Cupertino, Calif. - Apple will reshape the low end of its modular product line early next year with a new model that offers IIci performance in an LC case.
The new Mac, due to replace the LC II in February, will be based on a 25-MHz 68030 and will provide a 32-bit bus architecture for communication with internal dynamic RAM and accelerator cards. The current Mac LC II uses a 16-MHz '030 and has a 16-bit bus.
The LC II reportedly accounted for nearly 40 percent of Apple USA's desktop color sales in the last quarter of 1992, which ended Sept. 30.
The bus architecture common to the Mac LC, LC II, Classic and Classic II has been criticized by longtime Mac users because it supports only the slower 16-bit data bus. The SE/30, discontinued last year, included a 32-bit bus and data path.
The processor direct slot in the new machine reportedly will accommodate both the smaller 16-bit cards used by the Mac LC and LC II as well as larger 32-bit cards designed for the new CPU.
The system will come with 4 Mbytes of RAM and accommodate up to 36 Mbytes of RAM using a new SIMM design, sources said.
"The odd-size SIMM is a good idea," said a source familiar with the new machine. "Upgrading CPUs will be a different game. With SIMMs so cheap, bringing over RAM from other CPUs is less important."
Apple is expected to ship the system optimized for QuickTime and Kodak's Photo CD, with built-in support for 16-bit color on 16-inch displays. Users will be able to add an optional FPU (floating-point unit), although the FPU likely will be bundled with some configurations.
The system will support only a single internal floppy drive and SCSI device, with external ports for SCSI, Apple Desktop Bus, audio in and out, video, and two serial devices.
The new CPU will require System 7.1. Apple will not have to release a new version of the system software to support the new Mac because 7.1 automatically loads CPU-specific resources for new Macs from the system's ROM.
Sources said pricing for the new model should be similar to the LC II, which retails for $1,349, including 4 Mbytes of RAM and an 80-Mbyte hard disk.
The new model will be joined in February by a series of 68040-based Macs, including replacements for the single-slot Mac IIsi and three-slot IIci. The new models will help Apple shift its mainstream, desktop systems from '030- to '040-based Macs. The new LC will be positioned as a solution for small- to medium-size businesses. Apple also may release a color version of the Classic II at the same time.
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: QuickTime to crack Windows
By Carolyn Said
Cupertino, Calif. - QuickTime movies soon will be seen - and even created - on a lot more screens.
Apple will announce a Windows version for its multimedia system-software extension on Nov. 9, sources said. The company will first provide playback technology for license by Windows developers. It eventually will offer full QuickTime functionality, including authoring and editing capabilities.
QuickTime for Windows will mirror the Mac version in several key ways, according to Mike Holm, Apple manager of cross-platform technologies. The same movie file format will play on both Macs and Windows machines "with no conversion shenanigans"; the user and application programming interface for controlling and implementing movies will be nearly identical, and compression technology from QuickTime 1.0 will be available on both platforms.
QuickTime for Windows will offer several advantages to both developers and users. Application developers, for example, will be able to easily convert Mac QuickTime products to Windows.
"Content developers will be able to press a CD-ROM [containing QuickTime movies] that is playable and attractive from both platforms," said Christine Perey, editor of QuickTime Forum, a newsletter based in Placerville, Calif.
In addition, QuickTime's move to Windows, coupled with other developments such as its licensing by Silicon Graphics Inc., should help establish it as a multiplatform standard.
"By going to other platforms, QuickTime can become the equivalent of VHS for digital video," said Ming Lau, president of Blue Waters, a video- production company in San Francisco.
Developers will be able to license QuickTime for Windows, which will be implemented as Dynamic Link Libraries, standard code that Windows applications can call. Holm said Apple has not decided if it also will offer QuickTime for Windows as an end-user product.
Although the initial release will offer only playback capabilities, sources said QuickTime authoring and editing applications for Windows should appear beginning in the first quarter of 1993.
The initial release will be based on QuickTime 1.0, so Windows users will get a window size of only 120 by 160 pixels and a playback rate of only 15 to 20 frames per second, sources said.
Observers said Apple and Microsoft Corp. appear to be going head to head in a battle for the digital-video market. Microsoft next month reportedly plans to announce AVI (Audio Video Interleave), its digital- video format for Windows. Sources said the company will offer a utility that converts QuickTime movies to AVI format and vice versa.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: 600-dpi LaserJet 4 looks good
By Rick LePage
Hewlett-Packard Co. this week will ship the LaserJet 4 family, a new series of 8-page-per-minute, true 600-dpi laser printers. The Mac version, priced at $2,999, incorporates a LocalTalk connector and Adobe PostScript Level 2.
Observers have eagerly anticipated the new printers as the first in a new generation of low-cost, high-performance machines. Shortly before this week's debut, we were able to test a prerelease version of the LaserJet 4M at Ziff-Davis Labs in Foster City, Calif. Our findings confirm that this printer was worth the wait.
