Comdex rumors and impressions from Randy (Intersect Software) on CIS... The impressions I got are that Atari is pushing the more professional Image with DTP (high end) Didot (similar to Correl Draw) and RETOUCHE which is a high end Image editor and laser separation program. Cost for DIDOT $1000.00 and for a RETOUCHE system $20 - 30 thousand $$. The obvious reason for the RETOUCHE cost are hardware as this package includes a Matrix 24 bit color card for the TT (16 million colors) a 24 bit color digitizer, a 19 inch monitor with an amazing display, and a laser color printer with a Atari Laser for proofing. Retouche will produce print ready color separations with screening at the necessary DPI. Also built in is a feedback system for color correction so that images on screen and final prints are corrected for inherent hardware color errors. Mentioned at the show when asked...is this better than a MAC system? The Atari DMA lends it's self to this application, it's more efficient and the professional saves time when printing and editing an image. Something to give Mac and Atari owners a brighter day. Although almost everyone at COMDEX was showing Windows programs, very glitsy displays that made you want to eat your heart out, many were complaining about the CLUNKY, SLOW windows environment. It's finally getting bad press with reviewers and developers. Anyone who has used a Mac with SYSTEM 7 or even a lowly ST will be totally floored at the amount of hardware necessary to get windows to perform at ho-hum speeds. Almost all machines at the COMDEX show displaying windows were EISA 486 machines with State of the art Tigra boards. ---------------- Some additional comments about Atari and Comdex - Cat. 11, Topic 9, Msgs 91, 92, 103, 105 - from the ST Roundtable on Genie - From Jeffrey C. Davis (CEO, Magnum Software)... Just a note here guys & gals: Atari spent approximately $700,000 to do the COMDEX show. Another thing: I wish I could say more about the new TT machine, but I am under non-disclosure. Just believe me when I say you're going to LOVE IT!! From George @ JMG... Well, David and I just got back from COMDEX (and a bit of gambling to boot). Before I get some needed sleep, I thought I'd add some personal views. I don't think Atari's showing at this year's COMDEX was a run-away roaring success, but that's because I think COMDEX '91 as a whole was slower, more boring, and less exciting. There were simply less interesting people wandering around (I don't know attendance figures, so I use the term "interesting people" to mean people who actually looked interested in seeing the show and checking out vendors besides just IBM and Microsoft). But maybe it is not fair to make comparisons to the last four years of COMDEX, since it is still by far the biggest show of its kind in North America. But on the other side, I thought Atari's showing was very good indeed. The DTP section was the focus, and the products being shown are "world class". Even at our end of the booth (as a late addition, we weren't in the "best seats" :-) ) we received a good deal of interest about HyperLINK and the capabilities of the Atari in general. And I was surprised at how many dealers wandered by saying "HyperLINK? Oh, I carry your product in my store..." It was nice seeing stocking Atari dealers in the flesh. And some of these people are still quite enthusiastic. Since both David and I went down to Vegas, we both got a chance to tour most of the show. In all of it, there were only two things that impressed me. OK, I may be getting thick-skinned after 11 years in this business, but the new Macs, the thousand or so new clones, the pen based computers, etc, are nice in the way of evolution of the industry, but they are not terribly exciting to normal people. Try to afford a Mac Quadra or try to find an everyday sort of use for a pen based computer... The two things that impressed me are 1) the inroads made in the area of multimedia hardware and standards. In fact, the "Best products of COMDEX '91" award went to an IBM/Intel room displaying DVI (Digital Video Interactive, I believe) technology, a very high tech combina- tion of full motion video with graphics, sound, etc. With our product being a multi-media based product this new stuff is of particular interest to me, and early in the new year I am very eager to incor- porate some of the technologies I saw displayed into an Atari plat- form under HyperLINK. Some of it is a little unreasonable with current hardware, (ie full motion video in a window on a medium rez colour 1040 is not possible), but it appears that Atari has noticed what is required of them for the next generation of ST/TTs and is addressing some of these hardware/software issues. Additionally, 1992 is without doubt the year you will see CD-ROM take a foothold in the Atari market. If Atari themselves don't do it by 1st Quarter '92 -- and at the dinner Sam seemed quite confident that Atari would ship CDARs, stating that the "order had been placed" and the units were in production -- but if Atari doesn't ship then I KNOW for a fact that third parties WILL ship early in the year. And I can't speak for other companies, but I can assure you that we will be right in the front lines providing software for CD-ROM use, specifically in tailoring HyperLINK to be an ideal front-end for CD- ROM data. But I digress -- back to the things that impressed me at COMDEX. Item 2) was a simple little device - the new drive from Syquest. Many of you know the traditional Syquest removable hard drive mechanism, a 44 megabyte 5.25 inch cartridge-based drive (used in Atari's Megafile 44, for instance). A top notch product, even David Small likes 'em :-) Well, these guys introduced and are producing a drive they call the "Iota" series, using 2.5 inch (yes, two and a half inch) cartridges storing 44 megabytes. For less than the size of standard floppy, using a drive that takes about half the size of a normal 3.5" hard or floppy drive, you can store 44 megabytes. More amazing than that, these drives will sell for LESS than the old unit, in quantities under $300 each for the drives and under $50 for each 44 megabyte cartridge. In comparison to other new technologies (ie floptical, etc) the drives are cheaper, the media cheaper per megabyte, the disks smaller, and the technology more proven. I would LOVE to have one of these drives in each ST I own :-) (BTW, Syquest has a six month backlog of orders on these units, so don't look for 'em at the corner store just yet). Follow up on the Syquest 2.5' drive from Norm Weinress... Electronic News (I got it today) reports that Syquest dropped the other shoe. It seemed strange that they would jump directly from 5- 1.4" to 2.5", with nothing in between. Well, they have also announced a 3.5" removable media drive! 105 Megs per cartridge, but no pricing as yet. More from J.LYONS16... I read that those 2.5" drives will sell for $300 in quantity and the cartridges will go for around $50. 44 meg on a 2.5" drive. ----------------