• Tag Archives IBM

  • PC World (July 1988)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – July 1988

    Computer magazines were pretty bulky back in the day. This issue of PC World, one of the more popular magazines at the time, from July 1988 weighs in at nearly 300 pages. It includes:

    Data Management

    • Omnis Quartz 1.13 – This was the first relational database manager for Windows.
    • Q&A 3.0 – The features included in the latest update for this database manager include better performance, overlapping windows, and better backup capabilities.
    • DataEase 2.5 release 3 – This database manager includes the use of forms and menus for all functions as well as its own command language.
    • Paradox/386 – An updated version of Paradox 2.0 that performs two to ten times faster by being able to directly address up to 16MB of extended memory.
    • FoxBase+/386 – Similar to dBASE III Plus but faster and includes improved developer tools.

    Word Processing

    • DisplayWrite 4/2 – A version of the DisplayWrite word processor for OS/2.
    • XyWrite III Plus 3.53 – This version of Xywrite adds desktop publishing features, a thesaurus and spell checker.
    • Nota Bene 3.0 – A word processor that was once popular in academic settings, it includes fast indexing, lots of style and formatting commands, and foreign language processing.
    • Q&A Write 1.03 – A relatively inexpensive (which at the time meant $199) and easy to use word processor that still has lots of features.
    • Microsoft Pageview 1.0 – A utility for Word that allows the import of graphics and previews of different font styles and column layouts.
    • ABC Word 1.0 – An electronic dictionary and thesaurus.
    • Microsoft Bookshelf – A digital reference library on CD that includes The American Heritage Dictionary, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, The Chicago Manual of Style, Roget’s II: Electronic Thesaurus, and Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations plus Houghton Mifflin’s grammar checker (Usage Alert) and Spelling Verifier and Corrector. The software cost $295 and also came as a packaged with a CD-ROM drive, interface and software (not at all common in 1984) for $1099.

    Spreadsheet Add-Ins

    • Lucid 3-D 1.0 – A pop-up spreadsheet that includes file linking, auditing functions, and more.
    • SQZ Plus – Helps you to save disk space and secure your data.
    • 3-2-1 Bastoff 1.0 – Speeds up recalculations in Lotus 1-2-3.
    • 4Views 1.0 – Adds better sorting, easier data entry features, and reporting features to Lotus 1-2-3.
    • The Worksheet Utilities – A collection of utilities than include autosave, file manager, and much more.
    • Cambridge Spreadsheet Analyzer 2.0 – Helps you find errors in Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets.
    • 101 Macros for 1-2-3 – A bunch of macros for Lotus 1-2-3 that add various capabilities.

    Desktop Publishing

    • PagePerfect – Combines the features of a word processor and page-layout program.
    • Publisher’s Type Foundry 1.02 – A font editor that works with LaserJet and PostScript.
    • Corel Tabin 1.00, Table Manners 2.2, VP/Tabs 1.0 – A collection of programs that help import Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets into Ventura Publisher.
    • Corel Ventura Utilities – More tools for Ventura Publisher that help with reorganizing files, creating macros and use laser printers.

    Business Graphics

    • Business Graphics Roundup – A category of software that was mostly consumed by Power Point. Products looked at here include Freelance Plus 2.0, GEM Presentation Team 1.0, Microsoft Chart 3.0, 35mm Express 4.1, and Windows Graph 1.0.

