· TEL 508-746-7341·FAX508-746-4678 www.microway.com, info@microway.com ·France 33 146229988 ·Germany 49 6997650001 ·India 91 806637770 Italy 39 27490749 · Japan 81 64593113 · Korea 82 25981623 · Poland 48 22487172 · United Kingdom 44 1815415466
Jon Udell
I
Seven practical recommendations for
NT Security
securingInternet-connected Windows NT systems.
n my August 1995 column, I net-connected Windows NT machines. ate for a LAN workgroup, but it's disas
mentioned th at Saran, the If NTFS ACLs give a network user full trous for an Internet server.
[ [ ] lnternetsecuri ry scanner, had access to a partition but share-level per
What if you' re already running FAT?
probed a Windows NT serv missions grant only read access, then the On x86 (but not RlSG) NT systems, yo u
er on The BYTE Site and fou nd no vul effective access is read only. Windows NT can upgrade a boot volume to NTFS
nerabilities. But as I pointed out then, takes th e intersection of NTFS ACLs and in place-using the CONVERT utility.
no scanner can find holes that it doesn't share permissions.
It's scary, but when I tested CONVERT
know how to look for. Satan tests for we ll-kn own weaknesses in Unix install a
Audit Policy
tions, but it was clueless when it came to findingsecur iry holes in my Internet-con nected NT system.
Computer: BYTE
0 J!_o Not Audit
In this case, I'd purposely left a Net BIOS share wide open. Anyone who was runnin g Windows 95 and knew a little about Windows networking overTCP/ lP
· Audit These Events:-----------
Success Failure
.!..ogon and Logoff
181
couldhaverypedN ET USE 0 : \\SER VER NAM E\S HARENAME a nd ga in ed full ac cess- across the Internet-to the serv er's boot parti tion.
Does that make NT less secure than
file and Object Access
D
!!se of User Rights
D
User and Group Management [l~l]
~ecurily Policy Changes
181
Unix? Today the answer is yes, but not because NT is inherently less securab le than Unix. Administrato rs of Unix sys
flestart. Shutdown. and System 181
~rocess Tracking
D
tems have learned over decades how to
configure Unix to survive in the hostile environment of the open I11terner. As NT
By default, NT audits nothing. Be sure to audit all failed
increasingly finds itself operaring in that
operations, as well as low-frequency successes.
same hostile environment, its administra
tors have to master the same techniques. Should you even allow shares to exist on a development server to verify that it
Here, then, are some ways to make an NT on a public machine? Ideall y not, but in works, all went well.
site less vulnerable.
I. Use NTFS, Not FAT
practice you need some way to move files to and from your server. NTFS-level secu
2. Rename the
rity can help make that practice less dan
Administrative Account
... NT File System (NTFS) volumes can apply gerous. If yo u create new shares, though, To foi l brute-force password-guessing
~ access-co ntro l lists {ACLs) to files and be sure to alter the default permissions attacks, you should use NT's User Man directories; these controls work in con assigned by NT. If you forget, group "Ev agcrto scran account-lockout policy. For
junction with permission s on s ha red eryone" will have full control of all that's example, the policy might specify that NT
directories. A file allocation table (FAT) visible through the share.
will lock o ut an account afrer five failed
"3 ' "" '
volume supports o nly the latter, share level form of security. For safety's sake,
This behavior is one of the reasons why NT gets a bad rap in the secu rity com
log-on attempts. Unfortunately, rhe most dangerous account-the admi nistra
it's always the best thing to layer multi muni ty. It rends to default to a friendly tor 's- is exempt from this policy. Even
ple defenses wheneve r they ' re avai lab le, configuration rather than to a paranoid if you transfer administrative rights to
so you should always use NTFS on Inter- one. Thar philosophy may be appropri- your own account and use only that ac-
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 117
Web Project NT Security
count for NT administration, the built-in administrative account remains available (because it can't be deleted or disabled) and vulnerable to brute-force password attacks (because it can't be locked out).
Many NT experts recommend that you rename the administrative account some thing obscure (e.g., 789AzOqPPaGzwer79) rather than the default name Adminis trator. That way, a password-guesser must first guess the account's name.
The renaming function is not available from User Manager's User Properties dia log box, an omission that confused not only me but also a Microsoft product man-
both the success and failure of various op erations. Failures occur less often than suc cesses, and they're usually more interest ing from a security perspective, so I always capture all these events (see the screen on page 117). I also capture successes for infre quent operations-such as Security Poli cy Changes and Restart-that might re flect unauthorized activity.
NT permits you to track other success ful operations- File Access, Use of User Rights, and Process Tracking-but you'll need massive storage to capture this data, and incredible diligence to analyze it.
However you decide to audit your sys-
,ihow Binlfmga for: <--Upper Bindingt
Network Bindings
I< All Components >
l!J
Lower Bindings -->
Ne!BIOS lnlelface ·> Ne!BEUI Protocol·> 3Com Etheiink Ill Adapter Drive<·> (1] 3Corn Etherlink Ill A Server·> WINS CTienl(TCPllP) ·>3Com Etherlrlk Ill Adapter Driver·> (1) 3Com Etherlrlk Ill Adapter Server ·>NelBEUI Protocol ·> 3Com Etherlrlk Ill Adapter Driver·> (1) 3Com Etherfink Ill Adapter TCP/IP Protocol ·> 3Com Etherink Ill Adapter Driver ·> (1] 3Com Ethertr.k Ill Adapter " Workstation·> WINS Cieri(TCPllP) ·>3Com Etherliik Ill Aclapler Driver·> (1] 3Com Etherlink Ill A Workstation·> NetBEUI Protocol·> 3Com Etherinl< Ill er Driver·> (1) 3Com Etherlrlk Ill Adapt"'
Disconnecting NetBIOS, Server, and Workstation from the TCP/IP stack guards against many NBT-based over-the-Internet attacks.
ager I interviewed. To rename the admin istrative account, select the User-> Re name menu choice in User Manager.
While you're at it, disable the Guest ac count and remove or restrict all other user accounts. A machine dedicated to provid ing public Internet services does not need, and should not have, user accounts other than those required for its administration.
Finally, if you're running NT 4.0, you can use a utility provided in the Resource Kit to activate lockout for the built-in ad ministrator's account. It's effective only for over-the-network log-ons; if it's trig gered by an attack, you can still log on lo cally to reset the lockout.
3. Turn On Auditing
How do you know if you've been attacked or broken into? NT's event-auditing sys tem can help, but only if it's enabled-and by default it is not. In User Manager, the Policies-> Audit menu choice leads to a screen that controls auditable events.
The trick here is to collect enough infor mation, but not too much. You can audit
tern, it's crucial to review the event logs to understand what records NT writes un der normal conditions. That baseline will help you spot changes that spell trouble.
Experts also recommend that you guard the audit logs, because hackers typically try to cover their tracks after a break-in. You could schedule a periodic backup of the log files, but if the backups remain on-line, then they, too, are vulnerable. A better solution would be to echo the au dited events to a printer, or even e-mail them to yourself, to create an irrevocable audit trail. How? NT Perl comes with a (slightly buggy) module that you can use to read the event log. (See http://www.byte .com/art/down load/evt.pl for a sample program that lists recent event-log entries.)
4. Disable NetBIOS over-TCP/IP
An Internet-connected NT box will, by de fault, support Windows networking over two transport protocols: NetBEUI and TCP/ IP. What's Windows networking? All the operations that require syntax of the form
\\ NAME. These operations include direc tory and primer sharing, NetDDE, and re mote administration. Connecting to a drive or editing a registry across the Inter net requires only a mapping, in the local LMHOSTS file, between the remote ma chine's NetBIOS name and its IP address. For instance, you can use Win 95 versions of Event Viewer and User Manager (these come with the NT Resource Kit) to man age NT servers across the Internet. This setup is very convenient for administra tors-and also for hackers.
The good news is that NT enables pre cise control over your use of NetBIOS over-TCP/11' (NBT). You can go to the Bind ings dialog box in the Networks control panel and disable any or all of the follow ing bindings between NetBIOS-based ser vices and TCP/IP (see the screen at left).
On several machines, I've disabled all three. On one machine, though, I've al lowed the Workstation - >T CP II P bind ing to remain, because its job requires it to connect locally to a Linux server that shares directories using Samba.
Because NT networking services run promiscuously over multiple transports, my machines can still talk to each other using Server, Workstation, and other ser vices. But these conversations occur only on the NetBEUI channel, which does not go across the Internet.
The bad news? Hackers can't try to re mote-mount drives or remote-edit regis tries-but neither can I.
5. Block Nonessential Inbound TCP/IP Ports
Suppose an anacker did break in somehow and gain admin istrative control. He or she might then find a way to reenable the NBT bindings you'd so carefully disabled . So, it's a good idea to enlist your router as an other line of defense.
I'm assuming here that your NT server is highly exposed-outside your firewall if you have one-and that its mission is to offer public services, such as Web and FTP. If that's the case, only two inbound paths need to exist from the router to the server: HTTP on port 80, and FTP on port 21. The router can, and probably should, block all other inbound traffic.
You may or may not have the access and/or the authority to adjust your rout er's packer-filtering rules. If you can do so, you might be tempted to create a back door for yourself. You could, for example, reject all non-Web and non-FTP inbound
118 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
The Definitive Reference Source!
Seven Years of BYTE - 1990-1996
Plus, Quarterly Updates
ca11 1-aoo-114-6611
It's all at your fingertips - emerging trends, comprehensive world-wide industry analysis, multiplatform coverage of all the technologies,
in-depth testing and product evaluations, advice, tips, expert opinions, and much more! It's a deal for anyone who's evaluating the significance of new technologies...doing , research ...making complex , multi platform purchasing decisions...developing the next generation hardware or software products...preparing corporate plans.
It's Comprehensive... Time Saving...and Easy to Use! It's all in BYTE on CD-ROM.
Order Now! YES! I want the power and convenience of BYTE on CD-ROM.
Toll-free International Numbers:
Belgium Germany U.K. . Italy France Netherlands Switzerland Denmark Sweden
080071635 0130826112 0800973017 167876155
0800916068 060222146 1557257 80017728 0207.91136
D Send me BYTE on CD-ROM PLUS! Full text from 1990-1996 issues of BYTE plus four quarterly CD-ROM updates with full text
and colorful graphics for just $54.95.
D Send me BYTE on CD-ROM! Full text from 1990-1996 issues of BYTE-more than 80 issues for only $39.95.
Charge my: O Master Card O VISA O Amex O Check enclosed (Payable to BYTE magazine, us funds only)
Card# _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Exp. Date _ _ _ _ _ Signature _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Name----------------------------
Address--------------------------- City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ State/Province/Country _ _ _ _ _ _ Zip/Postal C o d e - - - - -
Other
lnt'I ·U:SJCanada .FAX
CDB0197
091 -752792
1-800-924-6621
609-426-5434
E-mail Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
I
· ·
~
I~
I
;
Mail to: BYTE on CD-ROM, P.O. BOX 526, Hightstown, NJ 08530
Canadian and U.S.orders, please add $2.95 for shipping and handling, and state tax where applicable..(Canadianorders add appropriate GSD.Outside North America,add $5.00 for air mail delivery. Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.
bZ
-----
A Owuim1 (l{Th1: McGrow·lliU Compar1ics
Web Project I NT Security
traffic, except NBT traffic on ports 137, 138, and 139 coming from the IP address that you use for remote administration.
In theory, only you could then remote ly operate the server. In practice, a hacker who discovered the connection between you and that IP address could also try to exploit the inbound path.
How might someone learn the IP ad dress of your home system and exploit it? An acquaintance outlined his MO as fol lows: 1) research the target server's admin istrator, 2) create a phony Web page tai lored to the administrator's interests, 3) send an e-mail invitation to visit that page, 4) capture the IP address of the home sys tem, and 5) infiltrate that system using JavaScript or ActiveX.
A back door that depends on the ano nymity of an IP address is frighteningly vulnerable to a patient, systematic attack. That's why security experts recommend that you disallow all nonessential inbound paths. Bob Lord, Netscape's chief secu rity consultant, wryly laments this evil necessity: "Rather than telnet in at 3 a.m. from my den while sipping a hot cup of coffee, I have to drive to work and sit in the cold room ... but I'm not bitter."
6. Revoke the "Access from Network" Privilege
There's another line of defense available in NT. By default, NT grants to group Ev eryone the right to Access from Network. You can revoke this right-thus blocking all Windows networking services-yet still support Web service . An NT Web server, for example, runs either as SYSTEM or as a local user; in either case, there's no no tion of a remote user in the NT se nse.
The FTP server that comes with NT will fail in this situation, because it requires
BOOKNOTE
World Wide Web Journal
volume 1, issue 4 $24.95 edited by Roh it Khare O'Reilly and Associates http://www.ora.com/
A collection of techni cal papers from mem bers of the World Wide Web Consortium and other prime movers of the Web. This issue of the quarterly journal focuses on HTIP/1.1, state management, and PICS.
TOOL WATCH
SafeSuite
Web-security sca nner $495 Firewall scanner $1495 Intranet scanner $1495 Internet Security Systems http://www.iss.net/
A powerful Internet security scanner that does much of what Satan does, plus it probes for NT-specific vulnerabilities.
users to perform network-style log-ons. But other FTP servers, including the one in Microsoft's Inte rnet Information Serv er (IIS), perform local log-ons and so are unaffected by revocation of the Access from Network right.
Unfortunately, unlike the NBT method, this technique cannot select which proto cols to allow or deny. So, if you run Web and FTP service with Access from Network revoked, you'll block file-sharing not only across the Internet but also locally over NetBEUI. Here's a compromise solution: Grant only your personal administrative account the Access from Network right.
7. Don't Blithely Divulge Information
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're running Windows NT," say NT partisans. Unfortunately, the curious can easily find out. For example, the built-in FTP service announces connections thusly:
ftp> open ftp .myhost.com Connected to ftp.myhost . com 220 ft p Wi ndows NT FTP Se rv er
(Ver s i on 3.51) .
Legitimate users have absolutely no need for such information. Hackers, how ever, gladly use it to disqualify fruitless modes of attack and zero in on effective, OS-specific ones. The llS FTP service has an equally distinctive signature:
Connected to ftp.myhost.com . 220 ftp Micro so ft FTP Service
(Ver sion 2 .0 ).
In either case, it's a snap to find out that you've connected to an NT box and to discover which version o f NT it's run ning. Contrast this with my Unix hosts, which announce the following:
Connected to ftp.myhost.com . 220 ftp FT P server Version
v/U -2 . 4( 2)
It's not obvious whether you've con nected to my Linux server or to my BSD/ OS server. Even this approach isn't perfect, because there are attacks specific to the wu FTP server. The point: Don' t give away any information that you don't have to give away. Although you can customize a greeting message in NT's built-in FTP serv er and the llS FTP service, I'm not aware of a straightforward way to suppress or al ter the connection banner. If you've fig ured that out, please let me know.
Give NT Paranoia
Most of the defenses I've outl.ined here are simple, but they all require some effort. Out of the box, NT configures itself for a trusting environment. When you locate an NT server on the Internet, the governing principle must be paranoia, not trust.
It's not hard to do the kinds of things I've outlined here. What is hard is to dis cover these methods in the first place and then apply them rigorously. But isn't that just what computers do well?
I'd like to make a simple choice-trust or paranoia-when installing or config uring NT. lf I choose paranoia, th e NT in staller should omit all unnecessary net work services, protocols, and bindings; revoke all network-based rights and per missions; and audit itself aggressively. On an upgrade, features not consistent with the paranoid mode should be removed so that attackers cannot reenable them. The burden should be on me to selectively in stall and enable essential capabilities.
A basic tenet of computer security states that whatever is not explicitly allowed should be denied. NT gets this principle mostly backward today, but it shouldn't be hard to implement a "paranoid toggle." Such an option would make public deploy ment of NT a whole lot lt:ss risky. How about it, Microsoft? Iii
Editor's Note: Thanks to the security con sultants who helped with this article: Steve Turcich (independent) and Andy Baron (Midwest Commerce Systems, Inc., http:// www.omna.com/). See also http://www .somarsoft.com/.
Jon Udell is BYTE's executive edit or for new media. You can reach him by sending e-mail to jon_u@dev5.byte.com.
1 20 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
11\ITE
Applications SPECIAL REPORT
Servers Choose the right software and hardware for your middle tier.
Share the Wealth
Fast, efficient, economical: Applications servers promise to deliver all three benefits.
Page123
Which OS?
Nothing will determine how your server performs more than the OS it runs. Here's how to find the best one for your enterprise.
Page125
Suite and Sour
Before you try to integrate disparate applications, consider the pros and cons of server suites.
Page 131
Power to the Server
Boost its CPU power, increase its 110 performance, and raise its reliability.
Page 133
FE B RUARY 19 9 7 B YTE 1 21
When these companies were looking for speed, reliability, affordability, and ease of use for remote access and peripheral control, they chose a Comtrol serial communications board.
Comtrol's Rocketport is the industry's fastest controller. Twice the speed of Digi's Acceleport. This breakthrough perfonnance is achieved by putting eight ports and a RISC processor onto one chip. Using this technology, internet access Speed can be increased 16x from 28.8 Kbps to 460 Kbps full duplex across all ports.
Comtrol's software drivers and technical support make it easy to switch. We provide drivers for Novell Netware Connect, Multiprotocol Routing, Windows NT RAS, UNIX,
OS/2, and Linux. If you are already using one of these drivers, all you need to do is install your RocketPort card . 1/0 mapping eliminates memory conflicts and allows plug and play compatibility. RocketPort also gives you 30 times faster
processing! This host CPU efficiency allows you to add more ports or free up valuable CPU time.
For your additional needs, our technical experts are just a phone call away to give you step-by-step instructions.
See for yourself! Call 1-800-92&6876, e-mail
us at info@comtrol.com, or look us up on our website: http://www.comtrol.com. Comtrol provides a 5 year limited warranty and a 30 day risk free trial tor all products.
Get the best board at half the cost and personalized support from the company that created the multiport industry in 1982-the only company with 14 years of experience...Comtrol.
·NetWore
Tested and Approved
COMTROL >'-~
Power.ft.Ii Choices ~
· ©Comtrol Corporation, 1996
C ircle 135 on Inquiry C ard.
SPECIAL REPORT
Share the Wealth
Spreading CPU power around with applications servers makes more sense than ever. By Robert L. Hummel
arge corporations are downsizing from mainframes while demanding the same or better level of perfor mance. Workgroups are upsizing while demanding an increasing level of service. Making these changes possible in many enterprises are applications servers, which promise improved performance, cost control, reduced drain on the network, and easier expansion and manageability. IS departments are embracing dedicated applications servers as never before. This comput ing model is a far cry from the host-based systems that were pervasive 30 years ago. It's also disti net from the strict desktop client model cen tered around personal com puters. It is, instead, a net work-centric model based on specific, dedicated servers and oriented toward global deployment of applications. Applications servers are often the glue that holds a distributed environment together. But choosing the correct server for your par ticular needs demands equal parts analysis and vision. Bet ter performance is always a goal when reengineering a network. But other factors figure high on any applica tions server checklist: reduc ing implementation cost, ease of development, and integration into the existing network environment. No single solution is a perfect fit for every compa ny, and legacy systems mean that few IS managers have the luxury of launching applications servers from a clean slate. Choosing the right solution for any particular operation still requires you to sift through confusing and often contradictory information. In this report, we'll exam ine the spectrum of applications server solutions from x86-based PCs to high-end RISC systems and from server operating systems to applications server suites. What, exactly, is an applications server? The definition often depends more on who's doing the defining than on the under
lying technology. Vendors of mainframe and midrange com puters define their systems as applications servers because these systems run core business programs such as billing, inventory control, sales analysis, general ledger, and payroll.
Vendors of increasingly powerful PC servers also define their systems as applications servers. After all, these systems now incor porate many high-end management and development features and can also run core business applications. Burunlike their high
end cousins, PC system ven dors tend to be more egali tarian in their definition of an applications server: They broaden the category to in clude, in addition to tradi tional business applications, productivity tools such as Lotus Notes.
So who's right? Both can be right. And both can be wrong. Applications servers sit somewhere between the data, which resides in a repos itory like a database, and the client, which is on the user's desk. In other words, appli cations servers are part of a client/server architecture.
Not every activity per formed by a server can be called an application. And not every distributed appli cation can be called client/ server. A file server, for exam ple, doesn 't qualify because the client isn't aware the serv er's there. The client talks ro a redirector that sends client requests to the file server.
Client/server operation is a logical concept and doesn't depend on physical ropology. In a true client/server system, significant processing occurs in both the client and the server processes-regardless of where those processes are executing. Interaction between client and server is cooperative. Typically, a client sends a request ro a server. The server, in turn , responds ro that request. Both the client and the server portions of a distributed application are aware of each other and communicate as peers. Unlike the case with a file serv er, neither portion of a distributed application performs useful
FEBRU ARY 1997 BYTE 12 3
Special Report Share the Wealth
work without the other. The client and the server typically implement a cooper ative balance of work that trades off the computing power avai lable on each plat form against network traffic.
In a two-tier architecture, desktop clients connect ro a server on a LAN . Such an architecture enables users to access one set of data. There's a prob lem, though: The se rver is responsible for retrieving data and often for applying business rules on that data. For example,
a client requests some data, and the data base server is responsible for retrieving the data as well as making sure that the user is author ized to see it. Add too many clients and the server gets overwhelmed.
A three-tie r applications server mod el logicall y (not necessarily physically) separates the user interface, application logic, and dara management components. This model removes the responsibility for retrieving and processing data from a sin gle server. As the number of clients grows,
Apps Servers Today
Mention applications servers and it's likely the application that springs to mind will be data· base access. But the office does not function by databases alone. More often than not, communication across the room or across the world depends on a suite of productivity servers.
·Electronic mail. Although not always a critical line-of-business application, e-mail is currently the most widely used network application. Messaging,a superset of e-mail, enables users to participate in collaborative computing applications such as scheduling, notifying, conferencing, and forms routing. Examples include Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Netscape Mail Server.
·Internet access. Whether to support controlled access to the Net, establish a car· porate presence, or support roving users, a connection server is becoming a mandatory part of any network system. The connection server passes on requests from client browsers, acting as a proxy to remote servers, possibly caching often-accessed pages to improve per· formance. And clients outside the e·nterprise can easily access documents. Examples include Netscape Proxy Server, Trusted Information Systems' Gauntlet Internet Firewall, and Microsoft Internet Information Server.
·Communications. Homogeneous networks are rare. To enable servers to comm uni· cate and share resources across a variety of hardware and software platforms, regardless of protocol, some sites use a communications server. Routing is a critical component that ties users, servers, networks, and sites into a single, coherent network.
·Network management. Along with enhanced capability comes increased complex· ity. Network management systems are designed to collect information about the network and its components and display that inforrnation where managers can manipulate it. An ide· al system gives IS personnel the ability to manage the network from any workstation, remote connection, or Internet terminal.
you can add second-tier servers to main rain response time. You can even split large databases across multiple servers to fur ther balance third-tier network traffic and service requests.
Fistful of Benefits
Deplo yi ng se rv e rs in th ese w ays can improve performance and manageability at all levels of the enterpri se . Here are some potential benefits.
· An app lica tions se rver can off-load all o r parts of a mainframe's applications to departmental servers, improving per formance withou t requiring costly upgrad es to t he mai nframe. The lighter load may also extend the productive life of the mainframe and preserve th e development investment it represents.
·The improved balance between loca land remote processing chores can lower the required communicati ons bandwidth.
· Enterprise-wide distributed computing and advanced database applications become generally available to network users. The improved access can increase productivity.
· Users see imp roved or more consistent response time. local servers can cache frequently used data when appropriate.
· Corporate headquarters can synchro nize data architectures at remote sites with replication products.
· Multiprocessor, multitasking servers support sca labi li ty at a lower increme n tal expense.
· Independence between client and serv er components ensures that modifica tion of one need not affect the other.
· Administration can be centralized at the workgrou p or enterprise level as appro priate for each app lication .
I
==~~~---------~-:---"""'!-~~1 1
~
~
_____________ Jfgt
280
Applications se rvers make a lot of sense. They ' re a logical bridge between the high ly centralized, secure mainframe environment and th e decentralized LAN environment, combining the best ofboth.
The remainder of this Special Report will give you guidelines for evaluating and choosing the operating system and hard ware platform that will best suit the needs
of your app lications server. 111
Robert L. /-111111mel isn11 electricnl e11gi11eer, pro grn111111er, and cons11/ta11/. You can reach him nl
rhummel @monad.net.
1 2 4 BYTE FEBRUARY 19 9 7
SPECIAL REPORT
Which OS?
Seven key criteria can help you choose the best OS for your applications server. By Robert L. Hummel
ach OS has something to rec ommend its place in your server
closet. To maintain order, how
ever,you must limit the total num ber of OSes you run. Let's look at how to choose an OS for your applications servers, with particular attention to NetWare, OS/2, OS/400, Unix, and Windows NT.
Applications Availability
Key questions: Will the OS run the appli cations you run today? How many new appli cations are being developed for it now? How much will you pay for the applications you want to run?
Applications availability isn't a numbers game. For all you know, those 11 ,000 appli cations that a particular OS supports are all games. Make sure that the applications you need are available. Also make sure that the applications and their support contracts won 't be more expensive than the server was-a legacy of the days of the mainframe.
Also look for the OS to support applica tions interaction in a standard way. For exam ple, NT lets applications pass information among each other using OLE.
Platform Support
Key questions: Does it support your exist ing clients? How does it support mobile users? Do clients require any special soft ware to access the server?
Interoperability exists on several levels. At the lowest level, systems may define and use divergent network protocols. NetWare networks use IPX, while most Unix net works and the Internet use TCP/IP. By default, NT uses NetBEUI. All these OSes can sup port other protocols, but they usually work best running their core protocol.
At a higher level, even if a client supports a server's low-level protocol, it still may not be able to connect. A classic example is that you can run AppleTalk on a NetWare 4.11 server, but a Mac that tries to log on without first loading the NetWare client for Macin tosh will receive an error telling it thatthe serv-
SunSoft Solaris
Solaris runs on x86 systems and the Sun line of RISC-based SPARC platforms. Among Unix vendors, only Sun offers a product for multiple platforms. This puts Sun in a unique position as the Unix vendor that can match Microsoft's multiplatform strategy.
Applications There are 10,000 native Solaris applications available from ISVs covering a range from accounting to Z-mail. Desktop productivity tools such as pre sentation software tend to be a bit limited, but Sun's Windows Application Binary Interface (Wabi) technology lets many Windows productivity applications run on SPARC/UltraSPARC.
Platform Support Sun's flagship line of SPARC/ UltraSPARC CPUs is where you're most likely to find Solaris running, but you can bring it up on any x86 (486 or high er) CPU. Solaris's connectivity resources are formidable, ranging from the enter prise-capable NIS+ directory service, LDAP, and a host of IP networking services (e.g., FTP, DHCP, HTTP, and NFS). If your goal is toconnectPCsandMacstoa Solaris server, you're either going to have to install a good TCP/IP client package on each client or install third-party extensions to Solaris. Connectivity to mainframes is another third-party extension.
Performance Solaris running on SPARC is a high-performance hardware/soft ware combination avai lable on everything from laptops to servers with up to 64 processors. The Solaris kernel is incredibly tunable, letting you create a server that is particularly good at a specific task. In fact, you pretty much must tune the kernel to get the best performance from Solaris on applications such as Web serving. Performance on x86 systems generally lags behind the SPARC systems.
Management Whether you 're sitting at the graphics-enabled console of your server or at a VTl 00 that's more than 3000 mil es away, you can administer a Solaris system. The Solaris product comes with its own graphical tools for the administration of nearly all its services. Many of these graphical tools are making their way to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), so you'll soon be able to administer Solaris from any Web browser. However, that doesn't mean that Unix's command- line administration tools have gone away.
Development SunSoft Work
Shop provides visual tools, dri
vers, and libraries for applica
tions development. Sun empha-
At each level of the OS, Solaris isolates applications from each other.
FEBRU A RY 1997 BYTE 125
I Special Report Which OS?
er doesn't have a recognizable log-on sequence. NT's AppleTalk implementation, on the other hand, appears as a standard Mac server.
Look for integration with particular types of directory services. The idea is for users to be able to log on once and to be able to access any applications residing on your applications servers. For example, Unix sys tems tend to rely on the Domain Naming Sys tem (DNS) and the Network Information Ser vice (NIS). NetWare 4.11 uses the NetWare Directory Service (NDS) . NT 4.0 also uses a domain system. None of these work well with each other, but some , such as NDS, can accept many OSes into their structure.
The Web may make some of these points moot by standardizing on communications protocols such as HTTP and TCP/IP. For now, however,the best solution for cross-platfonn integration is either for a server OS to sup port all the protocols you run in your organi zation or for you to standardize on a protocol (probably TCP/IP) . NT seems to be adept at running multiple protocols, including TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, and AppleTalk (not to mention a few others), but you can usually find extensions to any OS to bring this level of functionality to your server.
Performance
Key questions: How many users can you support with a single system? Does the OS support symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)? Does it let you balance loads across multiple systems?
You can read all the benchmark results you want, but how an OS performs for you will depend on how you use it. Performance is appl ications-dependent. Some bench marks, such as the Transaction Processing Council's TPC-C, indicate system perfor mance in a database environment. Others, such as the BYTEmark, show the perfor mance of specific system components.
Some aspects of OS design indicate what kind of perfonnance characteristics you can expect. Multithreading, for example, can reduce the number of context switches your applications have to do,thereby boost ing performance. Preemptive multitasking will let applications cut each other off, deliv ering more egalitarian performance. NT, OS/2, OS/400, and SunSoft Solarisare both. NetWare is neither.
Next, look at scalabi lity, specifical ly SMP. All the majorOSes-Unix, NT, NetWare SMP, OS/2, and OS/400-support SMP. The question is: How many CPUs can the OS han dle? For example , NT's end-user license
sizes Java development. Source code compatibility enables Intel-SPARC cross-plat form development.
Reliability Solaris's protected-memory architecture makes it a fairly difficult OS
to crash completely, and the journaled file system means that crash recovery is smooth. With add-ons, Solaris will support RAID 0, 1, and 5, and two-way clustering. Third party solutions provide data replication and hardware failure detection.
Security C2 compliance is at rhe top of Solaris's security laurels. In addition, the
administrator can set disk-storage limits, expire and lock acco unts, force password changes, and lock user log-on times. Unix as a who le, however, has some serious security holes, such as rhe sendmail daemon . Patches exist to many of the known ho les, bur it's up to the administrator to app ly them.
Microsoft Windows NT Server
Regard less of the current makeup of your network infrastructure or your inclination, it's nearly certain that NT Server will be a part of your future plans-it does too many things too well for you to ignore it. Expect it to make inroads as a replacement for NetWare and as a low-end and midrange applications se rver.
Applications A large number of Windows applications are available, with an
increasing number that leverage the 32-bit or multiprocessing natu re of NT. High end business-critical applications (e.g., CICS) are somewhat underrepresented, but Microsoft's BackOffice suite provides good integration of many server applications, including systems manage ment and a database.
Platform Support NT is available for x86 (486 or higher), Digital Alpha, and PowerPC processors. (R4x00 support has been discontinued.) It includes support for most common clients except Unix, which requires a third-party add-on. It uses trust
ed domains for its directory se rvices, which provide only limited scalability and arc incompatible with such standards as X.500 and LDAP.
Performance You can get NT running on some of the fastest processo rs around,
but there are some caveats to NT's multiprocessing. For example, NT can support up to 32 processors, bur you'll find the license for the shrink-wrapped version of NT is limited to four. Beyond that, porting is vendor-dependent.
Management T he coll ection of Windows-based management tools is also easy
to use, bur they lack some of the integration you' ll find in a product such as NetWare 4.11 . For example, Disk Admin istrator and User Administrator are separate tools. Also, you manage Macintosh fi le services not through the Disk Admin istrator or Windows NT Ex plorer, bur through Fi le Man ager. Remote system manage ment support needs improve ment, bur it can be accomplished with tools such as Symantec's Norton PCAnywhere32.
Development Consistency is
the catchphrase when deve lop ing for NT. You can develop applications in a single environ ment that's produced and con trolled by a single vendor. NT's mome ntum translates directl y into an abundance of develop-
NT 4.0 isolates all but some graphics applications from the hardware.
1 26 BYTE FEBRUARY 19 97
I Which OS? Special Report
limits it to four. OS/2 can address up to 64, as can some Unix implementations. Remem ber, though,that you often need to tune soft ware to run on SMP systems.
Management
Key questions: Can you control multiple servers from a single point? Can you gain remote-administration access to a server? Does the server integrate with your existing administration system?
Systems management means different things to different people. For many, backup is a key part of systems management. All server OSes have some kind of backup util ity built in. Unfortunately, they're not always the most sophisticated packages, and they all have different interfaces. If your goal is to back up your disparate servers from a cen tral console and you've already selected soft ware such as Arcada's Backup Exec, make sure it supports the new OSes.
As you plan for yournetwork's growth, be sure that the OSes you choose fit in with your management scheme. If the network will nev· er be large, you may be able to rely on Unix's command-line interface. If, however, you're responsible for a server farm with several dozen boxes , you need some way to get an at-a-glance summary of the farm's status.
Software such as Intel's LANdesk Man ager and Symantec's Norton Administrator for Networks can give you a sense of what's going on with your servers. However, they don't have great support for OSes such as Unix and OS/40 0. Alternately, standard SNMP consoles such as Hewlett-Packard's OpenView can give you information about the flow of information around your network, but they often can't get you component-lev el information about particular systems.
The basic rule with management is to make sure that whatever OS you choose fits in with your existing management strat egy, or that you're willing to modify your strat egy to accommodate the new OS.
Applications Development
Key questions: Are the development tools you use available forth is platform? Does the OS vendor extend support to users or only to independent software vendors (ISVs)? Are the APls open and well documented?
Off-the-shelf productivity is an enticing concept, but it's one that translates poorly into reality. Except at the simplest level of operation, every network will require some customization . An OS must have standard OS services and industry-standard inter faces to support development. Virtual pro
ment tools, languages, and development systems all geared to producing Windows applications.
Reliability NT's faulr tolerance runs from integrated RAID 0, 1, and 5 to automatic restart after a crash. Clustering is available from companies such as Digital and Tandem. Microsoft is working on a clustering API (called Wolfpack), but initially it will support only clusters of two systems.
Security NT implements most of the common security feanires, including password restrictions, account expiration, and audit logs. NT 3.51 has C2 certification for stand alone systems, but not for networked systems, and NT 4.0 has no C2 certification.
Novell NetWare
Novell is th e first to admit that NetWare might look somewhat threadbare as a client/server applications-server platform compared to other offerings. Its capacity to provide comprehensive transaction processing is thin. Until the addition of sup port for SMP for multithreaded app lications last year, it offered limited scalability. IntranetWare, a new offering from Novell, is essentially an upgraded version ofNet Ware 4.11 . It adds a Java virnial machine, a TCP/IP-IPX gateway, and an integrated multi protocol router for WAN and Internet connections.
Applications About 6000 applications are available for NetWare, including pop ular network-centric and workgroup productivity applications. That said, the nature of the NetWare loadable module (NLM) architecture means third-party applications tend to be complete solutions, offering integration within themselves, but integra tion with each other and the OS is poor.
Platform Support NetWare runs only on x86-based (386 or higher) systems. Client connectivity is good, wi th built-in support for DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, NT, Mac OS, and OS/2. You will have to configure the server to support long filenames, however, and you' II have to train Mac users how to log on to the NetWare NDS tree.
Performance Single-server performance is limited by the fastest x86 processor you can buy, because NetWare SMP does not automatically make its SMP capabi li ties available to all applications.
Management The N etWare ad ministrator runs under Windows 3.1, NT, Windows 95, and OS/2. It makes user, group, and directory tree management as well as volume administration simple. To shut down the server, however, you need to be at the console or using the DOS-based remote console utility included with the OS.
Development NetWare is not a great development platform. Jn particular, the lack of an open interface model and shortage of development tools and docu mentation have hampered devel opment, although companies such as Oracle and Lotus have designed their products as NLMs. The NetBasic scripting language enables building server-based log ic. Novell 's lntranetWare initia tive emphasizes Java as the devel opment environment and may provide some improvements.
Reliability NetWare file servers have a well-earned reputation
NetWare development lacks an open-interface model.
FE BRUARY 1997 BYTE 127
I Spec;a1 Repo't Which OS?
tected memory, multitasking, preemptive scheduling, and advanced features (e.g., threads and asynchronous 1/0) are essen tial to many high-end development efforts.
To make productive use of an OS's cus tomizability, you 'll need a robust suite of development tools , documentation, and most important-support from the OS ven dor for in-house development. At the very least, developers should expect compilers, debuggers, project management utilities, and visual-programming tools. If you choose a server OS whose vendor caters only to large ISVs, you're unlikely to find a large pool of experienced developers.
Support from third -party vendors is important as well. Tools, programming envi ronments, and complete applications are often available across multiple NOS plat forms. By working with familiar tools, devel opers can leverage their knowledge at all lev els throughout the enterprise.
Reliability
Key questions: Does it support RAID or clustering? Is the file system journaled? Can you hot-swap components?
Protected-memory architectures and OS provided device drivers are hallmarks of reli able OSes like NT, OS/2, OS/400, and Unix. NetWare, on the other hand, runs its appli cations in a shared memory space, and appli
cations could run in protected mode-ring o
of the CPU-where they could interfere with the machinations of the OS.
More of the fault tolerance takes place at the hardware level. RAID, whether it's imple mented in software or hardware, is common. The advantage of a software implementation such as NT is mainly price . Much of the other fault tolerance-including redundant power supplies, network cards, and cooling fans-depends on the server you buy.
OS/400 and Solaris also have advanced clustering solutions . IBM is working on porting the OS/400 clustering (code-named Phoenix) to OS/2. Microsoft is working on a set of APls (called Wolfpack) for clustering two NT machines. Digital already has a sys tem to enable NT clusters. By default , clus tering is an option to each of these OSes but often an expensive one, costing thousands of dollars per CPU.
Security
Key questions: Can the administrator
enforce password restrictions? Does the OS
support access-control lists? On -the-fly
encryption? How about Orange Book C2
level security?
continued
as being highly reliable. Server mirroring systems such as Novell's System Fau lt Tolerance (SFT) and Novell's new IntranetWare servers can self-diagnose and report hardware and software problems, and then engage automatic recovery. However, NetWare relies on running applications in ring 0 for performance, enabling applica tions (NLM s) access to each other's memory spaces. In theory, anyway, a rampant NLM could crash an entire server.
Security As a file server, NetWare 's security is good, wirh features such as log-on time restrictions, account locking, and the ability to restrict log-on byworkstation pro tocol. Bur as you layer app lications on top of N etWare, you are at the mercy of the developer's security implementati on. It is possible, for example, that a back up NlM could give any user access to tapes in yo ur tape drive. Novell is working on a net work-level C2 certification for IntranetWare.
IBM OS/2 Warp Server
The marriage of OS/2's 32-bit, multitaski ng, multithreaded core to IBM's LAN Serv er 4.0 serve r OS produced Warp Server. The resulting product provides solid appli cations-server capabilities, along with file and print services, as well as good man agement tools, remote connectivity, and backup and recovery services.
Applications Although 05/2 Warp Server lacks broad-based applications support, major products and applications categories are represented, especially business appli cations such as accounting an d eve n CICS . There is, however, no cohesive, consis tently implemented integration strategy: Users must integrate third-party solutions.
Platform Support OS/2 runs o n any x86 (486 or higher) processor, making it, like N etWare, limited to one architecture. That said, IBM has placed considerab le emphas is on integration with other platforms. You'll find clients for DOS; Windows 3.x, NT, and 95; OS/2; AIX; and Mac OS.
Performance As with NetWare, the performance of OS/2 is limited to the fa~'test x86 processo r you can buy. However, Warp Server 4.0 includes SMP that will work with a system with up to 64 CPUs. The SM Pfeature can provide a boost to existing 16-bit DOS, Wmdows, and OS/2 applications that aren't SMP-aware. By letting these virtual-mode applications run across multiple processors, rather than on a si ngle processor, the reduc tion in task-switching overhead should produce an increase in performance.
Management OS/2, like NT, supports hardware discove ry and supplements that with alerts when hardware is failing. Like NT, however, yo u need to use multiple applicati ons to perform system administration . The·user interface supports drag and-drop object-based admin istration, including network-based software distribu tion and support for SNMP and DMI management systems.
Development IBM provides a se lection of visual-program ming environments, Software Deve lopment Kits (SDKs), and other development too ls, includin g its exce llent Vi sual Age products. That said, the OS includes o nly token third-pa r ty support for native OS/2 envi ronments.
