Cupertino, Calif. - A storm of changes is expected to hit the Mac next spring when Apple reportedly will undertake its biggest CPU paradigm shift since the Mac II.
Code-named Cyclone, the new Mac will have a true 32-bit bus architecture, the fastest 68040 available at the time, video-in and video-out capabilities, and an on-board digital signal processor (DSP) providing built-in telephony and speech recognition, sources said. Current plans call for System 7, QuickTime, the QuickDraw GX imaging engine and a limited version of Apple's Casper voice toolbox to be built into the machine's 2 Mbytes of ROM.
> Hardware.
Cyclone reportedly will have three NuBus slots, video-in and video-out capabilities, built-in Ethernet, four video RAM slots to support 24-bit color on two-page displays, and direct memory access on all buses.
DMA and Cyclone 's true 32-bit internal architecture will make it the first Mac to deliver no-wait-state throughput at full 68040 speeds. SCSI throughput will be double the Quadra's top speed of about 4 Mbytes per second.
The new machine also will mark the debut of a new DMA- supported serial architecture, called WorldPort, that is designed for speeds up to
2 Mbps. Apple is expected to offer a variety of telephony modules, including RJ-11, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and PBX, as options for the machine's two WorldPorts.
The only trade-off for Cyclone's speed, sources said, is that the computer will run only in 32-bit mode.
> DSP.
Another major difference in the Cyclone logic board, sources said, is the addition of a DSP derived from AT&T's 3210 processor. Cyclone reportedly will use the chip for compressed 44-kHz, 16-bit stereo sound input and output (CD audio quality); QuickTime compression; speech recognition and synthesis; and emulation of a 9,600-bps send-receive fax modem.
With the right software, the DSP could make Cyclone into a digital answering machine, using caller ID and a phone-number database to filter calls and recording voice messages as QuickTime files.
DSPs also can be used for application-specific acceleration for programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
> Video.
Cyclone also will be the first Mac with built-in analog and digital video, sources said. The system reportedly will accept and output video in NTSC (National Television System Committee), PAL (European) or SECAM (French) formats through composite and S-video in and out ports; it will also translate between standards.
Two frame buffers will be on the logic board, and the machine will support direct-to-disk full-bandwidth video, allowing users to mix Mac graphics with live video in real time.
Sources said Apple expects that Cyclone's wealth of features will help sustain sales of the 680x0-based Mac line while the company's RISC-based systems and software that takes full advantage of the PowerPC platform are under development. Eventually, the PowerPC chip will deliver many of the new machine's functions at lower cost.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
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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Managers say Apple is taking care of business
By John Battelle
San Francisco - At the MacIS conference in Dallas three years ago, an Apple representative flown out to address the organization's top 10 concerns took the podium. "Look," he said to the elite group of Mac managers, "I have a plane to catch in 10 minutes, so if we can make this quick "
For many members of MacIS (Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems), that incident represented Apple's seeming indifference toward computing in enterprise systems. The Mac had grown up, and managers wanted a clear signal from Apple that behind the friendly computer with the smiling face was a serious company committed to supporting the needs of big business.
In the past six months, MacIS has gotten such a signal.
Apple has reorganized Apple USA into four distinct units, one of which, the Enterprise Systems Division, is solely responsible for enterprise systems. With VITAL (Virtually Integrated Technical Architecture Lifecycle), it has committed to provide an architecture for integrating Macs into large multivendor networks. After receiving MacIS' latest top-10 list (see chart at right), Apple for the first time took MacIS officers under non-disclosure and revealed a new support strategy designed specifically for corporate accounts. Bob Puette, head of Apple USA, now keeps the MacIS top-10 list on his desk.
"We have come a long way from the darker days of the Dallas conference," said Brian Comnes, senior manager of information systems at DHL Airways Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. Comnes, who directs MacIS' top-10 lists, added, "Each [succeeding] conference has been better than the last."
MacIS will hold its seventh conference in San Francisco next week, and Apple will be there in full force, with a point-by- point response to each of the 10 concerns detailed at last November's meeting (see MacWEEK, Nov. 19, 1991).
>Beefing up corporate support.
Topping the list is support. "MacIS is confused by [Apple's support] 'strategy du jour' of the last 18 months," the tersely written list from six months ago reads. Apple has made a major commitment to addressing the support issue since the list, according to both Apple and MacIS officials.
"They have actually told us things they are going to do before [telling] their field staff, which is pretty amazing," Comnes said. "The relationship is open and solid."
M.K. Starling, digital systems steward at Union Carbide Corp. of South Charleston, W.Va., said: "I got a sense that they are defining their customer base, understanding their larger corporate accounts." Starling, who is responsible for MacIS' support task force, added: "[Apple is] taking heed of MacIS input. The last reorganization [of Apple USA] appears to lower some of the barriers for enterprise customers."
