Slate signs agreements with six pen hardware vendors to promote Day-Timer software
Slate Corp of Scottsdale, Arizona has announced six agreements with pen hardware manufacturers which it hopes will help speed the early adoption of its Day-Timer Pen Scheduler software, just announced. The software, designed for pen computers, is designed around the Day-Timer daily planning system, and runs on Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing and Go Corp PenPoint. The six separate agreements were with a firm called MicroSlate, Momenta Corp, NEC Corp, NCR Corp, Poqet Computer Corp and Samsung Co. In licensing agreements with NEC and Samsung, each party plans to bundle Slate’s Day-Timer Pen Scheduler software with its pen hardware. In an agreement with NCR, the two companies will work together to offer the Day-Timer product on the NCR 3125 pen-based computer. In addition, separate co-marketing agreements have been made with MicroSlate Corp and Momenta Inc. Under the new agreements, the companies will join up with Slate to develop marketing programmes.
Kurta Corp forms dedicated division to market cordless pen technology
Phoenix, Arizona-based Kurta Corp, specialist in cordless pen technology, desktop graphics tablets and large-scale digitisers, says it has formed a dedicated division to focus on the emerging pen-based computer OEM market. The Pen Systems Products Division’s mission is to market a high-performance, low-power pen system, selling direct to system designers and manufacturers for integration with pen-based portable computers and peripherals. Kurta’s pen system features the cordless Kurta Lite-Touch Pen, designed specifically for pen-based computer products, supporting the handwriting, selecting and gesturing motions. Kurta’s says its offering is currently compatible with Foster City, California-based Go Corp’s PenPoint, Windows 3.1 for Pen and Computer Intelligence Corp’s Pen-DOS.
Scriptel, Mitsui join to sell digitiser systems in Europe, Pacific Rim
Columbus, Ohio-based Scriptel Corp, manufacturer of pen-input technology hardware, and general trading company Mitsui & Co Ltd of Tokyo, have reached a preliminary agreement for the distribution and sale of Scriptel digitiser systems in European and Pacific Rim countries. During the next 90 days, Mitsui and Scriptel will work together to determine suitable manufacturing partners for additional vendor sources to meet Scriptel’s increasing customer list in Europe and Far Eastern countries, with anticipated production start-up this autumn for most customers. Scriptel and Mitsui expect to reach a detailed formal agreement within the next several months. Scriptel has signed several agreements over the last 18 months with Wang Laboratories Inc, NCR Corp, Apple Computer Inc and a company called SuperScript. In recent months, Microbytes Daily reports, Scriptel has also entered into several engineering development agreements. From those agreements, Scriptel plans to add six new OEM customers this year, and Mitsui will handle direct customer service. Three Mitsui offices have been designated to start the effort – Mitsui & Co in Tokyo, MEE Mitsui Electronics Europe in Neuss, Germany, and Mitsui Comtek Corp in Saratoga, California.
SunDisk uses first 8M Flash chip in
IDE solid-state mass store for pen computers SunDisk Corp has just launched what it claims is the first 8M-bit Flash EEPROM chip. The chip is currently undergoing product qualification at a Japanese foundry, and will soon be shipped in volume incorporated within SunDisk’s solid-state mass storage systems. The new chip uses a small patented Flash EEPROM cell fabricated using an 0.8-micron process. It is based on a scalable technology, and SunDisk expects to begin production of 16Mb and 64Mb devices in the next three to four years. SunDisk also claims to be the only supplier to date with a 4M-bit Flash EEPROM in production – developed jointly with AT&T Co’s AT&T Electronics. On-chip resources are provided for erasing and writing 512-byte sectors, and for detecting and correcting errors. All erase and write operations ar
e verified, and on-chip diagnostics allow for fast testing. SunDisk’s system approach to chip design, the company says, enables media formatting to be used to achieve high manufacturing yield. Endurance of a typical cell is greater than 1m write and erase cycles. And on-chip support for automatic defect-mapping is said to well-nigh eliminate endurance as an issue. SunDisk does not plan to sell its 8M-bit Flash EEPROM chips direct. Mass storage systems using an array of these chips in conjunction with SunDisk’s controller to achieve high storage capacities are available immediately. Santa Clara-based SunDisk Corp has what it is heralding as the first IDE solid-state mass storage system for pen-based computers. The SDI Series mass storage system will be offered to portable system builders as an embedded primary storage device in formatted capacities from 2.5Mb to 40Mb. SunDisk claims higher storage capacity, and a lower cost, than any other solid-state read-write memory system. The mass storage system is designed to deliver maximum ruggedness, performance, and data storage capacity, while minimising weight and battery power requirements. It uses SunDisk’s 8M-bit Flash EEPROM, surviving up to 500Gs of operating shock – someone dropping the thing on the floor from arm’s length – and 15Gs of operating vibration as generated by the dashboard of an articulated lorry. The new product’s IDE interface is MS-DOS compatible. No additional driver software or technology-dependent file system is needed. It is claimed to require 80 to 100 times less power than a hard disk. SunDisk will sell the products direct to OEM customers, evaluation systems shipping now, production starting May. Evaluation units are $660, $1,050, $1,460, $2,920, $5,840 for 2.6Mb, 5.2Mb, 10.4Mb, 20.9Mb, 41.9Mb systems respectively. In OEM production quantities, products will ship at under $50 per Megabyte. SunDisk specialises in proprietary Flash technology-based mass storage.