Reliability RAID 0 and 1 (but not 5) are built in to OS/2, as are back up se rvices and utilities fo r bad dri ve sector rema pping. OS/2 borrows the clustering architecru re of IBM 's high-end
Virtual device drivers offer a direct interface for applications and hardware.
1 28 BYTE FEB RUARY 1997
For The Life Of Your Data
"
nStor Corporation, Inc 450 Technology Park Lake Mary, FL 32746 www.nstor.com 800· 724·3511
~
· ou decide..011 a ptopnettiry server.RAID syj teih consider this:
· if4 ·e of your ~ta is much longer than the life cycl 'of your server.
·Which.means,yoti'll.take a ~Ah!tn you up.g;aqe yOt!r server. A RAID solution from 11Stor (formerly Conner Storage Systems) is
a mission-critical buy. 11Stor's server-independent RAID systems are unmatched for ease of use, low life-cycle cost and high availability. In fact, our systems can actually increase read/write performance.
As you'd expect from a company that co-authored the SAF-TE* standard with Intel, 11Sror systems are compat ible with all PCI-based servers and SAF-TE compliant systems. All key components are user serviceable and hot swappable. And our user friendly management software provides RAID management, performance monitoring and failure notification at a glance.
For more information about RAID solu tions designed for the life of your data visit our web site at www.nstor.com or call l -800-RAIDSll. Because a proprietary solution is no bundle of joy.
· SCSI Accessed Fault-Tolerant Enclosure.
Circle 216 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS: 217) .
I Specia l Report Which OS?
Security is a tough subject. There are many buzzwords but little uniform interpre tation of them. The short of it is that any OS can be compromised if it's not installed and maintained using a strict security policy. You have to enforce alphanumeric passwords, change passwords frequently, and even con sider encrypting vital information.
All that said, an OS can make it easier to enforce security. File and di rectory permis sions are a place to start. Each OS imple ments them a little differently,from the incred ibly cryptic (Unix) to the fairly straightforward (NetWare) . Again, it's up to a person to make sure they're set up and enforced correctly.
Auditing can let you see who did what when. The logs it generates can become large, but the information can be invaluable when you're trying to trace the last modifi cation of a file . NT comes with a good audit ing system that's notably easy to use.
Unix has come under attack for its secu rity. Designed originally to be open, Unix has found itself the object of many attackers' desires. If you choose Unix as your applica tions-server OS, you should immediately look to your vendor for the latest security patches. You also need to implement a non sendmail-based mailing system,TCP wrap pers, the Washington University FrP dae mon, and a regular run of the SATAN security package.
There's much bluster about C2-level security, but that's what most of it is- blus ter. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, a C2 rating applies only to the exact ver sion of an OS tested-NT 3.51, for example, has one, but not version 4.0. Also, a Red Book C2 rating (which means the OS is net work-secure) means not only exactly the same OS version, but the same hardware.
Sorting It Out
When you put any OS through all these ques tions, you'll get a good idea of how well it's going to behave as an applications server. NT, Solaris, OS/2, NetWare, and OS/400 are al l strong applications-server OSes. And that's as far as these questions can take you. Once you've made a preliminary decision, you have to bring the OSes in-house and try developing an application on yourfinal choic es. Yes, it will take time, and it will probably be expensive. But is it really more expensive than making the wrong decision?
Robert L. Hummel is an electrical e11gi11eer, programmer, and consultant. You ca11 reach him at rhummel@monad.nel
systems and provides detection of both node and applications failures. In this type of system, if a server or application running on a server fails, that server's work load immediately goes over to an operational server. The system manager can insert the failed server into the cluster after its recovery.
Security OS/l's security includes setting disk-storage limits for individual users,
expiring accounts, and forcing password changes.
IBMOS/400
There's no doubt that IBM's AS/400 philosophy represents a highly integrated, pow erful, and scalable approach to applications serving across the spectrum from depart ment to enterprise level. However, for LAN managers coming from the workgroup arena, the IBM-only upgrade model of the AS/400 represents a drastic step.
Applications OS/400 has over 25,000 applications available, including the DB2
relational database, decision-support systems, fax systems, and wireless LAN. It comes with the ability to serve its applications up to Web browsers.
Platform Support 05/400 run s only on the proprietary AS/400 hardware, which
ranges from $10,000 departmental servers up to enterprise systems. It can run NetWare on an optional plug-in server board, and a simi lar NT Server solution is being devel oped. To support PC connectivity, the AS/400 provides middleware for Windows, DOS, OS/2, Unix, and Mac clients. 0Sf400 supports !PX/SPX, TCP/IP, NetBIOS, and AppleTalk, as well as high-level APls such as Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), DAL, and MAP!. Its Internet Connection for AS/400 supports HTML drivers, letting a business serve any AS/400 application over the Internet. Internet users can download files or software as well as access the AS/400 database.
Performance The AS/400's architecture may be proprietary, but ic is not limited.
The AS/400 Advanced Portable P03/l OS is an $8000 portable server. At the ocher end of the scale is the AS/400 Advanced 9406-535 2156-a 101-MFLOPS, $100,000 system. The same OS and applications run on che entire AS/400.
Management OS/400 has centralized management tools for its integrated sys
tems. OS/400 version 3 release 7 includes support for management from NT, Unix, and Macintosh clients. You can manage some functions from Windows clients with a drag-and-drop interface. OS/400, like Unix, has a control language that makes ic easy for OS/400 to support batch processing.
Development Tools such as
IBM VisualGen for 05/400 are high -leve l deve lopment tools . C+ +,Smalltalk, and other com pilers are also available.
Reliability 05/400's fault tol
erance is primari ly the result of third-party mirroring and repli cation products. IBM's Opti Connect, an expensive 220-Mbps fiber-optic link, lets you cluster up to 32 processors.
Security 05/400 provides the
standard gamut of security fea
tures, including password aging,
limits to the number of concurrent
users, and forced periodic pass word changes. It also has access
OS/400 is one of the fi rst IBM OSes with
control lists and auditing features. an integrated Java vi rtual machine.
1 30 BYTE FEBR UAR Y 1997
SPECIAL REPORT
Suite and Sour
Applications-server suites fall short of their promises
but still ease some integration headaches.
By Robert L. Hummel
ike their desktop counterparts, applications suites for servers give you 90 percent of the capabilities you would expect &om a cusrom application for a frac tion of the cost. And they integrate well with each other. Suites make sense. The availability of an applications-server suite may not yet be the pivotal factor in choosing a server OS, but suites are chang ing the way we evaluate OSes. A major server OS without a suite looks threadbare. H owever, a comprehensive suite, even if it comains only serviceable applications, can help appli cations-server end users be come satisfied customers. Many vendors, including Oracle, SCO, and SunSoft, offer applications-server suites. Here's a look at two leading packages, Micro soft's BackOffice and IBM's Software Servers.
Microsoft Backoffice
BackOffice is a set of app li
cations that are designed
for-and execute exclusive
ly on -NT Server. The suite
includes software for Web
services, a database, an e
mail system, and a system
management module. In
fact, Microsoft considers NT
Server itself robe a part of
BackOffice.
Choosing BackOffice
locks you into using NT Serv
er as your OS. But you can
still se lect Intel or RISC hard
ware, single-processor or symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) ma
.., chines, and a range of third·parry server and desktop applica
0 tions. The wide array of supported industry-standard APls lets
""<.:J
c:
you create interfaces between BackOffice and other platforms.
0
t>
Microsoft is releasing new and upgraded applications servers
5 :i
at a frenetic pace. The current release of BackO ffice, version 2.5,
~0 contains 10 applications by Microsoft'scoum. Fully half of these directly address Microsoft's Internet strategy, while the remain
~ der serve more traditional app lications.
Internet In formation Server (llS) supports Web, gopher, and
FTP publishing on the Internet or on a corporate intranet. Dis
tributed management is enabled, as well as the ISAPI interface for
development. System Management Server provides a framework
for managing corporare-intranet desktops.
The new Personalization System works with HS to allow you
to implement cusromized customer interactions. Also new is
Merchant Server, which is billed as software for selling products
over the Internet.
Designed for collabora
tive work environments,
FrontPage supports author
ing, scripting, and Web-site
management. The new Pro>..-y
Server provides secure Inter
net access to desktops with
in an organization. And the
Content Replication System
offers a way to move bulk data
securely across the Web.
Exchange Server estab
lishes the basic infrastructure
for BackOffice messaging,
collaboration, scheduling,
and groupware applications.
To support X.400, SMTP,
Multipurpose internet Mail
Extensions (MIME), and
MAP!, the current version
adds POP3, HTTP, Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML),
NNTP, LDAP , and Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL). End
user features, such as rules,
filtering, and off-line synchro
nization, are also enabled.
Conference Server, a server
for real -time commun ica
tions, supports shared white
board, char, and IP telephone app lications.
Of course, the traditional server applications are nor neglect
ed. Microsoft's SQL Server runs as a multiuser client/server re
lational database. For connection to IBM mainframes and AS/
400 systems, Systems Network Architecture (SNA) Server has
an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver for access to Dis
tributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) databases.
It also includes an FTP/AFTP gateway. Also included is the Sys
tems Management Server.
co11ti1111ed
FEBRUARY 19 97 BYT E 1 3 1
Special Report I Suite and Sour
Legacy Links
Luis Colon is a microsystems specialist at Communications Data Services (CDS), a company in Des Moines, Iowa, that ana lyzes people's buying habits in order to build marketing models and targeted mailing lists. Because CDS was previously a NetWare shop, Colon says he has evaluated both Microsoft's BackOffice and IBM's Software Servers. In his company's transaction-heavy environment, he says that performance and integration with a legacy database were his key evaluation criteria.
"We run DB2 under MVS, AS/400, and AIX," says Colon. "Although you can get [BackOffice) SOL Server connected to it, the
cost of i.ntegrating and maintaining an NT serv-
er was high enough to eliminate it from con sideration ."
Colon also says that some of the IBM products were more mature and scaled bet ter than their Microsoft equivalents. He se lected IBM's Communications Server for a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) appli cation based on its performance. Colon says his testing showed that improving NT's per formance was more dependent on all the pieces being Microsoft products. Commu nications Server, being somewhat stand alone, was a better solution.
Colon views suites as a nice concept, but he's not completely sold. "Having it all in one box is great, but once you get past the instal-
lation, the benefits of bundling start to dwin dle," he explains. He admits that suites have an advantage as far as licensing, price, and bug fixes are concerned. But he wouldn't use a mediocre application just because it was part of a suite.
Colon believes that neither IBM nor Mi· crosoft has got applications-server suites right yet. If Microsoft is going to make headway in the medium-to-large enterprise, BackOffice has to be available on something besides NT Server, he says. As for IBM, Colon has some advice: "If you're going to do integration, you should work on integrating the user interface to cut training costs ~ Each, it seems, could learn something from the other.
IBM Software Servers
In th e strictest sense o f the wo rd, IBM's Software Serve rs are not a suite. Although th ey're designed to work toge th er, they are indi vidual members o fa modul ar fa m ily of seven cl ient/serve r applicatio n-en abling products. Each server includes in stall ati on so ftware fo r vari ous cl ients as we ll as software d eve lo pm en t kits fo r develop ing o r tail o ring applicatio ns for each serve r. Because they ' re installed se p ara tel y, you can select th e parti cular appli cati o ns you need to fit a specific server with out loadin g unn ecessary so ftware. Later, if yo ur needs change, you can add other Softw are Serve rs.
IBM chose this modular app roac h in an attempt to ap peal to la rge and small netwo rk installatio ns alike. For big in fo r mation technology (IT) organizati ons that have large legacy systems, an applicati ons server might fun ction as an organizati on's back-end too l on which to build its cus to m application.
In-house integration ofdissimilar tools is tak en fo r gra nted, so the number of related products in th e box is unimpo r tant. Rath er th an being fo rced into pur chasing a closed suite in which th e com ponents work only with each oth er, many large IT grou ps prefer to have new prod ucts th at supp ort ope n interface sta n dards. Conversely, small companies might
Help for Integration Woes
For Whit Gregg, server suites may not be perfect, but they are strong medicine for integration headaches. "Having gone through.a decade of open systems, where we were integrating everything, preintegra tion of products represents a real benefit," he explains.
Gregg is director of MIS at Sanford C.
Bernstein &Co. (New York, NY), an invest
ment research and management firm. Part of the network he oversees hosts a sophis ticated document system that generates un ique customer reports via 60 Windows NT-based servers running throughout the firm . Microsoft's BackOffice is a key com ponent in that system.
As reports are requested, they're assem
bled with customer-.specific information, opinions, and market data. Gregg deploys pieces of BackOffice as required, and he's integrating more into the system. The data that feeds into the reports currenily comes from a Sybase database, but it's being moved to SOL Server.
His company chose BackOffice partly be· cause of Microsoft's size. Although his firm has occasionally dropped products and changed directions, Gregg isn't worried about it possibly happening again . "If I end up on the wrong side of a technology, I want to be w ith the majority in making that same mistake," he reasons. "The same logic that had us buying IBM in the 1970s has us buy ing Microsoft in the 1990s," he adds.
think th at integration is key, and to th em, an applicati ons-server suite doesn' t mean tools-it me:ans end-user applicati ons.
Lotus N otes, w ith its messaging and groupware capabiliti es, is a part of this server coll ection, as is Database Serve r, a relati o nal database manage ment system (RDBMS) th at enabl es you to create, up d ate, and co ntro l databases using SQ L. Intern et Connecti o n Server acts as a re pository for HTM L documents and gives access to existin g app licati o ns on C!CS, DB2, and Notes. It also prov ides fo r secure access and acts as a p roxy serve r.
Communications Serve r enables appli cati ons to comm uni cate with other work stati o ns an d with host co mpute r sys
tems.Transaction Serve r is based o n crcs.
It enab les three-tier, on-lin e tra nsacti o n processing (OLTP) app licati ons. Directory & Securi ty Server is based o n the Open Software Foundatio n's Distributed Com puting Environment (DCE) standard . Fi nally, th e Systems Manage ment Server ad dresses ne two r k ma nage ment, di saster reco very, security, and th e ability to re spond to change.
All seven products are ava ilable for the AIX and 05/2serve r platfor ms. The N otes, Database, and Intern et Connecti o n serv ers are avail ab le fo r Windows NT as well. Communicati o ns Se rve r for NT is now in beta . T he: Tra nsacti on, Directory & Se curi ty, and Systems Ma nage ment serve rs
m are sched ul ed forea rl y-1 997 de livery.
Robert L. /-1 11111111el (S111/iva11, N I-I) is a11 elec trical e11gi11eer, programmer, and co11s11/ta11t. You can reach him at rhummel @monad.net.
1 32 BYTE FEBRU A RY 1997
SPECIAL REPORT
Power to the Server
Getting the best per(ormance from your applications
server depends on three key components.
By Robert L. Hummel
couple complex SQL queries can bring the fastest serv er to its knees. So can compiling a large applicatio n. Or rend ering a 3- D im age. And when these CPU intensive tasks bring work to a standstill , your first reaction may be,"! need a faster processor." H owever, even 1/0-bound applications can draw CPU time by processing interrupts and page faults. The fact is, proces sor speed is on ly one of th ree essential components you need to consider when you' re designing you r se rver. In addition to considering how CPU-intensive your applica ti o n is, yo u need to as k: How 1/ 0 inte nsive is it? Then ask: How reliable do I need the system to be? RISC c hip s like Digital Equipment's Alpha and IBM's R10 000 have bee n ho lding the hi gh-perfor mance end of the appli ca tions server market. In Unix sho ps, x86-based systems have ge ne ra ll y been co n signed to file, prim, and light dury applications service. But today, the widespread avai l ability of symmetric multi p rocess in g (SMP) sys tems that are built around Intel's Pentium Pro chip is changing how x86 syste ms a re de ployed for running central ized applications. SMP is hardl y a new tech nol ogy. What is new are low cost SMPsystems from com pa nies like Co mpaq , Dell , a nd AL R t h at marry Win dows NTwirh the top members of Intel's CPU fa mil y. To see a performance increase, however, both the server OS and the app lication must supportSMP. Even then , performance does not typ ica ll y scale linearly with the number of p rocesso rs added (see the figure "Scalabi lity by N umber of CPUs"). Depend ing o n the app lication and the OS, a nvo-CPU x86 se rver will improve from about 70 to 80 percent over a single-CPU system. Upgrading from t\VO to four CPUs produces abou t th e sa me enhancement. RISC-based Unix systems often offer more lin ea r
sca ling up to six or eight CPUs. After that the system's perfor mance starts leveling off.
IUSC-based Unix systems may deliver more raw horsepow er-more CPUs, more RAM- than x86-based systems. The hard ware is usually more expensive, however. If yo u need o utright speed, consider a RISC/Unix combo. If yo u need to keep an eye on the budget, x86 servers look a lor better.
Adding processors seems like an easy way to gain performance. Buras with most fixes, it shifts the spotlight to other bottle necks. Additional processors increase performance only until the number of proces sors contending for memory access and bus space creates bottlen ec ks. Beyond four processors, for example, the memory throughput of a typ ica l Intel-ba se d se rver beco mes the limiting factor for scalability. The most common con figur ation for SMP applica tions servers employs a sep a rat e L2 cache for each processor. This disti nguish es them from multiple-CPU desktop systems that use a shared cache design. The Pentium Pro's internal non blocking L2 cache makes it significantly faster than an equivalent external -cache system, such as the Pentium. T he Pentium Pro with the 512-KB cache performs bet ter in benchmark tests than the 256-KB cache version . At a primitive level, scal
abi lity also means the ability to add components to a server sys tem, and that means counting buses and open slots. A Silicon G raphics Challenge S, for example, has three SCSIbuses, butnvo of them are d ifferential SCSI-which adds signi fica ntly to the cost of the peripherals you' ll buy.
For multiprocessor x86 applications servers, the PCI bus is now the high-performance standard and has replaced the EISA bus. But electrical limitations keep the number of slots that a PCI bus ca n support to four or fewer. To increase the number o f PCI
FEBRUARY 1 997 BYTE 133
I S pec i al Rep ort Pow e ' t o th e S e <V e '
adapter slots, system designers are :1dding
PC! bridges-circuits that connect distinct buses. Using a bridge, a second !'Cl bus can be added to the system. H ow the bridge is connected can have a sig11 ific 111t impact on th e pe rform a nce o f t he se rv e r. Fo r example, in a cascade or hiera rchi cal con fi gu ra tio n. th e seco nd !'Cl bus is co n nected (via a l'Cl-rn-PCIbridge) tO the first PC! bu s. In add ition tO its own load, th e first PC! bus must a lso transfer th e data load fo r the second bu . Th e effect is tO share the 132-MBps system bandwidt h of the first bus between both buses. Th e PC! bus may be bridged tO an EISA bus in a sim ilar fas hio n, furth er limiting th roughput.
Pee r bu s d es ign uses an a ltern a tive app roach, bridging the fir st and second PC! buses individuall y to the system bus.
Scalability by Number of CPUs
25,000
.
I
..
'
' Sill Ultra EntlflJlist 6000 ·. - · . 24 CPIJs
i 20,000 - -----
.5
:-..;. l
.. . . ·-. -Q .. e:f.i .... .
- ~m
~
15,000
Prol..iant 5000
10,000
Compaq 4CPUs ProUanl 2SOO ··
~ - ·- 2CPIJs · ··
· S... llltra Enter,rise 5000 12 CPUs
Proli<lll 2SOO .. .. · - - - · - Slllllltrabter,rise 4000
!
5,000
!C,P-U,/ 9
6CP1Js
. · - .. . . · Sill !lira EntlflJlist 3000
· 2CPIJs
.. ..
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Source: Transaction Processing Council TPC-Cbenchl1)arl<s
Number of CPUs
Because data can fl ow ind ependentl y to eith er bus, tota l system l/0 can go <1S hi gh
A Sun SPARC system offers more linear scaling than a
as 264 MBps. T his is the bctrer alterna
Compaq Proliant for small numbers of CPUs.
tive for high-per form ance serve rs.
Reliability and Availability
ti me to minimize the period wh en services cost-e ffective approach would be to cast are not de livered to users. Better systems the backup serve r in the ro le ofutil ity serv
Downtime. It's the bane of every IT man such as lBM's AS/400 will make the switch er, where it could run printer, database,
age r's existence . Fault- to lerant so lu tions transpa rentl y, all owing users to continue or commu nicati o ns se rvices while in its
generall y fa ll into two categorit:s depend wo rk w it hout losing netwo rk co nnec standby mode . In the event of a fa ilure,
ing on their level of protection.Server reli tio ns. Any system tha t dup licares d ata th e standb y se rver wo uld auto maticall y
abilitysolutio ns focus 011 mak ing any si n between the primary and the sta ndby serv take o ve r th e functio ns of t he primary
gle se rve r as fa ult- to lerant as possib le, er should be transaction-based. Any data server in ~i dditi o n to the uti li ty services.
using appro:tc hes such as redund ant pow co mm itt e d to disk at th e tim e of t he
The final measure of anysystem is ven
er supplies and RAID techno logy.
crash should be available on the stand by do r support. Keeping your serve r o perat
ing may be crucial. But is it as imp ortant
Reliability vs. Downtime
to your suppli er l Be sure you can ge t ser vice and suppo rt at the level yo u require
cg
!;:; 90.00'.4
0.
0
99.00'.4
99.90%
l7days
I
8.8hours
aro und the cloc k o r aro und th e wo rld. Wh ich system provides th e best per
forma nce and resil ience? Ri ght now, the scales tip toward RISC/Uni x systems and the AS/400 with th eir better-de ve lo ped clustering and SM Ptechnologies. An x86
I
g 99.99% 53 ninutes
I
0
5 Downtime per year (Daysi
based SM!' system running \X'indows NT provides solid perfo rm ance at a relative ly reasonable price, but there are few SMP systems tha t have mo re than fo ur CPUs, and th e third-pa rty cluste ring techno lo
90 percent reliability means you're down four days a month;
gy is still an unkn o wn. Befo re yo u purchase your hard wa re,
99.99 percent reliabil ity means you're down four minutes a month.
yo u should buy or rem a rest svstem and assess the perfor mance ofvour applic ition
Hi gh-ava ilabil ity so lut io ns ad d ress se rver. Fail over mu st be aurn mati c and running o n it-how much RAM it needs,
reliabi lity at the serve r level. foi lover, o ne wo rk with o ut requiri ng manu a l mo ni how well it scales across multiple CPUs, and
aspect of clustering, ensures that if th e pri tor ing o r inte rve nt ion . It sh o ul d no t so o n . Th en yo u' ll be able to make an
mary serve r is lost, a standb y serve r takes requi re that the servers be identica l.
in fo rmed decision about how to balance
over. After the problem se rver is repaired,
You ca n set up your standb y server ro price and perfo rmance. III
th e system sho uld provide a simpl e way ac t as a pass ive backup mac hin e o nly. It
to bring it back into the netwo rk .
wo uld moni to r your primary se rve r and Robert L. Humm el is1111 electrical e11gi11eer, pro
Fault-tol erant so lutio ns shoul d sati sfy receive data continuously but perfo rm no gra111 111cr, and co11s11lta11t. Yo11 ca11 reach hi111 at
seve ral criteri a. They must wo rk in real ot her fun ctions on your network. A more rhummel @monad.net.
13 4 BY T E F EBR U ARY 1997
With so many web sites popping up today, its hard to know which ones Net the best
results . Especially if you're an advertiser looking to reach key Information Technology prospects.
Fortunately. the answer is close at hand. Its called The BYTE Site. and more computing
influencers worldwide call it "home" than just about any address on the Web.
The BYTE Site is the online version of BYTE magazine, the worldwide technical authority
for computing experts. That means its chockfull of insights and information about the IT market
from products to applications to trends. On The BYTE Site, visitors can instantly access every BYTE
article published since 1993 through the BYTE Archive. Read all about the newest products and
technologies in our Virtual Press Room. Share viewpoints with BYTE editors worldwide by on-site
Email. Even download industry standard CPU test suites from our BYTEMarks benchmark seNice.
With features like these, its no wonder The BYTE Site logged nearly 150,000 visits this
:- past January alone, and posted an overall repeat visit rate of 4 I%. Not surprisingly, its become
=~ .~~ ~~ VPR 't ~~
.
,
". .;
.q
.
.. ·1
· .
I
equally popular among advertisers . Thats because
The Byte Site offers such interactive marketing options as hot-linked AD-Action buttons to showcase
product information. catalog listings and data sheets. Plus our Virtual Press Room where users can
access the latest press releases from your company.
To learn more about The BYTE Site, call John Griffin, VP/Publ isher at 603.924.2663. Or
find him on The BYTE Site at http://www.byte.com. You'll discover reaching computing influencers
"
worldwide is easy once you know w here they live.
~
A Division ofTheMcGraw-HiUCompanies
THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY FOR COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY.
the UNIVERSAL
IAGNOSTI S JODLKIT;.
Loop-back Plugs9-pin serial, 25-pin serial and 25-pin parallel plugs, used for external VO port testing.
· Get the best. most accurate Iu11-sustem diagnostics pac11age tor all uour problem PCs.
· Low-Leuel Formats all hard drlues lncludlng IDES. Allows re1oca11on of rracll o.
· worlls with anu PC regardless Of 0/S: DOS, Windows 95 &nT.
01s2. Unix. nouen. etc.
2 Micro-Scope floppy disks containing the best PC diagnostic tools on the market. Comes witl1 both 3.5" and 5.25" disks to work \\~th any PC.
Fullu D/S Independent
diagnostic sonware...
Cal/for 11/1gradepricing &
complete newfeatures list!
MICRO-SCOPE Universal Computer Diagnostics was developed to satis~· the exp:mding need for accurate system diagnosis in the rapidly growing desktop computer market Pallcmcd after super-mini and mainframe diagnostic routines, MICRO-SCOPE runs independently of any standard operating system, and is therefore al home on any machine in 1he Imel world. Speed, ease-of-use, and razor sharp ACCURACY arc a fewof the ;1dvan1agcs that arise from this system independence. Jerry PourncHe awarded MICRO-SCOPE & POST-PROBE the User's Choice Award in the 1ay 1994 issue of B11e Magazine, saying: ·· You name it. this tests it. If )OU maintain PCs you 'll love it."
+ LOW-LEVEL FORMAT- Performs low-level format on all hard drives
including IDE drives. + TRUE HARDWARE DIAGNOSfICS--Accuralc testing
of CPU, IRQ's, DMA's, memory, hard drives, floppy drives, video card~. etc.
+ RELOCATES TRACK 0 on hard drives that support relocation . + IRQ
CHECK-Talks directly to hardware and shows 1/0 add ress and IRQ of
devices that respond. + O/S I DEPENDENT-Does not rely on O/S for
diagnostics. Talks to PC at hardware lcrcl. All tests are fuU function regardl ess
of O/S (i. e. Wi ndows, ~ovell , UNIX, O/S2) . + IRQ DISPLAY-Show bits
enabled in IRQ chip for finding cards that arc software driven (Netwo rk, Sound
Card, etc.) . + MEMORY DISPl.AY-Displays any physical bit of memo ry
under I MB. Ve ry useful for determining memory connicls and available
memOI)' space. + AND MUCH MORE .. .We don't have enough space here for
evel)1hing this software can do!
Govt. Orders: NSN-7030-01-421-6459
2aaa IVllCAO ,..
cannow tor special Pricing
1-800-86Q-8008
\
.. ...
·. '.
\ \
·. ·
ML·,u·°',r~·:;::
4\a·M \.\\ l'
", ·,\t\· v<..
f f tt ~~-~ ............... · ,..\
·
·· ·'a·°f/'"t~'I'\'-"4""''·~~-4"·w'\
VI e\ Vl·h
\
·
·
u ..
°'..,.,·· \ ·'-\,.a\l\··" a...
~ f'I-:, ,
· ~~:::~~"~~ oeari.oo\ · ·' '
Complete Micro-Scope l\tanuaJ- easy to follow testing procedures and detailed error code descriptions. See the features li st at left to view some of the incredible wealth of testing capabilities this progran1 contains.
100% accurate results...
- - c_ -
·
-
-
-
.,,,.
--~..,_ -~-'--J -- - -- --
-- ,R __ ..=-
.,
Tri-State Logic Probe-works with Post-Probe and enables testing down to inclividual chip level.
Durable Zip-up Leatherette
Carrying Case-all your tools
in one organized easy to carry
toolkit.
~ Optional Tutorial and PC Trouble Shooting Videos-Call for titles and current prices. Awealtl1 of technical help at your fingertips.
Post-Probe Diagnostic Card when Post-Probe detects an error, a 2 cligit BIOS code will clisplay on t!Je card telling you exactly what's wrong wit!J your PC. 100%com patible with all ISA, EISA, Compaq and Micro-Channel PCs.
Micro-Channel Adapter Card (behind Post-Probe card) allows Post Probe to be used witl1 Micro-Channel equipped computers.
Extensive Post-Probe Manual-exliaustively complete, containing BIOS error codes for most PCs on tl1e market. Look up the 2-cligit error code in this m:urnal and instantly
ctiagnose your PC's problem. Also contains common chip cliagrams, descriptions :md complete troubleshooting tips.
\ \
J~~;~;:M:¥'~ R:~
- - * /,/ ~¥/J~
-
~"?-~
/ /_
;' /
SERVICE NEWS
J·ttODUCT OF nil!: MOl'ITtl
PC won't boot uo? Find out wnu
last with our un1Uersa1 POST card...
" 'T'his is the only card that will function in every system on the market. The
l documentation is extensive, and not only covers the expected POST
Codes for different BIOS versions, but also includes a detailed reference to the bus signals monitored by the card. " -Scott Mueller from his globally recognized book, 'Upgradi11g & Repairi11g PCs, Seco11d Edttio11'
+ Includes pads for voluneter to attach for actual voltage testing under load. + 4 LEDs monitor +Svdc -5vdc +12vdc -12vdc. + Monitors Hi & Lo clock and OSC cycles to distinguish between clock chip or crystal failure. + Monitors VO Write :md VO Read to distinguish between write and read errors. + Accurately monitors progress of POST for computers wilho11t POST codes. + Reads POST codes from any IBM or compatible that emiL~ POST codes. ISNEISNMCA. + Compatihle with Micro Ch;mnel computers. + Dip switch allows easy selec tion of VO ports to read. + Includes TRI-SfATE LOGIC PROBE to detenrtine acn1al chip failures. + Manual includes chip layouts and detailed POST proce dures for all major BIOSs. + AND MUCH MORE ... call for more details.
Govt. Orders: NSN-7025-01 -421-6467
micro 2000, Inc. Makers ofProfessional PC Diagnostic Tools
1100 East Broadway, Suite 30 1, Glendale, California, CSA 91205
Toll Free: 800/864-8008 ·Phone: 818/547-0 125 ·Fax: 818/547-0397
Web Site: http://www.micro2000.com
International Orders please call:
Micro 2000 Australia... .... .......61-42-574- 144 Micro 2000 UK ............ ...... .44 -1462-483-483 Micro 2000 Amsterdam ....... .3 1-206-384-433
Micro 2000 Germany............49-69-420-8278
caaa IVllCAO
IM
Coprrlih1 O 1996 Micro 2000, Inc. All Rights Ktsuw d.
Circle 219 on Inquiry Card.
Imagine if you could take all of your fom1s-based data and inst:muysend it to your database-no manual data entry, no delays. Stop imagining:md do it today 1~ith TELEfi1r111, the most accurate and affordable fom1s
AUTOMATED DATA ENTRY.
processing software available.
'llll.Eform has the power, speed and accuracy you need to automaticallycollect data fromscmined or f:Lxed
in forms. Using familiar conununications--paper and pen, fax machines mid modcms-TELE/om1 re-Jds
ACCURACY
FROM A TO Z.
hand-printed, typed :md filled-in data.
· E:'!I
t" u n.11tn ' -'·' ' tH.IUI
·
t J:·7, '!,!:!.'.._
· ·-~~~< " I. I I ''
Aj
- - =. - - READS MACHINE
PRINT TEXT {OCR)
L·, : · ....... '·."
i.~ ': ..., ....
.L..~ ..... ,, I ,.·...
~ .. : .'"It'"..!'....,-_:..
I '':...:..:.·
I ~;1
l("
I ·r ·.; ), ' ' :· ·--~ · ( ···"' ·'
READS HAND PRINT--- ===:: , · , ,. " TEXT {ICR)
READS OPTICAL MARK RECOGNITION ENTRIES {OMR)
"I,........
1
I·~: . '
~-"1 .. :. ) ' r,
-
·~i"l
READS BARCODES
Eliminating dau entry means your st:iff111ll be free for more productive activities. Haiing data entered in seconds means increased producti1ity-you'II work smarter, capture more data, faster and with less effort.
Thousm1ds of companies use TELE/on11 to make their businesses more effi cient.join u1cm by calling800-659-8755 today.
For more infom1ation, 1isit Cardiff Software's Web site: http:www.cardiffsw.com.
REGISTRATION FORMS. SALES ORDERS. CLAIMS. TIME CARDS, SURVEYS AND MORE.
Cardiff~~(·Software·
·
PHO~'E: 6 t9-752-;WO FAX: 6t 9-752-5222
138 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Circle 218 on Inquiry C ard.
Suddenly, everybody's switching.
Now with mouse control and password security!
OSCAR's user-definable system nomenclature lets you name servers anything you want, for a more intuitive sense of what's happening where.
View 8 systems · or use the mouse to scroll down to see up to 100*!
Get cross-platform keyboard, mouse and
monitor switching on-screen-instantly!
Introducing OSCAK"', the industry's first
terms. Now, you can input system names that
on-screen menu system offered on all switching
make sense to you right on the screen. So you
systems from Apex PC Solutions, Inc.
can swi tch platforms and applications at the
OSCAR (On-Screen Configuration &
stroke of a key or click of your mouse.
Activity Reporting) allows you to select and
control all the systems in your data
Discover control you can count on.
center with a simple click of the
OSCAR firmware is installed in
mouse. Using a single keyboard,
all Apex PC Solutions' products.
mouse and monitor, OSCAR
With Apex's new password
lets you access a wide range of With mouse control, OSCAR offers security, OSCAR adds one more
hardware such as RS-6000,
switching at your fingertips. level of protection to your data
Macintosh®, SUN®and HP
applications.
9000. Then quickly view current
information and direct system connections.
Discover why everybody's switching to
Apex PC Solutions, Inc. Call us today
See it all - just the way you waut.
1-800-861-5858 or (206) 402-9393.
OSCAR's intuitive, menu-driven commands
*when using SunDial ,..,,
rake you wherever you want to go, in your
http://www.apexpc.com
Innovation &
Technology
by Design APEX'
l'CSOLllnONS
20031 142nd Ave. NE · Woodinville, WA 98072 · (206) 402-9393 · e-mail address: sales@pcsal.cam
OSCA~ and SunDial are trademarks of Apex PC Solutions, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respellive holders.
E-Mail Software
The Web 's most popular e-mail client has a new, 32-bit Windows client and much-enhanced filtering options. By Steven}. Vaughan-Nichols
Eudorable Web Mail
ualcomm 's latest Internet e mail client, Eudora Pro 3.0 for \Vindows, deliv ers a new, 32- bit m:iil cli ent fo r Win dows 95 or T and a 16-bit version for Windows '. l. Plus, it make s th e Wintel offeri ngs comparable ro the Macintosh upgrade released last sum111 cr. Eudora h::is long been rhe source for robust, sol id e-mai l clients, but this release adds extra fe:irures and poli h. If you don 't agree it's worth $89 ($69 if yo u bu y direct on th e Web), you can download a "light" ve rsion for nothing. This upgrade docs a good job of mak ing POP/SMTP mail more manage::ib le, adding support for Microsoft Exchange M/\P I messages as well as the abil ity ro ret rieve e-mail from multipl e POP accounts. Qualcom111 ha s enhanced Eudora's m::iil-hanclling filter for grea ter fl ex ibility in sorting incoming messages ro different mailb oxes, automatically responding ro messages or senders, even dumping unwanted mail directly in the trash ca n. The Eud ora addre ·s book has be en enhanced, addin g field s for fax and phone numbers. Qualcom111 hasalso improved the program · handling of mail list gro up . The mail filt ering sys tem is a god send to anyone wh o spends much of the
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
* ** *
* * * * IMPLEMENTATION
ll
PERFORMANCE
* * **
d:i y trying to swim ro the sur face of thee mail flood. Choose the Filter option from the Tools menu and you ca n set rul es for scanning incoming mail with up to two cond iti ons in any part of ::i mess age's header or body. You c::in se lect five dif ferent actions fo r each message, includ ing rossing the message inro rhc rr::ish, sorring ::i 111ail li st item inro irs own fold-
Choosing the default file-attachment protocol is only one of many Eudora Pro options.
er, o r using ::i for m lerrer to respond auto maticall y ro requests. For example, you c::in create one filter rhar searches fo r the word " help " in message bodie s, th en aurorcspo nd wirh a message th at says help is on the way. As e-mail rule sys tem s go, ir' i111pre sive.
cw in 3.0 are templates called sta ti onery fi les, use ful for sending rhe s::ime message over and over. Sending price li sts, directi ons, or any canned respon e is ca y with rhc e templates. Also new is the Extended Messaging Service Appli c:uio n Programming Interface (EMSA PI), which can upporr e-mail cli em plug-in mod ul e rhar ma y evemually do thi ngs lik e encrypt or decrypt plain tex t mes sages, generare digital signatures fo r yo ur own me s:iges or verify digitall y signed mes ages, run compression routines, or ana lyze message conrenr. Unforrunarely,
though EMSAPI sounds impressive, on ly Qualcomm supports rhi s propri eta ry standard at rhc moment, and onl y with very simple rex r- fo rmarring plug-ins.
Thar Eudora is a robu r, bug-free pro· gram should nor be surprising consider ing Qu alcomm's claimed 10 million users; if that number is accurate, Eudora is the most popular Internet e- m:iil cliem on rhe planer. I fo und rhe freewarc ver sion ro have all rh e fcaru re I ne ed . If yo u wanr a 32-bit mail appl ication with powerful filterin g function , a co nfig urable toolbar, the ability ro handle e-mail from more rhan one POP account, an en hanced address book, and more, rhen Eudora Pro 3.0 is an cxce llem choice. Ill
Steven J. \la11gha11- ic/10/s is a writer who (re·
q11e11tlycovers /11tem et-related issues. Yo11 et111 reach him at sjvn @vna1.com.
140 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
*** * *
Out standing
** * ****Very Good *** Good
Fair
Po or
Want the fastest drive on the block? Check out one of these screamers. By Jacqueline Emigh
All 12X CD-ROM Drives Are Not Equal
n the beginning, the CD-ROM ran at 1X speed, which begat lX, then 4X, and on and on. The fastest drives you can buy right now are 12X screamers, which sat isfy better than ever the high through put speeds of multimedia and networked CD-ROM applications. Jµst a couple of years ago, the best (4X) drives transferred data at 600 KBps. The new 12X drives from such CD-ROM kingpins as Mitsu mi, Pioneer, Plextor, and Toshiba-can transfer data as fast as 1.8 MBps. How ever, if you 've seen just one of these new 12X drives, you haven't necessarily seen them all.
Going Around in Circles
Until quite recently, all CD-ROM drives were based on a technology called con stant linear velocity (CLY) . Like the selec tions on a music cassette, the files on a CD-ROM drive are laid down one after another, ultimately forming a spiral. And, like recorded tape, CLY keeps the record ed data moving past the reading head at a constant speed, thus easily maintaining a fixed data-transfer rate.
To make this happen, though , the drive must spin the disc faster as it reads tracks that are located closer to the cen ter, because the inner tracks are short er and contain less data than the outer tracks-much as a slice of pie is narrow er at the center than at the outer crust. (BYTE readers with long memories will remember floppy disk drives that also used CLY.)
While CLY simplifies data handling, it complicates the physical operation of a drive. As drive speeds push higher, there comes a point where the ever-increasing rotational speed causes its own problems, such as vibration . While it' s nor a factor at lower rotation rates, vibration can be problematic at higher speeds with un balanced CDs and some OEM casings; in
TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTAT.ION PERFORMANCE
** ** * ** *
* * * *
TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION PERFORMANCE
* *
* *
* *
* *
* * * *
some situations, the disc rattles in the drive and can cause undue wear or even drive breakage.
Most CD-ROM drive vendors are opt ing for a solution that combines CLY with another approach, constant angular ve locity (CAY), which uses a steady spin speed analogous to that ofa phonograph record. CAY is helpful in ac hieving high performance at lower spin rates and for minimizing vibration.
