4]--------------------- 3]Morton's Musings 3]By Morton A. Kevelson 4]--------------------- 3]KICKSTART 2.04 IN ROM There are definite indications Commodore has finally completed Kickstart 2.0. The first samples of the new Kickstart ROMs have been shipped to developers and the compleat upgrade packages should be available to the end users as soon as Commodore has a large enough supply of ROMs. Rumor has it one of Commodore's ROM suppliers swapped the high and low bytes, as per the Intel fashion, thereby ruining an entire batch of Kickstart ROMs and delaying the release date. The release numbers on the ROM I received are Commodore part number 390979-01, V2-04. The release version number is 37.175. The new ROMs have a 512 kilobyte capacity, double that of the Kickstart 1.2 and 1.3 ROMs. A jumper wire will have to be installed between pin 1 and pin 34 when the ROM is installed in an older version Amiga 2000. The older Amiga 2000s are marked on the left side of the board with "(C) 19-86 COMMODORE", "AMIGA 2000" and "MADE IN GERMANY (BSW)". The jumper will also have to be installed in the older revision 3 and 5 motherboards of the Amiga 500. In the newer A2000s, which are marked "B2000-CR" in the lower left corner of the motherboard, any jumpers across the top of the ROM have to be removed. Any jumpers in the revision 6A Amiga 500s should also be removed. As of this writing, the version number for the Workbench, Extras, Install and Fonts disks is 37.64. The install disk may still be slightly modified before its release. This will increase its version number and that of the other three disks. The version number for the Kickstart disk and the Kickfile/Tools disk should remain at 37.175. The complete AmigaDOS update set consists of six disks. The Kickstart disk is only for use with the Amiga 3000. For all of the other Amigas, including the A1000, the half megabyte of Kickstart code is loaded into fast RAM by a special loader program. Just how firm is this "final" version of the Kickstart code? Word from a reliable source indicates Commodore has already laid off 15 members of the AmigaDOS programming team, including Andy Finkel. An alternate rumor tells me that the layoff is actually 30 percent of the total work force, however, Andy Finkel is still on board. Sounds like Commodore is really serious this time and in typical Commodore fashion. The entire AmigaDOS 2.04 package consists of six floppy disks. Two of these are the Amiga 3000 Kickstart disk and the disk-based Kickstart disk for the Amiga 500/1000/2000. Another two disks are accounted for by the usual Workbench and Extras disk. The hard drive installation disk accounts for the fifth floppy. The sixth disk is devoted to the Amiga fonts, which now include structured outline fonts as well as the traditional bit mapped fonts. The outline fonts include versions of Compugraphic's Times, Triumvirate and LetterGothic. A variety of AmigaDOS 2.0 support products are already on the market. The "AmigaDOS Manual 3rd Edition" from Bantam Computer Books, $24.95, was released to the booksellers in July. The AmigaDOS manual is the official AmigaDOS document that has been fully blessed by Commodore. The 3rd Edition is now up to 447 pages, as compared to the 298 pages in its first incarnation. The book has been thoroughly updated with, among other things, a unified table of contents. Part I is The User's Manual with a complete description of all the AmigaDOS commands. Part II is the Developer's Manual, which deals with programming the system. Part III is The Technical Reference Manual, which covers the structure of the filing system, binary disk files and AmigaDOS data structures. AmigaDOS 2.04 is a much greater upgrade from version 1.3 as compared to the differences between versions 1.3, 1.2 and 1.1. Compatibility with existing software is expected to be a much greater problem than has been the case with the earlier upgrades. Although Commodore has invested considerable effort in getting developers to upgrade their software, an effort which included the sale of official "AMIGADOS Release 2 compatible" stickers, there will still be many programs that have not been updated. Commodore itself is a perfect example of this shortcoming with its failure to update Amiga Basic. As a result, the transition period during which most users would like to be able to run both the old and new versions of the operating system will be longer than before. One way to have access to both systems, in exchange for some inconvenience, is to use the Kickfile method that is provided by Commodore. Just leave the old Kickstart ROM in place and load the new Kickstart into RAM. This does take a little longer and it does eat up a half megabyte of fast RAM, but it does not involve any permanent hardware changes. Owners of 68030 boards with 32 bit RAM can even place Kickstart into the high speed memory for an additional performance increase. The alternative approach is to purchase a ROM adapter circuit board which lets you install both the old and new ROMs at the same time and then switch between them. Several of these circuit boards have been on the market for nearly a year and a surprisingly large number have already