🚀 go-pugleaf

	Many thanks to Chuck McManis for his informative posting about the
show.  I thought I'd post Antic's online repors from Compuserve as well.


     Permission to reprint or excerpt is granted only if the following line
appears at the top of the article:

     ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987.  REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

     ATARI MEANS BUSINESS
     A REPORT FROM THE 1988 COMDEX
     By Anita Malnig, START Editor

     Las Vegas, November 2, 1987 --

     Atari intends to give the likes of Sun Microsystems and Apollo
Computers a run for the money with Abaq (the root word for abacus), the new
transputer-based workstation that the company is showing here.
     By using RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture, the
workstation will operate at 10 MIPS (million instructions per second).  The
latest graphics hardware and the IMS T-800 -- the Inmos Company's 32-bit
microprocessor -- combine to form affordable, powerful personal
workstations.  A single transputer can deliver over ten times the power of
an IBM PC AT.  However, there's even greater strength in numbers.  You can
connect two, 10, 100 or even MORE transputers to create a relatively
low-cost computer workstation with the power of a supercomputer. (Talk is
that the price will be in the $5000 range.) When attached to a transputer,
the ST or Mega acts as the input/output device for the system.  Transputers
can be linked via a built-in high-speed serial port to form a
multiprocessor array or a local area network.
     Helios, the Unix-like operating system, was developed by the
Perihelion Company in Great Britain, as was the transputer board itself.
The Helios operating system encourages the use of many small programs which
work together to create a final product.
     Shiraz Shivji, Atari's vice president of research and development,
expects that the transputer will be used primarily in engineering and
science applications.  Included with Abaq will be a very high resolution
monitor, capable of four graphics modes:  1280 X 960 in 16 colors or
monochrome; 1024 X 768 in 256 colors;  640 X 480 in 256 colors with two
screens;  and 512 X 480 in 16 million colors plus overlay. No firm delivery
date is set, but late 1988 seems to be the most talked-about time frame.
From a first-hand view, the crisp, vibrant graphics (such as four separate
pictures running simultaneously) were drawing crushing crowds.
     CD-ROM FOR ATARI
     The exciting CD-ROM player introduced at Comdex can read up to 540
megabytes of data or play music.  It connects to Atari's ST and Mega
computers through the DMA (direct memory access) channel, a communications
port that transmits data at up to 10 million bits per second.  At 540Mb,
the player can store more data than 1,000 floppy disks or 200,000 printed
pages.
     Demonstrated at the show is an English and French visual dictionary
from Facts on File.  It is categorized by topics such as transportation and
food:  click on the transportation theme and choose from an array of topics
such as ferrys, container ships, airport terminals and so on -- all items
illustrated.  Speech output identifies each image in French and English.
Grolier's Encyclopedia also runs on this CD-ROM, as do audio CDs.  Atari
has a task force at work now developing more products for this player,
which will be available at computer specialty dealers and retail outlets in
February, 1988, at a suggested retail price of $599.
     DO ATARI DESKTOP PUBLISHING
     G.O. Graphics, in conjunction with Atari, will bring to market a
sophisticated desktop publishing program called Deskset.  This works as a
front end to the CompuGraphics typesetting equipment, offering the use of
1,800 fonts.  This is not just a desktop publishing program for four-page
newsletters and the like:  it could design entire publications such as
Antic and START.  It will output to such laser printers as the striking
Atari laser printer, also being demonstrated with Deskset.  (Look for the
next Comdex installment for additional desktop publishing programs for the
ST.) Deskset, which works only on a Mega, will work within the GEM
environment and offers all the standard features of the most sophisticated
desktop publishing programs -- features such as character compensation,
kerning, columns, boxes, rules and the ability to merge text and graphics.
Look for this product mid- to late 1988.
     AND.  .  .  ATARI PCS
     The Atari PC1, introduced earlier this year, can be used as a local
area network workstation or as a standalone personal computer.  It runs at
a top speed of 8 Mhz, with a software switch to set the clock speed to 4.77
when needed. The PC1 works with any CGA, MDA, EGA or multi-frequency
monitor.  Maximum color screen resolution is 640 X 350.  The PC1 has a
64-color palette, with a maximum of 16 on the screen at a time.  It is
expected to retail at $800.
     New to the Atari PC family is the PC2, a dual-speed XT compatible with
five slots and hard-disk support.  The PC4 is an 80286 microprocessor-based
IBM PC/AT compatible machine. It has clock speeds of either 8 or 12 Mhz,
VGA-compatible video, four AT-style expansion slots, up to one megabyte of
system RAM and is ready for an 80287 numeric coprocessor.
     Additionally, Atari is announcing "Moses PromiseLAN," a local area
network that can connect up to 17 PCs using off-the-shelf telephone wire.
They will also be developing Moses PromiseLAN adaptors for its Mega and ST
computers. Thus, the Mega and Atari laser printer will be able to share
data with PCs and Apple Macintoshes.
     COMING NEXT UPDATE.  .  .
     Watch for more third-party desktop publishing programs from Soft
Logik, Timeworks, Migraph.  .  .  Multiuser, Multitasking programs with the
Idris operating system.  .  . desktop video from Antic Software.  .  .
products galore from MichTron, Spectrum Holobyte, Word Perfect, Abacus, ISD
Marketing, B.E.S.T.  and lots more.