While Apple and MacIS would not give specifics, it appears that Apple is planning to strengthen its relationship with large customers by offering fee-based on-site support as well as specific products, including an on-line database of support information. "It is evident that the industry needs new models [for support]," said Jack Murphy, Apple senior director of customer support, products and services. "We are looking at performance support more geared toward the institutional site, those who have their own in-house people. We are looking to back those people up."
Apple plans to beef up its support staff to meet these new priorities, according to Mike Dionne, senior vice president and general manager for institutional business, the new unit created by the Apple USA reorganization. Support will now focus on the organization, rather than its geographical location. "Where previously we had been broken into regions, we now have one organization responsible for business sales and support," he said.
>Delivering enterprise data.
Support was not the only issue on MacIS' list, however. Also high on the chart was more-concrete information and products regarding VITAL, Apple's architecture for multivendor systems. Since the last meeting, Apple has published a 50-page booklet detailing VITAL, but actual tools have yet to be produced. While MacIS would like to see products, "the big goal was to make it public, and they have met that goal," Comnes said.
No. 3 was the enhancement of Data Access Language (DAL), Apple's enterprisewide database server architecture. Comnes said that Apple has been relying on third parties to provide enhanced services for DAL, which has become a staple of many large sites. But "there is still a long way to go," he said.
>Improving network, development tools.
Delivering network- management tools based on SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), by now an industry standard, and MIBs (Management Information Bases) was No. 4 on the MacIS list. Apple has committed to this point but has yet to deliver a product. However, Apple has released a product that addresses MacIS' fifth issue: providing improved network security. AppleShare 3.0, with its more-robust administration and security features, is a major step, Comnes said.
Apple also has announced support for issue No. 6: providing development tools for Windows, Unix and OS/2 environments. At the MacApp Developers Association meeting in March, Apple officials stressed that the forthcoming PowerPC platform will support cross-platform development and that a Windows object-oriented programming product will be "substantially under development" this year. And Apple CEO John Sculley announced that tools for OCE (Open Collaboration Environment), Apple's announced networking standard, and a player for QuickTime, its multimedia standard, will be made available for Windows; portions of the Mac print and display architecture may be available as well.
MacIS' seventh issue was improved support for TCP/IP, and just last week Apple announced a token-ring extension for its MacTCP software. The eighth and ninth issues (provide or certify Mac development tools and manage technical support with strategic third parties) will be addressed by the Apple USA reorganization, Murphy said.
All sides agreed that Apple is making progress on the final item, pen-based Macs. Apple already has announced its intentions to deliver pen-based Personal Digital Assistants and migrate the technology to true Macintosh-class machines by next year.
"The signs at Apple are more hopeful than they have ever been," said MacIS' Starling. "The task force is happy with the things they have heard, and they felt like they have been listened to."
MacWEEK 05/25/92
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Mac links to OSI at Interop
By Mitch Ratcliffe
Washington - Apple last week bit into the Open Systems Interconnection market, introducing a suite of OSI connectivity software at Interop Spring 92.
The company rolled out MacX.400 Server, a store-and-forward electronic-mail engine that converts messages for delivery over X.400 networks; MacODA, an extension that converts documents between Claris Corp.'s XTND and Open Document Architecture (ODA), the International Standards Organization's compound-document specification; and MacOSI Transport, an OSI protocol stack that includes configuration tools.
> MacX.400 Server, due this fall for $5,000, will run on a Mac II-family machine connected to Ethernet or to X.25 networks via Apple's Serial NB Card and MacX25 software. X.400 is an international standard that allows applications running on different platforms to exchange messages.
"We need data networks (like X.400) with addresses that have global significance," said Laurie Bride, manager of communications technology at Boeing Co.'s Boeing Computer Services Division in Seattle.
The server, based on the 1984 specification for an X.400 Message Transfer Agent, supports an unlimited number of Mac clients through third-party gateways.
Mac users on a LAN, for example, could send mail from Microsoft Mail to an X.400 network through the MacX.400 Server and an as-yet-unnamed gateway from StarNine Technologies Inc. of Berkeley, Calif. The gateway is due this fall; pricing has not been set. InterCon Systems Corp. of Herndon, Va., last week shipped Dispatcher/X.400, a gateway that will link CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail to Apple's X.400 server.
Once in X.400 format, mail could travel to users of Digital Equipment Corp.'s ALL-IN-1 Mail or IBM Corp.'s Profs X.400 Connection, among others. According to Apple, its X.400 connection will interface with public-switched data networks such as those from MCI, Sprint and Atlas400 in Europe.
An application programming interface that will ship with the MacX.400 Server will let developers build X.400-compatible applications that do not require gateways. An OCE (Open Collaboration Environment)-compatible version of the MacX.400 Server is expected to ship when Apple releases OCE this fall.
Earlier this month Isocor announced an X.400 gateway for QuickMail, an OCE client that connects to the company's DOS- based X.400 servers and a Mac-based server (see MacWEEK, May 18).
> MacODA, a $149 filter due this fall, will let XTND- compatible applications read ODA-format documents. This will let users open files created on other platforms using ODA. Since Apple's X.400 server includes no translation capability, MacODA provides an option for multiplatform document exchange.
