Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jon Pugh and Lance Nakata) (08/21/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 21 Aug 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 77
Today's Topics:
Higher speed co-processors for Mac II and MacWorld Expo Review
Sound Leech 0.80 (3 parts)
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Date: Thu, 18 Aug 88 17:21 EDT
From: "RCSDY::YOUNG"@gmr.com
Subject: Higher speed co-processors for Mac II and MacWorld Expo
Subject: Review
date: 8/18/88
subject: Latest Macintosh II Developments
to: Info-Mac
from: Richard A. Young
YOUNG@GMR.COM
Computer Science Department
General Motors Research Laboratories
Warren, MI 48090-9055
Note:
If any INFO-MAC'ers have suggestions, corrections or comments to add to
these remarks send to me at YOUNG@GMR.COM and I will collect and post.
Summary
A number of new products are being offered for the Macintosh II
relating to high-performance CAD and vision applications, as well as
interconnectivity issues to DEC and IBM computers. This INFO-MAC posting
focuses on a recent trip to Tektronix to evaluate their TK88K-P
concurrent processor plug-in board for the Mac II, and a visit to
MacWorld Expo in Boston, which had about 150 vendors and 40,000
people attending.
Mac II Performance Enhancers
Seven options for increasing the performance of the Mac II have been
investigated so far. These are listed in the current priority order of
their interest for our purposes. This list is still subject to considerable
change as more information is obtained. Criteria are ease of
programming and debugging, raw speed, cost, intrinsic research
interest, and meeting GM divisional needs.
1. TK88K-P Board. Tektronix has produced the first commercially
available board featuring the new 88100 microprocessor chip from
Motorola. This reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chip features
one step per machine cycle and a full 51 instructions, which is much
larger than other RISC chips. Its specs place it in a class considerably
above other currently available RISC chips such as the SUN SPARC,
AMD29000, and MIPS R2000. It is currently clocked at 20 megahertz,
which produces 17 MIPS or 6 megaflops (MF). For comparison, our
tested LINPACK results on the Mac II by itself rate it at 0.054 MF, with
the MicroVax II at 0.13 MF, the SUN 3/260 with floating point
accelerator at 0.46 MF, and the Cray X-MP-2 at 24 MF. In addition to
the 88100 chip, the board has three cache memories of 32K each,
and 8 megabytes of on-board memory.
The complete board sells for $15,000, or $2500/MF. This compares
favorably with the Mac II alone at $91,000 /MF, the SUN 3/160 at
$111,000/MF, the MicroVax II at $138,000/MF, and the Cray X-MP-2
at $708,000/MF. (These are rough ballpark estimates only).
The TK88K-P board works in a co-processor fashion with the Mac II
68020, which does user interface and disk and screen I/O. The board
currently supports a C compiler and plans are under way for Fortran.
Three OEM's are looking at Unix for workstations based on the
88100, within a 6 to 12 month time frame. A Unix port to their board
would not be difficult as soon as someone does it once for the 88100
chip. Since the Lightspeed C and Pascal programming tools available
for the Mac II are (in my opinion) superior to what I have seen in the
Unix (or any other) programming environment, it would not be
necessary to wait for the complete Unix workstation, but it is an
important feature that it will be available later for those who wish to
have a Unix environment.
Our internal extensive C benchmark timing program ran on the board
without modification. Times were 6 to 700 times faster than the
MicroVax II, depending on the operation. For example, evaluation of
a = b*c for type doubles was 10 microsecs on the MicroVax II and
0.016 microseconds on the 88100 or 600 times improvement.
Evaluation of a = b+c was 9.77 microsecs on the MicroVax II and
0.016 microseconds on the 88100 or 84 times improvement.
The MicroVax II is about equal in speed to the Mac II 68020 or Intel
80386 (IBM OS/2).
In the coming year, Tektronix has a number of projects to provide
further enhancements.
Consideration has also been given to the TK88K-P board by
Automatix for their AI-90 industrial vision computer based on the Mac
II and so offers potential leverage if needed.
2. NuVista board. It has Texas Instruments TMS34010 Graphics
System Processor (10 MIPS), which is C programmable from MPW,
the Macintosh development system. With 4 Mbytes of on-board
memory, it will be $5995, with October availability. TrueVision, 7251
Shadeland Station, Suite 100, Indianapolis, Indiana 46256. 317-841-
0332. Advantages: On-board digitizer and display device, so no
communications bottlenecks. Low cost. Disadvantages: ease of
programming?
