European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 23, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page.12 the stars and stripes computers tuesday february 23,1993 in bits after laying out $1,000, in Many cases much More for a personal computer few people want to hear that they need to spend More on accessories. But precisely because a new computer is such a big Purchase Many people go the extra step and Lay out More to protect the investment. One key investment is a surge suppressor which protects the computer from Power fluctuations. A sudden Spike or a Quick drop in electrical Power can give a hard disk wobbles and cause the computer to. Lock up and a  the cause can be a rapid change in the Power Supply delivered to a Home or an overload of demand by appliances inside. It is not Worth taking a Chance every Home computer should be plugged into a device that is then plugged into the Wall. Surge suppressors come in Many sizes shapes and degrees of sophistication ranging in Price from $29 to $159, and trying to understand All the permutations might require the services of an electrical Engineer. Generally the More expensive models have More outlets to plug components into Telephone jacks to protect a Modem or facsimile machine and the ability to withstand greater surges. So where to Start a do you want it on the desk beneath the Monitor on the floor Quot asked Bill Murray vice president for product development at Kensington Micro wave Ltd. Of san Mateo Calif., which makes More than a dozen different suppressors. Quot that a the form  he continued a what Type of Protection does it offer what a its Power rating Quot there is no one right level. Buying Protection is like buying insurance the higher the Cost the better the coverage. A the higher priced equipment has More guts More pieces inside Quot Murray said. A a it a a matter of Good better  he also suggested comparison shopping for warranty coverage a Well made piece of equipment should have at least a five year warranty. The Curtis manufacturing co. Of Jaffrey n.h., offers a similarly Broad Range of products. Other brands arc Tripp Lite american Power conversion and proximal. A a a a. A a Microsoft announced another addition to its windows based line of software a Microsoft profit a business management and accounting program for Small businesses that does no to require accounting know How. The new program developed with great Plains software is intended to help Small companies keep track of can flow As Well As orders records and reports. A a Silicon graphics in a sign of the Tough Competition in the workstation Market has Cut 13 percent from the Price of its entry a level Iris indigo r3000 machine to $6,995. Silicon graphics said the Price reduction for the machine which is powered by High Speed multiple reduced instruction set computing risk microprocessors would broaden its customer base of technical and creative professionals. Sun Micro systems inc. And Hewlett Packard co. Dominate the commercial workstation Market but Silicon graphics has carved out a Niche in the commercial workstation Market by offering models that Cater to engineers scientists and animators looking to High performance machines to create three dimensional  wire reports Over the Rainbow digital equipment appears to recover from its pc debacle by Jonathan Yenkin the associated press Boston a in the annals of personal computing few products have been bigger flops than the Rainbow. That was the ill fated line of pcs digital equipment corp. Introduced a decade ago but then halted in 1985 when it  crack the dominance of ism and Apple computer inc. Digital a Retreat from the pc Market proved costly and embarrassing. It left the nations second largest computer company virtually absent from the Industry a fastest growing Market. But in a dramatic turnaround digital is now emerging As a Force in personal computers proving that its possible to get Over the Rainbow. A a lot of people in the Industry have been surprised because dec has t been known As a pc company a said Dan Ness an analyst with computer intelligence a Market research firm in la Jolia Calif. For More than a year digital has been aggressively Selling pcs via direct marketing sending Cata logs to buyers around the world and slashing prices. Twice in 1992, digital topped computer intelligences monthly ranking for pc Market snare growth. By the end of the year digital climbed into the top 10 among . Personal computer makers. The comeback is noteworthy. The fast paced computer Industry does no to normally forgive mistakes. One example is another Massachusetts computer firm Wang laboratories inc., which also missed out on the pc revolution and landed in bankruptcy court. But the roster of players in the personal computer Market Nas been shifting with smaller companies such As Dell ing ism compatible pcs at cutthroat prices. A the shakeout that we Are witnessing today is what gives an Opportunity to a company like digital a said Enrico Pesa Tori hired by digital last month to run the company s pc business. Pusatori a pc Industry Veteran who worked for italian computer maker Olivetti amp co. Then joined Zenith data systems inc. As chief executive officer was brought on Board by digital a new presi Dent Robert b. Palmer. Palmer took Over the Maynard  company last fall succeeding Kenneth Olson digital a legendary co founder who resigned under a Cloud when he could t Emma series of staggering losses. Olsen had led digital to great Heights by moving computing away from giant mainframes to midsize minicomputers. But As this trend moved Down to the desktop digital was caught Flat