- Email: [email protected]
New midrange computer and version of Lisp-Prime Common Lisp
CAD in industry CAD package for design of printed circuit boards A CAD package for the design of printed circuit boards (PCBs) has been developed by CAD Software Inc. It is called Pads-PCB and runs on IBM PC ATs or XTs. Pads-PCB can use multiple size grids. Boards of area 32 × 32 in and with up to 30 layers can be designed. Surface mounted devices are supported and thinning of tracks can be performed to route in the area of the SMD footprint. Fine line design capability allows up to three tracks to be placed between IC component pads. According to CAD Software, Pads-PCB can be used to design boards with up to 400 equivalent 14-pin integrated circuits. Data can be accepted from the FutureNet Dash series of logic capture systems. Input from other sources, including manually prepared schematics, can be entered using an
ASCII editor contained within PadsPCB. CAD Software has a logic capture system under development and scheduled for release later this year. Components can be placed interactively, moved, rotated or swapped onto the opposite layer. Parts can be placed to within the nearest 0.001 in or on a placement matrix as created by the designer. Connection nets can be reordered so as to minimize connection length. Routing can be carried out either interactively or using automatic routines. Track widths can vary between 0.001-0.25 in. There are 16 colours available to distinguish between items and layers. A design rule check checks the board for air gap spacing violations. There is also a parts library which contains approximately 1000 TTL and CMOS parts including their
Pads-PCBpackage physical and electrical descriptions. A library editor can be used to enter the user's own parts into the library. Pads-PCD costs $975.
(CAD Software inc., PO Box 1142, 119 Russell Street, Littleton, MA 01460, USA. Tel." (617) 486 9521)
New midrange computer and version of Lisp-Prime Common Lisp Prime has launched a midrange computer, the 2755 to act as a bridge between the 2350 and 2450 and Prime's topend computer systems, the 9755 and 9955-11. It supercedes the 2655 according to Prime, by offering up to 35% faster processing and twice the main memory. It can have 16 Mbyte of memory and 128 terminals directly connected. It is compatible with the rest of Prime's computers through the Primos operating system. Prime has also announced a version of Lisp-Prime Common Lisp. It is integrated with all Prime system software including Primos and Prime utilities. It was developed for Prime by Californiabased company, Lucid. Pamela Bale, Prime Computer UK's Marketing Director, said, 'Research shows that the world market for expert systems development products is growing at 50% a year and will be worth $675M worldwide by 1990.She added, 'Our product has been developed by the leading Lisp specialist. It conforms to the accepted industry standard. The target markets for expert systems include banking, finance, manufacturing, government, process
volume 19 number 3 april 1987
industries and education, according to Prime. Prices range from £6720 to £9600 depending on the model of Prime computer used. There are also discounts for subsequent licences. Prime has also reached agreement with ISI to offer expert systems software for Prime computer users. ISl's Savoir range of software is now available on the whole range of Prime
superminicomputers. Savoir provides a software framework, within which users can develop their own expert systems.
(Prime Computer (UK) Ltd, Primos House, 2-4 Lampton Road, Hounslow, Middx TW3 IJW, UK. Tel: 01-572 7400. Tx: 938371) (151 Ltd, 11 Oakdene Road, Redhill, Surrey RHI 6DT, UK. Tel: (0737) 71327)
Graphics card for PC XT or AT Densitron Computers has introduced a graphics card for the PC XT or AT. According to Densitron, it is suitable for use within the CADCAM environment for solid modelling and shading. The card combines a National 32016, a Hitachi 63484, a custom VLSl shading engine and a Silicon Graphics geometry engine. Densitron claims a performance of 1500 shaded 3D polygons/s and 7000 3D vectors/s. Resolution is 640 x 480 x 8 bits/pixel with a 16.7M colour look-up table. Other features include hidden surface removal, I Mbyte display list RAM and 512 kbyte of Eprom con-
taining a command set that includes Boolean operators. Software supplied with the board includes demonstration programs, diagnostics, VDI driver and a C library.
(Densitron Computers Ltd, Unit 4, Airport Trading Estate, Biggin Hill, Kent TN16 3BW, UK. Tel: (0959) 76331. Tx: 957134. Fax: 0959 71017)
Densitron's graphics board 161
ASCII editor contained within PadsPCB. CAD Software has a logic capture system under development and scheduled for release later this year. Components can be placed interactively, moved, rotated or swapped onto the opposite layer. Parts can be placed to within the nearest 0.001 in or on a placement matrix as created by the designer. Connection nets can be reordered so as to minimize connection length. Routing can be carried out either interactively or using automatic routines. Track widths can vary between 0.001-0.25 in. There are 16 colours available to distinguish between items and layers. A design rule check checks the board for air gap spacing violations. There is also a parts library which contains approximately 1000 TTL and CMOS parts including their
Pads-PCBpackage physical and electrical descriptions. A library editor can be used to enter the user's own parts into the library. Pads-PCD costs $975.
(CAD Software inc., PO Box 1142, 119 Russell Street, Littleton, MA 01460, USA. Tel." (617) 486 9521)
New midrange computer and version of Lisp-Prime Common Lisp Prime has launched a midrange computer, the 2755 to act as a bridge between the 2350 and 2450 and Prime's topend computer systems, the 9755 and 9955-11. It supercedes the 2655 according to Prime, by offering up to 35% faster processing and twice the main memory. It can have 16 Mbyte of memory and 128 terminals directly connected. It is compatible with the rest of Prime's computers through the Primos operating system. Prime has also announced a version of Lisp-Prime Common Lisp. It is integrated with all Prime system software including Primos and Prime utilities. It was developed for Prime by Californiabased company, Lucid. Pamela Bale, Prime Computer UK's Marketing Director, said, 'Research shows that the world market for expert systems development products is growing at 50% a year and will be worth $675M worldwide by 1990.She added, 'Our product has been developed by the leading Lisp specialist. It conforms to the accepted industry standard. The target markets for expert systems include banking, finance, manufacturing, government, process
volume 19 number 3 april 1987
industries and education, according to Prime. Prices range from £6720 to £9600 depending on the model of Prime computer used. There are also discounts for subsequent licences. Prime has also reached agreement with ISI to offer expert systems software for Prime computer users. ISl's Savoir range of software is now available on the whole range of Prime
superminicomputers. Savoir provides a software framework, within which users can develop their own expert systems.
(Prime Computer (UK) Ltd, Primos House, 2-4 Lampton Road, Hounslow, Middx TW3 IJW, UK. Tel: 01-572 7400. Tx: 938371) (151 Ltd, 11 Oakdene Road, Redhill, Surrey RHI 6DT, UK. Tel: (0737) 71327)
Graphics card for PC XT or AT Densitron Computers has introduced a graphics card for the PC XT or AT. According to Densitron, it is suitable for use within the CADCAM environment for solid modelling and shading. The card combines a National 32016, a Hitachi 63484, a custom VLSl shading engine and a Silicon Graphics geometry engine. Densitron claims a performance of 1500 shaded 3D polygons/s and 7000 3D vectors/s. Resolution is 640 x 480 x 8 bits/pixel with a 16.7M colour look-up table. Other features include hidden surface removal, I Mbyte display list RAM and 512 kbyte of Eprom con-
taining a command set that includes Boolean operators. Software supplied with the board includes demonstration programs, diagnostics, VDI driver and a C library.
(Densitron Computers Ltd, Unit 4, Airport Trading Estate, Biggin Hill, Kent TN16 3BW, UK. Tel: (0959) 76331. Tx: 957134. Fax: 0959 71017)
Densitron's graphics board 161