What's New - November/December 1997

Accelerated Technology Laboratories (ATL) to Launch Sample Master 4.0 at Pittcon

ATL will be launching Sample Master 4.0 at Pittcon in March 1998. The new version is packed with new features including fast 32-bit access, LIMSXplorer, price quoting, user configurable QA/QC, personnel managment, chemical inventory, complete instrument maintenance, and more. For details, contact ATL at 940 Emmett Avenue, Suite 12, Belmont, CA 94002. Tel: 800-565-LIMS or 650-594-9370. Fax: 650-594-9380. Web: www.atlab.com

GFTS Announces Imaging Sandbox Software for Simplifying Image Analysis Applications

GTFS has announced the availability of the Imaging Sandbox, an integrated testing environment that facilitates imaging control system development. The Imaging Sandbox is a PC-based instrument designed to prototype and validate image processing sequences written with the functions of the IMAQ Vision Advanced Library from National Instruments (see below). The Imaging Sandbox includes set-up utilities, a prototyping interface to help build image processing sequences, and a validation routine to observe how well a selected processing sequence performs on sample images and access measurement reports. For more information, contact GFTS at 2455 Bennett Valley Road #100C, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Tel: (707) 579-1733. Fax: (707) 578-3195. Web: http://www.gtfs.com

Industry Consolidation

On April 15, 1997, Laboratory Microsystems was acquired by Axiom. A new company name, LabVantage Solutions, is now in use, and all the LIMS solutions acquired by Axiom will be marketed under the LabMaestro product name. ... In addition, Triple P Information Systems was acquired by Delaware Computing, highlighting the global nature of the current consolidation trend. ... On July 1, 1997, LabVantage Solutions (formerly Axiom and Laboratory Microsystems) acquired Automated Compliance Systems (ACS). This makes LabVantage Solutions a company of some 100 employees and 750 customers, also making it one of the larger non-instrument LIMS vendors. For more about these companies, check out their listings in the Products and Services pages of the LIMSource.

National Instruments Announces New Control and Simulation Toolkit

National Instruments has announced the availability of a new control and simulation toolkit for LabVIEW and BridgeVIEW on the revised DAQ Designer 98 data acquisition configuration utility. The new toolkit simulates, designs, analyzes, and optimizes linear and nonlinear control systems for LabVIEW and BridgeVIEW application software. This add-on toolkit accelerates system design and reduces development cost by adding virtual instruments modeled after common symbols and blocks used in control engineering. For details, contact National Instruments at (512) 794-0100 or visit their web site at http://www.natinst.com.

National Instruments to Acquire nuLogic Inc

National Instruments has announced their intent to acquire nuLogic Inc, a developer of PC-based motion control hardware and software. nuLogic products are widely used add-ons for National Instruments LabVIEW and LabWindows CVI softare to integrate motion control/robotics into test, measurement, and industrial automation applications. For details, contact National Instruments at (512) 794-0100 or visit their web site at http://www.natinst.com.

National Instruments Announces version 4.1.1 of IMAQ Vision Software

National Instruments announced that the latest verison of its machine vision and image processing software, IMAQ Vision, takes advantage of MMX technology to accelerate fixed-point imaging functions up to 400 percent in some applications. IMAQ Vision 4.1.1 is a library of machine vision and image processing functions for LabVIEW and BridgeVIEW, and incorporates MMX performance when MMX processor technology is present, otherwise the functions simply execute on a standard Pentium processor or a 486 with a coprocessor. It also features new caliper tools for measuring the distance between edges or objects, and new shape matching tools for finding objects. (Figure 1) For details, contact National Instruments at (512) 794-0100 or visit their web site at http://www.natinst.com.

OpenMP Announced as Breakthrough Industry Standard

A group of major comptuer hardware and software vendors has announced their support for OpenMP, a new industry standard application program interface (API) for multi-platform shared-memory programming (SMP) on UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT platforms. OpenMP is a portable, scalable model that gives shared-memory programmers a simple and flexible interface for developing parallel applications for platforms ranging form the desktop to the supercomputer. OpenMP was jointly defined by Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, Intel Corporation, Kuck and Associates, and Silicon Graphics Inc. More information on OpenMP, including technical applications, how to join, and governance can be found at http://www.openmp.org.

Pennington Systems Inc Announces Expert System that Provides for Year 2000

Pennington Systems Incorporated, developer of the XTRAN(tm) expert system for manipulating computer languages, announced the availability of XTRAN for Year 2000 impact analysis and re-engineering of a wide variety of computer languages, including assemblers, C/C++, Fortran, COBOL, Pascal, PL/I, PL/M, and a number of proprietary languages. XTRAN's rules language, called "meta-code", provides access to every detail of the code being processed, including statements, expressions, symbols, even comments. Rules can therefore be easily written to analyze code for Year 2000 impact. XTRAN's sophisticated pattern matching and replacement capabilities, at both the statement and expression code levels, can automate many code changes required for Year 2000 compliance, after analysis has identified the required changes. For details, contact Pennington Systems at 916 Commons Way, Princeton, NJ 08540. Tel: (609) 924-8130. Fax: (609) 924-8135. Email: Info@Pennington.com. Web: http://WWW.Pennington.com.

Perkin-Elmer's Turbochrom Software is Certified for Year 2000 Operation

PE Nelson's new 32-bit Turbochrom Client/Server and Turbochrom Workstation systems have been certified for Year 2000 and beyond operation. The products were subjected to rigorous Year 2000 testing at its headquarters in San Jose, California. A series of software tests incorporating criteria proposed by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to document general software integrity, date integrity, explicit/implicit century operation, proper operation in leap years, and more, has been performed and documented. Test results are maintained as part of the Turbochrom Client/Server and Turbochrom structural validation package by PE Nelson at its headquarters. For more details, contact PE Nelson at (203) 762-4000 or 888-PE-CHROM.

