Multitasking Concurrent PC-DOS to Be Available in Third Quarter

What's New

Byte Magazine

July 1984

Digital Research has announced that its long-awaited Concurrent PC-DOS will be shipped during the third quarter of this year. Pricing has been set at $295.

Of particular note to our corporate readers is Concurrent PC-DOS's ability to run as many as four PC-DOS or CP/M applications programs simultaneously, thereby making it a suitable productivity tool for team-working environments. It also runs most popular PC-DOS applications packages, such as Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE II, WordStar, MultiMate, and SuperCalc 3.

Concurrent PC-DOS works by presenting you with menus that outline a series of tasks to perform. The menu serves two functions. First, it guides the operator through all the system's resources and applications while tending to such control commands as copy, print, and delete files. The second function lets you create your own menus and compose special commands for custom-designed Help screens.

A communications capability lets you work on one application while the IBM PC receives information from an external database. Concurrent PC-DOS has a window capability that permits simultaneous monitoring of four applications. Windows can be positioned anywhere on screen, scrolled, or sized to display the important parts of the application. Information can be cut and pasted from applications by placing the window over the appropriate data.

Advanced productivity tools supplied include a print spooler, Rolodex, and a two-user function. The print spooler lets you queue up documents to be printed while other tasks are printing. Rolodex is a sorting and searching program for lists of names, addresses, and other pertinent data. The two-user function offers a remote dial-up link.

An IBM PC or PC-compatible system with 256K bytes of memory and two floppy-disk drives is required. For maximum efficiency, 512K bytes of memory and a hard disk are recommended. The $295 list price includes documentation. Contact Digital Research Inc., 160 Central Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950, (408) 649-3896.