Vol.20 n°1 january 1995

News & Views

p.24 What Notes Users Want

[theme GROUPWARE]

As great as Lotus Notes is for deploying productivity-enhancing applications throughout a company, it still suffers from numerous weaknesses. Here's what users want and a hint of things to come from Lotus.

p.28 End-User Windows Databases Take Off

[theme WINDOWS DATABASES]

BYTE looks at three Windows database offerings - Microsoft Access 2.0, Lotus Approach 3.0, and Alpha Software's Alpha Fiver for Windows - that claim to be the best end-user database available.

p.30 15 MB in a Matchbook

[theme STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES]

The storage capacities of personal communications devices, pagers, and digital cameras could improve greatly in 1995 thanks to a 32-Mb new flash memory device called CompactFlash from SunDisk.

p.30 Infrared Gets Real

[theme WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES]

The Infrared Data Association's new standard has vendors getting on board the infrared bandwagon.

p.34 Professional Video Prices Drop

[theme VIDEO EDITING]

Powerful desktop computers combined with new video editing programs are delivering professional video editing to the PC, Mac, and Power Mac platforms.

p.36 Indexing Gets Smart

[theme DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT]

Information publishers are turning to a new breed of smart indexing tools that can automatically summarize and condense huge documents without human intervention.

p.40 The Next On-Line Wave

[theme INTERNET COMMERCE]

On-line services are responding to the enormous demand of users for Internet accessibility by incorporating Internet access and tools

p.240 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

The PN60 prints color anywhere; CalcPac calculates in Windows; Duet puts a Mac voice in PCs; and more;

Special Report: Small-Office Computing

p.120 Small-Office Computing

[author Paulina Borsook and Michael Nadeau]

p.125 The Virtual Storefront

[author Andrew Singleton]

p.126 Making the Internet Connection

p.132 One Person's Internet Business

p.133 Curing the Windows Fax Blues

[author Stan Miastkowski]

p.145 Doing It All on One Line

[author Andy Reinhardt]

p.149 Caller ID Goes to Work

[author Gilbert Amine and Annette Riggio and Ellis Hill]

p.155 High-Tech Bookkeeping

[author Ken Sheldon]

Features

p.49 1994 BYTE Awards

[author Dennis Barker]

BYTE editors pick the 50 outstanding products or technologies of the past year.

p.64 Solutions Focus: The Newton Goes Vertical

[author Andy Reinhardt]

Why a maker of phone-testing equipment chose to repackage the Apple Newton MessagePad as its solution for client/server-based automated field service.

p.75 Mosaic: Beyond Net Surfing

[author John R. Vacca]

This GUI navigator is also a tool for doing business on the World Wide Web.

State of the Art

p.88 Matching Colors

[author Russell Kay]

Getting the color you want without unpleasant surprises is no simple trick.

p.93 Consistent Color

[author Michael Sugihara]

New software standards help manage color for consistent and accurate reproduction.

p.101 On-Screen Color

[author Bill Hilliard]

Today's crop of monitors are producing better color than ever. Here are some tips on how you can pick the best monitor and video card to get the kind of color accuracy you need.

p.109 Final Output

[author Michael Weiss]

Color printers, more affordable than ever, hold out the promise of better color.

Reviews

p.165 Quad-Speed CD-ROM Delivers

[theme CD-ROM DRIVES] [author Michael Nadeau]

Four new quad-speed CD-ROM drives are affordable if you work with high-speed video or animation.

p.171 Lively Pictures

[theme IMAGE EDITING] [author Trevor Marshall]

HSC Software's Live Picture is an impressive image editor for the Power Mac.

p.175 Apple's Workgroup Server 9150

[theme APPLICATION SERVERS] [author Raymond Ga Côté]

Apple presents its top-of-the-line PowerPC-based system as an application server.

p.179 Prograph CPX: Purely Visual

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Raymond Ga Côté]

Macintosh programmers have access to a powerful visual-programming environment - and it's not from Microsoft.

p.183 Software Roundup: Powerful Presentations for Windows

[theme PRESENTATION SOFTWARE] [author Susan Yeaton]

The traditional slide-show leaders - Charisma, Harvard Graphics, Lotus Freelance Graphics, and Microsoft PowerPoint - concentrate on power and usability.

p.191 Audience Share

[theme PROJECTION PANELS] [author G. Armour Van Horn]

As more people incorporate sound and video in their presentations, projection panels must keep up. Proxima's new Ovation+ active-matrix LCD projection panels support 24-bit color and stereo sound.

p.193 dBase Does Windows

[theme DATABASES] [author Jim Carls]

The Windows version of dBase makes all the right noises in object orientation and ease of use, and it knows how to read old dBase files.

p.197 Internet with Style

[theme INTERNET INTERFACES] [author Ben Smith]

Netscape Communication's free Mosaic browser is optimized for 14.4-Kpbs modem connections. Versions of its commercial Mosaic server offer security features to enable commerce on the Internet.

p.201 Bringing 3-D Modeling to PCs

[theme MODELING SOFTWARE] [author Evan Yares]

Autodesk releases AutoCAD Designer 1.0, a 3-D solid-modeling program.

p.204 Lab Report: 62 Big, Beautiful Color Monitors

[theme LARGE-SCREEN COLOR MONITORS]

BYTE/NSTL searches for the best 17-, 20-, and 21-inch monitors, using an extensive battery of tests to measure image quality, sharpness, contrast, convergence, legibility, power consumption, and distortion. We also evaluate ease of setup, controls, power management, and documentation.

p.206 The Best 17-inch Monitors

p.210 How We Tested

p.212 The Best 20-and 21-inch Monitors

p.216 Honorable Mentions

p.216 Dubious Achievements

Core Technologies

p.223 FPU Precision

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Oliver Sharp]

A simple comparison program can help programmers who grapple with FPU imprecision.

p.225 AMD's 29030 Microprocessor

[theme CPUS] [author Floyd Goodrich]

A flexible bus interface and the ability to sustain high performance with low-cost memory make the 29030 a good choice for the embedded market.

p.227 The Oberon/F System

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Dick Pountain]

Niklaus Wirth's Oberon/F is a lightweight, portable, object-oriented component framework for the Windows and Mac environments.

p.229 Daisy-Chain Ethernet

[author Stan Miastkowski]

Bring the legendary simplicity and flexibility of PhoneNet to the twisted-pair Ethernet LAN.

Opinions

p.231 Pournelle: Communications Issues

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry discusses modems and networking.

p.45 Books and CD-ROMs: Creating Life in a Computer

[author Andrew Singleton and Russell Kay]

A look at books on artificial life and genetic programming and a CD-ROM on warplanes.

p.296 Commentary: Who Needs the Internet?

[author Richard Jennings]

Heresy or a cogent view?

p.14 Publisher's Letter

[author David Egan]

p.41 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

Readers describe solutions using agent technology and express frustration with TCP/IP addressing.

p.140 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.294 Editorial Index by Company

p.290 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.292 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 196A, 292A

p.249 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "jan95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°2 february 1995

News & Views

p.22 Visual Pascal with a Punch

[theme VISUAL POGRAMMING]

Borland's Delphi unites a visual design environment with the industrial strength of Borland's Pascal compiler and database connectivity engines.

p.23 LexMark Delivers Outstanding Resolution

[theme PRINTERS]

Lexmark's new 1200-dpi printer delivers excellent quality when printing gray-scale images, such as photographs. But when printing standard text, the differences between 1200 and 600 dpi are not as noticeable

p.24 Notebooks, NT Clusters Capture Awards

[theme BEST OF COMDEX]

BYTE editors searched throughout the convention halls of Fall Comdex 1994 for innovative new products that had been publicly announced within 30 days of the show and that would have a strong influence on business computing.

p.26 High-End Portables Take Off

[theme MAC AND PC NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS]

High-end notebook computers are accounting for an increasing percentage of portables sales thanks in part to a higher demand by businesses for desktop PC replacements. Here's what to expect from new product introductions in 1995.

p.28 Rewritable Drive Integrates Two Optical Technologies

[theme OPTICAL STORAGE]

Phase change promised much as a rewritable medium, but high costs have kept it out of the mainstream. Matsushita hopes to change that.

p.32 Brooktrout Cuts the Cost of Internal Faxing

[theme INTERCOMPANY FAX]

A new device from the Brooktrout Networks Group could save you a lot of money on intracompany fax phone calls.

p.180 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

The CruisePad provides wireless control locally; Process Charter for Windows does smart flowcharting; WinDD puts Windows on Unix; and more.

Cover Story

[theme NETWORKING] [author Jon Udell]

p.42 Novell's Campaign

Novell is embarking on a grand strategy to get 1 billion users and devices connected to NetWare by the year 2000.

Features

p.65 The Grand Challenges

[theme SUPERCOMPUTING] [author Oliver Sharp]

Researchers are beginning to tackle problems in geography, weather, and other areas that require more computing capability than today's most powerful computers can muster. Here's a look at the biggest of these challenges and the ways in which scientists are attacking them with supercomputers.

p.76 Solutions Focus: Moody's Evolving Help Desk

[theme TECHNICAL-SUPPORT SCHEDULING] [author Mark Clarkson]

A distinctly different approach to departmental scheduling uses genetic algorithms to maximize productivity.

State of the Art

p.82 Piecing Together Puzzles

[theme PATTERN RECOGNITION]

Finding and understanding patterns in data are key to creating mainstream applications for speech-and handwriting-recognition or machine-vision systems.

p.85 Face Value

[theme Edmund X. Dejesus]

New facial-recognition research is yielding fast, accurate, and commercially viable algorithms for a variety of applications.

p.91 Eyes, Ears, and Brains on a Chip

[author Mark Clarkson]

Economical pattern-recognition horsepower comes to the desktop thanks to the latest generations of DSPs (digital signal processors) and dedicated processors. Here's how systems developers are using this power in commercial products.

p.97 Mining Statistics

Statistical-pattern analysis provides the technical underpinnings to make many types of recognition systems more accurate.

