New Mac operating system on way

Press, 22 December 1987, Page 26

New Mac operating system on way

Apple is rewriting the operating system of the Macintosh. The changes will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the chairman of Apple Computer, Mr John Sculley, has said. Mr Sculley said future versions of the operating system, which will be compatible with the existing system, will incorporate expert systems and artificial intelligence, and wijl have sophisticated database and multitasking tools. It is expect to be on the market in three or four years. The present Macintosh system was originally written for a 128 K RAM machine. The memories of the latest Macs are much larger than this. Apple is clearly preparing to counter the new IBM operating system, OS/2, and Presentation Manager, Microsoft’s version of Windows for OS/2. Apple sources are saying the OS/2 graphical interface will not be used widely until 1989. White Knight charges Mr Bob Radley, of White Knight Computers, Christchurch, is claiming part-victory against Technitrend Systems, of Auckland, in a copyright claim. White Knight has obtained an injunction against Technitrend to stop distribution of sharemarket data which White Knight alleges was obtained from it. The Christchurch firm claims that print-outs of Technitrend’s two share-data disks are identical to print-outs of White Knight’s Share Data. Share Data contains share trading details of listed New Zealand companies, with weekly updates. White Knight is pursuing the matter to establish that the product in question of Technitrend is destroyed. Atlas exports Datacom Systems has made its first sale to SouthEast Asia of the automated library system, Atlas. Nanyang Technological Institute, in Singapore, is installing Atlas into the two libraries on campus. The libraries service 4000 staff and students and have 80,000 volumes. The National University of Singapore transferred its school of accountancy to the institute this year and further schools will be added to it every five years. The first stage of the implementation of Atlas, which includes creation of the bibliographic and borrower database and setting up catalogue and circulation modules, will be completed by the end of March. Datacom Systems’ South Island branch manager, Mr John Tolchard, who has been Datacom’s library product manager, said other Atlas sales were expected in South-East Asia and interset in Atlas was also high in Australia. Because of the success of the introduction of Atlas into New Zealand, Datacom Systems now has the

marketing rights in Australia and South-East Asia,” he said. In New Zealand three public libraries — Manukau, Canterbury and Takapuna, which includes Glenfield — have installed the Atlas system. Atlas is being installed into two other libraries on Auckland’s North Shore; at Northcote and Birkenhead. Both will join the Takapuna and Glenfield Atlas system running on Datacom’s timeshare service. Both are expected to have their new system in operation early next year. Porn ban The United States Government is about to introduce legislation that will make it illegal to distribute pornography by high-tech means, such as computers, networks, and bulletin boards. President Reagan says the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act, will “target the high-tech aspects of child pornography, making illegal the computerised nation-wide network that child molesters and collectors of child pornography have developed." Acorn’s top person Acorn, the maker of 8.8. C. microcomputers, has appointed a new managing director. He is Mr Harvey Coleman, aged 48, at present head of marketing at Acorn’s parent company, Olivetti. The previous chief executive, Mr Brian Long, left in October. The break is said to have been because of a pricing row over the Archimedes. Fujitsu advance Fujitsu says it has developed a fast Josephson junction logic gate. This in theory will allow a supercomputer as small as a personal computer. Commadore upgrade Commodore is said to be about to upgrade the Amiga 500 and give the Amiga 2000 a faster processor. MS-Borland pact Microsoft and Borlond have settled their dispute about a former Microsoft employee, Mr Rob Dickerson, now vice-president of product development for Borland. Mr Dickerson will not work on any language research at Borland, and the two companies will not take on each other’s employees for six months. Word Star hitch Micro Pro had a backlog of orders worth SUS7OO,OOO for Wordstar 200 Plus release 3 at November 30. The company says shipment of the software has been delayed by hold ups in supplies of documentation.