Tokyo - Apple racked up lots of big numbers last week. The company shipped its 10 millionth Macintosh and made one of its biggest product introductions to the largest-ever Mac trade-show audience.
About 100,000 people crowded into one huge hall at Macworld Tokyo here, where Apple rolled out five desktop machines, its first color PowerBook and two new printers.
"We're trying to ... be the most price-competitive in the biggest-volume products," Apple CEO John Sculley said in an interview at the show.
Apple picked Japan, its fastest-growing market and its third-largest market worldwide, as the venue for its first major product launch outside the United States. "It's fitting because a lot of Macintosh momentum is coming from Japan," Sculley said in his keynote address.
The new lineup, which for the first time brings the price of a 68040 Mac down to less than $2,000, found favor with Japanese business users at the show. Many said they were pleased that the Mac's price-performance ratio is coming more in line with Japan's dominant DOS-based clones.
Users and dealers also should be pleased by Apple's assurances that all Centris and Quadra models, except those with a CD-ROM drive, will be widely available. CD-ROM-equipped Macintoshes initially will be available only in limited quantities because of continuing drive shortages.
> Centris. Apple's new mainstream '040s garnered the lion's share of applause during Sculley's keynote speech.
The slim-line Centris 610 in a 4/80 configuration retails for $1,859; the same system with built-in Ethernet runs another $110.
In the $2,000-to-$3,000 category, Apple offers a Centris 610 8/230 with Ethernet for $2,519; the same system with a dual-speed CD-ROM drive and a megabyte of video RAM costs $2,899.
For the three-slot 25-MHz '040 Centris 650, a 4/80 system without an FPU (floating-point unit) runs $2,699. With the full '040, Ethernet and an additional 4 Mbytes of RAM, it is $3,189. An 8/230 650 retails for $3,559; for an additional $380 users can add a CD-ROM drive and 1 Mbyte of VRAM.
For the storage-hungry, Apple offers an 8/500 version of the 650 with Ethernet and 1 Mbyte of VRAM but no CD-ROM drive for $4,379.
> Quadra 800. A product manager at an Apple press event here last week described the newest Quadra as "a 950 someone sat on."
An 800 8/230 retails for $4,679; an 8/500 kicks up the price to $5,429. All 800s come with Ethernet. Adding a CD-ROM and 1 Mbyte of VRAM runs another $400; with a 1-Gbyte hard drive and no CD drive, the price rises to $6,399.
> LC III. A new version of the company's most popular Mac, with a 25-MHz 68030 and a 32-bit data path, the LC III comes in two configurations: a 4/80 at $1,349 and a 4/160 at $1,499.
> Color Classic. The first compact Mac with a color display, the 16-MHz '030-based Color Classic comes in just one configuration: a 4/80 at $1,389 retail.
Both the LC III and Color Classic include a keyboard.
> PowerBook 165c. Dubbed the "Crayola" PowerBook by onlookers here, the new color notebook comes in two configurations: a 4/80 for $3,399 and a 4/120 for $3,759. Apple warned that the 165c will be available only in limited quantities until production ramps up.
> LaserWriter Select line. Apple unwrapped two new 300-dpi, 5-page-per-
minute personal laser printers. The RISC-based LaserWriter Select 310, priced at $1,079, comes with an Adobe PostScript Level 1 interpreter. The $819 LaserWriter Select 300 outputs QuickDraw graphics. Both printers come with serial interfaces and lack LocalTalk. The 310 also includes a parallel port.
Apple also announced a bundling deal with multimedia developer Macromedia Inc. of San Francisco. Apple will bundle Macromedia's Action!, SoundEdit Pro and ClipMedia with CD-ROM-equipped Macs.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
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(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: Midrange turns '040
610, 650 pose dilemma: What price slots?
By Stephen Howard
How high is the middle? That's one of the essential questions in the personal computer industry right now, and the new Macintosh Centris 610 and 650 are Apple's latest attempts at an answer.
In the world of IBM PCs and compatibles, the middle range has ballooned to encompass virtually everything. For $2,000 to $3,000, PC buyers can have complete color systems based on 486 CPUs. Last week, Apple revamped the middle of the Mac line to compete better with this embarrassment of Intel-based riches. Based on our evaluation of the new Macs two weeks prior to their release, Apple's efforts were largely successful. But the company should have bitten down harder on the price bullet.
Both Mac Centris models are based on the 68040, but the similarity is only skin-deep. The core of the Centris 610 is a 20-MHz 68LC040, a version lacking the FPU (floating-point unit) that accelerates complex math. The Centris 650 is built around a 25-MHz 68RC040, which is a normal '040, the same chip found in the Quadra 700. (Confusingly, the minimal Centris 650 configuration uses a 25-MHz 68LC040, but this model was not available for testing.) Unlike the corresponding 486DX and 486SX twins in the Intel world, the Motorola versions are very different chips. In fact, Apple said that the 20-MHz 68LC040 is so much smaller than the regular '040 that it doesn't need a heat sink.
The Centris CPUs are socketed, so if you buy a model with the 68LC040, you can pull it out and replace it with a same-speed 68RC040. Apple will not sell you the raw chips for these upgrades, but its dealers should be able to perform installations. There's no way to add Ethernet to the motherboard after the time of purchase. Also, the Centris 650 itself is the promised upgrade for the Mac IIvx; moving from 32-MHz '030 to 25-MHz '040 will cost you $1,199 until early May and $1,599 thereafter. You may have to add in the price of new RAM, though, since the 30-pin SIMMs from a IIvx won't work in a Centris.
Beyond the CPUs, the 610 and 650 motherboards are similar. Both incorporate the enhancements to the memory controller and built-in video found in the new Quadra 800. Both eliminate a bug Apple found in the Quadra SCSI subsystem that slowed reads. And both Centris machines use NCR 53C96 SCSI chips, the same as the Quadra family, for up to 3.3 Mbytes per second throughput. According to Apple, disk performance on either Centris with a single drive should be about the same as a single-
drive Quadra 950.
The monitor options for the Centris Macs are the same as for the Quadra 800. In essence, you get eight-bit color on 13-, 14- and 16-inch color monitors, upgradable to 16-bit color with a single 512-Kbyte video-RAM SIMM. Apple's 21-inch color monitor is supported with a measly 16 colors in the standard VRAM configuration, upgradable to 256 colors. Both support a variety of third-party monitors, including VGA and Super VGA.
Both Centris models come with 4 Mbytes or 8 Mbytes of RAM soldered onto the motherboard. The 610 has two dynamic-RAM SIMM slots; the 650 has four. These new midrange Macs accept only 72-pin, 4-Mbyte or higher-
density DRAM SIMMs, and Apple claims that 32-Mbyte SIMMs will work. The good news is that, unlike previous Macs, you can add your SIMMs one at a time.
The baseline Centris configurations have only LocalTalk built in, but all others come with Ethernet on the motherboard. This higher-speed LAN interface is accessed through a nonstandard Apple AUI (attachment unit interface) port, which requires an external transceiver. Apple recently dropped the prices on its transceivers, however, so this add-on is now less expensive than a standard NuBus Ethernet card.
Both models come with the familiar selection of ports, including a stereo-output minijack. Both units also come with a mono sound-input minijack, but Apple doesn't throw in its little microphone unless you buy an internal CD-ROM drive.
