Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/pc/text/mac_text/1987/nb870602.207

Text File | 1991-09-23 | 69.0 KB | 1,507 lines

[***][6/02/87][***]
COMPUTER PRIVACY A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT?
SACRAMENTO, Ca. (NB) -- While IranGate and the Persian Gulf
dominated the news, members of Congress and California
legislators debated seminal legislation aimed at protecting
the privacy of computer data.  In Washington, the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill preventing
the feds from using computer matching programs to determine
eligibility for  public assistance (see last week's NEWSBYTES
EAST).  The bill is ready for a vote by the Senate.

And in California, a State Assembly committee has paved the
or approval of an amendment of special importance to those who
compute.  The amendment appends the state constitution to
extend to electronic communications and databases the same
freedoms of expression extended to more traditional forms of
speech and print.  If enacted, the amendment would also require
a warrant for search of any privately owned computer data.

The issue is of particular timeliness to California legislators.
Both the Assembly and the Senate are in the midst of the most
extensive automation of any state government, having just
purchased $8.5 million worth of MicroVax 2 minicomputers
to network their offices with the state's databases.  (See
last week's NEWSBYTES-WEST.)

[***][6/02/87][***]
POLITICIANS LAUNCH ONLINE EXPERIMENT
SACRAMENTO, Ca. (NB) -- To cap the week of debate about new
computer-oriented legislation, California's Assembly Utilities
and Commerce Committee went online with its own publicly-
accessed bulletin board system, called The Capitol Connection.
The service offers information on pending and passed legislation
from the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, has
conferences on legislative issues they're considering, and provides
electronic mailboxes so that callers can leave messages for their
representatives.

"The Capitol Connection is a first step toward true electronic
democracy," said Gwen Moore, chairwoman of the committee and
a national leader in state telecommunications-policy circles.
"We want to prototype a working public-access database....If this
experiment is successful, I plan to take the idea back to the Rules
Committee and suggest that every Assembly committee consider
setting up a similar system. "

CONTACT:  Bob Jacobson, 916/445-4246

          The Capitol Connection (24 hours) 916/442-0746

[***][6/02/87][***]
BERKELEY COPS ONLINE TOO
BERKELEY, Ca. (NB) -- Residents of Berkeley can now dial up their
local police department via their computer, view police alert
bulletins, leave messages, ask questions, look up census data,
get a quote to lighten up your day, even download public domain
software.  The Guardian, the brainchild of officer C. J. Orsi, has
just started up.  NEWSBYTES got this message for the day:  When
things appear to be going well, you have overlooked something.
That may be what happened to The Guardian when columnist John
Dvorak decided to write about it.  He pointed out the shortcomings
of the system in a recent article:  bulletins two weeks old, 30
minute time limit, missing files listed on the menu.  But all in
all, the fledgling system has a lot of potential, and as far as
NEWSBYTES knows, is the only one of its kind in the country.
Three cheers for Berkeley!

CONTACT:  The Guardian, 415/644-6806 (24 hours, 300/1200 baud)

[***][6/02/87][***]
HERE COME THE PS/2 CLONES
MILPITAS, Ca. (NB) -- Just as IBM is preparing to ship two models
of the Personal System 2 Model 80 line this month, Chips and
Technologies has announced plans to deliver samples of its
reverse-engineered PS/2 Micro Channel Architecture chip by
the fourth quarter.  By the first quarter of 1988, the company
predicts PS/2 clones will appear.  How are they doing it without
risking big legal problems with IBM?  "To duplicate each of IBM's
functions exactly would probably infringe on their copyright,"
says spokesman Michael Ares, "However, when the logic is
extracted and the entire system is studied, typically there are
better and more efficient ways to provide system-level
compatibility without infringing on individual patent functions."

[***][6/02/87][***]
80386 SHORTAGE FROM INTEL
SANTA CLARA, Ca. (NB) -- Overwhelming demand for Intel's hot new
80386 microprocessor has forced Intel to ration supplies and
put buyers on a strict allocation schedule.  And Intel's spokesman
Bruce LeBoss says Intel won't play favorites, "Everybody is going
to feel the pain, and that includes Compaq, IBM, and Intel itself."
Intel is sticking to predictions of 500,000 to 1,000,000 80386
chips shipped by Christmas, but most of them won't be shipped
until the fall.  Customers confirming the shortage include Multitech
of Sunnyvale, which claims to have received only 60 percent of
its orders for 80386 chips. The shortage is due to ongoing problems
with up to half the chips being produced.  Early in April, Intel
discovered some of the 80386 chips were making mistakes in
multiplication of very large numbers when operating in 32-bit
mode.

Incidentally, Advanced Micro Devices has its hands open, and is
willing to help Intel meet production need, but Intel wants no
part of its former partner.  Their dispute is the subject of a huge
lawsuit now in court (see last week's NEWSBYTES WEST).

[***][6/02/87][***]
ADVANCED MICRO OPTS FOR JAPANESE PARTNER SONY
SUNNYVALE, Ca. (NB) -- While its battle with former partner Intel
goes on, Advanced Micro Devices has chosen a new partner - Sony -
in its chip square-dance.  AMD and Sony have entered a three year
agreement to produce identical CMOS static RAM chips and products.
"AMD and Sony have chosen to work in cooperation to derive
maximum advantage from our aggressive R&D spending plans,"
says Bill Sanders, AMD's chairman and CEO.  Its partner - Sony -
is indeed a formidable one, having already captured one of the
largest chunks of the world chip market with sales of over $8
billion in 1986.

CONTACT:  Elliott Sopkin, AMD, 408/749-2822

[***][6/02/87][***]
TOSHIBA OPTS FOR 8-BIT TO AVOID TARIFF
IRVINE, Ca. (NB) -- The popular 16-bit Toshiba laptop is getting
harder to find than a hen's tooth. ╩That's because Toshiba has
stopped shipping them in the wake of the 100% U.S. tariff.
So instead, the $1,199 T1000 is slated to reach dealer shelves
in July, an 8-bit, 6 and a half pound portable with 512K of RAM,
a 3 1/2" disk drive, and a super-twist LCD.  It also has serial
and parallel ports and a slot for an optional Hayes-compatible
modem.  Toshiba expects to sell a lot of these IBM-compatibles
at this low price.  Incidentally, they'll also be made here in
the U.S. in a new $35 million Toshiba office and factory complex in
Irvine.

[***][6/02/87][***]
BRODERBUND CASHED IN ON JAPANESE NINTENDO CRAZE
SAN RAFAEL, Ca. (NB) -- Broderbund Software will help import
Japan's most popular home computer to the U.S. with a deal just
signed with Japan's Nintendo.  Broderbund will distribute Lode
Runner, Spelunker, Raid on Bungeling Bay, and Deadly Towers
games for the low-priced Nintendo Entertainment System.  Some 2 1/2
million of these mass-merchandised home computers are expected
to be sold in the U.S. by the end of the year, but THAT FIGURE
DWARFS the numbers sold in Japan already where the system is called
Famicom and has led to a phenomenon known as "Famicom fever."

CONTACT:  Joanne Witzel, BRODERBUND, 415/479-1700

[***][6/02/87][***]
ACTIVISION'S TROUBLES CONTINUE
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Once a high flyer in the games business,
Activision is struggling to regain a strong foothold in the software
industry.  The latest quarterly report shows a loss of $7.9 million
compared to a loss of $1.8 million this time last year.  The year's
loss now totals $14.6 million and Activision has instituted some
drastic measures to cut its losses.  Specifically, Activision has
cut product lines, dropped projects under development, cut prices
on some software packages, and played musical chairs with its
managers.  New president Bruce Davis, however, sees blue skies
ahead, and is encouraged, interestingly enough, by the success of
his competitors, which he says shows there is a strong market
for home software companies.  But he doesn't say how he plans to
plug the widening flow of red ink from his own company.


[***][6/02/87][***]
BRIEFS --


ATARI (Santa Clara, Ca.) will host the World of Atari exposition
June 19 and 20 at Techmart in the Santa Clara Convention Center.
Some 80 companies will show off products.  Contact: Neil Harris,
ATARI, 408/745-2012

THE SEYBOLD GROUP (San Jose) has scheduled the next DESKTOP PRODUCTIVITY
CONFERENCE for August 5, 6, and 7 at Boston's Park Plaza Castle.  The
event coincides with the MacWorld Expo.  Contact:  Seybold Group,
408/297-3625.

