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Silicon Times Report Issue 0116
*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original Online ST Magazine"
_______________________________
December 01, 1989 Vol III No.116
=======================================================================
ST Report Online Magazine¿
__________________________
Post Office Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida
32205 ~ 6672
R.F. Mariano
Publisher - Editor
_________________________________________
Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT
BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST/14.4
FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EDT
_________________________________________
** F-NET NODE 350 **
Our support BBS carries ALL issues of STReport
and
An International list of private BBS systems
carrying STReport for their users enjoyment
__________________________________________________________________
> Issue: #116 STReport¿ The Online Magazine of Choice!
--------------------
- The Editors' Podium - CPU REPORT LHARC/ARC
- Kidpublisher Professional - SYQUEST * NEW PRODUCTS *
- SEAGATE * Industry Standard * - Exploring Touchup
- Migraph's HAND SCANNER - ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL
--====**** BILL TEAL SHOWS PC DITTO II! ****====---
--==** GRAVIS TO CORRECT MEGA ST BUG! **==--
=========================================================================
STReport's support BBS NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST BBS to
participate in Forem BBS's F-Net mail network. Or, Please call # 350
direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging ideas about
the Atari ST computers through an excellent International ST mail network.
=========================================================================
AVAILABLE ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ BIX
=========================================================================
> The Editor's Podium¿
We are in the home stretch now, 25 days left till Christmas... will
there be a STacy under someone's tree? Who knows? We do know that the
Stacy will be reality very shortly and that to us is all that counts. No
more is it if...its now a matter of when.
Amazing times we are in, LHARC has a few folks befuddled, consider
this, if we don't use it and not allow it to gain in popularity, it will
never be enhanced to a point where most of us will be satisfied with its
performance. Even more amazing are those who attempt to rationalize
their apparent dissatisfaction with LZH files by attempting to have the
online sysops reverse their positions. It is indeed gratifying to see the
majority of users want the benefits LZH files will offer.
In maintaining the standard of having the best interests of our
readers come first, STReport will be uploaded to the major services in two
forms, LHARC & ARC. Even though it appears the users prefer LHARC (LZH),
we felt it best to allow the reader an opportunity to compare the two
compression programs and the efficiency each program has to offer.
Accordingly, for the next three weeks, STReport will be uploaded in both
formats for your convenience.
Our humble opinion is really quite uncomplicated, anytime a
compression program makes a SMALLER downloadable file, then that's the one
we want as it takes less time to download a smaller file. Thus, it
translates into the users saving online time and dollars.
Everyone of us enjoys what they do for us, we give them heartburn and
grief, and best of all, we expect them to be there all the time. No, I am
not talking about anyone's parents or relatives. The ever faithful and
serving SysOps of the online services deserve our heartfelt thanks
everyday of the year but that would get old in hurry. So... since it is
'that' time of the year, let's all join together and offer out thank you
to the sysops of the online services. Since there are a large number of
good folks doing this monumental task, we ask that Ron Luks, Darlah Pine
and Clayton Walnum pass along our best wishes to all the folks working
with them to make our online lives a little bit nicer every day.
Please enjoy the holiday season and above all else, make this holiday
season a fun filled, safe yuletide celebration. Don't drink and drive.
Ralph.....
"ATARI IS BACK!"
**********************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type XJM11877,GEnie and hit RETURN.
The system will prompt you for your information.
THE GENIE ATARI ST ROUNDTABLE - AN OVERVIEW
___________________________________________
The Roundtable is an area of GEnie specifically set aside for owners and
users of Atari ST computers, although all are welcome to participate.
There are three main sections to the Roundtable: the Bulletin Board, the
Software Library and the Real Time Conference area.
The Bulletin Board contains messages from Roundtable members on a variety
of Topics, organized under several Categories. These messages are all
Open and available for all to read (GEnie Mail should be used for private
messages).
If you have a question, comment, hot rumor or an answer to someone else's
question, the Bulletin Board is the place to share it.
The Software Library is where we keep the Public Domain software files
that are available to all Roundtable members. You can 'download' any of
these files to your own computer system by using a Terminal Program which
uses the 'XMODEM' file-transfer method. You can also share your favorite
Public Domain programs and files with other Roundtable members by
'uploading' them to the Software Library. Uploading on GEnie is FREE, so
you are encouraged to participate and help your Roundtable grow.
The Real Time Conference is an area where two or more Roundtable members
may get together and 'talk' in 'real-time'. You can participate in
organized conferences with special guests, drop in on our weekly Open
COnference, or simply join in on an impromptu chat session. Unlike
posting messages or Mail for other members to read at some later time,
everyone in the Conference area can see what you type immediately, and can
respond to you right away, in an 'electronic conversation'.
**********************************************************************
> CPU REPORT¿ Exploring the compression routines.....
==========
Issue # 43
----------
by Michael Arthur
Remember When....
In January 1979, two MIT Graduates, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston,
introduced Visicalc, the first electronic spreadsheet, and how Software
Arts (their company) sold 800,000 copies of it before being bought in 1985
by Lotus Corporation, who discontinued Visicalc?
CPU INSIGHTS¿
=============
Data Compression Algorithms of ARC.TTP, PKZIP, and LHarc
--------------------------------------------------------
Much of the typical modem user's online time is spent performing
uploads or downloads of files from BBS's, Online Services like Compuserve
or GEnie, or Information Networks like Usenet or Internet. Given that
this always takes up a lot of time, and usually costs a considerable
amount of money, the need to shorten the time necessary to perform file
transfers, and other modem applications has always been prevalent. One
innovation in this field has been the development of advanced Algorithms
for compacting, or compressing data so it takes up much less space, and
packing multiple files into one Archive, or data file, so many files can
be sent at one time.
The current technology, an offspring of data encryption methods used
in World War II, reduces the time it takes to transfer a file through a
modem, by reducing the size of the data itself. Given the proliferation
of many data compression methods (ARC, PKZIP, ZOO, SIT, and LHARC, for a
few examples) that try to provide the most efficient method of data
compression, the topic has always been controversial in nature.
Haruhiko Okumura provided a great source of knowledge about data
compression algorithms by writing this essay, which describes some of the
effort involved in creating a data compression standard. Except for
modifications in its formatting, or presentation, and various notes placed
in this text to provide more information on certain subjects, the content
of Haruhiko Okumura's text is identical....
Introduction: History of LHARC's Forefathers
---------------------------------------------
In the spring of 1988, I wrote a very simple data compression program
named LZSS in C language, and uploaded it to the Science SIG (forum) of
PC-VAN, Japan's biggest personal computer network. That program was based
on Storer and Szymanski's slightly modified version of one of Lempel and
Ziv's algorithms. Despite its simplicity, for most files its compression
outperformed the archivers then widely used.
Kazuhiko Miki rewrote my LZSS in Turbo Pascal and assembly language,
and soon made it evolve into a complete archiver, which he named LARC. The
first versions of LZSS and LARC were rather slow. So I rewrote my LZSS
using a binary tree, and so did Miki. Although LARC's encoding was slower
than the fastest archiver available, its decoding was quite fast, and its
algorithm was so simple that even self-extracting files (compressed files
plus decoder) it created were usually smaller than non-self-extracting
files from other archivers.
Soon many hobby programmers joined the archiver project at the forum.
Very many suggestions were made, and LARC was revised again and again. By
the summer of 1988, LARC's speed and compression have improved so much
that LARC-compressed programs were beginning to be uploaded in many forums
of PC-VAN and other networks.
In that summer I wrote another program, LZARI, which combined the LZSS
algorithm with adaptive arithmetic compression. Although it was slower
than LZSS, its compression performance was amazing. Miki, the author of
LARC, uploaded LZARI to NIFTY-Serve, another big information network in
Japan. In NIFTY-Serve, Haruyasu Yoshizaki replaced LZARI's adaptive
arithmetic coding with a version of adaptive Huffman coding to increase
speed. Based on this algorithm, which he called LZHUF, he developed yet
another archiver, LHarc.
