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/nb871027.228

Text File | 1991-08-16 | 67.7 KB | 1,462 lines

[***][10/27/87][***]
MACINTOSHES HOT ITEMS FOR THIEVES
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (NB) -- When Frank Catalano opened his desktop
publishing training center one September morning, he was surprised
to find himself short 4 Macintosh SEs and a LaserWriter Plus.
Investigators say evidence indicates that before the shop closed
the previous day, a thief had apparently hidden inside the shop,
and when everyone had left, neatly disconnected the machines
and carted them out.  Just a few weeks earlier, a San Francisco
architectural firm, Brewer Fraser Architects, opened the store
to find a 512KE Macintosh, hard drive, and  laser printer missing--
nothing else.  These were just two of what appears to be a series
of incidents making up a "recognizable pattern of offices getting
hit."

"A lot of offices in the financial district are getting hit," Investigator
Nick Klimenko of the SFPD's Burglary unit told NEWSBYTES.  "Computers
have replaced Selectric typewriters" as the loot of choice, and "It
appears quite a few people are involved.  It's almost as if they get
a request in, rather than steal the goods, then find a market."

Macintoshes are particularly hot targets, say officials, because they
are small and portable, and demand a high price on the black market.
Fortunately for Catalano's operation, the Informative Edge, the
break-in was covered by insurance, and he was quickly back in
operation.  But most of the goods remain unrecovered.  Catalano
would like to see Apple institute a system by which their dealers
are informed of the serial numbers of stolen equipment.  Police
say IBM has such a system with its LaserWriters.

The bottom line has been beefed-up security for those hit by the
Macintosh thieves in the financial district.  Catalano of the
Informative Edge now takes his Mac home at night.  The architects
have installed burglar alarms.

[***][10/27/87][***]
AST RESEARCH UNVEILS SUPERSONIC 80386 WITH NEW BUS "STANDARD"
IRVINE, Ca. (NB) -- AST Research has come out a blazing 20MHz
80386-based PC called the AST Premium/386 and if its speed is
not its claim to fame, its bus structure is.  For the first time, a
manufacturer has created features which can only be found
in IBM's coveted Micro Channel Architecture.  But in addition,
the bus accepts AT-style cards and behaves like an AT-style
bus.

The four models come with one or two megabytes of RAM, base
price is $4695, and feature seven slots.  The SMARTslot bus
allows them to support multiple processors, as does IBM's Micro
Channel Architecture.  This increases speed and enables the
operation of coprocessor cards.  Shipments of the machines are
scheduled for late December.

AST has announced the first coprocessing card -- the ESDI disk
controller -- which can load data from the drive to memory without
bothering the main microprocessor.  The specifications for the
new bus are being given to developer in hopes they will adopt it
as a standard and produce additional cards.

Stewart Alsop, author of PC Letter, raves about the new machines
and the unique design.  "Right now the company seems to have a very
high level of credibility...AST's AT bus extension is the first solid
movement toward actually enhancing the capability of the so-
called standard."

[***][10/27/87][***]
TANDON ALSO HAS FAST NEW 386
MOORPARK, Ca. (NB) -- Tandon Computer Corporation has joined AST
and Compaq in introducing a 20 megahertz 80386.  The machine
comes with two megabytes of RAM, an internal hard disk drive,
a one and a half megabyte 5 1/4" floppy drive, and it takes Tandon's
new 30 megabyte Personal Data Pacs -- hard disk cartridges that can
be interchanged, Bernoulli-box style.  Tandon will announce pricing on
the new machine at Comdex.

[***][10/27/87][***]
AT&T ADOPTS SUN'S RISC DESIGN
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Sun Microsystems has a huge feather
in its cap with the news that AT&T has adopted its RISC chip,
called SPARC,  in a new computer workstation.  Also, AT&T and
Sun report they are making progress on a new, standardized
version of Unix, which will be the operating system of the new
AT&T machine.