Previously adopted by vendors of la
z4 ·
· \
~
* * * *
IMPLEMENTATION
* * *
PERFORMANCE
*
IMPLEMENTATION PERFORMANCE
* * * * *
serdisc players from hard drive technol ogy, CAV relies on a variable data trans fer rate, as opposed to the fixed rate of CLV. Data access can be faster, too, be cause it isn't necessary for the motor to speed up or slow down to change its rota tional rate.
Comparing access times isn ' t easy, though, because different companies use different measurements. Access times are rated in two different ways: by how long it takes the read head to move a speci-
* * * * * Outstanding
****Very Good ***Good **Fair *Poor
FEBRUARY 1 99 7 BYTE 1 41
Comparison All 1 2X CD -ROM Drives Are Not Equal
fied distance aero s the disc, and by how long it ta kes the head to ac tuall y read data from its locatio n on th e disc. The sec ond rype of raring, called access time with late11cy, is va riously referred to as "ran dom seek time" o r "average rand om access rime" by vendors.
Is access time important? The answer depends on yo ur particular app lication .
CD·ROMF
SCSl-2 ATAPI Pure CLV/ Caddy Tray SCAM Buffer
CLV CAV
size(KB)
v v Toshiba
v v v v 256
v v Pioneer
v
v
128
Mitsumi
v V'
V' N/A 256
v Plextor v v
v v v 512
Typical access tlme(ms)
125 N/A 130 110
Ra ndo m seek rim e can be a significant
V'= yes; N/A=not applicable.
factor in app li ca ri o ns such as computer
games, where th e head is moving con
stantly abour th e disc. Access time is not on how it's imple mented, a 128 -KB buffer date vari able speeds- a different type than
importa nt, though, if all you' re doing is can be more efficient than a 25 6-KBbuffer, what's used in CAY units.
copying a program or an OS to the hard for example.
drive. In this type of applicatio n, the head
One imporrant difference betwee n the
reads data in a stead y strea m.
lnterface Matters
The type of interface used is another dif fer entiato r between drives. De pire th eir advantages for cross-platform and multi
nvo types of interfaces (as far as CD-ROM drives are concerned) is that SCSI drives re quire considerably fewer CPU cycles tha n IDE drives do, because much of th e address processing and data dispatch happens on th e SCSI board. This difference is irrele
ADXfANTAGES:
+ First scs1,212X drive
+SCAM for easy setup
DISADVANTAGE: - Middling !!?Plication performance
peripheral conn ectiviry, SCSI implemen vant for many applica ti o ns, but it can be
tations can be more complicated to install significant for multimedia and game CDs,
T (especial ly on Wintel machines) than drives where the data requires lots of processing
with IDE interfaces. To ease this process, as it's read in from the drive. Displaying
oshiba's first two entri es in th e 12X are n a, th e XM-5 701B SCSI a nd th e
vendors of SCSIdrives are adoptin g a tech a n MPEG-encoded video sequ e nce is a n XM-5702B ATAPI (enhanced IDE) drives,
nology that is known as SCSI Configura exa mple. With such a pplica tion s, SCSI typify th e rising industry tr end to ward
tion AutoMagica ll y (SCAM).
drives shou ld show noticea bly sna ppier combin ing CLY and CAY. Under Toshiba's
Another trait of drives with SCSI con performa nce.
Partial Constant Angular Velociry (PCAY)
nectors: The larger th e memory buffer, the
Other components in the complex CD model for its 12X drives, CAY is used for
better th e throu ghput. Among the con ROM driv e mec ha ni sm that vendors try reading the inner portion of the disc, and
temp orary crop of hi gh-speed 12X drives, to kee p " up to speed " include th e motor, CLV is used for th e o uter tracks.
buffers range from 128 KB up to 512 KB. or se rvo mechanism; the co ntroller chip;
Like o th er driv es imp lementing CLY,
Impl e me ntat io n, however, can be eve n lase r read-ahead; th e pickup read head; th e Toshiba internal dri ves atta in a sus
more important to dri ve performance than the read-ahead buffer; a nd firmware. CLV tained data transfer rate up to 1.8 MBps o n
the ty pe of technology used . Depending drives requ ire a motor tharcan acco mmo the outer tracks. Average random-access
rime is 125 milliseconds. Both drives use a
CD Yach ll for W"mdows 95 Test Results
variable-speed playback system designed to reduce random-access tim es by allow
I'.
: ·
ing the drive ro read data upon seek com pletion, before the disc reaches standard
Mltsuml
FX·120T IE.lDEI
I
Pio_neer
DR-444 IEIDEJ
I
Plextor 12PleX
PX-12CSI ISCSIJ
11
Toshiba
Dl'S-7018 ISCSll
I
rotational speeds. Toshiba's XM-570 IB is th e first 12X
driv e to be outfitted with a SCS I-2 connec tor. For easier SCSI co nnection to a PC or a Mac, the XM-570IB comes w ith SCAM Leve l 2 so fnvarc.
The Toshiba drives ca n be mounted
0 20 40 60 80 lOO
Index
D · Mulllmedla Appllcatlon
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Miiiiseconds
l!!!I Random Acc:eu
eith er ho rizonta ll y or vertically within a PC or a Mac. Both 1.98-pound internal drive come sta ndard with a tray-loading disc mechanism; an emergency eject but
Multimedia and Appllcatton Indexes are weighted Indexes !>ased on throughput. CPU utilization, and l'l!ndom
access time. Tests were run with WlndoWs 95 supplementary CD·llOM caching and read-ahead set at maximum
li!'lels for best performance.
ton; and a " medi a-re moval prevention" feature for making sure the disc does not eject during read operati o ns. The XM
Random Access was tested with minimal Windows 95 caching and read-ahead to obtain lhe best times.
57018 SCSI unit is priced a t $195; the XM
CO Tach 1.1 forWindows 95 Is a product ofTestaCO Labs, (408) 944-9860.
5702B ATAPI costs $165. Tos hiba is a lso
AIJ teStS were run on a 200-MHz Gateway 2000 PS-200 Pentium system with 16 MB of RAM.
pl anning to offer an external SCSI-2 mod
el, the TXM-5701.
co11ti1111ed
142 BYTE FEBRUARY 19 9 7
WHO DO YOU TRUST WITH THE TRANSM ISSION
in your Teutonic sports coupe?
An expert mechanic or Ed from the corner Gulf station.
Your gall bladder?
A surgeon or some guy fresh from medical school.
Hmm . Tough choice.
Now imagine you're a business trying to cope in today's
"ever-so-wired" world. Sure, you know the problems and
opportunities. But which IT products offer the best
solutions is Greek to you.
Once again, an expert is called for.
So you get him in your office (he works for you, after
all) and say, "Hey, this convergence of computing and
communications thing is driving me nuts. You're the
technology expert, find me some answers."
And he comes back a month or so later with all the
right solutions and products. And you say, "How did
you do that so fast?"
And the expert says, "BYTE."
And you wonder how much he knows about transmissions.
v
Nearly one million computing experts worldwide read BYTE magazine every month. Because only BYTE delivers the global coverage and technical insights that illuminate Information Technology from problem through solution. That makes us something of an authority on the subject. And you something of a genius when you advertise in BYTE. For more inform ati on, ca ll John Griffin, VP/ Publi sher at 603 .92 4. 2663. Or co ntact us at http ://www.byte.com
THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY FOR COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY.
Comparison All 1 2X CD-R O M Drives Are Not Equal
For most people, CD performance is measured in X's. What's an X, you ask, and why? In CD ROMese, 1X refers to the original CD-ROM drives, which could transfer data at 150 KBps. Then we got doub le-speed drives, abbreviated as 2X, which spun twice as fast as the 1Xde vices. As drive rotational and data transfer speeds increased, th e_X nomenclature stuck, so we now have 12X drives, and l 6X units will be out soon. Theoretically, this Xrating means that a 12X drive spins 12 times as fast as 1Xunits and transfers data at 1.8 MBps.
The 12X drives are capable ofoperating at up to l 2X rotational rates, but strictly speak ing, there's no such thing as a "pur "12X drive. In the real world, 12X CD- ROM drives attain these speeds only under optimum conditions. Even a CLV drive will fall back from 12X to 8X and subsequently to 4X and 1X-if disc imperfections get in th e, way of read performance.
One advantage of CAV is that fall back to slower speeds tends to occur in much smaller increments. This keeps the data transfer rate close to its 1.8-MBps maxim um.
Acknowledging this situation, some vendors are now beginning to move beyond simp le min ded terminology. They arc now describing spin rates in terms of ranges or averages.
Despite its CLV design, the 12PleX pro vides a fast random-access time of 105 ms. Software uriliries bundled with the drive let you adjust the default 2-minute spin down time for fl exible data-access times.
Th e utilities also include audio contro ls plus an audio-capture tool, which allows yo u to quickl y save standard audio CDs to the hard disk as WAV files. For more rap id audio/video playback, Plextor's 12PleX drive uses a SCAM-compliant fast SCSIcon nector, plus a room y 512-KB disc buffer.
Priced at $399 for the caddy version and $349 for the new interna l tray version, th e 12P leX kits incl ud e a bus-mastering SCSI host ada pter.
+.Vibration sensa~to coptrol mode 'j, lili~hestthroughpul, lowest access time
Pioneer was the first company to com bi ne CLV and CAV technologies in its earli er 8X drive. With its new DR-444 and DR-466 SCSI 12X internal drives, the com pany adds two new twists: a vibration sen so r attached to the on-board embedded controller, and a new CLV/CAV switching mode, controlled by the drive's firmware.
\Vhen the vibratio n sensor detects a vi
DR-444 Price not established Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc. Long Beach, CA
(800) 444-6784
(310) 952- 2111
fax: (310) 952-2990
http ://www.pion ee rusa .com Circle 1059 on Inquiry Card.
12PlcX $399 for caddy version; $349 for internal tray version Plextor Corp. Santa Cla ra, CA
(408) 980-1838
fax: (406) 966-1010
http://www.plcxtor
.com
Circle 1062
on Inquiry Card.
FX-120T
$249
Mitsumi Electronics Corp. Irving, TX
(214) 550-7300
fax: (2 14) 550-7424
http://www.mitsumi
.com
Circle 1061 on Inquiry Card.
XM-57018
$195
Toshiba America
Information Systems,
Inc.
Irvine, CA
(714) 457-0777
http ://www.toshiba
.com
Circle 1060
on Inquiry Card.
bration level of over4 g's, the dri ve switch es from CLY to CLV/CAV mode, slowing the disc's rotational speed.The drive th en gra dua lly speeds up until it reaches the CLY threshold, where it maintains a con stant rotational rate unless it encounters high vibrati on agai n. OEMs can set the vi bration leve l to 2.2 g's. Also new is a red e signed VLSI chip set, intended to provide rrue CLV throughput in CLV mode.
Both drives transfer data at 1800 KBps under CLV, w ith a stated average ran do m seek time of 80 ms in "combination mode," and a data-access time of 100 ms. Pricing was not ava ilable at p ress time.
J\_DVAN TAGES:
+Available in tray and caddy versions
'. + 512-KB buffer DI SADVANTAG E:
-:_Expensive
W ith its new 12PleX drive, Plex tor is sticking with traditiona l end-to end CLV. The theory is that it's better to offer a sustained data transfer rate for higb throughput networked and video stream ing app lications- since most CD applica ti ons don'tcontain enough data to fill the di sc anyway and, consequently, to benefit from combined CLV/CAV tec hnology.
Ava ilab le in both internal and exter na l tray-loading a nd cadd y-loadin g ver sions, Plextor's 12X CD-ROM drive also includes a feature called auromatic audio alignment, for no-skip audio playback.
+ Relatively inexpensive +'Bur:idled with two ODs
DISADVANTAGE:
- Slowe~! performer
Mitsumi 's new FX-120 Series of 12X CD -ROMs also use CLV tec hnol ogy from end to encl. But th at will change when its next drive generation arrives later this yea r, with rated speeds of 16X.
The Mitsumi 12X internal ATAPI IDE drive operates at a sustained data transfer rate of 1800 KB ps, with a reported data access time of 130 ms. The internal mem ory buffer has a capaci ty of 256 KB.
The FX-120 Series also fea tures a par ented tray design th at holds the CD while permitting the drive to operate either hor izo ntall y or ve rtically. Th e $249 drive is bundled with two CD-ROM discs from Mi crosoft: the Internet Explorer Web brows er and Games for Windows 95.
For its 16X drives, Mitsumi plans to use a combined CLV/CAVapproach. Much like Toshiba's 12X design, Mitsumi's 16X strat egy calls fo r CAV on the inner tracks and CLV on the outer tracks.
Our BYTEBest pick is the Pioneer DR 444. It has the highest throughput and low est random-access time, giving it th e best app lication sco re on the CD Tach test. Plus, we were impressed with its switched solu ti on to rh e CLV vibration problem, and we expect its high CPU utilizatio n to drop in the SCS I version . liJ
jacq11eli11e Emigh (jemigh @ix. netcom .com) is a (rcela11ce writer based in Boston.
144 BYTE FEBRUARY 19 97
w ·e b upd ate s0 ft ware ~
Marimba's Castanet applies a new broadcasting paradigm to Web-based publishing and software distribution. By Pete Loshin
Tune In, Turn On the Web
hange is th e only constanr in th e wo rl d of th e Inte rn et. Keeping up with it is tedious
liii/iiitlill and inco nven ient; whether
yo u' re after news or th e latest browser release, downloading rh e necessary fil es and pages repeatedl y can get tiresome. Marimba, a start-up company run by for mer members ofSun'sJava development ream, may have the least-effort answe r for keepi ng current with Web updates. A unique arc hitecture embodied in Ma rimba's new Castaner Software Distribu tion System co mbines server " push" a nd brow er "pull " to get around the Web's growing bandwidth problems. The result is fast, efficient distribution o fWeb pages and J ava programs.
Castanet borrows somewhat from th e cab le TV modeL With TV, yo u need a cable box th at's feel by a transmitter, yo u sign up to receive specific chan nels of pro gramm ing, and you rune in whenever you wanr. With Castanet, instead of a cable box you use th e free Castaner tuner client. On th e serve r side, a Casta ner transmit ter delivers the information (software for a repeater and proxy server are ex pected to be ava ilable by the rime this review sees print). The channels deli ver Java appl ets, app licatio ns, or Web pages, and you re ceive on ly th ose you've subscrib ed to.
RATINGS
TECHNOLOGY
** ** ** ** * IMPLEMENTATION
PERFORMANCE
Mac versio ns of all products will eve n tuall y join those for Windows 95 a nd NT a nd Solaris.
Using beta vers io ns of the Casta ner transmitter and Bongo, Marimba'schan nel-building too l, I brought up a simple chann el in less than an hour.Th e Castaner tuner is abou t as easy rouse as an aver age stereo system. Dov.mloacl and install
Automatic upda(es can be made:.
[An_y T_ifl'le
Ef
Frequency of automatic updates:
IAt most once an hour
G'
As often as needed
At most ever_y 15min
tfot At most ever_y 30min
sefe At most once an hour At most once a dav
Users configure the Castanet tuner to update Castanet channels as often (or as rarely) as desired.
ir, fill our a dialog box with a bit of net work and personal information, and yo u can "s ubscri b e" to channels-that is, download softwa re and/or data. Chan nels a re downl oaded throu gh Web pages li ke Ma rim ba's (http: //www.marimba .com/channels/ ) o r by co nn ectin g direct ly to a Castanet transm itte r through th e tuner control pa nel.
Most controls are clearly marked on the front of the box. You contro l frequen cy and schedule channel updates by click ing o n the Con figure Loading tabs of th e run er control panel. You can easil y create a desktop icon fo r a Castanet chann el by selectin g the channel and th en choosing Create Shortcut from the C han nel pull down menu.
Castaner ad ds a C han nels opti o n to rhe Windows taskbar through which you can start all su bscribed channels whether or nor you' re connected to the Internet or a n inrra ner. The defau lt is for a chan nels optio n to appear at rhe top of rhe \X'indows taskbar, with each transmjrrer
listed separately and al l chann els appear ing as suboptions und er th eir respective transmitte rs. If you don 'tcare for th at a r rangement, you ca n move the ico ns any where o n th e task bar.
Turning On, Tuning In
Unde rneath the hood, the cable-TV anal
ogy is less app ropriate. The tun er regu
la rly polls all transmirrers that carry chan
ne ls to wh ich it's su bscribed , and each
tra nsmirrer responds by sending the lat
est vers ions of th ose chann e ls if th ey dif
fer from th e tuner 's current versio n. Up
date fr equency var ies, depending o n the
end-user configuration as well as o n the
cha nn el itself.
Castan et uses Applicatio n Distribu
ti o n Protoco l (ADP), a protocol for mir
ror ing code and data over nenvork con
nections, to imp rove performance and
optim ize bandwidth. Where possi bl e,
updates are do ne incrementally to save o n
bandwidth . In all cases, users get the most
rece nt update ava ilable.
co11ti1111ed
*****Outstanding
** ****Very Good ***Good
* Fair
Poor
FEBRUAR Y 1997 BYT E 14 5
Review Tune In, Turn On the Web
The transminer is as ea y to admini s ter as the tuner. It involves sening a root directory, host name and port number, and password and trusted host for admi nistra tio n. Advanced settings include th e num ber of concurrent processes and threads, as we ll as the size of th e memory cache for each process. Once th e transminer is configured and launched, yo u can add, re move, or modify channels with the put back program, even while the transmitter is running. You don'tneed to bringthe sys tem down for updates.
Purback is fairly easy tu ust: once you've figur ed out the steps. This is where you can enter a channel's d escription, autho r, and
administrator. You can also set th e update freque ncy for specific channel s. For ex amp le, if th e channel is a stock-ticker ap plet, you can set it to look for upd ates fre quently; if it's a daily crossw o rd puzzle, there's no need to update it more than once a da y. You can also set the update frequency for in active channel -that is, how often the channel should be updated even when it's not being used.
Banging on the (Bongo) Drums
Bongo is a visual tool for authoring Java applets and for creating GUls, ca lled pre sentations, which are Casta net's basic
PERFORMANCE
How Big, How Fast?
Marimba's Castanet Software Distribution po rate firewall. A Castanet proxy server
System approaches the Web-performance placed outside the firewall acts as a special
problem from two sides: scalability and kind of repeater, a single point of contact
browser performance. Because browser per for all corporately subscribed channels. The
formance typically degrades as the number proxy server can relay updates directly to
of users increases, these are two sides of the users, minimizing the number of direct con
same coin. The Castanet archl
tecture approaches the prob lem by simplifying distribution
Castanet's Distribution Structure
through proxies and repeaters,
thus splitting up bandwidth
issues among a number of dis
tributed systems. Instead of a
single transmitter serving all
tuners, repeaters are placed
where they are needed to keep
all channels up-to-date for local users and to improve us ers' performance by eliminat
Castanet transmitter
ing the need for transoceanic
and transcontinental Web links.
Castanet balances loads by making all tuners connect initially to a main transmitter
Castanet tries to relieve Web bottlenecks by distributing the load to server-based repeaters.
when subscribing to a channel. If the trans nections to each Castanet transmitter.
mitter has a repeater that's located closer
Finally, TCP virtual circuits for every file
to the subscriber, it points the tuner to that and graphic sent over the Web really drag
repeater. Channel updates are done trans down browser performance. Marimba's pat
parently, between the tuner and the repeater, ent-pending Application Distribution Pro
which is kept up-to-date by the transmitter tocol (ADP) establishes a single TCP circuit
(see the figure above). If the repeater is down, between tuner and transmitter and uses it
the tuner is smart enough to go back to the to update all channels at once, eliminating
original uniform resource locator (URL) and a huge amount of protocol overhead. Incre
obtain the update directly from the trans mental updating of code and data also helps
mitter (or get referred to another function to reduce the amount of network traffic.
al repeater).
Marimba says that it's patenting ADP to re
Bandwidth is an issue for subscribers, tain control over its early development, much
too, if they happen to be sitting inside a cor as Sun retained control over Java.
building blocks for turning data and ap plets imo channels. Bongo includes a full toolbox of GUI widgets and a fram ewo rk for integrating them.
Bongo was easy enough even for this nonprogrammer. It's evocative of Hyper Card in irs exte nsive use of conta ine rs and sc riptin g. Yo u edit presentations in two separate windows: a control pane l fo r op ening fil es a nd e diting prop er ti es and scripts, and a no th er w indow for visua lly editing o r browsing rhe presentation itself.
Adding a GU I component is as simpl e as choosing one from the editing window's New pull-down menu. You can resize it or drag ir around th e window with yo ur mouse in the browsing/editing win dow. You can also ed it a widget script a nd mod ify a ppear a nce properties, such as labe ls, panerns, and tex t alignment, in th e other window. Ma rimba adds plenty of sample code and a simp le tutorial to the gener ous h elpin g of GU I widgets- enough to ger starred wirh Bo ngo, at least. It took m e only a fe w minutes to dope out where all the software controls were and roughly whattheyd id,and I was able to intelligent ly modify sampl es almost from rhe start.
The Bottom Line
The Casta net tun er is so unprepossess ing on in tallation rhat some users will forger it's there until they need to use a channel, and then they may need a mo ment to remember ho w ro use it. The trans mitter and purback interfaces take a little getting used to, a nd Bongo prese nts a sli g htl y steeper learni ng curve. Once these products emerge from beta testing, I ex pect that th ey wi II have easier-to-use knobs and bunons.
Castanet's scala bil ity is an una nswered question . Marimba claims that Castan er exceeds the company's expectations and should be able to handle million s of us ers through a single uniform resource loca tor (URL) , a ltho ug h I wasn't ab le to test this claim . Th e bigger question is whether Castanet will catc h the fancy of end users an d content providers. Bur with clever, paradi gm-shifting technology and M a rim ba's knack for capturing mind share, Cas ta net has as good a chance as any robe rhe veh icle rh nt brings \Xleb app licati o ns to the masses. (])
Pete Loshi11 is a tec/Jnica l edit or for BYTE re views and aut/Jor o(TCP/I PClearly Explained (A cademic Press l'rofessio11al, 1997). You ca11 reach him at ploshin @bix.com .
1 46 BYT E F EBRU A RY 1997
Take the quickest route to healthcare
Information Systems solutions
In today's dynamic healthcare climate, decisionmake rs can't afford to get lost while searching for the right Info rmaLion Systems solution.
MDB In fo rmation Services- an a ll iance wit h Oatapro In fo rmati o n Se rvices Gro up and MOB In fo rmation Ne twor k- delive rs Lhe break yo u've been looking for. We're the o nl y world wide, co mprehensive provider o r imm ed iate, ac ti onabl e da ta fo r purchasing Admi n istra ti ve Systems, Clinical Support Systems, Client Server Tec hnology, and Ne twork Integratio n.
MOB Information Network me mbers an n ua ll y save more than two to three ti mes thei r members hip cost to MOB Information Services by relying on MOB's up-lo- the-minute acq ui ition and analysis or in fo rmatio n on hun dreds of Info rmation Systems prod ucts and services.
Plus Added Value
MOB In fo rmation Services also delive rs: · In forma tion tec hnology
bri enngs/strategic planni ng · Custom RFP electro nic templa tes
to speed response · Cost-bendit analysis or systems
and technologies · Success Matrix to measure process
im provement · Access LO Consultatio n Center
and on-line services
Call 1·800·687·0001
Administrative Systems
General Financials LO Utili zatio n Management, Anci llaries includ ing Home Health and Lo ng-term are.
Clinical Support Systems
ER, Labora to ry, Pharmac y, Rad io logy, Physicia n lanageme nt Systems, Clinical Pathways, and mo re.
Client Server Technology
From Wo rkstations to Telcmanage men t, Sc hedu li ng to Ne two rk Ma nagem ent.
Network Integration
letwork Operating Systems to Community Health lnfomw tio n and beyond .
MOB INFORMAT I ON SERVICES
An allit1 n rt' "' 'h Darnpro ln fo t marlo n Srnlccs Grn up , An 1fr r sr11 Co11s u/1Jn g, and .\fD U l11 f11 tmt111 0 11 Nrt n ork
DATAPRO
MDB Information Services 5910 N. Central Expressway Suite 1800 Dallas Texas 75206 mdbinfonet.com
Jer ry Pour ne lle
Of Bug-Hunting and a New Fr.ontier
You can't always predict the way two programs will interact- but you can be sure graphics design will never be the same.
ome trire phrases are rrue. In parricu lar, rhings often really aren't what rhey see m, espe cially if you ' re bug-hunting. It all srarred when I insralled a Z ip drive on Old Cow, the 486DX2 tharsits upsrairs in my mo n kish ce ll. For rh ose who've tuned in lare, I've converted Alex's old room into a bare-bones place to write: no books, no ga mes, no modem, and, most of all, no phone. I go there 2 or 3 hours a day to write fiction . There's nothing else I can do up th ere. It's the best thing rhat's happened ro me in yea rs; I've aver aged more th an 1000 words a day since I started th ar regime. There a re logistica l problems . Old Cow isn't o n my netwo rk , and purring him there would defeat the whole pur pose, bur I do need a way to bring down th e results of my work. Thar means not on ly Word fil es-text, work record, dictionaries-but my In fo Select notes, and my journals, which I keep in Franklin Quesr Ascend. All that is too large to fit on a floppy disk, so a para llel Z ip drive was th e obvious answer. The probl em was Ascend. That subdi rectory has a lorof files in it. Most of them don 't change from day to da y, bur they can: Ascend keeps se parate files for cal endars, appo intments, special tasks, Red Tab tasks, rhe ph one list, journal, day book, and some others. Z ip dri ves are fast enough that I could jusr copy and over write all the fi les, bur when I was using flopp y disks ro transfer this stuff, it was painfully slow, so I fell in to the habit of copying only th e files l had modified. Alas Microsoft Windows 95 Explorer doesn't have a way to copy only later files. My first way arou nd that was to use Nor ton Com mander in a DOS window. Over the years, I've go tten into th e habit of
using Commander fo r nea rly everything, a nd m y fi n gers know the keystrokes down to a cellular memory leve l. I' d sim ply orde r the fi les by date (F9-L-M in Comma nd er 's seque nce), use the right mouse button ro select all files recently modified, and press F5 to co py them.
Unfortunately, Com mander is a bad habit Tought to break. It doesn't und er stand long filenames, and worse, if it does transfe r a long fil ename, it truncates it into o ne of those eight-plus-three-with a-squiggle fi lenames; and once it has done that, yo u' ll never get th e long fil ename back withour renaming it. I keep hear ing about a Win 95 version th at fixes this,
particularly want to look in both the Options and Action menus. You' ll also want to examine the iconic butto ns on the toolbar, and if you don't understa nd what some of th ose commands do, fi nd our: most are usefu l.
Alas, I hadn't done that spelunking. Worse, I began to have what I thought were problems with DAFGD not co py ing things. Twould drag the Ascend direc tory to the Zip dri ve, se lect the "copy newer fi les only" button, wa tch what looked like file transfers- and th en dis cover that the file hadn't been transferred.
This wa infuriating, and I called Canyo n Software in hi gh dudgeo n. They
Over the years, I've gotten into the habit of using
Commander for nearly everything.
bur I sure don't know how to get it. A better choice would be the shareware
program \'V'i nd ows Co mma nd er, bur, alas, it is published by a chap in Switzer land who make it exceedingly hard to send him the registrati on fee un less you're o n CompuServe, wh ich I'm nor; and the program makes increasing ly o min o us rhrears to th ose who haven' t regisrered. It's also not all rh ar easy to install.
Th e best so luti o n is one I' ve reco m mended befo re : Canyon Software's Drag And Fi le Go ld Desktop (DAFGD). This und erstands lo ng filenames, an d while th e interface isn' t th e o ld, famil iar Nor ton Commander display- it looks a lot like Explorer- it will do all Commander can do and more.
Some of the fea tures are n' t obvious, and I really miss Commander's F3 to view and F4 to edit a selected fi le, bur an hour's sp elunking in DAFGD will reward yo u with a utili ty rhar does almost everything yo u would want a file uti lity to do. You'll
we re extremely interested, because
altho ugh I had a n o lder ve rsion of
DAFGD, there doesn't see m to be any
mechanism ro cause that particular fail
ure. I went th rough th e problem w hile I
was on the phone: open Ascend on the
C drive, look at the ta k list to be sure it
hadn't been upd ated, close Ascend, and
then use DAFGD to drag the Ascend direc
tory with its upd ated fi les from the Zip
dri ve to the C drive with the "copy newer
files only" option set.
The result was no result: rhe Ascend
files were nor updated. This time, th ough,
I went back to look at the acm al dates of
the fi les- yo u can sort by dare in DAFGD
exactl y as you do in Wi ndows 95 Details
view, by clicking o n the category name in
the roolbar, Modified in this case-and
discovered to m y horror that a ll the
Ascend files on t he C dri ve were now
later th an rhoseo n th e Zip drive. Indeed,
they were not merely late r, th ey were
about 1 minute o ld.
continued
FEBRUARY 19 9 7 BYTE 149
Chaos Manor
Ascend rewrites all its files when you close the program. It does this whether or not you have modified that file. DAFGD was doing precisely what it was supposed to be doing.
All's well that ends well. The result of all this is I've discovered just how useful DAFGD can be. Just about eve ry featu re I liked in Norton Commander is hidden in there somewhere; and unlike Windows Commander, it's easy to get and pay for
DAFGD.
You can install it on a se rver-we have o urs on Spirit, a Windows NT server off in the back room-and run local ly. The on ly penalty for that is when it first comes up, DAFGD sorts and examines the direc tory it sits on, and that's the big 4-GB hard drive in Spirit, so it does take a few sec onds. It isn't all that long a delay, and if what yo u wanted to do wa send stuff to the server-that's often the reason I invoke DAFGD-you'd have to let it do that any way. There's also a nifty toolbar addition utility that lists all your drives, local and networked, so you can choose any one of them instantly.
All told, Drag And File Gold Desktop is abo ut the most useful file utility I have at Chaos Manor. Highly recommended.
In the past year or so, there's been what amounts to a revolution in computer graphics. Capabi lities previously available only on Silicon Graphics systems costing six figures are now availab le at modest costs. Moreover, every week my local papers have articles about start-up grap h ics workshop companies. It's a growing and lucrative field for those with talent and understanding of computer graphics.
We getto look ata lot of graphics equip ment. Testing it is a problem, because I don't do much graph ics work, and cer tainly nothing that pushes a system to its limits. Fortunately, David Em does. David is a fine artist who many years ago discov ered computers as an art medium. The Art of David Em was once my book of the month. He has had exhibits in insrirum ions including the Museums of Modern Art in both Paris and Madrid.
The fo llowing is more his report than mine and is based on his impressions from using a great deal of high-end eq uipment. Naturally we can 't possibly look at every thing; on the other hand, we did look for stuff we thought might be competitive. I asked David to recommend three graph ics system : beginner, seriou u er willing
ro spend a little money, and high-end professional. Here's the result.
First, surprise! At the high end, PCs may be better than Macs for 3-D graphics; cer tainly rhey're competitive. Thatwouldn't have been true six months ago. For 2-D work, it's a dead heat. Adobe Photoshop is the viral program for image processing, and the performance is indistinguishable in top-end NT and Apple machines. Also, Photoshop 4.0 can take advantage of mul ti pie proce ssors, a nd PCs h ave a head start in that area; on the other hand, mul tiprocessing is finally becoming a reality for Macs (for details, see "The Mac Goes Multiprocessor" o n page 59).
As reported in a previous column, lnter graph's dua l-processor TDZ-400 NT sys tem is abou t a high end as you can get. It's not cheap, but you' ll get your money' s worth, everything is integrated, and their technical support and service are lege n darily good. They've also just announced a new series of more midrange NT work stations. \Y/e haven ' t seen those yet.
If you build you r own high-end sys tem, there are three major video boards that we can recommend from experience: Matrox, Diamond, and Intergraph. Since th eir performance under NT 4.0 depends on drivers, some of rhem just coming out, we don't have a full report, but clearly they all are good eno ugh . Be warned: if you plan to use Kinetix/Autodesk's 3DStudio Max, you need a board with "HEIDI" driv ers, Kinetix's own driver standard, on top of the OS drivers.
On th e low end, there are some rock bottom limits. First, no graph ics board with less than 4 MB of so me kind of RAM and a GLINT chip is worth considering. Evens MBofRAMisn'ttoo much, if you're planning to use 1280 by l 024 pixels or higher resolution. In this product segment, Diamond and Matrox are the main con tenders; either is good enough. Second, you s h oul dn 't co nsider any thin g less than a good Pentium or Pentium Pro. Be sure there is 5 12 KB of level 2 cache mem ory. Serious graphics work starts at 32 MB of RAM; you'll be miserable with less. At 64 MB yo ur li fe gets better, and 512 MB is not too much for a high-end system; in a word, if you' re bu yi ng a machine for graphics, be sure it will hold a lot of mem ory even if yo u can ' t afford all that mem ory at first.
Dual-processor systems are enough bet ter than s ingle that yo u 'll be happi e r with, say, twin 150 Pentiums than with a
Circle 224 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS: 225).
single 200. (We lent David our DFI Dou bleshot 133 dual-Pentium system after he had problems with his own machine. H e loves it.) Whatever th e central processor, you will want Fast and Wide SCSI (or Ultra SCSI) and the biggest hard dri ve yo u can afford. Graph ics fil es are big, th ey have to be backed up frequently, and there are large database fi les to merge in.
Beginners wanting something to play with can get away with less than twin 150 Pentiums and Fast and Wide or Ultra SCSI, but if you start doing professio nal wo rk, yo u' ll upgrad e fas t. All this system speed affects not only productivity but creativ ity: if yo u have t o wa it fo reve r for th e output, you won' t ex periment, and ifyo u do n' t experiment, yo u wo n' t be d o ing yo ur best wo rk.
Third, whether beginner or pro, yo u' ll want the best monitor you can afford, with excellent, acc urate color reproducti o n. (I could do an entire column on monito rs. Do n ' t choose yo urs by sp ecifi cat ions. Look before yo u buy.)
In monitors, bigger is better, but color fid elity is mo re impo rtant than size. I' m sure t here are other excellent mo ni to rs, but the brands we' re famili ar with are Nanao and the highe r-end ViewS o nics. The ViewSo nic P815 M egaM onitor is at present the best value fo r the money in a 21 -inch monitor. Its nearest competi to r is the 21 -inch N anao, and the ViewSo ni c PS 15 M egaMon ito r is two- thirds th e N anao ' s p rice a nd has ca pabiliti es th e Nanao doesn' t have. In particular, you can run the PS15 MegaMo nitor in an astoun d ing 1800- by 1440-p ixe l res olutio n, a l though yo u'll have trouble finding a board and dr ivers to do it justice. (We used an Artist Graphics board that was supplied by Vie w s o nic .)
You want a big mo nitor so you can see more of your work at once, o f course, but there's another reason: once you get work ing hard, yo u' ll have a whole bunch of lit tle wind ows, palettes, textures, brushes, e re., o p e n o n th e d es ktop , a nd it gets crowded . One remedy is to get a gra phics board that supports two monitors (Macs do this auto matically). Thar way, you can use an inex pensive monitor fo r the admin istrative detail s and th e ex pensive o ne exclusively fo r your wo rk. Alas, in PCs the rwo monitors must have th e same resolu tion and scan rate.
Adobe Photosho p is th e sta ndard fo r image p rocess ing; fo r creati ng moving gra phics, there are three top contenders.
co11ti11 11 ed
C irc le 142 on Inq ui ry Card.
.................................. PLATFORMS: WINDOWS NT· WINDOWS 95 · OS/2 · NLM
~ Q: What does it take to deploy a g
e superior client/server application? ~
·
A: A SUPERIOR SERVER z
w
D.
A
- ~ 0mm
advanced client-side SOK on the market: c-tree®Plus at
RESULT? A solid, m'rO-
economical, easily deployable product t hat fit s
<( $895 .
your needs.
x
.J · Complete "C" Source code
· Portable
·
a:0 · ROYA LTY FREE (Client Side) · Multiple supported protocols
0 · Fast, portable, reliable
I- · Powerful features like
· Scalable · Exceptional Perform ance · Flexible · Easy Server distribution
z-xr<-
0
transaction process ing
~ · Win95 , NT, and
·
Windows 3.1 ready
x:::J ADD a strong , mult i z plat form , industrial-strength
.J Server that supports.
· · File mirro ri ng
· Conve nient O EM terms
·
rnn
0 ·
rn r-n<
-mi
· Heterogeneous networking
x · Automatic disaster recovery
-z · Multi-threaded design
:::J · Best price/performance
w available: from $445- $3 745
~
H eterogeneous TCP /I P N e twork
~
z)>
)>
> You can't fi nd a better client SOK w ith these f eatures!
mCJ
Iu- Over sixteen years of proven r eliability and performance.
<( No one else supports over 3 0 platforms in t his price r ange!
a:
w
c-tree Plus® I· Complete C Source
-z · Single/ Multi User
FairCom Server®
· Client/Server Model · Transaction Processing
· Clien t/ Serve r (optio na l)
· Req uires <2MB RAM
z · Full ISAM functiona lity · No Royalties
· Online Backup · Disaster Recovery
<( · Transacti on Processing
· Roll back - Forward
> z
<(
m
· Fixed/ Va riable Le ngth Records · High Speed Data/I ndex Cachi ng · Batc h Operati ons · File Mirroring · Multiple Contexts
· Anti-Deadlock Reso lu tion · Client-side "C" So urce · Multi -th reading · Heteroge neo us netwo rking · Fi le Mirroring
· · Unsurpassed Portability
· OEM / So urce Ava il ab le
]J
·
crzn
rn
'O
)> ]J
n
in
0
~
]J
(jj
x z
,
:::J
·
iii FOR YOUR NEXT PROJECT CALL FAIRCOM: YOU
CAN'T FIND A BETIER HETEROGENEOUS
~
CLIENT/ SERVER SOLUTION!
I-
~
b
~
I-
<( ...
",· bl
Also inqui re about these FairCom produ cts:
d-treeTM r-tree© ODBC Driver
]J
mfl!
FAIRCOM
®0 0 0 ·
:I
~ !:;
in,W·
I-
i:i
>
UJ
CORPORATION m'O
WWWeb Address: http://www.faircom.com/
0 0
800-234-8180 0
U.S.A. 4006 W . Broadway - Columbia, MO 65203-0100 ·
w
.J
D. D.
<(
phone (573) 445-6833 fax (573) 445-9698 EUROPE Via Patrioti, 6-24021 Albino (BG)· ITALY
phone (035) 773-464 fax (035) 773-806
mr.]..n.J..
J APAN IKE DA Bldg. #3,4f-11 2-5, Komei-ohou · Tsu-city,MIE 514 Japan phone (0592) 29-7504 fax {0592) 24-9723
0 0 0
·SUN O/S 4.X · SUN O/S 5.X · MIPS ABI CSGIJ ·
Chaos Manor Of Bug-Hunting and a New Frontier
First, there's Softimage 3D, recently acquired by ivlicrosoft and adaptable to a number of plug-ins. Softimage 3D cosrs from $8000 to $13,000. It performs about as well in NT as on a Silicon Graphics machine, and it's in use in a number of pro fessional studios. You need a computer on th eir approved list to buy it.
The second contender is Kinerix/ Autodesk's 3DStudio Max at $3495, suc cessor to the DOS-based 3DStudio, which David thought had one of the world's worst user interfaces; 3D Studio Max's is incredibly improved. Finally, there's NewTek's LightWave at $1495. All three programs are very powerful compared to anythi ng you could have bought a few years ago, and each is used to turn out computer graphics for TV and movies on a daily basis. There are plug-ins for both of the less expensive programs that will sig
has a little of everything, lights, shadow ing, textures, and is a great way to learn .
Finally, you'll want the Wacom AnZ !I 6- by 8-inch Graphics Tablet. They make larger ones, but David finds he prefers the small one that he can put in his lap. You jusrcan' ruse a mouse, or a trackball, to do serious drawing, and th e Waco m ArrZ II will coexist with a mouse, so you can use whichever is more approp ri ate.
Ir's a sign of the rimes that STB Systems has a wonderful 2-Dboard, the LightSpeed 128, for under $200, that blows away the competition. For games and casual use, yo u ca n't get more bang for the buck. The lack of 3-D capabiliry makes it doubt ful yo u' ll keep the LightSpeed 128 as part of a serious graphics system, but it's good enough to ge t started, and it's certainly more than good enough for anything but professional graphics work.
I can recall when something this good cost more than a whole system would now.
nificanrly help their performance. The more expensive programs are faster
and have better animation capabilities, and there are more top-end people using them; but you ' ll be pretty far up the ladder before you notice the limits on any of these.
