Boston Computer Update

Editorial DirectorJonathan Rotenberg

Managing EditorMary E. McCann

Contributing EditorsTed BlankBarbaro BrownDoug Cooper

Tracy LickliderBeth Lowd

Cary Lu

Wendy Q uinonesNancy Roberts

Oscar Rodriguez

Jack StorBonnie TurrentineDaniel Watt

Lorry Woods

Jon ZondermanCirculation Manager

Sue GladstoneTypesetting

Virginia McLaughlin,Adams & Abbott, Inc.

Art DirectorSusan F. Shepherd

GraphicsSean Kelly

PhotographySonny TarbiGeorge Dillon

The Boston Computer Society

PresidentJonathan Rotenberg

Vice PresidentTracy Licklider

TreasurerStewart Alsop II

Business ManagerMary E. McCann

Chief Resource ConsultantsTorn Lindsley

Paul McGaryJohn SturmJeff Wheaton

Legal CounselH. Adam SonnenscheinHaussermann, Davison

& ShattuckDirectors

Stewart Alsop IIDan Bricklin

Mitchell KaporTracy LickliderJonathan RotenbergAllen SneiderBonnie Turrentine

Apple/BostonGary Hoffer, DirectorAlien Sneider, DirectorTod Riedel, Associate Directc

John Thibodeou, Assoc. DireAtari User Group

Sheldon Buck, CoordinatorGeorge Erickson, Secretary

Business Users GroupDaniel Bricklin, DirectorAllen Sneider, DirectorJohn Sturm, Assoc. Director

Educational Resource Exch.Bonnie Turrentine, DirectorBeth Lowd, Director

80/BostonSonny Tarbi, Director

Family User GroupAllen Sneider, Director

I BM User GroupMike Rohrbach, DirectorJohn Maglio, Director

North Star User GroupGary Saxton, DirectorDon Hay, Editor

Osborne User GroupArt Capstaff, DirectorSTeve Keese, Director

OSI User GroupArnetha Haynes, DirectorLen Magerrnan, DirectorJim Loan, Director

PASCAL User GroupBeardsley Ruml, DirectorDennis Ehn, Director

PET User GroupDick McKnight, DirectorJim Yost, Director

Robotics User GroupTed Blank, Director

Sinclair User GroupSue Mahoney, Director

Source/Micronet GroupRick Kane, Director

THE VIEW FROM CENTER PLAZA by Jonathan Rotenberg .................................................. 2COMMENTARY: POOR TIMING FOR A "BOLD STROKE" by Jack Star .......................... 3

ANNOUNCEMENTS by Mary E. McCann ........................................................................... 6

OFF THE GRAPEVINE ....................................................................................................................... 8IXO'S REMARKABLE TELECOMPUTER by Tracy R. Licklider .......................................... 11A CONVERSATION WITH BEN ROSEN by Jon Zonderman ................................................ 23COMPUTERS IN BUSINESS: BUYING A PAYROLL SYSTEM

by Oscar Ray Rodriguez ............................................................................................... 26THE WORLD OF ROBOTICS by Ted Blank .......................................................................... 27CERC NEWS ....................................................................................................................................... 35COMPUTERS AND THE LAW: UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER WARRANTIES

by Stephen W. Rider ................................................................................................... 36COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS by Lawrence Woods ...................................................... 41CLASSIFIED ADS .............................................................................................................................. 45PORTIA I: QUEEN OF THE ROBOTS by Jack Star ................................................................ 49HOW ONE MANUFACTURER FOUND HAPPINESS ON THE EAST COAST

by Mary E. McCann ..................................................................................................... 51BOOK REVIEW by Doug Cooper ......................................................................................... 55

At its March 24 meeting, The Boston Computer Society hosts the East Coast premiere ofFortune Systems' new 32:16 computer. Featuring the 16-bit 68000 microprocessor, ex-tremely "user friendly" software and advanced human engineering, the 32:16 has beenhailed by many analysts as one of the most significant entries to the personal computermarketplace this year.

The April 28 meeting features David Ahl, publisher of Creative Computing, speaking onand demonstrating the state of the art in videodisk technology for personal computers.Among other things, he will be showing Creative Computing's new videodisk adventuregame, which uses the videodisk of the movie Rollercoaster.

Both meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. at New England Life Hall, 225 Clarendon Street, Boston.For a complete list of BCS meetings, see page 6.

On the cover: The new IXO Telecomputer. Starting on page 11,Tracy Licklider takes an exhaustive look at the capabilities ofthis miniature machine and theorizes on how it will affect com-munication in the future. Photograph by George Dillon.

Published bimonthly by The Boston Computer Society, Inc.,Three Center Plaza, Boston, MA 02108, (617) 367-8080.Subscription free with BCS membership ($18 per year).We welcome articles, news reports and story ideas. Membersmay place free classified ads for noncommercial items(equipment wanted, for sale, etc.) without charge. Commercialbusinesses and nonmembers, please call or write for advertisinginformation.Copyright ©1982, The Boston Computer Society, Inc. All rights reserved.

Articles may be reprinted without permission by computer clubnewsletters if they are not copyrighted by the author. Reprintsmust clearly indicate the author's name, the name and addressof The Boston Computer Society and a copyright notice. Otherorganizations interested in reprinting material should sendrequests to the BCS.

APRIL 1982 BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE / 1

Nigel Searle of Sinclair presents Jonathan Rotenberg with the check for $10,000.

PatronsSinclair Research Ltd.

Sustaining MembersDavid C. CrockerRobert 0. DoyleSusan DuGoffCharles H. HoodJohn LancasterAndrew LavienJohn LeslieKatharine LloydTheodore NeedlemanC.J. PuwaskiBenjamin RosenNigel SearleClive SinclairJohn. J. SpringfieldWilliam Van AkenEric WeilWilliam Wolfson

Corporate MembersAction for Boston CommunityDevelopmentAmerican Software PublishingCompanyAssociated Computer EngineersBell & HowellBoston PhoenixBrookline Public SchoolsBusiness & ProfessionalSoftwareByte PublicationsCapital Market SystemsChelmsford SchoolsCommodoreCompu'Ctr

