UltraCompressor II detailed information.
========================================

AIP-NL (a company located in The Netherlands) has released a
datacompressing archiver: UltraCompressor II (UC). This archiver uses
completely new archiving and compression technology developed by AIP-NL
with help of the University of Utrecht.

AIP-NL claims UC compresses 10%-50% better than competing software yet
at the same time can update archives up to 10 times faster. UC is "try
before you buy" software, allowing you to verify our claims.

This document contains 3 sections.
   [1] UltraCompressor II feature overview.
   [2] Benchmarks.
   [3] Common Questions and Answers (January 1994).

If you have any questions or remarks please contact AIP-NL:

   AIP-NL (Ad Infinitum Programs)   InterNet   desk@aip.nl   <== prefered
   P.O. Box 1432                    CompuServe 100115,2303
   3430 BK Nieuwegein               Phone      +31-(0)30-662107
   The Netherlands                  Fax        +31-(0)30-616571


=========================================================================
[1] UltraCompressor II feature overview.
=========================================================================

GENERAL FEATURES
----------------

 * BETTER COMPRESSION
        On an average 10%, but often above 50%, better compression than
        competing software.

 * SPEED
        Compression is fast and configurable to favour compression speed
        or archive size. Extraction is very fast. UC is also very fast
        when it UPDATES an archive, even if this archive is large,
        stored on a network server or stored on a slow (floppy) disk.

 * RELIABILITY
        Archives can optionally be protected against damage, allowing
        them to recover from most disk-errors without any loss of data.
        UC always works 'transaction oriented' allowing recovery from
        most crashes without any loss of data. It has optional
        double-verification, preventing data loss in case of hardware or
        software problems.

 * EASY TO USE (INTEGRATED HELP)
        UC has integrated help and an, easy to use, integrated
        configuration tool. Only a few commands are needed to manage
        archives with UC. UC can automatically deal with ARC, ARJ,
        LZH, ZIP etc. archives as if they are UC archives.

 * FULL SUPPORT OF OS/2 2.X EXTENDED ATTRIBUTES
        OS/2 2.x extended attributes (such as icons, WPS long icon
        names, WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 summary information etc.) can
        be kept in an archive. They are managed automatically.


BUSINESS USE
------------

 * SCRIPT FILES
        A 'script' file can contain a large list of files (e.g. to be
        compressed). A script file can also be used as a substitute
        for multiple (complex) commands. Script files can be nested,
        to allow the construction of 'building blocks'. Script files
        can be extremely long (multi-megabyte).

 * CAPABLE OF HEAVY DUTY TASKS
        There is almost no limit to the amount of files in an archive
        or to the amount of files processed in a single command. Where
        some other programs get into trouble with more than 10,000
        files, UC can easily handle a much larger number of files. Even
        a simple PC-XT can (given time) handle this workload.

 * ERROR HANDLING AND LOGGING
        UC has advanced error handling and logging. This is
        especially important when large collections of files are
        archived from shared (network) disks. In almost all cases UC
        allows you to solve severe problems and enables you to
        continue the operation.

 * STATE OF THE ART ENCRYPTION
        UltraCrypt (a separate AIP-NL product) can protect your data
        with heavy duty enhanced-triple-DES (Digital Encryption
        Standard) encryption. Faster encryption is included as well.

 * STATE OF THE ART AUTHENTICITY VERIFICATION
        UltraSeal and UltraSafe, separate AIP-NL products, can help you
        protect your data against undetected changes (e.g. virus
        infections or data falsifications). They do not use 'security by
        obscurity', but they use digital signatures based on Lucas
        Exponentiation.


PROGRAMMERS
-----------

 * FILE VERSION MANAGEMENT
        File version management allows you to recover previous 'states'
        of your projects ("... but this worked two weeks ago, what
        changed?").

        Multiple versions of a file (e.g. the MAY 2 21:33:18 and the
        MAY 3 02:17:22 version) can be kept in an archive. UC version
        management is very simple to use. Extracting collections of
        files from the past is trivial with the 'Dynamic Time Travel'
        option.

 * VERY FAST UPDATES
        UC is very fast in updating large archives while maintaining
        superior compression and reliability. No complex commands or
        options are needed for this.

 * TRIVIAL PATH MANAGEMENT
        With UC it is very easy to copy any set of files from anywhere
        on disk to anywhere in the archive and vice versa.


BBS SYSOPS
----------

 * MULTIMEDIA BANNERS
        UC allows you to add multimedia banners (text, graphics, sound
        and music) to an archive, or to a collection of archives.

 * EASY CONVERSION COMBINED WITH VIRUS SCANNING
        UC can convert collections of archives of almost any kind with
        just one simple command. If preferred, UC will scan archive
        contents for viruses during conversion.

 * GET RID OF VIRUSES FOREVER
        The industrial strength authenticity verification software (see
        'business use') can help you to get rid of viruses forever by
        protecting archives against unauthorized changes.

 * NEEDS ONLY 32KB FREE MEMORY TO RUN
        UC can be used together with other large programs, perfect for
        mailers and other (large) programs that need to call UC.