If you have o r get a Mac, get Strata Stu dioPro. It's not as fast as some other graph ics creation programs, but David promises that yo u' ll love it. If you' re going to get a Mac, get one with a PC! bus so yo u have some choices in video boards and add-ins, not one of the less expandable "all-in-one" machines.
It's unlikely th at yo u' ll have a printer good enough to do this qualiry of work; they ' re too expensive, and you don't need them that often. If you want your work printed, yo u go to a print service house. (You'll want a Zip drive to carry your data there; even Kinko's has Zip drives on th eir machines now.) Syquest's EZ135 remov ab le drives are sti ll quite serviceable, but they just don't have the market share they once did. One big advantage to the Mac is that most print houses find it eas ier to hand le Mac fil es. NT is catching up in printability, largely by reverse -engi neering the way the Mac does it, but for probabl y ano ther year, you' ll have less trouble getting printed copy wirh Mac files.
David also recommends Fractal De sign's Ray Dream Studio for beginners. It
I can recall when so mething this good cost more than a whole system would now.
I go t started in this business in 1976, when I borrowed $12,000 to buy a ZSOsys tem and a Diablo daisy-wheel printer. For that or less today, you can get a sys tem good enough to get into the booming graphics business. You also have the same dilemma I did : bang for th e buck rises steeply every quarter, but if you wait, you're that much longer getting into the game . I didn ' t wait, and I don't regret it.
Maybe you don't want to become a professional artist; may be you just want to dress up a presentation now and then.
RT Computer publi hes Native Ameri can and Western clip art. At the moment, th eir co llectio ns come on 3)1- inch disks (four or five in each package), but I expect them to be moved to CD-ROM by the end of the first quarter. Meanwhile, there's The Wild West Collection with cowboys, mari achi bands, bucking broncos, and the like ; The Petroglyph Collection of southwest ern petroglyphs, both authentic and mod ern (at least lam assuming that the petro glyph of a primitive stone computer is modern ized, bur it could come from an early issue of BITE); The Plains Collection; and The Sa nre Fe Co ll ection of Hopi , Navajo, and other Southwestern and Native American artworks. Ir's al1roya lry
free. Ifyou want to dress up a presentation with something unusual, look into these.
RT Computer also make s PROZip, a wonderful drag-and-drop zip control util ity. Unfortunately, I don't have room for a full report here, but check th e BITE Web site (http://www.byte.com) for details.
Interplay Production's Conquest of the
New World can drive you nuts.
This game could easi ly have been the
gam e of the year. It may yet, but the ship
ping version is nearly unplayable.
There is a n offic ia l strategy book; indeed, the strategy book is what got me interested in th e game, which is a sort of sixteenth-century Sim Ciry with conquest and slaughter. The game is difficult enough that I advise you to get the strategy book, although I generally resent being required to buy what ought to have been included in the manual.
The game is complex, and it doesn't for give mistakes in either management or bat tles. Battles are sry li zed but demand good strategy and tactics. There's a battle prac tice feature in the opening game menu. You'll need it.
Then co me the bugs. First, the naval actions: Ships are very expensive, partic ularl y the higher grades, and in the early stages of the game, yo u don 't have a lot of money; but if you go to the grea t expense of building a high-qualiry ship and stock ing it with good troops, you may get the miserable experience of having it capnired by native canoes or inferior vessels cost ing a tenth what your ex pensive galleon cost. Your ship can even be lost despite being in a dock protected by a fortress.
There's worse. I hate fighting a table of random numbers, but at least you can pl ay a turn over if you don't want to waste the time of rebuilding the ship-except you can't. Conquest records automatica ll y: you can't lose a battle, quit, and play over. The programmers have decided they don't want you to do th at and have gone to great lengths to prevent it.
They a lso e ncrypted th e save fil es, which suggests this game was designed by programmers who hate gamer . They did not want yo u hacki ng the save fi les with Norton Diskedit; you ' ll pl ay the game their way or not at all. I find thi s repulsive enough to begin with, but it's inexcusable when the game has serious bugs. Some times units won ' t move. Sometimes this is linked with nava l battle . Other times, land units that once were aboard a ship will
152 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
MAXIMIZE YOUR MARKETING DOLLARS
WITH BYTE REPRINTS!
BYTE Reprints serve as high-quality, inexpensive promotional tools for:
·Trade show handouts · Direct mail cainpaigns · Dealer/distributor pro1notions ·Training and educating
key personnel
·Presentations at conferences/
se1ninars
And there's morel
· BYTE article reprints are
NOW AVAILABLE in hard-copy and
electronic fonnats
· BYTE reprints can be customized
with your con1pai1y name,
logo, product picture, etc.
Call today for information and quantity prices.
Susan Monkton
BYTE Reprint Department
One Phoenix:Mill Lane
Peterborough, NH 03458
Phone: 603-924-2618
Fax: 603-924-2683
E-Mail: smonkton@mcgraw-hill.com
Run Your Business on the Web
~
A Di11isio11 o(Tl1e McGraw·Hilt C0111pa11 ies
Chaos Manor Of Bug-Hunting and a New Frontier
be stuck in place, unable to go anywhere. If you attack an enemy ship with two of yours, you may win both the battles but find one of your ships has vanished: not sunk, not captured, just vanished. Troops that have just won a battle but have taken casualties are unable to march back into the fortress they came out of, and stand exposed and wounded turn after rum while you gnash your teeth in frustration. There are also conceptual problems: naval units in harbor under the protection of forts ought to be a lot less subj ec t to attack than they are.
If they'd put the effort into fixing prob lems instead of making sure gamers don't cheat, they'd have had a decent game. There's a patch you can download from Interplay's Web page; it helps a lot, but it doesn't entirely cure the problems of stuck units.
Having said all that, I remain addicted to the darned thing long after Ishould have used the CD as a coaster-in the micro wave. When it's working well, Conquest of the New World is up there with Blizzard
Entertainment's Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Strategic Simulations' Fan tasy General. Alas, as you get ahead and are about to win (which should be the fun part of the game), the bugs get worse, the frustration goes up, enjoyment goes down.
If you get Conquest of the New World, be sure to get the strategy book, download the patches, and keep watching Interplay's BBS for bug fixes. If they ever get the bugs out, it will be a wonderful game despite the encrypted data files.
Th e book of the month is G. Harry
I Stine's Halfway to Anywhere. This is
part of the story of some of the most important events in the history of space travel told by one of the participants. Fair warning : I'm rather prominently in the book. If you want to know something about single-stage-to-orbit ships like the DC/X and the upcoming X-33, this is the place to start.
The computer book of the month is Jonathan Rosenberg's How Debuggers Work. This is a good general introduction
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Acoustic Coupler $149 MobileConnector S149 Koncxx Unlimitc.d Syst,ms Corp. San Dl'go, CA (800) 275-6354 (619) 622-1400 fax: (619) 550-7330 http://www.konux.com Circle. 1084on Inquiry Card.
Adobe Photoshop 4.0 $895
Adobe Systc.ms, Inc. Mountain View, CA (800) 833-6687 (415)961-4400 fax: (415) 961-3769 http://www.adobe.com Circl' 1085 on Inquiry Card.
ArtZ II 6x8 Graphics Tablet
$389.99 Wacom Tc.chnology Corp. Vancouver, WA (800) 922-6613 (360) 750-8882 fax: (360) 750-8924 http://www.wacom.com Circle 1.086 on Inquiry Card.
Conquest of the New World $49.99 Interplay Productions, Inc. Irvine, CA (800) 468-3775 (714) 553-6678 fax: (714)'252-2820 http://www.interplay.com Circle 1087 on Inquiry Card.
Drag And File Gold Desktop $55 Canyon Software
San Rafael,,CA (800) 280-3691 (415) 453-97 79 fax: (415) 453-6195 http://www.canyonsw.com Circle. 1088 on Inquiry Card.
LightSpeed 128 $179 STB Systems, Inc. Richardson, TX (888) 234-8750 (214) 234-8750 fax: (214) 234-1306 http://www.stb.com Circle 1089 on Inquiry Card.
LightWave S;O $1495
NewTck.lnc. Top,ka, KS (800) 862-7837 (913) 228-8000 fax: (913) 228-8001 http:{/www.newtck.com Circl' 1090 on Inquiry Card.
P815 MegaMonitor $2195 Viewsonic Corp. Walnut, CA (800) 999-8583 (909) 444-8843 fax: (909) 869-7958 http://www.viewsonlc.com Circle 1091 on Inquiry Card.
Petroglyph Collection $79 Plains Collection $79 Santa Fe Collection $79 Wild West Collection $79 RT Computer, Inc. Rio Rancho, NM
(800) 891-1600 (505) 891-1600 fax: (505) 891-1350 http:f/www.prozip.com Circle 1092 on Inquiry Card.
Ray Dream Studio $499 Fractal De.sign Corp. Scotts Valley, CA (800) 846-0111 (408) 430-4100 fax: (408) 438-9670 http://www.fractal.com Circle 1093 on Inquiry Card.
Softimage JD from $8000 Microsoft Corp. Redmond, WA (800) 576-3846 (206) 882-8080 fax: (818) 365-1876 http://www.microsoft.com /Softimage Circle 109411n Inquiry Card.
Strata StudioPro $1495 Strata, Inc. St. George, UT (800) 869-6855 (801) 628-5218 fax: (801) 628-9756 h t t p :{/www.strata3d.com Circle 1095 on Inquiry Card.
JD Studio Max $3495 Kinetlx/Autodcsk San Francisco, CA (415) 547-2000 fax: (415) 547- 2222 http://www.ktx.com Circle. 1096 on Inquiry Card.
to what happens when you tear into a pro gram with a debugger. I suppose there was a time when no BYTE reader would need this book, since everyone knew about DDT and SID (early CP/M debuggers) and the program called DEBUG, which came with every copy of DOS. Those days are long gone, and I suppose it's just as well, but you really ought to know something about debugging and debuggers, and this book is a readable way to find out.
Last month, I spent a week in Spain gathering material for a novel. My wife rejoiced: I'd be away from modems and disconnected from the computer world for nine days. Then I mentioned Konexx. With Mobile Connector you can connect to virtually any phone, including digital and through a PBX; merely connect the Konexx Mobile Connector box where the handset goes, and plug the handset and your computer's modem or fax/ modem into the Mobile Connector. Look up the level swi tch setting (1-4) for that phone and set the switch; or try all four settings until you find one that works. Now yo u can send and receive faxes, get on the Inter net, collect your e-mail, etc.
Konexx also makes an Acoustic Cou pler you ca n conn ect to the handset itself. It has its own Velcro straps to h o ld it securely in place, and it's adjustable to fit nearly any handset. This works even in the rare cases when the Mobile Connector fails.
It took Roberta about 5 seconds to react. I won' t tell you what she said, but I didn't take the Konexx Mobile Connector with me . Thus, I can't report on how well it works with phones in Spani sh hotels. However, the Mobile Connector works in U.S. hotels, including those that use a dig ital phone system. If you absolute ly, posi tively have to get connected, get the Konexx Mobile Connector and Acoustic Coupler. Recommended.
After I file this, I'm headed for Comdex. I haven't heard of anything really astound ing to be shown there, but I'm sure there'll be interesting surprises. Stay tuned. llJ
jerry Poum elie is a science fiction writer and BYTE 's seniorcontrib11tingeditor. You can write to jerry c/o BYTE, One Phoenix Mil/ Lane, Peter borough, NH 0345 8. Please include a self addressed, stamped envelope and put your address 011 the letter as well as on the envelope. Due to the hig/1 volume ofletters, Jerry can11ot guarantee a perso11al reply. You can also contact him 011 the /11/em et or BfX at jerryp@blx.com.
1 5 4 BYTE FEBRUARY 199 7
FEBRUARY 1997, VOL. 22, N0.2
BUYER'S GUIDE
Essential Products and Services for Technology Experts
Mail Order
Top mail-order vendors offer the latest hardware and software products at
the best prices. Page 156
Hardware/Software Showcase
Your full-color guide to in-demand hardware and software products, catego
rized for quick access. Page 16 5
Buyer's Mart
The BYTE classified directory of computer products and services, by subject so you can easily locate
the right product. Page 173
FEBRU A RY 1 997 BY TE 1 55
~\\\\\
V\a\\ot\\\ ~
O\\"~tiee\\
U\'Ov\a~
Come sse us at th6Se sh!IWS
Feb. 12-14, Gov't. Technology Conference, Austin Conven. Cntr.. Austin, Texas, Booll! I 1
Feb. 4-6, Comnet, Washington, DC, BoothI 2225
· ·
Mar. 18-20, Fose. Washington Convention Center., Washington. DC Booth# 3311
BREAKTHROUGH the clutter of Flash memory for future upgrade
multiple keyboards, monitors. and of features
mice with this latest INNOVATION Easy to use OverViewTMsystem gives
from Rose. This switch has every control and status with on-screen graphics
feature you asked for:
Many other features!
· Keyboard/Video Control · Print Servers · Data Switches
800-333-9343
Switches several servers or computers to a single monitor, keyboard, and mouse
Supports any mix of PC, Apple, Sun,
RS 6000, HP 700 series, DEC Alpha, SGI,
or other computers from any keyboard
or mouse
Front panel has keypad for easy selection
of computers and configuration
Front panel display shows computers
name and other information
Command to switch can come from your
keyboard, front panel, or RS232 port
Simple to use keystrokes switch
computers for fast and easy control
Built in daisy-chaining to support up
to 256 computers
Rose ELECTRONICS INVENTED
the first keyboard-monitor switch. We have an extensive line of key board and video control products for any application.
~~.)1
ROSE
ELECTRONICS
10707 STANCLIFF ROAD
HOUSTON , TEXAS 77099
TEL 281-933-7673
C ircle 205 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS : 206).
FAX 281-933-0044
· DISCOUNT PRICES
· HUGE SELECTION · OVERNIGHT DELIVERY
· FREE SUPPORT FOR FSI CUSTOMERS · CORPORATE PO'S WELCOME
· SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
· GOVERNMENT &
· NO SURCHARGE ON CREDIT CARDS EDUCATIONAL PRICING
Always your best buy on the widest selection of memory upgrades!
DESKTOP COMPUTER MEMORY
COMPAQ
~QS..IJJ.tllo.50,~llXC.IXf,t:C!S..OlWb
~JtGU'lll,.till41)3,"1f/6o\ 1.Qr l,,'J] ...1».Lfeio..4'lli..
~4/IOJ..&/Dt. '1J,l f/~#64.~"/ls..Ml/l!t
Wl IAl ~I S.ll W:S "16'UOOI
11t
[tl\ll 1mnoo1 U V l2 "1fl lf.U7001 1147
~m,, m, nl! .m,no, m.11.o1,nu~920. 91A9s.t
'-""' wmcc1 m M 1amoo1 u'
li!NI 10.!UOOI 111 4 l'iW. 1'1125-001 Im
l.W. Yd.a
1710!1001 _
SM
~wz.91,_ wt ttl . ~ .»hi!a, !J.»,~1'o~
~q"-' ~ 4 1o:l,"6t.5121).oA.513HJ.SQCHJ.llill,
JUJ. l!10l l ®, J1Ji'I0.~ '50. ll00.. }1Xlr.!7S..
6ts0t ~ 1 ao..o.1pr0· 1«l. ·!i0, ,~. 57SAU.59CW.t. J1co, mo,
.s1 n..m.Jo0
4-Vl ln.Tli.001 U I llol.6 17211>031 IM 1muoo1 Ill' ttwa 1n;i.w::n
'"
sm
1' 4 V - .
111)11.)";I - -
Mt
l,X.l(O
J1W1001 - -
,._.nu.mi nn nu nil.!
&Mt
11S.WOJI. ~12.00 1
.U...
16,W JM N·
?l.t.l-d002, ruJl'J-Ol l sn1 t.wA .,,,,
.'.".,'.
lllt't..,
2lt.nl¢QOI _
r-:...0<·mnu~ci91.so. ~1.0!63
M ~001
'6l 1~~1
J1Jll6 Va
Int ~'18 11,/c
,...
...._llOI
IMIVdN
llmlOOI
PtW.i SIJJ ?OXJ{M..m02«Xl/"'4..ll6'1<XX)/IJ(.SICO
1.0112:0. n1t11200, mJ1100/ioco.mo 1100!7()):).J lM
12«1,Ct»~S1Jl2CO.l/loll.S1.S0'1f11J/N(.l166'1«1J/m,SIOO
UOJt;:xi, ma 1100mJ1;>001?00J.11:61xxinoco.YJ"o
iW 10011.(J)I '61 1 ~ ; 12001 SIOI
l'M 2'X!UO)I IW ~ l ( J01£001 SO.
1Jo11"'*
11moo1
""
1'4~
nimoo1
m·
u.ievo.o
211)~1
""
~ J! 5a), J/6tM,.S/~.
n.e ltll4 1mn.001 uu
u~1100 1
:i.4ill& 1m1u:io1 IM» I KY! U'<IC"IWH
114\:clc
)J9 1e10:1
~JllJC i06 340 )(le !I00. !1?':1."1l SN s;o t.M6 hllUOJ J H· IU4 41119~1
12\oll 1..t 19C«l1 1u.. c.&.'Je. ·u191001
IMI Yodio
1J;l61001 .. - - · · -
Dt~ll~UOIQ.SOJCDS. 2100/PO.Xl ~2001100/PO
IOI-'! 11~4001 ~ 1 121/l ?2s.&17o;)1
6""6 1Vlf'd.::
21M1l001 11).)UQ)I
~f'dc
72l1J40H
~J.f l 11):14Jli.4l0.~
.w.5 141614«11 MS Wl
114V.d.o
l~lt.1001
U'-'CO.
l~tUUQ1, 1;nu0l1
.-.
CW:-1125'. JIU. lton!v. lWJj.~ l.1'214, l/lll. '1bb..
4'fllt,l,lb/SOW ttiM.~CN. ~l!M,llW'l)M
....,. 111t-.e<o1 M1 w 1i.Bmc1
m
m1..._ w2~1 _
"'
1ue v.
1M1~001
tat
"" ~J1- ~cr-a.,.05..Q!,ah, ~ .i10 1 ~.
""""""" AM& rwru u1 l.'4 Uo.olel
U·
!Olo'l 11o.ll21
fl" t'..N.! ·It
SUI
~ \f.OW'lp ,.__14..~.. CGl.,"-'..dgit
!I/JI.JD~
M J!OJ1"
>2...... )UUJll
1260 1>W o/~
....
k-1.~~ltllior.. 5E&OfMod.I.
M JIO?'bl l~Mt )106.JO
- J71. lt.'oe rnm09 nM
0-...CPS.1.0plWl!/l,.\l/Ull,...._,,..,,-.
~ )l~bll
S'4 lbloll HO.Jli4
1111
llMI lll).lJTS
"'J
NEC
~"bl ~ Lo1r&kili'uliiil
Alot l1"111?J1W> Sl7 1""'6 lsutnn«rJ llV 1-~UU/lil.Mcidn
£119 Cf-41Q.CCJ UI t."'5 Cf-4 1 ~ 1(114 17..lo.c:I» _ II u nw Cf'Jlo.&006
U·
IDD
[dtijJMlt.(1:1:1J
·r..·... JOl·frit-4"-·~n · ·
H$.tofi l l_..,PC,5S..-~1
111
"'
!tooolC ol.MS ~Mo:ioh
""""° .... 50XOI001 H> ltm"'- ~l Sloe
~v a. :;Mim~t-'ll .&mi.1.15'.llll66d.-"'1
ml *-'/t1J,.!il4/)J SE..:t6d.SEP/,,,
ll»a !iOllYIOOl IU4 64¥0 3'JIU~COS
""$AIM
... """'"" ._l.'MJU: ~ & IC· ~.V.U l.U~"4Jd.li S&2 IM ~.ro. lll' WR J.Vii1«5 sm boA/JJP'1"4~S'-."E..~1,
'"
F'f/iJ''W HEWLETT
&:~ PACKARD
._..tiil...,.J. P':XO-.Wm'm
Ulll ~~:F
lll lMI ~I
1Mll 91'G7.5.e _ sm nt.'I r.G7W
!14Y.0.0
9::9.UJ
"'u~
~
"' JlO(<AJi. 92GliS!
s,,,__. ~6Jt416U1/01.!l/6'!4/e.i'n/~·16J11
Wot 9Xillil
ll7 !.~ 920:l1Xl
111
1~ nGOltO uu n""' V200t10
'S/..,_6Jll, '1/l~~Mad.1
~ ~t!9fi ·. _ ' " !CMe tdt?tl
". ."
~63WelWcJl7, P'S/I
....,..,.~,..-O~lo-,...,.,.1~~
U I M USQIJO
m
~100~;"'~ lolr:di01Xl.·:U7
J.'4f'Xi7ll
lot1 ttll4~
,..,...
f'C7fJJ~7"Vtw/CU6 M.:JJn:'J/ U7'/W6
W! JJ(i.llll
U I &Ml tA.50130
1'1
lt.1111 ~
Sl :U » lot 91G1X15
U"7
MUnt6»'2£e..ml.U.tom.~illl.IU..61s:w.~
'3,WOYI
'"V"6
Wl9ll.17t9'm, bt-510ti0
111
IM6
6.CiQ\2?
lo.:Mll-.a1CJ11mikloi~ns,..i.....
'"
· ltMt ../ M ~ ?iut . nJ4 )J.rW1
'"'""
,-.....i,v.m~fllllm
I.VI r;mlU..
SJJ M D?\7'°'
- UI
1~ :n~u.
nu ni.e 0'?2ftA._
J'!A1
":~:IM1ftl2~~J'~~~:i:,..... ~
lt,M! ./G
IJU >lWI 1,/Q
1120
'iKT:ill6 UllST/UN!i/M/lill4.MM:dlli
W 011.!.6.I.
UJ SW! DmlA
171
1~ D1el~
UJ7
(l(Cpc Mit ~&MJ~
~1! , ~:: Sl1 l tN! fllO.&IMI - 1111
4'111 fl~ lll LW Rl(\'ll,M.lr.l U·
lblroll RIC\il.liUC SIU !M fl~ sno
~~Wa lro...S...SrolribJJ.
...... .Jt1
S1I EN! "1·
U1
,b~'--.,._,~.;~~:.Cs....~Ut
~ "~ -
S11 i.tor' "'
U·
1~,h
SU J""t.Mt-1/;
_Sitt
,...~... ..F..:. Packard BelL
o..i.llr503,JOX.!20. SSOC..SOOC
2SOl: l.AM(art nron ..
Uf
l.a·)ll 'I
WI
C1020,
SH
~St.SUS
4i.ll 014.M
$69 M 11/1
$10l
bQI A.41o\ iliNJ.. MW 11QX, 1~°"9'#.W..
UJ6 Ola>.
$07 M OOOeo\
S19
~~ A · , lV1.M'-1£Mo D.4Jll.~. 5t.f.s.Si.)S.W.,Ccb
1-ill,o..l.ltill6CXC,lb:Q:)I. ~
411! CJ\l ~A
JU t.t.16 OlJJA
....
lbMl Olu.A
Hl9
i..oi··-.ltD·
214L.,.W Mb;..tr..
tOW51 -
s.n.·.
.....lll
"""""' 4'4 b=.W
""°'~l<';to8CO-i&ll~i..o.JM SOl l UOO t S" b'J ~1'8&001 1614 $01 0 i«IJ
fnlo1&t
Jc..-OIXJl & tt~"'*"
....... "1."-.'e s)oC1llm't1o0:0n1
~~
Stf "4 !Oll91Q02
sSmlot
wt ~1m«a
.t.-s~ J .Moa11
m~· r ~ 301r.:w:n
11"
M .SOl"'°'I 300 ~lf'M001
~,~
"°' $11 l!Ml !C!IDOOI l lJt
_ c.w. M !.OIOll.001 1101 l:M! JUlClWU _ J:ltt
111' ~ 1~1}003
,_....,li'oJ.11COMPAQ
L'it ! QQ.!31001 U9 !.WI l'l!'JW.Qll
ut.b....Yo!
'/H1o,ru.tm;10a01.
.m~
. ·- ...... N<>M
'"Sli t
ll.'i 1'6.Sl')()'JI _ J» .SM! Ut.S21001
lltoa ll L.~110)1
1u1u17
C-4CQ. 4 \:J, 1.1Q.lXI~
""' WU)Qi l UO ~ IOt.U«ll 1111
cru.n.t
-
w!Vc.!1031 IJlJlibWI
11"
M 1Wi0(01 IMt ILC9COll
JU l.'4 I~
:;::
QU..~\lodib
4\11 l ~l JOll
U1 i.'<16 1~15.0)1
TM t;.Q017<Xll
~~socc""""'
"°"' M ms1.so:1 MJ kN! n"1S('(Q
~ mmo:o
ult! nmSOll
~ l. 110. 4 1~. · IJO 411! 2179h!Xll f101 1614 1!1'015.001
n"" 21rq1oco1
,"..".
~11:0
"" w nomo:11 m 1e.~ nasu.001
L-.do 4D~ WI 110.JW
Uf l!i.W m.mo _
~·>W9C.4.'¢ecl-o..ti.-..U · lt:.r:.J.L7.5~
WI JI(;.)&!~
s:n M
It.Ml 1101411 ~04JQ/Ul/A 100, 111i"-.~
4VI J10..U1 L. Ut 1M1 llHdS
tt.l.'il rnn.m _
ttl'b.&16..,... ~ llPCTJMA.A
Ut M
It.lot llK11¥Jl.
Hlb.'-"' A l->l~l'-M:id.la
~ 11'°""'4.l ,,. .....
W INBOOK
W~·. a.'C~
ltiW -./a
~ hdHO/.'odtl1
L"' 79110Xl .
,...,. t.'X"JWI
U 9 t~ 01G1t21
11000. 11910, T19~T19Ci0, usoo. r~ 1'70).lltOOtAUO, 1, 900
199 W! P'CJ.tJOlj\J U9 wa tO.QO\)J _ UDI
,...,...... 1W lt.\11 """10141
SI H
WI PROVIDE YOU WITH:
a/ Ya.11 l)"Stlnt mtmOfY fm>urM
[WI, cocht.1 -.ideol
"" "'""'
ii How""""' """"'Y 'f'>' ·di noed
V 11.,..,,.y~.Julcbleial""·J"'On i1 """'""'"*"-'~ Jdl"''P'>r t1 YOl.'f syuom1 r:'i.NnlJr.l & nx:xu:'IJrt
merrory capab1/ lie1
'"l lU
'.fl TEXAS
INSTRUMENTS
IM MGS.OS
m. IU9
lo "~
~ >M c..u.'CDJOD ' 3o.5 um~
LloCI 91G.'!S1
I SO ltMll! 92G729l
t'>·tr.fltJl./ID & S6:>~
""";?(it1'0
llD't 16Vt 9Xiill l
4'4 llw.oot. tONJ 11..' IJ WfxllOI Mi:dn
n...4hd 7SO 11.S ·&~hbd.ls M 01(.!@
... t-LSO~,U~
'"' twe. M(;jlo;
M
MI~
flC.~"'.:CIJ
f!C.hJO tCU
11· W KllXOSIJ
Uot II"
IJH Tlltwl,O I QS, T'1113_ Ti!ISC!!ll.Dl~aol.IJ
WIW~
S.S. M~
Sl1
""' I~ t.W?O'JSJ
- UJ't
lt00, 11Qj. fll0.111'.UCO, t£0S. UI O. lt1J lolJ0,1'251&10,
1-:N710fl2014.-.:W. Slit M "<N'JOJl\t
_1'7 ICM! ,._.,,~J1U
JltJ
nl4 /M'?ll).lij Slit '-ua!.COM:::diill~t&XT
""
U1' M "'203"1
Ue5 I t/A!,.._~
m .s
li.Yt ~
U9J .&.3.'16 PJ,.,~IU
00
,ttJ 1'uo100,....,..
Uh ~ :~z:~~
ms
"''
'" NEC ' '"
Ult
._.u..ts6,s;:co:r..".1"0.1x10m1
noo t:Xt5Naioli ~ iWt
Ct <t l01l'J?
...
11~1 i..iJt oom20001 ut W! qoom.:m1 11ot
hd1tn.J01MDP..... ~
luol\ OIO.Ql1(0)1
" " t\11 ~m
ltt fnuaJ 10 l 1iJlib.Wi
'""" v:Qll~
1 '191 ...... ~~I llOP IC.~ WC-S.'61..xal na 1
* l=~.:1::~ ~ JY-E ~10))1
w-~ 5XO. l.1hl SC19, s1oc. mo sxo 571t'. S>OOMod.!
li!ilri'b OP.&101103
t'9 V.,.,Vt.1,t, Mm,.&'6J«*'.I~
"" , ... Cf"'JO-'lJI ...1....~oaO:l'o ..1~Q.ll)'l
S7' i.IJL Ct.A l~
sm ll:M5 "'"'~
....'"'
Ill~
""""'
M Ql'41~ 1 U:t 1~ ()'.4~~ Snt
TM Cl<t lOol'Oll
'"'
what ;fyou can't find M W9etl6@1 Sl7' IW! ;,791116(001 11'9
you're looking for calll
MAIL OR FAX ORDERS TO:
17141448-7750 · FAX: {71414.48·7760
EMAi ADCllllosol.,@fintioun:e.com
Finl Source lntemationol
7 Journey · Aliso V'iejo, Colilomia 92656
Call the Upgrade Experts ~U
ORD·ER NOW v~·
FSI SALES HOURS
8 0 0 - 4 4 0 - 9 8 6 6 a MMdoy · Friday: 6om · 6pm · Sarunlay, 7an · tpn
TICH . SUPPORT HOURS
MMdoy · Friday · ?om· 5pm
Tecl.nicol Sopport: {714J ·!48·mO
JJ 1o,.., Poe&~ r....
vvvvw.firstsource..com
..
cz c
0
-lz i ...Ill -z
Ill
"
:t 0
"...'
.-".'
Circ le 203 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS : 204 ).
he BYTE EuRo-DEcK offers a unique direct mail approach to increasing sales in the '$114 billion European computer market. Reach
50,000 BYfE subscribers for under 4¢ per reader!
Circulalion of the BYTE EuRo-Thll is targeied to oomputer experts in over 20 countries in Western Europe. Take full advantage of the benefits BYI'E provides with this affordable,
direct channel to Europe. For infonnation on the next BYIB EuRo-DF£K, call Mark Stone at 6031924-2533, fax him at 6031924-2683 or use E-mail: 104124.1255@compuserve.com.
.~:~~ BECOME ACME ...fAST!
4t,._~~~--\ . THE f/R5T CNE COMPUTER BA5ED
".#~,'f) ......., -------~
TRAININ6 PROGRAM 15 HERE...
The first 100%Computer Based Training (CBT)
DON' TPUT YOUR CAREER ON HOLD AMY LONGER! GET THE
program on CD-ROM to fully prepare you for Novell's
CNE exams. Its innovative design provides fast,
effective and convenient training to anyone wishing to become a Certified NetWare
FOREFRONT
CHE SELF-STUDY COURSEAND GET CERTlflED...fAST!
COURSE MODULES INCLUDE:
· Administration v3.1x
Engineer, even wh en hampered by a
· Advanced Administration v3 .1x
busy schedule. Our CNE CBT allows you
· 3.1x Installation & Configuration (#802)
to learn and practice everything you 'll
· Service & Support for NetWare (#801)
need for full NetWare certification .
· TCP/IP Transport for NetWare
· All on one CD
· Networking Technologies
· Interactive NetWare simulation
· NetWare 3.1x to 4.1 Update .
for hands-on exercises
· Study at your own pace
*NetWare 4. 1course also available
· Hundreds of practice questions
Added Bonus!
· Priced below competitive products
The CNE Self-Study Course comes with the full version
· Everything you need to prepare for Novell's tests!
of the required Micro House Technical Library.TM
'
The Forefront A+ CERTIFICATION Self·Study CourseTM
... is the first 100% Computer Based Training (CBT) program on CD-ROM designed
to fully prepare you for the A+ Certification exams. This hands-on self-study course
will giveyou all the technical material, knowledge,
interactiveexercises, and confidence you'll need to pass your exams and excel in today's competitive PC repair marketplace!
CO NVENIENT! ForeFront's A+ Certification Self-Study Courser"' gives you flexibility and portability unmatched by traditional training methods. You'll study at your own pace using our easy to follow, step -by-step format. Study whenever and wherever it's convenient for you!
· All on one CD · Interactive simulations
· Study at your own pace · Hundreds of practice
questions · Priced below
competitive products · Everything you need to
prepare for the exams!
Free Technical Support · Next Day Shipping · Performance Guaranteed
AMERICAN
EXPRESS
-
Call for Special Discount Pricing Today!
1 -800-653-4933
(813) 539-7283 · FAX (813) 531-0200
f.OR~RONT
_.......
VISA
Circle 207 on Inquiry C ard.
Forefront Direct, Inc .
18820 U . S . H w y . 1 9 N ., #215 C l ear w at e r, FL 34624
Copyright <0 1996 ForeFront Direct, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ForeFron\ CNE Self·Sludy Course and ForeFront A+ Certification Self·Sludy Course are trademarks of
ForeFront Direct. Inc. The foreFront Logo Is a tradem ark of fhe ForoFront Group, Inc. All oth er trademarks are the properties of th eir respective holders.
BM
ForeFront Direct, Inc . is a subsidiary of ForeFront Group, Inc.
Limited Ouantilies So Hurry and Order!! Compaq Contura 400, 410, 420, 430 - 4Meg ...$291' Compaq 1Meg V-Ram Pl. No. 171017-001 ... ....2911
Thlnkpad 7SO, 720, 700, 360, 355 · 4Meg .......39"
HP 4P, 4P Plus, SM , SP, 1600 w/2Meg ...... .....1911
Cyrlx DRX2for16DX mach. Dbls. Your Speedl ....6911 NEC Versa E, M, P· 4Meg ..........................291'
Wlnbook XP · 8Meg ..................................491'
Epson &SOC, 660C · 4Meg...........................39"
Ultra TS38 · 4Meg ....................................39"
Ambra N-75, N-100. 4Meg .................. .... ...39"
Midwest Micro Ellle, Soundbook · 4Meg .. ..... ..3911
72 PIN SIMMS (FPM, EOO)
... ... ......... ..., ,..,.a,..,
. .".."...' , h HI·
11UI
,.,.
........ '.".... ..........
,hMlh·
1lU 4..
l tut
,
.... ..... hUI ..
...... .... h U11..
.... lt l Ul ..
. .. ...... M1R'4..
.. ldU.. [DO
n·
. . ..... h JU .. £00
. . t 1U1llllf fDO
n .11
..... ..... h J.tU..lDO
DIMMS (168 pin)
."...,......".........' .·=...-... ........... ,. OULClmfUX.UPRDltl
.... UY Ult. Ria
UYlct. lDO
.·.:-.:.:... .... U'Ylct,IDG
J.J'f lct.UIO
:: J.1¥Cti, IJO
-. -.. .·. ..,,KUPOIKIDXolrtlMl·
Ufl"- lllO
........ --· ...,............ wUY
-",.,..- ,,. ,,,.DUltGAlIWAY
..,. ..... ur......
1.n'llMAJI
- .... ..... MOfOIWl.At-"C_,ll!tlll
., UllOO
.....
U't l OO
t Mbt
....... ..... ........
·""-'""" . ... U'f'lDO
Ulllt
'1"1·.·
IU.· '111 ·
,
m .lf
'""111.·
CACHE MODULES
nu1m1t1J~IMtllll'SIC..-&1MOhlt $11.IJO (CmtCtl1J
J1Ji(1ll1!IJ"lflJu l.waCXUM.:dd1 at. IOtc-UI~)
lffl (Jll,;.J.C..,..C#ttlkd11' :91.aJWt·N Al!lrl
,,. ,,,,,.,A",,s.'_f"«,.t.usl MnsJt
CACHE MEMORY
l tNS 16NI l ONS ts rs
""""'' "" '" 12'.(4\)l'fr. ""' "" '"' ···· ~~"~'· '" "' ·· l'"iM ''
""'""" '"''"""'
rn
'"
11 !llt~vt 1SOO(ll'IJ
1rn
J:MSOJJMlT IUD
'""""' ·· "'9bSOJ\t!10!
INTEL Math Chips
C l l l ' ·>l
.,OJ
ICJl".((f 1Jan
I')'))
lrAll ·P:":lcli.l.IJ
ltlO>
·S.c{Oen.u)
.t9-0>
lnlt!Sl.
b(>)
l-llp'c:IO'lin.IMrOrilof~
lndlvld.W D·RAM Chips
MUllDl!llORIU I Amf
l*ltS ltllS
llil~ ·I
l~IZ'Jp,., ,
l'S4 ·15&at)ifo 2'11&\l'IQl:lp) TM''<'·'dtO~
"""""' r.:t.11W
'"''""""''
·n
~ ""
2Jll
'"' ""m""'' ""·z~'
:100
""' ·~
·z
!Z
"' ""nlll
!51tltSCH~ WOl
""' zx.11 ..... r...
H
Make Your 486 Run
like a Pentiume
:~~ ;~2~~~.Jx ras.,!fo~¢~=
OutPt1to.-imlntt1owrunve?«itiinaJ
t1fil MEMORY
NEC MEMORY
M ~!.:~ MEMORY
We also sell Memory for: Dell, Gateway,
DEC, Sun, Zenith, Acer and Epson
IBM PS/1, PS/!2 MEMORY MODULES
~j-~~
'*'170Clkld""")
........,_.s.r-~
~CSWIU(tDO.:an
A,:.lts'IYS.ltS PClJQ~6Sr1.f~71
PC»0Mo0tt6Sn1too..-.1 PClAO\rDO.oml
PC~ MOOflt6S81~
PCJSOl.ltl0tl66M (Plint PC~ l.too.ltU7 !(00.ratl
'""'PCillt.1oOAY7l-61Jl _,,,
PC7JGMOOtl&t771lD0.f.U1)
PCiSOMoclnutS-NUl j~rsl PC~ UoOdJNTtttlO, pn)
PCS....m 1:w11 pt Stlw »D lfCt. CMll Pi'S1 . Jl'-'Sill!ln
M1. n,_~
PIS7.~0Sl M1~. n..5.~ ~7 P!S2 M:o\[CC.*11 M251notf. ~ 1~ 21'Sfrte.c.anl
O/ltlfAl6'_._,.
~11171'
~1"11'
~ li'1lt
DS1 H '2Q
~li11t
34Mi'! llr'llt
~ 4 412 ~
'9M.1W20 3'4M.'11'1 10
].t.~11~19 ~1 &4."2 19
U S12ill19
1MS.1Am
lll5i.1W219
'""1 ~ l i » l « .'2 11 ·IDt ~
~~,,~
'"." ft7i1m·t
,''.",,'
Wl'i"tlt"l.f)
IBM NOTEBOOK & LAPTOP MEMORY
~w>-40.Jo.m . ~. c. cc
T ~3MC.CSCD. f ED
'!). ·J~X.~.ttl
nw.~H!Xlmc~ T ~l!iea
T~~ 100 170. 1~. Cl,.H$(
TNnl.µll il:ll. IOIC
r 1J0r. a
lbtr.,_7"'-CE..alCS
lllr.._llOC CD LLD
~l'Q.fD. tl..lt.D
avwm ·!illU
1i.lii~
'""" 1Ci.'ln.U
t '11n1!9319 ~9/1f;it'7 1 9
...,.,.,.,....,,,, ·Wl~U9
··10W11i1J9
COMPAQ MEMORY MODULES
--·S.'SWWCJ1. bU.6C
""
""""" "' C¥o'l~Bl.utiC'
ta'O'!l.FrlUL-.
Es:-lllXIO.Acblrll.lw b~tor'lol.alot!Lu~noo 16\lO
EPSOnActo'llutrR
[ttcnmll.OO*»l. 11\'iJ,ml
.. ,.ro. ~lllC!'l1000 1 ~. 5000. ,:!«I
,,110, l'. 1'1'·
H' I M.1.CSlCSl.IX
tf>IP, .P,l1itr.l't:ll«n160XM ·
lf' ·t.
""'""''..v $Mf' ¥'1, tltl
.l'f'l.)n.q'I .Jn!.J:l.l!6,0ul.J.J-. . .
H'O..lZ!XIC l iOX.'"
"'-""" 1£Ml.MJIOll I019f:
,;
.1E.l,i.l.l...M,,',°,,".''#°3T1t
<o...... lf-]11~ )115
Lcc"..-.""°'llC.h,*
l.te"r..,_O:ll'ILl.llltRI
~.l'IYat..warXl'Jl(t)
Ltcr.al\w.t#l-"'20l · )3.000
Nl C~. 1ao
... . ""
. ." ." . ... ,;
.J..I
" "
;
" ' '
"
"""'
"""" " " "
' ""''
,.
