Symmetric Research has announced three new high-performance digital signal processing (DSP) boards with 32-bit floating-point performance. Each includes software for developing DSP applications.
The DSP_400 and DSP_MOD coprocessor boards feature a 25-Mflop AT&T DSP32C CPU. They have up to eight Mbytes of zero wait state on-board memory, ideal for applications that require large amounts of high-speed memory. The DSP_400 uses individual memory chips, and the DSP_MOD board uses memory modules. Both boards come with 12.5-MHz 32-bit parallel ports that allow direct data transfers to on-board memory. The DSP_MUL multiple DSP32C board has four 50-MHz 32-bit DSP32C and 100-Mflop performance that combine multichannel data acquisition and number-crunching power.
The software included in each package includes an assembler/compiler, symbolic debugger, C and Fortran utility and math libraries, and a 1024x768, 256-color graphics library for displaying time series and 2-D color images.
The DSP_400 and DSP_MOD cost $950.00; the DSP_MUL sells for $1400.00. All packages include source code. Reader service no. 20.
Symmetric Research 15 Central Way, Suite 9 Kirkland, WA 98033 206-828-6560
New from Sound Horizons are the SpeakEz C++ class libraries for adding sound capabilities to Windows applications. SpeakEz C++ classes provide transparent access to the Windows Multimedia Extensions. Among the classes provided are: the Media Control Interface (MCI) class, which affords support for manipulating WAVE, MIDI, and CD-Audio sound; the Librarian class, which manages the storage, data compression, and retrieval of media files using the RIFF file format; the Sound Controller class, which gives you an interface for playing and recording sound files; the Composition class, which supports construction of complex sound function sequences; and Timer and Joystick classes.
SpeakEz is compatible with Borland C++ 3.1 and Microsoft C7. The price is $99.00; source-code licenses are $249.00. Reader service no. 21.
Sound Horizons P.O. Box 6625 Holliston, MA 01746 508-643-2882
A catalog of over 1200 public-domain computer programs created by NASA is now available from COSMIC, NASA's software-technology transfer center. The programs cover areas such as artificial intelligence, structural analysis, thermodynamics, and project management.
The catalog is available online at cosline.cosmic.uga.edu (128.192.14.11) or by calling 706-542-7354; or on diskette, including a search engine and interactive front end for execution on your PC. It can also be used on most LANs. Diskettes cost $30.00 each. Reader service no. 22.
COSMIC The University of Georgia 382 East Broad Street Athens, GA 30602-4272 706-542-3265
The "Object Oriented Numerics Conference," sponsored by Rogue Wave Software in cooperation with SIAM, will be held in Sunriver, Oregon, April 25-27, 1993. This conference will concern itself with the use of modern object-oriented techniques in the design of software solutions to numerical problems. Among the topics to be explored are reusable software components, applications, parallelism, and OO compiler technology. For registration information, contact:
Margaret Chapman, Program Coordinator Rogue Wave Software P.O. Box 2328 Corvallis, OR 97339 e-mail: amc@roguewave.com 503-754-3010
Tartan is offering two C libraries that target Texas Instruments' 320C3x and 320C4x DSP processors. The first is FloTar, an extended-precision floating-point library that supplements the hardware floating-point capabilities of TI digital signal processors with 64-bit arithmetic operations and elementary math functions.
The library comes with C and assembly language interfaces for all calling conventions and memory models and provides 16 digits of floating-point precision. Basic functions include: format conversions, round, truncate, floor, ceiling, compose, and the like. Math functions include: add, subtract, multiply, divide, comparisons, 1/x, x2, square root of x, 1/square root of x, ln, log10, ex, xy, sin, cos, tan, cot, asin, acos, and more. Register and stack parameters and small and large memory models are supported.
FasTar, the math library, provides 14 routines not supported by TI's library, such as inverse of square root, powers of ten, cotangents and inverse cotangents, inverse hyperbolic functions, and faster sine and cosine routines for restricted input ranges.
FloTar costs $695.00 for PCs and $895.00 for SPARC stations. FasTar sells for $495.00 (PC) and $695.00 (SPARC). Reader service no. 23.