MacODA will translate only Helvetica, Times and Courier fonts across platforms. All other fonts will default to Times. PICT images will be translated into Computer Graphics Metafile format, while raster images will be mapped bit for bit between computer environments, according to Apple.
> MacOSI Transport, Apple's third standards-oriented announcement, is a tool for the Macintosh Communications Toolbox, which implements the OSI protocol stack. The tool will support point-to-point connections using the ISO Transport protocol over Ethernet and X.25 wide-area networks.
For example, a Mac client will be able to log onto a server and download data across an X.25 telephone connection. The $200 MacOSI XTI (X/Open Transport Interface) Developer's Kit will let developers add OSI compatibility to their applications.
Apple demonstrated MacOSI by running a video-conferencing application that its European engineers had hacked together over an OSI Ethernet network.
"OSI will solve a significant problem we've had since the 1960s when working with vendors and customers around the world," Bride said.
Apple also introduced an upgrade to MacTCP 1.1 that will support TCP/IP over token-ring networks. Due in June, the MacTCP Token Ring Extension will be bundled with MacTCP 1.1 and will be available for downloading from AppleLink and other on-line services.
The company also showed a prototype router running the AppleTalk Update-based Routing Protocol, a more efficient method for carrying AppleTalk over wide-area TCP/IP or OSI networks.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
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Claris tooling up MacProject Pro for fall release
By Andrew Gore
Santa Clara, Calif. - An upgrade to Claris Corp.'s project- management application should help keep the best-laid plans of Mac managers from going astray.
MacProject Pro, scheduled to debut in August, , reportedly will ship this fall. Key features, sources said, include an automatic project outliner, true resource-limited scheduling, network-based project planning, customizable reports and time lines, and robust data exchange.
> Intelligent outlining.
The update adds a window containing a text-based outliner. According to sources, the outliner automatically generates project charts when users enter plans and schedules, including the work breakdown structure and outline numbering.
Users also can add pieces of an outline to the chart structure by dragging them to the chart window, sources said.
> Resource-limited scheduling.
"Almost all project-planning software does dependency-limited scheduling well, but it's shocking how poor they are at resource-limited scheduling," said a MacProject tester who asked not to be named. "I've ended up using most planning applications as overglorified paint programs because they couldn't do this simple thing."
For example, a project consists of two tasks. Task one requires employee A to work on it for five weeks and employee B to work on it for one week. Task two requires employee B to work on it for two weeks.
Most project planners assume that task two can't start for five weeks because employee B is listed as a resource for both task one and two, said the tester, even though employee B would be free after a week to work on task two. Resource- limited scheduling would free up employee B for task two once her one-week assignment on task one is completed.
Other scheduling and resources features reportedly include new schedule lead and lag relationships, schedule restraints, task calendars, cross-project resource leveling, and the ability to open multiple projects simultaneously. MacProject Pro is expected to allow unlimited resources per task instead of the eight maximum in MacProject II 2.5.
> Distributed projects.
The new version will let multiple users work on a subproject with full access to resource and task data in related subprojects on the network. Master projects can link multiple subprojects while displaying only summary data from each.
Data linking, currently limited to Claris Resolve, will be expanded to include customizable report and graph links to Microsoft Excel and Claris' FileMaker Pro, sources said.
> Time lines and reports.
MacProject Pro reportedly will include two new tables: a project overview table and an allocation table of resource information on a project.
The new version will support searching and sorting of tables, headers and footers, and customizable time-line shapes and bars, sources said. Users can save multiple views of each project and recall them later, sources said.
MacProject Pro reportedly will support core and custom Apple events, publish and subscribe, and balloon help.
"This is a significant update to the product," a tester said. "This takes MacProject and puts it ahead of the project- planner pack."
Pricing has not yet been set on MacProject Pro, sources said. MacProject II 2.5 retails for $499.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
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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Connectivite front-end tools span platforms
By Henry Norr
Tarrytown, N.Y. - When Connectivit Corp. last year changed the name of its mainframe front-ending tool from Masquerade to Both, just what the new name meant was not entirely clear.
Now the mystery is resolved, and the Both name has taken on several meanings: A new version of the product, due next month, will let users design "cooperative applications" with user-friendly graphical interfaces to both mainframe and AS/400 applications, then run the same GUI front end on both Mac and Windows.
Apple officials reportedly demonstrated the program at this month's Executive Forum, a company-sponsored gathering of top MIS officials from major customer accounts. One attendee, Seth Gersch, managing director and chief administrative officer of Montgomery Securities of San Francisco, said he was so impressed that he called Connectivit from a pay phone during a break.
"We use a lot of 5250 terminal-emulation software here, and the screens are terribly unappealing," he said. "The screens I saw in the demo looked very smooth and easy to use."
