.IF DSK1.C2 .CE 6 *IMPACT/99* by JACK SUGHRUE Box 459 East Douglas, MA 01516 IMPACT/99 BLUE RIBBON 1989 WINNER If this annual award could be given to the same company two years in a row, Asgard Software (with its incredibly varied and impressive catalog) would certainly be very much in contention again. So I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision this year. Instead, it was a clear choice: MYARC is the winner of the 1989 IMPACT/99 BLUE RIBBON AWARD. MYARC is one of the few companies still making anything for TI owners on a steady basis. But it isn't just ANYTHING that they are making; they have given us the most powerful hardware and software that exists for us. They haven't just provided enhancements; they have given us a future. MYARC (the vision, the dream, of former TI employee Lou Phillips ) has been around a long time. Since 1982, actually, when Lou developed Winchester hard-disk capabilities which sold better in other countries than here (as we were mostly all fledglings at the time). Later he produced a not-very-successful competitor to the TI PE Box (still flooding the interested market at the time). So he moved into the card development. And there MYARC (which is a mutilated acronymic form of "Microcomputer Architects") began to blossom. From a personal viewpoint (as this column has always been - for better or worse), MYARC and I have had a perfect relationship. I own lots of their products, and I have never had to speak to or write to anyone about them. They have been easy to use and have never broken down. And they have made my computing life much richer. A few years ago my TI Disk Controller Card was behaving erratically. Lots of my friends recommended the MYARC card. Got it. Loved it from the minute I pulled out my old card and plugged in the new. It immediately made my original Shugart SSSD into a DSSD drive, so I doubled my potential on every disk and no longer had to "flippy" anything. Not only did the MYARC Controller work smoothly, but it was faster than my old controller, and it had inside a built-in disk cataloguer which could be accessed from anywhere by CALL DIR(n). I foget how wonderful this is until I get to someone else's non-MYARC TI. And it had MYARC's legendary Disk Management System. Still my first choice among a pile of excellent systems and one that remains constantly configured in FUNNELWEB on my RAM. (But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.) Lots of programmers learned a lot of techniques from this DM, but for users like myself it opened up a large world (particularly within its futuristic Utility Menu). Now my drive was old, so I thought I'd get a new DSDD one and add a power supply for my old one. I did. Again, the controller took everything in stride. Switched from one kind of drive to another with no heavy breathing. As my computer madness grew I knew I'd never be happy without a RAMdisk or some extended memory. MYARC had just come out with their 512 card to go along with their 256 and 128 cards. As I had such great fortune with MYARC, I bought their 512. Took out my 32K card, plugged in the new. Just like the controller, it worked perfectly from that moment. I had a LARGE RAMdisk that I could partition as a buffer for my printer and have lots of options available. But did I really need all that space? I didn't think so at the time. I wondered why I hadn't purchased the smaller cards with my hard-earned pennies. However, within a couple weeks, I had all the FUNNELWEB and PLUS! files I use regularly (and some other very specific utilities and games) all on a RAM load with an automatic 80K set aside for buffing (which turned out to be one of the greatest enhancements I ever added to my TI). The RAM portion is wonderful to operate. Everything I need is THERE at the moment I want it. All the word processing tools. All the assembly tools. All the utilities, in short, that I always used to load one-by-each as needed. In those days the thing NOT in memory was the thing I needed most at any given time. And my controller? Well, I just designated my 512 card as Drive 3, and it went about its business as if I was hardly given it an adult task. Its "ho-hum" manner showed me that the design of the thing was ingenious. No fuss. No muss. No bother. I like things that way. Now, here I was with a MYARC-stuffed full-blown system when my extra SSSD original drive (in the power-supply box) died after much faithful service. Six years is a long time, I've been told. Particularly for the kind of use I give the drives. So I bought a couple DSDD half-heights on sale, put them in the P-Box, put the DSDD from the box into the added power supply, and ran my software. But all my software had been geared to making Drive 3 as my RAMdisk. My