.;
" ""'
'~
" " " " "
I
""''
. "
in
. . . """"''
,;
"",';' "
,,;
"'
.;
" "
" I u
,; Ill ,,;
"' ,,;
,;
. "
.. ."'
,;
,;
"'
no
.'~ "'
. "'
14: C~.97
71
""""O\!.aootlt.IJU. l !OC.·100:
o-tlllltl.1..e.oot , D'..61(1(. 11
~DJ.MO Oill1l5C2·SG p,,_,uon.t:. UX. 41 ~
hut-1f U ll 'UJf
PariUCll"iC I'~
"""""'""'""' ;>wol\:lllC U.:.S410
"""""""' S..;"400..MOMOllSTOOl
51'".neo:u t\.t17JH
nJaA1S11it'U! TISkr.ClwPnl~"1 6CO
TI"°,zic"'"""
"' ..,;
"
. .,;
"".""""",'
"'
...""". ""
" ""''
"" ' '"""""'"""'''''
,; "'
Cf;ttp- - CUSTOMER SERVICE & TECHNICAL: OPENM-F,~ PST
Al pn:xb;tsbnlldncw&~ ·Wcbuy-baltay Trademarks am reglstel!d wHh lh<limspoclM companTes.
·
. T~ADE ~
22825 Loc:kness Avenue· Torrance, CA '90501
S!CURITY Will CALL WIHDOW HOW
OPEHI HO SURCHARGE FOR MC,
-
-
YJSA "1 & DlSCOvtl
BAmRIES
* * * * CA.LL FOR NOTEBOOK AND LAPTOP BAITERIES
Compaq , IBM, Toshiba , Epson, AST, Tl and Morell
~lJl t't"'ITD .
ClllO'lt're\"18oal.~-'~ ~Corltf.'.f1J/2S,'/2!
torr;i.:iAfro.w. u o. 1<'0 m ,
~lhS®Dsnt .
fpsDl'l.la.c:tl~6$0.6eO · .
Enonk:lGl'lll*llX>,l!lf)lU'l.tlO ·
Wltlr... JM, ""3. .
IEAl~Jf.5t. w. xn
tm~7U1 .·.
l!.'l ~r50,75.5
.
ll!lil ~1S5CO. Cl.Ci. Cl
UCVWW1Cal. ZZ!:D..m F.Vtr11;lY
,,l9
1.M IO'J
·· '°'105I tll
1s.t t1 fJ
. 92 . 15t
1!!9
Cll Ill
llG\"ttuS
Jiil
m S~3:tlQ,3QXIJ05Q.~. ll!IO . .
Sr.al',30JC. 30&-0. X11tl. ..
ml
Sw:>a700.llJOO. !GOO.
. .·.··. IW
n~ · ~- ·Sle10. s1! .
139
rlE.<$'.e.4$.15.Sil SM. 5613.570
11i
n~mrm.65a
. 141
Tc.'J;Ol 600ell . . .
C:al
T~'litl:l&00. ~. ' 10, ·n. t?O. t~. Q~
Tosti:bal00.1 05, 11 0 ll~. 100.205
n . If)
TW.tbi!2100Slt'ft ...
.. · l'l
rmr.,.:q2400.1,5a. 1m1'5ll.196J . 1®
T~ ·trA.mo.'*50,,.tt:»
Ill
fatiQ.T«U.T...::0 .
. US
TOSHIBA LAPTOP MEMORY
~='-NSI
1tm"'fJDMI'
_,.....,..,.~,,J~:Z~lff,
1.rn Nt. t1f
.....,....,llMI.......,,~
rax:csn.UlXIUiTICWl, ll!t>, C
~
T?TOll13\lU01155. 2110.:tll~
·u.;~ ~ L'.n
l~SIXl. C.T46CO. T~ll QC.Tlf10. Jl~(Jl'1
Ult;
U!Gl.C. 1'61».T1100.l11CX!C.Tt110, T!i:SG{3h)
~
f.tS>'!. t. T'6(AW:ll1tcll C.Tlt111.. 11'501llt, IW~9
n.soo:t. l?':JJ 06»
'~11~1U.le1
.n 11·. 115. Ill. IU, 115. IJI
1#11. Q:, lll. llJ. Uf,
llllJ(7Ulf,._t11U1 UU,;JaMrt.fllltj
mocs. ""111, mt. '"tu
,,,,,.tl'Ub""""
T60Q.8 10.C T f oo
u·eg11i~
WU17J.U.,~..-~,m,,
81ll!ltl'1 t1t.1flf
,",.",' Cl7W13"211
m1.1m'0
·~'111.1 79.t.al
ft.1 1&1n
M'IB7Tf H/111.111 i9fl 6''21i
- NOTEBOOK, LAPTOP MEMORY
:Pllgo'X'M!I';
~"'-;.'IMIOf1:;
··,.J,.,,~;g
PC CARDS (PCMCIA) VERSION !2.0
,RICl
""""m"'""''''
1 lCi!'i 2161G
HARD DISK DRIVES (EIDE)
llWTI
UmJI
au.ITOA
1OGICi lt)OAV
sm
12GIG 71:'fiO A~
191
Wlm1'·DKJTAI.
WAia ACmO
1i G1G AClltoCI
Sml!O
1lfi)[i
Z?i
ltGIJ IJ;;31IOO
~I
HG!Ci
2i6
l!G·:> Sllll H~IU $311
"" rtfit.IKrADU.S,leOll.l.
TS07U - ICJl(ll(i
_., ll'1G
1\ Gti l.,..\VUll'S) -l JG.."C
l ff~.5100-IOl(.IC
iJr.iG
1 · Gac
'" Vt~ fVIJl' - 1JG'(;
MM
21 Gl6
S5~
m
UNM.llSAL IOR.tU
1101llOOISAND U 1lOl'S
I CllG!G
fJ&'
,...... SJJ V..-u2'o::ll-xio · I QCIG 1-165 l) lilf
119
1)61' 59t 2 tGIG
~
U)
:U
· 1'CC~-IOIGJG
'4U
1-145
1l GIG
603
m IWI T7Ca·I08~
'"
1JG.1G
~ m
310·539·0019 FAX1 310·539·5844
SECURITY WlU CAUWIHDOW
HOWOPEH
CAU
1 · 8 0 0 - 4 3 3 - 3 7 1 6 ESTAB. PSrUicbeJscc&t Ato·aCllhlbalnl9lt·y Mon·Frf, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST
TOUFREE
(US and canada)
1985 Without HoUco Sat. 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Ci rcle 2 10 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS : 2 11 ).
- -- - - - - - · -- - -- - - - - - - - -
-
http://www.computerlane.com
PC Companion
C120 2mb ram, 4mb rom. touchdisplay . .. $479 C120+2mb ram, 4mb rom, modem .... . . 5659 C140 4mb ram, 4mb rom. touch display · . . $589
Armada Notebooks
Annada 1120 P/100, 8/81 0MB. DSTN.... S1450 Armada 1120T P/100. 81810, Aaiw ....... Scali Armada 41 20 P/120, 8/1 GB. Active . ..·... Seal! Armada 41 30T P/133. 8/1GB. Actiw .·. .. . Seal!
LTE Notebooks
LTE 5300 P/133 16/1.JGB, Active..... $3699 LTE 5300 P/133 16/1 .3GB, Active..·.. $4189 LTE5380 P/1 33 16/2GB. Active · . .. . . . Seal! LTE 5400 P/1 50 16/2 GB. Active ....... Scat!
Deskpro 2000 Desktop
2000 P/100 8/1.2GB .. ... ....... .. S1 099 2000 P/1331 6/1.2GB . . . ....... . $1599 2000 P61200 16/2.5GB+CD ....... . . $2550 2000 P61200 16/2.5GB+CD (MT) ·.. . . $2758
Deskpro 6000 Desktop
6000 61200 32/2GB, CDS .. .. . . .. . . . . Seal! 6000 6/200 32/2GB. PDS ·... .. .....· Scali
Professi onal Workstation 5000
Pentium Pro 2DOMHz
5000 1P 3212.1GB/CDS (Matrox) .. . .. $3945
5000 1P 64/2. I GB/CDS (Matrox) . . . . .. $call
5000 1P 64/4.3GB/CDS (Ma1rox) .. . .. . Seal!
5000 1P 64/4.3GB/CDS (GL Video) .... . Seal!
5000 1P 12814.3GB/CDS (GL Video).·.. Seal!
..1P (slngloproceuor) or ,__.,. 2P (dual procusor), ~...- IntegratedUltra WideSCSI controller,
2 or «GBwide SCSI Orlv.,, tntergated10/100 Hetwor1< c1rd.· ·
Compaq Servers
Prosignia 500 Pentium 150MHz Proliant 1500 Pentium 150/166MHz Proliant 2500H Pentium Pro 200MHz Proliant 2500N Pentium Pro 200MHz Proliant 2500R Pentium Pro 200MHz Proliant 5000 61200 Pentium Pro 200MHz Prolian t 5000 6/t 66 Pentium Pro 200MHz Proliant 5000R 6/1661200 Pentium Pro
(~· ·call us for Complete Compaq Network Solution.··
IBM
Thinkpad 560 Notebooks
TP 560 PJ\20 8MBl810MB TP 560 Pi133 8Mlll108GB
Scan · . Scali
I
TP 560 PIOO 81SMB 11 .3 OS Scali
Thinkpad 365 Notebooks
151S3E9 :iosx E120 8'Aa~10MB T
.$2541
26254E9 365XD PJ120 SM~~HlMB. CD. Activa S27:Jj)
16250EF365XO PMO 8Mlll1 .08GB.CD. DSTN .S2550
26250EF365XD P/110 8MBl1.08GB. CO. Act~e .S2964
26151E9 365XO P/133 8MBl1.35GB. CD. ActNe $3480
16152E9 365X P/133 SIABll.08GB
.. .S2542
Thlnkpad 760 Notebooks
Thinkpad 760ED
Pentium 1331150MHz processor
16MB RAM 1.312GB disk
28.8 lax modem duplex phone,
CD ROM drive, 1.44 MB floppy drive
$Special
"call for other Thlnkpad 760 Models**
PC 33013401350/365
PC 750 Series
IBM PC Servers 320152017041720
..call for pricing & avallabll1ty··
TOSHIBA
Notebook Systems
1110CS
P/100 &'810MBDual Scan ..... Seal
T200COS
mocos
P/100 IWIOfda+CO.Dual Sc.an . P1120 1&'1.JGB+eo.Dual Scan ..5ca!I
T4m DT P/120 1&'1 .3GB+CO.Active .. .. .Sc211
Tetra 51 0CDS Pn33 1611.JGB,CO.DSTN ... ..Scan
Tetra 510COT P/133 1611.JGB,CO, Active.....Scali
Pr01eQe 600COT P/150MHI 1611.JGB.rn ......... .Scali
Tecr.i 720CDT P/133 1&'1.3GB.Adiie, CO .... .seal
Tecr.i ]:JjJCOT P/150 1&'168, Aall,,CO .... .
··we also carry Toshiba
Refurbished & Discounted
Models In Stock,
call us for prices··
Desktop Systems
Inf inia Models
7200 P/200 3213.1GB ...... .. .$2089 7160 P/1 66 1612.0GB .·· · · · · . .$1299 71 30 P/1 33 16/1.6GB ·· ·· ·· · · .$1 598
· Bx CDROM Dril' · 30 souoo surroond soJlld · 28.8lax moden\fdigital answering system
' Teie"sion/FM capturecard (luU screen)
· Remotecootroll(teleplJJne/IV/FM) · OVO ready
r · 15OI 1 SVEA Mooillr o1lh nUlimedla from motJll sunouoo SOl'1d spemr> fi01111110011ted micro,"'<>ie
· Win 95.Ms Plus, Mslro!k. MS l'iOO<s Oun MsGolf. MsEncarta +5 other software ti1lts (games).
' " All soltwa re comes with CD al so"
Hewlett Packard
Printers
DESKJET 1600C DESKJET1600CM DESKJET 340C DESKJET 400 OESKJET 680C OESKJET 820CXL lASERJET 4MV lASERJET 4V lASERJET 5 lASERJET 5L-FS LASERJET 5M lASERJET 5MP
lASERJET 5N lASERJET 5SI lASERJET 5SIMX
$1279 $1859 S289
$199 $289 $479 $2690 $1840 $1249 $459 $1689 Scali Scali $2665 $3750
HP Desktop &
Minitower Systems
Veclra 520 & 525 Veclra VA Series Veclra XM4 Series Vectra XA Series Vectra XU Series
Pentium
133/1 66
1 8 0MHz
& Pro
200MHz
Netserver Le
Pentium
Netserver Lh &Lh2 1 33/ 166MHz
Netserver Ls & Ls2
Pe ntium
Netserver Lx, Lx2
Pro
Netserver LXe
2 00MHz
..Call us for
Price and Confi guration..
Graphic Tablets & Art Pads
Summa Graphi cs
Summasketch Ill 12x12 2BW S1YL .. . . $239
Summas"<titch Ill PRO 12x18 4BTN . . . ... $460
Summagrid IV 24x36 W/16 Button ...... S1098
Mlcrogrld Ultra 24x36 16BTN
.. S2099
Microgrid Ultra 36x48 t6BTN ......... . 52498
MicrogndUltra 44x60 16BTN . . ... 52898
WACOM
Anpadll 4X5 Ullrapen PC... . .......... 514'1 Artpadll 4x5 Oabb)er PC w/Ultra ...... ... $166 Ar1l II 12x12 w/Ultra Pen PC/MAC ...... . S425 Artz II 12x18 w/Ultra Pen PC/MAC.. . . $640 Artz II 18x25 w/Uitra Pen PO or MAC.. . . 51790
Adaptec SCSI Cards
Total connecl AVA-1515 kit. . . .. . . .. .. . .. S81 AHA-2940 host adapter kit ...... . .. .. .. Seal!
PCI Master AHA-2940 kit . .. .... .. . .. . $223
Slim SCSI APA-1460 .......... .. .. ... S15 1
Recordable &
Optical Hard Drives
Recordable
Pinnacle RCD 5040 (Internal) ..... .. .. .. 5824 Pinnacle RCD 5040 (external)...... . . . . . $729 Creative Lab Busler COR-4210 ...... .. .. S599
Optical Hard Drive
PinnacleVertex 2.6GB (intemal) ... . .. . .· $1 345 PinnacleVertex 2.6GB (eX1emal). ... . ..... S729 Panasonic 650 rewrilable opllc<l ... . . .. . . 5499
NOVELL
l!!:d 01! White Box
OR Uggrade Box
Netware 3.1/4.1 Nehvare 3.114.1 Netware 3.114.1 Netware 3.114.1
5110 user
Scali
10/25 user
Scali
50/100 user
Scali
250 user , ~". Scali
. tntran11twar11 °S'f:,j;ft;f ~ t·
!,!ggradg erii<!!5
5110 user lntrane1 upgrade
53401599
25/50 user Intranet upgrade S1015/1335
1001250 user lnlranet upgrade $1875/3335
lntri!netware Prl i;e~
5/10 user lntrane1
5750/1 402
10125user Intranet
$2480/3340
Hard Drives
Special
QuantumUl1ra SCSl-3 2.1GB ....... . .. .. $402 Seagale ST31621a 1.6GB IDE. ....... . .. . S223 Seagate ST15230N 4.29GBSCSl·2·.... .. . S987 Seagate ST4 tOBON 9GB last SCSl-2 ·.·· . · $1 965 Seagate ST32550N 2.14GB fast SCSl·2.. . . . S734
Computerlane Inc.
Outside California: 1-800-526-3482
Inside California : 818-884-8644 - Fax: 818-884-8253
E-mail : ssolim01 @sprynet.com or comlane@instanet.com
7500 Topanga Cyn Blvd., Canoga Park, CA 91303
Hours: Monday - Friday 9-6, Saturday 10-s
C irc le 202 on Inquiry C ard .
NETWORK ADAPTERS & HUBS
3com pc!
combo .. .. .. .... .. ...S137
3com stacker II series 12 port 10base-T . . .5505
3com stacker II series 24 port 10base·T ...S864
3com 3c905-TX fast elherllnk xi pci .. ... . .S137
3com 3c905-TX 5-pack .. .. .. . . . . . ... . .S804
Intel Express TX switching hub .. ... . . ... .Scali
Intel 1OObase-TX stackable hub ..... .... .Scali
" We carry all kinds of . , . _\
hubs, routers, network 'W'J
cards, switches·· ··call for updated prices ..
PCMCIA PRODU CTS
Xicom pc ce2 10bt credi1card adapter .....S136 Xicom pc ce2 10bc credit card adapter .. ..$171 Xicom pc com-2Bbl modemt 10-base-T . .. .$296 Megaherti 28.8 credit card modem . . . . . . .5232 Meiiaherti Ethernet XJACKXJ1 0BC . . .. ...S1 49 Meiiahertz Ethernet XJACKXJ10BT . . .. .. .$1 06 Meiiaherti Ethernet XJACKXJ1 08T/020 .. .$2150 " Call for updated prices" . .)
-.-. -. --,- ,. - f -, -- -- - - ,1 -.-, -, -, -. --~
Hayes Accura 336 (external) . . . . . . . ·. . . .5139
Hayes Accura 336 (internal) .....·· .·. . ..S120
Hayes Accura 336 (eX1emal) ..·· . . . · . . ..5239
Hayes Accura 336 (internal) .... .. . . .. . . .5224
UPGRADf US Robctics 33.6k (internal) .
.$1 48
... USRobctics 33.6k (external) . . . 5~00 · $1 67
US Robotics 33.6k Win Modem . ..... . . . .S109
r~ ··also carry zoom , \119' Motorola, Practical
Call for updated prices··
JAZ & ZIP DRIVES
J"1.1GB Ext. SCSI PC/MACEx!J..... . .. . .5459 Jr.J. MAC 1GB 5-Pak Cart............ .. .5419 Jr.J. MAC 1GB Single Cart. , .... . . ...... .$104 Jr.J. PC 1GB 5-Pak Cart. . . .·. .. ... . .. ...$4 19 Jr.J. PC 1GB Single Cart, ...... .. .... ...$104 ZIP PC 100MB Paralieli Port · .·.. · . ... .. .Scali ZIP PC lOOMBInternal SCSI .· .. .·. .. · . .Scali
MICROSOFT
Back Office Server v2.0
Back Officeversion upgrade CO v 2.0 . .. ..$685 Back OfficecompetitiveupgradeCDv 2.0 .51580 Back Office v 2.0 lull version ....... . ...S1938 Back Ottice v 2.0 user client litense pack ..$1185
Windows NT Server v4.0
NT Server 4.0 +5 client license
. 5740
NT Server 4.0 +10 client license .
. .$1030
NT Server 4.0 upgrade +5 client . ... . . . ..5370
NT Server 4.0 upgrade+10 client . . . . . .. ..5490
NT Server 4.0 comp upgrade +5 CJ1icense . .$370
to NT Sem r 4.0 comp upgrade + CJ1icense .5499
Windows NT Workstation v4.0
NT Workstation v 4.0............ . . . ... S280 NT Workstation v 4.0 vlupgrade ... . . . . ...$130 NT Workstation v 4.0 s/upgrade . . . . . . . ..S230
Microsoft SQL Server v6.5
SOL Server +5 client licensepack . . $1230 SOL Server +10 dient llcensepack . . . . .. S1760 SOL Semr ·25 dient litense pack . . · . .. $3515
ACADEMIC DEALS
Save up to 70%
on Microscofl Products
Atn : Students/Teachers/
Educati on Institutes
!lJ WIN NT 4.0 in stock
~ MS Office Pro WIN 97
Authorized Service &
Parts Center for
IBM, COMPAQ, TOSHIBA,
HEWLETT PACKARD
" 'We carry all parts in stock ' ""
BYTE FE B RUA R Y 19 97 16 1
Da t.he mat.h.
Your responsibilities are adding up pretty quickly. Managing networks. Creating Internet applications. Driving equipment purchases. Implementing intranet strategies. No one knows more than NetWorldSM+lnterop· just how challenging your job has become.
+ The world's most trusted experts NetWorld+lnterop is assembling the world's largest forum of net· worki ng, Internet and intranet experts to give you an educational experience unmatched anywhere on the planet.
+ 3 Powerhouse Conferences/76 sessions
Need to build killer lnternet/intranet solutions? Taking your network infrastructure to the next level? Want the latest on broadband access technologies? No other single source can give you more practical know-how and sure-fire answers.
+ SD in-depth tutorials and workshops NetWorld+lnterop is where enterprise computing meets the Internet head on. Our world-renowned instructors will give you the practical know-how you need to simplify your job and supercharge your future.
+ 600 top eKh1b1tors & lDDDs of products
This is your chance to meet the industry's premier technology leaders and test drive their latest products, all under one roof and running live on the lnteropNer.
Plan to be in Las Vegas. Because no matter how you add it up, your investment in NetWorld+lnterop is sure to pay off- exponentially.
Conference Programs: May 5-9, 1997 Technology Exhibition: May 6-8, 1997
Las Vegas Convention Center
For program details visit www.interop.com. Register online or call
800-944-4629 or 1-415-372-7090.
I. 11
' I
NETW RLD+INTEROP 97
Where t.he ent.erpr1se meet.s t.he Internet.
Circle 159 on Inquiry Card.
Run more than one OS on your PC!
C ircle 212 on Inquiry C ard (RESELLERS: 213).
S
Y
S
T
E
M
COMMANDER
System Commander makes it safe · Use any Intel compatible OS or
and easy to add as many OSes to your PC as you want!
Easy Automatic Installation ·Prepares your PC for new OSes in
combi nation of OSes, in English or any other language
System Commander is only $99.95 and comes with an unconditional 60 day
Free
overnight shipping*
when you mention this ad.
minutes
money back guarantee. Get Free
· Simply select the OS you want and overnight shipping when you mention
800·648·8266
System Commander does the rest this ad. *Order it now and have it on your
www.v-com.com
·To use another OS simply reboot desk tomorrow morning!
and make another selection
Money-Saving Flexlblllty · Minimize hardware expenses by
putting up to 100 OSes on one PC ·Use any combination of hard drives
____.. "System Commander is a blooming miracle" Jer Pournelle- BYTE
... V Communications, Inc.
4320 Stevens Creek Blvd, #120·3BYT San Jose, CA 95129
408.296.4224 fax 408.296.4441
· When Oldered befora noon PST. No Saturday defivery. Standard shipping outside US. CA res. add $725 sales tax. Offer
subject to change without noUce. All logos and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. VtSA/MC/Amex Ct 996
If you want Ultra SCSI Performance use our Teflon Cables & Active Terminators.
SCSI Vue ''"Active Terminator Fr59
RemoteO0p1Os1o>nl.atyl. . Benefi ts : · Improves SCSI Bus Performance · Less Errors; More Reliable Data Transfer · Diagnoses Problems · Analyzes Signal Quality Features: · Active Regulation · Supports 68 Pin, 50 Pin · Status Indicators · Gold Contacts
$39 eenelits: Gold/;?i!,~9nostic Cables
· No Loss Of
· Diagnostic Indicators · Large Ferrite Filters
Important Data · Triple Shielding (Unique Cable Design)
· Faster Performance · Double Gold 20u" Plated Connectors
· Test Cable Integrity · Extra Heavy 26 Gauge Wire, 50 & 68 Pin
FAST SCSI Cables 20MB/s ! Over 60 Cable Stylei In Srock
Teflon Custom Internal C bles
· Less Errors, Ultimate Performance · Silver Wire Improves Signa l Quality Fea tures : · Perfect 90 Ohm Impedance Match · Triple Pronged Connector With Gold contacts
Custom Internal Ca bles in 1 DAY!
*'"1·
!
Active
Benefi ts:
Digital
Switch
~.lo ~ · Share SCSI Devices Between 2 Computers
---,,...--..., · Attach up to 14 Devices to 1 Computer
Features :
· 2· 1 Active Digital Switch/Repeater
· Regenerates SCSI Signal for Long Runs
Ca t al og O nline 0 www .scsl p ro .co m
The SCSI Solution Company
Our knowledgeable SC51 Technicians will solve all your SCSI problems...guaranteedl
Gold Diagnostic Adap
$39
Styles : · 68 Pin Drive to 50 Pin ID C (runs wide dr ive as narrow) · 68 Pin External Adapter to 50 Pin (converts Host Adapter) · Gender Changers both 50 pin and 68 pin (all combinations) · Adapters with partial termination built in for 68 to 50 converters
Teflon 90 Ohm External Cables
From:
Benefits:
$ 1 5 9 · Ultra SCSI 40 MB/s operation (Granite Exclusive !I I) · Fixes Ultra SCSI External Cable Problems
Fea tures: · Perfect 90 Ohm Impedance Match · Triple Pronged Connector With Gold contacts
Active Digital Ultra SCSI Echo I Repeater
Benefits: · Doubles the Ultra SCSI Cable Length (up to 18' · Fixes Ultra SCSI External Cable Problems · Models Available for all SCSI types (Int. & Ext.)
Features : · Active Termination and Signal Purification · Ultra Fast Performance for Added Capabilities · Diagnostic Capabilities · 30u" Gold Contacts
- - - -- - - -
GoldExternal Ultra SCSI Cases
Benefits: · Ultra SCSI Custom Teflon Cable Installed · Custom Enclosures in 1 Day for Raid & Arrays
From:
$29
3101 Whipple Rd. · Union City, Ca. 94587 ·Ph: 510-471-6442 ·Fax 510-471~267
Circle 208 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS: 209).
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 163
Introducing DATAPRO DAILY.
__any ~A. ,PRO
It's new! It's up to the
minute! It's the only daily
IT advisory service available
today covering major
global events in the IT industry! Concise and precise
in its information, DATAPRO DAILY is the indispen
sable resource that keeps senior management
up-to-speed.
Get essential daily updates plus expert
analysis from our global staff of over 150 analysts
via fax or e-mail. The choice is yours . Get the
inside scoop on PCs & Workstations, UNIX, Internet,
Telecommunicatlons, Healthcare, Finance, and other
segments of the IT market.
Know what the experts advise in just 20 minutes of reading. Understand quickly the implications of key industry events. And benefit from worldwide access to our experts via e-mail. Anytime .
Subscribe now, and discover why IT professionals worldwide have already subscribed to Datapro's
objective information services for the last 28 years . It's the smart business move that gives you the edge to act before the others do. DATAPRO DAILY. Essential IT business reading for
today. Everyday. Enterprise-wide subscription with user-based pricing is avai lable .
Datapro Information
Services Group
'i2
A Di11isim1 o{TlicMcGra w·HiU Co111pa11ies
CALL +1 800 DATAPRO I +1 609 764 0100 NOW FOR A FREE 10-DAY TRIAL OFFER
or visit our homepage http ://www.datapro .com for more information
Add- in Boards · Bar Coding
· You r Specialty PCMCIA Headquarters
~ ~~ '
.
Bar Coding · Commun ica t ions
If your needs are portable, Quatech has the solution. Ourcomplete lineof communication and data acquisition PCMCIA cardsinclude:
1,2, or 4 Port Serial RS-232/422/485 PCMCIA Cards
Parallel Port/EPP PCMCIA Cards
Multi-Protocol PCMCIA Adapter Cards
Digital 1/0 PCMCIA Cards
Analog Input and/or Output PCMCIA Cards
IEEE 488.2 PCMCIA Interface Cards
For complete specifications ontheabove products, call one of Quatech's expert salesengineers today at 1-800-553-.1170 oremailsales@quatech.com. Ask for afree copyofQuatech's new 1997 ProductCalalog.
1:::1 GUATEC:H
.......AppT:ication to Solution
Check us out 011 the web: lutp:l/www.quatech.com
C ircl e 80 on Inquiry C ard (RE S ELL ERS : 81 ).
BuyQJ!fiqi'!B re'\~ ~n-l $ 2 9 5 LabelWorks"' enca11. for Windowsis afull-featured label design software programby American
American Microsystems has been manufacturing the highest quality bar code equipment for
Microsystems. SCaleable fonts, text rotation, colors and a full range of bar code capabilities. ·
over 13 years.The use of
s21 superior cumpamts,precise
production anddesignprocesses,
~
and very thorough q11al11J 1:8111'81 Deco ers
8
an~
procedures separates our products fromthe competition.
We back theseproducts with a
Direct from American Microsystems! Simple installation, auto·discriminates, fast and very accurate. Aocepts wand, slot. mag stripe, ccd and laser input.
full 30-day mmy·back 1aaraatu.
Best of all,we cover your
purchase with llfltlme llll·fl'll
teclmlcalsappart, staffed by
knowledgeableand friendly
technicians, to answer your most
$249
difficult questions. Plus, all orders CCDs and Lasers
and up
placed before 3:00 pm CST are All undergo extensive testingto ensure
shipped tile same ~ayt Call today
to receive a free
a trouble free purchase. Extremely fast and accurate scan rates. Availablein decoded or undecoded models.
AMERICAN llil= 1111 M I C R 0 5 V 5 T E M 5 , L T 0 800 648 4452x300
fax 817 685 6232 · www.amltd.com
Circle 82 on Inq uiry C ard (R ES ELLERS : 83) .
join the party as we celebrate hvo hot new p roducts!
LaserLite--the smallest portable laser bar code reader on the market!
And DuraTrax-the fi rst portable reader to fully integrate
j\¥f' tJ
Touch Memory' and bar code technology.
Call for your free information kit!
1105 N.E. Circle Blvd., Corvallis, O R 97330 541-758-0521 · Fax 541-752-5285 · http://www.vid ex.com cam1
Circle 84 on Inquiry Card .
· Any mix of PCs; Mac, and Sun
· Keyboarcl/mouse emulation · AUTOSCAN · Front panel &
Hot key operation · Remote access to 150' · Desktop or rack mount · Over 50,000 in operation
Comt St e Us at Networks Expo in Bosro11, MA Feb 18-ZO, Booth #2009
MasterConsole®
Rock solid, reliable control
- ,,..
. '
-- -- - ·
CALL TODAY! 800-RCl-8090 X 71
DISTRIBUTORS LOCATED WORLDWIDE
RCI Europe (31) 10 2844040 fax (31 ) 10 2844049
RCI Taiwan (886) 2·218· 1117 fax (886)-2-218-1221
Mr.(. RCI
Raritan Computer, Inc. 908.874.4072 fax 908.874.5274 10-1 Ilene Court. Belle Mead, NJ 08502 · sales@raritan.com · httpJ/www.raritan.com
30 DAY :\!ONEY-HACK GU\RANTEE FULL I -YEAR WARRANTY
Circle 86 on Inq uiry Card (R ESELLERS : 87).
FEBRUAR Y 1997 BYT E 1 65
Communications· Computer Telephony· Data Acquisition
. . RS·232fR.S·422/RS·485/Current Loop ~t?.#f! ~rface
Yes, Smgle Card Does It · · Uses standard RS·232 commands -
no special drivers needed
j
A~!t .:: ~ 4f,.;~' ' ~·'. ··
! ."' ··~:
$
">_· :L,.
~1/0f..'~0;0 ·i~~'f
· Automatic data flow control
~-
.Ji!. !~';,~}~~·..?-':· ·
· 16C550 UART with 16-byte FIFO but.fer ~.··'::-;...
_.~!;:!~.':J.;A; ,
1 '·-; · .
·Transmission speeds up to 115K bpsl(_·,/Jf.~t:ii! :. . .....~~ ·
·Complete RS-232 modem conlrol s· ~'':· ~·:.-:.~·?;;_,:Tr.~·· ;[.,. ·
·· .. ·Supports 2-wire or 4-wire operatio ·
;, ··.' '''~'~Rv~,. '. ~:;;";:; ~
,,,,.a for RS-422/485
.,,· ··· -· <:; · /.l'ftt17;:~i -".!.J,
.. . ,r . .. ·/.·i ·
·
Both DB-9 and 08·25 connectors inclu PC-ComLIB software included. but not
· · .· necess
··"· ·''···'·'·~"!·'~ "··:',·~: l·_ ·! · ·/ '.'~{ti'.<~~"''-!:.-·)
· Multi-port cards also available
Part # PCL-740 ·· / · ·· ··l.i.t., .
.. . -· ....,... ... ·~ " -
~~
750 Ens! Arqucs Avo.. Sunnyv210, CA 94086
AOVANTECH, 1nlo@~dvnntokcom Toi. ·108·2·15·66 78 · Fnx . 408-245·8268 Hom o pngc hlfp::'/\-.ww.·iclvnnlck.com · e-mn i1:
Circle 85 on Inquiry Card.
~~~~ ST*RVIEW 49
v*'~ Control up to 216 Servers
,Cq,'t'
with just 1 M oni tor, Keyboard, and Mouse
~0~MOtlS<
· Supports SVGA, VGA, and Multisync Monitors · Keyboard or pushbutton CPU selection
Xtyl>oird
· Autoboots Keyboards and mice {SV421)
· Cascadable
Data Acquisition · Desktops
U· c;. ,: INTELLIGENT DATA ACQUISITION
~ '~? ,;-~, . from MICROSTAR
·I ' ·
· '
·
.. ; ;
· ·
g
LABORATORIES,
the onboarrl inrelligtnce company
· High Speed UO
· DSP Commands
· External Expansion
· Control Loop < I ms
· Real·Time Processing
· 19-inch Industrial Racks
· Network Access
· Standard SfW GUls
206-453-2345 - 206-453-3199 fax info @mstarlubs.com - www.mstarlabs.com
USA/Canada: 800-265-1844 (ext. 231)
Fax: (5 19) 455-9425 / lntemet E-Mait: maUOstartechcomp.com
http:/lwww.startecncomp.com
StarTech
europoan11n1emat1ona1 Olslributlon
CO.\ \P Ill l'IOOUCTS
use Fu or Int.met
USA · CaNd. · UK· rrMKt"
or Call : (519) 455-9675 (ext. 231}
Nt'fhnlllndi · Hong Kong
Vlaa/Maatereard/Americen E·presa
Circ le 88 on Inquiry Card.
ff1 YOUR MESSAGESI Til's New 4-PLAY
Voice Processing Card& Voice Window Apphcation.Sohwar
PfAaOF
Circle 11 2 on Inquiry Card .
DAQ Designer 97
DAQ Designer 97 is a free system configuration tool for Windows that takes you through your data acquisition
application step-by-step, asking you questions, and recommending all the right equipment, including: plug-in DAQ boards, signal conditioning, cabling, and software.
New products in DAQ Designer 97 include PCI DAQ boards, more PCMCIA cards, remote data acquisition,
image acquisition, and VXI DAQ modules.
National Instruments
Phone: (512) 794-0100
Fax: (512) 794-8411
(800) 433-3488 (U.S. and Canada)
E-mail: lnfo@natinst.com WWW: http://www.natinst.com
Circle 11 0 on Inquiry Card.
· For notebook PCs
· 12· or 16-bit, 100 kHz or 1 MHz sampling
· Up to 256-channel expansion
· Measure thermocouple, RTD, strain· gage, accelerometer, high-volt age, high-isolation, & other signal types
· DOS"', Windows"', Window" 95, DaqView"', DASYlab'w, LABTECH NOTEBOOK"', Snap-Master·w, & labVIEW" drivers available
1 6 6 BYTE FEBRUAR Y 1997
C ircle 109 on Inquiry Card .
Desktops · Disk Drives · Industrial Computers
· 85-265VAC, -48VDC, +24VDC, +12VDC input
· 70W-350W output · 60KHz PWM control IC · 0-55°C operating · MTBF > 20 years
ICP ACQUIRE INC.
CALL: 1-888-618-6188 FAX: 415-428-1172
Industrial Computers
Embedded PC
Fits your applications
and budget!
IS(MOOI
~
'Biscuit PC
386/486 Single Board Computer with SVGA/LCD and more ...
· Ullra small size (145mm x 102mm)
· Supports all 486DX and 5x86 CPUs
· local-bus SVGA/LCD Interface
· Mulll·port RS·232 and Ethernet commun icati on
· Supports Solid State Disks
· PCn 04 expansion
Industrial PC Solutions
http:/ /www .a p p ro .com E.~ Mal\: approOappro.c.om
800- 927-5464
A~ ~=~~. 2032 ll<nng Drive. s.n J=. CA 96 131 Tel (4-08) 452-9200 ·Fax 14-08) 452· 92 10
C irc le 11 8 on Inqu iry Card (RESELLERS : 11 9) .
C ircle 114 on Inquiry Card.
Rackmount PCs
Industrial PC Chassis
Industrial Workstations
Panel Display PCs
Pentium/486/366 CPU Cards
RS-23214221485 Interface
Analog and digital I/Os
I. · ' ·
Call 800-800-6889 to receive a FREE 100
page Solution Guide for your OEM or system integration needs.
I
AoVANTECH~
750 E. Arques Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 408-245-6678, Fax 408-245-8268
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 167
Industrial Computers
Industrial Computers · laptops a Notebooks
l~ t1, :1· _a. :
J11 ' _-=I _,_ ·__ . ... .·
A large variety of SBCs in stock for fas t delivery
· 486 AND PENTIUM CPUs
· UP Tu 200MHZ SPEEDS
· PC/ SCSI INTERFACE
· E·IDE INTERFACE
· SVGA VIDEO OUTPUT
· DUAL SERIAL PORTS
· /SA &PC/ BACKPLANES
CALL TOLL FREE
1-888 -RECORTEC
Tel: 1-408-734-1290
Fax: 1-408-734-2140
e-mail: info@recortec.com
http://www.recortec.com
RECORTEC
1290 Lawrence Station Road Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Circle 11 6 on Inquiry Card.
Request our free Product Catalog
· COMPUTERS
· ENCLOSURES
· KEYBOARDS
· MONITORS
· PRINTERS
· CUSTOM DESIGNS
CALL TOLL FREE
1· 888-RECORTEC
Tel: 1-408-734-1290 Fax: 1-408-734-2140 e-mail: info@recortec.com http://www.recortec.com
RECORTEC
1290 Lawrence Station Road Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Circ le 117 on Inquiry Ca rd .
Circ le 121 on Inquiry C ard (RE S ELLERS : 122).
U.S.A . Made Rackmount Solutions
Over 40 models, sized from JU through 6U, 17'' to 24" deep, plus rackmount s witches, monitors up lo 20", & keyboards wilh or wilhout trackballs.
QTY. PJUCING FROM $138.
· 5 lo 20 slot segmented or una<gm·nted p...lvc backplanes w/ or w/o PCl slots. · Complct· line of .a86 & Pentiam lot boards &: motherboards up lo 200-MHz., Including Intel's full line.
A.C.OR48V
l!OTSWAJ'S
UPT0800W
Customized Colors Ava'i-l"a"b"-l'-e'~---- Tri·MAP International, Inc.
4569-A L:is Posilas Road, Livermore, CA 94550
VOC: 510 447-2030 · FAX: 510 447-4559 · www.rackco.com
from THE
,:~.:,0
"a
0c:
:..I..
lGB BYTE FEBR U ARY 19 97
C ircle 115 on Inquiry Card.
Mass Storage · Memory/Chips/Upgrades
Memory/Chips/Upgrades · Misc. Hardware
Dh·eet Priees to t h e Publie
We will Beat any Advertised Price
\II "·'lllOI'~ 1, Bra111I i\1·11 ,I( Cn1111 ·· \\ illi \ LifPli1111 · \\ arranl~
Memory 72 pin
EDO l x32-60 $15 2x32-60 $29 4x32-60 $64 8x32-60 $129
Hard Drives
850MB 1.2GB 2.0GB 2.5GB 3.2GB
$11 9 $159 $222 $248
$259
CPU's
bztel Only!!! P-I OOMhz $109 P-1 20Mhz $129 P-133Mhz $189 P-150Mhz $249
Mother Boards 586-75-200 Mhz$89
Intel VX 430 Chipset,
256kpb cache,
2s2p on brd IDE.110
P-166Mhz $329 Sound Cards
P-200Mhz $449 VIBRA 16 Pnp $48
P-Pro 180 $419 SB 32 Pnp
$99
!'-Pro 200 $699 AWE 64 Pnp $199
Video Cards
Malrox $155 Mystique $B9 Dia3d2MB $87
Modems
33.6 int fax/data
$67
33. 7 Int. voice/fax
$73
CD-ROMS
4x int.
$54
Sx int.
$92
IOx int. $102
12xint $105
16x int. $169
Over 1000 items in stock, check our cool website
w-ww-. nteniory-online.cont
300-301-0037
714-488-0477 Fax 714-488-0495
· MEMORY O N-LINE [ii
:::!iC ~111hjcct rliw1µ~· Office Hours i\1-F 7-5 PST· Sa18-12 PST ·
Prif·r!'I nnd Q\'tlil11t.ilit y
lo
" 'ill1 n ul 11111ic f·
C ircle 96 on Inquiry Card.