Reviews

p.103 Agent-Enhanced Communicator

[theme COMMUNICATIONS] [author Peter Wayner]

Sony's Magic Link provides phone, modem, sendfax, E-mail pager, and infrared communications abilities.

p.105 Video for Free

[author Stanford Diehl and Greg Loveria]

High-performance desktop systems, graphics-chip innovations, and the new DCI (Display Control Interface) software layer will soon make digital video a standard feature for Windows graphics cards.

p.111 Make Bulletproof SQL Queries

[theme DATABASES] [author David S. Linthicum]

Software AG's Esperant, a front end for SQL database querying, uses an SQL "expert" to guard against syntactically flawed queries.

p.115 Simple, Scalable RAID

[theme DATA STORAGE] [author Steve Apiki]

Micropolis makes RAID both scalable and multiplatform with the Raidion LTX, a modular RAID system that works with any SCSI host.

p.119 Software Roundup: Networks for the Enterprise

[theme NETWORKS] [author Tadesse W. Giorgis]

Heterogeneous enterprise networks require a robust, reliable, and secure software environment. NSTL evaluates the major server-based network operating systems, including OS/2 Lan Server, Windows NT, and two flavors of NetWare.

p.129 File Transfer on Steroids

[theme FILE MANAGEMENT] [author Barry Nance]

LapLink for Windows includes some additional features beyond simple file transfers, including remote access, file synchronization, a chat facility, file-delta transfers, and security features.

p.131 On-Line Service on the Cheap

[author Bill Esposito]

Mustang Software's popular Wildcat BBS software gets increased capacity, customizable menus, V.34 modem support, and an optional utilities suite that includes a QuickBasic-like language.

p.136 Lab Report: True-Color Graphics Accelerators

[theme PCI AND MAC GRAPHICS ADAPTERS] [author Bill Esposito]

PCI cards are finally delivering on earlier promises. Our custom tests find the fastest PCI graphics accelerators under Windows, as well as some hot new Macintosh cards.

p.138 The Best Graphics Accelerators for General Business

p.138 Graphics Glossary;

p.140 Video Tests

p.142 The Best PCI Graphics Adapters for Drafting

p.144 How We Tested

p.145 The Best Graphics Accelerators for Macintosh NuBus Systems

p.146 Video Glossary

p.146 Honorable Mentions

Core Technologies

p.151 Transport-Triggered Architectures

[theme CPUS] [author Dick Pountain]

The ultimate expression of the RISC philosophy is the Transport-Triggered Architecture.

p.155 The Great Little File System

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Tom Yager]

Flexible and secure, Veritas sets the standard for Unix file systems.

p.159 Constraint Logic Programming

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Dick Pountain]

CLP's power to tackle difficult combinatorial problems may make it the most significant commercial programming paradigm over the next five years.

p.161 The PGP Web of Trust

[theme NETWORKS] [author William Stallings]

Managing public keys with the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) web of trust.

Opinions

p.165 Pournelle: Software-Installation Hell

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry finds installing software a pain.

p.37 Books and CD-ROMs: A Savvy Guide to Client/Server Computing

[author Jon Udell and Rick Grehan and Rex Baldazo]

Programming CD-ROMs, LANs, and the development of Windows NT

p.238 Commentary: Needed: A GUI Revolution

[author Ezra Shapiro]

GUIs have become fat - and not very intuitive.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.33 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

February letters cover platform debates and programming issues.

p.166 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.236 Editorial Index by Company

p.232 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.234 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 160A, 232A

p.191 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "feb95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°3 march 1995

News & Views

p.24 New PowerPC Standard Supports Macs

[theme POWERPC]

While still in its early stages, the new CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform) standard promises to let PowerPC systems freely use different operating systems.

p.26 You're Saving Money when the Meter's Running

[theme SOFTWARE LICENSING]

Software metering programs, which were originally designed to enforce concurrent licensing agreements and prevent liability for inappropriate use of software, are now being used to cut software costs.

p.30 Internet Publishing Tools Proliferate

[theme ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING]

The best World Wide Web publishing tool for you, whether it's a word processor add-on or a relational database/SGML hybrid publishing tool, depends in part on how often you'll need to update the information that you're publishing on the Internet.

p.30 Dialects of the Web

[theme ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING]

A future version of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) could ensure that simple and complex Web documents can be read by any Web user. In this vision, the Web will use an object-oriented model: the core classes - basic headings, paragraphs, and links - will be understood by all browsers, but richer "subclass" distinctions would be allowed for use by more sophisticated browsers.

p.34 Developers Catch the 3-D Wave

[theme 3-D GRAPHICS]

For the last five years, computer users who demanded sophisticated 3-D graphics turned to high-end workstations. Now the computer industry is preparing to bring this level of performance to low-end desktop systems.

p.186 What's New

[theme 3-D GRAPHICS]

The Doubleplay Series I doubles your PC storage; the JetEye ESI-9580A provides wireless printing; English Wizard translates English into SQL; Cruiser takes you down a virtual hallway; and more.

Cover Story

p.50 New Ways to Learn

[theme EDUCATION AND TRAINING] [author Andy Reinhardt]

As networking, multimedia, and better software converge, corporations and schools will be offering much-improved ways of learning.

p.54 Seven New Ways to Learn

p.62 Starting from Scratch

p.66 When Money Is Plentiful

Features

p.73 BYTE's New Benchmarks

[author Rick Grehan]

The benchmark picture just got a whole lot brighter: BYTE has released new cross-platform benchmarks, the BYTE Native Mode suite, for testing CPUs and FPUs. And NSTL has released its InterMark suite for testing hardware under Windows.

p.80 NSTL's New InterMark Suite

p.84 Solutions Focus: The Net That Manages the Mail

[author Randall D. Cronk]

A new, traffic-oriented network of multimedia, multiprocessor workstations with integrated telephony gives the U.S. Postal Service the ability to handle bad weather, deal with unforeseen operational contingencies, and manage the flow of mail based on real-time information.

State of the Art

p.94 Agents of Change

[theme SOFTWARE AGENTS]

Agents and smart software are still works in progress. Security and interoperability define the leading edge of development for these industries software tools.

p.97 Baby Steps

[author Kurt Indermaur]

They may not fulfill our dreams yet, but agents and smart software are beginning to help us find information and do our jobs more effectively.

p.105 Free Agents

[author Peter Wayner]

A new generation of light-weight, multithreaded operating environments provide security and interoperability for agent developers.

Reviews

p.115 Fastest NT Workstations

[author Steve Apiki and Rick Grehan]

Windows NT 3.5 opens up your options for choosing a high-end Windows system. BYTE reviews seven NT speed demons - comparing Alpha, Mips 4400, and Pentium workstations.

p.125 Workgroup Conferencing

[author Rex Baldazo and Stanford Diehl]

A look at two new groupware solutions for Windows: Collabra Share and Attachmate's OpenMind. Both products deliver an effective conferencing system to large and small workgroups. OpenMind also includes document management and OLE Automation features.

p.129 True Multimedia Road Warrior

[author Rex Baldazo]

IBM's latest ThinkPad with CD-ROM, motion-video support, and Mwave DSP brings multimedia to the road warrior. This new machine also moves laptops a step closer to desktops.

p.131 Big Blue's Speed Trip

[author Barry Nance]

Behind all the hype about OS/2 Warp, we found a stable, fast operating system that sports an updated GUI, improved hardware support, and a Bonus Pack loaded with useful OS/2 applications. But is it good enough to displace Windows?

p.135 Peer Power Upgrade

[author Stan Miastkowski]

If your LANtastic peer-to-peer network is running out of steam, Artisoft's CorStream adds a NetWare 4.01 server wrapped in a familiar interface.

p.137 Roundup: Network Storage Economizers

[author Barry Nance]

Previously available only on minicomputers and mainframes, HSM (hierarchical storage management) is an increasingly popular way to economize on network storage. We took a look at three HSM products for PC LANs.

p.144 Lab Report: 26 Safeguards Against LAN Data Loss

BYTE/NSTL selects the best single-medium tape drives for backing up midrange networks. We tested tape subsystems in a range of environments, including server-based, workstation-based, and Windows NT configurations.

p.146 4-mm DAT Drives

p.150 QIC Drives

p.152 8-mm Videocassette Drives

p.154 DLT Drives

p.158 Honorable Mentions

p.158 Dubious Achievement

Core Technologies

p.163 The Truth Behind the Pentium Bug

[theme CPUS] [author Tom R. Halfhill]

How often do the five empty cells in the Pentium's FPU lookup table spell miscalculation?

p.165 A Warped Perspective

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Jon Udell]

IBM says Warp is for end users. Wrong. It's an integrator's dream.

p.169 OLE Controls from the Ground Up

[author Steve Apiki]

OLE Controls are the technology of choice for lightweight software components under Windows. Building one is easy using the Control Development Kit, but starting from scratch provides an inside look at the underlying technology.

p.171 Network-Ready Computer

[author Peter Wayner]

Forget the CPU and clock speed; network I/O capacity may be the new measure of a desktop system's performance.

Opinions

p.175 Pournelle: Unexpected Adventures

[author Jerry Pournelle]

The simplest things can be an adventure

p.45 Books and CD-ROMs: A Model for Future AI Research

[author Jon Udell and Tom Thompson]

An AI model from Douglas Hofstadter, a Star Trek technical manual, and an unauthorized look at Windows 95.

p.250 Commentary: Bosnia On-Line

The Internet is becoming populated with enclaves of xenophobic, crabby egotists.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.41 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

p.124 20th Anniversary Poll

p.178 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.248 Editorial Index by Company

p.244 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.246 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 136A, 244A

p.197 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "mar95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°4 april 1995

News & Views

p.22 Mac Clones - finally

[theme SYSTEMS]

The first Apple-sanctioned Mac OS-compatible systems have finally arrived.

p.23 Low-End Servers Grow Up

[theme SERVER TRENDS]

Features associated with high-end PC LAN servers are migrating to the low end.

p.24 Faster Graphics Cards on the Horizon

Better graphic performance thanks to new kinds of graphics memory.

p.26 Microsoft Furthers NetWare-to-NT Transition

[theme NETWORKS]

Microsoft's File and Print Service for NetWare eases the transition to Windows NT Server.

p.26 Free Rides Are Disappearing

[theme INTERNET]

Features of the Internet that users currently use for free may cost them in the future.

p.28 The Net's Next Big Thing: Virtual Reality

[theme INTERNET]

VRML (Virtual Reaity Markup Language) could make navigating on-line a snap.

p.30 PerfectOffice a Strong Contender

[theme WINDOWS APPLICATIONS SUITES]

WorkPerfect's new applications suite is powerful.

p.32 Legal Land Mines Cloud Multimedia

[theme CONTENT LICENSING]

Legal problems lurk behind multimedia development.

p.232 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

The PowerLite 85 notebook offers Micro Sparc II performance, Linux includes Unix source code; DragStrip organizes your Mac programs; and more.