The SPARC chip replaces the traditional 68000 Motorola microprocessor
which is currently the "brains" of Sun and other makers' workstations.
The RISC design allows the computer to operate with fewer
instructions, therefore is faster and more efficient.  Boasted
AT&T's Vittorio Cassoni, "This is the wave of the future.  We
expect this platform to become a major computing environment
for the 1990s and beyond."

AT&T is the only other company besides Sun to announce new
machines based on the SPARC chips, but Olivetti is reportedly on
the verge of adopting them too.  The first AT&T SPARC-based
workstations are expected to appear in 1989.

[***][10/27/87][***]
APPLE'S BIG AD CAMPAIGN AIMED AT HOME BUSINESS MARKET
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple is preparing to unleash an ad campaign
aimed at the homestead entrepreneur, a market recently allowed
to languish due to the big push to get Apples into major businesses.
An estimated $1 million will be spent on television commercials,
travelling shopping mall shows, a direct mail campaign in which
3.5 million Apple credit cards with limits of $3,500 will be sent
out, and a rebate campaign of $50 to $100 off selected peripherals
for the Apple II and Macintosh line.

Apple says it is already the leader in the home business market,
which makes up a majority of the 30,000 new businesses started
each year.  But 1988 will be the year of "experimentation with
the personal office umbrella" to capture an even greater share,
says Bill Larson, Apple's manager of consumer marketing.

[***][10/27/87][***]
APPLE'S INTIMATE UNDERSTANDING OF COMPATIBILITY
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- Here's a good one NEWSBYTES reader Jim Edlin
discovered.  Seems Apple's distributing a disk with its Technical
Reference Package for the firm's new HyperCard software on which
there is a detailed description of how the program's "dial" command
works.  (That's the command that enables the software to dial a
number via modem.)

Somehow, at the end of the description, the following text was
included:  "If you work at Apple, there is currently no way to get the
'dial' command to work with our InteCom phone system."

Comments Jim Edlin, "Do people at Apple understand the issue
of making their products compatible with the real world, pre-computer
hardware people have in their offices?  Intimately, it seems."

[***][10/27/87][***]
FINANCIAL SHORTS --

ACTIVISION, Mountain View, Ca., sold $11.3 million in software,
and earned $1.5 million -- 30% higher than in its last quarter.

MICROSOFT says earnings jumped 34% in its most recent quarter.
Sales amounted to $102.6 million -- up 54% over this time last
year.

TANDEM COMPUTERS, Cupertino, has just completed its first billion
dollar year, having made $1.035 billion, a 35% increase over fiscal
1986.

[***][10/27/87][***]
IN BRIEF --

APPLE COMPUTER employees, all 6,500 of them, will get free
copies of CEO John Sculley's new book, "Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple."
The giveaway will cost Apple "less than $50,000" due to a
publisher's discount and Sculley, himself, will not accept any
royalties from the employee gift-giving.

INFOCORP, Cupertino, Ca., a market research firm, reports
that in August, Apple's dollar share of the computer market
exceeded IBM's, the first time this has happened since IBM
introduced the PS/2 line.

MICROSOFT, Redmond, Wa., reports that it has shipped more than
3,300 OS/2 Software Developer Kits.  Over two thirds of those
buying the kits are writing for the commercial market, the rest
are using the kits to write in-house programs for their companies.

TOSHIBA, Irvine, Ca., will build its 32-bit laptop computer, the T5100,
in its plant here in order to get past U.S. tariffs on imported Japanese
computers.  The expensive ($6,499) laptop is expected to ship next year.


[***][10/27/87][***]
BELL COMPANIES ASK FOR RIGHT TO COMPETE WITH TELENET
WASHINGTON, DC (NB) -- Judge Harold Greene received 7 proposed
rulings from the 7 Regional Bell Operating Companies (the "7
Sisters") by his October 18 deadline and should decide around
Christmas whether the 7 sisters should compete with Telenet,
Tymnet, and other packet-switch networks before 1990. Since he
asked for the proposed rulings in the first place, odds are he'll
let them in the market somehow. To help persuade him U.S. West,
Englewood, CO, got the American Newspaper Publishers' Association
and other longtime foes of the Bell entry into the information
business to join in its proposed ruling.

