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3Com cooks up video for 10M- and 100M-bps Ethernet

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Wendy Pickering

BOSTON -- 3Com Corp. and various technology supporters last week showed
off a switching technology here designed to increase the quality of
multimedia and real-time video transmission over 10M- and 100M-bps
Ethernet networks.

Developed by 3Com, PACE (Priority Access Control Enabled) is a low-cost
addition to switches that reduces the latency and jitter that have been
stumbling blocks to implementing video over regular Ethernet.

PACE is a hardware/software combination integrated into application-
specific integrated circuit microprocessors. It lets the switch monitor
traffic and guarantees network access to high-priority data, said John
Hart, 3Com's vice president and chief technical officer. PACE is being
designed for Ethernet, but it could possibly be modified for 100VG-
AnyLAN networks as well, Hart said.

Officials at the Santa Clara, Calif., firm said PACE should begin to
show up in 3Com's LANplex and LinkSwitch segment switches sometime in
1995.

Other vendors, such as Novell Inc., Oracle Corp., Dell Computer Corp.,
Sun Microsystems Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc., Apple Computer Inc., and
Starlight Networks Inc., said they plan to support PACE in future
products. 3Com officials said the company will license the technology to
third-party vendors.

Adoption by those vendors is necessary for PACE's success, said Lee
Doyle, an analyst with International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.
"The key is that the NOS doesn't blow up," Doyle said. "Novell and
Microsoft need to make sure it works from a driver standpoint."

Users were cautiously optimistic about PACE. "I'm wary of it. But if it
can be managed so that it will not stress the network, [PACE] would be a
boon," said Carroll Willis, network manager for North Carolina's State
Bureau of Investigation, in Raleigh.

Microsoft Corp. did not participate in the announcement, but 3Com
officials said they were confident that Microsoft would support PACE.

================================================================

AMD promises chip speed edge with K5

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Neal Boudette

If Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s K5 pans out as expected next year,
corporate buyers may not have to go with Intel Corp.'s Pentium or even
its P6 chip to get the fastest PCs around.

The emergence of the K5 chip along with Cyrix Corp.'s M1 chip is likely
to give corporate buyers much greater choice, while creating more
confusion than PC users have seen in a long time.

AMD may have prototype K5 systems running at Comdex. Cyrix is expected
to have working M1 samples by the end of this year. Systems based on the
chips are due in the third quarter of 1995, officials at both companies
said.

With both the K5 and M1 chips winning over top-tier PC vendors, even the
most powerful PCs will be subject to aggressive price competition as
soon as they are announced, analysts said.

At the same time, PC buyers may have to struggle to sort out a market
where clock speed no longer provides an accurate measure of CPU
performance, they said.

"When K5 and M1 hit the market next year, it's going to be harder to
make intelligent choices," said Michael Slater, president of MicroDesign
Resources Inc., in Sebastopol, Calif. "Users will have to look beyond
megahertz," Slater said recently at MicroDesign's Microprocessor Forum,
in San Francisco.

"A lot of chips will give you very different levels of performance even
though they are running at the same clock speed," he added.

The K5 chip, for example, uses a 4.2 million-transistor design that can
execute as many as four instructions at the same time, while Pentium and
M1 chips can handle only two simultaneously.

AMD officials maintain that this should enable the 100MHz K5 chip, due
in the second half of 1995, to run Windows 30 percent faster than a
100MHz Pentium chip, and they added the gap could be wider.

"The K5 has a much more aggressive design than Pentium and should
achieve more performance," Slater said.

AMD officials said versions of K5 due in 1996 may match the performance
of the 6 million-transistor P6 from Intel, due next year.

AMD plans to raise the K5 clock speed to 150MHz or more and double its
internal cache memory, according to Drew Dutton, strategic marketing
manager at AMD, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Users said they probably won't accept alternative chips if they don't
provide a performance advantage.

"That would have to be there for me to leap over the fence," said John
Kretz, a technical services director at the Thunderbird graduate school
of international management, in Glendale, Ariz.

Unlike AMD and Cyrix 486 chips currently in circulation, the K5 is
expected to appear in PCs aimed at corporate buyers. Unless AMD
encounters difficulties with the chip, Compaq Computer Corp. plans to
use it in premium machines as well as consumer PCs, said Jim Paschal,
vice president of desktop engineering at Compaq, in Houston.

Meanwhile, IBM Personal Computer Co. and AST Research Inc. are expected
to use the Cyrix M1 chip as well as Pentium processors. Compaq is also
talking to Cyrix, and may use K5, M1, and Pentium chips.

In addition, chip-set vendors are working to let PC makers use any 586
CPU without altering their motherboards.

================================================================

Objects, multimedia on horizon for Autodesk

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Lisa Nadile

The release last week of Autodesk Inc.'s AutoCAD 13 is designed to
provide users with an object-oriented springboard into emerging
multimedia and virtual-reality applications.

Release 13 of the venerable CAD/CAM package includes an object-oriented
database that lets users manage reusable components. Coupled with
intelligent agents, the database will allow Autodesk to leverage its
technology in new areas, according to Carol Bartz, CEO of the Sausalito,
Calif., company.

"We're uniquely situated here with the convergence of multimedia and
design automation," she said. "We are the only company that can leverage
the two of them."

The $3,995 package's object-oriented database provides a mechanism for
storing reusable design components. Those components can be attached to
intelligent agents that have knowledge of the specifications associated
with that object.

For example, an intelligent agent will automatically adjust a "column"
component if it is incorrectly aligned in an architectural diagram.

"That's a lot like associative dimensioning," said beta tester Bud
Schroeder, systems administrator for CAD graphics for North California
Power Agency, in Roseville, Calif. "If it could work that way, you can
dynamically change values in a spreadsheet, that would be perfect. Then
you can just click on the drawing and make instant changes."

Schroeder said he expects object technology to make AutoCAD a lot easier
to use.

"Object-oriented technology makes it easier for everybody," he said.
"The hooks in this database will make it much easier to link drawings,
for example."

However, Schroeder added that many users tend to be fearful of new
technology.

"Training is very important with this Windows version because there are
a lot of new things to get used to, but once you've made it, you'll see
that overall [AutoCAD is] a vast improvement," he said.

Bartz said the company's future plans will emphasize components, three-
dimensional interfaces, graphical simulations, open architectures, and
intelligent agents.

"The market, as far as we're concerned, will require more 3-D
technology. Even the architect of the future is going to be much more
dependent on 3-D than they might think today," she said.

Other trends include collaborative computing and the ability to build
models that reflect virtual reality. These trends, combined with easier-
to-use object technology, are changing Autodesk's business model to
include consumer, MIS, and financial customers, Bartz said.

"[The business model] has already changed. We sell all over the
corporation," she said.

AutoCAD 13 is sold through authorized retailers.

================================================================

Bay Networks pledges router-hub links

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Paula Musich

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Bay Networks Inc. last week outlined its blueprint for
building switched internetworks and announced router-hub and network-
management software that conforms to its BaySIS architecture.

The rivalry between Bay Networks (the newly merged Wellfleet
Communications Inc. and SynOptics Communications Inc.) and Cisco Systems
Inc. was heightened when Cisco announced its intention to acquire
Ethernet switch leader Kalpana Inc. However, Bay Networks' strategy puts
it in direct competition with 3Com Corp., according to Nick Lippis,
president of Strategic Networks Consulting Inc., in Rockland, Mass.

"Bay and 3Com are the only ones that have all development under one roof
and tie it together with [cohesive] management," Lippis said.

The BaySIS scheme encompasses transport services that define how LAN
switching, routing, and asynchronous transfer mode work together in an
enterprise network; policy services that allow the network administrator
to define user-access restrictions; and operations services that define
enhanced integration of hub, router, and switch management.

The new Access Node router hub adds to the low-end Access Node router a
12-port 10BaseT hub to connect remote workgroups with enterprise
networks using two synchronous wide-area connections or a synchronous
and an ISDN connection.

The new Optivity/RM network-management package combines SynOptics'
RouterMan and PathMan router-monitoring and diagnostic tools with
Wellfleet's Site Manager router-configuration program. All three
products will operate under the same menu system.

"We want to see better integration ... because it's expensive to keep
people trained on separate applications," said John Dubiel, planning and
technology manager at Boston Edison, which uses Bay Networks' hubs and
routers.

