//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Vol. 3, Issue 05 (c)1996 GKM Journals May 1998 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// Dragon Systems VR Is 98 Percent Accurate ///
For as little as $159 and about an hour of your time, Dragon
Systems Inc.'s "Naturally Speaking" voice-recognition product
can turn your computer into a good listener.
Now that PC processors are powerful enough to handle the very
complex and enormous processing demands of voice-recognition
software, Dragon Systems version 2.01 package can handle the
job easily.
According to tests conducted for Reseller Week magazine, the
installation and setup of Naturally Speaking is quick and easy.
Through its setup wizard and user voice training session, v.2.01
can be up and running in less than an hour.
After the voice training session is complete, Naturally Speaking
adjusts its V-R database so that the user can actually "talk"
to his PC and be understood.
Accuracy of v.2.01 is very high. While older versions of the
Dragon Systems products were capable of a solid 80 percent
accuracy in voice-recognition, the newest version can achieve
a 98 percent level of accuracy, according to the tests.
Naturally Speaking is available in a $159 "Preferred" edition
for the general consumer or in a $695 Deluxe package for value-
added resellers (VARs). Both editions come with software and a
headset microphone.
It is recommended that the minimum requirement for the processor
would be a 133-MHz Pentium-class CPU.
/// NEW CPUs... New Slots ///
Although the upcoming Katami generation of processors from Intel
Corp. will incorporate the Pentium II Slot 1 connector, there is
a possibility that it may later be migrated to a Slot 2 con-
figuration.
The Pentium II Slot 2 architecture is slated for introduction in
June, and according to industry observers, will also coincide
with the move from 66-MHz to 100-MHz system bus speeds. Katmai
will also incorporate 70 new instruction codes to further
enhance 3-D and MMX (Multimedia Extensions) capabilities.
With the future market outlook in mind, Intel is planning to
offer resellers a transition to 64-bit computing without going
to a completely new system with the introduction of new 32-bit
processor called "Tanner."
Tanner is expected to fit into either a Slot 2 or Slot M inter-
face as a prelude to the unveiling of the 64-bit Merced chip,
which is due for release within the second half of 1999.
/// Developers May Like JavaSpaces ///
Sun Micro Microsystems' JavaSoft division has displayed a new
technology that should make it easier for developers to create
distributed Java applications used for Internet, intranet, and
extranet operations.
The "JavaSpaces" technology will permit developers to post and
retrieve packets of Java related objects across a network, and
according to sources at Sun, there are many benefits for users
of JavaSpaces also. Its customers can share and coordinate
various resources as they communicate via the virtual space
provided by JavaSpaces. It is also lauded as being simpler for
developers to use because they are not required to write-in
provisions for users to track objects or their existence be-
cause objects in JavaSpace remain available even when its
source is not linked to the network.
The list of applications for the new technology include tasks
such as reservation systems, ordering systems, auctions, and
stock trading systems. A Beta release of JavaSpaces is planned
for this fiscal quarter.
/// W98 Will Target Business Customers ///
As the June release date for Microsoft's Windows 98 operating
system draws near, the software mogul seems to have quietly
changed its marketing strategy.
Now it appears that the new operating system will be positioned
as a super-multimedia and Internet product as well as a business
platform, which will steal some thunder from Windows NT. It
looks like the same mixed signals, one analyst related, as he
compared the confusion three years ago when Windows 95 and NT
were first released.
Over the past several months, Microsoft officials were touting
W98 as a "consumer" product, and advised prospective customers
that NT was the best choice for business. With the tardy re-
lease of Windows NT 5.0, now moved back to the end of this year
or the first quarter of 1999, the company seems to have had a
change of heart. Microsoft marketing personnel are now pointing
out new tools and core features that have been integrated into
W98 such as disk cloning, batch installs, and less troublesome
network installation, as benefits aimed at business customers.
The improved performance of W98 along with its stability and
simplification as compared to Windows 95, should help make a
place for the new software product in both the consumer and
business markets. One recent review out of Redmond, Washington
recounted that Windows 98 has one advantage over NT in that it
would allow companies running older legacy DOS applications to
continue without having to make major revisions in their soft-
ware.
