BYTE Best of Comdex Awards
Innovative Internet Software Wins Best of Comdex
LAS VEGAS, November 16, 1995 -- Innovative search software for the World Wide Web won BYTE Magazine's Best of Show award here at Fall COMDEX 1995. The award for Best Technology went to Digital Semiconductor's revolutionary FX!32 -- a software x86 emulator that converts Win32 programs into native applications for the Alpha processor.
Internet Software
Winner
WebCompass (Quarterdeck, Marina Del Rey, CA, 800-683-6696; 310-309-3700; fax, 310-309-3215; http://www.quarterdeck.com), an intelligent Internet search engine that queries specified Web resources in the background. Quarterdeck's WebCompass wraps a slick agent-based interface around whichever searchable Web servers are important to you. It refreshes search results periodically, abstracts them, and organizes them by topic.
Runners-up:
Fountain (Caligari, Mountain View, CA, 800-351-7620 or 415-390-9600; fax, 415-390-9755; http://www.caligari.com), an integrated VRML tool/Web browser for building and browsing 3D models on the Web.
Hindsight (ISYS/Odyssey Development, Englewood, CO, 303-689-9998; fax, 303-689-9997; isys@dash.com), a Web browsing tool that indexes Web pages as you visit them.
Display and Sound Devices
Winner
ET 6000 (The Tseng Labs, Newtown, PA, 215-968-0502), a 128-bit graphics and multimedia engine integrates a 128-bit graphics accelerator, a video image processor, and a 24-bit DAC into a single chip. The ET6000 also solves the bandwidth bottleneck by opening a one gigabyte-per-second channel to video memory and the DAC. Tseng Labs expects ET6000-based adapters to sell for under $300.
Runners-up
The WaveForce SW70XG (Yamaha Corporation of America: Buena Park, CA, 714-522-9011) delivers outstanding audio quality and dynamic range by integrating 4MB of waveROM, a special effects DSP, and an 18-bit D/A converter.
The PanaFlat PF17 (Panasonic Communications and System Company, Secaucus, NJ, 201-348-7000, 800-742-8086), uses a Pure Flat tube for optically undistorted images. The PF17 also features on-screen controls, energy-star compliance, and Win95 Plug-and-Play.
Storage
Winner
The Jaz drive (Iomega, Roy, UT, 800-697-8833; fax, 801-778-1000), a high-capacity removable storage device. Iomega's Zip Drive is a better mouse trap, providing removable 100 megabyte storage at near-hard drive speeds. The Jaz is a bear trap, providing 1 gigabytes of removable storage.
Runners-up
The SmartCache IV SCSI Host Adapter (Distributed Processing Technology, Maitland, FL, 407-830-5522; fax, 407-260-5366) is an upgradeable RAID controller, supporting RAID levels 0, 1, and 5, and up to 64 megabytes of hardware cache.
The DW-S114X Quadraspin CD-ROM Writer, (Pioneer New Media Technologies, Long Beach, CA, 310-952-2111; fax, 310-952-3031) is both a quad-speed CD-RM reader and quad-speed CD recorder for under $1300.
Applications
Winner
Canvas 5 (Deneba Software, Miami, FL, 305-596-5644; fax, 305-273-9069; e-mail, deneba@aol.com) provides integrated image editing, text and page layout, and vector illustration for Win 95, Win 3.1, NT, Mac, and Power Mac.
Runners-up
DecideRight (Avantos, Emeryville, CA, 510-654-4600; fax, 510-654-1276) provides decision support with an intuitive interface for weighting criteria.
MapInfo 3 Pro (MapInfo, Troy, NY, 518-285-6000; fax, 518-285-6060) adds global positioning system software for real-time tracking, better database access, and OLE support in its Win 95 version.