The LaserJet 4M is the first printer to ship with the Canon LBP-EX marking engine, a new mechanism that provides true 600-dpi output.
With this engine, the LaserJet 4M prints images and text with remarkable quality. Using a new, microfine toner from Canon USA Inc., the LaserJet 4M's output was extremely crisp. Type printed at small point sizes was extremely readable, more so than any 300-dpi printer we have tested, even printers that boost resolution, such as Xante Corp.'s Accel-a- Writer 8000 or LaserMaster Corp.'s Unity 1000.
HP's Resolution Enhancement Technology, found in earlier LaserJet models, is available with the 4M and further smooths the jaggies in printed lines.
Gray-scale images printed on the LaserJet 4M are very clean, although our test images were not as detailed as those printed using the PhotoGrade feature option on Apple's LaserWriter IIg 300-dpi printer.
RISC controller. A 600-dpi printer addresses four times as many dots as a 300-dpi printer, which means that the print controller will have to deal with much more data during the printing process.
HP has followed the current trend in controller design to use high- performance RISC chips, going with Intel Corp.'s 20-MHz i80960 RISC chip to power the LaserJet 4.
Performance of the LaserJet 4M was comparable to or better than many of the 8- and 9-ppm printers we have tested, including those with high- speed controllers, such as the LaserWriter IIg and Hardware That Fits' RealTech Laser. Given the expanded resolution of the LaserJet 4M, this performance is astounding.
Configuring the 4M. The LaserJet 4M is actually an enhanced version of the $2,199 LaserJet 4, also announced this week. The LaserJet 4 includes HP's Enhanced PCL 5 printer language and a TrueType rasterizer, comes with 2 Mbytes of RAM, and has parallel and serial ports.
The 4M includes all the features of the LaserJet 4 and adds a LocalTalk interface card and PostScript Level 2 capability (via HP's PostScript SIMM on the controller). It comes with 6 Mbytes of RAM. (The LaserJet 4M's maximum memory is 34 Mbytes.)
In addition to the LocalTalk card, HP offers an EtherTalk card. Extended Systems Inc. also offers a number of connectivity options for the printer.
Conclusions. HP has done an excellent job of integrating a super-charged controller with a high-resolution marking engine to produce a well- designed printer at a competitive price. We expect several vendors to incorporate the Canon EX engine into their printers in coming months, but for now, HP stands alone on the stage with a ground-breaking printer.
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Direct Marketing Organization is at P.O. Box 58059, MS511L-SJ, Santa Clara, Calif. 95051-8059. Phone (800) 752-0900.
Paul Freedman, ZD Labs' Mac systems integrator, was the project leader for this preview.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 1
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News: Interop targets enterprise nets
MacX.400 server, Apple MIB debut
By April Streeter
San Francisco - In addition to delivering honest-to-goodness products, vendors here at Interop 92 Fall will feed Mac managers' dreams of plugging into enterprise networks as equal partners.
The show this week will highlight several Mac-related technologies, including AppleTalk enhancements that beef up the protocol for wide-area routing over TCP/IP and electronic-mail systems designed for standards- based environments.
> Apple announcements. Apple will try to bulk up its global networking muscle by shipping MacX.400, a $5,000 Mac-based mail server first shown this spring; the initial version will support Open Systems Interconnection protocols on Ethernet networks and X.25 connections, with TCP/IP support due next year.
The company also will announce MacX.400 SD (Single Domain), a slimmed- down version of the X.400 server that handles a single connection to another local or remote mail server. MacX.400 SD is due in the first quarter of 1993; pricing is not set.
On the management front, Apple will announce two Macintosh SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) agents, one for AppleTalk-only networks and another for TCP/IP, both due in the first quarter of 1993. Third parties, such as Asante Technologies Inc. and InterCon Systems Corp., that have their own SNMP agents said they will support Apple's version to get the full set of SNMP statistics from AppleTalk nodes.
> E-mail. InterCon and StarNine Technologies Inc. will show the E-mail gateways they announced with Apple's X.400 server. InterCon's $995 Dispatcher/MacX.400 links to CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail and is due by the end of the year. StarNine's gateway to Microsoft Mail, Mail*Link for X.400/MS, is priced at $595 for 10 users and is scheduled to ship at about the same time.
The Wollongong Group Inc. will demonstrate PathWay Messaging, a completely new E-mail system that includes a server with X.400 and X.500 gateways and client software for Macs, Windows machines and Unix workstations. Wollongong expects to ship the software by January.
> Routers. Telebit Corp. will announce AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) support for its $2,400-to-$4,600 NetBlazer dial-in routers. When used with Telebit modems, which provide the processing power, a single NetBlazer running Version 2.0 of the router software can provide 18 to 26 ports for ARA dial-in access.
