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press releases
The following press releases are being distributed today.
--Second Generation Add-In Processor Product Features
Better Than 75% Improvement in Performance--
SYMBOLICS LAUNCHES HIGH-PERFORMANCE
MACIVORY MODEL 2 FOR APPLICATIONS
DEVELOPMENT AND DELIVERY ON MACINTOSH II SYSTEMS
--Less than $16,000 Gives Mac II Users Access to Advanced, High-End Delivery
Environment--
BURLINGTON, Mass., May 17--Symbolics, Inc. today announced the availability of the MacIvory model 2, a high-performance system
for the development and delivery of symbolic processing applications based on the popular Apple Macintosh II and IIx computer
systems. The Company stated that with the availability of both the lower-priced model 1 and the higher-performance model 2,
Symbolics now offer a range of delivery solutions based on the popular Macintosh II systems.
According to the Company, this second-generation system is software compatible with its Symbolics 3600 series and XL400
workstations, provides a better than 75% improvement over the Company's entry-level first-generation model 1, and a nearly 100
per cent advantage in performance over Texas Instruments' microExplorer system, as measured by the Gabriel benchmark test suite.
The MacIvory model 2, the Company said, provides the combination of a robust symbolic processing environment recognized for its
advanced and tightly integrated software tools, on a widely-installed hardware platform.
Macintosh model II Becomes Advanced, Object-Oriented Software Development Tool
"For less than $24,000 for the MacIvory model 2 upgrade package and development software," said Rich Krueger, product marketing
manager, "the Macintosh II becomes an advanced, object-oriented software development environment for large-scale applications,
some of which may be practical on the Macintosh for the first time due to the extraordinary advantages of our symbolic processing
technology."
"Symbolic processing technology," Krueger added, "makes it easier to represent and solve unstructured problems. By enabling
programmers to work with symbols and objects, as well as traditional numbers and characters, the technology offers and intuitive
way of programming real world problems."
Apple Shares View That MacIvory Widens Accessibility, Market Reach
Symbolics, which is an Apple Value-Added Reseller (VAR) said today it has worked with Apple's technical programming markets
organization in the development and marketing of the MacIvory product line. According to Harald Striepe, manager of programming
markets for Apple Computer, "The MacIvory model 2 extends the high-performance end of Symbolics' product line for the Macintosh
II and IIx computers. This is an important extension of the MacIvory product line, making the Company's symbolic processing
environment accessible to a wide range of users and applications."
Analog Devices Delivers Advanced Electronic CAD Tools on MacIvory model 2
Analog Devices, a $450 million, public company and the leading manufacturer of high performance analog integrated circuits and
related components, reports it will use the MacIvory model 2 to deliver Symbolics-based tools for the design of analog/digital
integrated circuits.
According to Ted Vucurevich, manager of Analog Devices' CAD Linear Signal Processing Division, the MacIvory model 2 will give
Analog Devices at least a two year competitive market lead by providing systems designeers with tools that dramatically improve
the speed and quality of developing application specific integrated circuits (ASICS).
"We built our own electronic CAD software tools using Symbolics' software because we needed a solution that was far beyond the
capabilities of any exiting CAD tool," said Vucurevich. "The MacIvory model 2 gives us a delivery vehicle with the performance
we need for our design software. The Macintosh platform gives our designers access to standard documentation, presentation and
database applications they need for generating customer proposals."
Ultimately, Vucurevich said, Analog Devices will gain its biggest competitive advantage as his operation moves the MacIvory-based
tools into the Company's remote design centers, and later directly into customer sites.
MacIvory model 2 Availability and Pricing
Scheduled to be available for delivery in volume in 90 days, the MacIvory model 2 upgrade package for Macintosh II/IIx systems,
priced at $15,900 (U.S.), includes the MacIvory model 2 processor, 8 megabytes (Mb) of NuBus memory, the General delivery
software and a keyboard overlay. Pricing for a similiarly-configured MacIvory model 1 begins at less than $11,000 (U.S.).
Starting at $30,000 (U.S.), bundled systems consist of the Macintosh II with one Mb of SIMM memory, the MacIvory model 2
processor, 8 Mb of NuBus memory, a 320-Mb (formatted) SCSI disk drive, a 19-inch high-resolution monochrome monitor, the Apple
extended keyboard with Genera overlay and Genera run-time delivery software.