WHAT IT WOULD MEAN -- The Bell companies want to compete in
videotex as they now do in audiotex. There's not much difference
in fact between what a phone company does to let you read
NEWSBYTES or hear a taped message from Jim and Tammy Bakker.
As an information provider in audiotex, the Bakkers charge what
they want, and say what they want, subject to the rules of state
utility commissions. Why not let NEWSBYTES do that, they ask.
Besides, points out John Gunter, director of strategic analysis
for BellSouth, some online services are inherently local, like
restaurant reviews, and currently have no place online in most of
the country.

CONTACT: Tom Crawford, BELLSOUTH, [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
THE EFFECT OF THE FALL ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON STOCK PRICES
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- The October 20 "Wall Street Journal"
featured a two-column headline on Black Monday. The listings
inside should have included a black border. No one wasn't hit by
the Great Crash of 1987, and here are just a few examples from
the companies this column covers regularly: Compaq, 49 1/4 DOWN
13, GM E (EDS) 35 DOWN 6 1/2, BellSouth 33 3/4 DOWN 3 1/4,
Intelligent Systems (Quadram) 5 1/4 DOWN 1 3/4, Unisys 30 1/2
DOWN 7 1/2. On average, New York Stock Exchange listed stocks of
all types fell 22% in value. On the day. (If that don't scare
you, you're scare-proof.) How bad was it? Unisys had that day
announced that its net income for the quarter ending in September
rose 145% from a year earlier, yet its stock lost nearly 20% of
its value. Two days later, after Wonderful Wednesday, some of the
losses had been made up. Compaq stood at 55 1/2, GM E (EDS) at
38, BellSouth at 39 1/2, Intelligent Systems (Quadram) at 5 5/8,
and Unisys at 61.

WHERE FROM HERE -- Unless something serious is done about U.S.
budget and trade deficits in the next six months, the market will
wobble and then plunge even worse than this time. An important
lesson -- computers make change happen FAST. Too fast to catch up
with once those changes start.

[***][10/27/87][***]
HAYES, DCA MAKE THEIR PRODUCTS MORE COMPATIBLE
REMOTE, OR (NB) -- On the day of the Wall Street crash, fans of
two Atlanta companies went to the mountains of Oregon to learn
about IRMAremote for Hayes AutoSync, which will let a PC equipped
with a Hayes V-Series modem function as a remote 3270 workstation
linked to an IBM mainframe. DCA, by agreeing to implement the
Hayes Synchronous Driver, will let Hayes V-Series modems access
IBM mainframes without using a separate IRMA board. DCA software,
conversely, will be able to access the AutoSync capability of
Hayes modems, letting them pass data synchronously through the
same async ports found on the standard PC. (All in all, a good
deal for both companies, and for their users. Not exactly what
NEWSBYTES expected October 20, but nice.)

CONTACT: Jane Dryden, HAYES [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
HAYES, U.S. ROBOTICS BURY THE HATCHET
SKOKIE, IL (NB) -- U.S. Robotics has settled its patent case with
Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. The settlement comes one week
after a court ruled that U.S. Robotics had not infringed on a
patent from Bizcomp on which Hayes' modem patents rely. Under the
agreement, U.S. Robotics will license the patent for a modem with
improved escape sequence which Hayes won in 1985, and pay Hayes
royalties on products which utilize it. U.S. Robotics also agreed
to pay Hayes' attorney fees resulting from its being named in the
Bizcomp suit. Hayes' President Dennis Hayes treated it as a big
victory, saying, "The settlement of this litigation is an
important step in our technology licensing program. We are
proceeding to offer licenses to other responsible manufacturers
in the industry."

CONTACT: Jane Dryden, HAYES [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
MAINLINK FROM QUADRAM LINKS MICROS AND MAINFRAMES ON 15 CHIPS
NORCROSS, GA (NB) -- While the stock market was crashing October
19 Quadram was holding a press briefing at its headquarters to
announce MainLink, which uses a new chip set from Chips &
Technologies, Milpitas, CA, called CHIPSlink, to offer both 3270
emulation and emulation of DCA's IRMA board. The news here are
the prices -- they're low.  How low? Try $399 for a half-slot on
the PC line, $499 for the PS/2 full-card version. Said division
manager Bruce Watson, "The new chip set will let us do in the
micro-mainframe market what Quadram did in the EGA market, supply
the best price-performance solution."