Internal expansion. The Centris 610 is squat, like an albino stereo component, and the Centris 650 looks identical to the Mac IIvx. Both have an empty bay for a half-height, 5.25-inch drive. Apple will be happy to fill this drive bay with its AppleCD 300i double-speed CD-ROM player, but you could put anything you like in there. Neither the 610 nor the 650 come in an "empty" configuration with no hard disk drive.
The hardware difference - and it's an important one - between the new Centris models is the slots. The Centris 610 has a single processor direct slot, while the 650 has one PDS and three NuBus slots. The 610's 20-MHz PDS is a new variety, so no existing cards will work. The 650's PDS should work with cards designed for the Quadra 700, and Apple said some cards for the 950 might work if they aren't clock-speed dependent.
The 610 can accept a $99 adapter that turns its PDS into a NuBus slot, but space is scarce inside the Centris 610, so only 7-inch PDS or NuBus cards will fit. Most NuBus cards are 13 inches.
The 610 power supply is a respectable 86 watts, and the 650's is 112 watts. Both work with a wide range of international currents.
Performance. We tested prerelease versions of the Centris Macs with a suite of low-level benchmarks and a set of real-world applications. Our results back up Apple's claims: The 610 is two to three times faster than that old standby, the Mac IIci, and the 650 is three to four times as fast. The performance increase from the IIci to the 650 is only slightly bigger than the difference between the 650 and the IIvx.
The proximity of the Quadra 800 and Centris 650 in performance is interesting. The minitower was only about one-third faster, so bargain hunters might look at the big Centris if the little Quadra is too rich. The 650 was even closer in speed to the 610: about 25 percent faster overall, with math-heavy test results being two or three times better than that. This makes sense, given the lack of an FPU, 5-MHz difference in clock speed and lack of interleaved RAM access on the Centris 610.
Conclusions. The Centris line shows the best and worst of Apple. We have, along with just about everyone else, applauded Apple for cutting its margins on the Mac line. The 610 stands solidly in Apple's new tradition and looks like a great value. With list prices between $1,859 and $2,899, this low-end '040 Mac offers very acceptable speed, video and networking options.
It's the Centris 650 that shows Apple's less-flattering side. The 650 has all the marks of a new Mac standard. The quandary is the cost of the slots; what Mac manager doesn't prefer to buy machines with ample room for expansion? The 650's three slots for full-size NuBus cards provide this safety margin, while the 610's PDS does not. But Apple makes you pay for this peace of mind.
If you want a full-fledged '040 and Ethernet, the Centris 650's prices start at $3,189 for 8 Mbytes of RAM and an 80-Mbyte hard disk; the same Mac with a 500-Mbyte drive is $4,379. After you add the cost of a monitor and keyboard and discount for street pricing, you end up paying pretty premium rates compared with 486 PCs. The Mac IIvx, whose new prices are about the same as the 610, offers expansion at a lower cost, but it comes with less CPU and I/O speed and supports fewer monitors.
The Centris 650 prices are inflated, and Apple's quoting of dealer retail prices while the rest of the industry has switched to direct sales makes them look even worse than they are. The bottom line is you won't be able to buy a complete 8/230 Centris 650 with Ethernet for less than $3,000. That's too bad, because if you could, we'd recommend it wholeheartedly; it would be close to the perfect corporate Mac.
Smart sites should think long and hard about the Centris 610 instead because it offers most of what you'll need on board. And Apple should think long and hard about why a midrange Mac system costs nearly as much as a top-end PC. We don't think the company has a good enough answer.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
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(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: Minitower Quadra 800 rises above 950
By Sean Wagstaff
This Mac has legs. Apple's new Quadra 800, small and curvaceous, is now the fastest of all Macs, despite its stubby feet.
The new model shares a 33-MHz 68040, Ethernet and other enhancements from the Quadra 950, but a passel of refinements, including interleaved RAM, optimized QuickDraw and consolidated system chips, has boosted the 800's speed in real-world applications slightly above the 950's.
Based on our examination of a prerelease Quadra 800 with 24 Mbytes of RAM, we think desktop professionals for whom the 950 was overkill, and overpriced, will find plenty to like in the new minitower. It offers room for up to 136 Mbytes of RAM (8 on board, plus up to four 72-pin, 32-Mbyte SIMMs), three NuBus slots and one processor direct slot, stereo sound-out, and a $4,700 base sticker price.
One sure disappointment to many users, however, is that there is no upgrade path to this Mac for owners of the popular IIci and Quadra 700. That boxy form factor has received its walking papers.
Quick video. Besides cutting two NuBus slots, 100 watts of power and the second SCSI bus from the 950's bill of goods, one of the few significant sacrifices made in pursuit of this combination of price and performance was in video. While the Quadra 950 supports 24-bit video (millions of colors) on monitors as large as 16 inches and 16 bits (thousands of colors) on 21-inch displays, the Quadra 800 outputs a maximum of 16 bits on monitors as large as 16 inches and only eight-bit color (256 colors) on 21-inch screens.
The reasoning for this, according to Apple, is that high-end graphic artists need a computer capable of driving 19- or 21-inch displays at 24 bits of color, but multimedia and video producers and other power users obsessed with speed are willing to settle for 16-bit video on 16-inch monitors. Supporting millions of colors on dual-page monitors would offer little value to multimedia types while significantly boosting the price of entry for all. Those who want the very fastest video on big screens will opt for third-party cards anyway.
While 16-bit color is not "photo-realistic" and therefore not suited to color retouching, we found it to be very "realistic." There is some posterizing and flattening in smooth gradations but, otherwise, the differences are barely perceptible; in QuickTime playback, 16-bit color is the best match to NTSC video signals. A wide range of third-party monitors in various sizes, including VGA and Super VGA, is supported in addition to Apple's offerings. Apple's specs claim support for NTSC video, but we couldn't test this feature, and we suspect an encoder is needed.
The optimized QuickDraw makes operations such as scrolling and fills noticeably faster in all video modes. While our real-world tests did not see the fourfold increase in these operations claimed by Apple (more like 10 percent), scrolling large Adobe Photoshop files and Microsoft Word documents was plenty quick.
New integration. As it did in the PowerBook Duos, Apple consolidated a large number of previously separate chips. Controllers for sound, serial ports, floppy drives, the Apple Desktop Bus and other functions have been combined into a single chip, and the separate I/O bus of older Macs has been eliminated; all I/O functions except the NuBus now use the faster main processor bus. And the solitary NuBus controller incorporates the two previously independent buffer chips. The integration results in better speeds, manufacturing cost savings and reduced chance of component failure.
Under cover. Like all new Apple products, the Quadra 800 features a curvy front panel. Opening the box by sliding off the whole metal-and-
plastic cover (just like a DOS box) reveals a vertically mounted motherboard, a central chassis containing the power supply and drive bays, and a clear line of sight to the expansion slots. The speaker is mounted on a hollow box designed to boost the bass response, a la modern loudspeakers.
The international power supply is a beefy 200 watts, plenty for almost any combination of hardware. The plastic drive bays, which we found to be an improvement over metal brackets, can hold one standard-height 3.5-
inch drive, which comes with the Mac; one 3.5-inch removable-media drive; and one 5.25-inch half-height drive. A dual-speed AppleCD 300i is available as an aggressively priced option.
