manny%udel-eecis3.delaware@udel-relay.ARPA (07/18/84)
From: Manny Farber <manny%udel-eecis3.delaware@udel-relay.ARPA>
NCC '84 Report
Manny Farber
There weren't too many new "toys" at this NCC; not to
say that I'd seen all the non-new things. Interesting
and/or new things are described below.
Some advice for those going to future NCC's (NCC '85
will be in Chicago on July 15-18): Don't try to stop at
every booth; instead, look in the guide book under
exhibitors categorized by product and go (almost) directly
to their booths. Also, look in the NCC Show Daily paper to
find interesting booths. Spend most of your time at these
booths.
(The first edition of the NCC Show Daily had a lot of
information about restaurants, casinos, shows in town, etc.)
I collected just about every piece of literature I saw;
if anyone wants more detailed information about something,
drop me a line.
PC Accelerator
Titan Technologies had a card with a 10 MHz 8086 that
plugs into the 8088 socket of an IBM PC (a socket is
provided on the card for a 10 MHz 8087, if you can get your
hands on one) and speeds up the PC by a factor of "2.5 to
4." From what I saw (graphics demos), this didn't seem like
an exaggeration. Memory is on the card (128K standard,
expandable to 640K), so the bus doesn't have to be used for
memory access. The people at the booth said that using
normal PC memory chips slows the Accelerator down by 8%,
which is nominal enough for it to be worth the money saved
on buying faster chips. Cost is about $800.
Titan was also showing a similar accelerator for the
Apple II, II+, or //e; an 8088 card for the Epson QX-10; and
2 cards for the PC with either a parallel or a serial port,
a game port, and a clock/calendar.
Kodak Disk Drives
Kodak had half-height, 2.6 megabyte (3.3 unformatted)
5.25" floppy drives running on the PC. The transfer rate
(500 kbits/sec, still 10 times slower than IBM's fixed disk)
is twice as fast as that of IBM's disk drives. Track
density is 192 tpi; it can read 48 or 96 tpi disks also,
although "the operator must, via software, enter the proper
parameters" (detection is automatic). MTBF is 10,000 hours,
and according to the specs, it is as accurate as IBM's
(Tandon's) drives.
COMPAQ Deskpro
Compaq was showing their new Deskpro "dream computer."
The Deskpro, a PC clone with an 8086, can run 2-3 times
faster than an IBM PC (according to Compaq). Speed is
indicated with either a green or a red light on the front of
the unit, and can be changed via the keyboard. The Deskpro
has 6 expansion slots; 640K of memory can be put on the
system board (128K standard).
Up to 4 half-height storage devices can be plugged in
(choose from 10 megabyte fixed disk, floppy drives, 10
megabyte cartridge tape drive for backup). Apparently, one
controller card handles both the fixed disk and tape backup
units.
Compaq offers a monitor that displays both "high-
quality text" and graphics in either amber or green. I'm
not sure exactly what this means with respect to
compatability with the IBM Monochrome Display and its
adapter card.
The keyboard is like the one on the Compaq portables
(in my opinion, tolerable) and has LED's on the Caps Lock
and Num Lock keys; it plugs into the front of the system
unit instead of the back. Compaq lists as interfaces:
parallel, RGB, R.F. modulator, composite video.
Following are Compaq's specs, prices, etc. The
comparisions with IBM prices are not exact, and do not take
into account things like the IBM label, IBM's better
keyboard, discounting on the Compaq, university discounts by
IBM (or Compaq), or the Compaq monitor.
Model 1: 128K RAM, diskette drive, 6 expansion slots
($2495).
Model 2: 256K, 2 drives, 6 slots ($2995).
An IBM #5150-176 (256K, two drives) costs $2420. Add
to that $800 for an Accelerator, $244 for a color card, and
a Titan combo card for the parallel port and clock (but
overshooting by a game adapter), you get something like
$3550.
Model 3: 256K, 1 diskette drive, 1 fixed disk, async/clock
board, 4 slots ($4995).
