UK institutes - merger likely

Colour plotter from Versatec

Tektronix 4404 system for A I applications

AI systems from Tektronix Tektronix has introduced two artificial intelligence systems: the 4405 and the 4406. It has also announced a price reduction of its 4404 AI system. The 4406 is powered by the Motorola 68020 microprocessor assisted by a 68881 floating point coprocessor. It includes a 1"9 in, 60 Hz display with a resolution of 1280 x 1024. It has 2 Mbytes of RAM, 32 Kbytes of virtual memory address space and a 90 Mbyte hard disc. The 4405 is also powered by the Motorola 68020 with the 68881 floating point coprocessor, however it has a 13 in, 60 Hz screen with a 640 x 640 viewable display acting as a window onto the 1024 x 1024 addressable bit map. It has 1 Mbyte of RAM, 8 Kbytes of virtual memory address space and a 45 Mbyte hard disc. According to Tektronix, these systems are aimed at artificial intelligence applications and include the Smalltalk-80 programming environment, a Unixlike operating system and a C compiler as standard features. (Tektronix UK

Ltd, Fourth Avenue, Globe Perk, Marlow, Bucks 5L7 1YD, UK. Tel." (06284) 6000)

UK Institutes - merger likely The Councils of both the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Production Engineers have separately resolved that the two bodies should be merged. As a result, the corporate members of both Institutes will be balloted on this issue. Recent opinion polls of members indicate that the required 662/3 per cent majority in favour will be reached in the ballot. If this is the case, then it it hoped that the new Chartered Institute of Mechanical and Production Engineers will come into existence on

volume 17 number 8 october 1985

Ist January 1987. The merger results from an awareness of the way that technology has changed the needs of engineering. In particular the advent of CAE has made the disciplines of mechanical and production engineering virtually inseparable, according to the two Institutes. Both Institutes also feel that by amalgamating, they will be able to wield more influence in industry, enabling them to enhance the status of engineers in society.

A new plotter has been announced by Versatec Electronics, it will be demonstrated for the first time at DES'85 in Birmingham, UK this month. The 24 in colour plotter uses Versatec's multipass colour plotting technique. The media is marked to end of plot on the first pass to ensure proper registration, the media is then rewound to the plot starting position. Four subsequent passesoverlay the four colours: black, cyan, magenta and yellow to produce the full colour output. The plotter will plot on both paper and film. It is aimed at applications such as CAE, CAD, mapping and general computer graphics. It has a resolution of 200 dots/in, (Versatec

Electronics Ltd, 5 Oxford Road, Newbury, Barks, RGI3 IQD, UK. Tel: (0635) 42421)

ABEL for logic design Apollo Valid and Sun have all adapted Data I/O's ABEL programmable logic design language into their board level design systems. ABEL is a high level design language that compiles combinations of Boolean equations, truth tables or state diagrams into fuse maps for any type of programmable logic device (PLD). For design work, engineers can use a CAE workstation and ABEL to express the intended circuit function. They can use ABEL's logic reduction program, Presto, to reduce the equations to a minimum form, according to Data I/O. The engineer can also use ABEL's simulator to simulate a design before implementing it. ABEL now runs under several operating systems which include; Valid Unix (version 7.0 or later), Apollo Aegis (version 7.0 or later) and Sun Unix (version 1.4 or later). (Data

I/0 Europe, World Trade Center, Strawinskylaan 633, 1077 XX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: (020) 622866) 391