If you buy the internal CD-ROM drive, it ships with a disc containing System 7.1 and disk images of all of the 7.1 floppies. According to Apple, you'll be able to start up from this compact disc to reformat your internal hard drive. A microphone, inexplicably, is included only with the CD-ROM configuration.
Installing RAM requires removing any expansion boards, unplugging the disk drives, and unsnapping and removing the motherboard. While it sounds complicated, a new style of plastic, slide-in drive-mounting brackets and a modular design make this fairly simple.
Four slots minus one. While there are four expansion slots counting the PDS, you'll have to choose between a third NuBus board and a PDS board, as both slots are in-line and handled by the same controller circuit. With on-board Ethernet provided (assuming you want to use Apple's Ethernet hardware), that leaves enough room for most of the plug-in products de rigueur in Macintosh visual arts.
The back of the box offers two serial and two AppleTalk Desktop Bus ports and single ports for SCSI (25-pin), Ethernet, video, monaural sound input and stereo-out.
Leaving together. In addition to speeding up QuickDraw and integrating circuits, Apple also added memory interleaving. If you have identical SIMMs in slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 (or in all four slots), the Mac will divide data writes between them, then read the data from both simultaneously. The RAM on the motherboard is interleaved automatically.
Interleaving should result in performance gains for applications that are constantly hitting memory for chunks of data that don't fit in the '040's two 4-Kbyte RAM caches, Apple said.
Performance. In some of our real-world tests, we saw gains of up to 14 percent over the Quadra 950, while in others, performance was virtually identical. In no case was the Quadra 800's performance worse than the 950's.
Rendering a 3-D model in Alias Research Inc.'s Sketch! 1.5 showed a speed increase of about 10 percent. We suspect this may be a case where interleaved RAM pays off.
In our Microsoft Word 5.1 scroll test of a 16-Kbyte document, the Quadra 800 was faster than the 950 by about 14 percent. Rotating a 17-Mbyte image 113 degrees in Adobe Photoshop was slightly, but not significantly, faster on the Quadra 800. The same was true in our Photoshop scroll test. Photoshop relies heavily on disk access when using large images, so the 800's gains in processing power and video performance will be moot if the Mac spends most of its time waiting for data from the drive.
In our synthetic benchmark tests, which evaluate the performance of individual subsystems, the Quadra 800 was equal to the 950 in almost all cases. These tests do much of their work directly on the '040, so many of the system tweaks don't apply. The exception was EarthPlot, which emphasizes QuickDraw: It was 10 percent faster on the Quadra 800 at all color depths.
Disk performance of the two top-end Macs should be the same - unless you're using two or more disk drives, in which case the Quadra 950's dual bus should outperform the 800.
Shipping configurations. Apple plans to ship the Quadra 800s with 8 Mbytes of RAM and either 230-Mbyte, 500-Mbyte or 1-Gbyte drives. The internal CD-ROM and additional video RAM are optional. In the $4,679, 8/230 base configuration, users get only eight-bit color on monitor sizes up to 16 inches, so smart shoppers should buy the VRAM upgrade with their new machines.
This makes the highest-end Macintosh workstation about the same price as a similarly configured 66-MHz 486DX2 box from one of the major vendors. We would expect to see comparable performance from these machines.
Conclusions. There's a class of user who will always need Apple's latest-and-greatest offering, and this group will give piles of money to scale the high end.
In the case of the Quadra 800, however, Apple has used its R&D muscle to push performance up while bringing the price and features more in line with the needs of the majority. The Quadra 800 isn't cheap by a long shot - you could buy a couple of rip-snorting clones for the money, and the new Centris 650 is close enough on all counts to warrant a comparison - but we think this is one Mac that earns its wings, as well as its legs.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
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(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: AppleTalk recasts nets for mobile clients
By Mitch Ratcliffe
San Francisco - The AppleTalk protocol is growing up.
Developers said Apple's network stack will prove its mettle during the next year as the first Newton personal digital assistants and the Apple Open Collaboration Environment are introduced, and as third-party vendors stretch the protocol to fit the demands of multiplatform and ad hoc networking.
Companies are turning to AppleTalk to support mobile clients that connect to the network only intermittently because they say the protocol is the only time-tested approach to networking that assigns addresses dynamically.
AppleTalk is even finding its way into the IBM PC and compatible mainstream. Claris Corp. used a new Windows application programming interface (API) developed by Farallon Computing Inc. of Alameda, Calif., to enable AppleTalk-based cross-platform compatibility in its FileMaker Pro 2.0, and the same API will soon be available to other developers.
However, making the connection between AppleTalk and large internetworks - the capability most important to corporate users - is the roughest stretch of road ahead for Apple.
Cross-platform LANs. Farallon's Windows API for AppleTalk, which the company originally created when developing Timbuktu 5.0, its cross-
platform screen-sharing and file transfer program, will make it possible to build applications that use AppleTalk to exchange data between Macintosh and PC platforms.
Farallon is expected to release the API to developers in the second quarter in a package called the Timbuktu Developers Kit. It will come with a Dynamic Link Library that will let Windows applications call network services through Farallon's $195 PC PhoneNET Talk software. Developers will be able to integrate the software into Windows applications without substantial programming, according to David Clarke, Farallon's Timbuktu product manager.
A client in the hand. Mobile- computer companies also have embraced AppleTalk. GO Corp. of Foster City, Calif., for example, supports the protocol in its PenPoint operating system. And Coactive Computing Corp. of Belmont, Calif., which last month announced an Apple-Talk interface for DOS and Windows computers (see MacWEEK, Feb. 1), later this year will ship an adapter for the PenPoint-based Personal Communicators from EO Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., sources said.
But using AppleTalk on mobile computers and personal digital assistants highlights some of the protocol's current limitations, Apple and third-
party developers agree.
"Apple needs to solve some nagging, but by no means daunting, technological problems in relation to intermittent connections, such as handling collision detection," said Seth Neiman, Coactive vice president of product development.
"The AppleTalk ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) procedure is a combination of someone saying 'Can I have that address,' and someone else saying 'No, you can't because I'm using it,' " said Garry Hornbuckle, Apple's AppleTalk evangelist. "But, if I'm really focused on battery life, one questions if I should leave my AppleTalk chip powered up to defend an address."
The likely solution to some of the questions about AppleTalk-enabled mobile computing will be the use of different versions of the network stack to satisfy the particular needs of a device, Hornbuckle said.
For example, a Newton-based, fax-specific messaging device might use only the Printer Access Protocol layer of the AppleTalk stack to communicate with a LaserWriter.
A forum for a change? AppleTalk's continued viability in the corporate market depends heavily on its connection to wide-area networks, the arena in which it has ruffled the most third-party feathers.
A new industry trade group called the AppleTalk Networking Forum is the theater in which Apple will act out its dreams of collaboration with the routing vendors who connect corporate America's computers.
The organization was formed two months ago out of a compromise between Apple and rebellious router manufacturers who had wanted to replace the Internet Protocol tunneling scheme in the recently announced AppleTalk Update-based Routing Protocol (AURP) with a technology of their own.
As part of the settlement, Apple agreed to submit AURP to the ANF for comment, but not necessarily to change it in response to criticism - a deal most vendors interpret as indicating that Apple thinks it has the strength to impose its scheme.
As it stands today, AURP keeps routing tables updated without loading the network with traffic by sending information only when changes happen on the network.