DESIGNED GRAPHICS (Costa Mesa, Ca.) is sponsoring the DESKTOP
PUBLISHING CONFERENCE June 24 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Products, conferences, and panel discussions will be featured.
Contact:  Jude Bentley, 714/540-0574

DAISY SYSTEMS (Mountain View, Ca.) is shipping Personal Logician
386 and Logician 386, the industry's first CAE workstations to use
the Intel 80386 chip.  The units sell for between $20,000 and $50,000.

AMDEK CORPORATION (San Jose) will unveil a family of 80386, 80286
and 8088-based computers based on a modular, plug-in architecture
at Comdex.  The systems will range in price from $1,115 to $5,550.

APPLE COMPUTER has invested in TOUCH COMMUNICATIONS (Scotts Valley,
Ca.).  Touch makes networking products, and the two firms are expected
to cooperate on the creation of networking software to link Macintoshes
to IBM and Digital Equipment machines.

HEWLETT PACKARD has dropped prices on its Vectra personal computers
by up to 20 percent.  HP says the action is in response to dropping
prices in the industry as a whole.


ALPHA MICROSYSTEMS (Santa Ana, Ca.) has suffered a more than $7 million
loss in its most recent quarter and plans to restructure its entire
organization.  The maker of multiuser, multitasking hardware, Alpha
Microsystems will also lay off 14 percent of its staff in order to
save money.

MICROPRO INTERNATIONAL is bundling its Easy Extra word processor with
PAPERBACK SOFTWARE's VP-Planner and BORLAND's SideKick, at a retail
price of $170.  The teaming up of these three companies is for a limited
time - the offer runs through August 31.

THE AMERICAN ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION reports a 1987 college engineering
graduate can expect to get a starting salary of more than $29,000
and the highest paying jobs are in Northern California.  Orange County,
California, Colorado, New England, and New York City, in that order,
paid the second-highest to the fifth highest salaries to engineers in
1986.

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING CORPORATION (Mountain View, Ca.) has introduced
PFS: First Publisher, described as a word processing accessory to
bring desktop publishing to owners of dot matrix printers.  It is a
remake of ClickArt Personal Publisher, available this month for $99.

[***][6/02/87][***]
AIDS DATABASE TO AID FIGHT
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (NB) -- While it may seem that researchers in various
parts of the country do little communicating about AIDS research, the
fact is there is a database, set up by the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, which is serving as a central clearinghouse for all new
data on the disease and research into its causes and prevention.
Operating from a grant from the National Institute of Allergy &
Infectious Diseases, Los Alamos librarians are sending floppy disk
based copies of the database to medical schools and research facilities.
Some material is also available online.

THE LAST REGULAR COMDEX IN ATLANTA -- IN 1988
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- Atlanta has been all a-twitter since
Robert Snowden Jones of "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
reported Spring Comdex would be leaving Atlanta for Chicago after
this week's show. Comdex is Atlanta's second largest commercial
show of the year, after the sports-oriented SuperShow. A
perception that Comdex Atlanta had become a "regional show" was
blamed. But some suspect Atlanta is taking the fall for a trend
it has nothing to do with -- big buyers now negotiate directly
with big suppliers far from any show floor.

NEWSBYTES SOUTH called The Interface Group and was told "on the
contrary, contracts were signed for Atlanta in 1988 just
yesterday. It's a done deal." Those reports proved accurate,
because the local paper revised its story Thursday, claiming that
hotel arrangements couldn't be changed quickly enough to move the
show in 1988. Bob Jones added The Interface Group was apparently
surprised at how the chain-owned hotels in Chicago and Atlanta
stuck together in refusing to move so quickly.  Authorities suggest
Comdex Atlanta will become Comdex Chicago in 1989.  Then Comdex
New York in 1990. Maybe Comdex Atlanta will return in 1991.

Attendance is clearly expected to be down at this year's Comdex
in Atlanta, but that's most likely due to CES Chicago happening
this same week. Tandy, for instance, chose to send its people
to CES, and will make no announcements this week.

CONTACT: Bob Lively, THE INTERFACE GROUP [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
TANDY TALKS DOWN IBM - NEW MACHINES DUE IN AUGUST
FORT WORTH, Tx (NB) -- Tandy held a press conference last week
in New York and stressed software issues of dealing with the PS/2
over hardware issues like the Micro Channel Architecture and VGA
graphics. Chairman John Roach said OS/2 runs on Tandy computers,
he can clone the new Micro Channel slots if he wants to (but will
stick with AT slots for now). He joked about IBM's slow hard
disks ("we don't have one that slow") and said he can get VGA on
an off-the-shelf chip from Inmos.

Tandy will make its new model announcements August 3, the 10th
birthday of the TRS-80 Model 1. Sometime after that, we can
expect Tandy's new home computer model, about which Roach said,
"My wife could use it without reading the manual."

(Hey, buddy, *my* wife writes assembly language programs. Can you?)

[***][6/02/87][***]
COMDEX IS PARTY TIME
ATLANTA (NB) -- Comdex is nothing without a good party or two.The
major party night is Tuesday. Some of the featured attractions
are The Beach Boys in concert (thank you DCA) at the Marriott Marquis,
the country group Alabama in concert (thank Quadram) at the Fox Theater,
and the immortal Phillippe Kahn's saxophone (thank goodness) at the
Grand Hotel.  Also, while Lotus Development isn't an exhibitor, LOTUS
Magazine will host a get-together at the World Trade Club.  Monday's
events include a PC MAGAZINE bash at the Fox and ComputerWorld's
20th anniversary party at the Marriott Marquis.

For you morning people, Quadram will hold its annual prayer
breakfast Tuesday morning at the Omni International Hotel,
starring Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris. (Won't that be just
special?) And tired vendors will be refreshed each afternoon from
12-3 as PC WEEK hosts buffet luncheons at the Omni
International, across from CNN's new studios. (All the above
sites, by the way, are within easy walking distance of one
another.)

CONTACT: Marty Winston, PARTY ANIMAL, BDS401

[***][6/02/87][***]
THE NEW ALADDIN IS A MAGAZINE ON A DISK
DALLAS (NB) -- After a year of test runs, "The New Aladdin," a
magazine on floppy disk, has begun regular publication with an
initial circulation of about 1,000. Editor-in-chief John Henson
told NEWSBYTES, "There are 20 articles in each issue. They're all
exclusive, all original. It comes out about every 2 months." He
described the content this way. "We're producing a general-
interest, interactive family-oriented publication. We have short
stories from science fiction to mystery or humor. We have games
in it, general interest articles, and science articles." (Yes,
they pay for freelance contributions.) To use "The New Aladdin"
all you need to know about a computer is "how to turn it on,"
Henson says.

Now for the gritty details. Currently "The New Aladdin" is out in
an 8-bit version for the Atari home computers, and 16-bit
versions for the Amiga and the Atari ST. A version for the Apple
IIGS is planned. Versions for the IBM PC and compatibles are
expected down the road. Maybe Real Soon Now.

CONTACT: John Henson, THE NEW ALADDIN, 12200 Park Central Drive,
         Suite 310, Dallas, TX [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
NCR TAKES AIM AT IBM WITH NEW LINE OF PCS
DAYTON, OH (NB) -- Historians will remember that IBM won its
position in the business machine wars 60-70 years ago by
overtaking NCR, the century-old company formerly called National
Cash Register. NCR's still trying, and proved it with a new line
of PCs and workstations introduced in New York last week.
(They'll be on display at Comdex this week.)

All the new machines are based on Intel chips, MS-DOS, and NCR's
Incremental Workstation Architecture, which puts the main
processor on an add-in card rather than on the motherboard. That
makes for easier upgrades. Prices range from under $2,000 for
low-end units with 640K of RAM, floppy drives and CGA
compatibility, up to nearly $8,700 for for an 80386-based
product, 115 megabytes of storage and EGA compatibility. A Token
Ring network system and SNA are also available.  Analysts
applauded the new offerings.

CONTACT: Robert Farkas, NCR [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
PECAN CHIPS

QUADRAM, Norcross, GA,  began shipping its Microfazer VI, a
multiuser printer buffer, and a 14.5 megabyte add-in board
called the Mighty Meg. QuadHPG, a graphics board using the Intel
82786 graphics chip, will also ship this week.

CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, announced it will acquire a $36
million chip maker called VTC Inc., based in Bloomington, MN, and
will retain its founding managers.  VTC, a 1984 start-up, is a
major supplier of chips to Control Data.

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY, Chicago, released version 2.0 of its  DS
Recover program, which can recover files even after other files
have been written on top of them. Price: $49.95.

BLUE CHIP ELECTRONICS, Chandler, AZ, announced the PC Popular, an
XT-compatible with software from Hyundai of Korea with a retail
price of $549. The company also announced a BC Turbo unit for
computer stores, priced at $949.

ASHER TECHNOLOGIES, Atlanta, will show two new facsimile cards at
Comdex, called the Asher JT Fax line. One model fits into the IBM
PS/2 or most portables. Prices run from $4-500. Software for
networks will cost another $200.

[***][6/02/87][***]
PECAN GOLDEN CHIPS

DATAPOINT, San Antonio, TX, earned $4.43 million for the three
months ended May 2, on revenues of $78.723 million.  Datapoint
still has losses of $65.909 million for the first three quarters,
due to a restructuring which resulted in a charge of $56.826
million.

UNISYS, Detroit, announced a dividend of almost 94 cents a share
on its cumulative convertible preferred stock, payable to
shareholders of record June 15. Unisys has had record income
since merging Burroughs and Sperry together.


[***][6/02/87][***]
DATAVUE MAY HAVE A WINNER IN ITS SPARK PORTABLE FROM SOTEK *OPINION*
NORCROSS, Ga. (NB) -- After having lunch with Crosstalk author
Jeff Garbers, NEWSBYTES-SOUTH ran into a local computer reviewer
carrying Datavue's new $1,000 Spark portable, made by Sotek of Tokyo,
Japan. With two 720K disk drives and a 1200-baud modem, the
machine our friend had would list at around $2,000. But get this.
It's a true PC-compatible, the screen is readable without a back-
light, the batteries last for hours and hours, and even the keys
have a decent travel and a satisfying click on the end of each
down stroke. The whole package weighs just 8 pounds.  (Someone was
listening to Dana's Iron Law of Portables -- an ounce on the desk
is a pound in the hand.) Despite a review of the NEC MultiSpeed,
with its ranking of 8.8 on a scale of 10, the reviewer called the
Spark truly superior. Trouble is, how do you show this
superiority where nothing is better than a perfect 10? Trouble
like that makes buyers like me very happy campers.
[***][6/02/87][***]
SOFTWARE COPIER GETS FIVE MONTHS
TORONTO (NB) -- Terence Ram, former owner of TR/Software, is
going to jail for five months for "renting" copies of copyrighted
personal computer software.  The copies were allegedly made for
evaluation purposes, but a Toronto District Court judge decided
they constituted an infringement of copyright, a further
indication that software is in fact protected under Canadian
copyright law.  Ram was in fact already in jail, serving 18
months for unrelated charges involving stolen property, including
weapons as well as computers.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government is moving to update Canada's
copyright law, which hasn't been changed since 1924 and
consequently hasn't anything to say about computer software.  The
controversy over what protection, if any, software has in this
country will, it appears, soon be over.

[***][6/02/87][***]
TORONTO FIRM TO SELL DTP SOFTWARE, BUT WHEN?
TORONTO (NB) -- Laser Friendly Inc. held a press conference last
week to promote The Office Publisher, a desktop publishing
package that the Toronto firm says it will announce formally at
Spring Comdex in Atlanta this week.  The company is a subsidiary
of a successful chain of quick-print shops that currently has
more than 50 stores in Canada and is planning a move into the
U.S.  But there are doubts about the new desktop publishing
software because of delays in its release.  As one computer
journalist put it at the press conference, "I told my readers six
months ago that this product was going to be on the shelves and
here we are hearing the same thing."  Michael Reichmann,
executive director of development, support and training for Laser
Friendly, replied that delays are "typical of the high-tech
world."

[***][6/02/87][***]
DEALER GETTING OUT OF PCS
MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- Compu Group, a computer dealer based here,
has abandoned personal computers to sell only IBM System/36 and
System/38 minicomputers, and laid off 26 employees in the
process.  The company, always a business-oriented dealership,
apparently was the victim of shrinking margins on PCs and users'
rapidly shrinking need for hand-holding.  The company apparently
found that its customers had developed enough expertise of their
own that they no longer needed advice from a dealer, so they were
buying from cut-rate dealers who provide little support.

[***][6/02/87][***]
BELL-NORTHERN PRESIDENT SEES IMPORTANT ROLE FOR ENGINEERS
MONTREAL (NB) -- Canada's competitive success in the information
age will depend on engineers playing a stronger role in managing
and explaining new communications technologies, not just in
developing them, according to Gedas A. Sakus, president of Bell-
Northern Research.

The head of the research organization jointly owned by Northern
Telecom and Bell Canada told the Canadian Engineering Centennial
Convention here that the history of Canadian communications is a
"saga of engineering successes" from pioneering work in
telegraphy and telephones to fibre optics and digital switching.
But he warned that Canadian engineers will have to adopt new
strategies if Canada is to become a major player in the
information age.  Sakus criticized this country's small
investment in research and development, and urged that more
attention be paid to applying new technological developments in
practical ways.

[***][6/02/87][***]
FINANCIAL BITS
-- Meridian Technologies Inc., Toronto, reported profit of
C$463,000 in the year ended March 31, down from C$943,000 in the
previous year.  Revenues were C$30.6 million, down from C431.4
million.  Meridian is the parent of CEM Corp., manufacturer of
the Icon educational microcomputer used widely in some Canadian
provinces.

-- Specialized software vendor Comtech Group International Ltd.,
of Toronto, reported a profit of C$389,000 in the nine months
ended March 31, up form C$282,000 in the same period the year
before.  Revenues rose to C$11.7 million from C$6.6 million.

[***][6/02/87][***]
BITS, EH?
-- The Toronto-Dominion Bank has recently started blanking out
part of the bank card number printed on receipts from its
automated teller machines.  Earlier this year, there was
controversy over alleged fraud involving withdrawals using the
machines which several cardholders said they had not made.  The
bank maintained the transactions must have been made by people
who had access to the customers' cards.

-- The Quebec City public library has opened a software library
containing educational software with the aid of Apple Canada Inc.

-- Geac Computer Corp. of Markham, Ont., recently suffering from
financial troubles, has announced the sale of a library computer
system to the central libraries of Chartres, France.

-- Altos Computer Systems has moved its Canadian office to 4950
Yonge St., Suite 512, North York (Toronto) Ont. M2N 6K1,
telephone [phone].

[***][6/02/87][***]
THE 80386 AND BEYOND: BILL GATES IN TOKYO
TOKYO (NB) -- Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, during a recent
stop in Tokyo, has announced his firm will come out with
an 80386 version of the XENIX operating system in July.
Microsoft and AT&T have jointly been developing this operating
system.  Gates said it will actually be released as an 80386 UNIX.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Intel have already started to a develop
next-generation micro processing unit called the 80486.  However,
don't look for it to be the talk of next year's Comdex, or even
the year's after that.  The 80486 is still in the theoretical
stage with a debut promised sometime in the mid-1990s.

[***][6/02/87][***]
APPLE JAPAN ADDS FIVE NEW SALES PARTNERS
TOKYO (NB) -- Apple Japan recently signed a dealership agreement
with five Japanese companies concerning  sales of Apple
computers in Japan.  Those new dealers are Kanto Electronics,
Rikei, Ado Electronics, System Soft, and Medines.  Now Apple
Japan has a total 11 dealers under its wings.  With this agreement,
Kanto Electronics will market Apple computers through its 17
subsidiaries across the nation.  Rikei will sell them as
terminals for DEC's minicomputers.  Meanwhile, System
Soft has also decided to develop programs for the Japanese
Macintosh.  System Soft is a noted software house which has
developed powerful application programs for NEC micros.  The
company is also known as the writer of Lode Runner for the
Japanese machines.  This is expected to further increase
sales of the Macintosh in Japan in the near future.  Currently,
the Mac Plus has been selling quite well due to the price cut
early this year.