Cover Story

p.42 Intel's P6

A worthy successor to the Pentium, the P6 furthers blurs the already fuzzy boundaries between CISC and RISC.

p.52 The Shape of Systems to Come

p.56 Smarter, More Powerful Systems

Special Report: Client/Server Computing

p.108 Intergalactic Client/Server Computing

[author Robert Orfall and Dan Harkey and Jeri Edwards]

A look at four dominant client/server paradigms.

p.123 Scale Up with TP Monitors

[author Jim Gray and Jeri Edwards]

How TP monitors enable client/server applications to scale up.

p.131 Document Repositories

[author Jonathan Mackenzie]

With Notes, users can build client/server document repositories.

p.139 Dimensions of Data

[author Edmund X. Dejesus]

Tools that bring multidimensional analysis to the client/server world.

p.151 Client/Server with Distributed Objects

[author Robert Orfali and Dan Harkey]

CORBA 2.0 mechanisms and services pave the way for client/server computing with distributed objects.

Features

p.60 Solutions Focus: On-Road, On-Time, and On-Line

[theme GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS] [author Christine White]

Satellites and computer-based communications helps a trucking firm cut costs.

p.67 How to Implement ISDN

[theme COMMUNICATIONS] [author Lenny Tropiano and Dinah McNutt]

Knowing the fundamentals of ISDN costs and service options can help you save money and avoid frustration.

p.75 Control Software Costs

[theme SOFTWARE METERING] [author Salvatore Salamone]

An efficient software-monitoring strategy can save organisations thousands of dollars in unnecessary licensing fees.

p.83 Build Your Own WWW Server

[theme WORLD WIDE WEB] [author Bob Friesenhahn]

Setting up a WWW server offers real benefits for many organizations, and it's probably easier to accomplish than you think. Here's a look at what's involved.

State of the Art

p.89 Barricading the Net

[theme NETWORK SECURITY] [author Russell Kay]

Finding a safe path through the potential minefields of the Internet calls for planning.

p.91 Build a Firewall

[author John Bryan]

Protect your networks from unwanted intruders - build a firewall.

p.99 Firewalls for Sale

[author John Bryan]

Here's a look at five different firewall products and services that you can install today.

Reviews

p.165 One Box, Two Computers

[theme SYSTEMS] [author Tom Thompson]

If you want to run both PC and Mac applications, Apple's DOS-Compatible Power Macintosh offers the best of both worlds.

p.167 Visual C++ Goes Multiplatform

[theme APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT] [author Steve Apiki]

With versions on Intel, Mips, and Alpha; a slick, well-designed integrated environment; class-library enhancements; and a Macintosh cross-development package, Visual C++ is an impressive package. But be prepared to jump into 32-bit development with both feet.

p.171 Intrusion Protection for Networks

[theme NETWORK SECURITY] [author J. Bruce Dawson]

The Internet is a two-way street that can let unauthorized users into your network. CheckPont's FireWall-1 software monitors your gateways for such security breaches.

p.175 Business Objects Done Right

[theme VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS] [author Kevin Sven Berg]

Using object-oriented tools to capture business processes and data is a hot trend in client/server computing. Next's Enterprise Objects Framework is among the best at exploiting this potent application of the object paradigm.

p.179 Radical Xbase Objects

[theme OBJECT-ORIENTED MIDDLEWARE] [author Rick Grehan]

CA-Visual Objects, Computer Associate's classy new entry into the Windows application-development field, is also a migration path for DOS-based Clipper developers.

p.181 Server with a Slot

[theme PRINT SERVERS] [author Ben Smith]

Microplex's M204 multiprotocol print server is winning the features-for-the-price war among stand-alone print servers, and it has little to do with the unit's PCMCIA network adapter design.

p.185 Sofware Roundup: Project Management for Windows

[author Scott Higgs]

While supporting time-honored models, such as Gantt and PERT charts, the current generation of projects managers also use newer E-mail and workgroup concepts to involve groups of people in project tracking.

p.194 Lab Report: 30 No-Compromise Notebooks

[theme HIGH-END NOTEBOOKS]

We run 30 active-matrix, 3.3 volt 486DX4 and Pentium notebooks through extensive benchmarks and choose the best Windows and DOS portables for power users. We also report on Apple's PowerBook 540c and compare the performance of AST's 66-MHz Ascentia 810N to the 75 MHz 486DX4 notebooks.

p.196 Best 386DX4-based Notebooks

p.200 How We Tested

p.202 Best Pentium-based Notebooks

p.204 Honorable Mentions

p.204 Dubious Achievements

Core Technologies

p.211 New PowerPCs for Notebooks and PDAs

[theme CPUS] [author Tom Thompson]

The 602, 603, and 603e PowerPC processors zero in on both camps in the low-power market: the low-cost, single-user segment and the long-battery-life, high-performance group.

p.213 HP-UX 10.0

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author John Sontag]

Hewlett--Packard's new HP-UX 10.0 will be faster, more reliable, and easier to use.

p.215 The Software Stopwatch

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Rick Grehan]

Optimize time-consuming routines with high-resolution software timers.

p.217 Create More IP Addresses

[theme NETWORKS] [author Tim Winston]

Network managers facing IP address change have many options.

Opinions

p.211 Pournelle: Orchids and Onions: Part 1

[author Jerry Pournelle]

What Jerry liked and didn't like in 1994

Books and CD-ROMs: Is There a God?

[author Rich Cook and Rich Friedman and Brenda Daunt and Matt Trask]

An original work of theology, a CD-ROM to help you redesign your yard, and graphics file formats.

p.286 Compatibility Testing

[author Sal Salamone]

Will computers replace singles bars?

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.33 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

Information overload and Apple's Newton MessagePad.

p.170 20th Anniversary Poll

p.82 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.284 Editorial Index by Company

p.280 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.282 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 122A, 280A

p.239 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "apr95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°5 may 1995

News & Views

p.22 Desktop Databases Pack More Power

[theme PC DATABASES]

PC database vendors are touting their products' ability to scale from the desktop to the enterprise. But vendors' definitions of scalability vary widely.

p.23 Pentium Dream Systems Arrive

[theme 120-MHZ PENTIUM PCS]

An early look at two of the first 120-MHz Pentium machines reveals more than just a fast processor inside the box.

p.26 VR Can Improve Your Health

[theme VIRTUAL REALITY]

Virtual reality is fundamentally altering and improving the way medical care is taught and delivered.

p.30 RISC Invades the School and Home

[theme POWER MAC]

Apple's Power Mac 5200 beefs up the LC line for the school and home with a new PowerPC processor.

p.30 Compaq Reduces Cost of Ownership

[theme DESKTOP PCS]

Compaq Computer is making it easier for LAN management software vendors with its new line of Deskpro PCs.

p.34 Byte Picks CeBIT's Best

[theme INTERNATIONAL NEW PRODUCTS]

BYTE editors scoured the CeBIT show for the best in new international products.

p.36 Companies Cut Phone Bills

[theme INTERNET]

Companies are starting to use the Internet as a pseudoprivate backbone to carry fax and voice traffic.

p.40 OCR Fuels Slow Paper Burn

[theme IMAGE ACQUISITION TRENDS]

OCR is getting easier, and who knows, maybe the elusive paperless office will one day become reality. Naaaaah.

p.202 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

The PageCard Wireless Messaging System keeps you up-to-date anywhere; PaperPort 2.0 for Windows converts documents into editable text; and more.

Cover Story

p.48 Your Next Mainframe

[theme MAINFRAMES OF THE FUTURE] [author Andy Reinhardt]

PCs are becoming as powerful as mainframes, and mainframes are being made from PC parts. But the mainframe of the future won't be a gigantic PC; it will be software and a network.

Features

p.62 Solutions Focus: The British Library's Catalog Is On-Line

[theme TEXT RETRIEVAL] [author Dick Pountain]

The British Library computerizes its paper catalogs.

p.75 1995 Readers' Choice Awards

[theme PRODUCTS]

BYTE readers anoint the best hardware and software on the market today.

p.85 See You Around

[author Tom R. Halfhill]

A look at how the panoramic-video technology used by Apple's QuickTime VR and Microsoft's Surround Video can open up a wraparound, photo-quality, virtual-reality world right on your computer screen.

State of the Art

p.95 Beyond Hollywood

[theme DIGITAL VIDEO] [author Alan Joch]

It's getting easier to bring digital video to your desktop.

p.97 BYTE's Video Workshop

[author Stanford Diehl]

BYTE sets up a digital video studio to test the viability of corporate video production on the PC desktop. Using Windows tools for digital and analog video production, we address the major issues of developing and deploying video content.

p.107 Compression Scorecard

[author John Bryan]

Compression's more efficient than ever if you pick the right code. Our scorecards compare compression quality and speed of seven leading choices.

p.113 Video Connections

[author Jeffrey Fritz]

Isochronous Ethernet and ATM race to bring video to your desktop.

