Click on our Sponsors to help Support SunWorld

Hewlett-Packard launches smart card solution, imaging technology

And Apple expected to incorporate new Motorola chip, while Intel formalizes name for Pentium PRO replacement

March 1997

Mail this
article to
a friend

HP unveils SmartCard, imaging technology

Los Angeles (March 12, 1997) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. today launched a range of Internet products and services catering to what it calls the "extended enterprise," a concept that marries Internet technology with electronic commerce and electronic data interchange (EDI).

The company announced that it is to bundle Novell Inc.'s Novell Directory Services (NDS), a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) into all its HP-UX operating systems and platforms.

NDS provides users with a global view of all network information and resources through a single log-in to the network. HP will also license Novell's add-on directory-to-directory replication and synchronization functions.

Also at Internet World today, HP together with Informix Software Inc. and Gemplus SA of France launched their HP Praesidium/ImagineCard solution.

ImagineCard is a smart card technology that provides a signature-based security across corporate networks. The company is currently carrying out extensive trials in Europe, including an expenses authorization program with British Telecom. However, HP officials confirmed that the company does not yet have any U.S. customers for the solution.

HPs also announced its Imaging for Internet Architecture, which according to company officials will enable rapid viewing and printing of high-resolution images over the Internet.

HP's Imaging for Internet Architecture is based on the Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP), which was jointly developed by Eastman Kodak Co. and Live Pictures. Called FlashPix, the standard supports large graphics file formats including JPEG and other file formats.

Hewlett-Packard can be reached at http://www.hp.com

--Niall McKay, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

Apple might use Motorola's 300-MHz PowerPC chip

London (February 18, 1997) -- Motorola Corp. plans to release a new 300-MHz 603e PowerPC microprocessor -- which Apple Computer Inc. will use in future PowerMacintosh and PowerBook models -- this month (March) at the CeBit trade show, a Motorola executive said today.

While Apple has not admitted to signing a purchasing contract with Motorola, "to assume that Apple will buy the 300-MHz chips would not be wrong," said Paul Clark, European marketing and communications manager for Motorola's RISC group.

The 603 series chip will be the fastest chip ever released by Motorola, Clark said. Motorola has previously announced its plans to manufacture a 300-MHz 603 microprocessor, but, until now, has not indicated when it would be available or which systems manufacturers would use the chip.

Clark said Apple is also considering building a system around a forthcoming version of Motorola's 620 PowerPC processor. Groupe Bull is expected to adopt the upgraded 620 chips in its line of Unix servers.

"Bull will be the first to use the 620 chips, but Apple is also seriously looking at using them," Clark said.

In February, Apple announced the PowerBook 3400 based on Motorola's 240-MHz 603e chip and the PowerMacintosh 9600/233 based on the 233-MHz 604e processor. The company is positioning the high-speed notebook and desktop as "Pentium-flattening" machines that can outperform even Pentium Pro laptops, according to Peter Lunn, PowerBook business and marketing manager for Apple U.K. and Ireland Ltd.

Also at CeBit, which is held in Hannover, Germany, Motorola's New Media Systems group will launch two network computers based on the Motorola 800 series chips, Clark said.

Motorola home page http://www.motorola.com
Apple home page http://www.apple.com

--Kristi Essick, IDG News Service, London Bureau

What comes after the Pro?
Intel preparing Pentium II

Taipei (February 17, 1997) -- Intel Corp. announced that the official name of its MMX multimedia enhanced follow-up to the Pentium Pro family of processors will be Pentium II. The name builds on the equity of the chip giant's Pentium and Pentium Pro trademarks, Intel said in a statement.

Systems based on Pentium II, previously code-named Klamath, aimed at the business market will be available later in this year's first half, Intel said.

The first iterations of the new chip family are expected to run at 233 MHz and 266 MHz, faster than the Pentium Pro family which tops out at 200 MHz, observers said. However, Intel recently said that in laboratory tests it has run chips based on the same architecture at clock-speeds as high as 451 MHz.