CONTACT: Apple Japan, Akasaka-Twintower Bldg. 11F, 2-17 Akasaka,
         Minato-ku, Tokyo 107     (03-582-9181 Ms. Kawamoto)

[***][6/02/87][***]
THE SOURCE TAKES A BLOW IN JAPAN
TOKYO (NB) -- NEWSBYTES-JAPAN has learned that Honda Trading Co.
(Akihabara, Tokyo), which has, for years, been The Source's
major promoter and distributor in the Japanese market, is in
serious financial trouble.  Honda Trading has, in fact, closed
its doors to business and is attempting to restructure and
recover.  While The Source does not have a large subscriber
base in Japan, the activities of this firm have been important,
and with its closure, The Source must now depend on its only
remaining dealer in Japan - a much smaller and less influential
firm.

[***][6/02/87][***]
MNP MODEMS LAND IN JAPAN
TOKYO (NB) -- Massachusetts-based MNP modem maker Microcom
has signed a major sales agreement with Fuji Digital Systems, a
Japanese electronics trading company.  With the agreement, Fuji
Digital Systems has already started marketing three types of
MNP modems in Japan.  The products are AX9624 with 9,600 bps
(bits per second), AX2400 with 2,400 bps, and AX1200 with 1,200
bps.  MNP modems automatically detect and correct errors
between the modems, and they are expected to become the industry
standard.

Meanwhile, a NEWSBYTES-JAPAN source says the vice president of
Microcom visited Japan and Korea on a secret mission this
past February.  It is highly probable that the company will
produce low-cost MNP modems in Korea in order to conquer the
world modem market.  We'll see.

CONTACT: Fuji Digital Systems, Hakko Bldg., 1-31-25 Irie,
         Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama 221   (Phone: [phone],
         Tetsutaro Saitoh, Modem Division)

[***][6/02/87][***]
TI'S CLAIM ON COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AGAINST JAPANESE REJECTED
TOKYO (NB) -- The International Trade Commission (ITC/USA) has
announced a preliminary decision to stop an investigation of the
chip copyright infringement by Japanese chipmakers, rejecting
a claim raised by Texas Instruments in January 1986.
TI filed suits against eight Japanese chip makers and Korea's
SamSung Electronics for allegedly violating TI's copyright of
dynamic RAMs.  Almost all the companies, except NEC and SamSung,
have already reached an out of the court settlement with TI.

Japan's DEMPA Daily (Tokyo) reports the ITC's Judge Janet Sacson
says TI has broken a cross-licensing agreement with NEC and Hitachi.
Analysts say TI's shot across the bow was intended as a maneuver
to extend the cross license agreements in terms more favorable to TI.
In return, however, those Japanese makers have retaliated against
TI, filing similar suits.  The ITC's final decision is expected
to be made this September.  Meanwhile, the ITC's investigation
against Korea's SamSung continues.

[***][6/02/87][***]
1986 STATEMENTS OF ACCOUNTS RELEASED
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's major computer companies have released
statements of accounts for fiscal 1986.  NEC has surpassed IBM
Japan to assume second place in gross sales.  Hitachi,
Toshiba, and Japan Univac have rapidly increased their sales.

 1986 (1985) COMPANY      GROSS SALES     RATE OF INCREASE
----- ------ --------     ------------    ----------------
 1     (1)   Fujitsu      US$7.58 billion       4.8%
 2     (3)   NEC            $6.79              18.6%
 3     (2)   IBM Japan      $6.19              -3.9%
 4     (4)   Hitachi        $4.94              11.7%
 5     (5)   Toshiba        $2.40              16.4%
 6     (6)   Mitsubishi     $1.07              -7.9%
 7     (7)   Japan Univac   $1.05              10.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------

[***][6/02/87][***]
SUMITOMO TRADING LINKS WITH TELENET
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's major trading firm Sumitomo Trading (Osaka)
has signed a business agreement with Telenet (USA).  With this
agreement, Sumitomo will provide Telenet's value added network
service in Japan.  The users will also be able to access the Telenet
network in the U.S.   Meanwhile, Tymnet (USA) has also linked
with some Japanese dealers to provide a similar network service.
They're expected to compete with KDD's packet switching network,
Venus-P, when the Japanese government deregulates its international
VAN business this fall.

CONTACT: Sumitomo Trading Co., Sumitomo Bldg., 5-15 Kitahama,
         Higashi-ku, Osaka-shi 541, Japan

[***][6/02/87][***]
FUJITSU HOPES TO INCREASE SEMICONDUCTOR SALES
TOKYO (NB) -- According to a published report, Fujitsu estimates
it will rake in US$1.02 billion in semiconductor sales for fiscal
1987.  The amount is about an eight percent increase over the
last year.  In 1986, the company suffered a five percent
sales decrease, compared with that of fiscal 1985.  Fujitsu's
export volume also decreased by almost 20 percent last year.
Many Japanese electronics makers are happy about the expected
sales recovery this year.

[***][6/02/87][***]
OBITUARY: SEIKO-EPSON'S PRESIDENT
TOKYO (NB) -- President Ichiro Hattori of Seiko and Seiko-Epson
passed away due to a heart failure while playing golf in
Shizuoka prefecture.  He was 55.  Then-president Hattori was
known as the international policy maker in his companies.  He
had set up 27 subsidiaries around the world.  Hattori also took
the initiative to merge with Epson.  His death is certainly a
big shock to his firms and the industry.

[***][6/02/87][***]
GREAT WALL 286 DEBUTS FROM CHINESE COMPANY
BEIJING, China (NB) -- The China Computer Development Corp. has
developed the Great Wall 286 and the GW220.  The Great Wall 286
is compatible with THE IBM PC/AT, but its processing speed is
reportedly four times faster than the AT.  The GW220 is used as
a dumb terminal computer to connect with the Great Wall 286.
China Computer plans to produce 25,000 of these personal computers
this year.  Despite their Communist government, the Chinese are
wasting no time proving they can be shrewd businessmen.  The
Corporation has signed a contracts worth US$10 million with
the U.S., Australia, and Thailand in the first five months of
this year.

[***][6/02/87][***]
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY BREAKTHROUGH IN INDIA
TOKYO (NB) -- A team of Indian scientists at the National
Physical Laboratory in New Delhi have found a superconductor
which works at a room temperature, says a report.  The phase, a
small part of an oxide compound, has shown superconductivity at
26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit).  One of the
scientists reportedly described it as a very exciting finding,
but isolating the phase would be a major problem.  Currently,
many scientists around the world have been competing to find
ways to achieve superconductivity at room temperature.  That
will save enormous energy and certainly put somebody's name
in the record books.

[***][6/02/87][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

SONY AND ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES -- Sony (Tokyo) has agreed with
the California-based semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices
to jointly develop static RAMs.  When the technologies are
developed, both companies will produce the actual products
under their own brands at each other's firms.  At the outset, the
development of a high-speed 256Kbit SRAM is planned.

FUJITSU BEEFS UP R & D IN U.S. -- Fujitsu has opened its fifth
research and development center in the U.S.  The company's latest
R&D Center, located in Raleigh (North Carolina), will mainly
handle the application programs for voice-data telecommunications
for local phone companies.

JAPANESE SPACE SHUTTLE -- The Space Development Committee of
Japan has recently released a report which recommends the
country build and launch its own space shuttle-like rocket in
the early 21st century.  Searching for natural resources on the moon
and the major planets will be the main purpose of the proposed
project.  The total cost is estimated at US$42.3 billion.

LOANING FREE VIDEOTEX TERMINALS -- The Japanese Ministry of Posts
and Telecommunications is planning to hand out 5 million sets of
free videotext terminals for NTT's CAPTAIN videotext to Japanese
consumers.  It's a part of a government project to stimulate
the domestic economy.  Now, there's hope for NTT to revive the
popularity of the ill-fated videotext.

TRAVELER'S WATCH -- On June 10, Casio (Tokyo) will start selling
a new digital wrist watch which displays a world map with 29 local
times of major cities.  The watch, the W50U, also sports such
functions as search, summer time adjustment, alarm, timer, and
stopwatch. It is priced at 4,900 yen (US$34.50).



[***][6/02/87][***]
TOSHIBA TO BUNDLE LOTUS SYMPHONY AND METRO WITH LAPTOPS
CAMBRIDGE, Ma. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. has announced
week that it has worked out a marketing deal with Toshiba
America Inc. As part of a sales promotion, Lotus Symphony will be
included with every sale of the top-end T3100-20 laptop. All
T3100's will include the Metro desktop utility for the
"indefinite future," Lotus said. The T3100-20 is a good-selling
laptop with a built-in 20 megabyte hard drive. Analysts suggest
that the bundling of Symphony and Metro is intended to overcome
the price increases on the T3100-20 that result from Reagan
Administration trade sanctions against Japan. The free software
overcomes the jolt of the price increases.