been sold. It seems many users have been anticipating the arrival of the new Kickstart for some time. I made inquiries into two of these products. My information is based on an examination of the literature and some conversations with the developers. It is not a hands-on review. I expect to report on some actual experience with the products in the near future. MultiStart II, $99.95, from DKB Software, lets you install up to three sets of Kickstart ROMs in the Amiga. You can soft-select between two of the ROMs by holding down the Control-Amiga-Amiga keys for more than five seconds during a warm reboot. An on-board jumper, which can be wired to an external switch, lets you decide which pair of ROMs can be actively selected. Kickstart Board, $39.95, from Utilities Unlimited of Oregon, Inc. also lets you install up to three ROMs in your Amiga. Hardware selection of the active ROM is done with a hard-wired three position switch. 3]POWER UP Remember Commodore's Power Up program? That's the one where you can get more than a $1000 off the list price of an Amiga 3000 by bringing in the cover from the instruction manual along with the serial number from any old Commodore computer. It seems the Power Up program has been so successful, Commodore has been unable to fill all of the orders and many Power Uppers are still waiting for their machines. In view of this overwhelming response, and to make sure that everyone who is interested gets a crack at it, Commodore has extended the Power Up offer for the A3000 through the end of August. Meanwhile, Commodore has also decided to work the other end of the financial ladder. If you can't afford to power up to an Amiga 3000, you can now power up to an Amiga 500 with the same cover from the manual and the associated serial number. Unlike the Amiga 3000, the discount for the Amiga 500 will be much less. The basic, 512 kilobyte, Amiga 500 can now be bought for only $399. For $100 more you can get the one megabyte version. Oddly enough, I found no less than two New York City Amiga dealers advertising the the basic Amiga 500 for $399 several weeks before the Power Up program was announced. Both Power Up Amiga 500 systems come with a games and productivity software package. If you are not impressed with the software in the more expensive package, you will probably be better off buying the half megabyte version and adding a third party expansion RAM which will either give you more than another half megabyte RAM or cost less than the $100 differential between the two packages. Commodore USA has apparently hit on a sure-fire marketing scheme. Simply induce the 10 million or so existing Commodore users to dump their PETs, VIC-20s, Commodore 16s and Plus 4s and buy Amiga 500s or Amiga 3000s in their place. Apparently, Video Toaster fans are snapping up enough Amiga 2000s that a Power Up program for this system is not needed at this time. I certainly cannot argue with success. Any company that can sell computers faster than it can make them is either doing the right thing or is having serious production problems on the assembly lines. 3]AMIGA 500 TOO EXPENSIVE For that matter, all of the Amiga computers, with the possible exception of the Unix version, are too expensive. The Amiga no longer provides more performance for the dollar than the plain blue clones. Those of you who have been following the Amiga press for some time are probably concerned that poor Morton the K has finally gone of the deep end. Just give a few more paragraphs. There is a method to my madness. I first became aware of the problem when I found it increasingly difficult to sell Amigas. Of course I am not in the business of peddling processors directly to the end user. Instead, like any loyal Amiga user, "selling Amigas" simply signifies that I do my best to convince all who consult me that the Amiga would be the best computer for them. The people I usually "sell" to are not your average Americans. They are technical people, usually fellow engineers, who know the difference between a bit and byte, are aware that microprocessors do not prepare single salad servings, and understand the plastic-encased 3.5-inch floppy disk is not a hard drive. The potential customers are typically family people who have never owned a personal computer, although they may have lusted after one for many years. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints, brought on by the raising of a family with more than the national average of 1.96 children in the New York metropolitan area, has prevented the outlay of scarce funds on such a frivolous purchase. Now that offspring are well into grade or intermediary school, the acquisition of a personal computer is mandated lest the progeny lose their competitive edge. Of course these people are well aware there is no "real" need for a computer in the home. Since the purpose of the machine will be education and fun, they set out to get the maximum possible hardware for the least amount of money. The start of my sales pitch emphasizes the low introductory cost of the Amiga 500. For less than $400, they can now buy a multitasking computer with built-in four channel sampled sound and excellent graphics with