================================================================

What are Symantec's odds in the new era?

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Jesse Berst

Several readers have asked about Symantec and its chances in the post-
consolidation era. Symantec is a tough company to get your brain around.
My view is clearer now, after spending a day at company headquarters
with President and CEO Gordon Eubanks and other top executives. I also
reviewed the product portfolio, studied piles of white papers, and
talked to competitors and former employees.

Buy and large. Since its founding in 1982, Symantec has grown by buying
about 15 other firms. It bought with little regard to finding matches
with existing businesses. It merely looked for products that could
become No. 1 in a defensible niche. The Symantec buying binge had a few
misses, a few modest successes, and one monster hit: the Norton product
line, which came to dominate both the DOS and Windows utilities markets.

Critics charge that Norton's explosive growth covered up sins in other
areas. Over the years, Symantec has let several interesting products
slide into obscurity: Grandview, More, GreatWorks, Q&A, and TimeLine,
for instance. Eubanks argues that the market changed underneath these
products, so Symantec had to drop them or reposition them (as it is
trying to do with TimeLine). There's truth in that argument. Even so,
careful attention might have extended the life span of those products.

Despite these quibbles, Symantec's acquisition strategy has worked well,
helping it grow into one of the country's largest software companies,
with sales of $267 million in fiscal 1994 (which ended April 1).
Revenues could hit $320 million in fiscal 1995.

Raining on the hit parade. Recently, however, the outlook has become
cloudy for Norton's utilities. The market for desktop utilities
flattened. Analysts began to fear that most utilities would be absorbed
into Windows 95, killing the market altogether. Observers have been
asking, "Where's the next hit going to come from?"

From enterprise utilities, according to Eubanks, who says he now spends
60 percent of his marketing budget on enterprise products. Symantec has
sorted its products into three categories and is extending each line
into the enterprise.

First come the utilities. The desktop products include Norton Utilities,
Norton AntiVirus, PC Tools, and others. The enterprise products include
Norton Administrator for Networks, Norton Utilities Administrator,
pcAnywhere, and an enterprise backup product now in beta.

Second, there's the development tools category, with C++ for the
Macintosh and PC on the desktop and Enterprise Developer for large
organizations.

Third, there are two productivity applications -- TimeLine, a project
manager, and ACT, a contact manager -- both with network versions.

A kick in the assets. I believe Symantec is going to have a big hit in
1995 -- but from an unexpected source. I'll give you my prediction next
week. I'll also look at the challenges facing Symantec's current product
lines. Finally, I'll reveal Symantec's hidden assets and how they could
kick-start a new round of revenue growth.

Jesse Berst is editorial director of the Windows Watcher. Send comments
via E-mail (JBERST@mcimail. com) or fax [phone]).

================================================================

Red-faced IBM fixes Warp installation bug

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

After scrambling to fix a major bug in OS/2 Warp last week, IBM
officials insisted the problem will not significantly delay shipment of
the operating system.

IBM officials spent the latter half of last week on damage control after
the bug forced the firm to temporarily halt manufacturing of OS/2 Warp
while the company fixed the problem. IBM had started limited shipments
of production code to software reviewers and customers.

"We had a choice: to include a new READ.ME file, issue a fix right away,
or halt manufacturing," said a spokesman for IBM's Personal Software
Products division, in Austin, Texas. "This way, customers won't have to
do a workaround."

The problem was caused by a software error that prompted OS/2 to load an
AUTOEXEC.BAK or CONFIG.BAK file, which installed DOS system drivers
rather than OS/2 drivers. This error can cause OS/2 to crash.

Software reviewers said the bug is a black eye for IBM, which had been
touting Warp as a better PC operating system than its chief rival,
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The bug was reported by several software
reviewers, including PC Week Labs, and a limited number of IBM customers
who tested the final OS/2 Warp "gold code" that IBM released to
manufacturing.

An IBM spokesman described the bug as a "minor installation problem."
However, officials said they were unable to explain why the bug did not
appear during beta testing by 10,000 to 20,000 users over the past few
months.

Beta testers said they did not observe the bug, an indication that the
defect may have been introduced just before the software was sent to
manufacturing.

"In the testing we have done, we haven't uncovered any major problems
other than some adapter-card incompatibilities," said Don Babcock,
manager of client services for Cajun Electric Power Cooperative Inc., in
Baton Rouge, La.

Warp originally was slated to be available in retail outlets, such as
Egghead Discount Software Inc. and CompUSA, on Oct. 28. The decision to
recall the software will delay shipments to retail stores by about four
days, IBM officials said. The debugged software will start to reach
retailers in quantity by the end of this week, officials said.

IBM officials declined to estimate how many defective copies have
shipped, but claimed there were relatively few because Warp has just
gone into production.

================================================================

Intel's X86 reign threatened in '95

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Neal Boudette

1995 may be the year Intel Corp.'s near-monopoly on X86 chips ends.

By next fall, corporate buyers looking for high-performance PCs to run
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 95 will have a choice of 586 chips from Intel,
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Cyrix Corp., and NexGen Inc.

For Windows NT platforms, the field explodes with various PowerPC,
Alpha, and MIPS processors emerging as viable contenders. Moreover,
Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Personal Computer Co. will begin using
non-Intel 586 chips next year.

While buyers have chip choices now, they are only for low-end notebooks
and desktops. For the highest X86 performance, Intel has long been the
only game in town.

"The market is going to be very much reshaped in 1995," said Michael
Slater, president of MicroDesign Resources Inc., of Sebastopol, Calif.,
which hosted the Microprocessor Forum earlier this month in San
Francisco. "This is not a one-source market anymore." Slater said Intel
has already lost 10 percent of the worldwide 486 market to AMD and could
cede 10 percent of the Pentium market next year.

Most RISC architectures won't be a major factor in the decline of
Intel's dominance, but the PowerPC could take 20 percent to 30 percent
of the market by the end of the decade, Slater said.

Chip choices could become even more complex if IBM follows through on
the PowerPC 615 CPU now in development. Expected late next year, the 615
translates X86 instructions into RISC instructions that can be executed
by its core; the 615 also runs PowerPC software without translation,
sources said.

Digital Equipment Corp. is already working on software X86 emulation for
its Alpha chips, and MIPS Technologies Inc. is working on a combination
of software and hardware to run PC software, sources said.

AMD has started work on K6, its next-generation processor, but the firm
is not counting on it to compete against the P6 chip Intel plans to
unleash in the second half of 1995. Instead, AMD's initial P6 competitor
will be a beefed-up version of the K5. By early 1996, AMD hopes to move
K5 from its 0.5-micron process to 0.35 microns, which would let the
Austin, Texas, firm significantly raise the clock speed beyond 100MHz
and double the size of the K5's caches, officials said.

AMD isn't the only company counting on moves to a new process to boost
performance through larger caches and higher clock speeds.

A new process in the third quarter of next year will let Intel produce
the 150MHz "P55C" Pentium chip, sources close to the Santa Clara,
Calif., firm said. The company also plans to release it and a 120MHz
Pentium chip in the second and third quarters next year, while
unleashing its next-generation P6 chip in the fourth quarter.

Similarly, IBM and Motorola Inc. are getting ready to move the PowerPC
603 to a faster version of their 0.5-micron process to double the two
caches to 16K bytes each and raise the top clock speed from 80MHz to
100MHz, sources said.

================================================================

Intel, CNN screen live video to Ethernet PCs

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Erica Schroeder

NEW YORK -- Intel Corp. announced last week that its technology for
letting users watch television on their PCs is ready for prime time.

The technology, developed in conjunction with Cable News Network and
called CNN at Work, is a subscription-based service that delivers
Headline News or CNN broadcasts over PC networks. The software allows
users to view, index, and file digital video clips as well as broadcast
live or stored video messages to other workstations, according to Intel
officials in Santa Clara, Calif.

The CNN at Work software requires a $4,995 Pentium server that receives
the incoming cable signal and translates it into Indeo digital video
format. Each video stream consumes approximately 5 percent of Ethernet
network bandwidth. The video stream is delivered to users' PCs via
Ethernet's multicast technology. The video is played in real time on a
user's PC without special hardware.

