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Syncronys and SoftRAM95:
An Introduction

Last updated: June 18, 1996
by Andrew Schulman
Senior Editor, O'Reilly & Associates
andrew@ora.com

SoftRAM95, from Syncronys Softcorp, has been described in the trade press as the hottest-selling utility for Windows 95. For example, the November 7, 1995 PC Magazine reports that this "RAM compression" product was the top-selling piece of retail software. The marketing of SoftRAM95 has been aggressive (one might even say innovative). The president of the company, Rainer Poertner, was named "entrepreneur of the year" by the Software Council of Southern California. Syncronys stock jumped from 3 cents a share in March 1995 to a high of $32 a share in August 1995. One stock recommendation asked the almost-musical question, "Will it double your money too?" (quoted in New York Times, October 10, 1995).

Here's an advertisement from the December 1995 issue of Wired (p. 81):

"double click.
"double memory.
"Doubling RAM doesn't have to be hard. Install SoftRAM95 and instantly speed up Windows 95 and Windows 3.0 and higher. Run multimedia and RAM hungry applications. Open more applications simultaneously. Say good-bye to 'Out-of-Memory' messages. 4MB becomes at least 8MB. 8MB becomes at least 16MB. Get the idea? (In fact, you can get up to 5 times more memory.) SoftRAM95 works with all 386 and higher desktops and laptops. PC Novice calls SoftRAM the 'real RAM doubler for Windows.' Executive summary: Don't Run Windows Without It.(TM)"

Yet, several independent examinations of SoftRAM95 have shown that this product does not in fact perform RAM compression in Windows 95. The vendor, Syncronys Softcorp, has even acknowledged this in an October 20 press release ("RAM compression is not being delivered to the operating system"). Microsoft in late November issued a "cease and desist" letter telling Syncronys to remove the "Designed for Windows 95" logo from SoftRAM95, and the product is currently not for sale. Yet the company says that those who claim the product is a hoax are "insulting the intelligence" of the 650,000 people who bought SoftRAM95.

Having declared that a version of "SoftRAM95" that actually does perform RAM compression under Windows 95 would be available on December 15, the company has apparently now put such basic functionality off until some time in 1996, according to its tech-support provider, Starpak (800-808-0064; international, 970-339-7134). According to Syncronys, a full refund can be obtained by contacting the company with proof-of-purchase at:

Syncronys Softcorp
c/o Starpak Inc.
P.O. Box 12130
Greeley, Colo. 80631

It's bad enough that a product called "SoftRAM95" does not do anything in Windows 95. Syncronys insists that this is a bug, and that the product does work as advertised under Windows 3.1, and will that it soon be updated to work as advertised under Windows 95, and that Syncronys has "revolutionary new technology" which is patent pending. But disassembly of the code does not turn up even an attempt, however flawed, to do RAM compression in Windows 95. In other words, this is not a bug.

Furthermore, numerous independent tests have found no evidence that SoftRAM performs any RAM compression under Windows 3.1 either. While Syncronys has widely circulated a favorable report done by XXCAL labs, claiming that the report "confirmed that SoftRAM95 effectively doubles Random Access Memory (RAM)," PC Magazine recently completed a test which finds the opposite: no RAM compression occurs under Windows 3.1 either. And now XXCAL is "clarifying" its report, noting that its conclusions were based entirely on test configurations "proferred by Syncronys."

It's important to note that this is not some obscure little product. In fact, SoftRAM95 is one of the few Windows 95 success stories for a non-Microsoft product. According to Computer Retail Week (September 18, 1995), "Not surprisingly, given that Windows 95 runs faster with 8M bytes RAM than with the 4M bytes minimum suggested by Microsoft, memory enhancement software also reaped sales gains in the early days of the launch. According to SofTrends estimates, 5.7 percent of Windows 95 purchasers bought Syncronys Software's SoftRAM, a title that is compatible with both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95." Apparently Syncronys signed agreements with two large retailers to market SoftRAM and Windows 95 together. These agreements alone called for more than 225,000 units in the first quarter.