Data Compression Algorithms, Lempel-Ziv, and ARC.TTP
----------------------------------------------------
In what follows, I will review several of these algorithms and
supply simplified codes in C language.
1. RLL Encoding
Replacing several (usually 8 or 4) "space" characters by one "tab"
character is a very primitive method for data compression. Another simple
method is Run-Length coding , which encodes the message "AAABBBBAACCCC"
into "3A4B2A4C", for example.
2. LZSS coding
This scheme is initiated by Ziv and Lempel [1]. A slightly modified
version is described by Storer and Szymanski [2]. An implementation using
a binary tree is proposed by Bell [3]. The algorithm is quite simple:
Keep a ring buffer, which initially contains "space" characters only.
Read several letters from the file to the buffer. Then search the buffer
for the longest string that matches the letters just read, and send its
length and position in the buffer.
If the buffer size is 4096 bytes, the position can be encoded in 12
bits. If we represent the match length in four bits, the <position,
length> pair is two bytes long. If the longest match is no more than two
characters, then we send just one character without encoding, and restart
the process with the next letter. We must send one extra bit each time to
tell the decoder whether we are sending a <position, length> pair or an
unencoded character.
3. LZW coding
This scheme was devised by Ziv and Lempel [4], and modified by Welch
[5]. The LZW coding has been adopted by most of the existing archivers,
such as ARC and PKZIP. The algorithm can be made relatively fast, and is
suitable for hardware implementation as well. A Pascal program for this
algorithm is given in Storer's book [6].
The algorithm can be outlined as follows: Prepare a table that can
contain several thousand items. Initially register in its 0th through
255th positions the usual 256 characters. Read several letters from the
file to be encoded, and search the table for the longest match. Suppose
the longest match is given by the string "ABC". Send the position of
"ABC" in the table. Read the next character from the file. If it is "D",
then register a new string "ABCD" in the table, and restart the process
with the letter "D". If the table becomes full, discard the oldest item
or, preferably, the least used.
4. Huffman coding
Classical Huffman coding is invented by Huffman [7]. A fairly
readable account is given in Sedgewick [8]. Suppose the text to be
encoded is "ABABACA", with four A's, two B's, and a C. We represent this
situation as follows:
4 2 1
| | |
A B C
Combine the least frequent two characters into one, resulting in the
new frequency 2 + 1 = 3:
4 3
| / \
A B C
Repeat the above step until the whole characters combine into a tree:
7
/ \
/ 3
/ / \
A B C
Start at the top ("root") of this encoding tree, and travel to the
character you want to encode. If you go left, send a "0"; otherwise send
a "1". Thus, "A" is encoded by "0", "B" by "10", "C" by "11". Altogether,
"ABABACA" will be encoded into ten bits, "0100100110". To decode this
code, the decoder must know the encoding tree, which must be sent
separately.
A modification to this classical Huffman coding is the adaptive, or
dynamic, Huffman coding. See, e.g., Gallager [9]. In this method, the
encoder and the decoder processes the first letter of the text as if the
frequency of each character in the file were one, say. After the first
letter has been processed, both parties increment the frequency of that
character by one. For example, if the first letter is 'C', then freq
['C'] becomes two, whereas every other frequencies are still one. Then
the both parties modify the encoding tree accordingly. Then the second
letter will be encoded and decoded, and so on.
5. Arithmetic coding
The original concept of arithmetic coding is proposed by P. Elias. An
implementation in C language is described by Witten and others [10].
Although the Huffman coding is optimal if each character must be
encoded into a fixed (integer) number of bits, arithmetic coding wins if
no such restriction is made.
As an example we shall encode "AABA" using arithmetic coding. For
simplicity suppose we know beforehand that the probabilities for "A" and
"B" to appear in the text are 3/4 and 1/4, respectively.
Initially, consider an interval:
0 <= x < 1.
Since the first character is "A" whose probability is 3/4, we shrink
the interval to the lower 3/4:
0 <= x < 3/4.
The next character is "A" again, so we take the lower 3/4:
0 <= x < 9/16.
Next comes "B" whose probability is 1/4, so we take the upper 1/4:
27/64 <= x < 9/16,
Because "B" is the second element in our alphabet, {A, B}. The last
character is "A" and the interval is
27/64 <= x < 135/256,
which can be written in binary notation
0.011011 <= x < 0.10000111.
Choose from this interval any number that can be represented in fewest
bits, say 0.1, and send the bits to the right of "0."; in this case we
send only one bit, "1". Thus we have encoded four letters into one bit!
With the Huffman coding, four letters could not be encoded into less than
four bits.
To decode the code "1", we just reverse the process: First, we supply
the "0." to the right of the received code "1", resulting in "0.1" in
binary notation, or 1/2. Since this number is in the first 3/4 of the
initial interval 0 <= x < 1, the first character must be "A". Shrink the
interval into the lower 3/4. In this new interval, the number 1/2 lies in
the lower 3/4 part, so the second character is again "A", and so on. The
number of letters in the original file must be sent separately (or a
special 'EOF' character must be appended at the end of the file).
The algorithm described above requires that both the sender and
receiver know the probability distribution for the characters. The
adaptive version of the algorithm removes this restriction by first
supposing uniform or any agreed-upon distribution of characters that
approximates the true distribution, and then updating the distribution
after each character is sent and received.
6. LZARI
In each step the LZSS algorithm sends either a character or a
<position, length> pair. Among these, perhaps character "e" appears more
frequently than "x", and a <position, length> pair of length 3 might be
commoner than one of length 18, say. Thus, if we encode the more frequent
in fewer bits and the less frequent in more bits, the total length of the
encoded text will be diminished. This consideration suggests that we use
Huffman or arithmetic coding, preferably of an adaptive kind, along with
LZSS. This is easier said than done, because there are many possible
<position, length> combinations. Adaptive compression must keep running
statistics of frequency distribution. Too many items make statistics
unreliable.
LZARI, and the Creation of a Data Compression Program
-----------------------------------------------------
What follows is not even an approximate solution to the problem posed
above, but anyway this was what I did in the summer of 1988.
I extended the character set from 256 to three-hundred or so in size,
and let characters 0 through 255 be the usual 8-bit characters, whereas
characters 253 + n represent that what follows is a position of string of
length n, where n = 3, 4 , .... These extended set of characters will be
encoded with adaptive arithmetic compression.
I also observed that longest-match strings tend to be the ones that
were read relatively recently. Therefore, recent positions should be
encoded into fewer bits. Since 4096 positions are too many to encode
adaptively, I fixed the probability distribution of the positions "by
hand". The distribution function given in the accompanying LZARI.C is
rather tentative; it is not based on thorough experimentation. In
retrospect, I could encode adaptively the most significant 6 bits, say, or
perhaps by some more ingenious method adapt the parameters of the
distribution function to the running statistics.
At any rate, the present version of LZARI treats the positions rather
separately, so that the overall compression is by no means optimal.
Furthermore, the string length threshold above which strings are coded
into <position, length> pairs is fixed, but logically its value must
change according to the length of the <position, length> pair we would
get.
7. LZHUF
LZHUF, the algorithm of Haruyasu Yoshizaki's archiver LHarc, replaces
LZARI's adaptive arithmetic coding with adaptive Huffman. LZHUF encodes
the most significant 6 bits of the position in its 4096-byte buffer by
table lookup. More recent, and hence more probable, positions are coded
in less bits. On the other hand, the remaining 6 bits are sent verbatim.
Because Huffman coding encodes each letter into a fixed number of
bits, table lookup can be easily implemented. Though theoretically
Huffman cannot exceed arithmetic compression, the difference is very
slight, and LZHUF is fairly fast.
References:
-----------
[1] J. Ziv and A. Lempel, IEEE Trans. IT-23, 337-343 (1977).
[2] J. A. Storer and T. G. Szymanski, J. ACM, 29, 928-951
(1982).