Reviews

p.119 Incredible Expanding Keyboard

[theme SUBNOTEBOOKS] [author Alan Joch]

IBM's revolutionary ThinkPad 701C fits a full-size keyboard and a 10.4-inch LCD screen into a subnotebook. You must see it to believe it.

p.121 The Benefits of Recentralization

[theme NETWORK MANAGEMENT] [author Ethan Wilansky]

There's a move to consolidate network management tools. Microsoft fields a powerful entry in Systems Management Server, which rounds up and controls network resources multiple vendors.

p.125 Small-Scale Telephony

[theme COMPUTER TELEPHONY] [author Tom Yager]

Multifunction telephony cards can cost-effectively make your small business sound big. We test six.

p.131 Apple's Improved MessagePad

[theme PDAS] [author Tom Thompson]

With bug fixes, more memory, and third-party support, Apple's new MessagePad 120 strengthens its position in the PDA marathon.

p.133 Good news of Delphi

[theme APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT] [author Raymond Ga Côté]

With its quick object-oriented Pascal compiler, extensible development environment, and integrated database access, Borland's Delphi is a powerful base for prototyping and developing applications.

p.137 Mathematica Meets Warp

[theme QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS] [author Doug Tamasanis]

It's no surprise that the new OS/2 version of Mathematica runs faster than the Windows version on IBM's 32-bit OS.

p.143 Software Roundup: Document Image Managers

[theme DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT] [author David Seachrist]

NSTL surveyed eight document image managers for converting paper documents into electronic form and found promising programs with much room for improvement.

p.154 Lab Report: 29 Printers That Mean Business

[theme PRINTERS]

Acquire speed and pizzazz with printer from this month's Lab Report. We test color ink-jets, 6-to 10ppm laser printers, 11-to 30-ppm lasers for networks, and a few select color lasers.

p.156 11- to 30-PPM Laser Printers

p.158 Honorable Mentions

p.160 6- to 10-PPM Laser Printers

p.162 Color Ink-Jet Printers

p.164 Color Laser Printers.

Core Technologies

p.173 ColdFire: A Hot Architecture

[theme CPUS] [author Joe Circello]

A new architecture for 68000 processing means low cost and high power for embedded applications.

p.175 NetWare 4.1 Forges Ahead

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Barry Nance]

Can NetWare 4.1 stand up to strong competition from NT Server 3.5 and LAN Server 4.0?

p.177 Adding Apple Events to Your Mac Applications: Part 1

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Tom Thompson]

How to make your application a good neighbor to other applications - and thus of value to your customer.

p.181 Virtual LANs Get Real

[author Salvatore Salamone]

Virtual LANs meet rapidly changing business environment needs.

Opinions

p.187 Pournelle: Prizes and Surprises

[author Jerry Pournelle]

A visit to Microsoft finds Jerry coming away favorably impressed.

p.43 Books and CD-ROMs: Risky Business and Private E-Mail

[author Russell Kay and Rich Friedman and Tom Thompson]

An on-line forum in book form, secure communications, a CD-ROM to help you travel in Europe cheaply, and a major work on Mac programming.

p.260 Commentary: So Where's the IT Payoff?

[author Jessica Keyes]

Flawed technology and advice can seriously affect the bottom line.

p.12 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.41 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.17 Letters

This month's letters discuss computers in education, Internet attitudes, and SGML, as well as clarify results in our Lab Report on tape drives.

p.194 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.258 Editorial Index by Company

p.254 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.256 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 112A, 256A

p.211 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "may95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°6 june 1995

News & Views

p.24 Chip Wars Drive Down PC Prices

[theme PC MICROPROCESSORS]

Four companies are scrambling to put the fastest and lest expensive x86 chip in you PC.

p.25 PowerPC Tidal Wave

[theme POWERPC]

Apple and IBM will make major PowerPC-related announcements this spring and summer.

p.28 Color Encroaches on the Desktop

[theme COLOR PRINTING]

Over the next several years, technological advances will accelerate the use of color printers.

p.28 Service Providers Consolidate

[theme INTERNET ACCESS]

The day of numerous, tiny Internet service providers may be over.

p.30 Vendors Ride Bus to Better Telephony

[theme PC CONNECTIVITY]

A new Universal Serial Bus that supports a maximum 12 Mbps could become standard PC connector.

p.30 Pentium OverDrive = Moderate Upgrade

[theme PC PROCESSORS]

Intel's Pentium OverDrive processor puts a rocket in your socket, but the upgrade has a 32-bit 486-style I/O bus - not the 64-bit bus of a Pentium.

p.34 Getting Clear About Fuzzy

[theme PROGRAMMING]

What do pension plans, elevators, and battery charges have in common? Each is an application of fuzzy logic.

p.36 Windows 95 Sees Better Future

[theme WINDOWS]

Microsoft says it will work to improve Window's support for blind users.

p.258 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

A 100-MHz Pentium notebook; wireless infrared printers from Hewlett--Packard; the latest version of Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit; and more.

Special Report on Mobile Computing

p.100 From Here to Mobility

[author Andy Reinhardt]

What you need to know to hit the road.

p.107 Radio Days

[author Salvatore Salamon]

Wireless links are expanding - despite obstacles

p.115 Color to Go

[author Chris Chinnock]

New display technologies are coming, but LCD is still king.

p.131 Brainy, Brawny Batteries

[author Gil Bassak]

Battery technology for mobile computing is at a crossroads.

p.145 You Can Take It with You

[author Jon Udell]

What does Windows 95 offer users on the go?

p.147 PDAs Bounce Back

[author Michael Nadeau]

PDAs finally evolve into useful business tools for mobile workers.

p.159 Tales from the Trip

[author Raphael Needleman]

Tip from a savvy world traveler on getting on-line from anywhere.

p.167 Red-hot 100 MHz portable Pentium

[author Rex Baldazo]

The Tadpole P1000 - screaming performance

p.169 RISC for the Road

[author Doug Tamasanis]

The SparcBook 3XP - A workstation to go.

p.171 Portable Multimedia

[author Rex Baldazo]

Satellite Pro - power at the right price.

p.173 Pentium Power Without Sticker Shock

[author Dave Andrews]

The Eurocom - lots of features but short battery life.

p.175 Not Flashier, but Faster

[author Dave Andrews]

The Globalist 250P - good for heavy-duty number crunching.

Features

p.50 Solutions Focus: Not Lost in Space

[theme THE VIRTUAL OFFICE] [author Michael Nadeau]

Xerox's entire sales force will soon be working from virtual offices.

p.59 Apple's New Operating System

[theme OPERATING SYSTEM] [author Tom Thompson]

Apple completely redesigned its Mac OS to provide a growth path to the future while continuing to support the existing software base.

p.71 Cash on the Wirehead

[theme INTERNET PAYMENT SYSTEMS] [author Andrew Singleton]

Six new pavement systems aim to move your money across the Internet.

p.83 Windows for Control Freaks

[theme APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT] [author Peter D. Varhol]

QNX's Photon kernel gives developers welcome control over windowing programming.

p.91 Break Up Your Network

[theme NETWORKS] [author Brett Husselbaugh]

Dividing your network into two or more parts can boost performance.

State of the Art

p.185 Improve Your Memory

[theme MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES] [author Russell Kay]

Sorting out the dazzling variety of new memory technologies.

p.187 Fast, Smart RAM

[author Peter Wayner]

New chips and new technologies compete for adoption.

p.188 Flash Memory Looks Bright

p.191 Is Cache Losing Its Cachet?

p.192 One Machine, Many RAMs

p.197 More Memory in Less Space

[author Rick Cook]

Packing silicon wafers tightly creates compact new memory devices.

Reviews

p.201 Local Air Networks

[theme NETWORKING] [author Rex Baldazo]

With roaming-enabled access points, good range, and high throughout, WaveLAN-base wireless LANs are the ones to beat in North America.

p.207 Oracle Hits the Road

[theme MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS] [author Peter Wayner]

Oracle In Motion's agents take over network housekeeping chores, virtually eliminating the wireless performance penalty.

p.209 Hands-Off Backup

[theme DATA STORAGE] [author Bill Lawrence]

Bundled with Palindrome's automated backup software for NetWare, HP's SureStore Tape 12000e DAT Autoloader can provide weeks of unattended network backup.

p.211 Better Business Processes

[author David Essex]

Scitor links an optimized spreadsheet to flowchart objects, and - presto! - an instant simulator that most anyone can use.

p.215 Wanted: A Good OS/2 Spreadsheet

[theme SPREADSHEETS] [author Daniel Gasteiger]

In the OS/2 spreadsheet duel, upstart Mesa 2 has the advanced GUI features that 1-2-3 should have.

p.217 Software Roundup: Simple SQL

[author Charles Vogt]

SQL front-end tools empower nontechnical managers to make informed, time-critical decisions by giving them direct access to client/server databases.

p.224 Lab Report: 32 V.34 Modems Answer the Call

V.34 represents the best and fastest modem technology available today. NSTL evaluates 32 state-of-the-market modems for throughout, reliability, robustness, and compatibility.

p.226 External V.34 Modems

p.228 How We Tested

p.230 Pick a PC Card

p.232 Honorable Mentions.

Core Technologies

p.239 Designing Alpha-based Systems

[theme CPUS] [author Bruce Faust]

Digital's three CPUs bring powerful possibilities to desktop and workstation systems design.

p.241 Windows 95 Graphics Architecture

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Standford Diehl]

Windows 95 will eventually unify a series of graphics APIs - for video, games, and 3-D - using a new set of device-driver interfaces.

p.243 Adding Apple Events to Your Mac Application

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Tom Thompson]

Part 2: This month, we write the event handlers and the dispatch table.

p.245 Simplifying Remote Management

[theme NETWORKS] [author Salvatore Salamone]

Remote monitoring lets managers find out what's going on at distant locations.

