Coherent 4.0 Press Release
C.R. Harding
Coherent 386). I thought I'd post this for the people interested, it was
sent to me by Doug Peterson at MWC. Note that it *is* a press release
and as such contains quite a bit of marketing-speak, so take it with a
grain of salt, but there is a lot of info in there. Also note that I'm
in no way connected with MWC, just a satisfied customer.
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PRESS RELEASE
ISSUANT: MARK WILLIAMS CO.
DATE: MAY 11, 1992
SUBJECT: ANNOUNCING RELEASE OF 32-BIT VERSION OF COHERENT O/S (CLONE OF UNIX)
NORTHBROOK, Illinois, -- Mark Williams Company announces COHERENT 4.0, a
32-bit version of their best-selling $99.95 UNIX-compatible operating system.
COHERENT 4.0 is the successor to COHERENT 3.2, which has sold over 40,000
units since its release in May of 1990. Designed to attract individual as well
as small business users, COHERENT 4.0 improves upon the foundation laid by
earlier versions. Foremost among COHERENT 4.0's new features is a development
system which produces System V Intel BCS compliant COFF binaries that run on
many other compliant PC UNIX systems, such as The Santa Cruz Operation's (SCO)
SCO UNIX System V/386 Version 3.2.2, a licensee of AT&T's System V UNIX.
The ability to run System V COFF binaries gives COHERENT users access to the
vast software libraries of other PC UNIX vendors. "We should be able to run
many character based System V binaries and they should, likewise, be able to run
many of ours," says Robert Swartz, Mark Williams Company President.
Makes UNIX accessible: Smaller, Simpler, Affordable
COHERENT 4.0 is designed with the user in mind. The entire distribution
consists of 6 floppy disks and installs in under 1 hour, considerably less time
than PC UNIX's, such as SCO V.3.2 which contains 25 disks. COHERENT's
installation is easier and less complicated than SCO's. According to
Mr. Swartz, "The ability to run on machines with 1MB of RAM and 20MB hard disks,
as well as our easy installation proceedure, makes COHERENT accessible to
everyone. Similarly, COHERENT uses resources more efficiently. COHERENT's
kernel is around 100K, SCO's is more than 400K. COHERENT's 1200 page critically
acclaimed manual enables users to find things considerably faster than users who
have to search through SCO's 14 manuals."
A complete UNIX environment
COHERENT 4.0's development tools include an optimizing C compiler, a new
optimizing linker, and versions of lex, yacc, awk, make as well as termcap,
terminfo and curses. COHERENT 4.0 also comes with a new 386 macro-assembler.
The assembler is fully documented and supports conditional assembly, listings,
and assembly time variables. After porting their Fortran to C translator,
PROMULA.FORTRAN, to COHERENT 4.0, Promula Development Corporation's
Fred Goodman said, "...I am very impressed at how easily this went -- the entire
port required less than 4 hours." Other software packages that already run on
COHERENT 4.0 include: Basis Internationals's BBxProgression/3, Gimpel Software's
FlexeLint 4.0, and Acucobol, Inc.'s ACUCOBOL-85.
COHERENT 4.0 also contains versions of the traditional UNIX text processing
utilities, nroff and troff, along with support for the LaserJet(PCL) and
PostScript. These utilities are not available in PC UNIX releases.
For communication between machines, COHERENT comes with UUCP, ckermit and
kermit. COHERENT's administrative commands include several archiving
utilities, a Bourne shell, a Korn shell, System V style cron, virtual console
support, on-line manual pages and many of the popular Berkeley utilities.
A $99.95 System for Small Businesses and Individuals
Mark Williams Company plans to attract VAR's and individuals by offering them a
BCS compatible operating system with the features and functionality of UNIX.
"Because of its $99.95 price tag and minimal system requirements, COHERENT is
ideal for small business and individual users who want an affordable, yet
powerful multi-user operating system," says Mr. Swartz. To facilitate this,
COHERENT has built in support for multi-user cards made by ARNET Corp.,
Chase Research, Inc., Comtrol Corp, Connect Tech, Inc., DigiBoard, GTEK, Inc.,
Sea Level Systems, Specialix Corp., Sritek, Inc., and Stargate Technologies.
Market research shows that COHERENT will succeed in the marketplace because
it targets the much larger small business and individual markets instead of the
small workstation market. Citing research, mr. Swartz declared, "Examine the
UNIX marketplace. Workstations and GUI's have the sizzle and are glamorous,
but they are not what most UNIX users are buying. The average small business
PC UNIX runs a third party application package, such as Basis International's
BBxProgression/3, and supports 6-10 terminals. For the VAR's that supply these
businesses, price, support, simplicity, reliability, and ease-of-use are the
features that count."
Mark Williams Company believes that COHERENT 4.0 is the affordable UNIX
alternative that provides users with everything except UNIX'x price,
complexity, and size. Like its predecessors, COHERENT 4.0 comes complete
with program development, text, processing, communications and administrative
tools. PC Week's
William Zachmann says that "...for a mere hundred bucks...[COHERENT] may be
the best thing that has happened to UNIX yet..." And UNIX Today's Sean Fulton's
reaction was, "I can't believe it's not UNIX."
Supports most PC platforms
COHERENT 4.0 runs on 386 and 486 based IBM AT compatible computers. SCSI
host adapters from Adaptec, Seagate and Future Domain are supported, as are
IDE, RLL, MFM, ESDI and Perstor hard disk controllers. COHERENT 4.0 requires
a minimum of 1 MB of RAM and will support systems with up to 64MB of RAM. It
works with monochrome, CGA, EGA, and VGA/SVGA displays.
The Unique Newsletter's Tim Parker believes that COHERENT is a serious UNIX
system which will see rapid growth. Mark Williams Company Director of
Marketing Jay Alter couldn't agree more. "Now that we have a 32-bit version
that breaks the 64K barrier, we have received commitments from many applications
vendors to port their products to COHERENT. In addition, we have an incredibly
active and sophisticated user base that continues to grow. Over 40MB of
public domain source code has already been posted to our BBS."
Free support, Unlimited User License, Complete Documentation -- $99.95
Mark Williams Company continues to make every effort to keep the price of
COHERENT down and to provide customers with maximum value. COHERENT
4.0 costs $99.95. This price includes unlimited free technical support, an
unlimited user license, and a 1200 page manual. Registered users can upgrade
to COHERENT 4.0 from COHERENT 3.2 for $59.95. COHERENT 4.0, and the COHERENT
4.0 update, are available from the Mark Williams Company, 60 Revere Drive,
Northbrook, Illinois, 60062, United States of America.
Phone; 1-800-627-5967
or.. 1-708-291-6700
Fax; 1-708-291-6750
For Sales Literature or electronic ordering, e-mail complete mailing
address to...
(If ordering, tell us the size of your 'A' drive. Update customers are
required to also include their serial number.)
sa...@mwc.com
or
uunet!mwc!sales
For specific technical information, e-mail... (No literature sent.)
sup...@mwc.com
or
uunet!mwc!support
Compuserv; 76256,427
BIX; join mwc
Internet Forum; comp.os.coherent
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:) Happy Trails To You... Mark Williams Co.
:) Until we meet again... 708-291-6700 X111
Reply via -- uunet!mwc!htrails
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