GOZARESH-E-COMPUTER
Computer Report
Vol. 14, No. 116
November-December 1992
Publisher : Informatics Society of Iran (ISI)
Manager : Ebrahim N. Mashayekh
Editor-in-Chief : Ali A. Parsa
Assistant Editor : Saeed Vahid
Circulation: CR is published bimonthly by ISI. Please address your
subscription requests to: Anoosh Hosseini, P.O.Box 61622, Sunnyvale,
CA 94088 USA.
membership: Annual subscription is included in membership fee.
Non-member price: US$ 25 per year ( 6 copies). CR features original and
translated articles, news and reviews on all aspects of computers in Iran and
abroad.
Submissions: Submit you article to: The Editor, Computer Report,
P.O.Box 1196, Tehran 14155, IRAN. All submissions are subject to editing for
style, clarity and space consideration.
Editorial: Unless otherwise stated, articles and reports reflect the
author's opinion. Inclusion does not neccessarily imply approval of ISI.
Mailing List Rental: ISI lists are available for computer-related
products and services.
Postmaster: Send address changes to: ISI, P.O.Box 1196, Tehran 14155,
IRAN.
Copyright (c) 1992 by Informatics Society of Iran. Copying
without fee is permitted with credit to the source.
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Since the previous issue, we have received many acknowledgements
for introduction of the English section. We are trying to widen the range of
topics covered in this section. Starting this issue ``Book Review'' and
``Profile'' departments are added to introduce books written by Iranian
authors, and make known Iranian top specialists working
in this field. We welcome original contributions
from our readers around the world.
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Articles:
Software Engineering in Iran................16
Departments:
News.........................................5
Letters......................................9
New Books...................................24
Interview : Z. Navabi.......................26
Glossary....................................38
Reports:
Software Engineering Seminar................11
New Character Codes.........................29
Fuzzy Logic Seminar.........................30
Computer Bowl 1992..........................32
Software's Harder Sale......................36
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Join us!
The Informatics Society of Iran (ISI) is an independent technical and
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News
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TeX-e-paarsi Gets Credit
Professor Donald Knuth of Stanford University, California has recently sent a
letter to Dadeh Kavi of Iran Co. in which he has praised the Farsi features
added to TeX by this company. TeX was originally developed by Knuth and was
intended for high quality typesetting and publishing. Dadeh Kavi of Iran has
been working on adding Farsi features to TeX for a mere four years. The
Farsi version of TeX, named TeX-e-paarsi by its developers, is currently used
by some of Iran's major publishers for the purpose of printing books and
journals. Computer Report, has been using TeX-e-paarsi since 1990 to produce
camera ready copies.
CACM Flops
The August 1992 issue of Communications of the ACM, the publication of world's
most famous computer society, had featured a 5-page article entitled
``Computing in the Middle East'' in which Iran's IT portrait was misleading.
Written jointly by Jerald Green (Director of the Center for Middle Eastern
Studies at the University of Arizona) and Seymour Goodman (Professor of MIS at
the University of Arizona), the article raised some questions in Iran's
computer community and consequently several letters were sent to CACM
including one from Dr. Behrooz Parhami from Santa Barbara University and
another from the Executive Body of Informatics Society of Iran. The piece
on Iran which was supposed to be about IT, turned out to be a political piece
leaving readers with the belief that during last 14 years post-revolution era,
no significant development has been made in country's IT sector, with cassette
tapes and photocopy machines beeing the major technologies used.
Apple Show
Second annual exhibition of Apple Mac systems was held from 22nd till 25th of
November at the lobby of Homa Hotel (formerly Shraton) in Tehran. The show
was arranged by Computer Dynamics, Apple's official distributor in Iran. The
show's co-sponsor was Iran Rotative, a company involved in distributing high
quality printing and publishing equipment. Farsi versions of Apple's DTP
packages had caught the attention of visitors; and the presence of Iran
Rotative had made the show especially exciting for publishers who have
decided to computerize their production line.
