Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (11/27/90)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the December 1990 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year U.S. - $18/year Canadian
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Macintosh Portable II.
A lighter more powerful Mac portable is expected at
January's MacWorld. The new system will incorporate a 68030
CPU and a backlit LCD screen. Other design changes will
reduce the weight from the 16 pound heft of the current
machine to about 12 pounds. Otherwise the Portable II will
maintain the current 15 by 15 by 4 inch dimensions. The
price tag will be "slightly more" than $7,000. Apple has
recently opened highly publicize talks with both Sony and
Toshiba about developing and manufacturing true laptop
Macintoshes, but actual hardware from these sources is not
expected any time soon. - InfoWorld 15 October
Macintosh Workstation.
Apple has been advertising in Portland, Oregon for the
services of ex-Tektronix Motorola 88000 programmers. Rumor
has it that they are needed to work on the 40 MIP
88110-based Macintosh scheduled to ship in 1992 (see last
February's column). The 88110 CPU was announced in October
for delivery in 1991. The 88110 combines the functions of
the 88100/88200 processors. The new chip is expected to be
three to five times faster with maximum performance in the
60 to 100 MIPS range.
- InfoWorld 15 October and 5 and 12 November
New Life for Old Macs.
Cork Computer of Austin, Texas is prepared sell owners of
Macintosh 512, Plus, and SE systems a 68030 system for
$2,299. When the 128K ROM chips from the older system are
installed in the Cork System 30, owners of out-dated
Macintoshes have a IIci clone with 4 Mbytes of RAM.
- InfoWorld 12 November
Next-Generation PC.
Microsoft engineers have already designed an OS/2 NT (see
last August's column) workstation based on the MIPS RISC
processor. It is alleged that the technology will be
licensed "cheaply" to hardware vendors.
- InfoWorld 12 November
Compaq Workstation?
Compaq Computer Corporation is one company doing a
preliminary study of the possibility of developing a RISC
workstation possibly based on a MIPS, Sun SPARC, or Intel
i860 processor. Some Compaq executives are said to believe
that current standards for Unix workstations are not
sufficient to "RISC" building a machine for. An alternative
architecture might be provided by Nexgen which is developing
a superscalar processor which will be compatible with but
offer twice the performance of the 33 MHz i486. Nexgen's
chip isn't expected to be ready until mid-1991. A Compaq
workstation using either a RISC or Nexgen's chip isn't
likely until 1992. - InfoWorld 29 October
i586.
Compaq's interest in the Nexgen i486 clone is said to be one
factor in Intel's effort to accelerate introduction of the
i586 chip. Sample quantities of the i586 may appear as
early as a year from now with an effort to ship in volume by
Independence Day 1992. - InfoWorld 29 October
Something New's Always Coming NeXT.
Someone answering a customer hotline at NeXT is said to have
told a caller that "really great" machines (featuring a 50
MHz 68040 CPU and 96002 graphics processor) will become
available next, er NeXT, summer. - InfoWorld 22 October
Meaningless Index of Processing Speed.
Intel Corporation recently boosted the MIPS (Millions of
Instructions Per Second) rating of its i486 processor by
reinterpreting the way the standard is measured. The
original rating for the 25 MHz CPU was 12.5 MIPS while the
latest advertised speed for the same technology is 20 MIPS.
Intel's codirector of platform architecture, Bill Rash,
indicated that the company was simply adopting procedures in
wide-spread use by competitors. Meanwhile, other sources at
Intel indicate that the 50 MHz i486 CPU will be announced
and shipped at next Spring's Comdex. - InfoWorld 29 October
Less Expensive Character Recognition.
OCR Systems plans to ship it's Read Right character
recognition software for both Windows 3.0 and the Macintosh
in January. The $495 program with "omnifont" technology
will recognize hundreds of different fonts in sizes from 6
to 72 points. Text can be output directly into formats for
Word, Excel, Write Now, Aldus Pagemaker, and any program
which recognizes Claris's Xtend technology.
- InfoWorld 5 November
Sidekick 2.0.
Borland is about to release a major upgrade for its popular
Sidekick software. Version 2.0 will be a bona fide personal
information manager designed to run in either stand alone or
network mode. It can run as either a conventional
application or as a terminate and stay resident program
requiring only 40 Kbytes of memory (and 3 Mbytes of hard
disk space). - PC Week 5 November
Postscript Fax.
Fax machines based on PostScript will be announced early
next year according to Rudy Batties, product marketing
manager for Adobe. Stand alone products, slot boards, and
cartridges for LaserJet printers all are in the works. The
devices will be able to translate to 192 dot-per-inch Group
3 faxes, but will be able to exchange color documents with
each other at resolutions up to 2,000 dpi. Data compression
of PostScript code will be used to achieve transmission
rates comparable to Group 3 fax machines.