The upcoming update, Both 3.0, will add 5250 emulation for applications running on the AS/400, IBM Corp.'s popular midrange system; like previous versions, it also will offer 3270 mainframe emulation. The new developers kit will let designers create synthetic applications that combine multiple sessions on one or more hosts, on both mainframe and midrange architectures, in a single screen.
A runtime engine that will let Windows users run front-end applications built with Both 3.0 on the Mac is due in August. Connectivit said object code generated with the new version of Both will be "100 percent-compatible" across platforms. A utility called Mac-to-WIN Converter will modify programs generated with earlier versions of Both to work with the Windows runtime.
The pioneering front-ending kit on the Mac, MitemView from Mitem Corp. of San Jose, Calif., provides only 3270 emulation and does not support Windows users, since it relies on Mac- only software - either Claris Corp.'s HyperCard, Aldus Corp.'s SuperCard or ACIUS Inc.'s 4th Dimension - as its front-end environment. No Windows front-ending package offers Mac support, according to Connectivit.
Both takes a unique approach to simplify and speed up front- end development. The application designer first runs an emulation session from within Both. The program saves each screen, and the designer can then use a Mac-style tool palette to map host fields and menus to easier-to-use Mac interface features, such as radio buttons, scrolling lists and pop-up lists. The designer also can add functions unavailable on the underlying host software, such as multivariate calculations and matrices.
The Both 3.0 developers kit, including one Mac runtime license and three months of technical support, is $4,995. A $7,495 Pilot Package includes the same software and nine months of technical support, plus three days of development time by a Connectivit engineer; the company guarantees that if "a complete, polished cooperative application designed to the customer's specifications" is not ready for rollout after three days, the customer is not obligated to pay for the software.
Mac runtime licenses range from $300 to less than $100 per user, depending on numbers. Prices for the Windows runtime and the converter utility have not been set.
Connectivit Corp. is at 220 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, N.Y. 10591. Phone (914) 631-5365; fax (914) 631-6930.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
News Page 1
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Aldus to turn out new PageMaker
Version 5.0 to add 100 new features
By Carolyn Said
Seattle - Aldus Corp. is working on a new version of PageMaker, its $795 flagship desktop publishing program. Meanwhile, the company this month will release a bug-fix update.
> PageMaker 5.0, due by the end of this year, will have more than 100 new features, Aldus said. It will let users open more than one PageMaker publication at a time, rotate text and graphics in 0.10-degree increments, and print color separations directly from PageMaker. Printing performance, ease of use and color capabilities also will be improved.
In addition, PageMaker on both the Mac and Windows will support Microsoft Corp.'s OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) standard. OLE will tie PageMaker to other programs so users could double-click on an embedded Microsoft Excel chart to launch Excel from within PageMaker, for example.
Aldus, which has had a rocky time lately (see MacWEEK, May 4), acknowledged that QuarkXPress, PageMaker's $895 rival from Denver-based Quark Inc., has been a formidable competitor.
"We're busting butt to get in front of Quark," said Sandy Smith, chief operating officer. "Quark has some features we don't have, although we're far ahead on stability and service. The next version of PageMaker will deliver features that high-end users have been asking for, for some time."
> PageMaker 4.2a, free to all registered users, fixes some problems that PageMaker 4.2 users encountered, such as errors when printing pages larger than 22.75 inches, occasional gaps on fill patterns, image-optimization errors on some imagesetters, and some font and spooler incompatibilities.
The update also includes a filter for Microsoft Word 5.0 and several new Additions, or add-on code modules: Baseline Shift, which moves text up or down relative to the baseline; Story Info, which reports on the size of a story, where the first and last text blocks are, and what files it is linked to; Textblock Info, which provides similar data for a text block; and Traverse Textblock, which lets users navigate to the first, next, previous or last text block in a story.
Aldus Corp. is at 411 First Ave. S., Seattle, Wash. 98104- 2871. Phone (206) 622-5500; fax (206) 343-4240.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
Graphics Applications Page 26
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MacWEEK 200 Survey
This report on the largest Mac sites highlights findings from the MacWEEK 200, a survey of the largest U.S. and Canadian commercial and government locations, and its sister survey, the Education 50, a survey of the largest U.S. and Canadian educational institutions.
MacWEEK conducted its fourth annual survey identifying the 200 U.S. and Canadian commercial and government sites with the largest Macintosh installations. These sites account for a total of 384,313 Macs, or 1,922 per site on average. Unfortunately, refinements in the 1992 MacWEEK 200 methodology make many year-to-year comparisons inadvisable. Still, it is worth noting that this year's survey found about twice as many Macs in the current MacWEEK 200, compared with last year's total of nearly 200,000.
Ninety-five percent of this year's MacWEEK 200 sites have a Mac IIci or IIsi, with an average of 577 at these sites. An equal percentage (95 percent) of the MacWEEK 200 have other Mac II models, for an average of 604 among this group.
More than half the sites already have Quadras, with an average of 39 of these powerful new Macs among these locations. PowerBooks or Mac Portables are found at 71 percent of the sites surveyed, with an average of 59 at these locations.
>Other computers.
