As reported briefly (CI No 1,783), IBM has added multimedia features to the PS/2 to create the PS/2 Ultimedia Model M57 SLC. Based on the new IBM proprietary 386SLC chip, the system features ActionMedia II digital recording and playback of video and sound – jointly developed with Intel Corp, as part of the two companies’ DVI Digital-Video Interactive technology co-operation. Also featured are IBM TouchSelect add-on touch screens. Enhancements to existing IBM multimedia products include M-Control Program, M-Audio and Video Capture adaptors. The PS/2 ActionMedia II adaptor, also new, digitally records and plays back high-quality, full-motion video, photographic images, animation and high fidelity sound. Jointly developed by IBM and Intel, PS/2 ActionMedia II adaptor brings DVI technology to the desktop computer. The adaptor, IBM claims, offers twice the processing power, higher video quality and costs about 40% less than the original Intel ActionMedia 750 which was announced on a limited availability basis last year. It also requires only one slot on the PS/2 and uses a minimum of PS/2 and operating system resources. The ActionMedia II subsystem enables PS/2 users to create, store, retrieve, edit, update, network and manage audio and video objects and applications as they would data objects and applications. ActionMedia II products digitally compress and decompress analogue video, audio and still images. An ActionMedia II Developer’s Toolkit is also available. ActionMedia II can be used with Micro Channel Intel 80386- and 80486-based PS/2s, as well as AT bus PS/2s (Models 35SX and 40SX). DVI uses a programmable architecture, and supports the baseline, 9-bit still-image processing format established by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEG. The new IBM add-on touch screens fit existing PS/2 displays, enable touch pressure sensitivity to 256 levels – the same strain guage technology used in the IBM 8516 Touch Display 14 monitor. The TouchSelect snaps onto existing PS/2 screens, and its two models fit the 12 8513 monitor and the 19 7554 Industrial Graphics Display.