CompuMartComputer ConceptsThe Computer StoreThe Computer TutorComputervision Corp.Connecticut MutualLife Ins. Co.CPU Computer Corp.Curriculum AssociatesCW CommunicationsECONFirst National Bank of BostonFMR PropertiesFort Hill Insurance AgencyGilletteInc. MagazineIntermetricsJ.L. Hammett CompanyHome Terminal Systems, Inc.Kantor Family InstituteLaventhol & HorwathLeading Edge ProductsMoore Business CenterNortheast ExpositionsNorth Star ComputersNorwood Hospital LabsPersonal SoftwarePeter Elliot & Co.Philips Communications/Television SystemsPrice WaterhouseProfessional Software TechnologyReader's DigestSalem NewsShawmut Bank of BostonHarold H. Sisson & Co.Software ArtsSource Telecomputing CorporationTeradyneTouche Ross & Co.TSE-HardsideUnited States Trust CompanyWentworth Institute of Technology

Lifetime MembersRoger BadertscherDaniel S. BricklinPhilip D. EstridgeH.E. James FinkeDaniel H. FylstraWilliam H. GatesWayne GreenLewis KornfeldA.C. (Mike) MarkkulaFrank McCulloughSeymour PapertJon ShirleyClive M. Sinclair

We gratefully acknowledge the followingcompanies for their major contributions ofequipment to our Resource Center: AppleComputer , Commodore Business Machines,Sinclair Research Ltd., Tandy/Radio Shack,Id Xerox Corp.

With deepest gratitudeToward the end of last year, we

began— in an informal way—the BostonComputer Society's first annual funddrive. Now that the Society is a tax-exempt and charitable public-servicecorporation, we felt it was time toapproach individuals and corporations tohelp support the Society's educationalobjectives. Although the appeal is cur-rently underway (and progressing well),we have already received two very gener-ous contributions which I would like toacknowledge here.

Sinclair Research, the company whichproduces the ZX81 microcomputer, hasdonated $10,000 to the Society to helpexpand our Resource Center and networkof special-interest groups. We owe ourdeepest thanks to Nigel Searle, the vicepresident of Sinclair, who originallyconceived of the idea of a donation andfollowed it through to fruition. We are alsograteful to Clive Sinclair for his support.In recognition of its gift, we have madeSinclair Research the first Patron of The

Jonathan Rotenberg

Boston Computer Society.It has been a source of ongoing pride to

the BCS to have Dan Bricklin as a memberand director. As many of you know, Dan isthe creator of VisiCalc, the program thathas sold more copies and has had moreprofound effect on small computers thanany other in history. Recently he waspresented the very prestigious GraceMurray Hopper award for the most signif-icant contribution to the computerindustry by a person under 30. Along withthe award came $1000, which Dan hasgenerously donated to the BCS. In recog-nition of his gift, we have made Dan a life-time member of the Society.

I can't tell you how exciting it has beento see such extraordinary support mater-ialize for the BCS. At last many of theambitious new projects which we hadtalked about undertaking, but which wereeither too costly or impractical for theSociety's limited resources, are nowbecoming realistic possibilities. We arevery grateful to Sinclair and Dan Bricklin

continued on page 4

2 / BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

for their support and hope they will be aninspiration to many other individuals andcompanies to make similar contributions.

What's going on here?If you follow Boston Computer Update,

you may have noticed three very subtlechanges in this issue: the paper it isprinted on is slightly different from pastissues, the issue date is April (rather thanMarch/April) and there's an ugly-lookingbar code on the cover. All three of thesechanges reflect a major transition forUpdate. Between January/February andthis issue, our circulation has grown from5,000 to 10,000, and we have begunextensive newsstand distributionthroughout New England.

The new paper reflects the fact thatUpdate is now being printed on a web,rather than sheet-fed, printing press. Theweb process uses huge rolls of paper, in-stead of cut sheets, and is less expensivethan sheet-fed, but can only be used withquantities of about 10,000 and more. As aresult, we are able to print Update at asignificantly lower cost per copy, despiterapidly increasing printing costs. (We'realso able to continue using the highestquality paper of any personal computermagazine.)

The cover date and bar code arenecessary for newsstand distribution. SueGladstone, our circulation manager, hasbeen working with magazine distributorsover the past few months to get Update onnewsstands throughout New England (upuntil now it had been selling extremelywell on selected newsstands). Onerequirement for newsstand magazinesales is that the magazine must be out longbefore its cover date. Since we wereunable to push back our production sched-ule any further, we simply decided toeliminate the first month in our bimonthlydate.

Now that we have a bar code on thecover, you could conceivably buy Updateat Stop & Shop. Actually, that isn't the realpurpose of it. Distributors use bar codes tocredit their newsstand clients whenreturns come back from the newsstands.In order to make their computers workmore efficiently, distributors require pub-lishers to deface their otherwise attract-ive magazines with these zebra stripes.

Those amazing coversSpeaking of attractive magazines, have

you noticed our covers lately? We areextremely fortunate to have the creativegenius of George Dillon working on BostonComputer Update. George is what youwould call a god of photography. Hisaccomplishments are incredibly impres-sive; for example, do you remember theWANG TV ad that had bands of coloredlight zooming around computers, the

world and a baby's hand? George did theslide show on which that ad was based.

Thanks to George's innovativeapproach, each cover is very differentfrom the last. The November/Decembercover, for example, was an allegory. Itpictured the IBM Personal Computerhatching at the center of the universe withan apple revolving around it in thedistance (you can figure out the rest).

The January/February cover was, Ithought, a real tour de force. It showed acrystal ball with a personal computer in it,light blazing out of it and intense orangehands surrounding it. We've had so manycomments and observations about thatcover by people who were fascinated by it

that I want to do something I know I'm notsupposed to: tell you how it was done. Likemost BCS projects, an incredible amountof planning and work behind the scenesgoes into each Update cover. The wholeprocess is really interesting.

Once the cover had been designed (ahuge project in itself), George shot a pic-ture of the Boston skyline through a fish-eye lense from the top of the BradfordHotel. Using the fish-eye lense again, hedouble-exposed a computer onto the sky-line shot. To make this work properly, hehad to place the computer in a totally darkroom at the correct angle from the camerawith light only on the computer. Next heshot hands in different configurations andin six different colors (using colored gels)until he got the desired effect. Once hehad acceptable hands and crystal ballshots, he back-projected the crystal ball

shot onto a screen and set up a purplelaser in back of the screen. He photo-graphed the screen through an eight-pointed star filter to produce the blazinglight effect. Finally, he projected thehands onto the screen and double-exposed them around the ball.

Kind of incredible, eh? I was in awe fora while when I learned how he did it.