Whether W98 is all it is cracked up to be remains to be seen,
but the U.S. Justice Department's continuing investigation of
possible anti-competitive tactics by Microsoft might further
delay the release of the new operating system.
/// Gateway Moving Its Herd To California ///
The recently acquired subsidiary of Gateway 2000, Advanced Logic
Research (ALR) Inc. in Irvine, California, will become the new
home for the business market division of the well-known PC
maker.
Gateway and ALR will merge their business marketing operations
at Irvine, while administrative headquarters will be moved by Gateway to San Diego. Web development will be accomplished at
its newly acquired New York facility, but the operational head-
quarters will remain in Sioux City, S.D.
/// New Optical Tape Products ///
A consortium comprised of IBM Corp., Seagate Technology Inc.,
and Hewlett-Packard Co. took the wraps off their new backup and
tape technologies last month.
The companies joint development program has produced two new
tape-based product lines incorporating the Linear Tape Open
(LTO) technology, which will be marketed toward the mid-range
server and enterprise dominion.
The first product line, "Ultrium," is billed as a high-capacity
product, and employs a single-reel tape cartridge that can store
up to 200 Gigabytes of data in compressed mode or 100-Gbytes in
native format.
Second on the list is the "Accelis" line, which should gain
notoriety for its speed. Its dual-reel architecture provides
a data access time of just 10 nanoseconds-- the same access
speed achieved by most modern hard drives. Although its storage
capacity of 25-Gbytes is diminished by that of the Ultrium line,
the Accelis backup system should be more than adequate for most
small and mid-size offices.
The consortium plans to offer additional LTO-based drives and
media in the future. The three companies also predict that the
data access rates and storage capacities for their LTO products
will double every two years. Long term plans additionally will
provide for licensing of the technology to other manufacturers.
/// Major Bug Found In Office 98 For Mac ///
Mac users who have taken delivery of Microsoft Office 98 for
Macintosh have a nasty surprise waiting for them in the form of
a bug that can crash the entire operating system.
According to an April 13 report out of Redmond, Washington,
Microsoft discovered the problem in late March while conducting
tests with the Remove Office 98 administrative tool, which is
part of the ValuePak CD. The utility is designed to be used as
an un-install for the Office 98 suite by locating and moving a
file library called [Microsoft Office 98] to the Trash bin.
What actually happens is that glitches can arise when the
"library" is manually moved to the Extensions folder. One source
noted that if a user attempts to start the Remove Office 98
utility while the Microsoft Office 98 library is in the
Extensions folder, the operating system erroneously sends the
SYSTEM folder, rather than the MS Office folder to the Trash.
When the unsuspecting user tries to restart the system, the Mac
operating system is gone, and the computer must be restarted
with a boot disk.
Microsoft officials say they are working on an Office 98 bug
fix and will post it to their Web site when it is ready.
/// Xircom Modem Solution Wins Notebook Friends ///
Xircom Inc. has introduced its RealPort Ethernet 10/100+Modem 56
as the first in a line of PC Card products that integrate a
network card, modem, and PC Card connector into one unit. This
solution will eliminate the need to carry a large collection of
adapter cables when traveling with a notebook or mobile PC.
In addition to incorporating the 10/100 Ethernet card and 56K
modem into the unit, the RealPort contains a telephone handset
pass-through and mobile connections for Global Access features.
As of mid-April, Xircom had received approval for operation in
26 countries.
/// Mysterious Crash Puzzles AT&T ///
A crash of AT&T's entire frame-relay network last month brought
down thousands of companies including airlines, banks, and
major retail chains.
The 24 hour service outage left AT&T technicians at a loss for
an explanation of exactly what went wrong. The company's CEO,
Michael Armstrong, offered an apology to his customers, and
said that all of AT&T's resources were put into play in search
of the identity and resolution of the problem.