Portables
Winner
The ThinkPad 760 CD notebook (IBM, Somers, NY, 800-426-2968; fax, 919-517-1950) continues the company's lead in high end notebooks. It features a 90- or 120-MHz Pentium, 12.1-inch active matrix display that supports 800 by 600 resolution and 64K colors, integrated DSP that provides 28.8 Kbps data transmission, a MIDI port, Sound Blaster-compatible audio, and full duplex telephony. It also includes MPEG-2 hardware acceleration, video in and out, infrared port on the front and back, and the ability to let you swap a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, second hard drive, second battery, floppy drive, PC card cartridge without shutting down the computer.
Runners-up
The Z-NOTE GT (Zenith Data Systems, Buffalo Grove, IL, 708-808-5000; fax, 708-808-4434) features a 12.1-inch active matrix screen, 90-MHz mobile Pentium (with 120-MHz Pentium soon), video out, built-in stereo speakers, optional MPEG hardware acceleration, and swappable hard drive, CD-ROM drive, floppy drive, or second battery pack.
The OmniGo 100 (Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA, 800-443-1254) is a Geos-based PDA ($349) with an innovative flip-top design that supports pen or keyboard input.
Utilities
Winner
PartitionMagic 2.0 (PowerQuest, Orem, UT, 801-226-8977; fax, 801-226-8941; e-mail, magic@powerquest.com, http://www.powerquest.com) lets you use partitions as flexible super directories to organize and protect operating systems, applications, and data. It can resize and move FAT and HPFS partitions, and it eliminates the need for Fdisk by including create, delete, and format commands.
Runners-up
MPEG Converter (Ulead Systems, Torrance, CA, 310-523-9393; fax, 310-523-9399, e-mail, mkt@ulead.com) converst MPEG video files for full-motion, full-screen playback on PCs. It does two-way conversion between AVI and MPEG formats.
Perfector (International Power Technologies, Orem, UT, 800-944-0356; fax, 801-224-5872; or http://www.sdic.com/IPT.html) is a power conversion device that can handle a wide range of voltages.
Printers
Winner
KX PS-8000 (Panasonic, Secaucus, NJ, 800-742-8086) is a high-end color printer with 1200 by 1200 dpi, 14 ppm (monochrome) output and a color scanner.
Runners-up
LaserJet 5Si (Hewlett-Packard, 800-752-0900), the follow-on to the popular 4Si, includes a 2000-sheet input tray, duplex, and envelope capabilities, and an 8-bin output collating tray.
The Color Jetprinter 1020 (Lexmark International, 800-358-5835 or http://www.lexmark.com) brings color to a new price point: for around $249 you get 600 x 300 dpi black-and-white and color output.
Input Devices
Winner
The RDC-1 Digital Camera, (Ricoh Consumer Products Group, Sparks, NV, 702-352-1600; fax, 702-352-1615) is a digital color camera that holds still images, audio, and video.
Runners-up
LexiPen (Motorola, Lexicus Division (Palo Alto, CA, 800-lex-icus; fax, 415-323-4772) is a Chinese handwriting recognition program with a 13,000-word dictionary. It could open Western-style computers to the world's most populous country.
ScanJet 4Si (Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA, 800-722-6538 or 208-396-2551) is the first networked grayscale scanner we have seen. Log in to the 4Si's LED, feed it your documents, and they arrive at your desktop PC.
Operating Systems
Winner
The Newton 2.0 operating system (Apple, Cupertino, CA, 408-996-1010 or http://www.info.apple.com/newton) adds improved handwriting recognition, PC-to-PDA connectivity, and user interface improvements to make Newton-based devices easier to use.
Runners-up
WGS Linux Pro 3.0 (WorkGroup Solutions, Aurora, CO, 303-699-7470; fax, 303-699-2793; e-mail, info@wgs.com, http://www.wgs.com) includes customer support so that you don't have to go to the Internet for your support.
Communications Software
Winner
pcANYWHERE32 (Symantec, Cupertino, CA, 800-441-7234 or 541-334-6054; http://www.symantec.com) provides remote control, file transfer, and general communications for Win 95 and Windows NT.
