GDT Softworks, Inc.
British Columbia, Canada

Highlights:

A smart printer cable for Magic Cap Personal Internet Communicators to print on virtually any PC-compatible printer.

Background:

Founded in 1984, GDT has proven itself as an innovator and market leader in two main market segments: printer connectivity and wireless communication. Its products have earned top ratings and the company recently identified by Profit Magazine as one of the top 100 fastest growing company in Canada for the third year in a row.

GDT's printer connectivity products are marketed in over 50 countries throughout the world. Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, the company maintains manufacturing contacts in Singapore, Australia, and Taiwan.

To leverage its success in Macintosh printer connectivity, GDT wanted to expand and develop printer driver solutions for other platforms. It was looking for innovative new platforms that demonstrated a significant advantage over competitors and had a strong potential to grow and, as a result, began creating products for the Magic Cap platform.

Application:

On January 1, 1996, GDT announced Personal Print(tm), a printer driver solution that will provide users of Magic Cap Personal Internet Communicators with access to virtually any PC-compatible printer. "Magic Cap is an innovative new platform for personal internet communicators," said Jim McIntosh, CEO of GDT. "Personal Print will provide the Sony Magic Link PIC-2000 and Envoy Personal Communicator from Motorola with a fundamental operation: the ability to print anytime, anywhere, on just about any printer."

The company's decision to develop a printer driver solution specifically for the Magic Cap platform is due to General Magic's innovations in the growing PDA market. Especially significant are the user-friendly interface and the extensive communication and organization capabilities of the Magic Cap platform.

According to Mike Blackstock, president of GDT, Magic Cap features like the high-speed MagicBus port, hot plugging and self configuration capabilities were very useful for the development of Personal Print. "These features make Personal Print an easy-to-use, convenient, and smart printer cable, where the built-in software automatically loads once the cable is plugged into the communicator."

Personal Print is compatible with any Magic Cap Personal Communicator and supports over 1,000 parallel printers, including virtually all desktop laser, inkjet, and dot matrix printers.

Benefits:

For more information:

GDT Customer Service
GDT Softworks, Inc.
800-663-6222
604-473-3600
steve_gully@gdt.com