The server can support a single incoming video stream, and the software
can support an unlimited number of channels. Initially, only CNN,
Headline News, and an internal data channel will be supported, but the
software can potentially support any internal or external video stream,
said Intel officials.

One tester said the ability to get incoming live digital video over the
network is more practical than wiring a whole building for users to
receive cable.

"We rely heavily on providing the most timely information possible to
our employees and clients. One area we have historically not exploited
is video," said Craig Goldman, chief investment officer for Chase
Manhattan bank in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The server and setup are available through Intel; the subscription is
billed through CNN, at a monthly rate of $12.50, or $150 annually.

================================================================

Alaris paves open-ended PC upgrade path

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Lisa DiCarlo

Alaris Inc. will unveil at Comdex next month a line of 486-based PCs
configured with motherboards that support upgrades using a variety of
64-bit processors, including PowerPC CPUs.

The motherboard in Alaris' Cian line of PCs connects to a replaceable
daughterboard that houses the microprocessor, said Raymond Yu, president
of the Fremont, Calif., company.

The system is compatible with all X86 CPUs from Intel Corp., Cyrix
Corp., and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., as well as Intel's Pentium and
upcoming M1, K5, and NexGen 586 processors, Yu said. Alaris also plans
to support the PowerPC platform.

While the majority of users aren't likely to upgrade their PC's CPU,
having the option allays fears of owning an outdated system, said Dean
McCarron, principal at Mercury Research, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

But lower costs derived from upgrading PCs may not add up to higher
value for corporate sites.

"We've toyed with upgrades," said Adam Sohn, senior manager at Grant
Thornton, in New York. "The cost of upgrading the chip and components
vs. the cost of a new machine with native performance doesn't make it
worthwhile."

The Alaris 486 systems, configured with 4M bytes of RAM and 270M-byte
drives, are priced from $1,500 to $2,000. Pentium processor upgrades are
$1,100.

The systems are expected to ship through resellers by the end of next
month, officials said.

================================================================

LinkWorks upgrade due from DEC

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Paula Rooney

Digital Equipment Corp. plans to ship within the next two months
LinkWorks 3.0, an upgrade of its group-messaging software that includes
Windows NT and Motif client support, an open API for easing application
development, and enhanced management functions.

The current version runs under DEC's OSF/1, OpenVMS, and Ultrix
operating systems, as well as SCO Unix, HP/UX, and IBM AIX. The upgrade
will add support for Windows NT and Motif clients, and DEC also may add
support for NT servers, said DEC officials in Maynard, Mass.

LinkWorks, first announced a year ago, comes with prefigured links to 50
PC applications, including Microsoft Corp.'s Word and Lotus Development
Corp.'s 1-2-3.

Expanded client support will be important for DEC customers moving away
from proprietary systems, analysts said.

LinkWorks 3.0 will feature a redesigned user interface, enhanced
workflow capabilities, and a graphical workbench for developers called
the LinkWorks APO (Application Plus Object), which is similar to an API,
said Dilip Phadke, marketing manager of workgroup systems for DEC in
Nashua, N.H.

Developers will be able to leverage the APO to build links to Lotus
Notes applications as well as to DEC's own TeamLinks E-mail package,
Phadke said.

Version 3.0 will provide users with a split-screen interface that will
let them manage message folders more easily.

"The user interface in Version 3.0 is much better. Our users didn't want
to have to open lots of windows to move something from one folder to
another," said Mike Frow, vice president of U.S. corporate banking, for
the Bank of Montreal in Chicago.

LinkWorks 3.0's workflow capabilities include the ability to set
conditions or rules that automate information routing.

DEC recently announced deals with Oracle Corp. and Computer Associates
International Inc. that call for the two companies to bundle LinkWorks
with Oracle7 and Ingres databases, respectively. The Oracle bundle is
available now. CA's bundle is due by year's end.

LinkWorks is priced at $299 for a client version and $299 for a server
version. Upgrade pricing has not been set.

================================================================

Breaking News

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by PC Week Staff

Bricklin Returns with New Developer Tool

By Erica Schroeder

Dan Bricklin is back.

The inventor of VisiCalc is readying an object-oriented, multimedia tool
that helps developers create interactive environments.

The $395 OverallViewer, slated to ship this week, can create training
applications, kiosks, and applications displaying very large images,
said Bricklin, of Software Garden Inc., in Newton Highlands, Mass.

Early users said the software provides a much-needed alternative to more
complex authoring tools such as Macromedia Inc.'s AuthorWare
Professional.

"We're downsizing a little, and this sort of software is becoming
important," said Robert Koehler, a multimedia designer for a Chicago
financial company. "We have more to do with less people, and training
people is becoming a problem.

"[OverallViewer is] a cross between support and training," Koehler
added.

The software will be available directly from Software Garden.

Microsoft to ISVs: Win 95 Due Q1

While Microsoft officials are maintaining that Windows 95 will ship in
mid-1995, they are telling ISVs that code will be released to
manufacturing in the first quarter. In a confidential memo dated Oct.
24, officials reiterated Microsoft's commitment to finish Windows 95
this spring. Officials said Microsoft is on track to deliver Beta 2 in
early November and the Preview release (also known as Release Candidate
1) in late December or early January.

IBM Ships PC-DOS Beta; Plans 2 Servers

IBM last week shipped the first beta of PC-DOS 7.0, due to users in the
first quarter, sources said. The beta includes a built-in version of
REXX, support for Stacker, improved on-line help, an enhanced E Editor,
and improved anti-virus protection, officials confirmed. Workplace Shell
for DOS is not included.

IBM also will roll out two symmetric-multiprocessing PC servers in the
first quarter that will initially use Intel's 90MHz or 100MHz Pentium
chips. The two-way PC Server 300 and the PC Server 700, which handles up
to six CPUs, will run Windows NT and Novell's SMP version of NetWare,
which is due out next year.

DEC To Debut Alpha Workstation

DEC will announce on Nov. 7 an Alpha workstation running NT that
provides access to Unix, legacy, and PC applications, sources said. The
system, which ranges in price from $3,495 to $6,000 and is based on a
166MHz chip, has a built-in X11.R6 server option for access to Unix
applications and a VT emulator.

Suit Reveals Oracle/Apple Buyout Plan

Oracle's board of directors approved a plan earlier this year to buy
Apple, according to sources and to a lawsuit filed against the database
maker and founder Larry Ellison by Terence Garnett, a former executive.
The lawsuit seeks $30 million in damages for breach-of-contract claims.

Ziff-Davis Sold To Investment Firm

Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., which produces PC Week and PC Magazine, among
other publications, was sold last week to investment firm Forstmann
Little & Co. for $1.4 billion. The company, which will retain the Ziff-
Davis name, will continue to be run by current management.

Briefly Noted:

Lotus last week released a Professional Developer's Version of Notes
4.0. Lotus stock was up 4.5 percent late last week on reports of a $15
million bundling deal for Notes on HP servers.

Compaq's 90MHz Pentium Deskpro announcement has been pushed back to
early December.

Microsoft began shipping SNA Server 2.1 last week.

Borland last week added support for ODBC to its dBASE for Windows and
Paradox 5.0 databases.

NHC Communications last week took the wraps off Wireman, a Windows-based
SNMP application.

DEC plans to challenge HP with a low-cost, color ink-jet printer, the
DEC Colorwriter 120ic, for $355.

Dell and ALR will announce 75MHz Pentium desktops at Comdex.

Novell's WordPerfect division will preview at Comdex 32-bit versions of
its applications, along with demonstrations of OpenDoc and speech-
recognition technology.

Peachtree in mid-December will issue a revision for its Peachtree
Accounting 8.0 for DOS upgrade. The patch will rectify problems in the
accounts-payable module.

Computer Associates International has begun shipping its
Masterpiece/2000 and Accpac/2000 client/server accounting releases.

HP will announce this week an upgrade to its Jumbo and Trakker tape
drives that provide as much as 340M bytes.

================================================================

Startup readies PowerPC clones

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Lisa DiCarlo

Despite the lack of a unified PReP standard, startup FirePower Systems
Inc. plans to announce at Comdex the first PowerPC clones.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company's lineup, dubbed Powerized, includes the
ES, a single-processor desktop; the MX, an SMP (symmetric
multiprocessing) desktop or entry-level server; and the TX, a dedicated
SMP server. The machines, which will run AIX, Windows NT, and, later
OS/2, will be sold through OEMs, according to officials at FirePower,
which is funded by Canon Inc.

