Title : are usually present at fi Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: j3mcafee Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: are usually present at file server nodes. All of these elements can be potential hosts for a virus. The more programs that are infected, the more difficult the recovery is. Like infections of local workstation storage, if the infection is sufficiently widespread, then the shared file media may have to be reformatted to clean out the virus. Recovery from this level of infection is complicated by the fact that many, if not all, of the connected workstations will be infected. If the infection is not removed from each and every workstation at the same time, then reinfection is certain to occur, and the cycle will begin again. Infection of systemwide removable media. An infected computer will infect many of the diskettes that are inserted into it. These can be newly formatted diskettes, data diskettes or program or system diskettes. The virus will also infect write-once read-many (WORM) disks, removable hard disks, reel and cartridge tapes and any other writable/removable media that are attached to the system. Over a period of months, a single infected computer can infect hundreds of media elements. Some of these elements _ for example, floppies and WORM disks _ are highly portable, widely dispersed, easily misplaced and difficult to control. Others, such as removable hard disks and tape backups, are archived for considerable periods and can keep a virus in ``cold storage'' indefinitely, where it is always poised to be reintroduced into a clean system. Once a virus has infected large numbers of computers on a network, the number of infected removable media elements will begin to skyrocket. Eventually, if the virus continues to go undetected, a stage is reached in which the probability of identifying and recovering all of the infected media is virtually zero. Diskettes may have been carried out of the building _ to other offices, to homes or to client sites. Some may be filed away and overlooked. Others may have been relabeled and recycled without first being reformatted. And there could always be a diskette languishing under a stack of papers in someone's desk drawer that will be discovered months or even years later, perhaps long after the infection is forgotten. When the number of such media devices reaches the thousands _ a common situation _ the probability of reinfection after the virus is removed becomes very high. Some installations have suffered through more than a dozen such reinfections. The cost becomes enormous. Safeguards Clearly, the earlier you identify an infection, the better off both you and your company's data are. If you can detect and remove a virus before it begins its disruptive phase, then you can avoid the consequences of data corruption or loss. If you stop the infection before it becomes too widespread, then you localize the cleanup task and ensure successful removal. The problem, of course, is finding the virus in time. Or, better yet, preventing the infection from occurring in the first place. Fortunately, there are workable solutions to these problems. To reduce the threat of infection, MIS can implement policies and procedures that restrict the potential entry of viruses into an environment as well as integrate infection-prevention software products that can prevent a virus from replicating itself if a system does become exposed. The single most effective policy that can be implemented in a corporate environment is to prohibit the use of public-domain and shareware software programs. Such software products carry a high risk of infection, and the indiscriminate duplication of public-domain programs makes auditing and tracking them very difficult. A blanket policy forbidding their use will go a long way toward providing a measure of security. An effective second step is the implementation of procedures that govern the way in which ``homework'' is handled. It is common practice today for professionals to transport diskettes from work to home and back. Many have PCs or workstations at home, and the convenience, not to mention increased productivity, of finishing up a report or a spreadsheet before returning to work in the morning is one of the major benefits of our increasing access to computers. It is also a major avenue of corporate infection. Procedures to monitor and control this media flow are essential. Simply requesting, for example, that no diskette containing an executable program be transported between work and home will dramatically cut down the risk of infection. It is extremely difficult for viruses to infect a data-only diskette. Other simple and easy-to-implement procedures include limiting the transmission of executable programs over networks wherever possible; write-protecting all program and system diskettes; never booting hard-disk systems from a floppy unless it is the original, write-protected system master; never executing programs of unknown origin; never using network file servers as workstations; and never adding data or programs to system master diskettes. Prevention products The above procedures, if followed thoroughly, will greatly reduce a company's exposure to infection. In addition, the use of infection-prevention products can be beneficial. These products are generally software terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs that monitor all system activity and look for characteristic viral-replication signs. They can prevent, for instance, any attempted modification of the boot sector, operating system module or application program. These products normally display a warning to the user when an attempted infection is identified. While such products can be useful, and while they provide a statistical margin of safety, they have two drawbacks. First, they are not effective against all types of viruses. For example, boot-sector viruses _ viruses that replace the boot sectors of hard disks and floppies _ cannot be stopped by these types of products, and certain types of system infectors are immune. The second drawback is that most of these products produce a certain number of ``false positives'' _ that is, virus warnings that are not really viruses. Certain legitimate programs, for example, may at times perform a function that looks very much like a virus, and this function will be suspended by the virus-prevention product, which will display a warning. If a large number of false positives are produced, then eventually the user may become desensitized and may ultimately ignore a warning about a legitimate virus. In spite of these drawbacks, however, infection-prevention products, if correctly applied, can be powerful tools for minimizing infection risks. If you cannot prevent a viral infection, then you must at least detect an infection as soon as possible after it has occurred. The longer a virus remains undetected, the greater the damage and the larger the cost of recovery will be. Virus detection falls into two categories: user training in the procedures for detection and the use of products specifically designed to detect viruses. Even though viruses are for the most part invisible to a casual observer, a trained user can spot many of them, given the right circumstances. Viruses, for example, must replicate in order to spread, and the replication process takes time. Thus, an infected program may exhibit a slight delay, perhaps one or two seconds longer than normal, each time the program is executed. Likewise, disk accesses for normally simple tasks may take noticeably longer. So an alert user, watching for changes in the pattern of the system's activities, may often notice the signs of a virus. A small-scale employee-training program can be beneficial in helping the organization detect viral infections. The subtle symptoms of infection can often betray a lurking virus if the user knows what to look for. Users should ask themselves the following questions: Do program loads take longer than normal? Do disk accesses seem excessive for simple tasks? Do unusual error messages occur with regularity? Do access lights turn on for unreferenced devices? Do I have less memory available than usual? Do programs or files mysteriously disappear? Do I notice a sudden reduction in disk space? Have any executable files changed size? Are unexplainable hidden files present? In addition to user vigilance, procedures and training, special-purpose infection-detection products are available that can prove very helpful in catching a virus. They work by detecting changes in critical segments of the system that would normally be changed only by the presence of a virus. These products can be highly effective, with the following caveat: The system must be clean _ uninfected _ at the time the product is initially installed. Unlike the infection-prevention TSRs that prevent the virus from getting onto the system, infection-detection products detect the virus after it has infected the system. These products function in one of two ways _ either by vaccination or by logging procedures. Vaccination products modify the programs in a system to include a self-test mechanism. This mechanism executes each time the program is loaded and the self-test checks the program for infection. Logging programs read and log critical information about all segments of the system, and then they compare this log to the current system state each time the computer is turned on or rebooted. Both techniques have their pros and cons, but both are also highly effective. Unlike the infection-prevention products, detection products are usually able to catch both boot-sector viruses and operating system infectors, as well as generic program viruses. The CVIA distributes a public information package that can help MIS installations trying to find the right virus prevention or detection product for their needs. There are many options available to MIS for minimizing the risks of computer virus infection and for identifying infection after it has occurred. The judicious application of the right procedure or tool to the right environment should provide a margin of safety that will allow the average data processing manager to enjoy untroubled sleep in these high-risk times. <<<>>> Title : Future success will depen Author : George Schussel Source : CW Comm FileName: feb13wat Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Twenty years ago, IBM launched its independent software industry by unbundling applications and systems software from hardware offerings. Despite the growth of the industry since then, IBM is by far the largest software organization in the world, with annual sales of approximately $10 billion. In fact, IBM's dominance in software is greater than in hardware. Prominent competitive independent software vendors such as Cullinet and Oracle boast sales of a few $100 million per year. Computer Associates, the largest independent software vendor, has an annual revenue of only about $1 billion _ and much of that from acquisitions. Further, software is fast becoming IBM's most important business. In order to meet growth and profitability goals, the company needs to do well in its software sales, because software sales drive the hardware sales, and its other businesses are not doing as well. PC market share waning For example, IBM's share of the personal computer market is rapidly declining. At its highest point in 1986, IBM held more than 50% of the U.S. business market. In minicomputers, IBM's market share has eroded drastically since the early 1980s. Much of this erosion has been in favor of DEC. Although IBM is successfully fighting back with the Application System/400 series, new competition is going to come from various suppliers of Unix-based computers. In mainframes, IBM's 370 series (3090, 4381, 9370) remains dominant. However, the overall growth in the mainframe market recently has been less than 10% per year. There is an essential interaction between the success of a software product and the resulting sales of the underlying hardware. The 1980s success of the IBM Personal Computer was principally the result of the popularity of Lotus' 1-2-3. Much of the current success of IBM's AS/400 line is attributed to the availability of thousands of applications software packages from the System/36 and 38 markets. Software, then, is not only the most rapidly growing piece of IBM's business, but it is the piece that drives the success of the hardware business. It is also the business that is likely to give IBM its largest operating margins. Software and services revenue is expected to climb to half of IBM's total income by the early 1990s. The best evidence indicating that IBM recognizes this trend is its commitment to Systems Application Architecture (SAA). A principal goal for SAA is to counter DEC's inroads into IBM's user base by offering the same flexibility advantages previously available from DEC and its VAX line of computers. DEC has achieved portability of applications for its customers by migrating one operating system to a variety of computers. IBM hopes to achieve the same type of benefit for its customers through the different technique of supporting products that operate comparably over a variety of different operating systems and hardware architectures. To the extent that SAA is able to increase the number and diversity of computers that run compatible software, it will make the IBM environment even more attractive to independent software vendors than it has been in the past. Since software availability has become more important than hardware price/performance for many users, the end result of this scenario is more hardware sales for IBM. Another important goal of SAA is to simplify the migration of PC users upward into the world of IBM mainframes. This decade has witnessed the education of at least 15 million PC users. SAA could spell success Because SAA's user interface will come from the Personal System/2's Presentation Manager, it is clear that this strategy has a good chance of succeeding. Since instruction cycles sell for much more money on mainframes than PCs, the graduation of many users from PCs to mainframes will offer IBM the opportunity to profit from greater sales of large and expensive computer systems. IBM's future is likely to be governed more by acceptance of its software products than ever before. SAA and related offerings will be the major determinants of IBM's fortunes in the software market. SAA is likely to be a major success, although it will take until the mid-1990s for it to make a significant impact on IBM users. It will be a major factor in marketing decisions well before then, however. By George Schussel; Schussel, president of Digital Consulting, Inc. in Andover, Mass., is a lecturer and futurist. He chairs The Database Cooperative Processing Symposium, Software Futures, 4th and 5th Generation Data Management Software and Unix Futures conferences. <<<>>> Title : Bleeding edge Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: edit213 Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: RECENTLY, WE RAN a chart outlining the total annual cost of owning a personal computer in the corporate world [CW, Jan. 23]. Starting with fully configured hardware at a cost of about $3,000, you need to add a whopping $15,000 to that in terms of software, support, training and so on to arrive at the real first-year cost. Amazing, no? For the most part, corporate buyers have been willing to pay premium prices for hardware from leading vendors. But as budgets come under tighter scrutiny, the temptation to cut a buck here and there on hardware will increase. If this happens in your company, tell your boss about Leading Edge, the king of the low-cost clones. It seems that dealers were so hot for this company's machines that they fronted it millions of dollars in advance of delivery. The problem now is that delivery just isn't being made, and the company is on the verge of being sold to a suitor. What might happen to support for the thousands of Leading Edge machines installed? Maybe nothing at all. But there's a couple of lessons here for corporate PC customers weighing relative costs of hardware from different vendors: Hardware ``discounts'' can be illusory, and if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. <<<>>> Title : Super reality Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: jedit213 Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: No one is ready to say the last rites over the graphics supercomputer market, but its slow start raises some thought-provoking questions. These high-powered graphics engines raised quite a stir last year with promises of packing 40 million instructions per second into a deskside unit. With a six-figure price, they weren't cheap, but what technology! Now, reality has hit. Bogged down by communications bottlenecks, software shortages and suddenly price-sensitive customers, graphics supercomputers are trickling into user sites. Some pundits think the market may dry up completely. It would be easy to blame this frosty reception on the $100,000 or more that manufacturers are charging for these machines. But that wasn't a barrier for the workstation market three years ago when that price bought only a fraction of the power. Rather, it seems that graphics supercomputers are suffering from an excess of MIPS. The power is there, but the applications that take advantage of it are not. Why buy 40 MIPS when you only need 5? A 1988 Computerworld Extra on productivity brought home the message that users are taking a harder look at their computer spending. They are beginning to ask how much the computers they buy enhance their productivity. The slow start of OS/2 is only one indication that applications _ not raw power _ are driving the buying decision. Graphics supercomputers are another. For all their glitz, they may just be too much, too soon. <<<>>> Title : Avoiding jargon Author : David Ray Fuller Source : CW Comm FileName: fullel Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: In the Forecast '89 article ``CIO's lives are turned topsy-turvy'' [CW Dec. 26/Jan. 2], I was struck by some comments on the need for CIOs to become more conversant with the business they work for and to communicate with their non-IS colleagues without using technical jargon. In 15 years in the MIS field, my primary focus has always been aiding other departments in the development of solutions to business problems. I did not feel that I could adequately provide this assistance without understanding the general business of the company. The same applies to the communication issue. I strive to avoid the use of technical language whenever I can. I try to learn the jargon of the other people so that I can understand what they are saying if they happen to use those terms in our conversations. If there are IS managers and professionals out there who do not approach their jobs this way, then surely they need to change. I find it very hard to believe that this is the case. Still, the fact that it happens at all is a problem, and certainly those who wish to advance their careers, especially those with an eye on CIO positions, should strive to learn these two basic skills. The ability to understand the business and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively will be hallmarks of the successful IS manager and professional in the next decade. David Ray Fuller Senior Systems Analyst/ Consultant Prodata, Inc. Boise, Idaho <<<>>> Title : The real world Author : Richard A. Katzm Source : CW Comm FileName: katzlet Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: The Executive Report on MIS in Education [CW, Jan. 9] reflects the longtime continuation of a sad problem in academia that has moved into the data processing world. For far too long, our universities and colleges have proliferated inefficiencies and waste in the name of education. Undisciplined philosophical theoreticians with little worldly experience teach exotic solutions to students. These students then get jobs in the industry and suffer future shock when encountering such terms as justification, controls and profitability. As one who specializes in EDP auditing and security, I have always been amazed at how easy it is to find shortcomings pertaining to controls and security in the world of academia, yet how obstinate alleged collegiate administrators are in finding them and forcing amelioration among the professors working on meaningless projects. It is time the world of academia joined the real world and taught students to live in the mainstream. Business needs people who can apply computers to solve real-world business problems. We do not need wild techies offering idealistic solutions learned from professors hiding from the real world. Richard A. Katzman President and Principal R. A. Katzman Associates, Inc. New Cumberland, Pa. <<<>>> Title : Generic approach Author : Alex Mittelman Source : CW Comm FileName: mitlet Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Regarding the letter of Gopal Kapur [CW, Dec. 5], he should have asked this question instead: ``Can one successfully design and implement a large system from detailed requirements?'' Systems designed using detailed requirements rarely survive when the business changes. At best, the data model remains, but the application logic must be redone. By the time requirements are collected, they are hopelessly out of date. In addition, without a common language between users and developers, validation of such requirements is difficult, at best. Assumptions, misunderstandings and design shortcomings become visible only when the system is in integration testing _ in many cases, far too late to correct the situation. The alternative approach is to design a generic system using a generic set of specifications. With some variations, the following strategy is used: Focus on recognition of design patterns and generalization of the problem, thus making a solution for a specific problem reusable for other problems. Use foundation software to reduce complexity of the project. Create nonprocedural logic components. The systems built using these concepts adapt easier to changes in business policies. In most cases, to accommodate policy changes or implement new policies in such systems involves reconfiguring the data without modifying the application logic. Alex Mittelman Scottsdale, Ariz. <<<>>> Title : Clips from The Takeover T Author : Paul Colton Source : CW Comm FileName: blum3 Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: The hottest entertainment in the U.S. today appears on the business pages of your local newspaper. Yes, folks, Takeover Wars is raging in a daily fix of greed, gall and gumption _ all the ingredients of a box-office smash. Unfortunately, just as Top Gun dominated the imagination of moviegoers to the detriment of other worthy films, so too has the RJR Nabisco, Inc. scuffle overshadowed takeover battles of smaller, less well-known companies. The following wire service stories, chronicling one such battle between computer firms, probably never made your paper at all. (Oct. 5, 1988) WESTON, Mass. _ Bentsen Archer, president of Remora Systems, Inc., has announced a $10 per share tender offer for Mako Computers, Inc. Only one-quarter the size of Mako, Remora is using junk-bond financing to try to gobble up the 12-year-old Mako in an unfriendly takeover bid. Mr. Archer stated that the business combination of the two companies ``would result in a bigger company.'' (Nov. 14, 1988) AUSTIN, Texas _ Mako Computers, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Greg McIntosh announced today that the Mako board of directors has rejected the $10 per share offer of Remora Systems, Inc. ``The Remora offer is clearly inadequate in that it does not recognize the value of Mako's greatest asset _ its employees.'' To boost the stock price of Mako shares, he also announced cost reductions that will result in the layoff of 10% of its work force. (Nov. 18, 1988) WESTON, Mass. _ Remora Systems, Inc. President Bentsen Archer announced that he has raised his offer for Mako Computers, Inc. to $13 per share and has extended the tender offer until Nov. 30, 1988. Mr. Archer stated, ``The cost-cutting measures undertaken by Mako make its stock more attractive than previously, and I am confident that an additional 5% can be trimmed from the payroll due to redundancies which will result from the merger of our firms.'' (Nov. 28, 1988) AUSTIN, Texas _ In response to the new tender offer and cost-cutting plans of Remora Systems, Inc., Mako Computers, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Greg McIntosh vowed to increase layoffs to 20% of the work force and to close its San Antonio support center. ``These actions will increase Mako's value by reducing expenses and unnecessary overhead related to fixing bugs and such,'' Mr. McIntosh commented. (Nov. 30, 1988) WESTON, Mass. _ Countering the latest defensive plan by Mako Computers, Inc.'s Greg McIntosh, Remora Systems, Inc. has raised its per-share offer for that firm to $25 and ``. . . would lay off in excess of 50% of Mako's employees,'' Bentsen Archer said. ``In addition, we will close all buildings with more than two floors. This action will make a combined Remora/Mako a leaner and meaner firm and, best of all, it soon will be all mine.'' (Dec. 3, 1988) AUSTIN, Texas _ As the takeover war heats up, Mako Computers, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Greg McIntosh has once again outmaneuvered archrival Bensten Archer. Mr. McIntosh's newly revealed plan is to lay off all Mako employees with fewer than 11 years of service and to close all buildings not located in a sunny climate. In a carefully worded statement read to the press this morning, Mr. McIntosh said, ``The reduction of nonessential personnel and facilities will substantially improve Mako's profitability over the next six hours and convince stockholders that the intrinsic value of Mako shares is greater than the $25 offered by that scum Archer.'' (Dec. 5, 1988) WESTON, Mass. _ The Archer/McIntosh war reached boiling point today as Remora Systems, Inc. increased its latest offer to $50 per share and committed itself not only to lay off the entire Mako Computers, Inc. work force, including Chief Executive Officer Greg McIntosh, but to close all facilities. In addition, Remora President Bentsen Archer stated his intention to donate all remaining Mako assets to the Salvation Army. ``These measures,'' Mr. Archer said in a terse press release, ``should put that bootlicking McIntosh in his place once and for all.'' (Dec. 6, 1988) AUSTIN, Texas _ In a desperate attempt to save his company from the clutches of nemesis Bensten Archer, Mako Computers, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Greg McIntosh announced that he has traded all Mako assets to Public Service Company of New Hampshire for the Seabrook nuclear reactor. ``I feel that the future of Mako is better served by overcharging energy consumers than by processing information,'' he said. ``Best of all, I plan to dispose of Seabrook waste products in Weston.'' (Dec. 7, 1988) NEW YORK _ Wall Street reacted favorably to recent developments in the Remora Systems, Inc./Mako Computers, Inc. takeover battle, pushing Mako stock to an all-time high. By Paul Colton; Colton is a product manager at a Boston-area computer company. <<<>>> Title : In workstation wars, how Author : Amy D. Wohl Source : CW Comm FileName: 22mcib Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Just when you thought you had convinced your eager troops that they don't really need giant new personal computers or OS/2 yet . . . Just when you finally fought off the Big Mac attack with promises of Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh-like interfaces on more standard hardware . . . Now it turns out the battle really is not over. The next round of the workstation wars is warming up. When Sun Microsystems, Inc., Apollo Computer, Inc. and Digital Equipment Corp. speak of workstations, they do not mean whatever happens to be on your desk as a local information access device. They mean serious machines. However much power a PC offers, a workstation always offers or promises more. Workstations are marketed based on speed and raw power. Often, they use such advanced technology as reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors. Not for us In the office, we did not need to pay much attention to workstations. They were geared to the needs of the scientific and engineering community and to processor-hungry applications such as graphics and publishing. Applications software for workstations _ usually based on Unix operating systems _ was sketchy. Aside from the niche-market applications, most Unix workstation software focuses on tools for the development of software and often avoids commercial, mainstream turnkey business applications. But the scientific and engineering marketplace is small relative to the front office, which became computerized with the availability of inexpensive PCs and software. As the workstation market became more competitive, it was perhaps inevitable that its vendors would lust for bigger worlds to conquer. Recently, DEC announced its Vaxstation 3100, which is intended for the office. What kind of office, you might ask, needs a VAX on the desktop? And how much would you pay for this robust environment? We priced a 3100. Bundled with the VMS operating system and DEC's new Decwindows graphical user interface, it costs $7,950 plus $2,850 for a 52M-byte hard disk drive. But with 8M bytes of memory, $10,800 is only a little pricey. Clearly a VAX VMS user could justify such a workstation in the right application. This machine is especially likely to be one that is closely integrated with other VAX environments and existing VMS software. In the office, the universal application is word processing. No matter what else you do _ from data bases to communications _ you will have to write some notes or reports. DEC is almost ready to ship a Decwindows word processor called Decwrite. It looks sort of like today's new word processors, with a Mac-like interface, integrated text and graphics and typeset-like appearance. Then look at the price. DEC somehow thinks you will pay $1,500 to equip your $10,800 workstation with a word processor. That comes to a pricey $12,300 to emulate a word processing environment for which an Intel Corp. 80386 clone, Microsoft Corp. Windows or IBM Presentation Manager and a $500 next-generation PC word processor would easily suffice. Just in case your love affair with Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 is over, DEC will sell you its Decwindows spreadsheet, Decdecision, for another $1,000. DEC does throw in a free copy of its business graphics software with both Decwrite and Decdecision, but we cannot imagine too many PC users foregoing their familiar environments to buy these products. Cheap by comparison Minicomputer manufacturers generally overvalue and overprice their personal workstation software. A price that is high for the PC market still seems cheap to them when compared to the multiuser products they sell. This perception usually means the mini vendors price their software entirely outside the desktop mainstream, too. We know that the power of a VAX, however small, is greater than that of any PC. We noticed and liked the compatibility of DEC's Vaxstation 3100 with other VMS-based products but doubt that many of them need to play on the office desktop. And we could not help regretting that VMS products do not yet have compatible interfaces for Decwindows, in any case. In a few years, users in volume may demand _ and move to _ more robust PC/workstations with friendlier, graphical user interfaces and transparent connectivity to all types of multiuser computing environments. But I do not believe a move to a single operating system or a doubling of workstation costs will be accepted to do so. In the mainstream market, economies of scale will permit high-end PC prices to decrease rapidly. This trend is unlikely to occur on the same scale in the smaller market for workstation products. More important is the availability of abundant software. Such abundance occurs when an operating system standard is agreed to and prosperity attends developers who write to it. Which standard next-generation PCs and workstations will be designed to follow is not yet known, but we suspect that it will be determined in the mass market by users and not by the desire of workstation vendors to expand their available market to the office desk. By Amy D. Wohl; Wohl is president of Wohl Associates in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., amd editor of ``The Wohl Report on End-User Computing'' newsletter. <<<>>> Title : An external 2.3G-byte tap Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwtensel Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: An external 2.3G-byte tape-backup device has been announced by Tense Lectronix Corp. The TLC Legacy 2000 reportedly has an embedded small computer systems interface and uses helical scan technology. The product can be used as a backup, archival or data distribution unit for IBM, Digital Equipment Corp. and Apple Computer, Inc. systems, according to the vendor. Price for TLC Legacy 2000 is $5,999. Tense Lectronix, Unit 20, 431 Alden Road, Markham, Ont., Canada L3R 3L4. 416-673-9333. <<<>>> Title : Memorex Telex Corp. has a Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwmemore Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Memorex Telex Corp. has announced a stacking feature for its 5480 product line. Designed to reduce floor space requirements and increase operator productivity, the product is said to provide an architecture for attaching cartridge units together, one on top of the other. The unit is offered in two configurations: The SP2-4 includes two 5481 controllers and four 5480 drive units and costs $14,000; the SP2-8 accommodates two full strings, or two controllers with eight drives, and is priced at $20,000. An upgrade from an SP2-4 to an SP2-8 costs $10,000. Memorex Telex, 4343 S. 118th E. Ave., Tulsa, Okla. 74146. 918-624-4100. <<<>>> Title : National Advanced Systems Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwnas Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: National Advanced Systems has announced 4.5M byte/sec. transfer capability for its 7480 cartridge tape subsystem. A high-speed rewind feature to improve tape throughput was also announced. According to the vendor, the 7480 subsystem with 4.5M byte/sec. data transfer rates will offer as much as 50% improvement in data transfer rates for customers who are not able to utilize the company's currently available 6M byte/ sec. capability. The 4.5M byte/sec. support controller upgrade is priced at $4,000. Channel upgrades cost $1,500 each. The optional rewind feature will reportedly reduce rewind time from 48 to 32 seconds per cartridge. Scheduled for delivery in April, the option has a price tag of $2,000, the vendor said. NAS, P.O. Box 54996, Santa Clara, Calif. 95054. 408-970-1000. <<<>>> Title : A series of VME/VSB dual- Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwclearp Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: A series of VME/VSB dual-ported memory boards have been announced by Clearpoint Research Corp. The VSBram line of add-in workstation boards reportedly offers Extra-Bit, a proprietary, automatic bad-bit replacement function. The products were designed to provide OEM and systems integrators flexibility in 2M-, 4M-, 8M- or 16M-byte memory options. Pricing ranges from $1,890 to $11,050, depending on memory configuration. Clearpoint, 99 South St., Hopkinton, Mass. 01748. 508-435-2000. <<<>>> Title : Storage Technology Corp. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwstorag Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Storage Technology Corp. has announced a cartridge tape I/O handler developed specifically for Unisys Corp. 1100 and 2200 processors. Called Cartlib, the handler is offered as a feature of the company's 4780 18-track tape subsystems for attachment to Unisys computers. Operating release levels include the OS1100 39R7 and above. Cartlib is slated for availability this month with an initial license fee of $9,000. Storagetek, 2270 S. 88th St., Louisville, Colo. 80028. 303-673-5151. <<<>>> Title : An 8mm tape subsystem tha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hweakins Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: An 8mm tape subsystem that offers as much as 2.33G bytes of storage in a 5 -in. form factor is now available from Eakins Associates, Inc. According to the company, the Minimax Model 1X runs on a variety of vendor platforms, including Digital Equipment Corp. computers under VMS, Sun Microsystems, Inc. SunOS workstations, IBM Personal Computers running PC-DOS and Apple Computer, Inc. MacOS and A/UX-based machines. The tape also supports the AT&T Unix System V operating system, according to the company. The product is priced from $4,000 to $7,000, depending on configuration, the vendor said. Eakins, 67 E. Evelyn Ave., Mountain View, Calif. 94041. 415-969-5109. <<<>>> Title : An industrial-grade, 27- Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwelectr Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: An industrial-grade, 27-in. color monitor for public information display systems was announced by Electrohome Ltd. According to the vendor, the ECM 2700 was designed specifically for public viewing of computer-generated information and is especially suited for airline arrival and departure data, stock exchange information and point-of-purchase displays. The unit incorporates a universal power supply and offers 720- by 540-pixel resolution. The ECM 2700 is priced at $1,635. Electrohome, 809 Wellington St. N., Kitchener, Ont., Canada N2G 4J6. <<<>>> Title : A line of business-class Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwgenico Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: A line of business-class serial matrix printers has been introduced by Genicom Corp. The 3410X series printers were designed for specific applications, the vendor said, including bar code, color and quiet printing. The series consists of five models, each capable of printing 120 char./sec. at 12 char./in. in letter-quality mode. All the units offer Digital Equipment Corp. emulation. Pricing ranges from $2,010 to $2,600, depending on configuration. Genicom, Genicom Drive, Waynesboro, Va. 22980. 800-443-6426. <<<>>> Title : A point-of-sale printer h Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwithaca Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: A point-of-sale printer has been unveiled by Ithaca Peripherals, Inc. The PCOS Model 250 reportedly combines a 40-col. thermal receipt printer and an 80-col. invoice printer into a single package weighing 14 pounds. The unit prints 160 char./sec. at invoice speed, or 3 line/sec. at receipt speed, and is capable of handling four-part invoice forms, Ithaca said. A standard Centronics Data Computer Corp. parallel port is provided, and RS-232C and RS-422 ports are available optionally. The standard Model 250 costs $995. Ithaca, 147 Main St., Groton, N.Y. 13073. 607-898-9970. <<<>>> Title : Genicom Corp. has expande Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwgenico Date : Feb 20, 1989 Text: Genicom Corp. has expanded its library of international character-set print bands for use in the Model 4285 band line printer. The alphanumeric and special-symbol bands are said to be available in 48, 64 and 96 characters and include English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish and French languages. Combinations of these languages can also be purchased from Genicom. The bands are priced at $450 each. Genicom, Genicom Drive, Waynesboro, Va. 22980. 800-443-6426. <<<>>> Title : Wall St. oney rides on PC Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: fin Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: High-powered personal computers are giving Unix workstations an unexpected run for the money in the lucrative financial market. PCs and workstations are locked in a heated battle to replace with a single device the many cumbersome and expensive trading terminals cluttering traders' desks. That demand has been perceived as the entree that vendors of hot, multitasking Unix workstations needed. But multitasking is no longer the exclusive domain of high-priced workstations; less expensive PCs can also do more than two things at once. ``When it comes to the cost of workstations, my question is, `Can I do this on a PC?' '' said James Stoddard, vice-president of Fidelity Software Development Co., a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, Inc., a Boston-based brokerage firm. With the help of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and a variety of custom multitasking systems, PCs can track multiple sources of live data _ the stock traders' lifeblood (see story page 112). Fidelity and more than a dozen other Wall Street firms contacted are increasingly making the same statement: For most brokerage functions, a PC can do the job. After the 1987 stock crash tightened Wall Street bud- gets, a $15,000 to $20,000 Unix workstation is no longer a shoo-in purchase compared with a PC. Other firms making major PC investments include Merrill Lynch & Co., Nasdaq, Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co., Charles Schwab Corp., Dean Witter Financial Services, Inc. and Shearson Lehman Hutton. ``Unix workstations have not come even close to achieving all the promises the vendors made a couple years ago,'' said Kip Ryder-Lewis, vice-president of local-area network technology at Bear, Stearns & Co. Ryder-Lewis said the software application dearth and the development investment required to make the company's Sun Microsystems, Inc. workstations usable ``is not even worth the payoff.'' Bear Stearns is now reevaluating and may abandon Unix workstations as a standard for its brokers, he reported. Close enough Although Fidelity has already purchased more than 50 Sun workstations, Stoddard said he now believes that with Windows combined with integration software, ``the PC comes close enough'' in performance to workstations. At one time, it seemed the Unix grasp on the brokerage market was unbreakable. Sun made perhaps the biggest splash after blasting into the overall financial market and grabbing an 87% workstation share by 1986, according to market research firm International Data Corp. But clearly, a more aggressive reaction from the workstation vendors is now needed to stop the Wall Street window from closing on Unix. In fact, PCs may even be poised to beat Unix workstations at multitasking. ``Unix was not designed with a real-time kernel, so it is difficult to get the brokers real-time data feeds,'' said Mark Goines, vice-president of product development at Charles Schwab in San Francisco. ``In addition to this, the Unix applications are not there.'' After the 1987 stock market crash, cost-cutting has become the rule. What was a cost-effective workstation then is now an expensive alternative compared with the high-powered PCs. On average, a new Unix workstation would cost roughly $20,000. Even the fastest PC similarly configured can be had for half that. In addition to this, more Unix applications would have to be purchased or developed to run on a broker's system. This pales in comparison with many programs already developed on MS-DOS. These applications can also be more easily ported to run on the OS/2 operating system and can run without modification on higher powered processors, such as the 80486, in the offing from Intel Corp. Dean Witter considered going with Unix but just recently opted for PCs and OS/2. According to Harry Handler, a first vice-president of capital markets systems, OS/2 offers greater cooperative processing capabilities as well as a graphical user interface. OS/2-based trading systems should be in production this summer, Handler said. His group is also developing an over-the-counter trading system using PCs. Dean Witter's mortgage group, however, is sticking with the Sun workstation. Although the PC has gained ground on workstations, the battle is far from over. For many users such as Don Trogan, workstations are still the way to go. Trogan, vice-president of equity trading systems at Merrill Lynch, found MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and even OS/2 too limiting for applications that require a high volume of data. Trogan also said he appreciates the ability to port Unix applications between platforms such as IBM RT or Sun workstations. ``We are trying to keep our platform open and flexible. That means using C, TCP/IP, X.11 for windowing, and Unix. Our internal programming was designed to minimize machine dependence,'' he said. Merrill Lynch, however, is developing Windows applications for its headquarters staff. Additionally, the Merrill Lynch Municipal Trading System, used by the company's municipal trading group, utilizes PCs running Windows tied to NCR Corp. Tower computers. Computerworld senior correspondent Julie Pitta and senior writer Amy Cortese contributed to this report. By William Brandel and Douglas Barney, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Snoopers see MIS as Dr. N Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: spies Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: One of the hottest and most information-intensive projects in corporate America is the formation of ``competitor intelligence'' units, but experts say that these corporate snoopers need more support from the MIS department. Although competitor intelligence systems could be considered to be strategic information systems, they often fall to the bottom of the MIS department's applications backlog, according to Kirk W. M. Tyson, president of the Competitor Intelligence Group, a leading market research and consulting firm in Oak Brook, Ill. The term ``competitor intelligence'' may conjure up images of spies and cloaks and daggers, but it mostly involves sifting through various tidbits of information _ such as press clippings, financial databases and interviews _ to answer executives' questions about U.S. and foreign competitors. The program usually falls under the realm of the marketing or strategic planning department and publishes ad hoc reports and newsletters. MIS should provide competitive intelligence units with technical support for small systems developed on microcomputers and then help users grow the systems into minicomputer- or mainframe-based decision-support systems, Tyson said, but that rarely happens. ``My own experience is that MIS has done virtually nothing for us,'' said James Leonard, manager of competitive analysis at Adolph Coors Co. in Golden, Colo. ``I think they're afraid of text management, and they don't want anybody else fooling around with [mini or mainframe] computers.'' Tom Ross, MIS director at Coors, said that supporting competitor intelligence is a challenge for MIS departments because it is such a new field and the MIS staff is not sure what analytical software products are currently available. He added that the text-management system that was requested by Leonard's unit has not been justified by a cost-benefit analysis and thus has not been funded. Interviews with Tyson, Leonard and several other members of the Society of Competitor Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) indicated that MIS departments and intelligence units have developed close relationships at only a handful of large companies. ``I know some companies that have incredibly advanced competitor intelligence systems, but others are stuck in the same rut we are, still shuffling hard-copy files around,'' Leonard said. ``MIS organizations in the past have been notoriously bad at supporting ad hoc, nonprocedural applications like competitor intelligence . . . which also has a mongrel set of data, including numbers, text and images,'' according to Jack Epstein, a vice-president and MIS consultant at market research firm International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Upside On the bright side, Nella M. Neely, manager of business analysis at the Upjohn Co. in Kalamazoo, Mich., said that Upjohn's MIS department is helping her with the evaluation of microcomputer software packages for text management. The MIS role varies from company to company because competitor intelligence is such a new discipline, Neely said. Since 1980, there has been a surge of interest in competitor intelligence programs, according to a study published last year by The Conference Board, a New York-based business research organization. Two-thirds of the 308 companies surveyed said they plan to increase their monitoring efforts in the next few years. The structure of competitor intelligence programs varies widely. Some are formal and run by former Central Intelligence Agency officials, while others are loosely organized, The Conference Board reported. AT&T, for example, has an electronic directory of 800 in-house experts on various topics, who are expected to exchange intelligence data with one another. AT&T also issues a newsletter, distributed by electronic mail, of intelligence gleaned from news services, with commentary added by AT&T experts. Motorola, Inc. has a full-scale business intelligence program, including a mainframe database of information from a variety of sources that can be retrieved using Inquire/Text software from Infodata Systems, Inc. in Falls Church, Va. The database is linked to 5,000 users on the company's worldwide E-mail network. ``One of the raging controversies is whether this is an application that belongs on a micro or a mainframe,'' said Mike Muth, a marketing manager at Infodata, which sells the mainframe-based Inquire/Text package. Start small Muth said the information should reside in a central repository for all departments to share, but Competitor Intelligence's Tyson said companies should start out with small, micro-based prototypes before evolving to a large system. ``Virtually every company I know of that started out trying to develop this on a mainframe failed,'' Tyson said. Mini and mainframe systems are best for managing large corporate databases, but subsets of the data should be downloaded to microcomputers at the departmental level for analysis of particular issues or problems, according to Daniel S. Himelfarb, vice-president of Markowitz & McNaughton, Inc., a business research firm located in Reston, Va. David C. Conley, president of SCIP, said most of the association's members say they manually file scraps of paper and then use microcomputers to analyze information gleaned from external databases. From this data, they can write reports. Mainframe systems require a huge investment in data entry, formatting and maintenance, said Conley, who is director of strategic planning at Honeywell, Inc.'s aerospace unit in Clearwater, Fla. Attention required In any case, all experts agreed that a successful intelligence system requires a strong commitment from top executives, who must identify what information the company really needs and give the program high priority. Typically, intelligence programs begin with a massive data-collection effort that gets expensive and only results in information overload. But company executives and consultants can help focus the program on the truly critical information, experts said. ``Unless [the intelligence system] is deemed important to the decision makers, it will be shipped off to MIS and go into the application backlog,'' said Infodata's Muth. ``When a system like this becomes mission-critical or strategically important, that's when it gets the attention that it deserves.'' By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Back road to the top Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ulmer Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: ``Ya can't get thayuh from heeyuh'' is the legendary reply of the rural New Englander to the visitor asking directions. Likewise, it is widely believed in banking that you can't get to the president's office from the MIS department. But Gordon Ulmer, a Vermont native and MIS veteran, has proved the axiom false. Last September, the 55-year-old executive was named president of Bank of New England Corp. He is second only to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Walter Connolly at the Boston institution, which was founded in 1831 and currently boasts $32 billion in assets. The self-effacing Ulmer, whose interests include literature and American painting, of- fers this pithy summary of his circuitous route to the top: ``Why has a failed poet from Vermont become president of a bank? Because there are a lot of similarities between unrhymed iambic pentameter and Cobol code.'' In the 1960s, Ulmer led Hartford, Conn.-based Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. (CBT) into computing and later headed the bank's operations department, in which MIS was included. In the 1970s, he moved to general management. Following the merger of CBT and Bank of New England in 1985, Ulmer was named vice-chairman of Bank of New England and chairman and CEO of CBT. However, when Ulmer began at CBT, he did not have his eye on the presidency. Neither did he start out to be an MIS professional. An English major at Vermont's Middlebury College, he took a job as a management trainee in 1957, he says, ``because I needed a job.'' Ulmer credits his success to good dealings with people every step along the way. Connolly says Ulmer's rise can be credited to an old-fashioned formula: ``He's very smart, he's a very hard worker, and he has unquestioned integrity. All of those are required of a successful banker.'' Connolly formerly headed CBT, and his acquaintance with Ulmer goes back 28 years: Both joined the bank within months of each other. Although they met early in their careers, there was no natural synergy at first, Connolly recounts. ``I used to think he was quite strange when I first got to know him, because I used to argue with him all the time,'' Connolly says. While Ulmer saw things from a nuts-and-bolts operations point of view, Connolly had a marketing view and ``knew what the customers wanted,'' he says. ``Then we found we really agreed,'' Connolly says, explaining that their differing perspectives led to a fuller understanding of the bank's objectives. Ulmer says he found himself running computing because people ``didn't want to get involved with computers. I saw that as an opportunity and took it.'' In 1978, Ulmer made the move from executive vice-president of bank operations to the vice-presidency of the banking group, putting him in line for advancement to his current position. Ulmer's switch coincided with Connolly's rise to the presidency of CBT. ``Ten years ago, I felt strongly that the leadership of banks had to have a broad background. They couldn't be narrow as in the past,'' Connolly says, explaining why he encouraged Ulmer's move. Such a switch is still unusual, despite the much-heralded ascent of John Reed, a former operations chief, to the chairmanship of Citicorp. ``It is difficult to find a bank that is liberal enough to allow someone to advance to the top without a lending background,'' says William Synnott, formerly MIS chief at Bank of Boston Corp. and now a consultant at Nolan, Norton & Co. in Lexington, Mass. ``Lenders tend to replace themselves with lenders,'' Synnott says, recalling that he was told by Bank of Boston Chairman William Brown that only those with lending backgrounds could lead the bank. ``What it says is that maybe he [Ulmer] had a lot to offer. It takes a depth and breadth of knowledge to do it,'' he adds. Nonetheless, Synnott says there is a quiet but distinct trend for those at the top to give those with computer backgrounds more attention. ``Understanding computers,'' Connolly says, ``is essential to high-level bank management.'' To gain the confidence of employees in the banking mainstream, Ulmer says he worked hard to learn the business. Although he read a few books, ``basically I plunged into it,'' he recounts. The new world of lending was not too foreign: ``A rational or logical approach to problem solving is the same.'' Ulmer's rational skills were put to use early in his career when he learned to program in assembler, Cobol and Neat, an NCR Corp. language. However, he says his main role was to design systems, not write them. Although CBT entered computing with NCR and Burroughs Corp. machines, Ulmer decided to cast his lot with IBM's 360 architecture in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s, he was an early proponent of automated teller machines. Parallel to his banking career, Ulmer's interest in art has grown steadily. It is not a recent fling _ he bought his first painting in 1961. His knowledge of the life and work of even obscure American Impressionists is impressive, and his enthusiasm for a painting's strong composition betrays many hours of contemplation. He maintains a private collection and also selected some 50 works for permanent display at CBT's headquarters in Hartford. For Ulmer, the mixture of poet and art lover, MIS professional and banker is not anomalous: ``I see a system in my head the same as a poem or a painting. I can remember lines of code from 1964 with perfect clarity. I can also recite half of Chaucer and Shakespeare.'' He once had a humorous poem published in Computerworld. From his corner office on the 36th floor of the bank's Boston headquarters, Ulmer can keep his sights on the horizon _ literally. And what is his next hurdle? He'd love to get his hands on one of Edward Hopper's diner scenes. By Stanley Gibson, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Prison term for first U.S Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hacker Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: CHICAGO _ Legal experts predicted that the sentencing of an 18-year-old so-called ``cyberpunk'' last week will encourage more corporate victims of computer crime to press their cases in the nation's courts. Herbert D. Zinn Jr. was sentenced to nine months in prison, with no opportunity for parole, and fined $10,000 for illegally penetrating computers owned by AT&T and the U.S. Department of Defense. Zinn will be incarcerated at a federal facility for 18- to 21-year-olds in South Dakota. It is the first time that an individual has been brought to trial and convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, according to case prosecutor William J. Cook, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The law, in part, makes it a felony to knowingly and fraudulently access a federal-level computer and obtain programs or information of value. The law also makes it a misdemeanor to traffic in passwords through which a computer may be accessed. ``The hacker was squarely in the four corners of the act,'' said Mark L. Gordon, a corporate attorney at Gordon and Glickson P. C. in Chicago. ``His defense was that he was doing it for educational purposes, but that is just not plausible.'' Zinn, a high school dropout who was only 16 and 17 years old when he committed the electronic break-ins, was convicted Jan. 23 of copying $1.2 million worth of programs and destroying files valued at $174,000. He was also accused of publishing passwords, telephone numbers and directions on how to breach AT&T's computer security systems on underground electronic bulletin boards in Illinois and Texas. ``The maximum sentence could have been 2 years, and he could have been ordered to make restitution of $174,000, but I thought that that was an unrealistic amount, and the judge concurred,'' Cook said. ``If Zinn had been an adult of 18 instead of 16 and 17 during most of the time this was going on, his sentence could have been 13 years and up to $800,000,'' Cook added. The defense had asked for a more lenient sentence, one that involved a probationary period and community service, during which Zinn could teach others how to use computers. Zinn is not expected to appeal, Cook said: ``We expect that he will report to the prison in South Dakota within a few days.'' Gordon, whose firm specializes in counseling corporations on information technology issues, said that the case will induce more corporations to pursue criminal complaints against hackers who break into their computer systems. ``I think it's fair to say that our more sophisticated clients have been keyed up about computer security for quite some time, but this will heighten their attention,'' he said. Fear of embarrassment Corporations that have suffered electronic break-ins by hackers are reluctant to pursue prosecution, for fear of being publicly embarrassed or because of a lack of faith that the violator will be apprehended, Cook said. The conviction, Cook said, ``sends a message to corporations who are confronted with this sort of behavior that we have the capacity to respond and to give an individual a meaningful sentence.'' Electronic bulletin board operators need to be alerted that there are ramifications for operators and people on networks who exchange information that can cripple or seriously damage a corporation, he added. ``We cannot be unhappy about the conviction or be unhappy about the message this sends to yuppie vandals,'' an AT&T spokesman said. Operating under the name of Shadow Hawk, the youthful hacker pierced the security systems of AT&T computers at Bell Laboratories facilities in Naperville, Ill., and Warren, N.J. He also broke into an AT&T system tied into the U.S. missile command at a NATO facility in Burlington, N.C., and an AT&T-owned and administered computer system under contract to the U.S. Air Force at Robbins Air Force Base in Georgia. Armed with search warrants, federal agents retrieved 52 programs from Zinn's home on Chicago's North Side in September 1987. Among the purloined programs were source codes for various Unix systems, an expert artifical intelligence program and a computer-aided design program, according to Cook. The hacker did not lift classified material from any of the computers he penetrated, though some of the programs copied from the U.S. missile command were highly sensitive, according to U.S. Justice Department officials. Judge Paul E. Plunkett, who presided over the one-week bench trial in January, made clear during sentencing that he wanted the $10,000 fine to come from the hacker and not his parents, Cook said. By Michael Alexander, CW staff <<<>>> Title : IBM postpones AIX Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: aix Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Just about a year after anointing its AIX as a strategic offering on its Personal System/2, RT and mainframes, IBM acknowledged that it is taking longer than anticipated to bring it to market. Last week, the firm divulged that delivery of its mainframe version of AIX _ IBM's Unix-based operating system _ and other AIX connectivity software originally due next month would be delayed for further testing. IBM said customers participating in its early support program will receive initial shipments of AIX/370 in the second quarter. However, IBM would not commit to a general availability date but said it would announce that date in July, based on results of internal testing and its early support program. PS/2-related delays AIX/370 and AIX PS/2 were scheduled for March delivery when announced last spring. The delays do not affect AIX PS/2, which had already been pushed back from its original delivery date of September 1988. However, the AIX PS/2 Network File System, licensed from Sun Microsystems, Inc., as well as AIX PS/2 Transparent Computing Facility and AIX PS/2 X.25, were pushed back from next month to the fourth quarter of this year. Distributed Services for AIX/RT and AIX PS/2, IBM's software that allows AIX users to share resources, was also due in March but will not be available until the middle of 1990. Clare Fleig, director of research at International Technology Group in Los Altos, Calif., said that IBM is in the middle of some major architectural chan- ges to hardware, including the high-end RT follow-on and the upcoming Summit top-of-the-line mainframe, which may account for the setback. The delayed software included the mainframe OS, communications and interface software, she noted, adding that ``there are a lot of factors to be taken into account there.'' An IBM spokesman said last week that it has taken IBM longer than anticipated to meet customer requirements, and IBM will not make the software generally available until it is thoroughly tested. By Amy Cortese, CW staff <<<>>> Title : MAP/TOP user patrons plan Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 1council Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Aetna Life and Casualty Co. last week joined the fledgling Information Technology Requirements Council (ITRC), which announced some sketchy plans on how it will use its $2.5 million budget to become an advocate for users. So far, the ITRC's primary mission has been to provide stable administrative, financial and technical support for Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) and Technical and Office Protocol (TOP). The council, temporarily based in Ann Arbor, Mich., absorbed the North American MAP/TOP Users Group and made it an ITRC division on Jan. 1. Donald Falkenburg, chairman of the ITRC board, said the next goal is to forge a consensus among users on what standards they require for multivendor networking and then submit those consolidated requirements to standards-setting bodies and vendors. He said the group is working closely with the Corporation for Open Systems. In addition, the ITRC eventually wants to expand into areas outside of MAP and TOP, such as seeking standards for distributed databases, product specification languages and operating systems, according to Falkenburg. Beyond MAP/TOP ``Together, we will begin the difficult task of extending MAP and TOP efforts toward developing a complete set of platforms supported by many vendors,'' said Ron Skelton, director of corporate technology planning at Aetna in Hartford, Conn. ``We can then concentrate on the real work _ developing innovative, revenue-producing applications, rather than solving compatibility problems.'' Other charter members include General Motors Corp., Boeing Computer Services, Eastman Kodak Co. and Bechtel National, Inc., as well as three computer vendors, Apple Computer, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Xerox Corp. Separately, the MAP/TOP Users Group announced that its next conference will be held April 11-12 in Memphis. By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Unisys CPU plugs A series Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: newuni2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Unisys Corp. last week sought to outdo IBM in creating a new entry point to its high-end mainframe series with the introduction of the A12B, a 3.7 million instruction per second (MIPS) machine that costs less than $500,000. The A12B is also a gap filler. Users currently have at least two A series options if they need a system in the 3-MIPS range, but neither is appealing. The 3-MIPS offering from the A6 line is the top end of that processor set; The 3.2-MIPS box from the A10 family is not a highly strategic choice because Unisys has indicated it plans to phase out the A10s over time. With the A12B, users can field-upgrade to the higher end of the A line, which includes the A12 and A17 models. Previously, if a user was running a low-end A series, he would have been required to swap CPUs to take the next step up to the A12 line. The A12B replaces the A12E as the entry-point system for high-end A processors, but Unisys will continue to market the A12E, a 5.6-MIPS machine that sells for $843,000. Earlier this month, IBM lowered its Enterprise System/ 3090 entry point with the introduction of the 3090 Model 100S, a 5.2-MIPS machine that will sell for $795,000 [CW, Feb. 13]. Unisys breaks its A series lines into three groups that parallel IBM's midrange and mainframe offerings. The low-end A models _ the A1s, A4s and A6s _ are comparable to the IBM Application System/400 line. The midtier is made up of A10s, which Unisys compares to IBM's 4300 systems. The top-of-the-line processors, which the company compares to IBM 3090s, include the A12 and A17 processors. The company said last week's introduction is another step in its plan to reduce the A series processor groups to two. The company has not officially discontinued the A10s but said it is ``de-emphasizing'' them in favor of the low-end A12s. One Unisys customer recently placed an order for the A12B because he said it offers a performance level that was previously missing from the Unisys lineup. Robert Dever, vice-president of information services at Lib/Go Travel, Inc. in Ramsey, N.J., said he wanted to add another processor to his A15-based environment but was troubled by the options. He said he was not interested in the A10 because ``it's a previous-generation machine.'' Dever said that if he had selected an A6, he would have likely needed more capacity shortly thereafter. In his estimation, the A12E has too much power. ``I was pushing for another processor,'' Dever said. ``The A12E is a monster, and the A6K is a toy. So there had to be something in the middle.'' According to Dever, the A12B fit that description. It also gives him the option to expand the system, which he said is a comfort factor. Instead of bringing in a system near the top of a product line and being forced to upgrade to a new processor family, the A12B can be grown by 14 times, he noted. ``We can continue to expand on it,'' Dever said. ``The idea of not ever having to go to my manager and say I made a $1 million mistake is very appealing.'' By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Amdahl gets jump on IBM w Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: utsnew Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SUNNYVALE, Calif. _ Amdahl Corp. got the jump on IBM, its largest competitor, last week. The IBM-compatible vendor introduced an enhanced version of its UTS mainframe Unix system just two days before IBM said it would miss a promised March customer shipment of its own mainframe Unix system, AIX/ 370 (see story page 2). Amdahl's UTS Release 2.0, a revision of the 8-year-old UTS product, conforms to AT&T's Unix System V, Release 3.1; supports Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Network File System (NFS); and has recovery features that prevent disruption from line failures. It is scheduled for availability in the third quarter. Most users contacted last week seemed unaware of the announcement, although they had been anticipating UTS 2.0 for some time. ``I haven't seen the announcement,'' said one UTS 1.2 user at a large national research laboratory that uses Amdahl mainframes to store supercomputer data. ``I was looking for more functionality in terms of enhanced drivers and enhanced communications code. But I wasn't looking for more performance right now.'' Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research, Inc. in Phoenix and a longtime Amdahl analyst, sees the UTS revision as a way for Amdahl to fend off IBM's Unix mainframe advances with AIX/370. ``All of the AT&T [allies], including Amdahl, are trying to steer customers in their direction and away from IBM,'' he said. Scheduled to ship to selected beta-test sites in June, UTS 2.0 is available at no additional cost to the 200-plus UTS user sites. New customers will have to pay a $20,000 installation fee. Monthly lease prices range from $4,000 to $14,000 a month, depending on processor size. This is the first revision of UTS since 1987, when UTS 1.2 was announced. In 1986, the UTS/580 system was the first to ``run native'' on an IBM-compatible processor rather than as a guest under IBM's VM operating system, although it can also run under VM. UTS 2.0 was designed to fully exploit the IBM 3090 mainframe architecture by addressing up to 2G bytes of real memory through a new 31-bit addressing scheme. That capability is built in, even though Amdahl mainframes currently shipping only have 1G byte of real memory. UTS 2.0 also allocates up to 1G byte of memory per user process, Amdahl said. In the past, UTS 1.2 users ran their mainframe system in an ``XA'' mode but only took advantage of IBM's XA channel architecture, Amdahl software developers explained last week. Now that UTS has moved from a 24-bit addressing scheme to a 31-bit addressing scheme, users will be able to directly address the XA limit of 2G bytes of main memory _ the same amount addressable by IBM's MVS/XA. The total amount of extended memory on peripheral devices that can be addressed in an MVS/XA or UTS 31-bit system is, however, much higher. ``This is an XA exploitation for Unix,'' said William F. Ferone, vice-president of the Unix systems group at Amdahl. ``We exploit extended memory, real memory and the mainframe's I/O processes to get greater performance.'' The revised UTS software supports 128 channels at data transfer rates up to 4.5M byte/ sec. _ twice the 64 channels supported in UTS 1.2. UTS 2.0 also now supports symmetric multiprocessing on mainframes of two, three or four CPUs. Support for Sun's NFS file-interchange standard is new to UTS, Ferone said. ``We're trying to provide some connectivity between the workstation world and the mainframe world,'' he said. NFS compatibility means that end users will be able to run jobs on the Amdahl mainframe while working on another task on their workstation screen. NFS interchange would also allow the same arrangement to be made between the mainframe and a supercomputer. By Jean S. Bozman, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Corrections Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: correct Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Michael Kaminski has not left General Motors Corp., as ``GM to lift fiber ban'' [CW, Jan. 9] implied by giving his former title; his current title is manager of communications/MAP. Pricing information for $Name 5.0, a naming standard utility for IBM mainframes from Global Software, Inc. in Duxbury, Mass., was incorrectly listed in our Feb. 6 issue. The software costs $10,000, not $11,000, as was originally reported. Amdahl Corp. Chief Financial Officer Ed Thompson said he expected a decline in revenue from the company's older mainframe line, the 5890 [CW, Feb. 13] but expects increased revenue in its newer 5990 line, which will offset any losses. <<<>>> Title : CA sets the applications Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ace Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Computer Associates International, Inc. announced an applications development architecture last week that includes a data dictionary and the eventual distribution of its SQL-compliant database to platforms not cited for inclusion under IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA). Equally important, analysts said, CA's announcement sent a strong signal to its users and IBM that it will be more than a vendor of utilities and software management products _ and that it is no longer what one analyst described as a $1 billion software holding company. Under the banner of a new architecture, which is called Application Construction Environment (ACE), the firm outlined its strategy for cooperative processing and its continued emphasis on older applications such as those developed under Cobol and third-generation languages. ``The ACE announcement points out very vividly that we must position the organization to take advantage of an active data dictionary,'' said David Stern, manager of systems programming at Bancboston Mortgage Co. in Jacksonville, Fla. ``It is IBM's stated direction, and now it is CA's direction. We can now make a decision to wait for IBM's repository or go to CA.'' Analysts, however, are at odds about the importance of the announcement. Scott McLaren, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm International Data Corp., said, ``Computer Associates has announced the standard, generic, database company presentation.'' In contrast, Vaughn Merlyn, chairman of Atlanta-based Case Research Corp., said that CA offered tangibles and ``the best articulated statement about application development and main- tenance environment in the industry.'' Others said that it remains to be seen if CA can do what it said it will. Stern said CA's direction means that he can ``offload his Cobol development in a unified environment without having to turn to a relatively obscure third party.'' Under ACE, the company said that it will extend IBM's SAA to IBM's DOS/VSE, PC-DOS, OS/2 and Digital Equipment Corp.'s VMS _ projects that will take development into the 1990s. Tony Percy, vice-president of software management strategies at the Gartner Group, Inc. in Stamford, Conn., characterized CA's plan as ambitious, because CA lacks ``substantial experience with those platforms.'' By Robert Moran, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Opening moves Author : Robert Moran Source : CW Comm FileName: aceside2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Computer Associates International, Inc. announced six initial products last week that will fit under its Application Construction Environment. Scheduled to arrive between fourth-quarter 1989 and second-quarter 1990 but not yet priced are the following: CA-Datacom/PC, an SQL-based relational database, dictionary and query facility for the development of mainframe CA-Datacom applications on the PC. CA-Datacom/Star, the distributed database component for distribution between mainframes, departmental computers and LAN servers. CA-Datacom-PC, a distributed database for distributed services between PCs and mainframes. CA-Datacom/Server, a multiuser's version of CA-Datacom-PC for LANs, which will support DOS and OS/2. CA-Ideal/PC, for developing mainframe applications on PCs. CA-Unipack/CDE, a set of integrated tools for developing Cobol applications that will tie into the common dictionary. Gary Bratton, director of MIS at Thomas Steel Strip Corp. in Warren, Ohio, said the company is replacing all its Cobol applications with manufacturing systems applications developed under Ideal. According to Bratton, development takes less than half the time under Ideal than under Cobol. CA-Ideal/PC, he said, especially in the IBM DOS/VSE environment, ``will enable us to offload mainframe development.'' Bratton also said he likes CA-Ideal/PC's ability to distribute applications on IBM Token-Ring LANs _ the company's short-term direction. According to James Kinder, manager of database administration at Automatic Data Processing, Inc. in Clifton, N.J., and president of the CADRE users group, the mainframe-based company is preparing to move to multiple platforms. Although CA-Ideal/PC is a contender ``because it will be portable and offer distributed capabilities,'' Kinder said that people in the company responsible for the decision are examining whether CA's 1990 target date will meet their needs. CA said it will also introduce enhancements to 14 data management, third- and fourth-generation development and maintenance tools in the second quarter of this year. ROBERT MORAN <<<>>> Title : MAI/Prime scorecard Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: risc2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: MAI/Prime scorecard Opening move: MAI Basic Four, Inc. launches hostile tender offer for Prime Computer, Inc. at $20 per share. Latest offering price: $20 per share; no raise so far. Legal status of MAI's tender offer: Still blocked, per federal injunction. However, MAI's appeal will be heard on March 2. Prime's ``poison pill'': Still in place. MAI's motion on validity still pending before the Delaware Chancery Court, which declines to make a ruling until and unless the injunction is lifted. MAI has extended its offer: Seven times; most recently last week, when the Feb. 15 cutoff date was extended through March 8. Prime stock needed to consummate a hostile takeover: 85%, under relevant Delaware law. How close is MAI to its goal? Not as close as it used to be. Last week, MAI claimed approximately 61% of Prime's outstanding shares; previously, it had claimed roughly 73%. <<<>>> Title : Speed limit reaches 6G by Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: chips2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ The promise of powerful new microprocessors in the near future whetted the appetites of speed-hungry computer users last week at the 36th International Solid State Circuits Conference. Heading up the preview of things to come was IBM, which announced a practical prototype of a 128K-bit static random-access memory chip the firm claims is able to receive and send more than six billion bits of data per second. The company said the chip's high data rate was achieved through pipelining _ a technique that handles data as if it were marbles rolling through a tube. No commercial release date was yet available. Texas Instruments, Inc. said its researchers have created a 1M-bit static memory chip for high-performance computers that can retrieve a bit of information in eight-billionths of a second and store roughly the contents of a 50-page paperback book. TI officials also described two other memory chip developments. One was the creation of Flash, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory chip that will simplify the in-system reprogramming of electronic modules. Flash chips are high-density, nonvolatile devices that can be electronically erased and reprogrammed rapidly, thereby in- creasing manufacturing efficiency and cutting service costs. The Houston-based firm also described progress on a similar Burst-type device, which can be used in any application that requires rapid program memory access. Both developments are indicative of an industry trend toward application-specific memories, TI officials said. By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Dell 386 workstations to Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: dell Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: AUSTIN, Texas _ Dell Computer Corp. will introduce two Intel Corp. 80386 workstations running the Unix operating system at the Uniforum 1989 show in San Francisco next week. According to Dell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell, the company will offer 20- and 25-MHz versions of the workstation, both running AT&T's Unix System V, Release 3.2, which merges the University of California at Berkeley Unix derivatives and Microsoft Corp.'s Xenix. Using a soft co-processor licensed from Interactive Systems Corp., the workstations reportedly can run MS-DOS sessions under Unix. Dell officials declined to release any information on pricing or delivery dates. Both systems offer 4M bytes of random-access memory and eight expansion slots. Dell will also introduce terminals to act as nodes connected to the 386s in multiuser systems. Dell said the company will enter the Unix market cautiously, first targeting the small-business market for multiuser systems before tackling the technical workstation market. ``On the release date, we won't have the monitors and the graphics cards to support the technical market,'' Dell explained. Dell said the company will eventually take on industry leaders in the workstation market such as Sun Microsystems, Inc., Apollo Computer, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. ``We think our distribution and sales strategy are a lot more effective than Sun's, Apollo's and HP's,'' he said. By Julie Pitta, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Back to the bulletin boar Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cwbord Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Now you can contact us on-line through the CW Publishing bulletin board system. The system offers electronic mail to anyone on the Computerworld staff as well as other bulletin board users, a question-and-answer section, a suggestion box for story ideas and an on-line subscription form. Call the bulletin board day or night at 508-626-0165. <<<>>> Title : Disaster plans, the thrif Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: bell Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW ORLEANS _ While some disaster recovery plans require a bankroll guaranteed to make the most stouthearted MIS manager sweat, there are still inexpensive ways to obtain the ounce of prevention that could prevent a pound of cure. All it takes is a little mental gymnastics. ``There are many things that can be implemented for pennies,'' said David Anderson, director of customer contingency planning at Illinois Bell, at last week's American Bankers Association 1989 Bank Telecommunications Conference. Any contingency plan, Anderson said, must first change gray areas into either black or white. ``Dispel the warm, fuzzy cloud that too often shades whole segments of most plans; don't trust anybody,'' he said. Anderson advocated a ``front door/ back door'' concept that allows for several levels of redundancy. ``We tend to plan solutions that satisfy scenario A but not scenarios B and C,'' he said. Most of Anderson's tips are deceptively simple. ``Some surburban customers are located very close to an adjoining central office area,'' Anderson noted. ``Why not bring dial backup and some voice backup capability through that office?'' Another scheme involves adding a second riser system. ``Identify 10 critical voice and data requirements that have to be there, and run a 50-pair cable down an alternate shaft to give a second possible access,'' he said. Two sources of a dial tone are also suggested. ``Have a second switch in the same central office building or from a second central office altogether,'' he said. Critical users and stations must also have priority. ``Many customers have power-failure-transfer capability in their PBX but don't consider who gets that phone,'' Anderson said. ``So you have a critical user who needs dial tone but doesn't have it, while someone in the stockroom has a working phone but doesn't have the need.'' By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : McGowan: Bank stakes in t Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: telecom2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW ORLEANS _ It's sink or swim time for the banking industry, and the only available life jacket is a savvy use of telecommunications, said William G. McGowan, chief executive officer at MCI Communications Corp., at the American Bankers Association 1989 Bank Telecommunications Conference last week. ``Banking now is money, service and telecommunications, and competing effectively requires all three. Two out of three just isn't good enough,'' he said. McGowan said that telecommunications provides the information infrastructure of the global economy. ``Global connectivity will be a prerequisite for any business or financial institution that seeks not only to survive but to thrive in a tough, competitive and increasingly global marketplace,'' he said. During the next few years, the banking industry is going to feel intense heat from industries elbowing in on its traditional areas, McGowan said. ``Customers have never had so many choices,'' he said. ``You are in competition with nonbank banks to provide customers with more and more services, nearly all of which depend on electronic information.'' McGowan cited A. B. Volvo, Sweden and British Petroleum Co., PLC as two examples of ``nonbank banks'' that use banking technologies to perform electronic cash management and operate foreign exchange. Fuzzy picture Exacerbating the problem is a blurring of industry borders. Point-of-sale (POS) technology makes banking part of retailing, while credit cards now often include tie-ins between banks and airlines that give frequent-flier mileage, McGowan said. Foreign competition has also never been as threatening. ``Foreign companies are looking for ways to reach your customers, and increasingly they're doing business through electronic means that are virtually oblivious to national borders,'' he said. The situation has already deteriorated rapidly for U.S. financial institutions: Citibank NA is the only U.S. firm among the world's top 20 global banks. McGowan noted that the key areas of vulnerability and concern are POS, electronic data interchange and the addition of value-added options in these and other services. ``The scramble is already on,'' he said. By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : News shorts Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2short22 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: IBM pushes job training For 20 years, IBM has supported 76 job-training centers across the country, but during the past four years, the company has seen a decrease in the pool of applicants who meet such minimal entry requirements as a high school diploma and basic skills, including the ability to read. So, IBM has launched a project to increase the number of people eligible for job-training programs. The company hopes to assist job-training centers in addressing basic skills development and help people attain high school equivalency diplomas. IBM will lend each center approximately $133,000 in training equipment, including IBM Personal System/2 computers and educational software. The programs will be put into place at 23 centers this year, with others to be phased in during the next three years. GSA freezes Navy computer buys The General Services Administration took steps last week to cooperate with a congressional investigation of charges that the U.S. Navy is biased toward IBM hardware [CW, Feb. 13]. The GSA said it will put a hold on Navy computer procurements worth more than $2.5 million for at least 60 days, review all new computer procurements proposed by the Navy and provide relevant information to General Accounting Office investigators. ``These actions will help ensure that ongoing activities are conducted properly while we await the GAO findings,'' acting GSA Administrator Richard G. Austin said. Long-distance price wars, Round 2 Continuing the game of one-downsmanship in the long-distance arena, AT&T has announced plans to cut long-distance rates by $533 million annually, beginning April 1. The eighth in a series of major price reductions by AT&T since divestiture, the tariff threatens low-cost providers MCI Communications Corp. and U.S. Sprint Communications Co., which only recently responded to AT&T's previous round of price-slashing with their own major rate cuts. AT&T's new tariff would mean an average 1.6% decrease for AT&T's Long Distance Service customers, although interstate calls under 292 miles would increase an average of 4.7%, the carrier said. The cuts reflect anticipated reductions in local telephone companies' access charges, AT&T said. Unisys cutback hits Arix Arix Corp. revealed that an inventory reduction program at Arix-reseller Unisys Corp. is likely to result in a decrease in Arix's fourth-quarter net sales projections. The deliveries had been slated for the third and fourth quarter of fiscal 1989, but they have been rescheduled until the first quarter of fiscal 1990. New orders for the fourth quarter ending June 30 are also likely to be delayed, Arix Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gene Manno said. ASK founder departs Sandra L. Kurtzig, the founder and chairman of ASK Computer Systems, Inc., resigned Friday to pursue other business interests in the technology industry. Kurtzig (the S and K in ASK's name) has been called the marketing genius behind the company that revolutionized manufacturing resource planning systems in the 1970s. However, Kurtzig has been out of the day-to-day operations at ASK for several years, and her departure should not have a big impact, according to John P. Rohal, senior technology analyst at Alex Brown & Sons, Inc. ``But watch what she does,'' he advised. Novell licenses Sun system Novell, Inc. last week announced it has licensed Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Open Network Computing/Network File System technology. In December, while laying out its strategic directions for 1989, Novell said it would support NFS-based Unix workstations under its Netware network operating system. The scheme is based on a layered software architecture that consists of network services built on top of industry-standard protocols. ET <<<>>> Title : Leading Edge seeks protec Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: bankrupt Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: CANTON, Mass. _ Leading Edge Products, Inc., the parent company of the personal computer clone maker that had $200 million in sales in 1988, last week filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 and laid off its remaining employees. Earlier in the week, a group of Leading Edge dealers asked the court to pull the reins from the hands of Leading Edge founder Michael Shane, place the company into involuntary bankruptcy and appoint a trustee to oversee it. The action would at least temporarily halt the sale or transfer of the firm's assets. Leading Edge has agreed to the appointment of a trustee. Stewart Fason, owner of PC Systems, Inc., a Riviera Beach, Fla., Leading Edge dealer that has agreed to purchase the Leading Edge Hardware Products, Inc. name and logo for $921,000, said he applauded the dealers' petition. Leading Edge Hardware Products is a subsidiary of Leading Edge Products. ``If they hadn't placed [Leading Edge] in bankruptcy on Monday, I was going to do it on Tuesday,'' Fason said. ``The way I look at it, all of the dealers are in exactly the same boat.'' Fason said Leading Edge dealers are collectively owed $11 million by the firm; under his plans, the dealers will be paid back. ``Sixty percent of the gross profit on each machine will be paid into an escrow account under the direction of the court,'' Fason said. ``On a quarterly basis, that account will be drawn down to zero and checks will be issued to each dealer on a pro rata basis, based on how much they are owed.'' Fason predicted that the $11 million would be paid off within 11 months if he can continue to sell the 17,000 units per month that Leading Edge sold last year and more quickly if he can sell more machines. Also, dealers can convert part or all of what Leading Edge owes them into equity in the new Leading Edge, once a prospectus is available, he said. In its Chapter 11 filing, Leading Edge Products stated that it owed $17.1 million, $11.7 million and $7.3 million, respectively, to Daewoo Telecom Co. in South Korea, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. and Leading Edge Hardware Products. The Daewoo debt reportedly stems from some 20,000 computers that Leading Edge had ordered but that Daewoo has refused to deliver. Fason said he is planning to buy those units to distribute to dealers. Fason added that he will meet with a Daewoo executive from South Korea this weekend to discuss Daewoo's new contract with PC Systems. ``Daewoo intends to keep distributing those machines in the U.S. through PC Systems because they no longer have a contract with Leading Edge,'' Fason said. Leading Edge officials could not be reached for comment. By Alan J. Ryan, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Microsoft stock buy adds Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: msoftsco Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ Microsoft Corp. strengthened ties to The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), its longtime Unix development partner, with a pact last week to purchase nearly 20% of SCO's stock. Microsoft and SCO, partners since 1981 in developing the Xenix version of Unix, also agreed to expand their activities in building bridges between the MS-DOS, OS/2 and Unix operating systems. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the pact calls for the firm to buy ``close to 20%'' of SCO's privately held outstanding stock. The pact does not contain provisions for any further investment by Microsoft in SCO. Microsoft made its only other minority investment in June 1987, when it invested $1 million in Natural Language, Inc., a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of an English-language interface for relational database management systems. Microsoft's stake in Santa Cruz, Calif.-based SCO coincides with an unprecedented amount of interest in the Unix operating system. Industry observers generally project better prospects for Microsoft now that it has tightened its alliance with SCO. ``I look at this as them hedging their bets,'' Montgomery Securities analyst David Bayer said. ``It's pretty clear there's a lot of action going on in workstations and minis, and there's a big migration under way to do Unix as a standard. ``On the server, it will be a combination of Unix and OS/2, and as you go up, it will be Unix, so they'll have some offering there,'' Bayer added. ``They're basically continuing to assert their strength, saying they can be a leader in PCs, workstations and minicomputers.'' ``By working closely with SCO, end users will enjoy a commonality of functions, features and user interfaces, no matter which platform they use,'' Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Gates said. ``We see distinct roles for OS/2 and the Unix system,'' Gates said. ``OS/2 has been widely accepted by major software developers as the successor to MS-DOS . . . Meanwhile, the Unix system is becoming more popular for multiuser PCs, high-end workstations and local-area network servers.'' As part of the deal, Microsoft and SCO plan to devote more resources to the development and marketing of Presentation Manager/X, a graphics environment for Unix, and to an implementation of LAN Manager/X, a Unix system version of the Microsoft LAN Manager for SCO Xenix and SCO Unix System V. ``It's a good move for them,'' Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. analyst Thomas Galvin said. ``It serves to strengthen what has been a pretty close tie, and it allows them a better vehicle from which to capitalize on the Unix market's growth.'' By Patrick Waurzyniak, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Vines toolkit melds appli Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ban Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WESTBORO, Mass. _ Banyan Systems, Inc. unwrapped its strategy for gluing together the disparate pieces of enterprisewide networks last week while also providing support for distributed applications development across multivendor platforms. The latest version of its Virtual Networking Software (Vines) network operating system includes a tool kit designed to enable applications to take advantage of specific network services without being concerned with the underlying communications protocols, resulting in a tighter coupling of network, systems and application resources, Banyan said. ``The era of saying [to users], `Here's the technology _ best of luck,' is over,'' said Peter Simon, Banyan's marketing vice-president. San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), along with two developers, is already taking advantage of the new tool kits to distribute existing corporate applications across a wide mix of systems. Key to Vines Version 3.10 is the Vines Applications Toolkit, which reportedly enables developers to extend the range of Vines services into other services, including electronic-mail gateways, server-based database engines, network administration tools and multiuser calendaring systems. Another part of the tool kit, the Vines Network Compiler, establishes client-server communications via a remote procedure call capability that allows a client application to execute a function call on the server. On the server side, the tool kit provides AT&T Unix System V development tools, Vines integration application programming interfaces, industry-standard application programming interface (API) protocols and a mail gateway API. A complementary set of tools and APIs are provided for development on MS-DOS personal computers. The mail gateway API has already resulted in Macvines. Set for delivery in April, the Banyan gateway allows users of Apple Computer, Inc. Macintoshes and MS-DOS computers to exchange mail and file attachments over a Vines network. More gateways The APIs will enable users and developers to create gateways to other mail systems, to Vines Socket interfaces and to protocols such as X.25 and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol by using existing Vines services. The tool kit is available as a separate Vines option to be used with Banyan's Vines/386, CNS, BNS and DTS products. It costs $1,995 and is scheduled to ship next month. Banyan also unwrapped expanded support for IBM's 4/16 Token-Ring Adapter, which runs at either 4M or 16M bit/sec., and MS-DOS 4.0. At PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, Allen-Bradley Co.'s Vistalan broadband interface interconnects about 30 Vines servers, 1,100 personal computers and up to 1,400 PC users with various mainframes, including an IBM 3090, a Tandem Computers, Inc. VLX and two Hewlett-Packard Co. 1000s. Autopilot PG&E is using Vines 3.10 and related tool kits for more complete automation of its computer system, according to John B. Cornell, network systems manager at the power plant. He is using the Vines Applications Toolkit to create a utility for network monitoring, management and statistic gathering. ``This process will go out every five minutes or so and inquire to the server whether certain services are available to the network,'' Cornell said. These applications include IBM 3270 Systems Network Architecture (SNA) gateways, file servers and print and dial-out services to off-site hosts. A second application under development involves an interface that will enable E-mail from Diablo Canyon's major applications on the IBM mainframe to alert users down the line of status changes within their particular work items. Another mail gateway built using Vines 3.10 and the Vines Applications Toolkit comes from Softswitch Corp. of Wayne, Pa., a third-party gateway supplier. Softswitch said it has provided Vines users with an interface to IBM's Professional Office System and SNA Distribution Services. Banyan/Organizational Network Computing Excellence (Once) was also introduced. Pieces of the four-part program will be released throughout the year, addressing companywide network implementation, integration and distributed applications deployment issues with product and support offerings. The four program components include new and enhanced products, expanded support, standards-based alliances and education and training. The first Banyan/Once module _ a set of educational services _ will be released in April, followed by product, service and support announcements in June and September. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Hacker victims heartened Author : Michael Alexande Source : CW Comm FileName: react2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department hailed the prosecution and conviction of a young hacker under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 last week as a landmark event and said corporate victims of computer crime will be more willing to prosecute as a result. ``I hope that this case and the punishment act as an inducement for corporations and system administrators and operators to report computer crimes,'' said William J. Cook, assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois. ``Yes, I think it will have an impact,'' said Linda Lykins, MIS vice-president at Florida National Bank in Jacksonville. ``While we have never had a problem like it here, we have been stringent about far more minor things than that. We would pursue it as long as there is a good chance that we would be successful.'' But a decision to prosecute a hacker would be predicated on the amount of money involved, both in damages to the company's assets resulting from the computer security breach and in legal fees, several information systems managers said. ``My sense is that unless there is a measurable loss to a company, it is not going to be worth the time, trouble and exposure to go after them,'' said David Mattson, director of MIS planning at Sterling Drug, Inc. in New York. Some IS managers said they feared that prosecuting hackers in hopes of recovering losses may lead to the sort of publicity that encourages other hackers to attempt to penetrate corporate computer security systems. MICHAEL ALEXANDER <<<>>> Title : Portable Netware: LANs `t Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: networld Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Novell, Inc. is using its grip on the local-area network market to vault into the arms of the installed base of Unix systems. Next week at Networld 89 Boston, the vendor will roll out Portable Netware, a set of interfaces said to enable host vendors to provide a terminal interface to Netware, sources said. Novell is expected to announce at least two OEM deals for the product with Data General Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Novell's agreement with Westboro, Mass.-based DG is similar to the pact the network software vendor signed with Natick, Mass.-based Prime Computer, Inc. that was announced last week [CW, Feb. 13], said one source close to both companies. Prime plans to port Netware to its Unix-based Intel Corp. 80386 server. Novell and Prime will jointly develop two servers: the Dedicated Netware file server, which runs with Netware Version 2.15, and the Unix Netware server, which will run both AT&T's Unix System V, Release 3 and Netware 386 while supporting Unix, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Apple Computer, Inc. clients. Portable Netware reportedly provides OEMs with the same choices laid out by Prime. ``What they are doing is licensing Netware to whoever wants it,'' said one source briefed by Novell, who added that the company said it has talked to 40 vendors, 20 of which plan to release related products by year's end. HP is said to be the second OEM, according to two sources, one of whom suggested a connection with the particulars of HP's recent announcement of a three-year, $18 million contract with American Airlines. HP, which will provide American with software, services and computers _ including New Wave and HP Desk Manager _ announced a gateway to Netware in November. Novell was also rumored to be talking with NCR Corp. and Wang Laboratories, Inc., among others. ``You'll probably see agreements announced with five to seven vendors over the next several months,'' said George Colony, president of Forrester Research, Inc., a consultancy in Cambridge, Mass. ``There are a lot of die-hard Novell fans out there who refuse to throw [Netware] away, so they are telling the systems vendors: `Work with it,' '' said David Terrie, president of Newport Consulting in Salem, Mass. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Appletalk 2.0 expected to Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: macnews Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The release of Appletalk Version 2.0 may trigger the next generation of Appletalk implementations, linking islands of work group networks together into departmental or companywide systems. But forestalling that move is Appletalk's current cap on the number of addressable nodes on a network, which right now is 254 vs. 1,024 for Ethernet. Appletalk 2.0 reportedly will address this issue and provide other benefits, including less overhead and easier links to faster networks. Release date estimates vary from the Macdex show in March to an August debut. ``We are now at the point where we can see the advantage of tying together our departmental LANs into a large internet,'' said an Arco Corp. user who asked not to be named. ``But the number of nodes currently addressed is certainly an issue.'' Today, for Arco users on any two Appletalks to exchange data, they must take the long way through a mainframe connection, he added. Mark Perry, an applications engineer at Kinetics, Inc., said his company has a number of university and government clients that have moved from traditional IBM Personal Computers and standardized on the Macintosh. ``These sites typically have well over 254 users, so they have to subnet, which requires them to purchase twice as much equipment as they would if they had enough address space [to support more users],'' he said. Also on the way is Apple's Data Stream Protocol, which allows users to share modems and other serial connections across the network, said Lynn Alley, a vice-president at Dayna Communications, Inc. Appletalk's 230K bit/sec. speed is also an issue for some users. Sources said the Appletalk Internet Router will make it easier to tie Appletalk to faster nets _ notably Token-Ring and Ethernet _ using different cable. The router runs in the background on a dedicated server, using the modem and printer ports on a Mac, said David Kosiur, publisher of ``Connections,'' a newsletter on Apple connectivity. Beta users said they have seen some speed increases, he said. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Sun connection not so ope Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: sun Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SANTA CLARA, Calif. _ What if they gave a party and nobody was allowed inside? That is what happened at this year's Sun Microsystems, Inc.-sponsored Connectathon. The fourth annual Connectathon featured 65 different hardware vendors, each with its own implementation of Sun's Network File System (NFS) trying to access files from every other participating vendor. More than 100 different NFS implementations were used, and a reported 3,000-plus connections were made. But while press and consultants were invited to the all-day event at the Techmart center here, they were not allowed on the demonstration floor. Techmart security guards politely prevented open access to the testing rooms. Instead, a half-day schedule of speakers and seminars was provided to explain the potential of networked workstations and computers. Simple explanation The explanation for the restrictions was simple, organizers said: Many vendors were testing brand-new equipment. ``What's tested here will be demonstrated at Uniforum, and some of the products on the testing floor have not yet been announced,'' explained Bill Keating, Sun's director of corporate technology marketing. Uniforum is scheduled to begin Feb. 28 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The only window on the Connectathon linkups was provided by Harry J. Saal, president of Network General Corp. in Mountain View, Calif., who projected selected network activity on an oversized TV monitor. Network General's Sniffer software showed the number of connections being made and zoomed in on specific file transactions between any two computers. Not allowed But the actual testing, carried out by more than 200 engineers around-the-clock in five separate conference rooms, was off-limits to outside observers. Ed Zander, executive vice-president of marketing at Sun, said the event might play a role in furthering cooperation between otherwise warring competitors in the computer industry. ``What you have here is 250 techies putting aside their combat gloves to further the cause of heterogeneous computing,'' Zander said. The engineers came from IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., Cray Research, Inc., Prime Computer, Inc., Data General Corp., Apple Computer, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., AT&T and Unisys Corp., to name a few. As they were testing NFS compatibility, the engineers were also trying to link their implementations of the X Window System file-transport protocol touted by the X/Open Consortium Ltd. Other tests focused on Sun's own News windowing facility. Novell, Inc. in Provo, Utah, announced its support for the NFS standard during Connectathon. ``We've been talking about a statement of direction to support NFS over the last two years,'' said Craig Burton, vice-president and general manager of Novell's software group. ``We see NFS as a key client-server protocol supporting Unix. The reason we're supporting it is to give our end users freedom of choice.'' Burton said Novell believes that four operating systems will emerge as the desktop standards of the 1990s: DOS, OS/2, Unix and the Macintosh operating system. Novell, he said, is prepared to support all of them. None, however, will be the ultimate ``right choice,'' Burton asserted. ``The notion that we are in the fourth quarter of some Super Bowl of computing and that someone will kick the final field goal for the win is a ridiculous one,'' he said. By Jean S. Bozman, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Mips goes workstation rou Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: newmips2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SUNNYVALE, Calif. _ Expanding its offerings from minicomputers to the workstation market, Mips Computer Systems, Inc. will announce workstation products and a low-end server this week. Joining a handful of display station vendors, Mips will offer terminals to access X Window System applications only. Mips also will announce its first workstation, the entry-level RS2030, which is part of the new line. All are Unix-based. After Digital Equipment Corp. bought 5% of Mips late last year, the analyst community expected it would act as a workstation division for DEC, said Lisa Thorell, an analyst at San Jose-based Dataquest, Inc. But since Mips is marketing its own workstations, Thorell said, the ``workstation market is becoming much more complicated.'' New direction The workstation products represent a new direction for Mips, which has previously relied on minicomputers in the 10 million to 15 million instructions per second (MIPS) range. The display stations are the first products offered by the company not based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. Also, unlike the rest of its products, the display stations are not manufactured by Mips. A company spokesman said they were optimized to work with Mips' file servers. The display stations are expected to be used for desktop publishing applications or software development, according to Frank Madren, Mips' director of systems marketing. The display stations will have applications limited to text. ``When it comes to graphics, it breaks down,'' one analyst said. Because the stations are limited to the X Window server protocol and swap X Window packets over the network, they operate with little overhead, according to Madren. The stations hold a price tag of $3,200. Seeing in 2-D The RS2030 will be introduced at a base price of $17,000. It will run at 12 MIPS and a clock speed of 16.7 MHz. It is limited to two-dimensional graphics and is primarily text-oriented, according to Michael Cohen, manager of desktop products. A similar workstation based on the same Mips RISC processor, the Decstation 3100, was introduced earlier this year by DEC. The entry-level server, called the RC2030, is a desktop model that is ``a repackaged M120 [the company's deskside server] for the desktop. It has the same power but not the expandability,'' said Andrew Allison, a Los Altos, Calif.-based consultant who edits the ``RISC Management'' newsletter. The server is priced about $10,000 less than the M120, according to the firm. The desktop computer is set to run on Mips' next version of its Unix operating system, RISC/OS 4.0, which will be available next month, according to the company. Also part of the announcement package is software called Riscwindows that is based on the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphics user interface and MIT's X.11 windowing technology. By J.A. Savage, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Dexpo East '89 lacked piz Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: dexpo2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ This year's Dexpo East '89 show lacked the glamour of its 1988 predecessor. Apple Computer, Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Sculley, the keynote speaker at last year's gathering, was noticeably absent. Also gone was the enthusiastic crowd in the Macintosh-to-VAX connectivity center. Traffic was evenly split between a hall devoted to traditional Digital Equipment Corp. third parties and the Mac-to-VAX area. Products from Apple and DEC came in the form of promises, despite a preference among corporate users interviewed at the show for the two companies to develop their own line of Mac-to-VAX connectivity packages. Officials from both companies told users to consider third-party products, cautioning that their efforts will bear fruit later rather than sooner. Short of innovation Slightly more than a year after the announcement of the DEC-Apple alliance, there was little in the way of innovative Mac-to-VAX connectivity products, even among third parties. Kinetics, Inc., CC:Mail, Inc. and Interpreter, Inc. were among those communications vendors that announced DEC-Apple connectivity products (see story page 52). Among traditional DEC third parties, new releases of products and vendor alliances were the name of the game. This was most apparent among software vendors. Although there were few product introductions, many products boasted new partners and capabilities. Compuserve Data Technologies in Cambridge, Mass., revealed additional capabilities for its System 1032 and related products. Version 1.5 of the Application Facility, an add-on application generation module for its System 1032 fourth-generation language (4GL) database management system is slated to become available in April. According to the company, this version will include new variable field lengths for managing text applications, field validation and a new screen painter. Prices of the 1032 Application Facility range from $600 for a DEC Vaxstation 2000 to $36,000 for a VAX 8840. Canadian-based Cognos, Inc. introduced Version 5.12 of its Powerhouse application development and data management system, with support for DEC VMS Release 5.0 and RDB Version 3.0. Additionally, Cognos announced it is shipping Powerhouse Starbase, an SQL-based DBMS for multiuser environments (see story page 25). Cognos and Access Technology, Inc., a division of Compuserv in Natick, Mass., announced the availability of Access' 20/20 Database Connection spreadsheet for the Cognos Powerhouse 4GL. The announcement came out of a joint technology agreement signed last year. Both companies will market the product. The 20/20 Database Connection for Powerhouse is available for the VAX at prices ranging from $800 to $42,000, depending on the model. Information Builders, Inc. in New York demonstrated the new release of its Level 5/VAX expert system development tool for DEC's VAX/VMS. Release 1.7 adds an interface to DEC's RDB. Available immediately, Level 5/VAX is priced from $1,200 on a Vaxstation to $58,400 on a VAX 8978. According to the vendor, optional interfaces to DEC's RDB, RS1 and RMS are priced from $225 to $13,800. Standard Memories, a division of Westpac Technologies Corp., introduced a 16M-byte add-in memory board for use with the DEC Microvax 3000 series and 3000 series-based workstations. The board is available in both 8M- and 16M-byte versions and is equivalent to the DEC MS650-BA memory board, the Irvine, Calif.-based organization said. Although the future price of the boards is subject to change depending on the cost of dynamic random-access memory chips, the 8M-byte version currently sells for approximately $4,500, while the 16M-byte version sells for $7,500, a spokesman said. Distributed Logic Corp. rolled out a second generation of high-performance DEC RA-compatible disk storage subsystems for use with VAX and Vaxcluster systems. The subsystems are offered in six configurations ranging from 637M bytes to 1.7G bytes per subsystem. Staff writer James Daly and senior writer Amy Cortese contributed to this report. By Julie Pitta, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Besting two barriers to I Author : Larry Stevens Source : CW Comm FileName: barrier Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Two major hurdles can crop up over the course of creating and implementing a strategic plan for information systems. The first is gaining cooperation from end users, who can create major obstructions during the formulation phase if they refuse to provide information that is vital to the creation of a plan. The seciond is support from top management at the implementation stage. In some ways, IS managers have a harder time clearing these hurdles than professional planners would, but they do have some advantages on their side. Gaining the cooperation of end users in IS planning is not necessarily easy, no matter who you are. External consultants are finding that they must now spend hours in meetings convincing end users of the potential advantages to be gained from improved information systems efficiency, says Michael Anderson, director of the DMR Group, Inc. The problem, says Bruce Rogow, vice-president of worldwide analytic resources at the Gartner Group, Inc., is that end users, who are now typically working with diminished staffs and shouldering new responsibilities, feel they have other things to worry about besides hashing out longterm projections for IS requirements. ``It's hard to go to an overburdened department and say, `This computer thing is very important, so please give us your best person full-time for two months to create a plan.''' he explains. That task can, however, be particularly hard to do as an IS manager, Anderson says. In that case, there is the added danger that the users you are petitioning may feel that the IS organization has been unresponsive to their needs. And that feeling is on the rise, he says, because tightened budgets have led users to expect mokre from MIS in terms of automation to compensate for staff reductions at a time when MIS is also often coping with reduced resources. While having upper management support both for the creation and implementation of a plan is an obvious advantage, such support doees not guarantee cooperation from the divisions. In fact, it does not even necessarily guarantee support from upper management when the time comes to implement the plan. This is true whether you are coming from outside or inside the organization. Rogow, for example, rexalls one instance in which a client's chief executive officer maintained throughout the planning process that he wanted to have the most aggressive technology positioning in his industry but balked at hiring the technical person needed to carry the plan out. The difficulty, as many experts see it, is that often a disparity exists between what managers are willing to try on paper and what they will risk out-of-pocket. ``If you create a plan that is too revolutionary,'' Rogow points out, ``you'll have a hard time getting funding because the technology has not been proven in the organization.'' Top-level managers are also often wary of large and long-range strategic plans, he adds, because they may feel it is too difficult to predict the business and technological situation of the company and its competitors three or five years in the future. One way of lowering resistance in both camps is to emphasize modularity and flexibility in plans. Anderson, for example, suggests that there should be different plans or sections of the plan for different purposes. He advises preparing the following: A long-range plan of three to five years that is broad and succinctly delineates the direction of the company. A middle-range plan of two to four years that can contain some technologies at which the company is seriously looking but not yet investing in. Finally a one- to two-year plan that is actively being implemented. This kind of arrangement offers managers and end users a chance to comfortably adjust to new systems, allows opportunity for midcourse adjustments and spreads costs across a longer period of time. This last point is especially important, according to Thomas Swithenbank, president of International Data Corp., a market research firm in Framingham, Mass. ``Cost is only an issue in relation to time,'' Swithenbank says. ``A company will pay for anything, given the right time frame.'' Actually, Rogow says, this staged approach to strategic planning is probably more natural for IS managers than it would be for professional planners. IS managers, he points out, typically craft plans that revolve around proven technologies and are realistic in terms of resource consumption. LARRY STEVENS <<<>>> Title : Spoils go to those who pl Author : Steven A. Stanto Source : CW Comm FileName: spoils Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: During the next five to 10 years, information systems managers will face some different and difficult planning challenges as companies look to information technology for competive drive. One major hurdle will be adjusting to volatility. Until recently, it was safe to assume a fairly stable business environment fokr planning purposes. Two- and three-year IS plans have taken into account technology and sales forecasts and have anticipated changes in tax and regulatory constraints. But all of these elements represented incremental change, for which companies could adjust without changing the way they do business. Now however, we are moving into a time when assumptions of no change or incremental change are dangerous. In the future, the rule will be sudden, disconcerting changes, or discontinuities. Companies are buying or diversifying into businesses or industries in which they have never competed, making it hard to foresee who thier rivals will be. Globalization of markets is changing the competive dynamics in many industries. Heavy merger and acquisition activities are putting many companies into tight cash situations and are confusing strategies, goals and directions. Products must come to market faster and satisfy a more sophisticated customer base. What all this adds up to is an unstable environment. Worse still for IS managers, it is unpredictable. In this kind of setting, you cannot plan for specific events or targets; instead, managers must plan for the process of change. From now on, corporations that hope to stay competitive will not be able to rely solely on their ability to respond to changes. They will have to anticipate what is coming and invent their own future. This reality has particular significance for the IS organization. Information technology has always been thought of as dependent on business strategy. IS managers will not be able to wait for business initiatives because the resulting lag in implementation could cripple a company. Instead, the IS staff planners must scope put emerging technologies and try to determine their possibilities in terms of transforming the eay the company conducts business. At a retailing chain, for example, the critical area of inventory management might be transformed by the developments in transaction processing technology that are expected in the next decade. Most organizations have no systematic process for assessing the direction of information technology, analyzing its implications for business and then linking it to the business and technology planning process. The result is that many companies are late out out of the starting gate in the race to exploit emerging technologies. Technology-driven business planning is more systematic than just freeing up two or three technical whiz kids to tinker with expert systems and very small-aperture terminals. It means identifying key leverage points within your business _ areas in ewhich information technology will offer the greatest benefit. Based on ongoing research and analysis of emerging technologies, IS managers can map business potential against technology potential. The results of mapping feedback into the research process show which applications warrant the most _ and least _ attention. In this way, the IS organization can direct its resources at the most highly leveraged applications. Research and analysis must also consider organizational context. Planning for IS technology cannot really be effective unless it also takes issues of organizational adaptability into account. Put infrastructure in place Because future market shifts will be measured in months, not years, putting an infrastructure in place now to cope successfully with discontinuities makes sense. Many corporations and many IS groups are already flattening their organizations by eliminating mangers or even whole layers of management _ certainly a step in the right direction. Other attributes of a flexible organization equally relevant to corporations and their IS sections include the following: Project-oriented or customer-oriented work teams, which can form and reform. An internal communications style that fosters innovation and sharing of ideas. An environment that supports ``stars'' _ contributors who can grow beyond the limited rokles that their job titles imply. Companies must think in anticipatory terms in order to create long-term organizational advantage. IS managers must use their knowledge of teechnology to assist their organizations in this process of inventing the future. By Steven A. Stanton; Stanton, a principal at Index Group, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., specializes in strategic planning , competive systems and end-user computing issues. <<<>>> Title : A bank that systems helpe Author : Glenn Rifkin Source : CW Comm FileName: mccoy Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: John B. McCoy is chairman and chief executive officer of Banc One Corp. in Columbus, Ohio. Banc One is among the nation's largest bank holding companies, with $25 billion in assets. Under the guidance of McCoy's father, John G. McCoy, and John Fisher, senior vice-president of marketing, Banc One has become known as an innovator in the use of banking technology. The bank pioneered the use of automated teller machines, credit card processing and electronic funds transfer for brokerage houses. Indeed, the creation of the Cash Management Account for Merrill Lynch & Co., the first cooperative credit card agreement between a brokerage house and a bank, is credited with putting Banc One on the map. McCoy, who has been at the helm of Banc One since 1984, recently spoke with Computerworld's Senior Editor Glenn Rifkin about the role of information systems in corporate strategic planning. Does the IS organization contribute in any way toward the strategic planning for your business? Yes. Our company has a history of successes through the use of technology. It is one of the ways we've been able to be more competitive than others in our industry. The attitude is that we can invent a system using technology that can give us a leg up, maybe even a three- or four-year head start. The best example of that attitude is the Cash Management Account we did for Merrill Lynch. We really didn't have another competitor for three years. We owned the market. Today, there are only two other companies competing with us for that business. That's pretty good when there's 14,000 banks out there. So I would say that information systems play a very large strategic role in what we do. Is the involvement of IS in strategic planning a tradition? It's been forever...well, at least as long as we've had computers. One of the key factors in our growth has been processing capability. So those guys have been shoulder-to-shoulder with us allthe way. In 1988, we converted about $7 billion in assets onto our systems from banks we've acquired. That gives you some feel for the importance of IS. What are the skills needed to be a good strategic planner? Someone who can be flexible. Sometimes people get so locked into numbers that they let the numbers lead them. I'd rather do strategic planning from a more qualitative point of view. For instance, I'd much rather look at a three-page thought piece than a 50-page document specifying, ``This is the direction we're going in, and this is the volume we're going to do.'' The issue isn't the exact volume we are going to do each year, but where we are going. If you see that the IS leader does not have that flexibility, is not a good planner, do you replace that person or can you work with them to make them good planners? Your organizational chart is based on the people you've got, not what you would like to have. If one guy doesn't have what you want but has strong qualities otherwise, you find other ways to get over his shortcomings, as opposed to saying, ``I'm always going to have the perfect person.'' Don McWhorter is in charge of the IS subsidiary that you recently formed. Is he a technology person or a business person? His career has been more one of a businessman than a technician. He started as a bank examiner. Then he went to work as the president of a small bank in Cincinnati that we bought, and he ran it successfully for 15 years. After that, we made him president of our lead bank in Columbus, and he was very much involved in our data processing there. I can remember his first interface with data processing. We had him head up a task force on how we should handle data processing for our smaller banks. He proposed that all banks should be processed centrally on the same system. He learned by being on the other side of the aisle as a user. The decision he arrived at was the one we wanted to have happen. But because he, as a user, arrived at it, it sold a lot better in Peoria. Does business management experience provide a a better background for an IS manager than coming up through technology ranks? I think it's more the genes of the individual than where he came from. Don is a good manager and a good thinker. It certainly helps that he van understand the plight of the user. I'm not saying that that's the way you have to come to it, but it has worked for us. Not all companies solicit strategic input from IS. You are probably more the exception than the rule, even today. Do you think that's true? We think of ourselves as being in three businesses: 1)running banks, 2) buying and improving banks and 3) taking advantage of technology in running our banks. Don McWhorter's office is two doors away from me. That should give some sense of the importance of his function. It has a very high priority for us. Banc One has often been a pioneer in using technology. How do you do strategic planning, being on the leading edge? We've always tried to be doers. We are willin to allow people to try a lot of things. If there are 100 possibilities of things to do and you do three of them, you're probably not going to be very successful. But if there are 100 ideas and you do 80 of them, you're likely to have a pretty high success rate. There may be only 20 that are successful, but you'll hit 18 of them. All we ask is that whatever is tried be measured, so that if something isn't working out the way it's supposed to, we can cut it out. We've had more than our share of disasters or dumb things we've tried. But you have to have those to have successful ones. It seems obvious, but many people are unwilling to try anything innovative. We don't encourage failure, but the fact that a project doesn't work does not create a black mark. Some of our most successful people look back on a project that failed as being their best project. Do five-year plans look a lot different five years later? Yes. Five years ago, we were 25% of today's size. Nobody wrote down then that we'd be $25 billion, that we'd earn more than $300 million when we earned less than $100 million [then]. That's why I have problems with five year plans. <<<>>> Title : Help yourself by helping Author : David B. Phillip Source : CW Comm FileName: help Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Strategic information systems planning can take many forms. One is the internal planning, which concentrates on trends and requirements within the IS organization itself. Another is broad-based, corporatewide planning, which looks at the potential for IS within the organization as a whole. Still another, which I refer to as externalized strategic planning, concentrates on a level somewhere between the other two and represents an added step in the planning process. An externalized strategic plan results from closely examining the business plans in the user departments at all levels of the corporation and them identifying those strategic goals that could be furthered through IS. Not all goals will fit that criteria, and pursuing even all of those that do is not feasible, so it is important to select departmental partners carefully. One way of selecting is to look for those departments with which you are already familiar and have established a good working relationship. It is equally valid, however, to use this opportunity to open up new markets for IS services. In either case, it is wise to choose departments that have traditionally gone all out to meet their strategic objectives, avoiding die-hard opponents of change. The best way to approach development of an externalized plan is to form a tema to search for such strategic objectives within external departments. Ideally, that team would represent all MIS subgroups _ systems development, end-user computing, database administration, office systems, operations and telecommunications. Brief interviews with business managers responsible for meeting the identified goals will help determine which subgroup will be able to provide the best solution. The process of pursuing externalized strategic planning brings tangible benefits directly to all levels of personnel _ from clerks to senior executives. This process also allows MIS to design a comprehensive strategic plan of its own, with many stated goals that are actually restatements of the firms goals in IS terms. The cost of externalized strategic planning to the IS organization is minimal, involving mostly consulting and user training. Furthermore, the departments usually either bear the expense themselves or assist MIS in obtaining the required funding. A far greater risk than the cost of such efforts is their visibility. If anything goes wrong, a lot of people will know about it. For that reason, MIS departments that deciede to give externalized strategic planning a try should take great care to deliver what is promised. On the whole, however, the benefits far outweigh the risks. A successful externalized strategic plan can strengthen support for MIS at all levels of the corporation and help cut off that favorite budget-time question, ``What are we getting back from MIS for all that investment?'' By David B. Phillips; Phillips is president of David Phillips Associates, Inc., a computer management consulting firm in West Hempstead, N.Y., specializing in end-user computing issues and support strategies. <<<>>> Title : Hatching plots for market Author : Larry Stevens Source : CW Comm FileName: hatch Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Competition is intensifying in many industries, and resultant heat is altering perceptions about both the focus and the purpose of strategic planning. ``It is no longer enough in some industries for a strategic plan to provide just cost reduction or improved production,'' says Warren McFarlan, professor of business administration in MIS at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. ``Many companies are looking at how technology can give them a strong competive advantage.'' The change is particularly pronounced in terms of how information systems figure into strategic plans. McFarlan says organizations have come to recognize that options such as adding direct-access storage devices or ordering a new database management system, while important, are equally available to all firms. What those who have the means and the vision are concentrating on, he says, is the creation of systems that can stop the competition in their tracks. That is how Federal Express Corp. chose to approach strategic planning. According to Chris Demos, Federal's business adviser, the company had a clear vision of exactly what it needed to break away from the other package delivery services several years before the technology to carry out its plan ever existed. The idea for Federal's computerized pickup-to-delivery tracking system took shape in the early 1980s. When the firm realized that it would need to find a unique angle to stay ahead of the competition, it sent a squad of planners throughout the company to scout the ranks for ideas. What they discovered was that, after overnight delivery, package tracking was customers' most important concern. The elapsed time between the discovery and the system's appearance was about six years. The main problem was that the system the planners knew was needed combined two features that were incompatible in the early '80s _ pocket-size processors and the capability of storing large amounts of data. Was the advance planning a waste? Not at all, Demos says. As soon as the right technology came along, Federal knew what it was and what to do with it. Not every firm has the resources to support a planning effort on that scale, especially without the promise of immediate payback. But this does not mean having to settle for me-too status in the marketplace. ``A strategic plan has to take into account a firm's potential resources. But companies shouldn't sell themselves short,'' Demos says. ``Many have more resources than they think as long as they are willing to form alliances.'' Joint efforts can be effective, he says. When Prudential Insurance Co. of America tried to block smaller firms out of the market by providing computer terminals in general agents' offices, 30 of these companies responded by creating the Insurance Value Added Network, which performed the same function as Prudential's system. McFarlan admits that it is not easy for competing firms to create joint strategic plans. ``Small companies are obviously not going to link together most of their operations,'' he says. ``But such things as maintaining buying power and keeping the channels of distribution open can be worked out in a consortium without compromising the integrity of individual firms.'' LARRY STEVENS <<<>>> Title : Redefining strategic fit Author : Charles Varga Source : CW Comm FileName: col20b Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The recent announcement of First Financial Management's (FFMC) definitive agreement to acquire Georgia Federal Bank, FSB from Fuqua Industries for between $232 million and $250 million in cash has sent ripples through the information services industry and given new meaning to the term ``strategic fit.'' Actors are past masters of the technique; they use it all the time. Once they have memorized their lines, they study their characters, immersing themselves totally. Then, sublimating themselves, they become the characters, much to the delight and admiration of the audience. Even good public speakers and politicians play to their audiences, teasing and romancing them until all become as one. I call this the ``chameleon strategy:'' the ability of an individual or an organization to adopt the color, attitude, management style and culture of the group being served. This strategy is delightfully simple, organizationally elegant and indeed possibly workable and competitive in the 1990s. Like many business marriages before it, the acquisition of FBG by FFMC represents such an adaptive competitive strategy; in this case, an information services company has become a bank through acquisition. Just as we have seen a blurring in the line between the computer and communication businesses, what we may have here is a realization that, at least within the services sector of the economy, the information processing resource is as important as the product or service offered. In actuality, it is the product or services offered. Chameleons past In the late 1960s, Sy Blau, a plumbing wholesaler and distributor, started a data processing services firm called Distronics. He devised the best data processing service for order entry and inventory management available to the plumbing industry at that time. Why? Because he was basically a plumbing wholesaler/distributor at heart, and he knew how plumbing wholesaler/ distributors think. More recently, a United Airlines reservation system brought its company a $500 million windfall when 50% of its ownership was purchased by a consortium of other airlines. The Apollo reservation system is a major competitor in the travel industry. American Airlines' Sabre system and Delta Airlines' Datas II have operated independently and competitively for many years. The two airlines are currently in discussions to establish a joint computer reservation system and service that, if successful, would be the largest of its kind. What is apparent is that a new class of large-scale, financially secure, broad-based information services firms has emerged as a result of the chameleon strategy. Some serious questions arise, however, when we ask ourselves how we as an industry should view such an entity. When is a data processing service company a bank? And when is a bank a data processing service company? How can you best serve the client _ by becoming the client? When is a chameleon a duck? When the chameleon changes color and quacks. Time to analyze The heads of Fuqua Industries and FFMC are grappling with some of these questions right now. ``Fuqua Industries has for some time been exploring the possibility of selling Georgia Federal,'' said Lawrence P. Klamon, Fuqua's chairman and chief executive officer . ``Although it is a solid, profitable institution, we believe that the combination of a financial institution with a consumer products company has been confusing to investors and caused them to undervalue our stock.'' If the combination of a financial institution with a consumer products company was confusing to investors, how will they view the hybrid financial institution services company? Both Klamon and Patrick H. Thomas, who is chairman of the board, president and CEO at FFMC, agree that the merger is a win-win situation. ``Georgia Federal,'' Thomas said, ``fills a strategic niche in our organizational structure, providing a direct link for our financial services operations to the payments system. It also provides a significant revenue stream to our operation and will add to our profitability.'' FFMC has completed 17 consecutive years of record revenue and earnings. For the year ending Dec. 31, 1988, revenue increased 142% to $423.7 million compared with $175.1 million recorded in the prior year, while net income for 1988 was up 152% to $29.3 million from $11.6 million in 1987. Now it has Georgia Federal Bank, with assets of $4.3 billion and deposits of $2.7 billion. Most assuredly, this is a chameleon of many different stripes and colors. For FFMC and Georgia Federal Bank, only time will tell how this business combination will work _ both for investors and for the industry at large. For those of us in the information services industry who provide research, analysis and valuation services, such combination and spin-off ventures will challenge our understanding and force us to invent new and interesting ways to view our business. By Charles Varga; Varga, a 20-year computer industry veteran based in Frenchtown, N.J., is publisher of ``The Cerberus Report,'' a study of industry mergers and acquisitions. <<<>>> Title : Cullinet trims down Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cull Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WESTWOOD, Mass. _ Cullinet Software, Inc. landed on the wrong side of two predictions last week as a rumored ``Saint Valentine's Day Massacre'' that the company disavowed only days earlier took place right on time, while an oft-predicted return to profitability once again failed to occur. While pink slips and profits confound the company's prognostications, however, many users interviewed last week were still betting on Cullinet. A company executive confirmed the number of employees fired in the latest round of Cullinet's ongoing quest for profits at ``just under 200.'' Jobs, he said, were eliminated from departments throughout the company, with software development and sales taking the lightest hits. No divisions or product lines were eliminated, he said. Last week's news from Cullinet was in part a proximate result of this week's: The formal announcement of the company's 11th consecutive quarter in the red is slated for tomorrow. Why? Those who look for cataclysmic reasons are due for disappointment, said Vice-President of Marketing Jeffrey Papows. Basically, he said, the company continues to be squeezed between the staggering price tag of an exceptionally ambitious market repositioning effort and the time it takes for multiple new product lines to hit their sales stride. ``It's disappointing; there's no getting around that,'' said Papows, speaking of both the third-quarter loss and the loss of approximately 10% of the company's work force. However, he said, ``A very intense diversification has taken place, and most of our promises have been kept.'' Loyal following Cullinet customers contacted last week, while generally surprised by the recent barrage of bad news, tended to agree. Richard Lester, vice-president of information services at Seattle-based Associated Grocers, Inc., said although the cuts came as a surprise, ``we still have confidence in Cullinet.'' His outlook on the company, which he described as ```cautiously hopeful,'' echoed that of many Cullinet customers who have invested heavily in the firm's products. As long as the cuts did not affect technical and support staff, they could be viewed as transparent to the user, said Steve Hicks, data center manager at Clark Information Services, a division of Clark Equipment Co. in South Bend, Ind. ``Like many companies, Cullinet might be heavy in administration. The cuts might be needed,'' he said. Lois Pollock, manager of in- formation resources at Warner Electric in South Beloit, Ill., concurred. If Cullinet is cutting unnecessary jobs, ``more power to them,'' she said. ``They need to keep a close eye on overhead costs without cutting into R&D.'' Warner Electric, a manufacturer of motion-control equipment, is in the process of bringing Cullinet software aboard to handle its largest manufacturing application. ``We have to be optimistic,'' Pollock said. Similarly, Associated Grocers' Lester noted that Cullinet's IDMS/R mainframe database management system is ``at the core of our systems strategy,'' adding that he hoped Cullinet can take whatever steps are necessary to recover. No ruffled feathers Jerry Peters, senior vice-president and director of information services at Exchange National Bank of Chicago, which served as a beta-test site for Cullinet's long-awaited and recently released banking software package, called the vendor's latest tidings discouraging but not devastating, at least in the short term. Peters was relatively unruffled by the elimination of staff positions. ``We are primarily concerned with banking and support staff,'' Peters said. ``We are not burying our heads in the sand. We are aware of the implications for the long term,'' he added. However, he said, ``In spite of its current problems, Cullinet has a lot of momentum.'' He noted Cullinet's large customer base and the recent purchase of Cullinet tools for internal use by AT&T. ``That says they're not completely out in left field,'' he said. Some customers, however, seemed to have escaped Cullinet's spell. Terry Wickliffe, computer operations manager at United Technologies Corp.'s Automotive Components Division, said he already questions Cullinet's current level of support and has ``major concerns'' about the most recent cuts. ``We're hoping a good solid company will buy them and turn them around. We would love to see CA buy them,'' Wickliffe said. By Amy Cortese and Nell Margolis, CW staff <<<>>> Title : In brief Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: week220 Date : 22 Text: We hear you With users clamoring for integrated applications, IBM announced four moves last week intended to give the people what they want. An ``applications solutions laboratory'' in Charlotte, N.C., will develop finance and banking applications; another such laboratory in Endicott, N.Y., will work on offerings for the manufacturing arena. IBM will also expand an ongoing computer-integrated manufacturing project in Owego, N.Y., and dedicate a portion of its Manassas, Va.-based Systems Integration Division lab to finding solutions for service industries. Grid game plan Seven months after buying portable computer pioneer Grid Systems Corp., Tandy Corp. last week unveiled its plan for deploying its new resource. Under the announced marketing realignment, Tandy's major and federal accounts will be Grid's bailiwick, to be served by 61 sales and support centers in 53 nationwide locations. Traditional Tandy home and office computer business will be handled through approximately 300 Radio Shack Computer Centers, each of which will have its own assigned systems engineers. Once more: Land of the rising Sun Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Xerox Corp. Japanese affiliate Fuji Xerox Company Ltd. have teamed up to take on Japan's workstation market. The companies pooled $4 million to launch Unisol _ the first such joint venture for U.S. workstation market leader Sun _ a Unix and AT&T and Sun Open Look-based productivity software company to be headquartered in Tokyo. Just in case Ashton-Tate Corp.'s board of directors have adopted a so-called poison-pill shareholder rights plan aimed at discouraging hostile takeover bids. Ouch Recent work force reductions and other cost-cutting measures last week proved insufficient to prevent Wyse Technology from warning that it expects to report an operating loss for its fiscal fourth quarter ending March 31. The troubled microcomputer company also said that it is negotiating with its lenders to obtain waivers contractually required under its current credit arrangements in the event of failure to meet certain profitability requirements. <<<>>> Title : Fill it partway Author : Nell Margolis Source : CW Comm FileName: stock Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Last week's action among technology stocks was the kind that separates those observers who call a glass half-empty from the more optimistic half-full crowd. The good news is that earlier downward trends among a number of major issues reversed themselves. The bad news is that the reversals generally served only to bring stock prices to within hailing distance of recent highs. Digital Equipment Corp., for instance, gained 1 points to close on Thursday at 114 _ a mere of a point higher than the 114 to which DEC stock had precipitously fallen the previous Thursday. Similarly, Intel Corp.'s February skid continued into the beginning of last week before a 1 -point upturn took the shares to a Thursday close at 26 _ of a point more than the week before. Lotus Development Corp. closed at 22 , up 2 points. IBM rose of a point to a Thursday close of 125 . High-flying Microsoft Corp. tumbled 2 points to 61 at the week's start. Favorable reaction to the company's equity investment in Unix vendor The Santa Cruz Operation, however, sent the stock back north of a point to close Thursday at 62 . NELL MARGOLIS <<<>>> Title : It's real time on Wall St Author : William Brandel Source : CW Comm FileName: finside2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The concept of real-time multiple data access is critical to any Wall Street broker. The data floating across the screen represents market factors on which the next decision is made. If it cannot be done in real time, the broker is at a distinct disadvantage. On Wall Street, seconds are measured in millions of dollars. In the Goldman, Sachs & Co. fixed-income-bond trading room, stacks of dedicated terminals virtually form a wall on one desk, with dozens of cables running out the back onto the floor. Next to this wall sits a workstation with windows displaying market data. Goldman Sachs owns the workstation, and market data vendors lease them the dedicated terminals. Goldman Sachs estimates that the cost of moving an older, multiple-terminal trading workstation from one end of a room to another would be between $2,000 and $20,000. This cost is contingent on how many dedicated graphics feed cables would have to be ripped out of the floor and rearranged. The advent of multitasking has dramatically changed the landscape in most Wall Street brokerage houses' trading rooms by providing brokers with so-called financial workstations. According to Isaak Karaev, president of Multex, Inc., a New York-based software integration firm, a financial workstation consists of the following features: powerful networked microcomputers; presentation and user interface standards; multitasking, multiwindow, real-time applications; dynamic data exchange support; a financial modeling environment; and real-time and historical data access to corporate databases. In total, the software can be purchased for hundreds of dollars. The alternative is to either lease a wall of dedicated terminals or buy a $20,000 Unix workstation. WILLIAM BRANDEL <<<>>> Title : IBM seen rushing out high Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 400 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The first of several IBM high-end Application System/400 announcements scheduled for this year has been moved up several weeks to Tuesday, according to consultants contacted last week. The timing of the announcement, according to observers, was changed because IBM wanted to respond more quickly to recent competitive midrange introductions, particularly the Digital Equipment Corp. 6300 announcement in January. The AS/400 Model B70 is scheduled for introduction along with enhancements to low-end models, memory price cuts and additional high-end tape drive support. ``This is positioning to say the AS/400 isn't a capped line,'' said Richard Schreiber, vice-president of systems research at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. ``The shift in timing shows their concern about DEC. Its 6300 announcement focused on scalability and said a kicker would be out in nine months. IBM is saying the AS/400 is growing, and `you won't be buying into a static line.' '' However, Peter Kastner, vice-president at the Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based research firm, said this week's introduction is not in response to DEC but rather is to appease some customers that are unhappy with the AS/400's performance. According to Kastner, several midrange and high-end AS/400 users have found that it takes more memory to drive the system than they originally anticipated. ``IBM doesn't react to DEC,'' Kastner said. ``Our guess is the customer base forced them to do this. The AS/400 is their pride and joy, and they don't want anything to hurt that reputation.'' The memory price cuts, Kastner said, are one way of helping out midrange and high-end AS/400 users who have found the system does not perform as well as they thought it would. More to come Other higher end models are expected to be announced later this year, with scheduled delivery for 1990, said Natalie Steele, president of Mid-Range Products, Inc. in Deerfield Beach, Fla. ``I talked to Rochester and asked why they're introducing the B70 now and was told that they aren't going to take any heat,'' she said. ``They're announcing it now as a way of reassuring their users.'' Observers also said that IBM will announce a shipment date for an AS/400 interface to its high-speed tape drive, the 3422, which is currently used in large IBM System/38 environments. According to consultants, the lack of a 3422 interface for high-end AS/400 users has been a big drawback because they are unable to perform efficient backups without it. By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Mitch Betts Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: sidespie Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Now that information systems have become competitive weapons, MIS executives may need to get involved in some business intelligence work, according to Jack Epstein, a vice-president and MIS consultant at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Epstein is promoting a technique he calls ``competitive systems analysis,'' which is basically a study of what investments a company's peers are making in information systems. The results of the analysis can be put to use by MIS for both offensive and defensive moves and for justifying new investments at budget time, Epstein said. Moreover, the study results should be shared with the competitor intelligence unit and top executives at the company, Epstein said, because MIS investments provide an early warning sign of competitors' new business strategies. ``If [companies] had been paying attention to Federal Express years ago and found them working on centralized dispatch systems for overnight delivery . . . they would not have been so shocked at the new business style,'' he said. MIS executives also can tell the competitor intelligence unit what types of technology information would be useful and help analysts to interpret it, Epstein said. MITCH BETTS <<<>>> Title : U.S. vendors get tough on Author : IDG News Service Source : CW Comm FileName: full2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: TAIPEI, Taiwan _ U.S. software manufacturers are mad as hell about software piracy in Taiwan, and they're not going to take it anymore. An association of six U.S. software manufacturers, including Microsoft Corp., Lotus Development Corp. and Ashton-Tate Corp., said here last week that they will conduct investigations of piracy and seek prosecution under Taiwanese law. Douglas E. Phillips, president of the Business Software Association (BSA), told a press conference that software piracy in Taiwan cost U.S. software publishers an estimated $200 million last year. ``We think there is a serious problem,'' he said. ``Our presence here today represents the resolve of major software manufacturers to change this.'' Phillips said the BSA has targeted five countries for action against piracy but would identify only Taiwan. He said the laws are in place in Taiwan to deal with piracy but currently are not being enforced. According to Phillips, in the first nine months of 1988, only 16 cases of piracy were investigated by Taiwanese authorities, and 49 pieces of pirated software were seized. In contrast, a single raid last month in Hong Kong's Golden Arcade shopping district yielded U.S. $106,000 in pirated software and manuals from just two outlets. Phillips said he has met with Taiwan officials to request stepped-up enforcement of the existing copyright law, passed in 1985. He said his organization pushed for a separate enforcement unit but received no commitments from Taiwan officials. Taiwan was targeted by the BSA because pirated software traced to Taiwan has been appearing increasingly in Africa, Canada and Europe. Phillips also charged there is large-scale local copying of software, as indicated by the substantially lower volume of software shipped per machine in Taiwan compared with other markets. <<<>>> Title : PC LAN purchasing pattern Author : Patricia Keefe Source : CW Comm FileName: lantr Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Large organizations are now scrutinizing personal computer networks in the context of an enterprisewide systems strategy. This, in turn, has spawned a more coordinated approach to PC network purchasing and use. According to Boston-based Business Research Group (BRG), coordinated procurement based on corporate-level standards is allowing companies to buy in quantity, get deals in pricing and support and create a more manageable systems hierarchy. For example, first-tier networked PCs can share access to second-tier server-based connections linked to third-tier corporate-level resources, BRG said in its report, `` Emerging Organizational Networking Market and the Changing of PC LAN Buying Patterns.'' The report and related charts are based on interviews with 100 large sites, each with more than 250 employees and an average number of three PC local-area networks. This revised strategy is said to enable department managers to control their own PC-based resources, while solidifying MIS' role as a corporate coordinator/ integrator with a well-defined area of accountability. This means that increasingly, MIS is taking a hand in PC LAN purchasing decisions. ``PC LANs have emerged as a possible solution for cost-effective PC integration with other corporate information systems investments'' the report noted. Not surprisingly, the report found that database and file sharing head up respondents' lists of their most important PC LAN applications. BRG couples this trend with efforts among PC LAN vendors to position themselves as network integrators. Fueling these changes in vendor behavior is an ``overwhelming and most likely permanent transition'' away from large-scale computing systems to distributed computing architectures built on increasingly powerful desktop platforms, BRG said. As this transition continues and MIS starts to exercise greater control over LAN selection, the purchasing criteria is shifting from pricing and ease-of-use to compatibility with installed systems, product reputation, standards support and vendor reputation, according to the report. PATRICIA KEEFE <<<>>> Title : Inside lines Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: liner Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Bus pulling into the station? DEC is currently negotiating with Tandy for the manufacture of IBM Micro Channel Architecture-based PCs under the DEC label, according to a source close to DEC. The source said a highly placed DEC desktop executive indicated the company intends to have the machines out on the market by the end of this year. When DEC announced the Tandy manufacturing and marketing agreement last fall, a Tandy official said then that such a licensing deal would be possible. This one's slow to pull out. In briefings for consultants last week, IBM indicated that no vast improvements will be made in the PS/2 line by this spring. At its Boca Raton site late last week, IBM demonstrated bus mastering using an AT-based PS/2 Model 30 and also demonstrated a facsimile bus master on a Micro Channel PS/2, but OS/2 was suspiciously absent from the product demonstrations. IBM indicated that between 15-20 communications-based bus masters will be ready in that time frame and should increase to 100 by the end of this year. The usual suspects. When a street-worn rumor placing Control Data Corp. on the verge of selling its computer operations to Unisys Corp. resurfaced last week, CDC met it with the company's shop-worn reply: No Comment. Although CDC President Lawrence Perlman was quoted as saying the company hadn't ruled out any option, including selling the computer division, that is only one among many options and not even at the top of the list, a company spokesman said. BIOS king to do Unix. Phoenix Technologies will receive a Unix license from AT&T and will in turn resell ``customized'' versions of Unix to OEM customers, according to a source close to Phoenix. Phoenix will write a ``layer of [software] code'' that will sit on the system software, similar to a BIOS that determines a large measure of IBM compatibility in MS-DOS-based PCs. Phoenix will also obtain licenses for Sun's Berkeley derivatives of Unix, and the Open Software Foundation is said to be considering licensing its as-yet unreleased version of Unix to Phoenix. The end result may be the ability for third-party software developers to create single applications that are compatible with all major versions of Unix. Maybe they'll call them Vaxswitches. In the next month, we should see voice/data applications to integrate VAX computing power with Northern Telecom private branch exchanges' switching capabilities as the two vendors bring out the first fruits of their Telecom '87 alliance. The new offerings will make use of a computer-PBX software link that was jointly developed by the two vendors and that is currently competing with similar AT&T and IBM offerings for de facto standard status, according to Gartner Group program director Steve Wendler. Getting them all in view? What do IBM's Lautenbach, AT&T's Cavanaugh, OSF's Torey, Unix International's Cunningham and Sun's McNealy have in common? ``Large salaries'' was our first response. Guess again, says Michael Killen, author of last year's book on Systems Application Architecture, IBM: The Making of the Common View. All those execs and more, Killen says, have agreed to sit down for taped interviews on the development of open and proprietary computer systems, scheduled for broadcast on a number of cable stations throughout the country beginning in March. Well, all but Lautenbach will sit for a grilling; IBM will allow the taping of a speech he's planning on the topic. Back to the drawing board _ literally. A Wang Labs official last week confirmed delays in a previously scheduled ad campaign for the company's new microcomputer division and its wares. However, he said, the problems aren't with the products _ they're with the ads themselves, which failed to arouse sufficient enthusiasm in an early test marketing effort. If you've got reason to believe Wang can clean up in the PC arena, call the hot line at 800-343-6474 or 508-879-0700 and let News Editor Pete Bartolik in on what their secrets are. <<<>>> Title : With licensing pacts, Mip Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: mips2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SUNNYVALE, Calif. _ Mips Computer Systems, Inc. is attempting to parlay its reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture and software into superpower status in the burgeoning RISC market by leveraging off licensing agreements, instead of building its own manufacturing facilities. A similar strategy is already working for RISC market leader Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun became a global RISC leader with its Scalable Processor Architecture (Sparc) chip when it licensed its architecture to Japan-based Fujitsu Micro Electronics, Inc. last year. Earlier this month, Mips signed up Siemens AG in West Germany and NEC Corp. in Japan to manufacture and distribute its technology. These latest agreements bring the total of Mips semiconductor manufacturing partners to five. ``What had been a yawning gap in major semiconductor vendor support between Mips and Sun is closing,'' said Robert Herwick, an analyst at Hambrecht & Quist, Inc. in New York. Perhaps even more important, the agreements in one fell swoop crashed open the doors of the Japanese and European workstation markets for Mips. Analysts said the NEC agreement is important to Mips' growth because Japanese companies have much better luck than American or European firms in selling to the Japanese market. Now, both Mips' RISC architecture and Sparc will be on a more equal footing. Al- though Milpitas, Calif.