1998 08 canadian computer wholesaler by The Computer Paper

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hen it comes to digital photography, it seems the technological world is finally starting to geL Digital cameras are offering higher resolutions at lower prices. Near entrylevel ink-jet printers are now capable of printing highquality photographs, something that just a couple of years ago was possible only on very expensive, verticalmarket-oriented products. As computers have become increasingly powerful and entry-level monitors bigger, manipulating images at the desktop has become eminently practicaL (See this month's Lab Test, page 30, for an in-depth review of the latest 17inch monitors on the market.) Moreover,improvements in compression and bandwidth mean large photos can travel with ease electronically, whether via Web pages or e-mail. (As little as a year ago, I was still regularly calling my ISP to delete too-large e-mails.) I' ve had fun playing around this issue with Epson's PhotoPC 600 digital camera, and in fact, some of those efforts even made their way into the magazine. (See page 20.) Reviewing photos as soon as they' re taken is extremely convenient, as is the option to discard them and reuse the space. (There's one point over film!) Moreover, the immediacy of e-mailing photos back to the office appeals not only to journalism, but to all sorts of deadline-sensitive businesses, like real estate and insurance, for example. Of course, consumer interest is skyrocketing. I decided to send a photo to my mother electronically, as she just recently procuredan e-mail account.To my amusement, my father telephoned me to exclaim: "I saw you on the Internet!" At Comdex/Canada in Toronto last month, my conviction that the "time has come" for digital photographs strengthened. The slew of cameras on display included the FujiFilm MX-700 1.5 mega-pixel offering (see page 11). Along with high-quality resolution in an extremely small package, this product offered an optional floppy-diskshaped adapter that holds the MX-700's wafer-thin storage card. To load the photos, the "floppy disk" slides into the PC's floppy drive. This sort of innovation is necessary to ease consumer adoption. Messing about with cables at the back of systems is still no picnic for the average user. Anything easier and

more intuitive deserves accolades. And the idea of connecting the camera directly to the printer (as is possible w i t h va r i ous Epson products, for example) may be of interest to some consumers who don' t always want to bother with uploading images to the computer. On the printing front, watch out for the Lexmark 3200 color ink-jet printer, with 1,200 by 1,200 dpi resolution, starting at a mere $279. Entry-level printer buyers will be able to afford a product that prints excellent-quality photographs. (Speed is up to 6 ppm in black and 2.5 ppm in color, the company says.) Of course, glossy photo-quality paper is expensive.But your customers who decide to go digital will have the advantage of viewing each photo before printing it, as well as cropping, modifying, lightening or darkening each image for optimal results before it goes down on paper. And "reprints" are quick and easy. For CCW's product picks at Comdex/ Canada, besure to check out "Recognizing 'Innovation 'atComdex/Canada," page 18. While at Comdex/Canada, I had a chance to speak with Michael Cowpland, CEO of Ottawa's Corel Corp. (For a perspective on Corel today, see: "Hardball Season," page 16). After the recent cuts in Utah, Cowpland says Corel is in a good cash position, and "ready to show a profit in the fourth quarter." Looking towards the future, the core focuses for the company will be: CorelDraw, the Corel WordPerfect Office suite, Ventura, and emerging technologies like Java and Linux, says Cowpland. (See"Corel launches Linux networkcomputer," page 60.) Incidentally, if the crowds at the Corel booth were any indication, there is still a lot of interest and goodwill towards that company. Despite recent h ardships, C orel deserves credit for a pioneering spirit that has seen the Canadian company take risks with new technologies and directions over the years. Indeed, Cowpland said he'd like to see his own legacy as: "creating companies that are dynamic and effective, and creating greatproducts forcustomers." It's an admirable goal. !ICW

Ready for Digital Photos?

( CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998

Grace Casselman Editor httpitwww.ccwmag.corn

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I am e-mailing to say how much I liked (Alan Zisman's) article on the Celeron chip in the June issue (page 46) ofCanadian Computer Wholesaler. I consider myself to be relatively up to snuff with technology and I am looking for a new PC for my father. When I came across the name of the Celeron chip at several computer stores alongside several Pentium lls, I was tempted to buy it in keeping with the maxim: newer= better. Which is, of course, false. I decided to investigate the Celeron chip a little more before I bought it. Lookingthrough my recentcopies ofByte and PCComputing I could notfind muchindicating what improvements Celeron had to offer. This applied to

The June issue of CC14r landed in my in-box and I was reading through Alan Zisman's TechTalk article on the Celeron (page 46). I have to admit Intel's Celeron "tactic" has me grinning. This is vintage Intel. It takesme back to the486SX — remember that? Many 386s — especially AMD versions — outperformed the infamous "broken" Intel 486. Going back even farther into the distant past I remember the 386SX-16. This was the entry-level CPU that would get you upand running on the new Windows 3.1.W edidn'tdothose,justaswewillnotmdo the Celeron.m What is even more intriguing about the Celeron roll-out is the problem the "case-less" Celeron cartridge is having fitting into Slot1. Slot1 was designed to hold a Pentium II that has a case. Because the case is removed to reduce production costs, it flops around in the slot. I' ve seen reports that there will be a modified Slot 1 on the Celeron motherboards. Ah, two versions of the Slot 1? Yes, and a dead slot tool The performance of the Slot is not up to snuff. I expect that Slot 2 due out this fall will get it right, but talk about product confusion. Slot 2 P-2 cartridges will not work in Slot 1 systems. I ask, could Shakespeare do any better? CCW

disapprove? Jeffrey Lenzner Business analyst Indus International Canada Inc. Richmond, B.C., j lenzner©home. corn

you cen touch it, there's no money in it." (Q~~ : "If I LI Itggft uuep — Greg Michelli president of Michelli & Associatesin Edmonton,

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Letters To The Editor We welcome your letters on industry issues and concerns, as well as yourcomments on ourmagazine. We reserve the right to edit your contributions for length and clarity. Please write to The Editor, via e-mail at ccw©tcp.ca, or fax: (604) 608-2686.

articles and advertisements. Am I correct in thinking that if the computer magazines remain silent about a product, they

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Looking for a product, service or partner? Write to CCWBulletin Board, at ccw@tc p.ca, or fax: (403) 262-7892.

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Cabletron adds software unit After just 27 days, the 1998 World Cup Web site reported one billion hits. Moreover, with 70 million hits on a single day (June 30), the site claimed to shatter all previous sporting records. "' t s : " 4 %t s s s The official World Cup Web site http//www france98.corn — was designed and developed by EDS. Hits were received from 170 countries around the globe, and fans from 53 countries purchased merchandise from the World Cup on-line store. The top 10 countries in order of shipment quantities as of June 26 were: the U.S., the U.K., France, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Germany.

(NB) — Cabletron has unveiled plans to launch a new software solutions and services organization. Terry Seymour, head of global sales and marketing for the new software arm, described the new group as a "vertical process" that will work alongside Cabletron's existing horizontal businessunits, as opposed to being either a spin-off or a separate business unit, as rumored in the industry recently. Cabletron's new software organization will incorporate a separate, dedicated sales force to be overseen by Seymour. Other elements will include engineering and operations staff, drawn in large measure from existing staff at Cabletron, along with expertise in professional services, to be obtained in part through partnerships with VARs, systems integrators and third-party vendors. Services to be offered will include systems integration, consulting and training, he said.

Windows $8 oounterfe~r arrested Microsoft Corp. announced the breakup of a counterfeiting operation in Anaheim, Calif., just a few weeks after the launch of Windows 98. According to Microsoft, on July 8, Anaheim police arrested Donald Goldberg in a parking lot after he allegedly delivered more than 800 copies of counterfeit Windows 98 to an Anaheim police officer in a previously arranged transaction. The suspects in this case allegedly took out ads in local sales publications, using pagers to arrange locations for

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Apple Computer Inc. filed a fraud suit in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., against four companies previously authorized to provide warranty service and repairs on Apple hardware and peripheral equipment. The suit contends that four former Apple Service Providers combined to defraud Apple of payment for service and repair work that was never performed, and for shipping replacement parts based upon false claims. Apple's suit seeks to recover more than US$600,000 in money paid and parts shipped to these Service Providers based on false pretenses. The Service Providers named in the suit are: IRASYS, IRA Systems, Inc., Integrated Concepts Solutions and PC Systems Design Corp. Two individuals, Fred Ladjavardi and Sean Ledge, were also named as alleged principals of the defendant companies.

Tech Data sells Macrotron AG to Ingram Micro

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the delivery of the pirated software. Following the arrest of Goldberg, Microsoft said Anaheim police searched the business location of Auto-Scape Productions, seizing counterfeiting evidence regarding Microsoft, Adobe, Symantecand Autodesk software. Goldberg was charged under Section 350 of t he California Penal Code: Theft o f Trademarked or Copyrighted Material. Bail was set at $1,000.

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10 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998 httpitwwwccwmag.corn

Tech Data Corp. is selling its interest in the company's Munich-based subsidiary, Macrotron AG, to Santa Ana, Calif.-based Ingram Micro lnc. for about US$100 million in cash. The sale, which is subject to regulatory approvals, board approval and other terms and conditions, was contingent upon Tech Data completing its acquisition of a majority interest in Munich-based Computer 2000 AG. The planned sale of Macrotron AG to Ingram Micro was expected to be completed by July 31.

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Free security training for resellers

Markham, Ont.-based Network Associates is offering free copies of its security vulnerability audit tool — CyberCop Scanner, to resellers and consultants across Canada. The program will include free training on the effective use of CyberCop Scanner (formerly called Ballista) to identify security weaknesses at customer sites. Once a 6 customer's security requirements have been accurately determined, participating resellers will be able to offer Network Associates' suite of enterprise network security software solutions, called Net Tools Secure. Through this program, qualified consultants and resellers will be trained and authorized to use CyberCopScanner at no costfor 90 days,to evaluate network vulnerability at client sites.

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Is it time for an LCD monitor? Well, Sceptre Technologies inc.'s new "Summer Trade-In Program" will let current CRTusers upgrade their unit to a 14.5-inch LCD flat panel. Until Sept. 30, customers can purchase an FT15 flat panel monitor at an authorized dealer, provide proof of purchase to Sceptre, and then send in their current CRT monitor for a rebate. Actual rebate dollar amounts will vary depending on the monitor's make, age, and condition upon receipt, but most will range from $60 to $180, says Sceptre. The CRT monitor must be 17 inches or larger and in working condition. ~I

Impaq TechnologyInc., (804) 261-1800 InterPlus (514) 620-9805 KDS

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Lapro Marketing" (604) 244-7798

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QDI Computer (Canada) httpttwww.qdigrp.corn (905) 940-3827 Qtronix (416) 467-1888

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CanadianCo~,-)6?tolesaler welcomes your ~ Dpi%ion& etr~ . i &s(tes iti the market, plus your i feedback on our pubffcation.

Samsung (905) 940-3600 Sceptre Technologies Inc. 1-800-788-2878 httpdtwww.sceptretech.cmn

The Editor, Canadian &puter Wholesaler 200 -99 Atlantic Ave., Toronto, Ontario MBK3JB-' 1 Fax: (416)588-8574 E-mail:ccw©tcp.ca

Editor. GraceCasse)man Call: (403) 262-7890 Fax: (403) 262-7892 Emaibgtaoee@n seteem.ea N~ ~ 8 ~ ~ We welcomey010r ideas regarding newsand feature Associate Editol." Jeff Evans ..CDFF IP(ttar Wholesaler. Call; I416)6368404 I toPics fgrc ed(ters directly with: @@-:@g: '(4t(N) 7 Feel f your su

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Microsoft Canada boosts value-added partner support

The official introduction of Microsoft Windows 98 in Canada on June 25 was a relatively low-key affair, especially when compared to the planetary scale ballyhoo that accompanied the launch of Windows 95 nearly three years earlier. There were some "Midnight Madness" events at various retail computer outlets after midnight, and PCs with Windows 98 preloaded were available on some retail store shelves almost immediately, but the immediate direct effect of Windows 98 on PC sales numbers will be marginal. The latest version of Windows contains many new features and improvements over Windows 95, but this is not a revolutionary step forward. In practice, retailers will simply sell a high percentage of PCs with Windows 98 substituted for Windows 95. For

resellers, there will likely be some upgrade business as owners of PCs currently running Windows Microsoft Canada Co. says it is strengthening 95 spendabout$140to buy the upgradeversion of support for its value-added partners (VAPs) with Windows 98 (a full Windows 98 package costs the launch of the Direct Access Web site and the about $280), plus $69.95 to u byWindows Plus!98,a nationwide expansion of existing program eleutil ity and games supplement tothe basic operatments such as quarterly briefings, newsletters, ing system. However, Windows 98 is not likely to be training sessions and workshops. adoptedon a large scale bythe business computMicrosoft Direct Access is designed to let ing community, who are still integrating Windows resellers, consultants and other value-added 95 into their operations in many cases, and who service providers take advantage of opportunimay prefer to jump to Windows NT in the future. ties to increase revenue, better meet customers' The mainmarkets forWindows 98,besides new needs, and stay on top of technology. computer buyers, are likely to be games and The site (http//wwwmi crosoft.corn/canada/ Internet enthusiasts, for whom Windows 98 diractaccess)provides technical product infordoes offer significant benefits. mation and resources, business development The main opportunity for resellers in opportunity articles, sales materials and news Windows 98 is more subtle: new software and highlights. hardware products are made possible or enhanced with Windows 98, plus ancillary productsand services such as Windows 98 books and training tapes. A significant number of new Awaiting Web-enabled pay phones' Universal Serial Bus (USB) products, including (NB) — Internet-enabled pay phones and terminals will be marketed in monitors, printers, mice, digital cameras, scanIndia by Toronto-based King Products through a reseller agreement ners and keyboards, are expected to be recently signed with HDM International Inc., said Anthony Siregar, King' s released this fall to take advantage of Windows vice-president for international business development. 98's support for USB. As well, 3D games, interThe partnership with HDM will provide King with access to telecom active on-line services and interactive TV all and corporate extranet customers in India, particularly in the two metropolitan cities of New benefit from new features present in Windows 98. Delhi, India's capital, and Bombay, the country's major business centre. Although Microsoft toute Windows 98's Siregar described the installations as "elegant," saying they will be situated in publicimproved usability, there is apparently still a strong access environments such as airports and hotels and will provide instant Internet access to need for help in figuring it out. In fact, Windows 98 users via a "smart card" or "electronic purse." has spawned its own little publishing industry of New Delhi and Bombay have access to large digital telephone ISDN (integrated services "help"and "how-to" books.The market is now digital network) networks, which are capable of carrying voice, data and Internet-based ser- flooded w it h th em . P r im a P u blishing vices such as videoconferencing, audio-enabled Internet and e-commerce transactions. (http//www primapoblishing.corn) has released Siregar said he expects "a few thousand" installations in the two cities. The Essent ial Windows 98 Book ($34.95), Learn Windows98in a Weekend ($27.95),and WI'ndows 98 Fest and E asy, ($23.95). IDG Books (http//wwwidgbooks.corn)has no fewer than 18 Windows 98 titles available. Neil Froggatt, Canadian product marketing (NB) — The Canadian Institute of Chartered manager for Windows 98, stated Accountants (CICA) has released accounting and that Microsoft expects the adoption auditing guidelines on the Year 2000 issue, making INAte<lt%wefeslI~ 1 ~9ekll~ l. >~ I rate of Windows 98 to parallel that Canada the first Gl country to require financial stateof Windows 95, which was the ment disclosures relating to Millennium Bug preparedfastest-selling software title in hisness. tory. The rapid development of a Michael H. Rayner, FCA, CICA president and memWindows 98 installed base in ber of Industry Canada's Task Force Year 2000, said Canada will be the prerequisite for that under authority from the Canadian Accounting Standards Board, all companies, retailers to upsell customers on the both public and private, are now required in their financial statements to highlight the —.uJ cornUCopiaafneWPradUCtsdueto fact that they may experience problems relating to what is known as the Y2K Bug, ~ appear in the next year and a half. which is expected to create some computer failures as we enter the new millennium. 8 c~ ~ e aw~ ~ "The Year 2000 issue poses an immediate and significant challenge to businesses w ~ around the world. Through appropriate financial statement disclosure, these new guidelines will ensure that the public investor is aware of the issue," Rayner said. The accounting guideline provides a balanced approach to disclosures about the Year 2000 issue. It discusses the nature and extent of Y2K information that an entity should disclose, and the most appropriate vehicle for doing so. TechData Canada Inc.saysorder-entry on the company Web Normally, there is a minimum requirement for financial statements to disclose the uncertainty around the Y2K issue in future financial results. Such disclosure, normalsite (http J/www techdata.corn)is now in full-scale operation. Productivity tools at the site include a quote-building fealy beyond the scope of financial statements, is required because of the pervasiveness of the Millennium Bug issue, its potential to cause significant systems failures, and the ture to let resellers do on-line purchase planning (and save the information in the system for five days), plus a promotions feafact that it will impact all entities at approximately the same time. However, a more precise disclosure statement is required if management deterture to facilitate selection of vendor pricing promotions, says the company. There is free ground shipping on all orders mines that the entity's ability to continue is jeopardized because of non-compliance to placedviathe W eb. Y2K. In that event, financial statements must provide explicit disclosure of the problem. Resellers can search Tech Data's "electronic catalogue" Rayner stressed that the requirement applies only to companies filing financial using product type, product description, product category, statements under the terms of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT), but manufacturer, manufacturer part number, Tech Data part numadded that banks, stock exchanges and other financial institutions may soon also ber, product price or product status. Detailed technical specrequire similar disclosures. ifications are available on more than 25,000 products. IW •