     Permission to reprint or excerpt is granted only if the following line
appears at the top of the article:

     ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.

     ST SOFTWARE SHINES AT COMDEX:
     Multi-user, Multitasking on the Mega
     By Anita Malnig, START Editor

     Las Vegas, November 3 --

     At the very crowded Atari press conference at the Desert Inn on Monday,
November 1, Atari announced its entrance into the serious business
market with an array of multi-user, multitasking products.  The Atari booth
itself was crowded with exciting products, interested spectators and busy
software personnel.  Here's a run-down of what we saw at the Atari booth.
     MULTI-USER, MULTITASKING
     Along with high-quality third-party developers, Atari will offer
multiuser, multitasking and serious vertical applications on the Mega using
a Unix-like operating system called Idris (developed by Whitesmiths Ltd.).
The company, Computer Tools, was and still is instrumental in finding
companies whose programs can be ported over from the Unix environment to
Idris and porting those programs.
     Jefferson Software is now releasing a version of their Modula-2
Development System for the Mega to run under Idris, offering a powerful
language to complement the multi-user, multitasking operating system.
     American Network's Cash Register Plus, the first of the multiuser,
multitasking applications, is a point-of-sale program that lets you store
and search up to 3,000 items.  It supports a Star 8340 printer -- small to
print out receipts -- and an actual cash drawer.  It includes a customer
and inventory database and backs up all information to disk.  It can
support four terminals with all cables attached to the Mega.  This is
expected to be on sale mid-January 1988 for about $700 for all the
components.
     During your inventory search, you may want to do some word processing.
 There are several word processors to choose from in this Idris
environment.  From the Tigera Corporation comes Word Era, a feature-rich,
high-performance word processing package on single- and multiuser systems.
It has a Wang-compatible interface and document conversion capabilities.
Word Era has the features of leading word processing software and more,
including a window environment, voice recognition and voice annotation.  It
can also set up menus in French, German, Italian and Spanish, and supports
a four-user system.  Available during the first quarter of 1988, the
multiuser price begins at $895.
     Another word processor is CrystalWriter Plus from Syntactics,
providing a library of model documents for frequently used formats such as
letters, memos and reports. An organization can define its own "style
sheet" for documents.  The program has "plain English" commands and can be
useful for writers, editors, secretaries, managers and engineers.
     Also ported from the Unix world is Lex, a combined word processor and
database, from Trajectory Software.  Its indexed file structure lets you
retrieve the 10,000th record as quickly as the first.  You can design your
own forms and screen layouts, create short and more extensive glossary
items, and do list processing and mail merges.  It also comes with a
built-in calculator which you can use concurrently as you write or edit.
Also available is Lexet, which lets you interface the word processor and
database with laser printers.
     Atari Corp.  is handling the networking capabilities through an
agreement with Network Research Corp.  With FUSION, Network Software will
give the Atari Mega a complete set of TCP/IP protocols and allocations
which have been tested for compliance with DDN/DARPA Internet Protocol
specifications.
     MORE DESKTOP PUBLISHING
     From Timeworks comes the Timeworks Desktop Publisher ST. Retailing for