3. Wytek chips. Mercury computer has announced a 3-chip set for
the Mac II with a stated 20 MF peak performance, priced at $10,000.
A C and Fortran compiler are announced. At $500 per MF this would
be the best price-performance ratio of any computer that I am aware.
Their implementation of the Wytek chip set somehow gives them
greater performance (at least in their claims) than the Wyteks used in
the Sun. Advantages: high performance/cost ratio, high absolute
performance. Disadvantages: ease of programming? (We await
awaiting further information from Mercury now).
4. NuVision. Perceptics Corp., P.O. Box 22991. Knoxville, TN 37933-
0991. 615-966-9200. This extremely impressive system has a
complete additional box based on the Texas Instrument TMS320C25
Digital Signal Processor, with an interconnect to the Mac II which is
used for user interaction. It offers a complete, ready-to-use, image-
processing environment with all the major image processing routines
for under $30,000. Its specs and price place it competition with other
vision workstations (e.g. Videk) costing 5 times as much. It is rated low
in our survey only because there is concern about ease of
programmability of the DSP chip. Currently, the only development
language available on the Macintosh for the TI SDP chip is an
assembler. If the C compiler becomes available as Perceptics has
indicated, this option would rapidly increase in priority. We have many
additional routines we wish to implement, and so ease of
programming is an important factor in our research environment.
5. Souped-up 68020. A 33 MHz replacement accelerator for Mac II
- doubles Mac Speed by substituting a faster clock/CPU chip -- no
other changes needed! Has a 32K RAM cache too. DayStar Digital,
5556 Atlanta Highway, Flowery Branch, GA 30542. Contact: Donna
Smith, 404-967-2077. $3K to $6K, December, 1988. Advantages: low
cost, NO additional programming required, ALL Mac applications are
speeded up. Disadvantages: absolute speed-up of Mac II only by a
factor of 2.
6. T800 Transputers. Levco Inc. 6160 Lusk Blvd., Suit C-100, San
Diego, CA 92121. 619-457-2011. These offer 1.5 MF per transputer,
with 1 megabyte of memory = $2400. Occam C runs on them, but
development time would be increased because debugging tools are
still limited. They are designed for parallel operation with easy
expandability. A 20 transputer configuration in a Mac II was
demonstrated at MacWorld, doing ray-tracing at about 1 second per
512 pixel line, which is about equal to Cray performance. Also
MacBrain and Levco have teamed up to run their neural net software
on the transputers. Linpack performance: 1 MFLOP/ transputer.
Advantages: expandability to speed needed. Disadvantages:
communications programming and debugging difficulties.
7. Apple 68030-based Mac II. Not announced yet, but according
to published reports (MacWeek, Aug. 8. 1988, p. 9) it has a 16 MHz
68030 chip, with incorporated memory management; a 68882 math
coprocessor; 4 MBytes of memory; an 80 MByte hard disk; and the
first use of the 1.44-MByte floppy. It is expected to be priced at less
than $9,000 and would be aimed particularly at UNIX users who
require large memory and storage space. A 68030 upgrade board for
existing Mac IIs is also expected to coincide with the release of the full
68030 machine. The board is thought to yield only a disappointing 10-
20% speed improvement over the 68020, due to a data caching
facility. Not a viable option.
Other Options. A completely different option is to purchase a
80386-based box and add in a Mercury array processor which uses
the Multibus, but this would not offer ease of programming and
reliability of the Mercury array processor is uncertain. Another
possibility is to add special purpose hardware plug-in card to the to
do a single vision application for factory application. This would offer
speed and low cost after development but not generality and
adaptability.
Other Products Seen at MacWorld Convention
Digitizers.
At least five companies are offering video digitizer boards for the Mac
II. The only one without flicker of the text and full 8-bit capability on R,
G, and B and overlay was the NuVista board (see option 2 above) by
TrueVision (an offshoot of AT&T). It has full gen-lock capability, and
four 8-bit flash a/d converters on input and four on output.
TrueVision also sells their VID I/O box which also conversion of
Analog RGB to NTSC for recording purposes ($750).