Apple is studying the best way to enhance its interior-routing scheme, the Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP), to support more-robust connectivity in TCP/IP, IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) and Open Systems Interconnection networks. An interior routing protocol lets routers maintain maps of the entire network, but these schemes could increase network management traffic dramatically. Apple said it is considering integrating its RTMP with a pair of protocols, known as the Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), that let routers calculate the optimum connection between two network nodes. Adding support for IS-IS and OSPF to RTMP should improve AppleTalk performance on larger internetworks, according to Apple.
These protocols are the domain of enterprise routing companies, such as Cisco Systems Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., and Wellfleet Communications Inc. of Bedford, Mass., not traditional AppleTalk developers.
Hornbuckle said Apple has not made any decisions about how it will proceed; he hopes the ANF will provide the company with information and a common direction.
While developers contacted for this story said the ANF is an excellent mechanism for guaranteeing consistent end-user products, several questioned whether participation in the group wasn't tantamount to giving away competitive information, now that Apple's Enterprise Systems Division has decided to compete against third-party networking developers.
"Any improvements to AppleTalk automatically accrue to Apple, according to the license," one developer said. "There's a lot we should be contributing, but if Apple is going to compete with us, there may be some things we need to keep to ourselves."
MacWEEK 02.15.93
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(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: Apple jumping on wireless band
By April Streeter
San Francisco - Apple and third-party vendors are working on products that could provide flexible, wireless network connections for PowerBooks and the impending legions of personal digital assistants.
Apple's Advanced Technology Group is hard at work on a spread-spectrum radio network technology, sources said. When finished later this year, it reportedly will debut in a dock for the PowerBook Duo priced at about $500.
Apple's wireless dock will allow AppleTalk devices to get network services over the radio waves. The Grouper, a similarly priced device due in April from Digital Ocean of Overland Park, Kan., will let PowerBook users create workgroups, which the company calls "schools."
The Apple ATG radio device reportedly operates at the 2.4-to-2.5-GHz and 5.8-to-5.9-GHz regions of the radio spectrum and is said to use frequency hopping, which switches signals from one frequency to another when the device senses interference.
Groupers and other Digital Ocean wireless products due later this year rely on direct sequencing, which smears the data signal across a portion of the spectrum between 902 MHz and 928 MHz.
Infrared network connectivity, which Apple is preparing for forthcoming versions of Newton, has less success getting through doors and windows but has several other advantages, said Gary Hughes, president of Photonics Corp. of San Jose, Calif.
"If it's electronic-meeting and information exchange, infrared is better," Hughes said. "It's low cost, low power and doesn't need a [Federal Communications Commission] license. It's friendly."
Photonics expects to ship a new infrared AppleTalk networking device, named Cooperative, in the third quarter. The company released a $249 infrared transceiver for IBM PCs and compatibles last month.
Wireless LANs to date have found limited applications as extensions to wired networks for distant, fixed workstations and in hard-to-wire buildings. Developers who want to provide untethered connectivity must find ways to compensate for interference from walls and other devices while keeping power output low enough to conform with FCC regulations.
"Wireless LANs are still a slow, slow market. We're talking baby steps," said Richard Siber, analyst at BIS Strategic Decisions Inc. of Norwell, Mass. "PowerBooks will be the first to connect, and from there PDAs will drive wireless LAN [growth]."
PCMCIA network cards, because they will reduce the weight and bulk of devices, will be the next boost for wireless LANs, Siber said. But card designers must figure out how to shrink circuitry and still shield cards to prevent interference with logic boards inside PowerBooks and PDAs.
Photonics and Digital Ocean said they are working on PCMCIA versions of their respective products to work with the PCMCIA-slotted PowerBooks, which sources said are likely to appear in October.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
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(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: New color PBs got the look, but staying power is lacking
The PowerBook 165c has performance equal to the PowerBook 180, but traveling users will need a bushel of batteries.
By Sean Wagstaff
Mobile users may turn flush with excitement when they learn of Apple's first color notebook, but the blush will drain from their cheeks quickly when they hear about battery life in the new PowerBook 165c.
Slightly thicker and one-fifth of a pound heavier, the 165c is otherwise a PowerBook 180 with a passive-matrix display capable of putting up 256 colors. Although the processor is the same as in the 180, the motherboard has been supplemented with a small board containing the color circuitry. We had a hands-on first look at a 165c two weeks before its unveiling, and, with one major exception, we liked what we saw.
Performance. The 180 and the 165c use the same 33-MHz 68030 CPU and math coprocessor, and they both have minimal room for up to 14 Mbytes of RAM and an internal modem. In terms of performance, they were almost identical in every benchmark we ran (see MacWEEK, Dec. 14, 1992).The only anomaly was that the color PowerBook was slightly faster in eight-
bit-color mode than in black-and-white mode. Both Macs are significantly faster than the IIci.
At $3,399 for the 4/80 configuration, we think the 165c is priced to sell. (Configured with a 120-Mbyte drive, the price increases to $3,759.) Apple originally planned to offer a 160-Mbyte configuration, but drive vendors could not meet its supply requirements, the company said. The PowerBook 180, with its super-sharp active-matrix four-bit gray-scale display and extended battery life, remains priced at $4,109 for a 4/80 configuration.
Whose favorite color? A color notebook is indispensable to traveling salespeople who need to show potential customers compelling graphics in close quarters. Since the 165c shares the video-out and presentation mode of the 160 and the 180, presenters can display slides on the big screen, confident that they are looking at essentially the same information on their own displays. Graphics users can make sketches or develop presentations away from their desktop Macs, and businesspeople will enjoy the luxury of viewing their charts in color. Playing games is a lot more fun in color, too. In short, the arguments for a color PowerBook are just as compelling as the arguments for a color desktop Mac.
Of particular concern to Apple is the fact that many vendors of DOS notebooks have been shipping color units since about the time of the introduction of the first black-and-white PowerBook.
The color screen on the 165c is a 9-inch diagonal passive-matrix LCD capable of displaying 640 by 400 pixels, with contrast and brightness sliders in the usual places. However, the color screen is much more finicky toward adjustments than the ones in the gray-scale PowerBooks; a person with fumble fingers will adjust the screen repeatedly between the extremes of glare and darkness before achieving a pleasing setting. A cursory inspection reveals that you can comfortably view the screen in average light from about 30 degrees off perpendicular. This is nowhere near the field of view enjoyed by the gray-scale screens, and it may be an issue of concern if you plan to use the unit in places where two people need to view the monitor at once.
The 165c's screen has a grainy look to it unlike the 180's active matrix. But the color contrast reduces submarining - we couldn't make the cursor disappear - and the screen is bright.
Ghosting, the streaks that emanate from midscreen windows and objects, is more pronounced on the 165c. On a gray-scale screen, objects with midrange tonal value do not ghost over each other, but in color, a blue backdrop may contrast sharply with a red desktop, causing noticeable streaking.
Bringing up a dark desktop pattern or background screen reveals about one-quarter of an inch of "washout" - a halo of glare around the edges of the panel. This is actually better than some of the other color screens we've seen. Apple cites a new LCD material for bringing improvement, although we think there's still room for more.
Overall, Apple has done admirably at balancing the conflicting goals of brightness, color saturation, contrast and color fidelity.