-based LSI Logic Corp. has been manufacturing Mips RISC chips in Japan as well as in the U.S. for the last year, NEC is considered a much bigger player there. While Mips is behind in the Japanese market, it is ahead in Europe. The Siemens agreement ``gives Mips a presence in Europe, something Sparc doesn't have,'' said Dean McCarron, an analyst at In-Stat, Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. The move also leaves Motorola, Inc. and Intel Corp. chewing dust. The two semiconductor giants have announced RISC chip architecture but have yet to get their products to market. In January, Motorola made its RISC-based 88000 chips available for sampling. General availability is scheduled for the second quarter. Intel is believed to be working on a RISC design but has not publicly announced any products. However, according to an Intel spokesman, its next generation of chips _ the 80486 _ will use some RISC design techniques. Promising 4M-bit products in the near term, Siemens and NEC announced they will have 16M-bit chips in the early 1990s. According to Mips, the two organizations are committed to projects that will yield performance levels of more than 100 million instructions per second. By J.A. Savage, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Taking stock in communica Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: lani Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Catch the wave. If merger activity picks up and other market conditions remain favorable, it could hit sometime in 1989, flooding the industry with an anticipated round of initial public offerings and renewed investor interest _ specifically in the communications area. Technology stocks were the beached whales of 1988, particularly in the last quarter. A number of technology vendors either posted disappointing earnings, commenced layoffs or both. But the beginnings of an upturn were sighted about mid-December. The Dow Jones industrial average saw a 200-point surge in January. If the ripple of activity earlier this year is any indication, it looks like smooth sailing ahead for a number of rumored initial public offerings. Most promising for communications vendors have been the recent successes of those that were willing to dive into seemingly unfriendly seas. On Aug. 19, when many of its technology brethren were being battered, Synoptics Communications, Inc. made a successful initial public offering, hauling in $12.6 million for the twisted-pair Ethernet vendor. Positive signs Even more encouraging was the success of Network General Corp.'s initial public offering earlier this month. Following a particularly bracing quarter for technology stocks, the Mountain View, Calif., supplier of network diagnostic tools launched its offering, hoping to garner between $5 and $7 per share. It netted $10 million. As of the middle of the month, the stock had inched up to $9.50 per share. ``It's a great sign that the market is opening up,'' said Richard Kimball, a communications analyst at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. ``Of all the markets we follow, we believe that the LAN market offers the most sustainable growth prospects over the longest period of time.'' Network General founder Harry Saal, however, cautioned against reading too much into his firm's fortuitous offering. ``It's not clear that things will get better or worse,'' Saal said, crediting the initial public offering's success to the business particulars of Network General. ``It certainly wasn't at all clear the week before this was done how warmly [we would be] received. Many individuals felt it was a great risk, that investors were not prepared to support young high-tech companies without a lot of capital.'' But Saal also said the earlier successes of Synoptics and Vitalink Communications Corp., which also launched a well-received initial public offering last year, were key to his belief that a good company can go public even in the worst of times. Still, he does not anticipate the beginning of a even in the worst of times. Still, he does not anticipate the beginning of a rush toward high-technology investments. Maybe not. But Andy Schopick, vice-president of Soundview Financial Group, Inc. in Stamford, Conn., says Saal could not have picked a better time to go public. Interest in technology stocks is decidedly picking up, he said. There have been other positive signs: David Systems, Inc., a 5-year-old telecommunications supplier with sales in excess of $25 million, received a $7 million boost from Paine Webber, Inc. last month. AT&T's purchase of Paradyne Corp. has stood out among a number of smaller mergers between communications companies. Banyan Systems, Inc., a 5-year-old supplier of Unix-based networks in Westboro, Mass., is thinking public. President Dick Meise confirmed last week that Banyan is seriously contemplating an initial public offering sometime in late spring if the market continues to improve. ``The market is certainly showing some aggressive moves lately, and it is encouraging. There's no doubt about that,'' Meise said. Banyan neighbor Proteon, Inc., a supplier of Token-Ring networks, has also long harbored an interest in going public. Both vendors are at a point at which analysts believe they must increase their size to continue their growth. Both are considered prime acquisition candidates if they do not opt to go public. ``Some of these companies in the wings have been just waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of a little bit of a kinder view toward technology,'' Kimball said. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Future shock Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: edit220 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WHEN IT COMES to the tacks taken by scores of companies trying to staff up with the new breed of information systems professional, it can truly be said that necessity is the mother of invention. Increasingly, firms are turning to all sorts of schemes, in addition to conventional hiring methods, to locate and then entice the small number of IS professionals who have the right stuff _ that balance of technology know-how and business acumen. This combination of skills that are so absolutely essential to developing information strategies will transform corporations in the 1990s and enable them to compete effectively in the global village. This hiring imperative, outlined in last week's issue of Computerworld, has in one part of the country seen some 160 companies, which compete mightily for scarce human resources, band together in a loose hiring consortium. The companies swap resumes and trade information about potential hires. The interesting aspect of this consortium is that it is centered in one of the most economically depressed parts of the country: the Texas oil fields. It seems that when hard times hit a few years ago, tens of thousands of IS professionals packed their bags for greener pastures. Today, with a turnaround in progress, companies are starved for personnel. Across the country, companies are developing more aggressive training programs to mold college grads in the image of the firm. Others are struggling to find just what it takes to attract and keep today's younger breed of IS professional. One thing is very clear: Although labor supply/ demand imbalances will vary in the coming years, demand in general will outstrip supply _ a situation that will surely get worse as the next decade unfolds. Unlike the situation with doctors and lawyers in this country, there simply are not enough future IS professionals being trained and graduated from our universities to fill the jobs that will become available. In fact, some very preliminary work Computerworld is doing on the composition of graduating classes of information management students indicates that a growing number of these graduates, a third and more at some leading schools, are foreign students, particularly from the Pacific Rim nations. Could we be heading toward a situation not unlike that in the island nations of Australia and New Zealand, where, as a result of critical supply/demand imbalances, annual IS turnover is in the 30% range? Similar imbalances are emerging in West Germany, as well. Can you imagine routinely having to hire, train and then rehire one-third of your information systems team? Of course, if the U.S. falls much further behind Japan as an economic superpower, we won't have to worry about such problems. <<<>>> Title : A semantic query Author : David Kellogg Source : CW Comm FileName: kellet Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The three words commonly abbreviated as SQL [Ed. note: Structured Query Language] are misidentified in Jonathan Sayles's otherwise excellent article on training [CW, Jan. 16]. Sayles says that SQL stands for ``sequential'' query language. The New York Times has said it stands for ``standard'' query language. I've also heard it called ``simple'' and ``special'' and am eagerly awaiting ``super.'' Furthermore, I wonder why everyone is so eager to decrypt SQL. Do writers try to decrypt VM/CMS, MVS, IMS, VAX or VMS every time they use them? No. So why not leave SQL alone, too? David Kellogg Senior Analyst Relational Technology, Inc. New York <<<>>> Title : The extra mile Author : John Selvggio Source : CW Comm FileName: selvlet Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Alan Radding wrote an honest but not totally optimistic article, ``Consultants walk a rough road'' [CW, Jan. 23]. Although the consulting industry is fairly competitive, the opportunities are there for those who find the right niche in the market. The consultants who seem to get the most assignments are the ones who are willing to go the extra mile with their clients and offer them services that can save them money in the long run. There are pitfalls in the consulting business, but I believe they are outweighed by the advantages. Let's face it, consulting isn't for everyone, especially for those who are more security conscious. But for the opportunist, consulting could be the only way. John Selvaggio Research Dept. Search Leader, Inc. Cleveland <<<>>> Title : Forget the RISC Author : Stuart Feigin Source : CW Comm FileName: feiglet Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The performance of several RISC architecture machines were compared against a VAX-11/780 [CW, Jan. 23]. Why? The 780 is an old machine. Perhaps you could compare the RISC machines with an IBM 360. It would be just as important a test. The article made no mention of the cost of the various machines tested. If cost is no object, then I suspect I could find a CISC machine that could beat any of the RISC machines mentioned in your article. Comparing hardware performance without comparing cost is absurd. You suggest that scientific users would be better off with a RISC machine, and business users would prefer a CISC machine, but no real evidence at all is supplied. At the end of the article, you saythat it is necessary to also consider memory and I/O architecture and performance. That was about the only useful statement in the article. Why bother comparing just CPU speed when what you really want to know is total system performance? When you are shopping for a computer, the only relevant question is which machine will get your job done at the best speed for the best price. Leave the selection of processor architectures to the engineers who design the computers. Let them make the trade-offs and decisions about how to build the machine and then devise a meaningful benchmark machine that reflects the way you will use the machine. Buy the machine that is best for you, without regard to the complexity of its instruction set or the size of the resistors in the power supply. Stuart Feigin Truckee, Calif. <<<>>> Title : Would you believe, Miami Author : Michael Cohn Source : CW Comm FileName: cohn8 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: I was fairly young back then, but I'm quite sure Fred worked in a quarry. Wilma made him nice lunches. I remember Mr. Slate being kind of short-tempered, but Fred always got to leave exactly when the whistle blew. I suppose that working in a quarry is a pretty good job, but I have never desired to do so. Yet the older I get, the more appealing these TV jobs become. When I tended bar in college, the tips were short and the hours were long. But on Cheers, it looks like it would be a hoot. Police work always seemed so stressful and dangerous, but with Stephanie Kramer as his partner, I can see how Hunter could last a few more seasons. The idea of three years of law school once made my head spin; now I can think of nothing better, at least on Thursday nights, than being an L.A. attorney. Prime time aside, I kind of like what I do nine-to-five. Data processing suits me fine. No one shoots at me, and I never have to run downstairs to change the tap on the light beer. As far as I know, there are thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people out there doing the same type of thing I do. So what happened to us? MIS is a pretty neat job _ where is the TV series about us DP folk? All right, I concede that my danger and intrigue does not usually rival that of Spenser for Hire, except when I sample the vending-machine coffee. And maybe much more funny things happen to Cliff Huxtable than to our tape librarian. But someone is missing the boat here. There's room for a few good TV shows about MIS. I hope someone in Hollywood is listening, because below I have done my part to promote what I think could be some top-rated shows about the glamour, romance and frequent high-speed car chases associated with DP. Module, She Wrote Each week, try to piece together the scattered clues as a matronly programmer solves the mysteries of yet another gruesome abend. Watch as she probes into several programs for about 50 minutes and then suddenly reveals the guilty culprit. Also learn how people in small New England towns are most tolerant of a woman who suspiciously seems to be around, week in and week out, when something terrible happens. eightysomething This series targets the young, urban, baby-boom generation who now must cope with the fear and confusion of ever-changing microprocessor technology in the home and office _ 8086? 8088? 80286? 80386? Laugh and cry as two young couples share the joy, grief, challenges and decisions of office equipment, networking and the right modem for the nursery. Computer-Aided-Designing Women Follow the comical escapades of four women in a Southern city trying to make it in the aggressive world of computer consulting. Enjoy their highs and lows as they find friendship and success both in romance and real-time processing. Gain insight into the fast-paced world of the services industry and learn why, with the right wardrobe, no one ever appears to be doing any real work. Miami Mice South Florida is being ravaged by ruthless system hackers and out-of-control programmed stock trading. But all is not lost, thanks to the efforts of one Miami Police Department MIS manager who has assembled a crack team of two programming gurus. Armed only with a monitor, modem and mouse, the crime-fighting pair thwarts dozens of unauthorized accesses, protects passwords and confiscates bootleg copies of Donkey Kong. As a reward, the manager relaxes the dress code, and neckties and collars become optional. Magnum, dba Each week, visit the tropical, scenic shores of Hawaii, where only database administrators such as the handsome Magnum can afford to live. Watch as his beautiful and mysterious female clients lure him into dangerous consulting assignments, each with the potential for a new relationship, which he quickly manages to convert into third-normal form. By Michael Cohn; Cohn is a quality assurance representative based in Atlanta. <<<>>> Title : Gigamemory goes hand in h Author : Charles P. Lecht Source : CW Comm FileName: 131lecht Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Those of you who entered the computer field in the past five years or so may not be too impressed. You are used to personal computer hard disk memories calculated in the double-digit megabyte range. But us older guys have every right to be impressed. The fact that one can now obtain a desktop machine with more than 300M bytes on a 3 -in. hard disk boggles my mind and gives me pause to wonder what's next. It was not so long ago _ less than five years _ that memories in the triple-digit megabyte range existed only on disks the size of a standard long-playing record housed in cylindrical capsules the size of hat boxes. These disks could only be used in drives several feet square and high. Worse yet, the drives could only be attached to minicomputers or larger systems. And less than 10 years earlier, such disks were to be found only on midrange or larger systems and, five years before that, only on mainframes or supercomputers. That is why I am so impressed with a 3 -in. 300M-byte hard disk in a PC. When these machines can contain a gigabyte, I will not only be impressed, I will be overwhelmed. A terabyte should make me _ and you, too _ ecstatic. Puppy love As you may have gathered, I love the small-size, big-memory tykes. But I am a bit worried about employing them too swiftly at work _ personal or corporate. The greater their capacity, the more is at risk in their usage. To understand why, think of an airplane with ever larger passenger capacity. A 3 -in. hard disk memory in the multimegabyte range provides a cache for storing all kinds of data in less space than that occupied by a Sony Discman. On a personal scale, one's entire memory needs for a lifetime may one day be housed in a single device smaller than the part of our brain in which our dull human memory resides. Such a device could serve as a massive archival repository of all we once knew and a buffer memory between the database of our world and that part of it we wish to remember. As we fly through this life, this storage device could be our very own personal flight recorder. Retrieved after we die, it would contain a wealth of information about us that could be passed on to the generations that follow _ unless, of course, the device dies before we do. This sobering thought brings me to the risk point. There are two things that worry me about increasing memory in a PC: the possibility of a disk crash and the possibility that the host PC itself could crash. Both events could send your life's work to kingdom come or elsewhere. If the disk crashes, all the data contained therein is certain to be lost, so we are advised to back it up regularly. But backing up a multimegabyte disk is tedious and costly. Just consider the mess of floppies needed to do it. At roughly 1.4M bytes per 3 -in. diskette, the number is just too voluminous to ask anyone to manage. The same argument applies even using various compression routines, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, you can use another hard disk as the backup medium, but doing so requires yet another processor. All of the commonly sold PCs use a hard disk that cannot be removed by the user of the PC. Of course, there are other devices you can use, such as those that provide high-density off-line tape facilities, but I worry about their future readability. Maybe it's the reels of superfine wire I still own that were once readable by a wire recorder made in the late 1940s that make me skeptical of the tapes. Or it could be the scores of tapes stored in ``safe'' locations whose reading is better not attempted these days. Steer clear There are the devices that sport a hard disk on a card but are too costly to use solely for data backup. The coming optical-disk media may improve the chances of getting all data on one disk, but prudence suggests that until they are proven not to be subject to premature obsolescence, these products are to be avoided. If your company is sufficiently rich, I recommend any one of a number of removable and/or augmentable disk technologies as being better than dealing with a few hundred, or maybe a thousand, floppies or tapes. But I worry that such devices not made by the system's manufacturer may offer a risk in long-term serviceability. This point leads to a second problem: What if your computer crashes? At least in the disk-crash case, your data most likely cannot be read by anyone. But in a full PC crash, you are forced to send in your system for repairs with valuable data on its hard disk just asking to be read by the serviceman or anyone else who may be interested. Unable to destroy the data because the processor will not work, some may find it preferable to destroy their entire system than to expose the data to the likes of hacker snoopers, business competition, the FBI or the Internal Revenue Service. Clearly, a removable hard disk will solve this problem forthrightly. Why most systems do not offer this feature is beyond me. Before today, few people contemplated a world in which megabytes, gigabytes or even terabytes of data might be stored on a very small hard disk in a PC. So it is understandable that a good solution to the disk backup problem does not exist. Until it does, we would do well to remember the old proverb, ``The bigger they are, the harder they fall.'' By Charles P. Lecht; Lecht is an IDG News Service Correspondent based in Tokyo. <<<>>> Title : IBM boosts graphics line Author : James Daly Source : CW Comm FileName: ibmside Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: IBM strengthened its line of high-performance graphics systems recently with the introduction of a smaller, more powerful member of its 5080 graphics system family. IBM officials said the floor-standing 5086 graphics processor is half the width of the 5085 Model 2A and can pack up to 50% more processing punch. The machine also offers 2M bytes of system memory, expandable to 8M bytes, and is fully compatible with 5080 hardware and software. Additionally, the 5086 has the ability to superimpose nongraphics host functions over the graphics mode session and is able to receive microcode remotely from the attached host, IBM said. The 5086 attaches to the Enterprise System/3090, ES/9370 and ES/4381 processors and several IBM RT workstation models, IBM said. The 5086 graphics processor is scheduled for availability Feb. 24; prices will start at $11,900. JAMES DALY <<<>>> Title : Cognos takes user by surp Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cognos Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: An early user of Cognos, Inc.'s first relational database management system said last week that the Powerhouse Starbase DBMS' raw performance exceeded his expectations. Cognos, a fourth-generation language (4GL) application development software tools developer, recently entered the relational DBMS market with the delivery of Powerhouse Starbase, its SQL-based offering for Digital Equipment Corp. midrange machines. Willard Hunt, manager of Financial Systems at the Xerox Corp. Business Products and Systems Group in Rochester, N.Y., is currently using Powerhouse Starbase with a DEC VAX-based financial asset management system. Hunt, who previously had run the financial management on batch-fed mainframes, said he liked the speed and ease of use Powerhouse Starbase offered along with the database's compatibility with DEC's RMS and RDB. Better than expected Hunt said Powerhouse Starbase's raw performance was better than he anticipated when benchmarks were run at the lowest utility level. He said he plans to test the performance of Starbase against Oracle Corp.'s Oracle, which is widely used in his group, and IBM's DB2. ``Whoever did the marriage [between the front end of Powerhouse Starbase and RMS] did a very good job,'' Hunt said. ``Our goal is to move most of our core financial applications to the relational database because it gives you the power to create new views of the data, and it also gives my developers the capabil- ity to develop new applications very quickly in a relational form.'' Powerhouse Starbase initially will be targeted at users of VAX systems, although the firm plans to offer the relational database on a variety of minicomputers from vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Data General Corp. The company previously marketed its Powerhouse line of 4GL application development tools for use with relational DBMS products on VAX systems. Cognos claims it has an installed base of about 11,000 copies of its 4GL application development products on midrange systems. Starbase uses a database engine developed by Interbase Software Corp. Ashton-Tate Corp., which has licensed the same database engine from Interbase, will reportedly be working with Cognos on developing database networking capabilities. The database runs either on its own or in combination with DEC's RMS and RDB/VMS, allowing users of those database systems to preserve existing applications. Two-phase protocol Starbase is also capable of a two-phase commit protocol, Cognos said, that allows an application to read or write data in several databases while ensuring data integrity. In addition, the Cognos relational DBMS is said to be compliant with ANSI and International Standards Organization standards and compatible with IBM's DB2. Cognos' pricing for the Starbase product varies according to system size and configuration. According to Cognos, Starbase on a single CPU VAX will range in price from $7,500 to $300,000. By Patrick Waurzyniak, CW staff <<<>>> Title : That precious software Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: softcolu Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Intellectual property, the fruit of America's creativity, will play a central role in our emerging postindustrial society. The huge award of $833.2 million that IBM recently received from Fujitsu Ltd. in Japan _ the result of a unique arbitration agreement _ underscores the value of intellectual property and the measures that ought to be taken to protect it. While Japan, Western Europe and a score of emerging nations are competing successfully with the U.S. in the manufacture of goods, the U.S. still dominates the intellectual property arena. Intellectual property encompasses the intangible products of creativity, including computer software, books, motion pictures and pharmaceuticals. Yet, U.S. private industry risks missing future breakthroughs by failing to invest at adequate levels, and the assets that are created are frequently poorly protected by their creators, especially in foreign countries. Where will this neglect lead us? Foreign piracy and counterfeiting of goods and intellectual property has been estimated by the U.S. government to cost U.S. companies $43.6 billion a year. Yet, at a recent GATT Conference in Montreal, developing countries such as Brazil and India argued against strong enforcement of intellectual property rights. Their national interest is on a collision course with the property rights of Americans. In an era in which the U.S.' role in world markets is changing, the IBM-Fujitsu arbitration award is noteworthy. The arbitrators, who are objective third parties, determined that intangible property _ a series of computer programs _ is worth close to $1 billion. Difference in emphasis The U.S. spends vast sums in creating software for military applications. It has been estimated that such military software expenditures in 1987 were $630 million. Japan concentrates its efforts instead on creating software to dominate commerce. This difference in emphasis will eventually undercut the U.S.' current leadership position. IBM understands that its investments in software and other technology are investments in its future. But few U.S. firms have taken IBM's long-range perspective. Lacking anything approaching a national industrial policy, each U.S. high-tech firm follows its own limited financial goals. When the nuances of U.S. business are too subtle for foreign interpretation, the Japanese can often buy the missing technology from an overeager U.S. source. The most innovative U.S. firms are courted by foreign companies as ``junior partners,'' but often the careless companies foolishly squander their valuable innovation for short-term gain. To maintain our computer software dominance, research and development must be encouraged by public policy. Antitrust and tax laws must be reexamined and revised to foster investment in computer software. Under the Reagan administration, a relaxed antitrust atmosphere prevailed. Although mergers and acquisitions are controversial in many industries, allowing them among high-tech firms, when appropriate, tends to help competitiveness. It permits firms to reach a larger size, increasing their ability to compete with giant Japanese and European companies. Similarly, the antitrust climate that allowed the creation of the Austin, Texas-based consortium, MCC, should not be changed. Allowing companies to pool their R&D departments will help them fend off foreign competition. Tax law revisions needed Revision of the tax laws should be undertaken to effectively provide a greater ``subsidy'' to software development efforts. The R&D tax credit, which is highly popular among U.S. companies, should be enlarged to further encourage development projects. Software development efforts should also be bolstered by a lower capital gains tax rate. Direct government subsidies to software development, as practiced in Japan, constitute another policy that the U.S. ought to consider in order to maintain its lead in software. The U.S. ought to consider a new industrial policy that targets government funding of key industries such as the software industry. Once software _ the most fragile of products _ is created, it must be protected as if our very future depends on it, because it does. By Richard Raysman and Peter Brown; Raysman and Brown are New York lawyers who specialize in computer law. <<<>>> Title : Users finding ESA alterna Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ft1 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: IBM's strategic direction for mainframe users may be its MVS/ESA operating system, but many low-end mainframe users have a different plan for the future. According to users and analysts interviewed recently, there are several options available to them other than a move to ESA. For many IBM 4381 users, the switch to a more powerful used mainframe is the likely choice to get them through the next few years. This option, as well as that of simply staying put with IBM's VM, VSE or MVS, will be far less costly and time-consuming than an ESA switch, users said. For starters, many 4381 users say they do not need the productivity and expanded memory boosts that ESA offers. Even if users were interested in the turbocharged operating system, it would represent a huge conversion project for many, since a large chunk of 4381 sites run either VSE or VM as their operating systems. If users wanted to move to IBM's 3090 mainframe family, along with their ESA conversion, they would have a massive data center project on their hands by switching from an air-cooled system to a water-cooled mainframe. At the Ingersoll-Rand Co. in Woodcliff, N.J., for example, the top concern is spending as little as possible on new equipment, said George Tabback, director of corporate information systems. Currently running a 4381, Tabback plans to pick up a used IBM 3083 in April, which he said will bring him from a machine with 3.7 million instructions per second (MIPS) to one with 8.2 MIPS. He said he will look two years from now for a used 3090 base model, which, beginning in May, will no longer be sold by IBM. ``In two years, I can bring one in for a ridiculously low price,'' Tabback said. He added that he is not interested in the current ESA _ the successor to MVS/XA announced early last year _ because he runs a VM shop. Other VSE users expressed similar points of view in interviews last week. ``ESA is MVS, and that's just another can of worms to me,'' said Lois Pollock, manager of information resources at Warner Electric in South Beloit, Ill., which runs a 4381 with VSE. ``ESA is just three more letters to me.'' Standing firm According to James Dooley, a vice-president at ITT Life Insurance Corp. in Plymouth, Minn., IBM has been encouraging him to move to ESA, but he said he expects ``to do nothing for a couple of years.'' With a 4381 and a used IBM 3081, Dooley said the company has enough computing capacity to take it through 1991. At that time, he will look for another used processor, which he said he finds to be a cheaper and more sensible strategy. ``The processor we have is seven years old, and it runs like a charm,'' Dooley said. ``The bottom line is our most important factor.'' According to several analysts, while the big shops blaze the ESA trail, hundreds of low-end mainframe shops will take this less-glamorous approach during the next several years. ``A lot of 4381 users are saying they don't really need ESA,'' said Peter Kastner, a vice-president at the Aberdeen Group, a market research firm in Boston. ``There are tens of thousands of companies that can only afford a $250,000 to $500,000 machine. The 4381s will be around for a long time.'' As of the end of 1988, there were more than 16,000 4381s in use throughout the world, with 7,900 of them installed in the U.S. and 8,200 being used internationally, according to Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm International Data Corp. By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Hotel chain converts to U Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hotels Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: When the newest Four Seasons Hotel opens its doors in Chicago in early March, the staff will not only be scrubbed and ready to welcome visitors who will pay dearly _ from $150 to over $300 _ to stay the night, but they will also be trained in using the first of the hotel chain's Unix-based systems. Four Seasons Hotels, Inc. expects to have its 21 hotels on Unix-based financial and reservation systems run by Hewlett-Packard Co.'s year-old reduced instruction set computing-based 9000 Model 825 minicomputers. The five-year project is expected to cost $8 million. The system for the new hotel was easy to set up compared with the need to change over older hotels' systems, which were automated on a third party's proprietary operating system based on Data General Corp.'s Nova CPU, according to Geoff McDowell, manager of the hotel chain's operation systems. ``That will be much more traumatic; the staff will have to be retrained,'' McDowell said. Despite Unix's reputation as user-unfriendly, Unix systems are becoming more common in the hotel industry, according to Michael Hwu, Four Seasons' manager of systems and software. Four Seasons is adding custom interfaces to obviate difficulty-of-use problems. ``We are quite comfortable with it,'' Hwu said. ``We're working with [software] companies to develop systems to our liking. We couldn't get that with the turnkey systems we were using before.'' The chain will be instituting a mix of off-the-shelf and custom software. Its accounting software has been customized, its marketing development software has been developed in-house, and its front-office software is off the shelf. The only one After ``playing around'' with several systems between 1985 and 1987, McDowell said the hotel chain found that the only multiuser environment that would protect its software investment was Unix. Each hotel will have its own computing center to handle accounting and front-office applications such as reservations, registrations and bill preparation. Financial reports are sent monthly via phone lines to a Qantel Corp. minicomputer at Four Seasons' corporate offices in Toronto. Because the company is running out of room on its Qantel machine, it will process the reports on the HP 9000 it currently uses for development. Reservations are transmitted in batch mode twice a day. Hwu said that while he hopes to have all 21 hotels on the new system in five years, he laughed about the deadline. ``We're not in full control of the properties,'' he said. Though the hotels are all managed by Four Seasons, the company does not own all of them, and approvals for the systems are made on a case-by-case basis. However, he said, the overall goal is important because ``some equipment can't last that long.'' HP minis outperformed The hotel chose HP's minicomputer after developing its own benchmarks with a fourth-generation language, ZIM, from Zanthe Corp. in Ottawa. On those benchmarks, HP's minicomputers performed 300% to 400% faster than its closest competitor, which Hwu declined to identify. The competition included AT&T, NCR Corp. and Unisys Corp., according to McDowell. The 344-room Chicago hotel includes 26 front-desk dumb terminals used for check-in and check-out transactions. Ten HP Vectra personal computers are used primarily for back-office tasks such as general ledger, inventory management and accounting and are on HP's Starlan local-area network. PC integration software allows the MS-DOS-based Vectras to share information with the Unix-based minicomputer. By J.A. Savage, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Multiflow revamps minisup Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: multiflo Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: BRANFORD, Conn._ Multiflow Computer, Inc. plans to offer four times the power of its current high-end minisupercomputer line with the Trace/300 series of systems announced last week. The Trace/300 family is said to process up to 28 simultaneous instructions per machine cycle. The price range will typically be between $514,300 and $1.03 million, the company said. Multiflow, which claims to be successful despite the troubles suffered by most vendors in the minisupercomputer arena recently, has sold approximately 100 systems since it entered the market in 1987. The company claims that users do not have to recompile software or rewrite code to run it on its machines. Unlike some other minisuper vendors, Multiflow does not rely on a hardware approach using vector or parallel processors to achieve minisuper performance, company executives said. Instead, it relies on a software approach of very long instruction-word architecture and proprietary compiler technology to achieve these performance levels, the company said. The Trace/300 family consists of uniprocessor systems. The 7/300 provides 30 million floating-point operations per second (MFLOPS) and processes 256-bit-long instruction words. Seven computing instructions are executed during every clock cycle. The 14/300 doubles the number of MFLOPS and processes 512-bit-long instruction words while executing 14 instructions per clock cycle. The 28/300, with 120 MFLOPS of performance, processes 1,024-bit-long instructions at a rate of 28 operations per cycle. The high-end system achieves four times the performance of the previous high end, the Trace/200, with the help of several system enhancements, the company said. The enhancements include the use of emitter-coupled logic circuitry for the CPUs, new floating-point instructions, a new I/O subsystem and a compiler that is responsible for generating the densely packed machine instructions that can be as long as 1,024 bits. The compiler is said to run any program written in standard Fortran or C. By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : BMC acquires Ctop, Ctop I Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: softbit Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: BMC Software, Inc. in Sugar Land, Texas, said it acquired two products, Ctop and Ctop III, from H&W Computer Systems International for $2 million. Over a period of time, BMC said, existing copies of Ctop and Ctop III will be replaced in customer sites with BMC's IBM 3270 Optimizer/CICS or 3270 Superoptimizer/CICS. BMC said it will provide around-the-clock technical support for Ctop and Ctop III. Western Data Systems in Woodland Hills, Calif., said that its IBM DB2-based version of its Compass Contract manufacturing resource planning system was recently installed at Argo-Tech Corp. Western Data said two other aerospace and defense customers, Morton Thiokol, Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., would soon implement the software as well. Walker Interactive Systems said it received DB2 recognition in IBM's Authorized Application Specialist Program covering all its products in all industries. Walker supplies mainframe financial software. Under the agreement, IBM will offer Walker's financial application products through its national branch offices. <<<>>> Title : Pyramid offers Unix box t Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: pyramid Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. _ Pyramid Technology Corp. sought to move closer to MIS managers last week with a high-end Unix machine that is optimized to unburden the corporate IBM mainframe. Pyramid's Corporate MIServer is an upward extension of the firm's Series 9000 reduced instruction set computing architecture, said Pyramid Chief Executive Officer Richard Lussier. The announcement comes at a time when Pyramid is redirecting its marketing efforts toward direct MIS sales. In the past, it had relied heavily on sales through third parties. The product's 256M-byte main memory is double that of the Series 9000, and it includes up to 12 CPUs _ triple the Series 9000's limit. The MIServer is due to ship in June at a price of $700,000 for the four-CPU machine and $2 million for the 12-CPU machine. Pyramid claims the product runs 50 to 140 times faster than the Digital Equipment Corp. VAX 11/780 and provides data transfer rates of 11M byte/sec. on each of its 16 multiplexed channels. The machine supports disk storage of up to 64G bytes and main memory of 96M to 256M bytes. The high-end machine is said to support 1,000 concurrent users. Pyramid claimed that much of MIServer's advantage over the VAX series comes from its symmetrical multiprocessing feature in Unix environments; DEC does not yet provide symmetrical multiprocessing under its Ultrix version of Unix. The most significant change in Pyramid's architecture comes in the newly modified AT&T Unix System V, Release 3 software. The latest version of the Pyramid operating system is designed to support MIS requirements for system redundancy, recovery, performance and availability. ``What we are bringing to the market is a machine with the capability of supporting corporate relational database services at the high end,'' said Stephen G. Tolchin, vice-president of Pyramid software development. ``For example, you can mirror any form of logical disk, which provides protection from media and controller failures.'' Pyramid machines support several relational database management systems, including those from Oracle Corp., Informix Software, Inc., Relational Technology, Inc. and Sybase, Inc., Tolchin said. Pyramid is targeting high-end corporate data processing shops as candidates for the MIServer. The machine is designed to complement, rather than compete head-on with, the IBM corporate mainframe, Lussier said. He is promoting the product as a waystation for data that unburdens the host by supporting hundreds of network end users. To that end, Pyramid's network terminal access has been improved sixfold and much of Unix System V's I/O overhead has been removed, Tolchin said. By Jean S. Bozman, CW staff <<<>>> Title : BMC Software, Inc. has an Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swbmc Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: BMC Software, Inc. has announced Version 2.0 of its 3270 Superoptimizer/CICS. According to the vendor, the latest release provides an additional 5% to 15% reduction of inbound and outbound data streams and a combined inbound and outbound 3270 data stream optimization of up to 90%. A perpetual license fee ranges from $5,000 to $19,750, depending on the network size. The software program runs with any MVS or DOS operating system. BMC Software P.O. Box 2002 Sugar Land, Texas 77487 800-841-2031 <<<>>> Title : The Dylakor Division of S Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swdylako Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The Dylakor Division of Sterling Software, Inc. has released an enhanced version of DYL-IQ Express CICS. The interactive query and reporting system gives the user the choice of either a DL/1 or VSAM system database, the vendor said. DYL/IQ Express is said to combine natural language syntax with free-form and stored query facilities to form an information-tapping tool for IBM's DB2, IBM and VSAM databases. Formerly, DL/1 had been a prerequisite for DYL-IQ Express under IBM's CICS. The software is available for $35,000. Sterling Software Dylakor Division 9340 Owensmouth Ave. Chatsworth, Calif. 91313 818-718-8877 <<<>>> Title : A database interface is n Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swsasins Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A database interface is now available that allows users of SAS Institute, Inc.'s SAS System under VMS to link up with Oracle Corp.'s Oracle database. The SAS/Access Interface to Oracle reportedly permits users to extract data from an Oracle database and put the information into a SAS data set. The interface is a modular part of the SAS System, a set of integrated software programs for data management, analysis and presentation. The module is priced from $1,725 to $6,100 for a first-year license fee. SAS SAS Circle Box 8000 Cary, N.C. 27512 919-467-8000 <<<>>> Title : Oasys, Inc. has announced Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swoasys Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Oasys, Inc. has announced a set of software development tools for Motorola, Inc.'s 88000 reduced instruction set computing microprocessor family. The 88K Tools reportedly were designed to bring applications development for the 88000 to Digital Equipment Corp. VAX systems, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Model 3 series, Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh II computers and Motorola VME Delta platfroms. The products include cross-compilers, an assembler/ linker, a debugger and a simulator, the vendor said. Pricing ranges from $4,000 to $15,500. Oasys 230 Second St. Waltham, Mass. 02154 617-890-7889 <<<>>> Title : A computer-aided design a Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swmec Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) viewing and annotation system for industrial applications has been announced by Microsystems Engineering Corp. Designed to speed the graphics review process, Techview reportedly runs on Digital Equipment Corp.'s Vaxstation and IBM Personal Computers and compatibles. According to the vendor, the software program allows the creation of annotation files that can be electronically transmitted as CAD overlay files to the original designer. Techview costs $1,395. Microsystems Engineering Suite 400 2400 W. Hassell Road Hoffman Estates, Ill. 60195 312-882-0111 <<<>>> Title : Britz Publishing, Inc. ha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swbritzp Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Britz Publishing, Inc. has released Version 2.0 of its Survey system for the IBM System/36 midrange computer. The product reportedly offers a straightforward method for doing surveys and performing survey analysis. It can be used interactively while conducting telephone interviews. Users can design their own surveys of up to 99 questions, and batch processing is also available. Survey 2.0 costs $199. Current users can upgrade for $49.50. Britz 1814 Capital Towers Jackson, Miss. 39201 800-255-2028 <<<>>> Title : Diversified Software Syst Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swdivers Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Diversified Software Systems, Inc. has released Version 5.2 of Docutext. The software package is reportedly an on-line automated system and job-level documentation package. Users can toggle between various reports, view documents and seach narratives, the vendor said. The latest release is said to offer faster execution time and simplified installation techniques. Docutext runs on IBM mainframes under MVS, and perpetual license fees range from $12,500 to $40,000. Diversified Software 18630 Sutter Blvd. Morgan Hill, Calif. 95037 408-778-9914 <<<>>> Title : A visual software system Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swharvar Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A visual software system designed to simplify task management has been announced by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). The Visual Scheduling and Management System reportedly can be used in any management environment that requires coordination of professionals or labor to accomplish a given task. The program utilizes hierarchical representation and demonstrates task interdependencies. It is currently available for license to software developers, the school said. Harvard University GSD 48 Quincy St. Cambridge, Mass. 02138 617-495-3067 <<<>>> Title : A document management sys Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swpacifi Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A document management system designed for Wang Laboratories, Inc.'s VS word processing environments was announced recently by Pacific Edge Systems. The Greyhawk Document Management System reportedly provides tools for archiving, retrieving, backing up, reorganizing and transferring documents between computers. Pricing for the system ranges from $5,000 to $10,000 per installation, the vendor said; final price is based on system size. Pacific Edge 2550 Graysby Ave. San Pedro, Calif. 90732 800-541-2795 <<<>>> Title : An IBM CICS facility inte Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swmackin Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: An IBM CICS facility intended for monitoring CICS response times and isolating transactions that require attention was recently announced by Mackinney Systems. The CICS Response Time Monitor reportedly allows the user to distinguish system problems by transaction, terminal, operator, time of day and length of response. Selection criteria can be changed on-line for immediate feedback, according to the vendor, and information is displayed in both data and graphical formats. The software program is priced at $695 for purchase. It is also available for annual lease at a price of $295, the company said. A free 30-day trial is available from the vendor. Mackinney Systems Suite 112, 2674-A S. Glenstone Springfield, Mo. 65804 417-882-8012 <<<>>> Title : A Data Dictionary Editor Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swcosmic Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A Data Dictionary Editor for Digital Equipment Corp. users was recently released by Cosmic, a nonprofit unit at the University of Georgia that was formed to facilitate the transfer of software programs from the national aerospace program to U.S. industry. The utility reportedly allows database developers more convenient access to the Omnibase VAX/DDM data dictionary relations and attributes. Documentation is $16, and the program is priced at $500. The inventory number is MSC-21290. Cosmic The University of Georgia 382 E. Broad St. Athens, Ga. 30602 404-542-3265 <<<>>> Title : Davis, Thomas and Associa Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swdta Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Davis, Thomas and Associates, Inc. (DTA) has released DTA/Jmaster, an automatic mechanism for backing up IBM CICS journals as they are filed by CICS, the vendor said. The software is a companion product to JTA/Recov, a CICS VSAM file recovery package, and supports IBM mainframe hardware running CICS 1.7, DOS/VSE and MVS/XA. Permanent licenses are priced from $2,000 to $4,000, depending on the operating system and software configuration chosen by the user. DTA 550 Waterford Park 505 N. Country Road 18 Minneapolis, Minn. 55441 612-591-6100 <<<>>> Title : A ruggedized version of a Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwcyberc Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A ruggedized version of a Digital Equipment Corp. Microvax computer is now available from Cyberchron Corp. Dubbed the C630-RO, the computer was specifically designed for applications with physical space limitations. The unit reportedly measures 19.68 in. high, 16 in. wide and 11 in. deep. It incorporates a DEC Q-bus backplane and can accommodate as many as three disk or tape peripherals. The I/O distribution facilities feature military-style connectors, the vendor said, and basic configurations of the system start in the $50,000 range. Cyberchron P.O. Box 160 U.S. Rt. 9 Cold Spring, N.Y. 10516 914-265-3700 <<<>>> Title : Nemonix, Inc. has introdu Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwnemoni Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Nemonix, Inc. has introduced the NX860-XL Special Performance Upgrade for the Digital Equipment Corp. VAX 8600. The product reportedly consists of an add-on accelerator module designed to increase CPU performance by 36%. The upgrade is priced at $45,000 and includes on-site installation, 24-hour replacement and a lifetime warranty. Nemonix 106 South Street Hopkinton, Mass. 01748 508-435-9087 <<<>>> Title : Emulex Corp. has announce Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwemule2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Emulex Corp. has announced pedestal-mounting subsystems for Digital Equipment Corp.'s Q-bus and Unibus computers. The EPS Series is available in versions offering one to four industry-standard storage module device or Systems Module Device/Enhanced disk drives, the vendor said. Formatted capacities range from 741M bytes for a single drive subsystem to more than 4G bytes for a high-capacity four-drive configuration. Pricing starts at $15,230. Emulex P.O. Box 6725 3545 Harbor Blvd. Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626 714-662-5600 <<<>>> Title : Wespercorp has announced Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwwesper Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Wespercorp has announced a new version of its Tape Dimension Cachecoupler. The TD-IV-DA is said to combine dual controllers on a single board and eliminates the need for two boards to regulate data transfers between Digital Equipment Corp. host minicomputers and Aspen Peripherals Corp. System 480 cartridge tape subsystems. The product emulates the DEC TS11 tape subsystem, according to the vendor, and provides a total of 64K bytes of cache memory. The TD-IV-DA costs $2,895. Wespercorp 17032 Murphy Irvine, Calif. 92714 714-261-0606 <<<>>> Title : An expansion chassis that Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwsigmai Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: An expansion chassis that supports two 8-in. Fujitsu Ltd. M2300 series drives has been announced by Sigma Information Systems. Each drive is reportedly installed on a bracket that can also accommodate an optional fan kit. The SA-H190 measures 8 -in. high and contains rack-mount slides that permit convenient access to installed drives, according to the vendor. The chassis is priced at $1,716. Sigma 3401 E. LaPalma Ave. Anaheim, Calif. 92806 714-630-6553 <<<>>> Title : Samsung Electronics Ameri Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: hwsamsun Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Samsung Electronics America, Inc. has introduced a high-resolution monitor developed for the IBM graphics marketplace. Sync Master is a 14-in. color unit that will accept all colors of the IBM Video Graphics Array and can reproduce display formats up to 5,808 characters. It costs $749. Samsung 301 Mayhill St. Saddle Brook, N.J. 07662 201-587-9600 <<<>>> Title : Following the pied pipers Author : Douglas Barney Source : CW Comm FileName: dug Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: When marketeers dictate technology. In an ideal world, marketeers carefully research customer needs and work like the dickens to satisfy them. That is why we have Jolt Cola and so many other types of junk food. Like their noncomputer brethren, PC marketeers love to talk about customer needs. ``Our users demand this,'' they say, usually in reference to the very thing they just announced. Occasionally, they even have a mildly enthusiastic user or two to back them up. The same marketeers that so often misread user needs unfortunately dictate the goals of large development staffs at large software and hardware companies. And they do very silly things. Here are some examples: Dbase III Plus: Ashton-Tate marketeers created the bulk of this product's specifications, and most of the enhancements involved things such as menus. The programmers, who knew users wanted more power, had to sneak in new commands. Just prior to announcement, the programmers asked the marketeers if they could briefly mention the language enhancements. Dbase IV: Here, marketing hawked SQL in response to Wall Street pressure, and the programmers struggled to produce a bad implementation. The SQL will be great, however, when back-end systems are available. R:Base: Microrim fell into the same trap as Dbase. Marketeers hawked true SQL, even though the programmers were able to add only a minor subset. 1-2-3: Lotus marketeers said multiple platforms are great. Users, however, are not too pleased with the three upgradeless years it took to get the 1-2-3 ball rolling. Vaporware: Here, marketeers are literally years ahead of internal development staffs. Features wars: Here is where marketeers seek to provide the most checkmarks, and users get programs on 15 floppies that steal half the hard disk. It takes hours to locate the one feature you really need. Hype: Any time a lousy product is called ``breakthrough'' or ``one of a kind,'' marketeers have been at work. For most of these products, we should thank God they're one of a kind. The opposite can be just as bad. Sometimes the opposite _ where technicians dictate to marketeers _ can be worse. Lotus Manuscript: I once was shown a demo of the newest version of Manuscript by someone who used the program on a regular basis. I asked for the usual things: create a file, type a few words and cut and paste. The person struggled mightily without much success. I finally let her off the hook. This program was written by the highly technically astute for the highly technically astute. A marketeer's nightmare. OS/2 and the Presentation Manager: Microsoft went overboard trying to solve a simple problem: MS-DOS could not address enough memory. Instead of solving it as quickly as possible, Microsoft techies thought of lots of stuff that many in MIS still don't understand _ threads, mode switching and more. Now, the machine requires state-of-the-art hardware to run. Where most people wanted to access a megabyte or two of memory, OS/2 now requires that just to load the operating system. Then you have to buy another meg or two to use some extra memory. In the long run, all this weird stuff in OS/2 is going to be great, but for now it does nothing except provide an enormous challenge to OS/2 marketeers. There is only one solution to this problem. Users should demand representation for their purchases. For instance, if Exxon or AT&T buys 20,000 copies of 1-2-3, they should get a seat on the board of directors. Smaller customers could get positions, say, as product managers. Then customer needs will surely be met. Investigative reporting. A good journalist nevers rests, and we at Computerworld are no different, even if it means scavenging under the couches of key computer executives. Besides the unmentionables, here's what we found: IBM Chairman John Akers: A PCjr, golf balls and a discarded copy of U.S. antitrust laws. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: An experimental C compiler, a month-old hamburger and a stack of resumes. Lotus Chairman Jim Manzi: A pre-alpha version of 1-2-3 Release 3.0 that barely fits. Apple Chairman John Sculley: Ten thousand copies of Odyssey, a case of Pepsi and a Steve Jobs dart board. Compaq Chairman Rod Canion: Subliminal cassette tapes ready for distribution containing the message, ``Industry-standard architecture.'' DEC President Ken Olsen: A carefully hidden copy of the unauthorized biography, The Ultimate Entrepreneur. Under my couch?: Unkind letters to the editor, cans of Diet Jolt and a worn-out Don Rickles album. By Doulglas Barney; Barney is a Computerworld senior editor, microcomputing. <<<>>> Title : Vendors, users eye new SX Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: sx Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Users are beginning to enjoy lower prices on 80386SX-based personal computers as vendors reap the benefits of price cuts on the Intel Corp.-made microprocessor. Intel recently lowered the price of its 386SX microprocessor from $133 to $89. A company spokeswoman said the 34% price cut results from streamlined production efforts, which in turn lowers manufacturing costs. Immediately following the Intel announcement, Compaq Computer Corp. announced that it would pass on the savings to its customers. Compaq has cut the price of its Deskpro 386 line by $200. The Model 1 now costs $3,599, the Model 20 is now $4,299, and the Model 40 is $4,999. A company spokesman said the cut was made possible by Intel's price slash. The other major U.S. 386SX PC maker, AST Research, Inc., said the Intel price cut will have no immediate impact on its pricing. ``We don't have any plans to lower our prices,'' an AST spokeswoman said. ``Will that make me buy more 386SX PCs? Maybe a little,'' said Cheryl Currid, manager of applied information technology at Coca-Cola Foods, a division of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. located in Houston. Currid said she uses the 386SX systems as entry-level machines for users running software designed to run on 386 systems. While the price cut on the 386SX _ the entry-level 80386 chip _ is lowering PC prices, it may encourage more vendors to enter the 386SX arena. Looking at the chip One of those vendors, IBM, is rumored to be planning to introduce systems based on the 386SX this spring. Shortly before the Intel announcement, Chet Heath, IBM senior engineer for the Micro Channel Architecture, said that IBM would be prompted to introduce a 386SX-based Personal System/2 that would use IBM's Micro Channel bus but only if the price of the 386SX dropped. Responding to the Intel announcement, an IBM spokesman confirmed that IBM ``is looking at the SX chip.'' The spokesman added that it was reasonable to believe that Intel's price cut would expedite the introduction of a 386SX system from the company. ``We've already said that we want to bring advanced systems down to the lower price points,'' he said. The 386SX price reduction was necessary to keep systems based on the microprocessor from being cannibalized by 386 sales, said Drew Peck, an analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a securities firm based in New York. Peck said that as Intel committed itself to lowering the 80386 processor price on a quarterly basis and cutting 80286 prices, it also pinched 386SX sales. As a result, Intel had to lower the 386SX's price to make it attractive to systems vendors. This is the first time that Intel has announced such a drastic price reduction so soon after a product introduction, said Bruce Stephen, an analyst at International Data Corp. (IDC), a Framingham, Mass.-based market research group. ``It was necessary, as both retailers and users were confused by the 386SX's capabilities and its price point,'' Stephen said. ``Now 386SX system prices will slide down to the 286 price points.'' The average 386SX system price should fall to the $2,500-3,000 range, he said. Stephen said the timing of the 386SX was thrown off by the unexpected success of the 80286 but added that the 386SX will be more warmly received because of the price cut. IDC research indicates that 100,000 systems based on the 386SX were sold since the processor was introduced last June. With the price cut, Stephen said he estimates that 700,000 386SX units will sell this year. The 386SX systems will also impede the growth of the 286-based systems, of which 3.95 million were sold in 1988, according to IDC. The 16- and 20-MHz versions of the 286 will be most affected by the 16-MHz 386SX processors, Stephen said. The 386SX, which is the entry level processor for 386 systems, differs from other 80386s in that it only has 16-bit data throughput but adds 32-bit memory addressing. The 286 is slower than the 386SX and has only 8- or 16-bit memory addressing. The 286 and 386SX, although closer in price now, were intended for different applications, Intel product manager Bruce Schechter said. ``There is software, and there will be new software, that was written specifically to be run on 386 processors,'' he said. Schechter said that Unix, DOS extenders, OS/2 386 and multitasking applications are examples of the 386SX and 286 application differences. By William Brandel, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Gluttonous interfaces vex Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: easeface Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: IBM's OS/2 with Presentation Manager will spin out a whole new class of software that makes extensive use of graphical interfaces. What is not so evident as a dialogue box or pull-down menu, however, is whether information services managers _ and the end users they train and support _ have much faith in the interface. Graphical interfaces promise to make using computers easier, thereby allowing information center managers and end users to conserve resources that would normally be expended in training sessions and handling support calls. But the cost of hardware to run OS/2 applications may more than offset the benefits, some information center managers and end users pointed out. To run an OS/2 application with Presentation Manager, it requires an IBM Personal Computer AT class machine, 3M to 4M bytes of random-access memory, graphics board, color display and other hardware at a minimum. Add it up and the cost of a system can easily clear the $15,000 mark. Even then, OS/2 applications with Presentation Manager are likely to run sluggishly when compared with text-based applications. ``I wanted Windows as soon as I saw it, but after working with it for a while, I am not sure any more,'' said John Robinson, director of corporate information systems at Cox Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta. ``My enthusiasm for Presentation Manager is not that great because of it.'' No denying it There is no denying that graphics-based applications are easier to use and probably translate into savings in training and support, but the payback may not appear for quite some time, said Joseph Zarabet, information center manager at Lever Brothers in New York. ``It remains to be seen if the investment in hardware is justified,'' he said. ``I feel that it will be in the long term but not right now in the up-front investment stage.'' Timing is the issue, agreed James Wilke, president of CTA Technologies, a consultancy in Jacksonville, Fla. ``Is it worthwhile to throw out DOS machines and go to OS/2 applications? I doubt that many would conclude that would be the case. But it may be worthwhile to establish it as the ultimate direction,'' he said. Wilke noted that it may be difficult to move some end users over to a new operating system after they have expended considerable effort in learning how to use the current applications. By Michael Alexander, CW staff <<<>>> Title : How will Javelin fly this Author : Douglas Barney Source : CW Comm FileName: firmin Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: As a 1985 personal computer software start-up, Javelin Software Corp. generated excitement. As its name denoted, it hoped to be more than just a thorn in the side of Lotus Development Corp. and its 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Javelin hoped its database-oriented approach to financial modeling would be a dagger in the heart of 1-2-3. Like many that have butted heads with 1-2-3, Javelin failed to dislodge the market leader. After many fits and starts, the company has a new strategy. It was recently acquired by Information Resources, Inc., which will position Javelin in part as a front end to its Express series of decision support software. Computerworld Senior Editor Douglas Barney recently spoke with founder Robert L. Firmin to discuss the new Javelin. What was wrong with existing business analysis tools that made you create Javelin? Two things. Presentation graphics wallpapered over many analytical mistakes. And spreadsheets hid two kinds of mistakes. The first were mistakes in analytic judgment or assumptions. The second was that they covered up mechanical errors of logic. We think management should not just get presentation graphics, but they should get a discussion of the analyst's assumptions that are very clear and even modifiable. The purpose of Javelin is to make the logic very clear, to make sure the data has high integrity, make sure the analyst can keep his own wits about him when doing the analysis and make sure he can answer management's questions and quickly modify and revise his logic. Also, we want to make sure the manager can understand the assumptions and that the analysis has high longevity, meaning that it can be passed on as analysts move on to other jobs. Another Javelin concept is multiple views of data. What benefit does that provide? Multiple views have the benefit of allowing users to develop analyses more quickly. They can flip between different perspectives several times a minute if they want to, and they can even look at two at once. The bottom line is that they are on top of the analysis. They don't get lost. No matter how complicated their code may be, they can figure it out and explain it to someone else. A lot of spreadsheet users use them when a different package would do a better job. Why are enough shifting over to other packages? An academic would call it the trickle-down of technology. It takes time. The spreadsheet has had one of the most remarkable commercial successes in the history of technology. That is because the spreadsheet is very easy to approach. The deeper problems related to low data integrity and low logic integrity become apparent only after you have been using one for a long time. The spreadsheet was the introductory piece of software for probably the majority of computer users. They conquered their fear of the computer through the spreadsheet. And for a large number of people, learning the spreadsheet itself was a fairly involved task, and they did not want to turn around and start learning something else, even if it was better. In 1985, Javelin arrived on the scene quite independent of the spreadsheet, exactly at the wrong time. Regardless of whatever marketing mistakes we made, that made it a very different task. How will people move away from spreadsheets? There are two ways that people will migrate away from spreadsheets. They will migrate to vertical applications, and then a minority of spreadsheet users will migrate to horizontal technologies that are different from spreadsheets. We fall in that later category. We don't expect the majority of spreadsheet users to come over to Javelin, but we do expect a noticeable minority to move on up. Are there any plans for a Javelin compiler? Yes. I'd like to get a runtime version out this year. How will Javelin now be positioned? It is clear that we do not want this to be perceived as a spreadsheet. We want it to be perceived as a product you move to either immediately when you need a very serious analytic product or after you have already gone to a spreadsheet and realized its limitations. <<<>>> Title : Whiskey maker laps up suc Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: seagrams Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ Spending a buck to make a buck is not the most popular corporate maxim, but an investment in laptop technology seems to have paid off for whiskey maker Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. Established in 1857, the House of Seagram is known for such brand names as Chivas Regal, Crown Royal, Glenlivet and Seven Crown, reputed to be the top-selling whiskey in the U.S. In a market that has shown signs of shrinking, however, the distilled beverage giant cannot afford to rely on past success. ``A few years back, we made a decision to gain market share through increased manpower and sophisticated technology,'' said Andrew Harmon, vice-president of sales services at Seagram. ``Using laptops evolved as part of a larger idea, which was to hire a sales force to provide individual store-detailing at the regional levels.'' Part of the sales force's duties is to compile detailed information on product movement, inventory levels, in-store display installations, merchandising suggestions and more. After looking at several services and companies to outfit the newly created detail force, Harmon and his staff decided that laptops would provide the best levels of detail and output required. Seagram was eventually referred to Sales Technologies, Inc., an Atlanta-based firm that specializes in turnkey systems for the sales force automation market and offers seven core software modules that can be customized for the client. Making it theirs With a few modifications to the pilot software, the entire project was completed in a matter of months. The company began implementing the program in early 1986. The system was customized to provide a territory management module, electronic mail and electronic report distribution functions. A communications module is used to integrate the system with a Digital Equipment Corp. VAX at Sales Technologies' headquarters. Detailed information on local retail accounts can be compiled daily by such criteria as state, zone, zip code and type of account. Sales activities such as display setups and product movement, as well as comments from the representatives, are continuously tracked, and the data is reviewed by district and state managers. Information is downloaded nightly by the individual sales representatives to a VAX at Sales Technologies' headquar- ters. It is then compiled into forms and reports for distribution to the managers, including those at the regional and national levels. Currently, Seagram has the system installed in five of its seven sales regions, with plans to automate the remaining two by the end of this year. The company uses approximately 100 to 150 Data General Corp. DG One and Toshiba Corp. 1000, 1100 and 1200 laptops, said Jeffrey Zonenshine, associate director of end-user computing. Zonenshine described the hardware as vanilla: The average laptop has about 640K bytes of memory and two floppy drives, and end users are discouraged from running other software on the system. According to Harmon, if there is a drawback to the project, it is that end users often want to use the laptops beyond their original intent. Zonenshine said that Sales Technologies provides some, if not all, of the code for its applications software embedded in the read-only memory chips. MIS provides no other software to the entry-level sales force. He said that the success of the program has prompted the acceptance of technology in other areas of the organization. ``We acquired the system fairly early in the laptop game,'' Zonenshine said. ``It was a first for Seagram. We were not technically at the point to effectively launch a laptop program three years ago. Today, we would most likely implement such a system in-house.'' In spite of its increasing technological savvy, Seagram has no plans to discontinue the contract with Sales Technologies. Admitting that the project is ``not an inexpensive proposition,'' Harmon said that it is integral to maintaining the company's primary goal of ``being the best-managed beverage company _ period.'' Pay the price Although reluctant to quantify the system's advantages in actual dollars and cents, Harmon said that management must be willing to make a judgment that a particular technology is beneficial and be willing to pay for it. Though trying to assess sales increases as a direct result of technology is difficult, he said he firmly believes that the company's continued success rests on a well-trained staff equipped with the appropriate, sophisticated technology. ``It's an ongoing process of evaluation,'' he said. A state-of-the-art field sales force complements Seagram's overall systems strategy, Harmon said. Approximately five years ago, the company implemented sweeping changes in its MIS department. The average system at the time was 25 years old. The corporation now uses IBM 3083 and 3081 mainframes and has installed a series of VAX machines throughout New York and the various regions to accommodate office automation and other end-user activities. There are approximately 300 IBM and compatible personal computers tied to a DEC network. Zonenshine estimated that there are 800 PCs companywide, not counting the laptops used by the sales representatives. By Sally Cusack, CW staff <<<>>> Title : CNN's news hounds don't m Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: turner Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: ATLANTA _ When reporters for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s Cable News Network (CNN) are on the road chasing down news stories, Fred Tasse makes sure they write home. Tasse heads up technical support for the management information services department at Turner Broadcasting and is responsible for supporting and training reporters at the around-the-clock television news operation. Tasse provides technical support to reporters at the home office and at several news bureaus scattered throughout the country. In all, there are 650 to 700 Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh systems and Compaq Computer Corp., AST Research, Inc. and NEC Corp. personal computers in the newsrooms. There are also 25 Datavue Corp. laptops for filing stories from the field, he said. Travel partner When traveling, CNN's reporters use Datavue's Spark laptops, which are equipped with 640K bytes of random-access memory, dual 3 -in. microfloppy drives and backlit LCD screens, to write stories and upload them to their editors at the home office. They run Wordperfect Corp.'s Wordperfect and Digital Communications Associates, Inc.'s Crosstalk, among other software packages. ``We delayed getting laptops for a long time because [those that were available] were not up to the job,'' Tasse said. ``I thought that it was worth waiting for a bigger screen. The reporters were not happy about it, but now they have 25 Datavue Spark laptops with Diconix ink-jet printers, with all of the functionality that they need.'' One of his biggest challenges, Tasse said, is overcoming the fear that reporters often incur when faced with using PC technology for the first time. To speed the learning process, the technical support group modified some of the software used in the laptops to make it easier to use and wrote macros to tailor the systems to the specific needs of CNN's reporters. ``The less they have to do, the better off they are,'' Tasse said. Fear and loathing For more than a year, CNN reporters have routinely used laptop computer technology to cover events ranging from a prison riot in Atlanta to the Iowa caucuses. But fear and loathing on the road soon gives way to a feeling that a reporter's job could not be done without a laptop. ``They have gotten so used to using them that some reporters who did not carry laptops with them when they went to cover the usual cold spell that swept through Alaska recently said they truly felt that they were out in the cold,'' Tasse said. In recent months, Tasse has been traveling with the news teams to provide the technical backup that is often required by large television news operations when covering major events. He went to Moscow for the Gorbachev-Reagan summit and to Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration. In a few weeks, he will accompany a news team to Japan to cover the funeral of Emperor Hirohito. ``In Moscow, the people were amazed at the level of technology that we brought over for the Summit,'' Tasse said. ``I even had the KGB looking over my shoulder and asking me how various things worked.'' On these trips, Tasse is responsible for setting up on-site computer systems that are used to prepare scripts for broadcasts. Much of Tasse's time is also devoted to providing telecommunications between on-site systems and those in the home office in Atlanta. When CNN reporters covered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's most recent space shuttle mission, Tasse had to provide for telecommunications between computer systems at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Houston control center in Texas and Edwards Air Force Base in California. Tasse also provides technical support to reporters on the road even when he is not traveling. For example, he instructed a reporter in Moscow how to connect a modem to a telephone handset with a mouthpiece that had been screwed down to make it inaccessible. By Michael Alexander, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Businessland rebuffs EISA Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: bizland Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Businessland, Inc.'s reluctance to carry personal computers based on the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) has not spread to other retailers, who are unwilling to abandon Compaq Computer Corp. ``Compaq supports the dealer very well,'' explained Rafi Khan, president of Microage Computer Stores in Rocky Hill, Conn. ``There's more incentive for dealers to sell Compaq rather than to compete with IBM reps for [Personal System/2] business.'' Compaq PCs account for about 60% of sales at Khan's retail outlets. Recently, Businessland President David Norman said the giant reseller would do nothing to create demand for EISA, the 32-bit bus architecture being proposed by Compaq and the rest of the Gang of Nine PC vendors. ``We believe IBM sets the standard,'' Norman said. ``It's good for the industry and, more importantly, good for the customer. ``Micro Channel is the standard in the PC industry just like the AT bus was before it,'' he continued. ``We'd like the rest of the industry to get behind it.'' Norman said Businessland will not sponsor any events to promote EISA machines, such as technical seminars for its corporate customers. About 80% of Businessland's sales are with corporations, he noted. ``Corporate customers are starting to migrate to the Micro Channel,'' he maintained, although he declined to elaborate. Norman's statements are the latest in a barrage of criticism leveled at Compaq and its EISA comrades by Businessland executives. Before he departed earlier this year, Businessland marketing executive Enzo Torresi said that all consortiums are an attempt to prevent further market penetration by the industry leader. EISA is the Gang of Nine's attempt to counter IBM's proprietary Micro Channel, the bus used in most of the IBM PS/2 line. EISA members contend that their architecture allows customers to protect their prior investment because it is an ``extension'' of the IBM Personal Computer AT bus. EISA machine users will not be required to replace their 16-bit add-in card, EISA members claim. Despite Businessland's apparent unwillingness to embrace EISA, it is unlikely that customers will have a difficult time finding EISA machines at their dealers. Retail availability will probably have less to do with either architecture's superiority and more to do with a potential for sales. ``There will never be a standard architecture,'' said Ray Davis, president of the National Association of Computer Dealers. ``As long as you have a strong company like Compaq supporting it, EISA will be a viable bus.'' Davis conceded that the Micro Channel is ``taking off. The Fortune 1,000 will go with Micro Channel,'' he said. ``They already are.'' By Julie Pitta, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Supercalc5 stalks 1-2-3 R Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: scalc5 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Computer Associates International, Inc. is hoping to take a swipe at Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 with the recent shipment of Supercalc5, an integrated spreadsheet. The $495 product, announced last year, is part of a strategy that is conceptually similar to that of Lotus. Supercalc currently runs on Digital Equipment Corp. VAXs and IBM mainframes and Personal Computers. Lotus has been promising these capabilities but has yet to deliver. Despite what some users have called the superiority of the Supercalc line, the bulk of the industry continues to wait for 1-2-3 Release 3.0, slated to ship by midyear. Supercalc5 provides many of the features promised by Release 3.0, including advanced graphics and spreadsheet linking and auditing features. Unlike Lotus, Computer Associates offers aggressive site licenses that have lowered the cost to some companies to as little as $33 per copy. Firms such as General Electric Co., J. C. Penney Co. and Ernst & Whinney currently have site license agreements for Supercalc. Supercalc5 runs on IBM and compatible PCs with a hard disk and at least 512K bytes of random-access memory. <<<>>> Title : Tussey Computer Products, Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: mictusse Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Tussey Computer Products, manufacturer of Swan computers, has announced that the Swan 386/20 tower model computer is now available in a desktop configuration. The Intel Corp. 80386-based machine reportedly runs at 20/8 MHz and includes 1M byte of random-access memory. The system also incorporates four ports, a dual floppy/dual hard drive controller and eight expansion slots. It is priced at $2,199. Tussey Computer P.O. Box 1006 State College, Pa. 16804 814-238-1820 <<<>>> Title : Computerease Software, In Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: miccompu Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Computerease Software, Inc. has introduced Word Mover, a general-purpose software package for users of IBM Personal Computers and compatibles. The program reportedly includes a word processor, built-in communications, customizable terminal emulation and document-tracking capabilities. It is priced at $150 and requires a single floppy drive and 256K bytes of memory. Computerease Software 654 Metacom Ave. Warren, R.I. 02885 401-245-1523 <<<>>> Title : A loan analysis and manag Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: miclasse Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: A loan analysis and management program for IBM Personal Computers and compatibles has been released by Lassen Software, Inc. Called Loan Manager, the product reportedly displays all loan parameters on a single screen and constantly recalculates the items as they are changed. According to the vendor, all loan calculations, including amortizations, are presented in accordance with established banking conventions. The program costs $49.95. Lassen Software P.O. Box 2319 Paradise, Calif. 