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Comdex/Canada was also an opportunity for the winners of Canadian Computer Wholesaler's Technical Excellence Awards for ig tradeshows tend to be a great time to catch up Canadians to pick up their with customers and colleagues, while catching a awards. (Please see CCItl/ July, glimpse of future technologies and products. page 20, for details.) CongratuCertainly July's Comdex/Canada in Toronto was no lations again, to all our worthy exception, as more than 60,000 resellers and computer winners. Here, Eurocom Corp. professionals turned out at the show. president Mark Bialic There weren't many earth-shatterhams it up with Canada ing surprise announcements, but the Computer Paper Inc. „ latest rash of products on display were publisher David Ritter. ' typically better, smaller and faster, with Bialic's strategy for e notable usability enhancements. At that success: "Yesterday is show, th e e d i tors o f Can a dian pastToday is past.Think Computer Wholesaler magazine and about tomorrow." Canada Computer Paper Inc. g ot Eurocom'sMarkBtaltc and together to hand out " I nnovation" CDP'sDavidRitter awards. Those went to: • Panasonic's LF-D101 internal DVD-RAM drive, which canwrite 5.2GB or 2.6GB of data.Suggested retail price is $1,149, and the media costs $59 for 5.2GB or $35 for 2.6GB. Microsoft Canada Co., as part of ite,for its US$90 3Com Palm version which its Galileo awards ceremony, beta in August (as the Conduit Development recognized these three partners, Kit), allowing users to synchronize data on their Palm during Comdex/Canada. Ron Hu, president of I nl y Systems pro d ucts ith w corporate Oracle databases. International Ltd., received the • Epson's Photo 700 printer, which retails for $399, Microsoft Canada Northern offering 1,400 by 720 dpi printing; for high-quality Lights Awards for hts leadership ~~lor photos, while also handling home or small on the anti-piracy front. David offi ce black printing needs. The Epson camera Neil, president of Neil The ill also connect directly to the printer. Computer Store won the 1998 • Creative Lab's SoundBlaster Live Galileo Award in the Small Chain audio card,for $300, which demonCategory. Mike strates the company's new "environGardner, president of CompuSmart mental audio" technology. It incorpoCanada, picked up rates the EMU10K1 audio processor the prize in both and recreates sounds, simulating the Large Chain different sources and Category and the acoustics, providing audio Ie S ingle Sto r e cues for distance, room size ~, Category. Stores and reverberation. were judged on Microsolt'sGalileoAward Winners • Pelican Inc.'s Invisible such attributes as: professional staff, knowledgeLCD screen on S c e ptre able staff, hours of operation, OEMed notebooks. The screen customer service, product selecis basically blank to the passerby, tion,store ambiance and the unless viewed through special eyeoverall shopping experience. glasses calibrated to that machine. (No, you can'tview your neighbor's computer,

18 [ CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER August 1998

ht t pJAvww.ccwmag.corn

by CCW Staff even if you both have Pelican systems.) The "invisible" feature adds about $350 to a $3,000 notebook. The glasses are also available in prescription versions. The company is aiming the technology (which garnered significant attention at the show) at securityconscious market segments, such as government. Using a special "film," the notebook can also be converted back to a regular view. The Panasonic ToughBook 71. The company was performing drop-tests on its line of ruggedized ToughBook notebooks,which are encased in magnesium alloy and incorporate gel around components like the hard drive for added shock-protection. The 266MHz Pentium II-based ToughBook 71 has a street price of $4,999. The latest digital camera from FujiFilm — the MX-700, is one of the tiniest consumer cameras. It is truly shirt-pocket-sized, and weighs only a few ounces. It's extremely easy to use, with a dial-shaped mode selection wheel that is very simple and intuitive. It also offers high resolutions of up to 1.5 million pixels (1,280 by 1,024 pixels), for $949. (Note: the camera has limited battery life if the user runs it from its internal batteries, especially if you use the two-inch color LCD video preview screen. Also, to storelarge numbers of pictures,extra memory cards are needed, pushing the cost of the system well over the $1,000 mark.) The tiny wafer-thin memory cards can slide into an innovative floppy-disk-like case, and be read via a computer's floppy drive. The Olympus D1000 digital voice recorder now comes equipped with a customized version of ViaVoice.That means users can record memos or meetings and then download that data into a computer where it is processed and translated to text. ICCW

'-"~M

ore

T HE

P U ND IT

Column

by Graeme Bennett

At the Comdex/Canada tradeshow in Toronto, the editors of Canadian Computer Wholesalerand Canada Computer Paper Inc. convened to award a select group of products our (hopefully) prestigious Innovation '98 Technical Excellence awards. I want to discuss some of the details of what it takes to be innovative in multimedia audio and high-capacity storage this year. The Creative L abs SoundBlaster L i ve, a n nounced back a t Fall/Comdex in Las Vegas, exploits (better than any previous Creative Labs product) the audio hardware expertise the company bought when it acquired E-mu Systems Inc. back in February 1993, and Ensoniq Corp. this past January. Both E-mu and Ensoniq still hold important positions in the pro music market-place with their dedicated synthesizers and sampler modules and keyboards. S ound Blaster Live, which should ship i n September, does away with the "eight-bit playback/ 16-bit record" limitations of the AWE64's "full duplex" operation, which kept it from effectively addressing the home and prosumer musician markets. As well, the company says the waveforms generated by the system's EMU10KI digital signal processor are ideally suited for speech recognition. At this writing, a bundling deal that would see the card — PCI, by the way — bundled with continuous-speech recognition software seems likely. But who are we kidding? Garners are destined to buy the lion's share of this card's prodigious production run, fueled by the company's dominant market-share (the company's multimedia/sound boards are found in an estimated 60 per cent of systems sold to date) and the allure of what the company calls "Environmental Audio." Unlike some competing 3-D audio specifications that operate on the principle known as HRTF (head-related transfer function) — in essence, an audio model of a dummy's head with microphones in its ears — Creative's system exploits yet another of its recent acquisitions, the high-quality speakers from Cambridge Soundworks. In other words, the company is hoping that a system with more than two speakers (up to five plus a subwoofer in the case of Dolby Digital 5.1, the standard for DVD) will soon become the norm. Even if it does-

n't, support in games is likely to catch on as games d evelopers take a dvantage o f th e company's Environmental Audio Extensions application programming interface to develop games that exploit the system's acoustic modeling extensions to Microsoft's DirectX/DirectSound. Although space doesn't permit a full description here (see http: /Iwww.soundblaster.corn), the results sound as if they originate from different sources, complete with the acoustics — such as reverberationassociated with a specific room, chamber, cave, tunnel or pit of doom. Customers may or may not care that the DSP cranks out 1,000 MIPS of raw processing power, but it certainly demos well. (Combine it with a Voodoo2 graphics subsystem, a few good games and watch out!) This wholly deserves our technical excellence plaudits. Indeed, Creative Labs is making hay with its DVD drives, as well. Market analysts report the company's PC-DVD drives now account for 60 per cent of all units sold to date, and the aggressive $699 price on its newest DVD-RAM (rewriteable) drive — including an Adaptec AVA2902I SCSI-2 Adapter Card — seems destined to furtherbeef up those numbers. However, we elected to vote for Panasonic's somewhat more expensive DVD-RAM drive as our Technical Excellence choice. Why? One word: Innovation. Panasonic owns 620 patents in Japan for its RVD-RAM drive (in Canada, the U.S. and other countries, 120 patents have either been granted or are pending approval). Interestingly, when we checked Creative Labs' Web site for the specs on its DVD-RAM drive, it implied that it could only write DVD-RAM Type l. In fact, the company's engineers assure us that it, like the Panasonic unit, can also write Type 2 (removable disk) 2.6GB DVD-RAM and dual-phase PD disks. Both units read standard DVD-ROM d i sks a t 2 X s p eeds (2,770KB/sec.) and record up to 5.2GB at 1X speeds (1.385 KB/sec.). Panasonic says its forthcoming 4X DVD-ROM drives (due this fall) will be able to read these Type 2 disks directly. We expect most other manufacturers to follow suit. !ttttJ

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Why is the paperless office a myth?

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v.That's something Xerox Corp., known for its photocopiers ancl printers, has a vested interest in understanding. Indeed, as a veritable bastion of printing and paper-handling cxpertise, the company is interested in all aspecLs ol' the future of paper "The paperless office has always been a myth, and ii's always going to be a myth. But why?" queried Bob Anderson, director of Xerox Research Centre Europe iXRCEi's ' , ; Cambriclge Lab. To answer thai question, XRCE studies whai it call» "ihe. al'I'ordanccs ol' paper." Those are basically the quali(ies and possibilities associated wi(h paper, including Ihe ability to write on iL, re,id ii, tilt it on an angle, folcl it, and pui it in a pocket Anderson said Xerox's field studies show (ha( typical paper-based activities in corporatioiis in(.I((dc: creating documents, thinking and planning, reading for understanding, reviewing documents, collaborative activities and document delivery. People want to put paper reports "into Ihe hands" of others. "Paper

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plays a vital role in the ritual of exchange." Anderson said ihe problem with readilng o(1-lilne do«umenis has to do wi(h ihe lack of ability Io s(ick their fingers in the "pages" alnd Illake cross-rel'erences. Ye(, the use of paper is changing. He said p(ipr.i. i» increasingly less important for sur:h applications as search and re(rieval, long-term storage of' docu(11ein(s, analysis and archiving of data, and large-scale disseminaLion and transmission ol' documents. Anderson predicts cligital cameras will become increasing popular on desktops and in the near future will commonly ac( as sc(usning devices for paper documents. In California, Xerox PARC is working on al(ernative types ol' paper and new uses I'or ihe medium. For example, a technology called "data glyphs" sees images on papel' lanade up of tiny symbols virtually imperceptible to the naked eye. The concept is similar Io a barcode, bui allowing I'or the transmission ol a great deal more data. That means researchers can embed large amounts ol' inl'ormaiion in a photo or logo, I'or example. When (he document is scanned, software translates the glyph Io text. on-screen. A variation on the concept is "digital watermarking" which can be applied io photographs, Ior ex(1111pie. ThaL waiermarl< could contain copyright inl'ormaiion about an image, that wouldn't be lost, even in subsequent copies. According io Christer Ferns(10111, coordination technologies area manager lor Xerox, Lhe comp iny ihinl<s ol' documents is "containers with conieni." And he defined "knowledge management" as: "A coordinated effor( to give organizations Lhe ability to capture, create, manipulate, maintain and exclnange structured and unstructured knowledge." Moreover, knowledge management involves creating and maintaining a "working and learning environ(11e(1( (I1a( I'osters the continuous creation, aggregation, use and reuse of bo(.h orgallizational and personal knowledge," he said. Xerox has a number of research protects underway on this front, including Knowledge Brokers, which will peil'orm sophis(icaied queries on selected inl'ormaiion sources on the Internet and corporate in(rane(.. Text Mining processes the icxi, discarding irrelev;mt words such as common nouns, and classifies text., according to genre and subject. Meanwhile, anothI er research project — "Knowledge Pump" involves cvaluaiions and recommenda(.ions I'rom a peer group on inl'ormaiion sources. Xerox is currently running a Lest wi(l1((1 iis own I'acility in Grenoble, where coworkers share, evaluate and rank shared info(sr(ation. The eventual idea is a marke(able product that would see group» on Ihe Interne( or iniranet paying I'or inl'ormaiion, @~lg bui being encouraged by "rebatcs" depending on their level ol participation, and moreover 011;;:jIIg Boh Andersonasks h how usef'ul (hey found (hat information. The system has intelligence built in, and will "offer" Why is Ihe paperless pffiee a<ay more of ihe tyPe ol' information the user indicates is useful, ancl will disPlay recommencl(itions fr'oln people the user has agreed with in Lhe past. O(her knowledge management technology derived from Xerox research includes Ihe Hyperbolic Tree I'rom a Xerox company called Inxighi. Software. It involves sophis(ica(ed mapping ou( ol' data souices, allowing I'or visualization of that da(a. Of note, Lha( technology is included, for example, in ihe Web view of Sof(Quad's I-lotMetal Pro. Evaluation copies ol' ihe product are av.iilablc I'iom Inxighi. LÃ

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Home networking may be your next big opportunity. At least, that's the hope of a group of companies that came together in June to form the Home Phoneline N etworking A l liance or HomePNA. By t h e en d o f t h i s y ear, HomePNA wants to have products available

Frequency Division Multiplexing, or FDM. FDM assigns unique frequency bands to the services sharing the wire. The regular telephone services uses a range of approximately 20Hz to 3.4KHz. ADSL and other "xDSL" services will operate in the 25KHz to 1.1MHz range, while the Home Phoneline system will use a frequency range above 2MHz. For example, Tut is using the 5.5MHz to 9.5MHz range for its 1Mbps system. Creating reliable IOMbps Ethernet within the loose wiring structure of a household phone system isn't a walk in the park, the HomePNA points out. This is not Category 5 wiring. For example, phones as well as other appliances in the home can add noise to the phone line. The phone line branching — and with it the net-

way to connectand communicate among devices in a home setting. The alliance estimates that by the year 2002, 15.3 million households in the U.S. alone will depend on some kind of in-home networking to connect multiple PCs or indeed, PCs to other electronic devices. Initially, however, the alliance predicts the main demand for home networking will be that will create an Ethernet network out of a driven by the desire for simultaneous access home's existing telephone wiring. to the Internet for more than one family memFounding members include AMD, Intel, ber. And, just as in the business environment, 3Com ATILT Wireless, Lucent Technologies, networking will be demanded for file and Rockwell Semiconductor, Epigram, Tut peripheral sharing. Kids would be able to play Systems, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and multi-player games over such a network, IBM. Initially the group has adopted a system either on networked computers within the called HomeRun, developed by Tut Systems, same home or out over the Internet. A simple that allows 1Mbps transmission speeds. home networking system could also drive the The group says it will publish and promarket for house automation devices, where a mote Tut's work as an open specificonnection to the central computcation later this year. And AMD er wouldbe ascloseas thenearest A simple home networking system could also announced it would be developing a phone jack. single-chip implementation of the The first products will likely drive the market for house automation devices, specification. According to AMD, take the form o f m u l ti-mode where a connection to the central computer this product could be integrated into modems and Ethernet controller wouldbe asclose as the nearestphonejack. motherboards, network interface cards and chips. Eventually the alliance would like to see Home cards or consumer electronics devices. Phoneline Ethernet technology However, 1Mbps is just the starting point. work wiring — would change whenever any- included in a range of devices, from PCs to The group expects that 10Mbps could be avail- one performed the simple task of plugging in digital TV sets to Internet appliances. It sugable by mid-1999, and it also says 100Mbps is anotherphone orfax ma chine.And ifsomeone gests that network interfaces could be includachievable. For example, the group states that picked up a phone to make a call, the data ed at little additional cost on common consumer peripherals like printers. Epigram has a patent-pending technology that transmission characteristics of the phone defines a scaleable Ethernet that would initial- wiring would change. Of course, HomePNA isn't the only ly operate at 10Mbps but could scale up to the Still, the group is bullish that it can group zeroing in on fast connectivity for the home. A recent news report from Tokyo statIOOMbps range. overcome these obstacles to meet t he Piggy-backing data signals onto existing demands of what it sees as a huge market. It ed that JVC and the Japan's Ministry of home wiring isn't new. Past schemes have says there are already 15 million U.S. homes International Trade and Industry (MITI) are used phone or electrical wiring as the cabling that have more than one computer, and that is working on a 200Mbps infrared networking by which,for example, a computer could growing by 30 per cent a year. Moreover, the system for the home. number of other connectable devices — setContact: http:/Iwww.homepna.org. IIDEW send data to a printer across the room without the need fo r t h e u s ual p r inter cable. top boxesorInternet computers, for example David Tanaka is Editor o f The Computer HomePNA's solution is based on sharing the — is also supposed to grow rapidly over the telephone line u sing a s y stem called next five years, creating a demand for some Paper. He can be reached at david@tcp.ca. 22

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then they hirvc to usc ii too. Buying ii popul ii tool;ilso cnsunes t'inn)s can I'ind knowledge;ible sti>ll. "Con>piinics don'I v»int to b«y;i tool th;it no one knov,s hov to iisc. hec;iusc oiie ol ihe in;ilot p i o b lcn)s IS shops have is hnd i iig I;il-

entcd people," Bouche» s;iid. "So il' they go with a r)o-r)i>r»L cor))p()r)y how n);in3 pc«pie;iic they goiiig io lindsm "I o> tc, foi cx»>iplc. hi>s son)e g(>o(l nun)hens. hut >I you'(e a h>< ge col» f)iir))L hov'v r))iir>y knov. Iedgeable I=octe <Icvelopcns can you <'et' 'I'li;ii's;i huge considc>x)tion." l3uyin p o p iil <n tools;<lso ttcs devclopei's i>)to a I;in<"e> co>nn)uniiy ol i h osc wh o ca n i i nswec t(Lhiiic;il (!»estrous.;>cco>LI>ng to Rob SLh>L'cl . PI'esidcnt of' Ml:!3 S< tcins Inc , I< client/se>vc> devclopmeni lii »i «i I <»onto. "II ii l<>i r)l pciiple usc.;i iool, there is iilwiiys someone

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A PPL I C A T I O N

D EV E L O PM E N T

"So now we' re seeing a shift: people are s«s« ~ s « «t »«»r«»r st«t taking a better look at the infrastructure. They still develop the snazzy screens but they want to J ~ r t»t»«»»l m ake sure the back end is taken care offirst." MER's Schieck has also spotted this trend, re»«»ttl«. ' Jl « but he points out that vendors have yet to deliver I ' l3 «««t« ~ .c« « » »»t • & high-quality, modern tools for building robust Itt Qtt« ml , rel M y three-tier architectures. "Three-tier tools in gen- »«wiesw»l ash «tt«»« eral are the equivalent of using a standard C com- * ssl piler to write Windows 3.0 applications," he said. "When you want to write an application that uses Symantec Visual C©fe RMI or CORBA or even DCOM, you have to write a lot of code to make it do anything, « t« ! t I « • D w' I «t »« « « »« »I»»tttu «h«wt««r « because they haven't built the tools to make it eve tetr» • i «ss. ' * e srsttts eel »»u irr: wseEt really simple yet." I«. Ifm i tetnr/e CITNrie rtsauii He added: "I think that there are going to be « ,l/i'!' '„;i-:. big changes in that over the next six months, so .' t»st . ttt that when you build enterprise three-tier applica- p tions the tools will be closer to what you see in @" :' ll.".":". ".,':::.- ';.::!Il~ [the visual] tools today." W

'«

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things to learn, so make it easy for me.'" She added: "So the products are going to be differentiated by how easy it is to bring them in and use them, and looking at the players in the marketto see who can make iteasy,you see Microsoft with MTS, which is much easier to use than a traditional TP monitor; BEA can create a great middleware product but they' re not good at creating easy-to-use tools; and IBM, which has some great tools but you have to spend a lot of time learning to use them." She also pointed to Oracle Corp., with its Network Computing Architecture, as a future player in this market. The company formerly known as Borland has taken this trend to heart, using the catchphrase "Integrating the Enterprise" as the basis of its new name: Inprise Corp. Boucher said Inprisemay have a bright future:"Borland has always created tools developers have liked, so they can be successful."

