• VMC will not produce any more hardware
  Since beginning of the new Year 2000 we decided not to produce or to develop hardware any more. The company VMC will focus on software developement and license the software products to third party companies.
• HyperCOM 1 not produced any more, rights sold
  The - nearly legendary - HyperCOM 1 interface for the Amiga 1200 will not be sold any more by VMC. All rights for further production as well as an adapted software license have been sold to "Individual Computers", who will continue to offer this product with an excellent service under the name "Silversurfer".
• HyperCOM Plus product line sold completely
  On January, 20th, the products of the HyperCOM plus product line have been sold. The complete stock and a license for further production has been transferred to "Individual Computers". However, VMC will continue the software care and ensure proper function in the future. We kindly ask you to direct any orders to Individual Computers or a distributor that carries their products.
• New ISDN-Blaster-3 and VMCISDN on the way?
  We're currently continuing our work on the ISDN-software. The harddisk-crash last year has destroyed large parts of the sources that have still not been restored. We're currently checking the necessity of a new generation of ISDN cards that will blast everything you know from ISDN-adapters or modems.
  
  Please tell us what you think about a new ISDN product that perfectly fits the need of your Amiga, as we need your feedback to decide whether this can be profitable or not.
• The most important software-news
  
  HyperCOM 1 and 3+ clockport-cards
  All HyperCOM drivers have been adapted to the new clock-ports that have been introduced by various vendors lately.
  
  1.) ACT's Amiga 1200 Zorro-IV Bus board
  This Zorro expansion for the A1200 offers you four independant clock-ports. Each of them can be used with any HyperCOM card now.
  
  2.) Individual Computers' X-Surf network card
  The X-Surf network card offers two independant clock-ports and a special 26-pin expansion port for HyperCOM 3+ modules. All ports of this card are supported in the new software, even if there is more than one network card present in the system.
  
  3.) Individual Computers' Amiga 600 adapter
  This special clockport adapter gives you the possibility to use A1200 expansions on the "pocket size" Amiga veteran. The connector is fully supported for all HyperCOM cards with clock-port interface. However, it will be a bigger problem to find space for anything else than a Silversurfer.
  
  4.) Iomega parallel ZIP-100 drive
  The long-ago announced drivers for IOMega's parallel port ZIP-100 drive has entered the last stage of the intense beta tests and shows unexpectedly high transfer rates with the HyperCOM parallel ports. In our tests, Diskspeed has measured up to 450KBytes per second repeatedly.
  We're calling all HyperCOM customers who own a ZIP-100 or the later ZIP-100Plus/250 to contact us for a public betatest during the next few days.
  
  5.) ScanQuix parallel scanner support for HyperCOM
  For the Scanquix software, a compatible API has been implemented into the HyperCOM drivers. However, it's not known when the first version of Scanquix will be published that makes use of this API. With every single customer who will contact the Scanquix author Andreas Günther and tell him that he's willing to pay for such a software, Andreas' motivation will be increased a lot.

Return-Path:  majordomo-owner@owlnet.net
From:         Gary Peake gpeake@texas.net
To:           "amiganewsfeed"@phoebe.hosting4u.net
Subject:      [ANF] Tao's Tumbler(TM) Cryptographic Toolkit
                    Operates 100 Times Faster Than Rivals
Date:         Fri, 21 Jan 2000 01:04:12 -0600
Organization: http://www.owlnet.net
Reply-To:     amiganewsfeed@owlnet.net

Boston, MA, January 20th, 2000

NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. has announced the availability of the
Tumbler(TM) software toolkit implementing NTRU, the world's fastest
secure public key cryptography system. The Tumbler(TM) toolkit was
developed by Tao Group. Tumbler(TM) delivers encryption, decryption,
authentication and digital signature features at speeds over 100 times
faster than alternative systems, including those from RSA (Nasdaq:RSAS)
and Certicom (Toronto:CIC), at equivalent security levels.

"The need for public key security is moving from traditional Information
Technology (IT) applications to mass market consumer electronics
devices, such as wireless telephones, portable music players and digital
televisions." said Scott Crenshaw, NTRU Vice President of Business
Development. "These applications have vastly different requirements than
IT applications. Solutions for consumer devices must be fast,
inexpensive to implement in hardware, and consume minimal power. All of
the existing technologies, including Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC),
are just too large and slow. NTRU delivers the ideal solution for the
emerging consumer electronics market."