Opinions

p.249 Pournelle: Privacy and Liberty

[author Jerry Pournelle]

AAAS's annual meeting and Washington, DC, highlight Jerry's month.

p.45 Books and CD-ROMs: Word Overload, Information Shortage

[author Andy Reinhardt and Rich Friedman and Edmund X. Dejesus]

Four books about the Internet, CD-ROMs for learning applications and computer languages, and Nicholas Negroponte's experiences, insights, and predictions.

p.306 Commentary: ATM = After the Millennium

[author Ted Prince]

Don't blindly jump on the bandwagon.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.41 Blasts from the past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

Letter on Intel's P6, Microsoft's Bob, and personal quandaries.

p.196 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.304 Editorial Index by Company

p.300 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.302 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 170A, 300A

p.267 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "jun95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°7 july 1995

News & Views

p.24 RADical Databses

[theme DATABASES]

Windows desktop databases, such as Microsoft's FoxPro, must compete with Rapid Application Development tools.

p.25 Notebook Hard Drives Hold More

[theme STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES]

Gigabyte drives for notebooks will be standard this fall

p.26 Apple's Tsunami: PCI Power

[theme PCI POWER MACS]

BYTE takes a close look at the first PCI-based Mac

p.26 Notes Meets the Internet

[theme GROUPWARE]

New products and services that link Lotus Notes to the Internet are expanding the uses of Lotus's groupware platform.

p.30 Oracle Releases 64-Bit Database Bullet

[theme ENTERPRISE COMPUTING]

High-end network servers offer an alternative to mainframe systems when combined with new 64-bit relational database management software from Oracle.

p.40 6X Yields Better Software MPEG and Networking

[theme CD-ROM DRIVES]

Move over quad speed, a new CD-ROM performance king has arrived.

p.192 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

AST Research's Ascentia 950N notebook offers full-motion video and graphics. Xerox improves the OCR accuracy in TextBridge Professional Edition 3.0; ViewSonic's 15GA and 17GA monitors include built-in speakers; and more.

Cover Story: Internet and Beyond

p.69 The Greatest Show on Earth

[theme THE INTERNET] [author Nicholas Baran]

Ten tips for using the Internet as a strategic business tool.

p.87 Hello, World

[author Jon Udell]

Jon Udell, executive editor for new media, launches a monthly column, The BYTE Network Project, to help you mine the opportunities of business-to-business networking.

Features

p.51 How Best to Migrate to Windows 95

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author David S. Linthicum]

Slowly, very slowly.

p.52 Windows 95 Migration Planning Kit

p.57 Optimize Database Queries

[theme DATABASES] [author John Cuadrado]

Optimizing complex queries on distributed databases.

p.64NA4 Solution Focus: Pruning Branch-Office Problems

[theme NETWORKS] [author Salvatore Salamone]

The payoff is big if you replace an SNA backbone with access-routed networks.

State of the Art

p.101 3-D Graphic Technology

[theme GRAPHICS] [author Edmund X. Dejesus]

3-D graphics is becoming essential in applications from financial analysis to entertainment, and new standards support the trend.

p.103 Desktop Hollywood F/X

[author Grant S. Boucher]

Hollywood-style computer-generated 3-D special effects are no further than your desktop computer.

p.111 Assets in Wonderland

[author David Baum]

Financial traders can operate almost anywhere with new data-analysis software and virtual-reality interfaces.

p.123 3-D Steps Forward

[author John Foust]

New 3-D standards will enhance the applications - and even the OS - you'll be using.

Reviews

p.133 Weeding Windows

[theme WINDOWS UTILITIES] [author Stan Miastkowski]

Six new uninstaller utilities take the pain and suffering out of removing Windows applications.

p.139 Short-Order Internet Access

[theme THE INTERNET] [author Ben Smith]

Sun's Netra and Performance Technology's Instant Internet can both get your LAN onto the Internet fast.

p.142 Software Roundup: Windows to the Internet

[theme THE INTERNET] [author Scott Higgs]

Five all-in-one packages make it easy to get on the Internet, but not without some bumps along the way.

p.149 The Power of X for Windows NT

[theme NETWORKING] [author Steven Baker]

Hummingbird's eXceed delivers native X Window System to Windows NT.

p.153 Color and a Pentium to Go

[theme PORTABLE PENTIUMS] [author Rex Baldazo]

Toshiba's lightweight, low-voltage Pentium powerhouse makes a great traveling companion.

p.155 A Whole Other Galaxy

[theme APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT] [author Barry Nance]

The Visix Galaxy cross-platform environment lets you quickly develop object-oriented applications without the shortcomings of high-level abstraction.

p.159 A Less Wobbly Wabi

[theme WINDOWS ON UNIX] [author Doug Tamasanis]

Wabi 2.0 makes Unix more Windows-friendly.

p.162 Lab Report: 29 Switching Hubs Save the Bandwidth

[theme ETHERNET SWITCHING HUBS]

Looking for more bandwidth? Our BYTE/NSTL Lab report describes how we tested 29 Ethernet switching hubs. We provide the data and the analysis - you make the choice.

p.164 Store-and-Forwards

p.166 Cut-Throughs

p.168 How We Tested

p.170 Hub Glossary

p.171 Honorable Mentions

p.171 Dubious Achievements

Core Technologies

p.175 HP's Speedy RISC

[theme CPUS] [author Dick Pountain]

HP's PA-8000 employs multiple function units and a radical out-of-oder execution strategy aimed at creating the fastest RISC yet.

p.177 Copland: The Abstract Mac OS

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Tom Thompson]

The next generation of Macintosh OS has been delayed until early 1996 so that Apple can implement a Hardware Abstraction Layer - which should help support a Mac clone market.

p.179 Casting Arrays

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Rick Grehan]

Sometimes a wrong answer to a programming problem leads you to the right answer.

p.181 ISDN and Analog Access in One Package

[author Salvatore Salamone]

For users who need both an ISDN link and a traditional analog phone line, the new hybrid ISDN/analog modems may be the perfect solution.

Opinions

p.183 Pournelle: Windows 95 Arrives

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Windows 95 comes to Chaos Manor, and Jerry gets yet another lesson in networking.

p.45 Books and CD-ROMs: Impossible-to-Use Software

[author Edmund X. Dejusus and Rich Friedman and Doug Tamasanis]

What's wrong with computers, a CD-ROM for real golf fans, and - believe it or not - a Unix book that's fun to read.

p.242 Commentary: Radio Free Usenet

[author Arun Mehta]

Broadcasting Usenet can help avoid the problems of cost and censorship.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.41 Blasts from the Past

Highlights from two decades of covering the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

p.184 Reader Survey

READER SERVICE

p.240 Editorial Index by Company

p.236 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.238 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 148A, 236A

p.201 BUYER'S GUIDE

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

PROGRAM LISTINGS

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "jul95").

From the UUNET:ftp to ftp.uu.net, log on as "anonymous," and enter your user ID as your password. Type "cd/published/byte" and type "DIR." Files appear in subdirectories arranged by month.

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°8 august 1995

News & Views

p.24 Videoconferencing's Achilles' Heels

[theme DESKTOP VIDEOCONFERENCING]

Videoconferencing won't be used widely in business until two things change: interoperability improves and ISDN becomes more available

p.25 Hot Chips, Tough Choices

[theme MULTIMEDIA PROCESSORS]

A new wave of multimedia processors will rely heavily on software support

p.26 Apple's New Multimedia Macs

[theme POWER MACS]

At Boston MacWorld Expo this August, Apple is expected to introduce a new line of Power Macs

p.26 3.5 Will Get You 100

[theme STORAGE]

Two technologies are vying to become the next 3.5-inch floppy drive standard for holding 100 MB or more

p.30 BBSes to Provide Local Web Access

[theme INTERNET ACCESS]

BBS software vendors are bringing Web capabilities to their products.

p.30 WinSock 2 Enhances Connectivity

[theme NETWORKS]

The new WinSock promises to liberate network applications from dependency on a single transport protocol.

p.34 Blue Laser, Bright Future

Recent breakthroughs in blue laser diodes and blue LEDs portend higher-capacity CD-ROM discs and brighter projection displays.

p.40 Color Lasers: Faster, Easier, Cheaper

A second generation of color laser printers is due soon.

p.168 What's New

Gateway 2000's 133-MHz Pentium PC is a tower of multimedia power; PhoneKits turns your PC into a personal phone manager; plus more.

Cover Story

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

p.48 Inside the Mind of Microsoft

[author Tom R. Halfhill]

Microsoft's OS strategy involves your desktop - and beyond.

p.54 The Elegant Kludge

[author Randall C. Kennedy]

Windows 95 has tons of new features - as well as architectural anachronisms from Windows 3.1.

Features

p.63 Machine Learning Grows Up

[theme PATTERN RECOGNITION] [author Peter Wayner]

What's the difference between Elwood and Jake? The right algorithm can tell you.

p.69 The End of Programming

[author David S. Linthicum]

It's over. Finis. Kaput. You'll never have to write another line of code ever again. Yeah. Right.

p.74 Solutions Focus: Big OOP, No Oops

[author Edmund X. Dejesus]

Moving to object-oriented development can be like diving into shark-infested waters. GTE took the plunge. Here's what happened.

p.103 Live wire

[theme THE BYTE NETWORK PROJECT] [author Jon Udell]

BYTE's new 56-Kbps link to the Internet sparks concern over public versus private IP addressing.

State of the Art

p.83 Herd Instincts

[author Alan Joch]

Groupware's technical problems are huge, but they're being solved.

p.84 Competing Platforms

[author David Marshak]

How do Notes, Exchange, and GroupWise compare today? How will they compare tomorrow?

p.88A Replication's Fast Track

[author David Yavin]

Large-scale data replication becomes less daunting with the right scheduling and systems management.

p.88B Light at the End of the Tunnel, or an Oncoming Train?

p.88D Strained Relations.

p.90 How Exchange Handles Replication

p.93 Under Construction

[author Kelly Trammell]

Have pity on groupware developers. They've got some serious problems to deal with.

p.98 Doin' the LN:DI

p.100 Telephony's Wake-Up Call

Reviews

p.111 Send in the Clones

[theme SYSTEMS] [author Tom Thomson]

Power Mac clones! We take a look at one of the first, from Power Computing, to see how it stacks up against Apple's.

p.113 Five-in-One Peripherals

[theme MULTIFUNCTION HARDWARE] [author G. Armour Van Horn]

They fax. They scan. They copy. And they cost less than a grand. These do-it-all devices from Brother, Canon, HP, and Lexmark save space and money.

p.117 Foxy Move to Client/Server

[theme DATABASES] [author DAVID S. LINTHICUM]

FoxPro developers looking to upsize to client/server will find Microsoft's Visual FoxPro 3.0 a worthy vehicle.

p.121 The Matrox Triple Threat

[author GRAPHICS ACCELERATORS]

[author GREG LOVERIA]

Matrox's new Millennium combines a GUI, 3-D graphics, and video-play-back acceleration on one card fur only $379.

p.123 Unix with No Excuses

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author MARC PAWLIGER]