the support of custom co-processors that make the Amiga suitable for animation. Further, the display is 100 per cent NTSC-compatible with their VCR and camcorder. After the initial impressions have worn off, the questions start. At this point I feel obligated to point out that a single floppy drive, 512 kilobyte Amiga 500 is not really adequate to run most of the latest software. To get the most out of the machine, they should consider at least a second floppy drive, the internal 512 kilobyte expansion with battery-backed clock calendar and two megabytes of expansion RAM. This brings the price of the system up to the $800 range and raises some embarrassing questions. For less than $800, they rightfully point out, one can purchase a 12 megahertz, 80286 AT clone with math co-processor socket, both 5 1/4 inch 1.2 megabyte and 3 1/2 inch 1.44 megabyte floppy drives, with the system RAM expandable to eight megabytes on board, as well as eight expansion slots, a 42 megabyte hard drive and a VGA display. What is the capacity of the Amiga floppy drive? they ask. 880 kilobytes I mutter. How fast is the Amiga's microprocessor? they inquire. A bit over 7 megahertz I whisper, but the 68000 and its custom co-processors effectively outperforms any 80286 based system and don't forget multitasking, I hasten to add. Somehow I sense I am not getting through to them. What do I have to do to add a hard drive and how much would it cost? they query. You have to add an external expansion box and it will cost about $500. But don't fret; the same box can house up to eight megabytes of RAM. At this point the Amiga 500 system is well over $1,000. For this price, they observe, a full blown 80386SX with super VGA display and all of the features listed with the AT clone, can be readily purchased. For a few dollars more we can even start out with a full 80386 system running at 20 megahertz. What would it take to upgrade the Amiga to a 68020 and math coprocessor? they wonder. How about a 68030 and a 68882? You don't really want to know, I am forced to reply. You now realize what I am up against. Lets face it: Six years ago, when the Amiga was introduced, it was the latest technology. Nothing else came close to its graphics, sound and multitasking capabilities with a real GUI in its price range. Unfortunately, at a price of $2,000 with limited expansion, the Amiga 1000 did not take over the home market. By the time Commodore got the price down in a range acceptable to the mass market, the clones had also dropped in price and increased their performance. At this time, the personal computer has become a high-tech, electronic, commodity item such as VCRs, camcorders and audio components. The marketing of these products is basically a numbers game with the price only one of the factors. Unfortunately, with the help of brute force technology, the numbers quoted by the clone makers are starting to look better than the Amiga's. As knowledgeable Amiga users, we are well aware numbers do not tell the entire story. Unfortunately, only hands-on experience with both platforms can bring out the true differences. 3]MORTON'S PLAN FOR THE FUTURE For Commodore to effectively compete, the Amiga has to be enhanced in several ways. To start, the floppy disk capacity has to be doubled to 1760 kilobytes, which can be listed as 1.8 megabytes on the specification sheets! This is nearly 2 megabytes, a number which compares very well to the 1.44 megabyte capacity of the clone floppies. An important side effect is that the higher capacity floppy drive will now be able to read the 1.44 megabyte MS-DOS formatted floppies, permitting the easy transfer of data files across the two systems. The processor for the basic Amiga must be upgraded to a 15 megahertz 68020. This accomplishes two things. First, 15 megahertz is a very respectable processor speed for a low-end machine. Second, the 68020 supports the 68881 math co-processor. This lets Commodore install a math co-processor socket on the motherboard and list this feature in the advertising literature. The 68020 is no slouch. A 1986 Byte Magazine review of a CSA 68020 board for the Amiga 1000 compared the system's performance to that of the new 80386 based computers, which were first starting to appear at that time. Next, the Amiga's graphic display has to be upgraded. The Amiga is long overdue for a true eight bit display with at least an 18 bit palette. Of course, 24 bit color would be much better. The 8/18 bit display in low resolution is what the basic VGA display system can do. In order to compete, the Amiga has to be able to do 256 colors on screen at once, without any HAM mode gimmicks, out of 262,144 possible colors. This will let developers port VGA mode games directly to the Amiga without any loss of quality. At this time, most developers do not bother to optimize their VGA games for the Amiga. Instead, they simply port their EGA versions which do not look as good and end up making the Amiga look bad by comparison. A built in de-interlacer is also required so Amiga users can choose from the many high-resolution, low-cost VGA monitors now readily available. The basic Amiga hardware needs to be enhanced. The system