SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (08/30/88)
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the September 1988 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
High Capacity Floppy Drives.
A report by Natick, Massachusetts consulting and market
research firm Venture Development says that within two
years, the standard 3.5 inch floppy drive capacity will have
increased from 1.44 Mbytes to 4 Mbytes. Toshiba already has
introduced a 4 Mbyte 3.5 inch drive, the PD-210, which uses
disks that are magnetized vertically instead of
horizontally. The future of floppy drives could also be
radically changed by "Digital Paper" (see last month's
column) which potentially could be used to make 100 Mbyte
floppy disks. However, Digital Paper is not (yet)
eraseable. - PC Week 18 July
"Floptical" Drive.
Insite Peripherals is scheduled to introduce a 20.8 Mbyte,
3.5 inch floppy disk drive that combines aspects of optical
servo and magnetic recording technology in the first quarter
of 1989. The drive, dubbed the Model 1325 Floptical Disk
Drive, uses otherwise standard 3.5 inch floppy disks that
have been modified by embedding optical-servo tracks in them
at 20 micron intervals. The drive will retail for
approximately $500, and Insite plans to license major
manufacturers, including Kodak and Xidex, to make the
Floptical disks for an, as yet, unspecified price.
- InfoWorld 15 August
Ever Larger DRAM.
IBM may be planning to skip 4 Mbit RAM chips altogether (see
last month's column) but four other manufacturers, Siemens,
Toshiba, Matsushita, and Texas Instruments, expect to be
making volume shipments of 4 megabit memory chips by the
middle of next year. Meanwhile, IBM researchers have
successfully demonstrated a new integrated circuit
production technology that may result in 64 megabit (8
Mbytes) memory chips. Although the technology still needs
development, once volume production begins the price of the
resulting chips will "not be ridiculous" according to Jerome
Silverman, a research staff member with IBM.
- InfoWorld 25 July and 1 August
Coming From Big Blue.
In keeping with the announced policy of introducing product
enhancements about every six months (see last April's
column), IBM is expected to incorporate graphics based on
the 8154 display adapter into the motherboard of new PS/2
machines this Fall. The super-VGA display offers a
resolution of 1,024 by 728 in up to 256 colors from a
palette of 262,144. Among the new models expected are a
80386 upgrade of the Model 60. Entry Systems Division
spokesperson Jim Monahan has acknowledged that an
80286-based replacement for the model 30 (known in rumors as
the "Model 35") is in the works but denies the low-end
machine will be built around an AT-bus. Meanwhile,
financial analysts and dealers have been told that it could
be more than a year before IBM introduces the "AIX family"
of RISC-CPU machines which will have Micro Channel
Architecture and be OS/2 compatibility.
- InfoWorld 18 July, 1 and 22 August
New PC Software.
IBM denies rumors that the long awaited Presentation
Manager, due to ship in October, will be late. David
Harrington, IBM's communications product manager, did admit
that meeting the promised delivery date will be "very
challenging." Version 2 of the Ventura Publisher will be
released this Fall with an improved user interface using
pull-down and drop-down menus, increased network support,
and document management features. The price is expected to
be about the same as the $895 for the present version.
Microsoft expects to ship its Mail program for MS-DOS in
October. Someone forgot to include the "auto-hyphenate"
feature in WordPerfect 5.0 even though it is in the
documentation. A bug fix is expected soon.
- InfoWorld 1, 15 and 22 August and PC Week 15 August
Apollo's 7-MIP Workstations.
The Apollo Series 4500 workstations which will begin
shipping in the fourth quarter are the first to use the dual
ported 68882 math coprocessor at 33 MHz along with the
Motorola 68030 CPU. The 7-MIP, 8 Mbyte RAM Apollo computers
will be comparable in both price ($23,490 to $36,490) and
performance to the Sun 4/110 RISC-based workstation.
- InfoWorld 18 July and PC Week 18 July
1989 Model Macs.
Apple may be planning to introduce a whole line Macintoshes
built around the 68030 shortly after the new year. In
addition to a desktop model, look for a high-end laptop and,
and a stand alone "tower" that can act as a network server
and support multiple workstations (multiuser,
multitasking). Apple also will begin producing its own
memory chips beginning in 1990.
- InfoWorld 25 July and PC Week 15 August
IIgs+ Delayed.
Apple did not introduce an accelerator for the Mac SE at the
recently concluded Mac World as had been rumored, although
several third party vendors have announced such products.
Apparently, Apple management decided to take President
Sculley's commitment to major customers ("no new CPU's in
1988") very literally. Sources inside Apple insist that an
accelerated Apple IIgs (the widely rumored gs+) will not be
shipped until some time after the performance of the entire
Macintosh line is improved.
- A Knowlegeable (Anonymous) Source (Developer)
Mac II CPU's.
Daystar Digital has announced a 33-MHz accelerator for the
Macintosh II that plugs into the 68020's original location.
The Daystar product features a 120-nanosecond memory running
at zero wait states and a RAM cache. The accelerator will
be shipped in the fourth quarter. Daystar also offers 16
and 25 MHz accelerators for the Mac SE and Mac Plus. Intel,
makers of the 80xxx chips, is rumored to have offered Apple
a "cheap" 68020. Will Motorola respond by cloning the
80486? - InfoWorld 22 August
Forthcoming MacWare.