The ES will feature the 80MHz 603 or 100MHz 604 PowerPC microprocessor,
while the MX and TX will use the 604 chip, officials said.

The ES, priced at $3,250, will feature a single 604 chip, 16M bytes of
RAM, a 340M-byte hard drive, and 64-bit graphics.

The dual-processor MX, tagged at about $6,000 for the desktop or server,
features 16M bytes of RAM and a 540M-byte hard drive. TX pricing has not
been set.

The PowerPC clone market is in a state of flux, pending an agreement
between IBM and Apple Computer Inc. to create a common hardware
standard. IBM and Apple are negotiating a spec that combines components
of the IBM/Motorola Inc. PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) specification
and Apple's Power Macintosh design.

Some corporate users said the enhanced spec would make PowerPC systems a
more attractive alternative, but barriers remain.

"PowerPC's biggest obstacle is its inability to run operating systems
customers want," particularly Windows, said Loren Amsden, product
manager at Financial Services Corp., in New York.

FirePower's first systems, due late in the first quarter, will be based
on the original PReP spec, which it co-authored with IBM and Apple. Glen
Miranker, the company's vice president of hardware engineering, said the
company will support the enhanced PReP spec as well.

FirePower also plans to support the forthcoming 133MHz 620 processor and
a souped-up 603, the 603+, which runs at 100MHz but has two 16K-byte
caches for significantly faster instruction processing, sources said.

FirePower's products are the first in what analysts say has the
potential to be a significant clone market.

"Motorola's top priority should be to foster an open, PReP-compatible
market," said Dominic Richetti, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., in San
Jose, Calif. "It's good timing, and [FirePower] should be a significant
player."

Canon Computer Systems Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif., plans to license
PowerPC systems from FirePower early next year, according to Firepower
officials. IPC Technologies Inc. also plans to resell the systems,
officials for the Austin, Texas, company said.

IPC will announce before Comdex its 80MHz 603 system, with 16M bytes of
RAM and a 540M-byte hard drive, for about $3,500, officials said.

================================================================

ForeRunner ATM adapter promising but pricey

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by David P. Chernicoff

Reaping the benefits of asynchronous transfer mode, such as guaranteed
connections and high performance, has been impossible for the desktop
computer environment, due to two missing elements: adapter cards for PC
buses and LAN Emulation allowing standard protocols to run on top of
ATM.

Although most vendors have been waiting for the ATM Forum to finalize
its LAN Emulation standard before releasing products, Fore Systems Inc.,
of Warrendale, Pa., has begun shipping the ForeRunner ESA-200PC ATM
adapter for the EISA bus.

In PC Week Labs tests, we achieved NIC (network interface card)
throughput in excess of 120M bps using NetBench 3.0 on an eight-node
network. This proved 20 percent faster than our previous network speed
champion, a full-duplex 100BaseT, from Grand Junction Networks Inc., in
a switched environment.

ForeRunner LAN Emulation runs on Novell Inc. NetWare 3.12 and 4.01 and
Microsoft Corp. Windows NT 3.5. In addition, the adapter supports IPX
and IP transports as well as Ethernet and Token-Ring frame types.

We tested ForeRunner using the higher-performance IPX transport with the
larger, 4K-byte Token-Ring frames. Currently, the adapter supports only
Windows NT clients, but Windows for Workgroups support is due in early
1995.

ForeRunner is available in both 100M-bps TAXI and 155M-bps SONET OC-3
configurations. For our tests, we installed Fore's 100M-bps NICs in the
client stations and 155M-bps NICs in the servers, then connected all the
machines to a ForeRunner ASX-200 ATM switch equipped with both TAXI and
OC-3 modules. The ASX-200 switch has a backplane capable of supporting a
transfer rate of 2.5G bps.

More than any other networking topology, ATM is seriously affected by
the block size of data transfers. Because of the small, 53-byte cell
size, every transfer incurs an overhead penalty of more than 9.4
percent. This limits the maximum theoretical performance of an OC-3
network to just over 140M bps, and imposes a limit of 90M bps on TAXI.

We began testing with 16K-byte block sizes. The performance hit with
four clients was significant. However, increasing data transfers to 32K-
byte blocks resulted in a 25 percent improvement.

Increasing the client load from four to eight workstations improved
performance. Even with the switched architecture, we were still able to
pass data from the switch through a single 155M-bps pipe to the server.
If we had increased the client load to 16 workstations, we probably
would have saturated the server connection.

Although there are definite performance benefits to ATM, they come at a
significant price. The Fore ASX-200 Switch, which supports up to four
modules, lists for $21,950. The four-port OC-3 module lists for $4,900,
the TAXI module for $4,495 (six-port version), and the UTP OC-3 module
for $2,995. The Fiber OC-3 NIC lists for $1,795, the TAXI NIC for
$1,695, and the UTP OC-3 NIC for $1,595.

================================================================

IBM messaging architecture will debut at Comdex

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Erica Schroeder and Michael Vizard

IBM plans to formally roll out at Comdex next month its soup-to-nuts E-
mail strategy, based on a messaging engine that provides a common set of
directories for many of the company's disparate groupware and workflow
applications.

The messaging infrastructure, combined with a robust set of OS/2
clients, promises to propel IBM into collaborative computing, said IBM
officials. But IBM will have to fight for mindshare among users waiting
for Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange and Lotus Development Corp.'s LCS (Lotus
Communications Server).

The IBM system, slated to ship in the first quarter of next year, is
based on IBM's UltiMail messaging software for OS/2. The software lets
users transmit text, graphics, video, and audio, and provides a common
set of directories for current IBM groupware and workflow applications,
including FlowMark, FormTalk, and Time and Place/2, said sources close
to the Armonk, N.Y., company.

The system initially will run on OS/2 servers and Windows and OS/2
clients; support for PowerPC, AIX, Solaris, AS/400, and MVS will be
added next year, sources said.

IBM's goal is to provide a set of applications linked to an end-to-end
messaging backbone, giving users peer-to-peer access virtually anywhere,
said Steven Mills, general manager of the software solutions division
within IBM's Personal Software Products Group.

The IBM backbone will support Vendor-Independent Messaging, Messaging
API, and X.400 specifications, allowing users of such applications as
Microsoft Mail and Lotus' cc:Mail to communicate with the IBM system,
Mills said. The messaging and queuing infrastructure will run over
TCP/IP and Systems Network Architecture combined with a data-store
technology taken from DB2.

IBM plans to include utilities for migrating to the UltiMail-based
system from Lotus' cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, Digital Equipment Corp.'s
All-In-1, and IBM's mainframe-based PROFS, officials said.

One of the keys to IBM's success will be its ability to attract
resellers and ISVs to the messaging infrastructure, said Lee Reiswig,
president of IBM's PSP Group.

"There are very few workgroup applications today, outside of Lotus
Notes, and we see an opportunity for a whole raft of them," he said.
"Those applications will really shine in the future. We'd like to see
Lotus move forward with us by supporting DCE [Distributed Computing
Environment] and OpenDoc."

Lotus sources, however, said the Cambridge, Mass., firm plans to focus
only on its LCS architecture, which will combine Notes, cc:Mail, and
Soft-Switch technology into a single directory.

Such competition with Lotus and Microsoft may make it difficult for IBM
to gain support.

"We are definitely waiting for Microsoft Exchange to come out," said
Mary Ann Tallman, an E-mail analyst for a Southwest manufacturing
conglomerate, who supports 17,000 Microsoft Mail and PROFS users and
expects to have 50,000 messaging users by the end of next year.

"It's hard to say what we'd think [about the IBM architecture] without
seeing it," Tallman said. "I might look at the specs, but we don't want
to change strategies midstream."

================================================================

Cisco's bid for Kalpana fills out strategy

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Paula Musich

Swooping in like a bird of prey, Cisco Systems Inc. last week snatched
Ethernet switch maker Kalpana Inc. from IBM's grasp, in a stock swap
valued at more than $200 million.

The reseller agreement between IBM and Kalpana, as well as work by the
two to develop a Token-Ring switch, remains intact, said IBM and Kalpana
officials. However, IBM's failed attempt to buy Kalpana leaves it
without vital Ethernet switching technology of its own.