should ship with two megabytes of chip RAM, expandable to 16 megabytes of fast RAM on board for a grand total of 18 megabytes. These numbers are more than double the numbers the clone people are presently able to fling about. The 512K Kickstart 2.0 operating system in ROM is also a good number to list on the promotional literature. The clone BIOS is typically no more than a paltry 64 kilobytes. Better yet, include the CDTV routines and boost the ROM to 768 kilobytes. A built-in SCSI host adapter with room inside the case for an internal 3-1/2 inch hard drive is a basic requirement. A 5-1/4 inch drive bay is also required to let users install a high-density floppy drive for full compatibility with all MS-DOS floppy formats. As an afterthought, two parallel and serial ports should be made part of the system. A built-in sound sampler and MIDI interface would also add a nice, inexpensive, touch. Last, several expansion slots should be added so that Video Toaster can be installed in the system. All these enhancements are presently available from either Commodore or from third party developers. To summarize, the basic system promotional literature should look something like this: 68020, 15 Mhz microprocessor; more powerful than an 80386. 68881 math co-processor socket. 1.8 MB floppy drive. 2 megabytes RAM expandable 18 MB on board. 768 kilobyte, multitasking, multimedia operating system in ROM. Includes two button mouse. Operating system supports both easy to use GUI and command line interface for power users. 5 1/4 inch drive bay. SCSI host adapter for easy hard drive installation. Built in game and mouse ports as well as 2 parallel and 2 serial ports. VGA compatible display. Built in MIDI and digital sound recording capability. Multimedia ready. Video Toaster compatible. This basic system should sell for about $500. This is perfectly feasible. A careful look at the feature list reveals that this system is nothing more than a single floppy drive, two megabyte 68020 based Amiga in a Baby AT case. For less than $800, Commodore can offer a "productivity" system by simply adding a 52 megabyte hard drive and a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive to the package. For less than $1,000, the system can be turned into a "multimedia computer" by simply replacing the second floppy drive with a CD-ROM drive. If Commodore upgrades the microprocessor to a 25 Mhz, 68030, adds the 68882 math co-processor, throws in four megabytes of RAM on board and adds a second 5 1/ 4 inch drive bay, we will have a line of Amigas which can be successfully marketed in the $2000 plus category. Keep in mind that all this is no more than wishful thinking on my part. However, I am convinced something along these lines will be needed to successfully compete in the personal computer mass market. I have seen no indication Commodore is actually going to implement the machines that I have described. I suspect many of you will disagree with these proposals and my basic premise that the present line of Amiga's are no longer a bargain. That is just fine. If you think you have a better idea, just drop me a note. Better yet, if you think that I am heading in the right direction, how about letting Commodore know about it is as well. 3]AMIGA 4000? Based on yet another unconfirmed rumor, chances are slim Commodore will go after the low-end market against the clones. Why should a company able to sell all the machines it can make, by powering up existing users, be interested in upping performance at reduced prices? Instead, Commodore seems to be setting its sights on the big bucks in the work station market. The latest rumor indicates the company is ready to announce the Amiga 4000 at September's developer's conference. The only information I have at the moment is that the Amiga 4000 will be a 68040-based machine with an eight bit, 256 color, display and no dedicated chip RAM. 3]SHOULD COMMODORE ENTER THE OPERATING SYSTEM MARKET? If you haven't noticed, personal computer operating systems are big business. As of last June, MS-DOS developer Microsoft Corp. had annual revenues of $1.8 billion dollars. Note, a billion is a thousand millions. I mention this since "billion" has a different connotation overseas. Microsoft is presently valued at $12.8 billion, of which $4 billion belongs to Bill Gates, the company's founder. In an effort to get a piece of this operating system action, IBM and Apple have joined forces to develop a new operating system that will include a graphical user interface for the next generation of high-end, RISC based computers. The operating system is expected to be platform independent, in that it will be usable on a variety of systems. This seems a potentially lucrative opportunity for Commodore to get in on the operating system business. With the experience gained by completing version 2.0 of AmigaDOS, which may now very well be the best GUI on the market, Commodore should be able to develop a platform-independent version of AmigaDOS that will run on high end personal computers. Just try to visualize AmigaDOS running on an 80486 based PC. Unfortunately, Commodore seems to have dumped its programming staff at the critical moment instead of taking advantage of this situation. Oh well, it was just a thought. 