Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 4000 Wins BYTE's Best of
Show Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- LAS VEGAS, November 19, 1997 -
Hewlett-Packard's
LaserJet 4000 won BYTE's Best of Show award today at COMDEX Fall '97.
BYTE's awards recognize new products that are innovative, will have
impact on the industry, and are "way cool". The winners and finalists
in other categories are:
Best Technology
Cyrix and its Media Center technology reference design, based on the
company's new
200-MHZ, x86 Media processor, won Best Technology. Cyrix has added a
new wrinkle to the network computer versus personal computer debate by
developing and affordable PC-compatible information appliance that
supports a wide range of multimedia functions In a PC that cost under
1000, and as low as $500.
Best Storage
Sony's HiFD, the winner of Best Storage, may finally replace the 1.44
MB floppy disk. HiFD holds up to 200 MB per floppy disk and is
backward-compatible with 1.44 MB floppies.
Finalists:
IBM's 16.1 1-GB Deskstar 16 GP hard drive is the first to use IBM's
giant magneto-resistive head technologies, which will facilitate real
densities of 2-3 times current limits. Iomega's click! drive brings
removable zip technology down to a 2-inch 40MB drive.
Best Productivity Application
The winner was ParaGraph Calligrapher 5, a handwriting recognition
program for Windows CE that makes working on a hand held system much
easier, no matter how illegible your handwriting.
Finalists:
Motorola's Japanese Handwriting Recognition software allows input
devices to recognize
handwritten Japanese characters in several different character sets.
Lernout and Hauspie's
VoiceXpress offers continuous speech recognition that includes advanced
voice controlled editing commands that let you format and layout
documents.
Best Desktop System
Tri-Star's StarStation Star SXE Workstation combines a 533-MHZ
21164 PC processor and
3D graphics acceleration, resulting in a high-performance PC that costs
under $2600.
Finalists:
IBM's Intellistation M Pro NT workstation is powered by single or dual
300-MHZ Pentium II.
Gateway's 2000's successor to the Destination Big Screen PC/TV, the
Destination DMC, includes a 32-inch display that's suitable for
computing, Web surfing, or just watching TV.
Best Peripheral
Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 4000 won Best Peripheral as well as
overall Best of Show. The
LaserJet 4000 has a print resolution of 1200 dpi, comes standard with
4MB, and includes JetSend, an emerging standard that lets connect and
share information about each other's capabilities.
Finalists:
Sony's 400PS is a 19-inch, short-depth monitor. Ositech Communications'
Jack of Spades PC card combines Fast Ethernet and 56Kbps connectivity
with the ability to work over analog phone lines and through you
office's digital PBX.
Best Networking Infrastructure
The winner, 3Com U.S. Robotics' Cable Modem VSP and VSP Plus, supports
the MCNS cable modem standard, providing up to 27 Mbps downstream and
with the VSP Plus, a 33 Kbps upstream phone connection, all for $250.
Finalists:
The finalists were Bay Networks' Instant Internet (100) which makes it
easy to connect your
network to the Internet and delivers 56Kbps analog and ISDN access to
IPS and IP LAN clients. AT&T's WorldNet is a Virtual Private
Network Service that combines high levels of service and diverse access
options, including frame relay, and more than 300 dial-up points of
presence.
Best Development Software
NuMega Technologies' True Time Visual Basic Edition, the winner of Best
Development
software, helps programmers determine which parts of their
applications, including ActiveX controls from third parties, needs
performance tuning.
Finalists:
GEO publishing's Emblaze Web Charger lets Web masters selectively
compress parts of images, drastically reducing the size of JPEGs and
other downloaded files. NEC Systems Laboratory's Auraline Java
Multimedia Toolkit makes it easier to add sound and motion to your Web
site.
Best Portable
The winner of Best Portable, Sony's PCG-505 combines magnesium alloy
and a 10.4-inch TFT SVGA LCD to create a system that's a mere 0.95
inches thick and 2.97 pounds light. It includes a 133 MHZ Pentium with
MMX and touch-typist's practical keyboard.
Finalists:
IBM's Thinkpad 560X is a 233 MHZ Pentium with MMX in a highly portable,
4.1-pound, 1.2-inch thick package for $4299. Sharp's Mobilon is a
Windows CE 2.0 machine that starts at $599 (a $399 add-on turns the
Mobilon into a 640 by 480 resolution digital camera.)
Best Networking Tool and Applications
The winner is Citrix's PICAsso, brings Citrix's thin client
architecture to multiple platforms, as well as delivering audio to
Windows terminals.
Finalists:
Lucent's Inferno is a very small OS that runs nearly everywhere.
Version 2.0 adds a lightweight
version of Java, and suite of productivity apps (like email and a
phonebook) for small devices.
Novell's Novell Storage Services is the next file system for NetWare --
it's fast, handles incredibly large files and volumes, and offers
incredibly fast rebuild capabilities.
Best Server
The winner was Axil Computer's Northbridge, an 8-way, 200-MHZ Pentium
Pro-based rack
mounted Windows NT server.
Finalist:
Land 5 Icebox Pentium Pro I20 server, with its unique RAID SCSI support
for both disk drives and tape drives, is a business-class mission
critical server. The server is also I20 ready, thanks to an onboard
i960 processor.
Best Multimedia Hardware/Software
ATI Technologies' All-in-Wonder Pro adds faster 3-D graphics, a TV
tuner with NTSC output, video zooming and instant replay; still-and
full-motion video capturing to disk, close-captioned text searching and
recording, and many other features.
Finalists:
Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE 64D is a PCI sound card with a unique
motherboard connector. It improves backward compatibility with programs
that one would expect to find in ISA soundboards. Pinnacle Systems'
miro Video DV300 is a hardware/software digital-video editing package
that has an amazing range of professional-level features for under
$800.
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