Options for the model 2 include up to 8 Mb of SIMM memory, up to 32 Mb of NuBus memory, the MacIvory floating point accelerator,
an Ethernet interface, a SCSI cartridge tape drive, 320 Mb and 640 Mb SCSI disk drives, Genera development software and
Symbolics' family of development tools, applications and networking software.
Symbolics also announced a special, 60-day MacIvory model 2 processor introductory price. Customers who upgrade existing
MacIvory systems or who purchase and take delivery of MacIvory model 1 packages by June 30, 1989 may purchase a model 2
processor upgrade for $2,500 (U.S.) each. The regular price is $6,000 (U.S.).
MacIvory model 2 Supports a Rich, Comprehensive Software Environment
The MacIvory model 2 supports applications written in Symbolics Common Lisp, Symbolics C, Symbolics Fortran and Symbolics Pascal.
The model 2 also supports the Company's family of software tools and applications including:
. Joshua An expert system language product for building and delivering high performance expert systems;
. Concordia A hypertext documentation preparation, management and on-line presentation facility;
. Statice An object-oriented database management system which supports multiuser access;
Symbolics, Inc., headquartered in Burlington, Mass., and with operations in Chatsworth, Calif., is the leading provider of
symbolic processing systems used for the development and delivery of expert systems, computer-aided design and engineering
(CAD/CAD) and advanced image generation and processing.
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1989/
MacIvory, Symbolics 3600, XL400, Symbolics C, Symbolics Fortran, Symbolics Pascal, Joshua, Concordia, Statice and Symbolics are
trademarks of Symbolics, Inc. Genera and Symbolics Common Lisp are registered trademarks of Symbolics, Inc. Apple, Mac, and
Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
NuBus and microExplorer are trademarks of Texas Instruments, Inc.
Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corp.
-Faster Mac II Add-In Processor Extends AI Applications Development & Delivery Power
-Symbolics' Advanced XL400 High-End Workstation Enhanced With Color
SYMBOLICS LAUNCHES NEW MACINTOSH ADD-IN PROCESSOR & WORKSTATION COLOR SUPPORT
PREVIEWS LONG-TERM SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND SERVICES DIRECTION
-New Products Aimed At Needs of Large Installed Base & Emerging Market
-Corporate Plan to Move Advanced Technology To Standard Hardware/Software Environments
Burlington, Mass., May 17 -- Symbolics, Inc., today announced two enhanced symbolic processing application development and
delivery products which the Company said will broaden the acceptance and use of its advanced technology both with customers and
in new markets.
The products -- MacIvory model 2, a significantly faster add-in processor that converts the Apple Macintosh II and IIx computers
to robust symbolic processing development and delivery systems, and a color version of the Company's own, high performance XL400
development and delivery workstation -- are targeted both for the Company's 6,000 customers and new sites. In addition, the
Company said its powerful object-oriented technology, aggressive moves to support industry standard environments, and
comprehensive consulting expertise will provide compelling reasons for major companies to accelerate AI-based projects with
Symbolics' assistance.
"For many leading companies, the payoff of multiple year investments in AI and other complex development projects is only now
being realized." said Symbolics' chief executive officer, Jay Wurts. "While companies see the real advantages of this
technology, they have often been slowed by the practical realities of delivery. They've faced two problematic choices: to use
powerful, specialized development environments with limited delivery alternatives or to use standard platforms that compromise
performance and development productivity."
"Better delivery solutions and industry-wide standards can solve these problems. By announcing significant enhancements to
Symbolics' MacIvory and XL400 workstations, our Macintosh and VME-based products," Wurts continued, "we are saying to major
organizations that we can provide both development power and standard delivery solutions. We offer the industry's most powerful
object-oriented development and delivery software on add-in boards to industry-standard platforms today and we have aggressive
plans to offer software-only solutions in the future."