- InfoWorld 5 November
LaserJet IIIsi
Hewlett-Packard plans to begin shipping a 20 page per minute
LaserJet priced at under $5,000 during the first quarter of
next year. Dubbed the IIIsi, the printer will contain at
least 2 Mbytes of RAM and 13 scalable fonts (compared to 8
in the III and IIId). Resolution remains 300 dot-per-inch.
- PC Week 5 and 12 November
Superstation Video Board
Owners if ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) and EISA PC's
will be able to display workstation quality graphics next
Spring when Hercules Computer Technology begins shipping the
Superstation 3D video board. The video board is built
around an Intel i860 RISC chip and TI 34020 graphics
coprocessor. An on-board frame buffer and VGA pass through
are included. The planned retail price is given as under
$6,000. - InfoWorld 29 October
Check It Out.
Hewlett Packard executives have been spotted copy editing an
ad for a 1 Mbyte computer about the size and shape of a
checkbook. The machine will have calculator type keys,
Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 in ROM, and run on alkaline batteries. The
price in the ad (if they didn't change it) is $695.
Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers NEC, Fujitsu, and Sharp
have shown two pound palmtops measuring nine by six by one
inches. The little 10 MHz PC's will retail in Japan for
about $1,500 and will eventually be introduced in the U.S.
- PC Week 12 November and InfoWorld 29 October
IBM Portable PS/2 Model 55-35.
IBM will offer a 15 pound 16 MHz 80386SX portable in Japan
for a price of approximately $4,600 (U.S. equivalent). The
portable is based on the Micro Channel bus and has a 640 by
480 VGA-compatible backlit LCD screen. The Japanese model
uses a 2.5 inch disk drive. Analysts expect IBM's U.S.
portable, due sometime next year to use a 3.5 inch drive,
weigh less than 11 pounds, and use the 20 MHz version of the
80386SX chip. IBM is introducing the 55-35 especially for
the Japanese market because nearly 50 percent of all systems
being shipped in Japan are notebook systems.
- InfoWorld 29 October
Word Processor Evolution.
Several vendors are working on enhancements designed to get
an edge in the increasingly competitive word processor
market. Xyquest plans a voice-driven XyWrite, and
handwriting recognition is in the works for Microsoft Word
and several other popular programs. Several leading firms
also are planning "workgroup authoring" capabilities
(bureaucracy-ware?). - InfoWorld 5 November
Voice Activated Macintosh.
Two companies are about to release products for controlling
a Macintosh with spoken commands. Mac Sema of Albany,
Oregon has a $499.95 Nubus card called Voice Express.
Articulate Systems of Cambridge, Massachusetts will offer
the Voice Navigator for any Macintosh with at least 2 Mbytes
of RAM for $795. Both programs have limited vocabularies
and require users to speak distinctly and pause between
words. - InfoWorld 22 October
Color HyperCard?
Beta testers report that HyperCard for the Apple IIgs
supports color. Will HyperCard 3.0 for the Macintosh, due
next year, support color as well? Claris executives
continue to deny that it will. - InfoWorld 29 October
Big, Fast Hard Drive.
Shortly after the first of the year, Hitachi will begin
shipping a 419 Mbyte hard drive with an average seek time of
16.8 ms. The price tag will be $1,780. By the second
quarter, TEAC will offer manufacturers a 105 Mbyte drive
with a 20 ms average access rate for $400.
- PC Week 12 November
DAT Backup.
Backing up large storage devices may be easier with the
Hewlett-Packard HP 35480A which can backup 8 gigabytes on
digital audio tape. HP's second generation DAT backup drive
has a data transfer rate of 732 Kbytes per second and an OEM
price tag below $1,600. - PC Week 29 October
Unix for the Masses.
Lotus CEO, Jim Manzi, predicts that Unix-based systems will
be on 25 percent of business desktops by 1995. Manzi also
believes that more than 80 percent of company desktop
machines will be networked by mid-decade.
- InfoWorld 12 November
No ClarisShare Yet.
Apple has deferred plans to assign its Claris subsidiary the
task of making its AppleShare network software more
competitive. Claris vice-president for development, Yogen
Dalal, says the decision to delay Claris involvement in
networking was made to avoid disrupting development of
System 7.0 networking features. Claris expects to play a
role in network software development after System 7.0's
release. - PC Week 29 October
Excel-ent.
Microsoft Excel 3.0 for Windows will feature new publishing
technology and the ability to create 3-D graphics which can
be rotated. Beta testers expect the program to be ready for
release by the middle of next year. - PC Week 29 October
The Latest Word.
An OS/2 Presentation Manager version of Word 5.5 should be
available by the end of the month. Word for OS/2 will be
faster than Word for Windows while duplicating the Windows
version's "look and feel." Microsoft has plans new versions
of its integrated software for both the Macintosh and
character-based DOS systems "in the Works" (look for the new
versions in about 18 months).
- InfoWorld 29 October and 5 November
/s Murph <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu> [Internet]
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+ Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.)