Clever Toshiba has also announced a new PC-compatible laptop,
weighing in at under seven pounds. It will be the smallest,
lightest IBM-compatible laptop in the U.S., says Toshiba. What's
more, the T1000 machine, based on an 80C88 CPU, won't be subject
to trade sanctions because it runs on an 8-bit bus. The system
is priced at $1,200 for 512K of RAM, a full-size supertwist LCD
screen and a 3.5 inch floppy drive. Toshiba is expecting the
unveil it at Comdex.  (See NEWSBYTES WEST this week.)

[***][6/02/87][***]
SOURCE SCOUTING OUT TRINET
McLEAN, Va. (NB) -- The Source is likely to offer a gateway to
the Trinet database, says VIEWDATA/VIDEOTEX REPORT. The reasoning
is straightforward, says the newsletter. Venture capitalists
Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe operate Trinet. They also own
The Source. Trinet has data on more than 6,000 businesses across
the country. Comment from The Source: "We are currently exploring
many business opportunities with other WCAS companies, of which
Trinet is one. It is too early to confirm or deny any specifics."
Sounds like V/VR has scored another scoop. The newsletter was the
first to report of the sale of The Source to WCAS.

[***][6/02/87][***]
REAGAN REPORTS PROGRESS WITH JAPAN
WASHINGTON (NB) -- President Reagan last week told journalists
there has been "some progress" in paring away at Japan's share
of the computer chip market. The President said he would like to
lift the trade sanctions. But White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater warned that the sanctions are unlikely to be eased
anytime before or during the economic summit in Venice this
month. "While there seems to be some progress being made," Reagan
told reporters from the economic summit nations, "we still have
not reached what I think must be the answer -- and that is a
return to abiding by the agreement that both countries had made
in this regard. I hope that it will be very soon that we will
restore that agreement, and when we do, we shall immediately lift
sanctions that we have put on this."

[***][6/02/87][***]
COMMODORE FLOATS $60 MILLION LOAN WITH PRUDENTIAL
NEW YORK (NB) -- Commodore International Ltd. last week said it
had worked out a $60 million private debt placement with
Prudential Insurance Company of America. The loan includes $20
million in senior notes and $40 million in subordinated debt,
with stock warrants for 2.25 million shares which can be sold at
a premium above the current share price. Irving Gould, Commodore
chairman and CEO, said the financing arrangement is "another step
to strengthen [Commodore's] capital base and enhance its
financial flexibility."

The West Chester, Pa., computer firm last week also named Richard
Leberman as a vice president, chief financial officer, and
treasurer. He comes to Commodore from John Blair & Co., where he
was vice president, CFO, and treasurer. Leberman succeeds Michael
Evans, who, the company says, will be involved with "special
projects."

[***][6/02/87][***]
NCR TROTS OUT ANOTHER 80386 MACHINE
NEW YORK (NB) -- NCR Corp. last week joined the growing list of
purveyors of computers using Intel's 80386 chip. NCR's PC916 is
part of a family of personal computers that are designed to fit
the company's workstation architecture. NCR's new line of
workstations allows for various configurations, including support
of both 5.25-inch drives and 3.5-inch drives. Charles Exley,
chairman of the Dayton-based computer maker, called the new
computers and workstations "the most significant personal
computer announcements we have ever made." The new products
include the PC916, with prices ranging from $6,353 to $8,653, the
PC710, an 80286 machine at $1,954, the PC810, an AT clone at
prices from $2,950 to $5,920, and the NCR3392 Workstation, at
$1,974.

[***][6/02/87][***]
WANG JOINS THE 386 BANDWAGON, UNVEILS OTHER PC PRODUCTS LOWELL,
Mass. (NB) -- Wang Laboratories Inc. has rolled out its entry
into the booming 80386 market, the PC 380, with prices from
$6,495 to $8,495. Wang last week also introduced at PC 280,
based on Intel's 80286 chip, with prices ranging from $3,850 to
$4,875. The PC 380 comes with 2.5 megabytes of RAM, with the PC
280 comes standard with 640 K. Also, Wang announced a laser
printer, the LCS15, which prints up to 15 pages per minute at
300-by-300 resolution. The LCS15 is $8,000. In a major break
with tradition, the new computers will be PC-compatible, running
MS-DOS. In the past, Wang personal computers used a proprietary
operating system, which limited their market. Wang won't be
pushing its new gear in retail channels, but will push them as
part of Wang networks connected to Wang minicomputers.

Wang is also going after the hot desktop publishing business. The
company said it will immediately offer Aldus Corp's PageMaker
software for Wang machines. Wang will also market workstations
from Sun Microsystems Inc. as components of what the company
calls a "high-end dedicated publishing system"

[***][6/02/87][***]
SHARP TO LAUNCH TWO PORTABLES AT COMDEX
MAHWAY, N.J. (NB) -- Look for two new portable machines from
Sharp at Comdex. One will be a clamshell laptop that clones the
PC-XT standard, called the PC 4500, running on a NEC V30 CPU. A
low-end model with one 3.5-inch drive will go for $1,295, says
Sharp. The other machine: the PC 7200, a luggable "lunch box" AT,
with switchable clock speeds. A PC 7200 with a 20-megabyte hard
disk will go for $3,995.

[***][6/02/87][***]
COMPUTER FACTORY GOES TO THE BIG BOARD
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (NB) -- The Computer Factory, a microcomputer
retail sales and service company, will begin trading its stock
on the New York Stock Exchange during the second week in June.
The stock will trade under the same symbol -- CFA -- as when the
shares were sold on the American Exchange. The company recently
reported a gain in earnings of more than 200 percent on a revenue
increase of nearly 88 percent for the first half of the fiscal
year, which ended March 31. The company is an aggressive retailer
which usually features the lowest prices for items in its
territory and, based on personal experience, will match lower
bids from other retailers.

[***][6/02/87][***]
ANONYMOUS DONOR SPARKS NEW COMPUTER CENTER
PRINCETON, N.J. (NB) -- A $5 million pledge from an anonymous
Princeton graduate could lead to early ground breaking on a new
computer sciences department. The new $14 million building would
be located across from the Engineering Quadrangle. Because of the
gift, said university president William Bowen, construction could
begin as early as this fall. The 51,500 square-foot building will
allow Princeton to triple computer research space and double
undergraduate enrollment. The prestigious school's computer
science department became independent last summer. Before,
computer science was part of the electrical engineering
department.

[***][6/02/87][***]
NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION

   MERRIMACK, N.H. (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. has won a $114
 million Air Force contract for VAX 8650, MicroVAX II and
 MicroVAX II-GPX systems, field service, software service and
 training. Deliveries under the five-year contract begin in 90
 days.

    OAKLAND, N.J. (NB) -- Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems, Inc. last
 week reported record earnings and revenues in the fourth quarter
 and fiscal year ended March 31. Net earnings for the quarter
 were $1.45 million (26 cents per share), up 68 percent over the
 same quarter last year. Net earnings for the year were $3.4
 million (61 cents per share), up 232 percent from last-year's
 figures.

    WASHINGTON (NB) -- Look for the long-awaited Trintex
 information service next year in a limited number of cities.
 Trintex vice president Harry Smith said last week that the
 service should be available "early next year", offering
 standard information services and remote banking. Dow Jones will
 provide financial info and USA Today will come up with the news.
 The service is a joint venture of IBM and Sears.



[***][6/02/87][***]
C O M D E X ....June 2, 1987.....by Dana Blankenhorn

   --reports on reactions to tariff, IBM's presence, and goodies
     in the Commodore booth, also WordPerfect Executive introduced,
     what's new from Tandy, Sharp, Ricoh, Okidata, Cordata and C. Itoh

JUST ANOTHER SHOW -- Time was, Comdex was a special time, and
computers were more than a product. No more. Now computers mean
business, and business means boredom -- most of the press is in
Chicago, at the Consumer Electronics Show. And some of the press
people I talked to, like Jerry Pournelle, said they wished they
were in Chicago, too.