Symbolics stated that its longer-term direction is based on three major thrusts:
.Standard Environments
To enable the Company to provide its advanced object-oriented software to the largest possible market, Symbolics stated that it
would pursue two major directions. First, underscored by today's MacIvory and XL400 product announcements, the Company will
continue to enhance and broaden its support for standard hardware environments. Second, Symbolics will work aggressively with
other leading vendors, including LISP vendors, to provide portability of the Company's software to standard run-time
environments, including MS-DOS and Unix. As part of this plan, Symbolics said it will support the Common Lisp Object System
(CLOS) standard, which the Company helped to architect, and spearhead the specification and development of a multi-vendor user
interface management system standard.
.High Level Applications
The Company stressed that the growing demand for advanced object-oriented tools and applications far surpasses industry supply.
Symbolics stated that the Company will leverage its in-depth knowledge of object-oriented technology and customer requirements
to build high level applications. As one example, Symbolics will use its experience and market leadership in 2D and 3D graphics
products to develop comprehensive applications for the emerging imaging market.
.Comprehensive Consulting
The Company also stressed the industry's growing need for expertise in designing, implementing and integrating advanced
technology with mainstream corporate systems. Symbolics stated that it will aggressively expand its consulting organization to
provide this unique expertise. The Company stated that its consulting organization has successfully undertaken projects that
range from integrating an expert system capable of handling thousands of transactions per hour with an IBM network and multiple
corporate databases to assisting in the design of a leading-edge on-line, hypertext-based documentation system to support factory
floor operations. In the future, the Company will use its consulting organization both to enable customers to achieve faster
success and as a resource to develop new products.
Product Announcements and Product Blueprint Disclosure Slated for September
Symbolics stated that it is planning major additional product announcements and disclosure of details of its longer term plans in
September. At that time the Company will both introduce new products and discuss specific product initiatives and milestones as
part of its strategy to support market requirements for powerful, standards-based development and delivery solutions.
Wurts stressed the importance of the Company's new emphasis on software and service. "Symbolics is unique in its combined
expertise in advanced technology and the successful integration of this technology with corporate production systems. In the
future we will use this expertise to build comprehensive applications, such as our graphics products, as well as higher level
development tools. We will not limit ourselves to our proprietary hardware, nor exclusively to LISP at the expense of other
standard languages. We will continue to enhance our add-in technology for standard computers and provide software-only delivery
versions of certain Symbolics software products and customer applications. We also expect increased revenue from our commitment
to consulting and value-added applications."
MacIvory model 2 Broadens Market with Powerful, Low-Cost Entry System
In August 1989, Symbolics introduced the MacIvory model 1, its first-generation workstation product based on the popular
Macintosh II. The MacIvory model 1 features a Symbolics add-in processor board which provides symbolci processing capabilities
integrated with the Macintosh operating environment, and has won widespread customer acceptance. Symbolics, responding to user
demand for even higher performance, today announced the MacIvory model 2 which features greater than 75% performance improvement,
as measured by the Gabriel benchmark test suite, over the original MacIvory model 1. This also represents nearly 100%
performance advantage over the Macintosh-based microExplorer system from Texas Instruments. The Company stated that with the
availability of both the lower priced model 1 and the higher performance model 2, Symbolics now offers a range of delivery
solutions based on the popular Macintosh system.
The MacIvory model 2 -- scheduled to be available in volume within 90 days -- like the model 1, integrates Symbolics' object-
based operating environment, Genera, with the Macintosh software environment and provides a powerful deliverly product. The
product is being offered both as an add-in board with delivery software for $15,900 (U.S.) and with a fully configured Macintosh
II for $30,000 (U.S.).
Symbolics also announced a special, 60 day MacIvory model 2 processor introductory price. Customers who upgrade existing
MacIvory systems or who purchase and take delivery of MacIvory Model 1 packages by June 30, 1989 may purchase a model 2 processor
upgrade for $2,500 (U.S.) each. The regular price is $6,000 (U.S.).
High Resolution Color Added to XL400 High End Development Workstation
Last August Symbolics also announced the Company's highest performance workstation, the XL400, built on the industry standard
VMEbus. Today Symbolics announced the availability of the XL400 CAD Buffer which brings high resolution color to the XL400.
"Color is critical to many symbolic processing applications including CAD, CAE, medical imaging, mapping, and scientific
visualization." said Rodger Jackson, product manager. "With the addition of the XL400 CAD Buffer, users now can access the power
of the XL400 to develop these applications and get the high resolution color they need."