[3] T. C. Bell, IEEE Trans. COM-34, 1176-1182 (1986).
[4] J. Ziv and A. Lempel, IEEE Trans. IT-24, 530-536 (1978).
[5] T. A. Welch, Computer, 17, No.6, 8-19 (1984).
[6] J. A. Storer, Data Compression: Methods and Theory
(Computer Science Press, 1988).
[7] D. A. Huffman, Proc IRE 40, 1098-1101 (1952).
[8] R. Sedgewick, Algorithms, 2nd ed. (Addison-Wesley, 1988).
[9] R. G. Gallager, IEEE Trans. IT-24, 668-674 (1978).
[10] I. E. Witten, R. M. Neal, and J. G. Cleary, Commun. ACM
30, 520-540 (1987).
But ponder, if you will, these questions:
1) Are LHarc's benefits (comparative to ARC) best realized with large
files, and if so, should this be the only use for LHarc, given that
ARC is already a solid and usable standard for the ST?
2) Given that 8-voice stereo sound were the capabilities of the Amy sound
chip, which Atari had been developing since 1984, is the sound chip in
the Atari STE and 68030 TT (which has these capabilities) the Amy
chip, which was a piece of Atari vaporware even older than the CD-ROM
for the ST?
CPU Systems Roundup¿ XVI
========================
MicroChannel, OS/2 1.2, and New Features of Old Offerings
---------------------------------------------------------
IBM has recently revealed several features of its MicroChannel Bus
Architecture (used in its PS/2 line of computers) which, though inherent,
provide new potential for the success of the MicroChannel, and the defeat
of the EISA Bus Architecture now being supported by several major IBM
Clone Makers, including Compaq and HP. These features include:
- New 32-bit data streaming procedures, which would allow the
MicroChannel to transfer data at 40 Megabytes per second, instead of
the current 20 Megs per second, by sending blocks of data quicker than
before using its independent address and data buses.
- A 64-bit data transfer mode, which uses a 64-bit wide address and
data bus, along with multiplexing (for sending data across the extra
bus area when it is idle), to allow 64 bit data transfer. This would
double the data transfer rate to 80 Megabytes per second.
- Also, future extensions to the MicroChannel will double the rate at
which blocks are sent through the bus (by reducing the "pause time"
between block transmissions from the current 200 nanoseconds, and the
100 nanosecond time allowed by the new 32-bit data transfer
procedures, to only 50 nanoseconds). This will allow the MicroChannel
to move data along its bus at over 160 Megabytes per second....
While that may sound excessive, given that LAN Networks using the new
FDDI standard (for connecting LANs using Optical Fiber lines) will
have data transfer rates of 100 Megabytes per second, that Intel 80860
chip can compute 120 operations per second, and that future microchips
made out of gallium arsenide will be able to run at 150 MHZ....
- Data Address Parity Checking, which will provide a form of error
protection by ensuring that data which is sent through the
MicroChannel is not corrupted or damaged. This feature was described
in more depth by IBM, who had simply mentioned it previously.
- Synchronous Data Checking, which will enable the MicroChannel to
isolate and shut down devices which are malfunctioning or not working
properly.
- Synchronous Control Block Architecture, which lets the MicroChannel
manage the devices hooked up to it like a Local Area Network handles
nodes hooked up to it, with multimaster (or busmastering) cards
controlling the system....
IBM also announced that OS/2 Standard Edition Version 1.2, a new
version of OS/2, would be shipping soon. Some of its new features are:
- Faster system performance, and the ability to run comfortably in 2
Megs of RAM. OS/2 currently needs 3-4 Megs of RAM to be fully
functional....
- Fast File System, for greatly increased disk performance, and
support for larger hard disk volumes. This will be especially
important for Virtual Memory under OS/2, which depends heavily on disk
accessing....
- An Icon Area for Presentation Manager to store Custom Icons
representing OS/2 Applications. This resembles the NextStep GUI's
Dock, where applications can be placed for easy access.
- Hypertext-based Help system, for providing comprehensive help on the
user interface at a 'click or a keystroke, and an Online Command
sequence for information on all commands, and proper command syntax.
This resembles NextStep's Digital Librarian, with its ability to
search for data using keywords. Digital Librarian can also be used by
NextStep applications, for powerful database versatility. Since
Microsoft MAY decide to do the same with OS/2's new hypertext
system....
IBM also announced that developer kits for OS/2 Standard Edition
Version 2.0 will be available by Spring 1990. OS/2 Version 2.0 will
utilize the 80386 and 80486 to let OS/2 multitask multiple DOS and OS/2
programs at the same time, provide 32-bit addressing for OS/2 programs,
and be optimized for the 80386, for even greater system speed. Given the
new capabilities of MicroChannel, IBM's Hardware Architecture for the
Nineties, and OS/2, IBM's operating System for the 1990s, does IBM now
have a better chance to increase its dominance of the microcomputer and
workstation market in the coming decade?
CPU REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿
=======================
London, England Comcen has recently launched two CD-ROM disks for the
--------------- IBM and Macintosh. C Add-Pack, the first CD-ROM, is a
disk with over 1000 examples of C source code, for a
broad range of programming needs. The second disk,
the Graphics Add-Pack, comes with over 2000 items of
"clip art" in GIF or MacPaint format, for use in
Desktop Publishing. Cost: $1000.00 each....
Morristown, NJ AT&T has made an agreement with Sun Microsystems to
-------------- use Sun's SPARC-based workstations as front ends for
graphics supercomputing applications (like medical
imaging, simulations, etc.), and as aids in monitoring
their phone networks.
In this agreement, they also intend to work together
in a Partnership, in order to gain contracts for
government systems, telecommunications services, and
other major computer-related endeavors. Interestingly
enough, one of the reasons that several major Unix
vendors formed the Open Software Foundation (OSF) last
year was AT&T/Sun's growing relationship....
Las Vegas, NV Xerox recently announced Ventura Publisher for OS/2, a
------------- new version which both uses the Presentation Manager
user interface, and supports OS/2's IPC facilities for
exchanging data between OS/2 apps. It will require
3 Megs of RAM to run. Cost: $1000.00....
However, while it will be available by the Summer of
1990, along with a Professional Extension for specific
Desktop Publishing needs, Aldus Pagemaker, its main
competition in the DOS world, is already out for OS/2.
Tokyo, Japan Hitachi is in the process of developing a test
------------ production line for its experimental 16-Megabit DRAM
memory chips, to be completed by Spring 1990. This
comes only a few months after Hitachi (as well as many
other companies) started making 4 Megabit DRAM chips
in quantity. While 16-Megabit DRAM chips may have
great potential, since some companies have already
shown plans for 64-Megabit DRAM chips....
__________________________________________________________________
> MIGRAPH!! STR Review¿ Touch up and a hand scanner.. GOOD STUFF!
====================
Migraph Hand Scanner and Touch-Up
=================================
by Daniel Stidham
For me, like many of you, money is a hard-earned return on a crucial
investment of time and effort. I've never won the lottery, nor have I ever
been on the receiving end of a generous inheritance. My wife's maiden
name has none of those familiar capitalistic overtones like Rockefeller,
DuPont, Procter, or Gamble. No, except for the time I won the office pool
for having three-of-a-kind on my check's serial number, I've never
experienced any of that good old fashioned American easy money. Not that
I'm complaining(well, maybe a little); if I didn't have to work for it, it
probably wouldn't have the same sentimental value.
Therefore when I purchase a product I try to make my buck go as far
and work as hard as I can; that new gadget may represent a week or two
worth of hard, hassle-filled labor. Accordingly when that product fails
me I become understandably upset and feel victimized as I watch several
hours, days, or weeks worth of my time and labor get sucked into that
black hole of broken promises and worthlessness. Conversely, I am
appreciative and loyal to those companies and developers who, in respect
of the consumer and of themselves, try to cultivate a wholesome, healthy,
and equitable relationship by delivering excellent product for a fair and
reasonable price. They have taken me seriously and I'll do the same.
