Computers & Peripherals: November 9, 1995

Quad-speed CD-ROM drive. The Vertos 400 series CD-ROM drive has a data-transfer rate of 600 kbytes/sec and an access time of 200 msec. The drive includes a built-in IDE/ATAPI interface and a buffer size of 128 kbytes. The drive retails for $209. Elitegroup Computer Systems Inc, Fremont, CA. (510) 226-7333.

64-bit SPARC-based workstation offers high performance. The HALstation 300 Series has ratings to 212 SPECint92 and 271 SPECfp92, using the HALstation 350 with a 118-MHz CPU. The workstations use the 64-bit version of Solaris 2.4 and are able to run SPARC/Solaris applications without modification. The HALstation 330 with 2-Gbyte disk, 64-Mbyte RAM, four SBUS slots and a 17-in. color monitor costs $23,010. The HALstation 350 with a 20-in. color monitor costs $33,055. HAL Computer Systems, Campbell, CA. (408) 379-7000.

NuBus expansion chassis for PCI-based Power Macintosh systems. Users of the PC-based Power Macintosh 8500, 7500 and 7200 with an investment in NuBus hardware can still use that hardware with two-, four-, and eight-slot expansion chassis. The two-slot Xpanse PN200 ($695) operates from the Macintosh power supply. The four-slot Xpanse PN400 ($1095) and the eight-slot Xpanse PN800 (from $1795) have their own power supplies. The Expanse PN800 is available in desktop or rackmount enclosures. Second Wave Inc, Austin, TX. (512) 329-9283.

PC card offers Ethernet and fax/modem functions. The Type II PCMCIA cards are available in two models: the Epson LAN Fax (ELF) 14NA with a 14.4-kbps data rate and the ELF 28NA with a 28.8-kbps data rate. Both cards offer 10Base-T Ethernet. The cards support MNP-10EC, the enhanced protocol for improved performance and reliability for cellular-modem communications. The ELF 14A costs $170 (1000), and the ELF 28A costs $240 (1000). Epson America Inc, Torrance, CA. (310) 782-0770.

DLL provides DSP, math, and data acquisition for C/C++, Visual Basic, and Matlab programs. The DSPower-HWLib Windows DLL interfaces to standard DSP and data-acquisition hardware for user-defined C/C++, Visual Basic, and Matlab programs. Low-level functions include board control, block-memory transfers, DSP-executable file download, and others. High-level functions include data acquisition, waveform record and playback, signal synthesis, stimulus and response measurement, and DSP/math functions. The software supports more than 60 types of off-the-shelf DSP/acquisition hardware, including data-acquisition boards, low-cost multimedia boards, multichannel DSP boards, and DSP-development platforms. The software costs $495. Signalogic, Dallas, TX. (214) 343-0069.

Network analyzer software for Macintosh supports 100-Mbit data collection. NetMinder version 3.3 provides 100-Mbit data collection using the Farallon and Dayna NuBus Ethernet cards. The software-only network analyzer troubleshoots, debugs, and monitors Ethernet networks. The tool runs on any Macintosh equipped with a supported Ethernet interface. The device captures and decodes a range of Ethernet protocols including Appletalk, TCP/IP, NetWare, DECnet, XNS, and Banyan Vines. The software costs $695. Neon Software Inc, Lafayette, CA. (510) 283-9771.

Frame-grabber board. Falcon VGA is a single-slot, VL- or PCI-bus frame grabber with built-in VGA-compatibility and optional on-board DSP. The board has 8-bits/pixel providing 256 gray levels and provides 8-bit independent VGA-overlay planes in color or gray scale. It has an additional 8-bit plane of VGA image-storage VRAM. The board performs nondestructive graphics or text overlays at resolutions from 640×480 to 1280×1024 pixels. 30-Hz CCIR images are displayed on a single VGA monitor at noninterlaced refresh rates of to 72 Hz. From $1995. Univision Technologies Inc, Burlington, MA. (617) 221-6700.

Multiprocessing HyperSPARC workstations. This line of workstations uses 100- and 125-MHz HyperSPARC CPUs from Ross Technologies. The SuperCOMPstation 20 model HS-14MP uses up to four CPUs with an estimated performance of 8124 SPECint92 and 8906 SPECfp92. The single-processor model HS21 has estimated performance of 131.2 SPECint92 and 153 SPECfp92. Standard configurations include a 20-in. color monitor, Turbo GX graphics, a 32-Mbyte RAM, a 1.05-Gbyte disk, and a Solaris 2.x multiprocessing operating system. Prices are $16,615 for the model HS21 and $26,265 for model HS14MP. Tatung Science & Technology Inc, Milpitas, CA. (408) 383-0988.