Being Pure The vendors who profit from that trend, accordBut while ease of use and familiarity are valing to the Standish Group's Boucher, will be Inprise/BorlandDelphi 3 ued, following Sun's 100% Pure Java edict is those which offereasy-to-use infrastructure products. "Developers are saying, 'This middleware stuff sounds not. Data from The Standish Group shows that 6.4 per cent of developers plan to use pure Java and 6.5 per cent will go with Windows-spegreat, this infrastructure stuff sounds great, but I have a lot of other cific Java. "Java itself is important, but what isn't important is the discussion around pure Java and what we call MS-Java. It's evenly split as to which one developers want to use," Boucher said. "Not too many users a I I sa s I f s s I are choosing their development tools based on whether they supports pure Java or not." ' ' I I I I Michetti is one of those. "I don't care at all. I understand Sun' s desire (to have 100% Pure Java) and I like Sun a lot, but whether it' s 100 per cent pure or 90 per cent pure is totally irrelevant." MER's Schieck, however, is increasingly writing enterprise-wide applications, and purity matters in those environments. "I care, because I'm moving more and more towards working for people w ho...havea couple of Unix boxes, an MVS machine and the data somewhere else, and they want to get at it from almost anything. If you go without 100% Pure Java the issue is you are building things that only run in a Wintel world and that's a problem. "So my personal opinion is 100% Pure Java is extremely important," Schieck said.

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CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998 http Jhwww.mvmag.corn

Tool Confusion The Java battles, the various languages and numerous competing vendors mean applicat ion developers are faced with a huge range of choices. "It is getting really difficult to keep track of all the different streams that are going on out there," Michetti said. "It's getting tougher because there are a lot of good products and a lot of variations on a theme, like the HP version of Java or Microsoft's or Sun' s. For example, we' ve hardly looked at some of the Borland stuff lately." "A lot of them are pretty good but we just don't have the time." But the last thing Michetti wants is for vendors to slow the pace of innovation. "We' ll just have to work harder to keep up." IICWI Peter Wolchak is a Toronto-based journalist who specializes in high-technology reporting.

A PPL I C A T I O N

D EV E L OP M E N T

Product Review

Totally new

V ieamal clBae e

7.0

lacks documentation

by John Hamm You may have noticed that Borland International recently changed its corporate name to Inprise. At the same time, the company's new upgrade to the venerable dBase database application development product has changed just about everything but the name. With the current release of Visual dBase 7.0, Borland has attempted to reach the hundreds of thousands of application developers who learned their trade pounding out dBase code in the '80s, and the millions of businesses which are still using those DOS-based "legacy" applications.

' si««

Documentation

Documentation for Visual dBase 7.0 consists of a skinny little Gerring Started book and the on-line help file. The little book is V isual dBase follows the example of Visual Basic and other "Visual" a bsolutely essential for starting off, but it won't take you very far. development packages, which allow the user to place controls such as T here is a Language Reference available with the high-end push buttons and check boxes on a form by dragging the control from lient/Server Edition but not in the Standard Edition. This is a seria tool palette over to the form. Once the control is placed on the form, o us problem forboth new and experienced users as the dBase lanthe user may customize its properties by simply clicking choices on a g uage has been completely overhauled for version 7.0 Gone is the @ SAY GET" syntax and almost everything else dBase programproperties palette. No programming is required until the point at which t he form must be told what to do when the button is pressed or the mers have come to expect. The product now comes with a new, check box is checked. This is called event-driven programming. seductive, full-featured object-oriented programming language. F or example, you may have a button labeled "Close" on your form. l J nfortunately, without a language reference this new language is W hen you click the Close button you are initiating an event. a lmost impossible to learn. The on-line help file version is not much Programming the form to correctly respond to events is easily achieved elp. Very few topics have examples and when they do, the examples in Visual dBase 7.0 by selecting an event on the "Events" palette. In this e complex and obscure. A tutorial might have helped but, alas, example, we would select the "onClick" event. When we do this, the ere is no tutorial. There are several good examples of projects, source-code editor opens up with the skeleton program pre-written. All forms and reports in the samples directory but without guidance it that is required in this case is to insert a single lineof code: form. close() takes an unreasonable amount of time to find examples of even the Now, when the user of the finished applicamost trivial operations. tion presses the Close button, the form will close Disappointment as expected. Of course, more complicated l«««««««~~ ««« «1««««i —. Yes, we were disappointed. The tools, features events will require more programming — perand the object-oriented language make Visual haps hundreds or thousands of lines. dBase 7.0 potentially the best desktop database Visual Tools application development product available. Visual dBase 7.0 is shipped with a generous supBut this is not just an update of the old I« "' " "M~ ply of tools to make visual programming easier. e~ « dBase language. It is a completely new pro4« «' Along with check boxes, push buttons and list « «m a a « « « « « « «~ gramming language. Without documentation it «I « « « ««««««« «[ ) boxes, there are image, graph, spreadsheet, spell Irtlis~' is un u sable. Imagine trying to learn C, C++, W tt e e l ' : ' ".«RR: checker and dozens of other custom controls that Java oreven Visual Basic from a help file.W e dBase7.0: Afull-featured, object-oriented really do make visual programming fun and relwill wait. If the program gains some momenprogramminglanguage atively easy. The variety of tools is better than tum, there will be books. Maybe Borland will VisualBasic 5.0 and,like VisualBasic,there are hundreds of freeware get it together and improve this potentially excellent product by and shareware custom controls available on the Web that can be down- telling us how to use it. In the meantime we cannot recommend loaded and added to a components palette to further extend the product. VisualdBase 7.0.We cannot see any reason why a new developer In addition to the excellent array of visual components, here is would choose this under-documented first release. Nor can we see perhaps the finest programmer's text editor in existence. One of any advantage for dBase coders wanting to upgrade — the only thing Borland's acquisitions during the company's glory days was the pop- dBase about this is the name. ular text editor Brief. Borland has since integrated this into all its Fans of the classic dBase language may want to keep their eyes development products. Brief is infinitely customizable, blazingly fast peeled for Microsoft's Visual FoxBase 6.0 upgrade. Ill and a serious productivity booster. Syntax color-coding is a matter of course, but like everything else in this remarkable editor, the color- John Hamm is co-owner of Vancouver 's EastSide DataGraphics. He can becontacted at: harvestobc.sympatico.ca. coding can be customized to suit one's tastes.

Event-Driven Programming

httpihvww.ccwmag.mm

Au gust 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER

l 27

A LY S

SAP

by Grace Casselman

The business applications giant is leveraging the Euro, YZK opportunities, and improving decision support for R/3 customers.

28 l

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998

ny company, be it small or large, needs to attract new customers and expand current business. But for a company like Germany's SAP AG, which saw 1997 revenues of 6.02 billion DM (about $4.94 billion Canadian) and growth of about 70 per cent annually, expectations are extremely high. Sustaining that volume will become an increasing challenge. That's why it's so important for SAPa software developer targeting the core business system applications in corporations with the SAP R/3 product â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to make its case particularly compelling, and to increase appeal for new customers, particularly in the (relatively) small to medium-sized market segment. That's a notable target for SAP, which has been traditionally known for addressing particularly large corporations among its 16,000 worldwide installations. That effort includes the recently announced Accelerated Solutions initiative â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a bundle of software and services aimed at businesses with $10 million or more in annual revenues. About 80 per cent of the software comes shrinkwrapped from SAP, while the remainder gets configured at the customer site, commented SAP Canada president Robert Beauchemin. Implementations are expected to take as little as 16 weeks, and Beauchemin said total cost for a corporation starts at about $250,000. A recent report by Boston's Aberdeen Group said that SAP customers studied were experiencing implementions within 4.4 per cent of the plan, and within 5.5 per cent of budget. The average actual implementation in the study was 6.9 months. SAP rather boldly proclaims its Year 2000 compliance, and is even providing tools to allow partners and customers to test their own developments that may rest on the SAP core technology. "There's no crisis on R/3 systems. They' re Year-2000 ready by design," said Henning Kagermann, co-chairhttp Jtwww.ccwmag.corn

man of the executive board at SAP AG. European companiesin particular are wrestling not only with the Y2K, but also with the impending conversion to the Euro currency, which has been heralded by many pundits as an even bigger technical challenge than the millenium bug. Industry analysts say that while anyone doing business with Europe will need to think about the new currency; companies with European subsidiaries or those that derive more than 20 per cent of business from European sales must pay particular attention to their computer systems. The trickiest aspect to the problem will be the requirement for "triangulation," in which a transaction will not only need to be convertedfrom one currency to another, but will need to be simultaneously processed in the Euro, as companies will be working in both the Euro and their local currencies during a 3.5-year transition period. As well, the legal rules surrounding the Euro require that companies provide accounting systems that will handle up to five numbers to the right of the decimal point. A reportfrom Joshua Greenbaum, senior consultant and director with the Hurwitz Group, said the Euro will force most companies running back offices on custom-developed andlegacy code to switch to packaged solutions within the next five years. SAP says all currently shipping products contain a Euro functionality component. Moreover,customers of previous products can getthe feature in the form of free release upgrades. (Of note, SAP AG says it will switch its business over to using the Euro currency at the first possible moment, which is Jan. 1, 1999.) "Most of us know it's not just anothercurrency.There is lessrisk of fl uctuation, more opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (with open borders and common currency)and it' s easier to reach

N EW S

A N A LY S I S

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new markets," said Kagermann. "All of a sudden, European companies can operate across national boundaries, said M i c II@g,.loemen,rin ~ales mar + ting f@.SAP AG. "But the road to Euro' vtgoh't be a":la4tlk in the park." He said 50 per cent of overall costs associated with conversion to the Euro are expected to involve computer-related expenses. The historical idea behind SAP is to provide a robust software platform for running what are generally mission-critical applications. When a company installs an SAP solution, that typically goes hand-in-hand with a strategic rethinking of business processes. However, SAP is looking to make the available information and potential analysis a lot more useful to business managers."Business intelligence is everything that helps people make the right decisions in time," said Claus Heinrich,SAP executive board member. Indeed, at the recent Sapphire Madrid user conference, the company rolled out its SAP Strategic Ent e r prise M an a gement. Beauchemin said the business intelligence product "helps executives make better decisions and creates value for stakeholders in the company." Applications include: • Business Planning and Simulation (BPS): a simulation and modeling tool to examine the impact of various activities; • Business Consolidation and Sourcing: a Web-based Editorial Workbench for gathering external data, usually over the Internet. • CorporatePerformance Monitor: a technology that continuously monitors actual performance against what was previously identified as "strategic targets." JulieKaufman, software research analyst with International Data Corp. Canada Ltd., in Toronto, said there's been an evolution to more and more sophisticated business intelligence products. Executives need to "dig down to data in real time to make decisions," she said. Moreover, that needs to be done quickly, in a distributed environment. James Shepherd, vice-president of research for AMR in Boston, said the outside world likes the idea of open systems, but in reality, all businesses really want is technology that works well. "Companies never objected to having a relationship with IBM or Digital. Microsoft has become a defacto standard; it makes their life easier, applications work together." He said SAP's strategy of components really has to do with selling products into new markets and selling new "components" to existing installed base customers. At that recentSapphire conference,

more than 8,000 SAP customers and consultants representing 56 countries (with the bulk of att endees from Europe), faced the sweltering above 40+ temp~ times in Mobid in + r June, to be hriefed on fhe latest from SAP. That includedthe announcement of new p roducts i n SA P ' s Su p pl y Ch a i n Optimization, Planning and E x ecution Initiative (SCOPE). They are: the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer, which SAP says includes scheduling optimization algorithms proven in the process industries; the SAP Business Information Warehouse enterprise-wide data warehousing product; and the SAP Business-to-Business Procurement product. That procurement software, due in Q4, is a Web-based solution intended to handle the purchase-to-payment cycle between businesses in one screen. (Earlier in June, SAP had announced the SAP Retail Online Store, meant to handle on-line shopping, include round-the-clock product catalogue browsing, price quotations, availability checks and order processing.) SAP has been making a big push towards componentized delivery of its software, claiming it's easy for customers looking to pick-and-choose pieces of SAP and third-party technology. "Companies need to have componentization to piece together technology from other vendors and connect that properly, said IDC's Kaufman. F or e xample, t h e S a l e s F o r ce Automation is so componentized, a mobile solution can be loaded onto notebook computers and carried on the road by sales reps, explainedSAP executiveboard member Peter Zencke. (A few years ago, the industry would have beenincredulous atthe concept of SAP on a notebook.) How small will SAP go? When asked if SAP might appear on a Palm Pilot or Windows CE platform, Beauchemin would only reply: "Stay tuned." SAP announced Release 4.5 of its R/3 software, which adds particular functionality in the area of manufacturing, in the industries of a erospace, defence,automotive, engineering and construction, high-tech, chemical, pharmaceuticaland consumer products. Product highlights, according to SAP, include more control over materialsmanagement, repairs processing, plant maintenance, flow manufacturing, high-volume order management, trend analysis, project cost forecasting and environmental health and safety. In what could be seen as a strategic '

move against competitor Peoplesoft, SAP is focusing attention on its HR solution with SAP Human Resources System Release 4.0, which is available either as a stand-alone solutionforbusinesses,or as partof an overall SAP implementation. Kagermann said the software includes more global management capabilities for multi-national corporations. At home, SAP Canada's first-quarter revenues were $37.8 million in 1998, down about six per cent compared to that period in the previous year. International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd., reported those results "show that building an organization to face the challenges of the 'next phase' of the enterprise applications market-place is in itself a challenge." IDC noted growth was hampered by attention to restructuring efforts within the company, including a realignment into three geographical business units: Western Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, as well as these industry units: healthcare, telecommunications and utilities, public sector, smalVmedium enterprises, and education and training. Meanwhile, IDC reported "staggering" growth from SAP Canada's competitors, including 200 per cent growth from Oracle Canada. SAP Canada's Canadian resellers are: Fin Tech Services Ltd. of Calgary, Optimum Software Solutions of Toronto, and Primonics Inc. of St. Laurent, Que. Richard Morochove, president of Toronto-based consulting firm, Morochove & Associates Inc.,said SAP is strongly refocusing its attention on particular industries in an effort to continue its growth rate. "I see SAP as a company under transition." IKUW Gvace Casselman is editor o f Canadian ComputerWkolesalex She can be reached at gracec. netcom.ca.

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It's also worthwhile to keep in mind the difference between shadow mask and aperture grille monitors. A shadow mask monitor has a ceramic plate (usually made of invar) with perforations designed to guide the color beams to the proper spot on the screen. Aperture grille, on the other hand, features a number of guide wires on the outside of the tube, which line up the beams. The drawback to this technology is those wires require two "damper wires" to hold them in place, and two visible horizontal lines appear on the display. Many people swear by the richer colors produced by the aperture grille technology, but if those two small lines will be distracting (either for graphic editing reasons or for reasons of personal preference), the shadow mask and its crisper display are the way to go. The Trinitron and Diamondtron models are the aperture grille technologies from Sony and Mitsubishi, respectively. This month, we' ve gathered together a number of entry-level monitors. As you can see, within a few hundred dollars, there are a wide range of possibilities open to the customer looking to purchase a 17-inch monitor for the first time.