Key benefits of Tumbler(TM) over the competition include:

  Fast performance, even on low speed processors
  Small memory footprint
  Low cost to implement in hardware (fewer gates required)
  Increased server performance (supports more users with fewer servers)
  Reduced battery consumption

Francis Charig, Chairman & Chief Executive of Tao Group said "Tumbler
incorporates unique technologies from both NTRU and Tao. Our development
team has worked with NTRU to develop successfully a toolkit which can
resolve many of the security issues faced by digital appliances on
mobile, home and professional networks."

The technology in the Tumbler(TM) toolkit is ideally suited for
applications where high performance, high security and low power
consumption are required, such as wireless data communications, Internet
music and video distribution, micro payments, e-commerce and embedded
devices.

Developed by a team of world renowned mathematicians and cryptographers,
NTRU provides the fastest and most efficient public key cryptography
solution - at all security levels. Unlike other technologies, NTRU
resists parallel processing attacks. Likewise, its disposable key
technology allows frequent public key changes. Those properties
dramatically reduce the risk of power analysis, timing attacks, and the
danger of security breaches due to misplaced, lost, or intercepted keys.
Perhaps most important of all, NTRU offers high levels of security
without the performance sacrifices inherent in systems such as RSA and
ECC. The NTRU technology has been extensively studied by both the
academic and commercial cryptographic community. Complete technical
details, including a tutorial, are available on NTRU's web site at
www.ntru.com/tech.learning.htm.

NTRU's unprecedented performance advantages open up new options for
security. Its super fast key generation allows the encryption of every
transaction with a different public key. Disposable key use enables
completely new paradigms in encryption - for example, encrypting every
second of a music clip with a different key. That means, on a
three-minute clip, the time and cost of breaking the encryption increase
by a factor of 180. Disposable keys also allow every wireless data
transaction to be encrypted with a different independent key. Unlike
other systems that claim to generate multiple encryption keys to protect
media, NTRU disposable keys are completely independent of one another,
dramatically enhancing security. Disposable keys will become
increasingly necessary as insecure channels carry valuable data.

At the heart of NTRU is a collection of mathematical algorithms based on
manipulating lists of very small integers. This allows NTRU to achieve
high speeds with the use of minimal computing power. NTRU is the first
practical and secure public key cryptosystem not based on factorization
or discrete logarithm problems, which require the use of extremely large
integers or complex structures. The computations performed in NTRU
involve simpler processes that can be performed very quickly even on
inexpensive 8-bit processors at security levels equivalent to other
public key cryptosystems.

Notes to Editors

About Tao

Tao Group is an intellectual property generator and software company
specializing in technologies for home and mobile networks. Incorporated
in 1992, the Company provides leading edge products for the emerging
markets of intelligent consumer devices. The company's philosophy is
based on providing powerful frameworks for use right across the range of
networked appliances from smart phones to digital television into which
Tao's clients can build in their own branding and incorporate their own
added value. Tao's clients include blue chip technology corporations in
the United States, Japan and Europe. Motorola and Sony are investors in
Tao Group. Tao is headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom, with
representation in Japan and the US, and its staff includes more than
fifty world-class software engineers. Tao is a Deloitte & Touche Fast 50
Winner and has won a series of innovation awards for its operating
system and Java(TM) based engine.

About NTRU Cryptosystems

NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. makes the world's fastest secure public key
cryptography solutions operating over 100 times faster than competitive
systems at equivalent security levels. NTRU is the fastest secure public
key cryptography solution for wireless data communications, digital
music and video distribution, e-commerce and embedded applications.
Strategic investors include Sony Corporation. For more information, see
www.ntru.com or call NTRU at 888.346.NTRU or 617.948.9138.

NTRU, F@stWTLS, the NTRU logo and the F@stWTLS logo are trademarks of
NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. Portions of NTRU's system are the subject of
pending patent applications in the US and internationally. Tumbler(TM)
is a trademark of the Tao Group, Ltd.