In the ST community we are fortunate to have a relatively large
percentage of companies and developers of the latter identity. There are
a handful, however, that shine a little brighter than the rest and of
those, one in particular seems to be in a class all its own -- Migraph,Inc
of Federal Way, Washington. Recently I plunked down 400+ dollars of that
hard-earned return and purchased their latest composium -- a software &
hardware combination, The Migraph Hand Scanner and Touch-Up image
processor. Briefly, Touch-Up is a GEM-based, full-featured, high
resolution, virtual page, bit image creation and editing design tool (take
my word for it! -- we'll decipher this later). Touch-Up has a special
mode within it that allows you to interface marvelously with the Migraph
Hand Scanner, allowing line-art and halftone images to be scanned directly
into the program for immediate editing. I have explored nearly every nook
and cranny of this dynamic duo for almost two months now and if pressed to
give it just one adjective, it would be _professional_. But I protest;
let me qualify that adjective -- allow me a modifier. The Migraph Hand
Scanner/Touch-Up package is, in two words, _thoroughly professional_.
"IT WAS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT CHARMED ME,
INDEED HIS CHARM SHOWED THROUGH
IN THE LITTLE THINGS."
- my wife ..on why she married me
One of the earmarks of a professional effort, a _thoroughly
professional_ effort, is attention to detail. Fussing over the little
things underlies a conscientious approach to program development and user
consideration. In Migraph's undertaking I found many examples of this.
You may think that they are minor but they speak to me and tell me that
I'm important and not to be taken for granted. For instance, the package
that it came in was very attractive and contemporary -- definitely
designed to sell itself off the software dealer's shelf. My registration
cards(one for Touch-Up and one for the scanner) both had the serial
numbers already stamped on them(no searching through manuals and on
hardware) and the cards were of the business reply, no postage necessary
variety. Mailing the cards in qualifies you for a free newsletter and free
technical support. The scanner hardware was meticulously packed with each
component in a separate custom-fitted bubble pack, and, in what I thought
was a nice little touch, they had a black protective cap covering the
scanner's cartridge connector to keep it clean and to assure no damage to
the pins or the connecting sheath. The manual came in a good-looking
three ring binder/slip-case library shelf combination. Because of its
sturdy design you can set the binder upright while learning the program to
avoid goose-necking while at the keyboard.
Speaking of the manual...
It would be tragic to have such a powerful tool and not be able to
navigate it due to hard to read, unorganized, and inaccurate
documentation. But such is not the case here. Liz Mitchell ought to take
up ST manual writing for a living. I know many of her ST brethren would
benefit from the thorough, accurate, and easy-to-understand rendering
presented in the Migraph manual. The manual is meticulous and modular,
assuming little and providing quick and easy access to specific functions
within _each_ Migraph mode -- be it drawing, clip, text, lightning, file,
or scan modes. A very thorough contents section points you to each mode
and the particular functions within each mode. Since some functions in
different modes perform the same tasks, it would have been tempting to
explain them once and then have the reader do a little cross-referencing
if the function he looked up had already been explained earlier in the
book. This would have been adequate but Liz and Migraph decided to make
manual-flipping quick and easy by duplicating function explanations in
their separate modes(call it user consideration). Generally, instructions
are given in step 1, step 2, step 3 fashion with _plenty_ of helpful
illustrations and screen shots. There are special chapters devoted to
those who want to 'get up and running' with the scanner and software
quickly, without first having to learn every intricacy of the program. On
to the software...
The Touch-Up low-down....
Touch-Up (ver. 1.56) resides on my Mega 2 mono/color system with an
Atari SLM804 laser printer. Touch-Up requires at least one meg of memory
and a double-sided disk drive; indeed the program comes on two
double-sided disks. Believe it or not T-Up will run in all three
resolutions although monochrome is recommended (will also run with the
Moniterm by Viking); if you must use a color monitor Migraph recommends
you run under low resolution as both high and low rez use square pixels
(1:1 ratio,height to width). Medium rez pixels have a 2:1 ratio and will
distort your screen image. But no matter the screen rez your picture will
not be limited to screen size as T-Up is a virtual-page program. You will
find that in low rez your icons will not appear within their boxes and
using the drop-down menus will be necessary. Almost all icon tools have a
drop-down menu alternative, so you may use the method that's easiest for
you.
Touch-Up will load, edit, and save images of any size and resolution.
You are limited only by computer memory and hard drive size. If you run
out of computer memory Touch-Up uses an ingenious method called hard drive
paging to swap portions of the image into and out of ram. If you have a
Mega you shouldn't be affected too much by program swapping, but it is
invaluable for 1 meg machines. T-Up will import Degas, Tiny, Tiff, IMG,
GEM, PCX, Neochrome, MacPaint, and Printmaster formats while it will
export high resolution images in IMG, IFF, ILBM, GIF, MacPaint,
Printmaster, Degas, and PCX. As you can see T-Up can manipulate files
from all major platforms and will allow you to increase the source of your
ST DTP clipart.
Dots per inch, the real story...
One of T-Up's major strengths lies in the fact that it is presently
the only ST program that can edit and manipulate IMG files. What are the
advantages of IMG files? They are resolution independent and guarantee in
their format the best possible resolution per output device. Image
files(IMG) are also not limited to a single screen of data like Degas or
Neochrome. You can, therefore, create, edit, or scan an image at the
optimum resolution for your printer or project without worrying over pixel
supply. For instance, ST monochrome mode is 640 * 400 pixels. Since my
output device is capable of 300 dpi (dots per inch or _printer pixels_ per
inch), you can see where, if I were creating or scanning at 300 dpi
resolution, I would be limited to a printed image size of approximately
2.15 inches(640/300)wide by 1.33 inches high(400/300). The Migraph screen
is only a _representation_ of my printer page. To _represent_ a laser
printer (or any other printer, such as the Deskjet, that has 300 dpi rez)
the screen needs 4 full inches for every 1 inch on the laser(300
dpi-printer/75 dpi screen). Without Touch-Up's virtual-page capabilities
the largest 300 dpi image I could create on the ST mono monitor would be
2.15 inches by 1.33 inches. As you can see virtual-page representation is
very valuable indeed. Without it the only way I could increase the size
of my 300 dpi images beyond the aforementioned limit, would be to stretch
them inside of my DTP program after import, causing major jaggie blues.
So, the next time you see your friendly Migraph Touch-Up programmer, thank
him for virtual-page capabilities!
Modes of operation....
When you first boot-up Touch-Up you will find yourself in draw mode.
In draw mode you can create and edit objects at various zoom levels with
the exception of full page zoom. You create your object(box, circle, arc,
ellipse, bezier and b-spline curves or free-hand) first as a proto-type
and then, when you are satisfied with it and have found a place on the
page for it (by moving it around with the mouse) you may paste it with the
press of the right mouse button. Every object has a fill pattern, line
style, and shadowing(if you want just an outline drawing and nothing else
you would choose a white fill, transparent writing mode, and no shadow).
At anytime you may save your favorite settings by clicking on the word
defaults under the tools icon. A paint can icon can also be used to fill
an object or the entire page with whatever pattern was last chosen under
the pattern icon.
No mirrors used here...
Clip mode is quite the magical editing tool. While in clip mode you
may select any portion of your image by creating a box around it with the
mouse and left-clicker. Once chosen any of the operations chosen in clip
mode such as outline, clean-up, mirror, flip, rotate, slant, or bolding,
act only on the chosen clip area. My favorite editing tool in clip mode
is by far, flip. Many times I have found myself with a piece of clipart
that(who)had the wrong orientation -- eg. I needed the man to look to the
left and not to the right, I needed the horse to exit stage left but he
insisted stage right. Now all I have to do is load the uncooperative
piece into Touch-Up, put a box around it and say "Flip, dadgummit!".