LAN port switch starts at $80/port. The SegWay port switch is designed as a 24-port stackable system that is expandable to 120 ports. The system supports an aggregate capacity of 80 Mbps through eight 10-Mbps Ethernet segments. It seamlessly integrates into network environments and works with all vendor architectures. LANart Corp, Needham, MA. (617) 444-1994.

PowerPC application accelerator for Power Macintosh. The Total Power accelerator board and the Total Freedom operating-system interface let you run application software on the accelerator board. Because the code that runs on the accelerator is the same code that runs on the Power Macintosh, the system does not require a special version of the software applications. The board is available with PowerPC 604 processors operating at 100, 120, 132, and 150 MHz. Memory capacity is as much as 128 Mbytes DRAM. Development systems start at $2000. Total Impact, Camarillo, CA. (805) 987-8704.

PCI Ultra SCSI host adapter. The FlashPoint LT SCSI host adapter is SCAM (SCSI Configured Automatically) Level 1- and PCI 2.1- compliant. The board features 32-bit bus-master DMA transfers of up to 133 Mbytes/sec across the PCI bus. Across the SCSI bus, the transfers are 20 Mbytes/sec as defined by the Ultra SCSI in the SCSI-3 specification. The board costs $229, and a bundled version with internal cables, software-device drivers, a FlashPoint bonus pac, and full-documentation costs $259. BusLogic Inc, Santa Clara, CA. (408) 492-9090.

64-bit graphics-acceleration board for Windows and DOS. The Stealth64 Graphics 2001 PCI-bus board has resolution up to 1600×1200 pixels, as much as 24-bit color, and refresh rates to 90 Hz. The board includes driver support for Windows 95; Windows 3.1; Windows NT 3.5; AutoCAD r10/386, r11, r12, r13; Autoshade 2.0; and 3-D Studio. With 2 Mbytes of DRAM, the board supports 24-bit color at 800×600 resolution. $189. Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc, San Jose, CA. (408) 325-7000.

Server provides access to programs across multiple platforms. The IBM 7596 cross-platform server provides access to VAX/VMS, AIX, Windows, and OS/2 operating systems. The base system starts at $39,150. IBM, Somers, NY. (520) 574-4600.

Active-matrix, color-LCD monitor. The NIS-502M is a 9.4-in. monitor that accepts VGA signals through a 15-pin HDD-input connector and displays 640×480 pixel resolution in 4096 colors. The display is available with a resistive- or surface-wave touchscreen. The device comes in an aluminum enclosure measuring 11.8×8.2×2 in. and weighs 3.15 lbs. The display is supplied with a 12V ac/dc adapter, cables, manuals, and touchscreen driver software. It costs <$3000. National Integration Services Inc, Rochester, NY. (716) 247- 6330.

High-speed RAID controller board for SCSI-based storage designs. The Series 3 Fast-20 RAID controller board provides throughput capabilities of more than 5000 I/Os per sec. The board uses a 486-66 DX2 processor and can accommodate 128 Mbytes of cache memory with an optional battery backup. It has an onboard Ethernet interface and five 16-bit, single-ended Fast-20 drive channels. Other hardware features include two-processor DRAM SIMM sockets, an onboard PCI bus, a RAID-parity-assist chip, and one 16-bit differential Fast-20 SCSI-2 host channel. The board costs $3500 and is sampling now. Production shipments start in December. Symbios Logic Inc, Wichita, KS. (800) 862-7729.

Four-port scalable-coherent-interface-cluster switch has low latency. The four-port cluster switch has port-to-port latency as low as 0.75 µsec. Message passing round-trip latency is as low as 0.75 µsec, which is significantly lower latency than the fastest network switches. The four-port switch costs $5900, including host-adapter-driver upgrade software. Dolphin Interconnect Solutions Inc, Westlake Village, CA. (805) 371-9493.

Line of touch monitors start at <$1000. The TruePoint Value line of touch monitors includes the 14-, 15-, 17-, and 20-in. models. The 14-in. model starts at $995 with a VersaTouch resistive touchscreen and $1095 with a ClearTek capacitive touchscreen. The monitors use GoldStar high-resolution displays with a 0.28-mm dot pitch. MicroTouch Systems Inc, Methuen, MA. (508) 659-9000.