Apple engineers demonstrated the new version of Quickdraw
(Quickerdraw?) at Mac World by showing real-time color
animation running in different windows on a Mac II. The
function will be incorporated in an unspecified upcoming
version of the Macintosh operating system. "Nufinder" which
will include commands for supporting "guests" with limited
access to files and folders will be part of System 8.0
coming in January. Apple also has confirmed it will release
a beta version of a C++ translator for its MPW C language to
developers in October. The translator will permit MPW C
developers to do object-oriented programming. Currently
only MPW Pascal is the only language from Apple that
supports object-oriented programming for the Macintosh
Programmer's Workshop and Mac App programming library.
Microsoft is said to be working furiously on a major update
of Excel (expected to become version 2.0) for release
shortly after the new year. The new version will allow
larger spreadsheets and address other limitations such as
the difficulty of creating complex charts. Product manager
Pradeep Singh says the new Mac version will leapfrog the PC
version in functionality. Word 4.0 with an automatic data
link to Excel spreadsheets is expected to be released in
October. Word 4.0 also will allow users to edit in preview
mode and improve the program's Page View function. A new
Microsoft Works, version 2.0, with an upgraded spell
checker, some desktop publishing features such as linked
multiple columns, and improved drawing facilities is
scheduled for October shipment, and Quick Basic for the
Macintosh should appear in September at a retail price of
$99. Acius has decided to withhold version 1.1 of its 4th
Dimension relational database package. Instead, version 2.0
with approximately 100 new features will ship in December.
Wingz may fly at last by the end of the month. The original
announcement last January envisioned a June release, later
extended to mid-September.
- InfoWorld 8 and 15 August and PC Week 15 August
HyperCard Search/Retrieve "Engine."
KnowledgeSet is expected to release a commercial version of
the HyperCard search and retrieve engine created for the
Arthur Young accounting firm later this month. The
Macintosh program, called HyperKRS for "Knowledge Retrieval
System," can be used with CD ROM as well as magnetic media
and is up to 200 times faster than HyperCard on its own.
- PC Week 1 August
"Hypercard" IIgs.
Roger Wagner Publishing is planning on premiering a
'hypercard' for the IIgs at the Sept 88 Applefest. it will
not read Mac stacks because many use external, binary
executable functions. More hearsay is that Apple is still
working on a real hypercard for the GS.
- Larry Virden 31 July and Open Apple August
Well, Almost 100% Compatible.
Developers of the Adobe Postscript clone printers (last
December's column) now arriving on the market claim "100%
compatibility." However, because the Postscript page
description language is complex and includes a number of
undocumented features, industry sources say that it is
impossible to verify complete compatibility. So far, there
is no standard testing program accepted by the entire
industry. - PC Week 25 July
One-Pass Color Laser.
Colorocs Corporation has demonstrated a single-pass four
color printer that is more advanced and faster than multiple
pass printers available today. Colorocs expects printers
based on their technology to be offered initially at $30,000
(a bargain compared to the only other one-pass color printer
under development by Kodak which analysts expect to cost
more than $80,000). - PC Week 15 August
Chameleon CPU.
Designers may salivate - but shouldn't hold their breath -
for the VM8600S microprocessor created by V.M. Technology
Corp., of Tsukuba, Japan. The CPU portion of the chip has a
native instruction set of 155 commands, but the company can
configure three programmable logic arrays (PLAs) on the chip
to translate another processor's instructions into the CPU's
native instruction. A 25 MHz version of the 32-bit VM8600S
already has PLAs configured to translate Intel 80386
instructions. PLAs to emulate the 68000 family and even the
yet to be shipped 65832 are technically feasible.
Unfortunately, samples of the microprocessor probably won't
be available in the United States for about a year.
- Electronic Design, June 9, 1988 (forwarded by Tom Metro)
On Reflection.
A new display technology for portable computers and
television sets has been developed by Reflection
Technology. The device called the Private Eye is a 1 by 1.2
by 1.3 inch monocular headset weighing less than 2 ounces
that produces an image that appears to float in space about
two feet in front of the viewer. The resolution is 720 by
280 pixels and should be available in quantity in about 8
months for around $200 retail. - InfoWorld 1 August
Color LCD.
Casio has a new color Liquid Crystal Display screen with
200,000 pixels in a six inch screen. Resolution is said to
be the equal of a standard CRT. - Random Access 20 August
Vision System for Mac II.
Machine vision, held back by closed proprietary platforms,
could turn the corner now that Automatix, Inc., of
Billerica, MA, has announced Autovision 90 and, with it, an
industry first - Compatability with an open, standard
platform - namely, Apple's Macintosh II. Called Automatix
Standard Application Package, or ASAP, the software accepts
any RS170 interlaced-frame camera. A minimum system which
includes a frame-grabber board, high-resolution color or
monochrome monitor, ASAP software, and RAIL programming
language starts at $18,000.
- Electronic Design, June 9, 1988 (forwarded by Tom Metro)
Murph Sewall Sewall@UCONNVM.BITNET
Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET]
U of Connecticut {rutgers psuvax1 ucbvax & in Europe - mcvax}
!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP]
-+- My employer isn't responsible for my mistakes AND vice-versa!
(subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) (08/31/88)
In article <8808300615.AA26352@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) writes: > A new display technology for portable computers and television sets has > been developed by Reflection Technology. The device called the Private > Eye is a 1 by 1.2 by 1.3 inch monocular headset weighing less than 2 > ounces that produces an image that appears to float in space about two > feet in front of the viewer. So how hard would it be to wear two of these and have flicker-free stereo video? I've seen the Atari ST system of liquid crystal shutter glasses controlled by the computer, but the flicker can get to you after a while. I saw a science fair project that used polarised glasses and two polarised monitors to produce VERY nice stereo output. The students had a wire frame model of the space shuttle apparently floating about 6" in front of the monitor. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043