=========================================================================
[2] Benchmarks.
=========================================================================

This is a reproducible benchmark made by AIP-NL with the help of 'Dean
Cooper's comparer program, Version 1.02'. It compares UltraCompressor II
with PKZIP 2.04g and ARJ 2.41. Of course, the user can perform the best
benchmarks by comparing the tools in 'real life' situations. The test
has been performed on a 486/33 PC with MS-DOS, QEMM and Norton Cache
(flushed before each test) loaded.


| Program                  Compression mode
*------------------------------------------------------------
| UltraCompressor II (UC)  -TT   (type tight/multimedia)
| UltraCompressor II (UC)  -TN   (type normal)
| PKZIP 2.04g (PKZIP)      -EX   (extra compression)
| ARJ 2.41 (ARJ)           -JM1  (faster Maximum compression)


| Test     Description                                       Bytes      Files
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| source   Borland C++ 3.1 ..\CRTL\CLIB\*.*  (C & ASM)       1,294,460  373
| exe+doc  PKZIP 1.10 distribution package                     302,272   17
| sound    MS-Windows 3.1 *.WAV files                           80,304    6
| UPDATE   source.uc2/arj/zip on a floppy, then add BGIDEMO.C  +40,382   +1


| Test     Program  Compress time  Archive size   %     Decompress time
*----------------------------------------------------------------------
| source   UC -TN    56.7 sec      264,599 bytes  100%  29.9 sec
|          ARJ       36.0 sec      399,111 bytes  151%  29.1 sec
|          PKZIP     24.0 sec      412,316 bytes  156%  23.5 sec
|
| exe+doc  UC -TN    11.4 sec      114,789 bytes  100%   2.4 sec
|          PKZIP      5.3 sec      127,753 bytes  113%   1.9 sec
|          ARJ        6.9 sec      128,188 bytes  113%   3.4 sec
|
| sound    UC -TT    15.5 sec       37,221 bytes  100%   1.3 sec
|          PKZIP      1.6 sec       41,143 bytes  111%   0.4 sec
|          ARJ        1.6 sec       41,658 bytes  112%   0.5 sec
|
| UPDATE   UC -TN    14.3 sec                     100%
|          PKZIP     66.5 sec                     465%
|          ARJ      146.3 sec                    1023%


=========================================================================
[3] Common Questions and Answers (January 1994)
=========================================================================

What is the price of UltraCompressor II?
        UltraCompressor II (tm) single license  $43
        UltraCrypt + UltraSafe single license   $ 7
        UltraSeal license                       $29
        Shipping and handling                   $ 8

        25% discount if ordered before April 1994, OR by a sysop.

When will UltraCompressor II be available?
        A 100% functional package is available NOW.

Who is UltraCompressor II intended for?
        Everyone who wants the most cost effective data communication
        and storage possible. Programmers who want rapid backups and
        easy to use version management. Sysops who appreciate multimedia
        banners and REAL authenticity verification.

Is there any difference between the "trial" and an official version?
        When you buy UltraCompressor II it contains a serial number, and
        comes with a printed manual. Other than these, there are
        absolutely no differences in the software, or in the contents of
        the manual.

Which operating systems does UltraCompressor II support?
        UltraCompressor II detects and utilizes DR-DOS, PC DOS, MS-DOS,
        the Microsoft Windows family, DesqView and OS/2.

Is on-line documentation available?
        Yes, UltraCompressor II has an integrated, easy to use, HELP
        tool.

Is a configuration tool available?
        Yes, an easy to use configuration tool is built into
        UltraCompressor II.

Does UltraCompressor II support ZIP, ARJ, ARC etc. archives?
        Yes, UltraCompressor II supports (extendable) transparent
        support for 9 archive formats.

Does UltraCompressor II support 3rd party tools?
        Yes, a special interface, the UC2-3PI (UltraCompressor II 3rd
        party interface), is integrated in UC. For more information
        please contact us.

Does UltraCompressor II support multiple-volume archives?
        No, this is scheduled for the next version of UltraCompressor II.
        Please contact us if you want to become a beta tester.

Can UltraCompressor II create self extracting archives?
        No, the special compression architecture, which makes UC
        compression superior to others, does not allow us to create a
        small 'SFX' module.

Does UltraCompressor II utilize system resources?
        Yes, UC utilizes operating system, EMS, XMS, network and
        microprocessor specific features whenever available. UC,
        of course, does this in a conservative way.

How much memory does UltraCompressor II need?
        462 kilobytes when no EMS is available, 400 kilobytes when EMS
        is available. Please note that UltraStealth allows you to run UC if
        only 32 kilobytes of free memory is available.

Can "multimedia banners" be disabled?
        Yes, a single toggle in the built in configuration tool is
        sufficient to disable multimedia banners.

How much damage can a "damage protected" archive recover from?
        A damage protected archive can always recover 100% from a single
        bad sector. For "large" archives about 1% of damage can be fixed
        completely (e.g. in a 1Mb archive 20 bad sectors can be
        restored). If complete recovery is not achievable, UC will still
        recover as much as possible from your data. Please note that
        damage protection is optimized for bad sectors, it has no disk
        repair facilities like e.g. Norton Disk Doctor.


This document is supplied 'AS IS'. No warranties or commitments of any
kind can be derived from this document.

UltraCompressor II is a trademark of AIP-NL (Ad Infinitum Programs).

Most mentioned brand and product names are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.