The catastrophic failure apparently started within two frame-
relay nodes provided by Cisco Systems Inc.'s StrataCom division,
according to one AT&T network executive. From that point, the
malfunction spread to 145 frame-relay nodes throughout the
AT&T network.
One network analyst suspected that corrupted software in the
permanent virtual-circuit configuration tables, or possibly a
virus caused the crash.
/// GTE To Debut ADSL Service In June ///
A banner roll-out of high-speed ADSL (asymmetric digital sub-
scriber line) service has been announced by GTE Network Services
division of GTE Corp., Stamford, Conn.
In June, the company will take delivery of its hardware and
subscriber lines from Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. at
Richardson, Texas and Orkit Communications Ltd., Tel Aviv.
DSL services offer speeds of up to 25 times faster than would
be achieved with a standard 28.8-Kbit/second modem, and the
best part may be that it can be done in many locations over
plain old telephone lines. GTE plans to offer five service
packages, which will vary in price according to access speeds.
The access speeds will range from 256-Kbps (for casual users)
and up to 1.5-Megabits/second for corporate users. Accordingly,
prices will ascend from $30 per month to $250/mo. A one-time
fee will also apply to cover installation, modem rental, and
ISP (Internet service provider) charges.
Also quick to jump on the band wagon is AOL Inc., who will
soon begin tests of its first DSL service as a partnership
deal with GTE.
GTE's Internetworking unit will provide a link to AOL customers
and regional telephone carriers via GTE's DSL network within
several selected market areas across the U.S.
/// Immigrant IT Workers Becomes An Issue ///
An emotional conflict has broken out in Washington over a
proposal to temporarily lift the cap on the number of immigrants
entitled to work in IT (information technology) jobs in the U.S.
A temporary professional visa bill, H-1B, could be modified to
increase the quota of temporarily employed immigrants from
65,000 to 125,000 people by the year 2000. Last month, the
Senate Judiciary Committee sanctioned the proposed changes to
H-1B submitted by Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) and passed
it along to the full Senate.
Labeled as the "American Competitiveness Act," the bill has
received some backing from the Computing Technology Industry
Association, but many individual vendors do not agree with the
CompTIA support, and have voiced their opposition to the higher
quota.
A spokesman for CompTIA claimed that a "shortage of skilled
workers" makes it necessary to bring in more immigrant IT
personnel. Other analysts call for more viable solutions such
as re-training many of the American blue [and] white collar
workers who have been displaced by corporate cuts, or worse
yet, those who have lost their jobs when their company relocated
its operations off-shore.
Some industry observers cited that the reports and articles
indicating the shortages of skilled IT workers are inflated or
inaccurate. One report, which came from the GAO (General
Accounting Office), based its information on findings written
by the Information Technology Training Association (ITTA) and
the Department of Commerce. That report failed to prove the
alleged shortage of IT workers.
The American Engineering Association also agreed with the
ITTA and Commerce Dept. findings, and stated that the agenda
describing the need for 65,000 more immigrant IT workers is
much higher than necessary.
/// Damn The Attorneys-- Gates Goes Full-Speed Ahead ///
In an interview with the press last month, Microsoft Corp. CEO,
Bill Gates commented that the Windows 98 operating system will
be launched on June 25... no matter what!
Gates was quoted as saying, that it will take "a far more
radical step" than a dozen State Attorneys Generals seeking
an injunction to stop the release of the new operating system.
One Microsoft spokesman said that although it has been surmised
that some State Attorney Generals had filed suit last fall to
block the release of W98, he regards the situation as "pure
speculation." He went on to comment that his company is working
closely with those states to provide them with all the requested
information, and to answer all their questions.
Microsoft has published an essay on its Web site and submitted
numerous news advertisements to state its position on the matter.
Whether the company's strategy will influence any State AG's or
public opinion remains to be seen.
Bill Gates wants to drive home [his] point that the government
has no right to regulate the software industry to the extent
that will it slow development and hurt its customers in the
long run. A free market and consumer choice are at stake,
according to Mr. Gates.