Perkin-Elmer Nelson Receives SAP Certification

PE Nelson has received SAP certification of its new SL Solution for R/3 product, which couples the company's SQL*LIMS LIMS product with SAP's R/3 QM (Quality Management) module. The SL Solution uses SAP's Inspection Data Interface (IDI) which joins the SQL*LIMS product with the QM module. For more details, contact PE Nelson at (203) 762-4000 or 888-PE-CHROM.

SAS Announces Java-based Tools for Data Warehouses

SAS Institute has unveiled Java-based tools that let users transmit business information from SAS data warehouses across the Web. The new tools -- JConnect for database connectivity, JTunnel for data mining, the SAS driver for Java database connectivity, and the SAS Virtual Reality Modeling Language viewer -- are now available. SAS provides decision support software, including reporting and analysis tools, for mainframe and client/server platforms. For details, contact SAS at http://www.sas.com.

ScienTek Software Discontinues TeamLIMS

ScienTek Software has discontinued their TeamLIMS product which managed information generated in a typical analytical chemistry laboratory. The company is now concentrating on their Stability System product which manages pharmaceutical stability testing. For details, contact ScienTek Software at P.O. Box 323, Tustin, CA 92781. Tel: 714-832-7435.

Seagate Announces New Crystal Reports Professional Version 6.0

Seagate Software has announced a new Version 6.0 for its Crystal Reports Professional software. Crystal Reports Pro is a popular back-end database for many LIMS. The new version more easily integrates reporting into applications, including the web, and provides an enhanced reporting toolbox. New developer features and reporting features as well as new database drivers are now available. For details, contact Seagate Software at 800-711-4334.

SPSS Announces New Package for Experimental Design and Analysis

SPSS has announced the availability of Trial Run, a new software for experimental design and analysis. Designed to make every step of an experiment easy, Trial Run automatically creates speradsheets to store all of the information about the experiment as well as the data that's been collected. It keeps track of designs with project folders and incorporates several Help features to get new users up and running quickly. The product is currently shipping at a discount and comes with a 60 day moneyback guarantee. For details, contact SPSS at 444 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. Tel: 800-543-5815. Fax: 800-841-0064.

Thermo LabSystems Releases SampleManager v4.0 for Windows NT

Thermo LabSystems has launched a new version of SampleManager that now runs on Windows NT. SampleManager v4.0 is a three-tier client/server solution. The graphical user interface of v4.0 corresponds with the common look and feel of Windows, while a new Explorer interface has been added for easier and familiar navigation through the LIMS. The new release is supported by a full set of documentation that is available in both hard-copy and electronic versions in English, French, German and Spanish. For details, contact LabSystems at 800-719-1853 or surf their web site at http://www.labsystems.com

Thermo LabSystems to Make Major CDS Announcement at Pittcon

Thermo LabSystems will have an independent booth at Pittcon this year, and plans to launch ATLAS, a new chromatography data system (CDS) at the conference. ATLAS is the successor to LabSystem's MultiChrom CDS product, and is a secure data handling package for chromatographic analysis, mirroring the workflow in laboratories in strictly regulated and validated environments. LabSystems will also showcase their new SampleManager version 4.0 for Windows NT at Pittcon. For details, visit their booth or contact LabSystems at 800-719-1853 or surf their web site at http://www.labsystems.com

Thermo LabSystems Launches SampleManager version 3.2

LabSystems has released version 3.2 of its SampleManager LIMS. The new release provides many customer-requested features, such as improved links for integration of chromatography software with the LIMS. The new version can run on either AXP, UNIX HP 7000, or HP-UX platforms, and has an enhanced GUI that uses small toolbar buttons, find-and-replace functionality, and support of direct mailing. It allows definition of both Excel and Word documents using an ad-hoc reporter function that also includes 'page n of n' capability which is useful for validated laboratories in most industries. BLOBs support can be used to store data within the database, and an Extended Functionality Module (EFM) has been designed with an ODBC driver to maintain intrinsic security of the system whilst allowing interrogation of the database. For more details, contact LabSystems at 800-719-1853 or surf their web site at http://www.labsystems.com

Thermo Separation Products Gets New President / General Manager

Dr. Ian Jardine has been named the new president and general manager of Thermo Separation Products effective January 1, 1998. He succeeds acting president Rick Chapman, who will continue as CEO of ThermoQuest Corporation. At Finnigan Corporation since 1988, and currently marketing director, Dr. Jardine has brought critical technology to Finnigan, especially ESI/APCI, the current enabling technology for LC/MS. For more information, contact Thermo Separation Products at 800-719-1853 or surf their web site at http://www.labsystems.com

Waters Corporation Announces New 32-bit Release for Millennium Software

Waters Corporation has announced a new 32-bit release for their Millennium Software that will be released in mid-December 1997. The new release is certified to ISO 9001 TickIT standards and boasts a relational database integrated into the product. The new 32-bit application for liquid and gas chromatography data analysis is not a revision of their 16-bit Millennium product, but an entirely new software product designed expressly for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. It takes advantage of and replicates the look, feel, functionality, and ease of use of these industry-standard operating environments and their user interfaces. In addition, the software's unqiue architecture promises to cost-efficiently transform the manner in which labs respond to regulatory and legal requirements in product manufacture. For details, contact Waters at 34 Maple Street, Milford, MA 01757. Tel: 508-478-2000. Fax: 508-872-1990.