"IBM better buy somebody. That's where it leaves them," said Paul
Callahan, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc., in Cambridge, Mass.
He speculated that data-communications equipment maker Alantec Inc., of
San Jose, Calif., was a "juicy target."

Cisco, Bay Networks Inc., IBM, 3Com Corp., and others are maneuvering to
provide the right mix of technology to help customers migrate from
shared LANs to switched internetworks and ATM (asynchronous transfer
mode), paving the way for more bandwidth-thirsty applications.

Cisco customers looking for a one-stop internetworking shop were pleased
with the Kalpana deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of
the year.

"I'm one of the lazy customers -- I like to buy everything from one
vendor. I can call Cisco and get everything I need," said Chris Waters,
director of production services at Global Enterprise Services, which
runs the John Von Neumann Computer Network in Princeton, N.J.

Whether Kalpana was a wise purchase for Cisco is questionable, said Nick
Lippis, president of Strategic Networks Consulting Inc., in Rockland,
Mass.

"They almost paid for one company what the entire market is worth today.
They bought technology, not market share. I'm not sure if that increases
their competitiveness," said Lippis.

Cisco officials said Kalpana fits well with their strategy. "We now have
products that are based on ATM, down to the Catalyst [Ethernet-to-FDDI]
desktop switches," said Barry Eggers, manager of business development
for the San Jose company.

Kalpana's switches will complement the Catalyst switches at the low end,
he said.

One Cisco customer saw overlap, however. "Cisco has products that
already have that [workgroup-switching] capability," said Doug Sutton,
systems manager at Loral Western Development Labs, a Department of
Defense contractor in San Jose.

Additional reporting by Stan Gibson

================================================================

High-end notebooks seek Comdex spotlight

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Michael R. Zimmerman

High-end portable PCs will abound next month at Comdex from companies
such as Twinhead Corp., NEC Technologies Inc., Tadpole Technology Inc.,
and Samsung Electronics America Inc.

Twinhead will expand its Slimnote family of notebooks with the
upgradable, Pentium-based Slimnote 7 and the CD ROM-equipped Slimnote 8.

The 6.2-pound Slimnote 7 is based on Intel Corp.'s 75MHz Pentium chip
and will come equipped with a 500M-byte hard drive, Level 2 cache, and
8M bytes of RAM (expandable to 32M bytes), said officials at Twinhead,
in Milpitas, Calif. Users will be able to choose between a 10.3-inch
dual-scan color, 10.4-inch color TFT (thin-film transistor), or 10.4-
inch dual-scan display that supports an 800-by-600-pixel resolution. All
of these features are user-upgradable.

The unit uses the company's TwinTouch finger-pad pointing device, and
its floppy drive can be replaced with a second nickel-metal hydride
battery, company officials said.

Twinhead's 75MHz Pentium-based Slimnote 8 will have a slide-out CD ROM
that can be swapped for a floppy drive.

Pricing for the systems has not been set.

Also at Comdex, NEC plans to release its new 75MHz Pentium-based Versa P
system, which will feature an 800-by-600-pixel, high-resolution color
display.

Tadpole plans to diverge from the RISC-based SPARCbook for the first
time and release a system based on Intel Corp.'s 100MHz P54C Pentium
chip next week, sources said.

Meanwhile, Samsung will expand its notebook line with a system equipped
with an Intel 33/100MHz 486DX4 chip and a Samsung-built TFT display,
according to sources.

New Pentium-based portables are intriguing, said Mark Gross, manager of
the information center at the Texas Association of School Boards, in
Austin, which is sending two employees to Comdex to "see the hot new
stuff."

"Eventually, notebooks will take over," Gross said. "And given the
choice, people would like a machine they could take with them --
provided it was as powerful as their desktop."

================================================================

Lotus extends Workplace Shell in SmartSuite

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Michael Vizard

Lotus Development Corp. this week will launch Lotus Value Pack for OS/2,
a collection of SmartSuite utilities that extends the capabilities of
the Workplace Shell in OS/2.

Priced at $10, the add-on features SmartCenter for OS/2, a customizable
icon bar that users can load with icons for Lotus and third-party
applications. This bar functions as an "anchor" to give users a home
base to work from within OS/2, similar to the functions provided by file
and program managers in Windows 3.1, said Hilmi Ozguc, director of
product management for OS/2 products at the Cambridge, Mass., company.

Honda of America Manufacturing Inc., in Marysville, Ohio, plans to use
SmartCenter to manage Lotus applications alongside its custom
applications. "It makes organizing your desktop a lot more convenient,
rather than having to go through all your windows to find anything,"
said Matt McClain, micro resource coordinator at Honda.

Also included is a Working Together Bonus Pack, which makes it easier
for Ami Pro users to call files from other Lotus applications, and a 1-
2-3 file translator for exchanging files between OS/2 and the Windows
version of the Lotus spreadsheet.

Other tools include a similar Freelance Graphics translation tool, 40
fill-in-the-blank presentation styles, and REXXLink for 1-2-3, which
connects Lotus' spreadsheet to the REXX programming language.

Separately, Ozguc said Lotus plans to deliver an OS/2 version of
NotesSuite, a bundle of Notes with SmartSuite, but she declined to
specify a date or the technology the company will use to integrate the
OS/2 versions of its applications with Notes.

The SmartSuite add-on will be available in 60 to 90 days.

================================================================

PowerPC -- What a difference a year makes

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Bill Machrone

I've just returned from this year's Microprocessor Forum, a world-class
gathering of the technoscenti, sponsored by our sister publication, The
Microprocessor Report. It's amazing how much changes in a year. Last
year, I left the forum convinced that the PowerPC would have 20 percent
of the market within 24 months.

Now I wonder if it has any role in the Intel-compatible market
whatsoever.

Three things have radically changed since last year. First, the PowerPC
product spectrum is in a shambles. Apple introduced its machines and its
operating system on time and in good shape. Nothing else has gone right
since. Back then, IBM was planning on shipping its machines in June or
July. Then it looked like the operating system, a portable, microkernel-
based version of OS/2, would be perhaps three months late. They talked
of shipping the machines with AIX and WABI, and including a coupon for
OS/2. To date, neither the machines nor the software has shipped, and I
have yet to hear a firm date for either. I've spent some time with an
IBM 601-based PowerPC machine, loaded with AIX and WABI. I'll tell you
one thing -- AIX is not your father's Unix. It's complete, capable, and
performs quite well. WABI is another matter. Performance is
lackadaisical at best, and the availability of "approved" apps is
severely constrained. Typically, they are older versions of 20 or so of
the most popular applications.

The second difference is the number of high-performance Intel-compatible
processors shipping, ready to ship, or announced for next year. Cyrix
has IBM building its M1 technology, which it unveiled at last year's
Microprocessor Forum and which gives Pentium-level performance. AMD
unveiled the K5, an Intel-compatible processor that surpasses Pentium
performance. NexGen is shipping its NX586. Our tests show that it
matches Pentium performance.

The looming presence of these new processors has caused the third big
change: Intel's pricing of the Pentium. Instead of enjoying a long run
of DX2- and DX4-based desktop machines, Intel has had to turn up the
heat on Pentium, making it the machine of choice for work and home
alike.

The IBM/Apple/Motorola consortium hasn't been sleeping. They unveiled
the PowerPC 620, a big, complex chip with multiple execution units that
will put the PowerPC back on top in the desktop horsepower race. That'll
help the performance of emulators and give the PowerPC a better shot at
running legacy X86 applications while performing native applications at
workstation speeds. Once Windows 95 ships, however, the target audience
won't be satisfied with today's 286-like, 16-bit emulation. They'll want
full 32 -bit applications to run on their PowerPCs.

Intel, meanwhile, will do everything in its power to leverage its
market-leading position. Pentium clock rates will surge next year to
120MHz. The P6 will ship in 1995, too. Even though it's intended for
server-based systems and includes features specific to making a
microprocessor-based, high-reliability mainframe, it'll doubtless find
its way onto some (very lucky) desktops.

The piece of pie on Intel's plate is so big and juicy that its
competitors are going to war over getting some. We will be the
beneficiaries of the battle, with inexpensive machines of phenomenal
performance. The PowerPC -- in the Intel-compatible world, at least --
is a likely victim of the deadly crossfire.