Compatible Systems Corp. will show its $2,995 RISC*Router 3000E, due next month, which supports AppleTalk, TCP/IP and DECnet.
> Terminal emulation. Digital Communications Associates Inc. will ship an A/UX-compatible version of its Mac-to-mainframe software.
> Demonstrations. At the Solutions Showcases and in vendor booths, Interop attendees can catch sight of AppleTalk in various guises, including encapsulation for transmission over TCP/IP networks, and wide- area routing based on the new AppleTalk Update-based Routing Protocol.
"Everyone's concerned with AppleTalk's performance on heterogeneous systems," said Roosevelt Giles, network consultant at Information Management Systems Inc. of Atlanta, who plans to attend the show. "Vendors with proprietary protocols like Apple's now have to figure out how to encapsulate them so the network can extend beyond a single building. We've all talked about open systems in enterprise networks, but now the industry is trying to get its act together protocolwise and will actually deliver solutions."
Milking networks for better performance is another subject dear to network managers' hearts. In Cabletron Systems Inc.'s booth, two Quadras equipped with the company's F-6069 Desktop Network Interface cards and connected to a Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI) hub from Crescendo Communications Inc. will demonstrate 100-Mbps throughput over data-grade unshielded twisted-pair wires. Cabletron and Crescendo said their CDDI products will ship as soon as the American National Standards Institute grants approval.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 1
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News: DRAM prices rise
By Raines Cohen
San Francisco - Dynamic RAM prices jumped last week in the wake of a U.S. Commerce Department finding that South Korean memory makers have been dumping their chips in the U.S. market.
The ruling is only preliminary and its long-term effects are unknown. Some Mac distributors predicted dramatic price increases and possible shortages; others said they did not anticipate such dire consequences.
South Korean manufacturers supplied between 20 percent and 37 percent of the DRAM imported into the United States last year, according to various estimates. In order to continue importing, the companies affected by last week's ruling will have to post a bond ranging from 6 percent for Hyundai Electronics Co Ltd. to a whopping 87.4 percent for Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Samsung declined to comment, but RAM distributors said the company intends to appeal the ruling and will post the bond and continue selling without raising prices.
"We're seeing across-the-board 20 percent price increases already," said Mike Frost, president of RAM distributor TechWorks Inc. of Austin, Texas. "This could create a shortage like back in 1988 when prices shot through the roof. The savvy corporate buyer will buy supplies now to cover the next several months."
But others urged caution. "This is an initial ruling ... not a final decision," said Sherry Garber, senior analyst at In-Stat Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. "Samsung will continue business as usual until there is final resolution."
Garber said shortages are not an issue in the near term. "At the moment, there is certainly an adequate supply of DRAMs. There's no reason for a drastic increase, but we probably won't see a decrease in the next few months. A second-step review scheduled for November will bring out even more information."
James Wiebe, president of Newer Technology Inc., a Wichita, Kan., memory vendor, said, "We're taking a wait-and-see approach because we're confident about our supply lines, but smaller vendors and brokers may have real trouble getting product."
The preliminary determination was made in response to a complaint filed last April by Micron Technology Inc. of Boise, Idaho, one of the two domestic DRAM suppliers. The company alleged that South Korean chipmakers were illegally selling 1- and 4-Mbit RAM chips to U.S. buyers at less than the cost of production.
A spokeswoman for Apple said the company would not be significantly affected. "Apple sources products globally, so we're prepared to deal with these issues," she said.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 1
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News: Computing the presidential future
All candidates promise more aid for high tech
By Steve Rosenthal
San Francisco - High technology has gotten high visibility as an issue in the presidential election this year. Spurred in part by an early and prominent focus on high-tech industries by Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton and his running mate Al Gore, each campaign has been scrambling to define its high-tech policy positions.
Research. Direct federal support for high-technology research gets strong support from all three candidates, but they differ on the methods.
"We want to create the civilian equivalent of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency," said Clinton. He said he believes that research should target industries that will create high-skill, high-wage jobs in the future, and he advocates a national technology extension service similar to the current agricultural extension service.
The government, Clinton argues, should alter the current allocation of federal research funds, increasing the proportion going to civilian applications to 50 percent from the current 40 percent.
President Bush advocates closer cooperation between the federal government and private industry. "We have got to keep our nation on the cutting edge of new technologies," he said. But, according to Bush's technology statement, "an industrial policy driven by bureaucratically preferred technologies" would be a mistake. "The private sector must be free to determine its own research priorities," the paper stated.
Independent candidate Ross Perot said he also would focus federal research on key indus-tries. According to the candidate's broadcast "infomercials," the United States must coordinate government and business policies to compete effectively with other nations.