It's wonderful having the opportunity towork with such extraordinarily creativepeople as George Dillon. The rest of ourgraphics and photography staff areequally inspirational: Sonny Tarbi, who isresponsible for most of the photographyinside Update; Sue Shepherd, theUpdate's art director; Lee Doliber andLyn Skeffington, the designers of the BCSidentity system; and Sean Kelly, our verytalented cartoonist.

Hats off to MarjorieAbout a year ago, Marjorie Elias came

along to transform a void into The BostonComputer Society's Computer ResourceCenter. Virtually single-handedly, shesucceeded marvelously, creating a richsource of information for users andprospective purchasers of personalcomputers.

Specifically, she set up the Center andworked closely with the personal com-puter manufacturers to get the bank ofcomputers we now have available. Sheaggressively sought after software com-panies to create and expand our softwarelibrary. She put together the Center'sextensive library of books and magazinesand files on computer products. And whenall of these things were in place, she cre-ated the enormously successful Saturdayclinics.

Now that the Center is fully operative,Marjorie has moved on to other projectsoutside of the BCS. For all she has doneand given the Society, we would like towarmly say thank you, Marjorie, and wewish you every success in your newendeavors.

Interested in cable?Boston's new cable network has many

interesting possibilities for the localpersonal computer community. Besidesspecial programs about computers, thenetwork has the capability to down-loadcomputer programs and data. We feelthat the network could do manyinteresting and useful things for personalcomputer users, and we would like to beactively involved. If you're interested, getinvolved too! Mitch Kapor, a director ofthe BCS (and, incidentally, the world-renowned creator of VisiPlot andVisiTrend), is our liaison to the Bostoncable network. Contact him do TheBoston Computer Society, Three CenterPlaza, Boston, MA 02108.

4/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

IXO's new telecomputer system features full keyboard, display, built-in modem, phone dialer, two microprocessors and numerous specialfeatures, all in a pocket-sized package.

IXO'sRemarkable

TelecomputerA Small-Scale, Low-Cost Machine Bursting with Surprises

The IXO Telecomputer is a remarkabledevice, jam-packed with state-of-the-artelectronics and with clever ideas from itsCambridge-based inventors, Bob andHolly Doyle.

A portable, tiny terminalMost obviously the telecomputer is a

neatly packaged, portable, near-pocket-sized, low-cost computer terminal. It con-tains a phone dialer, a telephone interface(which plugs directly into a phone line), a16-character liquid crystal display (LCD),a full typewriter-style keyboard, memory,a modular phone jack, an RS-232 jack, twomicroprocessors and a battery.

All of this hardware is crammed into aunit that weighs about a pound and aquarter on my kitchen food scale andmeasures slightly smaller than youraverage paperback detective novel. IXOplans a wholesale price (for quantityorders of 1000 or more units) between$300 and $365; the retail price will turnout to be in the $550 to $600 range. Thetelecomputer should be available, at least

by Tracy Robnett Licklider

in wholesale quantities, by the time thisarticle reaches print.

And much moreIXO sees its telecomputer as much more

than just a portable computer terminal.They see it as the data equivalent of thetelephone: the telecomputer will be thedesktop device for direct people-to-com-puter communications, just as the phoneis the analogous device for people-to-people communications. While this is arather ambitious view, IXO presents avery plausible case that economics willcause the widespread adoption of tele-computer-like, direct people-to-computercommunications devices.

Today most interaction between"ordinary" people and computers is medi-ated by specially trained computer-ter-minal operators. For example, if you wantto make an airline, hotel or rent-a-carreservation, you have to call one of thesespecially trained operators buried insome 24-hour-a-day bunker protected byan 800 number. Generally, you have to

wait a bit and endure a prescribedamount of Muzak until one of the oper-ators becomes free to handle your call.IXO points out that these operators (andthe operation of their command centers)rank among the most expensive computerperipherals. Your having to wait for ser-vice is expensive too. IXO argues it isbecoming increasingly economicallyworthwhile to eliminate these intermedi-aries by distributing to people the meansto have a direct dialogue with suchcomputer systems.

Eliminate the operatorHistorically, people had to go through a

specially trained operator to have apeople-to-people telephone conversation.Eventually, the phone hardware wasadapted so that anyone could easilyenough perform the operator's job. IXOforsees the same for people-to-computerconversations. It admits the barriers toachieving this end are formidable butfeels the telecomputer has broken throughthem by providing an all-in-one, afford-able device as friendly and easy to use asa telephone.

Indeed, IXO's makers have made animpressive first-cut at Everyperson'sterminal. By programming some intelli-gence into the telecomputer, and by inno-vation in its keyboard, they have made adevice usable by even the most computer-intimidated.

The world through a 16-characterwindow

The only serious design limitation in theIXO Telecomputer is its display: it canonly show 16 characters at a time. Thislimitation makes it frustrating to try toread large amounts of information. Forexample, you could go crazy trying to skimthrough the New York Times' electronicedition using the telecomputer's narrowdisplay window. Because of its tiny win-dow, the telecomputer will most likely findits niche in transaction applications inwhich the messages back and forth can bemade concise. Such applications abound,including order entry, inventory checking,

continued on page 12

BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE / 11

IXO'sTelecomputer

continued from page 11

banking functions, bill paying, looking upphone numbers and zip codes, makingtravel reservations, setting stock pricesand exchanging short, telegram-like mail.

Initial thrustIXO's initial thrust in marketing will be

to quantity purchases — major compan-ies, banks and timesharing services thatwill adapt their transaction services tocope with the display limitations of thetelecomputer and to take advantage of itsspecial keys. These transaction systemproviders will then supply the tele-computer to end-users as part of theservice offered: the device's cost will bebundled into the overall cost of theservice.

No manual neededThe "production prototype" telecom-

puter received for review did not comewith a user manual, although one is beingprepared. Three typewritten pages ofinstructions did accompany the unit, andit is testimony to how easy the device is touse that it took only about five minutes,most of that spend unpacking, to get onlineto a computer.

The telecomputer comes in a small boxaccompanied by a telephone cord withmodular plugs at both ends. You stick oneplug into the back of the telecomputer;the other plug goes to your telephonewall outlet. IXO sells separately an adap-ter to connect the modular plug to officephones that use a 25-pin connector. If youdo not happen to have a phone line instal-lation that accepts modular plugs, youcan buy adapters at any Radio Shackstore or have the phone company installone for an exorbitant fee.