Tartan 300 Oxford Drive Monroeville, PA 15146 412-856-3600
The International Standards Organization has granted Unicomp rights to distribute electronic versions of the Fortran 90 standard, ISO/IEC 1539:1991, Information technology--Programming languages--Fortran. You can obtain the document as an ASCII file ($125.00), a PostScript file with a license that allows you to print paper copies ($125.00 + $10.00 per copy), or the complete source in ditroff, including macros and software to extract and create the annexes ($1000.00).
Special arrangements, such as distributing a copy with each version of a compiler or using the source to write documentation can be made subject to ISO approval. For more information, contact Walt Brainerd at Unicomp (walt@netcom.com). Reader service no. 24.
Unicomp Inc. 235 Mt. Hamilton Avenue Los Altos, CA 94022 415-949-4052
Visual C++, available in a Standard and Professional Edition, has been released by Microsoft. Visual C++ is a Windows-hosted development environment for editing, resource building, class/resource mapping, browsing, and debugging Windows or DOS targets.
Both versions include the Windows-hosted Visual Workbench development environment; AppWizard, which provides "skeleton" applications; App Studio, a new interactive visual program for UI design/editing, resource creation, and Visual Basic custom control manipulation; ClassWizard, a "programmer's assistant" that manages messages, DDE, and so on; and the MFC 2.0 application framework/class library.
The Standard Edition is capable of Windows, DLL, and VBX development. The Profession Edition includes Codeview, the 3.1 SDK, source profiler, and support for DOS target development.
Microsoft simultaneously announced the Visual Control Pack, 19 custom controls for use with Visual C++ or Visual Basic. This toolset includes 3-D controls, and controls graphs, communications, multimedia, pens, animation, and so forth.
Visual C++ Standard Edition costs $199.00 and the Professional Edition is $499.00. The Visual Control Pack retails for $149.00. Reader service no. 25.
Microsoft Corp. One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 206-882-8080
John Wiley & Sons has published Windows 3.1 Insider, by Keith Weiskamp and Ron Pronk. The book illuminates topics covered incompletely or cryptically by the Windows User's Guide. Topics covered include Windows architecture, network installation, optimal memory configurations, alternate file-management techniques, TrueType font usage, desktop management, and third-party memory managers.
There are many undocumented hints and techniques as well as two chapters on trouble-shooting hardware and software problems that provide work-arounds and alternative techniques to common Windows jams. A set of diskettes is available separately that includes Windows-enhancement tools and utilities. Windows 3.1 Insider costs $26.95 for the paperback edition. ISBN 0-471-5794-X. Reader service no. 26.
John Wiley & Sons Inc. 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 212-850-6000 or 800-CALL-WILEY
The Microsoft Windows Sound System, a set of software applications and an add-in sound board, allows you to add audio features such as voice annotation, proofreading, and voice recognition to your applications using Windows' Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). The system consists of several utilities and three applications: Quick Recorder, ProofReader, and Voice Pilot.
Quick Recorder generates and adds voice annotations to documents and files. Using OLE, it inserts sound objects into a file. To add voice annotation to a document, you record a message, then drag and drop its icon into the document. You can customize the message icon and edit the annotations. Quick Recorder automatically selects a recording sample rate and compression appropriate to voice recordings to help conserve harddisk space. It also works with external devices such as audio CD players and cassette decks, which let you add other sounds to your recordings.
ProofReader provides audible proofing of numbers and common spreadsheet terms with a high-quality human voice. ProofReader works with Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows and can be customized in several ways, including adjusting the speed and adding your own dictionary of terms.
Voice Pilot lets you execute commands by voice, navigating through the Windows OS via limited voice recognition. It controls customized commands, allowing you to insert standard text into a document upon command. A training mode is also available to adapt to different accents or pronunciations. Voice Pilot comes with a predefined vocabulary for 15 Windows-based applications
Additional utilities include: SoundFinder, for locating and modifying audio files from various formats, recording control, volume control, a sound-control panel, a sound and icon library, and more.
The Sound System costs $289.00; bundled with Windows, it's $349.00. Reader service no. 27.
Microsoft Corp. One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 206-882-8080