3]VIDEO TOASTER CONTINUES TO GENERATE CONFUSION More and more PC users are convinced the Amiga and Video Toaster are some kind of PC accessory. This belief apparently persists even after they set up the machines side by side. They still fail to notice any obvious direct connection between their PC and the Video Toaster, a.k.a. the Amiga. The latest example of this confusion appears in no less a venerable journal as the August 1991 issue of Compute magazine. The Amiga section of this issue contains "Unraveling the Myths," a rather thorough Toaster article by Ben and Jean Means. On page 80 of the main section of the same issue, in the Fast Forward column written by David English, I found out that "NewTek, for instance, has a Video Toaster/Amiga product that interfaces with the PC." Interfaces with the PC? Will someone please tell me how? Perhaps it's done with modems? Then again, I don't need a Video Toaster to interface an Amiga with a PC via a modem. I suppose its to much to ask the PC people at Compute to read the same magazine's Amiga section, which is probably not included in their copies. Meanwhile, the Video Toaster is appearing in the weirdest places. The current issue of Mondo magazine published a glowing review of the system. It seems NewTek bought a full-page ad in this publication geared to rock music aficionados. Commodore should get in touch with NewTek's publicity department. Many Video Toaster buyers may not be aware they have a full blown, mulitasking, computer until after several months of using it. It might not be a bad idea for Commodore to run a full page ad, opposite each NewTek ad, to explain the virtues of the Toaster-compatible Amiga. 3]SHOWMAKER SHIPS Yes, it is real and it is available now. The package includes a demonstration video tape which shows some of the results of using ShowMaker, but the video tape does not demonstrate how to use Showmaker. ShowMaker provides for control of the Video Toaster from within the program via Arexx. Two Toaster control setups are possible, internal and external. The internal method uses a Toaster installed in the same computer as ShowMaker. The problem is that the Toaster completely takes control of the Amiga during switching events making it impossible for ShowMaker to display animations or pictures and play back music or sound effects properly. Gold Disk recommends the external method where the Video Toaster is installed in a second Amiga. ShowMaker, running on the first Amiga, then controls the Toaster via a null modem cable and Arexx. 3]CD-ROM NOTES I have been told Chinon is not making it easy for the A-Max user to get a copy of the drivers for their CD-ROM drive. It seems they want nearly $200 for the package, which includes the interface adapter and cable for the Macintosh. When told the interface and cable are not needed with the Amiga and the A-Max emulator, Chinon has responded with something like: If you needed the Macintosh driver, you should have bought the Macintosh version of the CD-ROM in the first place. Meanwhile, Xetec, the company that packages the Chinon drive and provides the Amiga driver software, has been buying IBM versions of the CD-ROM drive. These come complete with the IBM interface, an adapter cable and the PC driver software. Xetec has had no use for the things. If you need one for use with the Bridgeboard, they will be glad to sell you a package complete with a custom-built cable for the Amiga. It might have made more sense for Xetec to buy the Macintosh version of the drive so they could supply the Chinon driver for A-Max users. However, the PC version of the CD-ROM probably costs less up front. Xetec continues to update its CD-ROM driver software, which is now up to version 1.5. This latest release includes direct support for 11 CDTV titles as well as a generic CDTV loader. The generic loader worked fine with ReadySoft's CDTV version of Wrath of the Demon. The CD-ROM driver software now includes a CDTV.device driver and a Bookmark.device driver. The Bookmark.device emulates CDTV's two kilobyte, RAM card on an Amiga disk file for saving the position of games in progress. Xetec now supports up to four CD-ROM drives on the SCSI bus. The CD Remote program, Xetec's audio compact disc player, has been enhanced. It can now do an A-B repeat play of any segment on the disc. Control of the audio output channels has also been included whereby you can route the left and right audio signals to either, neither or both the hardware output channels. Xetec has just notified me another update is on its way. The present support for the CDTV version of Lemmings does not let you access the demo program Psygnosis included on the disc. Xetec has received many requests for access to the demo, as it is supposed to be phenomenal and they are rushing to comply. The CDTV version of Lemmings plays just like the floppy disk based version with the exception that only one player is supported. 