$129.95 this GEM-based program will offer WYSIWYG display, over 1,200
possible type-style combinations, ability to import graphics, and laser
printer compatibility. Desktop Publisher ST will be available in the first
quarter of 1988.
     Soft Logik Corp.  announced a new version of its desktop publishing
program, Publishing Partner Professional.  New features include automatic
textflow around graphic images, automatic hyphenation and kerning, the
ability to import documents from other word processors such as WordPerfect,
First Word and Word Writer, more fonts and font manipulation. It will
retail for $149.95.
     From ISD Marketing comes Calamus, a page-layout and typesetting
application.  It allows outline fonts and vector graphics that until now
could only be processed by expensive Postscript laser printers.  Calamus
uses these features on both the printer and screen.  The screen output can
be enlarged up to laser printer resolution.  The program offers a spelling
checker and hyphenated dictionary, object-oriented graphics, chart forms,
and font editors using Bezier curves for designing or changing fonts.
Calamus for the Mega will be available in December 1987 for $349.95.
     MichTron offers GFA Publisher, a GEM-controlled program with
full-featured text editor, automatic text flow and paging, expandable font
library and an integrated driver for PostScript.
     From Migraph comes the supercharged Easy Draw.  And Supercharger, a
companion product to Easy Draw, makes it easy to load graphics from popular
paint programs.  While not a desktop publishing program, these two combined
products let you create newsletters, reports, brochures, etc.  You can work
with ASCII files, have justified and non-justified text, use onscreen grids
and rulers and output to the Atari laser printer.
     LET'S EMULATE
     Turn your ST into a Mac with The Magic Sac Professional
from Data Pacific.  The Professional consists of three products:  The
Magic Sac Plus, the Translator One and the Magic Epson Printer Driver.  The
Translator One allows the existing Atari disk drive to read and write Apple
Macintosh disks and convert data between Mac, ST and IBM PC diskette
formats.  The Professional is shipping this month with a suggested retail
price of $449.95.  Typical Mac programs you can run are Macpaint, Macdraw,
Excel and Pagemaker.
     PC-Ditto is a software-only utility which taps the power of your Atari
ST to imitate an IBM PC XT.  Programs you can run include Lotus 1-2-3,
Enable, Sidekick, Framework and Symphony.
     WORD PROCESSING -- ALIVE AND WELL
     WordPerfect for the ST is out and is called by some the Cadillac of
word processors.  In addition to a built-in thesaurus and spell-checker,
the program has math functions anc can create indexes,and tables of
contents.  There are also macros, merge functions and onscreen columns.
The product is shipping now for about $395 list.
     From Microsoft comes the long-awaited Write, marketed by Atari Corp.
It handles complex business reports as well as memos and letters.  It has
all the standard text generation, editing and formatting features such as
cut-and-paste, creating footnotes, automatic pagination, different font
styles and sizes, and it works in conjunction with the Atari Laser printer.
     MORE CAD PROGRAMS
     Drafix, from Foresight Resources, is now on the market and drawing
critical acclaim.  It's identical to the 1.00 IBM PC version, supports pen
plotters, and runs on color and monochrome Atari monitors.
     Coming soon from Migraph is M/CADD, a professional engineering
graphics design system for the Atari Mega. M/CADD outputs directly to
HPGL-compatible plotters and saves in GEM format for output on 9- and
24-pin dot-matrix printers.  M/CADD files can be loaded into Migraph's Easy
Draw, and you can add more text and either bit-mapped or object-oriented
