SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (02/27/89)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the March 1989 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
All in One LAN.
NetFrame Systems of Sunnyvale, California plans to deliver
by year's end a multiprocessor 80386-based network server to
seamlessly link Novell Netware, OS/2 LAN Manager, and UNIX
networks. The NetFrame Server will initially be offered in
two sizes, one designed for between two and five processors
and another for between three and 17. NetFrame's future
plans call for integration with networks based on Motorola
68030 and 88000 CPU's, Sun's SPARC processors, and the Intel
80486. - PC Week 13 February
Major OS/2 Upgrades.
Microsoft plans a new release of OS/2 this fall that will
permit the operating system to access non-OS/2 storage
devices. Hardware vendors will be able to create OS/2
Installable Files Systems (IFSs) for their products, and
OS/2 users with corresponding file systems will then be able
to access DEC VAX, CD ROM, Macintosh, or UNIX-based
devices. Two further versions of OS/2 are planned for
1990. One will be a multiprocessor release that will allow
users of MCA and EISA architectures to take full advantage
of their multi-channel capabilities, and the other will be
specifically written for 80386 computers.
- PC Week 30 January and InfoWorld 6 February
Porting Macware to PM.
Developers and industry observers say a substantial number
of Macintosh applications should start appearing in releases
for IBM's Presentation Manager (PM) later this year. The
rivalry between the Macintosh and PM interfaces may lead to
more buyouts of smaller software firms. Porting the
programs is far from trivial, and small developers probably
won't have the resources to sustain the effort. While
Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft appears to be having
little effect, a major drawback is that most Macintosh
applications are written in Pascal while PM development
generally is done in C. - InfoWorld 30 January
The "Year of the CPU" Continues.
The 16 MHz 3-slot Mac should make its expected debut March 8
at the Hannover (West Germany) Computer Fair (see last
month's column). The more powerful 25 and 33 MHz Mac II
descendants which also will have a 20 MHz version of the
NuBus (twice as fast as the 10 MHz bus in the Mac II, IIx,
and 3-slot) will appear in August (with a hefty price tag
ranging from $10,000 to $15,000). Apple will be releasing a
new generation of Laser printers using the new Canon 400 dpi
engine in August as well. - InfoWorld 30 January
WalkMac/030.
You may actually see a LapMac from Apple later this year
(have you heard that before?), but by that time, Colby
Systems will already have shipped a 12-pound laptop based on
the new SE-030. Under an arrangement with Apple and
dealers, Colby provides unfinished portable units to dealers
who complete the systems by adding Mac motherboards. The
WalkMac/030 will include the 1.4 Mbyte Superdrive, a 40
Mbyte hard disk, and a 2400 baud modem. The portable
measures 12 by 15 by 3.5 inches, has a double supertwist
blue backlit LCD, a built in keyboard, and internal
batteries which can last up to four hours. Sufficient
motherboards to make the WalkMac/030 available are not
expected for at least two months. Colby expects to be able
to offer the machine for $6,500. - InfoWorld 6 February
No Low-Cost Mac (from Apple).
Apple CEO John Sculley told stockholders last month that the
firm has opened a second design center to focus on designing
machines for the low end of the market, however a Mac with a
price tag below $1,000 will not be offered this year.
Products Division president Jean-Louis Gassee also is quoted
as saying the company doesn't plan to offer a low-cost Mac
configuration anytime in the next two or three years.
- InfoWorld 30 January and PC Week 6 February
An SE-30 Clone (Sort of) Already?
At least some of Atari's new $2,000 68030 computers are
expected to ship this Spring with genuine Macintosh ROMs
legally obtained from a third-party. - InfoWorld 6 February
Bus Transfer.
Although the 030 Direct Slot in the new Mac SE-030 isn't
compatible with NuBus cards used in the Mac II or cards for
the original Mac SE, Second Wave, Inc. of Austin, Texas says
that in April it will begin shipping the Expanse II/SE-30
which will expand the SE-030's single Direct Slot into eight
(8) NuBus slots as well as adding a 130 watt power supply, a
cooling fan, and support for three SCSI devices. The
company already is shipping an eight slot expander (the
Expanse II) for the Mac II and IIx (providing a total of 12
slots). Both Expanse products are priced at $2,295.
- InfoWorld 30 January
Virtual Memory for the Mac II.