Infrastructure. Improvement of the nation's high-tech infrastructure, including the creation of a national electronic network, also is high on the priority list for each of the campaigns.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Gore was a principal sponsor of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991, a $1 billion program for creating a high-speed National Research and Education Network that would allow widespread access to supercomputers and digital libraries. Congress passed the act late last year, and President Bush signed it into law.
If elected, Clinton said, he plans to appoint Gore as his point person on technology issues. His technology plan calls for a "21st-century infrastructure," including federal funding for NREN and expansion of the network to link schools, hospitals and libraries.
Clinton's plan also calls for support of Sematech, the research consortium that will develop the next generation of integrated circuits, and the Microelectronics Computer Technology Corp., a separate research consortium that counts Apple among its associate members.
Bush's High Performance Computing Initiative opposes federal subsidies for NREN operation but calls for a 23 percent increase in federal funds for networking R&D. The administration also favors continued support of Sematech. Bush's initiatives are part of a $76 billion R&D budget proposal that includes increased investment in materials science, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and energy.
Perot also advocates a drastic increase in both private and public spending on infrastructure, including the use of interactive communications links to hold "electronic town meetings" between government officials and the citizenry.
Trade policy. U.S. computer companies depend on components from abroad, and many generate almost half of their sales outside the United States, so trade issues are a key concern. Both advocates and opponents of the North American Free Trade Association agree it could significantly increase markets for high-technology products in Mexico. But there's less consensus about what the government can do to boost exports to Japan and other protected markets.
Bush, who supports NAFTA, calls for diplomatic dialogue such as the current Structural Impediments Initiative rather than mandated retaliation to achieve trade balance. Bush said he wants to manage trade more closely for fair balance but let private companies pick what to export and at what price.
Clinton said he supports NAFTA only with reservations that will protect jobs and the environment. To balance trade, "countries that fail to comply with trade agreements will face sanctions," he said.
Perot advocates an activist policy, using retaliation if necessary to achieve balanced trade.
Training. High-technology companies are dependent on a skilled work force, so government support for training and retraining are often factors in deciding where to locate or expand facilities.
"Our education system must produce American workers able to compete with any in the world," said Bush's technology plan. The main way to realize that, the plan said, is with better teacher training.
Clinton advocates a national system of apprenticeship, universally available student loans and a targeted program for retraining displaced defense workers. Clinton also has proposed federal mandates that all companies spend at least 1.5 percent of their payroll on education and training, or pay that amount in extra taxes to fund training programs.
Worker training also would get a boost under Perot, with new credits and expenditures of more than $10 billion.
Environment. Recent efforts to eliminate chlorofluorocarbons from manufacturing in the computer industry highlight how dependent some processes are on environmental regulations.
For example, Intel Corp. Chairman Gordon Moore recently said that the Bush administration's more-flexible environmental regulations allowed his company to build a plant in the United States that might otherwise have been located overseas.
Likewise, several prominent industry figures credit Vice President Quayle's Council on Competitiveness for blocking stricter environment regulations on the grounds that they would hinder U.S. competitiveness.
Clinton, who supports environmental regulations, maintains that they can create rather than eliminate jobs if properly managed.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
News Page 10
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Gateways: PowerBook modem prices slashed
By Nathalie Welch
San Francisco - Developers of PowerBook internal fax modems last week began slashing prices and plotting their technical responses in the wake of Apple's entry into the high end of that market.
Along with its CPU barrage last week, Apple unveiled the $319 PowerBook Express Modem, with 14.4-Kbps data and 9,600-bps fax capabilities, priced at less than half the cost of most third-party PowerBook modems with similar capabilities.
"We were kind of amazed at the price point" of the Express Modem, said John Chess, president of Apex Data Inc. of Dublin, Calif. "We hit hard with our pricing right from the beginning, but we are looking at restructuring it again."
Apex sells a modem that has the same capabilities as Apple's, as well as a cellular connection, for $798.
"I think Apple is trying to set a price point on 14.4-[Kbps] modems for the PowerBook," said Steve Cherry, vice president of sales and marketing for PSI Integration Inc. of Campbell, Calif., which last week announced it dropped the price on its PowerModem IV, a 14.4-Kbps fax-data modem, from $799 to $495.
TwinCom, which earlier this month announced its entry into the PowerBook modem market with low-priced products, now finds itself in the odd position of having to cut those prices before the new modems even hit the street next month.
"We will be making some adjustment," said Rick Greene, vice president of TwinCom, based in Wilmington, N.C. "But it won't be a knee-jerk reaction."
Apple has been able to price its devices aggressively because of a new design that utilizes a Rockwell International Inc. data pump and offloads data compression and error correction to the main CPU.
"We won't be able to meet their price because the technology track they have used is a little different," Greene said. "But we can maintain a little more price disparity due to our faster fax transmission capability."
Dtronix Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., which sells two internal devices - the $549 PowerAccess 96/96 and the $649 PowerAccess 96/144, a 9,600-bps data and 14.4-Kbps fax modem - said its modems will ship next month with original pricing, but prices may be readjusted at a later date.