The MacWEEK 200 have more than 1 million (1,026,251) microcomputers or workstations installed, for an average of 5,131 per site. Macs represent 41 percent of all microcomputers installed.
Ninety-eight percent of the sites also have IBM PCs or compatibles, with an average of 3,400 among this group. Four- fifths of the sites - 81 percent - have workstations, with an average of 779 installed.
>Purchase plans.
Planned purchases suggest that the Mac share of microcomputers at MacWEEK 200 sites will grow slightly this year. Projected Mac purchases will increase the current Mac installed base by 17 percent, while projected purchases will increase the installed base of PCs by 12 percent. Based on these projected purchases, Macs will account for 42 percent of the microcomputers installed at these locations.
When it comes to planned PowerBook purchases, this year's MacWEEK 200 show a marked preference for the high end: 63 percent of the sites said they will purchase PowerBook 170s, compared with 40 percent for the PowerBook 140 and 9 percent for the PowerBook 100.
In terms of the number of PowerBooks planned for purchase, the 170 also dominates: 76 percent of all PowerBook purchases will be 170s, 22 percent will be 140s and 2 percent will be 100s.
>Education 50.
MacWEEK conducted its second annual survey identifying the top 50 educational institutions with the largest Macintosh installations. These sites account for a total of 211,227 Macs, or 4,225 per site on average.
A very high proportion - 84 percent - of the Education 50 report having Quadra 700s or 900s, with an average of 62 among these sites. Ninety-eight percent have Mac IIci or IIsi machines, with an average of 794. Mac SE or SE/30 machines are present at 98 percent of the Education 50, with an average of 1,172 installed.
Purchase plans among the Education 50 lean toward the high- end models. Eighty-six percent plan to purchase Quadras, buying an average of 98. Eighty-eight percent plan to purchase IIci or IIsi machines, buying an average of 221 machines.
>Other computers.
The Education 50 have a total of 405,388 Macs, PCs or workstations installed, with an average of 8,108 per site. Macs represent 56 percent of all microcomputers installed.
All the Education 50 sites have PCs installed, with an average of 3,366 per site. Ninety-six percent have workstations installed, for an average of 601 per site.
>Survey questions and sites.
Many different factors have affected the results of this year's MacWEEK 200 and Education 50. Principal among these are organization cooperation, real changes in company structure and the availability of information.
Some organizations that were interviewed last year declined to cooperate this time around. On the other hand, Boeing would not release information on its computer mix at any of its locations in 1991 but agreed to be surveyed this year.
In some cases, work locations have changed structurally, because of organization downsizing or expansion and administrative restructuring. For example, GTE Government Systems (No. 159 this year) had data in 1991 for three separate sites in Mountain View, Calif., that have since been unified administratively and physically, so they now count as one site.
In the case of Eastman Kodak Co., information available last year no longer existed in the same form this year. Kodak was listed in 1991 as three discrete sites, but this year the company provided information for all three buildings as one unit. Because the buildings are located near each other and meet our other criteria for "site," we have included Kodak as a single entry in 1992 (No. 1 on the list).
Because of these factors, some organizations appear to have jumped significantly up or down in the MacWEEK standings, when their actual change in computers and personnel may be slight.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
Special Report Page 44
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ProductWatch: Project-management software
Programs can help users track time
By Robert Hollis
Project-management software, once an arcane class of programs used by a handful of big-project planners and engineers, now has emerged in the mainstream of business computing. Almost any undertaking requiring the allocation of resources that must stay on budget and meet a deadline can be organized and tracked with any of more than a dozen products for the Macintosh.
Priced from less than $200 to a whopping $4,200, project- management software gives users the ability to track the use of time, physical resources and money from beginning to end. Most offer graphics tools that provide day-to-day overviews of how well things are going, potential problems and how delays will affect the outcome in terms of time and cost.
>How they work.
Programs generally allow a user to establish the scope of a project, including all critical tasks and subtasks, and the sequence of events needed to reach completion.
The user assigns resources - people, equipment, supplies and funding - that they think will be needed to get the job done. The software then calculates the project's duration and cost based on the estimated time to complete all the tasks with the available resources.
Judging from the growing number of vendors with project managers for the Mac - 12 at last count offering 15 packages - the genre is enjoying a boom among corporate and government users, as well as researchers and individuals.
Ira Bitz, who teaches beginning and advanced classes in project management for the American Management Association in Washington, D.C., notes that the wide applicability of project-management software is shown in the diverse backgrounds of his students. Bitz has taught Army managers; food, chemical and banking industry executives; Justice Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics officials; and even an employee of the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
>Price vs. performance.
In general, project-management packages become more complex and offer more capabilities for bigger undertakings as they increase in price. But, as with all software, there are exceptions to the rule.
Low-end programs priced at $400 or less offer adequate capabilities for most simple projects. Users say they are best-suited for producing quick reports for clients or colleagues not directly involved in a particular undertaking. They do not, however, offer file sharing between Mac, DOS and Unix platforms, often an important consideration in large organizations.
