Redwood City Ð NeXT was at press time on track to ship NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 for Intel Processors and Motorola hardware in the first week of November. Although it sports a few new features, 3.2 is primarily a more robust version of the initial Intel release, 3.1 and sports a new version of SoftPC, new drivers, and bug fixes. NEXTSTEP Developer 3.2 also includes initial support for Portable Distributed Objects (PDO).
"Swiss Bank is running betas of both 3.2 and PDO, and we're pleased with both. This is special because generally we are pretty brutal on operating systems. But NeXT has finally gotten a quality-control department," said Dwight Koop, executive director of information technology for Swiss Bank Corporation.
A demo version of the new SoftPC 3.2 for NEXTSTEP for Intel Processors is included on the CD-ROM for NEXTSTEP 3.2. It will work for 30 days, after which users must purchase the $249 product to continue using it.
Unlike previous versions, SoftPC 3.2 is not an emulator. It provides direct access to the Intel processor in the machine and lets users choose from two operating modes. Full-screen mode takes over the environment and runs at full-processor speed. Users can toggle between NEXTSTEP and DOS using a hot key.
SoftPC will also run as a window within NEXTSTEP. Although slower than full-screen mode, this mode utilizes NEXTIME technology, which NeXT provided to Insignia, to poke a hole through Display PostScript, significantly increasing performance.
According to NeXT, SoftPC will not run some Windows programs that require enhanced-mode operation, such as FrameMaker's new version. SoftPC also has trouble with some graphical DOS programs and will run VGA-based programs only in full-screen mode.
Enhanced driver support in 3.2 greatly expands the number of supported configurations. The ATI Graphics Ultra Pro and S3 805 drivers have been enhanced, and the S3 928 driver is now supported. A set of APIs lets third parties write dynamically loadable boot drivers and sound drivers. Full 32-bit color and a variety of sound cards are also supported.
Although the PDO system is a separate product, NEXTSTEP 3.2 provides crucial support for it. According to NeXT, the PDO system was on track to be released in mid-November.
The DriverKit in the developer version provides tools to simplify the task third parties face when writing additional drivers that let hardware work with the OS. The new release also includes enhancements to the HeaderViewer and ProjectBuilder applications.
NEXTSTEP 3.2 costs the same as 3.1: $795 for the user version and $1995 for the developer. Upgrades are free to users who registered 3.1 before October 31 and cost $195 and $495 for purchasers of earlier versions. Purchasers of the Evaluation Kit must pay full price to upgrade.