Flat batteryIn the back of the telecomputer there is

a small snap-open compartment for theunit's battery. It uses the new Polaroidflat battery, which should power the unitfor two years. The battery comes install-ed. In fact, the battery is drawn on onlywhen the unit is not connected to thephone line. When connected, the telecom-

puter is powered from the phone lineitself. The battery serves mainly to powerthe CMOS, low-power memory, whichstores log-in sequences, phone numbers,and other customizing information foryou. When the battery begins to rim low,a LOW BATT annunciator turns on alongthe top of the LCD display.

Initialization — the IXO Access CenterOnce you plug in both ends of the

phone cord, you're ready to go. The firstthing every telecomputer owner will do iscall and log into the IXO Access Centercomputer in order to initialize the tele-computer. When you turn the telecom-puter on for the first time (by pressing theON/OFF key), the display will show "HI,IXO ACCESS CENTER?" You answer thisby pressing the YES key. It will then dialthe IXO Access Center computer and login for you. (This is what the prototype did;the typewritten instructions suggest theuser may be asked to key in the AccessCenter telephone number rather than ex-pect the unit to know it.) Once logged intothe Access Center, you set your nameand password.

Thereafter, at every power-up, thetelecomputer will greet you by your name(e.g., "HI, TRACY"). It will then ask foryour password. If you can't supply thepassword, you can't do anything with thetelecomputer. Don't forget your pass-word! There seems to be no way todisable the password checking. (Actu-ally, there is a rather desperate way —remove the battery while the telecom-puter is not connected to a phone line.This removes all power and makes thetelecomputer forget everything it everknew — particularly your password, butalso all the downloaded information itreceived from the Access Center.)

DownloadingOnce you have set your name and pass-

word, you are asked if you want to see alist of the Access Center services. Cur-rently, there is only one real service —downloading things into your telecom-puter. The other Access Center servicesare "simulated services" — designed todemonstrate the wonderfulness and ap-plicability of the telecomputer. The realservice is called DOWNLOAD. When youopt for it, you get to download (that isstore into your telecomputer unit) any orall of: your name and password, log-in se-quence for Dow Jones, log-in sequencefor The Source, and log-in sequence forCompuServe.

Downloading all of these takes about30 seconds. The process is checked fordownloading errors, and, if any are de-tected, you are given the option of retry-ing. Presumably, as major companiesadapt their services to work with thetelecomputer, the Access Center'sDOWNLOAD menu will grow. If XYZ

Bank begins to offer electronic bankingtailored to the telecomputer, its log-in se-quence would then also be added to theAccess Center's list.

With the downloaded information ab-sorbed into your telecomputer, you candisconnect from the IXO Access Center.To do that you just press the PHONEkey. The telecomputer asks "DIS-CONNECT?", to which you can reply bypressing YES or NO keys. Pressing theNO key aborts the disconnection andleaves you logged into the Access Center.The telecomputer demonstrates goodhuman engineering by requiring you toconfirm (with a push of the YES or NOkey) major actions that woulddramatically alter your connection state.

After disconnecting, you have an ini-tialized telecomputer. You can turn it offby pressing the ON/OFF key. Again thetelecomputer checks to see that you real-ly mean to turn it off by asking "TURNOFF?" You reply by pressing the YES orNO key. Note that when the telecomputeris "turned off," its memory remains"turned on;" it is powered by the on-board battery. Thus, the telecomputerwill not lose the downloaded informationeven though you turn the unit off.

Calling up a computer-IXO's single button access

Subsequently, when you turn on theIXO Telecomputer, you will be greetedwith "HI" and your name and asked foryour password. Then you will be pre-sented, one by one, with connection op-tions. You respond by pressing the YESkey to elect to connect to the servicewhose name is currently shown in thedisplay or by pressing the NO key to skipto the next service. The IXO AccessCenter is the next-to-last option followedby "MANUAL ACCESS?", which lets youenter any phone number to call. The tele-computer remembers the last numberyou gave for manual access and willautomatically try it if you press the YESkey at the "MANUAL ACCESS?" prompt.You can abort the calling of a previouslyentered manual access number by press-ing NO during the dialing, and then youwill be asked for a new number to try.

The telecomputer accepts telephonenumbers just as one would write them,e.g., 1-617-367-8080. It also allows you touse an at-sign (@) in the phone numbersto tell it to "wait for a dial tone." Thisfeature is designed for use with officeCentrex systems that require you to dial8 or 9 and wait for an outside line beforedialing your number.

The order in which connection optionsare presented to you seems to be deter-mined by the order in which they weredownloaded from the Access Center. Un-fortunately, there does not seem to be away to erase an option or to re-order

continued on page 14

12/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

IXO'sTelecomputer

continued from page 12

them. Also it seems that you can have on-ly one manual access number at a time.The current unit has capacity for 8-10connection options. The amount of tele-computer memory used by the down-loaded information for a particular com-puter service is not fixed and variesdepending on the complexity of the con-nection and log-in procedures.

When you say YES to a connection op-tion, the telecomputer initiates a call tothe service. If it's the first time you'recalling the service, it will ask for the tele-phone number to use, and from then on, itwill remember that number. The numbercan be reset, however, if need be. Thebuilt-in telephone dialer is smart. First ittries to make the call assuming touchtonedialing. If that fails, it will switch to pulsedialing. (The unit is fixed at a speed of 30characters per second (300 baud), origi-nate modem frequencies, and full-duplex.) When it detects a carrier signalfrom the called service, it turns on asmall ON LINE" annunciator along thetop of the LCD display. The telecomputerwill then follow the downloaded log-in se-quence it has stored for the service (ex-cept for manual access).

How much the telecomputer actuallydoes for you in connecting to a computervaries from service to service. In the caseof a direct call to a CompuServe localtelephone number, all the telecomputerdoes is send a single control-C characterto CompuServe. In the case of Dow Jones,the telecomputer actually negotiates withthe data network (Telenet or Tymnet),gets some character processing options,and sends the correct character se-quence to connect you to the Dow Jonesservice.

In these cases, the telecomputer doesnot actually log you in, it just gets you tothe point in the log-in process where youhave to give your account number and/orpassword. There currently seems to beno way to amend the log-in sequencestored in the telecomputer with your ac-count number or password so that itcould actually log you all the way into theremote computer system. Once you are

logged in, you interact with the remotecomputer system the same way youwould from any other terminal.