    Departments

    • In This Issue – A preview of this special “Software Update” issue.
    • Top of the News – The latest PC related news including: a new IBM Model 5535 laptop featuring a 10 MHz 286, 1 MB RAM, 1.44MB floppy, and 20MB hard drive for $4000; Ashton-Tate creates new dCAL language for dBASE; the debut of SuperCalc 5; new Full Impact spreadsheet program for Macintosh; new 2400bps and 9600bps Smartmodems from Hayes; new 286 based laptop from Mitsubishi; and more.
    • David Bunnell – The potential threat that Apple’s lawsuits against Microsoft and HP pose to creativity and innovation in the computer industry.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about the recent format change in PC World, a review of SmartKey, VP-Planner, Quattro vs. 1-2-3 benchmarks, public e-mail services, faxing vs. e-mail, and more.
    • Richard Landry – Vendors and proprietary “standards”.
    • Next In PC World – The next issue of PC World focusses on “low-cost computing”.
    • Stewart Alsop – IBM’s marketing hype for their Micro Channel bus included on PS/2 computers.
    • On IBM – A look at IBM’s strategy vs. Compaq’s strategy and how Compaq in winning.
    • Industry Outlook – The first Micro Channel clones arrive including machines from Tandy and Dell; Lotus 1-2-3 still leads spreadsheet sales; sales of DOS based spreadsheet programs expected to increase through 1989; Intel introduces lower cost 386SX CPU; Tandy introduces THOR, an erasable optical technology; memory prices rise dramatically; and more.
    • Preview – A preview of dBASE IV which includes a built-in compiler, 240 new commands, and support for SQL.
    • Product Outlook – Previews of upcoming products including ColorScript 100 (a postscript compatible color printer), SideKick Plus (memory resident utilities), AT&T WorkGroup System (a new powerful machine from AT&T meant for the Starlan network), DeskScan 2000 (A cheaper, lower-res scanner that uses ambient lighting), and more.
    • Briefly Noted – A brief look at Netremote (a Crosstalk compatible program that allows up to 15 PCs to share files and peripherals), Star 2 (low-priced printer), NX-1000 Rainbow (a 7-color dot-matrix printer), RamQuest II and RamQuest Extra (memory expansion boards for PS/2 computers offering up to 8MB of additional RAM), and more.
    • Update – A brief look at the latest versions of various products including Lap-Link Plus/Desk-Link (allows sharing resources between two computers), PopDrop 3.1 (provides info on memory resident programs), SuperProject Expert/2 (enables the use of 16MB of expanded memory), Powermate 1 (a program for the Powermate Portable that allows switching clock speeds and expanding memory to 10.6MB), and more.
    • The Hardware Shelf – A look at new hardware including the Stanford Systems 286-16 (a 12 MHz 286 base system with 1MB of RAM and 5.25″ floppy drive for #1479), the Hyundai Super-16 XT-Turbo (a 8-MHz 8088-2 based system with 640K RAM for $999), the NEC Multispeed HD (a laptop featuring a V30 CPU @ 9.54 MHz, 20MB hard drive and 640K of RAM for $3895), and more.
    • The Upgrade Path – A look at CSSL’s Awesome I/O Card which plugs into the back of an AT, Deskpro 386 or compatible and provides 128K cache (expandable to 512K) and also remaps the data structure if your hard drive resulting in a 25% increase in performance. Plus a look at a 1.2MB floppy drive upgrade for PC and XT computers.
    • The Help Screen – Questions answered about using a U.S. PC in Switzerland, leaving laser printers on, character conversions in PageMaker and the LaserJet Series II printer, the Tandy 1000SX and assembly programming, and using 1.44M 3.5″ drives in an IBM PC.
    • Sourcebooks – Reviews of books including Desktop Publishing Bible, The Illustrated Handbook of Desktop Publishing and Typesetting, and The Brady Guide to CD-ROM.
    • Another Angle – A criticism of shareware. The author seems to think that only free software and commercial software are valid options and other options are “greed”. And also that apparently time invested in something doesn’t count as a business expense. To be fair, some valid criticisms are made like unclear licensing terms, programs that expire without warning, etc.

    …and more!


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  • PC World (February 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – February 1985

    PC World was one of the most popular magazines dedicated to IBM PC and compatible computers. I thrived in the 1980s and 1990s and survived well into the second decade of the new century. However, like pretty much all computer magazines, this one eventually died as a result of the Internet. The February 1985 issue includes:

    Getting Started

    • Strategies for Sharing Resources – A multi-user system with multiple terminals or a LAN may be a better alternative to simply buying more PCs when your business needs to expand.

    Community

    • The Organization LAN – The necessity of networking when dealing with a multitude of PCs.