Midrange project-management tools offer an expanded variety of data-entry formats, advanced scheduling and resource control for multiple projects, and enhanced reporting capabilities. Some packages do offer file sharing between Mac and DOS machines.
High-end project-management software is aimed at professional project managers and, according to users, is difficult for non-experts with more modest goals to master.
>Small-scale project management.
Products in this range include AEC Software Inc.'s FastTrack Schedule 1.5 and FastTrack Resource 2.0; HyperProject Inc.'s HyperProject 1.2; Mainstay's MacSchedule
Plus 1.0.5; Micro Planning International Inc.'s KeyPlan 2.0; and Varcon Systems Inc.'s Great Gantt! 1.4.
The least expensive of these is Great Gantt!, a $195 basic outliner. It also can be used to create custom charts using data from higher-priced project managers, including Claris Corp.'s MacProject II 2.5 and Micro Planning International's Micro Planner Manager and Micro Planner X-Pert 2.0.2.
At Hughes Aircraft's Missile Systems Group in Los Angeles, MacSchedule Plus is used widely because it is relatively easy to learn, users say.
"I could teach you to use this program in a couple of hours," said Steve Comroe, a senior scientist at Hughes. "The package is ideal for projects that have one or two schedule levels."
Don Antelman, a Hughes technical supervisor, used MacSchedule Plus to manage a 12-member team that built and tested aircraft test equipment for two years.
The project, he said, involved more than a dozen racks of equipment assembled in California and shipped to a customer in England. Antelman said that MacSchedule Plus is very useful for determining earned value, which provides him with regular information on whether the project is still on budget and on time.
>Medium-size project management.
Midrange programs, selling for less than $700, include Chena Software Inc.'s Fair Witness 1.1; MacProject II; Micro Planner Manager; Microsoft Project for the Macintosh 1.1; Scitor Corp.'s Project Scheduler 4 for the Macintosh; and Monitor Systems Inc.'s Task Monitor for the Mac 4.3.
These midrange programs as a group offer more tools, such as critical- path method scheduling, a technique where the software analyzes the start and finish of each task and then highlights those that must be completed in a timely manner to avoid bogging down the entire project.
Randolph Craft, a project-management consultant based on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, recommends MacProject II for "95 percent of the project-management market." He notes that the program has some drawbacks - such as its inability to share files across platforms - but he says they are minor compared with its ease of learning and use.
He uses the package for "entrepreneurial planning," where he helps clients determine if they have the financial and human resources to finish the planned undertaking. "If you're not a rocket scientist or haven't been trained [as a professional project manager], buy MacProject," Craft said.
Claris also has announced a significant upgrade to MacProject that will ship this fall.
At Northern Telecom Inc.'s Public Switching Division in Research Triangle, N.C., the package of choice is Micro Planner Manager, one of three project-management programs sold by Micro Planning International.
About 50 people at the site are using the package to schedule the development, testing and manufacturing of computerized telephone-switching equipment, said Larry Kellogg, a Northern Telecom program manager.
>Large-scale project management.
Designed for the most- elaborate projects, where a user must juggle thousands of jobs in a variety of related projects, high-end software is used to manage big projects requiring detailed and ongoing cost analyses.
Starting at about $1,295, high-end products include Lucas Management Systems' Artemis Schedule Publisher 4.0L; Micro Planner X-Pert; and Welcom Software Technology Corp.'s Open Plan/Mac 3.3.
Their report-writing capabilities are generally the most- elaborate available. They also have the capability to communicate with mainframe-based project managers.
Open Plan/Mac, the most-expensive project manager on the market, is an essential tool at Martin Marietta Corp. for its biggest projects, such as the Titan missile program for the U.S. Air Force, said Cheryl Dietz, a Denver-based technical consultant with the company's Information Systems unit.
Martin Marietta settled on Open Plan after a coordinated companywide evaluation of competing products involving about 150 users, Dietz said. The company uses less-expensive products for smaller "quick-and-dirty" undertakings, she said.
Open Plan's cross-platform file-sharing capabilities allow employees in widely scattered sites to coordinate the immense amount of detail that goes into a Titan missile project, Dietz said. "The number of activities [overseen using the package] is phenomenal," she said.
A drawback in the Mac version, which must be used with Fox Software Inc.'s FoxBASE+/Mac database manager, is that it is slower in performing complex calculations on major undertakings compared with Open Plan running with database products on DOS machines, she said.
Buying advice. Dietz's advice to would-be buyers of any project-management package is to take a look at the organization's technical functions prior to looking at specific software. "If one chooses a software package before analyzing exactly what it's to be used for, you'll have to force your [business] functions into the tool," Dietz said.
The American Management Association's Bitz said the top three considerations for would-be buyers are: "ease of use, ease of use and ease of use." Ultimately, more-difficult programs can stall the free flow of ideas needed at the beginning of project planning.
"[Project-management software] will never be as popular as spreadsheets," Bitz said. "But more and more people find that what they're doing often lends itself to project-management software."