graphics.  Suggested price is $499.  M/CADD should ship the end of
November.
     With MichTron's Master CAD, you can produce object in 2-D and 3-D
using its exclusive concepts of Projection Planes.  It uses pull-down
menus, dialog boxes, mouse and very few keyboard commands.  Expect to see
this in early 1988.
     DESKTOP VIDEO
     From Antic Software in conjunection with Sony comes a desktop video
package.  Sony's low-cost 8mm video hardware and Antic's video sequencer
software create professional-quality 3-D computer-graphics videotapes of up
to two hours.  The Antic software controls nine functions of the Sony VCR,
then adds its own special visual effects such as fades and auto
assemble/editing.  The 8mm video sequencing software (including custom
parallel cables) will be available in January 1988 from Antic Software.
The Sony video equipment is available from Sony.
     MORE GRAPHIC FUN
     From Neriki Computer Graphics PTY Ltd.  in Australia comes the
ZImagemaster, software with a hardware box to attach to your ST.  Hooking
up the Polaroid Palette can output DEGAS pictures as Polaroid pictures, And
you can hook up a 35mm camera to the Palette.  The package yields overhead
transparencies and printouts.  It will retail for $400.
     Antic Software is also showing Spectrum 512, its 512-color paint
program, which expands the ST's normally limited palette of 16 colors to
512.  Spectrum 512 can load and enhance pictures from existing ST software
as well as from Amiga picture files.  Available now for $69.95.
     Animation comes from Antic Software as well with Cyber Paint, also
$69.95.  It emulates the functions of a $100,000 Quantel Paintbox -- but
for computer graphics instead of live video.  Cyber Paint is a member of
the Cyber family of desktop video products.  Its many features include
smooth raster tweening along any 3-D path, professional optic effects with
planar rotations through 3-D space, and moviola-style cut-and-paste.
     MORE BUSINESS BITS
     The Informer from Regent Software is a multi-table database with
presentation graphics.  Easy-to-use point and click functions let you
create and manipulate up to four databases at once.  You can import
graphics from DEGAS and NEOchrome...  From SBT comes the Database
Accounting Library, menu-driven with options to confirm, change or cancel
entries...  Hi-Tech Advisors announces Super Sales Pro, a full-featured
point-of-sale inventory control software system for the ST.  It will
accomodate medium- to larger-sized wholesale, retail or mail order
businesses.  The company will provide free technical support...  From
Progressive Peripherals comes Superbase Personal, a relational database,
and the Logistik time/project management system...  B.E.S.T Inc.  offers
B.E.S.T.  Business Management, an integrated accounting system offering
general ledger.  Available now, suggested retail price is $395...  ISD
Marketing, which brings you the well-known VIP, now has the MasterPlan
financial spreadsheet featuring the GEM environment with pull-down menus,
icons, scroll bars and column grabbers.  It offers graphics features as
well.  Also from ISD is an update to STAccounts, the integrated accounting
package...  From Royal Software comes additional low-cost business programs
such as Help Calc, templates for their E-A Calc and VIP. Coming soon will
be Inventory Master for $99.95.
     MIDI
     Hybrid Arts was showing ADAP and ADAP 2, the digital editing system.
ADAP 2 works directly with a hard disk. Also just released is Easy Score,
Hybrid Arts' new scoring program.
     NEW HARD DRIVE
     In mid-December ICD will ship its new 100 megabyte hard disk for
$1,699.
--
				- Jonathan A. Fischer
				jafischer@lily.waterloo.edu
...{ihnp4,allegra,decvax,utzoo,utcsri}!watmath!watdragon!watlily!jafischer