Gates also had to maintain his poise last month in Chicago,
when a PC he used to demonstrate the upcoming Windows 98 O/S
crashed when a scanner was plugged-in. Other than a chuckle
from the attendees there at the Spring Comdex show, not much
was said about the little glitch by the news media and others
present at the event.
There still remains a face-off between Microsoft and U.S.
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson over the issue of the
software company's potential anti-competitive practice in
bundling its Internet Explorer browser with its Windows O/S.
And if that isn't trouble enough, former appeals court judge
Robert Bork and former Senator Bob Dole have formed a lobby
group to campaign against Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive
business practices. Bork and Dole call their group the Project
to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age, or
ProComp, for short.
/// Intel Kenai 1-Gigabit/s Network Chip ///
Engineers at Intel Corp. have developed a 1-Gigabit/second
Ethernet adapter card, which is scheduled for delivery later
this year.
Although Intel has been busy this year perfecting its own series
of utility chips, the chip giant will surprisingly employ
controller chips developed by two of its competitors-- Cisco
Systems Inc. and Seeq Technology Inc.
Intel is expected to have its own 1-Gbit/s chip set later this
year, which will be in compliance with the IEEE 802.3
communications standard.
/// $10B Govt. Pool For E-Rate Program ///
An Internet access initiative from Washington is backed by a
pool of $10 billion in funds set aside in 1997, and several
leading electronics distributors are going to help spend the
loot on eligible K-12 schools and libraries.
The program is called Education Rate (E-Rate), and is under the
direction of the Federal Communications Commission. Although
the program was initiated in May of 1997, it did not take effect
until January of this year.
Of the distributors backing E-Rate, Ingram Micro Inc. has taken
the reins in planning and defining how resellers can benefit
from the expansive capital resources. Other distributors that
are also taking advantage of the opportunity are: Tech Data
Corp., Comstor Corp., and Westcon Inc.
$2.5 billion will be doled out this year with the remainder of
$10 billion or more to be meted out over the next four years.
Equipment costs to the schools and libraries will be subsidized
by E-Rate to cover telecommunications, Internet access, and
internal wiring of the buildings. Whereas the eligible K-12
schools and libraries will have to provide some of their own
funds, the E-rate program will offset their costs by as much as
90 percent in some instances.
/// Intel Gets Hit With Court Injunction ///
Now that five months have passed since Intergraph of Huntsville,
Alabama brought suit against Intel Corp., charging patent in-
fringement, and anti-competitive practices, a federal judge has
granted Intergraph a preliminary injunction.
U.S. District Court Judge Edwin L. Nelson reportedly took a
distrustful look at Intel's alleged exploitation of its obvious
dominant position in the market. According to one news source,
Judge Nelson also frowns upon Intel's use of nondisclosure
agreements as a weapon when engaging in contractual arrangements
with other companies.
An industry spokesman offered his opinion that the ruling may
not only curb Intel's strong-arm tactics, but might have some
bearing on the cases against Microsoft Corp.
/// High-End Pentium Christened As Xeon ///
Intel Corp. has assigned the name "Xeon" to its new high-end
Pentium II chip, which will also utilize the company's next-
generation interface, Slot 2.
The Slot 2 architecture will provide more power by increasing
both the size and speed of Level 2 (L2) cache memory. The
size of the L2 cache will be brought up to the 1-Gigabyte mark
as compared to the 512-Megabyte capacity within current versions
of the Pentium II. The speed of its L2 will be equal to the
speed of the processor, where present-day versions running
on Slot 1 interfaces run at only half the speed of the CPU.
According to Intel's master plan, a 400-MHz Xeon CPU will be
available by the third quarter of this year that will have its
L2 cache increased to 2-Mb.
Since the Xeon chip will be quite expensive when first released,
its target market will be restricted to high-end servers that
are priced at $6,000 and above.
A watered-down version of the existing Pentium II chip will be
sold with little or no L2 cache this month to fill Slot 1
requirements for systems costing between $1,000 and $1,200. The
code name for that chip is "Celeron."