95967 800-338-2126 <<<>>> Title : TSR Systems Ltd. has rele Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: mictsrsy Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: TSR Systems Ltd. has released Version 4.0 of Datafinder, its memory-resident user interface for Ashton-Tate Corp.'s Dbase III and Dbase IV packages. The pop-up program is not copy-protected, and the latest release is said to include field structure display, exact and nonexact search and case-sensitive search functions. On-screen Help is also provided. Datafinder 4.0 costs $99.95 and is also available in a configuration designed for users of Borland International's Paradox spreadsheet software. TSR Systems 1600 B Main St. Port Jefferson, N.Y. 11777 516-331-6336 <<<>>> Title : Gimpel Software has relea Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micgimpe Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Gimpel Software has released Version 3.0 of PC-Lint, a diagnostic facility for the C programming language. The software runs under MS-DOS or OS/2 and analyzes C programs to report on bugs, glitches and inconsistencies, according to the vendor. The latest version reportedly includes 50 additional error messages and is priced at $139. Gimpel Software 3207 Hogarth Lane Collegeville, Pa. 19426 215-584-4261 <<<>>> Title : Jasmine Technologies, Inc Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micjasmi Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Jasmine Technologies, Inc. has introduced an erasable optical drive for the Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh. The 600M-byte Directoptical drive reportedly features a 5 -in. removable cartridge and full read, write and erase capabilities. Each side of the cartridge provides 297.6M bytes of formatted storage capacity, and the unit offers an average seek time of 50 msec. Scheduled to begin shipping in March, the drive is priced at $4,995. Jasmine 1740 Army St. San Francisco, Calif. 94124 415-282-1111 <<<>>> Title : DTK Computer, Inc. has be Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micdtkco Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: DTK Computer, Inc. has begun shipping a storage controller card that supports up to two hard disk or floppy disk drives on an IBM Personal Computer AT or compatible system. The PTI-213 286 HDC/FDC Card reportedly features a 16-bit slot for the AT bus and 13 read/write task file registers. It is priced at $175. DTK 15711 E. Valley Blvd. City of Industry, Calif. 91744 818-333-7533 <<<>>> Title : Rapid Technology Corp. ha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micrapid Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Rapid Technology Corp. has announced an add-on board for the IBM Personal Computer AT. The ASAP32 is for image-processing users who need to accelerate calculation-intensive tasks. It incorporates a 32-bit floating point processor that operates at 13.3M floating point operations per second and costs $1,350. Rapid Technology 125 Burroughs Drive Amherst, N.Y. 14226 716-839-3503 <<<>>> Title : IBM skeptical of standard Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: standard Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ While competitors such as Data General Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. espoused the straight and narrow standards path at the recent Communication Networks '89 show, IBM Vice-President Ellen Hancock sharply criticized standards efforts for taking so long to provide functional specifications _ and proffered IBM's own proprietary systems to users who cannot afford to wait. IBM's current strategy, as unfolded by Hancock, is to continue to increase its support of industry standards as they arrive and concurrently enhance its own proprietary offerings. Asked how IBM plans to maintain its competitive edge if it supports international standards, Hancock replied that she no longer takes seriously the idea that Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) will catch up with Systems Network Architecture. ``It will be years and years before OSI will have the equivalent'' of what SNA now has, she said, adding that while standards exist to connect devices, they are not complete enough to define a full network. Hancock predicted a dramatic expansion of demand for the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and promised enhanced ISDN capabilities from IBM through the partnership with Siemens AG that IBM struck in December. However, she added that ISDN still differs ``switch vendor by switch vendor.'' IBM plans later this year to announce voice/data integration products that are independent of ISDN, Hancock said. Way to go Hancock praised the OSI/ Network Management Forum's approach of linking various network management systems via a standardized protocol. She promised that as soon as that organization has established a structured relationship with the Corporation for Open Systems, IBM will join. But when asked how IBM will reconcile its Netview/PC interface with the Common Management Information Protocol link recommended by the Forum, Hancock replied that ``Netview/PC is there'' now, with strong existing vendor support. As to whether IBM will ever support AT&T's Unified Network Management Architecture, she said, ``Netview doesn't work well as a subsystem.'' Meanwhile, IBM is getting set to release a ``tremendous explosion of network management capabilities'' for Netview that will include automated operations, expert systems, high-level language routines to automate network operations, integration with IBM's upcoming repository and DB2 and voice/data network management, Hancock said. Unnecessary controversy has bogged down organizations such as CCITT, sentencing its members to ``rehashing last year's problems over and over again,'' Hancock said. She cited the organization's initially voting 18-2 against accepting LU6.2 as part of the OSI standard simply because it was a proprietary protocol submitted by IBM. Subsequent debate, which took much longer than it should have, delayed LU6.2's eventual acceptance into the OSI draft standard, Hancock said. Thus, the industry will have to wait longer for OSI to have the peer-to-peer transactional capabilities inherent in LU6.2, she said. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Check out the new carrier Author : Thomas L. Nolle Source : CW Comm FileName: nollecol Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: First of a two-part series. A thirsty cowboy (of the drugstore variety or otherwise) can find more than one place to get a drink in Amarillo, Texas. A capacity-hungry data communications manager has fewer options; the major interexchange carriers do not provide digital services there. The situation in Amarillo is typical of many Midwest and Far West locations, where large distances and low population density conspire to increase carrier provisioning costs. In fact, many such areas had no digital services potential at all until independent regional carriers _ as opposed to former Bell operating companies (BOC) _ came along. This series will take a look at such services. The first part explores where they came from and what they have to offer; the second part will discuss potential drawbacks and complications the user may run into when dealing with such companies. Regional carriers are not necessarily ``regional'' in a strict geographic sense. They are typically companies that have acquired rights-of-way through which they have laid fiber-optic cable. The companies have sprung from many sources _ independent telephone companies that found fiber capacity sales an attractive revenue source, pipeline companies that run glass fiber through old oil and gas pipes and entrepreneurs who spotted the opportunity for sale of capacity to the BOCs and interexchange carriers after divestiture. Most of these firms started with a local focus and, hence, became identified with a region of the country. For nearly every user of data or telecommunications services, the regional carriers are a valuable resource; yet many have never contacted one, and some have never heard of them. Rust-belt carriers In the ``rust belt,'' regional carriers are not the only service providers in town, but they may be by far the least expensive. Users have reported cost-savings of 45% or more through regional carriers, and in cases where competition spurs the carriers to cut costs to the bone, astonishing 60% savings over interexchange tariff rates have been negotiated. Regional carriers offer users not only a lower average cost per circuit, they offer service where other carriers may be unable to provide it. Because they are relatively new, such companies frequently have more state-of-the-art equipment than the established BOCs. So they can offer digital services when the nearest BOC still has analog. They are way ahead of both local and interexchange carriers _ not to mention most customer-premises equipment vendors _ when it comes to fractional T1 services (see story page 50). There are few areas of the U.S. in which no regional carrier operates. In the Northeast, the Rochester Telephone subsidiary RCI Corp. provides digital services throughout New York and south to Maryland. RCI also has a trunk circuit across the Great Lakes area to Chicago. Through the South, Southern Net and Microtel offer services from the Philadelphia area to the south and west, including Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. Consolidated Network and Litel Telecommunications serve the Midwest, and Claydesta offers service in Texas (including Amarillo). Cable and Wireless of North America, a subsidiary of a British company, offers East Coast service with links across the country and overseas. All over the U.S. The most nonregional of the carriers is Williams Telecommunications Group, whose acquisition of Lightnet's Eastern network has provided it with the only truly national scope of any of the carriers. But most of the new breed of carriers are attempting to shed their regional status and attain national scope, as they begin to court end users rather than resellers of capacity. All of the regional carriers have various interconnect agreements among themselves to widen their geographic reach. Five of them (Consolidated Network, Litel, Microtel, Southern Net and Williams Telecommunications Group) have banded together to form the National Telecommunications Network (NTN). Providing service in most major metropolitan areas, NTN is becoming a rival to be reckoned with _ even for the dominant interexchange carriers, AT&T, MCI Communications and U.S. Sprint Communications. By Thomas L. Nolle; Nolle is president of CIMI Corp., a communications consulting company based in Haddonfield, N.J. <<<>>> Title : Apple's AFP treads on thi Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: afpwoes Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Depending on whom you ask, Apple Computer, Inc.'s efforts to position its Appletalk File Protocol (AFP) as the standard Apple communications interface is being undermined either by AFP's shortcomings or Apple's overall view of connectivity. Apple's success last year in corralling network heavyweights such as Novell, Inc. and longtime Macintosh supporter 3Com Corp. into supporting AFP has failed to silence critics, including analysts and developers _ chief among them 3Com. The AFP crusade bears two crosses, according to its detractors: It provides users and vendors already swimming in an alphabet soup of networkeze with yet another standard to support. It reportedly lacks the sophistication necessary to support distributed applications that OS/2 supporters believe constitute the next generation of software. Efforts to reach Apple officials for comment were unsuccessful. Supporters retort AFP supporters, including other developers and analysts, were quick to retort that AFP does what it was designed to do _ provide print and file sharing _ very well and as such is not an incomplete protocol stack. ``With respect to file system protocols, AFP is very complete,'' said Lynn Alley, vice-president of product development at Dayna Communications, Inc. in Salt Lake City. Dayna provided Novell, Inc. with the AFP portion of Netware for Macintosh software. Alley suggested that the issue of distributed processing should probably be separate. ``It's not something that should be side by side with AFP; it should be integrated with it,'' argued Eric Benhamou, 3Com's vice-president and general manager of the Software Products Division. Sedimentary, my dear AFP forms yet another boulder in the already rocky road trod by the on-again off-again 3Com-Apple relationship. It is simply not rich enough for Benhamou, he said. AFP lacks support for program-to-program communications, a capability supported by OS/2 LAN Manager's Named Pipes application programming interface and IBM's LU6.2 protocol, he said. Among the very first to provide Ethernet connectivity for Mac users, 3Com had to be coaxed into supporting AFP, which came along after 3Com had built its Mac product line around Xerox Network Systems _ ``the best thing available at the time,'' Benhamou said. ``When we finally resolved to use AFP for file and print services, we expected somehow that the other part of the [AFP protocol] scheme would unfold,'' he said. Among other mechanisms, Benhamou said Apple needs to lay out a distributed directory service, which is critical to any distributed mail package running over a series of interconnected networks. ``But six to seven months after we endorsed AFP, Apple has still not told us what to do about the rest [of these functions], and we are getting impatient,''' he said. ``We do not want to take a step backward.'' Benhamou's fear is that 3Com will be forced to add extensions of its own to AFP, which would put it at odds with Apple's alleged desire to ``control every piece of code at the desktop.'' ``3Com would like to make sure that this time around, it does things the way Apple plans to do things for Mac applications,'' said Dave Koshiur, publisher of ``Connections,'' a newsletter that deals with Apple connectivity. While other developers say that Apple has said it will address this issue, the problem, they agree, is that the Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor is taking too long to tell them how it intends to support distributed applications. ``We are anxious for Apple to set some standards [in this area], and we deeply desire not to have to invent it on our own,'' Alley said. 3Com is also concerned with how well the Mac will participate as part of a multivendor and networking environment under OS/2. ``The Mac is probably out of that loop for now,'' Koshiur said. Other developers offer varying degrees of support for 3Com's position. Alley said pressure on Apple to offer guidelines for distributed processing has been building within the third-party community during the past year. ``Apple is being pressed to provide some direction here,'' agreed Mark Perry, an applications engineer in Technical Operations at Kinetics, Inc., the Apple communications division of Excelan, Inc. Some of the time AFP, Perry said, is a good protocol for a small network of Macs. ``But Apple has been slow to acknowledge a market drift away from that toward internetworking,'' he said. Which is exactly Benhamou's point. Apple has addressed work group printer and file sharing and is in the process of addressing IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. host access. But it has done little to address the many levels of connectivity in between, he claimed. ``Basically, in Apple's view, you either talk to a Laserwriter or to a host,'' he said. ``Apple does not have the same view about distributed applications as we do. They are [less] concerned with linking to a work group that does more than just talk to a laser printer,'' Benhamou said. Meanwhile, other vendors are busy looking at scaling down host-based applications to an intelligent work group. ``That's why we're looking at an SQL database in a work group running under OS/2,'' he said. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : ISDN keys university net Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: loyola2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: CHICAGO _ AT&T's recently announced Definity 75/85 Communications System will be the keystone of a planned Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) installation that will carry voice, data and images for Loyola University. With cutover time scheduled for October, Loyola is slated to be the first commercial customer to use Definity, which reportedly converges AT&T's System 75 and System 85 private branch exchanges (PBX) into a single system [CW, Feb. 13]. By early next year, some 7,000 telephones as well as casual data users throughout the university's three Chicago-area campuses will communicate over three Definity Generic 2s, which are high-end communications switches that can support up to 30,000 lines. ``The plan is to provide each residence room with a phone jack'' to allow students with personal computers to link up with various databases around campus, said Joseph Catrambone, Loyola's vice-president of information systems. Terminal and PC users who regularly need to communicate will do so over the campus' 35 or so local-area networks and dedicated T1 links. AT&T's Information Systems Network (ISN) switches will be installed in buildings that need to switch a lot of data between hosts or LANs, said Arthur Krumrey, the university's assistant vice-president of IS. Loyola intends to start implementing ISDN as soon as the System 85s and Definity 2s are up and running, Krumrey said. One initial application will be sending document facsimiles between different sites on the campuses over the ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) that AT&T recently introduced for both its System 85 and Definity 2. Krumrey plans to test other ISDN user devices, such as Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.'s terminal adapters for IBM Personal Computers, but will hold back from major purchases while the CCITT's BRI specifications remain volatile, he said. ``Data call [features] are finished, but telephone features probably won't be done until 1992,'' Krumrey said. On the other hand, Loyola plans to use the high-speed ISDN Primary Rate Interface from the start to link its PBXs over dedicated connections, Krumrey said. The university will also transmit images such as X rays between its own medical facilities and other hospitals. Eventually, Loyola hopes to begin using Illinois Bell's ISDN service to link up to other Chicago-area businesses such as banks, Catrambone said. But the university is holding off until it is sure that the local carrier's service will be dependable. Right now, early Illinois Bell ISDN user McDonald's Corp. is ``having a hell of a time getting ISDN to work,'' he said. The university's Lakeshore campus residence halls will get a System 85 PBX in July and a second one in late October or early November because their communications needs will not wait for Definity 2's fall shipping date, Krumrey said. The two PBXs will converge into a single Definity 2, and a second Definity 2 will be installed in the Watertown campus in late November. The third Definity 2 will be installed in the Medical Center campus in early January. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : IBM snubs Token-Ring grou Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ibmsaysn Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: It's official. And at first glance, it wouldn't seem to be any big surprise. But IBM's pronouncement last week that it will not be joining the Open Token Foundation (OTF) appears to have caught some members off guard. ``At this time, we feel that our participation in several national and international standard-setting bodies and in the Corporation for Open Systems is sufficient to ensure that Token-Ring remains an open multivendor standard,'' an IBM spokeswoman said. The OTF consists of 15 vendors that have banded together to ensure that the IEEE 802.5 Token-Ring standard remains open and different implementations of the standard interoperate. Some OTF vendors have complained that IBM, which controls an estimated 90% of the Token-Ring market, produces products that deviate from the standard and thus do not work with other 802.5 offerings. When the OTF was launched in December, an IBM spokesman described his firm's outlook toward the consortium at that time as ``favorable.'' ``This is really not what we were anticipating,'' said Bill Swift, a product line manager of Token-Ring products at 3Com Corp., which is an OTF co-founder. ``I really fail to understand why IBM is not joining,'' added Robert Madge, founder of UK-based Madge Networks Ltd. and chairman of the OTF, which he helped co-found. He said nearly every other Token-Ring supplier belongs to the OTF. ``I can't see anything about our objectives that they wouldn't share. They have nothing to fear, but we'll carry on without them,'' Madge said. In the meantime, the OTF will press forward with a 1989 agenda that includes two Token-Ring forums, with the first to be held in June. A meeting at the Communication Networks '89 trade show produced several subcommittees addressing areas such as Fiber Distributed Data Interface, membership and an interoperability demonstration. A Software Interface/Protocols group will examine programming interfaces _ for example, at the IBM Netbios and Data Link Control levels _ to make sure they are implemented in the same way, 3Com's Swift said. One subcommittee that might bear watching is Intellectual Property Rights, which is a fancy way of describing plans to investigate the legality of the so-called Soderblom Token-Ring patents. Olof Soderblom, through Willemijn Holding BV, claims to hold patents on some Token-Ring technology and has aggressively sought licensing fees from Token-Ring vendors. Apollo Computer, Inc. has refused to pay royalties, emerging as the first vendor to contest Soderblom's claims in court. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : PBX-Netview linkage a fir Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: tsb Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: TORONTO _ A small Canadian company has come out with a product that allows information systems managers to use IBM's Netview to peform real-time troubleshooting of most major private branch exchange (PBX) brands. TSB International's Hubview/PC is said to collect real-time alerts from PBXs and send those alerts to IBM's host-based network management system via the Netview/PC interface. The product currently supports AT&T's System 75, with System 85 support to follow; NEC America, Inc.'s NEAX 2400; Northern Telecom, Inc.'s SL/1 and SL/100; Rolm Systems' CBX 9000 and 9751 and Mitel, Inc.'s SX-200 and SX-2000. With the exception of Siemens AG subsidiary Rolm, none of the above vendors have developed their own links to Netview/PC. Monitoring and troubleshooting multivendor PBX installations has been difficult for information systems managers because each vendor uses proprietary protocols to send alerts and alarms, according to TSB spokesman David Morris. TSB used a variety of methods to obtain these protocols, including getting big users to pressure AT&T to release System 75 alarm specifications. Hubview/PC consists of an intelligent processor that collects alarm information from a PBX and software that passes that data to Netview/PC in a format that the Netview interface can understand, according to the company. The software is priced at $5,250, the hardware between $1,600 and $5,000 per PBX. Currently, the software resides on an MS-DOS-based Netview/PC workstation. An OS/2 version of Netview/PC now in the works will be better able to handle multiple alarms, Morris said. Hubview/PC already supports Northern Telecom's Meridian Data Networking System platform and will support Digital Equipment Corp.'s Enterprise Management Architecture, Morris said. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Switch vendors focus on p Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: fraction Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The recent hoopla surrounding Timeplex, Inc.'s fractional T1 offering [CW, Jan. 16] has galvanized the T1 switch vendor's competitors to bring their own products out of the woodwork. Fractionalized T1 offerings can handle smaller segments of a T1 link, providing cost-effective links for sites that have enough traffic to justify multiple 64K bit/ sec. channels but not enough for a full T1 link. The following vendors recently announced products that are said to support fractionalized T1 links: Wellfleet Communications, Inc. unveiled fractional T1 services support for its family of local-area network communications servers. The offering reportedly allows users to allocate T1 subchannels and transmit them over portions of a T1 line to one or more sites. Wellfleet also announced support of the Simple Network Management Protocol standard for managing multivendor networks that are based on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. RAD Data Communication, Inc. introduced the Megaplex-3, a multiplexer that also supports 256K, 512K and 1,024K bit/sec. speeds as well as full T1 rates, the vendor said. The multiplexer is said to be able to aggregate up to 20 synchronous subchannels into a single high-speed channel. Available immediately, Megaplex-3 is priced at $5,000. Stratacom, Inc. and Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. both said they are working on fractional T1 products but would not say when these will be announced. General Datacomm Industries, Inc. promised a March shipment for a fractional T1 offering that was announced last fall. The product is said to be compatible with a limited AT&T offering that provides fractional T1 services between 22 U.S. gateway cities as well as overseas countries. Avanti Communications Corp. said that it has offered fractional T1 support on its multiplexers since 1984. Get down Fractional T1 products will take off only if carriers _ particularly the former Bell operating companies (BOCs) _ offer low-price services to support them, according to Thomas Nolle, president of Haddonfield, N.J., research firm CIMI Corp. Nolle reported that at least one company said that it will keep prices down initially and may continue to do so. AT&T's fractional T1 service between the U.S. and Europe reportedly is priced at approximately 60% to 65% of full T1 rates for 50% of T1 bandwidth or about 30% of full T1 rates for 25% of T1 bandwidth. Fractional T1 services are currently provided only by a handful of vendors, such as Vienna, Va., network provider Data America Corp. However, all three major long-distance carriers as well as several BOCs are expected to announce fractional T1 offerings for the U.S. market in the near future. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : MCI, Sprint leave number Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: carriers Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Both MCI Communications Corp. and U.S. Sprint Communications Co. used the recent Communication Networks '89 conference as a launching pad for high-speed network offerings aimed directly at AT&T. MCI unveiled a switched 56K bit/sec. data communications service to combat similar offerings from AT&T and U.S. Sprint. The latter company announced at Comnet that its Virtual Private Network 56 _ which was unveiled in September and is now in beta-test stage with three customers _ will become generally available in June. All three major interexchange carriers said that by the third quarter, they will be targeting large corporate accounts with these services. Large corporations, which typically access the carriers via T1 lines, are likely to use these digital services for bursts of data traffic such as dial-up computer communications, emergency backup for dedicated data lines, transmission of graphics from computer-aided design and manufacturing terminals, videoconferencing and CCITT Group IV facsimile machines, according to vendors and analysts. Network managers can make the choice between these usage-sensitive services and dedicated private lines for their high-speed data traffic, depending on the type of traffic and its duration, said Peter Bernstein, a senior analyst at Probe Research, Inc. in Cedar Knolls, N.J. MCI officials said users with traffic amounting to less than three hours a month should select the switched 56K bit/ sec. service. The cost of the MCI service for a 1,000-mile call, for example, would amount to 13 cents per minute, they said. MCI officials said the service is priced at about the same rate as U.S. Sprint's service and is less expensive than Switched Digital Service, a similar offering from AT&T that was tariffed in March 1987. Pricing for AT&T's service reportedly ranges from 26 to 85 cents per minute, depending on volume and time. MCI said that its Switched 56 service will be generally available in the third quarter but that a few MCI customers will get the service earlier. MCI and U.S. Sprint needed to offer switched 56K bit/sec. services to make inroads into AT&T's Accunet customer base, according to Charles W. Newton, president of Newton-Evans Research Co., a market research firm in Ellicott City, Md. Newton said 56K bit/sec. is an increasingly popular line speed among large corporate customers. By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Apple, DEC talk at Dexpo Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: dexpo1 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ Users hungry for Apple-to-DEC applications may be somewhat appeased by a passel of graphics-oriented product introductions unwrapped at the recent Dexpo East '89, including a number of ports to the CL/1 communications language for SQL databases. Now a division of Apple Computer, Inc., Network Innovations Corp.'s CL/1 software enables Macintoshes linked to Digital Equipment Corp. VAXs to share SQL database files and applications stored on the host. Also of note, DEC said it will license Alisashare and Alisaprint software from Alisa Systems, Inc. in Pasadena, Calif. Alisashare is a VAX-based file server for Macintoshes and is compatible with Apple's Appleshare server, Ethertalk network software and Appletalk file protocols. When these products are combined on a VAX server with DEC's VMS Services for MS-DOS, they will provide information and resource-sharing for users on DOS, Mac and VMS systems, according to DEC. DEC said it will use Alisa's software as part of its efforts to integrate Macintoshes with the Decnet environment. In addition, Alisa introduced Make-Easy, which is said to enable Mac users to view VAX-based files, programs and other resources as graphics images. Succumbing Along with the Alisa-DEC alliance, Dexpo turned up evidence that developers are beginning to succumb to CL/1. Michael Zivkovic, Apple's manager for DEC marketing programs, listed five products that take advantage of CL/1: Fairfield Software, Inc.'s Clearaccess reportedly uses CL/1 to give Mac applications access to host data from within the desktop environment. It includes an interface and desktop accessories. Similarly, two vendors released CL/1 ports of their business mapping software. CL/1 support will allow Odesta Corp.'s Geoquery and Tactics International Ltd.'s Fastmap to automatically extract and manipulate data from all major relational SQL databases on a VAX. Pyramid, an object-oriented database from Marvelin Corp., supports true integrated imaging and allows Mac applications to import or export a wide range of graphics images between both environments, the vendor claimed. Andyne Computing Ltd.'s GQwell is a graphical query language that reportedly allows Mac applications to access ad hoc queries from SQL databases, providing a diagrammatic representation of the database. Another introduction that promises to link the Mac and VAX environments is CC:Mail, Inc.'s CC:Mail DEC link, a gateway that reportedly allows CC:Mail users on a Mac to communicate transparently with DEC mail systems such as All-In-1 or Vaxmail. In addition, Kinetics, Inc.'s Fastpath 4, an Appletalk-to-Ethernet gateway, now fully supports Decnet Level-1 routing protocols, the Excelan, Inc. division said. This will enable Decnet packets to run over Fastpath and provides an alternative to using individual Ethernet controller cards in each Mac to access Decnet, the vendor said. Thursby Software Systems helped Kinetics implement the protocols. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Telenet in ISDN with Stra Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: carr2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ U.S. Sprint Communications Co. subsidiary Telenet Communications Corp. announced an agreement with Stratacom, Inc. at Communication Networks '89 to develop the technology for what the companies claimed will be the first broadband ISDN service to be based on the ISDN Frame Relay interface. The interface is an early component of the evolving broadband Integrated Services Digital Network standard, which will eventually provide high-speed digital services whose rates could range from 45M to 100M bit/sec., industry sources said. In a 12-month joint agreement, the two vendors said they plan to use the Frame Relay interface to integrate Telenet's TP4/III packet switches with Stratacom's family of Fastpacket IPX digital multiplexers. The product will create a high-speed backbone of IPX Fastpacket switches that will support packetized voice, data and video, they said. The agreement potentially could push aside a similar agreement between Telenet and Timeplex, Inc., which has already resulted in the integration of Telenet packet switches and Timeplex's T1 multiplexers. One important feature that Timeplex switches bring to the partnership is transmission of voice and packetized data over either 64K bit/sec. circuits or fractional T1 links (see story page 50), a Telenet spokesman said. By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : The following products we Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: comnetpr Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The following products were announced recently at Communication Networks Conference & Exposition '89: Vitalink Communications Corp. in Fremont, Calif., introduced a member of its Translan family of remote bridging products. The Translan 320 reportedly was designed to remotely connect Ethernet and 802.3 local-area networks using standard data communications lines and supports one or two remote links at speeds up to 64K bit/sec. in single, parallel or full-mesh configurations. Priced at $9,750, the product is compatible with existing Translan offerings, as well as the Digital Equipment Corp. LAN Bridge 100. Alantec, also located in Fremont, introduced a high-speed Ethernet bridge that was developed to function as a network backbone. Called the Multilan Switch, the bridge reportedly allows network managers to connect several LANs and support data transfer rates of 160M bit/sec. According to the vendor, it is especially suited for networks incorporating high-performance workstations. A four-port configuration costs $9,800, including Ethernet connectors. Eight- and 12-port versions are also available. Boulder, Colo.-based Telwatch, Inc. introduced two telecommunications management information systems: the TMIS/386, an Intel Corp. 80386-based product for smaller users with 1,000 line installations or less, and TMIS/SQL, an SQL-based system developed for large businesses, slated for delivery in August. TMIS/386 is priced from $1,950 for software with base-level support; no price is yet available for TMIS/SQL. Minneapolis-based Computer Network Technology Corp. announced that support is available for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) on both IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. host computers. According to the vendor, the Lanlord Model 8100 Interprocessor Gateway was developed to act as an IBM channel-attached router and is capable of routing traffic to multiple high-bandwidth network media and multiple T1 or Ethernet networks. The Lanlord Model 8100 is priced at $25,000. The Lanlord Model 8200 Interprocessor Gateway reportedly provides TCP/IP networking for DEC VMS processors by supporting the WIN/TCP for VMS software communications from the Wollongong Group, Inc., an organization located in Palo Alto, Calif. The Lanlord 8200 is also priced at $25,000. Host software is priced separately and is determined by configuration, the vendor said. AT&T, with a national product center located in Morristown, N.J., introduced three telemanagement products designed to assist businesses in gathering call traffic data. The collected data can then be used to charge departments within the business for telephone usage, according to the vendor. The 3B2 Call Detail Recording Utility (CDRU) Release 4.0 reportedly polls and records calls on the Definity Communications System, as well as the System 75, System 85 and Dimension public branch exchange systems. It is priced at $6,500. Also priced at $6,500 is the 6386 Work Group System Call Recording Utility, which provides the same features as the 3B2 CDRU in a 6386 work group system environment. The Call Detail Recording Unit/Small was designed for smaller switches and stores up to 6,000 18-word records or 3,800 24-word records. The software costs $2,600. All of the above products are scheduled for release in September. Paradyne Corp. unveiled an analog-to-digital upgrade for its 3400 series network diagnostic modems. The Largo, Fla.-based vendor said the upgrade was designed to give 3400 series users cost-effective migration to future digital data services while optimizing its current investments in analog networks. The Model 3456 extended data service unit is priced from $995 to $2,500, depending on the hardware configuration to be upgraded. Fujitsu America, Inc., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., introduced an enhanced version of its FMS 1000 Network Management System. According to the company, Version 1.2 includes multilevel password protection, dial backup and high-density rack support. The FMS 1000 is targeted for data communications networks supporting between 20 and 200 modems. The system carries a price tag of $7,995 and includes the controller, a network interface adapter, a flat-screen monitor and a printer. Able Computer introduced the Easyport 16, a 16-port Ethernet terminal server for asynchronous devices. The Irvine, Calif.-based vendor said the server offers support for TCP/IP and allows a total of 64 simultaneous incoming and outgoing sessions. The product is priced at $4,500. <<<>>> Title : A good planner knows how Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: stratlea Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The methods that organizations use to plan for their futures can be as individual as signatures. Trace the strategic planning process at almost any company, and you're likely to find out not only how it prefers to dot its i's, but also something about the nature of its organizational culture and value system. Some themes do tend to cross all boundaries of individual circumstance, however, and right now the prevailing school of thought in strategic planning has to do with preservation of flexibility. It is more than coincidence when information systems executives at three very different companies facing three very different sets of planning needs all stress the same five-syllable word, when discussing make or break factors. At Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y., where the MIS function is gradually being dispersed and decentralized, W. Michael Cowley, director of information technology and one of the company's strategic planners, says that the main advantage of this move is that it will allow MIS strategic planning to be less structured and more flexible. Cowley contends that technology is changing so rapidly that long range strategic planning for large scale systems is now difficult, if not downright dangerous. ``Technology is moving faster than our ability to assimilate it into our plans, and we see that getting worse,'' he says. ``The real game in strategic planning today is not to cut costs, but to remain at the cutting edge of technology. And a too highly structured plan can prevent a company from doing that.'' Walter Layden, MIS director for the Health Care Division at Boston-based Kendall Corp. also emphasizes the need for adaptability when he talks about the requirements planning that had to be done when Kendall's information systems organization was split into five pieces to reflect alterations in the corporate business structure. ``It's not always possible to plan exactly for capacity when you haven't had time to experiment with the potential of the system,'' he says. ``The important thing is to plan in flexibility.'' And Jim Matsey, director of MIS at Reynolds Metals Co. in Richmond Virginia, where planning is done in a fairly formalized top-down mode, hits the same note. ``A strategic plan should be a general guide to future direction, Matsey says.`` It's not supposed to tie you down.''. A much-quoted pundit of the Roman Empire, Publilius Syrus, said much the same thing in the first century B.C. with his maxim ``It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.'' But somehow it seems that the idea was lost for several decades of this century. According to Thomas Swithenbank, president of the market research firm International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., it is only recently that large-scale, long-range planning, has fallen out of favor with corporations. Until the past couple of years when the world began to spin too rapidly for pontificators to keep their balance, he says, companies employed people who had no job beyond planning to produce imposing tomes about company direction. Of course, he adds, even before mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, spin offs and rapidly changing technology began to be daily events, these ponderous plans were often out of date before they began to be implemented. The difference is that now there are almost no companies that are willing to subsidize planning that produces no return and yields no advantage. These days, Swithenbank says, there are two main watchwords that govern the planning process_ one is flexibility and the other is individuality. ``The emphasis now is for shorter-term, more flexible plans,'' he says,``and each company is redefining strategic planning to meet its own needs. Strategic planning at Reynolds is geared to support the company's steady but conservative growth. The process is governed by a structure that might be called a top-down hierarchical structure in the sense that there is a Strategic Guidance Committee, made up of top managers, which is responsible for corporate-wide strategic plans. Information systems plans for the organization as a whole are crafted by Matsey, but at a separate and lower level, and their implementation is usually subject to acceptance by the Strategic Guidance Committee. Between Matsey and the top planning committee, there is another approval layer, a group called the Automation Review Committee made up of vice presidents from user departments. This group serves a triple purpose. It acts as a filter for plans on their way to the Strategic Guidance Committee and has, in fact, been described to Matsey as his ``board of directors.'' It also helps to iron out differences between MIS goals and the goals of the user communities. Equally important, however, the Automation Review committee provides a measure of flexibility in the planning process, since it has the authority to okay smaller plans. Matsey appreciates the importance of coordination between MIS and the user community. "In every business, there will be differences of opinion on how to accomplish certain things. If MIS tries to create a plan without the advice and consent of the user community, there could be trouble in implementing it. When the user community is involved in the planning, we're assured of cooperation." In 1988, Matsey's presentation to the Strategic Guidance Committee included a proposal to implement electronic data interchange (EDI) to as many of the company's customers and vendors as possible. To convince the committee to accept his plan, Matsey didn't trot out a circus of books and consultants. Instead he pointed to the success of the small prototype EDI system that had been in use in the company for one year. That's how things work at Reynolds, says Matsey. "We don't plan in a vacuum. Everything we plan for is a tested technology that we're relatively certain will work for us." At almost the opposite end of the spectrum from Reynolds deliberative approach to planning, there is Kendall Corp. Last year, Kendall's information systems organization undertook the planning for a reorganization of major proportions. The MIS reorganization paralleled a corporate restructuring to transform the highly centralized company into one comprised of individual, entrepreneurial divisions. Ron Cipolla, corporate director of MIS, says both he and upper management agreed that a centralized MIS department would be ``an anomoly'' in a decentralized organization and that the logical move would be to distribute the MIS function by closing the company's IBM 3084-equipped data center and replacing it with independent AS/400s in each of its divisions. But doing so would require an all-encompassing plan. Creating a strategic plan for a company in flux is much more frenetic and seat-of-the-pants process than creating the neat, annual plan of an old-line, conservative company. But Cipolla realized that planning had to follow a logical order to ensure a minimum of problems. The first step was to determine new staffing requirements. This was of immediate importance because many of the divisions had been totally dependent on the corporate MIS department and had no in-house information systems capabilty. Data processing managers had to be assigned to specific divisions immediately so that they could represent the needs of their respective groups in planning meetings. Creating the new staffing plan meant dividing up resources. Each division was ranked according to how much they needed MIS, using such data as number of products, number of customers and annual revenue. Members of the corporate MIS staff were then allocated to the divisions, based on their relative ranking. Once the new divisional MIS managers were in place, the next planning imperative was to determining each division's overall hardware and software requirements so that companywide hardware and software standards could be set. Constructing standards was not an easy planning task. The guidelines had to be firm enough to preserve the advantage of volume purchasing and permit the trimmed down corporate MIS department to assist the divisions when problems arose. They also would have to be loose enough, however, to allow the divisions to customize their applications. Planning for the restructuring of the MIS at Kendall actually started in a fairly relaxed fashion. All that changed, however, when Kendall's corporate parent., Colgate-Palmolive Co., sold the company and gave it until the end of the year to sever all computer ties with the Colgate-Palmolive database. Although these ties were not that strong to begin with _ Kendall had been running as an independent company _ it made sense for each division to break off from Kendall before Kendall broke off from Colgate-Palmolive. The newly created divisional MIS staffs were happy with the prospect of being freed from Colgate's data center but were dismayed at the prospect of being forced to create a strategic plan without full information on a critical piece of technology. Because of the company's good relations with IBM, the planning team had decided to standardize on on the AS/400, IBM's most recent addition to its mid-range line. The AS/400 had not been announced when Cipolla began holding his planning meetings, but enough information about the system had leaked out to convince planners that its high performance was worth the wait. Now they wondered if it would be wise to take a chance and plan for a yet-to-be announced machine. ``We asked ourselves, `Do we dare create a plan out of rumors?,' '' Cipolla says. The alternative was to install System/38s, but based on information that Cipolla had about the AS/400, going to System/38s might require bringing in almost 1 times the number of machines, and there was no way to overcome the performance deficiency of the System/38 vis-a-vis the AS/400. Eventually, planners decided to take the risk. ``We were creating a plan for the long term, and we didn't want to base it on an aging technology,'' Cipolla explains. Planning capacity for an organization that did not yet exist and an unreleased machine was going to be difficult at best. But with IBM's assistance, and using the System/38 as a general guide, planners decided that for the majority of divisions one AS/400 Model 700 would be enough to get started. Additional equipment could be decided on by the divisions after they were up and running. Once the hardware was chosen, selecting software meant finding a company that could both provide packages that would meet the general needs of all the divisions and be able to do as much customizing as each division required. ``We wanted to take advantage of the economy of scale by choosing one software vendor,'' Cipolla says. ``But we also needed one that could work with the different divisions to create the specific functions.'' So the planners created spec sheets and benchmarks, interviewed a number of vendors, had a series of one-day demonstration sessions for end users and finally selected Imrex in Great Neck, N.Y. A few weeks before each division was scheduled to go on-line, the new machines were brought in and tested and the new files loaded. Then, on different days, each division was unplugged from the corporate system at night and started up on the AS/400 the next morning. The decision to go on-line with so little preparation was not an easy one for planners. Some, in fact, initially wanted to run a redundant system for a limited time. But eventually this idea was rejected as too complicated. When the new systems were switched on, relatively few problems cropped up, considering the large number of unknowns planners had had to contend with. ``Very seldom in one's career does he see this amount of work come out right,'' Cipolla says of the final implementation. But, he admits, the transition was not totally problem-free. For example, when the Health Care Division, the largest division and the first scheduled to change over, was ready to move to the new system, the AS/400 was still not shipping. Rather than postpone the transition, which had been planned for months, Walter Layden, decided to install a System/38 Model 700 with 38M bytes of memory. But the machine was soon filled to capacity, and three days later the division had to expand it to the maximum of 48M bytes. But even that proved too limited, and the division was forced to do development work during off-shifts to save computer time for production work. Layden's hope that his division might be able to get away with using the System/38 for a while proved impossible, so he and his staff spent most of New Year's weekend copying files from the System/38 to the AS/400. They ran the two machines in tandem for two days while people from all the areas of the division did testing, and by Jan. 4, the System/38 was unplugged. Compared with Kendall's experience, Eastman Kodak Co.'s decentralization planning could be considered leisurely. Kodak, which was traditionally organized into functions and regions, recently restructured into five business groups, representing lines of business such as Commercial and Information Systems, Photographic Products and Eastman Chemicals. Each of these new groups has a number of divisions under it. While the corporation is now decentralized in structure, the central organization is only gradually ceding responsibility for business functions to the groups. The first function relinquished by Kodak was marketing, next was research. Now planners are rolling up their sleeves to prepare for decentralizing MIS. When Kodak planners first began the process of deciding how the MIS functions in the business units would operate, they came up with a list of goals that included the flexibility to change with new technology as well as with new business climates. Planners decided it was important for MIS to be flexible enough to allow a group to acquire new business or divest without having to make major alternations in the system. The plan that resulted from that goal involved the gradual transition to microcomputers and specialized software. This would require substantial retraining, movement of many processes from batch to realtime, and the altering of job descriptions. MIS, it was decided, will move gradually from the role of implementer tothose of integrator and educator. In-house programming will be deemphasized as the business units move toward highly specialized and more off-the-shelf packages. Planners decided that the safest way to reach these goals was to allow each group at Kodak to be free to bring MIS functions in-house when it feels ready to do so. Therefore the redistribution of corporate MIS will come gradually, as it is slowly freed from more and more of its centralized functions. According to Cowley the most important part of the plan centers on keeping the corporate ship afloat until all the groups break off. To do that, planners are not proposing any reduction in corporate computer power, but are assuming that demands on the corporate mainframes will remain constant. Cowley says the company has decided to risk having too much capacity rather than take a chance with having too little. Another major planning task is to determine which areas will remain the purview of the corporate MIS staff even after decentralization. To this end, a planning subgroup, headed by Cowley, has been assigned the task of defining a corporate architecture. Working with MIS managers and end-users, Cowley and his colleagues look at each corporate function to determine whether it should remain centralized. Cowley says that certain things were so obvious they required little thought. Telecommunications networks and interfaces are two such examples. But choosing which software and hardware to standardize on for buying power represent a more difficult decision. "Creating the corporate culture,'' says Cowley,`` is a matter of looking at each function and deciding if the economies of scale or the advantages of using large-scale corporate resources outweigh the advantage of allowing the groups to make unilateral decisions." The third step in the planning process at Kodak is to work with the business groups to help them plan their own MIS functions. First planners created vice presidents of MIS in each of the groups that did not have them. The vice presidents then meet with corporate MIS to plan gradual decentralization. Kodak holds demonstrations of hardware and software programs, and provides experts to help the divisions decide on in-house applications. The timing of this stage of the process is left to the business groups. "As planners, we have the job of convincing the groups that decentralization is to their advantage,'' says Cowley. We trust them to know when is the best time to bring functions in-house." While reorganization at Kodak is moving along smoothly and painlessly, the changes in the corporation have created new positions, new functions and have required some revolutionary thinking. When the corporate structure was centralized, strategic planning was a structured annual process Now the process is ongoing. "Planning is no longer a one shot deal where we can say, 'Now we're finished,' '' Cowley explains.`` We have to constantly reevaluate at our objectives and our plans. Although it would be hard to find three organizations with more diverse philosophies and planning approaches, all are trying to balance the need for clear direction with the imperative for flexibility. Kodak now looks at planning as a process rather than an event.At Reynolds, the schedule is much more formalized, but there are many times when the committee looks at mid-course corrections. And companies like Kendall, which are writing less formal plans on the run, also take time to concretize the strategies whenever possible. What this reflects, according to Ben Porter, a specialist in strategic planning at the DMR Group, Inc. in Boston, is a dawning awareness that the process of planning can, in some ways, be more valuable than any document that emerges from it. The planning process typically brings together a lot of different people, including the user community, senior executives and the information technology organization, says Porter. It takes them through an intensive experience, requiring that they identify where the business is going and then try to understand how technology can be used to make the business strategy take off.``This experience,'' he says,`` not only organizes and formalizes the thinking of the members of the organization but unleashes creativity. And the result is often a lot of new ideas that weren't around before the planning process began.'' By Larry Stevens; Stevens is a free-lance writer based in Springfield, Mass. <<<>>> Title : Don't start without IT Author : Russell Johnson Source : CW Comm FileName: bubox Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: When you look carefully at the wins and losses that have been recorded for companies attempting to use information technology (IT) to gain competitive advantage, it is clear that their success is directly related to the planning method employed. In cases in which information technology did produce competitive advantages, a consideration of the potential information's value was explicitly integrated into corporate strategic planning. In the others, strategy was formulated first, and only after plans were set was thought given to how information technology could support the chosen strategy. Blending the assessment of information technology options into strategy formulation has three advantages: It improves the information intensity quotient of corporate strategy. Information technology can be a powerful substitute for increasingly expensive production factors such as capital, labor and material or for that increasingly valuable resource called time. But such trade-offs can only occur if information technology is dealt with as an agent for change rather than just an instrument of it. It provides a two-way learning experience. By involving an information systems department in the planning process, high-level business managers can develop a deeper understanding of information as a value source. At the same time, information systems managers are given an opportunity to develop a stronger grasp of critical business issues. It brings the organizational structure into the present. Many companies are still using organization designs developed years ago by Du Pont Co. and General Motors Corp. Workers were poorly trained and educated then, and a popular theory at the time promoted reducing jobs to their simplest elements. However, the companies that are most successful today and have the best prospects for continued success are those that are learning to leverage the capabilities of the sophisticated people at their lower levels. If information systems managers are not currently prepared to contribute to the formulation of corporate strategy, they should make an immediate effort to acquire whatever skills and knowledge are necessary. Senior functional executives and division managers who are not already pushing for inclusion of information systems capabilities in strategic planning may soon learn from their competitors what they are missing. By Russell Johnson; Johnson is an associate professor of management in the School of Management at Boston University. <<<>>> Title : Getting your own house in Author : Robert E. Wallac Source : CW Comm FileName: wallbox Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Every information systems organization should have a strategic plan. Used carefully, IS resources can greatly enhance the whole organization's performance. Several steps are involved in creating and maintaining an effective strategic plan for information systems. The primary ones are as follows: Identify the objectives. The IS plan should support the objectives of the parent organization. If the company's objectives are not clear, making some educated guesses may be necessary. Formulate, document and use the objectives you believe the company is seeking as the basis for the first draft of your plan. Establish a reasonable time frame. Three years is about as far ahead as most of us are able to plan in detail. It is also about the shortest time in which changes can be effected in an IS organization. A detailed plan for the next three years can and probably should be supplemented with material sketching general directions for the next two years, as well as any important information than might be a factor in six or seven years. Set balanced priorities. Priorities for development investments are usually the most critical element of the plan and require as much objectivity as can be mustered. In this context, there are two kinds of development investments. One involves technical resources such as computer and systems software upgrades; the other involves user applications. There is a danger of ranking technical requirements higher than user needs, since the technology imperative is more familiar. This can be avoided with some thought and the use of objective measures such as the cost/benefit advantage to the parent organization. Imagine the future. One temptation in planning is to simply extend the present reality. Instead, try to envision the IS environment at the end of the planning period and determine what is needed to achieve that environment. Then, decide whether the desired position can be achieved by incremental changes to the present environment or whether a more fundamental change is needed. Expect the unexpected. Count on change.The external environment will change. The technology will change. Even your own department's capabilities and vision will change. Schedule reviews on a regular basis, ideally to coincide with corporate budgeting and planning cycles. In addition, the plan should be reviewed anytime you sense a significant change that would affect your organization. By Robert E. Wallace; Wallace is president of Wallace Consultants, a management consulting firm in Haverford, Pa. <<<>>> Title : It'll fly with a little h Author : Nandan Nilekani Source : CW Comm FileName: nandan Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Numerous arguments have been proposed recently that question the viability of cooperative processing. However, it can be viewed as an idea whose time has come. In fact, all the pieces necessary for creating a total cooperative processing solution are currently available from different vendors to be mixed and matched by information systems. All that is needed for the technique to really take off is a little nudge from _ who else? _ IBM. After refuting the critics' notions, a discussion of cooperative processing becomes more a matter of what the real restraints are to its practical, wide-scale implementation and how these barriers can be overcome by IS today. One proposed obstacle to the distribution of functionality between mainframes and workstations is the problem of mixed environments. Indeed, mixed networks of workstations and dumb terminals will affect true cooperative processing. While it is possible to design a cooperative application for such a network, it will cater to the lowest common denominator, namely the dumb terminal. Such an implementation would surely restrict the user from enjoying almost all the benefits of the approach. But cooperative processing has enough benefits to justify an act of faith on the part of IS management to begin gravitating toward a network consisting entirely of intelligent workstations. The real issue is whether, having implemented such a network, old applications can coexist with the new ones. There are solutions now in the market that permit that scenario. Another proposed obstacle to cooperative processing is the mixture of languages. The mainframe language is typically CICS Cobol, whereas the personal computer de facto standard is C. But the language barrier can be easily overcome by providing fourth-generation language (4GL)-like capabilities on the personal computer that obviate the necessity for any procedural programming on the PC. This is fairly easy to do, as the tasks in a cooperative setup that can be done on the workstation are all susceptible to a 4GL approach. The obstacles identified so far address the possible increased development and maintenance costs. But these costs may actually decrease in a cooperative setup. For example, consider the following situation: If half the statements of a mainframe application could be shifted to the PC, and these statements could be maintained in a simple, easy-to-use 4GL form, both development and maintenance could be made more productive. If the PC portion also provided panel design and prototyping tools, the gains could be substantial. A prototyping capability would be very powerful, as the workstation is both the platform of prototyping and the platform of delivery. The prototype, after suitable integration with the mainframe, would itself become the application. Further, an important goal of designing a cooperative processing application would be to hide the complexities of IBM's LU6.2 communications protocol from the developer, so that any CICS Cobol programmer could adapt and write pseudoconversational cooperative applications. Thus, the development and maintenance costs associated with a well-structured cooperative processing tool kit would be less than those that attend the traditional mainframe/dumb terminal approach, with substantial scope for productivity improvements. Performance issues A significant obstacle to cooperative processing is performance. It is important to remember here that we are comparing the performance of a dumb terminal or personal computer in emulation mode connected to a mainframe typically running CICS with an intelligent workstation conversing with CICS in a cooperative application. In that light, several performance considerations need to be addressed. The first issue is how much of a typical business function can be shifted to the workstation. Since the database and task management aspects are still retained on the mainframe in a cooperative implementation of a conventional business application, only a small percentage of the processing would be shifted to the PC. However, even if 10% of the processing can be shifted to the PC, it is still useful, as the personal computers on the desktop represent a sunk cost anyway. But detractors would say, the penalties of bidirectional transmission between the two partners would nullify any benefits in splitting the processing. Keep in mind, however, that bidirectional transmission is equally necessary between the dumb terminal or PC in emulation mode and the mainframe. Hence, the real question is, Does bidirectional transmission have more or fewer penalties in a cooperative processing setup? There are two aspects to evaluating this query. The first is the size of the data packet that is transmitted or received. In a traditional dumb terminal application, entire screens consisting of both constant and variable display fields are sent to the terminal. In cooperative processing mode, only the variable data is sent to the workstation, as all the constant data already resides on and is invoked from the workstation. In addition, if the communications engine between workstation and mainframe is LU6.2 rather than 3270, a cooperative processing application should be faster. This possibility exists because LU6.2 is more efficient and does not have to transmit the excess baggage of the 3270 data stream, all other things being equal. IBM has indicated that LU6.2 applications run twice as fast as old 3270 applications. Requests and replies The second concern regarding the penalties of bidirectional transmission is the high number of request/reply transmissions. In fact, in a well-thought-out and well-structured cooperative application, the number of request/reply transmissions would be less than if the same business function was implemented on the dumb terminal. The following example shows why. A typical on-line transaction system begins with a menu structure to reach all the various options. Once the user has come to the needed option, he enters the data in a full screen and then goes through a number of edit/ validation cycles. After the data has been completely certified, it is then processed by the mainframe for update. At this point, any of the following PC structures would reduce the number of request/reply transmissions in a cooperative application: Because the entire menu and navigation structure can reside on the PC, no request/replies are needed until the desired transaction is reached. The field, interfield and local table edits performed on the PC require no interaction with the mainframe. The entire Help structure can reside solely on the PC. The logical panel sizes could be defined to be larger than the physical size of the PC screen. Thus, a transaction that spanned three screens, each with its own edit/validation cycle, could be made into one large logical panel, with only one edit/ validation cycle. In a typical edit/validation cycle, once a screenful of data is sent to the mainframe, all edits or validations are accomplished in that pass, and the fields in error are flagged for highlighting on the screen. But due to screen limitations, the traditional applications show a single error-message line, usually indicating the first fields in error. Hence, although ideally the user should correct all fields in error, in practice the user corrects only the field whose error message is currently on display, presses the return key for another edit/validation cycle and then corrects the next field with an error message. In a cooperative application, a separate window can be shown with all the error messages for that screen, so that the user can correct them in one pass. It would seem from the above analysis that cooperative processing is a great idea that should have taken the mainframe world by storm. The reason it has not happened thus far is due to several considerations, many of which concern IBM's technology direction in the area. DOS and SAA For the desktop workstation, the entry point into IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA) is a Personal System/2 running OS/2 Extended Edition 1.1. Assuming that you are planning a cooperative application and want to absolutely adhere to SAA, you would have to replace dumb terminals with workstations, and each workstation typically costs in the range of $10,000. This certainly raises the cost of entry into using the cooperative processing technique. One solution would be for IBM to state that SAA will support DOS 4.0 as well as subsequent releases of the operating system. This would not mean that IBM has to provide all SAA elements under DOS. All it would require is a statement that any applications developed for DOS have a user interface that conforms to the Common User Access component of SAA, and the shell of DOS 4.0 already does that. In addition, IBM could provide a new version of Advanced Program-to-Program Communications/PC (APPC/PC) that adheres to the Common Programming Interface for Communications (CPI-C), another SAA component. There is already a precedent in the manner in which CICS, and especially CICS under VSE, participates in SAA. Of course, in the case of CICS _ and RPG _ there was a powerful and vociferous lobby to insist on their inclusion under SAA. However, no such lobby exists for DOS, partly because most DOS users do not have much idea of what SAA is all about and probably do not care all that much to find out. But the participation of DOS in SAA along these lines would be a great boost to cooperative processing, as the cost of entry into SAA would plummet from $10,000 for a workstation to $2,000 for a PC or compatible. LU6.2 support Because the cooperative application would have to coexist with existing 3270 applications, it is necessary that the user be able to switch painlessly between LU6.2 and 3270 applications. While the Communications Manager in OS/2 Extended Edition provides for this capability, it is just as important in the DOS world. Gateway vendors, such as the San Jose, Calif.-based CSI division of 3Com Corp. with its Maxess SNA Gateway, are already providing for this switching capability, and IBM should probably do the same. Currently, LU6.2 support from IBM is only available over Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) and Token-Ring connections. But as Network Software Associates, Inc. (NSA) in Laguna Hills, Calif., has shown with AdaptSNA APPC, LU6.2 can be supported on coaxial and asynchronous connections, too. Today, of the personal computers communicating with IBM mainframe environments, 70% to 80% are attached via coaxial cable, according to Leslie Lord, a PC connectivity senior analyst at International Data Corp., a market research firm in Framingham, Mass. The remainder, she points out, are attached over SDLC or some other type of remote link. In fact, LU6.2 should be the native mode of communications, with 3270 running on top of it. There is already a precedent for this in the AS/400 world: PC support has been provided between personal computers and AS/400 over twin-axial cable, with LU6.2 as the primary protocol and 5250 emulation running on top of LU6.2. APPC/PC is another crucial piece of the cooperative processing puzzle, but the SAA product has hardly undergone any improvements since its 1985 release. Apart from making it conform to CPI-C, it needs to be made more efficient, less of a memory hog and easier to use. Once again, third-party vendors such as NSA and Montreal-based Eicon Technology Corp. have shown the way. For instance, in Eicon's EiconAPPC product, most of the LU6.2 code resides in the interface board, thus reducing the memory requirement. APPC/PC must also be made a full partner in an OS/2 LAN Server-based network consisting of a mixture of DOS and OS/2 workstations, such that most of the LU6.2 logic resides on the server and just a call interface resides on each DOS PC. This is already the direction that several local-area network communications gateway vendors _ such as Digital Communications Associates, Inc. in Alpharetta, Ga., with its currently unreleased Select products _ are taking. Distributed data Most of the discussion of cooperative processing in the context of SAA has been about distributed data. This notion implies that each user phrases all his data requirements in SQL format and triggers a query, which then collates the data _ be it from PC, server or mainframe _ and presents it in one unified picture to the user. However, 1988 surveys by the Midwest DB2 Users Group and the Knauer DB2 users group have shown that distributed data is not a concern for the majority of users who are still struggling to get on top of IBM's DB2. This may be a case in which IBM is ahead of the needs of its user community. There is still an urgent need for cooperative processing based on distributed function and centralized/semicentralized data that IBM needs to address. Yet another technology ripe for implementing cooperative processing is the diskless PC. While it is widely known that IBM has provided diskless versions of its PS/2 to several large users, it has not officially announced one yet. But when it is available, a diskless PC in the $2,000 range will be just the ticket for large-scale migration from terminals to PCs. Already companies like Wyse Technology in San Jose, Calif., have announced processing terminals that are similar to diskless PCs. Wyse's diskless offering, which came out last fall, is called the WY-212m Network Terminal, or The Networker. Certainly an entry by IBM would legitimize the concept and, along with other such moves, get cooperative processing going at a brisk pace. By Nandan Nilekani; Nilekani is a director of Infosys Consultants Pv. Ltd., a software development company located in Bangalore, India. <<<>>> Title : Automation vs. innovation Author : Clinton Wilder Source : CW Comm FileName: mgtcol Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: We all know about information technology for competitive advantage (how about a new acronym _ ITCA?). The pioneering systems of American Airlines and American Hospital Supply have become IS legend, and other practitioners such as McKesson and Federal Express have received plenty of ink as well. But let's talk for a moment about what ITCA is not. Aetna Life & Casualty's top information systems executive, Irwin J. Sitkin, described a non-ITCA system in a speech earlier this month to the Pilgrim chapter of the Data Processing Management Association south of Boston. Sitkin related how Aetna, using a state-of-the-art electronic publishing system, is able to print and mail insurance policies _ smart-looking and shrink-wrapped _ to its customers faster than its competition. Sounds great, right? Then Sitkin, a down-to-earth and outspoken IS veteran, delivered the punch line: ``But no one reads the policies any way. They have no reason to until they have a problem, and when they have a problem, they call their agent.'' There is nothing inherently wrong with automating business procedures to make them run _ in the words of the old STP gas treatment commercials _ smoother, cooler, quieter and longer. But those accomplishments should not be confused with true ITCA applications or strategic systems, to cite the other current buzzword. Adding STP to your gas tank may smooth the ride, but it does not make you a better driver. Making part of your business more efficient with information technology has some benefit but probably does not translate into competitive advantage. Which leads to the critical fish-or-cut-bait question: Is STP, or the particular automating system, worth the investment? James C. Wetherbe, director of the MIS Research Center at the University of Minnesota, characterizes the distinction as one between efficiency and effectiveness. In a presentation last week at the Cambridge, Mass.