960 N. San Antonio Road, Suite 210, Los Altos, Calif. 94022 Phone (415) 949-1688 Fax (415) 949-4688
Scitor Corp.
Project Scheduler 4 for the Mac 1.0: $695
393 Vintage Park Drive, Suite 140, Foster City, Calif. 94404 Phone (415) 570-7700 Fax (415) 670-7807
Varcon Systems Inc.
Great Gantt! 1.4: $195
10509 San Diego Mission Road, Suite K, San Diego, Calif.
92108 Phone (619) 563-6700 Fax (619) 563-1986
Welcom Software Technology Corp.
Open Plan/Mac 3.3: $4,200
15995 N. Bakers Landing, Suite 275, Houston, Texas 77079 Phone (713) 558-0514 Fax (713) 584-7828
MacWEEK 05/25/92
Product Watch Page 79
(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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Review: LaserWriter NTR
Apple's newest printer sports an AMD RISC chip and a Centronics parallel port, making it a good-quality low-end device.
By Rick LePage
Apple began to take a more aggressive approach to the printer market last fall with the release of the LaserWriter IIf and IIg, and it now has taken another step in the same direction with the shipment of the Personal LaserWriter NTR.
This $2,199 successor to the Personal LaserWriter NT looks much like its predecessor, with the familiar boxy shape indicative of the 4-page-per-minute Canon LBP-LX laser engine.
The NTR however, sports two major departures from previous Apple PostScript printers - the use of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Am29005 RISC chip and the addition of a Centronics parallel port.
While a number of third-party printer vendors, such as Qume Corp. and Dataproducts Corp., have sworn by RISC-based controllers, Apple until now has stayed with the tried-and- true Motorola 68000 family, which has powered all Apple laser printers since the original LaserWriter. But Apple spokesmen say that the 16-MHz Am29005 chip was the best choice for the NTR in terms of cost and speed, and based upon our observations, this appears to have been a judicious decision.
>The Windows connection.
Apple has been making noise in the Microsoft Windows arena, and the NTR is an attempt to offer those users a reason to purchase Apple peripherals, even if they do not have any Apple CPUs. The shrink-wrap around the NTR's manuals proclaims "Macintosh & Windows," and the documentation provides detailed setup instructions for connecting the printer to Windows machines. (We easily were able to set up a connection and print to the NTR from an IBM PC clone running Windows.)
The Centronics interface is a sensible addition for Apple, making it easier for users of IBM PCs and compatibles to connect to the NTR than with earlier Apple printers, which offered a slower serial-based connection. Apple has implemented an "all-ports-active" sensing scheme with the NTR, which allows each of the interface ports on the printer to be simultaneously operational. This feature, first offered on the IIf and IIg, increases the utility of the printer in mixed office environments.
The other item that will be of even more utility to PC-based operations is that the NTR also comes with Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP PCL 4 page description language in ROM. You can use this emulation with a specific interface port by setting a switch on the back of the printer.
>Basics.
Like the IIf and IIg, the Personal LaserWriter NTR uses Adobe Systems Inc.'s PostScript Level 2 interpreter, which boasts a number of advantages over Level 1, including superior memory handling and better overall performance.
Unfortunately, because neither Apple nor Adobe has finished a Level 2-compatible printer driver, the NTR cannot take full advantage of Level 2's advanced features. You will, however, get a significant performance boost thanks to the combination of the AMD chip and the PS Level 2 interpreter.
The NTR comes standard with 3 Mbytes of ROM, upgradable to
4 Mbytes, using 80-nanosecond SIMMs. The 35-font LaserWriter Plus font set is built into the printer, as is the TrueType rasterizer, which should help improve performance of TrueType output.
The new printer requires LaserWriter driver 7.1.1, which reportedly fixes a problem previous drivers had with the AMD chip. We had no problems with the driver in our testing of the printer, printing successfully from more than 150 applications.
The 70-sheet paper tray can be supplemented with a 250- sheet paper tray, which is available for $120.
>Performance.
The first thing you notice about the NTR is that it is very fast. When we benchmarked the unit against earlier 4-ppm printers such as the Personal LaserWriter NT and GCC Technologies Inc.'s BLP Elite, the Personal LaserWriter NTR flew, leaving older printers such as the NT in the dust.
Even when compared with 8-ppm monsters such as the LaserWriter IIg and Hardware That Fits' RealTech Laser, the NTR turned in a competitive performance, lagging in the tests that relied upon the speed of the print engine. Our complex, 24-page Aldus PageMaker document printed nearly as fast on the NTR as it did on the turbocharged IIg, which surprised us.
We were unable to verify a performance increase because of the inclusion of the TrueType rasterizer in the NTR's ROM. We did find, however, that it took about the same time to print a document with Type 1 PostScript fonts or their TrueType analogs.
>The price-performance matrix.