C irc le 106 on In q uiry C ard .
H
The onlyway to make sure your super-powered PC is properly cooled !
_h~:llwww.calpc.com CALIFORNIA
calpc@jmet.net
1-800-394-4122
,P8 PRODUCTS ~
VISA & MasterCard accepted - Same day shipment!
408-638-9460 - 205 Apollo Way - Hollister, CA 95023
Ci rcl e 97 on In q uiry Card (R ESEL LER S : 98).
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 169
Misc. Hardware · Multimedia/CD-ROM
~ QQ~ @o===' is a vertically integrated design
and manufacturing company specializing in computer enclosures, disk
,.,....""'"' subsystem enclosures and fully Integrated systems.
Tower PC Enclosures Tower Drive Enclosures Rack Systems Rackmount Accessories CPU Cards and Backplanes Rackmount Drive and PC Enclosures Industria l PS2 Power Supplies Redundant N+1 Load Sharing Power Supplies
Phone: 1-702-356·5595
Fax: 1-702-356-6361
E m a i l : i n fo @sli gcr.com
Internet: hup://"ww.sligcr.com Pos t a l: 1385 Greg Si.Suite 101 Sparks, NV 89431
Ci rcle 99 on Inq uiry Card (RESELLERS : 100).
Introducing
sms· DVL. CD-Library and
Panorama- CD-Management Software.
..........STANDARD FEATURE5 ........... Removable, Bar-Coded
Magazines hold 20 CDs each.
Manage 100 CDs on-line 65 gigabytes in 5 magazines.
Record I00 CDs automatically.
Configure up to 4 drives.
Windows®95n & NTn Software.
Field upgradable drives.
CALL NOW!
{888)356-7385
VISA
visit us at www.elms.com
Elms Systems Corporation
2 Holland · ltvine, CA 92618
(714) 461-3200
(714) 461-0671 Fax
Tradcm:trks rcm:iin the property of their respective owners. Cl 1996, Elms Systems Corpor:ttion. Al l rights reserved . Prices and speci fi cacions subjecl lO change without notice.
Circle 102 on Inquiry Card (RESELLERS : 103) .
Programmable Hardware
Software+Hardware Development Kit includes:
DDS+BIDS, Clibrary, samples, manual, cable,and one ofthe controllers.Program onPC,Download EXE file,Run standalone In final product. No hidden costs.
Easy loflllJllBlrl ii 8olfandlll'iaosc.tt+.Use TERNS 20+cmtrol/eJSll'ffhADC, OAC,sdlllllliddriveis,'"'8y. f'C. 104,PCMCIA, LCD,OSPmolionccnlro/, 10 UAF!Ts, 100V Os. Customer boards des¢ Salt lime and monty.
iTERlf CIClil
C·EngineTM
216 FStreet, Ste. 104, Davis, CA 95616, USA
· 3.6x2.3', 24UO, 3 UARTs, 3timers, 2counters Tel: 916-758-0180 · Fax: 916-758-0181
· Up to 512K SRAM, 512K EEPROM,Watchdog
Internet email: sales@tem.com
tern@nelcom .com
· 11 12·bit AOC, 3mA standby, Battery, RTC
ftp:/ / ftp.netcom.com/pub/te/tem
,.,,.I,····,,,,, $49OEM
http:/ / www.tem.com Circl e 105 on Inquiry Card.
lantrall·r· The Miniature Controller Specialist since 1983
z-world provides acomplete software a.nd hardware solution for embedded systems and control applications . Our low cost miniature controllers provide a variety of digital 110 , ADC , DAC, and RS232/RS485 communications. For only $195 , our Dynamic C"' integrated Cdevelopment system allows you to create real-time multi-tasking programs up to 512K (approx. 20,000 lines of C code). Controller ~ricing from $79. Qua!ltity discounts start at 5units.
1724 Picasso Ave. Davis, CA 95616 916.757.3737 916.753.5141 FAX
A Message to Our Subscribers
.. . ,~.~~;; ,~~v; ~::;,.-~.: -,','.j·:;·~,:\·,.,: ''.·~··/J... ,.,.,...... .,-.:.:""':;~· ~:("-.~--
calls are stricUy prohibited. Many BYTE subscribers appreciate this carefully managed program, 811!i) ook
forward to receiving information of interest to ,them via the mail. While we believe this information is of benefit to our subscribers, we firmly respect the wishes of any subscriber who does not want to receive promotio!l81 literature. Should you wiSh to
restrict the use of your name, please ffnd your request (incluaing your1T111gazlne
1 70 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Ci rcle 101 on Inquiry Card .
Security · Engineering/Scientific
On - Line Services · Security
The Luna· token from
Chrysalis is aPCMCIA-2
card that delivers encryption,
decryption, andsecure digital
signature functions. Independently certi
fied to FIPS 140-1 LevelII, Lunais compatible with
[l. Microsoft'sCryptographic API, Intel'sCDSA API, and
Nortel's Entrust Supports DES, Triple DES, MD2, MDS, RC2, RC4, SHA-1, and RSA PKCS#l l. Secure codes are never loaded onto the user's computer, so
only the card holder has access.The Luna
Developer's Kit includes documentation,
'? 11rysa '
'
"' .·'
l;J.14
tecyhos~uep:p~or:t,~a~n~d~t~h~e~to:orlsnrtoebuild
c~
1·
IS
lJJna b a trademari< al~· All other product and company names are trademlrics al their respective holdm. Circle 111 on Inquiry C ard .
IDT's lnternetPlus is for p eople who are ready to use the Net for all it's worth without having to stop, slow down and get fris ked by some online service.
If you're ready for lntemetPlus call us any time of the day or night.
ENJOY A FREE MONTH OF UNLIMITED LONG DIS TANCE AND INTERNATIONAL PHONE CALLS!
Get combined lntemetPlus and IDT's dcep~dlscount long distance phone service. You 'll save a bundle compared to ATtT, MCI or Sprint. PLUS you'll
a::a~l~es~~kc~e~~ lf~raJ~~~=:,1~~~1~~s~~::s no limit). For complete
INTlRNH PlUS '
6126 ¢'1S96tDTCORP. tOTISA TRJ.OEM,t,AJCOf VTCW. AU OTHER. ~AAETH£PROPDTYOfOORRESP£C11V£0WNm.
FREE E NGINEERING S OFTWARE C ATALOG
ii-~~! Engineering Software Direct is your #1 source for engineering
-~~~
software! products
The more than 1,000 listed in this catalog
were developed by companies
and practicing engineers and
represent a vast resource of
tools that can help you get
your job done better, more
accurately, and more quickly.
98.9044
Sdltdi lntomatioaal 2525 H. Elstoa Avo, Clikogo, ll 60647 ·Tel 773.486.9191 Fax 773.484.9234 · o....i1 inlo@scittdilot.<om ·URL bttp://www.sdledaiot.<om
Circle 1 23 on Inqu iry Card .
. '.:
.
. . ·· ., ;~.- ..,.~-.'._::·~·;;~:~~-~,!~ ;?:~\::.:'1:~!>~ ~~::~?J;~·;·:·:;}/~:?':'.if:'
·> ;' Let your "true colors shine :through~ .·. · · when you advertise yourr.:·:
.IJ· 'TE :.. ..,. in \:L: computer .
p- ro- d--u- ct-s . -:
th.·e':-'<.....;' ...,.,._.·,.:.
1.JT
-~·?i:_i~·:-'.:·.
HARDWARE/SOFTWARE SHOWCA?~ '.,
our popular, affordabie,: '>\~:.:· ':"
4-color advertising section! ·;:· .·
For more information call your. BYTE s#les ..
'representative (see listing. < '.;, · '
page 177) or fax 603"-924-2683 :· __ .
"Run Client/§er11er Applications §ecurely over the Internet"
· Use the Internet as a secure vlrtual Wlde Area Network · Develop powerful Internet applications using 4GL tools · Use SQLWlndows,Vlsual Basic, Powerbullder, Delphi, C++·.. · Provides automatic data-stream encryption for all SOL data · Uses RSA security end Netscape's secure socket references · Includes a complete enhanced version of SQLBase v6.1 · Transparent to users, developers and administrators
Use the Internet to securely access
your client/server appllcn11ons
Use CllenVServer tools for remote access solutions!
Pricing starts at $1 ,595 for a 5-user version Call 1-800-486-DUNN ext. 405
http://www.dunnsys.com
9=.tlRSA
(~r> T~~I[
DUNN systems, inc.
Circ le 1 24 on Inquiry C ard .
FE B R U A RY 199 7 B YT E 171
Internet Services
Hiway Technologies offers convenience with our online order form and online domain registration . Hiway Systems are fast as we power your site with state of the art Silicon Graphics RISC based servers. We also blast your data to the internet over one of our fiberoptic T3 lines. Hiway provides reliability as we employ fully redundant servers, UPS and generator back-up and even redundant T3 connectivity on two separate backbones.
I I.
Reseller opportunities available at:
http://www.hway.net/reseller
.
Place your order at:
http:/t-.hway.net
1 800 339.4929 (561) 989·8574
sales@hway.net
Hiway Technologies
THf WORLDWIDE LEADER IN WEB HOSTING
C ircle 125 on Inqu iry C ard (RE SE LLERS : 12 6) .
Internet Services
Register Online For Instant Activation! , t
·VALUE·· WEB'S
-·HOS'iJING SERVICE
IS _THEiMOST AFFORDABLE
1
- (· WAY TO .PUT:'YOUR WEBSITE .ON
ii:llBiOilUii ,.
!
I
i' _I
·l.[Only-.$;1~~95 a mQnth] .
Nof;lMin' imIu
m I
Contrad! t
· Domain·name regi1lrolion'provided ' ' · Your ownCGl·bin directory
(http://W'lf\f.your_na,Tie.com/ I .
· Anonymo~ Virluol FTP
· · Acm1 lo ourIll muie server - · 25 Mb of disk SPoCe
· TJ conne<tion lolhe lnlemel
· POPJ E-moiloccounll
1 ·
1000
Mb o.I dolo
tronsl;r per
monlh
· AuloE·moilresponders
.
· E·moilforwarding
·Detailedwebusage stot~tics &ace~ torow files
·Your own FTP occount -
· Trueipeech® server support Included
· Doilytope backup
1
(real limeaudio)
· Choice of UlllX ond Mi<rMDft® frontPoge · Some day setup
Ask about our reseller program!
Va lueV\eli
1-888-W9EJ-H406S7Ta-Ua
'
www.volueweb.ne1·
I
E·moil:
sales@val ueweb.ne1·
Setup
fee
120.139
Circle 12 7 on Inq uiry C ard.
SOMETHING MISSING?
Complete your BYTE collection by ordering Back Issues today!
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Checkenclosed
Charge :
January
February
March
April
VISA
Card# Exp. Date
MasterCard
American Express
May
Name
June July
Signature
August
September
October
November
First Name Last Name
Address
Decem ber
Address
Special Issues
Window1 Wlndow1 '9l 'GrbbCUf'l80ulik~"lJ
l!IGuUchll ''J
Specialluun U.S. Delivery $3.00, Fo1cign Delivery $4.00 · 1990 lhru 1996 U.S.Ot!ivtr:y $6.50, Forciqn Dchvtr/ SB.SO.
Cainada &Mc1iro $7.00 · All inucs prior lo 1990 U..S,Otlivcry $300,furc ign Dtlivtry $4 00. (D~fo( a..-ailability)1hesc
prices. iOOudt: postage (US), su rface mail lfo1clgri). ·All rhccki must bt in U.S. fon ds and dr.awn on · U.S. bank..
l'l t_J~..: intli\';Jtt whid1 im1ei you would like: h\' ch ccki11 y ltl'l t he buxc~ St' 11d rt·11ut:'h w l1l1 p:ty111t· 11I t o:
ail:I1 Back I.nun, One Phocni.. Mill Lan.c. Peterborough, N.H.03458, (6031924--9281
City State
Zip
'[£
A /Hvisio11 o{The McGraw-Hili Compa11ies
172 BYTE FEBR U ARY 1997
A DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
THE BUYER'S MART
I
THE BUYER'S MART is a unique c lassified section organized by product category to help readers locate suppliers. Each ad has Inquiry numbers to aid readers requesting information from advertisers. AD FORMAT: Each ad will be designed and typeset by BYTE. Do NOT send logos or camera·ready artwork. Advertisers should furnish
typewritten copy. 2"x1 1h s" ad can include headline (23 characters maximum) , descriptive text (300 characters is the maximum recom mended) plus company name, address, telephone and fax number. 2"x2 5/a" ad has more space for descriptive text (850 characters is the maximum recommended) . DEADLINE: Ad copy is due
approximately 2 months prior to issue date. For example: November issue closes on September 15. Send your copy and payment to: THE BUYER'S MART, BYTE Magazine, 1 Phoenix Mill Lane, Peterborough, NH 03458. For more information please call Vivian Bernier in BYTE sales at 603-924-2521 or FAX: 603-924-2683.
RATES(Feb.1 997)
2'x1 '/."
3·5 iaues
1 ad
$820
2 ads/issue -
3 ads/issue -
6· 11 iuws
$790
1 ~
iNUM
$690
660
620
1 ad
$1,640 $1,530 $1,380
2"x2'/,· 2 ads/issue -
1,320
3 ads/issue -
1,250
·······-COLOR - Add $100 ·······"
BAR CODE
BAR CODE
CD-ROM
Portable Reader
* AA Baltery Operated. 64K or 256K
* Display messages and optional voice messages
lell operator what 10 do. Messages are easily recorded (like answering machine) In any language.This unit is EASY!
* Double duty as Non-portable Reader * 4x20 Supertwist LCD Display, 35 Rubber Keys
* 2 Built-Jn Inventory Programs or create custom * Download tables and Pick Lists * Wand, CC D. or Laser Scanner Input * Reads 2ol5, UPC/EAN, 128, Code 39, etc. * 2 year Warran ty on Reader & Wand
* 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
* 64K Complete w h Integrated Laser - 51299 * 64K Complete with Steel Wand - S799 * Small Size and very long battery life
http://www.cruzlo.com/- wds
Worthington Data Solutions
3004 Mlssk>n Street · Santa Cruz, CA 95060
408-458-9938 · FAX 408-458·9964 800-345-4220
Bar Code Readers
for PC, XT, AT, PS/2, Macintosh and Serial Terminals
* Attaches as 2nd Keyboard, no software changes * Reads 2of5. 128. UPC/EAN. Code 39, etc. * External or Internal attachment on PC * Wand. CCD. Slot Badge. Magstrlpe or Laser * Supports DOS, Novell, UNIX , Mac OS, etc. * 100+ Configurable Options * Supports USA and International Keyboards * 2 Year Warranty, 30 Day S Back Guarantee
* Direct From Manufacturer * Top Rated by Independent Rev iew * Complete with CCD Scanner - 5399 * Complete wilh Laser Scanner - 5655 * Complete Wand only Reader- 5299
http://www.cruzlo.com/-wds
Worthington Data Solutions
3004 Mission Stroot · Snnla Cruz. CA 95060
408-458-9938 · FAJC 408-458-9964 800-345-4220
Labeling Software
For DOS and Windows wilh dot-matrix, LaserJet or OeskJet. Easy WYSIWYG design. Any lorrnaVsize. Mix big text. bar codes. and PCX graphie1i. Formats for AIAG. KMan. Sears. MIL-STD. Penneys, WalMan. File Input. LabelRIGHT for OOS- $279. LabelRIGHT for Wlndows S295 .
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Worthington Data Solutions
(408) 458-9938
800-345-4220
RF Terminal
Communica tes 2 way to Serial Base Station !ra m
400-1000 tt. Easily cove rs 1.000.000 square feet. 1 16 terminal s per base stati on. Keyboard, wand,
CCD or laser scanner Input. 16 Selectable frequen cies. Small size and low weight - 14 oz. with bat1er ies. Base Station - $845 Terminal - $1095.
ht1p://www.cruzlo.com/- wds
Worthinaton Data Solutions
3004 Mls;r'°on Streol · Santa Cruz. CA 95060
408-458-9938 · FAX 408·458-9964
800-345-4220
Windows Bar Code Fonts
Add bar codes to any lont based Windows pro gram. Fon ts designed for dot matrix, DeskJet and LaserJet. Print Codabar, 2 of 5, Code 128, UPC/EAN and Code 3g inside your Windows program. TrueType fonts, bitmaps and metafile support included. Only $199.
Worthington Data Solutions
(408) 458-9938
(BOO) 345-4220
Circuit Design Software for Windows Easy-lo-use sehematic entry, PCB design, and simu lation software, sta rting at $149 each. Complete PCB package with schematics. autorouter, and layout for 2-layer circui1 boards, 5399. Enhanced version with autoplacement, more symbol libraries, and up to 16 layers, $649. CAM file outputs.
Mental Automation, Inc.
5415 136111 Placo. SE·Bellevuo WA 98006 (206) 641 -2141 FAX (206) 649--0767 BBS (206) 641 -2846
http ://www.men tal a.com/
Inquiry 451 .
CAD/CAM
CONTOURING MOTION CONTROL
F~~~,.~ i'.:.'+(~!;!!,? RT! $249
VERSION 3
VISA/MC
· Controls up 10 she stop molors slmul!Rneou sly.
· U noar and Circular l111orpolntlon.
· Now loatutes to accommodate mAchine conirol.
· Easy·IO·USO dovico d r1vo1. Super M anual.
· CAD·CAM In terlace nvaltablo.
Ability Systems
COIPof81iOO, 14.U Arnolel Avo. RO!lyn. PA 19001 (215)657·4338
http://\w1W.abilitysystems.com FAX: (215) 657-7a 15
Inquiry 452.
TG-CAO Professional v.6.0
CAD Solutions Software
A 16 & 32 bit C/Ctt Windows 95, Win NT & Win 3.1
CAD Developers Kit The best in CAO/CAM software
kits. Free Demo and Technical Paper.
Call 800-635-7760 or Fax 972-423-7288 or
http://1·11·m.disksofl.com or E-mail
disksoft@ix.netcom.com or BBS 972-881-9322
Disk Software, Inc. 109 S. Murphy Rd . Plano, TX USA7509-I
CD ROM, Inc.
CD-ROM, CD-R , Media, Jukeboxes,
Towers, Titles & Production Services
Unique Data Compression : CRl-X2
INC 500 Company, Established 1988
303-384-3922 FAX 303-384-3926
http://www.cdrominc.com
Inquiry 454.
CD-ROMS
WlCndoomwosil9:i5oo.coofm'lw32.w ·b Shue-wv.ecoCmo·n.ec.wlSni.',.3·2.-·!l·ll.5.1.1.,,.,.,·...,·,.S<Sct3io5<.0.0
LINUX Developers Re.source 6COset . . . .
. ...... S11.SO
Redhat. Oebian, Slackware. MetroX Server, On·Une Docs.
UNUXToclbox .................................... .. . $45.·)I)
Includes 6CDSet with 600 Pave ManUi I
UNIRX ..............
.. ........ Wi ll
Pos· ctrtll1'd llll\JXI
P~~~~~"~~rJ~~~;,~.iOdU~:3'tPre·b'u'.1i·b·1na,ies1·sih!me.i.ia~5 00
Standards .......... . ............ , , .............. , .... 53000
Domestic and intematiolaf netwo1king sland.lrds.
WcbmastcrTools Volumo 1 .. . . . . .. . .. . .. . . . . . . . .. SlS.00 Everything ~eded 10 generateand promote web pages.
WeEbvmeraysthtcinrgToyooulsnVeeodlutomnom2.o.n.d. a. d..m.i.n.k.l.e.r.a..w.e.b.s..cr.v.11.1,. ... . 535.00
Wo~~:~:tr~s:rlno ;m·DO!i.\;1i1i.iii.C.:ofJi Mid"ITT ~Odti u;,3~s.oo
MOO-TIF for LINUX · 100"1. Molil Com~:1t1le GUI · lor LINUX .· $99.00
Vlsual Buie Tools .. , ........ . ... . , ...... .. ...... .. .. . . $35.00
La"" sllar~"" lools and util.lles. 03UbaM. multime<lia &"1l1ed VBX ""'1Jols.
Novell NetwDteToolt CO.ROM .....
. ..... SJ500
Tools and Utilities for rJCN'tlf littwarel
l'llnslfe CD-ROM S.t. .. .. ..... , ..
. ....... $35 DO
Shareware for Windows 3.1. NT and 95
Pa~~2-~i,!xts Di da'sSbi·1.ietihiie.Qcr.~mmtni. b.OiOQY.
530 00 ·
kids & faO'j r.l<s.
:our SouthweslcmTrails Voh.1me 1
... .. .
Mult1mta1a ol Sou!hw!Sl!fn Amencan parks
. .... $39 95
PIX>ne Ordefs. 1 -ll00~ ·6613
W· accept
faxOross · 1·520-526-9573
MC, VISA &AMEX
Intl Phore. , 1·520-526·9565
Web Ord en:: www.inlomaglc.com E·ma I 0tdefsC nlom.1g:'t com
InfoMagic 11950 N. Hwy 89, Flngnfatt, AZ 86001
Inquiry 455.
WALNUT CREEK CDROM
FreeBSD 2.1.5 Rock solid Berkeley Unix for PC wlsrc. 2disc set. easy mstall, 6mo updal!s...............................$39.95
Linux Slackwore 96 4disc set, Slackware 96 "OFFICIAL' release ~Y Patrick Volkerding, Internet's lavorlle. .............................$39.95 Clea MS Windows 2disc set. 1900· Windows programs.
games, drivers. lonts. shells, src. Indexes In German/ llilli.:in!Frcnch/Engli~h/Jap:inc~o . Ou<i r. update~ ............$29.95 Hobb es OS/2 1000 MB free/Sharowarc drivers. app's, etc. OS/2 Mag's product of theyear! 6 mo updates.......$29.95 Slmtel MSDOS. 2 discs. premier Internet technic<ll. programming FreelShamvare .......... .... ... ...................$29.95
Black hawk - New Win. 95 sharewarecollectlon .............$29.95
Internet Info 13.400 doc~. FAQs, fRC s. & IElls...................$39.95
Music Wornhop MuSlc prog.·midi. demos. etc ...............$39.95
Project Gull!nberg 560t must-read works ol literature.
Each document IsIn ASCII format texL......................$39.95 Scientific Library Technical shareware. DOS/\'lin................$39.95 POV-Ray R.ly-1raono Images. src. documentiuon............. $39.95 70· lilies about Y~ndovrs 95 & NT, o·mes, Tel, IM!rl, ORZI HamRadio. Music. Fonts. Royally-free Images
Call for your FREE catalog today!
All our products have a l!fll tllI =ndlllaJlll llll.IWlllll
1-800-786-9907
404 1Pike Lane. Ste 0-215. Concord, CA 94520
+1-51 0-674-0783 Visa/MC/AMEx, Fa x:+1·510·674-0821
orders@cdrorn.com hltpJ/wWW.cdrorn .corn/
Inquiry 453.
Inquiry 456.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 173
BUYER ' S MART A DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
DATA ENTRY SOFTWARE
DATA ENTRY SOFTWARE
Full featured. heads-down data entry
wi th two-pass verification, edit language,
output record reformat, operator statistics,
key from images (NEWI), tree tech support.
For PC, PC LAN, S/36. AS/400.
FREE 30 day trial.
Computer Keyes
Tel. 206-77&-6443
21929 Makah Rd ..
Fax: 206·776-7210
WoodWO'f,WA 98020
USA: 800-356-0203
EDUCATION
S.S. & M.S. In COMPUTER SCIENCE
The American 1nsu1ute For Computer Scionces otters an in· depth home study program lo earn your Bacheiof ol Science et home. B.S. subjocls covored aro : MS/ DOS , BASIC. PASCAL. C, Ctt , Oala Filo PtOCeSStng, Data Struc1ures 8 Operating Sy s1ems . M.S. program includes subject s in Sofrware Engmeoring and Arhf1cial lntolligence. Ada and Using Windows coursos also ovallable. Accredited Member : Wor1d Association of UnMtrsitios and Colloges.
AMERICAN INST. for COMPUTER SCIENCES
2101·BY Magnolia Ave.· Suite200,Birmingham,AL 35205
1- 8 0 0 - 76 7 - 2 4 2 7
1-205-323 -6191
SECURITY
THE ULTIMATE SOFTWARE SECURITY
8 STO PCOPY family - UNCOPIABLE copy pro!Ociion · STOPVIEW sottworo encryplion · NETUMIT ne1work licenso metering · DOS, Wondows (3.X, 95. NT) , Mac. 0512, support · Machine Tte , lntornet Prolection. CO-ROM Protecbon.
Serlal1zat10n, Onto & Execution Umltallon, Aeg!stralion ,
Remote Authentication, ConClmen1 User Limitation
· Our products destroy ALL cl our compelition
BBi Computer Sys te ms, Inc.
14105 Hentogo Lano. Sliver Spring, MD 20906
800/TRY·ABBI · 8001U 9·2224 · 3011871 ·1094 · FAX: 301/460-7545
E+mill: bblftbblcs .eom · Web: tinp:J/ www.bbia.com
Inquiry 466.
DATA RECOVERY
We Can Save It!
All Platforms - All Storage Devices Proprietary techniques so advanced we
rescue data others simply abandon .
DRIVESAVERS Restoring data since 1985
1-800-440-1904
4 15-883-4 232
Inquiry 457.
Th e Leader in Data Recovery
· Expertise in virtually every operating system & media storage device.
· Emergency services with calls ansY1ered 24 hours a day. Call tor a FR EE consullalion!
ONTRACK DATA RECOVERY
Mpls · LA· DC ·London ·Tokyo ·Stuttgart 1· 800-872·2599 · www.ontrack.com
Inquiry 458.
ENGINEERING SOFTWARE
E nt e rpri se Wid e Vi ewi n g and Markup
Use Au toVuc Prol o1rnlonn l 10 vlow and mark up docu ments. Gain access 10 over 160 fllo formals horn ongfneorlng. vec1or. ras1er. hybrid. wordprocessor, sp roadshoc1. database, fax, and moro . Supported lormA I S include Aut oCAD DWG , Mlc: roStallon DGN , TIFF, Word, WordPar1oc1, Excel, and moro.
· Available !or Windows. DOS, and UN1X ·
Cimmetry Systems Inc.
(BOO) 36 1-1904 Tel: 514 -735-3219 Fax: 514-735-6440
Inquiry 461 .
HARDWARE
Pre-Owned Electronics, lncTM
THE Independent Provider, serving the Dealer.
Professional, Corporale, Government. and
Educa tional Buyer since 1985.
APPLE II"' & MACINTOSH"' SYSTEMS· PARTS · EXCHANGE REPAIRS
Call/or a Cata/og...800-274-5343
Office: 617-nS-4600. FAX : 617-778-4848
125 MIDDLESEX TURNPI KE · BEDFORD. MA 01 730
Inquiry 462.
CRYPKH SOHWARf llCfNSING SYmM
"Soltwaro Prolecllon with HO hardwaro lock and NO disk key CrypKey is sottworo copy protecti on lhal Is:
· completely securefrom any disk copy program · pertect lor CO-ROM or INTERHET distribution I · cos1offeclive. user friendly, and 100% guaranteed
to salisfy!
CrypKey can increase your soflwue sales:
· upsen options and levels ol your sollware · lease or demo you r soltwaie by runs or 11me
· en1ble or upgrilde your customers Instantly by phlne:, In or email!
Hew! uni1ue Ready·To·Try leature uponInstall allows I trial period only per customer. N1wl un1Qu eAdd ·On feature - ad d more opt ans. levels. runs or time to existing lice nses. New I CrypKey tn·tant-l)rotects rn \ust 5 mlnutu with no souru code ch1nges. CrypKey is completely compatiblewith MS·DOS, MS·Wrndows 3.x. Win32s. Win95. Win NT. andm·nages network llcens" on all No\'ell andMicrosoft operating system based networks. CrypKey is produced by Kenonlc Controls Lid. - soflwore and engineenng since t 972.
Kenon ic Conlrols Limi ted
7175-lllh Slree1 South Eesl
Calgary. Alberla. Canada 12H 2S6
(403) 258-6200 · lu l4D3} 251·620t
lllTERNET:crypker! kenomc com
WEB:hllp:/Mww.kenonlc.corrl'crypkey.hlrn
Inquiry 467.
Don 't pay thousands of Dollars! Download our
DO -IT- YOURSEL F
Data Recovery Software
Tl RAM/SU.
We suppor! DOS. DOS/WIN. and NOVELL file systems http'J/w.Nw.snatu .deluser-cgi·binlrecovery
http :J/ourworld .compusorvo .comlhomepages/da lo _recovery Email: 101J57. 14470compusel'\'e.com
The Virtual Data Recovery Company
Inquiry 459.
DATA RECOVERY when l.T. Matters
· Tape, Optica l or C .D. M edia · Ac cidental O verwrite s · H ard ware or So ftw are Failu re
VOGON
USA Europe Germany
Tel 405-32 1-2585 Fax 405-364-8242
Tel +44 (O) 11 8-989-0042 Fax +44 (0) 118-989-0040
Tel +49 (0) 1805-22- 15-4 2 Fax +49 (0) 89-69-37-00-55
Inquiry 460.
DATA/DISK CONVERSION
CONVERSION/DUPLICATION
Tape : 4MM, QIC, 8MM, DLT. 9-trk. 3480/90/90E
Disk: 3", 3'/1". 5'/.-. 8"
CD- ROM
1-800-357-6250
Shattstalt Corporation
317-842-2077
7901 East 88th Street
Fax 317-842-8294
Indianapolis IN 46256 sales @shaffslall.com
Since 1973
hUp://www.shaffstall .com
1 74 BYTE FEB RUA RY 1997
HEWLETT· PACKARD
Buy - Sell - Trade
Lase rJet
ColorPro
DeskJet
DrattPro
RuggedWriter DrattMaster
Electrostatic Plotters
Des ignJet
We specialize in Demo & Refurbished Equ ipment
HP 9000 Workstations and Vec1ras also available.
Ted Dasher & A ssociates
411 7 Second Ave.. S. Birmingham. AL 35222
Phone: (205) 591 -4747 Fax: (205) 591-1108
(800) 638-4833
E-mail: salcs@dasher.com
Inquiry 463.
INTERNET PRESENCE
" Virtual Web Hosting - T3 Connection!"
www.YourNome.com
$19.97/mo.
(800) 808-9241 I FREE "web " Page http://PICK.NET RES ELLERS Welcome
Inquiry 464.
PROGRAMMERS' TOOLS
High-Speed xBASE Engine...
For C, C++, Java Visual Basic and Delphi program mers . Get multi -use r compatibility with FoxPro. Clip per and dBASE files. CodeBase is portab le betwe en DOS , Windows UNIX , Mac and OS/2! Includes 100% royalty-fre e clien t/se rver plus
Active X data support and a visual report writer!
FREE 30 day test drive!
Call Sequiter Software Inc. for de!oils.
Phone 403 437-24 10
FAX 403 436-2999
Inquiry 465.
Cop's Copylock II
Professional software protection.
DOS, OS2, Win 3. 1, Win 95, NT. Networks.
CD-ROM and Intern et Security.
Known and used world-wide since 1984.
www.linkdata.com
LIN K Data Security
lnt'I : + 45 3123-2350 Fax : + 45 3123-8448
CRYPTO·BOXTM locks in your profits!
The Marx CRYPTO-BOX is lhc result of 10 years
experience in ellecllve soltware protection.
· microprocessor controls ID codes. memory, dynamic
algorithm and high speed data encryption · remoleaccess lo password s and counlcrs
· floa ting license conlrol in a LAN with a single key
MARX International, Inc.
20 Exective Park West, Sullc2027, Atlanta, GA 30329 4Q.t·321 ·3020 1 - 800 - MARX · INT tax: 4Q.t-32t-Oi60
Visit us on the web : www . marx .c om
Inquiry 468.
KEY-LOK IITM SECURITY
Soltwaro Piracy Prevenuon - Surv1Val 14 yea rs proves
eHecliveness. Active algorithm. programmable memory.
counters date conuol, remote upda10. No ID on dev.:e.
Lo.v pricing (e.g S1650 each for 5).
No stanup costs.
Also. ACCESS CONTROL systems and disk drive/system LOCKS
MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS, INC.
3167 E. Oloro Circle, Uttlelon. CO 80 122
http://www.keylok.com
1-800-453·9565 (303) 770· 1917 FAX: (303) 770-1 863
Inquiry 469.
B UY E R' S M ART A DIRECTORY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
SIMULATION SOFTWARE
Analog/Digital Simulation!!
· Windows , NT. DOS
· Model Libraries. AF. Power
· Power Mac, Macintosh · More Than 5000 por1s
· ISSPICE4 Roal Time SPICE · Waveform Analysis
· Mixed Mode Simulation · Full SPICE programs
· Schematic Entry
starting at $95. Complete
· New AHDL Modeling KUii systems, $595-$2595
·nfusoft ~o. a ox 110 s... Pedro. cA 00133.011 0
1 (310)833·0710, FAX (310)833-9658
Call for you r Freo Demo and information kit.
Inquiry 470.
SOFTWARE PACKAGING
FREE SOFTWARE
PACKAGING CATALOG
Evo rything you wlll need to Package. D1s111bu1e. ana Ship Your Software!! From manuals and bmders to mailers and shippers
LABELS · LABELS · LABELS
For your diske11cs. plain or custom printed do! matrix or lasor printe r . .. froe samples
· ..FREE CATALOG··· Hice & Associates
658 6 Monticello Or.. West Chester. OH 45069
Phone/Fax: 513-779-7977
Inquiry 471.
SOFTWARE/DEVELOPMENT
ADVANCED
DEVELOPMENT TOOLKITS
EDAT
Cimmetry Systems' Engineering Data Access Technology (EDAT) provides programmers with complete access to CAD drawing information. Use EDAT to read, query, write and modify AutoCAD DWG, DXF, and
MicroStation DGN formats. EDAT is avai lable on Windows , Win 32s, UNI X and DOS.
VCET
View enable your application with VCET (Viewing and Conve rsion Enabling Tech· nology), the most extensive viewing libraries. Add viewing capabili ti es for over 160 file formats within your Windows application in a matter of hours. The same technology used in AutoVue and oth er leading viewing and
document management software.
Cimmetry Systems Inc.
(BOO) 361-1904 Tel : 514·735·3219 Fax: 514-735-6440
Inquiry 472.
SOFTWARE/GRAPHICS
Become an
Imaging Expert!
AccuSoft On line
www.auusoft.com
FREE lmageGearTM Demo
Interactive Product Info
Glossary of Imaging Terms
Your Resource for Imaging
AccuSoft Corporation
(800) 741 ·7130
TEL(508) 898-2770 FAX (508) 898-9662
Two Weslboroug h Business Park
Westborough, MA 0t 581 USA
Inquiry 473.
SOFTWARErrRANSLATORS
Word Translator for Windows
Hot-key translation of words/phrases from within your word -processor or DTP program; Huge range of languages supported, including East & West European, Scandinavian & Latin American: · User-defined dictionary ·add your own
dictionary entries:
· Choice of 9 languages for Word Translato(s own User Interface: Includes special fonts for Cyrillic and Eastern European languages; Suppl ied on floppy disk · no CDROM required: Practice pronunciation using th e Voic e record & playback feature (32-bit version only · requires Multimedia PC and Win951NT); Prices start at only USS39 ·call, fax or email 'tor details, or visit our Web site!
Distributed by CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY
Email: ctsales@ net·shopper.co.uk
http://wwvo1.net·shopper.co.uk/sofM·are/ibm/tranSlindex.h1m
Tel: +44 1889 567160 · Fax: +44 1889 563548
Park House, Park St, Uttoxeter ST14 7AG, England
Inquiry 474.
TELEPHONE OFFICE SIMULATOR
Telephone c/o Simulator
· PBX · C/O line voltages · Powe r Ring ing with patterns · Dlal codes !or c/o responses
· Call ID (FSK) in many formats
· You can scrip! call Id , tone bursts. etc. What do you need?
Dianatek Corporation
122 Keyser Slfeel, North surton NH 03260·06 16
Voice: 603·927-4955
Fax: 603·927-4715
http:/fwww.dlanatek.com
Inquiry 475.
WINDOWS
FREE INTERNET
Free PPP, Get On-Line Immediate ly, Telnet to othe r BBS's, Surf the World Wide Web,
28.8k modems
, .9, 4·346·, 777
All You Pay For Is Th e Call
Inquiry 476.
ADD COLOR IMPACT
TO YOUR AD IN THE
BUYER'sMART
For rates and details to start or upgrade your advertising
Call
Mark Stone
today at 603·924·2533
Fax: 603·924·2683
There Are 275,000 Good Reasons to Advertise in the
BYTE Deck!
The BYTE Deck mails to a select group of 275,000 BYTE subscribers who are proven direct market buyers. In fact, BITE subsc1iber surveys show that many readers prefer to buy through the mail order/ direct channel: Direct Channel Preference for Purchases of:
Peri herals 83%
! Networki~
Sou rer: 199;. 19% Subscri ber >iudy
The average BYTE reader influences the purchase decisions of 107 others, works in a company with more than t,000 employees, and influences more computer product purchases than any other person in his/her organization. The BYTE readership provides quality leads. Why settle for anything less?
Call Brion Higgins todoy at (603) 924-2596 or fax your order to (603) 924-2683.
Circle 477 on Inquiry Card.
FEBR U ARY 1997 BYTE 17 5
ADVERTISER CONTACT INFORMATION
To order products or request free information, call advertisers directly or send in the Direct Link Card by mail or fax! Let them know you saw it in BYTE!
INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO. PHONE NO. INQUI RY NO.
PAGE NO. PHONE NO. INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO. PHONE NO.
A
89·90 ACISYSTEMS
166 888·618·6188
196· 197 ADVANCEDINTERLINK
95 714·894·1675
107-108 AE HOME CORPORATION
169 818·961-2499
130· 131 ALADDIN SOFTWARE SECURITY INC
S4 800·223·4277
AMERICA ONLINE
ONSERT
85
AMERICAN ADVANTECH
166 800·800·6889
114 AMERICANADVANTECH
167 800·800·6889
113 AMERICANADVANTECH
167 800·8 00·6889
B2·SJ AM ERICAN MICROSYSTEMS 165 800·648·4452
AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION
32A·B 40 I ·788·2797
132 AMERICANPOWER CONVERSION
JJ BBB·BUY·APCC oxt 8022
AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION
4SA·B 401 ·788·2797
133 AMERICAN POWER CO NVERSI ON
49 B88·BUY·APCC ert 8074
APEX PC SOLUTIONS
139 800·861·5858
11S·119 APPROINTERNATIONALINC 167 800·927·5464
1S1 ARTECON
57 800·872-2783
164·165 ASYMETRIX
B
35 800·448·6543
BAY NETWORKS
BOA·B
800·8·BAYNET ext 269
604 BAY NETWORKS
SONA 1 800·8·BAYN ET ext 269
450 BIX
190 800·695-4775
BYTE
135 603·924·2663
BYTE
143 603·924·2663
BYTE BACK ISSUES
172 603·924·928 1
BYTE CUSTOMER SERVICE
22 800·232·2963
BYTE DECK
175 603·924·2 596
BYTE EURODECK
158 603·924·2533
BYT EON CD ROM
119 800·924·662 1
BYTEREPRINTS
153 603·924·2525
BYTESUB MESSAGE
22
c
97-98 CALIFO RN IAPC PRODUCTSINC 169 800·394·4122
128·129 CAMELEON TECHNOLOGYINC 169 800·44 0-74 66
218 CARDIFF SOFTWARE 160 CENTRAL DATA
CETRA
138 800·659·8755 71 800-4 82·0397 113
111
CHRYSALIS· ITS
171 613·731-6788 ext 130
134
COMPUTER DISCOUNT
114·115 800·959·4CDW
WAREHOUSE
COMPUTER
SONA 12A·B
PROFESSIONAL'$ BK SOC
614·759·3666
COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S BK SOC
S1 614·759·3749..