A Note about the Tests: Monitor testing is quite subjective. We used DisplayMate by Sonora Technologies(hrtpr/twww.displaymaie.corn) for testing purposes, running each monitor through a series of test screens to look for flicker, focus, edge clarity, moire, convergence and assorted others capabilities. • Flicker: The display on the screen is created by repeated passes of a color beam, which lights up phosphor on the inside of the monitor tube. Flicker happens when the phosphor noticeably dims before the beam can make the next pass. Certain colors are more susceptible than others to flicker (yellow seems to be the worst). • Focus, edge clarity and convergence: The display relies on three separate color beams (red, green and blue) to create the myriad of colors you see on your screen. How well they line up with each other (or converge) determines how good the picture quality on the monitor will be. Because they are furthest away from the firing mechanism, the outer edges of the screen are the hardest to line up, and can become out of focus even when the rest of the picture is sharp. Certain colors are generally better converged than others: green-red convergence is most important to the picture quality, followed by green-blue, then red-blue. For that reason, purple images can often show up as a blur, even on some of the best monitors. • M oire: The moire effect occurswhen a finely-drawn pattern on the screen conflicts with the pixels on the screen, in concert with the timing of the refresh rate of the display. This causes "wave" patterns to appear on top of the pattern being shown. Anyone who has seen

pieces of window screens overlapping knows this phenomenon — it only takes a little bit of desynchronization of the layers to cause some complex patterns. The more often this effect is produced by a monitor, the less-suited that monitor is to graphic work with any complex and repetitive detail. Some monitors come with controls to "cancel" the moire, but the result is often a roughening up of the rest of the picture. The reason these tests are subjective is because, unlike benchmarking software for CPU speed, most of the tests are done by eyeballing the screen and making a judgement call. In our chart, here's a rough guide to what the terms mean:

Quantities: • Negligible: None, or amounts so little as to be imperceptible. • Minimal: Very small amounts detected, but nothing serious • Some: Definitely visible, starting to interfere with the display in places. • Medium: Enough to be a serious annoyance without making the screen totally unviewable. • Subliminal (flicker only): subliminal flicker is flicker that occurs just under the level of conscious perception; when the user looks at the screen, flicker isn't evident, but something about the display just seems...wrong.

Quality: • Excellent: Top-notch quality. Few problems, if any. • Very good: Still quite good, though the picture might feature slight loss of quality in certain places. • Good: Most ofthe screen is okay,butproblem areasarebecoming noticeable. Testing in 1,024 by 768 resolution was done with an 85Hz refresh rate, and testing in 1,280 by 1024 was done at 60Hz, to simulate average conditions for a good percentage of users. Some of the monitors are ratedforrefresh rates above the ones used, butmany of these can only be achieved with a high-performance video card with a lot of video RAM. The better the video card used, the better the results will be.

The Contenders For this month's test, we asked for inexpensive 17-inch monitors aimed at the consumer market. Because a few of the monitors received were higher-end products, they have been split off into a separate group at the end of the main batch.

Acer AcerView 79g Price: $690 street. Pros: A .25-mm dot pitch offers great resolution. There is impressive frequency response. There are moire and convergence controls. A BNC connector is included for Mac compatibility. Cons: The design of the outer casing is flared, creating a slightly disorienting effect; things on screen look a bit crooked sometimes. The display jumped and jittered at 1,260 by1,024 at 65Hz, but was solid at 75Hz. There is a distracting moire problem at higher resolutions. The AcerView 79g is not cheap, but it offers great refresh rates, great display quality and a good selection of user controls in the OSD. While the moire may make the unit unsuitable for higher-detail graphic work at times, it is otherwise a respectable choice for most users.

32 ~

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998

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ADI MicroScan SP+ ADC Spectrum 7Vlr

Price:$598 street.

Pros: There is solid performance with minimal moire/flicker. The brightness/contrast on separate spinners allows for quick adjustment. There is good resolution with; a .26-mm dotpitch.

Price: $380 street. Pros: The press-and-spin OSD control is very easy to use. There is a good selection of image-shaping controls. The price is right.

Cons:There are minimal OSD control settings.

Cons:Ate .28-mm dot pitch, image is a bit coarse, but not too bad.

For the price, the MicroScan 5P+ is a bit skimpy on user controls in the OSD. Otherwise, the performance is impressive, with great display quality and minimal flicker or moire problems.

This monitor is a pretty basic and inexpensive unit, but the ease of use of the OSD control, and the fact that it has image manipulation controls like pinbalance, parallelogram and color temperature makes it a great value, too.

Cybervision C72

Value

Price:$509 street. Pros: The .25-mm dot pitch provides a nice crisp image. There is a good selection of image manipulation controls. There is next to no flicker or moire. Cons:The 15.6-inch viewable size is one of the smallest in this batch.

The Cybervision C72 is a bit more expensive than some of the entrylevel monitors, but balances the cost with impressive specs and performance. Overall, a great choice.

Performance

Daytek DT-1726D Price:$469 street.

Pros: The .26-mm dot pitch offers good resolution and generally sharp picture quality. High refresh rates are available. Cons:The short signal cord could be problematic, if more distance from computer is required. Edges were a bit wavy in places, and the screen showed minor ghosting. The OSD option order is a bit strange: common controls, like vertical/horizontal size and position, were listed at the bottom of the list, forcing users to scroll through options like pincushion first. Daytek's DT-1726Dgenerally provides a crisp, clear picture, with some lack of focus and a bit of distortion around the edges of the screen on the unit we tested. Although these issues could become problematic for some users, it's still quite a competent and reliable monitor.

Digital Research Technologies DRMON17 Price:$399 street. Pros: The OSD has clearly labelled buttons, and is easy to use. Certain buttons double as non-menu contrast/brightness. The picture quality is quite good for a .28-mm dot pitch display. The 16.1-inch viewable area is larger than average.

Cons:There is slight deformity around the edges of the screen.

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The DRMON17 is a good unit, with a minimum of flicker and respectable image quality. This isn't the cheapest product on the block, but it's reasonably close, and the image quality certainly makes it worth consideration for those on a budget.

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Hyundai DeluxScan 7695 Price:$649street Pros:A .26-mm dot pitch provides a high-quality display with a good frequency response. There is minimal flicker and moire.

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Cons:The selector for the OSD is split into two parts, consisting of a push button on the front of the monitor, and a spinner wheel on the underside. Not only is this arrangement a bit awkward for the user's hand, the spinner wheel is also a bit touchy, reacting too fast or too slowly at times. When the screen resolution or refresh rate is reset at the adapter, the monitor tends to reset all of the display settings, including the brightness.

The DeluxScan 7695 is a monitor with great performance, with problems that are mostly ergonomic. The awkward setup of the spinner wheel for the OSD can be a bit painful for the wrist if used often. Once set up, though, the user gets smooth, high-performance sailing. This monitor is a bit higher-priced than most, however.

Elco Xtreme Price: $389 SRP. Pros: The monitor is an OEM version of the well-known Lite-On Technology. It delivers solid performance with a minimum of flicker and moire. Cons:Some minor ghosting was noticed. At a.28-mm dotpitch,theimage can be abitcoarse. '. 'i w s

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With a higher dot pitch and slight ghosting problem, the Xtreme isn't perfect, but with a low price and a well-known manufacturer behind the Elco label, this monitor is still a good budget-conscious alternative.

TEST

The Higher-Er ~ A few of themonitors we received were a bit out ofthe range we bad asked for initially, bat are included here for informational purposes.

CompaqV75 Price: $772. Pros:This has excellent display quality, with a good picture and next to no flicker or moire. The USB port allowsforthe attachmentofa keyboard or mouse through the monitor. There are separate brightness/contrast spinners. This a top brand name. This is relatively inexpensive, for a "performance" monitor. Cons:There are minimal OSD controls. The OSD control button layout is counterintuitive: the + key is located below the - key. Although a bit thin in the OSD,the Compaq V75 monitor comes through in sheer performance, with a solid, high-quality display, all for a fairly low price. The USBport is a nice touch.

Eizo FlexScanTX-Cl

Pros: The monitor delivers reliable performance with a minimum of flicker and moire. The product offers a .26-mm dot pitch. There is good frequency response. A BNC connector for Mac compatibility is included. Cons:Image manipulation controls on the OSD are minimal. (It's not really a steel drum, although it doesn't sound bad if you tap thecase.f

Price: $'l,099street. Pros:The .25-mm Diamondtron display offers superiorimage quality. The automatic ' 5 'f + ' setting control is very accurate. There is a BNC connector for Mac compatibility. The OSDcontrol button is a panel which tilts in the four compass directions, and the user clicks on the centrepoint It's very intuitive. Cons:The OSDcontrol panel is a bit touchy. It' s easy to click the "centre" by mistake when going for one of the directional arrows. There was someghosting evident on the unit tested. It's a bit on the heavy side.

The oddly-named Steel Drum provides a great quality display for a reasonable amount of money. The BNCconnectors are a real plus for Mac users. KDS is bullish about its KDS Advanced Replacement Express Service (KARES) warranty program. If a monitor is defective within the three-year warranty period, KDS will ship out a replacement product by air.

Eizo is known for creating high-performance monitors, and the FlexScanTX-C7 is no exception. The monitor has a very crisp picture, great frequency response and a good selection of features. This is definitely a great choice for graphics work.

KDS Orchestra Steel Drum Price:$495 street.

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MAG Innovision DX700T Price: $589 SRP. Pros: The product comes from a well-known name in monitors. This is a top-notch quality display, at.25-mm dot pitch. There is a good selection of user controls, including a non-menu brightness/contrast. Cons:There were slight edge deformities and edge flicker on the unit tested. The price is a bit higher than some of the others. Well-known in the monitor field, MAG Innovision delivers the goods with the DX700T,which has great image quality for the most part. Edge integrity was a bit of a problem, with some waviness and jitteriness, a good chunk of which was correctable with the OSD image manipulation.

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Mitsubisbi DiamondScan 70

Price:$438 street. Pros: The .28-mm dotpitch delivered reasonable performance. The OSD controls were fairly intuitive. Cons:The edge quality was not as good as the rest of screen (One corner of the monitor we tested was quite blurry.)

Price: $629 SRP.

Pros:The display quality is very good for a.28-mm . dot pitch. The shallower design is great for smaller workspaces. There is a good selection of image manipulation controls. Cons:The product is fairly expensive for a .28-mm dot pitch. The OSD is a bit non-intuitive. The mostexpensive of the .28-mm monitors this month, the Mitsubishi DiamondScan70 is also one of the highest quality products in that dot pitch. There is some moire and flicker in higher res, but otherwise this is a top-notch monitor.

Though the image might be a bit on the coarse side, the quality of the Magitronic monitor isn't too bad, except for some problems with focus at the edges of the screen.

Monex Televideo SV200 Price:$449 SRP. Pros: The OSD is very intuitive, with non-menu bdightness and contrast buttons. There is a good selection of image manipulation controls. There is a good quality.28-mm dot pitch display. There is minimal flicker, and small amounts of moire. Cons:There is a slight loss of focus around the edges. The Televideo SV200has a great OSD interface, but the quality of the display as a whole may be inadequate for serious computer users. This is better as a starter monitor or for the casual user.

Panasonic PanaSync S70 Price:$679 SRP.

Pros:The high-quality display has next to no flicker and only some moire at higher resolutions. There is a good selection of image manipulation options in the OSD. Cons: Even at a .27-mm dot pitch, the image is a bit coarse. The price is high. The PanaSync S70 is certainly a sturdy and confident monitor with a great display quality. However, the price tag may scare people away, especially with the monitor only checking in with a .27-mm dot pitch. A shallower depth version is also available, at a higher cost.

36 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998 ht t p i A vwwccwmag.mm

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Philips INagnavox 10ls Price:$499 street. Pros: There is excellent picture quality, considering the.28-mm dotpitch. Some of the buttons for OSD control double asdirect controls for brightness and contrast, whenthe OSD is not active. Cons:The OSD control is fairly awkward, with a push-button on front and a hidden selector wheel under: neath the chassis. The OSD requires the user to scroll down to either"save"or "exit" for each sub-menu, which can betime-consuming. The moire is fairly noticeable in 1,280 by 1,024 resolution.

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The Magnavox 107sfrom Philips has a display quality that is excellent, with a bit of flicker and somemoire being the only real distractions. The awkward OSDcontrol configuration can cause somewrist pain while setting up the display. For the price, the unit provides great display quality without being excessively expensive.

Pros:The picture quality is exceptional. The black casing provides a good contrast to the image on the screen, for better clarity. This is a brand name. There are a full range of image manipulation controls.

Cons:The black control buttons disappear against the black monitor casing, maldng use a bit difficult. The buttons are also a bit on the small side, which makes use awkward.

Princeton EOl10 Price:$599SRP. Pros: This is a high-quality display, at .26 mm, with minimal flicker. The OSD makes it easy to switch between related options, while editing values. Cons:There is noticeable moire at both 1,024 by 768and 1,280 by 1,024 resolutions. The product's priced a bit on the high side. The E0710 is an intriguing-looking monitor with a great display. Although the moire problem might be a bit distracting for some users, this is in all other respects an impressive monitor.

From Big Blue comes Big Black, the only monitor we received that strayed from the standard off-white color. The contrast of the casingmakes the picture quality stand out even mare than usual. It's a monitor of outstanding quality from the get-go. The $1,140 SRP is pretty steep, but if money is no object, this monitor is a dream.

I.G Flatron 7$Ff Price.' $859:SRP. Pros:This monitor has an astounding .24.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ,rnmdot pitch.' Pricing is competitive. There is good frequency response. There'are separate brightness/contrast spin wheels.

Samsung le Price: $459 SRP. Pros: This is a great quality display, showing only a little loss at the edges. The OSD controls are very intuitive and the buttons are easy to use, including the buttons that double as non-menubrightness and contrastcontrols. Cons:Some moire is evident at 1,280 by 1,024. Brightness control did not appear to have a major impacton thescreen. Even at a .28-mm dot pitch, the Samsung 7e delivers a great picture Overall quality, for an amount of money that's not overly excessive. The moirehas the potentialto be somewhat annoying at1,280 by 1,024, but lower resolutions should be top-notch in almost every way.

Cons:There is slight image distortion around the edges of the screen. The two-tone coloring of the case (off-white and blue-grey) can be a bit distracting. Moire is a bit problematic at1,280 by 1,024. The "G" in LB Electronics stands for Goldstar, the name under which LB's monitors previously sold. Along:vtath the new name, the 78FTintroduces LBs new Flatron technology, with an ultrafine .24-mm dot pitch. While the picture quality is great, the coloration of the outer casing is i bit distracting. That's a minor complaint about an otherwise fine monitor.

hrtpJhvwwccwmag.corn Au gust 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER

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Viewsonic GS771 Price: $629 SRP. Pros: This has great display quality, even at .27-mm. The short-depth design is a plus for smaller workspaces. The OSD is relatively intuitive, and has a lot of image manipulation capabilities. Cons: The price is high. The moire can be problematic at1,280 by1,024. Viewsonic is another well-respected name in monitors. The GS771 comes in at the high-end of the entry level field price-wise, but delivers the goods in performance. Even with the .27-mm dot pitch, the picture quality is great, and the GS771offers a great alternative to more expensive higher-end monitors.

Voxon 1728 Price: $415 SRP. Pros: The price is low. The OSD is easy to use. Cons: While image quality is generally good, edge quality can be problematic. Flicker and moire appear at 1,280 by

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Although the problem with image quality and screen regulation could be an annoyance for those who plan high usage, the price makes the Voxon worth consideration for the casual user.

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Sceptre is well-respected in the field of monitors, and you can see why. The Dragon Eye D73A offers an impressive .26-mm dot pitch. The OSD spinner controls are a nice innovation, though they can be a bit awkward when a lot of spinning is necessary.

•

Sceptre Dragon Eye D73A

Pros: This provides good-quality.26-mm dot pitch at a great price. The spinner controls double as brightness/contrast. There is almost no moire or flicker. Cons: Although push-and-spin OSD controls are a greatidea,they can be a bit awkward at times, especially when selection requires a lot of spinning. An indentation on the front of the spinners for finger traction would improve this. The machine we tested had a loss offocus in the centre of the display at 1,024 by 768, but this is likely something that happened in shipping.