Farsi ``Works''
The Farsi version of Microsoft's Works has been released by Computer
Software, a Gener.X spin-off company. The project to develop Farsi Works
began on October 1991 by a team of Iranian programmers working with
Microsoft's specialists in Redmond, WA. Designated as version 2.0a, Farsi
Works is an integrated package which has word processing, database,
spreadsheet and communication facilities in Farsi. The fonts used in Farsi
Works is not so pleasing because it looks more like Arabic fonts; and spell
checking is available only for English words. Despite all of these
shortcomings many people predict that the package will receive widespread
acceptance. Computer Software offers a discount of 40% for those who will
purchase the package till January 20th and sells it for 400,000 Rls (US$
300).
The same team now works to add Farsi capabilities to MS-Windows. The result
of this project will greatly affect Iran's PC software market which is now
dominated by DOS applications.
Unisys in Iran
Systemha-ye-Mottahed-e-Iran Co. has got the exclusive distributionship of
Unisys systems in Iran. According to Mr. Rahbary of SMI, full product range
of Unisys is now available for the Iranian customers. This range includes 386
25~MHz and 486 66~MHz PCs; U6000, a Unix-based minicomputer which has
multiprocessing capabilities; series A supermicros; and series V mainframes. A
special purpose document processor for banking operations and printers of
various models are among the other products offered by SMI. Importing U6000
minicomputers requires export license of the US government; but the company
claims it has brought in one of these systems and tries to overcome export
licence problems. Mr. Rahbary said because Unisys is a merger between Univac
and Burroughs who had been present in Iran's mainframe market for a
long time; Farsi and mixed typing in Unisys terminals are already available.
New Terminal from Rayaneh Saz
Rayaneh Saz, one of the most active hardware manufacturing companies has
announced RS-200, a new model of its terminals. RS-200 emulates ANSI, WYSE 50
and 60 and TEK terminals among others. Mr. Mohebby CEO of the company told us
in a phone talk that RS-200 has many improved features over its precursor
RS-80: communication with two hosts simultaneously, memory for eight
scrollable pages, three serial ports, and 80 or 132 columns support are among
those improvements. The previous model, RS-80, was not downloadable and its
character set was mounted in ROM; so some companies with different character
sets refrained using them. Because of relatively low prices of these terminals
(two thirds of US made ones), the company hopes to compete closely with its
foreign rivals.
Rayaneh Saz has assembly lines for intel-based 286, 386 and 486 PCs; and has
introduced RS-216L HamShagerdi (classmate) a 286 16MHz PC with compact
configuration. Recently the company signed an agreement with the Ministry of
Education to provide schools with microcomputers.
A Case of Copyright
The Group of Scientific and Research Publications (GSRP) has paid five
million Rls (US$ 3600) in compensation for an informal lawsuit launched
by Informatics Industry Research Co. Not having the permit of this company in
advance, GSRP included a report prepared by IIR in its ``Directory of
Electronics, Computers and Electrical Appliances'' which was published early
this year. IIR was firmly determined in filing a formal lawsuit before
the court, and apparently GSRP found it better to settle out of the court by
paying the mentioned amount. This case is probably the first in past few years
in which a copyright infringement has been successfully challenged.
IIR was found early this year and is jointly funded by state-owned DP Iran,
Rayaneh Saz, Micro NarmAfzaar, Iran System, and Islamic Azad University. The
firm is to conduct the educational and research problems of Ministry of
Industry and, with the help of this ministry and Higher Council of
Informatics, to set the long-waited standards for Iran's
software and hardware industries.
Iran Joins EARN
Iran's Research Center of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics has been
chosen as country's only member in European EARN education and
research computer network. Using a leased international phone line,
this center is currently linked by modem to Linz University in
Austria. It is planned that country's universities and educational
centers can be linked to this center therefore finding an access to
Internet, CSNet, and Janet, to name a few. Up to 16 universities can
apply for services by being permanently hooked to this center using
modems. Because of high level of noise in country's communication
lines, the transfer of data is more reliable when the baud rate is
low. Data transfer in 2400 or 4800 is more recommended. Also, this
service is yet to become available for individual end-users, it is
practically possible to send and receive electronic-mails messages on
Internet and other networks through this center.