Runners-up
CommSuite 95 (Delrina, Toronto, Canada, 800-239-2254 or http://www.delrina.com), delivers fax, Internet connectivity, terminal emulation, voice mail, and file transfer.
VideoPhone for Mac and Windows (Connectix, San Mateo, CA, 800-950-5880; fax, 415-571-5195, info@connectix.com) does videoconferencing over the Internet and other networks. It's just $149, including the camera.
Communications Hardware
Winner
The Winterm 2000/2500 terminals (Wyse Technology, San Jose, CA, 408-473-1200; fax, 408-473-2080 or http://www.wyse.com) work with Citrix's WinFrame for Networks. The combination puts a manageable NT workstation on your desktop for about $700.
Runners-up
The SSA Data Pump (Pathlight Technology, Ithaca, NY, 607-266-4000; fax, 607-266-4010; http://www.pathlight.com) is a PCI card for high-performance Serial Storage Architecture connectivity.
Air Power (Motorola, Austin, TX, 512-434-1502 or http://www.mot.com) is a hardware/software package for one- and two-way paging.
Multimedia Development
Winner
Video DC20 (miro Computer, Braunschweig, Germany or Palo Alto CA, 800-249-6476 or 415-855-0940; fax, 415-855-9004) is an under-$1000 video editing platform that combines hardware-assisted motion JPEG compression of S-VHS quality video with PAL/NTSC output.
Runners-up
Buster (Quadrant, Wayne, PA, 800-700-0362 or 610-964-7600) is a low-cost video playback board, a TV tuner, and video capture/display device that uses burst DMA to move video data directly to graphics board memory.
SAA7145 (Philips Semiconductor, Sunnyvale, CA, 408-991-2000; fax, 408-991-2311) is a multimedia bridge chip targeted at low-cost video/audio capture that supports direct transfer of digitized data onto the PCI bus.
Systems
Winner
The TDZ-400 (Intergraph, Huntsville, AL, 205-730-2000, http://www.intergraph.com) is a 150-MHz or 200-MHz Pentium Pro personal workstation. Its strong 3D and floating point performance will give RISC-based workstations a run for their money.
Runners-up
The Raptor 3 (Deskstation, Lenexa, KS, 913-599-1900) uses the 333-MHz Alpha 21164 processor on the UltraFlex 2 motherboard. It may be the world's fastest single-processor Windows NT system.
The Powerized LX (FirePower Systems, Menlo Park, CA 415-462-3000), a dual 150-MHz PowerPC 604 workstation with a 128-bit memory bus and 4MB of dual-ported VRAM, is built for high-end multimedia applications.
Development Software
Winner
Prospero (Oberon Software, Cambridge, MA 617-494-0990) is a rapid application development tool that implements building-block style programming. Programs in Prospero are built by wiring together these building blocks, which represent sources of data, data processing units, or data destinations, so that development is accomplished in a visual way.
Runners-up
ClassAssist (Sheridan Software Systems, 516-753-0985) brings object oriented features to Visual Basic 4, specifically inheritance and property and method overrides for derived classes.
DB2 for Windows NT (IBM, Somers, NY, 800-426-3333) brings IBM's well-known relational database development system to NT.
Technology
FX!32 (Digital Semiconductor, Maynard, MA) is a revolutionary x86 software emulator and compiler that runs Win32 applications on the Alpha version of Windows NT. Over repeated runs, FX!32 converts the Win32app into native Alpha code.
Best of Show
Quarterdeck's WebCompass best exemplified the network-centric theme of this years show. Aggregation of searches across many Web servers is one of the next Internet frontiers. The major web crawlers do a great job, but you can't control where they go or how often. WebCompass wraps a slick agent-based interface around whichever searchable Web servers are important to you. It refreshes search results periodically, abstracts them, and organizes them by topic.