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Price:$779street. Pros."This is a high-quality: .25-mm display. The product is backed by the NEC name. This cost is reasonably low for a performance monitor. Cons:There arn a few less image cantrol features than usual on the higher-end models, end the OSD is hampered by a slightly confusing "proceed" button. At15.6 inches, the viewable area is smager than most Moire can be a problem at 1,280 by1,024.

ese days, more people are looking to flat-panel LCD display technology as a monitor option. Previously seen mostly in banks and hospitals, where desktop space and emissions are a big concern, the flat-panel is becoming attractive to other markets, including home use. While it's true that flatDelivering high performance for a low cost, panels are still priced on the expensive side, manufacturers are the MultiSync E700 checks in with a few less starting to drop pricing on their LCD models as more demand features and a smaller viewable area than some emerges.Some predictthat fl at-panel technology may make up ,;af the other monitors, but otherwise provides tbp-natch per'farmance. 10 per cent of the monitor market by the year 2000, and more than 50 per cent by 2005. Traditionally, the flat-panel has flourished in environments SonyGDIIIMPS where desktop space was at a premium (the banking industry), or Price$1,099 street w hereemissions from aregularCRT were ahealth orcontamination Pros:The.25-mm dat concern (in the health industry and in laboratories). For the longest pitch Tnnitron protime, pricing remained high because demand from the general pubvides ouhtanding lic was low, the technology was still cutting edge, and the companies picture quality. that wanted the technology were willing to pay for it. There is a full range ofimage manipulation capabilities. While CRT displays aren't in any danger of losing their market A BNC connector provides Mac compatibiTity. share just yet, some developments are underway, which may serve i l l (Sony invented the Trinitron technologyl) notice that a change is coming. The . Gens:This is one of the higher-priced monitors. change from the old DSTN to TFT active-matrix displays hasMoire is problematic at 1,280 by1,024. made display quality sharper and more CRT-like. As far as lowerunit costs, Sceptre seems to be leading the way with pricing, being One of the biggest names in technology in the the first company to bring a flat-panel display in under $2,000, and world, Sony's BDM200PSis a nice piece of technology, with a great display quality and now currently offering its FT15G for a street price of $1,450. a ton of features. At a $1,099street price, it' s There are still drawbacks to the technology, however. not cheap, but it's backed by Sony quality. Although the price is dropping, typical retail cost for a flat-panel .display is still far higher than for a CRT. In addition to the Sceptre ., FT15G, we also had the opportunity to look at the TIX PanoView TTX 8792UA 745 and the IBM 9516-B23. Both fine displays, the 14.5-inch TTX Price:$789street display comes in at $2,399 street price, and the 16.1-inch IBM has ProcThis is a high-quality a suggested retail price of $5,700. This is still far from pocket .25-mm dot pitch change for the typical user. display. OSD controls Further, flat-panel displays are made up of hardwired pixel feature separate elements, which means they only look acceptable at the resolution buttons formenu for which they were wired. A display with a hardwired resolution categories and for of 1,024 by 768 may look perfectly good when the desktop is set easier navigation. to that resolution. However, when the resolution is set to someThe BNC connector provides Mac \ st s s thing smaller, one of two things may happen: compatibility. There are non-menu brightness/contrast • the outer edges may become blank, centering the desktop area =~; " buttons.selected over the same number of pixels and discarding the rest, The price is competitive. • the display may become blocky and illegible (as the displayCons:The moire is problematic, especially at tries to figure out which pixels should be doubled up and which 1,280 by 1,024. shouldn' t) while trying to spread 800 virtual pixels out over 1,024 actual pixels. TTX's 8792UAmodel offers a lot of features for a budget price. The three separate menu buttons for But the future of LCD displays appears to be bright. As the "pictur e,""color,"and "status" are nice features, pricing continues to drop and the quality increases, more people: as they all activate the OSD in the appropriate are bound to seriously consider the flat-panel option when purplace, and makenavigation a breeze. chasing a monitor. CCW -

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80 Graphics Video Card

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N E T W O R K IN G

Product Review

PPOdNCL ¹t W a re 5 (beta) VOlldOI': Novell Inc.

w e or ove by Stephen Ibaraki

44 ~

Comments: Technically strong, with lava stnphasis.

ltttttntt: A

ovell is a dominant player in the networking arena, but has taken some buffeting in the last two years from Microsoft's pervasive NT product line. Now Novell is fighting back with new products, new directions, and a new CEO, Dr. Eric Schmidt. The changes in focus and strategies are significant and bode well for this company. Any new products from Novell are worth at least a trial run due to continued strong market presence and technical excellence. Especially significant is the summer release of a new operating system: NetWare 5. The product represents a significant shift technically with a strong emphasis on Java. How different is NetWare 5? The changes are evident when you first install it. The procedure is smoother, simpler and includes a Java-based GUI interface. After the initial text-based copy phases, a GUI screen asks for the server name. File-system configuration screens follow and there's a hint at one of the major enhancements — Novell's new 64-bit indexed storage system, called Novell Storage Services (NSS). NSS provides for billions of volumes and directories, up to eight terabyte file sizes while using very little memory. Another feature is fast volume remounting measured in seconds for any size volume — a three terabyte votume was crashed and recovered in 10 seconds at Comdex/Fall '97. Next, the user is given a screen to configure protocols. Again, there's a change from earlier versions of NetWare: with NetWare 5, one can configure for pure IP (that is, without IPX-based encapsulation), and/or IPX. IP would be the preferred configuration for many companies today due to Internet/innanet use and the management and bandwidth advantages of employing a single protocol. The protocol screen is simply laid out and very easy to configure with two check bugres — one for IP and the otherfor IPX. If one checks IP,there are additional fields for IP address, subnet mask and router address. With NetWare 5's g"'cottipatibility mode, the user can run IPX-dependent applications in an IP-only environment. There is also the ability to transparently link IP and IPX network segments. ,lW'" In addition, there is support for Service Location Protocol or SLP. SLP is an ' mdustry-standard Internet protocol allowing plug-and-play style network services in a pure IP environment. With SLP, network resources automatically register their services with a Directory Agent. Clients can gather service location information by contacting the Directory Agent. The installation screens that follow allow time zone setup, licensing set-up, configuring the Novell Directory Services (NDS) tree, server and administrator

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER Asgust'T998 htt pJAvww.ccwmag.corn

At this year's show,

you neverknow what you might pick up. How 'bout some really good vibrations? Like a few small marketing tips that can make you big bucks. Tempted? Then get ready to rock, and roll in the dough. At Meriselling'98, the new money-making version of Softeach. Go ahead, make your selection — Merisel Services, Individual Manufacturer Seminars, Remote/Mobile User, OEM, or Small Business Focus Rooms. Whatever your area, this show promises to be an enriching experience. Register early, and you qualify to win great prizes from Ford, American Express, North American Logistic Services and Roots.

This year, instead of a few T-shirts, some pens and a mug (don't worry, you' ll get those too), pick up something you can really use. Unique product news, marketing ideas and selling tips you can take to the bank. For more information on the Meriselling '98 show, call 1-877-MERISEL, or visit our web site at www.meriselling.corn to register.

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September 22 Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre

September 16 Telus Convention Centre

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Halifax

Montreal

October 14 August 14 et 15 M e t ro Toronto Convention Centre M o n t real Bonaventure Hilton

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October 5 Westln Nova Sconan

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N ETW O R K I N G

placement (context) within the tree, and providing an administrator password. The final series of screens display additional enhancements in NetWare 5. Here, the user can set up and customize the products and services they wish to use. The list reads like a wish list for any network administrator. A very basic setup would include: 1. Novell Distributed Print Services (NDPS): Unlike prior versions of NetWare, users manage printing resources using one NDPS printer object, and not by using different utilities with three different objects. NDPS provides for intelligent bi-directional communication between users, printers and administrators allowing network users to easily locate network printers and obtain information on printer capabilities and printer/job status. NDPS features automatic driver rs rs~g'~ download, automatic printer discovery, NIH 8 pe CONNIE 88 8 lOT~ H8 8 configuration and a single point of QE ICTel administration of all network printers 8. IV NOMIC OHE "l~g«~ fg 8 S N~ • U8 under Novell's network administration 88NEN ACEEOH888888 . tBi '8 8 '8 38E8 8I '8 3 tool, NetWare Administrator. '8 A 2. Novell Directory Services 8 388 • CE 'I Ev NEATH (NDS) Catalog Services: A Catalog AE U t8 CI 8 NN NtttOHE 8 HCEAHNT lea~ GHC Dredger enables administrators to .. IC 8CTEECNIE8 ANE8 EN 888T H~ 88 8N access data from the NDS and place that data into a Catalog Database. The dataI83 base contains a snapshot of the information captured from NDS. Administrators Console0nescreen or authorized users can define their own view of NetWare Directory Services that will be stored in the Catalog. This provides fast queries on data within the catalog, sorting the catalog and finding relationships among the data. 3. WAN Traffic Manager (WTM) Services: WTM is a policy-based tool that is used for the management of the cost and congestion of WAN traffic. Using a policy valuator, WTM checks administrator policies to determine whether WAN traffic will proceed or be delayed. 4. Secure Authentication Services(SAS) including Secure Socket Layer (SSL): SAS provides for the support of new and evolving authentication systems including third-party authentication services. Server-based user applications can have controlled access to files and NDS objects based on the user's SAS authentication. Using the SAS API set, encrypted SSL connections can be established. 5. Novell Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services: PKI consists of a set of services that uses public key cryptography and digital certificates in a Novell NetWare system. Administrators can establish a Certificate Authority (CA) management domain within NDS to perform certificate and key management activities. This enablescertificate-based security services such as SecureSocket Layer (SSL) security for LDAP servers. 6. ZENworks (Zero Effort Networking) Starter Pack: ZENworks is 8HIT HI 8NNHINIHN 888I 8HITH, Novell's desktop management tool suite Novell.. jlj to ease workstation administration tasks such as application management, software distribution, software installation, desktop management,maintenance, and remote diagnostics and repair. NetWare 5 ships with the ZENworks Starter Pack, • 8E s 88 a which includes Novell A p plication Launcher (NAL) & Workstation Manager. IP andIPXproiocal selection After installation is completed, up pops Consoleone on the server screen. It runs on the Java Virtual Machine that's automatically activated in NetWare 5. This GUI-based network management interface is a nice touch versus the text-based screens on prior NetWare versions. For example, clicking Tools allows one to select "Performance Monitor," which provides a graphical representation of CPU and memory usage. Right-click a file on any volume and then select from options such as Edit, Delete, Rename, Cut, Copy, Paste, and New Folder. One can click through "Entire I 8 l TINNN 8

88 8 8

o utl i n e s c or p o r a t e s tra t e g y An interview wish Eric Schmidt, chairman ofthe board and chief executive officer for NoveIl Inc.

CN8I

46 ~

Nowsll s S chm i d t

AIN

CANADIAN COMpUTER WHOLESALER August 1998

hr t pitwww.ccwmag.corn

by Stephen Ibaraki Eric Schmidt joined Novell in April I997 from Sun AficrosystemsInc., where he wes chief technologyoificer endcorporateexecutive oficer. In his 14years at Sun, Schmidt held s range of progressively more responsible executive posh/ons,in which he earned inrernstioriei'recognlbiinas ed Internet pioneer. He wes also instrumentalin the widespread acceptance ofJsvs,Sun'splatform-inde-

pendent prggrammiijglenguage. Priof tb joining 'Sun, Schmidt wes e memberof the research staff a t the ComputerScience Lsbst Xerox Palo Alto ResearchCenter IPARC/. He eiso held positionsar Bell Laboratories snd Zilog. Schmidt hsss bachelor's degree in eiectricei engineering from Princeton University, emestefs degree ineiectricei engineering and e Ph.D. incomputer sciencefrom the University of California at Berkeley. CCN' How have you reshaped the company and what changes do you plan in the short-term and long-term'? Schmidt When I joined Novell in April IS97, I had three main gqals. First, we nasde'd to elijpi.our bustiiass with the needs of our customers and the realities of tha market-place. Second, we needed to focus ourresourcesinourareasof strength. Third, w e needed to executeon ourplansand delivera series of great new products in an accelerated time frame. A year later, we are right ontrack in agthree areas. We've listened closely to our customers and partners and aligned our business to better meet their needs. We' ve become a much more efficient and focused company, with a greater senseof urgency and fewer levels ofmanagement We're shipping great new products like BorderManagar,FastCache, NDS for NT,GroupWisa 5.2,and soon,NetWare 5,thatextend the capabilities of our installed.,bass while attracting new customers. We' vemadeNovell relevant again. CCW:your educational programs ICNI/CII/CNE/CIP/CNAj are the models for the industry and manyother companies have adopted similar programs. But there's been a significant shift to other designations from competing companies. What triggered this shift7 How committed is your company to supporting your education channels7 Schmidt: Our commitment to our education channels is stronger than ever. We continua to be the leader in the quality of education we offer, the number of courses available worldwide, and the number of people we certify. NT, remember, is a relatively new phenomenon, so we expect to saa some fast growth in NT training and a movetoward dual certification by many networking professionals. We are taking advantage of this trend with new Internet certification snd multi-vendor integration courses that are helping us certify thousands of new people every month. We' re also looking at naw forms of on-line training to help people prepare for their cartifications at home or at the office. In addition, wa're

:fk

t this year's show, you never know what you might drum up. This year, there's a whole new beat. A few small marketing tips that could roll into big bucks for you. Interested? Then get ready to rock. At Meriselling '98, the new money-making version of Softeach. Come on down and make your selection — Large Business, TechTalk, New Partners, OEM, Software Licensing or Mac Focus Area. Register early, and you could qualify for prizes from Ford, American Express, North American Logistic Services. Whatever your beat, this show's sure to be an enriching experience. This year, get your yah-yahs out. Instead of a few t-shirts, some pens and a mug (relax, you' ll get those too), pick up something you can really use. Unique product news, marketing ideas and selling tips you can take to the bank. For more information on the Meriselling '98 show, call 1-877-MERISEL, or visit our web site at www.meriselling.corn to register.

•

Checkout the follouing dates: Vancouver

Calgary

Toronto

Montreal

Halifax

Seprember 22 Vancouver Trade

September 16 Telus Convention Centre

August 14 & 15 Metro Toronto Convenrion Centre

October 14 Montreal Bonaventure Hilton

October 5 Westin Nova Scotian

Sc Convention Centre tmrsor

Corporate Services

worth Amowcm mto sistics

ROOTS

N E T W O R K IN G

Network" and create, edit and manage "NT's main attraction for objects in the NDS tree. This is quite significant since these operations could corporate users, is it allows only be done at the client on prior versions of NetWare. for the seamless integration Code-named "Houston" during between CAD/CAM solutions development, ConsoleOne can be run on any networked machine that has a in the production process, and "Java Virtual Machine," and provides a single point of control in which all the data files contained in products can integrate. For example, non-production applications data previously only accessed through the server console or from a networked in the organization such as client will now b e available from word processing, accounting ConsoleOne. This is especially useful when and spreadsheets." working on the server console. These management taskscan be organized into customized views. This allows for easier delegation of administration to others. One can include or exclude specific sets of features (using snap-in components) to match the tasks you want other administrators to perform. One view may include User Administration while another may provide Server Management and Printer Management. NDS trees are typically organized into containers (contexts) for localized administration. For example, if a customer has three departments, you could create three containerobjects,one foreach department.Usersand their resources are represented as objects within their containers. ConsoleOne allows for a view that includes all objects but is restricted by the context. The possibilities are endless and the ConsoleOne concept has tremendous potential for the future. For those who are still running NetWare 3.x servers, NetWare 5 provides a Novell Upgrade Wizard. The wizard will upgrade the 3.x object database (bindery) and volume contents, printers and queues from anywhere on the network. The system will check for conflicts and provide options for resolving these problems before the upgrade begins. One of the annoyances in older versions of NetWare was in providing the location (context) for one's User object when logging into the network. A nice feature in NetWare 5 is Contextless Login. Contextless Login locates the corresponding context in a catalog and automatically inserts the context into the login's context field. Novell Directory Services (NDS) :z has been the key strength in Novell's product line, with its ability to represent all network accounts and resources as e woe objects organized within containers in a SNtl CRWIR tree structure. No matter how large the company, the NDS architecture easily expands to accommodate the network structure. It continues to be the foundation for NetWare 5 but with many enhancements.NetWare 5 incorporates Selectingproductsandservices NDS catalogservices for easier access to names, LDAP v3 access and WAN Traffic Manager to allow the administrator to determine how often NDS should send changes over the WAN link. With NDS Transitive Synchronization, each server in a replica list no longer has to synchronize with all other servers in that replica list and changes made on a replica can be synchronized to other replicas via intermediaries. These features provide for much-improved performance and management of directory services across wide-area networks. In addition, it's possible to audit a user's access with the Audit System. Management of the audit files is simplified under NDS since they are represented as NDS objects. IHN I

