INFORMATION WORLD Meet the upside-down bug

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 26

INFORMATION WORLD Meet the upside-down bug

The high resolution colour mode for microcomputers,' EGA, requires a special screen from that used for normal colour, CGA. That is, unless you have a special monitor such as the NEC Multisynch, which can work with the'frequencies of both colour modes.

This is a highly sensitive electronic device, as the engineers have found at Wormaid International Sensory Aids, in Christchurch., Their Multisynch works well only when upside down. One theory put to them is that it was set up in the Northern Hemisphere, and the different magnetic pattern of the Southern Hemisphere may be affecting it An abacus next?

A curious data-processing decision is that of a large Christchurch company mauled in the Take-over Wars. After tens of thousands of dollars . had been invested in developing an on-line computer system with a fourth-generation language, the new masters scrapped the work. They think batch processing more appropriate. In the news

News from the business pages of "The Press” since last Tuesday’s computer page includes: The Christchurch computer firm, Concept Data (formerly Business Computers, Ltd), has been put in receivership; IBM New Zealand reports Income for the year up 22.1 per cent at $254.6M, and after-tax profit up 11.3 per cent at $27.6M. Desk-top publishing Those who see a laser printer and a program such as Pagemaker as an opportunity to launch a small business should weigh up the costs carefully. For the price of a laser printer, computer, and software, a small typesetter can be bought. The wages of keyboarding are about the same for either technology. It is much cheaper to proof laser-printer output, but the quality is lower. The main advantages of desktop publishing will be to those who now send out to typesetters work which does not have to be high-grade typesetting. This will already have been keyboarded and the convenience of inhouse output will be valuable. Singapore software Sales of cheap, pirated software sales in Singapore have ended with the country's enforcement of international copyright. Now holidaying hackers will have time to see the sights. A.T. and T. change The huge American telecommunications company, A.T. and T., a world leader in technology development (Bell Laboratories,

the transistor, Unix, and many other products) is changing its business strategy in the computer field. It will concentrate on minicomputers while its European associate, Olivetti, will concentrate on microcomputers and work stations. The A.T. and T. computer division is being restructured as a "datanetwork business” which will sell software, computers, telephone equipment and longdistance telephone services as packages.

Spreadsheet fight The battle is on in the microcomputer software market, Microsoft, the number two firm (sales, SUS26OM) trying to overtake Lotus (sales, SUS2B2M). Microsoft hopes its IBM PC version of Excel will replace Lotus 1-2-3 as the top-selling spreadsheet In Macintosh software, Microsoft’s Excel out-sells Lotus’s Jazz about 10 to one.

Almost computers Philips and Sony plan to revive the video disk, which failed to rival video taperecordings. The new disks ’will combine compact disks with video. Power calculator Hewlett-Packard (N.Z.), Ltd, has released what it believes is the first calculator capable of doing symbolic mathematics. Maths operations can be solved without assigning numerical values to variables; numbers cah .be calculated at any time. The calculator has a four-line, 23-character LCD display. Complex numbers, matrices, vectors, lists, algebraic expressions and other data types can be used and viewed. The calculator allows mixed direct entry of algebraic expressions and reverse Polish notation logic operations. The calculator can depict any singlevalued functions, and plot statistical data on its screen. The $587 HP-28C has 128 K of ROM memory and 2K of RAM. It can communicate with a tiny HP thermal printer via infrared beam. Big laser printer Meet a new laser printer from a Hong Kong company, 30 per cent owned by the New Zealand firm, Venturecorp Investments, Ltd. From Laser- Imaging Systems (HK), Ltd, the LIS Infinity series printer is said to print 50 A 4 pages a minute and can print up to A 3 size and use continuous stationery. The price will be about $lOO,OOO. Mr Colin O’Brien, the manager of LIS says the company has secured a distribution deal in Britain for 5000 printers. Wang series Wang New Zealand has announced a new computer series, the VS7OOO line. The

VS7IOO group comprises three systems providing up to twice the throughput of the current VSBS and VSIOO systems. The V 57300 group comprises the V 57310, the functional equivalent to the current VS3OO. This will be augmented by a second system, the V 57320 dual processor. The four systems will include at least 4Mb of main memory and give more physical connections than any previous VS model. Prices will range from $250,000. Wang expects the machines to compete strongly with mid-range machines from IBM and Digital. Output Japan’s output of electronic goods fell in 1986 for the first time for 11 years, but computer production was well up. Over-all electronics production was down about 0.2 per cent, but computer output was up 17.5 per cent The Japanese say the rise of the yen against the United States dollar caused the fall in electronics production. NEC profits NEC, the giant electronics manufacturer, has been hit by the high value of the yen and by the state of the chip market Its profit for the half-year ended September 30 was down 62 per cent on the corresponding half of the previous year.. Group net profits for the year to the end of March are expected to be down about 26 per cent to about SNZ2SO million; Videotex The Japanese videotex system, CAPTAIN (for Character and Pattern Access Information Network) is having difficulties. The Japan Medical Information Service has said it will no longer be an information provider to the service. This is despite plans to double the amount of information (from about 200,000 screens) in the company’s central computer. Transmission waits are blamed for some of the problems, but it is hoped this will Improve with the introduction of a digital communications system. Telext, broadcast by 10 Japanese television stations, has also failed to take off. There are only 10,000 receiver screens. 4 IBM dominant Japan’s general-purpose mainframe computer market is dominated by IBM and compatible models 'according to a recent survey. IBMs accounted for about 25 per cent of the market, and IBM compatibles from Fujitsu and Hitachi accounted for about 46 per cent between them. IBM’s stake was firmly based on its Sierra series. In personal computers, IBM Japan led with 30 per cent with the former leader, NEC, second iwith 25.7* per cent and Fujitsu third with 20.5 per cenL —Neill Birss