controller winked at me. "Call the extra drive Drive 4," it said, "and keep the RAM at 3." I took its advice. Now I have all four drives (with 512 at 3) operating quickly and flawlessly and wondered how I ever did with three drives or two. Can't even imagine how I survived with one. [There's something very obsessive about this kind of behavior.] Although I am the ultimate non-techie, even I can plug in cards and (as a last resort) read manuals. MYARC makes it so easy, you don't have to read the manuals in most cases, though they warn the user NEVER to do anything without first reading the manual completely. After a few years of bliss with MYARC, I was pleased as punch to learn that they were developing a NEW COMPUTER that would be compatible with the TI. Not just an upgrade. But a NEW COMPUTER. Well, like ALL (without exception) new products in the computer industry world wide, the announcements of its coming dragged on and on. But each stage was publicized to the point of annoyance. Probably what was most annoying were the doomsayers. They dumped all over MYARC for the delays. It's too bad, really. The kinds of stuff coming out for still-manufactured computers does not raise the ire with the endless delays because there is so much else being manufactured and released. With MYARC, it was the only show in town. So it got spotlighted. And, in some people's minds, got a bad rep. Not deserved. Not deserved at all. If you're the ONLY company making a compatible upgrade for an orphaned computer, you are taking a great risk to begin with. You get no support to continue with. And you get to live with what you have created to end with. And what MYARC ended with is a minor miracle. The GENEVE (9640) costs about twice what the keyboards sold separately costs. Less than twice what the different RAMdisks costs. For under $500 99ers can now buy a computer that was almost 100% compatible with every piece of software they own. It has 640K built in. It has a full-size enhanced keyboard. Can partition a huge buffer for those novels of yours. It has the best graphic resolution in the business. It comes with some pretty impressive software and ports for mouse, printer, modem, etc. The GENEVE is the only answer for TI upgrading. Thank goodness it's a great answer. In addition to the powerful DOS, the software includes MYWORD (an excellent 80-column processor), Advanced BASIC (that goes far beyond Extended BASIC), Pascal, GPL, and a cartridge downloader. Early owners (like myself) have been receiving updates of all the software free. So our machine keeps getting better and better. As a matter of fact, there is another whole package being sent out by MYARC this month. I can't wait. What a service this is! This computer has so much speed that you have to set most software on slower modes in order to handle the difference. And, like all the other stuff from MYARC, this computer is on a card and just plugs right into your P-Box. (The manual is huge and includes quite a section on the superb Advanced BASIC.) It will take quite a bit of time and effort on the user's part to use the GENEVE to its full potential (if one can ever reach the full potential of any computer). There are also many options (such as a 512 card) that can be added to the GENEVE. There is also a growing software support. MYART is a mouse-served, high-resolution package. Most TI software makers are creating GENEVE compatibility right at the start. And, now!!! Before I even get a chance to start to master the GENEVE, MYARC has done it again! They have just released the first Hard and Floppy Disk Controller with Streamer Tape Backup Support with MYARC DM-V, the most intuitive DM on the market. The Controller includes a real built-in time clock for file stamping; interfaces with standard floppy, hard, and streamer drives; support of up to four 5 1/4 and/or 3 1/2 drives in any configuration; provides RAMdisk speed of a hard-drive transfer rate of 5Mbit per second. And so on. I have no plans in the immediate future for hard-driving, but it sure is nice to know that MYARC is providing the options if I do. It is also nice to know that some of the best minds in the TI World Community have participated in the creation of these great MYARC advances. It is a real pleasure to present this annual award to a company that has the TI owners in mind and who has brought us into the hi-tech age enjoyed by so many other computers. Their continued support in the face of a lot of adversity is not just commendable but astounding. MYARC doesn't deserve the bum rep given to it by the loud (but fortunately small in number) complainers who seem to need a scapegoat for their own self esteem. Congratulations, MYARC! You're doing a great job, Lou! Keep it up. Հ