IBM's AIX 4.1 embraces historical strengths, emerging standards, and technical innovations. They can't say AIX stands for "Ain't Unix" anymore.

p.128NA2 Software Roundup: Work-Free Workgroup Schedulers

[theme SCHEDULING SOFTWARE] [author DAVID SEACHRIST]

Pikking the right scheduling program is almost as rough as scheduling a meeting.

p.129 Portable-Data Stars

[theme DATA STORAGE] [author STAN MIASTKOWSKI]

New removable-media drives from Iomega and SyQuest forge a new niche in data storage.

p.130 SyQuest Takes On Zip

p.132 Sony's Mini-MO

p.134 Lab Report: Five Internet Servers Go Head-to-Head

[theme INTERNET HARDWARE]

On-line business is Big Business. We stress-test four RISC-based systems and a Gateway P5-120XL, all configured as in-house Internet file servers.

p.136 Best for the Net

p.138 How the WWW Is Put Together

p.141 A Recommended WWW Server Configuration

p.143 Support a Sate Internet Secure Your Site

p.143 Honorable Mentions

p.143 Dubious Achievements

[author Core Technologies]

p.149 Building the Better Virtual CPU

[theme CPUS] [author Tom Thompson]

How Apple revved up its 680x0 emulator

p.151 Novell Builds a NEST

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS] [author Salvatore Salamone]

Novell's vision of pervasive computing requires NetWare to move beyond traditional networked computers. Embedded Systems Technology brings NetWare to the broader market for controllers and embedded devices.

p.153 PostScript Sins

[theme PROGRAMMING] [author Kevin Thompson]

Errors in PostScript files are becoming painfully plentiful. Here are some of the most common ones.

p.155 Merging ATM and Ethernet

[author Salvatore Salamone]

Combining ATM switches with Ethernet switching hubs economically increases network bandwidth.

Opinions

p.159 Pournelle: Windows 95 Pastiche

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry continues to pry the seams of Windows 95.

p.45 Books and CD-ROMs: Big Blue: An Insider's View

[author Rowland Aertker]

An insider's look at IBM's history, and information technology reports on CD-ROM.

p.218 Commentary: Stop, Look, and Listen!

[author Nick Baran]

Just because you can put it on-line doesn't mean people want it.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.41 Blasts from the Past

[author Dennis Barker]

Highlights from two decades of the PC revolution.

p.18 Letters

Huzzahs for heuristics, plus comments on mobile computing.

► Lire la revue / Get this issue (archive.org)

Vol.20 n°9 september 1995

Special issue

p.53 Message from the Editor

p.54 Top 20 Small Systems

p.64 Top 20 Software Products

p.74 Most Important Chips

p.79 Most Important Networking Products

p.85 The Best Things On-line

p.99 Most Important Compagnies

p.109 Top 20 technologies

p.125 Notorious Bugs

p.133 The 20 Most Important People

p.145 20 Spectacular Failures

p.151 Noted and Notorious Hacker Feats

Features

p.37 Assets on the Line Salvatore/Salamone

[author Salvatore Salamone]

p.41 You Can Take It with You

[author Jeffrey Fritz]

p.199 Collision!

[author Russell Kay]

Tying together telephones and computers is a great concept. New technologies, products, and standards are finally taking computer telephony beyond the concept stage and into your office.

p.201 Standard Issue

[author James Burton]

When there was just one phone company, standards and interoperability weren't even questions. Now we've got multiple answers.

p.203 Strategic Industry Alliances

p.206 A Checklist for Making CTI Decisions

p.211 Building Telephony Applications

[author James Burton]

As more organizations use computer telephony, those that don't may be at a competitive disadvantage. Here's a guide to development tools you'll need to construct computer telephony systems.

p.215 Telephony's Killer App

[author John P. Mello, Jr.]

It's going to take unique software to make telephony a gotta-have-it resource. Here are some of the contenders that might be natural-born killers, including PhoneNotes, FastCall, and VoiceView.

p.216 Wildfire: One Wild and Not-So-Crazy Helper

The Byte Network Project

p.223 Web Search

[author Jon Udell]

Why wait for the Web equivalent of the Dewey decimal system? You can index your Web collection now. Here are a couple of ways to do it. Plus tips on naming, hot links, and the answer to the question, "What About WAIS?"

News & Reviews

p.24 P6 Weakness Revealed

People who buy the first computers based on Intel's P6 processor will be in for a surprise when they run 16-bit DOS and Windows applications. According to benchmarks, a Pentium runs 16-bit DOS/Windows programs faster than a P6 at the same clock speed, even though the next-generation P6 is supposed to be a "faster" CPU.

p.25 PC Power Comes to the Calculator

Texas Instruments plans to release a new calculator that's a whole lot smarter than its predecessors.

p.26 Delphi and VB Turn 32

New versions of Borland's Delphi and Microsoft's Visual Basic have stronger client/server and OLE development capabilities for 32-bit programs.

p.30 New 486 Chips Deliver Inexpensive Power

[theme PROCESSOR TRENDS]

The 486 might be reaching the end of its life, but it isn't dead yet. AMD has developed two new chips that shatter 486 speed barriers and offer Pentium-level performance at low-end prices. Meanwhile, Cyrix has developed an unusual new CPU that's a cross between a 486 and a 586-class chip.

p.32 Interactive Music Videos Arrive for Macs and PCs

[theme MULTIMEDIA]

New interactive CDs, such as Todd Rundgren's "multimedia album" The Individualist, will bring the humble audio CD into the era of interactive content delivery using desktop multimedia systems.

p.286 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

Dell's new Latitude XPi P90T notebook combines low-voltage Pentium power with impressive battery life. Plus, Micro Energetics' Nightmare provides power management for printers; Horizons Technology's LANrecord meters software for NetWare LANs; and more.

Reviews

p.229 Gateways to the Internet

[author George Bond] [theme ON-LINE SERVICES]

A veteran Internet roamer finds that the Big Three on-line services offer adequate but pricey gateways to the Net.

p.229 Convenience, but at What Price?

p.231 MSN: Desktop Internet

p.233 Presentation quality

[author Edmund X. DeJesus] [theme NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS]

IBM's slick new screen technology turns the ThinkPad 755CV into a remote-control color presentation panel.

p.235 Networking at Warp Speed

[author Barry Nance] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

If OS/2's technical advantages don't wow you, maybe Warp Connect's networking goodies will. This 32-bit OS bundle includes peer services, LAN requesters, a slick approach to over-the-wire installation, and a passel of handy programs.

p.239 To print a rainbow

[author Tom Thompson] [theme COLOR PRINTERS]

Second-generation color lasers from Apple and Tektronix set new standards for print quality, network connectivity, and ease of maintenance.

p.243 3-D Graphics Go Zoom

[author Greg Loveria] [theme GRAPHICS ACCELERATORS]

Intergraph and Omnicomp offer two different routes to the land of glorious photo-realistic images - a workstation and a plug-in PC card.

p.248 Lab Report: 16 Fast, Reliable RAID Subsystems

[theme DISK ARRAYS]

We test a wide array of disk subsystems that minimize network downtime and maximize storage space, then pick the best RAIDs for database servers and audio/video applications.

p.250 How Error Corrections works

p.252 File Servers with RAID

p.254 How we tested

p.256 Software RAID Solutions

p.259 Honorable Mentions

p.259 Helpful Hints

Core Technologies

p.263 Endian Issues

[author William Stallings] [theme CPUS]

Different processors have incompatible memory-storage arrangements, but the PowerPC can handle them all.

p.267 The Joy of J

[author Dick Pountain] [theme PROGRAMMING]

Successor to APL, the J language extends its ancestor's expressiveness and power. And you don't need a special keyboard.

p.271 Springtime at Sun

[author Doug Tamasanis] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

Many of the concepts in Sun's experimental Spring system will bloom in Solaris.

p.273 Tuning In to ISDN

[author Jeffrey Fritz] [theme NETWORKS]

Sattelite and radio technology are breaking the earthly limits to terrestrial ISDN.

Opinions

p.275 Pournelle: Of COM Ports and Digital Frogs

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry explores painless dissection with Digital Frog, then settles down for more bloodless surgery as he tries to make communications software work under Windows 95.

p.33 Books and CD-ROMs: How to Optimize Your PowerPC Code

[author Rich Friedman]

Writing faster native code; plus, commerce on the Internet, and pool and nostalgia CD-ROMs.

p.330 Commentary: Dreaming of the Future

[author Douglas Engelbart]

Can digital technology make a better world? Improve our collective IQ? In the dreams of this visionary inventor it can.

p.10 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.18 Letters

Reader's comments on the BYTE Network Project, Internet censorship, and the trouble with Microsoft.

p.282 Reader Survey

Reader service

p.328 Editorial Index by Company

p.324 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.326 Index to Advertisers by Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 132A, 326A

p.291 Buyer's guide

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

Program listings

FTP: ftp to ftp.byte.com

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "sep95").

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°10 october 1995

COVER STORY

p.52 The New PC

[author Tom R. Halfhill]

Despite faster and faster chips, today's PC is basically yesterday's AT. But that's about to change. Here are the technologies that will help the PC evolve to its next stage. Plus, some products that embody these new technologies.

p.54 ATX Motherboards

p.58 Intel and Microsoft: The Agents of Change

p.60 Archistrat 4s

p.62 120-MB Disks

p.64 Integrated Telephony

FEATURES

p.69 Face to Face

[author Andrew W. Davis] [theme VIDEOCONFERENCING]

Videoconferencing systems from different vendors can now work together, thanks to the H.32x standard. Plus, some products that let you send your face over the phone line.

p.77 Picking the Crypto Locks

[author Peter Wayner] [theme SECURITY]

With today's hardware and a new technique called differential cryptanalysis, it's getting easier for data burglars to crack your safe. What can you do to keep them out?

p.78 Factoring in Public-Key's Future

p.80NA 2 Olympic-Size Data Pool

[author Salvatore Salamone] [theme SOLUTIONS FOCUS]

Athletes aren't the only ones in training for the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Technology jocks have been running around to set up the systems that will crack competitors and results.