A battery of concerns. In a notebook computer, it is not enough to be fast and colorful. While most people, most of the time, will carry the unit from one power outlet to another, trains, planes and automobiles will demand the use of a battery. The PowerBook 165c uses the same NiCad battery as the other all-in-one PowerBooks, but the color display takes its toll. While Apple claims two to three hours of continuous use from the gray-scale PowerBooks, it scales the claim down to one and a half to two hours for the color model. We put these claims to an informal test.
Our prerelease 165c was in the 4/80 configuration. It had a conditioned, freshly charged battery when we set out to do a typical piece of work using a standard mix of software. We left all of Apple's power-
management software at its default settings. Our applications were copied to the internal hard disk from an external drive immediately before our test began, and the brightness and contrast controls were set to the most pleasing setting.
Our work included writing an outline in Microsoft Word 5.1 and creating a chart in Microsoft Excel. We then imported these elements into Microsoft PowerPoint, applied a template and built a series of slides. We imported a fe} PICTs,∞ome clip art aKd a Qui™Time movie. Th}processwèroceeded withôÀt a hit~h: Word's perf¶Nmance ws crisp, we could easily yistinguish the bars in our Excel cha≈Ø and compare°them withH˝he legend, aèd the Pown}Point slidesıreally cam€§to life on Uce color s<reen. The PIg™s importe7 with the flwtened and d’thered appearance typical of eight-bit color, but ıheir efjct was still pØeasing.M[The QuickTime ¡ovie pl⁄ed#back extremFky well,giving the pre ’ntationZa whole new lo'Æ. BecauIe oÇ the processor speed and slight ghosting between f`ames, tuº movie actuall— lookedOìetter than wheÔ playedgin a Mac IIci. Unfortunately, QuickTime playback keeps the whole system running at maximum power.
After 57 minutes of this project, we received warning that power was getting low; afd≥r nine more minutes, the Mac insisted that there was "Very little power remaining. Shut down immediately!" So we did.
While it is certainly possible to achieve better than 66 minutes of battery life by reducing the processor speed, dimming the screen and avoiding system-intensive tasks, we think our test was pretty representative of the kind of work people are expected to do with a color PowerBook. Furthermore, few users get to start every cross-country flight with a freshly conditioned, perfectly charged battery. In general, you'll use most of a battery's charge, then recharge it, resulting in battery memory and loss of capacity.
While users with strong shoulders can lug around two or three extra batteries, the combined weight of these plus the porkiest PowerBook is encroaching on turf dubiously held by the old Mac Portable. In addition, Apple's batteries are not inexpensive accessories.
Conclusions. We like color, and putting it on the PowerBook was a natural evolution. Apple has done a good job of taking its high-end PowerBook and adapting it to a high-quality color screen. This computer has all of the advantages of speed and portability, although its weight is at the upper limit of what most people will happily heft. Those who need or long for a color notebook computer will not go wrong with the PowerBook 165c, as long as they travel only between plugs and carry a very long cord.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Reviews Page 64
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: Color becomes Classic; LC steps up
Along with the new 68040-based midrange machines, Apple released improvements on the low end - or what's become the low end - of the Mac line.
> Color Classic. Apple has given the compact Mac a shot in the arm both inside and out. The rounder and friendlier Mac Color Classic is built on the hand-me-down motherboard of the Mac LC with a 10-inch color screen built in. The result is a slow but impressive Mac that we think will be very popular. The 16-MHz 68030 in the Color Classic is strapped to a 16-
bit data bus but comes with a socket for a math co-processor and one SIMM slot, which uses normal 30-pin SIMMs.
All configurations come with 4 Mbytes of system RAM (that can be upgraded to a modest 10 Mbytes) and 256 Kbytes of video RAM; you can double the VRAM to get 16-bit color on the internal screen. The screen has a 9-inch viewable area, just like other compact Macs, but it contains a 640-by-480-pixel image; the result is 76 dpi and very sharp looking. The Color Classic has a single LC-compatible slot that is accessed easily without popping the case.
We expect the Color Classic will be a big hit, but the CPU speed needs to be doubled before it can fill the still-empty shoes left by the SE/30.
> LC III. Apple's most popular CPU keeps getting better. The latest incarnation runs at 25 MHz, has a 32-bit data bus instead of the 16-bit version previous LCs were saddled with, a socket for a math coprocessor, 4 Mbytes of RAM soldered on and one 72-pin SIMM slot that can handle up to 32 additional Mbytes of RAM.
The Mac LC III supports more monitors in more color depths than previous LCs; the big changes here are support for thousands of colors on a 13- or 14-inch monitor and 256 colors on a 16-inch monitor. The LC III's processor direct slot can accommodate older LC and LC II cards through a somewhat kludgy notched design, but sometimes compatibility is better than elegance. And the LC III is speedy; our tests show it running neck and neck with the same-speed Mac IIci.
Best of all, the prices on the LC III and Color Classic remain low, even though they both include keyboards. These Macs aren't aimed at corporate buyers, but the LC III especially could be pressed into service on many desktops without much compromise. - By Stephen Howard
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Reviews Page 65
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: New Macs get new SIMMs for enterprise standard
The Mac Quadra 800, along with the Centris models and the LC III, uses double-sided 72-pin SIMMs with capacities of 4 Mbytes or greater in any combination.
For example, you can use just one 4-Mbyte SIMM or any combination of 4-, 8-, 16- and 32-Mbyte modules. At long last, you are no longer confined to adding Mac RAM two or four SIMMs at a time.
The Quadra 800 and Centris 650 offer a special benefit if you install identical SIMMs in adjacent slots: RAM is interleaved, resulting in twice-normal access speeds.
Apple claims these 72-pin modules are the standard kind used with IBM PCs and compatibles, which, if true, should make purchasing and upgrades easier in mixed-platform environments. But we suspect it will make things more confusing in Mac-only sites and departments that already have a bad case of random-access schizophrenia. We also know that the Intel-based machines enjoy a number of conflicting standards, so managers of Macs and PCs aren't off the hook yet.
Memory from earlier Macs is not compatible with these new machines, so be prepared to leave the 64 Mbytes of RAM in your Quadra 700 behind when you get that hot new Quadra 800. - By Sean Wagstaff
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Reviews Page 66
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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News: Apple's new low-end lasers target single users
Apple's January introduction of the LaserWriter Pro series and the StyleWriter II neatly capped the top and bottom ends of the printer line. This month, the Personal LaserWriter NTR is joined by the Select series - the QuickDraw-based Select 300 and the PostScript Level 1 Select 310 - to fill in the middle.
We're not sure what demand there is for a QuickDraw laser printer, but if people won't bite at the 300's $819 price, they won't bite at all. The PostScript-capable 310 is expected to ship for $1,079, although Apple said it might shift the price slightly between now and the scheduled ship date of March 9.
Both printers are based on a new 5-page-per-minute, 300-dpi Fuji-Xerox print engine. They ship with 250-sheet paper trays for A4 and letter-
size paper. By adding an optional 250- or 500-sheet tray, the capacity can be boosted to nearly 800 sheets. An envelope tray is optional. The engine uses microfine toner in an all-in-one toner cartridge that retails for $99 and has a 4,000-page life.
Neither printer has controls on the front panel; all configuration and important feedback is accomplished through software. Bucking a disturbing trend, they do offer a power switch. Like the LaserWriter Pros, these new printers feature a domed top.