Bill Machrone is Vice President of Technology for Ziff-Davis Publishing
Co.

================================================================

Windows 95 Beta 2 will include Marvel client

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft Corp. is including the client component of its Marvel on-line
information service in Beta 2 of Windows 95 but will not offer access to
any significant data resources until December or January, sources close
to the company said.

Microsoft is due to begin shipping Windows 95 Beta 2 to 30,000 testers
next week -- a week later than expected -- officials from the Redmond,
Wash., company said.

The company is recruiting both large and small content providers for its
service; it is expected to announce deals with StarWave Corp.,
Ticketmaster Corp., Consumer Reports, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., and
Time Warner Inc., among others, sources said.

"The Marvel pricing model will be completely different from
CompuServe's," said a source who has been approached by Microsoft to
provide content. "It won't be transaction-based. You will rent space."

At Comdex, Microsoft will provide details of its long-term Marvel
strategy, sources said, but will not formally announce any of the
content providers it is lining up to be part of the service. Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates will briefly outline his vision of Marvel during his
Comdex keynote speech on Nov. 14, sources added.

Initially, Microsoft is expected to use Marvel in fairly limited ways:
as an on-line help system for Microsoft customers and as a gateway for
Microsoft consumer-applications users to download information, such as
statistics and game schedules.

Microsoft's goal is to have a full on-line service up and running by the
time Windows 95 ships, said sources close to Microsoft.

Separately, Microsoft this week will broadcast via satellite the first
installment of Microsoft TV. The service, broadcast for free for an hour
twice a month, will include information on BackOffice, Office,
programming tools, and other Microsoft products, as well as customer
case studies. Anyone with access to a satellite dish will be able to
receive the broadcast.

Attention: You are now reading news which is expressly prepared for
ZiffNet members. If you redistribute this file, or any part therein, on
any online service, BBS, LAN, WAN or other electronic or print
distribution mechanism, you are in violation of U.S. copyright laws--and
are subject to subsequent penalties.

================================================================

PCS deals bloom on eve of auction

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Michael Moeller

As last week's deadline to register for the PCS auction came and went,
long-distance carriers, RBOCs, and cable operators were scrambling to
nail down the perfect partnership that would lead them down the road to
deliver a nationwide wireless network.

The broadband personal communications services auction, slated for
December, will set the stage for next-generation wireless technology
that goes beyond voice communications to provide both corporate IS users
and consumers with capabilities such as paging, short messaging, and
faxing over the same network.

Analysts also predict PCS networks, once in place over the next few
years, will drive down the cost of wireless technologies such as
cellular and packet radio. But PCS will be expensive to roll out, said
analysts, who attribute recent partnerships to companies building up a
war chest to cover deployment costs estimated to be about $10 billion.

The latest alliance, formed last week, teamed U.S. Sprint Communications
Co. with the major cable companies, including Tele-Communications Inc., Cox
Cable Corp., and Comcast Corp.

Besides providing significant capital for their bids, the deal also
enables Sprint to bypass the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies)
to access the local phone market via a local-access provider developed
by the cable contingent called Teleport Communications Group. The move
will save Sprint nearly 45 percent of its cost on local-access charges,
analysts said.

On the heels of that alliance was a partnership that teamed four of the
largest cellular carriers -- Nynex Corp., Bell Atlantic Corp., US West
Communications Inc., and AirTouch Communications, a division of Pacific
Telesis Group -- to create a National Wireless Alliance, which will
provide cellular coverage in 15 of the top 20 markets.

To complete its nationwide wireless offering, the group plans to bid on
PCS in the five markets where it currently lacks a wireless presence:
St. Louis, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and Tampa, Fla., said Barbara Riker,
director of investor relations at AirTouch in San Francisco.

Precipitating the mating dance among telecommunications carriers and
cable companies was the $11.3 billion merger, completed more than a
month ago, of AT&T Corp. and McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.

Despite the flurry of activity, the use of wireless technology is still
far from being a top priority at many user sites. Sally York,
communication systems manager for USL Capital, confirmed that wireless
is part of the San Francisco financial company's business plan but said
she doesn't expect the technology to move forward until 1996.

"It is still bleeding-edge technology," said York. "Nonetheless, with
the alliances and the emergence of new services and technology, there
will now be more to choose from."

Not all participants are racing to find a partner. Ameritech Corp. and
MCI Communications Corp. are among those looking at alternative
agreements to provide their users with wireless services, instead of
participating in the PCS auction.

================================================================

Cyrix plans M1 chip for notebooks

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Neal Boudette

Cyrix Corp. will miss its schedule to introduce the 586-class M1 chip
this year, but will bolster a first-quarter rollout with a notebook
version of the chip.

Code-named Chili, the notebook processor is the first of a series of M1
derivatives Cyrix had hoped to debut this year, said sources close to
the Richardson, Texas, firm.

Analysts said distinct chips for portables and desktops could lure more
PC makers to the M1 camp but voiced concern about the delay.

"They announced the M1 architecture a year ago and said systems would be
out this year at Comdex, so it seems they are having problems," said
Linley Gwennap, editor of The Microprocesor Report newsletter, in Santa
Clara, Calif.

Cyrix has completed the M1 design but has not yet produced working
samples, said Steve Domenik, vice president of marketing.

Cyrix gave Chili a 32-bit interface that lets PC makers run the chip in
PCs designed for 486 CPUs, sources said. Pentium and full-blown M1 chips
require 64-bit designs.

PC buyers said non-Intel chips have to offer significantly lower pricing
or more speed. "If it's not cheaper or faster, you might as well buy
Intel," said John Kretz, a technical-services director at the American
Graduate School of International Management, in Glendale, Ariz.

================================================================

Apple, IBM bet on common platform

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Neal Boudette

IBM and Apple Computer Inc. are banking on improved Windows 95 support
and a general shift away from pure X86 processors to draw buyers to the
common PowerPC platform they expect to release in 1996.

The common platform, which the partners expect to announce at Comdex,
will include hardware enhancements designed to run Windows 95
applications in emulation on PowerPC systems at acceptable speeds, said
sources close to IBM and Apple.

As outlined so far, the common platform uses elements from both IBM's
PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) design and Apple's Power Mac hardware
to ensure backward compatibility, sources said.

From PReP, the new platform will take low-cost industry-standard
components and I/O devices such as a parallel port, they said.

It also uses the Power Mac's open-firmware design to ensure reliable
Plug and Play capabilities, they said.

IBM and Apple have also agreed on a ROM design that supports Macintosh
system software and a PC BIOS, the sources said.

The Peripheral Component Interconnect bus in PReP and slated to debut in
Power Macs next spring is expected to appear in the common design.

Machines based on the common spec are due in mid- to late 1996 and are
expected to run the System 8 version of the Mac operating system as well
as AIX, Solaris, Windows NT, NetWare, and OS/2 for PowerPC, sources
said.

IBM and Apple are counting on hardware accelerators in the common design
to run Windows 95 at acceptable performance levels. IBM might also turn
to the PowerPC 615 chip, which runs Windows binaries by translating X86
instructions into RISC instructions, sources said.

"We are taking care of the need to run Windows 95," said one source
familiar with the chip.

The two companies believe Intel Corp.'s move by 1997 to a new chip
architecture it is building with Hewlett-Packard Co. will create an
opening for corporate buyers to switch to the common PowerPC platform.

But PC buyers remain skeptical about such a daunting technological task.

"I think it's an outstanding idea, but I don't have much confidence in
IBM's ability to do it," said Les Barnes, a U.S. Army automation officer
in Augusta, Ga.

Industry analysts said the window of opportunity for establishing
PowerPC machines as legitimate alternatives to X86 PCs is already
starting to close.

"Apple has to [license Mac technology], and the sooner, the better,"
said Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter, in Alameda, Calif.
"They're already losing [software developers]."

Additional reporting by Laura B. Smith

================================================================

Tip fishing, Katt catches limit in Warp waters

Rumor Central from PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Spencer F. Katt

The Katt was really, really just about nearly ready to start cleaning
his digs when the word came down that Spence's house and all its
attachments had been sold for a cool $1.4 billion.

"Whew, that was close," sighed Spence, standing Samson-like between two
towering pillars of faxes. "I mean, if the house has been sold, there's
no sense in cleaning up, is there?"