A comparable IBM system: 128K XT with fixed disk and
diskette drive ($4275), a PC Accelerator ($800, but that
gives you the balance of the 256K also), a color card
($244), and a Titan combo card ($?) which supplies a
parallel port and clock/calendar, but overshoots the target
by a game adapter. Cost: More than $5410. (The Compaq has
one more slot in the end).
Model 4: 640K, 1 drive, 1 fixed disk, 10 megabyte cartridge
streamer backup, async/clock board, 4 slots ($7195).
Get a 256K XT with fixed disk and diskette drive
($4395), add the Accelerator ($800), a 384K Quadboard with
parallel port and clock ($535 discounted), a tape backup
(about $900) which must go externally, a color card ($244),
for a total cost of about $6700--$500 less, but only 2 slots
are left. If you need the 2 additional slots you'll end up
with by getting the Deskpro, they in effect cost $250 each.
Visual Commuter
Visual had their Commuter, a portable PC clone. At 16
lbs. and 15" x 18" x 3.5", it is about half the weight and
has less than half the height of a Compaq portable. It
doesn't have any expansion slots, however, although it can
be connected to an IBM Expansion unit.
It comes standard with 128K RAM (expandable to 512K),
one half-height floppy (expandable to 2). The keyboard
layout is the same as IBM's. Interfaces: IBM Expansion
Unit, parallel, RS232-C, monitors.
As for portable displays, Visual offers a 16 line by 80
column LCD that emulates IBM's Monochrome Display. The user
sees only 16 lines of the 25-line display, which means that
when using a spreadsheet, word processor, etc., he must
handle a window into a window. This might be confusing;
certainly, a pain.
All in all, my reaction is lukewarm because of the 16-
line display, lack of expansion slots and the weight, which
is still too much.
Cost is $1995 for a 128K, one disk system.
North Atlantic Qantex
North Atlantic Qantex (the brochure says Anex
Technology, Inc.) had an expansion unit to turn a PC into 4
PC consoles. Their sign said "Come in and try it!" which I
tried to do twice, but was told sternly by a moronic jerk
(one of their exhibitors), "Don't touch it!" I was going to
go back and get the nerd's name for inclusion in this
report, but ran out of time.
Anyway, according to the diagram I got, one board is
plugged into the expansion unit for each user. The
expansion unit has space for 2 fixed disks.
A printer spooler and interface card must be plugged
into the real PC.
They say that for 4 users, the cost is as little as
$1,100; a practical system with a winchester would cost
more.
Key Tronics
Key Tronics had a speech recognizer and a mouse (3-
button, but MS-Mouse compatible) that plugged into one of
their keyboards. The speech recognizer translates words (up
to 100, which must be "trained") into "keystrokes."
Key Tronics also had a rather nice keyboard for the
PCjr ($255), the 5151jr. Also, a bar code reader, several
Optical Character Recognizers, and a PC keyboard with a
built-in touch pad, like the Gavilan's.
"please" database (Hayes)
Hayes exhibited a new database, called "please" at
their booth (where else?). Not that I use databases much,
but I found it straightforward and powerful. It seemed
vaguely similiar to some IBM mainframe database that uses
"SELECT"'s.
Gavilan SC
Gavilan exhibited a new version of their computer, the
Gavilan SC, which has a 16 line by 80 column display instead
of 8 x 80. The SC costs less than the Gavilan, but comes
with only 64K RAM (instead of 96K) and doesn't include the
software that comes with the Gavilan.
Epson plotter, Mac FX-80, JX-80, Geneva portable, SQ-2000
Epson had a version of the FX-80 for the Apple
Maccintosh. The output is mediocre compared to Apple's
Imagewriter.
Epson also exhibited the JX-80, a color printer (7
colors, formed from mixing 4 basic colors). It seemed to be
a decent superset of the FX-80; it still does 240 dpi.
They had their HI-80 4-pen, 9 ins./sec. plotter ($599).
Better than so-so, but not fantastic.
Epson OEM had an SQ-2000 ink-jet printer; it is much
better than the LQ-1500. One has to look hard to
distinguish it from letter quality, and it is comparable to
some laser printers. Specs: 305 dpi, 88 cps (LQ mode), 200
cps (draft mode).