W A I

IN N

48 l cANADIAN coMpUTER wHQLEsALER August 1998 hitp Jtwww.ccwmag.corn

giving our CNEs ahead start on NetWare 5 by offering training in advance of the first customer shipments. CCHr What changes will be made to foster and encourage your channel-partner rslationshjpsf SchmidcOur ristwork of more than 25,000channel partners is another great asset that sets Novell apart from ths pack. We' ve increased membership at every level of our reseller programs over the past year, and in 1998we're rolling out a range of new programs under the umbrella ef our PartnerN'et Program. Getting to know our partners better has helped us tailor our programs for the distinct audiences in our channsk accountexecutives,system engineerssnd the ownersand manager of reseller organizations, We' re also addressing the different needs of resegers with different sales models, some of whomars more focused on selling hardware andsoftware and others morefocused on consulting andsupport services, The.andresult is the industry's most knowledgeable and professional channel, offering our customers the most comprehensive range of sales, support, integration and services. CCW:Inwhichdirectionadeyouseeyourcompanymovingto support the developer community and to provide a return on their investment? Schmidt We' ve intensified our efforts to give developers the unified sst of tools and APls they need te create Jove applications enabled by NDS and our complete family of network services. Weeall this development environment for directoryenabled applications our OpenSolutions Architecture. We' re already partnerlng with large developers like Cheyenrre, IBM, Oracle and Netscape to deliver directory-enabled solutions for NetWare. And we' re partnering with companies like Metroworks to bring top development tools like CodeWarrior to the NstWare 5platform, Wealso recently announced a050, i million Internet Development Fund that is making first and' second stage investments in leading-edge companies that are developing Java-related software for network servers. CCW:With NetWare 4,x, your companybeganto ibs buffeted by the market-place. How do you explain this buffeting or downturnf SchmidtWe are not seeing any downturn. We' re selling more server platforms licenses than aver at Novell, with NetWsra 4 now accounting for themajority of platform sales. As wecorn. municate the advantages of Novell Directory Services and directory-enabled solutions, we' re seeing more upgrades from earlier NetWare versions. It's ag part of Noveg's transition from afile and print seniices vender to fhs leading vendor of server platforms for running integigsnt network solutions. CCIAr How will 5.x be targeted and marketedy If 3.x or 4.x is doing the job, why move to 5.x'? Schmide NetIiare 5 fully takes the Novell network platform to open ~internet standai'ds. Iiith NstWare 5, we will expand the acceptance of our platform by both business network users and Internet Services Providers. CCidr: How do you foresee theâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;evolution of the Internet to being an "integigent" networkf What role will Novell take iir this evolution or perhaps revolution? Schmidt The new faceofnetworldng hasahumanface,and this underlying philosophy will color everything we will do in the coming years at Novell. NDS and directory-enabled solutions will give a user ths ability to have one digital identity for ag network resources. This digital persona will net be tied to the user's desktop. It will be kept on the network, where regardl'ess of what desk- ...â&#x20AC;&#x17E;,';, topyouarsonandw hereyousit,youare ensuredthssame view and access to your applications snd resources. NDS is already offering these capabilities on many of our customers' intransts and extranets, along with the ability to efficientl'y manage individual user profiles from asingle location and login. CCI4r:Novell is in a unique position to monitor ths trends in the market-place. Canyou provide a forecast five, 10, or 20years into the future7 SchmidtNot without a few hundred pagesl But I see every indication, for the foreseeable future, that business and technology around networking and the Internet will continue to grow st a rapid~ rats. Theimmediate chsll'ange is togive users proximity to these newservices, applications and data, andto help customers use the available bandwidth more efgciently. To meet these challenges, businesses will need directoryenablsdnetwork services and network-based technologies

N ETW O R K I P I 6

For computers to communicate with each other using the TCP/IP protocol, they need IP addresses. The Domain Name System (DNS) resolves names such as triton.capcollege.bc.ca to the network devices' IP address. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) automatically assigns IP addresses to network devices. To provide ease of administration, NetWare 5 allows the user to configure and manage the DNS and DHCP services in NDS using a Java-based management application. Dynamic updates of host names with changing IP addresses are also supported using Dynamic DNS (DDNS). There have been substantive changes in the C-based operating system kernel, which now contains very little assembler code. The Java engine with its kernel links results in high-performance benchmarks. There issupport for uniprocessor and full symmetricprocessing on multiprocessor sysJIWWOISS tems. A new application preemption function JSIIKSISOIL el Sl OVOOSSS I allows for the prioritization of applications C 4 101.1• 000SWCSW WIOOCCSW WIOOOCSSI runningon the server. There is memory proW1000CWS III.M 440IL W'1000COIO WWSCCSIO 0 PSSOOOSW tection for added fault tolerance, virtual memC U IIELSOW WOIISI WWI LS WS06CCOO I I SOW ory forincreased performance and an inte04404 grated debugger. Combined with the new file system, the server-sideperformance of Console0ne screen NetWare 5 will be hard to beat. NetWare 5 also includes two products: Netscape'saward-winning FastTrack Server and Oracle's Oracle8. The FastTrackWeb-server software is designed for individualsand workgroups to deploy intranet solutions quickly. Most companies will want to upgrade to Enterprise Server. The transinon is straight-forward, since both products share common features. The five-userversion of Oracle8 bundled with NetWare 5 provides an application platform for immediately developing and deploying network computing solutions — including Java applications. NetWare 5's new back-up utility features protocol-independence, much needed scheduling capabilities, Windows 95-based GUI, autoloadersupport and centralized management using NDS. In Novell's attempt to attract developers, NetWare 5 fully exposes its network services through a complete set of APIs. Using Java, developers can write object-oriented, multi-threaded and dynamically linked applications. Also, NetWare 5 includes and supports the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) ORB, VBScript-compatible NetBasic interpreter, JavaBeans for NetWare, JavaScript and Perl 5. Novell is gambling that this is the right mix of technologies to take the company into the 21st century. As a reviewer, I'm impressed with the direction the company has taken and would recommend NetWare 5 without hesitation. Novell has succeeded in replicating the performance and plug-and-play features in IPX into their TCP/IP platform. The company has maintained full support for legacy customers while providing full compatibility, interoperability and upgrade capability with TCP/IP. Novell's directory service, NDS, continues to lead the market in scalability, ease-of-use, single-point-of-administration and cross-platform support. With NDS for NT, and adoption of ADSI (Microsoft's interface for Active Directory), Novell realizes that to keep leadership, it must embrace and support competing technologies. Under the direction of Eric Schmidt, the company has placed a major emphasis on Java to augment the NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) architecture, which is showing its age. The question here is: will Java really take off/take hold soon enough for Novell? ~ Stephen Ibara/ri is a teacher, researcher and coordinator at Capilano College,and can be reached at sibarakiOeapcollege.bc.car The college and its faculty have ACE, CAFCE, CIPS, Microsoft, Novell, IBM and Intel partnerships and cerrifications.

like Java that can bLadlptrfbuted across the network. CCyi/r Whet forcmrfsd your company to cogaborehon with

Qraclef schmidt:Novell aod:„Crasis continue to deliver the mostmanageable, scalableuttdtop-peIfarming databasesolution avail abls for a broad ritdpr sf sppgcsdorm.Integration of Oracles

with NDS makes it sesy for customers to menage database access and the entire network from a single location and login. Novell sndQrapfe are alsomovingtoward server-baaed Java appgcations~er, putting infrastructure in place to s support a new generstfon of object-based solutions. CCHrr Somesay Java ls becoming fragmented — perhaps impossible to controL And yet your company hasembraced it to whew you' ve taboo a point position. Where do you see Java going in the4isrt-term and in the long-term'f Schmidc There is strong consensus onJava fromthe vendors making the strongest commitments — Novell, Sun, IBM, Qrscle, Nstscaps„aud thousands of smaller ISVs. Microsoft's direction is desktop<cottle snd camas no risk for Novell, because our focum is on deploying Java on middle-tier servers. Argumentgktbout the Java brand are not nearly so important as the.'~',vahre that the Java technology delivers for developing tgtdkespIINmg network applications. IBM is dedicat ingover2,7ggpeopletoJava development,andJava projects sre underway at approximately two-thirds of sg larger corporatimie,Npveg is comrained to Javafor only one reason: because-0'wdI make netwerks work better for our customers. CCN How do you uniquely differentiate your company, its products, snd its current market positionf Schmidh Qurgoal is to become ths global leader in internet software. Novell prtxhcts make possible completely new classes of activitieband categories of applications over intelligent, interconnected networks. CS

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NFRIS! l-

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August 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER )

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Hardware

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I »eei31» I 99g i» de»iined to bc thc ye<ac when DVD technology weni I'ixain a pi oi nisi»g»cvv»1edi i»T< Io a vigor'0LI»<

»led<i»11-»Ized IT<i<I'ket. A»cl I 999»ec»1» likely io bc ihe year when It will go I I'0»i 0»c a»10»g»li»1y»cw »<01'i<gc I'orm<ats to the cl« I'acio»t;<ncl< arcl f' or high-c;ip;i«iiy cl;<tr<ige <ancl muliimccliii Ial<ryfairck. In thi» ariiclc. wc'll look ;Ii where DVD is today. and whcrc. Ihc»1;iin opporiiinrtics 'trc for il in the next year-ancl-a-hi<If'.

The Story So Far DVD (1310»t [3<'opcl 13 rcferrccl io as Digital Vcr»aiile Disk. but also widely known as Digital Video Di»ki. is an optic;il sioragc iechnolo y that;<flows it le;i»t 4.7GB ol' cli it;II inl'on»ation to bc storecl on I CD-si/ecl di»k I l<utiiic enh;<nce»1ents v'ill il low this cia<a c'rp'<city to be expanclecl seve>i<I tiincs. over the ncxl decadei. Ol' i<oie, -'1.7GB is ihc ('qL<i valent of' <<bout 3.000 I<loppy clisk», or about seven CD-ROM disk». This multi-gig;ibyte ciipacity er<ables;I ho»l ol potentiiilly atiractiv«. new appli«iitions to be developecl ii»ing ihe DVD meclii»u. Th(.' IT<os< ohv<o<I< cligiial v<clco. The /k7GI3»to<age cap;Icily cii» holcl 'in exti'emely high-Ie»olulion. high-qu;<lity f <cature I'ihn

in VIIPEG-2 iligiti<I video I'oi m it on a»ii<glc DVD clisk. With the olcler. 650MB CD-ROiVI I'or»<irt. there w I < not c»ou <h »tora c cip;icity to stoic;i I'ull-lengih inovie in high-qu;iliiy viclco lorn<;it. CD-ROM vicleo titles werc ii< I much lov:cr rc»olution. blirn y MPEG I format. <md ol'I'ei eel little aclv;In<age over' the»ianclarcl VHS tape I<ormal, DVD, by contra»t. of<I'cr» a preinium viev ing and lisrcning experience I<or coii»Lu<if'I'»: I3cl<CI-<hi»1-Iii»cl'-disf i ma< ery. with ihe It re-quality Dolby»ouncl.

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Apples and Oranges In thcor), all DVD cli»ks iire cteaiecl equal. but in pr'actice ihei'e arc in3portant clil'leiences, b<»ecl on the pl<i<i'orm on which they'rc being playecl. One clistinction in ide beiv e«ii DVD vatictie» i» DVD-Vicleo ;iiicl DVD-ROiM. DVD-Viclco can he played on either ii I'C-b(<seel DVD dr»e < or a DVD phiyer. the I incl that I» hooked Lip io a TV»et i»<(I I'csc»1hlcs a VCR DVD-ROM I itic» 'u'en'I ol < <3<irch Li»e io <1 DVD pliivei. bccaiisc it i»n'I a pcr»on;II coinputer it c l i>esn'I l»avc thc oper<<tin«sy»ien3, mou~e. I,eybo <llcl. RAM

ancl othe<' el( »1('»i»»ccdcd to run Wincfo<v» or Mac»ol't<v;ire. Give» <I<at liiniiation < llie DVD lonnat. when fully comp <iiible 1< ith <t»y kincl of' In<era<ctivc multimediii i<<i<ho<'Ing. It's possible Io;tdd multilingiial »ouncl Ir'acks io DVD »<otic title». plu»»pc«i;il < ex<I'a 'clircctor <s cut" I<ootage < docunienr icy I<ootage. II3eiiu'ical Ir <i le< ». a»d other ci»c»1<I-lov('I' » il'c".Ils. DVD co»tl'of iltihlic»»1iilcc ihc inic< IIcl ive el«inc<it» I» easy to ru» on <I PC < is

manipulale as a VCR oi;i video amc. Thc DVD I'orn»at can al»o be u»ecl I'oi iiv,«sonic 2D;ind 3D-intcracii<c grime» ancl ediic;ition;il litle», incorporitI» " I rivi»h v Iclco in(I;»<clio elc»»'»t». DVD ch'Ive» ci»1 lac I»co<'f30<" <le(I i»to PC» <;is a ki»cl of " sup r CD-ROM." or 0;in

bc built iiiio <a DVD pliiyer.;in;<I»gnus to a VCR or l<iser di»k pl<iycr. Eiii'Iy I l l'»I-gen«I'I<ron DV D cl<'Ivc» i»1d si<1»d-(11011c 13I Iycl» bcg »I lo»hfp I» vel'y s»1iall volume» in l996. S;rlc»

jumpccl quickly in l997 and » '« cxpcciccl io climb»h;irply throu'bout 1998. Ncvci'iheles», rcliiil co»iputer dealet»

http//wwwccwmag.c<>m A«ga<l raga cANA<3<AN coI<rtgun<a Lvrro<L»ALL<<

DVD

Hardware foiind Lb<it I'hc ncw D V D t e c hnolo< «y, p<iiticul;i il y t h i i t w l i i c h w r i i oflcI'c(I 011 I'Cs, sul leic cl h on) in»iy ol r the usuiil tccthing tn!ubles i)f nev, techiiol<)gici. It i i 0 » l y a i t l i cse l i i » it;itioni ; i r c o v ercome th,tt

The Copying and Copyright Conundrum

DV D )VI I I I Ccic'h Its poICI)tiiil iii i i f)C(ii'IV LIIIIVCI'iiil i l o i" ig>e (111d I)lciyh(ICk

woiild in;II c I' very " s y 101(ipe Irirst-rate o p ic. 0 110 hon1c. "VCRs.'Jo coi>>11<'I this, <1 sophisticiitecl I ')n'>e of copy>'I <'ht c>110I cc»lc'Iit tc»hilologici are incorporcitccl into;ill DV D d i i v cs. Th»ie include «co«r«phic

techilofogy.

Still Bugs in the System The I'irit g»iicratioii ol' DVD clrives miicle R)i I'Cs iii I c)97 were exp»niive (iirouncl S700 I() S<)00), h;icl m<iny unieiolvecl compatibility issues with CD-ROM ;ind CD-R f>ol'111(its. wel'e d>I I I»LIII ii>1cl I>ITIC-co»sL>lrii>1 ' I>or eitliei;I rcscllci or ;in ei)cl-uiei to install, ol'tcn h;icl no video outpLII

to;i TV set.;ind It»el;I vc:ry sm;ill libiary ol DV D i o f'tw;irc titles av;iiliible to pl iy <>n ihem. V'heie<IS e;ii ly DVD el» vci rc(]u» ecl;i high-pei loi ntai)ce Ml'EG2

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lliovic I Icc;lliillg> I eg>on c<111 I I)» s»1tlg>glecl iii)d pl<iyccf oil a cli'Ive Iit

'l>1othci' I'egion. Also. DV D el)it» is en»i yptccl, <ind c;iii I be cl»cryptccl i I it liai iin iiico»)p Ltihlc en»iypi'ion k»y. As well, DVD pl;iyers;incl cliiks Llhc '1 tcchilolo<" y c(II feel the Copy Gcncl'lt tol1 <1>)d Mi)lli)gcnlcllt System

(CGMS) whicli v;iiics thc hi i htncss of ;i n uiiauihoiizccl copy ol' a DVD m o vie < n;i V CR . r»;if(in

i t Lil)pl»(Is((Ill to vviii»h. Thc I'c: i)le iic:ILI-

rcnt PCi <lo>I 1. IIcecl Illc ex f)011s>v(. clccolllpl'cs r»on hal'dwi» e any»)ot e.

woi'th lo>' consLI)11<.'>'i.

Soltv tire IVIPL'G 2 clecoinpieii ion utiliiici, oil< iccl by coinpiinies lil e ATI. )vill clo the ti icl(. Ai w»ll. Current MPICC 2 pl:iybiick iof rtware h<as sinootlii» <« routines th<it nuke thc video playback beautibil io w;itch,

witliout thc loimcr piohl»n1i ol littc i» ig;ii)cl pixeliy<iiion. The el«»i-

A truly obiioxioui aiid i»tr«sivc DVD copyi ight pioiection 'incl ioyiilty p;iyincnt schc»ic called DIV-X (piomoied by a I-Iollywood copyright l<awyei.i seen)i to f>ave cllecl a well-clcic:tv»el cle;iih. Div-X v«oulcl hiive essentially I»ntccl DVD movici to theii pui»h iiei's. requit-

n:ition of decoinprcii i oii h;irclw;irc,;incl incieaiin« c conoinics ol' sciile. hiis iccliice<l the pnccs ol' b:ire I!ones DVD clrivei to <is little as .'h220. I>>it;ill<itioi) also bee()me c<isicr,;»id D V D e l ( ives i » n pl y cion'I

connection lc) the piiyment collection service liom ihe DVD pl;iyer oi PC. A better wiiy to itian<«lc th» giowth ol'ihc DVD mecliui» would be

»1((lie It 10 111iii kc'1 '(IIylilol c, Ll» leis thc y i(lppot I 111L) lt i pie vicfeo oiitpul

licit'Cl 10 I >1)iigi i)C.

I'orn)ais (iypically RGB I>or comp(iicr. Nl'SC coi»poiitc ('I'V li»cfiicncy) ancl S-video. Also, ihe nun)hci ol > DVD titles ii ;i i h i gh ;is (I,f)00;It I)Ill» Of V«i Ill >1g. 10 <'I'OV'I >1< S

ing tliiii a i o y ;ilty p;iyineni be i»adc on each view in ,

v i ; I i i n i odein

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cicc<)>11<1I0<I'itc LIf) to I 7GIB ol> stoi'cigc'. III r'I cloi113ICsi — cfecl, (Ioublc — Iayei

All Over But the Shouting? «

aol1c scII«'Ig>s o<1 (h ivc.'>, 10 cl1iL»'(. LhcII clislcs I I 0111 011c ii»(.111ci11011'1l

soliril collif)(lti'I' CPU p owc:I' ov»I thc I<i!>I Iwo yciiri h its i»ciiitt thitt cL>l'-

;ind pl;iying Rill-sciccn, hi >h-cl(i;ility cli< it()I vicleo > thc inciease in pc: i-

libii» ici out on Ihc rn;irl(ct in hi «h-i»solution DVD i»i in<it. bc»ause it.

