1995 Editors' Choice Awards: Awards of Distinction

Innovation gave us new ways to overcome old problems

Every year, BYTE editors see thousands of new products. Most represent incremental changes in technologies. A few stand a chance at changing not just a technology but the way in which we work. Each year we honor those products with our Editors' Choice Awards.

All the top hardware and software products that earned a place as an Editors' Choice finalist blend technological innovation and the ability to solve nagging problems. These aren't technologies in search of a job to perform, nor do they appear here because they're the glitziest and most aggres sively promoted products of the year. BYTE editors or contributors have used -- and, in many cases, continue to use -- each of these award-winners.

An Award of Excellence honors a hardware or software product whose technical innovation sets a new standard for products in a particular class. Award of Distinction winners are technologies that are important from a features/price standpoint but have less influence on the overall product class than Award of Excellence finalists. Awards of Merit single out products that have important features or price benefits but don't represent a shift in the product class.

The coming months will show us what hardware engineers and software developers do for an encore. Until then, here's where the technology bar currently stands.