Within a few seconds, miracle of miracles, my man is looking east and not
west, and my horse is running left and not right, all with no image
distortion.
Text mode includes icons that allow you effortless choosing of
typeface, size(in pixels not points), fill pattern, and text
attributes(such as italics). Once this is done you click on the text
label icon and you are presented with a dialog box to enter your text into
a buffer, up to thirty five characters long. Clicking on Ok takes you out
of the buffer and pressing the left mouse button while on the page
presents you with a box that approximates the height and width (and
descender area) of your text object(very nice!). Move your mouse around
to the perfect spot on the page, click the left button again and your text
object is placed on the page as a graphic object that you may do with as
you please. The key to remember here is that the text cannot be edited as
text(no backspacing, changing of attributes or style, etc.)once it is
pasted onto the page, it is now living happily on the page as a _graphic
object_.
File mode is the area of the program devoted to the loading, saving
and printing of files. If you are loading a GEM file you will also have
the option of choosing the pattern resolution(75,150,300 dpi)of any GEM
system pattern that might have been used in the creation of the GEM
picture. Remember too that once the GEM file, an object oriented drawing,
is loaded into Touch-Up, a bit-image editor, it has left the world of
vectors and entered the bit-image zone. This is why a GEM file is on
Touch-Up's list of imports but is absent from the export list; after
editing it must be saved in any of the bit-image formats listed.
Quick-print vs. Outprint
Within file mode is an icon choice, dedicated to printing your image
without having to leave Touch-Up, _if_ you have at least two megs of
memory. Mega owners with an SLM804 laser printer do not need GDOS
installed to use this option, _although_ you will need to adjust your
default maximum memory usage to the settings outlined in the manual. This
is because the laser requires at least 1 MB to print (Note: Some
experimentation with the values may be necessary. Although the manual
stated I would have to set my memory to 512k, I actually had to drop it to
450k before my image would print.). Quick-print is a nice luxury if your
memory can afford it as output is almost instantaneous. The alternative
to quick-print is outprint, Migraph's GDOS IMG printing program. Touch-Up
will shell out to Outprint once you have chosen it from the drop-down
menus and, when you are finished with printing, you will return to
Touch-Up. When I was speaking earlier in my review about attention to
detail, user consideration, and thorough professionalism, I had incredible
features like this Outprint shell-out, in mind. You will, of course, need
to have GDOS installed to use this option(the manual has excellent
instructions on how to set up GDOS for your particular system).
Unleash your imagination with...
Lightning Mode, a fun, fully featured paint program. Lightning mode
is much faster than draw mode because everything is done in buffers. As a
result it offers many features not offered in other modes, making it one
of the easiest and definitely most creative areas of Touch-Up. Easy in
that until work is pasted on the page(either by pressing the F10 key or
moving out of the present screen with the locator)you may use the UNDO key
to erase the last function and shift-UNDO to erase everything done since
the last time you pasted the buffer. In lightning mode every object that
we explained in draw mode can become a brush complete with patterns, line
styles, and shadowing, _or_ you can use the lasso icon to encircle any
part of the image you want and use it also as a brush(I think an
exclamation mark belongs here somewhere). Incredible possibilities had me
experimenting for hours using different brushes and fill patterns. Also
exclusively within this mode is a spray feature with options and
performance unmatched in any paint program I have seen. You can actually
spray a pattern in various saturations(from 12% to 100%) in perfect
vertical and horizontal directions or free-hand if you choose -- again,
the possibilities are endless. FatBits is an option that will magnify a
tiny portion of the screen so that it fills the entire work area. The
magnified area is shown in normal size in the upper left-hand corner of
the screen so that you may see how your pixel editing is affecting the
image.
Of Beziers and B-splines...
Bezier and B-splines are fancy names for sometimes very fancy curves.
Bezier curves have a mandatory total of 4 control points while a B-spline
can have from 3 to 32 control points and therefore can obviously produce
more complex curves. The control that Touch-Up allows the user when
manipulating these curves, is fascinating. You can instantaneously delete
points, insert them, and move them around, allowing unlimited mastery over
these beauties. These are available in draw and lightning modes but they
truly shine in the latter mode where they become complex brushes! My jaw
nearly dropped in wonderment as I discovered, for hours on end, the
incredible effects of painting with these beautiful curves. A simple
bezier curve became a beautiful three-dimensional vase with one circular
mouse motion. Other three-dimensional shapes that I had never seen or
imagined came to life before my eyes. Touch-Up is truly a master over
Bezier and B-spline technology (maybe they ought to rename these curves,
mi-graphs?). On that note lets move on to the...
Migraph Hand Scanner
The Migraph Hand Scanner scans line-art and halftones (photographs) at
100, 200, true 300, or 400 dots per inch (dpi). The hardware comes in 3
pieces including the scanner itself, a compact cartridge interface, and an
AC power pack that connects into the cartridge. With all power off I
inserted the cartridge into its port, on the side and towards the back of
the Mega (never plug this in while the computer is turned on!). Next I
plugged the scanner and the power pack into the cartridge; with that I was
finished installing the hardware! (Note: I had a little problem getting a
clean cart connection the first few times and eventually had to raise the
Mega up off the table by placing 4 bad disks under each corner; don't ask
me what I was doing with 4 bad disks laying around but they came in
handy).
After turning the computer on and booting Touch-Up, I entered the scan
mode by clicking on an icon of the scanner. According to the manual I set
my software and hardware at the same resolution and then chose full width
at 4 inches height for my scanning area. Since I was scanning some black
and white ink drawings out of a book I set my document setting on the side
of the scanner to Letter(this is the setting to use for line-art, there
are also three dither settings for halftones represented by small, medium
and large dots). All set to go, I then clicked on the icon for scanning
to full-page(as opposed to scanning into a clip area). Touch-Up then
warned me of overwriting the existing image to which I hit the return key.
Looking over the top of the scanner I noticed a long, thin, green light
appear in the scanner window. I aligned the light over the image, pressed
and held in the start button on the side of the scanner and proceeded to
slowly move the scanner, without any guides, down the length of the
drawing. A small round green dot just below the scanner window remained
solid throughout the scan indicating to me that I was not going too fast
(it flickers if you are scanning too fast for it to gather the 100-400
dots per inch needed as dictated by the scanner and software settings).
When I had scanned down 4 inches(as set in the software) the scanning
light went off and within 2 seconds, the image in my book appeared
magically on my monitor. The first time you do this you are awe-struck to
say the least. "This is neat!", I exclaimed and immediately I showed it to
my wife, my 8 year old girl, my 2 year old toddler, my 2 month old baby
boy, and my three gold fish.
In the last month or so, I have become quite the scanning fool and
have made the following observations. Before I got the product I thought
that scanning would be a fun but touch-and-go proposition, subject to an
exacting and rigid discipline. I couldn't have been further from the
truth. I have found it very easy to keep the scanner in a straight line
and have had the little round light flicker at me only once. Most of the
time I keep the contrast dial on the scanner set in the middle and my
scanned images have been echoed to my monitor with _incredible_ clarity.
I rarely have to use the clean up tools available within the clip mode due
to very clean and crisp scans. I have seen scanners on MS-DOS computers
but their output doesn't come close to matching the Migraph Hand Scanner.
Some scanner facts...
The Migraph Hand Scanner has a large 4 1/8 inch scanning window.
Depending on computer memory, image resolution and scanning width you can
scan an image from 2 to 14 inches in height. The scanner has three dither
settings. Normally the small dots setting provides the best output for
halftones but experimentation with dpi, contrast, and dither settings is
easily afforded by the scanner's speedy operation. The scanner turns off
automatically when not in use so as to avoid damage.
True 300 and 400 dpi settings?
Logically you may reason that Migraph is saying that most, if not all,
hand scanners only simulate 300 and 400 dpi scanning and this is _exactly_
the case. Other scanners have only one bank of sensors that receive only
200 dots of data per inch. They use a mirroring type algorithm in their
software to _simulate_ 300 and 400 dpi. The Migraph Hand Scanner on the
other hand has two banks of these sensors and can therefore receive up to
400 actual dots of data per inch! How do they do it? Well certainly not
with mirrors.