The Personal LaserWriter NTR replaces the Personal LaserWriter NT as the low end of the Apple PostScript printer line, which is a big win for new users looking for a high-performance printer at a low price point. The NTR costs $400 less than the NT, although the 250-sheet paper tray was included with the NT.
Owners of the NT are not out in the cold, however. For $1,249 (with your Personal LaserWriter NT controller board), you can upgrade your poky NT to an NTR and more than double your speed.
Compared with printers such as the $1,995 RealTech Laser, Dataproducts' $2,195 LZR 960 or GCC's $1,399 BLP Elite, however, the Personal LaserWriter NTR is competitive but is located at Apple's traditional spot at the high end of the price curve. The Personal LaserWriter NTR should cause some price shifting over the next few months as third parties attempt to work around Apple's discounts.
Overall, we like the NTR; it is a very good printer, well- designed for cross-platform compatibility and speed. The RealTech Laser and the LZR 960 definitely give you more bang for your buck, while still providing the benefits of PostScript Level 2. Depending upon your discounts, however, the NTR might be a better buy.
Score card: Personal LaserWriter NTR
Overall value Very Good
Performance Very Good
Features Good
Installation/configuration Excellent
Compatibility Excellent
Documentation/support Average
List price $2,199
On balance: Personal LaserWriter NTR
The NTR replaces the Personal LaserWriter NT at the low end of Apple's PostScript printer line, but don't be deceived by its position. Lurking inside the box is a 16-MHz Am29005 processor - Apple's first foray into the RISC market - and PostScript Level 2. These two factors help make the NTR the fastest 4-ppm printer we have tested and competitive with many 8-ppm printers. Apple is targeting Microsoft Windows users as well with the NTR, adding a Centronics interface to the printer and including Windows-specific setup instructions in the manual. All in all, this is a very good printer.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
Reviews Page 67
(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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Mac the Knife: After Newton, it's SweetPea
The skills required to keep track of Apple's goings on are many and varied, but probably the most important concept is to think of the company as an endless magic act. While Apple is keeping you enthralled with what it's doing with its right hand, the left hand is putting out all the signals you need to divine the future.
Apple's big PDA announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show is a good example. With all the hoopla and hype it is easy to overlook the fact that Apple has other PDAs waiting in the wings.
One, code-named SweetPea, is a handheld multimedia device that some wags already are calling a CD-ROM-based QuickTime player. With all these built-in presentation capabilities, it just might be a real hit with consumers when it finally arrives. The current schedule calls for an introduction sometime late next year.
Then there's been the recent raft of speculation about whether Apple should de-emphasize the hardware business in favor of selling its software, particularly its operating system.
Sure, Apple probably will license the goods, as demonstrated in the IBM and Sharp agreements, and eventually Apple will cave in and make its operating system available on Intel processors (most likely the 586). But don't expect Apple to pass out license rights to anyone with enough cash (sometimes called the Microsoft method of cash-flow management).
Instead, Apple will be very selective, sharing its secrets only with companies that can offer it something in return, a technology exchange, if you will.
>The company it keeps.
The tale of Claris Corp. is one of change, occasional chaos and not a few successes. And if things work out, you'll soon be able to add innovation to that list. In an age when mostly only large developers stand a chance for success, Claris is in the final stages of developing a program that both will help small developers and enhance the Claris revenue stream.
Under the program, tentatively called Claris Affiliates, Claris will search out promising new products from small developers and put its well-developed marketing muscle behind them.
Sources familiar with the plans have told the Knife that this should be a winning situation for all, including the forgotten end user, who can only benefit from the innovation that this program should foster.
An exact announcement date has yet to be set, but the plans are nearly finished. When the announcement is made, expect Claris to have several titles ready to go. Since many, if not the majority, of these Claris Affiliates products will be Windows- based, the Knife suggests that the PC Expo in June would be an excellent venue.
>Benign neglect.
Informed sources tell the Knife that a major new update to the Mac version of Wingz, the almost-forgotten spreadsheet from Informix, is on the calendar. This is likely to be surprising news to those who thought Informix was abandoning the Mac market after selling its core spreadsheet technology to Claris, which used it as the basis for its own Resolve spreadsheet. Wingz fans attending July's Informix Users Conference in sunny San Jose, Calif., will be the first to get a glimpse of this big old honkin' upgrade.
>A major project.
While the Knife isn't quite sure what to make of a major new Wingz upgrade, he has no doubt that the new Claris MacProject will put a little added pressure on Microsoft to get on with releasing a long-awaited Microsoft Project update, which recently attained beta status. If the Knife's sources are correct, Microsoft plans to call the new release Project 3.0. This is the same version-number synchronization scheme the company used with the Mac version of Word when it skipped Version 2 and went directly to 3.
Celebrated TV sitcom critic and U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle has no MacWEEK mug, mainly because he doesn't deserve one. But if you've got some information that will brighten the Knife's day, you will be able to avoid Mr. Quayle's unfortunate condition. You can deliver your private pronouncement to the Knife at (415) 243-3500, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 05/25/92
Opinion Page 138
(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
