In the completely unregulated microcomputer industry, ethical restrictions to business are often self imposed or put in place by the suppliers of product. This article addresses the problems which can arise from the implementation of "authorization" programs. It is the history of one product's success in the Canadian marketplace, from the U.S. vendor, to the Canadian distributor, to computer dealers, to the end-user. The focus is on an authorization program, applied after the fact, to a local market which was unwilling to abide by the program's good intent.
In 1986, Nth Graphics, of Austin, Texas, intorduced a powerful line of graphics controller boards to the microcomputer industry. "Nth Engines," as they were known, were a significant technological advance for users of IBM and compatible machines. Although the products were extremely complex, the concept was simple: Nth incorporated both memory and intelligence to an add-on card, providing high speed graphics and resolution which was previously unavailable for microcomputers.
The earliest serious users of graphics in the personal computer (PC) world were architects, engineers, and designers, who were moving off of their drafting boards and into the realm of computer aided design (CAD). To do this they were installing expensive CAD software packages and seeking out the fastest hardware possible. Computer aided design was a familiar concept to those who worked with mini and mainframe computers, and PC users acknowledged performance limitations which prohibited their machines from being the ideal design tools.