;ally a nun)ber ol wiiys 10 get;iiouncl CGMS. p irticuliii ly with a vicleocomp;itihle PC (usin ; i TBC oi Tiine B;ise Corrector card, Ior cxamplc). hui I'oi ill pi;icii» il pui po~e~. thc copy-piotection s»hei»es <>n ihc DVD playeii and DV D-ROM disks inakc it n)oie tioubl» Ihaii it is

clccomprcssion card to hanclle the proc:esiin<> lo:icl of clccompiessing

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Copy'I ight Owl)el s 0( I I I I'ni V«'»I'C'. highly I ei>Str)nt ti) p(<It i)1g IhCII >310'« IC

format > v;bile bein<> brief(v>;iidi-coi»pi t i blc t o o l der D V D

; i n dC D

Rc. elleis c;in't (lccl;ii' v i c t oi y i ind b ury ih e venci;ible (')5(ilVlB CDROM di ive i «i t y ct, ho<vever. Thc CD-ROM d i i v c w i l l I c l'rlciill the st<ind<aid oii thc existing Inst;ill»el base ol> multin1<.dia PCs iolcl bel'i>re 1998. Most ol > these olclcl I Ci i i l'i' I'iol I)i'Itivcly po w c rl'ul enour>h to

reOM loiin;it.. A. well, ;II'foicliible, >cwiitc thle DVD <liivci (DV D -R oi' DVD-RAM) ;(re;»)othe> m;tjoi objective of DVD iesearch. Also In

play bii»k MPEG-2 movies v, ith<>ut <in expcniivc clecoi»prciiio» card. Then. will be a»i>i marl(et I'oi' DVD upgracle kits with hi)rdwcli'e c lecoiiipiesiion liom coi»p;inici i u c h ; i i Crcativ« I.;ibi, but th;it miiiket will I'epi'»sent 0»fy ii sn»ill percc»t;i<"c ol' users ol' olcler PCs. I-'oi' thc ILILL«c, thoLigh, co»i<»»ci ck.'sktof) PCs basecl on Intel BOOM(lx <I»cl I'aitci pioccisoii v;ill coiitain a si«nific;int percentage ol' DVD clrives. In tlie business n)itikct, DVD cliiv»i » e not likely to ippciii in cfui»iti-

et>Id IOI' illICI'c)CI.IVC tliiil)illg 'cllld Ie(ll ill)1'> pl'Og>l"<)Iris. ii>ICI loi' cilf ki l)(ls Ol'

ty Ill the I oi c.icc.i1hle I Lit(ll ('., cx»<-:f)1»1 '>f)cc>cilizccf 011i SLIch cii t l" LII1>11g. i(iles. f31'<'iel11(»>0» 1111d iil'chivi>1'>. BLII cILI(llity nce<ls ro b e

«clef>'eiicd 0» DV D i o l 'ivv ire.;ii v ' cl l 'is on video <incl <iucli<> p»riphc:r; ils — such iii i n o iiitori, T V i ; i i i d stereo audio i y sicn)s. Miich D V D sol >tware ii still wl>at uied to bc citlled 'shovelware' in the early clays ol> CD-ROM: i n ;iterial sililf)ly cl(»11f3('cl down (>IILo

c l>sl«without n ecessiiiily

s h o w ing m u c h

co»ccin Io > q uality o i

c r e ativity.

Ihc I'LIIL»c: Is 'ci itl'oil«n hf3I<il'y ol' DVD i o l ' twa ic tit l es In c;Ircg<>i)cs other thii>1 Iilovics. DV D o l f e>'s gl'ciit pote>ill<(I iis ii I»<isi-'cii'eh> v»lg >11cd>L>rll,

ames. Ai thc inst if feel bas» ol' DVD di iv(.s in PCs rows, more (level-opcri v ill risk Ihe investment «I lhe I(ind of' cieativc piocl«ct devclop>11<'>11 i»I' whiCh

D V D h ( 1S poICI)t.i'il .

11 "~ance»1, s);'ts ~w l >1>.;;h>)>aeTo

Opportunities for Resellers I?VD ii still not rilw;Lyi iin easy sale. Dcspit», the existenc» of'excellci)L secoi)d-<«enei'atio» DV D u p g r;i(le k its su c h ; i s t h e C r eative f , abs I'C-DV D

F l l c oi'c-' DXI2, th Ire is iIIII I'»ii. Iii>1cc I'0 DVD iii ii Iil y stc:Ii<)(is

and expensive new ioy. Maiiy coniui»cis still neecl to bc eclucated ,)bout the recit iuclio and yideo I'eat»i - s that dil'lercntiatc DVD I >rom Ct)-IK)M. Due 10 thc extr;i price;incl conipfexity. DVD is iiot yet.;in autoi»<itic choice I'or new PC buyeri. Many resellcrs >iced 10 bc able to show tlic. iclvantiiges ol' DVD, and this of'ten requires non-itii»cli )r(l deir>011stl"it>on c<ILIII')>11c>11 sL>cli 'li (I ho»1c-the Iti'e-style large TV rliicl a

good souiid syitein. I IOWC.'VCIL t I> I C s('.IICI's Clo IIICI I ho>11C'woi'k 0<1 111CI ChciilCI>iii)g ciild

selling thc DVD technology. it is possible to ups»ll;i Lvoi thwl»le sc >ment of youi' custonicii Lo ihc DVD exp»>ic»cc. This opens the dooi I'oi ihe i",ile ol'hi h-(tualily. large-f'ormat moiiitori, plus auclio systcmi,

,ind the beginning ol' the customer's DVD library. Foi n3ore inl'oiinatin» on the PC-DV D

E i i coie D x r2, con«ict:

IIII/)cll II>II')'I'.5(><I))cl()(()s(1>:i;u))I.

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g 1 1998

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necessuI ev by Paul Weinberg Resellers get hit upon regularly by a host of suitors. "Every vendor wants a piece of what we do," reports Roger Vanderbeek, president of the LAN Shoppe Inc. in Toronto, whose network business is the target of high-end and specialized vendors seeking attractive new channel partners. "We get all the router, switch and hub manufacturers. Everybody wants us to exclusively sell their product, which isn't practical for us to do." The LAN Shoppe sells and supports products from Tier One vendors in networking. It is a highly technical, nine-person operation, with the owning partners personally taking all the courses required by their suppliers to ensure they are up to speed on the latest versions of their core offerings. Vanderbeek recently spent a weekend in Whistler, B.C., with other Bay Network VARs for a session that included training and a certification test. "It's not just a cake walk," he says. But he doesn't mind because the course is brief and on the weekend. "Everything is organized for you and you don't have to take time off work." But there are other vendor programs, geared for the already qualified technicians, that can be a complete waste of time, says Vanderbeek. "A lot of the training courses that we have attended in the past have been marketing fluff things - 'Rah, rah, ours is the best and here's why.' I don't care about that. I just want to know technically how to install, and support [a new product.]." Vendors understandably want their channel partners as qualified and up-to-date on their products and technologies as possible. That generally involves continuous training and certification of the VAR's technical staff, often on an annual basis. But a small reseller operation cannot always afford to have its specialists continuously offsite in a classroom, instead of serving and billing clients. Also, the fees for the coursesrange from $200 to $700 per day, although in some cases vendors will reimburse leading resellers through co-op advertising programs and other initiatives. Some forms of training involve experimentation where the vendor allows certain resellers to tinker with new equipment on their own premises and become more familiar with it. "I would say the guys learn far more valuable information by simply playing with the equipment and testing it out, whether it is in-house or on a client's site in a real environment rather than a non-real world classroom," says Vanderbeek. ag.corn

The rule of thumb for the LAN Shoppe is that it has no difficulty having its technical staff immersed for a week at a time in courses for products that are critical to its success. But generally speaking, this reseller prefers short half- or whole-day training sessions for most other items. "Whomever comes up with the easiest training program or the one that we can fit into our schedule is typically the one we are going to recommend," says Vanderbeek. On the other hand, resellers cannot afford to be totally exclusionary, says Albert Daoust, director of special projects at Toronto-based Evans Research Corp. "It is simply very difficult to sell one line of servers, or just one network operating system. So you invariably are getting some low volume lines, where the time and expense of training starts to look onerous." Enormous training expenses start looking like an albatross around a manufacturer's neck when products start to falter in the market-place. Apple faced that scenario, adds Daoust, when some of its resellers realized it made no financial sense to keep up with this vendor's certification requirements."That is why some products fall out of favorvery quickly." Leading vendors, including Microsoft, IBM and Cisco have sought to alleviate the time pressures on the VAR technical staff with the alternative option of computer-based training, which employees can do on their own time. That has come to be known as "incidental" learning in the industry. IDC Canada predicts in a recent study that the split between instructor-led courses and computer-based training will be roughly 50:50 after the year 2000. Classroom instruction is most valuable in the initial certification, says Curt Skene, training and certification program manager at Microsoft Canada. "I suggest especially with someone coming in for the first time [that] finding a good grasp of these skills, the interaction of being in a class working with the instructor and other classmates is the strongest approach." Microsoft has made it generally mandatory that its certified specialists on various products, includ( ing N T , upgrade their skills annually at one of its authorized third-party training facilities in a five-day r course. However, it recently loosened the rules somewhat for those with recognized expertise in the competing NetWare network operating system. "We had a ton of resellers saying: 'I really don't want to tie them up for five days. This person is a CNE (certified Novell engineer). He's been living the network for three years. And you are going to hold him hostage for five days,' " says Skene. Another way to handle expenses is to have training conducted on a staggered basis, says Paul Maasland, president of the Toronto-based Daedalian Networking Services. A larger 200-person operation, it will have the more junior technical employees re-certiflied first for newer offerings while more experienced people with older certifications remain responsible for previous product lines. Extensive training cements the exclusive relationship that the vendor has with its resellers. It can lead to situations where resellers can only afford to sell and support certain products. "Once you spend your wad on a particular vendor you are a lot less likely to be floating around," says Vanderbeek. Resellers are "stuck," at a time when the trend in the computer industry is towards greater openness and flexibility, says Keith Ellis, vice-president of services research for the International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd. On the one side are the major vendors expecting a lot

from their businesspartners in return for an exclusive relationship. At the same time, end-users are demanding access to a broad line of offerings in areas like networks, databases and the Internet. Kingston, Ont.-based consultant I Bob Pritchard argues that non-vendor standard requirements for specific technical skills in the computer industry might be preferable and would get around this conundrum. Some training companieshave done a fair amount of work establishing such certification, but "it is pretty new and not widely recognized." Standardization makes a lot of sense in Web solutions where vendors come and go, says Bill Brown, director of product development at a Toronto training company, CDI Education Corp. But, he adds, in non-vendor certification for any product area the instruction process might be more costly and time consuming since it entails a broader knowledge of a technology. The response from the vendors is mixed. Liz Rome, IBM Canada's program manager for PC partner skills, seems open to idea of standard certification. "That is a very interesting question. Certainly something to think about. I haven't thought about it before from that depth." But Brent Rebus, Canadian channel operations manager for Cisco Systems sounds more skeptical. He states that his company's certification programs for the design and installation of Cisco products are already "recognized" at the public and post-secondary education level for establishing basic networking competence. In turn, Daoust defends the vendors for their strict certification requirements, suggesting they are "entitled" to have people who can install their products in a professional manner. Also, he adds, PC manufacturers, in particular, invest heavily in technical support, even if the desktop business is not especially profitable at the moment. He adds that a reseller specializing in Novell, for instance, is able to distinguish itself from the competihon with certification that is both "hard and expensive." CCW S

â&#x20AC;˘

Paul Weinberg is a Toronto-area journalist who specializes in high technology.He can be reached atpweinbg@interlog.corn.

httpJtwww.ccwmag.corn Au gust 1998 cANADIAN coMPUTER wHQLEsALER ~55

from Newsbytes

Samsung will mass-produce small DRANls NEC Visual Systems has introduced the The LT80 offers compatibility with 640 by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has announced the start of MultiSync LT80, which it claims is the 480 (VGA), 800 by 600 (SVGA), 832 by 624 mass-production of DRAM (dynamic random access world's lightest and brightest portable (Mac), 1,024 by 768(XGA), and 1,152 by 870 memory) chips based on the micro ball grid array (BGA) SVGA projector, weighing in at less than 4.5 (Mac) pixels, using NEC'sAccuBlend intellipackage. kg. gent pixel blending technology. The new chips are around 30 per cent smaller than The projector incorporates advanced The projector is extremely compact, existin g chips,said Samsung. single-chip digital light processing display measuring just20.4 by 26.8 by 8.5 cm.For Until now,mass-producedchipshave beenencasedin technology and is suited for travelling busi- international travellers, the projector offers plastic because the micro BGA devices required special ness professionals who are often called a universalpower supply and accepts PAL, processing, explained Samsung. upontogive presentations. NTSC, NTSC4.43, and SECAM signals. The new chips can be used as replacements for existing devices, including both centre and edge-pad chips. Compatibility with centre-pad chips makes them easier to Lucent establishes Bell Labs technical centre in China integrate into communications handsets, which will also benefit from the reduction in size and weight. Lucent Technologies has established a new US$25 million Asia Samsungsaid it expects to see the chips used in a Pacific Communications Software Regional Technical Centre (RTC) wide variety of handheld communications and computing in Beijing. devices. The centre will concentrate on development of software for operation and management of communications products and network for the Chinese market. Fujitsu, Nihon Sun, and user group It will be headed by Dr. Tse Lin Wang, research and develpromote Java technology opment vice-president of Bell Labs China."We plan to have Fujitsu Ltd., Nihon Sun Microsystems and the this RTC grow into a global centre of excellence for research Leading-edge Systems Users Group (LS-KEN) and development activities," said Wang. have agreed to cooperate in the development The statement was echoed by Dr. Carl Hsu, communicaof systems, including mission critical systems, tions software acting group president, "We envision the RTC usingJava computing technology. will become one of the major The companies will undertake activities such researchand development centres , 8 • ds 4 . a " as case-study groups, joint forums and technology of communications software in the exchangemeetingsto promote the use of Java to memw orld, with a f o cus o n t h e bersofthe Leading-edge Systems Users Group,which includes more Asian/Pacific markets." than 300 corporate users. Lucent will invest (about US$25 Some of the corporate members of the user group will also advise million) in the development of comFujitsu and Sun on corporate systems development and operational munications software at the centre requirements from the userls point of view. in the next three years.

Computer Associates International Inc. is shipping a Japanese version of its Unicenter TNG enterprise management software. With localized menus and support for the Japanese double-byte character set, the new software is already attracting customers, said Computer Associates. Among them is Saga Enterpr ises,whichis using the system tomanage itsamusement facilities/shop management system, and Nippon Steel Information & Communication Systems Inc., which said it will deploy the system as its core system management solution. • CA has given its Japanese clients the ability to gain and maintain control over their companies' total computing environment in a powerful, simple and intuitive way, said Chua Tock Ling, CA senior vice-president and general manager, in a company statement. • Unicenter TNG Japanese Version is intended to help Japanese customers total cost of ownership which is key to surviving and prospering in today's I8NNk,~~™ highly competitive global market-place.