CONTACT: Jane Bator, QUADRAM, [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
ZENITH TO SHIP ITS PCs WITH OS/2 BEFORE YEAR'S END
GLENVIEW, IL (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems hopes to have its PCs
equipped with PS/2 before IBM says the program is ready. IBM is
co-authoring the new operating system with Microsoft. Zenith says
its people have given OS/2 video interfaces, and other input and
output interfaces. They're done, even if Microsoft and IBM
aren't. And they plan to ship it.

[***][10/27/87][***]
PIPELINE OUTFIT USES RIGHT-OF-WAY FOR DATA
TULSA, OK (NB) -- The Williams Companies Inc. of Tulsa, OK, has
been in the pipeline business in the Midwest for decades, and
with the pipes getting old and the cost of gas staying low, they
wondered what to do with the the right-of-way. The solution --
put fiber-optic cable alongside the pipeline and sell
transmission capacity. Over the last year, Williams has grown
this into a tidy $40 million/year business, re-selling the
capacity to companies like U.S. Sprint and MCI. Roy Wilkens,
president of the transmission subsidiary, told reporters his
operation could go into the black next year.  Mr. Wilkens says
his lines get the business by charging 20% less than AT&T.

[***][10/27/87][***]
CORRECTING THE COMPETITION: CHICAGO COPS JUST THINKING COMPUTERS
CHICAGO, IL (NB) -- NEWSBYTES checked out an item from "Online
Today" on the C-Word (CompuServe) October 18. Superintendent Fred
Rice had indicated the city was going to link computers in police
cars to a central database and get street crime patterns before
the crooks knew what hit them. Turned out the superintendent, who
spoke on WBBM-Radio talk-show host John Madigan's program, was
describing hopes, not plans. A two-year study is all he's really
committing to. The cops want to know what technology can do and
how much it might cost before buying anything. (Atlanta, however,
is putting terminals in the cop cars.)

CONTACT: Public Affairs, CHICAGO POLICE, [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
COMDEX --  WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS...
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- Here are some of the questions we all ought
to put in our kit bags before flying to Comdex in Las Vegas,
which starts November 1:
        *Will the stock market crash affect attendance? Will it
keep stores from buying?
        *Will the Japanese continue their slow, certain ascent to
dominance in all areas of the computer hardware business? Or will
the increased price of the yen finally stop their growth?
        *For that matter what about the Koreans, Taiwanese and
Hong Kong Chinese, whose currencies are tied to the dollar?
        *How low in price can desktop publishing systems go? For
systems that do real publishing, with full pagination at up to
2,540 dpi?
        *Are there any other new applications out there that real
people can use. Like Desktop Artist. Or Desktop Animator, a
computer solution that that might let you take the jerkiness out
of Fred Flintstone, and do Disney-quality animation for less.
        *Are there any promotion ideas that Las Vegas didn't
think up decades ago? (Specifically, can anyone top the briefcase
WordPerfect gave the press last June in Atlanta.)
        *How many of the Yuppies at Comdex this year will be
going through Mid-Life Crisis. And what do you call a Middle-Aged
Yuppie, anyway. A Maypy? (Maypy not.)

[***][10/27/87][***]
PRE-COMDEX NYBBLES

THE INTERFACE GROUP, Needham, MA, said 140 foreign companies from
17 countries will be exhibiting at Comdex/Fall, and 90% of them
are first-time exhibitors.

THE SOFTWARE LINK INC., Atlanta, will hand out demonstration
diskettes of its PC-MOS/386 operating system at its booth. (#4124
Rotunda)

SUN RIVER CORP., Jackson, MS, will show a full line of fiber
optic stations for use with Intel 80386-based computers under the
CygnaSystem concept.