COMPUTER TELEPHONY EXPO S·9 BOO- LIBRARY
202 COMPUTERLANEINC
161 800·526·3482
135 COMTROL CORP
122 800·926·6876
136 COREL
43 613·728·0826 oxt 3080
137-138 CSS LABS
97 800·852·2680
139·140 CYBEXCOMPUTER PRODUCTS CORP
61 205·430·4000
D
DATAPRO
148
DATAPRO
164
DELL GOMPUTER CORP
CV·CVI 800·545 ·0 674
DELL COMPUTE RCORP
CVll 800·545·9693
DELL COMPUTER CORP
CVlll 800531 ·2746
DELL COMPUTER CORP (Fl OOOI
CV·CVI 800·822·3469
DELL COMPUTER CORP (FlOOO)
CVll 800·626·8470
DELL COMPUTER CORP (FlOOO)
CVlll 800·765-69 16
DELL COMPUTER COR P
39 800·882·6057
DELLCOMPUTERCORP 80NA6-7 800·225·4895
174·1n DISTINCTCORPORATION
98 408·366·8933
141 DISTR IBUTED PROCESSIN GTECH
99 407·830·5522
192·193 DR.SOLOMON 'SSOFTWARE 46 800·590· ' 194
222·223 DTK COMPUTER INC
90 800289·2385
124 DUNN SYSTEMS
171 800·486·DUNN ed4 05
E
102· 103 ELMSSYSTEMSCORPORATlON 170 888·356·7385
F
142 FAIRCOMCORPORATION
151 573·445-6833
172·173 ANSON
SJ +39·2·66·93·590
203·204 FIRST SOURCE INT'L
157 7 '4 -448-7750
207 FOREFRONT DIRECT INC
159 800-653·4933
G
188 GLOBETROTIERSOFTWAREINC 50 408·370·2800
208·209 GRANITEDIGITAL
163 510·471 ·6 442
220·221 GRIFFINTECHNOLOGIES
138 800-986·6578
H
125·1 26 HIWAYTECHNOLOGIES
172 800·339·HWAY
91-92 ICPACQUIRE
167 888·6 18·6 188
IDT INTERNET
171 800·689·9438
IMATION
16 -17
800·888 · 1889 Cll 4002
INFORMATION BUI LDERS 64A·B 212·736·4433
602·603 INFORMATION BUILDERS
65 800·969·1NFO
93.94 INTERLOGIC INDUSTRIES
167 516·420·8 111
109 IO TECH
166 216·439·409 1
168·169 IQSOFTWARE
2·3 800·458·0386
K
143-144 KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY
31 888·435·5439
L
210·21 1 LATRADE
160 310·539·5844 ..
95
LIBERTY SYSTEM INC
167 408·983·1 127
LUCENTTECHNOLOGIES SONA 11 1·888-4-LUCENT
M
MCGRAW HILL NRI
144A·B
96
MEMORYON·LINE
169 714·486·0477
219 MICR02000
136·137 818·547·0397"'
MICRO·INTERNATIONALINC 168 800-967·5667
161 MICRON ELECTRONICS
Cll·l 800·362·7306
162 MICRON ELECTRONICS
12-13 800·723·2998
163 MICRON ELECTRONICS
24·25 800·723·2998
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
408·41
MICROSTAR LABORATORIES 166 206·453·2345
MICROWAY
116 508·746-734 '
N
110 NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
166 800·433·3488
101 NEATO
170 800·984·98 00
159 NETWORLD+INTEROP
162 800·488·2883
145 NSTL
187 610·94 1·9600
216·217 NSTORCORPORATION
129 800·724·3511
0
OSBORNEMCGRAW·HILL 184· 185
p
800·822·8158
189·190 PHILIPS BUSINESS ELECTRONICS
146·147 PINNACLEMI CRO 148 PKWAR EI NC 200·201 PLASM ON DATA INC
Q
21 800·835·3506
714·789·3000 73 414·354·8699 23 800·451-6845
149 QNX SO FTWARE SYSTEMS LID 18 800·656-0566 exl 1040
106 QUALSTAR CORP
169 800·468·0680
QUANTUM CORPORATION
44·45
800·624·5545 ext 131
80· 81 QUATECH INC
165 800·553·1170
R
178·179 RAI DTECCORPORATION
29 770·66 4-6066
150 RAINBOW TECHNOLO GIES
62 800·852·8569
86·87 RCI
165 800·RCl·8090 ext71
116·117 RECORTECINC
168 888·RECORTEC
6 05
RICOH COR PORATION
BONAD 000·5 44-S246
205·206 ROSE ELECTRON ICS
s
156 800·333-93 43
171
SAG ELECTRONICS
58 508·682·0055
123 SCITECHINTERNATIONAL
171 800·898·9044
151 SILICON GRAPHICS
37 800·636·6184 dept LS
120 SILICONRAX
168 800·700·8560
99-100 SLIGER DESIGNS
170 702·356·5595
185 SOFTBANK/COMDEX
181 617·433·1600
88
STARTECH COMPUTER
PRODUCTS
166 800·265·1844 eKl23 1
152 STATSOFT
89 918·749·111 9
176 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
ADVERTISER CONTACT INFORMATION
INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO. PH ONE NO.
T
112 TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC 166
121-122 TECHNOLAND
168
153 TEKTRONIX
15
TELE.COM
147
105 TERN INC
170
THE COMPUTERMUSEUM
169
154 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC
70·71
800-685·4884 800·292·4500 800-835·6100
ext 1350
916·758·0180
600-457-7777
INQU IRY NO.
PAGE NO. PHONE NO.
115 TRl·MAPll>/lERNATIONALINC 168
v
127 VALU EWES
172
212·213 VCOMMUNICATION S
163
84
VIDEXINC
165
157·156 VIEWSONIC
54
155·156 VIEWSONIC
75
VISIO CORPORATIO N
80NA2
510-447·2030
888·934·6788 800-648·8266 541 ·758·052 1 800· 888 ·858 3 909·869·7958 800·24·VISIO
61'128
INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO. PHON E 110.
224·225 VOCA!.TEC
w
220·221 WISU SYST EMS AG
601
WIN BOOK COMPUTER
CORPORATI ON
z
104 Z.WORLD ENG INEERING
166·167 ZVXE LCOMMUNICATIONS
150 201 ·768·9400 ei1301
138 800-986·6:>78 11 800·468·0366
170 016·757·3737 79 71'1 ·693·0608
BYTE ADVERTISING SALES STAFF
LoriSilverstein, Notional Advertising Director. 921 Eastwind Drive, Suite 118, Westerville, OH 43081,
Tel: (6 14) 899-4908, Fax: (6 14) 899-4999, lorisf@mcgrow-hill.com
NEW ENGLAND
CT, MA. ME, NH, NY, RI, VT,
Ontario, Canada, Eastern Canada
John Ferraro (617) 860-6221 ,
(212) 512-2555 jferraro@mcgraw-hill.com Jeanne Beeson (617) 860-6349 jbeeson @mcgraw-hill.com The McGraw-Hill Companies 24 Hartwell Avenue Lexi ngton, MA 02173 FAX: (617) 860-6307
NEW YORK NY Metro, NJ Michael Feinberg (212) 512-4811 feinberg @mcgraw-hill .com Jill Pollak (212) 512-3585 jpollak@mcgraw- hill.com The McGraw-Hill Companies 1221 Avenue ofAmericas-28th Floor New York, NY 10020 FAX: (212) 512-2075
SOUTHWEST, ROCKY MOUNTAIN AL. AR, LA. MS, OK,TN,TX Bert Panganiban (214) 688-5165 bertpang @mcgraw-hill .com Brian Higgins (603) 924-2596 bhiggins @mcgraw-hill.com The McGraw-Hill Compan ies Mockingbird Towers Ste. 1104E 1341 W. Mockingbird Lane Dallas. TX 75247-6913 FAX: (214) 688-5167
MID ATLANTIC-SOUTHEAST NEW MEOIA/ONLINE PRODUCTS
DC,DE, FL.GA. KY,MD, NC, PA.SC, VA. WV Neil Helms(404) 843-4777 nhelms@mcgraw-hill.com Kirstin Pihl (404) 843-4765 kpihl @mcgraw-hill .com The McGraw-Hill Companies 4170 Ashford-Dunwoody Road Su ite 520 Atlanta, GA30319- 1465 FAX: (404) 252-4056
CENTRAL U.S.
IA, II.. IN, KS, Ml, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD.WI Lori Silverstein (614) 899-4908 lorisf@mcgraw-hill.co m Paul Franchak (614) 899-4912 franchak @mcgraw-h i ll .com The McGraw-Hill Companies 921 Eastwind Drive, Suite 118 Westerville, OH 43081 FAX: (614) 899-4999
NORTH PACIFIC AK, Northern CA, HI, ID, MT. OR, Silicon Valley, UT, WA, WY, Western Canada floy J. Kops(415) 513-6861 rkops @mcgraw-hill.com Lisa Farrell (415) 513-6862 lfarrell @mcgraw-hill.com The McGraw- Hill Companies 1900 O'Farrell Street. Suite 200 San Mateo, CA 94403 FAX: (415) 513-6867
SOUTH PACIFIC Af. Southern CA, CO, NM, NV Beth Dudas (714) 753-8140 bdudas@mcgraw-hill.com Geanette f'l!rez (714) 753-8140 gperez@mcgraw- hill.com The McGraw-Hill Companies 15635 Alton Pkwy., Suite 290 Irvine,CA 927 18 FAX: (714) 753-8147
PETERBOROUGH, NH OFFICE:
Sales FAX: 603-924-2683 Advertising FAX: 603-924-7507
BUYERS MART Mark Stone (603) 924-2533 stonem @mcgraw-hlll .com BYTE OnePhoenix Mill l ane Peterborough, NH 034 58
BYTE Deck Brian Higgins(603) 924-2596 bhiggins @mcgraw-hlll .com BYTE One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, NH 03458
EURO-DECK Mark Stone (603) 924-2533 stonem @mcgraw-hill.com BYTE One Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, NH 03458
INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES STAFF
UNITED KINGDOM. BENELUX
Jonathan McGowan jonmcgow@mcgraw-hill.com The McGraw-Hill Companies 34 Dover St. London WlX 4BR Engl and Tel: +44 171 495 6781 FAX:+441714956734
ISRAEL
Dan Aronovic rhodanny @actcom .co .i l DARA International 41 Ravutski Ra'anana 43220 Isra el Tel: +972-9-7419544 FAX: +972-9-7481934
KOREA Young-Scoh Chinn JES Media International 6th Fl., Donghye Bldg. 47-16, Myung ii-Dong Kang don g- Gu Seoul 134 -070, Korea Tel: +82-2-4813411 FAX: +82-4813414
ITALY, FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL. SCANDINAVIA
Zena Coupe, Amanda Blaskett 101645.1 71 O@compuserve.com A-Z International Sales Ltd. 70 Chalk Farm Road London NWl BAN England Tel: +44171 2843171 FAX:+441712843174
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA Jurgen Heise jhcise@mcgraw-hill.com The McGraw-Hill Companies Emil von Behring Strasse 2 D-60439 Frankfu rt Germany Tel : +49 69 5801 140 FAX: +49 69 5801 145
JAPAN
Hirokazu Morita Japan& Advertising Communica tions, Inc. Three Star Building 3-10-3 KandaJimbocho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101 Japan Tel : +81 3 3261-4591 FAX: +81 3 3261 6126
BYTE ASIA-PACIFIC AUSTRALIA, HONG KONG, !NOIA, INDONESIA, KOREA, MALAYSIA, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, OTHER ASIA AND PACIFIC COUNTRIES, SINGAPORE, TAIWAN Weiyee ln wciin @mcgraw-hill.com Jennifer Chen jennchen @mcgraw- hill.com #3 05 Nanking East Road, Section 3, 10th floor Taipei, Taiwan, R.0.C. Tel : +886-2-715-2205 FAX: +886-2-715-2342
Subscription Custome1 Sm-ice
U.S. 1-800· 232-2983
Outside U5.+1-609·426-7676
For a New Subscription
U5. l -800·257-9402
Ou tsi deU.S.+ 1·609 -~26-5526
FEBR UA RY 1997 BYTE 1 77
INDEX TO ADVERTISED PRODUCTS
For free product information from individual advertisers, circle the corresponding
inquiry numbers on the response card!
To receive information for an entire product category, circle the category number on the response card!
CATEGORY ·1 0 . IN QU IRY NO.
CAT EGORY r<O PAGE NO. INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO.
CATEGOR Y t~O
INQ U I RY NO .
PAGE NO.
HARDWARE
2 ADD-IN BOARDS
128·1 29 CAMELEONTECHNOLOGY INC
169
135
COMTROLCORP
122
747·748 EUTEGROUP COMPUTER SYS CO LTD 401513
722-723 FIRSTINTERNATIONALCOMPUTER
40152
717
LANSO URCETECHNOLOGY
39
MICROWAY
116
80·81
OUATECH INC
165
3 BAR CODING
82-83
AMERICAN MICROSYSTEMS
165
84
VIDEXINC
165
4
COMMUNICATIONS
734-735 ACCTON TECHNOLOGY
85
AMERICAN ADVANTECH
604
BAY NETWORKS
701-702 COMPEXINC
202
COMPUTERLANE INC
135
COMTRO L CORP
86·87
RGI
88
STARTECH COMPUTER PRODUCTS
401510
166
80NA 1
11
161
122
165
166
60 COMPUTER TELEPHONY
COMPUTER TELEPHONY EXPO
8·9
137-1 38 CSSLABS
97
112
TALKING TECHNOLOGY INC
166
6
DATA ACQUISITION
738·739 DIETRICH
109
IOTECH
MICROSTAR LABORATORIES
110
NATIONALINSTRUMENTS
711
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
80·81
OUATECHINC
401528
166
166
166
401530
165
5 DESKTOPS
89-90
ACI SYSTEMS
166
73o-731 CHICONY ELECTRONICS CO
401521
DELL COMPUTER CORP
80NA6·7
DELL COMPUTER CORP
CV· CVI
DELL COMPUTER CORP
CVll · CV111
222·223 DTKCOMPUTERINC
90
747·748 EUTEGROUPCOMPUTERSYSCOLTD 401513
722·723 FIRST INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER
4015 2
91 ·92
ICPACOUIRE
167
93-94
INTERLOGICINDUSTRIES
167
161
MICRON ELECTRONICS
Cll·l
162
MICRON ELECTRONICS
12 · 13
163
MICRON ELECTRONICS
24·25
145
NSTL
187
120
SILICON RAX
168
53 DIAGNOSTIC EQUIPMENT
207
FOREFRONT DIRECT INC
159
208·209 GRANITEDIGITAL
163
219
MICR02000
136·137
7
DISK DRIVES
181
ARTECON
143·144 KINGSTONTECHNOLOGY
717
LANSOURCE TECHNOLOGY
95
LIBERTY SYSTEM IN C
146·147 PINNACLEMICRO
QUANTUM CORPORATION
57
31
39
167
44-45
76 INDUSTRIAL COMPUTERS
113
AMERICANADVANTECH
114
AMERICAN ADVANTECH
118·119 APPRO INTERNATIONALINC
137-138 CSS LABS
116· 117 RECORTECINC
120
SIUCONRAX
121-122 TECHNOLAND
115
TRl·MAP INTERNATI ONAL INC
167
167
167
97
168
168
168
168
61 ISDN HARDWARE
726·727 TAINETCOMMUNICATION SYSTEM
401512
13
73o-731 202
722·723
161 162 163 154 60 1
LAPTOPS & NOTEBOOKS
CHICONY ELECTRONICS CO
401521
COMPUTERLAN EINC
161
DELL COMPUTER CORP
CV· CV I
FIRSTINTERNATIONALCOMPUTER
40152
MICRO-INTERNATIONALINC
168
MICRON ELECTRONICS
Cll·1
MICRON ELECTRONICS
12· 13
MICRON ELECTRONICS
24·25
TOSHIBA AMERICA INC
70·71
WINBOOKCOMPUTERCORPORATION 11
23 MASS STORAGE
107·108 AEHOMECORPORATION
141
DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING TECH
208·209 GRANITEDIGITAL
IMATION
216·217 NSTORCORPORATION
200-201 PLASMON DATA INC
106
OUALSTAR CORP
QUANTUM CORPORATION
178·179 RAIDTEC CORPORATION
171
SAG ELECTRONICS
169
99
163
16· 17 129
23
169
44-45
29
58
15 MEMORY/CHIPS/UPGRADES
128·129 CAMELEONTECHNOLOGY INC
169
203·204 FIRST SOURCE INfL
157
210·211 LATRADE
160
96
MEMORY ON·LINE
169
753
PHILIPS SEMl·CONDUCTORS
44-45
744
PRIME ELECTRONICE TRADING GMBH 4015 20
16
107· 108 97 · 98 738·739 99·100
MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE
AEHOMECORPORATION
169
CALIFORNIAPC PRODUCTS INC
169
DIETRICH
401528
SLIGER DESIGNS
170
17 MODEMS & MULTIPLEXORS
734-735 ACCTON TECHNOLOGY
401510
718·719 E·TECH
135
726·727 TAINETCOMMUNICATION SYSTEM 401512
166·167 ZYXELCOMMUNICATIONS
79
18 MONITORS & TERMINALS
728·729 GVC
40159
724·725 KUO FENG CORPORATION
4015 19
189·190 PHIUPSBUSINESSELECTRONICS
21
749·750 TATUNG
401529
157·158 VIEWSONIC
54
155·156 VIEWSON IC
75
19
745 ·746 102 · 103 101 744 605 151
MULTIMEDIA/CD-ROM
AVERMEDIATECHNOLOGI ESINC
40IS 27
ELMS SYSTEMS CORPORATION
170
NEATO
170
PRIME ELECTRONICE TRADING GMBH 4015 20
RICOH CORPORATION
80NA9
SILICON GRAPHICS
37
63 NETWORK HUBS/SWITCHES
701 ·702 COMPEX INC
11
703·704 CYBEX COMPUTER PRODUCTS CORP CVI
139·140 CYB EX COMPUTER PRODUCTS CORP
61
205·206 ROSE ELECTRONICS
156
64 NETWORKING
196·197 ADVANCEDINTERUNK
APEX PC SOLUTIONS
701-702 COMPEX INC
135
COMTROL CORP
703·704 CYB EX COMPUTER PRODUCTS CORP
139·140 CYBEX COMPUTER PRODUCTS CORP
205·206 ROSE ELECTRONICS
95
139
11
122
CVI 81
156
65 OPTICAL DRIVES
200·201 PLASMONDATAINC
23
57 PCM CIA
203-204 FIRSTSOURCEINrL
157
20
202 738·739 71 O 153
PRINTERS/ PLOTIERS
COMPUTERLANEINC DIETRICH MINOLTA GMBH TEKTRONIX
161
401528
401515
15
178 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
INDEX TO ADVERTISED PRODUCTS
CATEGORY NO . INQUIRY NO .
CATEGORY NO PAGE NO. INQUIRY NO.
CATE GORY NO
PAGE NO. INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO.
21 PROGRAMMABLE HARDWARE
707·70B FAST SECURITY AG
40157
751-752 714
MEGASOFT GMBH PERSOFTINC
401522 41
SECURITY
40155 130· 131 ALADDIN SOFTWARE SECURITY INC
84
105
TERN INC
170 726·727 TAINETCOMMUNICATION SYSTEM 401512 192·193 DR SOLOMON'S SOFTWARE
46
104
Z.WORLD ENGINEERING
170 224-225 VOCALTEC
150 124
DUNN SYSTEMS
171
22 SCANNERS/OCR/DIGITIZERS
740·741 SPOTTECHNOLOGY
143
59 SCSI/PERIPHERAL INTERFACES
141
DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING TECH
99
200·209 GRAN ITE DIGITAL
163
216·217 NSTORCORPORATION
129
52
130· 131 111 707-708 150 220·221
SECURITY
AILADDINSOFTWARESECURITY INC CHRYSAUS·ITS FAST SECURITY AG RAINBOW TECHNOLOGIES WI BUSYSTEMSAG
B4 171 40157 62 138
66 SERVERS
89·90
ACISYSTEMS
107-lOB AEHOMECORPORATION
113
AMERICANADVANTECH
114
AMERICAN ADVANTECH
137-13B CSSLABS
DELL COMPUTER CORP
DELL COM PUTER CORP
222-223 DTKCOM PUTERINC
91 -92
ICPACOUIRE
720-721 MITAC
171
SAG ELECTRONICS
166 169 167 167
97 39 80NA6·7 90 167 65 5B
24
132 133 712·713 742-743
UPS/POWER MANAGEMENT
AMER ICAN POWER CONVERSION
33
AMER ICAN POWER CONVERSION
49
MIN UTEMAN
CV
PK ELE CTRON ICS
401514
67 WORKSTATIONS
B9·90
ACI SYSTEMS
166
196·1 97 ADVANCED INTERLINK
95
113
AMER ICANADVANTECH
167
114
AMER ICANADVANTECH
167
222·223 DTKCOMPUTERINC
90
91-92
ICP ACQ UIRE
167
720·721 MITAC
65
171
SAG ELECTRONICS
5B
151
SILICON GRAPHICS
37
120
SILICON RAX
16B
SOFTWARE
25 BUSINESS
218
CAR DIFFSOFTWARE
13B
172·173 FINSON
53
27 COMMUNICATIONS/ NETWORKING
174-ln DISTINCTCORPORATION
9B
717
LAN SOURCETECHNOLOGY
39
28 DATA ACQUISITION
602·603 INFORMATION BUILDERS
65
68 DATAWAREHOUSING
602-603 INFORMATION BUILDERS
65
29 DATABASE
142
FAIRCOM CORPORATION
151
16B·169 IOSOFTWARE
2·3
30 EDUCATIONAL
715·716 RAIMACORP
4015B
31 ENGINEERING/SCIENTIFIC
ON TIME
4015 28
123
SCITECH INTERNATIONAL
171
32 ENTERTAINMENT
745-746 AVERMEOIA TECHNOLOGIES INC
401527
33 GRAPHICS
745-746 AVERMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES INC
136
COREL
401527 43
69 INTERNET SERVICES
125-126 HIWAY TECHNOLOGIES
172
127
VALUE WEB
172
36 MATHEMATICAL/STATISTICAL
152
STATS OFT
89
73 NETWORKING
LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES
BONA11
38 ON-LINE SERVICES
AM ERICA ONLIN E
450
BIX
125·126 HIWAY TECHNOLOGIES
IDTINTERNET
127
VALUEWEB
ON5ERT 190 172 171 172
39 OPERATING SYSTEMS
717
LANSOURCETECHNOLOGY
39
149
ONX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS LTD
1B
212·213 VCOMMUNICATI ONS
163
40 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES/TOOLS
736·737 ALASKASOFTWARE
164-165 ASYMETRIX
124
DUNN SYSTEMS
142
FAIRCOM CORPORATION
lBB
GLOBETROTIER SOFTWARE INC
709
GREY MATIERLTD
168-169 IOSOFTWARE
MICROWAY
715-716 RAIMACORP
220·221 WIBU SYSTEMS AG
401516 35 171
151 50 4015 24 2·3 116 4015B 13B
705·706 707-70B 732-733 150 220-221 160
EUTRON FAST SECURITY AG PANDASOFTWAREINTERNATIONAL RAIN BOW TECHNOLOGIES WIBUSYSTEMS AG CENTRAL DATA
40154 40157 401522
62 13B
n
45 UNIX
142
FAIRCOM CORPORATION
151
46 UTILITIES
207
FOREFRONT DIRECT INC
219
MICR02000
14B
PKWAREINC
159 136·137
73
47 WINDOWS95
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
408 -4 1
VISIO CORPORATION
BONA 2
601
WINBOOK COMPUTER CORPORATION 11
GENERAL
49 BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS
BYTEON CD ROM
119
BYTE BACK ISSUES
172
COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S
Bl
BOOK SOCIETY
COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL'S BONA 12A·B BOOK SOCIETY
MCGRAW HILL NRI
144A· B
OSBORNE MCGRAW-HILL
184 · 1B5
TELE.COM
147
50 RECRUITMENT
CETRA
401531
75
134
203-204
MAIL ORDER
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE 11 4·115
FIRST SOURCE !NTL
157
51 MISCELLANEOUS
BYTE
BYTE
BYTE CEBIT '97
BYTE CUSTOMER SERVICE
BYTE EURODECK
BYTE FIELD SALES
BYTE REPRINTS
BYTE SUB MESSAGE
CETRA
DATA PRO
DATA PRO
MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES
159
NETWORLD +INTEROP
1B5
SOFTBANK/COMDEX
THE COMPUTER MUSEUM
135 143 401523
22 15B 401532 153 22 113 146 164 401515 162 1B1 189
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 179
EDITORIAL INDEX
For more information on any of the companies covered in articles, columns, or news stories
in this issue, circle the appropriate inquiry number on the response card. Each page number refers
to the first page of the article or section in which the company name appears.
INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO.
INQUIRY NO.
PAGE NO.
INQU I RY NO.
PAGE NO.
A
Accton Technology
40IS17
Acer Peripheral
40IS3
Acron Rise Technologies 401S 3
Adaptec
401S3
978, Adobe Systems 1085
108, 149
998 Alger
182
ALR
133
1012 Andrea Electronics
182
Apple Computer
14, 59, 66
Applications Technologies 401S 3
Arabic Textware
401S3
1029 ArchtekTelecom
401S 25
1047, Argos Systemes 1048
401S 25
Aspect Telecommunication s 85
1064, ATITechnologies
100
1099
1015 Atto Technology
182
B
1057 Bandai Digi1al Entertainment 41
1019 Bell & Howell
182
1043 BINTIA
401S 25
991 Borland International
42
c
1088 Canyon Software
149
1034 Cherry
401S 25
Cnet Technology
401S 17
1011 Command Communications 182
Compaq Computer
133
1033 Computer Design Group 40IS 25
980 Corel
14, 108
D
1007 DataViews
182
DayStar Digital
59
Dell Computer
133
1009 Del orme
182
Dialogic
85
1066 Diamond Multimedia Systems 100
Digital Equipment
133
Digital Semiconductor 80NA3
993 Distinct
182
D·Link
401S 17
1081 Dr. Neuhaus Telekommunikation
40IS25
1097 Dynamic Picture.s
47
E
Eleam Technologies
26
1067 ELSA
100
F
1023 Falcon Systems
182
1002 Farallon Communications 182
1093 Fractal Design
149
G
1042 Geosoft
40IS25
1035 Graftek
401S 25
H
1037 Hantz & Partner
401S 25
1068 Hercules Computer
100
Technology
HyperMed
40IS3
IBM
66, 125, 131 , 401S 11
1000 llog
182
996 Information Builders
182
1005 Insignia Solutions
182
1069, Integrated Micro Solutions 100 1070
Intel
133
Internet Security System s 117
1087 lnterplay Productions
149
1052 IXOS
401S 25
J
994 Jim Spiller & Associates
182
K
1096 Kinetix /Autodesk
149
1024 Kiwi Computer
182
1084 Konexx Unlimited Systems 149
1071 Koutech Systems
100
L
1044 Leutron Vision
40IS25
1028 Lightspeed International 401S 25
976 Lotus Development 66, 108, 131
M
1054 Marimba
145
1072, MatroxGraphics
100
1073
997, Micro Computer Systems 182 1013
1020 Micropolis
182
979, Microsoft
14, 26, 51, 66, 85,
1094 108, 117, 125, 131, 149, 4015 3
1016 The MicroTouch Business 182 Products Division
1036 Microvitec
401S 25
992 Millennia Software
182
1051 MIT
401S25
MiteI
85
1061 Mitsumi Electronics
141
1003 Mustang Software
182
N
NetManage
55
1049 Netpresenter BV
401S 25
Netscape
66
995 Network Engineering
182
Technologies
Network Peripherals Asia 401S 17
999 NewSoft
182
1090 NewTek
149
Novell
55, 66, 85, 125
1074, Number Nine Visual
100
1075 Technology
0
1045 OnTime lnformatik
401S 25
Oracle
131
Oracle Middle East
401S 3
O'Reilly and Associates
117
p
1021 PanasonicCommunications 182 &Systems
Phi lip s
26
1055 Phone! Communications
48
1059 Pioneer New Media
t 41
Technologies
1062 Plextor
141 , 40IS3
Polywell
26
1001 PowerSolutionsfor Business 182
1032 Premier Electronics
40IS 25
1018 Proxim
182
Q
1058 Qualcomm
140
R
1006 RaoSoft
182
IS pages appear only in the International edition. NA pages appear only in the North America edition.
1 80 B YT E FEBRUARY 1 997
INQU I RY NO .
PAG E NO.
1025 RDI Computer
s
Sakhr Software 1030 8Cii Telecom 1022 Seagate Technology 1017 Shark Multimedia
Siemens Silicon Graphics 105 0 Softklone 977 Software Publishing 1041 Star Division
182
40IS3 40IS25
182 182
66 133 40IS 25 108 40IS 25
1076, STB Systems 1089
1031 Stollmann E+ V
100, 149 401825
1095 Strata
149
Su n Microsystems
133
SunSoft
125, 131
Symantec
26, 192
1053 Synchronix
401S 25
T
Tamarack Microelectronics 4018 17
1026 Tatung Science & Technology t 82
1046 TecAdice
401S 25
Texas Instrum ents
1027 3JTech
1060 Toshiba
1014 TVOne
v
VIA Technologies
1077 VideoLogic
1091 ViewSonic
w
1086 WacomTechnology
Wyse Technology
x
1008 XcelleNet
1004 Xerox
Xircom
z
Zeine Technological Appl ications
26 401S 25
141 182
401S3 100 149
149 26
182 182 26
40IS3
to 1-617-433-2814. Or visit our Web site: www.ow.com
NAME TITLE
ORGANIZAnON
PHONE
r.u:
STREET
CITY/TOWN ZIP/POSTAL CODE E-MAIL
BMI
STATE/PROVINCE COUNTRY
Email Reader $89.95
Circle 992 on Inquiry Card.
Millennia Software Saratoga, CA (888) 36'.2·4573 (408) 867-8900 http ://www.msw.com
Retrieve E-Mail Without a PC
Millennia's Email Reader lets you dial your desktop PC and lis tento your e-mail using aplain old telephone instead of down
loading your messages to a notebook PC. Once you install Email
Reader on a Win 95 PC equipped with a 75-MHz or faster Pen
tium and avoice modem (I used one from Boca Research) ,you can
dial in using a telephone or cellular and listen to your e-mail.
Email Reader lets you manage your mail by pressing certain keys
on your touch-tone phone or by actually speaking to the comput
er. Whether using tou ch-tones or voice, you can tell the program
to list mark as read or unread, play, or perform other operations on
messages.Theprogram supports Microsoft EXchange,Netscape,
Eudora, and other POP3 Internet e-mail read er software.
I think Email Reader is probably best for som eon e who gets a
low number of messages per day or who wants to monitor e-mail
while away for a day or so: It can be aggravating listen ing to even
just the headers of '.20 or 30 new messages over the phone.In high
volume scenarios, Email Reader would work best if used with e
mail programs that support rules-based processing. The current
Email Reader is a stand-alone program, but a network version is
planned, as are other mail processing modules, so we'll monitor
this telephony category as it matures.
-Dave Andrews
182 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Intranet Productivity Suite
AVAILABLE FOR WINDOWS95 AND NT, THE Distinct lntraNet Suite ($425) includes Distinct NFS 95 for sh ar ing files, programs, and printers across heterogeneou s networks;
Distinct NetRover, a corporate Intern et access solution that includes a Web browser, multicon nect FTP, and a newsre ader and mail ; Distinct lntelliTe rm term ina l emu la tion for IBM an d DEC; and Distinct IntraNet Servers for man ag ing network resources. Contact: Distinct Corp., Saratoga, CA, (408) 366-8933; http://www.distinct.com. Circle 993 on Inquiry Card.
Add More Pert Charting to Microsoft Project
WITH PERT CHART ExPERT (SINGLE-USER,
$199),you can add more Pert chart
ing capabilities to Microsoft Pro ject or use the program as astand alone application to produce Pert charts from text files and spread sheets. The program lets you build
time-scaled Pert charts and display task-depe ndency info rmat i on directly on the dependency line. Contact:Jim Spiller & Associates, Austin, TX, (512) 342-2232; http://www .jsaproj.com. Circle 994 on Inquiry Card.
Firewall System
ASYSTEM OF SECURE, INTEROPERATINGFlRE WALLS for protecting distributed in tra nets and Internet connections, Telaxian Sh ield's ($7995 to $11,995, depending on configuration) fire wal l-to-firewall encryption capa bilitiesallowforvirtual private net works within a company site and throughout an extended enterprise, across th e Internet and intranets. Logging an d auditing features
.i~!:-::z=-=-";~ .~·.-.-~-.......-.......
·· -·- · :=.~~
includereal-time mon itoring, log
in attempt records, service use logs,
and statistica l analysis.
Contact: Network Engineering
Technologies, San Jose, CA,
(408) 453-7500; http://www . f irea nts.com. Circle 995 on Inquiry Card.
Data Mart in a Box
SMARTMART PROVIDES THE SOFTWARE AND services you need to build, manage, and use a data mart. The product (Entry-Level Edition, from $38,400; Open Database Edition, from $53,300; complete package, from $76,400) for HP/UX, AIX, Sun/ Solaris, and Windows NT includes tools for database creation, data
We look at Millennia's Email Reader, a way to retrieve e-mail from the road without a PC; and DeLorme's Tripmate, a CPS receiver and navigation software for your car.
extraction and transformation, data access and analysis, warehouse management, and an information directory. Contact: Information Builders, New York, NY, (800) 969-4636 or(212) 736-4433; http:// www.ibi.com. Circle 996 on Inquiry Card.
Mana~e Multiple E-Mail Accounts
AN INTERNET E-MAIL PRODUCT FOR WIN dows 95 and NT, Calypso (single userversion, $79.95) lets you simul taneously access and view multiple e-mail accounts from one mailbox. The program provides e-mail fea tures such as replying, forwarding, attachments, printing, IMAP com patibility, multiple signature sup port, address groups, blind sending and copying, and encoding support using MIME, BinHex, Base64, and UUencode. Contact: Micro Computer
Systems, Irving, TX, (800) 886 4923 or (214) 659-1624; http://www.mcsdallas.com.
Circle 997 on Inquiry Card.
·
CD- ROM on Finite Element Modeling
THE FINITE ELEM ENT MODELING IN ENGl neering Practice CD - ROM ($79) provides engineers with practical methods for testing computer models of parts, products. and processes. Based on the mechani cal engineering reference book of the same name, the CD-ROM includes an on-line search function and Internet-style browsers for
Windows 95, NT 4.0, and Unix. Contact: Algor, Pittsburgh, PA, (800) 482-5467 or (412) 967 2700; http://www.algor.com. Circle 998 on Inquiry Card.
Windows D sktop Vid o Editing
THE PRESTO! MULTIMEDIA SUITE($129) includes Presto! VideoWorks desk top video and audio editing soft ware ; Presto! MediaPlayer, a con trol panel for music CDs. MPEG CDs, Photo CDs, and multimedia files; Presto! lmageFolio image editing
software and special effects; Presto! PageManagerscanning OS; Meta Tools' Kai's Power GOO SE, liquid imaging software to stretch, stir, smear, smudge. and nudge photos; and Presto! MediaClips. Contact: N ewSoft, Fremont, CA, (800) 436-4365 or (510) 252-0267; http://www .tophat.com. Circle 999 on Inquiry Card.
Create C++ and ActiveX-Based Interfaces
A SET OF COMPONENTS AND CLASS libraries, llog Visualization Suite (each product. from $5000 per developer) helps you build interac tive, graphical, enterprise-class
applications.Thesuite includes llog Inform for building data-intensive graphical applications; llog Vision, a graphics library; llog MultiView er, which coordinates multipanel displays and helps you develop real time graphics that span multiple desktops; and anew release of llog Views, a program for building 2-D graphical interfaces forC++ appli cations. Contact: Ilog, Mountain View, CA, (800) 367-4564 or (415) 390-9000; http://www .ilog.com. Circle 1000 on Inquiry Card.
Cr ate and Maintain Web Sit s
A CROSS BETWEEN ADIRECT-DIAL ON-LINE system and an intranet or Web serv er, Wildcat Interactive Net Server (Community Edition, $99; Business Edition, $1125; Enterprise Edition, $2995) features a message system that enables forum-style confer
ences th at you can configure for Internet e-mail, Usenet news, pub lic messages, and private mail. The program incorporates a file trans fer system; a questionnaire inter face that gathers data via polls, takes customer order information, fills out credit application forms. and accumulates marketing and demographic information; a tele conferencing/chatsystem; dynam ic HTML; and CGI support.
Contact: Mustang Software, Bakersfield, CA, (800) 999 9619 or (805) 873-2500; http://www.mustang.com. Circle 1003 on Inquiry Card.
Promot Your Site
SITE PROMOTER ($129) PROVIDES ASIM pie tool to register your site with 150 major search engines, directo ries, and indices. When you are ready to submit, the program auto matically generates the required site data, matching the submitting guidelines for each search engine. You then insert the data onto the search engine. SitePromoter runs in conjunction with Netscape Nav igator or Microsoft Internet Explor er and is compatible with Windows 3.1, Win 95, or Macintosh. Contact: PowerSolutions for Business, St. Louis, MO, (800) 955-3337 or(314) 421-0670; http://www.sitepromoter.com. Circle 1001 on Inquiry Card.
Open P rsonal W~b Offices
WITH NETOPIAVIRTUAL OFFICE ($69.95), Windows-based intranet/lnternet users can open a virtual office on the Web. The program provides a place where colleagues can meet and collaborate, leave notes for each other, or drop off or pick up documents and other information. For out-of-the- office communi cations, Netopia Virtual Office also lets you remotely access your PC to check e-mail, run applications, update your Virtual Office, ex change files, and pick up/drop off messages. Contact: Fara/Ion Comm1111icatio11s, Alameda, CA, (510) 814-5000; http:// 1v1.vw.fara llon.com. Circle 1002 on Inquiry Card.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 183
I NT~~ ,,:,,;,,:,,'!'"',,,... ~
" ' " '"' . . . . . . . . . . . . , 111111111 111111111..
KEEP YOUR OSBORNE'S
COMPI
TECHN ~
ISBN:0-07-882262 - 9 ISBN:0-07-882221 - 1 ISBN:0 - 07-882264-5 ISBN:0-07 - 882242-4
Available Now at Your Local
Barnes & Noble, Borders, CompUSA, Computer City, Fry's,
ARIZONA Tempe Student Book Center PH: 602-966-6226
CALIFORNIA Berkeley CodY.'s Books, Inc. PH: 800-479-7744 in CA PH: 800-995-1180 Notionally http://www.codysbooks.com
Cupertino StoceY.'s Professional Bookstore PH: 408-253-7521 FAX: 408-253-5861
Computer Literacy BooRshops, Inc. PH: 408-973-9955
Irvine Irvine Sci-Tech Books PH: 800-229-9514
University of California, Irvine Bookstore PH: 800-829-2665
Los Angeles University of Southern California Bookstore http://www.bookstore.usc.edu
OPAMP Technical Books PH: 800-468-4322
Menlo Park Kepler's Books and Magazines Ptf: 415-324-4321
Palo Alto Stacey's Professional Bookstore PH: 415-326-0681 FAX: 415-326-0693
Riverside University of California, Riverside BPHo:ok9s0t9or_e787 _4211
San Diego Son Diego Technical Books PH: 800-346-0071 FAX: 619-279-5088 EMAIL: SDTB@SDTB.com
San Francisco Stacey's Professional Bookstore PH: 800-926-6511
San Jose Computer Literacy Bookshops, Inc. PH: 408-435-1118 EMAIL: info@clbooks.com
Santa Barbara Earthling Bookshop PH: 805-965-0926 http://www.earthling.com
Stanford Stanford Bookstore PH: 800-533-2670
Santa Cruz Bookshop Santo Cruz PH: 408-423-0900
Sunnyvale Digital Guru Bookshop PH: 408-720-6150
Computer Literacy BooRshops, Inc. PH: 408-730-9955
COLORADO Denver T1oftered(over, Cherry (reek PH: 303-322-7727 FAX: 303-399-2279 hmp:/ /www.totteredcover.com
Tattered Cover, Lower Downtow PH: 303-436-1070 FAX: 303-399-2279 hmp://www.totteredcover.com
GEORGIA Atlanta Oxford Bookstore PH: 404-262-3333 FAX: 404-364-2729
HAWAII Honolulu Honolulu Book Shop PH: 808-536-9512 FAX: 808-538-7680
ILLINOIS Naperville Books and Bytes PH: 630-416-0102
MASSACHUSETTS Burlington SoftPro Books PH: 617-273-2917
Cambridge Wordsworth Books PH: 617-498-0080 FAX: 617-354-4674 EMAIL: www@wordsworth.com
Newton Highlands New England Mobile Bookfoir PH: 617-964-7440 Worcester
Visit Our Web Site at http://www.osborne.com
5TITIYE EDGE WITH
~LOGY SOLUTIO 5
Book and Computer Stores
f'\edia Play, Micro Center, Super Crown, and Waldenbooks
Tatnuck Booksellers PH: 508-756-7644
J& RComputer World PH: 212-732-8600
VIRGINIA Vienna
ISBN:0-07-882240-8
MINNESOTA Minneapolis Baxter's Books PH: 800-626-l 049 FAX: 612-339-6134
MISSOURI Clayton Library, Ltd. PH: 314-721-0378
St. Louis Software Plus PH: 314-434-331 l
NEW JERSEY New Brunswick Rutgers University Bookstore PH: 908-246-8448 FAX: 908-249-3039
FAX: 212-238-9148
McGraw-Hill Bookstore PH: 212-512-4100 FAX: 212-512-4l05
New York University Computer Store PH: 212-998-4591 FAX: 212-995-3779
Rochester Total Information, Inc. PH: 800-876-4636
OHIO Cincinnati University of Cincinnati Bookstore PH: 513-556-1800 FAX: 513-556-5555
Computer Literacy Bool<shops, Inc. PH: 703-734-7771 EMAi L: salesva@clbooks.com
WASHINGTON Bellevue Tower Books PH: 206-451 -1110 FAX: 206-454-0453
Seattle University Bookstore PH: 206-634-3400 FAX: 206-634-0810
WASHINGTON DC Reiter's Scientific & Professional Books PH: 202-223-3327
WISCONSIN
ISBN:0-07-882266-1
The
.
