Southtown Star from Tinley Park, Illinois • 21

B-7 uter THE STAR: THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1984 File Comp Frustrated by big guys disinterest. Perry Lamba builds his own IBM PC act-alike spelling check, mail list, filing list and electronic mail programs. NOW, IN the wake of IBM's recent price cuts, Lamba has cut the price, the size of the internal memory and the free software package from the basic Tava PC. For $1,995 you get the computer with 64 kilobytes of internal memory, two double-sided disk drives and a monochrome monitor. For the same price, Tava will sell you the machine equipped to display color graphis instead of monochrome text, but you'll have to pay extra for a color monitor to display it.

An extra 64 kilobytes of internal memory costs an additional $60, to bring the machine back to the 128-kiIobyte level. Internal memory can be expanded well beyond that level, just as in IBM's personal computer. The MS-DOS operating system is sold separately for $60, but it does not include the BASIC programming language. Lamba said he is negotiating with Microsoft corporation to provide BASIC. While not essential for using most prepackaged software, BASIC is the most popular programming language for microcomputers, and there are many specialized software programs that do require it.

By comparison, IBM now sells its basic machine with 256 kilobytes of internal memory, two double-sided disk drives, a monochrome monitor and adapter card to operate it, plus PC-DOS and BASIC, for $3,067. (PC-DOS and MS-DOS are the same operating system under different names.) Tava also has some higher-priced models. It has just announced a new Turbo Tava PC" that uses a faster microprocessing chip to run 65 percent faster than the IBM and standard Tava. That computer will sell for $2,495 in basic configuration. The chip is an Intel 8088-2, which Lamba siad IBM also is planning to introduce in its personal computers.

THERE ALSO is a hard-disk version, which goes IBM one better by containing two floppy disk drives in addition to the built-in 10-megabyte hard disk a configuration that should speed the laborious but crucial job of creating back-up copies of hard-disk files on floppies. The standard hard-disk Tava PC 10X had been priced at $3,995, but now has been reduced to $3,395. The faster Turbo Tava PC 10X will go for $3,895 when it goes into production later this summer. Price is really what Tava has to sell. Unless the price is substantially lower than those of IBM's products, there is little reason not to buy an IBM.

With the cut-rate price comes the chance that some IBM programs will not run on the Tava. The Tava company is offering its sixth version of an internal programming instruction chip, called the ROM chip, and is designing a seventh version all in the quest to make the machine as compatible as possible with the IBM without violating IBM's copyright protection on its own internal ROM programming. The machine I tested, equipped with 256K of internal memory, ran fine under an IBM PC-DOS disk and it ran Lotus 1-2-3 borrowed from an IBM. It had trouble with a special terminal emulation program that configures the computer to operate like a Data General corporation terminal connected to a Data General mainframe computer. That program made extensive use of the "ALT" key to call special functions and would not work properly until Tava sent me an earlier version of its ROM chip to install.

(THAT GAVE me a reason to peek inside the metal-encased chassis, which appears to be well built.) Lamba said he is now replacing ROM chips free for customers who complain about compatibility problems, but he said he intends to begin charging for the replacements in the future. By RICHARD O'REILLY Lot Angelet Times Perry Lamba was an aggressive mail-order marketer of discounted computers and peripheral equipment two years ago when he went to a computer dealers' show in Las Vegas in search of more brands to distribute. What he got he says, was ignored and insulted. Now he's trying to get even. When a couple of leading manufacturers refused to do business with him, or, Lamba says, even to treat him courteously, he decided to make his own computer.

IT TOOK a year of design and production preparation, but now Lamba, an electrical engineer who immigrated to the United States from India when he was 18, is head of his own computer manufacturing firm, Tava corporation, with headquarters in Irvine, Calif. His computer is an IBM PC clone nearly Identical in appearance and performance to the machine it imitates. Among the clones, the Tava PC ranks among the most compatible. It uses the same keyboard layout, the same Intel 8088 microprocessor chip, the same double-sided disk drives, each formatted to store 360 kilobytes of programming and data, and accepts IBM expansion cards in five empty slots at the rear of its chassis. Tava also supplies two serial ports in addition to the single parallel port that IBM gives.

The pricing has undergone two changes since the machine was introduced last November. Its introductory price, with 128 kilobytes of internal memory and two disk drives, was $1,995. Several months ago the price was raised to $2,395 and Tava bundled a misnamed and limited-use software package called "The Ultimate" that included word Acorn library to host K-9 demonstration Acorn public library will host a special demonstration given by mpmhpN nnrf fhoir Hnere frnm V.O of America Saflnss training, of Calumet City, on July 11 at 7 p.m. in the library's multipurpose room. Instructors from K-9 will lead the dogs through a variety of obedience maneuvers at the novice, open and utility levels.

Many of the dogs that will perform are title-holders of CD, CDX and UD degrees from the U.S. and Canada. Pointers will be given on the basics of dog training, from puppyhood on. The instructors will try to answer questions from viewers on their dog training programs. Audience size is limited due to availability of space.

The program is free, but tickets will be distributed to the first 25 children who sign up at the black desk in the children's room. No phone reservations will be accepted. Children must be at least seven years of age to attend. The program 9Wo passbook for peopteitocaiit a it i Hit I v5v if iff li- 5M iltmWim 1 I win iasi approximately one nour. Viewers are not to bring their dogs.

The Acorn public library is located at 15624 South Central avenue, Oak Forest. Jehovah's Witnesses -area convention set i or ticero location Watchtower Bible and Tract society of New York will sponsor a series of district conventions of Jehovah's Witneses during the summer to mark its 100th year as a movement The theme for the 1984 conventions is "Kingdom Increase" and Hawthorne race course, Cicero, is the site for this area's convention today through Sunday. During the convention, a public address by J. Wilson, "A Government That Accomplishes What Man Cannot," will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday.

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