SAMNA CORP., Atlanta, will introduce Unix versions of its Samna
Plus IV package with desktop publishing, spreadsheet, and word
processing capabilities. The new version will allow for scanning
documents and images under the TIFF format used by leading
scanners.

DEST/GMS, Boca Rotan, put the GMS name on Dest's scanner, text
softwre, and other products, all of which will be in the GMS
booth as the EZ-Scam II product line.

HOUSTON INSTRUMENT, Austin, TX, will roll out a new line of pen
plotters, the DMP-60 series, along with new warrantees,
accessories, and price cuts from 9-15% on mid-range drafting
products.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, Dallas, will host a graphics fair to tout the
capabilities of its new 34010 graphics processor for PCs, as used
by AST Research, AT&T, NEC, Tektronix and others.

[***][10/27/87][***]
PECAN GOLDEN CHIPS

CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, announced it earned $6.8 million for
the quarter ending September 30. A year ago it lost $9.8 million.
Revenues were $831.4 million, up from $818.5 million. The results
include a $36.5 million gain from selling 1/3 of Commercial
Credit, a $36.5 million reserve on a disk drive component
replacement program, and a $8.4 million reserve on old Cyber 205
supercomputers.

CONTEL, Atlanta, reported it earned $34 million for the 3rd
quarter, down from $60.3 million a year ago, with sales of $726.8
million, down from $729.6 million a year ago. Contel CEO Donald
Weber said the company would look to sell any part of the company
not making money -- the Executone telephone equipment subsidiary
is reportedly on the block. (No reserve was established on
Charlton Heston.)

[***][10/27/87][***]
PECAN CHIPS

ZYLAB, Chicago, announced ZyFeatures, a new add-on to its ZyIndex
text search program, letting you store complex commands in
macros, use a 20,000 word thesaurus. The company also moved to
the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.

INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE, Lenaxa, KS, announced it will merge into
Informix Corp.  which creates database programs for minicomputers
and mainframes. The deal should close in February, with each
share of the "Smart Software" line maker worth 3/4 of an Informix
share.

MICROSOLUTIONS COMPUTER SOLUTIONS, DeKalb, IL, has released a
disk controller card called CompatiCard that supports PS/2-type 3
1/2 inch drives in a single 8-bit IBM PC slot. AT users can read-
write capability to PS/2 drives with the same company's Uniform-
PC software program.  Pcices: $175 for CompatiCard, $70 for
Uniform-PC

MEMORY CONTROL TECHNOLOGY CORP., Omaha, says its studies show
floppy disk quality is falling along with the prices. One box of
disks the company bought for its study contained human hair.
(Kodak-Verbatim's new high-priced teflon-coated disks weren't
included in the study.)

BANCTEC, Dallas, announced an OEM contract with IBM under which
Big Blue will buy and re-sell BancTec's systems for processing
checks, remittances and other financial instruments using optical
character recognition (OCR), magnetic ink character recognition
(MICR) and image processing technologies.

HONEYWELL, Minneapolis, announced the election of James J.Renier
as chief executive, succeeding Edwin W. Spencer. Renier has been
with Honeywell since 1956.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, Dallas, announced an AT-compatible workstation
for multi-user computer systems, and four new models of its
System 1000 Series of multi-user systems.

CACI INC - FEDERAL and TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, Dallas, established a
Department of Defense Engineering Technology Center, to create
new Computer-Aided Software Engineering tools based on IEF, a
CASE product developed by TI

EDS, Dallas, implemented a trade processing system for James
Capel's new Tokyo offices using its TradePro trading package.
(And just in time, too.)

WORDPERFECT CORP., Orem, UT, released a faster version of its
WordPerfect 4.2, which it says increases the speed of the
program. Copies of the fix were sent to the media.

ZSOFT CORP., Marietta, GA, announced its PC Paintbrush and
Publishers' Type Foundry programs are now fully compatible with
Windows/386 from Microsoft. The foundry program, scheduled for
release late in October, lets users download fonts, logos and
special symbols for output by PostScript, HP/PCL and other laser
printers.