In addition to adding the MMX instruction set, the Pentium II chips will also come in a new packaging format that Intel calls the Single Edge Contact (SEC) cartridge. The SEC cartridge will not be compatible with existing Pentium Pro boards in which the chip fits into the 387-pin Socket 8. Instead, the cartridge will be connected to a 242-pin Slot 1, much like a riser card, sources said.

The new cartridge design will require systems manufacturers to implement new motherboards, but Intel promised that it will use the new cartridge form factor for some time to come.

Several Taiwanese motherboard makers have already received samples of the new chip, but have yet to outline product plans as Intel is requesting its partners to keep any announcements under wraps, sources said.

Intel home page http://www.intel.com

--Terho Uimonen, IDG News Service, Taipei Bureau

IBM launches international 24-Hour Java development group

London (February 18, 1997) -- IBM announced it launched an international, 24-hour-a-day development cycle for integrating Java into its VisualAge enterprise application development product.

Development teams based in Beijing, Belarus, India, and Latvia will work around the clock on developing a set of JavaBeans (Java components used to build large applications) that will work with IBM's VisualAge business application development environment, officials said.

For example, when programmers in Beijing finish writing code for the day, they will pass on their work to colleagues in the U.S. and the other locations for further development. The programmers will collaborate via the Internet using Lotus Domino servers and will use IBM's TeamConnection software to manage and track development cycles, officials said.

IBM is mounting the development effort in order to speed up integration of Java into VisualAge, and to cut costs, officials said. Over the next three years, IBM plans to spend "hundreds of millions of dollars" on incorporating Java into its enterprise products, according to a company statement.

JavaBeans are being created for a wide-range of VisualAge applications, such as human resource management, multimedia training, and market research tracking, officials said.

The outcome of the collaboration will be a set of JavaBeans called VisualAge PartPaks that can be used by developers to create Java-based business applications. PartPaks, which IBM will position against Microsoft's soon-to-be announced Visual InterDev development environment (formerly known as Internet Studio), will be available later this year, according to Ted Lelekas, a spokesman for IBM Software.

In addition to collaborating among themselves, the programmers in China, Belarus, India, and Latvia will also work with a 24-person development team in Seattle, which will do quality assurance and usability testing of the JavaBeans applets. Each international programming group will comprise about 30 people, officials said.

For the project, IBM is collaborating with the Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Belarus Institute of Computer Science in Minsk, the Tata Group in Bangalore, India, and the Software House Group in Riga, Latvia.

--Kristi Essick, IDG News Service, London Bureau

Microsoft, CA develop NT directory, Backup Management

New York (February 24, 1997) -- The Cheyenne division of Computer Associates International Inc. announced it will work with Microsoft Corp. to create a version of its DS Standard program for the Windows NT directory service, Active Directory.

DS Standard for Windows NT, like other versions of the product, will offer off-line management, modeling, and disaster recovery capabilities. It is expected to be available when Active Directory for NT 5.0 ships in the second half of the year, Cheyenne officials said.

The NT version of the product will also be compatible with DS Standard for NDS (NetWare Directory Services), allowing for transparent management across sites that utilize both Windows NT and NetWare directory services, officials said.

The new version of DS Standard will let network managers model and make mass changes to Windows NT Server directory environments. The NDS and Windows NT Active Directory versions of DS Standard can be integrated to enable multi- or meta-directory management, officials said.

The announcement coincides with the February release of Cheyenne Disaster Recovery, which was also developed through a technology agreement between CA and Microsoft. The product is a bootable-disk disaster recovery program that lets users restore a downed server without having to manually reinstall the operating system.

Cheyenne Disaster Recovery is available now, priced at $395, for Intel x86 platforms. Cheyenne is also offering a free promotional edition of Cheyenne Disaster Recovery free to its current ARCserve customers through March 31, 1997. This version can be downloaded from Cheyenne at http:/www.cheyenne.com/TestDrive.

--Marc Ferranti, IDG News Service, New York Bureau