For PC systems and servers in the $1,200 to $6,000 range, the
current Pentium II CPU will be maintained to fill that niche,
but will be limited to Slot 1 architecture.
***
As outlined in this Month's GrapeVine Topic 2, next year's plans
at Intel call for more speed and possibly its next-generation
Slot "M" configuration. For that CPU, the code name "Tanner"
has been assigned.
***
/// ISPs Escape FCC Fees ///
The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that we have come to
depend on for our access to the Internet managed to escape a
would-be hatchet job from the federal government last month.
A while back, our Congress in Washington had asked the FCC
(Federal Communications Commission) to decide whether or not
the ISPs should qualify as long-distance telephone carriers,
especially those providing "voice-over" telephone service. If
so, they would be required to pay into the same universal fund
that the major phone companies pay into.
Based on the perception that the ISPs were NOT competing with
the telephone companies, the FCC declined to impose new fees to
access telecommunications networks-- including voice-over
services.
One Washington reporter noted that the fight is not over yet,
and as long as ISPs continue to encroach into the long-distance
phone business, they will remain under scrutiny. The watchful
eye of big government will be urged on by the big telephone
companies as the debate continues... you can bet on that!
/// Cyrix Claims More Than Just MHz Speed ///
In the field of low-cost PC systems, Cyrix Corp. says it is
jumping ahead of its own plans by increasing speed grades
sooner than anticipated.
Resellers can now expect to find inventory of Cyrix 6x86 MX
PR266 CPUs by the end of this fiscal quarter, and possibly the
PR300 version of the multimedia chip within the same time-frame,
according to industry sources. And even better news for value-
added resellers (VARs), by the time the PR300 chips hit the
open market, they will be priced at the same level as the first
PR266 chips.
Cyrix executives say they rate their chips speed by performance
level rather than megahertz speed alone, as is the case with
rival Intel. A Cyrix official also wanted to note that when
the PR300 comes out, the 6x86 "MX" trademark will be dropped in
favor of "M II."
Plans at Cyrix call for the introduction this month of its 100-
MHz system bus architecture to coincide with the release of
the PR333 chip. In an effort to outrun itself and Intel, the
Texas-based chip maker will announce production of the PR400
M II processor by December of this year.
/// Voice-Over Server Will Soon Replace PBX ///
According to the executives at Alliance Systems Inc., Plano,
Texas, the data market is now mature enough for voice-over IP
(Internet Protocol) telephony technology to replace that old
corporate PBX frame that is taking up valuable floor space in
many offices.
Some of those old PBX machines are the size of a refrigerator,
and could now be replaced with a desktop-sized computer that
can handle both voice and data communications chores.
As the shift in computer technology has gone to voice, Alliance
is positioning itself to take advantage of the situation. Along
with its voice-over IP manufacturing partners, the company plans
to work the new market mainly as a distributor. Alliance and
its partners will build the hardware server, load the software,
and resell the package to corporate customers or value-added
resellers who want to further customize the end product.
/// More Power For The Internet ///
Power companies, which own physical rights of way, seem to be
emerging as telecommunications powerhouses.
In light of the purchase April 30 of a professional Web service
company by an ISP (independent service provider) subsidiary of a
utility company, more attention is drawn to the growing trend of
power companies that have become owners of physical rights of
way, and are emerging as telecommunications powerhouses.
Interpath Communications Inc., located in Raleigh, N.C., which
is also a subsidiary of Carolina Power and Light (CP&L), will
merge with TriNet Services of Cary, N.C. TriNet is a consulting
and Internet development firm. Although details of the deal
were not disclosed at press time, it was noted that Carolina
[Power and Light] has been eager to broaden itself from being
just a bandwidth or pipe, to being a provider of professional
services for some time now.
It was noted that companies such as The Williams Co. in Tulsa,
Okla., a natural gas company used its massive pipeline in the
1980s to lay the fiber that set the foundation of its tele-
communications company, called Willtel. What is so interesting
about that transaction is Willtel's services (but not the rights of
way) were subsequently sold to mega-giant WorldCom Inc.
Gary Miller