Image Processing.
Digital Darkroom from Graphics Software ($395) had an interesting
and at times amazing set of capabilities to virtually duplicate all the
common darkroom capabilities. For example, a picture with a blank
sky was brought in, the sky (which was in multiple pieces, interrupted
by trees) was segmented by automatic grey level, a picture of clouds
was brought in, and pasted only in that grey level -- so clouds were
added to the sky, in a few seconds.
Scanners.
Apple announced its new scanner. It is only 4 bits (16 gray levels).
Several nice software interfaces including one to Hypercard were
available. A new low-cost 300 d.p.i. R,G,B full 8 bit on each channel
scanner was announced by Sharp (JX-450 and JX-300, Sharp Plaza,
Mahwah, N.J. 06430-2135, 201-529-8200). Its picture quality is
excellent.
Neural Networks.
Neural network products now available for the Mac II include The
Cognitron ($600, Cognitive Software), MacBrain 1.2 (Neuronics),
with NX parallel processors ($4150, Human Devices, based on Levco
transputers).
CAD.
Swivel3D from Paracomp was a real show-stopper. It has "tweening"
commands that interpolate in time between two views to create
animation sequences, and allows any of its parts to move with
separate motion paths for individual objects. Five rendering modes
are available. These CAD products offer fast development and easy
conceptualization but their performance is not yet up to full CAD
development stations. A number of vendors are offering interface and
file conversion from and to larger workstation CAD systems. The Fall
1988 Mac Buyers guide compares 10 CAD packages for the Mac II.
Color Printing.
At least six companies now offer color printers, including Tektronix,
Seiko, Sharp, GCC Technologies, and QMS. Avalon Development
Corp. announced a $695 color separation package that converts RGB
to a color-corrected CYMB system for color printing, a process
previously requiring color separation hardware costing $100K or
more.
Disk Drives.
CDC is offering 300-MByte and 600-MByte Wren V disk drive.
Program Development Tools.
MPW 3.0 is making strong efforts to attract the Unix base of
programmers. C++ from AT&T will be part of the next release, and all
the Apple object libraries in MacApp will be fully accessible from C++.
APDA the Apple Programmers Development Association is selling
t-shirts with the object definition of a programmer:
TProgrammer = OBJECT(THuman)
fNeedsCaffeine : BOOLEAN;
fReadsThings : BOOLEAN;
fKeepsOddHours : BOOLEAN;
fHasPocketProctector : BOOLEAN;
FUNCTION TProgrammer.Eat( Junk : Food): SIZE; OVERRIDE;
FUNCTION TProgrammer.DealWithHumans; OVERRIDE;
FUNCTION TProgrammer.CollectTechnoJunk;
END;
3278 and 3279 Terminal Emulation.
Avatar technologies, Inc. offers hardware/software communications
products that work in conjunction with Avatar's standard Host File
Transfer software on IBM (CICS, CMS, or TSO formats, $500) to
transfer text files between the Mac and IBM host network. If we
already have IND$FILE file transfer module then this $500 purchase
is not necessary. Also only 1 copy of the IBM software is needed per
mainframe. MacMainFrame II ($995) software and hardware (this
hardware card has the Type A coax cable connector for the IBM right
out the back of the card) package connects the Macintosh II directly
to an IBM 3270 network and allows 3278/9 emulation with powerful
file transfer capabilities and user-selectable color support on the
Macintosh. In other words, you can remove the 3279 terminal off your
desk ($1500) and use their MacMainFrame II and "put a mainframe in
your Macintosh. " You can also do file transfer from the IBM, and use
the powerful Macintosh editing commands to insert directly into your
application, which you cannot do with the 3279 itself. MacMainFrame
DX ($1195) is an external hardware box and software package that
provides local or remote connection of any Macintosh to a 3270
network. This is needed only if we need remote connectivity and if we
do not already have a cluster controller, which we
have already at GMR, so MacMainFrame DX would not be necessary
-- only MacMainFrame II ($995) . Avatar Technologies, 99 South St.,
Hopkinton, MA 01748. 617-435-6872. On one side of their house
they have a series of boards which uses protocol converters to do
printing. However, this is a completely different side of their business
which specializes in Macintosh and IBM connectivity.