IXO's marketing people are trade-marking "IXO Single Button Access" todescribe the telecomputer's simplifiedscheme for accessing computer services.Presumably, the 'single' button is the YESkey you press to elect a particular ser-vice as you scroll through those the tele-computer knows how to call. In any case,the telecomputer's ability to hide all thedetails of dialing the computer serviceand connecting through networks is amajor step in making access to com-puters easy and unobtrusive for people.

Audio feedback in dialingOne of the telecomputer's most notice-

able features is its audio feedback. Thetelecomputer squawks when it starts todial, clicks for each digit dialed, and thenrings or buzzes busy when the callreaches its destination. When the remotecomputer system actually establishes theconnection, you hear the reassuring high-pitched carrier frequency tone. This kindof feedback is essential so you candiagnose situations in which you fail toconnect with the service you are dialing.It may be busy or you may have enteredthe wrong phone number.

The keyboardA lot of human engineering and design

thought has obviously gone into the key-board. The telecomputer has 61 keys,most of which are square and measure3/8ths of an inch on a side. The size issmallish but acceptable (by comparison,the keys on Digital's popular VT100 ter-minal are roughly 1/2 an inch on a side).The telecomputer's keys are rathercrammed together, but what can you ex-pect for a unit with a surface that is 7 in-ches across by 4 inches front to back.

Happily, IXO has abandoned the mem-brane-style keyboard of earlier proto-types. The telecomputer now has a key-stroke keyboard. "Keypress" might be abetter word than "keystroke" becausethe feeling from pressing a key is a bit"squishy," and not the firm resistanceyou get from Selectric typewriters ormost conventional computer terminals(such as Digital's VT100) or personalcomputers (such as IBM's). The telecom-puter beeps on each keystroke; this helpsoffset any uncertainty about whether akeystroke registered.

The keys are laid out typewriter-stylefor the most part; however, there is onlyone SHIFT key — the left one, the rightone having been sacrificed for a YES key.You can key 95 ASCII character codesfrom the keyboard. (It is not clear howyou key a NUL character.) Normally thekeyboard issues only capital letters, butby pressing the SHIFT and CTRL keystogether, you can put the keyboard into

lowercase mode. In this mode, a"LOWER CASE" annunciator is turnedon along the top of the LCD display. Let-ters keyed without pressing the SHIFTkey at the same time are then sent aslower case to the remote computer. Theystill are displayed in the telecomputerdisplay as uppercase, which is unfor-tunate. There are eight characters thatcan be keyed but are not shown on thekeyboard. They are left and right curlybrace, left and right square bracket,underscore, vertical bar, backslash, andaccent ague. These are keyed by pressingthe CTRL key and another key. The tele-computer designers have associatedthese characters (the ones not shown onthe keyboard) mnemonically with similarkeys that are shown. For example, a"backslash" character is generatedwhen you press the CTRL and "slash"keys at the same time.

Special keysMuch of the telecomputer's innovation

is manifested in its special keys. The mostimportant are the PHONE, YES, NO,DONT KNOW, HELP, and GO BACKkeys. The PHONE key has a picture of atelephone handset on it. Apparently, theIXO marketing people felt that having apicture of a telephone handset on thePHONE key would help people realizethat the telecomputer has a phone builtinto it (actually a dialer and a modem). Inany case, pressing the PHONE key doesone of two things: if you are currentlyconnected to a computer, the telecom-puter asks you if you want to disconnect;if you are currently not connected to any-thing, the telecomputer asks you to enterthe number of the computer you want tocall.

Martin's dialoguesThe other special keys (YES, NO,

etc.),designed to simplify the user'sdialogue with computers, implement atheory put forth by James Martin. Mar-tin's thesis is that computer systemsshould be programmed so that, at everypoint at which input is required from theuser, a system should accept YES, NO,DONT KNOW, HELP, and GO BACK aswell as simple data _input from the user.In addition, the computer should also sur-vive and respond helpfully when the usergives inappropriate input.

A system designed this way can be us-ed, at least in theory, by anyone — evensomeone with no prior exposure to com-puters or the particular service being us-ed. When the computer asks for inputand you do not know how to respond, youjust press the DONT KNOW or HELP key.The computer then gives you instructionson how to respond. The YES and NO keyslet you respond to questions with a singlekeypress. The GO BACK key lets you go

continued on page 16

14/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

IXO'sTelecomputer

continued from page 14

back to the most recent previous choicepoint. For example, if you were buying aTV set by computer, the system might askyou whether you wanted a black-and-white or color set. You might select colorand it might then ask for screen size. If atthat point you realized you really hadmeant to choose black-and-white TVs in-stead of color ones, you could press theGO BACK key to go back to the color-or-black-and-white question.

"Standard English Dialogues"Of course, the catch here is that the re-

mote computer system has to be program-med to implement handling these keys.Just because you hold a telecomputer inyour hands does not mean, for example,you will be relieved from having to makearcane incantations such as", T" to getthe stock price of AT & T from DowJones' service. Indeed, none of the majorcommercial services (e.g., Dow Jones,CompuServe, The Source) is currentlyprogrammed to handle these specialkeys. Nevertheless IXO is proposingthese as the "IXO Standard EnglishDialogues," a mouthful of a phrase thatIXO is trademarking IXO hopes that theywill be adopted as an industry standard.

These special keys actually send twocharacters to the remote computer; thesecond of the two characters is alwaysthe RETURN character. YES sends a Yfollowed by a RETURN; not surprisingly,NO sends an N. HELP, DONT KNOW,and GO BACK send a question mark, anexclamation point, and an up-arrowcharacter, respectively. Whether theseconventions (these particular charactersfollowed by RETURN) are adopted widelyremains to be seen. Nevertheless, newsystems designed specifically to be ac-cessed from telecomputers will certainlybe able to exploit these keys and tocreate friendly user interfaces, especial-ly for inexperienced users.

Color-coded keysAnother nice feature is that the tele-

computer's keys are color-coded. The or-dinary keys (letters, digits, punctuation)

are white. The PHONE key is a light blue.The YES key is green (for GO, one sup-poses); the NO key is red (for STOP?). TheENTER key (it sends a RETURNcharacter) is yellow. Indeed, the NO,ENTER, and YES keys are lined up on theright edge in a RED-YELLOW-GREENtraffic light pattern. The DONT KNOWand HELP keys are both orange.

The keys also make distinctive tones.The ordinary keys make one beep. TheYES key makes two tones in a rising se-quence, and the NO key makes two tonesin a falling sequence. HELP and DONTKNOW make the same three-tone se-quence. ENTER makes another three-tone sequence, and GO BACK makes stillanother two-tone sequence.