Of course, there was indeed no reason to disturb the Katt's pad. Better
instead to turn to tip sorting and leave Fax Mountain unscaled for
another week. But where to start?

Well, there was certainly plenty of tip fishing in the Warp waters.
While IBM struggles to exorcise the major demons bugging Warp, the
company's flacksters are setting new records in issuing press releases
about the on-again, off-again nature of Warp manufacturing. Meanwhile,
the Warp loyalists, ever ready to find conspiracy and the invisible-but-
firm hand of Microsoft behind any criticism of OS/2, have been in a
constant state of red alert.

The best story that Spence heard contended that shipment was a week
later than expected due to a rather embarrassing problem. IBM began
manufacturing on Oct. 11. It already had a ton of boxes made up when
IBM's Lee Reiswig got around to trying the final build on his home
machine. Crash time. Of course, IBM is now saying that with the BAK bug
cured, the factory is running at full steam. Spence hears that half-
steam is a bit closer to reality.

Never let it be said that a little thing like not having a product
should stop you from making a big splash at Comdex. Microsoft is
planning a "We're building for Windows 95" flag on an 8-foot flagpole, a
4-foot-by-9-foot banner, stickers, and buttons, and developers get their
name in a "We're building for Windows 95" publication.

Plans to build a marketing campaign around the IBM Software Co. seem to
be in disarray. Apparently orders have come from above for a $500
million cut in expenses across the board at Big Blue, and the Software
Co. idea is listing to port.

A late-night call from Tokyo alerted Spence that Hitachi, planning to
make and sell PCs in the United States, is very interested in Compaq.
While Hitachi is sniffing around the PC biz in the States, Spence
learned that AT&T a couple of months ago made a major bid for Cabletron.
Cabletron refused.

A notebook tipster whispered that Toshiba has shipped a number of T4800
notebooks complete with a boot-sector virus.

Seems Lotus and WordPerfect, continuing to eat Microsoft's dust in the
suite derby, are looking to collaborate, rather than just jockey for the
No. 2 spot. Word (ahem) has it that, thwarted in its attempts to bring
WordPerfect into its stable, Lotus, which has a bit of an old nag in Ami
Pro, has approached the ever-willing WordPerfect team about providing
tighter links between SmartSuite and PerfectOffice apps.

Finally, Oracle is having a hard time naming its Project X end-user
visual programming tool. Considered but rejected because the names had
either been taken or badly klunked are Xpert, Xpress, Oracle Basic,
Visual Oracle, XBasic, and XCalibur. "What's in an Xname anyway?"
harrumphed the hairball.

Have a tip? Call Rumor Central at [phone]; On MCI, It's SKATT; on
CompuServe, use 72631,107; on the Internet, it's
[e-mail]; or try ZiffNet'S PC Week Forum on CompuServe,
or FAX the KATT at [phone].

================================================================

Novell goes `gold' with NetWare 4.1

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Eric Smalley

Novell Inc. is scheduled to reach a critical milestone this week when it
freezes work on NetWare 4.1, which will include an upgraded transport
protocol to dramatically improve performance.

SPX2, developed with AT&T Corp., will boost throughput as much as four
times for low-latency networks such as LANs, and even higher for WANs
that use high-latency links, Novell officials said last week.

NetWare 4.1 also includes directory-manipulation tools that allow
administrators to more easily change directory structures, the NetSync
bindery-integration utility, and the foundation to support the
forthcoming multiprocessing add-on product.

To a large extent, Novell is banking its future on the successful
release of NetWare 4.1, and many users who struggled with earlier
versions of NetWare 4.x or avoided them altogether are waiting for the
upgrade before putting NetWare 4.x into their production networks.

Novell issued an update of the NetWare 4.1 beta in early October, and
NetWare 4.1 is scheduled to go "gold" this week, said Toby Corey,
director of marketing for Novell's NetWare Systems Group, in Provo,
Utah.

Novell will then master and check the code, review the documentation,
and begin mass production, Corey said. Novell is on track to ship
NetWare 4.1 by the middle of December, he said.

Beta testers generally reported that the code is stable. Novell sent
engineers to each of the approximately 100 beta test sites at end-user
organizations to observe administrators installing and configuring the
software, according to David Stevenson, Novell's vice president of
engineering.

"I'm not aware of any problems with the beta," he said.

SPX, which assures sequential packet transmission, has a packet-size
limit of 576 bytes and requires that each packet receives a reply before
the next is sent out, according to a Novell engineer who requested
anonymity. SPX2 adds a negotiation mechanism that allows sending and
receiving systems to determine the largest possible packet size, he
said. SPX2 also allows multiple packets to be transmitted before an
acknowledgment is received, he said. As a result, applications that
require SPX, such as the Lotus Notes NLM, will realize the performance
boost.

"With a satellite link, for example, you incur the satellite link delay
for both the request and the reply," the engineer said. "If you can
string together 10 [requests] and fire them off in a stream, you remove
18 of those delays."

The performance increase for low-latency networks is achieved with the
ability of SPX2 to queue up multiple packets for transmission, he added.

By incorporating AT&T technology in a core element of NetWare 4.1,
Novell could gain a measure of respect from IS managers who are unsure
of NetWare's reliability.

"For IS managers moving off a highly controlled mainframe environment,
this is one more degree of comfort that it isn't a mistake," said Erich
Mueller, director of operations for operations and checking services at
the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

================================================================

Microsoft interactive-TV trials set for December

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft Corp. and Tele-Communications Inc. will begin their first
interactive-TV trials in December, linking employees from both firms via
Microsoft operating-system and media-server technology to TCI's cable
network.

The trials will center on a distributed, microkernel-based operating
system from Microsoft code-named Iceberg. Iceberg and a continuous
audio/video server, code-named Tiger, form the crux of Microsoft's
video-on-demand strategy.

More pieces of the company's interactive puzzle will fall into place
this week when Microsoft announces additional partnerships with
telecommunications and cable companies, systems integrators, and set-top
box and server vendors, sources close to the company said. Microsoft
will hold a two-day meeting this week for its interactive-TV partners,
sources said. Officials declined to comment.

In the December trials, about 100 Microsoft and TCI employees in the
Seattle area will be linked via an interactive broadband network
operating system.

Microsoft also will hold an Iceberg developers' conference in mid-
December for 80 interactive TV-application and content vendors, sources
said. Conference participants will receive sample code for APIs,
specifications for Visual Basic and Visual C development tools,
descriptions of hardware-development platforms, and documentation for
building interactive TV systems, the sources said.

Microsoft plans to begin corporate trials of the Tiger media-server
technology next year. Corporations will be able to use Tiger in
conjunction with PCs to set up interactive links between home and
satellite offices for such applications as video-on-demand, training,
and editing, officials said.

"We've been looking more and more at technology that would allow greater
video and graphics-document storage," said Jim Martin, information
manager with the Alternate Channels Division of Pacific Bell, in San
Ramon, Calif. "The ability to record a whole videoconference, for
example, would be very interesting to us."

Iceberg is the second version of the interactive TV operating system
developed by Microsoft's Advanced Technology division. The first
version, code-named Amazon, was developed by Microsoft, General
Instrument Corp., and Intel Corp.

Amazon, based on the Microsoft At Work kernel, supports hybrid-fiber
backbones and local coaxial network connections. The set-top piece of
Amazon, code-named Parrot, will run on the Lynx set-top box developed by
General Instrument.

Iceberg, which was developed solely by Microsoft and thus the company's
favored interactive TV platform, is designed to support digital set-top
boxes and both fiber-coaxial and full-fiber network wiring schemes.
Iceberg is designed to link to multiple servers, such as the Tiger media
server, SQL-based database servers, and finance/billing servers -- all
of which initially are slated to run on Windows NT, officials confirmed.

Microsoft still has a number of technology hurdles to clear with this
strategy, said a source recently briefed on the Redmond, Wash.,
company's plans.

"The technology is working, but Microsoft needs to be able to record at
the same time as they're transmitting digital information," said the
source. "It's not clear whether they will be able to do this within six
months."

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Lotus will enhance Notes with native X.25 support

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by Paula Rooney

Continuing its efforts to bolster the use of Notes across companies as
well as continents, Lotus Development Corp. has developed a native X.25
driver to ease wide-area data replication.