The printers differ in a number of fundamental ways:
> Select 310. Apple chose PostScript Level 1 for its low-end PostScript laser, primarily because it requires fewer hardware resources, the company said. The printer will offer both parallel and serial ports and ship with Mac and Windows drivers in the box. Thirteen PostScript fonts also are included. The unit ships with 1.5 Mbytes of RAM on board, expandable with one of the new Apple-standard 72-pin SIMMs to 5.5 Mbytes, which you'll need if you plan to print a full legal-size page of text and graphics.
Despite having both Windows and Mac-compatible connectors, the two ports are not active simultaneously. The first computer to print to the device determines the active port. After printing from a Mac, you'll have to shut down the unit to reset it if you want to print from a Windows machine. This strikes us as more than a little annoying given that Apple says the printer is intended for mixed-platform workgroups.
> Select 300. The LaserWriter Select 300 (which can be upgraded to the Select 310) offers a single serial connector instead of LocalTalk, and image rasterizing is performed on the host Mac. Apple includes its recent GrayShare software, so all users on a network can pick the Select 300 in the Chooser and print to it just as they would a network-aware printer. The difference is that the host Mac has to process the print jobs in the background. Engine-speed printing will occur only if you have a fast Mac doing the processing and are skimping on complex graphics.
Even though it's only a QuickDraw printer, the 300 includes Apple's PhotoGrade software, which improves halftone printing. But this works only if you upgrade the printer's standard 512 Kbytes of RAM to 4.5 Mbytes using a Mac IIci-style 4-Mbyte SIMM. We saw samples of output from the Select 300 using PhotoGrade, and the result is very good.
The Select 300 looks like a serious step up from the StyleWriter II. Print quality, speed and paper handling are all superior to the Personal LaserWriter LS, which it replaces. - By Sean Wagstaff
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Reviews Page 67
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Gateways: Vendors serve up branch-office links
Telebit to join trend with low-cost router
By April Streeter
San Francisco - Prompted by corporate America's efforts to decentralize, networking vendors are scrambling to offer devices for remote offices that affordably integrate hub, bridge, router and remote communications technologies.
In just the first six weeks of the year, 3Com Corp., Proteon Inc., Ungermann-Bass Inc. and partners Wellfleet Communications Inc. and Advanced Computer Communications Inc., among others, have downscaled existing products, added pieces of new technology and dropped prices to grab part of the branch-office market.
Telebit Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., next week will join the crowd by introducing a small-footprint model of its NetBlazer 40, a $4,599 dial-
in router designed to be the "poor man's solution" to branch-office access, according to the company. Aside from its multiprotocol and wide-
area routing capabilities, the NetBlazer with Version 2.0 of Telebit's software also can be an AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) server.
"Price is the make-or-break issue," said Fred McClimans, analyst at the Gartner Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn. "Most users don't care what technology is being used for the branch connection as long as ease of configuration, simplicity of management and [the right] costs are there."
The Gartner Group estimates that integrated network devices for branch or remote offices will become more common, especially as routing, bridging and hub technologies evolve into commodity products. The market also depends on access to high-speed telephone lines between offices.
Meanwhile, each network vendor approaches the problem from its own perspective, although all are conscious of keeping price within reach and emphasizing plug-and-play configuration and management from a central site.
Ungermann-Bass of Santa Clara, Calif., which takes the hub approach, this month will introduce bridging and multiprotocol wide-area routing inside an intelligent Access/One hub for $6,900. Ungermann-Bass is adding two of partner ACC's technologies to aid remote management: express queuing, which divides bandwidth to avoid congestion on a wide-
area link, and frame compression.
Earlier this year, Proteon of Westborough, Mass., took aim at the branch office with the $9,995 ProNET BOSS, which integrates a bridge and AppleTalk-compatible router with the company's Series 90 Smart Hub.
And 3Com, also of Santa Clara, made a splash in January by unveiling Boundary Routing, a technology that resembles bridging. Router-
management tasks are centralized in a heavy-duty 3Com NetBuilder router; the $3,495 boxes that sit at branch offices simply forward multiple-
protocol packets to their destination.
Many businesses need to extend a corporate LAN's services to multiple remote branches as well as provide dial-in services to mobile users.
"We have a lot of remote clinics and remote clients," said Chuck Sholton, assistant director of academic computing at the University of Texas in Austin. "NetBlazer is the only one that lets us solve our problem from one box and from one management site."
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Gateways Page 20
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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GA: Timeworks offers new pre-press utility, DTP bundle
By Carolyn Said
Northbrook, Ill. - Timeworks Inc. this month will deliver a low-cost color-separation utility and bundles of its pre-press products aimed at budget-conscious desktop publishers.
> Color It! PrePress. This new $149 four-color correction and separation utility is targeted at users of Color It!, a $299 image-editing and painting program developed by MicroFrontier Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa, and distributed by Timeworks. Color It! PrePress can separate TIFF images generated in any program, however.
PrePress' color-correction features include independent correction of each CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) channel; dodging, burning, cropping and smudging of images; and gamma-curve and contrast adjustments. Separation features include halftone and dot-gain controls, undercolor removal, and gray-component replacement.
To simplify separations, Color It! PrePress comes with preset parameters that can be modified by users.
Color It! users can purchase Color It! PrePress for $49.95.
> Desktop Publishing Partner Pack. Timeworks also will ship a $299.95 bundle comprising floppy disk and CD-ROM versions of Color It! and Publish It! Easy, the company's $199 DTP program. The CD version includes 3,000 clip-art images; 100 fonts; 275 sample document templates; 400 photographic images from PhotoDisc Inc. of Seattle; and Lightbox Image Retrieval, a limited version of PhotoDisc's $300 image-
database utility. Timeworks said it expects the bundle to sell at street prices of about $200.
> Desktop Publishing Bonus Pack. Another Timeworks bundle, priced at $259, will include Publish It! Easy; Paint It!, the company's $59 32-bit painting program; and Key Fonts, a $59.95 package of 100 TrueType and Type 1 fonts published by Softkey Software Products of Florida Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla.
Timeworks said it expects the bundle to have a street price of about $100.
All Timeworks programs come with a 60-day money-back guarantee and unlimited free technical support.
Timeworks Inc. is at 625 Academy Drive, Northbrook, Ill. 60062. Phone (708) 559-1300 or (800) 535-9497; fax (708) 559-1399.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
GA Page 30
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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BusinessWatch: Lack of Macs sore spot with dealers
IBM, Compaq, HP PCs also hard to get
By Jon Swartz
San Francisco - Apple's CPU blitz last week may promise more desktop bang for the buck, but dealers are more concerned by what Apple isn't delivering: its current lineup of Macs.
In fact, dealers say they are having a hard time getting their hands on other desktop computers as well.
The Mac IIsi and IIci have been scarce since Apple slashed the retail prices of configurations for both models to less than $1,000 in a move to phase them out. The Mac IIvx with CD-ROM and the PowerBook 145 and 180 have been in limited supply for months. And Apple told dealers last week it is phasing out the Quadra 700.
If dealers expect relief with the largest rollout of CPUs in Apple's history last week, they could be disappointed. Dealers said demand for the company's new PowerBook 165c as well as the Centris 610 and Quadra 800 - 68040 machines at midrange Mac prices - may outstrip supply and result in more product shortages.