Contact:

Scott Crenshaw
NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.
Tel: (617) 948-9138
Fax: (708) 575-3426
Email: screnshaw@ntru.com
Web: http://www.ntru.com/

Graham Nice
Tao
Tel: +44 (0)118 901 2999
Fax: +44 (0)118 901 2963
Email: Nice@tao-group.com
Web: http://www.tao-group.com/

-----------------------------------------------------------
Gary Peake
http://www.owlnet.net
Team AMIGA

• Update for Digital Almanac II available
  For all registered users (shareware and CD-ROM) of the reknown astronomy program, a free update (version 1.8.2) is available for download. This update removes some bugs in the previous 040 version, and offers some useful expansions.
  Download: DAlmanac_Exe.lha
  
  The author announces: "This will be the last version of Digital Almanac II for 68k CPUs. Perhaps there will be some bugfixes, but no new developments. In exchange for this, the development of a PPC version (DA III PPC) with new abilities is pushed ahead."
• Darkage Software announces two new products
  For one, there is Powerball, a simple puzzle game where the player has to remove colored bricks one by one. The game is scheduled for release in March 2000, with 80 levels in eight worlds and a level editor.
  
  The second product is a CD named Amiga Classix 2. The CD-ROM will contain many classic Amiga games, all of which can be started directly from CD. Included are games like Diamond Caves, Bomb Mania, Lost on Parrot Island, Hoi AGA REmix and many others more. The CD-ROM is scheduled for release February 2000, distributed by Epic Marketing.

• In the Support Area of PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX there are new versions of the ak-datatypes (version 44.76) and a new version of the akMPEG4-player (version 4.06).
• VWP: JavaRunner 1.0 for PPC-Linux and Windows®
  The JavaRunner is a programm acessing an already present JRE® (Java Runtime Environment®) and enables starting Java® programs without complicated parameter calls. The CLASSPATH variable is checked and corrected as needed, to avoid complications and error-caused aborts. All in all, this small tool makes starting Java® applications much easier.
  
  The JavaRunner is FREEWARE and will soon be also available for 680x0 Linux.
• Epic Marketing reports that the jump and run game "Tales From Heaven" is in CD production, and will be shipped to those who placed pre-orders by the end of next week if everything goes right.
• The MPEG player Frogger version 1.5 has been released. In the PPC versions there is now also support for VideoCDs. Download: frogger_ppc_15.lha
• On the Patch & HD-Installerpage of Jean-Francois Fabre, you can find an update for his Rampage Loader. Download: rampagehd.lzx - readme
• Ragonsoft is slowly giving away so far unreleased games for download. Currently the game "Handelsspiel" can be downloaded for free.
  Download: handel1.lha
• Javosoft told us by e-mail that new drivers for FastATA/PowerFlyer and Allegro as well as 4xEIDE with Allegro are available on their download page.

• Aminet Uploads
• Jan Andersen from Virus Help Denmark told us by e-mail that an update for VirusExecutor of Jan Erik Olausson is available. It is version 1.83c with 115,156 bytes. Download: virusexecutor.lha - 115 Kb
• Patrick Beerhorst told us in the ANF that Eternity offers an archive with 220 GlowIcons especially for start menus (e.g. DirOpus) for download. Download: synotec_glowicons.lha - 230 Kb
• AmigAIM v0.9301 - beta, an Amiga client for the AOL InstantMessenger by Richard H. Poser. Download: AmigAIM_BETA.lha
• At amiEmulators you can find a new AmiMSX version 3.0 Beta (a preview). Download: AmiMSX_v3.lha
• Schatztruhe will have three new CDs available shortly. Aside from the classics SteuerProfi 99 (a German tax program) and Aminet 35, there will be a large GlowIcon Collection available, which will be especially interesting for OS 3.5 users. The CD-ROM contains over 3500 professionally made icons for all kinds of programs (apps, games, ...), drawers, DefIcons etc. Additionally, many DockIcons and some toolbars for several applications will be included.
• Ulrich Hambuch told us in the ANF that WBInfo 2.9c was released, and the development of WBInfo v3 is going full steam ahead.
• Detlef Wojtaszkiewicz told us in the ANF that Richard Fhager released version 2.0 of his freeware video poker game.
  Download: dawnvideopoker200.lha - 334 Kb