[***][10/27/87][***]
AND FINALLY, THE WORLD IS BECOMING MORE LIKE NEWSBYTES
Walter Ulrich, a longtime electronic mail watcher who sold his
consulting firm to Coopers & Lybrand, says that 5 million
corporate E-Mail users are now sending over 150 messages per
month in the U.S> alone, with 74% of the nation's major
corporations having installed systems. The trend for the future,
he adds, will be international links, in which workers from
Japan, Europe and the U.S.  can pass mail easily back and forth
to share the state of the world with each other instantly. (Just
as we already do here at NEWSBYTES.)




[***][10/27/87][***]
COPYRIGHT VICTORY FOR APPLE CANADA
MONTREAL (NB) -- Apple Canada Inc. scored another victory in its
battle to protect software from unauthorized copying when the
Federal Court of Appeal upheld an earlier judgment against
several Montreal companies.  But Gareth Jones, Apple Canada vice-
president, says clearer copyright laws are still needed.

Mackintosh Computers Ltd., Repco Electronics Co., House of
Semiconductors Ltd. and 15778 Canada Inc., as well as two
individuals, were charged with violating Apple's copyrights on
the Apple II operating system and AppleSoft BASIC, both contained
in read-only memory chips in the company's eight-bit computers.
The Montreal firms were distributing imported clones of the Apple
II with the software in ROM.

Jones told NEWSBYTES CANADA that while this was not the first
time Apple Canada had laid such charges, this case was the first
to go through the courts.  "Usually what's happened in the past,"
he said, "is that the software pirates give in" when charges are
laid.

The original decision, in Apple's favor, was made by the Federal
Court of Canada in April of last year, but the defendants
appealed.  They have no further automatic right of appeal,
although they may ask the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to
appeal the case.

Jones said the decision "sets a useful precedent," but called for
new copyright laws to replace the 64-year-old Copyright Act,
which says nothing about computers or software and leaves
software's copyright status open to debate.  Companies such as
Apple shouldn't have to face lengthy court battles to protect
their copyrights, he said.

In a statement just after the appeal court decision, the
Information Technology Association of Canada echoed that view.
The association's representatives appeared before a parliamentary
committee on copyright reform recently and urged rapid passage of
software copyright provisions.  Saying the cost of software
piracy in Canada may be as high as C$400,000 a year, ITAC
President Graeme Hughes said piracy is hampering the development
of the Canadian software industry.

[***][10/27/87][***]
GEAC BOUNCES BACK
MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- Geac Computer Corp. is out of receivership.
The only Canadian-owned mainframe computer manufacturer cancelled
its interim receiver in mid-October and escaped from the Canadian
equivalent of the U.S.'s Chapter 11 proceedings after all but two
of 600 unsecured creditors approved a repayment proposal that
gives them 20 cents on every dollar owed and preferred shares in
the company.  Creditors will get full payment if Geac's share
price reaches C$3.33.  At the time of the deal the share price
was C$2.40, and it has been as high as C$4.00 in the past year.
However, Geac was among the Canadian high-tech companies caught
in the stock exchange's plunge Oct. 19 (see story below) and the
share price fell to $1.80.

[***][10/27/87][***]
HIGH-TECH STOCKS JOIN IN PLUNGE
TORONTO (NB) -- The bigger they are, the harder they fall?  Not
necessarily true when it comes to Canadian high-technology stocks
and the stock-market crash of Oct. 19.  The shares of larger
companies such as Bell Canada, Northern Telecom and IBM fell, but
not as much as several smaller high-tech companies also traded on
the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Among the big losers were Gandalf Data Inc. of Ottawa, which fell
24 per cent on Monday from C$8.50 to C$6.50 a share; Accugraph
Corp., a Toronto-based maker of computer-aided design software
for PCs, whose share price tumbled from C$3.10 at closing on
Friday, Oct. 16 to close at C$2.45 on Monday; Memotec Data Inc.
of Montreal, which sustained a 21 per cent drop from C$17.50 to
C$13.00; and Cableshare Inc. of London, Ont., which saw its stock
drop from C$5.00 at Friday's closing to C$4.00 at the end of
trading on Monday.  Memotec levelled off and Gandalf gained
slightly on Tuesday, but Accugraph and Cableshare continued their
plunges to close Tuesday at C$1.35 and C$2.50 respectively.