An Apple spokeswoman said that although the company is "trying to clear up demand" from last fall's product announcements, it expects to have an adequate supply of new Macs to meet initial customer orders. "We have forecast a high demand for our new machines, but the same situation [of long-term shortages] could exist," she said.
Indeed, the problem doesn't just apply to Apple. Corporations, small businesses and consumers are snapping up IBM PCs and compatibles as fast as developers can slash their prices.
For example, Mike Cahn, regional president of Inacomp Computer Center in Denver, said his store recently lost a $150,000 contract because it could not supply enough IBM PCs.
"This isn't just an Apple problem. It's even worse with Compaq [Computer Corp.] and HP [Hewlett-Packard Co.]," said John Ullis, president of Quantum Computers Inc., a Tacoma, Wash., dealer that carries products from all three companies. "There has been an explosion in demand."
But while that has translated into skyrocketing sales for dealers with multiple brands and for most consumer outlets - Quantum registered a 68 percent increase in sales last month, for example - Apple-authorized resellers say they face a double-edged sword of declining margins and severe backlogs.
"Apple has absolutely nothing for us to sell. We had a hell of a bad Christmas and the worst January in our [nine-year] history," said Charlie Hummel, vice president of Allied Crafts Engineering. "The demand was there; the supply wasn't."
Hummel said the West Covina, Calif., dealer has since applied to resell IBM and HP products.
"The big challenge is selling more models at lower prices and keeping customers happy," Ullis said. "Not every dealer can do that."
MacWEEK 02.15.93
BusinessWatch Page 48
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Review: ARA accelerates with new servers
Multiline ARA products provide the solution to shortcomings in Apple's remote-technology scheme.
By Jonathan A. Oski
Few things have affected the Mac market to the degree AppleTalk Remote Access has in the past 18 months. Combined with the PowerBook, ARA has made retrieving mail on your remote computer as commonplace as picking it up at the office.
For many organizations, however, the software solution provided by Apple has been inadequate, partly because of its requirement that a Mac act as a remote-access server.
Last summer, Shiva Corp. introduced the first dedicated ARA server, the LanRover/L, a single-port device with a LocalTalk connection (see MacWEEK, July 27, 1992). While the LanRover/L addressed some of the shortcomings of Apple's product, its single-port design was deemed insufficient for many organizations with growing remote-access requirements.
In response to burgeoning demand for multiline dial-in servers, Shiva and Cayman Systems Inc. recently began shipping the LanRover/E and GatorLink, respectively.
These new products are multiline ARA servers with Ethernet connections. Shiva's LanRover/E is offered in both a four- and eight-port configuration. The GatorLink comes in a three-port model.
Installation and configuration. The documentation provided with each product has a section devoted to helping you get up and running quickly.
Both the LanRover/E and GatorLink offer the full gamut of Ethernet interfaces. They each provide ports for 10BASE T, thick (10BASE 5) and thin (10BASE 2) Ethernet. The GatorLink also can be connected directly to most pre-10BASE T twisted-pair Ethernet networks using a switch setting on its rear panel.
After connecting the device to your network, you must attach modems to one or more of the ports on the back of the unit before you can configure the device. Both Shiva and Cayman allow you to use a variety of modems, yet they have chosen different means to provide this support. Shiva uses the standard ARA CCL (Command Control Language) files provided by Apple and various modem vendors. Cayman has chosen an approach to modem scripting that is limited to common AT commands and modem responses.
Modem scripts for the standard ARA modems (those that Apple has included with ARA) and a handful of others are included with the GatorLink Manager. You can modify these scripts or create new ones using the GatorLink Manager's integrated script editor.
Cayman said it chose this approach because it makes it easier to add support for new modems and eliminates the complexities inherent in ARA CCLs. On the other hand, ARA CCLs are routinely provided by most modem vendors, so users should rarely need to delve into the realm of CCL hacking to get basic ARA support for a new modem.
Once the modems are connected and the device is on-line, you can begin the configuration process. The LanRover/E uses Shiva's familiar Net Manager application. You can use this same application to manage Shiva's LanRover/L, NetModem/E and FastPath devices.
If you have an installed base of Shiva's Ethernet products, the Net Manager already is part of your repertoire. Cayman has a separate application, the GatorLink Manager, for managing its product.
Network considerations. Before you configure one of these devices you will need to make some decisions regarding how your network will be viewed by your dial-in clients, and vice versa.
The GatorLink can be configured only as a forwarding end node - more or less a bridge to a single device. This simplifies the installation and configuration process, but your dial-in users will "see" more of the traffic on your network and thus be subjected to some unnecessary overhead. The LanRover/E can be configured as either an end node or as a full router, shielding your dial-in users from irrelevant background network traffic.
There are pros and cons to both approaches. The ARA server functioning as an end node is easier to set up than a router. However, since the router maintains an up-to-date routing table for your network, packets forwarded by the server will take the most efficient path to their destination. But introducing another router on your network can cause unnecessary headaches if not properly configured, so you should give careful thought to your setup before installing the LanRover/E.
Basic configuration parameters for both products include setting the device name, specifying the type of modem attached to each port, assigning an administration password and specifying the zone in which the device will appear on your network.
Aside from these common aspects of the configuration process, there are a few features that differentiate these products. The GatorLink Manager allows you to specify separate passwords for modifying or just viewing the GatorLink configuration. It also allows you to reset individual modems if one port suddenly goes awry.
In addition, there are subtle differences in the way that you specify the ARA servers' zone. With Shiva's Net Manager, you select the zone in which the device will appear from a scrolling list; with the GatorLink Manager, you must type this zone name into the field provided. While this opens the possibility that you could mistype the zone name, it offers you the flexibility of configuring the GatorLink off the network.
Security. Configuring access security is the next step in the setup process. This is one area where there is some notable disparity between the two products. Those familiar with Shiva's LanRover/L appreciate the ease with which you can manage user access across a number of different server devices. You maintain lists of users via user documents - files stored on disk that are separate from the server configuration. You can manage these lists separately from the devices themselves.
Shiva also allows you to manage user accounts directly from within the device, but the additional capability to manage them separately makes maintaining security across a number of devices much easier.
User names are limited to 31 and 32 characters on the LanRover/E and GatorLink, respectively, yet you can view only 10 to 15 characters in the limited space provided by the GatorLink Manager - we found this to be an annoying and unnecessary limitation.
Dial-back is a convenient security feature offered by many remote-access products. It allows you to associate a phone number with a user account to verify that a user is at a particular location when connecting to your network. It also can be used to free your dial-in clients from bearing the expense of long-distance remote-access sessions. Currently, the LanRover/E supports dial-back and the GatorLink does not.
For organizations with more rigorous security requirements, such as financial institutions and defense contractors, dial-back is an inadequate form of access security. A more robust alternative to dial-
back is provided by Security Dynamics Inc.'s SecurID system, which gives each user a credit card-size token with an LCD display that is time-
synchronized with a central authentication server. Each time users desire access they must provide their user IDs and the access codes that appear on the tokens at that specific time.
Cayman has integrated the SecurID system with the GatorLink such that it can be used as the sole authentication device for allowing remote access. The GatorLink is configured with the Internet Protocol address and UDP port of the Unix-based SecurID Server for your network, ensuring the highest possible security for dial-in access.