Complete ~~~'
Reference .,'1:-~""t
NEW MEXICO Albuberque Page ne PH: 505-294-2026 FX: 505-294-5576 EMAIL: pageone@rt66.com http://www.rt66 .com/pageone
NEW YORK New York City Benjamin Books PH: 212-432-l l05 FAX: 212-432-1104
Coliseum Bookstore PH: 212-757-8103 FAX: 212-489-0925 Computer Book Works
Dayton Books & Co. PH: 513-298-6540 FAX: 513-298-7895
Kent Kent State University Bookstore PH: 216-672-2762 FAX: 216-672-3758
PENNSYLVANIA King of Prussia Gene's Books, Inc. PH: 610-265-6210 PH: 800-573-4404 FAX: 610-268-6260
Madison University Bookstore PH: 800-993-2665 http://www.protechnica.com
Milwaukee Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop PH: 800-236-7323 FAX: 800-231-7323
IN CANADA:
Toronto, Ontario World's Biggest Bookstore 416-977-7009
Chapter-Superstores Located across Canada
ISBN:0-07 - 882181 - 9
PH: 212-385-1616 http://cnct.com/bookworks
OSBORNE i'i~~
~ ISBN:0-07-882269-6
A Division o( TheMcGraw-HiUCompanies
Or Call 1-800-262-4729 Anytime and Use Your American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or VISA
53BY297
What's New Hardware
Scanning Software
for 95/NT
Windows 95
on Silicon Graphics
Workstations
HARDWARE
Accessories
WITH SOFTWINOOWS95 FOR SILICON Stereo PC Headset
Graphics (right-to-use license,
WITH PAGIS PRO 97 (ABOUT $169), YOU about $599). you can run Win 95 THE ANC-550 STEREO PC HEADSET
can capture, use, and organize col applications on your workstation ($79.95) features active noise-can
under IRIX6.2 and 6.3.The program cellation technology.This creates a
also provides Windows 95 multi 180-degree out-of-phase anti
media support, PC networking, PC noise signal that cancels back
file sharing capabilities, and sup ground noise and echo speaker
or documents and incorporate port for most PC networks.
feedback, while increasing the
them into Windows Explorer. The
speed and accuracy of voice-com
program combines PerfectScan,
puting applications. The ANC-550
which provides advanced image
comes with a microphone on/off
capture and enhancement, text and
mute switch, alapel clip, and acon
picture segmentation, and com
verter plug .Andrea Electronics also
pound document compression;
offers the Multimedia Audio Con
TextBridge Pro, an OCR program;
troller MC-100 ($34.95), which lets
and Verity's Topic search engine,
you easily switch between your PC
which gives you tools for locating
headset and multimedia speaker
documents in your system.
Contact: Insignia Solutions,
system with the flick of a switch.
Contact: Xerox, Peabody, MA, Santa Clara, CA, (800) 848 Contact: Andrea Electronics,
(888) 997-2447 or(508) 977 7677 or(408) 327-6000;
Long Island City, NY, (800)
2000; http://www.pagis.com. http://www.insignia.com.
442-7787 or (718) 729-8500;
Circle 1004 on Inquiry Card.
Circle 1005 on Inquiry Card.
http: // www.andreaelectronics
.com.
Circle 1012 on Inquiry Card.
n
Software Updates
I Headset Telephone
Contact: Command Communications, Aitrora, CO, (800) 288-6794 or(303) 751 7000; 76735.3714 @ compuserve.com. Circle 1011 on Inquiry Card.
Add-Ins
686 Embedded CPU Board
OPERATING ATSPEEDSOFUPTO 200 MHz, the IPH-686 Half Size ISA Pentium board (from $875) supports 256 KB through 1-MB pipeline burst and standard cache RAM modules for high-speed access to blocks of data. The board comes with two 16C550-compatible serial ports, a bidirectional ECP/EPP, a dual flop py drive port, two EIDE hard drive ports, a PS/2 keyboard port, a PS/2 mouse port, an on-board speaker,
SurveyWin 3.2, the on - line data collection and statistical analysis program for Windows3.x, 95, NT, and OS/2, offers an unlimited skip feat ure, which automatically guides users to th e next appropriate question ; hyperlinks; bit-map support; and visible or invisible cal culated fields. $495. Contact: RaoSofr, Seattle, WA, (206) 525-40'25; http://www. raosoft.com/raosoft/. Circle 1006 on Inquiry Card.
Implementing Netscape's LiveConnect fra mework, WebXpresso 1.2, the Web-enabling component of DataViews' DV-Xpresso modul ar developm ent tool,lets you createapplications that access tra nspar ently both client and server Web-based applications. In addition, version 1.2 supports Java native meth ods for getting and setting object attributesandinput and select callbacks.For Windows 95, NT, and Unix, from $1000. Contact: DataViews, Northampton, MA, (800) 732-3200 or (41 3) 586-4 144; http://www.dvcorp.com. Circle 1007 on Inquiry Card.
RemoteWare 3.1 for Windows NT adds messaging support, MAPI
support, subscription and publishing servi ces,and accessibility from
within aWeb browser.Server license,from$5000;basiccl ients,$200;
extended clients, $375.
Contact: Xce /leN et, Atlanta, GA, (800) 322-3366 or (7 70)
804-8100; http://www.xcellenet.com.
Circle 1008 on Inquiry Card.
THE LIGHTWEIGHT, ADJUSTABLE HT530 headset ($59.95) comes with asin gle-headphone-style ear piece and flex-mounted microphone.You can use the headsetto answer calls and to place outbound calls with PCs (equipped with the appropriate software) from companies such as Acer, Apple, AST, Packard Bell, Com paq, NEC, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony. The included Y connec tor lets you use the headset with a standard telephone. The HT560 ($99.95) combines the HT530 head set and a compact telephone with features such as adjustable volume, one-touch call hold, last-number redial, and a flash button for use with call waiting.
aWatchOog timer, and up to64MB of DRAM. Contact: Micro Computer Specialists, Vista, CA, (800) 347-6274 or(619) 598-2177; http://www. industry. net/mcsi. Circle 1013 on Inquiry Card.
Video Engine for PCs
YoUCAN USETHEVIDEOX2 (FROM $1795) as the foundation for a PC-based video-mixing system. The board comes with a two-channel digital video mixer; an input for an MPEG/JPEG card; composite and S Video in/out; a two-channel TBC/ synchronizer; more than 250 spe cial effects transitions; antialiased fonts and graphics; two-channel freeze-frame; and a four-channel stereo audio mixer.
Contact: 7V One, Erlanger, KY, (800) 721-4044 or (606) 282 7303 ; http://www.tvone.com.
Circle 1014 on Inquiry Card.
1 86 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
What's New Hardware
Ultra-Wide SCSl-3 Macintosh Accelerator
DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE 1/0 TRANSFER speed and boost total system per formance for digital video, prepress, server, and real-time applications,
the ExpressPCl-Pro Series ($395) delivers transfer rates of up to 40 MBps. Atto's new line of host adapters features full block buffer ing, embedded 80-MHz RISC SCSl 3 processor, improved data inter leave architecture, and PCI 2.1 compliance.
Contact: Atto Technology, Amherst, NY, (716) 691-1999; http://www.attotech.com. Circle 1015 on Inquiry Card.
Communications
speeds of up to 33.6 Kbps and com bines V.34 modulation with MNP 2-4 and V.42 LAPM error correction forthroughputofupto 115.2 Kbps. Contact: Shark Multimedia, Santa Clara, CA, (800) 800 332 1 or (408) 987-5400; http://www.sharkmm.com. Circle 1017 on Inquiry Card.
Networking
Wireless LAN PC Card Adapter and Access Points
Delorme Tripmate Hyperformance CPS Navigation $149
Circle1009 on Inquiry Card.
Delorme Freeport, ME (207) 865-1234 fax : (207) 865-9291 http://www.delorme.com
·..:tleh? for Los~.So1,1ls Everywhere
D eG6~iiie's Tripmate is a:9-ounce device that'~ slight!~ larger ·than a bar of soap·and uses Global Positioning System (GPS)
satellites to fix your location. You can use the unit wi~h a notebook
PC running Win 95 and Delorme's Street Atlas USA 4.0 or AAA
Map'n'Go. The Tripmate, whicl:i runs on four AA batteries or an
optlor:tal power adapter kit, easily connects to the notebook's ser
. ial port.Iused the new CF-.62 notebookfrom Panaso"nii;; (800-662' '/,
. 3537). ·1i includes a 12.1-i.nctl active matrix screen and an internal .
drive ttiaiplays both CD-ROM and rewritable phas'e-change.discs.
Tripniate installed easily on the Panasonic system, and once Iprop
erly configured the time and date ofthe Street Atlas software, I was
trackiryg my progress in re.al1ime as I drove across state.
· Tr!pmate's 12-channel·receiver was quite accurate.·though the ac~tmfcy can drift be.yor1.d·100 meters or so if the device Cl'ln't get
a Clear view of the sky to get a proper location fix; tail buiidings·or
thicktoiiage can interfere wit_h,positioning. And I would have liked
the Tripmate to have battery status lights. But those minor quibbles
aside, the Tripmate's easy installation and low price make this a
must·haye.in the "cool device" category. Plus, it will get you to that
meeting.on time without you liaving to stop and ask directions.
...
-Dave Andrews ·
Computerized Whiteboard
WITH IBID (ABOUT $499), USERS IN MUL tiple locations can create, capture, collaborate, and communicate information. The 38- by 31-inch, 18-pound product combines the visual communication capabilities of whiteboards with the storage, access, and digital communications benefits of PCs. Ibid can capture the results of interactive sessions, including multicolordrawingsand text, save the information in PC memory, and incorporate it into most Windows-based applications. Contact: The Micro Touch B11siness Products Division, Tewksbury, MA, (800) 642 7686 or (508) 659-9000; http://www.microtouch.com. Circle 1016 on Inquiry Card.
Real-Time Videoconferencing
A HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE KIT, SEE Quest transforms your Windows PC into a desktop videoconferencing workstation . The kit consists of Shark Multi media's Baby Tiger 33.6-Kbps DSVD modem, the Con nectix Color or Black and White OuickCam video camera, the Con nectix VideoPhone, a microphone, and asuite of audio and video soft ware (black and white, $369; col or, $479) . The Baby Tiger DSVD modem transmits and receives full duplex audio and video data simul taneously over a standard tele phone line. The modem operates at
AT 1.6 MBPS, THE RANGElAN2 7400 PC Card {$695) provides high-speed data transfer and interchangeable antennae, so you can select the antenna that matches your specif ic device and coverage needs. The RangelAN2 AP-II 7510 and 7520 Access Points (from $1895) come
with a MIPS R3000 RISC processor; throughput optimization; remote configuration over a modem; built in site survey; Telnet support over Ethernet, serial, and wireless; and SNMP support in the RangelAN2 7520 Access Point. Contact: Proxim, Mountain View, CA, (800) 229-1630 or (415) 960-1630; http://www .proxim.com . Circle 1018 on Inquiry Card.
Peripherals
Four Desktop Scanners
THE FOUR MODELS IN THE COPISCAN 8000 Series of scanners (from $22,000) range in speed from 60 to more than 100 pages per minute in por trait mode. Each comes with 13 res olutions between 100and 400 dpi, a 500-sheet automatic/manual
188 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
Official
Media Sponsor
B. Y. 0. I. S. P.
(Bring Your Own Internet Service Provider)
Log into BIX and you'll find people like yourself. People who
are glad to lend a helping hand when someone asks a question.
People who listen to what you have to say. People who know
about things that will surprise you.
Now BIX is available at a price never before seen online.
If you already have Internet access, telnet to BIX
Flat Rate: $6.95/mo $14.97/3mo $24.97/6mo $34.97/year
This plan allows unlimited use of both our text-based services and
Web services available only to BIX members.
If you need Internet access, BIX offers a Flat Rate plan at prices ranging
from $23.95/month (down to as low as $16.95/month if you pay by the year)
including nationwide access at speeds up to 28.8kbps or X.25 access
at speeds up to 14.4kbps, and a pay-as-you-go plan for $12.95/month
for six hours of access plus $2/hour thereafter.
Complete details are available from our e-mail auto-responder at info@bix.com or by visiting the BIX Web Site (see below).
To sign up for BIX, dial (800) 695-4882 or dial
(617) 492-8300, enter bix when prompted and enter bix.rd at the Name?
prompt. A step by step procedure will get you logged into BIX.
The same procedure works if you telnet to bix.com or x25. bix.com,
and you can also sign up on our Web Site.
EIW ahead of its time
~ always was, always will be.
Visit us on the Web at http://www.bix.com/
C ircle 450 on Inquiry C ard.
Hardware What's New
document feeder, self-calibrating cameras, self-adjusting lamps, and optional pre- and post-scan im printing. Red, green, and blue col or dropout can be selected by the user. Th e scan ners can accommo
date documents as small as self stick notes and checks to tabloid size newspapers and technical drawings. Contact: Bell & Howell, Arlington Heights, IL, (800) 722-6494 or(847) 357-0630; http://www. bel/howelI.com. Circle 1019 on Inquiry Card.
Wide-Screen Color Monitor
THE PANASYNC/PRO P21 MONITOR {$2099) has a 20-inch viewable imag e size and features a refresh rate of 71 Hz, a resolution of 1800 by 1440, and a dot pitch of 0.25 mm. The monitor has an antiglare, antireflection, and antistatic
screen; eight preset timing modes and 13 user memory modes; and frequency ranges of 30 kHz to 115 kHz horizontal and 50 Hz to 160 Hz vertical. Contact: Panasonic Communications & Systems, Secaucus, NJ, (800) 726-2797 or (201) 348-7000; http://www.panasonic.com. Circle 1021 on Inquiry Card.
Ultra SCSI Hard Drives
THETOMAHAWK9 MODEL3391 ($2900) provides 9.10 GB of formatted capacity in a 3.5-inch form factor.
Th e low-profile Tomahawk 4LP Model 4345 ($1630) offers4.55 GB of formatted capacity. Both Micro polisdrives feature magneto-resis tive hea ds, 7.9- ms ave rage seek times, 7200-rpm rotational speeds, a SCSl-2/-3 command set, a 297 bit ECC with on-the-fly error cor rection, a 512-KB multisegmented cache, tagged command queuing with seek and latency optimization, and zero-latency read/write oper ations. Contact: Micropolis, Chatsworth, CA, (818) 709-2730; http:// wwiv.micropolis.com. Circle 1020 on Inquiry Card.
External Tape Drives
THETAPESTOR 800 ($149) CAN STORE UP to 800 MB of compressed data or up to 400 MB of uncompressed
data on aTravan TR1 cartridge.The TapeStor 3200 ($249) can handle up to 3.2 GB of compressed data or up to 1.6 GB of uncompressed data per cartridge. Contact: Seagate Technology, Costa Mesa, CA, (800) 626 6637 or(714) 641-1230; http: // www.seagate.com. Circle 1022 on Inquiry Card.
Servers
Petabyte Server
A SPECIALI ZED DATA-ACCESS SERVER, THE FastfilePro-HA is capable of han dling up to 1petabyte,or1024ter abytes, of data in the form of 128 diskvolumes, each configured with 8 TB of storage. You can configure your server to work with levels 0, 1, O+l, RAID 3 equivalent, 5, and JBOD. The server offers a journal ing automation system, the Aer-
REAL operating system, and an HTTP module, adding read -only access to Web files. Contact: Falcon Systems, Sacramento, CA, (800) 326 1002 or(916) 641-7200; http: // www.falcons.com. Circle 1023 on Inquiry Card.
Systems
SPARC- Compatible Graph ics Workstations
DESIGNED TO DELIVER HIGH-PERFORMANCE Creator graphics capabilities, including 3-D triangles, vectors, and quads, to a range of applica tions, the COMPstation U200-ES comes with a 200-MHz 64-bit UltraSparc 1 processor, 1 MB of external cache, and adata transfer rate of up to 1.6 GB per second. A standard configuration (from $17,530) includes 64 MB of RAM, a 2-GB hard drive, a 20-inch color monitor, a 128-bit UPA slot, three SBus slots, two serial ports,one par aIIel port, a lOBase-T Ethernet interface, Fast SCSl-2, and CD quality 16-bit audio capabilities.
Contact: Tatung Science & Technology, Milpitas, CA, (800) 659-5902 or (408) 383 0988; http://www.tsti.com. Circle 1026 on Inquiry Card.
Easily Upgradable Pentium Notebooks
THEARCHITECTUREOFTHE OPENNOTEPEN tium notebook PCs provides an easy
upgrade path for all system com ponentsand peripherals. The Open Note Model 680C ($2795) comes with a PCl-based 120-MHz Pen tium CPU ; 16 MB of memory, expandable to 64 MB; and an 11.3 inch DSTN SVGA display.The Open Note Model 680TX ($3395) comes with a PCl-based 133-MHz Pen tium processor; 32 MB of RAM, expandable to 64 MB; and an 11.3 inch TFT SVGA display. Both mod
els also feature a removable 1.1-GB hard drive; a 3.5-inch removable floppy drive; a 6x internal CD-ROM drive; a Sound Blaster Pro 16 sound card with built-in speakers; MPEG support; two Type II (or one Type Ill) PC Card slots; a touch pad pointing device; and a dual NiMH detach able/rechargeable battery supply. Contact: Kiwi Computer, Santa Clara, CA, (888) 688 5494 or (408) 492-9188; http://www.kiwicom.com. Circle 1024 on Inquiry Card.
SPARC Notebook
INCORPORATING A 170-MHz TUR boSparc processor, the Powerlite Turbo 170comeswith upto256 MB of memory, 512 KB of secondary cache, a 12.1-inch 1024 by 768 or 800 by 600 display, up to 3.6 GB of hard drive storage, a TGX graphics accelerator, afax/modem card ,and a 16-mm trackball in a 7.5-pound notebook-size package.The system is available with SunSoft's Solaris 2.5 or Solaris 1.1.2 operating sys tems and is compatible with Sun workstations. Contact: RD! Computer, Carlsbad, CA, (800) 734-5483 or (619) 929-0992; http:// www.rdi.com. Circle 1025 on Inquiry Card.
FEBRUARY 1997 BYTE 191
Java's RAD Route to Data Access·
e Visual Ca( Pro lets you develop distributed data access applications using Java.
By Rick Crehan
l i l ith its Visual Cafe Pro (VCP) package, Symantec brings rapid application develop ment for Java into areas often associated with traditional client/server development. The professional version of Visual Cafe adds wizards (software assistants) and database middleware tech nology to help developers create Java programs that access information from darabases on the back end. This data is then presented to the end user in any Java-compliant Web browser.
VCP consists of Visual Cafe and the dbAnywhere middleware, lashed togeth er by a set of wizards. The program illus trates an emerging breed of development tools that let users leverage-the Web to access data stored in a wide variety of databases. YCP represents a logical pro gression for Symantec's Cafe, which I used when I converted the BITE bench marks from C to Java. (Back then, Cafe wasn't a visual development environ ment, but it was a solid Java development system whose integrated debugger was a blessed relief from the command-line debugger that's included in the Sun Java Development Kit.)
Symantec has constructed upon this foundation the kind of form-based appli cation-building environment that's becoming the mainstay of Windows development. When you start a new pro ject, VCP lets you select from among three templates: a completely empty project, a basic application, or a basic applet. The first template is an empty workspace that's a throwback to life before Cafe went visual. The latter two templates jump-start your application with empty forms ready for filling with buttons and text fields and such. In fact, the applica tion template prebuilds "about" and "quit" dialog boxes.
Visual Cafe comes with a basic set of
predefined components. You'll find but tons, scroll bars, and text fields, as well as a collection of dialog boxes. When you click and draga component from the tool palette, VCP pours the necessary Java source code into your project to instan tiate the component.
New in the Visual Cafe environment is its interaction wizard, which is a button to the left of the component speedbar. The interaction wizard lets you mouse click your way through the process of associating an action to a component received event. For example, you could use the interaction wizard to connect a mouse-click event on an "about" button to the opening of an "about" dialog box; Visual Cafe Pro will then write the code for you.
The database middleware component is supplied by dbAnywhere, which sup ports the Sun/JavaSoft Java Database Connectivity QDBC) AP!; dbAnywhere is able to handle a variety of back-end data bases, ranging from lowly dBase II all the way up to Oracle Server, either through direct drivers or ODBC drivers. Applets that are created by the Cafe side ofVisu-
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Visual Cafe Pro
$499.95
Symantec
Cupertino, CA
(408) 253-9600 h t t p ://cafe .symantec.com
al Cafe Pro communicate with a dbAny where server, thus providing what is formally a three-tier architecture: Applet as the GUI, dbAnywhere in the middle, and darabase drivers on the back end. Notice what this means: A client can download an applet from an Internet server on one machine, but that applet can connect to a dbAn)'\vhere server run ning on a completely different machine
on the Internet, anywhere in the world. Practically speaking, though, at this
stage dbAnywhere functions as merely a connection and translation service by connecting the applet to the database and translating between the database driver and the JDBC API. I suspect that Syman tec has another edition of Visual Cafe in the works, perhaps an enterprise version, that will allow developers to extend dbAt1)'\vhere, adding business logic pro gramming into the middle tier.
Doing programming with Java com ponents is not a pretty thing. BecauseJava has no notion of a resource file (at least not yet, anyway), every detail of a com ponent-for example, a button's size, color, or font-must be hardwired into the source code. Also, programming to JDBC amounts to working with SQL, which has never been pretty. Visual Cafe Pro, therefore, handles a great deal of ugliness for you. Symantec's RAD kit is no Delphi for the Internet yet-but it's
pretty close. m
Rick Crehan is a senior technical editor for BYTE reviews a11d the coauthor of The Clienr/Server Toolkit for CIC++ Program mers (NobleNet, 1996). You can reach him at
rick_g@bix.com.
192 BYTE FEBRUARY 1997
.,,,,..
e lsl· lcher
TRAVELING
.t
rich COMPANIONS ·~..
lllng ll.3· tlix s1fre
J to
WlJC
3.1
-Dill COMPUTER
·-'
lmMClUW
Latitude lM PlJJST,
>.·plus
$2999
11-in. TfT display,
' ncJ.
(133 Mhz)
l'Jtl'r
rt. 2J IBMPCCO.
$6999
'3
nd, 2.1 oq'·
In·
....""' 17
1.7
WIMBOOK COMPUTER
$3999
COMPAa COMPUTER $6398
- /Jusiness IVi:ek, Nooe111 her 4, / 996
What's wrong with this picture? The notebook that gives you
th e most performance, usability and features costs half the price
of notebooks that give you less. (Notebooks, by the way, that you
probably thought gave you more.) And remember, you have thi s
information on the very best authority. Business Week, the business
publication , in their Second Annua l Computer Buying Guide cited
the Dell Latitude LM P133ST as "the top ran ked machine in the
tests" and the notebook they'd most like to travel with. So if you're
shopping for a notebook, buy the best. After all. you can afford it.
* 12.1" SVGA Active Matrix Color Display * 16MB RAM/81DMB Hard Drive
· 256KB L2 Cache · Options Bay accepts BX CD-ROM.3.5' Floppy Drive
(both included) or Optional 2nd Li-Ion Battery
* PCI Bus with 128-bit Graphics Accelerator
· Integrated 16-bit Stereo Sound · Smart Lithium Ion Battery · lrDA 1.0 Standard Compliant · Touchpad · Under 7 Pounds" · Extendable 1Year Warranty'
* Upgrade to 40M8 RAM. add $299. * 33.6XJACK"/ Cabled Modem. add $239.
Business Lease~: $111/Mo. Order Code 1800051
800-545-9693
http://www.del l.com/buydell
Mon-Fri 7arn-9prn CT · Sat 10arn-6prn CT Sun 12prn·5pm In Canada: call 800-233·1589
I I Keycode #011 85
DELL DIMENSION'" XPS PENTIUM· PRO CHIP-BASED DESKTOPS
Base features: Mini TowP.r Mnrlr.I 256KB Internal L1 Cache MS' Office 95Pro with Bookshelf MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon" 30 Days Free Support MSMouse 3 Year Limi ted Warra nty' with 1Year On-si te·' Service
DELL DIMENSION XPS Pro200n 200MHz PENTIUM' PRO PROCESSOR
DELL DIMENSION XPS Pro200n 200MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR
DELL DIMENSION XPS Pro180n 180MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus: · 64MB EDO Memory with ECC
· NEW 4.3GB Hard Drive 19 5msl · 20TD Trinitron' Monitor (19.0" v.i.s..
.26dp. 1600 x 1200 max . res.) · Ma trox Millennium 4MB WRAM
Video Card · NEW 12X EIDE CO-ROM Drive · Sound Blaster 16 PnP Sound Card
· Altec ACS-290 Si;eakers with Subwoofer · Microsoft' Windows NT'
Workstation 4.0
Base features listed above plus: · 32MB EDO Memory · 2GB SCSI UWHardDrive l7200RPM. Bms) · Adaptec 2940UW Co ntroller Card
· I 7LS Mon itor I15.7" v.i.s.)
· Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
· NEW BX SCSI CD-ROM Drive · AWE32 Wave Table Sound Card · Al tee ACS-90 Speakers · FREE NortonNisio Express
Software Suite..
· Microsoft Windows · 95
Base fea tures listed above plus:
· 32MB EDO Memor1
· 2.lGBHard Drive l12ms) · 17LSMonitor (15.7" v. i.s.)
· 2MB EDOViRGE 3DVi deo Card
· NEW 12X EIDECO-ROM Drive · AWE32 Wave Table Sound Card
· Allee ACS -90 Speakers
· FREE NortonNisio Express Software Suite
· Microsoft Windows 95
* Upgrade to Malrox Millennium 4MB
WRAM Video Card. add S145.
$3999 $2999 $2399
Business Leaseo: S144/Mo. Order Code #500109
Business Lease: $111/Mo. Order Code #500108
Business Lease: $89/Mo. Order Code #500107
DELL DIMENSION XPS PENTIUft
Base features: Mini Tower Model Upgrade Ca rd MSOffice 95Pro with Bo1 MS Mouse 3 Year Limited Warranty w
DEU DIMENSION XPS M200s 200MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR WITH MMX"' TECHNOLOGY
Base features listed above plus: · 64MB SORAM Memory · NEW 4.3GBHard Drive 19 5ms) · 17HS Trinitron Monitor 115.9' v i.s..
.26cl p, 1600 x 1200 max. res .) · Allee ACS-490 Full Dolby' Surround
Sound Speakers with Subwoofer · 33.6 U.S. Robotics Telephony Modem
* Upgrade to a 20TD Trinitron Monitor
(19.o- v.i.s...25dp. 1500 x 1200 max. res.). add S199.
$3499
Business Lease: $129/Mo. Order Code !500106
DELL DIMENSION PENTIUM CHIP-BASED JJ.£SK'TOPS
Base features: · Mini Tower Model · 256KB Pipeline Burst Cache · NEW 12X EIDE CD-ROM Drive + 64-bit PCI 2MB DRAM Video · Microsoft Windows 95 · 30 Days Free Support · Dell Mouse · 3 Year Limit ed Warranty with 1 Year On-site Service
DELL DIMENSION P200v 200MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus: · 16MB SORAM Memory · 2.lGB Hard Drive l12ms) · NEW SOOHSTrinitron Moni tor
I13.7" vi.s.J
* Upgrade to 32MB SDRAM, add Sl39. * Upgrade to a3.2GB Hard Drive
(I0.5ms). add S79.
* Upgrade to a 11LS Moniror
(15.1" v.i.sJ. add SI 75.
* Upgrade to 512KB Pipe!ii1e Bursr
Cache. add S25.
$1999
DELL DIMENSION P166v 166MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus:
· 16MB SDRAM Memory
· 2.1GB Hard Drive [12ms]
· 15LS Monitor 113.7" v.i.s.)
* Upgrade to 32MB SDRAM. add S/39. * Upgrade to a 3.2GB Hard Drive
(I0.5ms). add S79.
* Sound Blaster 16 P11P Sound Card
and A/rec ACS-90 Speakers. add S89.
* Upgrade to 512KB Pipeline Burst
Cache, add S25.
* Upgrade to an BOOHS Trinitron
Monitor (13.7" v.is}. add S49.
$1799
Base features: · 256KB Integrated L2 Cache · Integrated PCI Ultra/Wide SCSl -3
Controller + BX SCSI CO -ROM Drive + 3Com 10/100 PC! Ethernet Adapter · Intel '
LANDesk'" Server Manager v2. 5x · 3 Year Warranty with 1Year On-s ite Service·
· MS Windows NT Server 4.0110 Clien t Access Licenses)'"
DEU POWEREDGE 2100 SERVER 200MHz PENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus:
· 64MB ECC EDO Memory l512MB Max)
· 4GB Fast/Wide SCSl-2 Hard Drive [7200RPM. Smsl l12GB Max)
· 6Expansion Slots: 3 PCI. 3 EISA
· 6Drive Bays: 3 External 525'I 3ln temal 3.5"
* 2nd 4GB tasl/W1de SCSl-2 Hard Drivr.. add S1199.
* 4/BGB DAT SCSI llllemal TBU.
add S999.
* Upgrade to 3 Years On-sire Service.
addS99.
DELL POWEREDGE 2100 SERVER 200MHzPENTIUM PRO PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus:
· 32MB ECC EDO Memory l512MB Max)
· 2GB Fast/Wide SCSl-2 Hard Drive i7200RPM. SmsJ l 12GB Max)
· 6Expansion Slots: 3 PCI. 3 EISA
· 6 Drive Bays 3 External 5.25'/ 3 Internal 3.5"
* :JCom Office Connecr IJ Parr TPC
Hub. add S149
* Upgrade to a 15LS Monitor
(13.1' v.i.s.}. add S349.
* OirecrLine'" Network OS Support.
add S399.
$4599' $3999'
Business Lease: $74/ Mo. 01der Code #500102
Business Lease: $67/Mo. Order Code #500 I0I
Business Lease: $166/Mo. Order Code #250014
Business Lease: $144/Mo. Order Code #250022
t Ncn discountable promocl(nJI PflCLlllJ 'for a crrnple:e top'/ a! our Gu.lrJ111003 or L~rnlcd Warrcm1~. ple.1se ~. nlf'! Dell USA l P. Oie Dell \V."rf. Ro..ind Rod. IX 786a7 11For i1 lmled 1ime h·.1th qual1fyn;J ~rthasel rete!\"e a COUp:tl !or a free f\!S Olke 97. vpgr<W.l! iPro!essu:nal Cl Stn.111 Rusrnessl ai CO tJ"t,· fr() docttnentatl()'l 1rdl>'.ii!dl a!Tet release fn:m r.~icrosoh Can fet details Oau~s 'easmg airarqed tr( le.uirq Group h: ''NOflon/VislO ~ Sonv.-a1r Suite is a".'aitable ool.t Cf\ Dell 0.lfEOSl(Jl S't"Stams purchased \'.1th tl'lC c.arblnaticn of MSOffice ..rd Miu0$0t1 V-brdows ~ \'isio f k.')'e$.'i .i O1s ,..,, OE i \l?fSlO'l ~a SUbSC?Iot V1sio 4 0 Sott..-.-rue may rot n:lude all docuren1atoi am may differ from retail \-ers.KJl lllln:h.ided at no e..i.ua cNrge thtough lfJlf.}J · s~-stml weighi with fklppy amoe 0t CO ROM in apt~ bay ..\Qn-sste senice pro.'® hy BarY.lec Sefvice CorporatKXl On-Slte SCf\'ICC ma;· 1'(lt be available mcertall'I remot~ loc;iticm. -on-site semce for !tit! rowcrndgo 2100 Server 1$ prcr.ided tr; 0191tal Equrrmcn1 Corporiltm and is a·1a1lable m19 me110P011tan arnas * Prices aM spec1flcattor1s vohd 1n ti~ US only arll suhjOO to change without no11ce The lntcl ln.'irde logo aoo Pernum are regrst~ed 1r3dema1l.s a1wJ LANOesk. the l111el LANOes~ logo and MMX a1c 11itduma1ks of lfllcl Corpora 11on MS. M1crcsoft, W1ndow·s and Windows NTare registered trademarks ol M1crosol1 Corporal ion XJACK is a registeratl 1radern.11~ of US Roboiics Mob116 C01rv11unic111t011sCmporation. 3Com and [lhCfllllk am ie~1istercd tradema rksof 3Com CorporalrOfl Tr1rntrnn is
il rog1s1cmd tradomJrk of Sany C0tpom11011 011ec:tt 1ne is a seN1ce rn.11J. ol Ooll Coinputer Corporatioo © 19n 7Oall Co11111uter Corpora1ion All 11ghts1cscrvc<.1.
INCLUDES
Ii- TM
12KB Pipeline Burst Cache NEW 12X EIDE CD -ROM Drive Matrox Millen nium 4MB WRAM Vid eo Card AWE32 Wave Table ;shelf MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon Microso ft Windows 95 30 Days Free Support h 1Year On -s ite Service FREE NortonNisio Express Software Suite 2USB Ports
DELL DIMENSION XPS M200s
200MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR WITH MMX TECHNOLOGY
DELL DIMENSION XPS M200s
200MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR WITH MMX TECHNOLOGY
DELL DIMENSION XPS M166s
166MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR WITH MMX TECHNOLOGY
Base features listed above plus:
· 32MB SDRAM Memory
· 3.2GBHard Drive l9.5msJ
· 17LSMonitor (15.7" v.i .s.)
· Al tee ACS -290 Speakers with Subwoofer
· 33.6 U.S Robotics Telephony Mod~m
* Upgrade to a 43GB Hard Drive (9.5ms). add $65.
* Upgrade to A/tee ACS-490 Full Dolby
Surround Sound Speakers with Subwoofer. add S85.
Base features listed above plus:
· 32MB SDRAM Memory
· 2.lGB Hard Drive l1 2msJ
· 17LS Monitor (157" v.i.s.)
· Altec ACS-90 Speakers
* Upgrade to 64MB SDRAM. add S275. * Upgrade to a 3.2GB Hard Drive
(95ms). add SB5
* Upgrade to a 17HS Trinitron Monitor
(159· v.i s, 26dp, 1600 x 1200 max.res.). add S165.
Base features listed above plus:
· 32MB SDRAM Memory
· 3.2GB Hard Drive l9.5msJ
· NEW 800HS Trinitron Monitor
(137" v.i.s I
· Altec ACS-90 Speakers
* Upgrade to a 17LS Monitor
(157" v.i.s.). add Sl75.
* Upgrade ca A/teeACS-290 Speakers
with Subwoofer. add $75.
Business Lease: $107/ Mo. Order Code 1500t05
Business Lease: $96/ Mo. Order Code #500 !04
Business Lease: $89/Mo. Order Code !500 !03
DELL LATITUDE" PENTIUM CHIP· BASED NOTEBOOKS
Base features: · 256KBL2Cache · PCI Buswith 128-bit Graphics Accelerator · Options Bay accepts 6X CD-ROM. 3.5" Floppy Drive (both included) or Optional 2nd Li-Ion Battery · Integrated 16-bit Stereo Sound · Smart Lithium Ion Battery · lrDA 1.0 Standard Compliant · Touchpad · Optional Dell Latitude LM Port Repl ica tor Available · Under 7 Pounds· · Extendable 1Year Wmranty'
DELL LATITUDE LM P133ST 133MHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus: · 12.1· SVGA Active Matrix
Color Display
· 40MB RAM/ 1.3GB Hard Drive
· MS Office Pro for Windows 95 · MS Office 97, Professional or Small
Business Edition Upgrade Coupon
· 33.6 XJACK' / Cabled Modem · Lea ther Carrying Case
* 3Com 108ase-T Network Card. add S159.
* Upgrade toa2.1GBHardDrive.addSJDD.
DELL LATITUDE LM P133ST 133MHz PENTIUM PROCES SOR
Ba se features listed above plus:
· 12.1 · SVGA Active Matrix Color Display
· 16MB RAM/81 OMB Hard Drive
* Upgrade to 40MB RAM. add $299 * Dell Latitude LM Port Replicator.
add S159.
* Upgrade to a 1.3G8 Hard Drive.
add S200.
* Nylon Carrying Case. add S69 * 2nd Lithium Ion Bauery. add S249.
DELL LATITUDE LM P100SD lOOMHz PENTIUM PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus:
· 11.3" SVGA Dual Scan Color Display
· 40MB RAM/1 .3GB Hard Drive
· MS Office Pro for Windows 95
· MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon
· Nylon Ca rrying Case
* 33.6 XJACK/ Cabled Modem.
add S239.
* Upgrade to a 2. IGB Hard Drive.
add SJOO.
DELL LATITUDE LM P100SD lOOMHzPENTIUM PROCESSOR
Base features listed above plus:
· 11.3" SVGA Dual Scan Color Display
· 24MB RAM/1.3GB Hard Drive
· 33.6XJACK/Cabled Modern
· Nylon Carrying Case
* Upgrade to a 2.1GB Hard Drive.
add $300.
* Upgrade to 40MB RAM. add $199.
* Dell Latitude LM Port Replicator. add $159.
Business Lease: $14 1/Mo. Order Code 1800060
Business Lease: $111/ Mo. Order Code #800051
Business Lease: $107/Mo. Order Code 1800071
Business Lease: $96/Mo. Order Code 1800072
DELL OPENS STORE ON THE WEB
Now you can buy Dell systems online. In fact, you can custom configure, price and track delivery of your PCs right on the Web. Ifs simple, secure and open twenty-four hours aday. So make shopping easier on yourself. Visit the new Dell Web site Store today. Just point your browser to www.dell.com/buydell and click on "Store.·
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm CT · Sat 10am-6pm CT Sun 12prn·5pm In Canada: call 800-233-1589
I I Keycode101 186
800-545-9674
http://www.dell .com/buydell
*32MB SDRAM Memory
· 512KB Pipeline Burst Cache
* 3.2GB Hard Drive [9.5ms]
· NEW BOOHS Trinitron· Monitor (13.7" v.i.s.}
· Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM Video Card
* NEW 12X EIDE CD-ROM Drive
· AWE32 Wave Table Upgrade Card
· Altec ACS-290 Speakers wi th Subwoofer
· MS~ Office Professional with Bookshelf for Windows· 95
* MS Office 97, Professional or Small Business Edition Upgrade Coupon·
· FREE Norton/Visio Express Software Suite' · Microsoft· Windows 95/30 Days
Free Support/MS Mouse · 3 Year Limited Warranty' with 1Year
On-site' Service
Business Lease' : $96/Mci. Order Code #500110
When it comes to the awards the Dell Dimension line has won in 1996. they truly are too numerous to mention here. Because the fact is, Dell Dimens ion has won awards for everything from technica l excel lence to sheer performance to best va lue. Awards that come from the most widely read and consulted authori ties in the indu stry - PC Magazine, PC World, PC Computing. Windows Magazine and Computer Shopper In total . the Dimension line has won 31 % more of these awa rds than any other desktop PC. Which means we aren't just handing you a line when we say that when it comes to Dell Dimension. no other PC comes close.
800-531-2746
http://www.del l.com/buydel I
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm CT · Sat 10am-6prn CT Sun 12pm-5prn In Canada : call 800 -233-1589
I Keycode 1011 84 I
PDFScanLib v1.2.2 in Adobe Acrobat Pro 11.0.14