To try and help you get a practical grasp on the peculiarities of
different resolutions(dpi) as they relate specifically to the scanned
output of the Migraph Hand Scanner, I have prepared a comparison table. I
ran a test that consisted of scanning the same image(the witch line-art
sample in the Touch_Up manual) at all 4 resolution settings on the
scanner(100,200,300, and 400 dpi). For each scan my scanning area was
full width at 4 inches of height. After each scan I saved the picture in
IMG format under a different file name and before I moved on to the next
scan I printed it out on the Atari laser through the quick-print option.
I then measured each scan by by file size, printed width and printed
height.
IMG File Printed Printed
DPI Size(bytes) Height(inches) Width(inches)
-----------------------------------------------
| 100 | 6201 | 14/16 | 15/16 |
-----------------------------------------------
| 200 | 17997 | 1 & 11/16 | 1 & 13/16 |
-----------------------------------------------
| 300 | 32653 | 2 & 9/16 | 2 & 11/16 |
-----------------------------------------------
| 400 | 49613 | 3 & 7/16 | 3 & 8/16 |
-----------------------------------------------
Generally speaking, there were no jaggies in any of the pictures.
With greater dpi came greater detail in a larger printed picture. At each
level the area of the picture increased fourfold. For instance the 200 dpi
picture was 4 times the size of the 100 dpi picture (and in greater
detail); the 300 dpi picture was 4 times larger than the 200 dpi picture
and the 400 dpi was 4 times larger than the 300 dpi picture. Taking this
further, the 300 dpi inch picture wound up being 12 times the size of the
100 dpi picture. Hmm ..Get the picture?
In conclusion...
Touch-Up seems to be quite at peace with itself and the scanner. Not
_once_ did the program bomb itself out while interfacing with the scanner,
entering and exiting the various modes, shelling back and forth to
Outprint, or while arguing with me about my maximum memory allocation.
Remember how I had to experiment with defaults before I could get quick
print to work? I've seen this type of interaction eat many a program's
lunch!).
Touch-Up also gets an award for being quite the GEM thoroughbred; when
they say GEM-based they mean it. Never before have I seen an ST program
take advantage of GEM like Touch-Up does -- here we have a program that
has rediscovered the right clicker for the benefit of a very powerful and
slick user-interface. Because of the program's sophistication they could
have easily copped out on GEM and stuck us with an interface riddled with
control, shift, and alternate, key-combo's. Instead they stuck with the
intuitiveness of GEM, benefiting both the beginning _and_ experienced
user. Thank you Migraph!
Finally...
The Migraph Hand Scanner and Touch-Up package is a must for any small
or large business involved with desktop publishing. Once you start
availing yourself to Touch-Up's incredible editing, design and creation
tools for high-resolution images you will conscientiously make it a part
of a large percentage of your projects. Time is money and the time and
effort that Touch-up will save you will enable you to be a more productive
DTP'er. And if you are a professional DTP'er you already know that you
_have_ to have a scanner; I won't belabor the point but I will say that
the 300+ net cost of the scanner now puts scanning convenience within
everyone's reach without compromising output quality. And for these same
reasons I would _highly_ recommend this package to the serious home
user(besides its a _whole_ heck of a lot of fun!).
Believe it or not I feel as though I just scratched the surface of
this incredible offering from Migraph. I would need about 5 more sessions
to do the product justice and indeed I may come back to it in the future.
In the mean time why don't you save me the breath and experience it
yourself!
Migraph Inc.
200 S. 333rd Suite 220
Federal Way, WA. 98003
(206)838-4677 - (800)223-3729
___________________________________________________________________
> Kidpublisher Pro STR Review¿ Desk Top Publishing for all ages!
===========================
DTP for the Small Fry!!
=======================
by R. E. Rosendale
The latest kidprg (tm) by D. A. Brumleve is Kidpublisher Professional
a desktop publishing program for young writers, recommended for children
ages 5-11. The version number is 6.0 because there are earlier "careware"
versions of Kidpublisher.
What makes this version different from the earlier versions other than
the word Professional being added is that it is an expanded, improved, and
completely rewritten version. a faster word processor with word wrap and
an underline function has been added. There are now four font sets. When
you select the font icon you will go to a font screen, click with the
mouse on the portion of the screen to see the different styles. When you
have decided which font it will automatically load (only one is usable at
a time - no mixed fonts).
If there is any text already typed it will automatically change to the
new font, it is recommended you select your desired font first so that
there will not be any overflow of text at the bottom of the screen, i.e.
starting with a small font and then changing to the large font will reduce
the number of words allowed per line or page. The drawing program has
been expanded so that besides Line, Box, Circle and Fill there is now an
Undo feature.
The manual is written with the parent or teacher in mind and there is
a pull-out instruction sheet for the child to use, one side for the text
editor and the other side for the drawing program. One of the nicest
features is the addition of a title page so that if the child is making a
booklet, they may title it, give the author credit and give the
illustrator credit.
Other than the title page, each page is divided into two parts. The
top half for the drawing and the bottom for the text. The ruled typing
area provides seven lines of thirty-three columns each. If a word is
typed at the end of a line and the word is too long it will word wrap that
word down to the next line. The red cursor can be controlled by either
the arrow keys or the mouse. The F1 - F10 function keys, Esc, Tab,
Control, Alternate, Help, Insert, and Clr/Home keys do not operate.
The drawing screen becomes active when Draw is selected on the typing
screen, to return to the typing screen select the Type icon. Of course
the only colors available are Black on a White background, but here is a
hint, if you select the solid black Fill pattern you can select the Erase
icon and "draw" in white. For creativity, the child may want to hand
color their pictures after they are printed. The same is true if the
outline font is selected.
The Blank option in either the typing or drawing mode will present the
user with an alert box, asking to erase the whole screen.
Selecting the Page icon in either mode will move you to the next page
in the same mode. There are five text pages and five drawing pages. If
you are on page five and select page again, you will be returned to the
first page. This comes in handy to flip through the pages to remind you
what you have previously done. All five pages remain in memory until
saved.
When typing and drawings are complete it is time to either save or
print the pages created, or both. If saved, the same story and pictures
will be loaded. If your child wants to keep their collection of story/art
masterpieces they will need multiple copies of the disk in order that each
story will autoload when the disk is booted. This was done so that the
child would not have to swap disks. As an adult, I would have preferred a
load feature so that each story could be loaded from a folder named for
the story. The Kidpublisher Professional package does contain extra
labels.
Kidpublisher Professional comes with a unique copying policy. If you,
as a parent, have several children in your household, may furnish each
child a copy of the original disk. If you are a school teacher and your
students use Atari ST's at school. You may furnish a copy for each one of
the students. If however, little Johnny next door wants a copy, ask his
parents get a copy of one of the earlier careware versions or buy a copy
for their household.
Kidpublisher Professional sells for $25 from:
D. A. Brumleve
P. O. Box 4195
Urbana, IL 61801-8820.
_____________________________________________________________________
> SYQUEST NEWS STR Spotlight¿ The LATEST info....
==========================
ON THE CUTTING EDGE
===================
The first 5 1/4 inch Winchester disk drive with its disks, read/write
heads and positioning motors sealed in a self-contained, low-profile
removable data module is announced by Syquest Technology Inc. of Fremont
California.
The unit is called the SQ5200, the 175 mb (formatted) SyQuest drive
offers the convenience and flexibility of a removable cartridge Winchester
disk drive and the versatility, performance and storage capacities
associated with conventional, high performance, fixed disk drives. It is
designed specifically for work station applications requiring unlimited
storage capacities and single workstations supporting multiple, high
capacity users with private or dedicated data bases. It is also aimed at
applications where data security is a critical element in systems design,
for high speed file back up and for data interchange.
The SQ5200 incorporates fully embedded SCSI controllers for ease of
integration into a wide range of workstations and small business desktop
computer systems. Its design harkens back to the first Winchester disk
drive, the 14 inch IBM 3340 introduced in 1972, according to SyQuest vice
president of sales and marketing Arnold Cooley. "Until that time disk
drives incorporated removable disk packs," he said, "but the demands for
more capacity led to the development of a new type of drive, the fixed
disk Winchester."
The desire for data storage devices that made provision for removing
the disk, storing it or interchanging it with other drives remained strong
among many users, however. As a result, the IBM 3340 was designed so that
the sealed head/disk assembly containing read/write heads, disks and
actuators could be removed as a single unit and interchanged with other
drives.
This feature disappeared as the reliability of fixed disk drives
increased. "Nonetheless, there has always been a large body of
applications in which removability is a key consideration," Cooley said.
"Many of these applications can be satisfied by the removable, fixed disk
Winchester cartridge drives now on the market." Use of the module concept
also permits the use of multiple disks in a removable product for even
more storage capacity, he added.
The SyQuest 5200 series data module drives incorporate a rotary voice
coil actuator to handle head positioning, and operate at average seek
times of 19 milliseconds. They can handle asynchronous transfer rates as
high as 1.25 mb per second. Synchronous transfer rates between drive and
system can reach 5 mb per second. The data module itself slips in and out
of the drive chassis and is hooked to the printed circuit board via an
electrical connector at the rear of the module.
Other key specifications of the SQ5200 include:
Track density 1407 tpi
Tracks per surface 1747
Recording density 25,065 bpi
Flux density 16,710 fci
Recording method 2,7 RLL
MTBF 60,000 hours
Start/stop cycles 20,000 minimum
Dimensions 1 x 5.25 x 8
Power (Idle) 9 watts
The SQ5200 is priced at $690.00 including data module, in OEM
quantities. Evaluation versions will be available at the end of this
year; production versions will be available in the first quarter of 1990.
SyQuest Technology Inc. was founded in 1982 and has shipped over
300,000 drives and 1 million cartridges. The company maintains a 76,000
sq ft. manufacturing and administrative facility in Fremont California,
and an 8500 sq ft facility in Singapore. A 40,000 sq ft. manufacturing
facility in Singapore will be brought online in January 1990. The company
is privately held.
Editor Note:
Both the 5.25 inch 175mb unit and the new 3.5 inch 42mb units were
operating and on display at Comdex/Fall '89 show in Las Vegas.
The SyQuest 3.5 inch unit called the SQ355 is 42mb (formatted) and
provides the same basic benefits at all the fine units in the SyQuest
family of fine products. The SQ 355 is expected to boost versatility in
most all the laptops available.
The SQ 355 operates at an average seek time of 19 milliseconds and is
equipped with either a 16 bit AT interface or an embedded SCSI controller.
Key specifications include:
Track density 1407 tpi
Tracks per surface 1257
Recording density 23,736 bpi
Flux density 15,824 fci
Recording method 2,7 RLL
Data Xfer Rate SCSI Asyn 1.25 mb sec
Data Xfer Rate SCSI Sync 4.0 mb sec
Data Xfer Rate AT 2.5 mb sec
Data Xfer Rate Buffer xfer 4.0 mb sec
MTBF 50,000 hours
Start/stop cycles 10,000 minimum
Dimensions 1 x 4 x 5.75
The SQ 355 is priced at 290.00 including cartridge in OEM quantities.
Evaluation versions of this unit will be available during the first
quarter of 1990.
___________________________________________________________
> BRANCH SOFTWARE STR Spotlight¿ A bright, NEW company supports Atari!
=============================
Branch Always Software is ready for business!
=============================================
December 1, 1989
Branch Always Software is proud to announce its entry into the Atari
ST retail software market. Branch Always Software was founded by two
programmers you already know well, Ignac A. Kolenko and Darek Mihocka,
authors of several popular public domain and shareware programs.
The goal of our company is to provide all ST users with low cost
quality software that runs on all Atari ST systems, whether for 512K
machines or 4 meg machines. We write software for the exact same reason
you bought an Atari ST in the first place: to provide power without a
large price.
Up until now, our software was available only as shareware. But we
understand that not all users have access to bulletin boards and that some
users want the convenience of being able to buy software through a dealer.
Our first product, Quick ST, is now shipping to Atari dealers
throughout the United States and Canada, which includes 3 programs for a
price of only $19.95 US.
The package contains Quick ST version 1.7, Quick Index, and Quick
View, as well as some of our previously released public domain software.
Quick ST increases the speed at which the ST performs screen
operations, such as printing text to the screen, scrolling the screen,
drawing windows and dialog boxes, and reducing the overhead of other
graphics operations.
The result is that your Atari ST appears to run faster and smoother.
Quick ST runs from the AUTO folder and so does not use any desk accessory
slots or require interaction with the user. It is completely transparent
to other applications, and uses only 10K to 20K of memory.
Quick Index is the de facto benchmarking software for the Atari
ST/STE/TT line of computers. Its 11 different tests show the relative
speed of your system in such categories as CPU speed, disk drive speed,
and TOS efficiency. It is already widely used to test various hardware
upgrades, such as accelerator boards, memory caches, and hard disks.
Quick View is a very useful text file reader. It quickly displays
text files, forwards and backwards, and is very handy for reading large
README files, online magazines, and even source code. It can run from the
desktop, from a command line shell, or as an installed application.
Simply double click on a text file and Quick View automatically loads.
If your dealer does not yet carry Quick ST, ask him to order it from
distributors such as Horizon Computers or Pacific Software Supply. In
Canada, or overseas, they can order directly from Branch Always Software.
We also offer discounts to user groups. Write or call for details.
We at Branch Always Software know that the best ways to attract users
to our products are to keep prices low and have our products available
when advertized. This means that we won't waste our money on fancy
packaging or big glossy magazine ads. But it does mean that you can go to
your dealer and buy Quick ST now, not next quarter or next summer.
We will not make any vaporware announcements, so when we are actually
shipping our next product, we will announce it, and product demos will
also be uploaded to Compuserve and GEnie.
In the meantime, we'd like to wish everyone a safe an happy holiday
season, and we hope to see everybody back in 1990.
If you are a software developer and would like to market your software
through us, give us a call. We are looking for other quality low cost
software to bring to Atari users.
Branch Always Software
PO Box 2624, Station B
Kitchener, Ontario N2H 6N2
Canada
phone: (519)-570-4340
FAX: available in January
Compuserve: 73657,2714
GEnie: DAREKM
Usenet: uunet!watcgl!electro!brasoft!ignac
or uunet!watcgl!electro!brasoft!darek
Quick ST 1.7: $19.95
_______________________________________________________________________
> SEAGATE! STR Spotlight¿ The origin of ST506/412 standard.
======================
A GROWTH INDUSTRY SHINES!
=========================
by R.F. Mariano
It seems like only yesterday that Seagate set out to create the first
5.25 hard disc drive for PCs. Its amazing to see that a decade has gone
by since they opened up shop in Scots Valley, California.
The advent of the personal computer in the '70s the most powerful
initiative. This new, powerhouse of a desktop machine provided users with
unheard of capabilities and opportunities. Seagate seemed to recognize an
opportunity of their own; "A chance to apply their expertise in floppies
and large hard disc drives to small hard disc drives for these very
popular and capable computers.
The first generation of personal computers used floppy disks or tape
drives for loading and storage of data and programs. While adequate, the
capacity and severe speed limitations left users wanting more.. much more.
And so, in steps Seagate, they decided to apply the storage principles of
the 8" Winchester drive, but shrink the size and price. Thus, providing
the users with a high speed, high capacity and less expensive storage
solution.
In mid 1980, Seagate unveiled the ST506, the world's first full height
5.25 inch hard disc drive for personal computers. (notice ST506? An
industry standard) .. With a huge 5 mb of formatted capacity and a rather
hefty price tag, compared to today's standards, of $1500.00, this was the
greatest thing to hit the computer industry since software itself. This
first model hit a blistering seek rate of 85 msecs and carried a meager
11,000 hours MTBF rate. Hard discs have certainly come a long, long way.
As the userbase began to snap up these jewels of storage, the volume
caused the prices to become more reasonable, $900.00 or approximately
$180.00 per megabyte. The demand for this device was nothing short of
phenomenal and as a result, the Seagate name and industry standard was
firmly established. Thus, the ST506/ designation. The users were quick
to appreciate the benefits of a hard disc drive in their personal systems.
However, they soon realized the need for more storage. Therefore in no
time at all, Seagate increased the areal density and in 1982 they
introduced the ST412. [ST506/412 - look familiar?] The basic interface
of these models have remained fully an industry standard.
A major factor that has seen monumental change is the cost to produce
a hard disc drive. As the technologies and manufacturing processes have
advanced, and as market consumption has steadily increased, prices have
dropped dramatically. In response to the demand for higher quality and
lower prices, Seagate, almost six years ago, decided to divide their
operations three ways, the United States, Singapore and Bangkok. This
manuever enhanced the production costs appreciably.
Another major player in the forming of today's market was the vast
change to shape of the distribution channels. No longer would there be
only OEM sales. Now dealers were stocking the devices and installing
them. This type of dealer and value adders were a whole new ballgame for
Seagate, who responded by creating a distribution network that was
designed to compliment existing OEM agreements.
Seagate soon learned that servicing a multitude of dealers was quite
different from a handful of OEMs and was faced with developing a full
scale service, training and support program to maximize customer
satisfaction worldwide.
The eighties gave the users an opportunity to observe the hard disc
industry in a relatively short ten year period that experienced a shakeout
the likes of which had never been seen. This is evidenced by the fact
that very few, if any, of Seagate's original competitors are still around.
Not only did Seagate survive the tumult, they have established products,
technologies and development resources that are designed to keep Seagate
at the forefront of the mass storage, disc industry for the next decade
and more.
___________________________________________________________________
> ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿ Sayin' it like it is....
======================
- British Columbia, CAN. ****** GRAVIS TO FIX MEGA TIMING BUG! ******
---------------------
Gravis is very much aware of the MEGA BOOTUP PROBLEMS and have stated
they have SOLID PLANS TO FIX THE PROBLEM. However, they did say that
those users who own the new joystick and have not registered it must do so
as soon as possible, if they expect to have the problem remedied. In the
meantime, to avoid the timing problem plug the joystick AFTER booting your
Mega, they said. While reflecting on the Gravis joystick, Falcon flies
great - set auto centering on the stick, mouse 2 option in the control
menu, push the forward button once to center - the stick centers on its
own from here on. Give the stick a try on Shufflepuck Cafe - leave it in
auto centering and set the handle tension to 0. This takes a little
getting used to, but it works great. In addition, the reception of the
Gravis joystick in Europe has been first rate all the way. Looks like
they know a good thing when they see one. If you have any questions,
call: 604-434-7274, we did and we must say "they are extremely helpful
folks". Besides, who said it was a bug? ...Its an undocumented feature!
It checks timing.
- Rockville, MD ***** GEnie OPENS PORTFOLIO FILE LIBRARY *****
-------------
In keeping with the full support premise, GEnie and its Atari
Roundtables have opened a dedicated Portfolio files library. This move
compliments the already functioning Category 35 area focusing on messages
posted pertaining to the Portfolio to and from users and Atari support
personnel.
- Chicago, IL. ***** SEARS SEZ LYNX BACKORDERED 'TILL 12/24! *****
------------ CHRISTMAS EVE???
"T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house...." The
old familiar expression may have a very empty ring to it this year if
Santa can't deliver.. Indeed an upcoming generation will have a hard time
forgetting the BIG LETDOWN if there are no Lynx game machines under the
tree. Knowing this, its easy to understand why all of Santa's helpers are
frantically getting the job done to make sure there are NO tears in * any
* youngster's eyes.. but backordered right to Christmas Eve? Atari sez
12/21, in any case, its ...Kinda tight but do-able ...
- Washington, DC ***** AMIGA COMPUTERS FOR UNCLE SAM *****
--------------
Commodore has announced their negotiations with Uncle Sam were
successful and they have been awarded a government contract. The Pentagon
will be able to procure Amiga Computers for all branches of the military,
they said. It is also reported that NASA is part of the contract and will
also require a number of Amiga computers.
- Jacksonville, FL. ****** PC DITTO IS ALIVE AND WELL! ******
-----------------
Bill Teal of Avant Garde paid a visit to Peripheral Vision in
Jacksonville today and demonstrated PC - DITTO II. According to the folks
who attended, the device is as solid as a rock and performed flawlessly.
Also noted was the fact that those folks who have received the second
postcard acknowledging the prepaid order will be receiving their Ditto II
very shortly. Avant Garde has already shipped "review" units to the
magazines. So... rest easy folks, Bill Teal has come through.
___________________________________________________________________
> Hard Drive Info STReport InfoFile¿ Affordable Mass Storage
=================================
NEW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!!
============================
ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC.
P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672
Est. 1985
_________________________________________
Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT
BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST
FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT
_________________________________________
HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET
_____________________________________
All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST
are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s).
ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE
(you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!)
(all cables and connectors installed)
RUGGED SEAGATE HARD DISK MECHANISMS
* ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS *
32mb #SG32238 549.00 42mb #SG44710 619.00
51mb #SGN4951 629.00 65mb #SG60101 689.00
80mb #SGN296 729.00 100mb #SG84011D 949.00
130mb #SG1244D 1099.00 145mb #SG3A421 1110.00
170mb #SGT41776 1389.00 260mb #SG1244Q 2169.00
320mb #SGN7788Q 3295.00
Listed above are a sampling of the systems available.
Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations
(over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited)
********--> CALL for SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISCOUNTS <--********
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
*** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms ***
ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> MAGIC SAC - PC-DITTO/II - SPECTRE/GCR
LARGER units are available - (special order only)
* Removable Media Devices NOW Available (44mb) Syquest 555 *
* SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICES *
EXTRA CARTRIDGES: 97.95 (anytime)
* SYQUEST 44MB (#555) REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE *
- SYQUEST 44 MB removable media drive - ICD ST Host Adapter
- ICD Mass Storage Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable
- Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply
(1) 44 MB Syquest Cart.
Completely Assembled and READY TO RUN!
ONLY $869.00
We would offer floppy drives.. but Computer Shopper has 'em at the right
price. And.. you can plug 'em right into our cabinets and power supplies.
Low-Boy OR Standard Case (designed with room for another 3.5 OR 5.25"
drive) They're made for user expansion! TRUE UPGRADE-ABILITY!
* TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
SPECIALLY PRICED $1529.00
* SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
- Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
50mb SQG51 $1299.00 30mb SQG38 $1219.00
65mb SQG09 $1339.00 85mb SQG96 $1399.00
LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
- Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets -
ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED
-* 12 month FULL Guarantee *-
(A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE)
Quantity & Usergroup Discounts Available!
_________________________________________
DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
Personal and Company Checks are accepted.
ORDER YOURS TODAY!
904-783-3319 9am - 8pm EDT
_______________________________________________________________
> A "Quotable Quote"¿
=================
"We must all learn to crawl ...BEFORE we TRYING to run!"
... ALSOP'S FABLES
"ATARI IS BACK!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
ST-REPORT¿ Issue #116 "Your Independent News Source" December 01, 1989
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ½ copyright 1989
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Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors, staff, ST Report¿ or CPU Report¿. Reprint permission is
hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. All reprints must include ST
Report or CPU Report and the author's name. All information presented
herein is believed correct, STReport or CPU Report, it's editors and staff
are not responsible for any use or misuse of information contained herein.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