Global Village Communication Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., said it plans to announce price reductions next week.
Some third-party developers were able to adjust for Apple's entry into the market by including features Apple chose not to incorporate.
"The bottom line is that we have known for months, and our strategy as seen in our current product has been not to compete directly with Apple," said John Armstrong, vice president of engineering at Applied Engineering Inc. of Dallas.
"We intended our products to be differentiated in the market by two aspects, full two-way voice capabilities and the wireless cellular link."
Although Apple's Express Modems are not backward-compatible with previously released PowerBooks, most third-party developers said they are confident that their current implementations will work with the new PowerBook 160 and 180, as well as with the older models.
A harder nut to crack will be developing internal telecommunication devices for the PowerBook Duos.
"We are trying to get the specs out as fast as we can, but there are a lot of variables that come into effect," said Dave Rothschild, Duo product manager. "We want to make sure everyone has all the pieces, including the ability to support them."
Developers do not need to license Apple application-specific integrated circuit technology, despite reports to the contrary, according to Rothschild.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
Gateways Page 20
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Mac the Knife: New Apple imaging
Conventional wisdom says the image is the thing. Publicly warring pop icons Madonna and Sinead O'Connor are two good contrasting examples. And Apple, a company known for catching the big waves, is preparing to announce that it too is endorsing the importance of imaging. In fact, at January's Macworld Expo Apple is expected to unveil the latest in a long line of Apple-spawned strategic markets: imaging. It reminds you of the old Desktop Communications initiative.
That's one reason you'll see a passel of new image-enhancement products, including better printers, color-synchronization software and four- color-separation capabilities. This might appear to the skeptical as a case of creating a strategy to fit the new products, but what do skeptics know?
Sources tell the Knife that one of the lower-profile products in this mix will be a replacement for the oft-maligned StyleWriter. The new model is said to be a battery-powered, QuickDraw-based inkjet printer offering 360-dpi resolution. At a projected street price of about $300, no one is likely to complain too much about the somewhat laggardly 2- page-per-minute performance.
Color activism. Since Apple is in the business of paying close attention to the needs and wants of the market, it is well-aware that a color PowerBook would be one hot item. Now the Knife has learned that the previously reported 256-color active-matrix screen Apple is most interested in is still too expensive and too scarce. In fact, some claim that if Apple were to produce a color PowerBook 180 this quarter it would have to be priced roughly two times as much as the current gray- scale version. Then there are curious reports that Apple is considering a 16-color passive-matrix screen as an interim solution.
A new Mac language. Apple apparently is quite pleased at the progress the Dylan project has been making. Dylan, of course, is the development language for the 1994-model Newtons, sometimes referred to as the seriously useful Newtons, as opposed to the Newtons Apple has officially unveiled so far. Sources claim that the company is flirting with the idea of making Dylan a primary development language for the Mac, too. Dylan has a lot going for it: It's dynamic, fully portable, and it lets you run programs in interpretive mode right up to the last minute, thus saving a substantial amount of time currently spent on builds.
Interactive metal. Sure, the pay-per-view tribute to Dylan (Bob, not the language) was enjoyable, even if you factor in Sinead's embarrassing antics. But in some circles in Los Angeles when they say, "Let's kick it," they mean heavy metal. So it was no surprise to the Knife to discover that Apple enthusiastically supported the development of an interactive CD-ROM based on one of the top-grossing metal bands. The contents include all the band's videos and lyrics to all its songs, plus images of all its posters and backstage passes. This is just the kind of product that could give Apple's consumer plans a high profile. Now, if Warner New Media would just release it.
Even though the new QuickTime 1.5 Starter Kit will include QuickTime Theater, an interactive video jukebox with appearances by the likes of Todd Rundgren, it's hard to imagine John Sculley getting down with a metal band. But he was getting around in Europe last week with rock star Peter Gabriel. This unlikely pair was showing off Gabriel's new CD, which includes an interactive studio tour and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an MTV video. Party on, dudes.
Even rock stars can't get a MacWEEK mug without first performing for the Knife. Make your engagement at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 10.26.92
Mac the Knife Page 134
(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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GA: Level 2 vendors send in the clones
Low-cost, faster RIPs soon to hit market
By Matthew Rothenberg
Mountain View, Calif. - Third-party developers are lining up new PostScript interpreters that promise to give printers Level 2 capabilities and custom features faster and more cheaply than RIPs from Adobe Systems Inc.
According to Charles LeCompte, editor of The Hard Copy Observer of Burlington, Mass., Adobe has been unable to keep up with OEM orders for Level 2, and vendors have been frustrated by long waits for custom printer features. "Vendors want something that distinguishes their product," LeCompte said, "and Adobe hasn't been able to accommodate them."