footed critics  i done to think Ken Olsen really believed personal computers would be anything More than toys a said Terry Shannon a longtime digital watcher and head of Gander resources a Market research firm. Last year the pc Market was Worth an estimated $75.4 billion according to Santa Clara  inf corp i. One of palmers first tasks was to reorganize the company around specialized business units giving pcs their own Domain. His goal to make digital one of the top pc companies in the world. The company still has far to go. Digital commands roughly a 2 percent snare of the . Market for pcs compared with 16 percent for International business machines corp., 14 percent for Apple and 8 percent for Compaq computer corp., according to computer intelligence. Two other firms Dell and Gateway 2000, each have More than twice digital a Market share. A those Guys Are hot going to Roll Over and play dead a said Wes melting an analyst with the Gartner group a Stamford  Market research firm. Moreover furious Price wars within the pc Market make profit margins razor thin. Digital sold an estimated $500 million Worth of the machines last year but Palmer indicated last fall the business Wasny to profitable yet. A i see a company that has had a number of starts and stops a Pusatori said. A the top management did no to believe in that marketplace. Now the top management has radically changed its  Apple Printer not for timid buyer Apple computer inc. Last month introduced its first color Printer an in Jet and its first High Resolution laser printers a and broke some ground on the Price front As Well. Several companies have already introduced color printers using the same he ? _ a a 1 it myl fat i a i per Inch compared Dpi of the first generation lasers. Nonetheless the Apple printers Are significant because they Mark a push into potentially lucrative areas where Apple has lagged a color printing and corporate networks a and in the Case of the lasers they bring Apple into line on the Price front where others have tended to Lead the Way Down. The Apple color Printer with a suggested list Price of $2,349, is not the stuff of bargain basements. Apparently it is aimed at graphics professionals and office workers who need to produce High Quality color presentations not Only on Plain paper but on transparencies and special coated paper As Well. The color Printer has several features to justify its higher Price including the ability to print on ll-by-17 paper. The Hewlett Packard  formidable color models print Only on letter and Legal size paper and the Apple comes with 64 True Type fonts one of the most extensive among color printers. Color in jets Are notoriously slow and this one is no exception. Unlike laser printers whose Speed is measured in pages per minute the color in jets Are rated in minutes per Page. Because the Apple does not have its own Micro pro Peter h. Lewis Cessor to Speed things along its Speed is determined by the macintosh computer to which it is attached. The faster the Mac the faster the Printer. Few teachers or people with Home offices a apples big users a will be lining up for this Model. Even larger businesses May think twice because the Apple Printer cannot be shared except by other macintoshes. The new Printer uses an in Jet engine first developed and used by Canon and later by next inc. And Lex Mark International. The Lex Mark in Jet which is sold As the ism 4079 color Printer was Intro Ducco in october. Other in Jet printers Are available for macintosh computers and they produce laser Quality Blacks and impressive colors on Plain paper. Among them is the he desk writer 550c, which Sells for less than $1,000. A fraternal twin the desk Jet 550c, works with Dos and windows computers Apple also introduced a color scanner a a i 149 device that works like a Printer in reverse. Place a color photograph or other printed image into the scanner Click one Button and the photo is converted into a form that the computer can use. Technically it is a 24-bit color scanner which will yield near photographic images on computer monitors equipped to Snow them. The color image then can be modified or placed in a document. All the new Apple color products use a new software technology called color a which is Likely to emerge As a Stan Ard for macintosh color computers and peripherals. That would address this problem there is no Standard for Matching color precisely across the wide variety of imaging products. A Rose that appears red on the graphic artists computer screen May appear Pink or Orange or just slightly the wrong Shade of red when it emerges from the Printer. Colo sync will be incorporated into the macintosh operating system making sure that a Rose is a Rose is a Rose whether it is reproduced on paper film another computer screen or any other device that uses Colo sync. The software makes the necessary modifications to a color file based on the Type of output device that will be used. The new laser printers Are the Apple laser writer pro 600, with a suggested Price of $2,099, and the laser writer pro 630, at $2,529, both come with Adobe postscript level 2, a sophisticated computer language that describes to the Printer what is on screen and used to Cost almost As much As the laser writer pro itself when ordered As an option on other printers. In a bid to win the hearts of business users both printers also come with the pcl4 Printer language used by the he laser Jet printers and others. Both come with the special software called Printer Drivers that lets windows users Send their files to the laser writers. Both also come with a Broad assortment of Adobe Type i and True Type fonts