The computerish keys (BREAK,ESCAPE, and CONTROL) have been rele-gated to a gray color and grouped on theleft side of the keyboard. The BREAK keymakes a very nice thrilling sound. TheBREAK key can be programmed to sendeither control-C, control-P or a250-millisecond line interruption. TheESCAPE key sends an ASCII escape code,and CONTROL is pressed in conjunctionwith other keys to generate ASCII controlcodes or certain characters not shown onthe keyboard (such as a curly brace).

Local function keysAlong the bottom of the keyboard

flanking a rather narrow spacebar aredark blue keys which perform local func-tions. (Rather oddly, the GO BACK key ismixed in with these both in color andposition.) The HOLD key freezes the LCDdisplay. It also turns on an ON HOLD an-nunciator along the top of the display.

The telecomputer ticks when it in ONHOLD; this serves as a nice reminderthat time is ticking away and that, ifnothing seems to be happening, it isbecause you put things on hold. TheSLOW and FAST keys slow down andspeed up the rate at which charactersstream across the LCD display. Each keygenerates a reinforcing tone that makesit sound like you are slowing down orspeeding up things. When you slow thingsdown to the slowest or speed them up tothe fastest, the keys no longer emit a tone— this lets you know you have reachedthe limit.

On the right of the spacebar are theCLR CHAR (clear character) and CLR EN-TR (clear entry) keys. These erase thelast character you typed or allcharacters you have typed since you lastpressed the ENTER key. They generatetones suggestive in length of how muchyou are erasing.

The last key is the ON/OFF key, also adark blue. Pressing the ON/OFF keywhile the telecomputer is on causes it toask "TURN OFF?" to confirm that youreally want to turn it off. Anythingbesides a YES response causes it to ig-

nore the ON/OFF keypress.For most, the audio feedback from key-

presses will be a reassuring confirmationthat the right things are happeningHowever, for some it will be irritating.For example, if you are using your tele-computer to read your mail in bed withsomeone sleeping next to you, you willprobably be told to go play arcade gamessomewhere else. You can turn off thebeeps by pressing the CTRL and HOLDkeys together.

The displayThe telecomputer's liquid crystal

display can show 16 characters at a time.It displays only uppercase characterseven though the unit can send lowercaseletters. The characters are formed in a5-dot wide by 7-dot high matrix, and indi-vidual characters in the display can bemade to flash on and off. The display canbe hard to read when characters arescrolling left to right at speeds ap-proaching the unit's top speed of 30characters per second.

In part, the difficulty in reading arisesfrom the fact that the characters do notscroll smoothly but rather jump from onefixed position in the LCD to the next. TheFAST, SLOW and HOLD keys can be us-ed to control the rate at which charac-ters stream by. Moreover, liquid crystaldisplays can be hard to read in certainlighting or outside a fairly narrow rangeof angles of view, and the telecomputer'sdisplay is no exception.

Indeed, the display seems to be thetelecomputer's weakest point — theplace where you see most clearly its com-promises to gain portability and achieveminimum price. Apparently adding addi-tional LCDs to provide a wider displaywould have meant adding at least $50 tothe price for the display plus addinganother processor to handle the addi-tional display burden. The 16-characterdisplay is driven by a 4-bit micropro-cessor, which just barely manages itstask as is.

Display smartsTo compensate for the acknowleged

limitations of its display, the IXOdesigners have built a fair amount ofdisplay management smarts into the unit.The telecomputer has an 80-characterbuffer from which it displays. It main-tains a pointer between the host com-puter message and the user response. Itwill only begin to scroll the host messageoff to the left when the user responsebegins to bump into the host message. Ofcourse, CLR CHAR and CLR ENTR onlyerase characters from the user response.

The REPT key redisplays from the80-character buffer, scrolling the char-acters from that buffer across the dis-play until the telecomputer gets back to

continued on page 18

16/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

IXO'sTelecomputer

continued from page 16

the display state at the time when theREPT key was pressed. (You can pressthe HOLD key during redisplay to freezea portion of the buffered text on the dis-play.) Also, the telecomputer can receiveescape sequences from the host com-puter to clear the buffer or to enable"kinetic" punctuation mode. In thismode, the display pauses and beeps ondisplay of a comma, period, or otherpunctuation followed by a space orreturn character.

Flow controlThe telecomputer sends the fairly stan-

dard XOFF and XON control charactersto the host computer to tell it to stop andto restart sending. Any computer youplan to use with the telecomputer mustsupport this stop/start protocol or elseyou will lose pieces of the informationtransmitted. Indeed, the host computernot only must support this protocol butmust also stop sending within 32 charac-ters of the telecomputer's sending anXOFF code. (The telecomputer used forthis review lost characters when con-nected to a Prime 850 computer becausethe Prime could take as many as 64characters to "skid" to a stop after thetelecomputer sent an XOFF.)

Downloaded protocolsThe log-in sequences or protocols that

are downloaded from the IXO AccessCenter consist of six things: host com-puter name, computer telephone number,log-in procedure, reprogramming of key-board functions, parity setting anddisplay options.

The computer name is simply what thetelecomputer displays when it scrollsthrough its repertoire of services itknows how to call. The telephone numbermay be direct to the host computer or itmay be a local number of a data network(such as Telenet or Tymnet). The log-inprocedure is written in a special lan-guage, which is interpreted by the tele-computer. Some of the kinds of thingsthat can be specified in this language

are: that the telecomputer wait till it getsa particular character, that the telecom-puter transmit a fixed text message, orthat the telecomputer wait for a specifiedamount of time.

The interpreted language is fancyenough that the telecomputer can be in-structed to follow different log-in pro-cedures depending on whether it ac-cesses the host computer through a net-work or directly. It can differentiate be-tween access via Tymnet and Telenetbased on what character stream the net-work sends or does not send to thetelecomputer.

Keyboard keys can be reprogrammedto transmit other than their usual codes.Also, the ENTER key can be set to trans-mit RETURN with or without a followingLINEFEED character. Parity checking (avery low-level character transmissionerror-detection scheme) can be enabledor disabled, and parity checking, if enabl-ed, can be set to even or odd parity. Final-ly, various display options can be set, in-cluding eliminating all but the first ofconsecutive SPACE or RETURN charac-ters and clearing the 80-characterdisplay buffer on receipt of a RETURNcharacter.