Howard Cannon, vice president, product marketing added, "Our XL400 is important to customers becuase it offers the highest
graphics and paging performance of our products and offers compatibility with VME-based peripherals. The XL400 also offers a
path for growth: significant performance enhancements will be available through time. Most important, the XL400 is completely
compatible with our existing 3600 series workstations."
The XL400 CAD Buffer is packaged on a single add-in board that includes an on-board graphics processor which enhances the speed
of graphic performance. This new product is software compatible with the CAD Buffer II available for the Symbolics 3600 series
of workstations so that customers can port existing color applications developed on any 3600 system to the XL400. Pricing for
the XL400 CAD Buffer is $9,500 (U.S.) with availability scheduled for June 1989.
Symbolics, Inc., headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, and with operations in Chatsworth, Calif., is the leading provider
of symbolic processing systems used for the development and delivery of expert systems, computer aided software engineering,
(CASE), computer aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) and advanced image generation and processing.
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1989/
Genera is a registered trademark and MacIvory, Ivory, XL400, Symbolics 3600 and Symbolics are trademarks of Symbolics, Inc.
Apple, Macintosh and Mac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc.
microExplorer is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated
SYMBOLICS, INC. ADDS HIGH RESOLUTION COLOR TO THE XL400, ITS TOP-OF-THE LINE DEVELOPMENT WORKSTATION
BURLINGTON, Mass., May 17 -- Symbolics, Inc. today announced the availability of the XL400 CAD Buffer, which brings high
resolution color to Symbolics' XL400 workstation. The XL400, based on the industry standard VMEbus architecture, is Symbolics
highest performance workstation for the development and delivery of symbolic processing applications.
"Color is critical to many symbolic processing applications including CAD, CAE, medical imaging, mapping, and scientific
visualization." said Rodger Jackson, product manager. "With the addition of the XL400 CAD Buffer, users now can use the power of
the XL400 to develop these applications and get the high resolution color they need."
The XL400 CAD Buffer is a color frame buffer that provides 1280 x 1024 displayable pixels using 8-bits per pixel with an
additional 2 bits per pixel for color overlays. It has 2048 x 1024 addressable pixels plus 1 Megabyte of display list memory.
A 256 x 8 lookup table for each of the red, green and blue channels gives the customer a choice of 256 colors per frame plus 4
overlay colors, selected from a palette of over 16 million colors.
The XL400 CAD Buffer is packaged on a single add-in processor that includes an on-board Intel 82786 graphics processor which
enhances the speed of graphics. It plugs into the backplane of the XL400, allowing direct high-speed access via the VMEbus.
The XL400 CAD Buffer is software compatible with the CAD Buffer II available for the Symbolics 3600 series of workstations, so
customers can port existing color applications developed on any 3600 system to the XL400.
XL400 Offers Superior Graphics and Paging Performance
Howard Cannon, vice president of product marketing commented, "Our XL400 is important to customers because it offers the highest
graphics and paging performance of our products and offers compatibility with VME-based peripherals. The XL400 also offers a
path for growth: significant performance enhancements will be available through time. Most important, the XL400 is completely
compatible with our existing 3600 series workstations."
The XL400 consists of Symbolics Ivory VLSI processor and Genera development environment, the richest and most comprehensive
software environment in the industry. Its support for the VMEbus provides connectivity to industry-standard VME options
including bulk mass storage (non-paging) and standard peripherals.
The XL400 consists of Genera development software, an Ivory processor board with two megawords of memory, an I/O board with EDSI,
SCSI, and Ethernet interfaces, and ESDI 380-megabyte (unformatted) disk drive, and a 19-inch monochrome console. It has seven
VME slots with five available for optional industry-standard peripherals.
Pricing for the XL400 CAD Buffer is $9,500 (U.S.) with shipment scheduled for June 1989. Pricing for the XL400 begins at $64,000
(U.S.).
Symbolics, Inc., headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, and with operations in Chatsworth, Calif., is the leading provider
of symbolic processing systems used for the development and delivery of expert systems, computer-aided software engineering,
(CASE), computer aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) and advanced image generation and processing.
-- 0 --
1989/
Genera is a registered trademark and Symbolics, XL400, Symbolics 3600 and Ivory are trademarks of Symbolics, Inc.
Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation.