FIT is promising third-party developers that FIT "will actively market your applications internationally and supply free technical support to your developers." Apps can be programmed using C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, or Cadvance Macro Language. The Developer Package is US$395 from http://www.cadvance.com
Together with HP, Intel's high-end CPU is code-named IA-64 (aka Merced). HP calls the technology "Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing" or EPIC for short. It uses a new 128-bit instruction format that can contain three instructions. The Merced CPU is due to become available in 1999; the follow-up CPU is due 2001 and will have double the performance. Code written for the Pentium II will run on Merced but not any faster.
Intel seems to have approved Rambus memory technology, which promises 1.6GB/sec performance. In the future, you can expect 64Mbit chips in mid-98, 256Mbit in early 2000 and 1Gbit in late 2001. The drawback to Rambus might be the royalties computer manufacturers would have to pay.
While Intel will continue to chase the expensive computer market, all of its competitors are aiming for the sub-US$1500 and sub-US$1000 markets, which are expected to become 50% of computer sales. Intel's promotion of the "Slot 1" CPU housing is a means by which Intel is trying to make its competitors incompatible. For this reason, competitors (lead by AMD) are developing an alternative called "Socket 7." -- Based on reports by WAVE Report on Digital Media on the recent Microprocessor Forum.
Monday, Intel announced the prices of all MMX and Pentium II CPUs will be reduced 20% worldwide.
Last week, the president of the European Association of Autodesk User Groups distributed an open letter to AUGI president describing what had happened from the EAAUG's point of view. Boiling down the three-page letter to a couple of paragraphs, here is what Victor Gasper, current EAAUG chair, says happened:
Jay Patankar, the UK natioanl user group's EAAUG representative, presented a paper to the EAAUG's 9th annual meeting proposing: (1) no further election of officers; (2) a new EAAUG constitution within 3 months; and (3) the replacement of the current secretariat by himself. His proposal was rejected. Jay subsequently resigned from the EAAUG via his Chairman's Letter column in the AUG-UK newsletter, although he did not give written notice to the EAAUG.
According to the letter, EAAUG had several meetings with Autodesk over creating a world-wide umbrella organization but theses were fruitless. When AUGI was formed (with no consultation with EEAUG) Jay reappeared, this time as AUGI's European Relations Committee Chair. Summarizes Victor:
"Autodesk and AUGI have treated EAAUG very badly. Autodesk has repeatedly gone back on agreements made with us [as described by the full text of his letter.] We are recognized [in Europe] as the coordinating association of user groups in Europe, yet are not consulted about matters that concern us... The association finds your failure to consult with us before appointing your European Chair especially insulting."
The full text of Victor's letter is available at the upFront.eZine Web site: http://users.uniserve.com/~ralphg/augi.htm
Micron Electronics and Gateway 2000 both testified to the DOJ that their customers would benefit if the companies "could dump Microsoft's Internet Explorer from the Windows 95 desktop, but Microsoft denied this request."
This some of the evidence being presented for the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Back in 1995, Microsoft had agreed it would no longer coerce companies to accept its software. But, indicative of Microsoft's contempt for the law, Microsoft vp Steve Ballmer last week reacted this way: "I say to heck with [USA Attorney General] Janet Reno."
The DOJ's investigation is just the start of a major public relations nightmare for Microsoft's pr firm, Wagner- Edstrom. The European Community is investigating Microsoft's licensing its Internet Explorer Web browser. American consumer activist Ralph Nader is hosting a conference Nov 13-14 in Washington DC USA to examine Microsoft's business practices. Seven American states have joined together to investigate Microsoft's possible antitrust violations.
In Network Computing magazine, technology futurist George Gilder says that "the contest will be settled by the success of Sun Microsystems and IBM in perfecting Java, rather than by the success of Janet Reno in collecting fines against Microsoft ... Java-based browsers ultimately will outperform Windows integrated browsers when it comes to network applications."
The DOJ hearings against Microsoft began Monday.
Corel
CorelDRAW 8 is due to ship mid-November (US$695 or US$249 upgrade).
IMSI
Former Broderbund vp of engineering M.W. "Mickey" Mantle joins IMSI
as chief technical officer. Other recent appointments include Derek Burney
as vp of engineering, Steve Lee as vp of business development, and Gina
Harris as vp of marketing.
Intergraph
The Intergraph Computer Systems business unit will operate as a separate
company effective Jan 1'98.
Jacobus Technology
Three new discipline-specific modules for PlantSpace Design Series
are due in 4Q97: Structural, Electrical Raceways, and HVAC (US$1,995 each).
Nemetschek
Nemetschek AG has acquired acadGraph, the German developer of AutoCAD-based
architectural software sold under the name Palladio.
Internet News
The online service, Prodigy, has started airing a series of television
ads that attempt to educate people to think of the Internet as a tool and
not a lifestyle. In unrelated news, the numbers of subscribers to American
online and Internet service providers fell 3% between June 30 and Sept
30, the first decline ever recorded, according to Newsbytes.
Virtus Corp
By registering on the Virtus website, http://www.virtus.com/conceptcad,
users receive a CD-ROM for Windows 95/NT containing a self-guided tutorial
based on ConceptCAD. The tutorial enables architects to learn about the
impact of 3D visualization on the architectural design process and earn
10 AIA Learning Units.
November 4-5
Bentley Systems: Proactive Engineering Symposium in Rome.
http://www.bentley.com
November 19-20
4th Annual CAD Forum in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.
mailto:gorant@EUnet.yu
A: Best person to talk to is Scott Taylor . If he doesn't have a CAD translator, he'll write it!
http://www.cimsoftek.com/cimpro_down.htm
CimSoftek
The following CAD translators for IBM, SGI, HP, and Windows NT are
available at the Web site:
Ian Graham is sort of like the Rusty Gesner of the Web world: when there's a new version of HTML, Graham has a new book out on it. This title covers the world of "cascading style sheets" (aka CSS). Stylesheets in HTML are a lot like styles in desktop publishing. When you design a Web page with styles, you can change the look of the page by simply applying a new style -- rather than manually changing all of the HTML elements. Similarly, by applying a stylesheet to all your Web page, you achieve a consistent look.
Styles are easy to catch on to. For example, the <P> tag in HTML indicate the start (and end) of a paragraph. Using CSS, you redefine the meaning of P to include the font name, color, size, etc. Now each time you use <P>, the Web browser substitutes in the style. As you can see, this is more efficient than applying the font name, color, etc, tags for each and every paragraph.
If styles are so simple, why buy a book? As Graham warns, "The !important parameter is just one part of the cascading mechanism, and may seem a bit vague without a concrete example illustrating its role. Indeed, this book has yet to go into the details of the cascading mechanism, which is the way, within CSS, that the browser determines which declarations to apply when actually formatting a given element." Superficially simple, but complex when you get into many linked stylesheets. In addition, Graham warns that even though all new browsers claim to support CSS, all do so imperfectly. His books points out the bugs and their workarounds.
"I found it interesting that Bentley went with Parasolid because Parasolid has (suddenly) become the leading 'high- end' solids modeling technology. If ACIS isn't the solution for the high-end, and if all of the low-end ACIS-based products are vanishing, what does ACIS have left?
"I guess CadKey is the only one left, and since Cadkey sells for $2000, maybe that means that ACIS is the standard for mid- range solids modeling technology."