In an effort to ease the backlog, Adobe this month announced that it will license Level 2 development tools to Adaptec Inc., Peerless Systems Corp. and Integrated Device Technology Inc. Adaptec and Peerless will design hardware for Adobe OEMs and provide them with customized versions of Adobe software. IDT and Adobe will develop printer-controller boards integrated with Adobe's PostScript architecture.
"We're expanding our options [to meet] increased demand for real Adobe PostScript," said Torey Bruno, Adobe senior product marketing manager. "This partners program poises us for an explosion of products in the coming months and years."
Meanwhile, cheaper third-party clones are reaching the market.
> Pipeline Associates Inc. of Morris Plains, N.J., last month switched to the Level 2 version of its PowerPage interpreter. PowerPage/2 first shipped in General Parametrics Corp.'s $4,999 Spectra*Star Q10 color thermal-wax printer. An upgrade is due early next year for Mitsubishi International Corp.'s color printers.
Pipeline's interpreter also ships with Quintar Co.'s Q-Script 2000, a stand-alone controller included with printers from vendors such as CalComp Inc. and Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc.
Pipeline said its recently patented PowerBand technology reduces by 75 percent the memory PowerPage needs to process PostScript.
> Phoenix Technologies Ltd. of Cambridge, Mass., last month unveiled the Level 2 version of PhoenixPage. Xante Corp. in December will include the new interpreter in free ROM upgrades to its $3,995 Accel-a-Writer 8100, a 600-dpi tabloid-size printer that now ships with Phoenix's Level 1 clone.
Phoenix said PhoenixPage adds color screening and gray-scale halftoning software not available from Adobe, supports TrueType as well as Type 1 fonts, and meets or exceeds PostScript performance.
> Hyphen Inc. of Wilmington, Mass., last month said a Level 2 version of its Ripware interpreter will ship next year for Macs, IBM PCs and compatibles, and Sun SPARCstations.
Hyphen's emulation features editable display lists that developers can use to create applications that control pre-press tasks such as trapping, imposition and distributed rendering on multiple processors and RIPs (raster image processors).
> Destiny Technology Corp. of Milpitas, Calif., said vendors next month will unveil printers that include its PageStyler II interpreter, and the first will ship by early next year.
According to the company, the new interpreter improves on Adobe's color calibration, forms caching, data compression, memory allocation and rasterization speed.
"Time to market is critical," said Rob Auster, analyst with BIS Strategic Decisions Inc. of Norwell, Mass. "As [Level 2] prices drop, having the real thing is less important; users will buy for price, and the largest expansion we're going to see will be at the low end.
"Clone PostScript is often as good as, and sometimes better than, the real thing," Auster said. "Outside corporate America, [the Adobe label] doesn't matter."
MacWEEK 10.26.92
GA Page 28
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Review: Hard disk formatters
A wide range of media support gives Casa Blanca Works' offering a slight advantage over packages from FWB, Golden Triangle and Software Architects.
By R. Bradley Andrews
Hard disk drivers used to receive little attention. Once they were put in place, they were there forever. But when System 7 required updated drivers, many users discovered that their drive vendor had gone out of business or wouldn't provide an upgrade. These facts, plus the growing demand at large sites for standard software for all drives, has prompted the release of generic formatter programs that are not tied to specific hardware. In this review, we look at the four principal low-cost, general-purpose disk-formatting packages.
Familiar features. Our aim was not to provide extensive benchmarks that illustrated the fastest access time or the most secure encryption schemes. Instead, we looked at these utilities as a typical Mac user or network administrator would, focusing on their ease of use and capability to perform standard tasks.
The actual comparison was difficult because, instead of the normal widespread differences between the best and worst, the products reviewed here are fairly similar. Personal preference likely will be important in determining which product is the best for any particular user.
All the products were extensively tested under System 7.0.1. Brief compatibility testing showed that all worked fine under System 6.0.7.
Formatter1. Software Architects Inc.'s $49.95 Formatter1 has the friendliest interface of all the packages reviewed. The program uses cartoon characters to highlight relevant items and lighten the atmosphere. However, users might find themselves growing tired of the cuteness after they have used the program for a while.
The main program screen displays SCSI ID numbers along the top and information about the currently selected device in the lower part of the screen. It has only four buttons that perform the most common actions, keeping the screen free of unnecessary clutter.
You can set interleave factors in a dialog that comes up just before formatting. This is the most technical part of the package, but it is not a problem for novices since the program automatically selects the ideal factor for the machine you are using. The formatting routine automatically selects the optimum driver to install on the formatted disk.
Partitioning a drive is simple. A musical scale is played when resizing a partition to indicate its relative size. This musical interlude, thankfully, can be turned off. You can lock any partition, but the program provides no way to password protect partitions, something the other packages provide. Some users probably will not miss this feature, but it will be important to many.