That one can successfully market a product to 650,000 users, with a small number of returns, and receive (until recently) generally favorable press coverage, is a fascinating commentary on the state of the software market today.

Syncronys recalls SoftRAM: Syncronys press release (December 18, 1995) announcing that the company will recall the current inventory of SoftRAM95 for full credit or refund."
The press release announces that "The Company has been in contact with the New York Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission with respect to its inquiry into the SoftRAM product line and will continue cooperating and working with that office to resolve any consumer concerns." I suspect it is the other way around, that the NY office of the FTC has been in contact with them, and that Syncronys is (as the English euphemism goes) "assisting the officials in their inquiries." Rumor has it that Syncronys has also "been in contact" with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Syncronys letter to retailers and distributors (December 15, 1995), recalling SoftRAM95. The letter says that Syncronys is coming out with "a new SKU featuring SoftRAM for windows 3.0 and 3.1 in a new package" -- in other words, Syncronys will continue shipping the same questionable code, in a new package. The letter also refers to "our new products - SoftRAM for MAC, SoftRAM for Windows NT, SoftRAM for OS/2 Warp, MacAccess, and NETSpeed." The letter is CC: to Michael J. Bloom, Regional Director, New York Regional Office, Federal Trade Commission.
The press release and letter to retailers were first posted to various Usenet newsgroups such as misc.consumers.

The Associated Press wire story on the recall (reprinted in the New York Times, December 19, 1995) states that SoftRAM "works as advertised for Windows 3.1 but was ineffective with Windows 95." This statement is apparently based on the Syncronys press release's claim that "This problem did not impact the Windows 3.1 version of SoftRAM95." Given the vendor's grudging admission on October 20 that SoftRAM95 does not deliver RAM compression to Windows 95, the crucial issue now is its continued claims that it does deliver compression to Windows 3.1. Examination of the SoftRAM95 code for Windows 3.1 does not back up this claim, nor do tests by PC Magazine, nor does XXCAL's "clarification" of its previously favorable (and until recently much touted by Syncronys) test results.

Nevertheless, Syncronys appears to have convinced many casual observers that it still has something to sell under Windows 3.1, and that all that's required for the Win95 version is a "fix" or "patch". A good example is a RealAudio report from c|net (December 18, 1995), including a remarkably confused statement from Dataquest.

Rainer Poertner and Daniel Taylor
(Rainer Poertner and Daniel Taylor, from LA Daily News, February 19, 1996)

"One day there appeared two rogues who spread the story that they were weavers who had mastered the art of weaving the most beautiful cloth you can imagine. Not only were the colors and patterns outstandingly lovely, but the clothes made from the cloth had the wonderful property of remaining invisible to anyone who was not fit for his job or who was particularly stupid....
"'Yes, it's a lovely piece of stuff, isn't it?' said the two rogues. And they showed the king the cloth, and explained the charming pattern that was not there.... They pretended to take the cloth off the loom, they cut out large pieces of air with their big tailor's scissors, they sewed away with needles that had no thread in them, and at last they said, 'Look, the clothes are ready!'...
"No one would let anyone else see that he couldn't see anything, for if he did, they would have thought that he was not fit for his job, or else that he was very stupid. None of the Emperor's clothes had ever had such a success before.
"'But, Daddy, he's got nothing on!' piped up a small child."
-- Hans C. Andersen (1805-1875), "The Emperor's New Clothes"

[Image: SOFTRAM.EXE shows tons of extra memory supposedly supplied by SoftRAM, even if SoftRAM isn't installed!]
Strange, softram.exe produces the same output whether or not SoftRAM itself (softram1.386 + softram2.386, or dynapage.vxd) is loaded. (Incidentally, there's a somewhat similar, though far less egregious, case of "free system resource" fudging in Windows 95 itself: see "Dirty Little Secrets about Windows 95", an excerpt from Matt Pietrek's new book, Windows 95 System Programming Secrets, available here online.)

Click here for recent events involving SoftRAM and Syncronys.

NOTE: I have done some paid consulting for Connectix, whose RAM Doubler product competes directly with SoftRAM.

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