State of the Art

p.81 Data Mining

[author Edmund X. Dejesus] [theme DATA MINING]

There's gold in those hills of data.

p.83 The Data Gold Rush

[author Sara Reese Hedberg]

Here's how corporations, researchers, and scientists are using data-mining techniques to discover everything from new customers to new galaxies.

p.91 A Data Miner's Tools

[author Karen Watterson]

You can dig it with query-and-reporting programs, multidimensional analysis software, and intelligent agents.

p.97 Data-Mining Dynamite

[author Cheryl D. Krivda]

Supercharge your data-mining projects with data cleansing, data warehouses, parallel processing, and mega-storage.

p.102 Data-Warehouse Construction Tips

The Byte Network Project

p.105 BOMB's Away

[author Jon Udell]

How we built a Web-based survey to get feedback from readers. And how you can turn your Web server into an application server that connects you to customers, suppliers, and business partners.

p.106 Anatomy of the Web BOMB

News & Views

p.26 Intel's Rivals Ready to Exploit P6 Weakness

[theme X86 PROCESSORS]

Intel's rivals say their next chips will be better than the P6 running 16-bit software.

p.21 Coming A Better Multimedia Platform

[theme WINDOWS 95]

Several multimedia components for Win 95 won't be available for months.

p.30 New Replication Options in Access, Oracle, and Notes

[theme DATABASE TRENDS]

Access for Windows 95 acquires a compelling feature.

p.34 Run-Time Error Checking Comes to Compilers

[theme WINDOWS PROGRAMMING]

Borland, Microsoft, and Nu-Mega are building real-time error checking into their compilers.

p.36 We Plugged, but They Didn't All Play

[theme WINDOWS 95]

Tests of several new Plug and Play devices show that unless you have all the required pieces in your system, you can expect to do a lot of work.

p.46 Radio Comes to Cyberspace

[theme INTERNET BROADCASTING]

A new era in broadcasting begins on the Internet

p.48 3-D Images That Float in Air

[theme FUTURE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES]

A new system can project images from a PC so that they appear to be solid objects suspended in air.

p.190 What's New

Apple's PowerBook 5300c combines RISC processing power with great battery life; Intuit's QuickBooks Pro manages your business finances; plus more

Reviews

p.113 Windows 95: The Numbers

[author Stanford Diehl] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

The new Windows architecture delivers enhanced performance, but as BYTE testing reveals, there are strings attached

p.117 Applications 95 Arrive

[author Stanford Diehl] [theme WINDOWS 95]

Programs that make Windows 95 worth the wait

p.123 Power Mac Gets PCI

[author Tom Thompson] [theme SYSTEMS]

Apple's Power Mac 9500 delivers great performance and the promise of fast, low-cost PCI peripherals

p.127 Au Revoir, Mon Ami

[author Kenneth M. Sheldon] [theme WORD PROCESSORS]

Ami Pro gets a major upgrade, new workgroup features, and a new name, Word Pro

p.129 Digital Cameras for Real Work

[author Scott Wallace] [theme GRAPHICS HARDWARE]

New digital cameras from Apple, Kodak, and Logitech find a balance between price and image quality

p.133 Let's Get Small

[author Rick Grehan] [theme EMBEDDED DESIGN]

A remarkably complete embedded development system

p.137 Software Roundup: Industrial-Strength Fax Servers

[author Rex Baldazo and David Essex and Stan Miastkowski]

After some hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing installations, we test network-based faxing software that can handle the heavy loads of a workgroup

Core Technology

p.167 Is There a GLINT in Your Future?

[author Alan Morgan and Trevor Marshall and John Davey] [theme CPUS]

3Dlabs' chip produces fast 3-D graphics. Here's how it does those dazzling displays

p.173 Weaving a Thread

[author Shashi Prasad] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

Solaris and Windows NT bring the power, speed, and efficiency of multithreading and symmetric multiprocessing to the desktop

p.177 The Standard Template Library

[author Alexander Stepanov] [theme PROGRAMMING]

How do you build an algorithm that is both generic and efficient?

p.179 Internet Firewalls

[author Stephen Cobb]

An industry group is attempting to bring order to firewalls, demand for which is spurred by intrusions.

Opinions

p.181 Pournelle: Death Swoops and Upgrades

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry witnesses several test flights. First the DC/X spacecraft, and then a new Pentium, a new hard drive, and several builds of Windows 95

p.49 Books and CD-ROMs: Working in the Code Mine

[author Dennis Barker and Jeff Macclay]

A novel about working at Microsoft. Plus, a Marilyn Monroe CD-ROM

p.250 Commentary: Ambiguity Machines

[author Jacques Leslie]

Computers are better at poetry than mathematics

p.12 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.20 Letters

Readers write about our coverage of Windows 95, Microsoft, OS/2, and RAD; an Amiga update; and more

NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS

p.146 Lab Report: 11 Ultraportables Go The Distance

[author Anthony J. Lennon and John Mcdonough]

These lightweight, feature-packed tiny PCs hold some surprise and won't cramp your style.

p.148 High-end Ultraportables

p.150 Lost-cost alternatives

p.156 How we tested

p.156 Hot CPU Chips Keep Their Cool

p.160 Apple Dynamic Duo

p.160 Color for the road

p.161 Honorable Mentions

p.161 Zinc-Air Batteries Last All Day

p.199 Reader Survey

Reader service

p.348 Editorial Index by Company

p.244 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

Index to Advertisers by

p.246 Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 96A, 244A

p.201 Buyer's guide

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

Program listings

FTP: ftp to ftp.byte.com

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "oct95").

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

Vol.20 n°11 november 1995

p.169 Heartthrobs

[author Alan Joch]

The next generation of processors are guaranteed to get your heart, and your computer, pumping.

p.171 Chip Fashion

[author Tom R. Halfhill and John Montgomery]

You ain't seen nothing yet. New multimediachips, appearing in products next year, will power eye-popping graphics.

p.179 CPU Scorecards

[author Dick Pountain and Tom R. Halfhill]

Technical details on nine next-generation chips, including three Intel challengers from AMD, Cyrix, and NexGen.

p.198 Why the 615 Matters

[author Linley Gwennap]

Here's our design for how IBM could build a PowerPC chip that runs x86 software.

p.200 Alternate Views of the 615

Features

p.48NA 1 Kaboom, Inc

[author Caren D. Potter] [theme HIGH-TECH SLEUTHING]

Whether it's a factory explosion or James Dean's fatal car crash, the computer-toting detectives from Failure Analysis find out what went wrong.

p.51 Needle Hunting

[author Paul Korzeniowski] [theme NETWORK MANAGEMENT]

You can't tell the baseball players without a scorecard. And you can't find network users without a directory.

p.52 X.500: The Once and Future Answer

p.59 Hyper-G Organizes the Web

[author Udo Flohr] [theme GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS]

This could be the next big thing on the Web: a new hypermedia architecture that makes it easier to find what you're looking for.

p.60 Why the Web Won't Work

p.66 Faking It, Then Making It

[author John R. Vacca] [theme SIMULATION]

Simulation software helped design production flow in Siemens Solar's new clean room.

p.72 Learn by Doing

The Byte Network Project

p.203 Global Groupware

[author Jon Udell]

BYTE implements the virtual press room, a Web archive where companies can publish press releases and users can find out about the latest products.

p.203 RFC 1597 Revisited

Special Report

p.77 Operating Systems

Hot new developments in the software that runs the software.

p.77 Smooth Operators

p.81 OS Paradise

p.103 Filling in Windows Blanks

p.113 Not That DOS

p.119 Sincere OS Flattery

p.123 OO Meets OS

p.131 And One for All

p.137 Crashing the Party

News & Views

p.28 P6 Expands PC Spectrum

[theme PC PROCESSORS]

Thought the first P6 systems would be big servers, did you? Many companies are actually preparing to ship desktop boxes first, some for less than $4000.

p.30 End Migration Headaches

[theme NETWORK MANAGEMENT]

Upgrading from NetWare 3.x to NetWare 4.x can be less painful with these NDS migration utilities.

p.34 Still a Work in Progress

[theme WINDOWS 95 AND NETWORKS]

Windows 95 brings benefits to network managers, but some of the best stuff is yet to come.

p.38 Flat Displays Squeeze Bulky CRTs

[theme DISPLAY TRENDS]

Big screens, small space-coming soon to a desktop near you.

p.40 Phone Lines Stymie V.34 Modems

[theme COMMUNICATIONS]

That spiffy new V.34 modem may feel like a station wagon instead of a turbocharged racer. Here's why.

p.47 Vendors Rally for 64-Bit Unix

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

The list of backers is impressive, but we might not see the results of a new 64-bit Unix initiative for a couple years.

p.48 Bank Robbers Go Electronic

[theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

Citibank admits it's been robbed, but the alleged crooks use PCs, not shotguns.

p.47 CodeTalk: Watcom C/C++ Gets Visual

[theme PROGRAMMING]

The new version of one of Rick Grehan's favorite compilers offers a much more visual development environment.

p.262 What's New

[theme NEW PRODUCTS]

Intel's newest OverDrive, which is faster and less expensive than the company's first Pentium OverDrive, is a bargain upgrade; askSam is now faster (thanks to new full-text indexing) and fuzzier; plus, a new Indigo 3-D workstation, reference work for OS/2 and Unix users, a router manager for WANs, and more new hardware and software.