Bell Canada Enterprises fell from C$36.75 to C$34.25 on Monday,
then regained most of the loss to close Tuesday at C$36.00.
Northern Telecom dropped two dollars to C$22.00 on Monday and
held steady on Tuesday.  IBM closed Tuesday at C$150, down from
C$181 at closing on Oct. 16.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's High Technology Index, a weighted
average of Canadian high-tech companies, dropped 14 per cent from
closing Oct. 16 to closing Oct. 20, falling from 876.67 to
752.41.

By the end of the week, things were looking up a bit.  Bell
Canada actually closed the week up 5/8 from the previous Friday's
close, at 37-3/8.  Cableshare was the worst loser, closing at
C$3.00 Friday after dropping 40 per cent in one week.  The TSE
High Technology Index ended the week at 763.71, a 12.9-per-cent
drop from the end of the week before.

[***][10/27/87][***]
CANADA TO BE BASE FOR COMMONWEALTH DISTANCE EDUCATION NET
OTTAWA (NB) -- The Canadian Department of Communications will
provide the coordinating centre and much of the technical
expertise for a long-distance audio-visual education network to
be set up by members of the British Commonwealth.

The network's control centre will probably be located in British
Columbia, on Canada's West Coast, while much of the expertise to
make it work will come from Memorial University of Newfoundland,
at the very opposite end of the country.  Department of
Communications spokesman Michel Lucas said the network will
probably draw heavily on the experience of Memorial's
Telemedicine Centre, which has been involved in
telecommunications for medical purposes and distance education
since the late 1970s.

Erin Keogh of the Telemedicine Centre said the operation in
Newfoundland currently uses a dedicated four-channel network of
telephone lines linking 13 points.  It is used for transmitting
medical data and holding teleconferences, and for providing some
30 distance education courses each university semester.  The
system is also used to provide emergency health care on offshore
oil rigs.

The system links PCs, most of which are equipped with TeleWriter,
a device from New York-based Optel Communications that allows a
user to write on a graphics palette and have the image appear on
a remote PC's screen.  That signal is sent over the same phone
line as a voice signal using a special modem.  Some points on the
network are equipped with slow-scan television.

Lucas said using telephone lines rather than more sophisticated
broadband links will make the network easier to implement in
third-world countries, the Commonwealth members most likely to
benefit from it.  Along with Canada, India, Britain, Malta and
Nigeria will be major contributors to the project.

CONTACT: CANADIAN DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS, [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
OS/2 A BOON FOR MESSAGING, SYDNEY EXECUTIVE SAYS
VANCOUVER (NB) -- Microsoft's Operating System/2 is the most
significant thing to happen to electronic messaging in some time,
according to Peter Westwood, vice-president for communications
products at Sydney Development Corp.  Westwood told the recent
Electronic Messaging '87 conference in San Francisco that OS/2
will fuel rapid growth in the electronic mail business.

Westwood explains that OS/2 multitasking capabilities are its
key advantage over MS-DOS.  Whereas an MS-DOS machine cannot send
or receive messages while doing something else at the same time,
OS/2 can receive a message in background while the user is doing
something else.  That will make electronic messaging much more
convenient to use, he said.  Westwood added that electronic
messaging software that takes advantage of OS/2 can be expected
to appear very quickly once the operating system is generally
available.  He would not say whether Sydney Development is
working on such a package, but said it is "an obvious thing to be
working on."

CONTACT: SYDNEY DEVELOPMENT CORP., [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
NEXT, SATELLITE DANCING
TORONTO (NB) -- Having a conversation or seeing an image via
long-distance communications is old hat today -- we're all used
to that.  But how about long-distance dancing, or long-distance
arm-wrestling?