56 ~

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998

Chinese trading side a big hit A new Web site launched by China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) is intended to promote commerce with the country. It received more than half-a-million visits in its first week on-line, according to the Xinhua news service. The newChinaMarket Web site promotes Chinese goods and productsin six major sectors: electronics and machinery, textiles, light industry and crafts, foodstuffs, native produce, and animal by-products, hardware, minerals, and chemicals, medicine and nutritional products. The report, quoted MOFTEC's China International Electronic Commerce Center director Xing Wei, who said the site, which opened on July 1, had attracted 562,000 visits in its first week on-line. China Market is on-line athttp//www chinamarket corn.cn. ~ s

• •

•

Apple Computer Inc. has released simplified and traditional Chinese versions of its QuickTime multimedia program. QuickTime 3 allows users to capture, edit, and playback a wide variety of digital video and audio content. The latest version of QuickTime advances video and audio capabilities by including new compression technologies, virtual reality integration, and support for more than 150video effects and 200 MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)-compatible sounds and instruments. In total, QuickTime 3 can play back more than 30 different audio and video file formats and offers real-time streaming of digital content over the Internet, allowing Web surfers to view QuickTime movies from any Web server, without long download delays. QuickTime 3 Pro adds full screen video, video and audio editing and data compression for streaming delivery from any Web server. QuickTime 3 can be downloaded free of charge in traditional Chinese (Mac only) at httpJ/wwwappie.corn.tw/rtuicktime,while simplified Chinese (Mac only) is at https'/www. appleclub.com.hk KW

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Column ronically, at almost the same time the U.S. government announced it was investiganng chipmaker Intel for monopolistic practices, one of ntel's competitors announced its latest and greatest CPU. Advanced Micro Devices (http: //www.amd.corn) officially launched its K6-2 processor at Atlanta's Electronic Entertainment Expo, releasing 300MHz and 333MHz models, with plans to boost performance to 350MHz and eventually 400MHz in the third and fourth quarters of the year. (Intel Pentium IIs are already available at 400MHz.)The new productline features a number of enhancements in addition to raw CPU speed. This chip marks the first time that one of Intel's competitors has gone beyond simply cloning the feature set of an existing Intel product. The K6-2 is the first chip to offer 3DNow, a set of multimedia and 3D enhancementsthat go well beyond the MMX instructions offered by Intel and current clone-chips. "For the first time AMD has introduced a processor Q that is differentiated not solely by >. megahertz or price but by innovative technology that delivers a new level of 3D performance and reahsm," said S. Atiq Raza, AMD executive vicepresident and chief technical officer. The 3DNow instructions will also be M available in upcoming chips from Cyrus and Centaur, as well as AMD. While Intel is working on a similar set of 3D instructions, they will not be compatible with 3DNow. The result is a window of opportunity for Intel's competitors, where they will be offering products that are, in this way at least, more advanced drm iniei's offerings. But there is a catch — 3DNow, like MMX, only provides improved performance in software written to take advantage of it. Microsoft has promised support for 3DNow in its next-generation DirectX 6.0. As a result, any programs (primarily games) written to use DirectX 6.0 will automatically provide 3DNow support. Software written to take advantage of the OpenGL 1.2 and 3DFx Glide programming specifications will also support 3DNow. 3DNow offers21 new processor instructions, characterized as Single Instruction Multiple Data, directed at speeding up the interaction between the CPU and a 3D accelerator card, and promising to deliver up to four floating point insnuctions per clock cycle. In addition, the K6-2 will, like the newest Pentium II offerings, support motherboards running at 100MHz bus speeds. This results in increasedperformance across the board, not just for CPU-intensive tasks.Expect performance increases of 15 per cent or more, from a 100MHz motherboard.(N ote:bestperformance at 100MHz, regardless of the CPU, requires faster RAM, which is currently more expensive than RAM that only has to keep up with 66MHz motherboards.) Like the predecessors from AMD and the other Intel competitors, the K6-2 relies on the Pentium-style Socket 7 design, but the new product will require an updated version, known as the Super7 Platform. Along with the high-speed bus, Super7 designs will support AGP graphics adapters which, until now, were only available in designs based on Intel's Slot 1 for Pentium II and Celeron processors. Despite the enhancements, AMD's product continues to lag behind Intel's Pentium II line in a number of ways. While AMD claims the K6-2 will benchmark as much as four times as fast as a Pentium II

in 3D-intensive operations (with properly written software), and while its integer instructions (used in typical business software) are comparable to the Pentium II's, the K6-2 remains inferior to the Pentium II line in running standard floating-point instructions, lagging behind by as much as 50 per cent on standard benchmark tests. As a result, many popular games that have not been written to take advantage of the K6-2's new instructions will run better using Intel iron. Even Intel's low-priced Celeron offers all the floating-point power of a full Pentium II (pointed out by reader Art Prufer). And while, given a 100MHz bus (and high-speed RAM) systems built around either a Pentium II or a K6-2 will access memory at full bus speed, a Pentium II has the speed advantage because it accesses its L2 cache. The cache built onto the Pentium II's cartridge is accessed at half the processor speed — 175MHz for a 350MHz processor.

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motherboard, and is accessed at the motherboard 's speed — 100MHz, regardless of the processor speed. In many cases,the difference in cache speed will result in a noticeable difference in overall system performance. Recently, a shootout was set up between similarly priced K6-2 and Pentium II systems, comparing performance on a number ofcutting edge games, (http: //www.hardwarecentraL corn!features /arnd/). Rather than comparing systems with the same speed processorsand motherboards, the test team put a 333MHz K6-2 on a 100MHz motherboard up against a 300MHz Pentium II in a 66MHz motherboardthis enabled them to compare systems roughly at the same price-point. (The 100MHz BX motherboard required for the higher-speed Pentium II systems costs about twice as much as the 66MHz LX boards,which are about the same price as the Super7 motherboards). They used pre-release versions of DirectX 6 and tested games such as the upcoming Quake 2, offering 3DNow Support, as well as others that lacked such support. Results showed about 10 per cent better performance for the K62 when running games (such as Quake 2) offering direct support for its features. When software support was not built into the game, 3DNow still equipped the K6-2 for more or less parity with the Intel system, evidence of the effects of DirectX 6. AMD believes that it has overcome the production difficulties that have sometimes limited supplies of its processors; all K6-2s are being produced on .25 micron wafers, offering increased yield. Looking for still more evidence that the market has opened up more fully for Intel's competitors? With HP's announcement that it will ship AMD CPUs in some of its Pavilion-series computers, virtually all of themajor brand name computer manufacturers offerone ofthe nonIntel processors in at least part of their product lines. And with the K6-2 as the first non-Intel 80x86-type CPU to go beyond Intel's feature set, there's evidence the one-time cloners are no longer content to stay a generation behind Intel. Nor will they aim solel y for the bottom end of the market. <M

Alan Zisman isa computer journalist and teacher, living in Vancouver. He can bereached atazismanihome.corn. httPihwwv.gffwmag.corn

Au gust 1998 cANADIAN coMPUTER wHoLEsALER ~59

A digital camera for 969.96'P With more than two million digital cameras sold in 1997, that product category has finally passed a kind of watershed. Digital photography is now a vigorous and generally accepted imaging medium, used by vast numbers of general consumers, business professionals, and even professional graphic artists and photographers. The digital camera, in short, has arrived. Two recent new digital cameras illustrate the diversity and high price/performance ratio prevailing in the digital camera category. Nintendo has developed a $69.95 digital camera system for its handheld Game Boy entertainment device, which uses the Game Boy's processing, display and power systems to help keep the cost of the camera system down. The camera itself is a simple digital video CCD chip camera, enclosed in an eyeballshaped plastic sphere, which plugs into the cartridge slot on the Game Boy unit. The camera has all of its software built-in, like a videogame cartridge. An optional $79.95 monochrome printer allows the user to print images out on paper that is about 1.5 inches wide. Video images are digitized in real time and displayed on the Game Boy's monochromeLED screen.The device is operated with the Game Boy's built-in game control buttons. The software options are remarkably flexible — you can put digitized images into pre-set "rock videos" and customize them with a variety of graphic effects. Essentially, this device is suited for taking portrait shots of people and then manipulating, modifying and animating them in generally humorous and often quite creative ways. The limitations of the system are pretty obvious: monochrome only, low resolution and no way to move files to a personal computer. But in terms of the fun/dollar ratio, it's unbeatable. Seehttpr//wwwnintendo.corn.

Toshiba of Canada, Information Systems Group (ISG), in Markham, Ont., has added two introductory products to its Satellite family of notebooks — the Satellite 330CDS and the Satellite 330CDT. With a 266MHz MMX Intel Pentium, the Satellite 330 Series starts at an SRP of $3,459. The series incorporates an integrated 20X maximum speed CD-ROM drive, 32MB RAM expandable to 160MB, a floppy diskette drive and a 3.82G Bhard disk drive with a 13millisecond average access time. Both the Satellite 330CDS and 330CDT feature a 12.1-inch diagonal display. The 330CDS Satellite offers an enhanced STN Color LCD display. See http//www.tosh/ba.ca

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Coral launches Linux network computer

Coral Computer has announced the release of the NetWinder DM Linux-baseddevelopment platform, powered by the RISC-based StrongARM microprocessor. The NetWinder is aimed at digital signal processing, manufacturing control or embedded systems applications. It includes 32MB or 64MB SDRAM standard options, 810MB, 2.1GB or 3.2GB hard disk options, 10BaseT and 10/100BaseT connections, a parallel port, serial port and IrDA support. Pricing starts at US$569.

PrimeConfigurator configures custom quotes Motorola Computer Group (MCG) of Canada says it has the first CompactPCI Single Board Computer using Intel's recently announced Intel Pentium II processor mobile module. Motorola's CPV5300, which integrates CompactPCI, is aimed at telecom central office and customer premises equipment, adjunct processors, voice and video communications, computer telephony, interactive voice response, wireless infrastructure and high-end industrial control. In two CompactPCI slots, the CPV5300 incorporates a 233MHz or 266MHz Pentium II processor, 512K L2cache, the 440BX chipset and up to 512MB of DIMM memory. The board includes an Ultra-SCSI interface, AGP video featuring the i740 graphics accelerator with 8MB video memory, and optional on-board flash, floppy and hard drives. The CPV5300 is priced at US$2,395.

Prima View Inc., a Dallas Internet development firm specializing in database-driven technology, says PrimeConfigurator fk PrimeCatalog allow distributors and resellers to automatically configure and instantly quote pricing on custom computer systems as well as computer parts, peripherals and software. The access interface allows licensed resellers of a company's products to logon to the site and view the distributor prices on-line. The reseller can then mark up the prices instantly and send them to potential customers. Non-licensed users, on the other hand, will see the retail prices. Demonstrations are athttp//www4 pr ima viewcorn/configurator.

Ricoh has palmwized mega pIxel di gital ca mere C.E.I.D. Corp. of Montreal, is shipping the RDC-4300 digital camera, including software for manipulating images, for Web pages, presentations, documentation and reports. Priced at $1,299, the RDC-4300 produces images up to 1,280 by 960 pixels per image (SXGA). It also features switchable resolution, providing either 1,280 by 960 or 640 by 480 pixels per image. Seehttp//www.caid.corn.

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cA NADIAN coMPUTER wHQLEsALER August 1998 httpJtwww.ccwmag.corn

(NB) — LanguageForce Inc/s Universal Translator Deluxe uses IBM's ViaVoice speech technology software to translate spoken English into 33 different languages. It includes full font and keyboard support, the firm says. The newly announced, real-world product handles 33 languages. And it lets "English-speaking PC users communicate with the world through their Internet connection, e-mail or fax," says LanguageForce. The firm says its Universal T'ranslator Deluxe is the first omni-directional translator, meaning it can translate from any supported language to any other, for a possible translation combination total of 1,056 language pairs. Some of the 33 available languages are Arabic, Chinese, Japanese,Korean,Spanish,German and Hebrew. lan Simpson,CEO ofthe LanguageForce Inc.,says the firm's mission is "one world, one language," and this software is helping to meet that goal. The product is priced at US$99. It is, of course, highly prone to incorrect grammar translation. However, optional modules for each of the separate languages can improve the translation. Seehtzp//www Languageforce.corn. CCW

ConSyGen Inc.appoints CEO •

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ConSyGenInc.has appointed Thomas Dreaper aspresidentand CEO. He has more than 20years experience in the computer industry, with firms that include IBM and Compaq Computer Corp., in a variety of sales and marketing roles. Dreaper said, in a statement: "I believe ConSyGen has demonstrated that their automated toolset can correct the Year 2000 problem for many companies." ConSyGen Inc. is a Phoenix-based software company that provides conversion/correction services. The company's ConSyGen 2000(SM) software is an automated toolset that corrects datesin both source code anddata.

PC Docs Group International Inc. has formed a new division dedicated exclusively to the development and delivery of Internet software, and Craig Wallace has been appointed as president of this new initiative. "There is no doubt that we will have a significant advantage over LANSource adds sales director other Internet start-ups," said Wallace, in a statement. "Having Toronto-basedLANSource Technologies Inc.hasappointed access to established products, Larry Price as director of sales, enterprise channel. as well as the resources, distribuLANSource is a developer of network comtion channel and other munications software for fax and data applicabenefits of a l e ading tions. worldwide software orgaPrice will be based in the Kanata, Ont., office, nization will enable us to and will be responsible for sales and marketing grow at a rapid pace." of network fax and data enterprise software to Wallace was president the federal government. Price previously held and CEO of iStar Internet senior sales positions with NEC Computer Inc., which was acquired Systems, Dell Computer Corp., Wang Canada by PSINet Inc. earlier this Larry Price Ltd., Harris Corp. and Northern Telecom Ltd. year. He also held a variety of management positions at Microsoft Canada.

Bill Jones, vice-president of sales for Merisel Canada Inc., was named "Business Partner of the Year" by Campus Retail Canada (CRC),which represents college computer stores throughout the country. Jones was recognized for support of the alliance and ongoing efforts to secure a presence for campus stores in the computer retail market. The CRC "Business Partner of the Year" award is presentedto an individual"who has made exceptional contributions to the retail education industry." Nominations are based on outstanding service, understanding of the channel and ease of doing business. Hamilton,Ont.-based Campus RetailCanada (CRC) represents university and college campus computer stores across Canada.

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Mountain View, Calif.-based Reasoning Inc., a supplier of transformation software and Year2000solutions,has named Gerry Graham vice-president of sales for Canada. Graham will be headquartered in Newmarket, Ont., and will report to Reasoning senior vice-president of worldwide sales, TomDoyle. Graham was previously vicepresident of saies for Werner Motor Co. in Toronto. He has also held positions with IBM Canada, Prime Canada, Unitel and Nextra. He holds a bachelor of engineering science from the University of Western Ontario.

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BestSoftware Canada Ltd.has appointed Ted Aay. 14-10 — Toronto ~ an0 NeenmaleaConference Sept. 10 —Calgary K : 8 ' $9'" --';.: ='WhkToronto Warningas managerofbusinessdevelopment. His responsibilities include developing the , a 39393;33— jjaacccjcr Ijs®33 la::.'ra 0all: l9033 339-9030 Oot. 0 —Halifax reseller channel for Best products and services hNp//wwwint ardoc.ca ,~v.-'~" " in Canada and developing strategic partner Oot. Q —Montreal > : Q hltp Jtwww.ciims.ca NeiMllaO %8 relationships with other software companies. Warning was previously the national sales http//www.meriselling.corn . Ne tt. $-10 -.Qo NO SaaaaN manager of Toronto-based Magic Solutions y.w AnSW - Sayf. 0 - c ostb5'Toi'onto' International, and has more than 20 years of Oot.11-10 — Orlando Call: (613) 233-9553 sales and marketing experience in the technol• Y S LI SINNI 1haNnS, ogy sector. SirnlaOIeeaa0SolnNoae . Doyouhavean upcoming eventyou'Pliketosee Prior to Magic Solutions, Mr. Warning http//wwwdci corn/brochure/ygkbosorl/ worked withcompanies such as General 3/Ishm'in CC& Catartdar? E-r(fail;,~cp.ca. Electric and Inmac Inc. IllC JW

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r a i n i n g : Familiarity Breeds Loyalty. sayslOC

rainingby software companies encourages adoption of their products, according to a recent study by International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd. Moreover, that training investment develops customer loyalty and raises interest in products.

In "Leading Software Firms & The IT Training Itdarket," IDC found 50 per cent of software firms stated they exclusively use partners to deliver training. A total of 17 per cent of those surveyed said they do not use partners, while the remaining 33 per cent use a hybrid approach of both internal resources and partners to ensure IT training services are delivered to customers. Almost 94 per cent of software firms surveyed had developed some form of certification program for their channel partners, and 56 per cent of these firms also created similar certification programs for their customers. IDC says the worldwide IT training and education market is expected to grow 11.1 per cent, surpassing $28.3 billion by 2002. And the related training and testing market is estimated to reach $2.1 billion in 2001. CCW

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International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd., in Toronto, can be reached at: (416) 369-0033.

R eade r P o l l

Last issue, we asked: This issue: With high-quality printers and digital cameras on the market, busi- How receptive are your customers to buying computers containing non-Intel CPUs? nessesand consumers can manage the whole photo processwith relative ease, resulting in quality images. But are the technology and You said: the price point really hitting that sweet spot yet?

I g%Most of my customers want only Intel-based computers.

Which most closely reflects your business?

2 %My customers want computers with AMD, Cyrix or IDT microprocessors. My customers weigh the capabilities and price of each chip, and make a 2 $ %well-considered decision.

Consumers are now flocking to purchase digital cameras. Vertical business applications and certain photo enthusiasts are still the most interested shoppers for digital cameras.

My customers are most interested in the price of the systems, and don' t 17%worry about the brand of processor.

Digital photography technology isn't yet mature enough for many customers.

Prices on digital cameras are still too high for many customers.

Vote in our Reader Poll! A randomly drawn winner will get a free copy of Microsoft's Office 98 Macintosh Edition software. •

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62 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER August 1998 ht t pJAvww.ccwmag.cctm

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HC-4600

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I nforma t i o n .

M o b i l i ty . P o w e r .

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> 256 Colour, 640 x 240 LCD Display > Easy Type™ Keyboard > 16 Megabytes Memory > Built-in 33.6Kbps Modem > Voice Recorder

> Internet Access > Microsoft Windows® CE 2.0

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ALBERTA CALGARY

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PIIDRE(604) 913-1588 P HDNE (403) 250-8881 PHDRE: (403) 413-8210

Fax: (604) 925-3057

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WINNIPEG

PR oNE: (204) 231-0590

Fax: (204) 231-0480

Out of Town Dealers call 1-800-567-3274

Welcomes you to Comdex Canada '98! Come by our booth {ff830} to: Play our hockey game for a chance at winning a 24-inch long plush stuffed Brutus (our mascot).

Become a memberofSceptre's CPSP (Canadian Partners Support Program). •

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Finally and most importantly, check out Sceptre's complete line of award winning CRT monitors and notebook computers, innovative LCD flat panel monitors and affordable high-performance flatbed scanners.

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Complete line of LCD flat panel monitors from 12.1 to 18.1 inches.

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