Reviews

p.209 NT Roars on the 604

[author Dave Rowell] [theme POWERPC SYSTEMS]

Our tests of new systems from Austin Direct, IBM, and Motorola show that the PowerPC 604 chip makes for a mean Windows NT workstation.

p.210 Alpha Stays Ahead

p.213 Enterprise Database Managers

[author Barry Nance] [theme BUSINESS TOOLS]

The latest versions of DB2/2, Oracle, and SQL Server are strong enough to support a business, but they differ in reliability and scalability.

p.217 Organization Made Loud and Clear

[author John Montgomery] [theme PERSONNAL INFORMATION MANAGERS]

NetManage's ECCO Pro 3.0 offers clever OLE 2.0 integration and a compelling outline metaphor for the organizationally challenged.

p.219 Storming the Enterprise

[author Steve Gillmor] [theme PROGRAMMING TOOLS]

Microsoft bolsters Visual Basic 4.0 with distributed-object technology and enhanced OLE automation. But, as our reviewer explains, not all objects are alike.

p.227 Sudden Darkness

[author Rex Baldazo and Rick Grehan and Dave Rowell] [theme POWER PROTECTION]

When the lights go out, which uninterruptible power supply is going to keep your network running? We test 31 UPS models to find the best.

p.233 Software Roundup: Virtual Whiteboards

[author David Seachrist] [theme WORKGROUP SOFTWARE]

Desktop-conferencing - whiteboarding - software is often a more viable solution than videoconferencing. BYTE and NSTL pick the best from seven Windows programs.

p.238 Lab Report: 12 Network Printers Set the Pace

[theme WORKGROUP PRINTERS]

We test networked laser printers with fast engines, built-in Ethernet, large paper capacities, long life, and security features.

p.241 Test: 16-to 20ppm Printers

p.243 Test: 30 to 32-ppm Printers

p.244 Honorable Mentions/Dubious Achievement

p.244 Network-Printer-Management Software

p.245 How We Tested

p.246 Roll Call

Core Technologies

p.249 PixelFlow: Scalable Image Processing

[author Dick Pountain] [theme CPUS]

This new chip architecture takes an innovative approach to generating photo-realistic images. Here's how this rapid renderer works.

p.251 Open(ing) VMS to Win32

[author Mark Feniello] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

Adding Win32 support to Digital's OS means good news for developers: They can build for both OpenVMS and NT machines.

p.253 Windows NT Threads

[author Shashi Prasad] [theme PROGRAMMING]

A multithreaded application may actually run slower on an SMP machine than on its single-threaded equivalent. Here's how to avoid that.

p.255 ATM wit6h a Twist of LAN

[author Rex Baldazo] [theme NETWORKS]

ATM must interoperate with legacy systems, especially LANs. LAN Emulation might do the trick.

Opinions

p.257 Pournelle: Digital Models

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry returns from SIGGRAPH, explores mountains of CD-ROMs and, yes, manages to find one more problem with Windows 95.

p.49 Books and CD ROMs: Batlle of the Sexes, Part II

[author John Montgomery and Edmund X. Dejesus and Jeff Macclay]

The confusion of a digital culture, computer "minds," and two CD-ROMs on getting back to nature.

p.312 Commentary: Things to Come

[author Ted Nelson]

The inventor of hypertext makes his forecasts on the future of computing and the human race.

p.12 Editorial

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.20 Letters

Readers write about our anniversary edition, OS/2, RAD, the BYTE Web site, and more.

Reader service

p.310 Editorial Index by Company

p.306 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

Index to Advertisers by

p.308 Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 122A, 304A

p.271 Buyer's guide

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

Program listings

FTP: ftp to ftp.byte.com

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "nov95").

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

THE BYTE WEB SITE

http://www.byte.com

Vol.20 n°12 december 1995

Cover Story

p.48 How Software Doesn't Work

Bad code can lead to disaster. Here's why there's a software crisis. And here's what you can do about it.

p.50 How to Build Reliable Code

p.48 Make Quality Job 1

BYTE Guide to Game

p.123 3-D Action

[author Rex Baldazo]

Three-dimensional games have changed enormously since the days of Atari Battlezone.

p.129 Multimedia Masterpieces

[author Tom R. Halfhill]

A look at the technology behind the scenes of two dazzling, movie-like adventures: Phantasmagoria and Buried in Time.

p.135 The Games People Write

[author John Montgomery]

Microsoft's Win32 development kit will help make designing games for Windows 95 a less-scary adventure.

p.139 I'm Game

[author Jerry Pournelle]

All work and no play at Chaos Manor? Not hardly.

Network Project

p.115 Perl Magic

[author Jon Udell]

Our Webmeister explains the Perl and HTML programming tricks under the hood of the new Virtual Press Room.

Features

p.97 Talking to Machines

[author Judith Markowitz]

Star Trek officers talk to their computers. Here's how we can, too.

p.98 Speech-Recognition Products

p.100 Hidden Markov Models

p.106 Solutions Focus: DragNET

[author Peter Wayner]

G-men get a new weapon. The FBI's DNA database is helping police nab suspects.

p.110 DNA by the Numbers

p.96NA1 Untangling Wireless

[author Salvatore Salamone]

Advice on choosing the right technology and service for your unplugged applications.

State of the Art

[theme COMPUTER-CONTROLLED MANUFACTURING]

p.63 Manufacturing Data

[author Edmund X. Dejesus]

Big changes on the factory floor. New technology for data acquisition is changing the way that manufacturing works.

p.67 A Fine MES

[author Jim Esch]

Manufacturing execution systems unite factory computers from the planning level to the machine level.

p.68 A New Dimension in Bar Codes

p.79 If AI Ran the Zoo

[author Lawrence Gould]

Ready to turn your operation over to a bunch of algorithms? Neural networks and fuzzy logic are helping to control complex manufacturing processes.

p.87 Keep the Data Moving

[author Claire Tristram]

With ruggedized computers and PC Cards you can computerize collection of data in the factory or field.

p.90 Buying Rugged Hand-Held Computers

News & Views

p.24 Groupware Taps the Internet

[theme ON-LINE COLLABORATION]

The planned merger between Netscape and Collabra will result in a Notes-killer of an application, some say.

p.25 New Suites Embrace the Web

[theme WINDOWS ON THE WEB]

Software houses are adding much more to their Windows communications programs than just data comm and fax.

p.36 Code Talk: New Micro Focus Tool Converts COBOL into Components

Organizations with beaucoup lines of COBOL code can now wrap it all in OLE controls and bring it into the world of Windows.

p.25 BYTEmark Bug Bashed

[theme BENCHMARK]

An update to our tests of the P6 chip.

p.30 Multimedia x86 CPUs Coming in 1996

[theme MEDIA PROCESSORS]

New x86 microprocessors will integrate DSP functions.

p.34 Wavelets Challenge MPEG, Fractals

Developers claim 300-to-1 compression.

p.216 What's New

Previews of HP's CopyJet color printer/copier and Delrina's WinFax Pro for Windows 95.

p.153 Virtual CDs on the LAN

[author Rex Baldazo] [theme NETWORK SOFTWARE]

CD-QuickShare speeds up your shared network CD-ROM drives.

p.170 Software Roundup: Web Publishing Made Easier

[author Rex Baldazo and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols] [theme NEW-MEDIA TOOLS]

HTML authoring and editing tools promise to make your documents Web-ready in no time. But few live up to their claims.

p.179 The Penthouse Suite

[author Stan Miastkowski] [theme PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE]

Microsoft Office 95 moves up to true 32-bitness, provides full OLE 2 support, and introduces the Bindery for mixing data from different applications.

p.181 Access 95 Advances Database Design

[author Rick Dobson] [theme DATABASE SOFTWARE]

Microsoft's new version of Access gets more than just the Windows 95 look. Replication technology helps coordinate changes.

p.183 Symantec C++ Differences

[author Raymond Ga Cote] [theme PROGRAMMING TOOLS]

Symantec's new object-oriented compiler lets you distribute compilation jobs across the network.

p.189 Systems Design in Object Time

[author Mike Bienvenu] [theme PROGRAMMING TOOLS]

ObjecTime can reduce development time.

p.191 More RAM for Win 3 Holdouts

[author John M. Goodman] [theme MEMORY MANAGERS]

Some RAM doublers can help Windows 3.x manage physical and virtual RAM. And some can't;

p.193 Data to the Nth Dimension

[author Edmund X. Dejesus] [theme INFO ANALYST]

Arbor Software's Essbase adds multidimensional analysis to familiar front ends, such as Lotus 1-2-3.

p.195 The Better Virtual PC

[author Tom Thompson] [theme OS EMULATOR]

SoftWindows 2.0 puts a 33-MHz 486 inside your Power Macintosh.

p.156 Lab Report: 16 Pentiums High on Win 95

[author Anthony J. Lennon and John McDonough] [theme HIGH-SPEED DESKTOP]

Can't get enough speed? We test the latest 120-and 133-MHz Pentium machines using new Windows 95-based benchmarks.

p.158 120-MHz Pentiums

p.158 32-Bit Performance Advantages

p.160 133-MHz Pentiums

p.161 Triton-based Pentiums

p.161 Honorable Mentions

p.164 How We Tested

Core Technology

p.207 Not Just Another Free Unix

[author Jordan Hubbard] [theme OPERATING SYSTEMS]

FreeBSD is fast and open, it runs powerful applications, and it won't cost you a cent.

p.209 Two Turbocharged PowerPCs

[author Tom Thompson] [theme CPUS]

IBM and Motorola rev up the 603 and 604 and reduce their chips' hunger for power.

p.211 How to Build an Internet App

[author Brett Glass] [theme PROGRAMMING]

With a bit of Visual Basic code, the author builds his own weather channel in a flash.

p.213 Untangling Fast Ethernet Cables

[author Paul Cunningham] [theme NETWORKS]

The Fast Ethernet standard specifies a variety of cabling types used in 100-Mbps networks.

Opinions

p.197 Pournelle: A New Mutation

[author Jerry Pournelle]

Jerry provides advice for dodging a new breed of virus and then returns to his explorations of Windows 95.

p.41 Books and CD-ROMs: How Microsoft Works

A wealth of detail on how Microsoft operates; plus, a CD-ROM satire on bad art.

p.268 Commentary: CyberDavid Rocks Goliath

[author James Martin]

You don't have to be a giant to succeed.

p.10 Editorial: The Butterfly Effect

[author Raphael Needleman]

p.10 Letters

Reader service

p.262 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers

p.266 Editorial Index by Company

Index to Advertisers by

p.264 Product Category

Inquiry Reply Cards: 134A, 264A

p.225 Buyer's guide

Mail Order

Hardware/Software Showcase

Buyer's Mart

Program listings

FTP: ftp to ftp.byte.com

From BIX: Join "listings/frombyte95" and select the appropriate subarea (i.e., "dec95").

From the BYTE BBS at 1200-9600 bps: Dial (603) 924-9820 and follow the instructions at the prompt.

THE BYTE WEB SITE

http://www.byte.com