Dedicated Synapse-1 neural network computer should be the star of the Hannover show
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG is to come to market in the next month with a neural computer that was developed with funding from the European Community. The Synapse-1, jointly developed by the company and the University of Mannheim over three years, will be launched at Hannover and will ship in April or May. Sources say that Siemens Nixdorf has sold a machine to Scotland Yard in the UK for fingerprint recognition and that it could have a contract with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Siemens Nixdorf went to the university for very large scale integration hardware development. The MA16 signal processor, used for neural nodes within the machine, is fabricated by Siemens AG, integrates 610,000 transistors and is rated at 400m multiplication and addition operations a second. For software development, Siemens Nixdorf is using C++ for object orientation, plus a neural library called Natural APL (this has nothing to do with the traditional APL). The machine, which comes with eight MA16s and 128Mb memory as standard, costs about $200,600. It can be used for commercial applications too and Siemens is looking into this at present.
Tapes, disk array, client-server software for mainframe
Siemens Nixdorf’s other up-and-coming product launches also impinge upon the mainframe sector. The firm is scheduled to unveil the Tape Cassette Archiving System 3594. This is aimed at small to medium businesses using over 200 cassettes, and can handle up to 3,040 of the things. For users with a lot to remember, it can thus handle from 500Gb to 7.2Tb of data. Also waiting behind the curtain is the Disk Storage System 3421, which houses 3.5 hard drives with capacities of 2.1Gb each. It can thus store 134Gb of data. Those users requiring something to keep their eyes open at Cebit will no doubt benefit from version 2.0 of FHS-Doors, Siemens Nixdorf’s graphical user interface for BS2000/OSD applications. The system can now free up space on client machines by storing screen masks on the BS2000/OSD unit, providing them only when they are called. Of course, BS2000 user interfaces are all very well, but you need something to run them on. Fear not: using Siemens Nixdorf’s Infplan-Client applications generator and proprietary language, users can develop planning, reporting and information procedures. The software can be hooked up to Windows applications using Microsoft Corp’s Dynamic Data Exchange technology. Indeed, it has been integrated into the latter’s Excel spreadsheet program as a standard through menu extension. Now, Infplan commands can be operated on a BS2000 machine from the personal computer, with Windows picking up the results.
Pentium machines sport Peripheral Component Interconnect bus
Talking of personal computers, Siemens Nixdorf will be launching its ecologically sound PCD-4L/VL desktop personal computer which conform to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energystar power-saving standard. There will also be a Pentium machine running at 60MHz which will support Intel’s Peripheral Component Interconnect standard. It is catchily named the PCD-5H/PCI, giving rise, we’re sure, to all sorts of radio jingle possibilities. Meanwhile, the firm’s tower machines include the PCE-5S, which runs at 90MHz and includes support for the VESA local bus graphics standard. The new PCD-5T Pentium-based machine is designed to be short but sweet in its minitower cabinet, while the PCD-4NE machine is a notebook computer driven by an 80486SL chip, chugging along at 33MHz. The company will also be launching a high-end notebook, the PCD-4NCsl/33. This uses an active matrix colour display.
Banking hardware and software gets a facelift
Anyone from the banking world shouldn’t be disappointed by the firm’s banking bonanza. Among both software and hardware products to be displayed at the Cebit show will be Krebis, a personal computer-based loan processing package, the Telephone Banking System, from Siemens Nixdorf’s GSSE subsidiary, and the CSC/450 Automatic
Teller Machine, which will dispense cash and take cash deposits. Unlike some liveware tellers, the machine isn’t programmed to give you a smug grin when it tells you that your account is overdrawn. Also of interest to banking professionals will be the Samos-DE (Data Entry) and Samos-MDE (Manual Data Entry) data transaction components to enter and process undefined documents, and the FIT and Samos-FIT (forms Image Terminal) software, for scanning in forms. There will also be the Insurance 2000 will be shown, for insurance companies. On the point-of-sale systems side inherited from Nixdorf, the company will show for the first time the modular Beetle concept, centred around the Beetle/Box, a terminal to attach peripherals. The peripherals will include a pinpad for handling electronic payments with Eurocheque cards, a flat panel liquid crystal diode display and a mobile hand-held scanner.
…and some of the best of the rest at the show
Siemens Nixdorf is introducing some software engineering tools at the show, including version two of the Maestro II Construction Team Workstation, which has been put together with Softlab GmBH to work with its UTM Universal Transaction Monitor running on the BS2000, and for the Sesam and UDS Universal Database System databases. It will unveil version 3.7 of its Siagraph-Design two-dimensional computer-aided design system. This has also been coupled with the three-dimensional version for those that want it, maintains links between the various parts of a design and automatically updates their relationships when changes have been made. The company will also be presenting some office communication products and services as part of its Officeworld. Star of the show will be version 1.1 of Workparty, Siemens Nixdorf’s electronic workflow processing system. Version 1.1 of Workparty will function across multiple servers and now supports Oracle. The firm’s Comfodesk graphical user interface will also be shown. On the multimedia front, the Sietec Systemtechnik subsidiary will be operating a multimedia conference centre and a multimedia show. The focus will be on Multimedia administration office for geographically separated case-file-oriented document processing, communication and information supply. Customers’ applications will be used to demonstrate how multimedia can work for showgoers. And IGS Care is a management system for environmental protection and job safety, handling the administration of all the regulations and codes.
