SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (05/02/87)
VAPORWARE
Copyright by Murphy Sewall
From the May 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
Shortly before the introduction of IBM's PC-jr, a computing
executive whose firm was withholding introduction of a new
line awaiting better information about the "Peanut," said
that the problem was hardware, software, and "vaporware."
So began this column three years ago this month.
The First "Vaporware" Column Item (Really).
Out in the mist is a new version of the good old Apple ][
code named the ][x. If developments proceed as Apple hopes,
a new processor, the W65SC816, will make it possible to
create a computer that can imitate a standard Apple ][ or
process as an 8-bit 4mhz or 16-bit 4mhz microcomputer
(software selectable!). This advanced chip is said to be
pin-for-pin compatible with the reliable, but obsolete, 6502
in all our Apples. With any luck it will be possible to
take your present Apple into a dealer and swap the processor
on your motherboard (don't expect it to be cheap). Any
programs running on the old 6502 will run on this new chip
(want to try Choplifter at 4 times the speed?) at the old
1mhz rate or at 4mhz. 16-bit addressing will make up to 1
megabyte of addressable memory (you just know someone will
offer an expansion board with 4 256k memory chips on it).
Now if someone will just write programs for the Apple IIx!
- Wall Street Journal 23 March 1984
Hmmm... It was a good GS wasn't it?
Auto Navigator (Update).
A Vaporware item in August 1984 touted a computerized in-car
navigator much like the one "James Bond" used in
Goldfinger. That product, named the Navigator was
introduced by Ektak last year and has been installed in
Michael Jackson's Mercedes and Palo Alto, California's
garbage trucks (make of that juxtaposition what you will).
The Navigator's price tag is $1,395, slightly less than
predicted in this column two-and-one-half years ago. A
similar product which provides a print-out of detailed
directions is called DriverGuide and is offered by Karlin
and Collins of Sunnyvale, California for about $1,000.
- Time 20 April
National Semiconductor One More Time.
The Vaporware columns in October 1984 and January 1985
introduced the ill-fated 32032 microprocessor, surely
superior to the Intel 80386 and argumentatively a better
design than the Motorola 68020. Sadly, National had trouble
with quality control and trails in supermicro processor
market share with only 25% to Motorola's 55%. In an effort
to recover, National has unveiled the 32532, a 10 MIP
processor (twice as fast as the most advanced Intel and
Motorola offerings) capable of working in tandem with as
many as 20 of its siblings to produce desktop computing
speeds approaching supercomputer speeds.
- Business Week 27 April
New Macware.
Apple's programmers new, true multitasking (does not freeze
execution of programs in background windows) Finder,
code-named "Juggler," which will compete with Hertzfeld's
Servant has been released to developers. Juggler will be
compatible with the 68851 (optional) memory management chip
for the Mac II, but a few existing applications are not
compatible and will have to be rewritten. Apple plans to
have Juggler on sale to the public by the end of this year.
The "gee whiz" database product for the Mac, 4th Dimension,
is said to be the first real database publishing product.
In addition to offering some desktop publishing features,
the database will use a "Pascal-like" programming language,
be able to treat graphic images as data fields, and use
external routines written in an ordinary programming
language (probably Pascal). Sometime after the June release
of the 4th Dimension along will come its compatible word
processing companion, Writer Plus - a single composition and
publishing program.
- InfoWorld 23 March and 13 and 20 April
Intelligent Add-ins.
The Nubus architecture of the Macintosh II makes it possible
for developers to create add-in cards that can communicate
directly with other devices on the bus without involving the
68020. Such cards could provide a variety of "housekeeping"
and communications tasks and increase the productive time
available to the user. - InfoWorld 30 March
Lap Mac.
Apple hasn't agreed to sell bare Macintosh motherboards to
current Mac laptop makers because units of the Apple brand
flat Mac are about to be shipped to beta testers by Bell
Northern Research of Canada. - InfoWorld 13 April
Here Come Da PS/2 Clones.
Despite the new BIOS, VGA graphics, and Micro Channel bus,
American Micro Technology and others say they will offer new
microcomputers which are functionally compatible to the new
IBM PS/2 line in time for Christmas. Award Software plans
to show a PS/2-compatible BIOS at Comdex in June, and
Phoenix Technologies says their PS/2 BIOS will be ready soon
enough to allow compatibles to be demonstrated at the fall
Comdex. One early entry may be from Tandy (Radio Shack).
Meanwhile IBM has filed more than 100 patents on PS/2
hardware design components to prevent just such a
development. Stay tuned.
- InfoWorld 13 April, Random Access (PBS) 18 April, and
PC Week 21 April
Son of PCjr.
IBM may soon try to return to the "home" and school market
it failed to penetrate with the PCjr (alias "Peanut") by
releasing a slotless version of the new PS/2 model 30 in
June or July. The machine will have built in serial and
parallel ports, the snappy new ultra hi-res graphics, a 3.5
inch built in disk drive, and 640K RAM (sounds suspiciously
similar to a //c doesn't it). - PC Week 21 April
OS/2 Blues.
Although the "protected-mode" (multitasking) operating
system for the PS/2 line won't be out until next year, IBM
already has posted a list price of $395. Microsoft also
will market OS/2 (for clones), but the Extended Edition PS/2
which will also contain sophisticated communications and
database features will be IBM only (for a hefty $795). Bill
Gates of Microsoft says that other vendors will offer
features compatible with IBM's Extended Edition. He should
know; Microsoft's entry is codenamed Forum
- InfoWorld 13 April
16-Bit Intel 80386.
PC AT's and their clones may have their useful life extended
if Bill Gates of Microsoft is correct about Intel's plans to
offer a 16-bit version of the 32-bit 80386 processor that
will be plug compatible with the 80286 chip used in the AT.
Such a chip might make it possible for the new PS/2 Model 50
and Model 60 to upgrade to the full powered multitasking
operating system (sometimes known as DOS 6.0) when it is
finally offered (1989? 1990? 2001?). - InfoWorld 13 April