In addition, the company is working with Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun
Microsystems Inc. to integrate those companies' respective network-
management systems with Notes.

The X.25 driver, priced at $1,250 and due this week, will give customers
a less-expensive way to replicate Notes data remotely, said Mike
Laginski, director of Notes product management at the Cambridge, Mass.,
firm. The driver will offer server-to-server and client/server
replication sessions, he said.

Lotus added support for the X.25 driver in response to demand from
European Notes customers and multinational companies with global Notes
servers.

"For us, it's significant because we have a user in Australia and he
often can't make a clean connection with us," said one Notes customer.
"X.25 provides a virtual connection."

More robust support for WAN connectivity should make Notes more
appealing across the enterprise, analysts said. "There's lots of work
under way to upgrade Notes to provide robust [WAN] support, such as AT&T
Network Notes," said David Marshak, editor of the Workgroup Computing
Report, published by Patricia Seybold's Office Computing Group, in
Boston. AT&T Network Notes, due in the third quarter of 1995, will be
based on AT&T Corp.'s frame-relay technology.

To make Notes a more robust network application, Lotus is working to tie
its NotesView management platform into HP OpenView's Operations Center
network-management software. The software provides capabilities for
distributing software and overseeing OpenView storage and print
management. Work to integrate the software with NotesView will be
completed by the time the Lotus package ships in early 1995, said HP
officials, in Palo Alto, Calif.

Lotus is working with Sun to integrate NotesView with SunNet Manager,
said Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun, in Mountain View, Calif.
Shared support for SNMP will make that integration possible, McNealy
said. Work to integrate NotesView with SunNet Manager should be
completed next year, Sun officials said.

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Where do IBM and Apple go from here?

This PC Week for October 31, 1994 by John Dodge

The obstacles facing a successful clone push by the PowerPC are numerous
and difficult.

Except for serving as the next-generation Mac CPU, the PowerPC has been
subjected to continual repositioning. IBM failed to exploit the initial
wave of customer curiosity and still has nothing to show for all the
slick demos, advanced interfaces, and gaga performance promised for
under two grand. To the IS community, a rejiggered PReP is just that
much more noise. Confusion reigns.

Apple, enjoying brisk Power Mac sales, has been pretty schizophrenic,
too. It can't quite bring itself to push hard on the Mac clone button.
It wants the Mac OS to run on Intel PCs. It wants to license the Mac OS
to hardware OEMs. And sometimes, reports leak out that Apple wants to
focus just on Mac OS and get out of the hardware business altogether.

We would not be the first to suggest that the last option could very
well be the best one for Apple, IBM, Motorola, prospective Mac cloners,
and would-be customers. Big companies tend to reject radical measures,
however; that reluctance often turns out to be ruinous. Think where IBM
could be today if it had made different moves back in the mid-'80s.

Here's the scenario. Dell, IBM, Compaq, DEC, Toshiba, AST, and Gateway
make the PowerPC Macs, or whatever you call a box that runs every OS out
there. (A PowerPC box running Solaris, AIX, DOS, Windows, NT, NetWare,
OS/2, and the Mac OS is a half-baked solution in search of a problem.)

Apple sells off the hardware business -- say, to IBM -- and goes
exclusively into the software business. Meanwhile, IBM throws its weight
completely behind the Mac OS on the desktop, the best alternative to
Windows.

This possibly potent strategy has been poked, probed, and examined many
times by our sister publication, MacWeek. IBM and Moto are keepers of
the hardware standard. Apple oversees the software platform. Maybe it
will happen. Apple could just be waiting for the clone market to reach
critical mass before exiting the hardware business.

The problem is, there's no insurmountable shortage of Power Macs and no
discernible demand for generic PowerPC PCs. That's a key difference: IBM
PC clones 10 years ago were born out of demand IBM could not satisfy.
The clone market thrived even while IBM tried to stomp it out. PC clone
makers underpriced IBM, just as AMD and Cyrix today try to do with
Intel.

The odds for our scenario succeeding are probably less than 50-50. It
reapplies the 10-year-old Microsoft/Intel model, but rarely do business
conditions replicate huge success by the close remapping of a formula
that worked once.

Where does the PowerPC fit into your plans? What should Apple, IBM, &
Co. do at this point? Send me your comments over the Internet
([e-mail]), CompuServe (72241,303), or MCI Mail (2393520).

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IBM empowers LAN Server with update

From PC Week for October 31, 1994 by David P. Chernicoff

Forsaking the usual network-operating-system upgrade goal of simply
jacking up performance, IBM has focused its considerable energies on
making Version 4.0 of LAN Server more acceptable to IT managers by
improving its user interface and simplifying its administration and
management tools.

Not that LAN Server 4.0 is a slouch in the performance department: In
our initial NetBench 3.0 tests comparing LAN Server with an optimized
NetWare 3.12 server and a dynamically tuned NetWare 4.02 server -- the
acknowledged performance champions -- LAN Server 4.0 occupied the middle
ground between Novell Inc.'s formidable network operating system
entries. In its best-performing incarnation, LAN Server delivered
solidly competitive throughput results out to 60 clients.

LAN Server 4.0, which began shipping earlier this month, is available in
two versions, Entry and Advanced. The $795 Entry version targets small
workgroups (80 users or less) where performance is not an issue and
environments where a non-dedicated server is an advantage. A Ring 3
application, LAN Server Entry fits well in an OS/2 for Symmetric
Multiprocessing environment, where it can take advantage of multiple
processors.

LAN Server Advanced, priced at $2,295 and capable of supporting up to
1,000 users, gains its performance boost over the Entry version by
running at Ring 0, where it has direct access to all system resources.
The Advanced version of LAN Server 4.0 also offers fault tolerance,
Pentium optimization, and support for High Performance File System.

LAN Server 4.0 clients cost $50 each, with bundles priced at $500 for 10
nodes, $1,185 for 25 nodes, and $2,250 for 50 nodes. DOS/Windows, OS/2,
and Macintosh clients are available.

Those who already have LAN Server or LAN Manager, as well as Windows for
Workgroups or Windows NT clients, can talk directly to LAN Server 4.0.
New clients need not be purchased.

Revamped interface will please users

By including tools to simplify installation and management as well as a
revamped user interface on the server, IBM has done a creditable job of
crafting an interface that competent IT managers who aren't networking
experts can feel comfortable using to install the network software.

While not as simple to install as Windows NT, Version 4.0 of LAN Server
is much better in the ease-of-use department than earlier iterations.
OK, it helps if the manager is familiar with OS/2, but as LAN Server
runs on top of OS/2, it's safe to assume there's at least some OS/2
experience.

While the improvements in the installation process will be obvious to
the administrator, client software has also been significantly improved.
Version 4.0's new DOS Requestor sports a character-mode GUI that's
straightforward and easy to use. Its new OS/2 and Windows tools simplify
sharing of local resources, such as files and printers. And when using
the DOS Requestor with Windows, users have access to networked Dynamic
Data Exchange and a Clipboard to enhance data sharing across the LAN.

Performance zings along

We tested LAN Server Advanced 4.0 on a 60-client network using ZD Labs'
NetBench 3.0 to measure performance throughput. Using a Compaq Computer
Corp. ProLiant 4000 equipped with 128M bytes of RAM and 8G bytes of
storage, attached to a Compaq Smart Array Controller and four Ethernet
segments via Compaq's NetFlex EISA Ethernet adapters, we compared the
performance of LAN Server 4.0 to the two current shipping versions of
NetWare, 3.12 and 4.02.

We found that when using the Compaq Smart Array to provide hardware
striping, LAN Server turned in performance numbers comparable to both
versions of NetWare across the entire test, regardless of client load.

Performance fell off precipitously, however, when we tested LAN Server
4.0 with software striping implemented. Software striping is built into
NetWare (as well as Windows NT and other NOSs), but IBM provided us with
EZRAID for OS/2 Version 1.15, a third-party product from Pro Engineering
Inc., to accomplish it.

Using EZRAID, LAN Server turned in a significantly worse performance
than either version of NetWare. A new version of EZRAID is about to be
released that may improve its performance. In addition, other third-
party alternatives also exist, such as the Oasis software RAID product
that IBM formerly resold.

IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at [phone].

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