The Security Dynamics system, as well as others, also can be used in conjunction with the LanRover/E, but some CCL hacking is required as these devices are not explicitly supported by the product at this time.
A further measure of security can be defined for both products. Using the Net Manager, you can limit dial-in users' access to only the zone in which the LanRover/E resides. GatorLink Manager provides a more flexible option, letting you grant or restrict access to each zone.
Finally, the amount of time a user can stay connected is configurable as either unlimited or a set number of minutes.
Server management. Once you have your ARA server running, it requires little management. Of course, if you have a dynamic organization with constant need for addition and deletion of user accounts, this might consume some time. In this respect, the LanRover/E comes out on top, especially if you have a collection of ARA servers in your organization. Shiva's provision for managing user lists and then uploading them to one or more LanRovers simplifies this administration task immensely.
Another management task you may face involves troubleshooting connection problems. Both products provide a log of connection attempts and modem responses.
With the LanRover/E, the log is stored on the device as memory permits. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the GatorLink. Each time you use the GatorLink Manager the log is cleared. To troubleshoot the GatorLink you have to save the log each time you launch the GatorLink Manager. This task could prove tiresome if you are having problems with your GatorLink.
Conclusions. Both the LanRover/E and GatorLink are solid products. We did not experience any problems with these devices throughout our test period.
Measuring real-world performance of an ARA server is a difficult task as there are many variables that affect use of the product. Performance is affected by factors such as traffic on your Ethernet segment, the line quality of your dial-in users and the type of modems used.
You also will witness differences in performance based on the type of applications used by your dial-in clients (such as mail retrieval, file transfer or database access).
During our evaluation, both products performed equal to or better than a Macintosh IIci used as a dedicated ARA server. We noticed no real degradation in performance when multiple ports were in use simultaneously, although we did not test more than three concurrent users at any time.
One point to consider is the number of ports offered by the products. Shiva's eight-port LanRover/E has the lowest cost per port, at $375, but you may be taking an unnecessary risk buying a single device as a remote-access server. If it should fail, you will be without a dial-in facility.
The documentation provided with both products is clear and thorough. However, at this time we found the LanRover/E a better buy for a few reasons, most notably Shiva's Net Manager software, which is a more mature and polished application than GatorLink Manager. This is no doubt related to the fact that it has been used with other Shiva products for some time now.
Cayman has some interesting enhancements planned for the GatorLink, however, that might make the choice between the two devices more difficult.
Northwest Park, 63 Third Ave., Burlington, Mass. 01803
Phone (617) 270-8300; fax (617) 270-8599
Score Card: Multiport ARA servers
AppleTalk network managers will find welcome relief with either of these new multiport AppleTalk Remote Access servers. Both Cayman Systems Inc.'s GatorLink and Shiva Corp.'s LanRover/E provide multiple points of entry for your dial-in users.
> GatorLink from Cayman is a three-port AppleTalk Remote Access server with Ethernet capability. Its per-port cost of $631.67 makes it slightly more expensive than others in this market. Cayman's GatorLink Manager software is not as polished as others we have seen and has some notable rough spots in terms of client-account management. The GatorLink is the right choice for organizations with strict security requirements. Its integration with Security Dynamics Inc.'s SecurID system allows you to use a common security system for enterprisewide access control.
> LanRover/E from Shiva is available in both four- and eight-port models, with per-port costs of $499.75 and $374.88, respectively. Your deployment preferences will dictate whether you want to place all your AppleTalk Remote Access servers in one location, in which case a server with more ports is beneficial, or spread them throughout your organization, in which case fewer ports per server may be more economical. The LanRover/E is a natural choice for organizations that have invested in other Shiva products (such as the FastPath 5, NetModem/E or LanRover/L). The Net Manager application makes managing multiple devices a breeze. Although the LanRover/E can be configured to work with external security systems, such as SecurID, it will take some CCL (Command Control Language) hacking and still not provide a totally integrated approach.
GatorLink LanRover/E
Overall value **** ****
Price $1,895* $1,999**
Performance **** ****
Features *** ****
Ease of use *** ****
Installation/configuration **** ****
Documentation/support **** ****
* For 10BASE T only; $1,995 for 10BASE T and other protocols.
** For four ports; $2,999 for eight ports.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Reviews Page 57
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Mac the Knife: Livin' large on Tokyo time
No matter what your game, its name is usually trade-offs. Several thoughtful callers brought that fact of life to the Knife's attention last week.
On the one hand, there was the chance to take a trip to Tokyo that most of us could justify to our designated corporate expense-account overlord. Apple's mondo product rollout was fairly compelling. But so was the frenetic ramp up to Valentine's Day, which began last week with Oprah's terrifically enlightening live interview with the Great One.
But in the end, Japan had the greater pull. Most sources reported that visiting Japan in the midst of its own recession was very enlightening. The subway system and many secluded alleys, they say, are still relatively safe during even the darkest hours of the night. Of course, what these sources were doing in dark alleys in the wee hours is a subject best left to private speculation.
Other reports were less encouraging. You might chalk this one up to the creeping Americanization of the global culture, or perhaps you can blame it on Apple's ongoing inability to satisfy demand for new product, but more than a few Macs were stolen from vendors' booths.
The most popular models were the Quadra 800 and 950, although scarcity may have played a factor in controlling the number of 165c PowerBooks that developed legs of their own. Apple, for example, managed to hold on to three of its original four-color laptops for use in its Macworld Expo booth.
Shades of marketing. In case you are lacking a reliable indicator of how much mass-market retailers want to sell Macs, consider Wal-Mart, one of the new breed of retailers that distinguishes itself from the old-style competition by actually earning a profit.
For reasons conceivably known only to Apple, Wal-Mart failed to make the cut for Performa authorization. Exhibiting telling cunningness that may account for its success, Wal-Mart did what differently authorized dealers often did back in the heyday of computer specialty stores: It simply turned to the gray market for a ready source of new in-the-box product. The result is that those so inclined recently have been able to buy Classics, and maybe the odd Mac LC, at their local Wal-Mart.
Regardless of the wisdom of authorizing ailing retailers such as Sears while passing on a successful one, Apple exhibits a refreshing willingness to explore new opportunities.
The Knife has learned that in addition to the group that's exploring supplying key-encoded applications on CD-ROM for Performa customers (revealed last week), Apple also is giving serious consideration to entering the multimedia content arena. So perhaps one day we'll all be adding to Apple's revenue stream by paying for the information it provides us in addition to the tools to manipulate it.
Resolve to Write. Few companies offer an example more diverting than Apple's own Claris Corp. for those of us who enjoy watching developers respond to changing circumstances. It's up; it's down. It's in; it's out.
While most were concentrating on the HyperCard story, Claris was quietly pulling the life support from Resolve, its trick spreadsheet based on Wingz technology purchased from Informix. Call it the end of denial or just good business sense, but Claris has stopped all development on future versions. Corporate sites have told the Knife that Claris has offered to provide for free the support for which it was previously charging.
That said, it's only fair to record that Claris itself is absolutely convinced beyond doubt that MacWrite Pro may be released by the end of March.
Look at it this way. You can get in on the radio call-in craze to air your opinions, or maybe try to make the cut for the next national town meeting with the president, but when you get down to it, we've got your call-in democracy right here at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 02.15.93
Mac the Knife Page 134
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