-based consultancy Index Group, where he is on sabbatical, Wetherbe chose two examples outside the IS world to make his point. Traffic cops and Occupational Health and Safety Administration inspectors, Wetherbe said, are considered more efficient and productive when they issue more citations. But to measure their effectiveness, their superiors should be measuring declines in highway accidents and on-the-job injuries. The formula for keeping information systems measurement out of this trap is simple, and you've heard it before. The IS mission must be aligned with the business mission. But the business executive seeking the elusive goal of ITCA must be astute enough to understand the true nature of his business. In Sitkin's Aetna example, the electronic publishing system falls short of ITCA because Aetna's real business is not writing insurance policies _ it is servicing the policyholders. The challenge for IS executives is greater than selling senior managers on the benefits of information technology. To use technology strategically, senior managers must think about business in new, innovative and creative ways. Can an IS executive lead that effort? Only with great difficulty, I would suggest. That is what makes partnership so important. Both IS managers and top executives must rethink their business approach to find the areas in which technology can make a difference in the marketplace. Then and only then can that business outmaneuver its competitors and zoom into the lead _ whether there's STP in the tank or not. By Clinton Wilder; Wilder is Computerworld's senior editor, management. <<<>>> Title : End-user computing: A cha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: end.4 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: The melding of white-collar workers and personal computers into end-user computing is shaping up as a potent force that promises to change the very organizational structure of many corporations. But information services managers may find it difficult preparing for the impact of end-user computing because the changes are both rapid and subtle. ``It's impossible to keep up,'' said Don Weidman, manager of end-user support services at Long Island Lighting Co. in Hicksville, N.Y. ``In the last five years, changes from end-user computing have been so rapid that you don't have time to stop; you are always running to stay up on the technology. I feel the organization changing, but I don't see it happening because of the rapidity.'' Nolan, Norton & Co., a management consulting firm in Lexington, Mass., suggests that information technology in general, and end-user computing specifically, will transform the structure of many organizations from a pyramid form of hierarchy _ with functional groups for accounting, marketing and so on _ to a network that is less bureaucratic and has a greater degree of flexibility and communication among departments. Some of the characteristics of this network will be streamlined reporting levels, executives able to manage more subordinates than before and employees communicating directly with the people they need to work with to accomplish a task, said Thomas Johnson, executive director of the Nolan Norton Institute. ``The tools are there but it's going to take a change in business thinking before end-user computing will have a real impact on the organization's structure,'' said Tim Crowell, vice-president of local-area network support at NCNB Texas, a bank based in Dallas. ``We're finding that networks allow end users to streamline their work and improve communication. They can bypass people that they needed to go through in the past. They now have a tendency to go directly to the person that can give them the answer that they need instead of going through a line of management.'' Executives at Sea-Land Corp., headquartered in Edison, N.J., are increasingly relying on spreadsheet, word processing and electronic mail applications to personally handle tasks that may have once been delegated to a subordinate. The benefit has been a freer flow of information at the executive level and more expeditious decision making, said Jeff Kaplan, information center manager. ``The executives are requiring more and more sophisticated applications and their demands are much more informed, with a set of criteria that is clearly drawn,'' he added. Though the changes caused by end-user computing are already in motion, it probably will not be until at least the early 1990s that they become readily apparent, according to some analysts. That is when the ratio of white-collar workers to PCs will be about 1-to-1 in most large companies. At the moment, the ratio of white-collar workers to personal computers is about two-to-one, according to Nolan Norton's Johnson. Charles T. Mallet, senior vice-president of information management services at Heller Financial, Inc. in Chicago, said that end-user computing is still two or three years away from having an impact on the company's organizational structure. He said that end users will be able to change the organization once they have a better grasp of computing technology. ``When we say end-user computing, to us it means having the users develop their own applications,'' he said. For now, most companies report that their employees are using personal computers to handle their work in new and more productive ways, even though end-user computing has not yet had a measurable impact on the organizational structure. Losing altitude At Lockheed Corp., some decisions are being made at lower points in the organization because of the growing use of computer-integrated manufacturing and computer-aided design systems, said Dean Allen, vice-president of information services. End-user computing may ultimately be one of several factors that contribute to the flattening of the organizational structure, he added: ``I really haven't noticed any evidence of that major impact yet, but I suppose it will happen over time.'' End-user computing already is having a dramatic impact on the information center, leading some analysts to speculate that at companies in which end-user computing is in full bloom, the information center is no longer needed. Eventually, end users will drive spending levels for technology, develop and support small applications, operate departmental computers, learn new applications on their own and handle other tasks once done by information centers, analysts predicted. IS executives can prepare for the changes that will result from the rise in end-user computing by moving their information systems people into the business, according to Mallet. ``We want to drive our IS people out into the organization and not have them looked upon as IS people but as business people who know the business but also know how to interface with the computer,'' he added. Mallet said that the information systems profession will change dramatically, that there will still be technocrats who are experts in areas such as database management systems, but that IS will serve as manager of an applications center in support of the users. ``Our future lies in the fact that we keep technology moving through the corporation,'' Sea-Land's Kaplan agreed. ``Some years ago, people talked about the decline of the information center, but that is not going to happen. Instead, we have expanded our services and we are doing more needs analysis and connectivity. It has been a pleasant surprise.'' By Michael Alexander and James Connolly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Telecom troubles on Europ Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: fortress Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: PARIS _ European progress toward realizing the old dream of a unified economic market has sent a jolt through the world telecommunications industry and may spark a trade war between the European Community (EC) and the U.S. One of the cornerstones of EC plans to remove most trade barriers between its 12 member nations by Dec. 31, 1992, is the progressive liberalization of telecommunications equipment and services markets. U.S. industry and government officials, while attracted by the possibility of selling to a single market of 320 million consumers, fear a post-1992 ``Fortress Europe'' impervious to U.S. exports. ``The 1992 initiative is . . . being watched in the U.S. and elsewhere with apprehension as well as excitement,'' said Oswald Ganley, executive director of the Program on Information Resources Policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. In recent weeks, transatlantic trade tensions have been growing. U.S. government authorities reportedly informed the EC in late January that it had been targeted as a priority for investigation under the terms of the U.S. Telecommunications Trade Act. Brussels-based EC officials, who privately expressed dismay at the move, were awaiting detailed charges last week. The EC officials counter U.S. allegations that U.S. telecom firms face restricted access to the EC market by noting that Europe's trade deficit with the U.S. in this sector has been growing and currently stands at $570 million. The simmering trade battle comes as major industry players are struggling to form alliances with smaller firms that dominate once-protected national markets. In recent weeks, foreign bidders from Europe and North America have been courting the principal switch makers in the UK and Italy. In Italy, where Italtel SPA is looking for an international partner, officials are expected to announce their choice in coming days. According to recent press reports, U.S. giant AT&T is favored over West Germany's Siemens AG, Sweden's L.M. Ericsson and France's Alcatel N.V. Victory would come none too soon for AT&T. The world's biggest telecom firm has suffered a number of setbacks in its efforts to penetrate European markets. Although it has formed alliances with Philips Telecommunications N.V. in the Netherlands and Italy's Ing. C. Olivetti & Co., attempts to win market share through buyouts or tie-ups have brought little success. AT&T has been viewed since its initial appearance as an outsider threatening to dominate markets undergoing their first delicate moves toward liberalization. AT&T saw its hopes to win a place in the French market dashed in April 1987 when it lost a hotly contested bid to buy the state-owned switch supplier Cie. General des Constructions Telephoniques. Ericsson, in alliance with France's electronics group Matra SA, won that takeover battle. Nonetheless, in June 1987, AT&T did succeed in entering the Spanish market by acquiring the civil telecommunications business of Marconi Espana SA, one of two ITT Corp. affiliates acquired by Alcatel. The restructured firm is owned jointly with Amper SA in Spain. We want Britain Along with Italy, the UK is currently facing the strongest pressure to admit foreign players. ``The prize everyone is after is the UK,'' said Bill Coleman, a high-tech analyst at London stock brokerage James Capel & Co. Most of the major players are bidding to become the international partner of GPT, the joint telecommunications equipment venture formed by General Electric Co. and Plessey PLC. Since GE and Plessey are themselves archrivals, the search for an appropriate suitor has been difficult. To resolve the impasse, GE teamed up with Siemens in November to make a hostile takeover bid of Plessey. Plessey has so far succeeded in repelling the attack. Regardless of the outcome, analysts agree that GPT will need a foreign partner to stay competitive in the post-1992 pan-European market. ``There is major concern to take R&D and marketing overhead out of the industry,'' said a UK securities analyst who requested anonymity. ``There is only room for three or four major manufacturers.'' The industrial consolidation among equipment providers is occurring as telecommunications carriers, most of them still state-run monopolies, are buckling under to political pressure to liberalize markets and encourage competition. As telecom carriers become more concerned about their ability to compete in open markets, equipment providers will find that they must deliver higher quality goods at lower cost. That is good news for users. ``The consequence of all this for users is that they will see better value over time,'' Coleman said. By Amiel Kornel, IDG News Service <<<>>> Title : Communications trio to pr Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: shorty Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: As users increasingly pressure vendors to provide one-stop shopping, three communications organizations have announced a partnership that they said was designed to integrate their complementary product lines. The companies _ which include such firms as Network Systems Corp. in Minneapolis, Excelan, Inc. in San Jose, Calif., and Wellfleet Communications, Inc. in Bedford, Mass. _ claimed that their alliance will enable networking managers to deal with a single vendor for design assistance, products and service to link different kinds of networks with a mix of computer systems. Typically, this forces these users to deal with multiple suppliers. Network Systems will market, under its name, products manufactured by Excelan and Wellfleet. The products will be sold and serviced by Network Systems' worldwide sales and service organizations. Network Systems connects supercomputers and mainframes to high-speed networks. Excelan adds Apple Computer, Inc. and IBM Personal System/2 connectivity, while Wellfleet's routers provide the ability to talk to Digital Equipment Corp. networks. All three vendors said they support Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. <<<>>> Title : How to finesse the interv Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: careers2 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Increasingly in MIS hiring, interviews turn on business issues, not technology. Even at entry-level positions, the current emphasis is on the candidate's communications skills and broader perspective. ``Bits and bytes are a part of it,'' says Jane Hunt, an administrator at the corporate staffing unit of Aetna Life and Casualty Co. in Hartford, Conn. ``But in the last few years, we've wanted to see communications skills, business savvy and a customer-service orientation.'' At high levels, technical competence usually can be determined from the resume; the interview focuses almost completely on business matters. ``I want to see if the candidate has a business perspective rather than a technical perspective. I want to see if they have made the transition from being a techie to being a business person,'' says Bruce Walton, executive director of Russell Reynolds Associates in New York. Walton is hired on retainer by large corporations to screen high-level MIS candidates. He might ask the candidate to discuss how information systems fit into the overall scheme of things at his previous position or what challenges a corporate strategy might create for the information system. ``I want to see if they answer in business terms or if they always come back with narrow technical details,'' he says. Certain questions always come up, says Jack Erdlen, president of the Erdlen Bograd Group in Wellesley, Mass., a human resources consulting firm. ``Tell me about yourself?'' is often the first question asked, Erdlen says. To answer this question, the candidate should be prepared to talk about his strengths and achievements. ``Tell me about your weaknesses?'' is another frequent question. To Michael Thorsen, director of MIS at Datacard Corp. in Minneapolis, ``the perfect answer is to identify some weaknesses in the past and describe the steps you have taken to correct them.'' Some candidates prefer to describe a weakness that is unrelated to the job under consideration. For instance, admit a weakness in distributed processing when you are being interviewed for a centralized database position. The reasons for leaving a previous job can be a touchy issue. Be careful about portraying previous bosses or system users as being at fault. ``That is always a red flag for me,'' Thorsen warns. Instead of bringing up personality conflicts, the candidate can relate how he failed to get choice assignments or how his interests changed, Erdlen adds. Often an interviewer will ask about other job offers or interviews. The candidate wants to answer this question honestly, but in a way that does not suggest he is undesirable. Unless the candidate is indeed pursuing other strong possibilities, consultants advise him to relate that he is just beginning the search or that he is looking for the best challenge or opportunity for his skills and interests. Salary issues must be handled carefully. ``Salary questions are usually used to screen people out,'' Erdlen warns. The best answer, at least until one has a specific offer, is to say that the salary requirements are open. The term ``open'' implies a more flexible attitude than ``negotiable,'' which can suggest a more adversarial stance, an effort to extract a specific amount. Straight talk ``We expect a straightforward answer when it comes to salary history because we can verify that. For future salary, we're more willing to leave that open and come back to it later,'' Thorsen says. The most common reasons candidates are rejected, according to Erdlen's survey of hiring managers, are that they fail to sell themselves, make excessive salary demands or lack enthusiasm. Other common failings include responding with short answers, showing a failure to prepare for the interview, making petty excuses for shortcomings and lacking career direction. In addition to avoiding these pitfalls, Arnold advises job seekers to make sure they arrive on time for the interview and then send a thank-you note promptly. Saying the right thing during a job interview often means more than merely answering questions properly. Some managers expect candidates to make their own case. ``I like to just talk to people, ask a few questions, but really let the person talk about himself or herself,'' says Paul Veltre, director of information resources at Genstar Stone Products in Baltimore, a manufacturer of construction materials. As a candidate talks, Veltre gauges how well the person will fit with the rest of the MIS team he has assembled. ``I like to see how we are relating person to person,'' he explains. Short, terse answers are not acceptable. ``If the person just sits and says nothing, then that's dead meat,'' he concludes. By Alan Radding, Special to CW; Radding is a Boston-based author specializing in business and technology. <<<>>> Title : Navigating the PC service Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: market20 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: Shopping for maintenance and repair for personal computers can be as bewildering as trying to buy insurance. In fact, contracts for PC service can be viewed as a form of insurance. There are many repair options, however, including in-house service and going outside on a pay-as-you-go basis. Users must weigh the pros and cons of service alternatives in light of their effects on cost, convenience and other factors. Some companies avoid repair headaches by leasing computers. ``We don't have much trouble with our systems because we lease,'' says Wayne Allen, manager of computer operations at Entex, Inc., a Houston oil and gas firm. ``We don't keep our systems for more than three years. When we do have problems, we just ship them out, and the leasing company provides us with a replacement,'' Allen says. Many larger organizations find it more economical to maintain computers in-house. ``Companies with 100 or more PC systems can afford to hire a full-time technician to maintain the computers,'' says Keith Stearns, president of Stearns Computer Services, Inc. in Hopedale, Mass. ``It costs them less to have one person look after the computers on-site than to send each one out or have someone from the outside keep coming in.'' Old Kent Financial Corp. in Grand Rapids, Mich., services its 400 PCs on its own, turning to manufacturers when problems arise. ``If we can't handle the repair,'' says Robert Coffey, the firm's vice-president of technical services, ``then we have the repairs done on a time-and-materials basis. We just take out the part and send it to the manufacturer.'' House calls Organizations opting for regular outside service for their PCs still have several options. The most elaborate one is a contract for on-site repairs and maintenance, which brings a technician to the office to do the work. Providers of on-site service usually leave a loaner if a computer must be removed for a long period of time. On-site maintenance is available from nationwide specialists such as TRW Corp. and Sorbus, Inc. as well as many computer dealers. Some national retail chains offer service in different parts of the country, as do some smaller retailers and service organizations through affiliations. A less expensive alternative is depot service, which calls for the user to bring computers to the shop and pick them up when they are repaired, although some providers of depot service handle the transporting. Service providers tend to charge for depot maintenance on the basis of labor and materials costs. Service by manufacturers, which is free during warranty periods, generally is not on-site; users must ship back broken machines and might be without them for weeks. One exception is IBM, which recently offered to service PCs as part of its maintenance program for users of its larger computers. With an emphasis on convenience, Monumental Life Insurance Co. in Baltimore avoids the need to ship computers to the manufacturer for repairs even when the work would be free under warranty. Instead, it takes advantage of an independent service firm's offer of half-price agreements for on-site service during a machine's first year, says Alex Alexandrous, a special project officer in Monumental's Management Information Division. Alexandrous, who is responsible for nearly 100 PCs, says service providers offered to charge him between 6% and 9% of the value of a system for on-site service. He opted for contracts with EBS Systems in Greenbelt, Md. because the firm agreed to his request of charging a fixed rate for each PC system. The rate works out to 8% or 9% of the average value of a system but has two chief advantages, Alexandrous says. First, the rate will not change if the value of a system increases with the addition of add-in cards or peripherals, except laser printers. ``All the other vendors wanted to charge extra,'' Alexandrous says. The second advantage is that managers in user departments, who foot the bill for maintaining their machines, know the exact cost of the service in advance. ``They are better able to plan their annual budgets with this in mind,'' Alexandrous says. At the other end of the spectrum, Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. in Detroit strives for cost control by choosing depot service on a time-and-materials basis for each of its 500 PCs, which costs about $50 per machine a year, according to information center manager Ray Barron. Barron says repairs on the basis of time and material costs can be less expensive than in-house service regardless of the number of computers involved. However, he is looking into spending a little more to get on-site service on a time-and-materials basis to lessen downtime and avoid the hassle of transporting computers to and from the shop. By David A. Ludlum; Ludlum is a Computerworld senior writer. <<<>>> Title : Try shared ownership on f Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: train20 Date : Feb 27, 1989 Text: In any organized group, basic questions need to be resolved: what the organization should do, how the work will be broken up and how it will be performed. Theories have evolved on how to perform the management functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling _ in other words, how to get work done through others, which has become a definition of management. Most of these theories call for layers of bosses and groups of workers who report to them. More recently, however, other approaches have emerged for answering basic questions of how to manage. These theories include participative management, management by objectives and the notion of teamwork. I would like to suggest a new extension to these notions: the concept of shared ownership. This approach calls for members of the data processing training department _ or any other group _ to participate in the organization's functioning as if it were jointly owned by all working within it. Shared ownership goes further than participative management. It calls for workers to take the proactive stance of owners rather than simply to join in decision-making. One of my instructors reflected this attitude recently when he assumed the responsibility of helping a fellow instructor whose efforts to modify a course in IBM's JCL were creating confusion among students. Questions and answers The notion of shared ownership generates some new answers to our basic management questions of what we should do and who will do what. As to the first question, shared objectives suggest that we work together to redefine our mission, our value systems, our opportunities for service and our future. The second question is answered once we examine all that we need to do and volunteer for what we can handle best. But because we share ownership, we can leave no tasks unclaimed. We define roles and responsibilities and share them on a rotating basis, providing greater responsibility with increased experience. Everyone, from department chief to clerical worker, takes part in defining the mission and developing a strategy. Specialization is determined by skill levels and individual preferences and is subject to approval of the group. How we will approach our work is another basic point to be resolved. We determine new and better ways through deliberation among task teams, then seek the approval of our other co-owners. In such a unit, all members take the view that they ``own'' the results. In other words, they take responsibility for the outcome, both the successes and failures. I can hear the rumblings of criticism. ``But the corporation owns the unit, not the employees,'' some people will say. Perhaps, but ultimately we all ``own'' our work and the results of it in the sense that we are responsible for them. No one else can contribute to them or control them as we can. The firm may not bestow ownership on group members, but the members still should assume responsibility and treat the group as if they owned it. ``What about job grades, job descriptions and equal pay for equal work?'' the critics will continue. The formal structure of the group _ organization chart, job descriptions, pay grades and procedure manuals _ lacks flexibility and does not necessarily contribute to the accomplishment of work. Whether the work gets done, and how it gets done, is subject to the control of employees. Shared ownership recognizes and validates this truth. When we adopt the idea of shared ownership, satisfaction and performance both increase. An instructor teaching use of a code generator illustrated the benefits. Managers expressed concern about the work of the instructor's students several weeks after classes ended _ not an unusual development in cases of new technology. The instructor's response was to meet with the manager, analyze the system he was trying to build and spend several hours refining the workers' skills. Be accountable If we can come to see the DP training unit as a small, private partnership that sells its services to client communities, then each of us can take full responsibility for whatever develops. The training manager has an obligation to establish this climate and to encourage people to live up to the values of shared ownership. He can figure out how best to do so by gathering his staff and listening to their ideas on sharing responsibility, decisions, work, glory and ownership. Of course, the manager must still assume accountability. But he will become a better manager, his training department will be more successful and his employees will grow and develop. By Edmond Drouin, Special to CW; Drouin is director of DP Education & Training at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. in Portsmouth, N.H. <<<>>> Title : Vying for attention on th Author : Tony Friscia Source : CW Comm FileName: manwatch Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Although IBM is No. 1 in providing key manufacturing technologies such as production control and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), it lags behind competitors DEC and Hewlett-Packard as the vendor of choice for the primary plant computing platform. Unaccustomed to finding itself in the runner-up position, IBM is using its full resources to capture users' attention on the plant floor. The firm recently introduced the plant-floor series Distributed Automation Edition (DAE), which offers a scalable product line that allows users to run tasks cooperatively on a number of different nodes. Within this framework, IBM is positioning the 9370 as a small plant host or area computer. Support for cells and plant devices is through the personal computer family _ the core of the IBM plant-floor strategy. Along with the introduction of DAE, IBM is making a number of moves to intensify its push to improve its market standing. Two themes are emerging from this thrust: IBM is leveraging its own investment in factory automation to yield internal and external product-development benefits, and the company is getting the message out about the payoffs of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) through marketing programs and donating equipment to universities. These activities contribute significantly to the development and acceptance of DAE. The DAE strategy stems from IBM's internal investment in manufacturing automation. Unlike most manufacturers, IBM can devote extensive resources to turning internally developed manufacturing technology into a commercial business. To support this opportunity, however, the company needs to establish credibility as a plant-floor vendor. The university program and customer education programs are longer term strategies to seed market acceptance. Learning CIM lessons Without the experience of automating itself, IBM could not have realized the features that a CIM platform requires. In the past few years, much has been written about the unrealized promise of CIM. Studies show that the problem with making an investment in factory automation is that each plant or process is unique and therefore requires a custom solution. Until recently, vendors have not offered users the tools to minimize the custom content of major CIM projects. This problem limits the prospects for rapid CIM market development. A user who wants to fully automate is forced to either go into the computer business or to take on the massive job of building piece-meal solutions on multiple platforms. Neither alternative is acceptable. IBM is well placed to take on the expense of building such platforms because the costs of developing these tools for internal use can be offset by ``productizing'' for users. In addition, such facilities are usually turned into marketing showcases. A question still arises: IBM has little traditional standing on the plant floor _ in fact, it is negatively regarded by the plant-floor user culture, which is more accustomed to other vendors and noncomputer control. How does it overcome this obstacle? Proactive approach Answering the challenge, IBM quietly rolled out CIM and plant-floor products to its direct sales force, users and third-party distributors. The company set up a CIM National Support Center in Boca Raton, Fla., for training and support. It installed 14 regional hands-on demonstration centers and 44 minibriefing centers. IBM provided an extensive road show that attracted more than 1,700 users and sales representatives in 17 cities. This marketing effort included a special ``CIM in Universities'' campaign. To date, IBM is working with almost 50 colleges and technical schools as part of its Academic Computing Information Systems (ACIS) program. This CIM program will cost IBM approximately $25 million, not including promised technical and consulting support. This ACIS program is especially important in seeding IBM's future in the plant-floor market. IBM established a similar program in the engineering market several years ago at the height of its aggressive move into CAD/CAM, and IBM has since firmed its position as the market leader in that field. This university program is strategically linked to IBM's future growth in the factory. It is also a confirmation that IBM's commitment to this business is long term, since the investment will take several years to pay off. If the program works, however, the company could go from pariah to preferred vendor in the plant-floor computing market. By Tony Friscia; Friscia is president of Advanced Manufacturing Research, Inc., a Salem, Mass-based research and consulting firm. <<<>>> Title : The real target Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: f27edit2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: THE NEWS THAT an 18-year-old Chicago hacker will spend nine months in prison without the possibility of parole [CW, Feb. 23] is encouraging to those who advocate a hard line against computer crime. But the conviction and sentencing of Herbert Zinn Jr. under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 also raises a disturbing set of questions about who will be prosecuted under that and other statutes. On the one hand, it appears that Zinn got what he deserved for purloining more than $1 million worth of software, destroying files and publishing information on how to crack AT&T's computer security system. His sentence should put a damper on the type of computer bulletin-board chatter that advocates this kind of flagrant disregard for property and privacy. It also sends a message to would-be hackers that breaking into corporate computers is as bad as breaking into corporate offices _ and will be dealt with just as sternly. But the conviction of the ``Shadow Hawk'' raises new questions about whom the hacker laws protect and whom they convict. Hackers like Zinn are a relatively easy target. They are usually kids operating out of their homes who have little understanding of the organizations they are penetrating. They prowl around until they hit on something juicy, then alter a file or leave a message. Their agenda is to hack for the sake of hacking; any havoc they wreak along the way is incidental. The more devious and far more dangerous computer criminal is the corporate insider. This hacker usually knows just what he wants to do and how to do it. He works quietly and quickly, deleting or altering batches of files and covering his tracks as he retreats. He is devastating and elusive. Corporations have an annoyingly schizophrenic attitude toward these two breeds of intruders. They willingly make an example of the amateur hacker but cover up the damage wrought by the pro. Fearful of negative publicity, embarrassed by their own vulnerability, they fire the guilty employee and swallow losses that may run into the millions rather than expose their weaknesses in court. This brings up an interesting question. Who will be the target of new antihacker legislation? Using it to prosecute loners like Zinn or alleged Internet hacker Robert Morris Jr. may scare off the small-time crooks, but the big offenders will still get away with a kick out the door. This situation will continue until a major bank or insurance company is ready to step out of the shadows, lay bare its mistakes and throw the book at one of its own. We have long supported legislation to treat computer crime the same as any other crime against property or privacy. Federal and state authorities and the courts are now showing a willingness to do their part to prosecute and sentence violators. We hope the victims won't remain silent. <<<>>> Title : Clear as Bell Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: douglet2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Regarding the article on Bell Atlantic's Lanserver Plus local-area network server [CW, Nov. 7], David Terrie, president of Newport Consulting, appears to misunderstand our product. Lanserver Plus software integrates Bell Atlantic's Langate central office-based LANs with higher speed, premises-based Ethernet LANs and, early next year, with Token-Ring LANs. Also, Bell Atlantic provides customers with a full range of services, including financing, leasing, installation, maintenance and custom-solution design. Terrie's comments regarding PC servers and software fail to recognize that they are targeted at very different markets than the Bell Atlantic product. Our product was designed especially for Langate networks, connecting users who may be miles apart; Novell, Inc.'s Netware and 3Com Corp.'s product cannot run on Langate. Finally, Lanserver Plus support for Token-Ring LANs will not be available until Release 2, which will integrate the preexisting Langate and Lanserver Plus network management features. W. Davis Douglas III Assistant Vice-President Product Line Management Business Services Bell Atlantic Arlington, Va. By W. Davis Douglas III <<<>>> Title : Too big fermi Author : Anthony Whitman Source : CW Comm FileName: whitlet2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: While Charles Lecht's article [CW, Jan. 16] is in part out of this world, he should spend more time reviewing earthly dimensions: His definition of a fermi is 1,000 times too big. It is actually one quadrillionth of a meter. Anthony Whitman Chief Engineer System Development Corp. of Japan Tokyo <<<>>> Title : Real forces Author : Cliff Wildes Source : CW Comm FileName: wildlet2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Your editorial, ``Going down'' [CW, Jan. 23], prompts legitimate concern for the pricing strategies and profit motives of PC vendors. However, I take issue with your accusation that vendors cloak their actions in the ``guise'' of market forces when, in fact, there are legitimate forces to contend with. With inventory levels for computer hardware at an all-time high, vendors are basically selling equipment that was manufactured when dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) prices were at their highest. Also, it takes 30 to 45 days to assemble components, manufacture a product and then package it. So, even in a best-case scenario, it might take a vendor about two months to bring a project to market that reflects the lower priced DRAMs. Nonetheless, if you really want to strike a blow at greed, why not blow the whistle on the DRAM vendors? Both American and Japanese firms played a key role in bringing about a poorly conceived trade agreement that did not fully take into account the dynamics of the marketplace. Indeed, the trade agreement let DRAM vendors take advantage of market conditions to raise prices and reap exorbitant profits at the expense of consumers and system integrators. As a board and subsystem manufacturer whose lifeline is very much dependent upon the availability and pricing of DRAMs, I urge the Bush administration to overhaul the trade agreement so that, in the spirit of competition, consumers get a fair shake. Cliff Wildes President Microtech International Branford, Conn. <<<>>> Title : Why not make it right the Author : Efrem G. Mallach Source : CW Comm FileName: mallach7 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Funny how people get more credit for fixing a problem than for avoiding it in the first place. Any fool can drive a car to miss a telephone pole. Making a car drivable again after it hits that pole at 40 miles per hour takes talent. We react the same way in the computer business, and vendors know this. It is amazing how often they create a problem and then fix it with fanfare rather than avoiding it in the first place. It is even more amazing how we thank them for this service rather than asking why the problems arose in the first place. Here are a few examples of vendors featuring the fix: Datapoint. Many years ago, this company offered only small, slow, eight-bit processors. All of its competitors had bigger and faster 16-bit minis. Datapoint's engineers apparently were not very good at designing fast CPUs. So they put several small systems on a wire and invented Arcnet, the world's first local-area network. The marketing folks pushed modular expansion, file servers and other 1989 hot products _ back in the mid-70s. They did quite nicely with the concept for a while. Their salespeople never talked about why Datapoint chose this approach. And customers never questioned it. DEC. Every article on artificial intelligence mentions Xcon, one of the first successful industrial systems. In the days of the VAX 11/780, there were reportedly only five or six engineers within DEC who could consistently get VAX configurations right. So Xcon was developed to check VAX configurations for validity. The question nobody asked was, why could every other minicomputer vendor design systems of the same performance level and configuration flexibility in such a way that the ordinary mortals on their staffs could configure them? IBM. Systems Application Architecture (SAA) is intended to provide common interfaces to several inherently incompatible systems. IBM is fixing a problem and should get credit for doing so. But let us not forget that the problem is one of IBM's own making. It resulted from IBM management's never having forced products of different families to work alike. While SAA's benefits _ should they ever arrive _ will improve the existing state of affairs, it would have been better for users if IBM had managed its product lines to provide user-level compatibility among disparate architectures earlier, and with no noise. The word ``architecture,'' by the way, should be a red flag. Hearing it usually means that one is about to endure a massive dose of ``If you can't fix it, feature it.'' Lengthy presentations of grandiose architectural schemes are a standard cover-up for lack of real products. IBM. (It's big enough to get two mentions.) System/36 users who upgraded to the B10 or B20 models of the Application System/400 with the minimum 4M bytes of memory found themselves with far less performance than they had before. IBM did the right things: It offered these users another 4M bytes free for a year and set up support mechanisms to speed their conversion to the lower overhead native AS/400 mode. Yet amid the praise being heaped on IBM for taking these steps, we tend to forget one thing: The praise is for dealing with a situation that proper testing would have caught and that IBM never should have permitted in the first place. Problems are not going to go away. Computer systems and their applications grow more complex daily. Perfection, an admirable goal, is not always attainable. The way in which a firm rises to the challenge of dealing with its self-inflicted wounds is a good test of that firm's character. However, when a vendor touts a problem-solving product or service as a boon to its customers, those users owe it to their management and stockholders to ask the following hard questions: Precisely what, dear vendor, is the problem you are solving? Was this problem of my doing _ or one that you created yourself? Should this problem exist in the first place? Do your competitors have it? If not, why not? Why couldn't you avoid the problem? What steps have you taken to keep the same thing from happening again? If it does happen again, how do I know you'll be just as eager to fix it next time? And will you put that in writing? It is up to users to keep vendors on their toes. To do this job properly, users must examine the emperor carefully _ and scream loudly if he's naked. By Efrem G. Mallach; Mallach is a faculty member at the University of Lowell in Massachusetts and a consultant to users and vendors. <<<>>> Title : Benchmarking Brainiac 100 Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: harvey62 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: You may have heard a lot of talk this past year about neural networks, parallel processors, multiprocessors and other commercial and academic attempts to build computers on a scale closer to the human brain. But one thing you may not have heard much about is what this effort actually means or what the new technologies are really accomplishing. A friend at a neural network company told me that in terms of ``biomental'' evolution, today's products can compete head-to-head with a level of intelligence on par with a worm. Only a worm, you ask? Yep, a worm. Attempting the feats of the human brain would require . . . well, a human brain. Let's take a look at the brain as if it were an actual production computer _ the Brainiac 1000 _ and see what it can do. Specifically, consider the brain of an entertainer, say a singer such as Frank Sinatra, Sting or Bruce Springsteen. Such a line of work is certainly not thought-intensive like nuclear physics or quantum mechanics; thus, it qualifies as a fairly normal activity that requires a ``regular'' amount of brain work. Here is our starting point for the brain/machine performance benchmarks. Let's say each of these singers has recorded more than 100 songs in various formats, including studio versions, live versions, radio broadcasts, promotional pieces, cover versions and so on. Each of the performers is equipped with a standard Brainiac 1000, which comes complete with audio signal recognition for accessing information using signals as inputs. We will base performance on the ``Bob Barker Benchmarks,'' actually known as the ``Name That Tune'' measurement scale. In our test, we play an excerpt from a song for four seconds, long enough for our singer to recognize one of his own tunes. Using full stereo reproduction of a particular song, it is quite possible that each second of information could contain 64,000 bytes of data (you can verify this number by observing how much space a musical sample takes up on a hard disk). Four seconds multiplied by 64,000 bytes equals 256,000 bytes. Since the Brainiac is outfitted with two ears as input devices, the total number of bytes in the incoming signal is doubled to 512,000. Thus, the Brainiac is receiving about half a megabyte of information during the four seconds. The input has to be compared with the information contained in the Brainiac's database for the tune to be correctly identified. Given that the 100 songs run about four minutes each, that means they take up about 15,360,000 bytes of storage per song (64,000 bytes multiplied by 60 seconds multiplied by 4 minutes). Thus, 100 songs take up 1,536,000,000 bytes in the Brainiac's memory, or 1,536,000K bytes, or 1,536M bytes or 1.5G bytes. In trying to find a particular song segment, half the database would have to be searched on average to achieve each match. So, 750M bytes of information must be checked in each five-second period to obtain the correct answer. Tests show that under normal, sober working conditions, the Brainiac comes up with the right answer about nine out of 10 times. Remember, we are dealing with organic matter that is actually accessing information by way of electrochemical impulses. Even though such impulses are notoriously slow _ about 100 feet per second _ they still outperform electrical impulses over metallic conduits, which can travel about one foot per nanosecond or a billion feet per second. The theoretical advantage in the electrical realm is about 10,000 to 1 over the electrochemical processors. Nonetheless, our Brainiac is consistently able to retrieve and correctly identify each song more than 90% of the time. So what gives? Scale has a lot to do with it. There are some 10 billion neurons in the brain that have an estimated 10 trillion interconnections running among them, with an average lead width of about three microns. Brain-washing machine One of the largest and most awe-inspiring multiprocessor computer units on the market today _ the Connection Machine from Thinking Machines Corp. _ has 65,536 processors with which to manipulate information and is the size of a washing machine. The brain squeezes 150,000 times as many processors into the human skull. Secondly, the Brainiac can deal with spatial and complex relationships not based on numbers or specific sequences. Even the most expensively benchmarked computer is an autistic savant, much like Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie Rain Man. It can calculate as fast as you can get the numbers into it. But try getting it to make a rational decision with no outside help, and the whole system breaks down. Basically, the argument boils down to one fact: No one knows exactly how the Brainiac 1000 stores information. Thus, memory retrieval as I have described, or as any neural network model attempts to describe, is only theoretical at the very best. Why can the Brainiac remember a four-minute song from a decade ago but not remember what it had during a 40-minute breakfast one week before? The answer cannot be found in any computer, even in those attempting to mimic the Brainiac or in the billions of neurons in the Brainiac itself. The point of this whole exercise is simply to show you how difficult it is to try to replace the human brain with a hardware or software architecture of any type. Under even the simplest of conditions, the brain is still the original computer, and all other models _ whatever their performance benchmarks _ are imitators that crawl in comparison. By Harvey P. Newquist III; Newquist writes and consults on artificial intelligence and other advanced high-technology topics from his office in Scottsdale, Ariz. <<<>>> Title : Battle for high ground Author : Jean S. Bozman Source : CW Comm FileName: bozcol12 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Amdahl has good reason to feel confident this year. Revenue is up, and orders are piling in. Better yet, it has beat IBM at its own game three times over: Amdahl has a faster uniprocessor in the 5990, it has a more capable disk drive in the 6100, and it revised its UTS mainframe Unix system days before IBM said it would be late with AIX/370 shipments [CW, Feb. 20]. Amdahl has, therefore, positioned itself as the best alternative to IBM. Users, Amdahl executives say, get IBM compatibility, better price/performance and extra features such as UTS, which is able to run native on a mainframe without the help of VM as a host operating system. But Amdahl executives may have reached too far in this king-of-the-hill game when they asserted recently that fellow plug-compatible manufacturer (PCM) National Advanced Systems (NAS) was no longer in contention. It is a charge that raises the specter of Amdahl being the only major PCM and the danger that customers will pay higher prices in an era of reduced competition. NAS, which suffered slower sales and drooping profits last year, is in the midst of a corporate spin-off from parent National Semiconductor. Though still half-owned by National Semiconductor, it will soon be an independent unit of Memorex Telex. ``NAS has not been a very strong force in our marketplace over the last 18 months,'' said Amdahl President and Chief Operating Officer Joseph Zemke at an analysts' meeting recently. ``We've always felt we controlled our own destiny and that we have a unique relationship with Fujitsu. I think our strategy and the execution of that strategy is probably what resulted in NAS being on the block.'' Marketing Vice-President Ted Springsted pressed the same point as he counted down an impressive list of Amdahl's recent ``wins.'' Among the most gratifying of sales, Springsted said, was the displacement of a four-way NAS processor at Baxter Health Care in suburban Chicago. Several Amdahl high-end machines recently went to Mobil Oil and Monsanto _ both traditional IBM shops. Other machines were shipped to the Federal Reserve Banks in Boston and Atlanta. Yet NAS, despite its troubles, is still landing machines in high places. In the last three months, NAS has placed large machines at Delta Air Lines in Miami, McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Boeing Aerospace in Seattle, Chevron in San Ramon, Calif., and Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Akron, Ohio. It is selling nearly $1 billion in hardware systems each year in comparison with Amdahl's $1.8 billion. Good for the competition Friendly rivalries aside, keeping NAS in the game is actually good for Amdahl's business, says industry analyst Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research in Phoenix. Traditionally, NAS has been the price-leader in the IBM mainframe market. But, as part of Memorex Telex, that probably will not be possible anymore, and the market will tighten. But it seems that the simple act of acknowledging NAS' continuing role as an IBM competitor would underline the fragility of the PCM marketplace. IBM has, by varying analyst accounts, 80% to 90% of the worldwide IBM mainframe market. All PCMs combined _ including Siemens AG in West Germany _ sell just 11% of all IBM-compatible mainframes. Outside observers have noted that NAS, if folded into Memorex Telex's $2 billion-plus empire, would make the overall company a $3 billion PCM giant. This Memorex conglomerate would have a much broader product line than Amdahl's offerings. Memorex Telex executives have stated on the record that such a merger may be the eventual plan. But a full-blown merger will not happen until outside financing is raised to buy National Semiconductor's 50% share in NAS. Let us hope that, despite Amdahl's rivalry with NAS, Amdahl's recent comments are just a facade. There was one sign, at least, that Amdahl felt some empathy with NAS' new situation. ``It's always a little unsettling when one of your competitors is on the block,'' Zemke said. ``We're just glad the deal came down and that all the speculation is over.'' Maybe a touch more of that empathy would do Amdahl some good. For, as Ben Franklin warned those who wanted to go their separate ways on the eve of the American Revolution, ``We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.'' BYJean S. Bozman; Bozman is Computerworld's West Coast bureau chief. <<<>>> Title : ESA in VM's future Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cmesa2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: IBM's next major release of VM, due in approximately 18 months, will offer Enterprise Systems Architecture capabilities, according to an IBM official. ``It is definitely a direction to have VM support the ESA architecture,'' said Bob McNamara, manager of Enterprise Systems software introduction at IBM. IBM's most recent enhancement to VM, VM/XA SP 2, began shipping in late December. VM users are in the midst of digesting that release and reportedly are giving little thought to the next one. However, IBM has been briefing analysts and users, setting forth its general directions on a future release of VM with ESA capabilities. MVS/ESA, announced approximately one year ago, has been available for about six months. MVS/ESA brings 16 terabytes of addressability to users and offers such performance-improving features as Data Spaces and Hiperspaces, which allow large chunks of data to reside in expanded memory, thus reducing I/O to disk and improving an application's processing speed. According to Focus Research Systems, Inc., 14.6% of IBM and plug-compatible mainframe sites plan a new operating system of some kind; of those, about one-third plan MVS/ESA. Early MVS/ESA users report that the new operating system is significantly less difficult to install than MVS/XA. IBM would not release figures of ESA licenses thus far but did say there were significantly more MVS/ ESA licenses in the first six months of the operating system's life than there were during the first six months of MVS/ XA's availability. IBM recently announced DF Sort, a software program that keeps data to be sorted in Hiperspace rather than on disk. The program is batch-oriented. VM, on the other hand, is oriented toward interactive use. McNamara said, however, that VM could make use of ESA functionality as well by allowing applications with very large memo ry requirements to move data into expanded memory. One key benefit, he said, will be to provide faster access to common services in VM. For example, VM provides a common server for advanced printing. When a large number of users are accessing a single common service, a bottleneck can occur. ESA will allow data to be kept in expanded memory. ``There may be 1,000 users, and they may not need huge amounts of data, but they will need to access the same data frequently,'' McNamara explained. Romney White, vice-president at Velocity Software, Inc., a Boston-based maker of VM utility software, concurred that this move would serve to boost performance. Currently, data has to be copied from one server's address space to another's. ``I'm assuming you could share a data space between virtual machines,'' White added. However, he noted that implementing ESA under VM will require users to purchase the expanded memory that will make the added function possible. ``IBM is trying to find a way to sell expanded storage to VM users,'' White said. He said users are not clamoring for capabilities of ESA. ``This is a solution looking for a problem,'' he added. One VM user, who asked to remain anonymous, said ESA capabilities are indeed a blue-sky proposition at this point. ``It's an area where we don't know what capabilities we would use.'' He said improvements under VM/XA SP 2 offer better CPU utilization and should satisfy his needs for the present. More users According to McNamara, ESA will almost certainly allow VM to support more users. Currently, VM/XA can handle up to 5,000 users for IBM's Professional Office System. An ESA version of VM will allow twice that amount or more, he added. In addition, ESA will allow the number of logical partitions under PR/SM to increase. Currently, VM/XA SP 2 supports a maximum of six partitions, although up to seven are supported on the largest IBM 3090 S models running MVS. A VM with ESA will ``definitely have Data Spaces,'' McNamara said. Hiperspaces under VM would work differently than under MVS and might thus carry a different name to avoid confusion, McNamara said. By Stanly Gibson, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Pharmacy net software che Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: incher2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: The age of on-line verification is coming to retail drugstores and pharmacies. Soon these outlets will verify insurance claims just as retail stores authorize credit purchases. Engaged in a joint effort, Stratus Computer, Inc. in Marlboro, Mass., and Dallas-based Shared Financial Systems, Inc. hope their recently announced Healthnet/2 system can be the remedy that pharmacies need. With health insurance increasingly covering prescriptions, drugstores are taking more risks by honoring insurance claims without being able to verify them on the spot. If a claim is rejected by a carrier for any reason, the pharmacy does not get reimbursed for the prescription. Retail drugstores typically have no way of checking the validity of insurance eligibility. Additionally, the federal government has mandated on-line authorization of Medicare claims by 1991. With Healthnet/2, according to the vendors, a patient's health insurance coverage can be checked on-line. The patient's insurance number is entered into the system, either by key entry or magnetic strip reader. The system automatically dials up a database located on a Stratus computer at the drugstore's headquarters or at a third party such as Medicare or Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The database is then searched for information regarding the patient's eligibility. The product, to be marketed by both firms, is targeted at large retail drug stores with $200 million in sales. However, the application could be used by other health care organizations such as hospitals, insurance firms and health maintenance organizations. ``Most pharmacies in the $200 million range just take cards with no verification,'' said Dick Jacobson, retail industry marketing manager at Stratus. He said large pharmacy chains can justify the investment in the hardware and software in one year. The cost of the system ranges from about $79,000 to $1 million, depending on the configuration, according to Stratus, with the cost being split between hardware and software. By Amy Cortese, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Sequoia hikes system powe Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: seq2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: MARLBORO, Mass. _ Sequoia Systems, Inc. plans to announce the next generation of its fault-tolerant computers today with promises of faster processors at current prices. The Series 300 will be based on the Motorola, Inc. 68030 microprocessor and will be offered for approximately the same price as the current product line, the Series 200, according to Keith Johnson, Sequoia's vice-president of marketing. The company will continue to sell the Series 200, which was introduced in October 1987, even though the Series 300 has a faster processor and a similar price, Johnson said. For example, a customer may want to add another Series 200 processor to its existing system, he added. A typical four-processor Series 300 configuration, which supports up to 300 users, will sell for $653,000, Johnson said. The system can be expanded to a 64-processor configuration. An entry-level system with two processors is priced at $450,000. Both configurations include two 850M-byte disk drives, a 6250 tape drive subsystem and a license for the Sequoia operating system, Topix. The operating system is Sequoia's blend of the AT&T Unix System V operating system and Pick Systems' Pick operating system. Johnson said the firm has tested the new system with the Debit/Credit benchmark, the evolving standard benchmark being defined by the Transaction Processing Performance Council. Sequoia plans to make those results available in three months. Johnson said the company also intends to have the results audited by an outside firm. According to Johnson, initial results show that the Series 300 offers 50% more performance than the Series 200, which underwent benchmark tests last year. The 200 performs an estimated 14 transaction/sec. per processor, Johnson said. Since it was founded in 1981, Sequoia has remained a distant third to competitors Stratus Computer, Inc. and Tandem Computers, Inc. in the on-line transaction processing market. By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Benchmark black magic Author : Stanley Gibson Source : CW Comm FileName: 2stancol Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Is it real or is it benchmarking? Why is benchmarking such a joke? One reason is that vendors usually assign the task to their marketing department. A marketing department will approach benchmarking not as the pursuit of truth but as an adjunct to sales. Typically, any salesperson will marshal numerous facts to promote his product, frequently omitting inconvenient bits of information. The buyer must stay informed to know the right questions to ask and look for the facts that get left out. Benchmarking works much the same way. The goal is always to construct a test that exaggerates a given product's strengths and minimizes its weaknesses. Over the summer, DEC internally audited its systems running its DEC TP software. Whatever the results of that test were, we have yet to see them. Why? It stands to reason that if the results were good, then the whole world would have heard about them by now. Instead, some six months after those audits, Peat Marwick is retesting the DEC systems, at a time when some of the hardware has been superseded and more is about to be. Too often, the auditor is put in the position of watching what goes on and then simply certifying that he watched it _ not that what took place was scientifically correct. It is as though an auditor sat through a magic show, witnessed a rabbit being pulled out of a hat and then wrote up a report in which he certifies that he saw a rabbit being pulled out of a hat _ that is, if the rabbit were indeed a rabbit and the hat were indeed a hat, facts for which he clearly cannot be responsible. What the user community needs is someone to explain the rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick. Ready when you are. Early Enterprise Systems Architecture users say that they are finding the system easy to install, but once they have it, what do they do with it? One user proclaimed that he was ``positioned for the future.'' Sounds a lot like an expression that got its start within the hallowed halls of IBM. You may not need it now, but you will be ``positioned well'' for when you do _ as if it will be unobtainable by then. MIS mentor George DiNardo, executive vice-president at Mellon Bank NA in Pittsburgh, once termed moving to ESA a no-brainer. Without question, it is being done on a large scale by big 3090 shops, particularly those moving to S models. IBM will be dribbling out ESA-based goodies, such as the recently announced Hipersorting. Why not put yourself in a position to use them as they are released? But let's keep track of the flow of goodies to see that there is a generous supply. Alas. VM will be getting ESA, as indicated elsewhere in this section, but will it be able to support a 3990 Model 3 controller first? Part of IBM's Feb. 7 announcement was that, indeed, the basic functions of the 3990 Model 3 will be supported by VM/XA SP Release 2. When? December 1989. Advanced functions were not mentioned by IBM. ``Somebody overlooked something. It's a hell of a way to treat a strategic operating system,'' said VM guru Romney White of Velocity Software in Boston. By Stanley Gibson; Gibson is Computerworld's senior editor, software. <<<>>> Title : A distribution system for Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: rec2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: FORT LEE, N.J. _ When The Paddington Corp. booted up its IBM 9370 Model 60 last month, it was the last step in the spirits and wine distributor's search for distribution and financial software and a low-overhead synergy with its parent company's affinity for the IBM 370. Paddington, whose primary brands are J&B Whisky, Baileys and Amaretto di Saronno, is a division of Grandmet Consumer Products, Inc. The rapidly expanding company had outgrown its old system, which was based on a Microdata Corp. minicomputer and a few IBM Personal Computers. The company wanted a new system but wished to avoid the systems programming overhead that developing new systems would entail. Today, the 9370 Model 60 supports 21 terminals in headquarters and five regional offices throughout the U.S. It runs everything from accounting to inventory control. In addition, 70 IBM PCs and ATs link the field sales force in regional offices to headquarters via modems. However, when Paddington started out, it could not find distribution control or financial systems that matched the peculiarities of operating in the liquor industry. Paddington imports spirits and wines that go directly from suppliers to wholesalers, sometimes from several companies to several locations in the U.S. In addition, some states control the liquor, and they warehouse the products at Paddington's expense. Since those states monitor shipments to liquor stores and draw upon a warehouse, Paddington bills the state. ``Most distribution packages assume that products are imported and then simply distributed,'' said Keith Greggor, Paddington's director of planning and development. ``But all of our distribution paths must interconnect.'' After a long search, Greggor chose to have his software customized. Although financial software was available under IBM's VM/IS, tying it with Paddington's distribution software would have required customization anyway, Greggor said. Paddington chose the 9370 Model 60 because ``The VM/IS operating system is easy to use and compatible with all of the sister companies' operating environments,'' Greggor explained. However, he said he did not want to incur the additional expense of full-time staff programmers to build and maintain the software. According to Greggor, the key to the decision was that sister company Carillon Importers Ltd. in Teaneck, N.J., which operates similarly but separately, was in the same position and could share the cost. As a result, each company paid $600,000 of the $1.2 million tab for the hardware, the customized software and VM/IS. Carillon, however, uses the IBM 9370 Model 50. Paddington and Carillon decided not to use an IBM MVS-based distribution package developed by sister firm Heublein, Inc. in Farmington, Conn., which runs it on an IBM 3090 mainframe. According to Greggor, ``The MVS solution would have required the additional cost of reprogramming for VM/IS and an IBM 9370 Model 90.'' Furthermore, the application ``would have required too many people to maintain it.'' The other solution, the Distribution Control System from Arthur Andersen & Co, would have cost about $200,000, Greggor said. ``Customization would have driven the price to over $1 million and required at least two full-time employees to run the software.'' Greggor added that he would have had to run IBM's DOS/VSE operating system, incurring the additional overhead of system programming personnel. Financials later Greggor had both the financial and the distribution systems, which are based on Focus, the fourth-generation database management system from Information Builders, Inc. in New York and built by Howard Systems International in New York. Although the distribution package is completed and running, the financial package will not run until the first week of March. Fortunately, Paddington has a long lead time on orders, which are not scheduled to be posted until the March switch-over. Meanwhile, the orders are being entered into the 9370. Greggor said that by next year, every employee will have access to the system. He also plans a connection to the company's suppliers in the UK, who support about 60% of Paddington's business. By Robert Moran, CW staff <<<>>> Title : CDC joins graphics parade Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cdc2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: MINNEAPOLIS _ Control Data Corp. became the latest firm to upgrade in the increasingly competitive high-powered graphics workstation market with the recent rollout of a trio of additions to its Cyber 910 line. The three-model Cyber 910-600 series uses the power of the Mips Computer Systems, Inc. reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor to prevent CDC's high-end line from being left in the dust by its workstation competitors. Firms such as IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics, Inc. and Prime Computer, Inc. offer similar price/performance machines and either sell Silicon Graphics workstations or the Mips RISC board on which the Silicon Graphics machine is based. CDC's workstations are made by Silicon Graphics, in which CDC has a 20% interest. CDC officials said the Cyber 910-612, 910-622 and 910-624 are based on a design featuring tightly coupled, symmetric multiprocessors with shared memory and offer up to five times the processing power of CDC's other workstation models. The 910-612 offers two 16.7-MHz RISC processors and two floating-point coprocessors, while the 910-622 has a pair of 25-MHz RISC proccessors and two floating-point coprocessors. The 910-624 has four 25-MHz processors and four floating-point coprocessors. Each 16.7-MHz processor is able to process 13 million instructions per second (MIPS), and each 25-MHz processor can handle 21 MIPS, the firm said. CDC said it will target the series at industries involved in computing-intensive, graphics-reliant applications such as computational fluid dynamics, molecular modeling, mathematical theory and computational chemistry. A new high-speed bus between the central processor subsystem and the graphics subsystem results in graphics performance of 400,000 three-dimensional vectors per second, the firm said. The machines run the Irix operating system _ CDC's multiprocessor version of AT&T's Unix System V, Release 3 _ and are compatible with Cyber's 910-400 and 910-500 series workstations, CDC said. Standard software on the 910-600 series will include the Irix operating system, a C compiler and development environment as well as a window manager and graphics library. The models also include a 182M-byte disk drive as well as 8M bytes of error-correction code memory. Memory can be expanded to 64M bytes on the base memory board. The 910-612 is priced at $94,900, while the 910-622 sells for $114,900. The 910-624 is priced at $139,900. By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Computer Associates Inter Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swca2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Computer Associates International, Inc. has announced Release 5.3 of CA-Dynam/TLMS, its automated tape volume and tape data set management system for the IBM MVS operating environment. Enhancements reportedly include a direct interface to CA-11, the company's automated rerun and tracking system. The software package also includes the extension of expiration date support through the year 2049, the vendor said. Pricing ranges from $15,600 to $36,300, depending on configuration. Computer Associates 711 Stewart Ave. Garden City, N.Y. 11530 516-227-3300 <<<>>> Title : A program said to reorgan Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: swbmc22 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A program said to reorganize IBM DB2 databases twice as fast as the supplied DB2 utility has been announced by BMC Software, Inc. Called DB2 Reorg Plus, the product reportedly provides space management statistics and produces single- or dual-image copies with each reorganization. According to the vendor, the package improves performance and lowers costs by reducing CPU cycles. A perpetual license for DB2 Reorg Plus ranges from $15,000 to $51,250, depending on CPU type. BMC P.O. Box 2002 Sugar Land, Texas 77487 800-841-2031 <<<>>> Title : XA Systems, Inc. has anno Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2swxasys Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: XA Systems, Inc. has announced a product for IMS Fast Path database users. According to the company, IMS-Xpert Fast Path option will enable users to initialize, extract, load, edit and browse information located in the Fast Path database. The option _ which works in conjunction with the IMS-Xpert System and software designed for manipulating IBM databases under TSO/ISPF, IMS/DC or CICS _ is priced at $10,000. XA Systems Building D 983 University Ave. Los Gatos, Calif. 95030 408-395-1800 <<<>>> Title : Information Builders, Inc Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2swinfor Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Information Builders, Inc. has unveiled a read-only interface between Focus for Digital Equipment Corp. VAX fourth-generation language and database management system and Software AG of North America's Adabas DBMS. The Adabas interface allows Focus' reporting, graphics, spreadsheet and data analysis facilities to directly access data stored on the Adabas system. The software runs in a DEC VAX/VMS environment and is priced from $1,750 to $14,000. Information Builders 1250 Broadway New York, N.Y. 10001 212-736-4433 <<<>>> Title : Zanthe Information, Inc. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2swunisy Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Zanthe Information, Inc. announced that its fourth-generation application development environment is now available on the Unisys Corp. U5000 series of Unix-based computers. Zim is reportedly based on the entity-relationship data model and includes a data dictionary, database query and update and forms manipulation functions. Pricing for the Unisys U5000 version ranges from $5,700 to $37,500. Zanthe 1200-38 Antares Drive Ottawa, Ont. Canada K2E 7V2 613-727-1397 <<<>>> Title : Oregon Software, Inc. has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2sworego Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Oregon Software, Inc. has announced that its Pascal-2 compiler is available for Intel Corp. 80386-based machines running the Xenix operating system. Pascal-2 Version 2.2B Xenix/386 reportedly includes a debugger, assembly language interface, source-code formatting and procedure cross-referencing capabilities. The latest release costs $995 for a single-user license and $250 per year for support services. Network licenses are also available. Oregon Software 6915 S.W. Macadam Ave. Portland, Ore. 97219 503-245-2202 <<<>>> Title : Philon, Inc. has released Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2swphilo Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Philon, Inc. has released Philon Fast/Cobol 1.5, a language compiler for Motorola, Inc. 68000 series-based systems running under Unix. The latest version reportedly conforms to ANSI standard-based Cobol X3.23-1985. The vendor said the product has been undergoing National Institute of Standards and Technology validation at the intermediate level since January, and a full high-level release is planned for release in the second quarter. Philon Fast/Cobol 1.5 costs $2,200. Philon 641 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10011 212-807-0303 <<<>>> Title : Prime Computer, Inc. has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2swprime Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Prime Computer, Inc. has released Computervision Cadds 4X Revision 4, a computer-aided design system. According to the company, the product provides integrated nonuniform rational b-spline geometry and solids modeling capabilities. Features include the automatic execution of solids modeling operations, the ability to cut a solid with a sculptured surface and a production visualization package. Cadds 4X Revision 4 is priced from $10,500 for software only. Prime Prime Park Natick, Mass. 01760 800-343-2540 <<<>>> Title : Lotus lockup period to en Author : Douglas Barney Source : CW Comm FileName: dug2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Lotus' cone of silence. For much of its history, Lotus has been closemouthed about new products and future strategies. Getting information was worse than pulling teeth _ at least teeth usually come out. In April 1987, the company tried an experiment. At its annual shareholders' meeting, the firm unveiled ambitious plans: Lotus' 1-2-3 Release 3.0; 1-2-3/M, along with a 10-year co-development agreement with IBM; 1-2-3/G; and perhaps most surprising, Lotus/DBMS, an advanced multiuser database with an array of graphical front-end tools. It also talked about Symphony 3.0, a version of the five-function beast that will use 1-2-3 Release 3.0 as its core. This orgy of preannouncements was followed by a week of demonstrations and festivities called Lotus Week. This was the new, open, likeable Lotus. The company has been trying to live down that fateful day ever since. That is because nearly two years later, none of the important stuff announced at Lotus Week has shipped, a situation that has earned the firm a reputation for putting its vapor where its mouth is. The only thing that has changed since then is the company's image. For a while after Lotus Week, the firm was still forthcoming. It announced Blueprint, a communications protocol, 1-2-3/Mac and a version of 1-2-3 for DEC's VAX. Forget what we said But the product delays have hurt Lotus badly. And, it seemed, every time the company announced a product, the press and competitors would simply point to all the unshipped ones. Lotus would prefer we forget that series of overzealous announcements. In fact, we often do and have to look up old press releases to remember what was said so long ago. Lotus is not entirely to blame for its delivery problems. Lotus/DBMS and 1-2-3/G both require the IBM and Microsoft OS/2 Presentation Manager, an environment that many still call unstable. Release 3.0 was developed largely under OS/2 and has had difficulty fitting back into the lesser confines of MS-DOS. These factors have made Lotus no less sensitive to the barbs that are a part of everyday life for key company execs. So Lotus has gone back to its roots and decided to shut up. It isn't on the front page anymore. It isn't even on the back page. It is simply biding its time, waiting to ship some stuff so it can start to brag again. Like Ronald Reagan, the company apparently prefers no press to bad press. In short, Lotus has gone dark. This is not entirely bad. But it is not entirely good either. You see, customers still need information about when things are coming, what they will look like, what they'll require and how much they'll cost. Lotus is barely talking about products it announced nearly two years ago. Another pretty interface For instance, I like database software. I don't really use it. I just like to look at it. If I want to simply look at a prototype of Lotus/DBMS, I have to sign a nondisclosure agreement. If I ask how much room I'll have in a 640K-byte machine for a spreadsheet under Release 3.0, I still get a ``no comment.'' Even some large corporate customers are getting this silent treatment. Lotus won't keep quiet forever. At every corner of the company, groups are excited about their projects and anxious to talk. But the pressure on employees to keep things secret is so immense that some have coined the new corporate slogan, ``Loose Lips, Pink Slips.'' The corks started to pop out last week when the firm finally announced beta shipments of 1-2-3 Release 3.0. But information is still slow to seep out. Even though disks are falling into users' hands, Lotus has yet to let us in on such details as whether the system will require an IBM Personal Computer AT or above and how much memory will be needed to get some useful work done. From there, there are just a few more areas in need of elaboration, such as Lotus/DBMS, 1-2-3/G, 1-2-3/Mac, 1-2-3/VAX and Symphony 3.0. By Douglas Barney; Barney is a Computerworld senior editor, microcomputing. <<<>>> Title : OS/2 users search for puz Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: host2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: After more than a year of availability, there is a host of corporate users anxious to get cracking with OS/2. But these pioneers, with development projects already under way, are still waiting for all the pieces to come together, users said in recent interviews. Here is what users said they need most: Key applications for OS/2 character and graphics modes. Broader distribution of Microsoft Corp.'s OS/2 LAN Manager and IBM's LAN Server. Lower memory and hardware prices. Ashton-Tate Corp./Microsoft/ Sybase, Inc.'s SQL Server and other database server technologies. SQL-oriented development tools. Bob McLean is one of many users who have essentially completed internal OS/2 applications. His firm, Host International, Inc. chose OS/2 for its 110 airport snack and gift shops to gain large memory and multitasking. Once it is up and running, end users will be able to do background processing. ``We have had a lot of instances where someone will have to shut down the system to let someone else do something,'' McLean said. That will end with OS/2. But because Host's accounting system is tied into a variety of off-the-shelf MS-DOS applications, McLean must wait for OS/2 versions of tape backup, word processing and spreadsheet software. ``Until they get here, we won't install it,'' he said. McLean said Host hopes to have the system in production by the third quarter, software vendors willing. A. C. Nielsen Co.'s Nielsen Monitor-Plus in Wilton, Conn., also has ambitious plans for OS/2. Its main task is to track and analyze the impact of television commercials. Project manager Rick Martin is spearheading the downsizing effort that will eliminate the need for the firm's Amdahl Corp. mainframe within two years. Anchoring the final stage of the downsizing will be the SQL Server that runs under OS/2. Martin is still waiting for the spring release of SQL Server and the second-quarter release of Sybase's screen tools. Once these products are available, Martin and crew will complete the job of porting both local-area network and mainframe applications to SQL Server. NASDAQ, Inc. has completed work on an OS/2 server-based application for software distribution. The program, aimed at systems administrators, will distribute the software to 1,400 traders. The server will hold data files and program files for users and will provide the most up-to-date software for each. Unlike other firms, NASDAQ has all the pieces it needs. NASDAQ's OS/2 application will save the firm time, effort and money. Today, whenever there is an update to the workstation software, NASDAQ's MIS staff has to produce and distribute 1,400 floppy disks, many with specific configuration information, which takes five to seven days, Flynn said. Once the OS/2 system is up and running, that same task will take 45 minutes. The firm also plans to begin designing a system that will bring OS/2, and eventually IBM and Microsoft's OS/2 Presentation Manager, to traders' workstations. There is no time frame for these projects. Microsoft Windows advocate Art Block is willing and anxious to move to OS/2. Block's Intel Corp. 80386-based micros with high-resolution graphics and 4M to 8M bytes of random-access memory are also ready. The Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. vice-president said he is simply waiting for OS/2 Presentation Manager applications. Like so many other pieces, there is no telling exactly when these applications will arrive. By Douglas Barney, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Cornering the stock marke Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: wallst2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Wall Street is not just a hotbed of trading activity: It is also a hotbed for vendors of high-performance desktop computers. These firms are currently trying frenetically to carve a slice of the lucrative trading market. Although there is an array of offerings, the trend is clearly toward fast IBM and compatible personal computers with graphical user interfaces. However, brokerage firms handle many different types of trading, requiring different types of systems. Thus, PCs may never replace every Quotron Systems, Inc. terminal or high-end workstations. They may, though, ease out the majority. PC allure Part of the PC's allure is software. A hot player in this market is New York-based Multex, Inc., a firm that has made steady inroads on Wall Street. Its products vary, but what they basically do is allow the user to take in real-time information using Lotus Development Corp.'s Signal and dump the information into pop-up windows using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The users can then reconfigure the menu or interface as they deem to perform market data applications such as real-time analytics. As each broker has his own ``feel'' for the market, he can configure the analytics using whatever real-time or historical data he considers significant. The information that he pulls up is used to determine if and when he will perform a stock or bond transaction. Fidelity Investments. Boston-based Fidelity Investments is now implementing a system based on the Multex approach. Using the Multex menu, a bond salesman can address historical data on both the market and the client to assure that redundant phone calls have not been made. The salesman also knows what information has been sent to that particular client. Fidelity is implementing this technique on an IBM Personal System/2. One of the important features of the Fidelity approach is the use of Multex's IBM 3270-based terminal emulation product. Using the terminal emulation in a pop-up window, the user has direct access to information on the mainframe. This means that computing-intensive applications such as a database search are processed on the mainframe, while the remainder of the activity can be done on the PS/2. Goldman, Sachs & Co. Goldman Sachs is also using Multex software. Using the menu, Goldman Sachs traders can pull up different market data sources, perform analytics, read ``pages'' of market information and access data from in-house computers. Goldman Sachs is using this technique to replace costly dedicated terminals. Merrill Lynch & Co. This Wall Street fixture has a variety of workstation approaches depending on the needs of specific traders. For instance, its headquarters staff will be using PCs with Windows that will primarily focus on finance and accounting applications, said Gordon Sollars, vice-president of distributed systems. Equity traders at the firm will most likely use high-end workstations from vendors such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Inc. or Digital Equipment Corp. For these highly demanding applications, the hardware is chosen on an almost case-by-case basis, said Don Trojan, vice-president of equity trading systems. As a result, Trojan is looking at the most open elements possible, including Unix, ANSI's X.11 as a windowing standard, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol for networking and C as the programming language. At the firm's municipal trading group, however, a PC system using Windows has been in place since 1987. NASDAQ, Inc. NASDAQ traders are currently using PCs with a customized multitasking system that sits on top of MS-DOS, said Ed Flynn, assistant director of software development at NASDAQ. The organization plans to stick with the tried and true Intel architecture but will boost functionality with eventual moves to more sophisticated operating systems. Chief among the operating systems candidates are Windows, OS/2 and Microsoft and IBM's OS/2 Presentation Manager, Flynn said. The goal for high-end systems will be the OS/2 Presentation Manager, while diskless workstations tied to servers will most likely run Windows, Flynn said. Prudential-Bache Securities, Inc. Prudential-Bache is a brokerage house in transition. It currently has a variety of trading systems but is developing a plan for a more unified future. ``Today, they have all kinds of systems,'' said Mohammed Mosaad, senior vice-president of information systems, operations and support at Prudential-Bache. ``They don't have one integrated device.'' According to Mosaad, the ideal workstation will have the ability to access different hosts, multiple data services and will need good presentation capabilities. Prudential is leaning toward the Intel Corp. architecture running OS/2 and OS/2 Presentation Manager, Mosaad said. The decision will be made in six months to a year. New York Stock Exchange. The floor of the NYSE is a hectic and crowded place. In fact, space is at such a premium that phones have had to be repackaged and shoved into smaller containers. The same thing goes for computers. Away from the hustle and bustle of the trading floors are customized Intel 80286 and 80386 computers locked in closets. All the trader sees is a color display or flat-panel device that provides the needed stock information, said Joel Beier, vice-president of capital markets technology at the NYSE. Within the so-called trading booths there is even less room. Because there is hardly any space for a keyboard, touchscreen devices are the rage. These systems are tied to remote DEC VAXs. The organization is looking at installing intelligent workstations right where the stock specialists sit but is still grappling with the space constraints. If anyone has developed a high-end microcomputer the size of a shoe box, give Joel Beier a call. Beier is working with even smaller devices. The NYSE is currently testing a handheld version of the PC. By William Brandel and Douglas Barney, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Exec info systems catch o Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: eis2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: The software industry is readying to put senior executives on-line with executive information systems (EIS) in a big way, according to a recent study conducted by International Data Corp. (IDC). Several information technology executives said they are seriously evaluating EIS but that software vendors will have to do a better job of tailoring their products to the needs of their executives and to personal computer-based networks. IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm, predicted that the U.S. market for EIS will grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 40%, up from $22 million in 1987 to $115 million in 1992 (see story page 130). IDC noted that expenditures for EIS software development, including the purchase of software, custom consulting and in-house software development, will climb to nearly $350 million in 1992. Executives traditionally have been reluctant to devote valuable time to learning and developing their computer skills, but new technologies are shortening the training time. Graphical interfaces, mice, touch screens and other tools enable executives to quickly learn how to use information systems, IDC researchers said. Not only do these tools make it easier for executives to use information technology, but they also flatten the learning curve, making the process more economical, according to IDC. MIS is finding it easier to design EIS programs, thanks to the increasingly widespread availability of powerful application development programs and relational database technology, IDC reported. ``In a nutshell, its time has come,'' said Lloyd Belcher, coordinator of executive information systems at Conoco, Inc. in Houston. ``The components that have been brought together are technology, namely the PC and local-area networks, and a realization that information is a commodity.'' There is also the awareness on the part of executives of the value of information as a competitive weapon, he added. ``Classical mainframe orientation was toward getting large reports to an executive rather than just the important pieces of data,'' Belcher said. Conoco has spent five years developing and refining its EIS, according to Belcher. ``It has not been totally painless,'' he conceded. ``The interesting thing is when you start, the executives don't know what they want.'' Information systems managers have learned from past mistakes in efforts to implement EIS. Often, an EIS failed because of the inability of executives ``to describe an indescribable product, '' Belcher said. Software lacking While most IS managers agree that the hardware technology is adequate for EIS, the available software is lacking. ``From the point of view of MIS, the software is really not there yet,'' said Howard Camper, data center director at Ashland Oil, Inc. in Lexington, Ky. ``It's a question of, do you want to roll your own environment and have to maintain it for the rest of your life or wait for the commercial stuff? When we last looked at it a few years ago, we weren't satisfied. We're looking at it again now, though.'' Much of the available com- mercial software is not adequate, concurred Tim Crowell, vice-president of the LAN group at NCNB Texas National Bank in Dallas: ``Most of what we have seen is mainframe-oriented.'' The bank is in the midst of evaluating a variety of packages and intends to implement an EIS by year's end, Crowell added. ``What we have determined from our managers is that they only want specific pieces of information, and the mainframe-types of reports are just too large,'' he said. ``It definitely has value to us, but the executives have only so much time for decision making, and they need to do it on a specific set of information on a system designed for them.'' EIS may not be the best approach for increasing the information flow among all executives, IDC warned. Some of the factors to consider are the competitiveness of the business environment and the value placed on information as a resource. By Michael Alexander, CW staff <<<>>> Title : It's never too late to le Author : Michael Alexande Source : CW Comm FileName: 2golumn Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A friend called me recently. He's a top executive at a luxury hotel that is in the midst of undergoing a significant _ several million dollars' worth _renovation. For more than a few months, he has been wrestling with selecting and installing a costly computer system for the hotel's front-desk operations. After we had lamented the end of the football season, compared the weather on each side of the country and exchanged other pleasantries, my friend began recounting his difficulty with making sense of all of the new technology he has been forced to absorb. He has had to talk to dozens of vendors, compare several bids, even attend classes to get a better fix on what is considered state of the art in the hotel business. He admitted that many times he has been utterly baffled by the technology. During our conversation, he asked me whether I thought he should personally use a desktop computer. ``After all, I can hardly be expected to be a typist, but on the other hand, I can't help but think that it would be easier for me to understand the hotel's computer needs,'' he said. After mulling it over for several seconds, I replied that I could not see how he has managed to get by for so long without a personal computer on his desk. Given the competitive nature of the hotel industry and the demands of harried business travelers who want to check in and out at blinding speed, choosing the right computer system has long-term, strategic importance for the hotel. It's a big-money decision that only comes after considerable deliberation. If you had at least a working knowledge of PCs, it would go a long way toward helping you make the bigger decisions on how to strategically use information technology, I said. Using PCs may be the only way that you can learn what information technology can and cannot do. What's more, I said, your use of a PC, even if only occasionally or for a specific task, sends a message to every staffer _ especially the executives who report to you _ that using information technology is vital to the hotel's competitiveness. I am familiar enough with my friend's job to know that much of his time is spent poring over spreadsheets that detail room occupancy rates, food and beverage sales, salaries and benefits and similar information. When the numbers don't jibe or when he decides that he hasn't had enough ``what ifs'' to ponder, he asks a subordinate to rerun the numbers on a PC and produce new spreadsheets. It usually takes a few days before all of the information my friend needs is back in his hands. I told him that if he knew at least enough about PCs to massage numbers in a spreadsheet, it would not only save him considerable amounts of time, it would help him make quicker decisions. The hotel business is bound to get tougher, especially in the nation's biggest cities where there are more hotel rooms than bodies to fill them. The demands at the front desk are probably going to be small compared with the demands in the executive offices, I said. Not being able to type, of course, is an excuse that many executives use in an attempt to mask their fears of having to learn something new or as challenging as using information technology. I know quite a few exceptionally fine writers who cannot imagine what life was like before word processing, yet can barely find the top row of keys on a keyboard. My friend is really no different than they are; he just doesn't know it yet. I suspect that many information center managers know executives in their companies whose attitudes toward PCs are quite similar to those of my friend. Unfortunately, it is easier to buy into the argument that executives don't want to learn how to type as the reason for not putting PCs in top offices. But what is apparent to me is that at companies in which end-user computing is blossoming, the push for using PCs strategically emanates from the top down. I don't think that my friend will order a PC for his office any time soon. But I think he now recognizes that the value of using a PC is not solely in being more productive but in the understanding of the technology and how it is used outside the executive offices. By Michael Alexander; Alexander is a Computerworld senior editor, microcomputing. <<<>>> Title : IBM's new low-end systems Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2ibmcav Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: BOCA RATON, Fla. _ In many ways, IBM's new Entry Systems Division President James Cannavino is like U.S. President George Bush. In both cases, staffers speak of a ``kinder, gentler'' approach. But like any high-ranking politician, Cannavino must sell a skeptical industry on an ambitious strategy, which in this instance includes selling a memory-demanding OS/2 and OS/2 Presentation Manager operating system combination while memory prices are still high. Most users continue to balk at the expense of upgrading to an operating system that has precious-few important applications. That will not change until DRAM becomes viewed as a nice four-letter word again. As the successor to William Lowe, a long-standing IBM executive, Cannavino also speaks of staying the IBM Personal System/2 course. Part of that message includes the reiteration of the overall Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) strategy. Cannavino said that the MCA will improve in an evolutionary, compatible manner. In short, there will be no new Micro Channel, as published reports had speculated. In other words, expect business as usual in IBM's low-end systems product strategy under Cannavino. ``I don't see any major changes in store,'' Cannavino said in an interview at IBM's Boca Raton facility last week. In fact, most believe that IBM's most dramatic Personal Computer announcements, such as OS/2 and the MCA, have already been made. Coming-out party The week marked Cannavino's coming out, his first major public appearance since succeeding Lowe in December. The straight-talking Lowe resigned as president of the Entry Systems Division to take an executive position at Xerox Corp. When Cannavino's promotion was announced, IBM corporate customers were still anxious to see a compelling reason to switch to the MCA, such as add-in boards that would provide previously unseen capabilities. They were also anxious to learn how the PS/2s they had already purchased fit into IBM's Systems Application Architecture umbrella. These two issues are only slowly being explained by IBM. Cannavino acknowledged that new MCA-based products are in the offing. These include systems using the Intel Corp. 80386SX processor as well as a laptop using the MCA. Further details were not forthcoming. Dangerous approach While analysts speculated that Cannavino's mainframe background would lead to a repositioning of the personal computer in IBM's strategy, that is not entirely the case. Cannavino, however, did caution that PCs should interact with mainframes in fairly limited ways. For instance, Cannavino cited the danger inherent in ``notions that workstations would have direct access to mainframe operations. ``When you give the PC direct access to the mainframe, you are interrupting six tons of muscle to let it know that you hit a key. That is not efficient use of a network or your mainframe,'' Cannavino said. ``You want your mainframes to mainframe.'' He added that with the proper system role definitions, workstations will not cannibalize IBM mainframe sales but complement them. This runs contrary to the downsizing pundits who credit PCs with the certain demise of the mainframe. Despite being coy about IBM's plans to create synergy between mainframes and microcomputers, Cannavino hinted of things to come. ``We are right on the edge of an explosion,'' he said of the PS/2 family. ``In 1989, it will become obvious why we did what we did with the Micro Channel. Soon you will be able to drop in a bus master card that will make a Model 50 perform like a Model 70.'' The new IBM PC chief argued that customers are not displeased with the quantum leap from Personal Computer AT-based systems and applications to the MCA. But while stating that he expects MCA sales to eventually outdistance AT-based system sales, he said there are no plans to ever discontinue the AT line. ``We have had very little _ if any _ reaction from our customers saying, `You did the Micro Channel thing wrong.' But nor are any of us going to give up the AT market opportunity,'' he said. As Lowe did, Cannavino argued that upcoming versions of the PS/2 will support multiple users on a single hardware platform. ``You get a system as sophisticated as OS/2, and multiuser is not a long way to go,'' he said. And like Lowe, Cannavino was vague in laying out the details of OS/2 multiuser strategy. By William Brandel, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Apple continues to slash Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: discount Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: CUPERTINO, Calif. _ Apple Computer, Inc. has taken another stab at lowering prices for higher end models of its Macintosh personal computers through new discount programs for end users. According to an Apple spokeswoman, peripherals for the Mac have been dropped in price by up to 50% for customers who buy through resellers. Further, customers who buy through resellers will receive a rebate. The discount applies to the Macintosh II and Macintosh IIX, the Macintosh SE and the Apple IIGS lines. National accounts _ users who buy in volume _ will receive free systems per each large order. For example, a national account will receive a free Macintosh II with a 40M-byte hard disk drive for every four Mac IIs it buys. Customers who purchase Mac SEs with dual-floppy disk drives will receive a free system for every 11 units they purchase. Peripherals too High-end peripherals and systems are eligible for better discounts under the program. ``We're attempting to achieve parity between the two programs,'' the spokeswoman explained. ``It will be their choice whether they purchase through the dealer or through Apple; they won't be penalized for either decision.'' Both promotions will be in effect until March 31. Apple is attempting to redirect sales toward more fully configured systems in its product line, the spokeswoman noted. Last summer, Apple raised prices for its more fully featured Macs by between $400 and $1,100. The price hike was greeted with widespread criticism from Apple customers. As a result, demand shifted toward Apple's less expensive, less fully configured Macintoshes. At the same time, Apple began purchasing memory components at industry-high prices in an attempt to meet customer demand. Subsequently, prices for dynamic random-access memory began to decrease, leaving Apple with its stockpiles of expensive memory chips and customers who wanted stripped-down Macs. Revenue decrease Apple reported that revenue is expected to drop in the current quarter because of the price increases and the decision to stockpile memory. In January, Apple made its first move to alter customer buying patterns, trimming prices on higher end Macs and peripherals. Mike Bailey, president of Apple Professionals Exchange and a systems integrator at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., said price reductions are a step in the right direction. ``They're trying to stimulate sales,'' Bailey said. ``They've made some tactical errors and now they're trying to do some damage repair.'' ``They're especially trying to stimulate more activity in the corporate market,'' he continued. ``I think they turned off some large customers with the increases last year.'' However, Bailey said Apple salespeople have yet to approach him regarding the discount. By Julie Pitta, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Iverson Technology Corp. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2micvers Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Iverson Technology Corp. has announced three Tempest personal computer systems based on the IBM Personal System/2 Models 30, 50 and 60, the company said. Two of the systems, the ITC PS 30T and the PS 50T, are reportedly approved for the federal government's Preferred Products List. The third product, the ITC PS 60T, was designed to meet the Nacsim 5100A specification. Prices start at $3,000 for the PS 30T, $4,325 for the PS 50T and $6,600 for the PS 60T. All include a 90-day warranty. Iverson Technology 1356 Beverly Road McLean, Va. 22106 703-749-1200 <<<>>> Title : A 25-MHz Intel Corp. 8038 Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2micdolc Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A 25-MHz Intel Corp. 80386-based portable computer is now available from Dolch Computer Systems. The Dolch-PAC is reported to be an IBM Personal Computer AT-compatible system with 64K bytes of disk-caching and a zero-wait state microprocessor. The system incorporates six expansion slots and both serial and parallel ports. Pricing for a unit with 4M bytes of random-access memory and a 40M-byte hard disk starts at $9,495. Dolch Computer Systems 2029 O'Toole Ave. San Jose, Calif. 95131 408-435-1881 <<<>>> Title : A handheld personal compu Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2miccorv Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A handheld personal computer has been unveiled by Corvallis Microtechnology, Inc. Dubbed the MC-V, the Intel Corp. 8088-based unit reportedly weighs 26 ounces and offers support for several programming languages and software platforms. The system is targeted at professionals in engineering, land surveying, forestry, medical records management and sales-route accounting. Standard features include 256K bytes of random-access memory, two RS-232 interfaces and an internal heater. The MC-V costs $1,450. Corvallis 895 N.W. Grant Ave. Corvallis, Ore. 97330 503-752-5456 <<<>>> Title : BOCA RATON, Fla. _ In man Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ibmcav Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: BOCA RATON, Fla. _ In many ways, IBM's new Entry Systems Division President James Cannavino is like U.S. President George Bush. In both cases, staffers speak of a ``kinder, gentler'' approach. But like any high-ranking politician, Cannavino must sell a skeptical industry on an ambitious strategy, which in this instance includes selling a memory-demanding OS/2 and OS/2 Presentation Manager operating system combination while memory prices are still high. Most users continue to balk at the expense of upgrading to an operating system that has precious-few important applications. That will not change until DRAM becomes viewed as a nice four-letter word again. As the successor to William Lowe, a long-standing IBM executive, Cannavino also speaks of staying the IBM Personal System/2 course. Part of that message includes the reiteration of the overall Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) strategy. Cannavino said that the MCA will improve in an evolutionary, compatible manner. In short, there will be no new Micro Channel, as published reports had speculated. In other words, expect business as usual in IBM's low-end systems product strategy under Cannavino. ``I don't see any major changes in store,'' Cannavino said in an interview at IBM's Boca Raton facility last week. In fact, most believe that IBM's most dramatic Personal Computer announcements, such as OS/2 and the MCA, have already been made. Coming-out party The week marked Cannavino's coming out, his first major public appearance since succeeding Lowe in December. The straight-talking Lowe resigned as president of the Entry Systems Division to take an executive position at Xerox Corp. When Cannavino's promotion was announced, IBM corporate customers were still anxious to see a compelling reason to switch to the MCA, such as add-in boards that would provide previously unseen capabilities. They were also anxious to learn how the PS/2s they had already purchased fit into IBM's Systems Application Architecture umbrella. These two issues are only slowly being explained by IBM. Cannavino acknowledged that new MCA-based products are in the offing. These include systems using the Intel Corp. 80386SX processor as well as a laptop using the MCA. Further details were not forthcoming. Dangerous approach While analysts speculated that Cannavino's mainframe background would lead to a repositioning of the personal computer in IBM's strategy, that is not entirely the case. Cannavino, however, did caution that PCs should interact with mainframes in fairly limited ways. For instance, Cannavino cited the danger inherent in ``notions that workstations would have direct access to mainframe operations. ``When you give the PC direct access to the mainframe, you are interrupting six tons of muscle to let it know that you hit a key. That is not efficient use of a network or your mainframe,'' Cannavino said. ``You want your mainframes to mainframe.'' He added that with the proper system role definitions, workstations will not cannibalize IBM mainframe sales but complement them. This runs contrary to the downsizing pundits who credit PCs with the certain demise of the mainframe. Despite being coy about IBM's plans to create synergy between mainframes and microcomputers, Cannavino hinted of things to come. ``We are right on the edge of an explosion,'' he said of the PS/2 family. ``In 1989, it will become obvious why we did what we did with the Micro Channel. Soon you will be able to drop in a bus master card that will make a Model 50 perform like a Model 70.'' The new IBM PC chief argued that customers are not displeased with the quantum leap from Personal Computer AT-based systems and applications to the MCA. But while stating that he expects MCA sales to eventually outdistance AT-based system sales, he said there are no plans to ever discontinue the AT line. ``We have had very little _ if any _ reaction from our customers saying, `You did the Micro Channel thing wrong.' But nor are any of us going to give up the AT market opportunity,'' he said. As Lowe did, Cannavino argued that upcoming versions of the PS/2 will support multiple users on a single hardware platform. ``You get a system as sophisticated as OS/2, and multiuser is not a long way to go,'' he said. And like Lowe, Cannavino was vague in laying out the details of OS/2 multiuser strategy. <<<>>> Title : Epson America, Inc. has i Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2micepso Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Epson America, Inc. has introduced the Equity IE desktop computer for business and personal applications. According to the company, the small-footprint computer can be used stand-alone or as a network workstation. Standard features include four expansion slots, an Intel Corp. 8086 microprocessor with selectable clock speeds of 8 or 10 MHz and an IBM multiple Color Graphics Adapter interface. The system is available in three configurations: a single 3 -in. floppy disk model priced at $1,149, a dual 3 -in. floppy drive version priced at $1,349 and a combination 20M-byte hard disk and 3 -in. floppy disk drive configuration priced at $1,749. Epson America 23530 Hawthorne Blvd. Torrance, Calif. 90505 800-922-8911 <<<>>> Title : Languages Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: sworegon Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Languages Oregon Software, Inc. has announced that its Pascal-2 compiler is available for Intel Corp. 80386-based machines running the Xenix operating system. Pascal-2 Version 2.2B Xenix/386 reportedly includes a debugger, assembly language interface, source-code formatting and procedure cross-referencing capabilities. The latest release costs $995 for a single-user license and $250 per year for support services. Network licenses are also available. Oregon Software 6915 S.W. Macadam Ave. Portland, Ore. 97219 503-245-2202 <<<>>> Title : Hewlett-Packard Co. has r Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 2michp3 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Hewlett-Packard Co. has released another version of its HP Graphics Gallery software for industry-standard personal computers. Version 3.0 reportedly provides compatibility with the computer graphics metafile format. The software package consists of two components: the HP Charting Gallery for creating presentation-quality charts, and the HP Drawing Gallery for creating and editing text, illustrations and charts. Each package is available separately or as part of the collection. Pricing ranges from $249 to $499 for first-time users, and upgrades range from $75 to $125. Hewlett-Packard 3000 Hanover St. Palo Alto, Calif. 94304 800-752-0900 <<<>>> Title : mens said that we had a g Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: jjcaseyp Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: mens said that we had a good spear.'' Whether with a fishing pole or spear, Sequent hopes to net an even more elusive catch from a joint-venture firm formed in December with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in Japan. Called Pana-Sequent, the company will cast its net throughout Japan, particularly to earmark office automation customers. The joint venture has its subtle side. Although Sequent looks to penetrate the commercial market in Japan, it currently has about 50 systems installed, primarily in the university market. The Pana-Sequent venture, Powell said, positions the firm to defend against continuing shortages in memory components and take advantage of Matsushita's developments in optical storage. <<<>>> Title : A combination hardware an Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micvideo Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A combination hardware and software product designed to produce electronic photography on personal computers is now available from Videotex Systems, Inc. Video Publisher reportedly consists of a 512- by 512-pixel resolution digitizing board capable of capturing analog video at 256 gray levels. Images can be saved as encapsulated Postscript, TIFF or PCX files and imported directly into virtually any desktop publishing package, according to the vendor. The product operates on IBM Personal Computers, PC XTs and ATs and compatible computers and is priced at $995. Videotex Suite 205 8499 Greenville Ave. Dallas, Texas 75231 214-343-4500 <<<>>> Title : GW Instruments, Inc. has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micgwins Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: GW Instruments, Inc. has released Version 3.0 of Parameter Manager Plus, its data acquisition spreadsheet software for Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh computers. The software package was developed specifically for scientists to collect, analyze and display data, according to the company, and the enhanced version provides additional data-smoothing features and larger graph sizes _ up to 400 by 400 in. The product can now handle as many as 32,767 graphs from a single data set and is priced at $990. GW Instruments 35 Medford St. Somerville, Mass. 02143 617-625-4096 <<<>>> Title : A text editor for persona Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micsaucc Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A text editor for personal computers running MS-DOS or PC-DOS operating systems is available from Andrew M. Saucci Jr. Called Deciwrite, the software is a single-screen text editor suitable for creating short memo notes and batch files, according to the vendor. Features include a nonblinking cursor and automatic word wrap functions. The product requires 256K bytes of memory and is priced at $60 until April 1 and $75 after that date. Andrew M. Saucci Jr. 727 Barkley Ave. E. Meadow, N.Y. 11554 516-538-9209 <<<>>> Title : Distribupro, the maker of Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micaccou Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Distribupro, the maker of Accounting by Design, has announced a price increase for its Client Write-Up software introduced last April. The general ledger package for professional accountants originally carried a price of $995. Version 2.0 of the product now costs $1,295, according to the vendor. Distribupro 2034 Bearing Dr. San Jose, Calif. 95131 408-436-7499 <<<>>> Title : A C language programmer's Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: miceffet Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A C language programmer's tool kit has been introduced by Effective Data Solutions. Zipwhere reportedly maintains a data file of U.S. ZIP codes and related geographic information, including city, state and county names and area code information. It requires less than 1M byte of storage and runs on IBM Personal Computers and compatibles. Zipwhere costs $139. Effective Data Solutions Suite 102 28225 Agoura Road Agoura Hills, Calif. 91301 800-777-8818 <<<>>> Title : A DOS driver that was des Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micsundo Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A DOS driver that was designed to double the capacity of both hard and floppy disks has been introduced by Sundog Software Corp. Called Squish Plus, the logical device driver is said by the company to be completely transparent and can compress files of up to 512M bytes. The product runs on stand-alone IBM Personal Computers as well as compatible workstations and can operate with 3Com Corp. or IBM PC Network file servers. Squish Plus costs $99.95 and requires 36K bytes of random-access memory. Sundog Software 264 Court St. Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231 718-855-9141 <<<>>> Title : United Software Security, Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micunite Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: United Software Security, Inc. has announced the release of an archiving utility for IBM Personal Computers, Personal System/2s and compatibles. The program, which is called PC Librarian, is designed to remove inactive files from the PC while retaining a catalog of information pertaining to the removed files on the hard disk, the company said. The software requires a minimum of 512K bytes of internal memory and is priced at $99, according to the company. United Software Security 8133 Leesburg Pike Vienna, Va. 22180 703-556-0007 <<<>>> Title : A software package that a Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: miccompl Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A software package that allows personal computer users to program their computers to automatically perform routine tasks is now available from Complementary Solutions, Inc. Called Automate, the product reportedly performs file back-up, report printing and batch job scheduling automatically and according to a predetermined schedule. Operator intervention is not required. The software is priced from $200 to $250. Complementary Solutions Suite 202 4470 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road Atlanta, Ga. 30338 404-454-8033 <<<>>> Title : Microsoft Corp. is curren Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micasi Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Microsoft Corp. is currently offering Docucomp, a document comparison program from Advanced Software, Inc., free of charge to Microsoft Word 4.0 users. Docucomp uses pattern recognition technology to compare two versions of a document and report any changes, according to Advanced Software. It is available for other word processors in both networked and single-user versions and is priced at $159.95 plus shipping and handling. Advanced Software Suite 212 1095 E. Duane Ave. Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086 800-346-5392 <<<>>> Title : Xerox Imaging Systems has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micxerox Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Xerox Imaging Systems has announced a text-scanning software package that provides intelligent character recognition (ICR) for Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh-compatible scanners. Datacopy Accutext utilizes ICR technology to capture virtually any typeface in complex document structures, complete with word-processing commands, according to the vendor. It reportedly boosts the accuracy of desktop scanning systems available for the Macintosh II and the Macintosh SE with a Motorola, Inc. 68020 accelerator card. The software requires 4M bytes of system memory and is priced at $995. XIS 1215 Terra Bella Ave. Mountain View, Calif. 94043 415-965-7900 <<<>>> Title : A voice-recognition syste Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micartic Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A voice-recognition system developed specifically for use with the Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh has been announced by Articulate Systems, Inc. Dubbed the Voice Navigator, the combination hardware and software product includes a built-in microphone, speaker and sound controls and responds to the user's voice in the same manner as a keyboard responds to touch, the vendor said. The system reportedly connects to the computer via the small computer systems interface port. The Voice Navigator is set to ship in the second quarter and is priced at $999. Articulate Systems 99 Erie St. Cambridge, Mass. 02139 617-876-5236 <<<>>> Title : A video card for the Appl Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micmobiu Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A video card for the Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh SE has been introduced by Mobius Technologies, Inc. Called Multiscreen, the product reportedly allows users to attach a variety of full-size monitors to the Mac SE system. It consists of a video board and software for multiple resolution display and is priced at $495. Mobius Technologies 6020 Adeline St. Oakland, Calif. 94608 415-654-0556 <<<>>> Title : A 21-in. monitor develope Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micmonit Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A 21-in. monitor developed for use with the Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh II is now available from Moniterm Corp. The Viking 21 provides a square, flat screen designed to provide a larger display area and reduce glare pickup from overhead or peripheral light sources, the vendor said. The product displays 256 colors out of a palette of 16.8 million, weighs 78 pounds and costs $3,795. Moniterm 5740 Green Circle Drive Minnetonka, Minn. 55343 612-935-4151 <<<>>> Title : In Focus Systems, Inc. ha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micinfoc Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: In Focus Systems, Inc. has announced a line of PC Viewers designed to add high-contrast black-and-white projected images to the company's current blue and yellow display products. The viewers reportedly allow presentations developed on a personal computer to be magnified and displayed directly on an overhead projector, eliminating the need for traditional overhead foils. Reportedly compatible with IBM Personal Computers and Personal System/2s as well as Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh and Apple II machines, the PC Viewer line has a price ranging from $895 to $2,995. In Focus Systems 7649 S.W. Mohawk St. Tualatin, Ore. 97062 503-692-4968 <<<>>> Title : An 8-bit, gray-scale, fla Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: michp2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: An 8-bit, gray-scale, flatbed scanner has been introduced by Hewlett-Packard Co. The HP Scanjet Plus is available with either an IBM Personal Computer- or Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh-compatible interface kit and provides 256 levels of gray, according to the vendor. An optional 20-page sheet feeder is available. The scanner costs $2,190. HP 3000 Hanover St. Palo Alto, Calif. 94304 800-752-0900 <<<>>> Title : Pacific Data Products has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micpacif Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Pacific Data Products has announced a Hewlett-Packard Co.-Graphics Language (HP-GL) emulation cartridge for laser printers. According to the company, the product offers a complete emulation of HP's 7475A plotter and implements HP-GL on an HP Laserjet Series II printer. The cartridge reportedly provides print-spooling capacity to 2M bytes and is priced at $395. Pacific Data 6404 Nancy Ridge Road San Diego, Calif. 92121 619-552-0880 <<<>>> Title : A scanner and laser-print Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: micadvan Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A scanner and laser-printer controller has been introduced by Advanced Vision Research, Inc. The Tiger-EMS board was designed for office publishing applications, the company said, and runs on Intel Corp. 80386-based machines as well as IBM Personal Computer, PC XT and AT and compatible systems. The board comes with 2M bytes of random-access memory, expandable to 8M bytes, with a daughterboard option. The single-slot card includes memory-management software and supports several hardware platforms. The interface board, with 2M bytes of RAM and software, is priced at $1,795. Advanced Vision Research 2201 Qume Drive San Jose, Calif. 95131 408-434-1115 <<<>>> Title : Capital Equipment Corp. h Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: miccapit Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Capital Equipment Corp. has introduced a multifunction board designed for use with IBM's Micro Channel Architecture. The OS/RAM8 provides up to 8M bytes of memory and two serial ports and automatically configures itself for DOS or OS/2, the vendor said. Micro Channel installation can reportedly be accomplished with four keystrokes, and no configuration changes are required when changing operating systems. The board is priced at $449 and includes a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Capital Equipment No. 107, 99 S. Bedford St. Burlington, Mass. 01803 617-273-1818 <<<>>> Title : Studies help to uncover I Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: trivista Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: MORRISTOWN, N.J. _ For the last two years, AT&T has conducted a series of Trivista studies to determine how ISDN and other enhanced services can meet the communications needs of customers in various industry segments. The 20 detailed studies conducted so far have generated Integrated Services Digital Network customers for AT&T and the former Bell operating companies in almost every case, according to AT&T Network Systems Division spokesman Michael Vogel. The results, packaged into marketing pamphlets, have become part of AT&T's campaign to convince prospective users that ``ISDN is here now.'' But they also offer clear snapshots of how different types of organizations are gaining real cost and productivity benefits from the technology. Trivista is a three-way partnership, consisting of AT&T's Network Systems subsidiary, ``which knows the technology and products;'' local telephone companies, ``which provide the services;'' and end users, ``who know day-to-day business needs and can help us understand how to customize'' the network to meet them, Vogel said. The team inventories the customer's networking installation and then conducts a study that ``envisions what the introduction of ISDN would means in terms of productivity and cost,'' Network Systems spokeswoman Ellen Bond said. Market segments covered so far include insurance, health care, manufacturing, banking, education, hotels and motels and government. The first study subject _ Tenneco, Inc. _ has become a full ISDN user, with approximately 3,000 lines on Southwestern Bell Corp.'s ISDN Centrex service [CW, Jan. 30]. Among the other study subjects, which did not want their names disclosed, were the following: An insurance company developed the idea to install ISDN links to provide independent agents with the ability to access the latest product information over ordinary telephone lines. The application is designed to help the company gain a firmer hold on its better agents and make sure all agents are up-to-date and well trained, Vogel said. A hospital concluded that ISDN would be useful for eliminating the expense of modems, incompatible local-area networks and private lines as a way to connect different departments in a city complex. The hospital is also considering implementing its own version of the insurance company application described above, which it learned about from AT&T. Doctors who use the hospital as a consulting hospital would tie into the organization's data and applications via ISDN lines. A hotel chain is looking at an application that would let customers check in at the airport but still have eye-to-eye contact with the hotel clerk through a compressed video signal sent over a 64K bit/sec. ISDN link. Originally, Trivista aimed at finding applications for a variety of enhanced features and services that could be made available on the central office equipment that AT&T Network Systems sells, Vogel said. ``A lot of the enhanced service capabilities that ISDN brings will reside in the public network, in the central office. But there are also pre-ISDN enhanced services that provide customers with more control of the Centrex offering. It's rather difficult to get customers to upgrade a basic Centrex service to the tune of 20% to 50% [cost increase] unless you can truly see some value that's very direct,'' he said. The initial idea was not to generate requests for proposals but simply to ``document on an industry-by-industry basis what critical needs can be best or uniquely addressed by the services and to quantify those benefits to the end user and telephone company,'' Vogel said. The studies have ``put into black-and-white what it costs a telco to implement ISDN for a specific user and how that might translate into a tariff,'' he said. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Life beyond AT&T Author : Thomas L. Nolle Source : CW Comm FileName: nolle2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Second of a two-part series. Last week's column introduced independent ``regional'' carriers that are extending their geographic reach to challenge dominant interexchange carriers with lower prices and advanced service offerings. However, the reality of dealing with such companies introduces some potential snags. Network management is one potential trouble area _ particularly as regional carriers band together in consortiums. Once they have linked their respective networks, the problem of finger-pointing rears its head. However, carrier management techniques are strong enough to allow most users to employ any major regional carrier without significant risk. For example, National Telecommunications Network, a consortium of five regional carriers, maintains a separate network operations center from which it can oversee the high-level trunk activity in a multiregion network. If a problem is identified, the group's center hands it off to a regional center, whose own network management system can usually test circuits through the local exchange right to the customer's interface. This is not to say that regional service is for everyone. Most of the regional carriers have purchased fiber right-of-way and tend to locate their switching and connection points _ points of presence, or POPs _ along their routes. Thus, while an Amarillo, Texas, data center manager may be able to lease digital service from a regional carrier easily, someone in Pierre, S.D., may have no regional carrier at all. Even where there is a POP in the area, the user may find that the distance between the regional POP and the target termination for the service is so great that local access charges exceed the long-haul cost. Like all telephone circuits, a regional-based circuit has several cost components. The interexchange charge set by the regional carrier moves the information between the POPs closest to the subscriber's endpoints. Local exchange costs are assessed to link that endpoint to the carrier POP. Both these costs typically include a one-time installation charge and a monthly recurring charge. Carriers may also bill for service coordination if they want the regional carrier to set up the local access line for them. It is important to understand the charge basis when dealing with a regional carrier, but it is also important to understand the difference between these carriers and some of the larger and more regulated interexchange carriers. AT&T, MCI and Sprint all have published tariffs for interexchange service. Other carriers such as ITT also file government tariffs, available from the Federal Communications Commission and the carrier, that provide not only service rates and other charges but will also indicate discount schedules and terms. Regional carriers are rarely required to file formal rate schedules and thus rarely have them available for review. Getting a copy of an interexchange carrier tariff helps set a baseline against which regional rates can be measured. Pricing varies widely with the duration of the contract and the total dollar volume of business or circuit miles involved. A cross-country T1 route may be priced at more than $40,000 per month on a month-to-month basis from one carrier and at $24,000 per month on a one-year term from another. Quality is always a concern of network users and particularly so when ``name-brand'' carriers are not used. Most regional carriers will guarantee error performance at levels similar to and sometimes better than the large interexchange carriers. Many have all-fiber networks or are exclusively fiber on most major city-pair connections, so they are not fearful about writing quality commitments and service credit terms into an agreement. For users lucky enough to be located near a regional carrier's POP, the service and cost benefits may be very significant. Major firms have reported savings of 40% over the best terms negotiable from the major carriers. In these times of financial pressure, a regional carrier can often mend a broken budget. By Thomas L. Nolle; Nolle is president of CIMI Corp., a communications consulting company based in Haddonfield, N.J. <<<>>> Title : Tariff 12 considered Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: tariff Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ AT&T's Tariff 12 custom network service provides network managers with a host of new opportunities, but it can also leave them with new decisions to make about how much control they want over their corporate networks. For example, Tariff 12 contracts put responsibility for network equipment, maintenance, repair and technology upgrades in the hands of AT&T, according to speakers at the Communication Networks '89 conference earlier this month. Berge Ayvazian, vice-president of Boston-based research and consulting firm The Yankee Group, said this means managers can reduce in-house staff and count on automatic upgrades, but it also means a loss of control when something breaks down. Trade-off In addition, the volume discounts in Tariff 12 contracts discourage users from splitting their network traffic between two long-haul carriers. The trade-off for the low price is the vulnerability of depending on a single carrier, Ayvazian said. Tariff 12 is a regulatory umbrella that covers custom-network contracts negotiated with individual customers such as Du Pont Co. and Ford Motor Co. The contracts provide a package of voice and data transmission, network management and associated equipment and services. The contracts allow customers to pay for tariffed network services rather than purchasing equipment, thus complementing AT&T's effort to migrate network switching and intelligence from customer premises back onto the AT&T network, Ayvazian explained. ``This strategy also addresses the growing interest of telecommunications users in leasing rather than owning their entire network,'' he said. ``Tariff 12 provides the customer with the conveniences of one-stop shopping, a single point of responsibility and an end-to-end solution,'' he continued. Moreover, Tariff 12 users tend to get new features such as bandwidth management systems before they are widely available, he said. AT&T's goal, Ayvazian said, is to create a close partnership with the top 200 national accounts and gain a competitive advantage in its head-to-head competition with MCI Communications Corp. and U.S. Sprint Communications Co. Of course, MCI and U.S. Sprint are not sitting still. MCI recently signed contracts for custom-designed private networks with United Airlines, Procter & Gamble Co. and Dun & Bradstreet Corp., while U.S. Sprint has new contracts with Westinghouse Electric Corp., North American Phillips and the U.S. General Services Administration. American Airlines is the most recent company to sign up with AT&T under a Tariff 12 contract, effective Jan. 30. As in previous Tariff 12 contracts, the customer will pay a flat monthly fee and measured charges based on rate periods and mileages. The contract will last for five years and will offer a 10% discount during any month in which usage charges in certain locations exceed $30,000. David Nall, a Washington, D.C., attorney, said that network managers should be wary of several pitfalls with Tariff 12 contracts: You lose control over your private network because AT&T determines what facilities will be used. Managers of data networks may find themselves ``playing second fiddle to the voice people'' in cases in which voice traffic makes up 90% of the network volume and thus generates most of the price discounts. The contracts lock customers into AT&T service for three to five years, ``and you're going to have some heavy liability if you try to get out of that too quickly.'' Customers also should be aware of the regulatory uncertainty surrounding the controversial Tariff 12, which the Federal Communications Commission allowed to take effect pending an investigation. It is not clear what will happen to existing networks if the FCC, or a court, rules Tariff 12 unlawful. The FCC is currently investigating charges by MCI, U.S. Sprint and others that Tariff 12 is illegal because the custom networks do not qualify as generally available common-carrier services and the special discounts could amount to predatory pricing. John R. Hoffman, senior vice-president at U.S. Sprint, said he is concerned that ``as more time passes, it is going to become more difficult to unscramble the egg if Tariff 12 is ultimately found to be unlawful.'' By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : E-mail services bow to X. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netsec Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: As users increasingly demand common links between different electronic mail systems, communications service companies are moving _ however reluctantly _ to support the CCITT X.400 standard. Already widely supported in Europe, the X.400 protocol is finally catching on in the U.S. Large corporations and the U.S. government want to link their private E-mail systems to public systems, spawning a call for a national E-mail network. Major vendors have already provided X.400 support on the private side; now it is up to vendors such as Telenet Communications Corp. and Western Union Corp. to provide X.400 support on their public E-mail services. Large customers want one system that can connect them to members within their organizations but also to their suppliers and customers. According to Richard Miller, president of Rapport Communications, Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., large business users are turning to X.400 because it can bear much more than the interpersonal messages typically found on E-mail systems. One of the business applications for X.400 is to work as a complement to electronic data interchange (EDI). The growing throng of businesses that use EDI to exchange documents electronically with business partners are increasingly demanding X.400 as a standardized E-mail system to deliver such documents. Standards bodies are already working on ways to integrate EDI with X.400. In addition to the nudge from large corporations, two powerful bodies have used their might to bring the services companies closer to X.400. The Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) challenged vendors that tout X.400 last December to provide interconnection or lose their business. The association, Miller said, wants to subscribe to one vendor and communicate with the party of its choice, which may be using a different E-mail service vendor. Adding more force is the Government Open Systems Interconnect Profile, or GOSIP, a federal information processing standard established last August that mandates that governmental agencies procuring data communications services adhere to the International Standards Organization's Open Systems Interconnect, which includes X.400 messaging. Until now, most analysts contended, service vendors have responded to customer demand for X.400 by providing X.400 gateways to computer-based E-mail systems and promising to connect to competitors later. ``The service vendors have been playing a waiting game as far as providing X.400,'' Miller added. But this appears to be changing. Telenet, AT&T, MCI Communications Corp., Dialcom, Inc., GE Information Services, GTE Communication Systems, McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Western Union Corp. made commitments to participate in the AIA pilot project. IBM Information Network, which is preparing to offer service interconnection, has yet to commit to the pilot. Western Union has committed to an X.400 interconnection with GE Quickcom and McDonnell Douglas Ontyme, but the company does not offer X.400 services. According to Marni Erlich, district manager of electronic messaging systems and office automation at AT&T, the company is testing an X.400 connection between AT&T Mail and an undisclosed service in addition to its connection with Dialcom, announced in January. Western Union, according to Vice-President of Marketing Brian Gaylord, has been testing X.400 with a few U.S. customers and European administrations. Telenet also has set up international X.400 connections, a company spokeswoman said. Sign of life One sign of the healthy demand for X.400 is the fact that many vendors are working on the next generation of X.400 gateways, at least partly because the current products cannot efficiently handle growing traffic demands, Miller said. However, both national and international X.400 networks are still missing one critical element for success: directories. From electronic analogs to the telephone company's white pages, directory services would allow users on different vendors' E-mail services to exchange mail automatically _ without first having to call a recipient to find out his or her mailbox address, log-on name and so on. But directories currently do not offer the necessary universal accessibility, which will be provided by the latest version of the X.500 directory standard. Now that X.400 specifications are in place, vendors are expected to move more quickly from the 1984 version of X.500 to the 1988 version. According to Miller, the vendors plan to offer X.500 directories in conjunction with their next X.400 offerings. Telenet said it plans to announce an X.500 directory in the fourth quarter. Another thorny issue that has bogged down X.400 service introductions is allocation of charges when two or more E-mail services are involved in a user exchange. Service vendors have been meeting with European communications carriers and value-added network suppliers in the International ADMD operators group to establish what must be measured and what is chargeable. According to Miller, service providers already interconnected have brought their experience and influence to play at the committees. Walter Ulrich, a partner at Coopers & Lybrand's Management Consulting Services Division, added that corporations are already conditioned to paying premiums for telecommunications links that involve more than one carrier and will likely look to telephone charges as a model. By Robert Moran, CW staff <<<>>> Title : BAanks' role in EDI dispu Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: bits2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Attendees at the recently held EDI and Financial Institutions Symposium debated the role banks should play in providing electronic data interchange (EDI) services. While many attendees said they are counting on the banks to provide these services, spokesmen from Procter & Gamble Co. and General Electric Co. stated that major corporations will deal directly with one another for most EDI transactions, turning to banks only for EDI payment services. In response to AT&T's recent 3.8% rate decrease, Vienna, Va.-based Cable & Wireless Communications, Inc. said it has also reduced rates for its long-distance and call accounting services and completed a major restructuring of its equal-access WATS service. Rates for interstate switched and dedicated access services have dropped an average of 5%. Fees for its call accounting and security features were reduced an average of 28%. The restructured WATS service reportedly will provide 5% savings. Data General Corp. has joined the OSI/Network Management Forum, a vendor organization dedicated to ensuring interoperability of different vendors' network management products through the use of Open Systems Interconnect protocols. National Advanced Systems, Inc. (NAS) extended its scientific/engineering strategy recently by announcing an IBM-to-Digital Equipment Corp. VAX connectivity link. NAS, which often installs IBM-compatible machines at DEC sites, has agreed to co-market a high-speed network controller product made by Interlink Computer Sciences, Inc. An electronic mail system for the hearing-impaired has been co-developed by Gallaudet College and Metrocast. It is said to send full-text messages either by Telecommunications Device for the Deaf or ordinary telephone to a portable pocket-size receiver that vibrates to alert the recipient that a message is waiting. Cayman National Bank and Trust Co., the only locally owned bank in worldwide financial center the Cayman Islands, has implemented a signature scanning, storage and display system using a hand scanner from Cameron GMBH in West Germany and a customized mouse-driven software program that runs on three NCR Corp. microcomputers compatible with the IBM Personal Computer XT. The personal computers use NCR's Towernet to access digitized signatures stored in an NCR Tower 600 hard disk. IBM Information Network, which had served the U.S., Canada and Europe, will now provide E-mail and EDI services between the U.S. and Japan via IBM Systems Network Architecture links. Four companies have successfully completed protocol verification procedures to integrate their applications with Integrated Business Exchange, a private branch exchange system from Wang Laboratories, Inc. subsidiary Intecom, Inc. The vendors are Amcom Software, Inc., Compco, Inc., Digital Techniques, Inc. and Startel Corp. As part of a recently launched campaign to modernize and rewire its telecommunications network, China is installing AT&T 5ESS digital switches in many major cities. One of the 5ESS switches, handling 12,160 lines, was installed to handle data and voice communications for the Ministry of Railways in Beijing. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto will become the first commercial user of Bytex Corp.'s Unity system, which is said to provide local- and wide-area switching and network management capabilities. The $1 million-plus contract calls for two Unity 50 systems to be installed in two of the bank's data centers, Bytex said. Simpact Associates, Inc. and Systems Strategies, Inc. (SSI) have announced a marketing and distribution agreement to develop and market a turnkey DEC-to-IBM system that combines SSI's VAX Link/SNA software family with Simpact's hardware platform. The product reportedly will support 3270, RJE and, eventually, LU6.2-based links between DEC and IBM hosts. Contel ASC has boosted its capacity to provide very small-aperture terminal satellite services by installing a fourth shared hub at the New York Teleport in Staten Island, N.Y. <<<>>> Title : Legal questions Author : Mitch Betts Source : CW Comm FileName: tarifsid Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: John Cimko, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Tariff Division, said the FCC will decide the legality of AT&T's Tariff 12 based on four standards: Are the rates too low, and are the discounts financed by other ratepayers via cross-subsidies? Is Tariff 12 a set of customized packages that are not generally available common-carrier services, or are they _ as AT&T argues _ merely a set of discrete components that are available to all customers in different arrangements? Can the Tariff 12 services be resold? Are AT&T's Tariff 12 services excessively bundled? MITCH BETTS <<<>>> Title : X.400 group coalesces Author : Patricia Keefe Source : CW Comm FileName: x400grou Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Agroup of computer and communications vendors has formally launched the X.400 Application Program Interface Association (APIA) with the goal of developing application program interfaces for the CCITT X.400 messaging standard. Interfaces are designed to allow personal computer applications on networks to access X.400 services. ``Our goal is to encourage the integration of LAN applications with wide-area services,'' said Stephen Lane, director of PC Services at Telenet Communications Corp. ``With X.400, we hope to provide all users within an organization peer-level access to each other, regardless of their operation platform.'' The group, which seeks to ensure interoperability among different vendors' implementations of X.400-based products, actually kicked off last year with a series of informal and organizational meetings. X.400 is the first global E-mail standard that provides true OSI interoperability between systems and software from a variety of vendors, according to the APIA. The standard is supported worldwide by vendors and users, many of whom consider the standard key to nonelectronic data exchange-related external communications with business partners and far-flung internal sites. PATRICIA KEEFE <<<>>> Title : Digital Products, Inc. ha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netdigit Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Digital Products, Inc. has introduced an unattended tape backup facility for use with the company's Netcommander sublocal-area network series. Called Sublan Backup, the unit is designed to automatically protect data on departmental personal computer hard disks, including the hard disks of individual personal computers connected to local-area networks. The product is available as a Sublan option and ranges in price from $3,495 to $3,995. Digital Products 108 Water St. Watertown, Mass. 02172 800-243-2333 <<<>>> Title : Jupiter Technology, Inc. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netjupit Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Jupiter Technology, Inc. has introduced the System 100, a line of data communications computers the company said is intended for use at remote sites of large networks. The systems can be used as a local-area network server or a multiaccess terminal cluster controller, and all of the systems utilize a proprietary communications operating system, the vendor said. The System 100 is capable of serving from four to 384 lines and is priced from $8,500. Jupiter Technology 78 4th Ave. Waltham, Mass. 02154 617-890-4555 <<<>>> Title : Micom Communications Corp Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netmicom Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Micom Communications Corp. has announced the X.25 Network Management System (XNMS). The product is based on an IBM Personal Computer AT/Intel Corp. 80386 platform and is said to provide a graphics monitor, centralized configuration, event management and call accounting capabilities. The Xenix-based XNMS software program reportedly allows multitask processing on the AT, and file conversion is included for importing billing and statistics files to Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 spreadsheet. The XNMS package, including software, the Xenix operating system and an Eicon Technology Corp. X.25 Communications Card and software, is priced at $15,000, with deliveries scheduled to begin this month. The 386 PC AT is purchased separately. Micom 4100 Los Angeles Ave. Simi Valley, Calif. 93063 805-583-8600 <<<>>> Title : BBN Communications Corp. Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netbbnco Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: BBN Communications Corp. has announced the migration of its Network Access System (NAS) from Digital Equipment Corp.'s Microvax II to a Microvax 2000 platform. NAS was designed to protect sensitive information and system resources on BBN wide-area networks from unauthorized access. The system is composed of a centralized Master Database host and one or more distributed Access Control Server hosts, the vendor said. Pricing starts at $125,000 for a minimum configuration, which includes two Microvax 2000 computer systems. BBN 150 Cambridge Park Drive Cambridge, Mass. 02140 617-873-2683 <<<>>> Title : Hewlett-Packard Co. has a Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: nethewle Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced the release of several enhancements to the HP 4954A wide-area network protocol analyzer. The product has been upgraded to include the following: the HP 4954I access and analysis software for Integrated Services Digital Network, priced at $20,500; the HP 18320A language environment for C programming, priced at $2,000; and the HP 18321A package for emulating X.25 Levels 2 and 3, also priced at $2,000. Hewlett Packard 3000 Hanover St. Palo Alto, Calif. 94304 800-752-0900 <<<>>> Title : Emerald Systems Corp. has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netemera Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Emerald Systems Corp. has introduced a local-area network data management system for use with Novell, Inc.'s Advanced Netware. Called EMQ, the system provides shared tape backup services and allows network supervisors to manage offline data storage systems. Emerald Systems' Tape Backup Server system, which includes both EMQ and the VAST Device, is priced at $8,490, the company said. Emerald 4757 Morena Blvd. San Diego, Calif. 92117 619-270-1994 <<<>>> Title : Canon U.S.A. has expanded Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netcanon Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Canon U.S.A. has expanded its family of personal facsimiles with the introduction of the Faxphone 15. The desktop communications device reportedly incorporates both facsimile and telephone features into a single compact, lightweight design. According to the company, the unit transfers information at 9.6K bit/sec. and includes an automatic five-page document feeder, fine mode, automatic background control and automatic reception capabilities. The Faxphone 15 costs $1,695. Canon One Canon Plaza Lake Success, N.Y. 11042 516-488-6700 <<<>>> Title : A remote communications p Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netsales Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A remote communications processor that accesses incompatible databases simultaneously has been announced by Commnetics, Inc. The stand-alone Commnetics CN-2000 reportedly features Custom Application Mapping software that lets terminal users enter one request, which is automatically reformatted to access incompatible databases residing on up to six host mainframes. The unit utilizes a Motorola, Inc. 68000 processor and operates under Unix, the company said. The CN-2000 is priced from $150,000 for a 48-user system. Commnetics 390 University Ave. Westwood, Mass. 02090 617-326-1221 <<<>>> Title : A software product that t Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netthesy Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A software product that transfers data and integrates operations among Tandem Computers, Inc. computers and IBM mainframes has been announced by The Systems Center, Inc. Network Datamover-Tandem (NDN-Tandem) enables Tandem computers running the Guardian operating system to communicate with mainframes running NDM-MVS, NDM-VM and other NDM products. The package has file transfer, automated operation, management control and security functions, according to the company. Pricing ranges from $2,000 to $30,000, depending on processor size. The Systems Center Suite 101 2477 Gateway Drive Irving, Texas 75063 800-292-0104 <<<>>> Title : An optically isolated RS- Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netcompu Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: An optically isolated RS-232 to RS-422 plug-in adapter has been introduced by Computer Dynamics, Inc. According to the vendor, Opto-Adapt can connect RS-232 and RS-422 interface circuits bi-directionally at distances longer than 5,000 ft. The adapter can be used for long-haul communications between buildings and has a price tag of $120. The external power supply, which is not included, is available for $10. Computer Dynamics 107 S. Main St. Greer, S.C. 29651 803-877-8700 <<<>>> Title : A PC-to-PC telecommunicat Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: neteidol Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A PC-to-PC telecommunications program for file transfer applications has been announced by Eidolon Technologies. Called Quicktran II, the product reportedly uses compression and decompression technology for file transmission and can be used to set up an unattended electronic mailbox. An IBM Personal Computer, Personal System/2 or compatible system with a Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.-compatible modem is required. Quicktran II costs $39.95. An individual copy is needed for each end of a file transfer. Eidolon P.O. Box 20680 Columbus Circle Station New York, N.Y. 10023 212-795-7909 <<<>>> Title : Dresselhaus Computer Prod Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netdress Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Dresselhaus Computer Products has announced that it is shipping its latest version of Smartprint, a laser sharing system for IBM, Apple Computer, Inc., Digital Equipment Corp. and other computers. Smartprint/LSS is reportedly capable of connecting multiple processors to any laser printer. It is available in either four- or six-port versions, which are priced at $179 and $199, respectively. Both versions of the product are offered in parallel or serial configurations. Dresselhaus Suite 405 8560 Vineyard Ave. Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 91730 800-368-7737 <<<>>> Title : Cabletron Systems, Inc. h Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netcable Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Cabletron Systems, Inc. has added two low-cost bridges to its family of Ethernet products and services. The NB20E and NB25E series of two-port intelligent bridges were designed to provide high-performance connectivity between Ethernet and 802.3 local-area networks of various media, the vendor said. The products reportedly allow users to connect two or more Ethernet segments to create extended-distance LANs and increase bandwidth efficiency. The bridges operate at the data link level of the Open Systems Interconnect model and are protocol-independent. The NB20E costs $2,995, and the NB25E is priced at $5,495. Cabletron 10 Main St. Rochester, N.H. 03867 603-332-9400 <<<>>> Title : GSI-Danet, Inc. has annou Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netgsida Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: GSI-Danet, Inc. has announced a family of Unix-based Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) development products designed specifically for software development personnel. The OSI Product Development Support System reportedly will guide designers through the development process, analyze the behavior of OSI software and test for OSI conformity before modules are integrated into the final product. The products can be used with a variety of hardware systems and are priced from $32,000. GSI-Danet Suite 300 1850 Centennial Park Drive Reston, Va. 22091 703-758-0077 <<<>>> Title : A line-sharing device aim Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netlynx Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A line-sharing device aimed at the computer, facsimile and telephone markets is now available from Lynx Automation, Inc. Called Extraline, the product was reportedly designed to make one telephone line perform the work of two. It includes a microprocessor that automatically directs calls to a choice of devices and can operate in unattended mode, the vendor said. Extraline costs $299. Lynx P.O. Box 99068 Seattle, Wash. 98199 206-285-1754 <<<>>> Title : A protocol converter that Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netblack Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A protocol converter that connects the IBM 3262 printer with IBM's Application System/400 midrange computer has been announced by Black Box Corp. The PQ-3262 is designed to allow the printer to attach directly to the host's twin-axial cable and will not degrade printer speed or other features, according to the vendor. The converter also facilitates connection between the 3262 and the IBM System/36 Models 5362, 5363 and 5364. It is priced at $2,990. Black Box Box 12800 Mayview Road at Park Drive Pittsburgh, Pa. 15241 412-746-5500 <<<>>> Title : Case/Datatel, Inc. has in Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netcased Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Case/Datatel, Inc. has introduced three Bell-compatible modems. The Rixon 4212 dual-speed, full-duplex modem for direct-distance-dialing switched networks reportedly operates at speeds up to 1,200 bit/sec. The Rixon 4202 asynchronous modem operates at speeds up to 1,800 bit/ sec. Both devices are priced from $469 to $489. The Rixon 4200 829 frequency unit was developed for standard termination in four-wire loaded or unloaded private line, 3002-type voice-grade data channels. It is priced from $299 to $329. All are available in desktop and rack-mount versions. Case/Datatel 55 Carnegie Plaza Cherry Hill, N.J. 08003 800-424-4451 <<<>>> Title : Codex Corp. has introduce Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netcodex Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Codex Corp. has introduced two CCITT V.32 modems, the 2264 and the 2266. The 2264 is available in a stand-alone or nestable rack-mount version and supports operating speeds from 1,200 to 9.6K bit/sec. in asynchronous or synchronous modes over two-wire dial or two-wire or four-wire leased lines, according to the company. It is priced at $1,695. The 2266 is the international version of the 2264 and is priced at $1,900. Codex Maresfield Farm 7 Blue Hill River Road Canton, Mass. 02021 617-364-2000 <<<>>> Title : E-Tech Research, Inc. has Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: netetech Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: E-Tech Research, Inc. has introduced a CCITT V.32-compatible, 9.6K bit/sec., full-duplex modem. The E9696 is said to be capable of communicating with modems ranging from 9.6K bit/sec. to 75K bit/sec. on either full-duplex or half-duplex modes and synchronous or asynchronous modes over dial-up or leased lines. It is priced at $1,695 with a two-year warranty. E-Tech No. 275 2700 Augustine Drive Santa Clara, Calif. 95054 408-982-0270 <<<>>> Title : RDBMS show they can pull Author : Alan Radding Source : CW Comm FileName: raddlead Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: For years, relational database management systems have been regarded with suspicion in terms of their ability to handle on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications. Recently, however, improvements in relational DBMS products and some changes in thinking about what cost-effective transaction processing is really all about have combined to produce more application opportunities for RDBMSs at this level. For example, at Capital Market Technology, Inc. (CMT), a Berkeley, Calif.