Computer Report Goes On-line
Starting this issue, the full contents of English section of Computer
Report becomes available on Internet network, thanks to the help of Society's
representative in United States, Anoosh Hosseini. Retrievable under
Iranian.Social.Cultural news group.
Autodesk Distributor in Iran
Tehran-based Alpha Afzaar has been recently appointed as the official
distributor of Autodesk's AutoCad for Iran. The firm says it has AutoCad
version 12 ready for immediate delivery. Alpha Afzaar is also the
official distributor of Summagrpahics and Houston Instrument products
for Iran and has been recently awarded two special prizes for being
Summagraphics largest distributor of large format plotters
in the Middle East and Africa.
Free Phone Directory
Newly-formed Pars Nemoodar which is the official distributor for PC Craft's
line of personal computers in Iran has developed a Farsi phone directory using
FoxPro database management package. Version 2.0 of this program is currently
ready and is being handed out free of charge at a cost of postage and
shipping. The program accepts Farsi inputs and has reporting, sorting, and
lable printing features. The product is self-executive, it means that it has
no need to be run under FoxPro environment. Pars Nemoodar is also a
specialized networking and internetworking company.
Iran's Role in Region
Iran will be appointed as the chief of `Regional Office of Informatics in
Mid-Asia.' Dr. Moeen minister of Higher Education said in an
interview: `` Because of special geopolitical status of our country and its
technical abilities in informatics; it is predictable that with the support of
UNESCO, Iran will be selected as the main party to build an information
network among mid-Asian countries.''
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CALL FOR PAPERS
Computer Networks Conference
Informatics Society of Iran will hold a conference on computer networks
next summer in Tehran. Seminar's topics are:
* Data Communications Concepts
* Data Communications Models
* Communications Protocols
* Network Topologies
* Data Communications Software
* Network Services
* Network Engineering and Infrastructure Design
* International and National Networks
Please send a 500 word abstract of your article by the end of April 1993 to:
The Sponsoring Committee
Computer Networks Conference
Informatics Society of Iran
P.O.Box 1196
Tehran 14155 Iran
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Book Review
VHDL, Analysis and Modeling of Digital systems,
Zainalabedin Navabi,
McGrawHill, 1992, ISBN 0-07-046472-3.
This book introduces readers to the Standard IEEE 1076 VHDL hardware
description language.The intended audience includes students who have a basic
knowledge of digital system design and engineers involved in various aspects
of digital systems design and manufacturing. The emphasis in this book is
placed on using VHDL for the design and modeling of digital systems.
Starting with introductory material on design automation and hardware
description languages, it presents a brief history of VHDL along with its
evolution into a standard hardware description language. Following this
background material, the book presents a minimum set of VHDL elements
necessary for generationg basic designs, as well as timing concepts and
concurrency related issues. This is followed by a presentation of the VHDL
language from a low-level to a high-level fashion. Structural and gate list
representations of hardware are described immediately after the basic concepts
have been covered. Dataflow and behavioral level of hardware descriptions are
the next topics, including clocking schemes and sequential circuit modeling.
Examples have been carefully chosen so that their execution and simulation
depend on the content of the material coverd prior to the presentation of the
example. In addition, each chapter includes problems that specifically relate
to the chapter material. Althogh the book can be used on its own to learn
concepts of VHDL, it benefits the reader most if used with a VHDL simulation
software program.
Profile
Zainalabedin Navabi is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at Technical Faculty of University of Tehran. Dr. Navabi is a
senior member of the IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and Euromicro
societies. He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the
University of Texas at Austin an M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. from the University of
Arizona. He has published many papers in the area of VLSI and CAD tools and
environments in journals and proceedings. Dr. Navabi has been involved in the
design and definition of hardware description languages and tools since 1977,
and has developed several HDL based simulators and hardware synthesis tools.
He has held teaching and research positions at the University of Arizona in
Tucson, Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, and Northeastern University
in Boston. At the present time he teaches courses related to CAD,VLSI, and
Digital System Design and Organization at University of Tehran. Dr. Navabi is
involved in research focusing on utilization of hardware languages in digital
system design environments. This research includes simulation, synthesis,
modeling, and testing of hardware.