Epson exhibited their sequel to the HX-20, the Geneva
PX-8 (about $1000). It has (as does the HX-20), a microtape
recorder, although it lacks the printer. The display is 8
lines by 80 characters (when using CP/M, it is a window into
a 24 x 80 display), which at least makes it usable. The
keyboard is more colorful than the HX-20's and slightly
better, although the slant is still too slight.
It comes standard with WordStar, CalcStar, and a
scheduler (also from MicroPro), all of which I consider to
be garbage, on ROM in addition to CP/M and MS-BASIC.
Optional ROM software: dBASE II, SuperCalc, "Traveler's
Pack."
Epson has three option "wafers" that screw onto the
bottom of the PX-8. One has a 64K RAM disk and a direct-
connect modem, another has just the modem, and the third has
just the memory (64K or 128K).
Epson also offers battery-powered, 3.5" 320K disk
drives which can be daisy-chained; a portable correspondence
quality printer (45 cps, 80-columns, 9 x 9 matrix), the
output of which I didn't see. The CX-20 (acoustic coupler),
which works with the HX-20 also works with the PX-8.
Apple
Apple devoted very little of their booth space to
themselves; most of it was filled with Mac stuff made by
other companies, much of it mediocre.
They had the 24 x 80 display for the //c--nothing
special or surprising about it.
Apple (or some other company) had a card that made a
//c emulate a PC. If I needed to have both a PC and an
Apple, I'd get a PC and emulate the Apple.
My Dad found a slots game with excellent graphics.
AT&T
All crud. (AT&T rented two huge booths to tout their
wares, yet I can sum it all up in two words.)
IBM
IBM exhibited an XT/PCjr cluster system intended for
educational use. An XT is used by the teacher and provides
fixed disk storage, which is divided among the students, the
teacher, and public use. Technically, up to 64 computers
can be hooked up. I don't know if the software supports two
fixed disks; if not, disk space would definitely be the
limiting factor.
IBM also had a file encrypting program for the PC.
IBM devoted one side of their exhibit to educating the
public about their technological innovations: the 1 megabit
chip, the dense packing of chips on ceramic, thin film,
scanning tunneling microscope.
Sharp
Sharp had Venix on their PC-5000; I heard about this,
but could not find it. It requires 192K on a dual-drive
system (hardware: $3,170).
In addition, they had the following peripherals for the
PC-5000: a direct connect modem that looks like a large
calculator and can store 10 16-digit numbers ($349), a 3.5"
disk drive ($699), and a 5.25" dual floppy drive ($999).
Sharp also had new versions of their pocket computers:
a 10K version of the small, 1-line 1250; two versions of a
2-line version with help; a 4-line 1350; and a microcassette
peripheral.
Misc.
Motorola had their 68020 (full 32-bit microprocessor),
which they claim to be 5 times as fast as the 68000/68010.
16.67 MHz.
Several companies, including Sharp, C. Itoh, and Apple
had 24 x 80 LCD displays.
The National Bureau of Standards had a LAN linking 10
computers from 10 different manufacturers together. It is
an implementation of the "ISO Class 4 Transport Protocol."
VisiCorp had FlashCalc, a faster superset of VisiCalc.
It is also cheaper than VisiCalc. When I asked her, one of
the exhibitors said that this "might" (I'm sure it does)
have something to do with the Software Arts-VisiCorp legal
tangle.
Several companies had 3" disk drives. Panasonic had a
1 MB one.
Konica had an extremely small, hand-held color video
camera. It does, of course, need to be attached to a VCR.
Victor had "vicki," a portable 9000.hbb@houxt.UUCP (07/26/84)
Manny Farber states in his NCC '84 Report: >...AT&T > > All crud. (AT&T rented two huge booths to tout their >wares, yet I can sum it all up in two words.) >... I would like to know which of the products that AT&T displayed caused him to reach such a conclusion? Mr. Farber, can you be a bit more specific and, perhaps, less antagonistic? -- Harlan B. Braude {most "backbone" sites}!houxt!hbb