Telecomputer add-ons—phone couplerIXO is planning four peripheral

devices for its telecomputer. The first isan acoustic coupler, which will be avail-able when the telecomputer is introduc-ed. With the acoustic coupler, you canconnect the telecomputer to the phonesystem by "coupling" a standard tele-phone handset into the coupler's cradle.This lets you use the telecomputer fromany phone without having to find amodular phone jack into which to plugthe telecomputer's phone cord. (Thismeans that you can use the telecomputerfrom a phone booth.)

Since a lot of telecomputers will findthemselves in the hands of travelingsalespeople, having the coupler is impor-tant because they won't have to disman-tle a client's telephone in order to use thetelecomputer to inquire about deliverydates or to place orders. The coupler isexpected to cost about $65 in quantity.

Printer interfaceIXO is also planning a serial (RS-232C)

printer interface for mid-1982, whichwill let you connect any serial printer toyour telecomputer. For example, you mayhave an Epson MX-80 hooked up to yourApple or IBM personal computer; withthis interface you can also use the printeron your telecomputer. Quantity price isanticipated to be $65. Note that the tele-computer's printer interface is output on-ly; unhappily, you cannot use it to con-nect other interesting devices for input,such as a bar-code reader.

Tiny printerEven better than the printer interface

is IXO's planned tiny, palm-sized printer.Slated for $150 quantity price, and avail-ability in mid-1982, the printer will have20-column output at 40 characters persecond using dot-matrix printing on ther-mal paper. The prototype printer is aboutthe size of a cassette tape box and con-nects to the telecomputer by daisy-chain-ing it between the telecomputer and thephone line with a short piece of includedphone cord. There are no other wires orpower supplies. It weighs well under apound. The printer produces the fullASCII character set (upper and lower-case), and it automatically does word-wrap so that words are not chopped ar-bitrarily in the middle as they are impos-ed on the printer's narrow width.

Video interfaceFinally, and probably most important,

IXO will offer a video/TV interface, soyou can hook up the telecomputer to astandard TV set. Voila! You will have oneof the least expensive, most portablevideotex terminals available. The videointerface will sell for $150 in quantity, beavailable in mid-1982 and connect in thesame manner as the tiny printer. It isroughly the same size as the printer box.IXO has not yet decided how many linesby how many characters the video inter-face will offer. The prototype demon-strated a format of 32 characters by 16lines. The video interface also does word-wrap to avoid chopping up words ar-bitrarily.

SecurityOne of the telecomputer's most invisi-

ble features is its scheme for user au-thentication. The general notion behindauthentication is to maximize the likeli-hood that the person calling a computeris who he claims to be. Today, virtuallyall computer systems (including bankautomated-teller machines) simply usepasswords. As direct people-to-computeraccess increases, and as more becomesat stake in those communications, simplepassword schemes will probably not suf-fice.

To help improve upon today's currentschemes, the telecomputer has been pro-grammed to identify itself upon inquiry(receipt of the ENQ control code) fromthe called computer. The identificationsent back to the computer is a complexscrambling of three things: a seednumber sent by the host computer, a uni-que identifier hard-wired (actually car-ried in a programmable read-onlymemory) into each telecomputer, and thelocal password the user saves. The com-plex scrambling scheme coupled with thelarge size of the seed number and tele-

continued on page 20

18/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

THE FUTURE OFPERSONAL COMPUTERS

Nigel Searle, Vice President, Sinclair Research Ltd.; William H. Gates, President,Microsoft; H.E. James Finke, President, Commodore International Ltd ; Peter N.Rosenthal, Director of Business Planning, Atari; Jon Shirley, Vice President,Radio Shack; Philip D. Estridge, Director, IBM Personal Computer; A.C. (Mike)Markkula, President, Apple Computer Inc. Moderated by JonathanRotenberg, President, The Boston Computer Society.

A 2V2 hour cassette tape of the extraordinary Forum on the Future ofPersonal Computers, presented by The Boston Computer Society andthe world's leading authorities on personal computers on October 15,1981, is available now for $25 from The Boston Computer Society, ThreeCenter Plaza, Boston, Mass, 02108, (617) 367-8080, Cash, check,MasterCard and VISA accepted.

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IXO'sTelecomputer

continued from page 18

computer identifier make deducing thescheme, numbers, and user passwordssufficiently difficult even for people whointercept your telephone line. The peopleat IXO feel that this feature will be quiteattractive to security-conscious com-panies and will increase acceptance ofdirect people-to-computer financial tran-saction systems.

Note that the security feature only ap-plies to authenticating the user — that is,sending out an identification message tothe host computer. All other messages be-tween the host computer and telecom-puter are NOT encrypted or otherwisescrambled. Thus, an eavesdropper maynot be able to learn your password, buthe could listen in on your dialogue.Among other things, this identificationscheme will let the IXO Access Centerward off what the IXO people call the"Apple invaders" — personal computerowners who call the Access Center tryingto masquerade their personal computersas telecomputers in order to downloadthe assorted log-in protocols or otherwiseuse the IXO services.

Password forgettersIXO has not decided what it will do

with people who forget their local pass-words (the one you must tell to the tele-computer so it will let you use it). This is athorny problem. If you forget your localpassword, you cannot use your telecom-puter. You can remove the battery andmake the telecomputer forget everything.But then, presumably, you would have tocall up the IXO Access Center andreinitialize your unit. However, the Ac-cess Center should trap this attempt atreinitialization because it cannot be surethat someone has not stolen your unit andis not just pretending to have forgottenthe password. How this will be settled re-mains unclear.

This also affects use of your telecom-puter by someone else or your use ofmore than one telecomputer (one at work,one at home, maybe). To let someone elseuse your telecomputer, you have to tellthem the password (sort of like lendingyour bank teller-machine card to some-

20 / BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982

one AND telling them your password). Inthe other case, where you use two ormore telecomputers in different places,you will be identified differently fromeach one.

Repair service and supportThe telecomputer comes with a limited

90-day warranty, and IXO operates an800 telephone number to handle ques-tions and problems. Staff answering the800 line will diagnose problems anddetermine whether hardware problemsexist. Users will then have to mail unitsback to IXO for repair. In some cases,IXO may mail a replacement unit to theuser even before the user's unit has ar-rived at IXO.

Major companies buying telecom-puters in bulk for integration into theirtransaction systems and services willpresumably stock spares as well. Thus,for example, if you obtain a unit fromyour bank as part of a bundled service,you will probably deal with the bank forrepair or replacement.

