GRiD’s PenRight! Pen Software Platform to be offered on NCR, MicroSlate, and SuperScript Pen Computers

June 24, 1992 — GRiD Systems Corp., which has the largest installed based of custom MS-DOS-based pen computer applications, Wednesday announced that NCR Corp. has signed a distribution agreement enabling the company to offer PenRight!, GRiD’s MS-DOS-based pen computer software platform, on its pen computers.

Similar agreements are pending with MicroSlate, SuperScript Inc., and Fujitsu Personal Systems (formerly Poqet Computer Corp.)

GRiD officials and representatives from the companies agreed that the announcement is a major step in the development of the overall pen computing market. By selecting PenRight!, these vendors will be able to offer their customers access to more than 400 software developers who are creating and selling forms-based pen computer applications. PenRight! distributors who manufacture hardware are required to go through a certification process designed to ensure the compatibility between their hardware and PenRight!.

Kirk Cruikshank, GRiD’s vice president of marketing, said, “NCR’s decision to offer and distribute PenRight! as an option on its NCR 3125, and offering the PenRight! Pro software development toolkit (SDK) to its independent soft-ware vendors (ISVs), is a real watershed for GRiD’s pen software efforts, as well as the overall pen computer market. “NCR, MicroSlate and SuperScript realize that for executing and developing pen-centric computer applications, Pen-Right! and PenRight! Pro are the most effective tools for developing custom pen software applications.

“These agreements are also a major leap forward in the growth of the overall pen computer market by giving software developers and end users the flexibility to pick from many hardware platforms to run their mission-specific applications.”

NCR will offer PenRight!, a highly customizable MS-DOS-based graphical application platform and a compact hand-writing recognition engine, on the NCR 3125 pen computer; MicroSlate will offer PenRight! on its Datallite pen and touch-screen computers; and SuperScript will include PenRight! as an option for the SuperScriptII. Fujitsu Personal Information Systems already offers PenRight! as an option on its PoqetPad pen computer. PenRight! contains an Ap-plication Program Interface (API) with more than 300 functions and a handwriting recognition engine designed to sup-port the execution of “mission-specific” data collection applications based on DOS.

Alok Mohan, vice president of NCR’s Workstation Products Division, said, “GRiD’s vertical market focus complements our relationships with Microsoft Corporation, GO Corporation and CIC’s PenDos. It should help equip mo-bile workers with an efficient means to fill in electronic forms, quote price lists and provide product service information at their customers’ sites, while maintaining an electronic connection with their corporate computing enterprise.” Pen-Right!, which utilizes a windowing environment, contains a number of key user features for pen computer applications including upper and lower case character recognition and gestures. These features make data entry easier, faster and more intuitive. GRiD engineers created PenRight! as a platform for executing mission-specific applications such as data collection. This vertical market focus complements Microsoft and Go and their focus on developing general purpose soft-ware environments for the horizontal markets.

NCR (as well as all distributors) will be able to resell GRiD’s PenRight! Pro software development toolkit for “C” programmers to their large base of ISVs.

NCR, the networked computing resource of AT&T, develops, manufactures, markets, supports and services enterprise-wide information systems for worldwide markets.

GRiD designs, manufactures, markets and services laptop, pen, desktop and multimedia computers, pen-based software development tools, electronic mail and networking systems. GRiD, located at 47211 Lakeview Blvd., Fremont, Calif., 94537, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tandy Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, a leading manufacturer and distributor of consumer electronics and computers.

Montreal-based MicroSlate Inc. was founded in 1989 to finalize development of and to market Datellite “Pen ‘n Touch” notebook computers and DataSlate applications generator software. MicroSlate’s product portfolio includes the Datellite 400, the very first 486 pen computer; the Datallite 300, the first 386SX pen computer introduced to market; the Datellite 200; the Datellite 150S, the first keyboardless portable computer in the industry; and the simple-to-use DataSlate applications generator designed especially for the Datellite system.

SuperScript develops and markets hardware and software systems that make pen computing a reliable, cost-effective solution for strategic problems. Headquartered at 36 Bay Road, Cambridge, MA, SuperScript is a privately held company.

NOTE TO EDITORS: GRiDPAD is a registered trademark of GRiD Systems Corp. PenRight!, PenRight! Pro, Pen-Resource and CodeStart are trademarks of GRiD Systems Corp. NCR is the registered trademark of NCR Corp. Datellite is a registered trademark of MicroSlate Inc. “Pen ‘n Touch” is a trademark of MicroSlate Inc. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. SuperScript II is a trademark of SuperScript Inc.

CONTACT:
GRiD Systems Corp., Fremont, Calif.
Mike McGuire, 510/656-4700