DCA (Digital Communications Associates, 100 Alderman Drive,
Alpharetta, GA 30201, 404-442-4000, Version 1.1, $1195) also has a
product called MacIrma that is a competitor. The important difference
is that Avatar has had the DX Product for three years, and they feel
that their product is more developed and more Mac-like in its
interface. Also they have an API or Applications Programmer
Interface, so the application can be customized on the Mac side, and
the API will also support the Mac WorkStation product, a set of
programming tools from Apple which allows direct access to the host
IBM machine.
Also available is the MacBlue/3270 IBM 3278 emulator ($95) from
Wall Data, Inc. which requires their Wall Data protocol converter (6
ports, $3995, 10 ports, $4995, 18 ports $5995). Wall Data, Inc. 17769
NE 78th Pl., Redmond WA 98052. 206-883-4777.
Vax Connectivity
The Alisa and Pacer products were reviewed. The Pacer products
seem to have more functionality. The Alisa products allow the Vax to
print over the Laserwriter connected to AppleNet. The Pacer products
keep the print server on the Vax and allow you to hang your
Laserwriters off the Vax. The Pacer Products have a built in terminal
products allowing multiple terminals to be open at once. It seems to
offer more features than the VaxStation II even. DEC is reportedly
considering purchasing the Pacer software solutions for its own
system, according to a recent article in MacWeek: "Sources close to
Digital Equipment Company say the computer giant, Apple's strategic
ally in the mini and main-frame computer world, is close to acquiring
licensing rights to the networking software line of Pacer Software, Inc.
a leading Mac-to-Vax company." Also, "PacerShare is considered by
DEC developers as the premier software package for converting a
VAX into a file server on an AppleTalk network. PacerLink provides
communications between a Mac or IBM PC and host computers,
including DEC VAX/VMS, Stratus, and most UNIX systems.
PacerPrints is a VMS service for PostScript printers." In my own
viewing of both Alisa and Pacer products, the Pacer products seemed
to have more functionality, although the price was somewhat higher.
A complete Pacer system is about $5K, including virtual disk ability.
This is an excellent idea as full MAC backups can then be done to the
Vax over Ethernet. Pacer Software, 619-454-0565.
Other
Kodak offers a liquid-crystal Projection Pad for use with Mac+
computers for about $1500. It sits on top of an overhead projector and
shows excellent high-contrast images of the Mac screen as large as
the viewing area of the overhead projector. The image may not be
polarized, so this would unfortunately not be suitable for our
application. Further investigation of such projection pads from other
companies will be done, but unfortunately the Kodak one is reportedly
the only one that gives black-white, which we also need.
Future Directions
CD-ROM drives will prove to be a major means of storing and
displaying information. A new form of "home entertainment center"
based on interactive computer-controlled CD-ROM video may well be
the next major consumer product to be widely accepted in the home
(potential market = 98 million homes with TV, much larger than the
potential market for home computers, which is only 2-3 million),
particularly as prices of CD-ROM drives fall below $1,000 in the
coming 2-3 years.
Videoworks Professional ($695, MacroMind) promises to be the
premier animation program for the Mac II. It allows specification of
multiple knot-points in time, with selection of the type of curve to draw
in time (linear, spline, etc.) to connect the views in space. It will ship in
October.
Other Info
Corporate Macs: Kodak now has about 65,000 Macintoshes (all
sites); GE about 6,000; Hughes about 1,800 (33% of all PC's); EDS in
Southfield,380 (92% of all PC's!). University of Michigan topped
single-site list at 6,000 Macs (50% of all PC's). On the low end, IBM
has 4 Macs.
Note: All the comments in this posting reflect my personal view and do not
necessarily reflect the views of GM. Also I have no commercial interest
or holding in any of these products or companies.
--- end of MacWorld Expo review ----
------------------------------
Date: 19 May 88 14:32:15 GMT
From: moriarty@tc.fluke.com (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: Sound Leech 0.80 (3 parts)
This is the Sound Leech Utility, which extracts sound resources from
programs and changes them into SoundWave files. Documentation included.
"If God had really intended men to fly, He'd have
made it easier to get to the airport."
-- George Winters
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>SOUND-LEECH-08-PART1.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>SOUND-LEECH-08-PART2.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>SOUND-LEECH-08-PART3.HQX
- Lance ]
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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