CompuServe Messages

We don't know where else to mention this, but we think this is the best place, because I can't think of any other group of people on-line likely to have access to 486s, Pentiums, and a program called Hi-Res QFX 3.0. Apparently, the Pentium is NOT 100% upwardly-compatible with the 486 and earlier '86 processors! We have found a utility that, at least on our own systems, runs fine on all of our 486s, but crashes completely if run on a Pentium! The program in question is Altech Type Importer, a utility that converts Type 1 PostScript and TrueType fonts to a proprietary font format called "FastFonts." Type Importer is not sold separately, but is bundled with applications which use the FastFonts format. One such program which many here use is Hi-Res QFX 3.0. Type Importer is called "TI.EXE" and is found in the "FONTS" subdirectory under the directory which Hi-Res QFX 3 is in (usually called "HRQ3" if the default installation was used). We have about ten 486s, with varying configurations. Three of them are part of our 3DS Network Rendering Farm, and contain identical CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BATs, and identical video cards (Trident 8900C), etc. Our new Intel Premio Pentium 60MHz PCI-bus tower computer has also taken up farming 3DS renders, and shares the identical CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and video card as the 486s. One day, we wanted to convert a batch of new fonts we had gotten to the FastFonts format so HRQFX3 could use them. Since this is a relatively slow process, we wanted to use the Pentium to do it. Imagine our surprise when, during the actual conversion of the first font on the list, the system froze completely without an error message — and I mean FROZE. [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] did nothing. [Caps Lock] and [Num Lock] and [Scroll Lock] did not toggle their respective LEDs. Only the RESET button (or power off and on) would allow the computer to do anything else once this program had been run! And yet, the IDENTICALLY EQUIPPED AND CONFIGURED 486s in the Render Farm ran the program just fine! The ONLY difference between these systems are the CPU and the bus (the 486s have VL-Bus, but we don't have any cards in either machine which uses VL-Bus or PCI-Bus, so that shouldn't be a factor here). And remember, this is INTEL'S own Premio machine, designed and assembled by the SAME folks who designed the Pentium chip and PCI bus! Of course, it COULD be something specific in our machine — perhaps a bad RAM SIMM which has somehow managed to escape detection by CheckIt and other diagnostics. Or perhaps something flakey in the motherboard. So, before we contact rumormeister Robert X. Cringely of InfoWorld about this seeming incompatibility in the Pentium, we would like some independent corroboration one way or the other. Anyone else who has this utility AND has access to both 486s and one or more Pentiums, please try this out. Try to convert a Type 1 font to FastFonts format, and see if it locks up on your Pentiums but not on your 486s. If it's just our machine, fine. We'll fix it. We certainly don't want to do anything which might hurt Intel's rep if it's undeserved. But IF this is in fact a genuine incompatibility between the 486 and Pentium, well, The People Have a Right to Know!