The built-in test facility, accessible via a menu, provides two levels of testing. The first scans the drive for bad sectors and allows the user to reassign any that are found. The second provides a destructive read-write test. This test is very thorough, but it destroys all the data on the drive.
A system extension, also included, provides support for removable devices. The extension does not support optical media, but it does support SyQuest cartridges. (Software Architects said a $29.95 optical upgrade due Nov. 1 will add support for rewriteable optical media.)
The manual, though short, provides a detailed step-by-step guide to using the program. It is clear and easy to read and provides many useful warnings where appropriate. It also includes some basic troubleshooting information and solutions to several common problems that can arise when working with SCSI devices.
The on-line help also is very detailed, in some ways more than the manual. It provides all the necessary information for using the program and has built-in hypertext links to jump between topics.
This package began as an in-house tool for Software Architects in its work to support a wide variety of drives. Only when several customers said they really liked the package did Software Architects decide it had a commercial product on its hands.
DiskMaker. Golden Triangle Computers Inc.'s $89 DiskMaker comes in three parts: the Formatter application, the DiskMaker control panel and the Removables system extension.
Formatter provides DiskMaker's core functionality. Its main screen also focuses on simplicity. SCSI devices are displayed along the left side of the screen, and the four available options are displayed on the right. The most basic option is the One-Step Format, which produces a completely usable drive and installs Golden Triangle's driver in a single pass.
An option to format with partitions also is available. In this case, you must create one or more partitions after the drive has been formatted. The program can perform three levels of verification with either format, ranging from no testing to a full read-write test.
The third option is to partition a formatted disk. The user must specify the size and name for each desired partition. Though this is not as simple as the visual editor in Formatter1, it is consistent with the other two packages and works well. Unfortunately, the partitioning program does not store the current partition structure, so the entire partition structure must be re-created from scratch any time it is adjusted.
The final option installs Golden Triangle's driver onto an existing drive, provided that space is available in the driver area. The menus also provide access to the verification procedure and a facility to set or reset the master password for the selected device.
The control panel provides information about available SCSI devices and lets the user edit the attributes of partitions, such as passwords, locked status, whether they should automatically load on start-up and which should be the start-up volume. These aspects also can be set when the partitions are created.
The Removables system extension lets you mount most removable devices, including rewriteable opticals and SyQuest cartridges but not floppies, tape cartridges or CD-ROMs.
The manual is short but provides all the necessary information about the product and some basic troubleshooting information.
Hard Disk ToolKit*Personal Edition. Hard Disk ToolKit*Personal Edition is a $79.95 younger sibling to FWB Inc.'s Hard Disk ToolKit. Though it does not have some of the features of the full version, the missing capabilities are not important for most people, and it offers all the basic functionality of other packages reviewed here.
HDT*PE is made up of three pieces. HDT Primer displays a vertical list of connected SCSI devices and lets you format, partition and test supported drives. Its main screen is well-laid-out and easy to read. When you run it, the program will prompt you with the option to update immediately any disk on the SCSI chain that does not have the HDT driver installed.
Partitioning with HDT Primer is similar to DiskMaker - each partition must be created individually - though HDT Primer provides any current partition structure as a starting point. When you format, you are presented with several common partition options, including the capability to create an A/UX partition in addition to Mac partitions. You can choose among the partition options or customize your own. Partitions can be password protected, write protected and configured as bootable or auto-mounting. You can modify a partition at any time to change any of these attributes or the size, depending on available disk space. Deleting a partition frees up its space; you can optionally ensure all data is completely erased so that it is unrecoverable by an undelete utility.
The control panel, HDT Prober, is useful but simple. It provides information about all the attached SCSI devices and lets you mount any that are off-line. The system extension, HDT Extension, automatically will mount most removable drives such as SyQuest, internal flopticals and rewriteable optical cartridges.
The thick manual provides a basic introduction to the package and full details about each piece, and acts as a basic troubleshooting device. It is neither better nor more overwhelming than the other manuals, simply a bit larger.
Drive7. In many ways Casa Blanca Works Inc.'s $79.95 Drive7 is the most extensive product reviewed, since it includes support for most removable media as well as exclusive support for SuperMac Technology DataFrame and LaserFrame drives.
The package contains two parts: Drive7, which is the center of all action, and the Drive7rem control panel. Unlike the other packages, which use normal windows and menu items, Drive7 uses a modal dialog and does not include menu items. Because of this, the program ties up the entire machine while running.
The main display under Drive7 is very simple. The available SCSI devices are shown in a scrollable list, and an information area plus icon and option buttons cover the remainder of the window. Four of the buttons are placed on a separate area that comes up only when the zoom box on the window is selected. The functions in this area - Rescan, Icon, Mount and Test - are not necessary for the more basic operations and were left off the main screen to avoid confusing the novice user.