3]SCENERY ANIMATOR Scenery generating software is a relatively recent addition to the Amiga's repertoire. These calculation-intensive programs require the extra processing power of a math co-processor to be effective. Scenery Animator, $99.95, the latest release from Natural Graphics, is no exception. Scenery Animator requires at least two megabytes of RAM and a 68881 math co-processor to run. Scenery Animator can render single frames or animations of landscapes are based on either real world data or which are fractally generated. The program disk has enough landscape data to get you started. The landscape files consist of excerpts from the Grand Canyon, High Sierra, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite national parks. All of these areas, as well as Mt. Whitney, Crater Lake, Grand Teton and Mt. St. Helens, are available in greater detail on Scenery Animator Landscape Disks at $15 per disk. Your system will require three megabytes of RAM to utilize the complete landscape data. The scenery disks are based on the United States Geological Survey Digital Elevation Model data sampled every 30 meters. Scenery Animator can use this data to extrapolate apparent details as small as 0.1 meters The program's working screen, with includes some pulldown menus, provides a point-and-click quick access to all of the operating parameters and a low-resolution view of the current scene. The Map screen provides another easy to use point-and-click interface, which lets you quickly select the location, direction and field of view of the camera. The map screen is also used for plotting the path to be used to create animation sequences. Scenery Animator has full, 24 bit, output capability for use with the Video Toaster, HAM-E, DCTV and the Firecracker frame buffer. The program includes built-in conversion and display capability for DCTV 3]SUPRAMODEM 9600 Supra Corporation has started shipping the SupraModem 9600 priced at $699.95. This 9600 baud modem supports the industry standard CCITT V.32 data communications protocol, which lets it communicate with any other manufacturer's modem that supports the same standard. Also supported is the CCITT V.42bps international standard for error correction and up to 4:1 data compression which gives the SupraModem 9600 an effective data transmission rate as high as 38,400 bits per second or as high as 9600 bps when communicating with another V.42bis modem at 2400 baud. Also supported is Micromodem Network Protocol (MNP) levels 2-5, the widely used error correction protocol with up to 2:1 data compression that yields effective transmission speeds as high as 19,200 bps when communicating with another V.32/MNP 5 modem. SupraModem 9600 is Hayes compatible, supports both asynchronous and synchronous operation, and the Bell 103/212A and CCIT V.21/V.22/V.22bis protocols. It has autoanswer/autodial, two modular phone jacks, a speaker volume control and a five-year warranty. 3]CENTAUR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTES FOR HOLOGRAMAPHONE RESEARCH Centaur Software has obtained worldwide distribution rights to Hologramaphone's music products. These products include "Pixsound," which converts Amiga graphics into music and "Hyperchord," the dynamic sequencing program. I have seen demonstrations of both products and have tried Pixsound for myself. Both products look like something every skilled Amiga musician should look into. Centaur will be distributing "greatly enhanced" versions of both products. Upgrades for existing users will be available through Centaur. Centaur has also indicated this is only the first of many new licensing agreements to be made during the next few months. 3]COMEAU C++ Comeau Computing's version 2.1 C++ is now available for the both AmigaDOS and the Amiga 3000UX UNIX System V Release 4. Comeau also announced the release of CCsdb, an extension to the UNIX sdb debugger. This release of Comeau C++ is complete in its support of the latest AT&T C++ specification, C++ 2.1. Comeau C++ is a full and true compiler that performs full syntax, semantic and error checking, and other compiler duties. The initial version of Comeau C++ for AmigaDOS officially supports Lattice/SAS C5.10a as a back-end code generator. Comeau will shortly announce official support for Manx Aztec C and Dillon/DICE C. Under Amiga UNIX, Comeau C++ also works with GNU C in addition to the AT&T provided compiler. 3]I'M OPEN TO FEEDBACK If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this column, or if you have some particular topic you would like to discuss, write me. I normally do not respond directly to individual requests. I do read everything I receive. I can be reached at: Morton Kevelson P.O. Box 336 Cooper Station New York, NY 10276-0336 3]DEVELOPERS MENTIONED Bantam Computer Books 666 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10103 212-765-6500 DKB Software 50240 W. Pontiac Tr. Wixom, MI 48393 313-960-8750 Utilities Unlimited of Oregon, Inc. P.O. Box 532 North Plains, OR 97133 503-647-5611 ReadySoft Inc. 30 Wertheim Court, Unit 2 Richmond Hill, Ont. Canada L4B 1B9 416-731-4175 Supra Corporation 7101 Supra Dr SW Albany, OR 97321 503-967-9075 Centaur Software P.O. Box 4400 Redondo Beach, CA 90278 213-542-2226 Comeau Computing 91-34 120th Street Richmond Hill, NY 11418 718-945-0009 Natural Graphics P.O. Box 1963 Rocklin, CA 95677 916-624-1436 4]END OF TEXT