Washington, D.C. Ð Talus Computer created a stir at the East Coast Developer Conference in January by showing a NEXTSTEP portable running in color for the first time. NeXT is also working on its own solution to portable color, according to sources. NEXTSTEP has always required a color portable to run. The environment, however, appears in black and white because portables generally have eight-bit color, whereas NEXTSTEP requires 16-bit color. The Talus color driver simulates 16 bits of color using the eight bits available.
The company is negotiating with at least one NEXTSTEP OEM for use of the driver in a color system, according to Steve Sarich, president of Talus. Sources at NeXT said the company is not interested in the Talus driver but is currently developing several approaches that will solve the problem. "We looked at the Talus driver and found it to be too muddy, with unacceptable character resolution," said an engineer at NeXT.
NeXT is working on two solutions for inclusion in NEXTSTEP 3.3, according to the source. One is an eight-bit color version of NEXTSTEP that will open up the operating system to a much wider range of platforms. A large segment of the SPARC workstation line is based on eight-bit color, and this solution is required to complete NeXT's port to these machines. "Eight-bit will also open up a large universe of lower-cost Super VGA-equipped Intel machines to NEXTSTEP," said the source.
The second solution will be drivers for the newest true 16-bit color portables, which are due out later this year. This approach will be relatively simple, according to NeXT, once the machines are available Ð but they are expected to be expensive at first. NeXT expects to demonstrate its color-portable options at NeXTWORLD Expo in June and make them available in NEXTSTEP 3.3 later this year.