-based foreign currency trading firm, a Sybase, Inc. RDBMS running on a Sun Microsystems, Inc. workstation is used for 24-hour on-line updating of currency prices. According to Brian Chapman, computer operations manager, the system supports about 20 concurrent users and a transaction volume that averages around 15,000 per day. CMT shuffles its clients' money from one currency to another to take advantage of minute-by-minute market fluctuations, Chapman says, and the Sybase RDBMS is a critical cog in that process. Currency trading represents a specialized niche within the financial services industry, and CMT is typical of the users who are taking a chance on the combination of relational technology and OLTP. On-line transaction processing is a broad concept but is generally understood to involve the running of mission-critical production applications in a real-time environment. Conventional OLTP applications involve very high volumes of generally simple, straightforward tasks, such as debit/credit transactions. The classic OLTP systems _ airline reservations and bank automated teller networks _ predate relational technology. ``Nobody would dream of trying to rewrite one of those major existing programs,'' observes Kenneth Bosomworth, president of the market research firm International Resource Development, Inc. in New Canaan, Conn. The real growth potential for RDBMS in OLTP, Bosomworth says, is in applications written for smaller niches within the traditional heavy-OLTP industries or in areas, such as factory automation, that lie outside the usual domain of OLTP. OLTP in the factory is not very different from OLTP in an environment like banking, says Eric F. Palmer, president of The Palmer Group in Atlanta. True, the input comes from a factory floor device reporting an operation instead of from a teller taking a deposit, but the requirements on the system are virtually identical, he maintains. ``OLTP in integrated manufacturing just means you are getting a stream of input from a lot of devices instead of people,'' Palmer points out. Palmer, a database specialist, recently served as systems integrator on a state-of-the-art factory automation project for a Northeast defense systems contractor that incorporated Relational Technology, Inc.'s Ingres RDBMS. According to Palmer, Ingres 5.0 is performing just fine on the project, even though the factory runs as many as 140 concurrent users and handles up to one million multistatement transactions each day. Response time is generally calculated in subseconds, he says, although a few transactions may take as long as 10 seconds. ``We modeled the frequency of transactions and optimized for the ones that run thousands of times rather than the handful that run just a couple of times,'' Palmer adds. One of the things that is happening, suggests George Schussel, president of Digital Consulting, Inc. in Andover, Mass., is that although most RDBMSs still cannot compete with hierarchical products on the basis of pure speed, many organizations are coming to feel that speed of throughput is not the only consideration and transactions per second is not the only yardstick when it comes to transaction processing. ``Most businesses don't care about transactions per second,'' Schussel maintains. ``What really is important is transactions per dollar, and this is where an RDBMS can really beat a hierarchical system. The RDBMS may not be faster, but it will be cheaper.'' The savings, Schussel and others say, come from flexibility that the relational model provides. A relational database is a database in which the logical data is organized simply as tables without the pointers or structural elements of a hierarchical database and independent of the physical data. Using keys and indexes, an RDBMS automatically navigates through the database with the assistance of an optimizer. The separation of the logical data from the physical structure of the database allows you to create the database without first having to rigidly define how the data is to be used. Tables can be added to or deleted from the database or columns and rows can be added to or deleted from existing tables without affecting the data already there and the applications already on the system. The result is that a relational database is faster and less costly to develop and maintain compared with traditional database schemes. ``Maintenance costs for hierarchical systems are so high that you can spend a lot on hardware for a relational DBMS and still save money by comparison,'' says David Ells, president of the Data Administration Management Association (DAMA) in Seattle. Hardware performance keeps coming down in price, Ells notes, but the cost for programmers does not. Brian Martin, senior software engineer at the Denver-based Astronautics Group of Martin Marietta Corp., says he appreciates that distinction. ``There's a guy down the hall running a database on IMS, and making changes is so hard that they do it only twice a year. We modify ours on-line every day,'' Martin says. Martin has no illusions about the reality behind many of the complaints about relational DBMSs in an OLTP environment. He has seen most of them in action. But, having stuck with Oracle Corp.'s Oracle since Version 2, he can also testify to the dramatic improvement that has taken place in that product since 1983. Some might quibble with the use of the label OLTP to describe the Astronautics Group's application, but that is definitely the way that Martin, whose group maintains the human resource database for five Martin Marietta companies in Colorado, sees it. ``This isn't your typical OLTP application, like retail or a bank, but we do a lot of concurrent transactions every day,'' he says. In fact, the Martin Marietta human resource system is made up of eight databases, each containing 15 to 150 tables. The entire database requires 750M bytes of memory. The largest table is 750,000 records. Because employees are moved frequently as job locations and assignments change, changes to the databases are common. Like any OLTP transaction, Martin Marietta is concerned with throughput, referential integrity, security, monitoring _ all the issues that concern a traditional OLTP operation. The Astronautics Group had no choice but to turn to an RDBMS when it wanted to put its large and extremely complex personnel management system on-line in 1983, Martin says. ``We have a matrix management system. That means you have two bosses. You can't handle that with a hierarchical system. You would need two chains.'' For that reason, Martin determined that there was no choice but a relational system. Unfortunately, making that decision at that time meant facing the worst problems associated with RDBMSs in an OLTP setting. Out of the doghouse ``At the beginning, Version 2 was a dog,'' Martin recalls. ``It crashed weekly, sometimes several times.'' By Version 3, the biggest problems were corrected. With Version 4, productivity began to improve; Version 5 further improved productivity. Version 6, he believes, finally delivers industrial-strength OLTP. The system now handles as many as 60 concurrent users running Oracle Version 5 on a Digital Equipment Corp. Vaxcluster. The group is testing Version 6, which Martin expects to put on the Vaxcluster as soon as a couple of problems are resolved. The Martin Marietta experience highlights both the promise and frustration of RDBMSs for OLTP. Undeniably, performance has been a frustrating problem, especially when compared with hierarchical and networked systems, but the RDBMS products have improved steadily. Not all of the problems with relational DBMSs as a foundation for OLTP have been completely resolved. Questions about speed, throughput, referential integrity, security, recovery, concurrency and fault tolerance still crop up, but there has been considerable progress. Advocates for the relational approach insist that there are no inherent problems, either in speed or functionality, with the relational model as it applies to RDBMS in OLTP. The problems, as they see it, are the result of poor initial implementations of the relational model by the vendors and deficiencies in the other components of the RDBMS offerings such as inefficient exploitation of the hardware platform. Vendors are responding by boosting the performance of their systems at both hardware and software levels. According to Colin White, publisher of ``Info DB,'' a journal based in San Jose, Calif., three key areas affect the performance of an RDBMS in OLTP: the implementation of the relational model itself, the system architecture and the tools. Most of the performance problems in systems that properly implement the relational model, he says, result from a failure to exploit the architecture properly. Among the software improvements being undertaken are better optimizers, precompiled transactions, I/O pipelining, memory buffering, better disk management, improved data dictionaries, multiple degrees of row-level locking and better tool sets. The newer systems also are likely to allow users to back up and dump data while on-line to allow continuous operation. The addition of journaling and mirroring provide recovery capability, allowing the system to return to the last completed transaction automatically after a sudden failure. A growing number of popular RDBMSs, such as Oracle and Sybase, are available on fault-tolerant systems from vendors such as Tandem Computers, Inc. and Stratus Computer, Inc. to provide truly continuous operation. On the hardware level, the systems are beginning to take full advantage of multiprocessors, multithreading, distributed computing, caching, increased memory and increased storage. ``You want your RDBMS to exploit your processor. Throwing MIPS or hardware at the problem only helps if your RDBMS can really take advantage of it,'' White says. The real key to the performance of an RDBMS is the optimizer, according to Jeffrey Tash, president of Database Decisions, Inc., a Newton, Mass., consulting firm. The optimizer performs the automatic navigation of the database, he says, after translating the high-level SQL command into a low-level navigational strategy. The use of an inverted component to reduce I/O and the extensive use of indexes allows the optimizer to boost performance, Tash explains. Furthermore, if enough memory is available, indexes can be put into memory so that the relational DBMS navigates at memory speed. The experience of Questar Services, the data processing division of Mountain Fuel Supply Co., a natural gas utility in Utah and Wyoming, illustrates the critical importance of indexing in the optimizer. Questar has been testing DB2 in an effort to determine whether to switch its 20-year-old customer service OLTP system to the RDBMS because of a growing need for flexibility. Although the Questar system, with 400 concurrent users, does not run particularly high-volume or complex transactions, performance, as seen in response time, is critical. ``This system is a major part of the company. This is where we get our revenue,'' says Jerry Edwards, systems analyst at Questar's information systems engineering department. In a test of the system, Questar loaded a table with 300,000 records, with and without an index, and then tried to bring up 15 accounts. Without an index, it took 23 seconds. With the index, it took one second. ``Indexing is the key,'' Edwards concludes. To assist the optimizer, most of the new RDBMSs offer some kind of precompiled transaction. Essentially, the precompiled instructions allow the system to store the navigation for frequently run transactions so that the system does not have to refigure the navigation each time the operation is called up. ``Sybase give us something they call `triggers,' which are stored procedures,'' says CMT's Chapman. With the trigger, he stores the instructions for a highly repetitive procedure such as inserting a new price. When the procedure is required, the system ``doesn't have to reinterpret raw SQL,'' he explains. The Sybase triggers can also be used to enforce referential integrity, Chapman points out. When a certain procedure is activated that would affect referential integrity, a trigger can be used to direct the system to go automatically to the related reference and make the appropriate changes. Additional triggers can further enforce referential integrity right through the system. Ingres' version of the precompiled procedure is the repeat query. ``It is helpful for those queries that take time to optimize but are short to run. Or, if the query is complex or there are a large number of words to parse, we can get performance gains for that, too,'' Palmer reports. In Version 6, the repeat queries will automatically reoptimize if values change. The Ingres optimizer takes a near-best solution approach but allows users to tune the optimizer even further, he says. The system allows users to print out the query execution plan. With the printout of the optimizer's navigation, Palmer can look for unexpected occurrences. ``We might see that we need an index someplace, maybe where we thought we already had one. It's a really helpful feature when a query doesn't perform,'' he reports. At the software tool level, there are two types of performance enhancement products now being provided with RDBMS products. One type allows you to monitor what the optimizer is doing; the other allows you to collect better data on which to base its navigation. Optimizers are designed to make assumptions about the quality of the data, usually based on statistical theory concerning ranges of values and distribution. Often, Palmer says, the optimizer would choose a different navigation strategy if it knew the actual values in the table. To improve upon the theoretical assumptions, Ingres provides a tool called Optimize DB, which allows the system to collect the real statistics out of the table. ``You can sometimes get a performance gain of 10 times after running Optimize DB,'' Palmer maintains. Sometimes, however, there is no change at all. Early models Early implementations of RDMBS, used primarily for decision support, had ``the flexibility of the relational model and a lot of overhead,'' says Peter Kastner, vice-president of the Aberdeen Group, a consulting and market research firm based in Boston. ``Now, the vendors are putting in the go-fast tricks they learned in nonrelational DBMSs in response to OLTP's demands,'' he says. Most of these improvements have nothing to do with the relational model _ they come from better use of the overall system architecture or by providing a better set of software tools. Kastner, however, is not all that concerned about relational purity and does not think that users who are interested in RDBMSs for on-line transaction processing should let the issue worry or deter them, either. ``Users have to be concerned with developing systems that make money for the business,'' Kastner says. In some cases, gaining RDBMS/OLTP performance may entail giving up some of the flexibility of the relational model, he says, but if benchmarking indicates that is what is necessary, users should not let that stop them. Evidence suggests that fewer users are letting anything deter them. For instance, when a travel reservation system was being built in the Southwest recently, there was no question that the OLTP system would be relational. ``We liked the [relational] application. We didn't even discuss whether it was relational or not,'' says the system's technical support manager. The reservation system uses a Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. computer with a Unix-based RDBMS to handle 60 concurrent users with a subsecond response. Bill Werbin, vice-president of wholesale information systems development at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. in New York, is so confident in the growing power of the RDBMS products in OLTP that he is planning a new DB2 system with high transaction rates for 1990. The bank has used relational transaction processing products before, but only for low-volume applications, Werbin says. Now, DB2 advances have convinced him that it is time to try something more ambitious. ``Given what we've seen, I don't expect any problems,'' he says. By Alan Radding; Radding is a Boston-based free-lance writer. <<<>>> Title : Mixed breeds Author : Alan Radding Source : CW Comm FileName: dbmsbx2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Some vendors have tried to bridge the gap between relational DBMSs and conventional systems for OLTP by developing hybrid systems consisting of a relational-like front end attached to a hierarchical database engine. This approach appeals to some users because they say it gives them the elements they most like about relational technology while allowing them to stay with an underlying structure they already know can do the job. The Software AG Adabas system in use at the University of Texas at Austin, for example, provides some relational-like capabilities but retains an inverted file structure. That is all the relational flavor an OLTP environment needs, according to Randy Ebeling, assistant to the director of data processing.``It is the language, not the structure, that needs to be relational,'' he says. Many would argue that point, but Ebeling, who ran benchmark tests on a mix of relational and nonrelational products from five vendors, is convinced. The university needed to manage five production databases averaging about four million transactions per week, he says, and trying to handle that kind of load with a purely relational DBMS would have required too much hardware. The reasoning behind the adoption of a hybrid system at the U.S. Customs Office is slightly different. When it decided that a change was needed in the DBMS used to track all shipments and individuals crossing U.S. borders, the Washington, D.C.-based agency simply wanted to combine what it already had _ a 7-year-old Datacom inverted list database with a front end incorporating relational-style features. That reasoning led it to CA-Datacom/DB, a newer product from Computer Associates International, Inc., which is based on Datacom but incorporates an SQL-like front end and a number of relational features including set processing and set selection. This system was presented as ``a production implementation of the relational database,'' not as a purely relational product, says Clyde McPherson, a CA senior software support manager. That tack seemed like ``the best of both worlds'' to Glenn Samples, chief of the database branch of U.S. Customs. The Customs Office operation is large, he says, and it is doubtful that a purely relational system would be robust enough to support 8,000 concurrent users generating an average of 1,300 requests per second. ALAN RADDING <<<>>> Title : Beware the benchmark Author : Alan Radding Source : CW Comm FileName: rdbmsbox Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: How can a user determine if a relational DBMS will be fast enough or robust enough? The only way to tell is to benchmark the specific applications. Vendors are boosting the overall performance of their RDBMS/ OLTP systems, but published RDBMS/OLTP benchmarks are virtually meaningless, consultants say. It is difficult to determine from the benchmark tests how much of the performance gain comes from the improved implementation of the relational model and how much is from more powerful hardware or better use of the architecture. For instance, IBM's publicly released transaction-per-second rating for DB2 indicates Release 1.3 ran at 123 transaction/sec.; Release 2.1 reportedly jumped to 270 transaction/sec. _ a 119% increase. However, Release 1.3 was benchmarked on a 3090 Model 600E, while Release 2.1 was measured on a 3090 Model 600S. When asked to factor for a constant hardware platform _ in this case the 3090 Model 600E _ Release 2.1 ran at 186 transaction/ sec. and IBM reported only a 51% gain between the two releases. All of the above transaction-per-second ratings, according to IBM, were computed for complex SQL calls, not simple debit/credit transactions. Hardware power is not the only factor users need to consider. The type of application being run can also influence the relational database's performance. Robert Davoli, president of D&N Systems, Inc. in Burlington, Mass., is a database consultant frequently called upon to perform benchmarking. He points out, ``If you want to run relational in OLTP, then you have to take the time to run benchmarks that reflect your application. Then you know in black-and-white. You're sure. It works or it doesn't.'' ALAN RADDING <<<>>> Title : Market booster Author : Alan Radding Source : CW Comm FileName: dbmsbx1 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Interest in relational DBMSs may actually be helping to fuel a growth surge in the OLTP market, which currently is valued at around $30 billion, according to Kenneth Bosomworth, president of International Resource Development, Inc. He notes, ``Most people installing OLTP today are going for the relational type [of DBMS].'' The growing interest in RDBMS for OLTP is shaking up what had been a fairly stable and quiet vendor scene. IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. continue to dominate the market (DEC mainly on the strength of the large number of VAXs in use in OLTP rather than any particular RDBMS/OLTP offerings), Bosomworth reports. Tandem Computers and Stratus Computer continue to lead the fault-tolerant end of the business. But a host of young hardware and software companies, such as Sequent Computer Systems, Pyramid Technology Corp., Oracle, Sybase, Relational Technology and Informix Software, Inc., are making a significant push into the market. These companies have grabbed major positions. Older companies, including Cullinet Software, Inc., Software AG of North America, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., are revamping existing products to provide relational capabilities or introducing completely new RDBMS products. RDBMS vendors such as Britton Lee, Inc. and Teradata Corp. are also staking out positions in OLTP, often as the back-end processor. ALAN RADDING <<<>>> Title : Misunderstood and maligne Author : Fabian Pascal Source : CW Comm FileName: pascsd Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Twenty years after the relational approach to database management was devised, myths and misconceptions are still circulating about what the term really means and what the approach really accomplishes. What follows is an itemization and refutation of a few of the more common misapprehensions regarding relational database management systems. Most of the erroneous statements are actually extracts from what has been said in the press, not merely personal interpretations. MYTH: On the personal computer, relational means multifile. It is a commonly held belief that relational should be defined differently for PC users than for those working in the minicomputer and mainframe worlds. REALITY: In fact, the relational approach is a universal data foundation, independent of computing platform. Attaching a different meaning to it for the PC is not only a throwback to machine-dependent DBMSs, from which we are desperately trying to escape, but also ``multifile'' is dead wrong. Futhermore, there is nothing relational about connecting multiple files by writing procedural code with loops. This extra work is exactly what the relational multitable operators relieve users from, and those operators should lie at the heart of relational database management anywhere. When they are not part of the relational definition, it becomes useless. MYTH: The relational approach is too theoretical. SQL can be particularly recalcitrant, the reasoning goes, so users must have a thorough understanding of mathematical sets. REALITY: This is nonsense. If anybody needs to understand set theory, it is the vendors and for the precise purpose of providing underlying DBMS functions that simplify matters for users and enhance their power. Users need to understand only their data, tables and the logical operations available for them. That is about as unreasonable an expectation as saying that someone who is going to perform an accounting application ought to know arithmetic. MYTH: The relational approach is too difficult. In long form, the objection usually is that SQL is quite straightforward for simple data access but is more difficult for expressing complex relationships. REALITY: In principle, this is true of any language. In practice, it is certainly less true of SQL than of most programming languages. As a relational language, SQL was designed _ albeit, imperfectly _ for the precise purpose of simplifying the expression of complex relationships. Try expressing SQL joins or divisions in your favorite programming language, and it will quickly become apparent which approach is actually more difficult. MYTH: SQL is only useful for connectivity. If users have no need to deal with a remote host on a daily basis, especially if the host's database is nonrelational, non-SQL programs will do nicely. REALITY: This misconception stems from a narrow perception of SQL as just a standard interplatform connectivity language. It completely ignores the usability and productivity benefits of the relational features supported by SQL for any DBMS, whether stand-alone or networked. MYTH: SQL offers nothing new. The argument here is that the basic SQL commands are remarkably like procedural syntax and are used in the same way. An SQL command, it is said, is a tiny program that opens the database and indexes and deletes the records. The procedural syntax just uses separate commands for those steps and is, in effect, a kind of optimized query. REALITY: To begin with, SQL is not a program in any sense. A single SQL statement of what result is needed can hardly be compared to the separate commands required to form a step-by-step procedure of how the system should obtain the result. Moreover, the programming code that is avoided across the board through SQL support is anything but tiny. Another critical issue ignored here is system optimization. A relational DBMS handles optimization itself. Programs created for procedural DBMSs burden the user with it. MYTH: The relational approach emphasizes the wrong things. Instead of being preoccupied with SQL and other relatively obscure database technologies, the next generation of database products needs to deliver powerful features, such as custom menus and data entry screens that nonprogrammers can readily understand and use. REALITY: The powerful features that are usually mentioned as more suitable for attention than relational technology are not database functions but user front ends that must tap relational functions in the DBMS back end. Menus and forms need some underlying database technology or else they cannot work. And it is relational features that enhance the power and usability of such tools. MYTH: SQL is hard to learn and use. Inexperienced users must be trained to use SQL directly and are likely to be less productive. REALITY: There are three problems with this reasoning. First, it assumes that SQL is difficult for all users and all purposes. There is ample evidence that this is not true, even for end users. Second, it is simply not true that users must learn SQL syntax. Any relational DBMS can insulate users from SQL syntax. Most do, and those that do not have only themselves to blame. Third, SQL is not less productive than programming, nor are the tools built on top of procedural engines. Without a proper understanding of what relational really means, how loyal SQL is to it and what its genuine practical implications are, users will not be able to see through these misconceptions and are likely to fall prey to them. Therefore, users should educate themselves to use the precise relational features and fidelity rules as the correct criteria. If they do, they can properly evaluate, select and use DBMS products and be able to decide what tools to demand from vendors in order to achieve maximum usability and productivity. By Fabian Pascal; Pascal is a Washington, D.C., consultant and author specializing in relational database management and SQL on the personal computer. He is affiliated with Codd and Date International. <<<>>> Title : Machine niche tightens Author : Mark Breibart Source : CW Comm FileName: machines Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Database machines are like specialty players on a basketball team _ they play well in certain spots but are only called on for unique situations. These specialized combinations of hardware and software dedicated to database activities were never intended to replace database management systems that run on general-purpose computers. But for large database applications that call for frequent relational joins, they have been able to claim their share of wins over the years, based on cost and efficiency. Now however, some of the more aggressive vendors of relational DBMS products are challenging the database machines on their own turf, and analysts say the specialists will have to struggle to hold their places on the court. The two major database machine providers, Sharebase from Britton Lee, Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif., and Teradata Corp. in Los Angeles, aim at different market segments and use different hardware architectures, but they claim similar advantages for their systems. These systems are not inexpensive _ a midrange Server/700 configuration from Sharebase costs around $300,000, and a Model 2 system from Teradata with 22 processors goes for around $1.2 million. But for the jobs they are good at, say users and analysts, such systems can cost less than the alternative of combining RDBMS software with general-purpose computers. Performance is greater, they claim, because machine vendors are able to optimize both hardware and software for a single purpose _ handling relational database activity for multiple users. On the up-and-up These and other factors convinced the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) that it needed a database machine to handle a decision support system, which required large databases. The CBOE's main business _ the activity on the floor of the exchange _ is all handled on several IBM mainframes running under TFP and MVS. But for a secondary application, checking the trading for violations of securities rules, Teradata's DBC/1012 machine fit the bill. ``We knew we had to store large amounts of data without compromising the CPU cycles of our MVS production machine,'' says Jane Reinke, the board's director of data resource management. Policing trades requires nightly updates of data from many sources and then batch reports and ad hoc queries on relational database tables as large as five million rows. The Teradata machine's parallel processor architecture is particularly adept at this kind of chore, analysts say, because it can handle massive updates and full database scans by breaking tasks into smaller pieces and managing them concurrently on different processors. To handle that load as efficiently with RDBMS software running on a general-purpose machine, Reinke estimates the CBOE would have had to upgrade its IBM to something like a 3090 Model 600. That option, she says, was just not palatable. ``We were not interested in buying a CPU that large just to dedicate 50% of it to a database.'' For Mervyn's, a Hayward, Calif.-based department store chain, the selling point was price. It put a Teradata behind its IBM 3081 and 3090 early last year to handle two inventory and financial systems. Teradata was about 2 times less expensive than doing it with DB2, says Jerry Wilson, director of information and administration. ``We would have had to add to the 3081 and probably evolve to a 3090, but [millions of instructions per second] on the Teradata are cheaper than MIPS on the mainframe.'' Sharebase machines have also been known to save an attention-grabbing amount. When Don Wyner, vice-president at Credit Lyonnais in New York, chose a Britton Lee IDM 500 database machine in 1985, he was developing a system to give commercial lending officers and other officials at the bank's U.S. offices on-line access to all customer banking data. Although he was already planning to buy a Digital Equipment Corp. VAX for other applications, Wyner calculated that to match the performance of the Britton Lee product, he would need to buy at least $400,000 worth of VAX hardware _ double what the database machine then cost. Despite these kinds of benefits, database machines have never claimed more than a corner of the DBMS arena. In a market that Teradata's Barnes estimates at $8 billion to $9 billion, his company's revenue amounted to only $120 million for 1988. Sharebase, with an installed base of 1,000 systems, had even less revenue for 1988 _ $30 million. Now, especially for Sharebase, which targets its systems at the department level, software companies are providing stiff competition. Greg Olson, marketing vice-president at Sharebase, concedes the market is getting rougher. ``Back in 1981,'' he says, ``we had a sheer performance advantage, particularly if you had a really hard problem in a mini environment. It's not so obvious anymore.'' Sybase, for example, some of whose founders came from Britton Lee, has implemented a client/server architecture in software that matches up quite well against its rival, says analyst Jeff Tash, president of Database Decisions, Inc., a division of Hewitt Associates in Chicago. The impact of the challenge from Sybase is already evident in at least one way. Late last year, Britton Lee changed its name to Sharebase to try to shift the emphasis from performance to the machine's ability to act as a centralized server for a variety of platforms, Olson says. On the whole, Teradata has fared better than Sharebase, thanks in part to its parallel processor architecture. Not only does that increase the machine's speed for jobs that can be divided up, but it gives Teradata an element of modularity _ users can increase the power of their current machines simply by adding processors, up to a maximum of about 1,000. Also, Teradata's processors use industry-standard chips from Intel Corp.: the 80286 for its Model 2 and the 80386 microprocessor for its Model 3. That keeps Teradata's hardware development costs down and makes it privvy to the ever-increasing power of those chips. Sharebase, by contrast, has to provide its own improvements to its proprietary hardware. Nevertheless, Teradata is also now getting a run for its money. Its systems, now installed at 140 sites, are aimed directly at potential customers for IBM's DB2 relational database software. Waiting in the wings Teradata is not the only vendor of relational technology hoping to steal a slice of the mainframe RDBMS market, however. Companies such as Oracle Corp., Relational Technology, Inc., Software AG of North America and Tandem Computers, Inc. have all developed improved products, according to analysts, as has IBM with DB2. And, notes San Jose, Calif.-based consultant Colin White, as companies like Pyramid Technology, Inc. and Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. go to parallel processors using cheap microprocessor MIPS, Teradata's advantages will shrink. Still, White adds, the competition has a way to go. Bell Atlantic Corp.'s marketing division in Madison, N.J., reached the same conclusion in mid-1986 when it chose a Teradata system over DB2 to handle a database of its 1.3 million telephone business customers. The group wanted to put in one location all the customer marketing data, which was then spread throughout the firm on a variety of production systems running on IBM, Honeywell, Inc. and DEC equipment. The goal was to provide an on-line decision support system that would let the marketing staff look at any slice of the customer base. DB2 was already running on the division's IBM 3081. But, according to Ed Moschetti, the division's information systems manager, when the Teradata outperformed DB2 by a margin of 7-to-1 on some prototypical benchmark queries, the choice was clear. For potential users, the issue may no longer be so clear-cut, and database machines may have to work harder to stay in the game. By Mark Breibart; Breibart is a Flugelman intern for Computerworld Focus on Integration. <<<>>> Title : Before you make the switc Author : Robert Gilmore Source : CW Comm FileName: gilmore Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: In planning the transition to relational database technology, MIS managers need to give careful thought to structuring the operating environment to maximize use of the new technology. A first step in making the transition is to optimize the use of the existing environment prior to installing the relational product. Relational database systems require significant processing resources. Rather than face immediate capacity problems, assemble the best individuals available and optimize both on-line and batch environments before implementing your first production relational system. Both the operations and capacity planning groups must be involved up front with the implementation. Traditionally, these are the last groups to become involved, and they do not appreciate surprises in terms of DBMS and application resource consumption. Anticipate what a relational DBMS is going to do to your operating system environment and plan a strategy to accommodate the growth. Next, identify the system administration function that will be responsible for the testing, implementation and control of the relational environment. This group should oversee the standards, policies and procedures needed to manage the transition. It should ensure that resources are properly utilized and that database/ data communications activity can be accurately monitored and measured. Consider isolating decision support systems (DSS) from production, or response-sensitive, applications. As the number of users increases, the data manipulation capabilities associated with complex ad hoc requests will cause degradation of the production system if both are running in the same address space or under the same copy of the software. Learn the relational product's capabilities and limitations. Be prepared to implement centralized control over the production environment and distributed control over the DSS and test environments. Remember, once control is lost _ or if it is never achieved _ it is, in most cases, unreasonable to expect that it will ever be properly established. Data conversion issues To actually build the environment, much consideration must be given to data conversion. This is never a job that takes the time anticipated _ instead, count on at least five times longer than expected. Ideally, a task force or project team should address the following tasks related to data conversion: Identify the data elements to support the project or projects being migrated. Identify the source of the data and the data's owners. Establishing ownership is important _ this is where parameters for the validity of the data are determined. Spend time up front to identify valid ranges of data and values, where appropriate, so that adequate edit rules can be applied as the data is being loaded into the new environment. Moving ``dirty'' data from one environment to a new one makes no sense. Identify what data will reside in each environment (production or DSS) and what data will be shared or duplicated. Identify all internal and external audit requirements for the data. Doing so will allow you to build audit procedures or identify alternate processing solutions. Relational technology gives MIS personnel the opportunity to become involved in critical design tasks such as logical design and normalization. It also provides an opportunity to use the phases associated with a system development methodology as the discipline for completing these tasks. Organizations can now place more emphasis where it belongs _ on the data. While the transition may not be a simple process, it does not have to be painful. <<<>>> Title : Ask the vendor Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: askrdb Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: When using Global Software, Inc.'s Silas, I am required to document DB2 tables or SQL tables. When will it be possible to just document the tables and generate DB2 and SQL code? David Jenkins Technical Officer First National Bank of Chicago Chicago GLOBAL SOFTWARE, INC.: It is true that DB2 and SQL/DS must be documented separately in the dictionary using Silas. However, there no longer appears to be any valid reason for this separation. We have therefore decided to enhance Silas so that either DB2 or SQL/DS syntax may be generated from a single definition in the dictionary. We anticipate that this enhancement will be available to users by the middle of 1989. <<<>>> Title : Systems design: Users in Author : James D. Kerr Source : CW Comm FileName: kerrid Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: From code generation to reverse engineering, there are many exciting trends shaping today's systems development world. One of the most intriguing is automated joint application development (AJAD). AJAD integrates computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools and JAD techniques to form a new development platform that is sure to change the way systems are built in the future. By definition, JAD _ originally developed by IBM in 1977 _ places the end user and the systems analyst together on the same project development team. The team defines and documents the systems requirements through the user's eyes rather than the analyst's. While use of this technique may seem obvious, it is not yet well-established in the information systems world. Under JAD, once the systems requirements are defined and reviewed by the users and analysts, they are turned over to a design team made up of database administrators and programmers who convert the requirements into an actual system of databases and programs. The JAD methodology is based on the assumption that IS can build better systems by harnessing user expertise in the development process. It encourages computer literacy among business professionals, thereby reducing the familiar organizational barriers to systems design _ obstacles well-documented by user comments such as, ``We're sick and tired of these faulty systems.'' With JAD, users take more responsibility for the resulting system because they have played a part in building it. CASE, on the other hand, automates what the IS professional does. CASE workbenches provide systems developers with the tools they need to define the data and process specifications for a system. CASE immediately improves IS' capability to communicate with users by diagrammatically representing their requirements. And because it is automated, CASE allows for easy modification of previously defined system designs. A tremendous productivity opportunity arises when CASE is folded into the JAD process. The simple addition of automated tools introduces a design discipline that is difficult to match by any manual approach. In fact, AJAD can reduce development time by as much as half, compared with traditional systems design methods. Getting started The following critical questions must be addressed by the IS manager in charge of the AJAD program: What tools should be used? Which project should be the pilot? Who's on the AJAD team? When addressing the tool question, many IS organizations will of course be inclined to use the CASE tools they already own. That is fine, as long as the tools can graphically depict data and process models, paint screens and generate reports. But many tools cannot. If the current tool set does not cut the mustard, IS should consider acquiring some new ones before embarking on AJAD. Among others, tools such as Index Technology Corp.'s Excelerator and Texas Instruments, Inc.'s Information Engineering Facility make fine AJAD aids because their personal computer-based graphics components allow users to quickly define and modify systems specifications without having to consult a mainframe repository. Once the tools are in place, the IS manager should get together with a user manager to define a viable pilot project. As with any pilot, it is wise to choose a project that is off the critical path, one that can be developed quickly and has a relatively low possibility of failure. Operational systems such as payroll, accounts payable and order entry are preferable to strategic systems such as advanced stock market analysis, expert underwriting or computer-integrated manufacturing. An IS manager can minimize the risk of AJAD failure by selecting a project that his development staff is familiar with or even one they may have programmed before. The AJAD team There are six main members of a typical AJAD team: the executive sponsor, IS manager, AJAD facilitator, AJAD scribe, IS developers and end users. The executive sponsor is a senior-level manager from the user firm _ often the manager who helped choose the pilot project _ who can ensure the level of commitment needed to make the AJAD project a success. The IS manager spearheads the AJAD movement. This person is responsible for selecting the proper tools and choosing the team to kick off the AJAD effort; he also works with the executive sponsor to select an appropriate pilot project to test the new development approach. The AJAD facilitator is a user analyst or senior systems analyst who has terrific communication skills, knows the tools, understands project management and has an appreciation for group dynamics. The facilitator is a team builder. The AJAD scribe is the tools expert. This person is a top-notch systems analyst who knows the tools inside-out. The scribe can transform a user's response to a question into a diagram representing a systems specification. IS developers are the professionals charged with actually building the system. They are the programmers, analysts and database specialists who need to better understand the user's requirements before creating a systems implementation. Finally, end users are the subject matter experts. They know the business better than anyone else. They are the ones that will define the systems specifications and comment on the designs as these elements evolve during the AJAD process. In addition, many organizations just starting out in CASE or JAD may find it necessary to use consultants on their first AJAD project. Consultants can play active team roles like scribe or facilitator, or they can be used less frequently as advisors or trainers. Either way is acceptable, as long as the consultants possess the necessary expertise and can effectively transfer their skills to the rest of the AJAD team. There are many sources of good consulting support available in the marketplace. CASE vendors are prime sources of tool training and expertise, while project development and methodology consultants can be sought as JAD advisors and facilitators. Keep in mind also that you can fly solo after the first success. The first AJAD session After the team members are identified and tapped, the IS manager should carefully plan the first AJAD session. Realizing that commitment is the key to any successful AJAD project, IS should try to boost team morale with a good, strong start. An executive statement of support is a great way to kick off the project. The executive sponsor should make an appearance at the first AJAD meeting, stating management's expectations and reinforcing the organization's dedication to the AJAD program. Because the AJAD process will end up requiring four hours of work a day, five days a week, the team members should know that they have management's support from the very beginning. After the executive send-off, the team can begin work. The IS manager first introduces the AJAD facilitator. It is important that the facilitator come well prepared. This person sets the tone for the whole process, reviewing the project's scope, objectives and assumptions with the AJAD team. For instance, the facilitator should take time at the outset to mention that AJAD is a highly interactive and visual process, one marked by facilitator questions, user reaction and IS interpretation. The scribe translates what is being said into system diagrams and prototypes, which are projected onto a screen in the AJAD meeting room. IS developers contribute to the process by raising key design issues and helping the team make appropriate design decisions as the project evolves. The chart on page 88 depicts the evolution of a typical AJAD meeting. Notice in the chart how the data model evolves as the discussion regarding an insurance application unfolds. The first scenario shows the definition of the client and policy data relationship. The premium entity is added in the second level. The third iteration adds the beneficiary information to the model. The fourth scenario illustrates how easy it is for participants to raise important issues and improve the quality of the design. This sample session exemplifies the ease with which models can be developed through an AJAD process. It eliminates the cut-and-paste method associated with unautomated development approaches. Plastic templates are replaced by precision design tools such that design in a vacuum makes room for interactive development. AJAD life cycle Compared with a JAD procedure without automation, which typically takes six months to a year to complete, an AJAD project typically lasts three to four months (see chart this page). The first six weeks are used to define a first-cut data model. The deliverables include an entity relationship diagram as well as an entity list and attribute definitions. The AJAD team must work diligently in order to complete the models in the six weeks. Once the first-cut design is complete, the next week is spent reviewing the design with key users _ excluding those on the AJAD team _ and the executive sponsor. Objectivity is the reason for not including AJAD team members in the review process. The ego involvement of team participants can sometimes hinder their honest appraisal of the design. Upon completion of the review, the AJAD team reconvenes and begins work on the processing components of the design. The deliverables of this phase include process hierarchies and dependencies as well as program logic definition. A finalized design review is conducted by Week 14. Design refinements and executive sponsor sign-off is necessary before the models can be converted into database designs and programs. Conversion can take weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the designs and the sophistication of the CASE tool. It should be noted that tools providing automatic code and design generation can cut in half the time required to convert even the most challenging projects. The power of AJAD is achieved when CASE tools are first used in a scheduled JAD session. This can happen by accident _ as when a forward-thinking project manager or programmer/analyst suggests the team consider using a CASE tool in the next JAD session _ or by design, as discussed here. Within no time, a development environment is created that combines the quality of user-driven design with the productivity of automated systems construction. The AJAD process shifts the burden of proof of systems development away from the IS staff and toward the users, who are ultimately responsible for the operation of the business. AJAD provides a mechanism for users to resolve their conflicts while improving IS' ability to build timely and accurate systems through the use of rigorous CASE tools. AJAD is an idea whose time has come. By implementing the approach, IS can combine the quality of user-driven design with the precision of CASE technology to create a highly productive development environment that is capable of delivering the systems that will keep our firms competitive for years to come. By James D. Kerr; Kerr is director of data architecture at The Equitable in New York and an adjunct professor in information systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. <<<>>> Title : Project log Author : James D. Kerr Source : CW Comm FileName: kerrside Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Below is a typical automated joint application development (AJAD) project log, which follows the week-by-week AJAD life cycle (see chart page 93): Weeks 1 and 2: Team building exercises, data modeling training, review of business models and initial data model graphics. No discussion of attributes. Weeks 3 and 4: Refinement of data models, attribution of entities and initial descriptions of attributes _ for example, definitions, field lengths and data types. No discussion of volumes or entity-to-entity ratios. Weeks 5 and 6: Completion of first-cut data designs, attribution, definitions, volume and ratio estimates as well as a validity check against business models. Week 7: User reviews of first-cut design, refinement notes and design changes. Weeks 8 and 9: Process modeling training, review of finalized data design, initial process hierarchy design and process dependency design. No discussion of process logic. Weeks 10 and 11: Refinement of process hierarchies, process dependencies and initial process logic definition. No discussion of program-run volumes. Weeks 12 and 13: Completion of procedure designs, including hierarchies, dependencies and process logic; completion of run-volume estimates; and validity check against data design. Week 14: User reviews of finalized data and process designs, refinement notes and design changes and user sign-off. Weeks 15 and on: Conversion of data design into database, conversion of process design into programs using high-level language or program generator, screen and report layouts using prototyper, systems testing and turnover to production. JAMES M. KERR <<<>>> Title : Our personal perspective Author : William R. Britt Source : CW Comm FileName: brit3 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Like our technology, programmers come in generations, each with a set of values and work methods that match the evolution of the industry. The changes reflect not only the state of the information sciences but also larger sociological happenings that shape a generation of people. I am familiar with three generations: the one ahead of my generation, my own and the one following mine. In each instance, the experiences that shape those working generations occur in the first working years, when the majority of workers are in their 20s. Power and influences begin to emerge in a generation during their 30s and become consolidated in their 40s and beyond. The incoming generation is the life and energy that pushes the others forward. The differences The generation of programmers before mine began in the industry by actually wiring circuit boards and programming on machines that may have had a total random-access memory of 64K bytes for the operating system and all of the business applications that were developed. This generation does not take systems methodologies, programming standards, structured programming theories or systems design theory seriously . But these programmers always get the job done with at least one or two examples of work that go beyond expectations while letting other areas go along less formally. They invented the notion that programmers do not like documentation. All of the books, theories and new declarations of the advancing information sciences are like new clothes on a child whose birth they attended. My generation lived through Vietnam, women's liberation, structured programming and the conversion to virtual operating systems and database management technology. Somehow, there is a relationship there, but I am too close to the situation to see it. Perhaps it is that the changes both in our society and in the industry were fundamen tal and are still being reckoned with in many quarters. The elements that were introduced have become a permanent part of the scene: women in business, database management systems and a growing awareness of the need for interpersonal communication, even as business had to recognize the need for telecommunications. Most recently, this mixed marriage of men and women, formality and informality and technology and innovation has given birth to a little monster called the personal computer and a new generation of software that is like a teenager who has not quite yet lived up to his potential. Unfortunately for the newest generation of programmers, the world of data processing still has a lot of the old along with the new. Some of these programmers predict that their careers will be short-lived. It must certainly be confusing and a lot more difficult to navigate _ there is so much out there. From its relatively small beginnings, the DP world has grown into one as varied as the real world, having distinct subcultures along with a particular native language. The choice of these new programmers in the industry is the same as the personal choice of any young man or woman: finding some stability and security while learning about the rest of the world. It is no small task for anyone, personally or professionally. It is appropriate that one of the most well-known fourth-generation software packages is named Focus. That is the problem, isn't it? Where do we focus our efforts, our careers, our personal lives and our goals? Years ago, when Victor Frankl wrote The Search For Meaning, he was talking about the search for a focus in our lives. The 1980s have brought a new focus on the personal along with PC technology. That personal focus is the emphasis in business, in our health clubs and in the popular media, only now it seems to be reaching out to something, pulling the world back together. Mass media is becoming personal media. We are once again valuing personal creativity but as an experience that must be shared and that combines all of those elements of individual ability, communication, meaning and focus. By William R. Brittain; Brittain is a senior programmer analyst at Capital Holding Corp. in Louisville, Ky. <<<>>> Title : Erbrick delivers for Unit Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ups Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: PARAMUS, N.J. _ Frank Erbrick clowns around, donning a fur hat from China given to him by one of his staff. In it, he looks more like the avid camper he is than the man that manages the information needs of an $11 billion package delivery service. As vice-president of information services at United Parcel Service of America, Inc., Erbrick is not your average IS executive. A former butcher, he has been with UPS for 28 years _ most of that time in accounting and operations. Like most people at UPS, he spent time driving a delivery truck and has worked his way up the ranks. Described as friendly, outgoing and even ``a bit bombastic,'' Erbrick, 49, is known for always having a humorous story to tell. His office is a place where people at all levels of the company feel comfortable and can frequently be found. Walking through the halls, Erbrick has a hearty greeting or slap on the back for everyone. Erbrick displays an almost parental concern for his staff and is known to send care packages of food and magazines to his overseas staff in the 42 countries in which UPS now operates. Systems programmer Bryan Hartman, a care package recipient who presented Erbrick with the fur hat upon his return, says Erbrick has always reminded him of his father. ``They both have that Perry Mason look,'' he says. Erbrick started at UPS as an accounting supervisor, moving on to stints in operations and customer service and most recently as controller for UPS' Pacific region. In February 1985, Erbrick was assigned to IS, moving back east to take the second-in-command position at UPS' Paramus, N.J.-based information services division. He was quickly promoted to vice-president of information services in August of that year and assumed responsibility for all computer systems. Although he admits to not being thrilled with the assignment at the time, Erbrick says having such a significant impact on UPS and experiencing the ``pride of accomplishment'' of his staff has made it ``the most invigorating experience of my career. Anything I do after this will be anticlimactic.'' Acknowledging that he does not have a technical orientation, Erbrick says he believes in delegating authority, letting his staff make the decisions. ``People have to know they're allowed to fail,'' he says. ``You have to let people know you have faith in them.'' Erbrick's staff says he does not need technical expertise to manage them. ``The way he relates to people and can hold attention at a meeting'' are more important, Hartman says. Employee-owned UPS has a strong corporate culture rooted in the ideology of UPS founder James Casey, who strongly believed that the company's greatest asset is its people. This philosophy is reflected in Erbrick's egalitarian management style. ``He's the kind of manager that works hard and sets a good example,'' says UPS Executive Vice-President Kent ``Oz'' Nelson, Erbrick's boss. ``People relate to him well.'' Erbrick has instituted a policy under which everyone, managers and Erbrick included, shares the work on holidays when the pace is stepped up instead of leaving junior employees with long and undesirable shifts. Er brick himself works shifts loading tapes. UPS is a very method-oriented company. Routine procedures are systematically studied for ways to make them more efficient. For instance, drivers observe particular guidelines designed to save time such as stepping up onto the truck with the left foot, which eliminates unnecessary steps, and picking up a package at diagonal corners so it can easily be spun around to locate the address. Erbrick has attempted to bring such methods into IS. Service to IS customers is constantly measured, and weekly reports are generated and distributed to all staff. The number of calls per day to the help desk are recorded as well as the time spent responding. User satisfaction is frequently measured by asking users if they got the help they needed. Because of demands for increasingly skilled employees, UPS has only recently relaxed its hiring policy of requiring all employees to start at the ground level, either sorting packages or driving trucks. IS is therefore made up of employees from the old school who have worked their way up as well as new hires from the outside. Erbrick is aware of the potential for resentment between the two groups of employees; one way he tries to bring his staff closer is to get them involved in projects together. UPS is known as a charitable organization, and IS is one of the firm's most active groups. Recently, members of the IS staff and Erbrick spent several weekends painting and fixing up Seton House, a home for unwed mothers in Jersey City, N.J. During this project, Erbrick was just one of the workers, taking his assignments from an IS staffer who was appointed project leader. Erbrick likes to say that all this makes his people feel good, but one can tell from the enthusiasm in his voice that it makes him feel good as well. Erbrick is in charge of all of UPS' worldwide computer systems, including both air and ground operations. He oversees almost 800 employees at the main data center in Paramus, N.J., as well as 400 in the field. Although for many, UPS may conjure up an image of familiar brown delivery trucks bearing gifts, the company has rapidly expanded into global markets and has literally become an airline with a fleet of more than 100 commercial-class planes. As UPS has expanded, Nelson says that the company has begun to rely more and more on its computer resources. ``We have gone from largely using computers to send out bills to running our business'' with computers, he says. Today, computer systems do everything from monitoring UPS airplane engines to tracking packages worldwide. Under Erbrick's guidance, information services has grown from a group of less than 100 in 1985 to more than 700 now to meet these changing needs. By Amy Cortese, CW staff <<<>>> Title : IS looks to user base for Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: gri Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: CHICAGO _ When it was time for a major systems revamping at the Gas Research Institute (GRI) here, it seemed logical to look to consultants. What some might say was illogical was that those consulted were nearly all GRI employees holding non-IS positions, from clerical workers to vice-presidents. However, the result is a system that everyone can live with and that many non-IS employees take pride in having helped design, according to director of information systems Hugh Naughton. GRI went with the nontraditional approach to systems overhaul, which Naughton labeled ``process flow analysis,'' to get a clear sense of what the users required in a system, not what the systems people thought the users needed. ``We talked to people at every level in the company,'' he said. Company specs Gas Research Institute performs research and development for the natural gas industry, from producers that extract the gas from the ground to consumers such as home and business users of gas. The nonprofit company employs approximately 275 people and works with a $175 million budget to manage some 500 active R&D projects at any given time, Naughton said. In 1984, GRI officials decided that something must be done with their systems. There were discrete systems for all of the different areas of the company: budgeting, planning, contract management, financial management and membership management. Naughton's job in 1985 was to get started on plans to integrate all of those Wang Laboratories, Inc. systems and rid the company of expensive duplication. He was also told to retain the company's significant investment in Wang hardware. A two-day workshop with departmental representatives was called in the fall of that year. ``It was an interactive workshop designed to elicit their ideas on what the system should look like when it was completed two years hence,'' he said. That workshop proved that the decision for integration was one that was widely supported. Calling together non-IS workers to help design a new system brought about some apprehension from the workers, and there was also some tension because entry level and support staff personnel suddenly had to work closely with upper-level management, Naughton admitted. Once the group started working, however, those tensions and apprehensions quickly melted away because the members started off with the same limited knowledge of systems, he said. Two years, many meetings and several system prototypes later, the integrated system was put into place. Much of the system was designed by outside consultants based on the needs outlined by the work group. Wang migration Under Naughton's direction, GRI has moved from one Wang VS 100 and one VS 85 minicomputer to one VS 300, one VS 7310 and two VS 85s. While he admits that building on a base of Wang equipment gave him some sleepless nights during the development process _ ``There was always the possibility that we had overreached in terms of the hardware, operating system and database management capabilities, and even today we have a problem with slow response time'' _ Naughton said he is generally pleased with the Wang hardware. The company is slated to be one of the first recipients of the new Wang VS 10000, which will significantly improve throughput and CPU time, he said. The software being used is Wang's Pace relational database management system. Two months after the system was installed, another workshop was held, this time to solicit reaction to the system which the workers had helped to design, Naughton said. ``The people who attended the workshop were primed to talk about the system,'' Naughton said. ``It introduced technology to them that they had not experienced before, and it brought to the company's business operations a discipline that had never really been enforced before.'' Some of the feedback was negative because the employees found that the new system forced discipline. The integration of the data turned the system's various database portions into checks on other portions of the database, Naughton explained. For instance, when preparing the budget prior to the upgraded systems, any change in the budget numbers would be made in a word processing system but would not automatically be updated in the mainframe. ``By the time the word processing document was published, the numbers in the computer became almost meaningless,'' he said. The new system assures the integrity of the database at all times. Attitude improvement The system has been in place for more than a year, and many user-friendly adjustments have been made to it during that period, Naughton said. Even extensive prototyping cannot create perfect systems, he warned. ``When using prototypes, you've got to ask the question, `Are we doing things right, or doing the right things?' '' he said. When a user is shown a prototype, he can become enraptured by the new technology and lose sight of crucial business elements that are missing, much as the developer becomes excited about the prototype and may leave out a critical algorithm, Naughton said. But even now, the systems are still being closely studied. A review committee of users was set up in January to look at proposed software projects and rate them by priority. Also, a database administrator's forum was established once the system was implemented to help inform users of changes, modifications or enhancements to the database or the system. By Alan J. Ryan, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Kaiser Aluminum sells dat Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: kaiser1 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The recent sale of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.'s Midwest Regional Data Center here has meant a smooth transition for the 16-member staff. Kaiser sold the data center as part of an approximately $250 million asset sale package _ including two aluminum reduction plants in Ravenswood, W. Va. _ to Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., a new firm headed by a former Kaiser vice-president who managed the Ravenswood operation. Ravenswood Aluminum was formed by Stanwich Partners, Inc., an investment firm in Stamford, Conn., that paid $168 million in cash and assumed debts of $88 million. The data processing operation was renamed the Ravenswood Data Center, but that was about the biggest change, according to Operations Manager George DiBacco. ``We did 70% of our work for the Ravenswood plant already,'' he said. ``We will retain some of the work for Kaiser.'' The data center supports Ravenswood's aluminum processing with an IBM 3081 D and 3083 EX running MVS/XA, DOS/VSE and VM. <<<>>> Title : Pick holds future promise Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: careers2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: In today's competitive environment, where getting critical information to top executives in a timely fashion is crucial, it makes sense to master technologies that can expedite the information flow. Pick, the operating system developed by Dick Pick in the late 1960s, is such a technology. Pick Systems, based in Irvine, Calif., has licensed the operating system and its Pick Basic language to several firms that produce their own versions. Similarities among the versions far outweigh the differences, and they are making mastery of Pick and Pick-like systems a sound career choice for the 1990s. Pick is a multiuser operating system known for the ease with which it lends itself to development of applications and reports. One significant drawback, however, is a lack of communications capabilities. By the middle of last year, there were about 130,000 mainframe and minicomputer Pick installations worldwide and about 80,000 installations of the personal computer version, which has been available since 1984, according to Steve Crews, vice-president and general manager at Pick. Sales of Pick operating systems by licensees grew 41% per year between 1982 and 1987, the last year for which figures are available, according to Dan Ness Jr., a senior analyst at market research firm Infocorp. in Santa Clara, Calif. ``We expect the Pick market to continue to exceed the industry growth rate for several years to come,'' Ness says. The projection stems in part from the portability of Pick applications across hardware environments and the number of value-added resellers writing software for Pick, he says. Demand at all-time high Demand for Pick professionals is at an all-time high, says Crews, adding that Pick Systems has started getting requests for help in filling positions, including a significant number in Australia and the UK. ``It's getting more difficult to hire guys for our own R&D lab,'' Crews says. ``Normally, if they've got a very strong Pick background, they're making good money, and there's a lot of companies out there that want to hire them.'' ``I've worked in Cobol, Pascal, Fortran and assembler,'' says Kevin Shaw, MIS director at Deerskin Trading Post, Inc., a clothing retailer in Peabody, Mass. ``Pick Basic has the best from all of these systems in terms of functionality and power.'' Shaw, whose company is running Ultimate Corp.'s version of Pick on a Bull H.N. Information Systems DPS 6, finds that many professionals are attracted to the Pick world because the technology allows them to work rapidly. An entire system, including I/O and update, can be completed in a week. ``When I show people who have IBM or DEC operating systems what we've done in a week, they are just taken aback,'' he says. With eight years of professional data processing experience, Richard Canty, a senior programmer analyst at Cornnuts, Inc. in Oakland, Calif., has worked with many Pick-like systems. He has also spent eight months coding Unix C programs. It requires a great deal more time for programmers to get Unix to accept an application, he says. Canty, a published poet, adds that Pick provides a flexible environment that fosters creative programming. ``Pick gives me a very appropriate outlet for my creative impulses,'' he says. With the time saved by using Pick, programmer/analysts can broaden their perspectives, says Bob Dedecker, vice-president of products and services at Gemisys, a division of LCS, Inc. in Lakewood, Colo. ``It's no longer sufficient just to code lines in a program,'' Dedecker says. ``My people like Pick because they can spend less time generating programs and more time learning our business.'' Although most Pick shops will hire professionals proficient in other languages, they would prefer to hire experienced Pick people. ``You want someone with experience because he will understand the nuances of Pick _ what you can do easily and what can't be done easily,'' says Dick Gower, director of computer operations at Century 21 Real Estate Corp. in Irvine, Calif. Stick-to-itiveness While he hopes to stick with Pick for the rest of his career, Cornnuts' Canty advises professionals who are well-versed in the system to learn Unix as well. ``There appears to be an emerging option to merge the two where they are co-residing operating systems,'' he says. This symbiotic relationship draws on the best aspects of the two operating systems, including Pick's ease of use and the communications capabilities of Unix. Experienced Pick professionals earn average to above-average salaries, with three years of experience commanding $30,000 to $35,000 a year. Systems analysts and project leaders with five to seven years of Pick experience are earning $40,000 to $50,000 a year. Although such compensation may seem generous, firms using Pick save money because they do not need as many people to run the shop. ``In your typical IBM environment, you need quite a few people in there just because the system requires so much hands-on work,'' Shaw says. ``Pick is a great way for some people to experience being the manager of a shop or at least in control of several major corporate systems because we don't need as many people to develop and run Pick systems.'' Century 21's Gower jokingly urges caution in choosing Pick as a career option. ``Once you get into it, you will never want to leave and go back to anything else,'' he says. By Sheryl Kay, Special to CW; Kay is a Tampa, Fla.-based business consultant and free-lance writer specializing in emerging technologies and human resources. <<<>>> Title : Rolm PBX market uncertain Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: market27 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Twice in the past 16 months, users of the Rolm CBX II have had to evaluate a major IBM change of direction. IBM made the CBX II family obsolete by introducing the 9751 CBX in October 1987, while in December 1988, Siemens AG bought Rolm's manufacturing, research and development. In the four months following the 9751 announcement, retail market values for the VSCBX, CBX II 8000 and CBX II 9000 RB 74 plunged 33%, 23% and 18%, respectively. Supply has exceeded demand for CBX II systems because of their ``forklift upgradability'' to the 9751 CBX. The switch, except for the peripherals, must be swapped out in order to migrate to the 9751 CBX. Many CBX II users who have been compelled to improve functionality or expansion capacity have been courted vigorously by AT&T and Northern Telecom, Inc. Astute sales representatives at both Northern Telecom and AT&T have helped end users get a good price for their CBX IIs from the Rolm remarketers. Northern Telecom targeted the CBX II installed base with a $40 per port rebate for those users willing to switch to an SL-1. While the response to this rebate has not been enormous, it has generated some extra business for Northern Telecom. Waiting for more Many Rolm remarketers are waiting for the second shoe to drop as a result of the IBM/Siemens deal. The remarketers are questioning whether IBM will back out of Rolm altogether to concentrate on multivendor private-branch exchange (PBX)/host connectivity. They are also concerned about which of Siemens' current PBXs the firm will continue to develop and market (Saturn, 9751 or Hicom), how Siemens will choose to leverage its current distribution assets in Telplus, Inc. and Rolm as well as what kind of support Siemens will give to the secondary market. Rolm remarketers report that end users are using the secondary market more as a source for parts than for systems. The most desirable Rolm part is the Rolmphone set, for which end users have been paying between 85% to 95% of list price. Therefore, remarketers have been on the prowl for Rolmphone laden CBX II systems to satisfy the market demand. Hard to find Both the VSCBX and CBX II 8000 have retail market values of 38%, while the CBX II 9000 with Rolmbus 74 has a retail market value of 42%. Currently, few CBX II 9000s with Rolmbus 295 or the Advanced Engine can be found in the marketplace. Demand for the CBX II 9000 RB 74 stems from end users who want to set up a spare kit or add a node to their existing system. Remarketers have seen more VSCBXs trade to users as systems than CBX IIs because the VSCBX's popular line capacity fulfills the low-end market niche. In the past five months, current fair market values for Rolm equipment have been in a holding pattern. Values have held steady for the past four months as the initial impact of the 9751 introduction has been fully played out. With an estimated installed base of 18,000 CBX II systems, market values are likely to remain stable until IBM and Siemens reveal more of their plans. For more information, contact IDC Financial Services Corp.'s Terri LeBlanc at 508-872-8200. By Jonathan L. Rogers, Special to CW <<<>>> Title : The false allure of Hyper Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: train27 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Buffeted by relentless hype and exaggerated claims, many otherwise reasonable people have jumped to premature conclusions about the ability of Apple Computer, Inc.'s Hypercard to improve computer-based training (CBT) and streamline its development. Now, however, the product has been in enough hands for sufficient time so that its pros and cons as a real-world authoring tool have become more clear. Can you develop CBT with Hypercard? Certainly. Can you develop CBT for teaching computer skills? Well, sort of. Even if there were enough Apple Macintoshes in the business world to make them a practical option for training delivery _ and everyone knew how to use them _ Hypercard almost certainly would not be the medium of choice for developing traditional CBT for computer skills. The Macintosh's graphics capabilities do make it possible _ although not necessarily easy _ to construct screen simulations for many applications, according to Richard Fuchs, a programmer at consulting firm First Reference, Inc. in New York. But Hypercard cannot read keystroke-per-keystroke input, limiting its usefulness for simulations. It cannot process anything but a multiple-choice question. It cannot do natural-language parsing _ ``answer analysis'' in CBT terminology. So even in foregoing practice exercises and sticking to conceptual lessons, users run up against a major handicap. Further flaws Hypercard has other shortcomings that make it a questionable choice for projects of any size or complexity. One of its open secrets is its slow execution. ``Where Hypercard really bites you in the butt is in testing,'' contends Lance Dublin, president of The Training Co. in San Francisco, which has done custom development with the product. Hypercard has been described as a relational database for ideas, yet it lacks some of the basic features any database administrator would consider essential. It has no built-in global search-and-replace function, although file utility software might do that job. To link all occurrences of a particular keyword to a corresponding glossary card, for example, the user must walk through the whole construction, inserting the ``buttons,'' or links, one by one. The program does not contain _ and no one has apparently yet come up with a way to edit the button structure. There is no Hypercard equivalent to the CBT authoring system's method of checking dead-end branches. The glory of Hypercard is that it lets you easily construct vast networks of interlocking cross-references. But the program cannot show you an outline of your work. There are solutions to some of these problems, of course. Making liberal use of Hypercard's programming language Hypertalk and calls to external programs and subroutines, the canny author can hand-build some basic CBT functions into the application. Hypercard's irresistible appeal to hackers has led them to inundate bulletin boards with scripts, stacks and calls to external programming. First Reference sells a package of templates and subroutines for CBT development. Scott Grabinger, professor of education at the University of Colorado in Denver, is assembling a library of public domain instructional stacks under the auspices of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Does it make sense to spend so much time and energy applying patches and force-fitting Hypercard to do all those things we take for granted from most of the myriad CBT authoring systems available? It is a natural instinct when confronted with such a sexy new tool to see first whether it is better, faster or cheaper at doing old tasks. In this case, it is not. For most data processing and information systems training applications, it is clumsier, slower and ultimately more expensive. However, for those developers who have come up hard against the inadequacies of traditional CBT and want to explore new approaches, Hypercard is worth considering. It is almost ideal for small-scale, quick-and-dirty training projects of the sort that derive from the occasional need to update people on some new regulation, concept, feature, system fix or the like. Anyone with basic Hypercard competence can throw together a short module in less time than it takes just to get the local CBT authoring expert's attention. For constructing an essentially noninteractive ``guided tour'' of the training center, the department or company personnel policies, Hypercard might also be the weapon of choice. Beat it into submission If you can wrestle the auxiliary programming into place and are willing to live with the editing and maintenance hassles, Hypercard will give you the basis for a hypermedia system that does much more interesting things with branching and graphics _ and does them more easily _ than most CBT authoring tools. But the reason that linear CBT is so dominant is the prohibitive length of time it takes to design anything more elaborate. Even in an established CBT shop, up-front design work eats up the lion's share of time and costs. ``The world's most wonderful authoring tool might knock a third out of your authoring cost, but it is not going to do a thing for your development cost,'' said Rob Foshay, director of quality assurance standards at Applied Learning in Naperville, Ill. ``The false allure of Hypercard and hypertext,'' Dublin says, ``is that you can do great training easy.'' By Jane Stein, Special to CW; Stein is a free-lance writer based in Arlington, Mass., and is former editor of Data Training and CBT Directions. <<<>>> Title : The emperor is really nak Author : Dennis Noonan Source : CW Comm FileName: 227col Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Just about this time last year, a major computer company held a gala celebration to mark its entry into the billion-dollar annual revenue club. ``Breaking through'' was the theme of the day. Local employees were bussed en masse to a huge auditorium, where they were treated to a free lunch, free entertainment and a large dose of rah-rah. The company was clearly doing well. Excess cash was burning holes in the coffers; the chief executive officer proudly confirmed to the crowd that the corporation was moving ahead with an announced plan to acquire another half-billion-dollar computer company. Hardly anyone in that audience would have believed that more than 700 of their fellow employees _ including the CEO _ would be looking for new jobs within six months. And few would have predicted that the company itself would become the target of a hostile takeover from yet another corporate raider. Last month, not quite a year after that magic moment, the new CEO announced that the company plans to lay off another 1,200 workers in an effort to get leaner and meaner. Maybe the accountants and financial analysts think that the original takeover deal still looks great on paper. But I'm skeptical: I think all this takeover activity is a bad idea. A company is more than totals on a balance sheet or a slice of market share on a pie graph. The company is really the people _ the living ideas and relationships that make things work the way they do. Companies are the first to acknowledge this, at least verbally, but actions speak louder than words. High-level corporate takeover decisions seem to forget that the worth of an organization goes far beyond the last quarterly earnings figures. Shrinking violets I think part of the problem is that there are not enough people around who are willing to say, ``Maybe this isn't such a good idea.'' Like the courtiers in the fable The Emperor's New Clothes, no one with any brains wants to be the bearer of disagreeable tidings. Can you imagine someone raising a hand at the annual meeting to ask, ``Hasn't the company gotten big enough?'' Dissent in business is as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party. All the fine lingo of academics notwithstanding, managers in a hierarchy succeed by saying, ``Yes, sir.'' Successful people do not question their boss. Asking questions is seen as cynicism or even disloyalty. Those who blindly assent to whatever the boss thinks are seen as being on the side of goodness and light. Anyone who is foolish enough to question the growth goals of a successful empire gets the same treatment as the lout who yells, ``Hey, the emperor is naked!'' at a state parade. Times are a-changin' But maybe things are changing. According to a recent news report, General Motors has publicly begun to question the effectiveness of its authoritarian management style. The motivation to change is said to be Ford Motor's earnings success. A few years ago, Ford, looking for a strategic edge, adopted a program to focus on community and teamwork, the article said. It seems to have paid off. If Ford and GM are on the right track, maybe communications consultants will start advising companies to do a lot more listening to their employees, especially the so-called cynics. Beware of the carpetbaggers who have no stake in the success of the company. Listen to and reward the people who show enough interest to ask tough questions and propose alternatives. But if you work for one of those companies where management thinks that it needs to keep expanding the empire, maybe you should discreetly find what the boss will be wearing to next year's kickoff meeting. By Dennis Noonan; Noonan is a free-lance writer based in Wellesley, Mass. He was formerly a project manager at a minicomputer maker in the Boston area. <<<>>> Title : Layoffs-plus as Unisys cu Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: uni Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: BLUE BELL, Pa. _ Anyone who blinked last week probably missed one of the latest cost-cutting moves at Unisys Corp. First, the $10 billion computer and electronics giant fielded an inventory reduction plan, then a voluntary retirement plan and finally a major work force reduction in an ongoing effort to keep expenses under control during a taxing product transition. Some 1,700 U.S.