But we're here. We have to live with it. Here's what
we're talking about:

TARIFFS -- Everyone's avoiding them. President Reagan
announced 100% punitive tariffs against Japanese micros in March,
but you'd never know it. Some companies, like Toshiba, have taken
prices up $1-200, but instead of talking about that they're
talking about a new 1100 portable with an 80C88 chip they've got
for $1,200. The 80C88 has an 8-bit system bus, and the tariff
covers only the more sophisticated machines with a 16-bit bus.
NEC and Mitsubishi have found another way around the tariff -- by
assembling their computers here in the U.S., they're unaffected.
All of which had tariff supporters like Bruce Walter of Grid
Systems Inc., Dallas, TX, scratching their heads.


C O M D E X .....June 2, 1987

IBM -- IBM has replaced Charlie Chaplin with a routine
stage show called "The Turning Point" featuring a man and a woman
discussing the new PS/2 line -- she's the one with the answers.
All 4 are on display, (although not all of them are shipping yet)
and all IBM salesmen wear headsets which they plug into a hidden
speaker system for demonstrations. Featured are IBM's software-
hardware "Solution Pacs", such as one for desktop publishing, due
for release in August. OS/2 still won't ship until the end of the
year, we were told, but an early, demonstration version was on
display. So was the new DOS 3.30 was on display. The booth was
cut off by walls into sections for individual PS/2 models,
software, and to answer questions from dealers. (This last was
usually empty.)

The new PS/2s represent more than lower-cost
manufacturing. They also put "Big Blue" into niches previously
mined only by Apple, Atari and Commodore. Like music. A Model 30
with an IBM add-in card was attached to a Yamaha DX-7
synthesizer, and an IBM employee named Jeff Dibley played
"Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and other tunes, with the Model 30 screen
giving a complete read-out on all elements of the performance.


C O M D E X ...June 2, 1987


COMMODORE -- Once again Commodore featured product
developers in its booth, but now the names are more established.
WordPerfect, for instance, was showing versions of its best-
selling word processing programs under both Amiga DOS and PC-DOS.
(The Amiga runs an older version, 4.1 of the program, but it
supports multi-tasking under Amiga DOS.) WordPerfect Executive
ran fine under PC-DOS with 5 1/4 inch disks.

Digi-View, from NewTek in Topeka, KS, was described to me
as "the best thing in the show", and maybe it is. It's an image
capturing system for the Amiga, which works with any TV camera.
To show off the product Newtek pointed a TV camera at one of
their employees and had her say a few words. Then they loaded the
tape onto an Amiga and began to play with it -- sort of a "Maxine
Headroom". It certainly drew a crowd.

One thing you can rely on Commodore Amiga for: its booth
does draw a crowd. That makes it tough on reporters who are
trying to understand what's going on.

CLEVER BRITS IN THE COMMODORE BOOTH
Want to make an interactive video program on your very own
desktop? You can, thanks to Spafax Inc., a British developer
exhibiting in the Commodore Amiga booth. Executive Vice President
Robert P. Clarke said the National Geographic Society has already
begun using a Spafax system to put all their photos on disk and
index them. Spafax stores up to 55,000 still frames, or 30
minutes of full-motion TV, on a single 12-inch Laserdisk, and the
whole system costs only about $6,000, using the Amiga 2000 as
the computing platform and a Sony Laserdisk player. Both teaching
and archival storage of TV-based information are now possible on
the Spafax system.

CONTACT: Robert P. Clarke, SPAFAX INC., [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
C O M D E X ...June 2, 1987

THE MERGING OF LAPTOP AND DESKTOP -- That's the idea behind
WordPerfect Executive, an integrated package on a 3 1/2 disk
which works equally well on PC-compatible laptops or desktops.
It's got word processing, a spreadsheet, Sidekick-like utilities
and a user-friendly shell, all on one 720K disk. (You can also
get it on the old 5 1/4 inch format, but it takes two disks.)
"All the resident modules can be resident on a 640K machine,"
noted WordPerfect press spokesman Jeff Acerson. Thus the new
standard: 640K, 3 1/2 disks, one machine for both the plane and
the office. (Nice.) Price: $249.

For WordPerfect followers, the company also renamed its other
products (MathPlan becomes PlanPerfect) and beefed up its phone-
in support. "Our goal is you won't be on hold for more than 2
minutes, and we're going to have toll-free 800-line support for
all our products," said executive vice president Pete Peterson.
If you're one of their customers, check it out by calling 1-800-
321-5906. Let me know what you think.

CONTACT: Jeff Acerson, WORDPERFECT CORP., [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
C O M D E X ...June 2, 1987
COM-BITS

SPECIAL GUESTS are one way to make your booth special. Tandy,
which sent its press people to CES, had 5'7" basketball star
Anthony 'Spud' Webb of the Atlanta Hawks signing autographs to
Value Added Resellers in its booth.  Seikosha America countered
with former New York Yankee manager Billy Martin.

SHARP ELECTRONICS took both the long and short view of the laptop
market. The company's PC-4501 and 4502 have the 8-bit bus, weigh
10 pounds, and start at just $1,295 with a 1-year warranty.
Bigger machines like the new PC-7221, a luggable 21 pounds with
an 80286 chip, go for $4,000 with a 90-day warranty. (CONTACT:
Daniel J. Infanti, SHARP, [phone]

RICOH CORP. previewed a "write-once" optical disk drive (called a
WORM drive) which holds up to 800 megabytes on plastic, 5 1/4
inch diskettess. It uses a SCSI port, but can be adapted to run
with an IBM PC or compatible. Ricoh also showed software to let
an IBM PC or compatible attached to a standard fax machine, as
well as laser printers, scanners and new daisy wheel printers.
(CONTACT: Emil Florio, RICOH, [phone])

OKIDATA announced two 2400 bps Hayes-compatible PC modems at $549
and $599, which include offers of up to $150 in free connect time
on NewsNet or the C word. The modems come bundled with a version
of Omniterm.
(CONTACT: Jerry Vigna, OKIDATA, [phone])

CORDATA announced a $1,095 PC called the WPC, made by Daewoo of
South Korea, featuring the old IBM CGA standard and support for
the AT&T 6300. Cordata, one of the early PC-clone makers under
Dr. Robert Harp, is now a thoroughly Korean company. The new CEO:
Hyo-Bin Im, formerly manager of planning for Daewoo.
(CONTACT: Gayle Soles, CORDATA, [phone])

C. ITOH introduced a $1,795 laser printer called the Jet-Setter.
HP LaserJet Plus emulation comes standard, and additional
cartridges for Diablo 630 and Epson FX-86e fans can be had for
$159 each, and there's a library of 11 other cartridges at $149-
199.
(CONTACT: Marc Liebesman [phone])


[***][6/02/87][***]
C O M D E X ....June 3, 1987....by Dana Blankenhorn

 -- with reports on the Korean presence, the Taiwan presence, a
      publisher's lament, Hayes' 9600 baud modem, and the party scene



THE KOREANS ARE HERE IN FORCE
Japanese firms are dominating this show, but they're not taking
much pleasure in it. Instead, they're looking over their
shoulders at the Koreans. They're here in force. Samsung,
Hyundai, and Goldstar all have large booths offering a full line
of IBM-compatibles and components. So does Hyosung. And Daewoo
is here demonstrating its hold over Cordata, with machines
sporting AT&T 6300 compatibility but at a very, very low price.

For those keeping score, Samsung and Hyundai seem the most
ambitious. Hyundai, which entered the market through Blue Chip
Electronics of Chandler, AZ, now calls Blue Chip merely "a
dealer." They're looking for new dealers, distributors and OEMs
for a complete line of Hyundai-branded machines, components, and
PC Board manufacturing services. Samsung's J.S. Ko says he's
signed a distributor agreement with Delta Distributing for his
line of PC-compatibles, but he too is pushing a full line of
components on an OEM basis. "We make our own semiconductors.
We've accumulated technology to make the computer. And we have
very high quality," Mr. Ko says.


AND SO ARE THE TAIWANESE
Most of their booths are tiny, and their names unfamiliar, but
the Taiwanese were coming on fast at this Comdex, too. They've
got the products, and their prices are CRAZZZY.

How crazy? I asked Eric Cheng of Stage System Engineering for a
retail price on his Taiwanese 80386-based "luggable" (26-pound)
PC, with a 44 megabyte hard drive, and 1 megabyte of RAM.
"$4,500," he said. How about a 2400 baud, Hayes-compatible modem
from Link Technologies, also of Taiwan, for $269? Or an AT-
compatible from Golden Star Technology with a 40 megabyte hard
drive and EGA monitor for $2,000?