One drawback to Drive7's layout is that it does not display the SCSI device numbers in the name list. This could lead to problems if more than one hard disk has the same name; however, this information is available in the information area of the window.
Partitioning is straightforward. Selecting the partition button brings up a list of the currently available partition setups. Once chosen, the size of any partition can be adjusted using a graphic tool. A/UX partitions also are supported. The program begins with a number of default partition settings, and new ones can be created. Partitions can be password protected, write protected and configured as bootable or auto-mounting. Drive7 also will designate a removable cartridge as nonejectable, allowing you to use it as a virtual-memory disk under System 7.
Drive7 includes Drive7rem, a control panel that provides the most extensive support for removable devices of this group of applications. Drive7rem will mount removable cartridges on the desktop automatically, regardless of the formatting program used. It supports many types of removable media, including SyQuest cartridges, CD-ROMs and rewriteable optical disks. The Drive7rem driver can be turned off for any device on the SCSI chain to allow you to use another driver. Drive7rem also allows you to format cartridges on the desktop using Erase Disk from the Special menu.
Casa Blanca Works supplies 40 icons that can be attached to any drive formatted with Drive7, and you can add your own icons. The SCSI ID number of the drive also can be placed directly on the icon, so it shows up on the desktop.
The manual is very extensive and covers all aspects of the package. It also provides troubleshooting information and basic background questions that many people unfamiliar with the subject are likely to want to know without getting too technical. Balloon help is available for both System 7 and System 6 users.
Conclusions. Despite the advantages and relative ease of use of these packages, users should take extra care when working with them. Nothing can protect sloppy users from their own carelessness. But, with a little extra caution, the formatting process can go smoothly with any of these tools.
DiskMaker and Hard Disk ToolKit*Personal Edition are both strong packages that support a wide range of media and offer all the standard features such as password protection of partitions and mounting utilities for several types of removable media. Formatter1 is the least expensive of the four programs, but its lack of password protection for partitions and support for fewer types of media may be limiting to some users.
Drive7 is the leader, however, because of its support for the widest range of media, including old SuperMac drives. Its Drive7rem control panel also has features not offered by the other packages.
Overall, however, choosing among the packages is largely a matter of personal taste. All four formatting programs are very similar, and any of them will provide the necessary basic features for most Mac users who need to update old drivers or standardize the drivers on a number of hard disks.
Score Card
Hard disk formatters
The hard disk formatting and testing utilities covered in this review all aim to unify support of this essential part of any Macintosh installation. Each product has its own unique flavor, but none ranks far in front of the others. Each formats and tests a wide variety of disks, including many removable cartridges. Their manuals are sufficiently detailed without being overwhelming.
> DiskMaker from Golden Triangle Computers Inc. is a good, solid program. It provides full functionality and a simple interface. It does require that you re-create all partitions when they are modified, though the actual process is easy.
> Drive7 by Casa Blanca Works Inc. supports the largest number of drives of the group, including older SuperMac Technology drives that the others do not support. Its modal nature may bother some users, but it provides all the functionality in an easy-to-use package. It has some useful extras, such as the capability to selectively install its removable- media driver and set a drive's icon to include its SCSI ID.
> Formatter1 from Software Architects Inc. provides the friendliest interface of the group at the lowest price. It lacks the capability to password protect partitions, which will affect some users. It also supports the fewest number of removable media types.
> Hard Disk ToolKit*Personal Edition is a trimmed-down version of FWB Inc.'s full-featured Hard Disk ToolKit. It provides all the basic features of the other packages and includes support for most types of removable media.
DiskMaker Drive7 Formatter1 HDT*PE
Overall value *** **** *** ***
Version tested 1.6.5 2.3 1.0 1.1.2
Price $89 $79.95 $49.95* $79.95
Performance *** *** *** ***
Ease of use *** *** **** ***
Features *** ***** *** ****
Documentation/support *** *** *** ***
*Rewriteable optical driver upgrade, $29.95.
Product Info
Casa Blanca Works Inc.
Drive7: $79.95
148 Bon Air Center, Greenbrae, Calif. 94904
Phone (415) 461-2227
Fax (415) 461-2249
FWB Inc.
Hard Disk ToolKit* Personal Edition: $79.95
2040 Polk St., Suite 215, San Francisco, Calif. 94109
Phone (415) 474-8055
Fax (415) 775-2125
Golden Triangle Computers Inc.
DiskMaker: $89
4849 Ronson Court, San Diego, Calif. 92111
Phone (619) 279-2100 or (800) 326-1858
Fax (619) 279-1069
Software Architects Inc.
Formatter1: $49.95
Optical drive update: $29.95
19102 N. Creek Parkway, Suite 101, Bothell, Wash. 98011
Phone (206) 487-0122
Fax (206) 487-0467
MacWEEK 10.26.92
Reviews Page 52
(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
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