ConclusionIXO has staked out the low price-point

end of the portable terminal market witha very nice unit. How successful it will beis hard to say because of the newness ofthis marketplace. If it wins a few adop-tions by major companies, it will certain-ly do well. However, it seems IXO may beoverfocused on quantity sales initiallyand may miss substantial early sales tocomputer-initiated people hungry for anunobtrusive portable terminal — peopletired of lugging around a Texas Instru-ments 745 or breaking their backs withan Osborne-1.

There is the obvious threat to IXO of aJapanese knockoff, a lower-priced imita-tion. The current telecomputer is madefrom off-the-shelf components, and it iscompletely possible that IXO couldreduce the unit price by $100 by havingsomeone make them a customized chip in-tegrating most of the telecomputer'sfunctions. Besides lowering the price,IXO can use its smart display manage-ment and log-in firmware as a barrieragainst simple hardware copiers.

Nevertheless, there is competitionfrom handheld computers that have orcould add communications capability,from briefcase computers and from com-panies like Novation, Lexicon, and Axlonthat are essentially in the same marketsegment but currently at higher pricepoints. One also has to wonder what thetelephone company may be planning inthe way of a low-cost terminal.

With all the energy of invention cram-med into it, one has to feel that the IXOTelecomputer, as the data equivalent ofthe telephone, will have a significant im-pact on people-to-computer communica-tion.

BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE / 21APRIL 1982

The Micro World's Foremost Analyst Talks AboutHimself and the Industry

NEW YORK—You think you are alonewith Ben Rosen in his 27th-floor office inthe Pan American Building, looking outover Park Avenue as the cabs turn theirlights on for the dusk rush hour. Suddenly,there is another voice in the room.

"It's 4:00 p.m.," says the voice-syn-thesis digital clock on Rosen's desk. Rosenchuckles a little. The little chuckle is atrademark, a barometer of where the dis-cussion is leading him or how startled avisitor is by one of his little toys.

Rosen has good reason to chuckle. Afternearly 20 years as an electronics analystin an investment banking firm, he gave itall up to go independent, and in just a fewshort years has become one of the gurus ofthe microcomputer field. His RosenLetter, published "regularly every once ina while," has become a must read forpeople in the industry and will become bi-weekly later this year.

Not a newsletter, the Rosen Letter is apersonal guided tour through the wideand sometimes wild world of what some-day may become the largest consumerelectronics market in the country.

While the rest of the economy is flag-ging, sliding down the semantic ladderfrom recession into depression, Rosensees nothing but growth ahead for themicrocomputer industry.

"You cannot find someone that isn't

APRIL 1982

growing," the silver-haired Rosen sayssoftly. "It won't stop until it has pene-trated a meaningful part of the economy.The home market has barely beentouched, and the business market is farfrom saturated."

The home/business debateRosen believes 1982 will begin to see

the settling of the "personal/professional" argument. "Originally,everyone made a pass for the homemarket. When they found out there wasn'tmuch there in terms of need or goodapplications, most companies wenttoward business."

While most companies have kept theirlower-end market items available forfamily use, new products in the pastcouple of years have been aimed at busi-ness, and all of the micro systems put outby mainframe and minicomputer compa-nies (IBM, Wang, etc.) have been aimed atthe business user.

"Most companies are making anotherrun at the home," Rosen says. "Somepeople think information services will bethe thing that opens the home market. I'ma little dubious." Rosen sees educationalapplications as a better road into thehome, "if there's good software." But thedays of "balance your checkbook and fileyour recipes on your 'personal'

computer" as a sales pitch are, Rosenbelieves, over.

The real breakthrough in home use willcome, Rosen believes, when computersbecome "more friendly," by eliminatingthe keyboard. That will mean either voicerecognition or the ability to do work dia-gramatically and with pictures, moving acursor across the screen.

It's come a long wayRosen is fond of telling how far the

industry has come since he has beenlooking over its shoulder. In late 1977, hewas getting good vibes about the future ofhand-held and digital equipment andwanted to learn more about it.

"The best way to learn was to have aconference," he now recalls. So he did. Heinvited nine companies to come to the firstannual Rosen Personal Computer Forum,"hoping it wouldn't be the last annual"conference. It was a good cross-section ofthe industry, with some companies thatwould go out of business in 1978 and somethat are still around today. About 50people showed up for the conference, lessthan 20 percent of the number thatshowed up in 1981 for the fifth annualconference.

In January of 1980, Rosen began pub-lishing the Letter and a similar publica-

continued on page 24

8OSTON COMPUTER UPDATE I 23

Rosen continued from page 23

tion on the semiconductor industry, aswell as consulting with an investmentbanking house. A year later he teamed upwith L.J. Sevin, a veteran venturecapitalist from Texas. Over the past year,Sevin and Rosen raised $25 million, whichthey will begin parceling out to would-bemakers of computer systems, electronics,software and automation equipment inthe near future.

Rosen's desk has two stacks ofproposals, and a cupboard behind thedesk has more stacks. Going through eachone carefully is such a drain on time thatRosen is now seeking writers for his twoletters, and for a third he hopes to startsometime in 1982. He plans to expand thepublishing business by two letters a yearstarting in 1983.

Although he loves the idea of thepersonal letter from him to his readers,Rosen feels that after two years of writingthe letter it is time to shift gearspersonally. Consequently, he will devotemuch of his time this year to the venturecapital business.

"The thing that's really stimulatingabout reading these proposals is thatevery one of these companies is pursuingsomething on the forefront of the industry.I'm constantly being exposed to thefuture," Rosen says with boyishenthusiasm.

A window on the futureTo Rosen, there are two big questions

that dominate the microcomputer sceneand will do so for the coming decade.

One is what impact the Japanese willhave in this country. Recently, theJapanese have dominated their ownmarket. Rosen believes the Japanese will"come into the American market in a bigway in the next year or two."

The other major question on his mind iswhen and from where the oral technicalinnovation, the big breakthrough, willcome. "Everything we've seen so far arejust variations on the old technology," hesays. "We've added memory. We've madethem better in some respects. But nothingis really new. How does the industry growinto the 1990s?"

After sitting back a moment, Rosenanswers his own question. "They have tobecome a lot simpler and ultimatelycheaper. You have to make a product thatyou just turn it on and the lay personknows how to use it. You have to open theproduct up to more than just the elitemarket."

24/ BOSTON COMPUTER UPDATE APRIL 1982