There are too ways you can look at this. Oh goody, we're getting
bargains. Or you can look at it the Japanese way. Jeff Chou of R.P.T.
Intergroup, another AT-compatible maker, was asked about his plans
for the Japanese market, dominated by NEC. "We're trying to make an
NEC-compatible computer for the Japanese market, but it's stuck
in the R&D stages. It's difficult to get technical specifications
from them." Food for thought.



C O M D E X ...June 3, 1987

A PUBLISHER'S LAMENT: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN JAPAN INC. TAKES OVER
We ran into Terry Kepner, publisher of "Pico" -- a magazine for
owners of laptop computers. Terry is adding value to a market
dominated by Japanese firms like Kyocera, Toshiba, and NEC. His
problems show the flip side of the growing Japanese dominance of
U.S. computing.

Basically, he says, all the Japanese giants act like IBM. They
don't recognize him, don't support him, and don't do advertising
geared to specific products. "They don't even advertise
nationwide," he complains. "They do all their advertising through
dealers," and dealers don't buy national magazine ads. As a
result, "people don't know that some products exist. Sharp has
many machines in dealer showrooms which customers are surprised
to see." Needless to say, they don't buy 'em either. The risk in
this is that laptop owners may be left without the ongoing
support and contact a magazine like "Pico" (or "PC Week" for
that matter) provides.

CONTACT: Terry Kepner, PICO, [phone]



C O M D E X......June 3, 1987

HAYES V-SERIES SKIPS 4,800, GOES UP TO 9,600 BAUD
Hayes finally joined the 9,600 baud race as the top end of its
new V-Series of modems. The V-Series adds new error controls,
data compression, and a system for automatically figuring out the
fastest, easiest way to get your file from here to there. Hayes
modems remain very pricy, up to $1,300 for the 9,600 baud modem
with Smartcom III software, but they're having a sale on their V-
Series modem enhancer (which gives your old modem their new
capabilities) -- $200 through September. Smartcom III is also up
in price, to $250, from the old version. Not all dealers will
sell the new products: Hayes is putting new requirements on all
dealers who sell the V-Series. (Sounds a lot like IBM with the
PS/2.)

The modem software battles are also heating up in the wake of
Crosstalk's being bought by DCA of Alpharetta last year. Hayes
will upgrade Crosstalk users to Smartcom III for $60 maximum.

CONTACT: Sharon O'Brien, HAYES, [phone]




C O M D E X.....June 3, 1987

IT'S PARTY TIME: NOW CHOOSE! -- Tuesday is party night at Comdex,
and over the years vendors have found their best strategy for
chasing gate-crashers is to hold everything at the same time. So
Comdexers must choose, between The Beach Boys (for DCA), The Four
Tops (for NEC) and Alabama (for Quadram), or among the more
sedate entertainments of the World Trade Club (Lotus Magazine)
and the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead (Samna).

[***][6/02/87][***]
C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987...by Dana Blankenhorn

  -- with reports on Comdex attendance, Gold Disk and Commodore,
     world's fattest desktop publishing book, FCC crackdown,
     Zenith's Eazy PC, and the best show giveaway


ALL IN ALL, A VERY SUCCESSFUL SHOW
The Interface Group claimed that new Spring/Comdex attendance
records were nearly set by Tuesday, and this year's show would
certainly be the most successful on record. The show floor
certainly *looked* crowded, and interviews with exhibitors seemed
to bear out the organizer's happy talk. "Business is great,"
"much better than we expected," and "it's a great show" were
typically said with real enthusiasm this year.

The major theme, when all was said and done, may be the short-
term vindication of the old "Compaq," as opposed to IBM PS/2,
standard in personal computing. Mouse-driven painting,
publishing, and engineering programs were all shown under MS-DOS
and looked a lot like big Macs, right down to their black-on-
white screens or real, live TV pictures. (Compaq actually skipped
the show, we were told by another reporter with dead seriousness,
because they already had "plenty of dealers."



C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987


AMIGA REDUX: MORE GOOD TIMES IN THE COMMODORE BOOTH
NEWSBYTES-SOUTH went back to the Amiga booth. Even without
proper support, developers keep coming up with neat stuff for
this box.

For instance, how about 4-color separations, output to a
Linotronic typesetter, right off a desktop? Gold Disk, a small
outfit out of Missassauga, Ontario, has it in "The Professional
Page," a $395 product due to ship at the end of July. The only
practical limit on output size is the output device -- the software
can run documents up to 17 x 17. Of course, it supports
PostScript. For those with lower budgets, the same company
publishes PageSetter, which can output to a dot matrix printer
($150) and LaserScript ($45), which offers PostScript support for
PageSetter users.

Right next to Gold Disk was Richard W.  Brown of Brown-Wagh
Publishing, Los Gatos, CA, showing "Publisher 1000," another
Amiga desktop publishing program which will support both the H-P
LaserJet and PostScript Standards at $200.  Brown promised to
send new drivers for both printers to anyone who buys his product
off-the-shelf and sends in the warrantee card. Free, he said.

CONTACT: GOLD DISK, P.O. Box 789, Streetsville, Mississauga,,
Ontario, CANADA, L5M 2C2 [phone]: Richard W. Brown, BROWN-
WAGH PUBLISHING, 16795 Lark Ave., Suite 210, Los Gatos, CA 95030
[phone]




C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987

HEAVY HANDS -- Just what the world needs -- another book about
desktop publishing. This one may not be the last, but it's
certainly the heaviest. "The Illustrated Handbook of Desktop
Publishing and Typesetting" is 780 pages, written by Rochester
professor Michael Kleper. If you think this is a handbook, you
can run through airports with a Compaq portable on your arm. It's
loaded with trivia, like MITE communication screens, an ASCII
table, and full-sized pictures of keyboards. The meat starts at
page 255, with a chapter on "specialized typesetting languages,"
and goes on with 145 pages written on a LaserWriter. Get it for
the publisher (or weight lifter) in your life.

CONTACT: Michael Kleper, GRAPHIC DIMENSIONS, 8 Frederick Road,
Pittsford, NY 14534 [phone]


C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987

THE FCC STRIKES AGAIN: ONE COMPUTER SEIZED, 60 CITED
The Federal Communications Commission swooped down on the Comdex
show floor Monday and bragged about it Wednesday. (They also
swooped at the Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. Comdex is very
convenient for enforcing laws against computers.) Spokesman Jerry
Freeman, saying "our concern is to protect the (radio) spectrum"
and "emissions cause interference to radio and television,
possibly to aviation and safety services," talked to about 20
reporters huddled around the tiny FCC booth near the east
entrance to the Congress Center.

"FCC investigators have visited over 100 booths and found about
60% of the devices surveyed were not in compliance," he said.
(A list of the suspects will be provided to anyone who asks for
it once investigations are done in a few weeks.) "Companies with
non-complying devices are subject to penalties of $2,000 per day"
and can't have the machines certified until they stop selling
them. "Typically Far East clones" were caught, he added. "They're
bringing in sub-assemblies and selling complete systems without
certifying them. The interference problem is severe, and people
who purchase uncertified computers are doing it at risk -- we
might require that they stop using them." Mr.  Freeman displayed
one egregious sub-assembly violator, a machine which said
"American Research Corp." on one side, "Five Star" on the back.

One other thing -- accelerator boards to speed up your old machine
will now be classed as peripherals by the FCC and manufacturers
must now have the FCC certify them as complying with its emission
regulations before selling them. (Previously they were considered
sub-assemblies, and didn't have to be checked.) Modems typically
have to be certified on two counts, once for radio emissions and
again against damages to the phone line.

NOTE: The FCC maintains a public access link via modem to answer
questions and provide more information. The number is below.

CONTACT: Federal Communications Commission, [phone]




C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987

ZENITH'S MAC-LIKE "EAZY PC"
Reporters I talked to positively raved about the Zenith "eaZy
pc," a $995 retail (street prices will be lower) MS-DOS box with
no slots, 3 1/2 inch floppies, and a black-on-white screen with a
new Mac-like operating interface from Microsoft called MS-DOS
Manager. The machine is super-quiet, because there's no fan and
the power supply is in the monitor. "This is the first MS-DOS PC
with the ease-of-operation attributed to Apple's Macintosh,"
Zenith president Robert Dilworth said. Not in the press release
but admitted freely in the booth, this American Rocky is Made at
a Zenith factory in...(ahem) Taiwan.