-based Unisys jobs were eliminated last week in line with the company's plan to pare its employee roster by 3% by the end of this year, a Unisys spokesman said. The nationwide reduction hit approximately 190 marketing, administration and engineering employees at Unisys' headquarters here, a company spokesman said. As a result of the imminent consolidation of certain Blue Bell-based engineering and development operations with a similar, larger operation at Unisys' Roseville, Minn., plant, some 100 engineering jobs at headquarters were cut immediately, the spokesman said. Another 400 engineers will continue work through July. The company also announced the impending closing of an assembly plant in Mexico, which will cancel 400 jobs. Earlier in the week, Unisys, which recently reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings attributed to the costs of a major transition within one of its product lines, revealed plans for a voluntary retirement and so-called ``voluntary layoff'' program covering between 900 and 1,000 U.S.-based employees. News travels fast Word of the voluntary retirement plan followed closely on the heels of news that Unisys had launched a substantial inventory reduction program. Analysts continued to applaud Unisys' cost-containment efforts and to evince at least guarded optimism with regard to the company's chances of emerging from an expected weak first half of 1989 into a more robust third and fourth quarter. Unisys, said Philip Fearnhead, an analyst at London-based Kleinwort Benson Securities, is fighting a less extreme version of the battle that is battering Westwood, Mass.-based Cullinet Software, Inc. ``They're trying to maintain an old, low-growth business while simultaneously launching what amounts to a new start-up buiness,'' he said. By Nell Margolis, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Sequent CEO maps out comp Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: caseyp Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. intends to be a major player in the on-line transaction processing (OLTP) market, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Casey Powell is drawing a roadmap of the route the Beaverton, Ore.-based company will take. ``We intend to blanket the market with a combination of direct sales and opportunistic OEM agreements,'' said Powell, who was on hand last week to discuss Sequent's newly announced OEM agreement with Unisys Corp. The strategy is not new, especially for young hardware vendors that have floated their companies on the economies of the Unix operating system and have struck crucial strategic relations with vendors of relational database management systems. In Sequent's case, these RDBMSs are Relational Technology, Inc.'s Ingres and Oracle Corp.'s Oracle. But the big differentiator is Sequent's price/performance ratio, which beats its competitors' by almost 50%, according to company claims. The combination of its Unix-based operating system, which is called Dynix and is compatible with AT&T's Unix System V and University of California at Berkeley's Unix 4.2, and its proprietary Symmetry architecture allows the concurrent operation of as many as 30 Intel Corp. 80386 CPUs for an aggregate power of up to 120 million instructions per second (MIPS). The systems range in price from approximately $89,000 for an 8 MIPS system to $1 million for a 120 MIPS system. Powell said that the company will offer a 150 MIPS system by year's end. According to Powell, ``The inexpensive systems and marketing channels have paid off to date.'' For the year ended Dec. 31, 1988, the company reported $76.1 million in revenue _ a substantial leap over the $38.5 million reported for 1987. Net income for the year was $6.5 million. In addition, the fourth quarter saw a decisive flourish, with revenue of $24.2 million and a net income of $2.2 million. Those numbers were boosted by the company's fourth-quarter catch of Reebok International Ltd., Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. and Apple Computer, Inc. Of the fourth-quarter systems shipped, 65% were to first-time buyers, Powell said. Despite such promising direct sales results, the company is still charting an OEM course. As recently as last week, it struck a deal with Unisys, which will add peripherals and market the Sequent systems as its own. Sequent said it anticipates that the agreement, which covers three years and contains two optional one-year extentions, will generate about $10 million in 1989 and another $240 million for the following years. This particular OEM deal promises to generate more sales. An OEM alliance with Siemens AG in February 1986 changed the face of the company. Six years ago, Sequent entered the scientific and technical marketplace, which now generates about 20% of its business. But through the OEM agreement, Siemens brought Sequent's older Balance series, which is based on a National Semiconductor, Inc. 32032 processor, to the OLTP market throughout Europe. Today, about 80% of the company's sales come from the commercial marketplace, Powell said _ specifically, to those companies that need the combination of departmental machines and RDBMSs. ``We're in the fishing business,'' Powell said. ``We thought we had a good fishing pole. Sie- mens said that we had a good spear.'' Whether with a fishing pole or spear, Sequent hopes to net an even more elusive catch from a joint-venture firm formed in December with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in Japan. Called Pana-Sequent, the company will cast its net throughout Japan, particularly to earmark office automation customers. The joint venture has its subtle side. Although Sequent looks to penetrate the commercial market in Japan, it currently has about 50 systems installed, primarily in the university market. The Pana-Sequent venture, Powell said, positions the firm to defend against continuing shortages in memory components and take advantage of Matsushita's developments in optical storage. By Robert Moran, CW staff <<<>>> Title : User demands fueling netw Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cclan Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: An increasingly demanding user community is one of the major forces fueling a recent spate of buyout rumors that is stirring up activity in the computer industry's communications sector, according to analysts. Some of the firms providing grist for the rumor mill have been pegged as probable acquisition targets due to financial, product or marketing weaknesses. Others, however, while not necessarily large in size, are distinguished by stellar performances as niche players. Perhaps most heavily affected by the ground swell is Digital Communications Associates, Inc. (DCA) in Alpharetta, Ga. The T1 and terminal-emulation product supplier has remained mum on reports that have the firm being sold in toto one day, sold off in segments on another and the subject of a leveraged buyout by former and current company officials the next. Both Siemens AG and Rockwell International Corp. are said to have offered $30 a share for DCA, which was trading at $20.75 per share at press time. Analysts marvel at the volume of traded rumors almost as much as the amount of stock traded based on those rumors. DCA stock has come down from a trading high of 500,000 shares to about 200,000, one DCA insider said. But most agree with longtime DCA watcher Mary McCarthy, an analyst at C. J. Lawrence, Morgan Grenfell, Inc. in New York, who said there is little doubt that the firm will be the subject of a major financial transaction sometime this year. Analysts said they believe the same user needs that have spurred many mergers and acquisitions are also driving the heightened expectation for more such combinations. Users have become less willing to deal with a multiplicity of vendors, particularly when facing the task of integrating multivendor voice and data systems into seamless enterprisewide networks. One result of such mounting impatience is a rise in user-based pressure on vendors to support competi- tors' equipment. This, in turn, is forcing many vendors to become overnight experts or risk losing customers. These companies can launch time-consuming intensive research and development efforts to home-brew the required technology, strike strategic alliances with vendors that have the technology or, in an effort to maintain control, simply buy what they need. ``The vendors are all talking about doing internetworking, but they don't have the time to go out and reinvent the wheel, so there has to be some consolidation on the way,'' said Richard Kimball, an analyst at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco, following a recent visit to Communication Networks '89. The impact of user pressure on the communications market was reflected in the alliance announced last week [CW, Feb. 20] between Network Systems Corp., Excelan, Inc. and Wellfleet Communications, Inc., all providers of different pieces of the connectivity puzzle. The impact can also be seen in purchasing and marketing trends expected to further local-area network penetration of the corporate sector. For instance, a recent report issued by Boston-based Business Research Group noted a shift in focus among the leading personal computer LAN vendors from supplying traditional low-end PC networks to functioning as network integrators. In some instances, PC LAN vendors are hobbled by their limited recognition factor within MIS, which is increasingly taking control of LAN purchasing. ``A large company's organizational networking strategy will require that the vendor be regarded as a credible, long-term player,'' the Boston Research Group said. Partnering with a large systems or even high-end communications vendor can change that. It worked for Tops, a provider of low-end networking among MS-DOS, Apple Computer, Inc. and Unix PCs that is now a division of Sun Microsystems, Inc. General-purpose LAN vendor Ungermann-Bass, Inc. was also purchased last year, in this instance by fault-tolerant systems maker Tandem Computers, Inc. User pressure is unlikely to lessen this year. If the past year is any kind of precedent, this could well mean that the computer industry will see many connectivity vendors opting for the combination route in the coming months. In addition to pressure from a more sophisticated and demanding user base, analysts find a very basic impetus for communications combination. They estimate that only 18% of the installed base of PCs have been hooked up to a LAN. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Cullinet stands on shaky Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: cul Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WESTWOOD, Mass. _ Cullinet Software, Inc. warned investors to expect a net loss for the company's third quarter. The numbers that emerged last week, however, exceeded its own worst expectations and left the faith of even formerly bullish analysts shaken on the subject of the speed _ and even the possibility _ of the vaunted Cullinet turnaround. Revenue of $47.1 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31 marked a 13% drop from the $54.2 million logged in the comparable quarter last year. The quarterly net loss of $16.2 million, including a one-time $5.6 million restructuring charge, made a stark comparison with last year's third-quarter net loss of $12.7 million, which included a $13.7 million nonrecurring charge. In a prepared statement, Cullinet President Robert K. Weiler admitted that Cullinet underestimated how little it could depend on its more mature product lines _ which include IDMS/R database-related products _ to produce revenue over the past several months. However, he pointed out, ``Revenue from products introduced in the last 12 months strengthened during the quarter.'' Even so, analysts showed profound concern over this latest setback for the beleaguered software maker. ``The numbers are ugly,'' said Bob Therrien, an analyst at Paine Webber, Inc. The recent sorry performance, said Philip Fearnhead, an analyst at London-based Kleinwort Benson Securities, should not urge a rush to judgment on the executive ability of Weiler, who was recently named president of Cullinet. However, Fearnhead conceded, the failure of Cullinet's 11th consecutive quarter without profits to live up to the firms's whittled-down expectations ``means that the turnaround that's been in progress for a long time is going to be in progress for a long time.'' More disturbing is ``the nasty risk that if they go on at this rate, they'll just run out of cash,'' added Fearnhead, who has been among those observers bullish on Cullinet. Such a risk is not an immediate one, said Cullinet Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Douglas Robinson. The company, he said, has a $25 million line of bank credit, a small portion of which was exhausted as of the end of the third quarter. By Nell Margolis, CW staff <<<>>> Title : In brief Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 227week Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Small is big, again Hewlett-Packard Co. credited a 7.8% increase in net income and a 21% revenue rise to orders for workstations and personal computers coming on strong in its fiscal first quarter. Accelerated growth in orders for the multiuser HP Precision Architecture systems, according to President John Young, also kicked into the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer manufacturer's reported net income of $193 million on revenue of $2.7 billion for the quarter ended Jan. 31. Consortium offspring The 88open Consortium Ltd., a 55-member, nonprofit group formed to boost Motorola, Inc.'s 88000 reduced instruction set computing microprocessor architecture, last week announced an offshoot: The Software Initiative, a gathering of software vendors that have pledged to deliver new 88000-based applications this year. The initial roster of company members include Wordperfect Corp., The Wollongong Group and database makers Relational Technology, Inc., Unify Corp. and Informix Corp. Looking presidential Sony Corp. veteran Kazuo Imai last week became president of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sony Microsystems Co., the division of the Japanese giant's U.S. subsidiary that markets Sony's News family of workstations. Stalking the Wild Leitz Prime Computer, Inc. took time out from fighting off an unwanted takeover bid to do a little acquiring of its own. Natick, Mass.-based Prime picked up a majority interest in the System 9 division of privately held Swiss geographical instrumentation systems manufacturer Wild Leitz Group. <<<>>> Title : HP buys into 3Com strateg Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 3com11 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: NEW YORK _ Users of 3Com Corp. networks _ typically maintained through resellers _ are about to get some much-needed service and support relief under the terms of a broad-ranging alliance announced last week between Hewlett-Packard Co. and 3Com. That pact also promises to provide users with ``scalable servers.'' The idea is to facilitate transparent migration of network software from OS/2 servers to larger minicomputer-based servers as networks grow in size and traffic. On the surface, the partnership amounts to a swap of 3Com's LAN Manager-based 3+Open network software in exchange for HP's multivendor service and Unix port of LAN Manager. But the announcement also encompasses long-term joint development and marketing agreements in six technology areas, including network management and electronic mail. Neither 3Com nor HP would provide much in the way of specific release dates other than to say that the jointly developed products will begin to ship in the second quarter. ``I suspect these products will roll out pretty rapidly over the next two to three quarters,'' said Frank Dzubeck, a network consultant and president of Network Communications Architects. In addition to the service, a 3Com spokeswoman said that porting 3Com's 3+Open network software, which is based on Microsoft Corp.'s OS/2 LAN Manager, to Unix was the vendors' top priority. This would enable 3+Open, which will be resold by HP, to talk to HP's Unix port of LAN Manager, Lan Manager/X (LM/X). LM/X will reportedly ship in the fourth quarter. Under a nonexclusive agreement, HP said it will provide worldwide support for 3Com systems, including its Bridge Communications, Inc.-labeled products. Customers of both vendors can now purchase support services for HP and 3Com equipment under one contract. ``I have much more confidence in HP support,'' said an HP and 3Com user at a large paper products company in the Northwest who currently has his 3Com networks serviced through an agreement with an independent contractor. He said he is inclined to hand over all his 3Com service needs to HP, praising the ability to maintain one service contract as a positive move. With more MIS directors taking charge of local-area network purchasing [CW, Feb. 20], LAN vendors are moving quickly to rid themselves of a reliance on reseller-provided service. 3Com rival Novell, Inc. also unwrapped arrangements last week with four service providers, including HP. ``Service and support will more and more become the differentiating factor. For 3Com to develop the support infrastructure it needs to compete with DEC and IBM in corporate accounts is an awesome task,'' said Steven Spanier, an analyst at Infonetics, Inc., market researchers in Santa Clara, Calif. On the other hand, HP's service is rated very highly in the kinds of accounts that 3Com wants to cultivate, he added. The scalable server concept ties in well with the desire of minicomputer vendors to both fend off the encroachment of high-end workstations and tie their Unix systems into MS-DOS-based LANs. ``I'd really like to see HP minis as servers,'' said David Mathews, manager of the computer center in the Business School of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. 3Com Chairman William Krause said the partnership will also result in a broad range of distributed computing products based on industry standards, with a clear emphasis on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and CCITT X.400. next two to three quarters,'' said Frank Dzubeck, a network consultant and president of Network Communications Architects. In addition to the service, a 3Com spokeswoman said that the vendors' top priority was porting 3Com's 3+Open network software, which is based on Microsoft Corp.'s OS/2 LAN Manager, to Unix. This would enable 3+Open, which will be resold by HP, to talk to HP's Unix port of LAN Manager, LAN Manager/X (LM/X). LM/X will reportedly ship in the fourth quarter. Under a nonexclusive agreement, HP said it will provide worldwide support for 3Com systems, including its Bridge Communications, Inc.-labeled products. Customers of both vendors can now purchase support services for HP and 3Com equipment under one contract. ``I have much more confidence in HP support,'' said an HP and 3Com user at a large paper products company in the Northwest who currently has his 3Com networks serviced through an agreement with an independent contractor. He said he is inclined to hand over all his 3Com service needs to HP, praising the ability to maintain one service contract as a positive move. With more MIS directors taking charge of local-area network purchasing [CW, Feb. 20], LAN vendors are moving quickly to rid themselves of a reliance on reseller-provided services. 3Com rival Novell, Inc. also unwrapped arrangements last week with four service providers, including HP. ``Service and support will more and more become the differentiating factor. For 3Com to develop the support infrastructure it needs to compete with DEC and IBM in corporate accounts is an awesome task,'' said Steven Spanier, an analyst at Infonetics, Inc., a market research firm in Santa Clara, Calif. On the other hand, HP's service is rated very highly in the kinds of accounts that 3Com wants to cultivate, he added. The scalable server concept ties in well with the desire of minicomputer vendors to both fend off the encroachment of high-end workstations and tie their Unix systems into MS-DOS-based LANs. ``I'd really like to see HP minis as servers,'' said David Mathews, manager of the computer center at the Business School of the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. 3Com Chairman William Krause said the partnership will also result in a broad range of distributed computing products based on industry standards, with a clear emphasis on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and CCITT X.400. By Patricia Keefe, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Novell mirrors service bi Author : Patricia Keefe Source : CW Comm FileName: 3comsid2 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Novell rolled out agreements with four large service organizations last week in an effort to enhance its support to major end users, who will now be able to standardize and streamline their Novell Netware service arrangements under a single service contract. Hewlett-Packard , Xerox Corp., Banctec, Inc. and Federal Technology Corp. will all work with Novell to provide national, and eventually international, support for users of Netware network software. The announcements, slated for release today, follow closely on the heels of HP's announcement that it signed a contract to provide worldwide service and support for 3Com networks. Novell denied that the timing of its announcement was influenced by the HP-3Com announcement. Through their alliances, these service organizations will enhance, if not replace, Novell dealers' ability to provide the support needed by large Netware users with installations in disparate locations. PATRICIA KEEFE <<<>>> Title : Feds get tough on FTS-200 Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: fts2000 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ The General Services Administration (GSA), taking a more aggressive oversight role, suspended 17 federal procurements for wide-area networks to determine whether they duplicate services in the new Federal Telecommunications System 2000 contract. The goal of the 30-day review is to ensure that agencies do not bypass the centralized FTS-2000 network by launching their own voice and data networks. The GSA suspension list includes nationwide data networks _ each worth well over $10 million _ proposed by the Departments of State, Interior, Justice and Labor, as well as the Veterans Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the federal courts. The federal user and vendor communities were stunned by the Feb. 17 announcement, which could lead to major revisions of network procurements already under way and close to being awarded, according to James F. Kerrigan, a federal market analyst at Input, Inc. in Vienna, Va., and other sources. GSA officials said the action is necessary because of legislation enacted last year by the U.S. Congress, which sought to curb defections from FTS-2000 by making it mandatory for federal agencies to use the new intercity network. ``They're just implementing the wishes of Congress . . . but it's a very aggressive implementation,'' said Eben G. Townes., a procurement analyst at the market research firm IDC Washington, Inc. in Vienna Va. For example, the GSA turned down five of six network procurements planned by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Reed Phillips, director of information resources management, said that only a network for the 1990 census was given an exemption. Some federal managers such as Phillips and Martin Wagner, director of telecommunications management at the Department of the Treasury, supported the GSA action as a logical implementation of the law, but others opposed it. One network manager, who requested anonymity, said he is worried that FTS-2000 data services may not be available soon enough to meet user requirements at his agency. Specifically, GSA's new policy includes the following orders: Agencies are required to use FTS-2000 for all voice, data and video services that the FTS-2000 contractors provide, unless the GSA grants an exemption. Agency networks must incorporate FTS-2000 services as they become available. When existing network contracts expire, agencies must convert to FTS-2000. Agencies should not exercise options for renewal or extensions. Exemptions previously approved for the Department of Defense are withdrawn and will be reviewed. GSA will help agencies develop plans for making the transition to FTS-2000. GSA also signaled its more aggressive approach by announcing it will monitor a select group of 70 to 100 agency computer procurements to help steer them away from the bid protests that plague many procurements. Numerous procurement scandals and pressure from Congress are driving the GSA toward a stronger oversight role, analysts and federal managers observed. ``GSA is being perceived as too easy now, so they're going to toughen up a little bit,'' Kerrigan said. By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : DG looks to crash worksta Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 1deegee Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WESTBORO, Mass. _ Joan Rivers once offered a small tip for making a big impression: Enter talking. Data General Corp. has apparently taken the comedian's advice to heart and will burst into the workstation market today with a series of machines and servers that give it a lot to talk about: processing speeds of more than 17 million instructions per second for less than $8,000, according to company sources. The four-model Unix-based workstation series and an accompanying pair of servers are based on Motorola, Inc.'s 88000 reduced instruction set computing microprocessor and may quickly help DG wrest the workstation price/performance leadership from Digital Equipment Corp. Last month, DEC announced the Decstation 3100, which is capable of processing at 14 MIPS and is base-priced at $11,900 [CW, Jan. 16]. Although the line will remain a paper tiger until becoming generally available this summer, analysts said it is an important addition for DG. In the past several years, the firm has suffered a financial bruising as the user base for its proprietary MV/Eclipse WESTBORO, Mass. _ Joan Rivers once offered a small tip for making a big impression: Enter talking. Data General Corp. has apparently taken the comedian's advice to heart and will burst into the workstation market today with a series of machines and servers that give it a lot to talk about: processing speeds of more than 17 million instructions per second for less than $8,000, according to company sources. The four-model Unix-based workstation series and an accompanying pair of servers are based on Motorola, Inc.'s 88000 reduced instruction set computing microprocessor and may quickly help DG wrest the workstation price/performance leadership from Digital Equipment Corp. Last month, DEC announced the Decstation 3100, which is capable of processing at 14 MIPS and is base-priced at $11,900 [CW, Jan. 16]. Although the line will remain a paper tiger until becoming generally available this summer, analysts said it is an important addition for DG. In the past several years, the firm has suffered a financial bruising as the user base for its proprietary MV/Eclipse family of minicomputers erodes. ``This is their future,'' said Judy Hurwitz, a senior analyst at Patricia Seybold's Office Computing Group, a market research firm in Boston. ``This is DG's first step toward a comprehensive switch-over to a full Unix strategy. They're essentially building a new company from within.'' The entry-level workstation is reportedly based on a 16-MHz 88000 chip and is capable of processing more than 17 MIPS. It will offer 4M bytes of memory, expandable to 28M bytes; a monochrome 20-in. 70-Hz monitor sporting 1,280- by 1,024-pixel resolution; and built-in Ethernet and small computer systems interface capabilities, sources said. The machine will be available this summer starting at $7,450; qualified developers will be able to obtain a model in the spring for $4,900. A color version of the same system with 8M bytes of memory and a 19-in. screen will cost $11,995. A higher performance model featuring Motorola's 20-MHz 88000 chip and 8M bytes of memory will sell for $10,850. A similar version with a color monitor will begin at $14,995. All the machines will be able to run DOS and Unix. The company's most Sisyphean task is likely to be in establishing itself in the Unix market, in which companies like NCR Corp. and Bull H. N. Information Systems, Inc. enjoy large user bases. DG's machines will run DG/UX, its implementation of AT&T's Unix System V. The early bird DG will reportedly make a big push to get the machines into the hands of software developers so that applications can be ported to the new line. Analysts see this as key in helping DG establish a foothold in the market and secure new customers. ``You can't sell a machine if you can't do anything with it,'' said P. Martin Ressinger, an analyst at Duff & Phelps Selected Utilities, Inc., a market research firm in Chicago. One factor assisting this will be the machines' adherence to the 88open Consortium Ltd.'s binary compatibility standard (BCS). The BCS calls for all software written for any 88000-based computer to employ a common interface to executable or binary programs, thus allowing for compatibility across systems from many vendors. Commercial users of the new line, including those in the financial, manufacturing, government and health care fields, will likely need high-performance machines on their desktops. Early assessors of the machines said they were impressed with the RISC technology at the low price. ``We can't wait to get one,'' said Al Rocco, a spokesman at Westwood, Mass.-based Medical Information Technology, Inc., which has a network of 400 terminals attached to nine DG minicomputers. ``Our network slows down as we add more terminals; the RISC machine should take care of that.'' But some analysts say that lack of volume production of Motorola's chips may slow DG's ability to make a quick drive into the market. ``I'm skeptical that they can make much of this because there aren't a lot of 88000 chip sets around to put the machines into volume production,'' said John J. McManus, vice-president of Thomson McKinnon Securities, Inc. in New York. DG is also scheduled to introduce single- and dual-processor servers. The entry-level single-processor version will include 16M bytes of memory, offer 20 MIPS of processing power and sell for $59,000. A dual-processor model will start at $94,000. DG's rollout will be the plum in the batch of recent announcements featuring the Motorola chip, which was announced last April [CW, April 25]. Last week, Sanyo Business Systems Corp. and Icon International, Inc. announced the Model 8000, which boasts 15 MIPS of performance and will reportedly be available this summer for $155,000. By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : ISDN-hungry users finding Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 1isdn Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: With basic PC-to-host connectivity under their belts, early Integrated Services Digital Network users are just starting to look for products to support high-speed file transfer and sophisticated data/voice applications _ only to discover a black hole. The growth of a potentially booming market is being stunted by the lack of a software interface standard that would allow third-party products to migrate easily among different vendors' ISDN communications equipment, vendor sources said. Although the North American ISDN Users Forum hopes to get vendors to agree to a de facto interim standard, official standards bodies have only just started to address the problem, according to the sources. Meanwhile, many ISDN installations are making do with personal computer communications software products that were originally developed for RS-232 connections but can run adequately over an ISDN connection. The drawback is that such products cannot take advantage of ISDN's full functionality, according to Steve McGaw, area manager at Southwestern Bell Corp. One such user is Tenneco, Inc., which cut over to Southwestern Bell's ISDN Centrex service last summer. The Houston-based holding company's telecommunications department found that virtually all of the RS-232-based communications packages it tested ran unmodified over its ISDN links, according to Thomas Simmons, manager of worldwide telecommunications at one Tenneco division. For example, Tenneco now uses Netline, Inc.'s Manylink as a window-driven, menu-based front end that makes it easier for nontechnical PC users to access IBM's Professional Office System. But Manylink supports only 19.2K bit/sec. _ 30% of a 64K bit/sec. ISDN B channel. While Tenneco users ``get along OK'' with that speed right now, Simmons said his company will definitely want 64K-byte speeds for more advanced applications that are now being considered such as local-area network bridges and image transmission. Individual interfaces Netline is one of several software vendors working on 64K bit/sec. versions of their packages. Unfortunately, the lack of a software interface standard requires supplying the package with a different interface for each vendor's ISDN board or phone set, said Netline Executive Vice President Byron Smith. The same problem applies to a slowly emerging breed of software packages designed specifically to take advantage of ISDN's voice/data integration. Hilgraeve, Inc.'s Hyperaccess, for example, has an autoanswer capability that allows users at the University of West Virginia to dial up their PCs and transfer files from home, according to Jeffrey Fritz, a data communications analyst at the university. Hyperaccess supports speeds of up to 38.4K bit/sec. over the B channel, ``which is important for multitasking applications on OS/2 or Apple's Multifinder,'' Fritz said. The software supports both Telrad Telecommunication, Inc.'s and AT&T's ISDN telephone sets. However, users with one type of set cannot talk to users of the other because vendors use different rate-adaption schemes, Fritz said. ISDN workstations are another area to feel the standards blight. The majority of communications hardware companies currently support IBM Personal Computers, but powerful, multitasking systems such as OS/2 workstations or the Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh are ``ultimately required to do the sophisticated stuff like screen sharing, keyboard control over an ISDN line and doing transmissions and spreadsheets simultaneously,'' said John Saccente, formerly Tenneco's director of telecommunications. Specific boards needed Although workstations can hook up to an ISDN phone set via their RS-232 ports, they need ISDN boards designed specifically for their operating systems to really take advantage of the technology, vendor sources said. Right now, most available boards support IBM PCs. Teleos Communications, Inc. is working on an ISDN board for Unix systems, Northern Telecom, Inc. reportedly has demonstrated a Macintosh board and Apple itself recently hired an ISDN product manager, so the situation is bound to change for the better. A related problem is that private branch exchange (PBX) vendors have yet to support ISDN's Basic Rate Interface, which would provide third parties with access to their switches' functions via ISDN. While AT&T has officially announced Basic Rate Interface support, it is still pushing its proprietary ``ISDN-like'' Digital Communications Protocol (DCP), according to one third-party vendor. AT&T subsidiary American Transtech has found DCP quite adequate for linking user workstations to AT&T's ISDN Primary Rate Interface service, according to Transtech telecommunications manager Todd Stevenson. However, that is because the Jacksonville, Fla.-based financial computer service has stuck with all-AT&T terminals, he added. More bothersome to Transtech is the current lack of ISDN standards for linking host software to PBXs. AT&T has already provided Transtech with the software to link its 3B computers and System 85 PBXs so that telemarketing agents automatically get a customer's profile on their screens when the customer calls. But Transtech programmers would have to write their own interfaces to provide the same application on the company's other computers, Stevenson said. AT&T has promised Transtech that it will soon deliver a standardized link between its PBXs and a variety of computers, Stevenson said. Still in question, however, is whether other PBX vendors will support that standard. Northern Telecom, Inc. has also promised an ISDN-based interface between its PBXs and a variety of hosts, according to Richard Clements, telecommunications manager at Nice Corp. in Provo, Utah. Nice, like Transtech, has avoided certain incompatibility problems by sticking with one vendor _ in this case, Northern Telecom, Clements said. ``But at conferences, a lot of users are saying standards bodies are too slow, and vendors are meanwhile doing their own thing,'' he added. In particular, the lack of standard messaging formats means that different vendors' PBXs cannot exchange information, even though both are technically ISDN-compatible, Clements said. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : IRS systems overdrawn Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: irs Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ The single biggest management challenge facing the Internal Revenue Service is replacement of its aging computer systems for tax processing, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) told a congressional hearing last week. The report prompted Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.), who chaired the hearing, to declare that the outdated IRS computer systems are headed for a ``train wreck'' in the mid-1990s. The IRS, acknowledging that its 1960s-era systems are inefficient and will run out of capacity between 1992 and 1994, has launched a major replacement program called the Tax System Redesign. The GAO estimated the cost at between $3 billion and $4 billion. Pryor questioned whether the IRS would be able to handle such a big project in light of audits showing poor financial controls and mistakes in other computer projects. So far, the Tax System Redesign has been slow going, and the date for full-scale implementation has slipped from 1995 to 1998, Pryor said. ``This modernization is a massive undertaking, even compared with many of the large systems we hear about in government and industry today,'' the GAO spokesman testified. The GAO suggested that one executive be given full-time responsibility for managing the technology overhaul and that the IRS raise the technical expertise of all its senior managers. ``IRS has preliminary design concepts,'' the GAO observed, ``but the real work of modernization is still ahead.'' The design envisions a corporate database for widely used tax administration information, departmental systems for department-specific information, a nationwide network, electronic filing of tax returns and optical-disk storage. The IRS wants the new system to be portable, flexible and expandable. ``Our current system is none of those things,'' said Margaret O'Rourke, director of information systems design at the IRS office, at a conference last year. By Mitch Betts, CW staff <<<>>> Title : 1-2-3 Release 3.0 bound f Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: r3 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ Lotus Development Corp. launched what may be the largest beta test ever when it shipped out prerelease copies of 1-2-3 Release 3.0 last week. The massive beta-test release is the first good news for the firm since it was besieged by product delays and criticized by an increasingly skittish user base. Since early last year, Lotus' image as a technology leader has been harmed by unfulfilled promises. This could change with a warm Release 3.0 reception. Barring unforeseen bugs, the product _ announced 23 months ago _ should make its June 1989 deadline. Lotus and its 5,000 corporate testers now have three months to test, debug and shrink-wrap the long-awaited upgrade. Despite some user defections and growing unease, Lotus customers remain a loyal lot. Many are so familiar with 1-2-3 that switching to another product would be like getting a divorce, said Ron Goldfarb, a new-technology evaluator at Pratt & Whitney. Lotus has forsaken millions in upgrade fees to hang onto users. The firm has been offering a free upgrade to Release 3.0 for all Release 2.01 purchases since September 1988. Like General Motors Corp. putting cars on the showroom floor but refusing to open the hood, Lotus is still providing scant Release 3.0 details, such as what hardware is required to run the product. However, industry sources and a Lotus insider concede that the MS-DOS version will require a so-called DOS Extender and will not run on Intel Corp. 8088-based machines. Lotus concedes that it is targeting Intel 80286 machines and above but will not confirm the DOS Extender component. DOS Extenders allow MS-DOS programs to take advantage of the protected mode of the 286 and 386, a feature that provides memory greater than 640K bytes. The software will also run under OS/2 and may be the first truly important OS/2 application to ship. Disks began shipping to an initial group of 70 sites last week. That group will be expanded to include more than 5,000 users, according to Lotus officials. By Douglas Barney, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Compaq drops Businessland Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: bizland1 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: HOUSTON _ An ongoing debate over pricing discounts has resulted in Compaq Computer Corp. severing its ties with computer reseller Businessland, Inc., according to executives at both companies. ``Businessland has said they need to have preferential treatment compared with our other resellers,'' said Michael Swavely, Compaq sales and marketing vice-president. ``Any kind of preferential treatment is against our policy and is nonnegotiable.'' Despite recent tensions between the companies, Businessland President David Norman expressed surprise at the Compaq decision. ``We helped take Compaq into corporate America,'' Norman said. ``We consider them a good long-term strategic partner.'' Sales of Compaq systems have consistently accounted for 15% of Businessland's revenue over the past 18 months, he noted. He said a decision has not been made to carry another personal computer vendor to make up for the loss of Compaq. Sales to Businessland accounted for about 7% of Compaq's revenue last year, Swavely said. Computerland Corp., Compaq's largest customer, accounted for between 10% and 12% of its revenue in 1988, he noted. Notwithstanding the volume of Compaq systems sold through the retail chain, Swavely said, ``I don't believe Businessland is pushing our product and hasn't for some time. I think they only sell our products when the customer asks specifically for Compaq and they can't sell them something else.'' Norman said IBM and Apple Computer, Inc. extend better terms to Businessland than Compaq does. Both IBM and Apple offer a greater amount of expense abatement funds to help the reseller offset training costs, the purchase of demonstration equipment and advertising, Norman said. William Keiper, president of Microage Computer Stores, Inc., said the terms he receives from Compaq are on par with other vendors. ``Compaq is a good gross-margin-producing product,'' Keiper said. ``Our experience has been that Compaq has been very fair and evenhanded in its dealings with Microage.'' Bill Lempesis, PC industry analyst at San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm Dataquest, Inc., said IBM and Apple negotiate reseller terms on a dealer-by-dealer basis, while Compaq has always had a two-tier pricing structure that it applies to all resellers. Last week's action comes after several months of criticism leveled at Compaq by Businessland. Recently, Norman said his firm would do nothing to promote the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) being developed by Compaq and other PC clone makers in response to IBM's proprietary Micro Channel Architecture. Swavely said Compaq's decision had little to do with Businessland's failure to publicly support EISA and that the decision was a result of a nearly three-year dispute between the two companies over specific terms. Lempesis said Businessland stands to be the bigger loser. ``If Compaq maintains its lead in the processor race, it means that Businessland won't have the hottest box,'' he said. By Julie Pitta, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Bull retracts troubling m Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: honeywho Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Bull H. N. Information Systems, Inc. last week withdrew a controversial maintenance policy that had threatened to shut down the secondary market in large-scale Bull computers and damage the primary market as well. Computer resellers and industry association leaders, all of whom have raised their voices against what one called Bull's ``infamous C-12 policy amendment'' since its adoption eight months ago, nevertheless agreed that Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Financial Services Corp. dealt the C-12 amendment its death blow. In a letter dated Feb. 6, Charles Greco, the president of IDC Financial Services, which is an acknowledged leader in forecasting the residual value of computers, notified Bull of IDC's decision not to publish residual value projections for Bull's Honeywell 9000 series and to consider stalling all forecasts for Bull wares until the company clarifies C-12. With its computers consigned to residual-value limbo, Bull would be effectively frozen out of the aftermarket along with everyone else. In short, here is what C-12 did and how it died. Last June, Bull (then Honeywell Bull, Inc.) altered its 12-year-old maintenance policy to stipulate that any large Bull machine off ordinary maintenance for more than 30 days or removed from its site for more than 10 days would have to be shipped _ at the owner's expense _ to the company's Phoenix-based plant for maintenance recertification. According to the policy, Bull could decide whether and to what extent a computer required refurbishing in order to be recertified. Bull would then do the refurbishing and bill the owner. Apparently, no written guidelines were made available. Confusion and dismay spread as lessors _ who depend on the prospect of aftermarket sales to make their leasing deals feasible _ and resellers realized that potentially hefty and virtually incalculable costs were now going to come off the top of the resale value of any large-scale Bull. In a market in which IBM Credit Corp. has raised the competitive ante for lessors who primarily deal in IBM equipment, interest in dealing with other large companies _ particularly Bull _ has run high lately, said Kenneth Bouldin, president of the Computer Dealers and Lessors Association (CDLA). Just as that interest mounted, however, ``we find out that every machine that gets de-installed gets a trip to Phoenix and then gets robbed with a mask and a gun,'' Bouldin said. With the C-12 amendment, Bouldin said, Bull ``was basically killing its secondary market.'' Many lessors and dealers, he explained, said they believe that Bull intended to do just that and to hoard the rewards of the aftermarket for itself. If so, it may have outfoxed itself. Bull, already under siege from CDLA, the Honeywell Large-Scale User Association and a slew of individual companies that clamored to negotiate over C-12, acted quickly in the wake of the residual values threat. Early last week, citing the primacy of customers' comfort over corporate convenience, Bull Vice-President John Butler wrote to IDC Financial Services and announced that the C-12 amendment had been withdrawn. By Nell Margolis, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Wyse eyes the prize Author : Julie Pitta Source : CW Comm FileName: wyse Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Wyse Technology stands to be the big winner in what is being called a no-win dispute between Compaq and computer reseller Businessland. It introduced an Intel Corp. 16-MHz 80286 PC last week priced at $2,899 for an entry-level version and a 25-MHz 80386-based system priced at $8,599 for a base configuration. Wyse is also discussing the possibility of a Micro Channel-compatible system that Businessland would sell under its brand name. After what Compaq officials said was a three-year dispute over pricing discounts and other terms, Compaq dropped Businessland as a reseller last week. Compaq systems accounted for about 15% of Businessland's nearly $150 million in revenue and was one of four PC lines that Businessland carries. Other vendors include IBM, Apple and Wyse. ``We want to become a bigger part of their business,'' said Bernard Tse, chairman and chief executive officer at Wyse. ``This offers us a great opportunity to do that.'' Tse said Businessland is among Wyse's top three customers. An increase in sales to Businessland could resuscitate Wyse's flagging PC business. Last year, the company made a couple of strategic errors, raising system prices and failing to bring 386-based systems to market in a timely fashion. As a result, Wyse has been left with a large inventory of 286-based systems and is facing its first quarterly loss. JULIE PITTA <<<>>> Title : IBM shines up AS/400 fami Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: as4003 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: IBM polished up its Application System/400 line with a host of options last week, including expanded low-end capabilities, steep price cuts on memory upgrades for higher end models and a high-end system. But users and consultants contacted last week said the announcement was no ordinary introduction of enhancements. Instead, they claimed, it was IBM's response to reports of performance problems that are showing up on all models of the AS/400 when users run the systems with standard memory configurations. An IBM spokesman said he was aware of industry speculation about the AS/400's performance problems but said it was ``absolutely not true.'' Users and consultants said the AS/400, with its rich and complex operating system, has proven to need more than the standard or typical amount of memory. This problem surfaced last year at the low end when machines were running with minimum memory configurations. But observers now say that higher end models will also slow down when running more complex applications such as AS/400 Office. The IBM spokesman said last year's reports of a low-end memory problem was a separate issue involving customers not running in native mode. He added that there have been no reports of problems on higher end models. ``Nobody said they weren't getting expected performance on a B30 or above,'' he said. ``We're upgrading our memory now to get more efficiency out of Office,'' said Ron Cipolla, MIS director at Kendall Co. in Boston, which is running an assortment of AS/400 models. ``It was running poorly, but we hadn't originally configured our systems to include Office.'' May have been problems Cipolla said that he does not believe IBM had a big problem on its hands but that other users may have encountered difficulties. ``Anytime IBM drops memory prices this early [in a product's life], you could believe there's been problems,'' he claimed. John Logan, an analyst at Aberdeen Group in Boston, said IBM ``essentially tried to do too much'' with the AS/400. ``The problem comes when running multiple applications, particularly Office. The memory just can't swap programs in and out fast enough,'' he said. Logan and other observers pointed to several pieces of last week's announcement that can be seen as IBM's way of correcting problems. For example, the maximum memory configuration of the B10 and B20 models _ the source of user woes last year _ has been officially boosted. The maximum configuration on a B10 is now 16M instead of 8M bytes. The B20's maximum memory can be boosted from 16M to 28M bytes. Last year, several B10 and B20 users complained to IBM that they suffered poor performance when running in System/36 mode with a minimum memory configuration. At that time, IBM offered them an additional 4M bytes of memory to be used free of charge for one year. Nick Blattner, a software engineer at Emerald Technology, Inc., which took a 4M-byte loaner from IBM last year, said the change in the B10's maximum configuration ``tells me that there was just a miscalculation by IBM.'' For midrange and high-end users, one way to get better performance is to add memory. This can now be done with much lower costs. The IBM spokesman said the price cuts came about because of manufacturing efficiencies. Last week, the cost of memory upgrades for higher end models was reduced to $1,500 per megabyte from $2,500. Furthermore, users can trade in additional memory cards that they already purchased for the higher price and receive credit toward the purchase of a new memory card. For example, if B40 users purchased an additional 4M-byte card prior to the announcement, they paid $10,000; it would now cost $6,000. If they purchased an 8M-byte card now, they would pay $12,000 instead of $16,000. If they traded in their 4M-byte card for the new 8M-byte card, they would pay only $6,000, the difference between the new cost of the 4M-byte card and the 8M-byte card. IBM also boosted the performance at the high end with the new B70 model primarily by reworking the 16M-byte memory cards used with the high end, according to Aberdeen's Logan. The B70 also sports a faster processor. But the new 16M-byte memory card allows users to achieve a faster access time to memory, moving from 80 nsec, which is the speed achieved with the 16M-byte card on the B60, to 65 nsec. Not all of IBM's announcement focused on memory. The company breathed new life into the B20 model with the introduction of an expansion unit that will sell for $9,800. Approximately the size of the main system unit, the unit effectively doubles the capabilities of the B20. Without this option, B20 users requiring more horsepower would have been forced to make a switch to a B30, which would have required a complete system swap; unlike the rest of the line, the B10s and B20s are not rack-mounted configurations. By Rosemary Hamilton, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Exec says SAA office tool Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: saaoffic Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: ATLANTA _ IBM is set to announce an integrated office software package soon that is compliant with its Systems Application Architecture, according to IBM Vice-President Earl Wheeler, who has primary responsibility for SAA. Although the widely anticipated software is often referred to as SAA Office, Wheeler did not use that name, nor did he elaborate on what he meant by ``soon.'' An IBM spokesman declined to comment on Wheeler's remarks but did say that no such announcement is planned for this week. Wheeler described the integrated software as the ``first integrated SAA product'' while speaking at the general session of the Knowledgeware, Inc. User Conference here last week. The executive told some 800 attendees that the software will offer document preparation, electronic mail, decision support and an iconic interface. In addition, it reportedly will have documented interfaces and will contain ``the next level'' of Common User Access, a graphical user interface. Independent software vendors will have many applications ready the day the office software is announced, Wheeler said. Peter Morgan, vice-president of marketing at Software 2000, a Hyannis, Mass.-based vendor of financial and human services software for the AS/400, said his firm will attend the announcement, although he could not specify the date. Software 2000 is a member of the IBM Business Partner program. Morgan said he attended a briefing given over IBM's field television network for IBM personnel and business partners last week. During the broadcast, IBM sales representatives were advised they could begin selling the office software to customers. Morgan said the broadcast also discussed AS/400 Debit/ Credit benchmark results that IBM has in hand. Although an IBM spokesman denied that the company has conducted Debit/ Credit benchmark tests on the AS/400, one analyst said IBM admitted to him that the results exist. ``IBM says they have them but won't release them,'' said John Logan, executive vice-president at Aberdeen Group in Boston. By Stanley Gibson, CW staff <<<>>> Title : News shorts Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: short227 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Apple bites Apple A pop icon of the 1960s took on a pop icon of the 1980s last week when the company that represents the Beatles, Apple Corps. Ltd., sued Apple Computer, Inc. for violating a long-secret agreement. Apple Corps., parent company of the Beatles' Apple Records, charged in a London court that it granted Apple Computer permission to use the Apple name in 1981 under a single condition _ that the computer vendor not get into the music business. Apple Computer, which maintained last week that it hasn't broken the 1981 promise, may not have moved directly into the music field, but its customers have used Macintosh and Apple II computers to create music. HP claims edge over AS/400 Hewlett-Packard Co. threw itself last week into the benchmarking wars with the release of test results that HP says beat the IBM Application System/400. The company put its HP 3000 Series 935 up against an AS/400 Model B30 in a variation of the Debit/Credit benchmark and claimed that its system ran four transaction/sec., while the IBM minicomputer limped along at 1.3 transaction/sec. HP said it plans to redo the test once the Transaction Processing Performance Council establishes a standard Debit/Credit benchmark. IBM dismissed HP's results and said that without a standard Debit/Credit test, vendors cannot accurately compare systems. HP weds academia In other news, HP said it will tap into worldwide academic research by spending $15 million during the next three years on three science centers, at which HP and university scientists will work together. The first center will open next month at Stanford University. Research at Stanford will focus on artificial intelligence, database technology and neural networks, HP said. Two other centers will be sited in Europe and along the Pacific Rim during the next two years. Citing a drop in federal funding of university research, HP said the centers will speed commercialization of technology resulting from research. Packet net targets heavy users AT&T last week announced Private Packet Network Service, a public packet-switched offering that targets high-volume users with the cost advantages and network management features of a private network. In contrast to AT&T's existing Accunet packet-switched service, which levies use-sensitive charges, the new service carries a flat monthly fee for dedicated trunks, an AT&T spokeswoman said. Users can also control and configure their networks from an on-premises IBM Personal Computer, she added. Scheduled for release in the third quarter, the as-yet unpriced service will also provide a portion of the U.S. General Service Administration's (GSA) Federal Telecommunications System 2000 network. One FTS-2000 protest rejected MCI Communications Corp.'s protest of the FTS-2000 contract awarded to AT&T was dismissed last week by the GSA's Board of Contract Appeals [CW, Feb. 13]. The board said MCI had no standing to protest because it was bidding as a subcontractor to Martin Marietta Corp. for the federal intercity network. Still pending is a separate protest that Martin Marietta filed with the GSA contracting office, rather than with the Board of Contract Appeals. Cadam downsized Cadam, Inc., a mainframe-based computer-aided design software vendor based in Burbank, Calif., last week introduced a hardware-independent computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE) application. Professional Cadam will now run on Unix-based workstations from Apollo Computer, Inc., IBM, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. The company has also ported its printed circuit-board design software to Unix. The moves are intended to bring mainframe-class CAD/ CAM/CAE abilities to the 32-bit Unix workstation level. <<<>>> Title : Customs net seals U.S. bo Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: customne Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Walter Curran, a Boston stockbroker who was recently charged with federal mail and bank fraud, escaped to Canada _ but was apprehended at a border station on his way back to the U.S. Chalk up another triumph to law, order and the U.S. Customs Consolidated Data Network. The network, a recently upgraded version of the 19-year-old Customs Law Enforcement system, links border agents to Customs' data center near Washington, D.C., letting them know whether the vehicle approaching their station is likely to contain a harmless tourist, an armed drug runner _ or a possible white-collar criminal on the lam. For example, when the border inspector entered Curran's Massachusetts driver's license into his terminal, the system quickly provided information on the broker's arrest warrant, a Customs spokesman said. Matching the crooks ``The object of the system is to provide [Customs] agents with as much information as possible: The more they get, the better armed they are,'' said R. Gary Cantrell, director of the operations division of U.S. Customs' Office of Data Systems. ``Crooks are getting more modern weapons, so we needed to as well.'' The original drug enforcement system began almost two decades ago as a pilot project in San Diego, near the Mexican border. It was ``very much a homegrown effort,'' consisting of line-oriented asynchronous terminals, internally developed software, a Burroughs Corp. mainframe and a database garnered from the records of the local Bureau of Motor Vehicles, according to network section leader Charles Dukes. The network now serves the entire U.S. border, including airports. Approximately 3,000 terminals participate in the network. In September 1987, the Office of Data Systems initiated a six-month project to move the San Diego data center under the wing of central information systems. Customs expects to save approximately $1.75 million from the consolidation effort, Cantrell said. Savings will result largely from the elimination of redundant technical and support personnel, he added. At the same time, software and databases were converted to Computer Associates International, Inc. subsidiary Applied Data Research, Inc.'s Datacom/DB software running on a National Semiconductor Corp. NAS XL-80 mainframe. The system has since been upgraded to an XL-100. Communications lines were gradually cut over to the Consolidated Data Network. By year's end, all of Customs; the Internal Revenue Service; Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and some miscellaneous Treasury Department agencies are scheduled to be on the network. The new system is already said to provide more complete data, faster. Higher bandwidth (formerly 4.8K bit/sec., now up to 56K bit/sec.) has cut response time down to three seconds at airports, Cantrell said. A single query to the new system can result in a 20- to 50-line response that identifies the person or vehicle, what he is suspected of, what business he is in and past convictions, according to Jerry Dowell, Customs data center senior consultant. ``The old system was designed to pass succinct messages,'' Dowell said. Law enforcement agents will also be able to swap data with other government agencies as they come on-line, Dowell said. For example, a border inspector might find out if an identified suspect is in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's files. An enhancement is planned that notifies agencies in other countries if a suspect is heading their way, Dowell said. By Elisabeth Horwitt, CW staff <<<>>> Title : DEC's water-cooled host s Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: aquarius Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: MAYNARD, Mass. _ Reports that Digital Equipment Corp.'s water-cooled mainframe project were shelved may have been premature, and the company may release the machine by the end of the year, according to sources close to the company. In November, both a report by the TFS, Inc. research firm and a DEC internal memo stated that plans for the water-cooled system, code-named Aquarius, were scrapped because the company felt it could achieve acceptable performance with an air-cooled, less-powerful model, code-named Aridus, and get it to market faster. But DEC is reportedly still warm to the idea and is tinkering with two versions of Aquarius, each sporting a different cooling arrangement, sources said. The first is a fluid-to-air system conceptually similar to an automobile radiator; a second fluid-to-fluid model would be plug-compatible with an IBM 3090 thermal-conduction system. Aquarius will reportedly process 30 million instructions per second (MIPS) and support up to four CPUs. Additional features would include a 1G byte/sec. internal system bus, 256M to 2G bytes of memory, a 16-nsec clock speed and a choice of vector accelerators or vector CPUs, sources said. Additionally, the machine will be capable of providing 125 million floating-point operations per second (MFLOPS) peak performance with a vector accelerator or 250 MFLOPS with a vector CPU. Pricing will be between $1 million and $4 million, depending on the number of CPUs. In such a configuration, Aquarius could appeal to commercial users in the banking and finance fields, while the vector facility setup could handle scientific applications. ``It could very well be positioned as a 3090 alternative,'' said Terry Shannon, director of the DEC Advisory Service arm of Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp. By James Daly, CW staff <<<>>> Title : OS/2 for 386 will not be Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: ms386 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: REDMOND, Wash. _ An upgrade of OS/2 with Presentation Manager specifically designed for the Intel Corp. 80386 microprocessor will not ship to end users until sometime in 1990, Microsoft Corp. confirmed last week. At the company's third annual systems software forum, Microsoft said it plans to ship 386 OS/2 tool kits to its developers later this year, with delivery of an end-user, 386-specific OS/2 version scheduled for an undetermined date next year. In the meantime, Microsoft demonstrated an early version of its Windows 3.0 operating environment, currently being developed by the personal computer software market leader. Over the barrier The demonstration, which was called Windows Version 3.0 Debug Release 1.14, showed the program's ability to load several applications into memory above the 640K-byte DOS memory limit. The company loaded a large Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Write, Aldus Corp. Pagemaker and a Pagemaker application and still had 836K bytes of memory free under the new Windows version. While Windows 3.0 appeared to operate in protected mode, which allows up to 16M bytes of addressable memory, Microsoft Vice-President of Systems Software Steve Ballmer dismissed any potential adverse impact that such a Windows release could have on the firm's OS/2 Presentation Manager versions, which can also run applications above the 640K-byte barrier. Thomas Galvin, an analyst at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. in New York, said that Windows 3.0 should have little tangible affect on OS/2's ramp-up. He noted that Windows 3.0 still lacks the multitasking and interprocess communications capabilities of OS/2. ``I see it more as a way to show users what they could do with the 386,'' Galvin said. Windows 3.0, he added, ``gives them some momentum to their whole push for Presentation Manager and for their technology.'' Although Ballmer would not be more specific on the company's timetable for delivery of the 386 OS/2 Presentation Manager tool kits and end-user 386 OS/2 products, he and other Microsoft executives nevertheless remained upbeat about the outlook for OS/2 Presentation Manager applications development. By Patrick Waurzyniak, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Anatomy of a strategic al Author : Patricia Keefe Source : CW Comm FileName: 3comsid Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Hewlett-Packard and 3Com said the first wave of products from their strategic alliance will be delivered in the second quarter and sold by both companies. The duo outlined the following areas of joint product development, cooperation and marketing: Forming the basis of HP 3+Open LAN Manager with 3Com's 3+Open network software, which is based on Microsoft's OS/2 LAN Manager. Eventually linking HP's OS/2 offering to its 3000 and 9000 minicomputers. Ensuring 3+Open will work with LAN Manager/X, a Unix port of LAN Manager co-developed by Microsoft and HP. Co-development of a common TCP/IP for their LAN Manager-based products and a variety of network services and multivendor connectivity products. Network management products operating under HP's Openview architecture. CCITT X.400-based electronic mail to enable HP and 3Com E-mail users to exchange messages with each other and other E-mail systems that support X.400. Incorporation of features from HP's New Wave user interface product into future releases of 3Com products. Currently, 3+Open supports MS-DOS, OS/2 and Apple Computer, Inc. systems. HP supports Unix as well as its MPE/XL proprietary system. The idea is to give users in both environments access to applications and systems running under all of these environments. PATRICIA KEEFE <<<>>> Title : Meltdown Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 227stock Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: The annual case of the blahs that tends to make the rounds of offices, schools and other gathering places as February melts into March visited the technology corner of the stock market last week. IBM, which slipped of a point to start the week at 125 , dropped another 1 points to close Thursday at 123 . Digital Equipment Corp., last seen bouncing back from a midmonth slump, fell of a point to close Thursday at 114 . Hewlett-Packard Co.'s equity investment in 3Com Corp. boosted 3Com of a point to close Thursday at 27. Neither that deal nor a bright earnings announcement kept HP from a 4 -point fall to 55 at the week's end. Cullinet Software, Inc., already losing ground as it warned of its 11th consecutive quarterly net loss, dropped further after announcing the actual numbers. Cullinet closed Thursday at 5 , down of a point. A spring-like note in the winter landscape was struck, however, by Data General Corp. Previews of its big RISC gamble, a Motorola, Inc. 88000-powered workstation series, piqued interest in the much-battered minicomputer maker; Data General stock climbed of a point to end the week at 19 . NELL MARGOLIS <<<>>> Title : Five join in low-cost Uni Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: 386unix Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: Marking Unix's 20th anniversary, five leading workstation software vendors will launch a fully loaded, low-cost Unix software package for Intel Corp. 80386-based systems to undercut comparable offerings from the company that made Unix popular _ Sun Microsystems, Inc. Digital Equipment Corp., The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), Relational Technology, Inc., Tandy Corp. and Locus Computing Corp. reportedly plan to make their announcement tomorrow at Uniforum 1989 in San Francisco. The package will be called Open Desktop, sources briefed on the event said. The package will include a 386-based system from Tandy; DEC's application programming interface, XUI; SCO's latest version of AT&T's Unix System V, Release 3.2; Relational Technology's DBMS/386; and Locus' Merge. Excluding the Tandy machine, the package's license will cost $995 for two users and an additional $500 for an upgrade to support three or more users, sources said. Making contributions A DEC spokesman confirmed the arrangement, stating that DEC would not be selling the package but will offer its XUI as a technological contribution. The companies are merging their product offerings in an effort to standardize personal computer software for 386-based systems. In addition to the products listed, the package will support industry standards including X Window System, Sun's Network File System, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and the Open Software Foundation's standard user interface when it becomes available. ``Sounds like a damned good deal to me,'' said Tim Rudolph, senior systems engineer at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Mass. ``The price-point is intriguing. If I had $10,000, I'd buy one myself.'' Sources said the package is being targeted at the goverment and academic markets. The software will run on any 386-based PC and will require a 100M-byte hard disk and at least 6M bytes of memory. The package's total cost will be approximately $9,000. A comparable system from Sun would reportedly range in price from $15,000 to $20,000. By William Brandel, CW staff <<<>>> Title : IBM's `open' vow question Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: aixlook Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: A year after IBM placed its AIX on a pedestal next to Systems Application Architecture (SAA), questions regarding the equality of the two product lines still abound. Since modifying its long-held proprietary views and officially sanctifying its version of Unix as a strategic product at Uniforum 1988, IBM has gone to great lengths to prove it is serious about Unix and open systems. The marketing giant created a division dedicated to AIX and won its biggest endorsement from the Open Software Foundation, which will base its candidate for an industry-standard Unix operating system on AIX. On the downside, IBM's disclosure earlier this month that it will be late with AIX/370, signaled possible troubles in bringing AIX to the mainframe. Its RT workstation has yet to command any respect in the market. While some observers say IBM will be a success in the Unix world simply because it is IBM, others are not so sure. IBM has gone to great lengths to prove its commitment to Unix, but many still call it a shotgun wedding. ``Proprietary systems will always be IBM's systems of choice,'' contended Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research in Phoenix, Ariz. For IBM, ``Unix is a choice of necessity,'' he said. Necessity or not, many insist IBM will be a force to be reckoned with. ``IBM will be quite a major player in the Unix market,'' said Judith Hurwitz, senior editor at Patricia Seybold's Office Computing Group in Boston. Hurwitz cited the commercial appeal of AIX features such as disk mirroring and _even more important _ the marketing clout of IBM. ``While other vendors will have to beg and plead with software developers to port applications,'' she said, ``everyone will be writing for AIX.'' Hurwitz said she foresees AIX playing an interesting role for IBM. While IBM is constrained by the specifications of SAA and the need to remain compatible with older systems, there are no precedents for AIX. Therefore, IBM is free to experiment and bring new technology into AIX, she said. However, AIX will have to stick to standards designated by X/Open Consortium Ltd. and other standards bodies. A unified AIX family spanning operations from the desktop to the mainframe is at the core of IBM's AIX strategy. However, most analysts downplayed the significance of IBM's postponed mainframe AIX offering. While analysts debate the potential demand for mainframe Unix, AIX/370 is a real consideration for some customers. Carl Bond, vice-president of information systems at Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance of Michigan, has installed IBM RTs at all of his insurance agencies and plans to eventually link them to a central host processor _ possibly an IBM mainframe running AIX. So far, he said, he is satisfied with AIX and indications of IBM's continued commitment. Hurwitz said she does not think that IBM's delay of AIX/370 signals major problems. Since AIX was developed for the RT, there are many changes required to port it to the mainframe. ``IBM has leverage no one else has _ they can afford to be a few months late,'' she said. ``For another company, that would be disastrous.'' David Card, an analyst at Framingham Mass.-based market research firm International Data Corp., suggested that AIX/370 was delayed because it was not a priority for IBM. ``There is not much demand for AIX/370. Unix is really a low-end market right now,'' he said. However, Djurdjevic argued that the opportunity cost for IBM will be significant. Amdahl already has a foothold in the mainframe Unix market, and Unix is helping the IBM-compatible vendor sell mainframes, especially in Europe, he said. Amdahl Corp.'s latest release of UTS, its version of Unix, is scheduled for third-quarter availability. Unlike AIX, which runs as a guest operating system under VM, UTS runs natively and therefore achieves better performance. Djurdjevic contended that there is more at issue for IBM than Unix. Unix is a new application area for the 9370, and IBM was counting on that to spark sales of the midrange mainframe, he said. In the near term, IBM's biggest challenge may be to provide a powerful family of workstations. RT enhancements are slated for this year, but a significantly improved follow-on is anticipated in 1990 or 1991. John Logan, vice-president at market research firm Aberdeen Group in Cambridge, Mass., does not see IBM becoming a major Unix force. While he said he views AIX as a ``world-class product,'' the problem is not the implementation but IBM's hardware platforms and lack of corporatewide commitment to AIX. Comparing IBM's RT success with other Unix vendors, he said, ``It looks like IBM will be a follower in all classes.'' As Logan summed it up, ``The final cruel irony may be that AIX succeeds in the form of OSF, while IBM has little market presence in its own name.'' By Amy Cortese, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Unisys U series casts sha Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: unysis5 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: In the midst of layoffs last week, Unisys Corp. broadened its Unix-based offerings with three new models in its midrange U series. Analysts viewed the announcement _ together with the formation of a Unisys Network Computing Group (NCG) and the branding of its systems as X/Open compatible _ as the company's signal that it will become a major force in the commercial Unix market. Unisys now offers Unix-based systems that span the gap from the desktop to multiprocessors. The X/Open branding ensures that the systems will comply with the Common Applications environment specified by the X/Open Consortium Ltd. ``Unisys has quietly become a formidable player in the Unix market through its OEM strategy,'' said Peter Kastner, vice-president of Aberdeen Group, a market research firm in Boston. ``They can now address anybody's requirements at a competitive price.'' Unisys' largest growth area has been its Unix-based systems, said Robert Cameron, an analyst at Dataquest, Inc. in Boxboro, Mass.: ``By creating the Network Computing Group, Unisys has isolated its best performers into one successful group.'' The tactic, he said, ``inadvertently points out failures in the company's other lines of business.'' Indeed, while touting the $800 million in revenue that the company garnered from Unix last year, Paul Ely, president of the new group, said that companywide layoffs (see story page 103) will affect the NCG. Although Ely would not be specific, he said the layoffs would be less severe within the new organization. The two largest models, the U 6000/70 and the U 6000/80, come to Unisys through an OEM arrangement with Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. in Beaverton, Ore. Slated to become available in July, the U 6000/70 will cost from $110,000 to $400,000. The U 6000/80 will cost from $195,000 to $1 million and will support up to 400 users. The entry-level U 6000/30 was built by Convergent Technologies, Inc., now a Unisys division following its acquisition in December. The U 6000/30 supports up to 16 users. Available immediately, its price ranges from $11,000 to $30,000. The new models, together with the company's older U 6000/50, are based on Intel Corp.'s 80386 processors and run software based on AT&T's Unix System V and MS-DOS. From here to there Clifford Rushton, manager of data processing at the forest products division of the Federal Paper Board Co. in Augusta, Ga., has ordered 20 U 6000/30s. Already a user of the U 6000/50, Rushton will place the new models at remote sites. ``With the systems, we will be able to distribute processing to local sites and upload data to the main office without worrying about applications portability,'' he said. He added that the high-end processors give him confidence that he will not be dead-ended in the midrange. Furthermore, he said, because of MS-DOS, microcomputer users in distributed sites can use their own programs and share files, almost like using a local-area network. Unisys also introduced Decnet Interconnect, a software package that allows midrange processors to connect to Digital Equipment Corp. proprietary Decnet networks. Set to be available between April and June, prices for the systems will range from $2,000 to $8,000. Unisys added IBM Token-Ring capability to its PCI software, which allows IBM Personal Computers and compatibles running MS-DOS to share files, applications and resources with a central data repository maintained on a U series processor. Slated to be available in April, prices will range from $950 to $5,500. Unisys also announced that U series processors can now run Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Network File System, which will range from $3,500 to $9,000. By Robert Moran, CW staff <<<>>> Title : Sun heats up Sparc strate Author : CW Staff Source : CW Comm FileName: sun1 Date : Mar 6, 1989 Text: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. _ Sun Microsystems, Inc. will have a double-barreled response to the increasingly competitive reduced instruction set computing (RISC) arena this week with low-end and high-end workstations, according to sources briefed on the products. Sun will introduce a workstation based on its Scalable Processor Architecture (Sparc) running at 8 million instructions per second (MIPS) and priced at about $7,000, the sources said. At the same time, Sun will unveil a high-end Sparc-based system offering 20 MIPS in processing speed. That system will be priced at about $30,000. A Wall Street analyst briefed on Sun's offerings said the firm is looking to pepper its installed base with front-end units. ``Sun can go back into those sites and then sell them a high-end server with a hefty price tag,'' he said. Sun is expected to show both systems privately to selected customers at the Uniforum 1989 show in San Francisco. Company officials declined to comment on the systems. RISC rivals Industry watchers said the barrage of products is Sun's response to heated competition in the workstation market, especially the emergence of RISC-based systems from competitors such as Digital Equipment Corp. Additionally, Sun will bolster its Motorola, Inc. processor-based line of workstations later this spring with a 68030-based system that costs about $6,000, sources said. An existing system in the Sparc line, the Sun-4/110, costs $19,950 and runs at 7 MIPS. The rollout of a low-end system will likely require that Sun make price adjustments. Meanwhile, Sun is developing a Sparc system with a processing speed of between 40 and 50 MIPS, the sources said. That system, which will require a cool environment to operate, is expected to be unveiled before the end of this year, they added. According to industry watchers, Sun is looking to pull away from DEC, which passed Apollo Computer, Inc. to become No. 2 in the workstation market last year. ``When Sun turns around, it's looking at DEC,'' said Jennifer Johnson, senior analyst of the technical market at Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm International Data Corp. ``It's true that DEC has just introduced its first RISC machine, but it's clear they intend to fill out their line.'' By Julie Pitta, CW staff