Little known start-up, Connectix, demonstrated a $295
program at last January's Macworld Expo which enables Mac
II's equipped with 1 Mbyte of RAM (and sufficient hard disk
space) to run applications accessing up to 8 Mbytes of
memory (the maximum allowed by the current operating
system). The program, called Virtual, requires a 68030 or
the 68551 Page Memory Management Unit (PMMU) in a Mac II
with a 68020. - InfoWorld 30 January
Desktop Unpublishing.
Xerox plans to ship its $995 Datacopy Accutext software for
the Macintosh during the second quarter. Accutext uses
artificial intelligence to increase scanning accuracy and
can recognize a wide variety of fonts and character sizes
from 6 to 24 points. It not only translates scanned
documents into text, it can create word processing files
(Mac Write, Word) which include information for column
margins, paragraph indentation, indented blocks, and tabs.
The program also processes graphics into TIFF, PICT, or Mac
Paint files in resolutions from 75 to 400 dots per inch.
- InfoWorld 23 January
MCA/1+?
In response to widespread rumors, IBM Senior Engineer Chet
Heath denied the existence of an enhanced MCA architecture
(MCA/2 see January's column) that would be incompatible with
current PS/2 computers. However, Heath also is said to have
confirmed that some enhancements, presumably using undefined
"reserved lines" in the original MCA specification will be
introduced in the 33 MHz Model 70 in August (see last
month's column).
- PC Week 6 February and InfoWorld 13 February
RISC-based Graphics.
Hardly had Compaq and TI teamed up to produce a graphics
board to outperform IBM's 8514/A adapter (see last month's
column), than word arrives that Big Blue will announce a
board with 1,280 by 1,024 pixels by 256 colors or 1,600 by
1,200 pixel monochrome resolution (the 8514/A provides up to
1,024 by 768 pixels). The new RISC graphics processor and a
daughter board that will dramatically speed printing of
complex graphics will be introduced later this year. The
boards will support Interleaf publisher, but it is not clear
whether they will support any other software at the time of
their release - PC Week 13 February
Color Clamshell?
Later this Spring, IBM will unveil a color LCD display said
to offer the brilliance, resolution, and readability of
standard CRT's. Look for the display in a laptop this
summer. - PC Week 23 January
Excel 2.2.
Microsoft plans an April release for the latest upgrade of
its popular Macintosh spreadsheet program. Version 2.2 will
require a minimum of 1 Mbyte of RAM and will support
spreadsheets as large as 5 Mbytes. The new Excel will be
able to import and export in industry standard (MS-DOS)
database formats (Ashton-Tate's dBase and others) as well as
Lotus 1-2-3 "WRK" format. Other features include using as
many as six styles of type and an unlimited number of fonts,
annotation of cells with visible or hidden text, and support
for color on the Macintosh II and IIx. - PC Week 23 January
OS/2 Applications.
Word Perfect's OS/2 version, a straight port of MS-DOS
version 5.0, is expected by the end of March. OS/2 will
permit background printing and lifting of memory
constraints. A Presentation Manager version is planned for
release by the end of the year. Microsoft's Word,
originally scheduled for December, also is expected by the
end of the month. Word 5.0 will be a single program that
can be configured to run under either MS-DOS or OS/2.
Ashton-Tate plans to release dBase IV version 1.1 for both
DOS and OS/2 sometime this Spring.
- PC Week 30 January and InfoWorld 13 February
Windows Applications.
Microsoft has been demonstrating several, as yet
unannounced, Windows programs to selected corporate
accounts. Windows versions of Microsoft Word (October),
Power Point (third quarter), Project Manager (third
quarter), and a new Systems Application Architecture (SAA)
database (October) are scheduled for release later this
year. - InfoWorld 13 February
Forever Vaporware.
Tektronix has canceled its previously announced Postscript
compatible printer, the Phaser LP. Problems with the
printing engine's print quality were given as the reason for
the demise of the printer which was announced last November
and scheduled to ship by the end of March.
- InfoWorld 30 January
Speculating on Vaporware.
Software publisher Claris has struggled financially since
Apple spun it off two years ago. However, Claris has shown
some signs recently of challenging Microsoft for leadership
in Macintosh software sales, and talks with investment
bankers about a stock offering have been resumed. A likely
date for the debut of publicly traded Claris stock would be
this summer, but stock market conditions will be the
decisive factor determining whether the company moves ahead
with an offering. Apple continues to control 82% of Claris
stock; so Apple board members will make the final decision.
Meanwhile, Wall Street rumors have Ashton-Tate (selling for
$23 a share in early February) as potentially "in play" (a
takeover target) at a price that may reach as high as $42.
- PC Week 23 January and 13 February