That's far from all. Zenith said it is now shipping a new Intel
80386-based PC which is compatible with IBM's new VGA standard,
as well as its old EGA and CGA standards. Dilworth said this machine
can process 3 million instructions per second and has up to 10
AT-style slots. Prices for the Model 40 and Model 80 are from
$6,500-7,500, and they both come with Microsoft Windows standard.
Finally, Zenith showed off its new Flat Color Monitor, a 14-inch
screen Dilworth claimed "outperforms professional graphics
displays that cost $5-10,000." The price: $1,000.

CONTACT: Glen Nelson, ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS, [phone]





C O M D E X ...June 4, 1987


BEST SHOW GIVE-AWAY FROM WORDPERFECT
The niftiest giveaway of the show, by far, is the WordPerfect
Executive valise, a *real leather* case with a center
pocket plenty-big for my Model 100 and side-pockets which can
hold a day's worth of press kits. Those who made it to the
WordPerfect Executive press conference Monday will be easily
recognizable for years to come. (I know I will be. I made an ass
of myself bragging on it all week. And I may feel a little guilty
about keeping it all year.)

The second niftiest giveaway of the show also came from
WordPerfect. It's a blue corduroy hat from their booth's
guerilla-theater presentation, "Top One" (and it's made in, you
guessed it, Taiwan.)



[***][6/02/87][***]
ONE-TO-ONE FINALLY SOLD
LONDON, UK (NB) -- One-to-One, the Pacific Telesis-owned electronic
mail company, has finally been sold.  Following several weeks of
intensive negotiation, during which a management buy-out was hinted,
Comtext International, best-known in Europe for its communications
hardware, has acquired One-to-One from its US parent, Pacific Telesis.

Comtext's intention is to rapidly develop the three main areas of
One-to-One's business - electronic mail, telex relay and
international cablegrams.  One-to-One currently has six Tandem
fault-tolerant processors based at its London HQ, which currently
serves more than 16,000 subscribers.

Roger Dean, sales and marketing director for One-to-One said "This
is a terrific deal. Now we can continue setting the pace in the UK
electronic mail industry."

CONTACT: ONE-TO-ONE, Scorpio House, 102 Sydney Street,
         London SW3 6NL.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][6/02/87][***]
SAMSUNG PCS FOR THE UK
LONDON, UK (NB) -- Samsung, best-known in the UK for its video and
domestic electronics products, is moving into the PC stakes later
this year with the launch of a PC XT and AT compatible range of
computers.

Two machines will initially be launched onto the UK market - the
SPC-3000, a PC-XT compatible machine at around the 800 pounds
($1,200) mark, and the MFC-6000, a PC-AT compatible model starting
at 1,499 pounds ($2,250) for a single floppy plus 1Mb RAM version,
rising to 1,799 pounds ($2,700) for a 20Mb hard disc-equipped
machine.  All Samsung machines are steel-cased, rather than plastic,
which the company says denotes the "high quality of workmanship of
the machines."

Derrick Maddern, business development manager for Samsung UK, told
NEWSBYTES UK that a September launch is planned for the range "with
a big promotional spend to support the launch."  The company is
pitching its machines into the Tandon end of the market, but at
competitive prices.  "The pricing is aggressive and the time is
right," he said.

* BIX (Byte magazine's information system in the US) says that a
prototype 80386-based machine with a clock speed of 16Mhz and 100ns
dynamic RAM will be shown at Comdex this week.  Samsung UK declines
to say when the machine will debut, but NEWSBYTES UK sources
indicate a possible parallel launch for the machine in September
also.

CONTACT - SAMSUNG UK - 01-404-0122

[***][6/02/87][***]
AMSTRAD OUTSELLS BIG BLUE TWO TO ONE
BRENTWOOD, MIDDLESEX (NB) -- Amstrad is now selling twice as many
PCs as IBM in the UK, according to a London market research firm.
Romtec, which issues quarterly reports on the state of the UK computer
market says that Amstrad's share of the UK PC market now stands at
39 per cent - nearly twice as much as IBM and outstripping other UK
firms such as Apricot (5.7%), Olivetti (4.7%), and Apple (3.6%), many
times over.

Romtec's Edward Howard-Jones is quoted in the latest COMPUTER TRADE
WEEKLY as saying he's not surprised by Amstrad's performance.
"There's a lot of demand, (the PC1512) has a decent price, the right
distribution and is marketed well."

A spokesman for Amstrad is quoted in CTW as "pleased, but not
surprised" with ROMTEC's findings.  Ah, such modesty...

CONTACT: AMSTRAD PLC, Brentwood House, 169 Kings Road,
         Brentwood, Essex, CM14 4EF.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][6/02/87][***]
NINTENDO TO TAKE ON THE UK
LEICESTER, UK (NB) -- The Nintendo Entertainment System which has
reportedly sold more than 10 million units in Japan alone, is coming
to the UK this summer.

Marketed by the Mattel group in Britain, the computer games system
will sell in two configurations over here.  The first, at 130 pounds
($195) consists of the control deck, twin hand controls and free
game.  The deluxe system costs 200 pounds ($300) and adds a 'super
zapper' gun and ROB (Robotic Operating Buddy) as an automatic
opponent.

Mattel has high hopes for the UK video game market with the Nintendo
system.  The Leicester-based company points to 52 colours available
on-screen at any one time, compared with just 16 "if you're lucky,
with the others," say the advertisements.

NEWSBYTES UK isn't so sure the machines will sell in the UK.
Software, in the form of plug-in and play cartridges, will sell for
a cool 20 pounds ($30) minimum, rising to a premium 30 pounds ($45)
on top-selling games.  Considering most computer software pundits
are predicting UK game prices will fall to under 5 pounds ($7-50) by
the late summer, that's a lot of pocket money to expect kids to
shell out...

CONTACT: MATTEL UK LTD, Meridian West, Leicester LE3 2WT.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][6/02/87][***]
ANOTHER COMPUTER MAGAZINE DEBUTS
LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE (NB) -- Taking a look round the newsstands
reveals more than 50 computer magazines on sale at NEWSBYTES UK's
local bookstore.  What does the computer industry need more of?
Right - magazines.

Enter THE GAMES MACHINE magazine from Newsfield publishing.  The
first issue of the computer monthly will be in September at the
London Personal Computer World show with a target readership of 8
and 16-bit game players, as well as game console owners (Atari,
Nintendo etc).  Roger Kean of Newsfield is quoted as saying the
magazine will initially have a print run of 80,000 and a cover price
of one pound, 25 pence ($2).

CONTACT: NEWSFIELD PUBLISHING - 0584-5851

[***][6/02/87][***]
PRESTEL - TELECOM GOLD GATEWAY OPENS
LONDON, UK (NB) -- Subscribers to MICRONET 800, the microcomputing
arm of Prestel, now have access to another British Telecom network,
Telecom Gold, via a unique gateway system. Using a special gateway
page on the 40 column by 20 line viewdata network, subscribers may
now gateway through onto Telecom Gold, which usually operates in
80 column scrolling format.  Thanks to special Prestel software,
the Telecom Gold frames are displayed in viewdata format, with the
last few lines of each 'screen' of information redisplayed as the
viewdata screen is refreshed.  The effect is a lot slower and more
cumbersome than direct access to Telecom Gold, but Prestel access
to the service is surcharged at less than a third of the costs of
accessing Telecom Gold via PSS, the UK's public data network.
Micronet says that initial demand for the service has been
"tremendous" and above expectation.

CONTACT: MICRONET 800, Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill, London EC1R.
         Tel: [phone]

[***][6/02/87][***]
IT'S ELECTION TIME
In case you hadn't noticed, election fever is currently rampaging
through the UK media.  The computer press is no exception to this,
and is full of what the three main parties - Alliance, Conservative,
and Labour - plan for the computing market of the future.  One of
the smaller parties, the Monster Raving Looney Party (I kid you
not), is also making a stand on the computer vote.

Party chairman Alan Hope says the MRLP has plans for the computer
industry.  "We're going to privatise the hot air industry which has
done so well under previous governments... It could prove to a very
cheap replacement for computer air conditioning!"