Many other platforms and titles debut in October, too

This is a big month for multimedia computing to strut its stuff. It seems that every week in October, and at every conference (and this month is full of them), one player or another has or will announce the product or products that will turn the world of multimedia on its ear.

Significant announcements are coming from every corner. Apple and IBM announced their joint venture for multimedia technologies (see story on page 14); Tandy Corp. has shipped its first Multimedia PCs; the MPC Marketing Council showcased the first crop of multimedia titles for MPC machines at a rollout in New York on October 8th (see story on page 22); and Philips is finally releasing Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I) on October 18 at a new price point, lower than previously announced –just less than $800 retail.

No grass growing under IBM. Not to be outdone, IBM just launched six videodisc-based titles at a splashy party at the CD-ROM Expo in Washington D.C. (the long-awaited Columbus: Discovery, Encounter and Beyond from Robert Abel and Synapse Technology, and the Illuminated Books series of five titles, including the oft-showcased Ulysses, from AND Communications).

And at long last, after about a year of very broad hints in many public forums by Bob Carberry, assistant general manager of systems technology for IBM’s Personal Systems Group, IBM announced the first of its upcoming line of “Ultimedia” computers, starting with a media-capable PS/2 Model 57 that has all of the functionality of the MPC –without the logo.

Not an MPC. The new Ultimedia computer is a cached-memory version of IBM’s PS/2 Model 57 that allows a standard Intel 386SX processor to run at almost twice its 20-mhz clock speed. A memory cache buffers data and instructions in fast, on-chip memory so that the main processor doesn’t have to use slower random access memory as often.

The new computer, called the M57SLC, will cost less than $6,000 and has a built in CD-ROM XA drive (which means it interleaves audio, text and graphics, and can read standard CD-ROM and Photo CD discs; discs designed specifically for XA will also play in a CD-I unit), an 80-mb hard drive, a 16-bit audio card, XGA graphics and a “media control panel” on the front of the machine that includes a volume control and stereo output jacks.

Benign neglect. IBM has always hedged its bets when it came to the MPC. Even at the Microsoft Multimedia Developers Conference last November, when Microsoft announced a raft of manufacturers who’d agreed to produce computers that followed the basic specifications set down for the MPC, IBM vice president Mike Braun sat on stage with other hardware vendors building MPC computers and studiously avoided committing to manufacturing an MPC device.

IBM is continuing to exhibit this “benign neglect,” in the words of Blakeney, toward the MPC and the MPC Marketing Council. Peter Blakeney, manager of market programs for IBM’s Multimedia and Education division, agrees the MPC is a worthwhile concept for developers, forcing them to consider all of the media and marketing considerations before developing titles.

But IBM, he says, has committed to multimedia technologies on a much broader scale than the MPC delivers. It is one of the top six strategic initiatives for IBM in the 1990s and all of IBM’s hardware products, from personal computers to RISC machines, to AS/400 or Enterprise computers, will be capable of handling high-quality still images, sound and video.

Meeting the basic requirements. The MPC, says Blakeney, assures developers of a base-level system, but is inadequate for 90 percent of IBM’s customers. “The market needs different levels of capabilities [for different applications]. Four or five other ‘basic requirement levels’ need to be filled.”

IBM, therefore, has created its own brand name, called Ultimedia. The products marketed under this name may be PCs, RISC machines, AS/400 or Enterprise Products –providing multimedia “solutions” across the entire IBM product line. The company has also announced specialized customer services, such as Kiosk Solutions, to assist customers who are interested in implementing public access or merchandising applications.

It’s not yet clear which multimedia titles developed using the MPC specification will work with Ultimedia. According to Braun, the main differences between the MPC and the M57SLC are the audio specifications — MPC uses 8-bit audio, the M57SLC 16-bit — and the fact that the new computer does not include a joystick port. “For the business market, we don’t think a joystick is a heavy requirement,” he says.

DVI, a touch-screen and VGA. In addition to the new computer, IBM is also unveiling, with DVI development partner Intel Corp., a rejiggered DVI chip set and board called Action Media II that incorporates variable compression rates. IBM is also announcing new DVI digital video applications, including Person to Person, a desktop video conferencing package. (Intel, which manufactures the DVI chip set, recently ceded all application marketing for the technology to IBM.)

Another new product announcement connected to IBM’s multimedia strategy is the TouchSelect snap-on touch screen, which attaches to a standard monitor and delivers all of the functionality of a mouse by simply moving an object — a finger or a stylus — across the screen. Demand for the earlier version of IBM’s complete touch screen display system has outstripped IBM’s expectations, and Blakeney believes the new product will be similarly well accepted in the market.

Networked video, too. The final product announcement is PS/2 TV, a $500 hardware add-on “pancake” that sits atop the CPU and allows the display of video, either in a window or full-screen on a VGA monitor, while the computer is engaged in other applications. (Audio is supported as well.) This window can be accessed from any of the PC operating systems in use today, including dos, OS/2 or Windows. This allows video from cable, satellite or closed-circuit television to be broadcast on any individual’s computer.

A PS/2 TV option is a $99 device called the F-Coupler, which will allow an analog video signal to be distributed via a local area network. The F-Coupler allows the analog signal to ride atop a different part of the spectrum than the digital data without degrading the performance of the network.

David Baron