    Review

    • Six Leading LANs – A comparison of the six leading Local Area Network solutions, including Netware/S-Net (Novell), EtherSeries (3Com), Omninet (Corvus Systems), PLAN 3000 (Nestar Systems), PCnet (Orchid Technology), and Net/One (Ungermann-Bass).
    • The Multiuser Dimension – An alternative to a LAN was a multi-user system with IBM PCs basically used as smart terminals. This article looks specifically at the North Star Dimension which supported 12 workstation, ran a custom OS and was compatible with MS-DOS 2.11.
    • Breaking Ground in Construction – A review of Software Shop, an accounting package specialized for the construction industry.

    PCjr World

    • Color on Command – A look at the Palette command provided on cartridge BASIC for the IBM PCjr. This was a command designed to allow for easily changing colors or even doing simple animations.
    • A Drive to Succeed – The PCjr was limited in a variety of ways compared to the PC. However, there were several add-ons that were made by third parties to improve the situation. This article looks at one such product, the “Drive Two Enhancement Package” from Rapport. This package includes a second disk drive, a parallel printer port, a clock/calendar with battery backup, and an optional 128K-384K memory expansion. It also increases compatibility with PC software.

    State of the Art

    • A New Focus on Data Management – A look at PC/Focus, a “fourth generation” computer language (Focus) for the PC. It’s main advantage seems to be making data management easier.

    Hands On

    • Untangling Networks – A guide to finding the Local Arean Network product that will work best for you.

    Departments

    • Davin Bunnell – An interesting story in which a user planted stolen credit card numbers on a BBS without the sysops knowledge. The phone company somehow discovered this through its own BBS snooping software and notified the police. The poor guy who ran the BBS had is computer confiscated (stolen) and was charged as an accessory to the crime. An argument is presented here as to whether the BBS operator is equivalent to a newspaper publisher or simply providing a communications medium. This argument has come up more recently with social media but as you can see, it’s nothing new.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about indexes of old articles, a tip for entering a date in Lotus 1-2-3 that auto updates, the PCs chess playing skills, Sargon III, and more.
    • PC World View – Microsoft debuts the Microsoft Press International Publishing Consortium through which it will publish various books around the world; the usage of personal computers in political campaigns increased greatly in 1984…most of the time, those using computers won; a prototype IBM PC AT was stolen from an IBM lab in Palm Beach County, Florida. The thief was not caught; IBM announces its own local area network product; and more.
    • The Help Screen – Questions answered about using RAM disks.
    • Compatibles Update – AT&T releases a video display adapter, image capture board, and other products for “AT&T and compatible computers”; Zenith awarded contract for 30,000 Tempest certified Z-150 PCs; Ford Aerospace buys $1.5 million worth of Seequa PC and XT desktop computers which will go to NASA engineers in Houston; the IRS field-tests GRiD Compass portable computers; and more.
    • From the Software Shelf – First impressions of various software including Macro-Toolkit for Lotus, SideKick Version 1.10A, A>Cook: The Complete Computer Recipe System, PC Abstracts, and Textra.

    …and more!


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  • Byte (November 1988 – IBM Special Edition) 

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Byte – November 1988 (IBM Special Edition)

    Byte was one of the earliest and most in-depth computer magazines around while it was being published. It began life in the 1970s and lasted all the way into the 1990s. This issue is from November 1988 and is one of two issues published that month. Once the IBM PC became a huge deal, Byte started doing a yearly special “IBM” issue and did so for a number of years. This is one of those special IBM issues and it includes:

    Trends

    • Editorial: Two Roads – There was still a question at this time as to whether the IBM PS/2 would set the new standard for PCs to come or the AT/386 standard. We all know how that turned out…
    • Probing the State of the Art – More about the latest in the PC world including both PS/2 and AT/386 standards. Plus a look at advanced operating systems like OS/2 and Unix. Also, I look at new peripheral devices like the HiREZ mouse from Logitech, the Kyocera F-3010 laser printer, the ScanJet from HP and more.
    • Mapping the Software World – A look at some of the common types of software available and good representative examples, including integrated software packages, word processing software, desktop publishing software, spreadsheets, database management, telecommunications, drafting, painting, utilities and more.
    • Beefed-up Bulletin Boards – While most hobby BBSes may have been run on a single phone line and a basic PC, there were some much larger systems out there. This article covers a few of them including Exec-PC (54 dial-up lines, 1.48 gigabytes of files), Invention Factory (24 dial-up lines, 1.2 gigabytes), Thousand Oaks Technical Database (160 megabyte), Utilities Exchange (117 megabytes). These systems offer maximum dial-up speeds of 2400bps to 9600bps. According to this article, at the time there were over 10,000 BBSes in the U.S.
    • Migrating: Up or Down? – Migrating from mainframes to PCs and vice versa.
    • OS/2 Dreams – A look at the current state of OS/2 and where it should go in the future.
    • To Mac and Back – Various ways to move files between the PC and a Mac. Options discussed include direct serial and SCSI connections, using a DOS co-processor, using DOS disks on the MAC, and various networking solutions.
    • DOS 4.0 – A look at the new DOS 4.0. Some enhancements over previous versions include support for disk drives larger than 32 megabytes, new and improved utilities, and a DOS Shell.
    • Memory Board Roundup – A comparison of memory expansion boards for PS/2, PC, XT and AT systems. There are 21 boards listed for PC/XT/AT systems ranging in size from 64K to 16MB with prices ranging from under $100 to nearly $1900 and those prices are for whatever the “standard” memory amount is for that board, none of which exceed 2 MB. There are another 20+ boards for PS/2 systems. These max out at about the same price but start at closer to $350.

    Technology

    • The Micro Channel versus the AT Bus – The advantage of the PS/2 32-bit MCA bus was speed. The advantage of the AT Bus was significantly lower cost and greater compatibility with existing expansion cards. At the end of the day, it turned out that the PS/2 wasn’t really faster than the fastest AT based machines and those AT machines were a whole lot cheaper. The rest is history. It wouldn’t be long before 32-bit “AT” solutions came along like EISA and VLB.
    • Keeping Up with the CPU – A processors in the PC increased in speed from 4.77 MHz to 8 MHz to 16 MHz and beyond, the bus (and system memory) started having trouble keeping up. Some solutions at the time were to introduce wait states (negating much of the speed advantage of faster CPUs), using faster DRAM (which was more expensive), or using SRAM (also expensive). For 386 based systems, the approach settled on was using standard DRAM but including a smaller amount of SRAM for cache. Essentially, the same approach at a high level is still used today with cache having long ago moved from the motherboard into the processor itself. Of course now CPUs have much more cache that systems back then had total memory. A common amount of memory in high end 386 desktop systems in 1988 would have been 1 or 2 MB. The relatively old at this point Ryzen 1700 I am typing this on has 8MB of L3 cache plus smaller amounts of L2 and L1.
    • Whither IBM and Unix? – A look a the various implementations of Unix available including PX/IX, ISC, Xenix, and most recently for IBM, AIX. Plus, OS/2 versus Unix.
    • DOS Meets Unix – Hosting DOS applications like Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE III, and WordPerfect in Unix.
    • Graphics: The Big Picture – The transition of PC graphics from monochrome to CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond.
    • Life After DOS – A look at multitasking options for PCs that don’t require OS/2 including DESQview, VM/386, Omniview, Concurrent DOS, PC-MOS, and Windows/386.

    Techniques

    • OS/2 Communications – A look at communications software in OS/2. It turns out that creating such software that takes advantage of OS/2’s multitasking capabilities is not especially difficult compared to DOS. OS2COMM (including source) is a simple com program for OS/2 that is looked at here as an example.
    • Keep Your PC Healthy – Tips for keeping your PC in working order including things like keeping your environment dust free, not smoking around your computer, making sure it has proper airflow, and more. Plus, software oriented solutions like defragmenting your hard drive.
    • Writing OS/2 Graphics – Technical considerations for creating graphics on OS/2, including things like privilege levels, 286 protected mode, directly accessing graphics hardware, multitasking and more.
    • VGA Video Modes – A technical look at the various VGA graphics modes.
    • Exploring OS/2 with a Lisp Interpreter – Using extensions to XLisp to conveniently experiment on OS/2. Includes various code samples.

    …and more!


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