These are some of the things the McLuhan Centre at the University
of Toronto is playing with.  The centre, named for the late media
scholar Marshall McLuhan, who taught at UofT, conducted a
demonstration recently in which two dancers in different rooms
danced together to music created by a computer in response to
their body movements.  The dancers in this case were in two rooms
of the same building, but they could have been miles apart.  The
centre plans to try the same thing some time soon with one dancer
in Toronto and one in Geneva.  More interesting than the
distance, though, was the music synthesis program created by
Toronto artist/engineer David Rokeby.  It uses three low-
definition cameras to monitor a dancer's movements.  The cameras
are connected to an Apple II computer, which runs a program that
synthesizes music from the dancer's movements.

At the demonstration, McLuhan Centre Director Derrick de
Kerckhove outlined some of its other activities in finding
creative uses for media and new technologies.  One recent
experiment was a transatlantic arm-wrestling match in which
computers in Toronto and Paris each converted pressure on a metal
arm to a signal which was transmitted across the Atlantic and
recreated by a motor attached to the arm at the other end.
Humans gripping the metal arms in each city were thus able to arm
wrestle electronically -- how's that for hands across the water?

Bell Canada provided facilities for the recent demonstration,
which suffered some technical glitches but showed the
possibilities.  Bell is interested in participating in a proposed
transatlantic videoconferencing network that would be used for
business, scientific and artistic purposes.

CONTACT: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MCLUHAN CENTRE, [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
JUST WAVE YOUR HAND, AND COMPUTER WILL RESPOND
TORONTO (NB) -- It seems the industry never tires of thinking up
new user interfaces.  Very Vivid, a small Toronto firm, has come
up with a new one for the Commodore Amiga that uses a video
camera and a digitizer to make the computer respond to the user's
body movements.  To use Midivision, you place yourself in front
of the camera.  On the computer's screen you see your own image
superimposed on an assortment of icons.  Then you just point to
an icon, as you would with a mouse.

This can be used the way icons are normally used, but Very Vivid
is also interested in new kinds of music and graphics programs
that take advantage of it.  The company plans to introduce "air
instruments" programs in which, for example, you see your image
superimposed over one of a guitar and you play the instrument by
touching the appropriate parts of it.

The basic Midivision software costs $295 (U.S.), and Very Vivid
also sells a digitizer for $295.  Besides these you need a video
camera.  Mice are cheaper, but then they don't respond at the
wave of your hand.

CONTACT: VERY VIVID, 1499 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ont.
         [phone]

[***][10/27/87][***]
FINANCIAL BITS
-- NORTHERN TELECOM INC., Mississauga, Ont., reported profit of
$207.2 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, up from $181
million in the year-earlier period.  Revenues were $3.5 billion,
up from $3.1 billion.  Northern Telecom reports in U.S. dollars.

-- SHL SYSTEMHOUSE INC., Ottawa, made a profit of C$23.7 million
in the year ended August 31, up from C$10.1 million last year.
Revenues were C$176.2 million, up from C$104.9 million.

-- XEROX CANADA INC., Toronto, has a profit of C$45.1 million in
the nine months ended Sept. 30, up from C$41.1 million in the
same period last year.  Revenues were C$705.1 million, up from
C$606.1 million.

[***][10/27/87][***]
BITS, EH?
-- THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO has a grant of nearly $100,000 from
the Alfred P. Sloan foundation to help it integrate Maple, a
specialized programming language, into its mathematics
curriculum.  Maple, developed at University of Waterloo in the
early 1980s, handles mathematical functions such as factorization
of integers and polynomials and some advanced calculus functions,
as well as handling fractions.

-- COGNOS INC. will incorporate a new screen painter program in
PowerHouse, its fourth-generation development tool, starting next
year.  The new screen painter will let users design and edit
screens with function keys or by entering commands.  PowerHouse
runs on computers from IBM PCs and compatibles up to mainframes.

-- ETA SYSTEMS INC. will sell its first two ETA10 Model P
supercomputers to the University of Western Ontario, London,
Ont., and Environment Canada Atmospheric Environment Services
(the Canadian weather service) in Montreal.



[***][10/27/87][***]
NEC UPGRADES LAPTOP AND 3.5-INCH DESKTOP PCs
TOKYO (NB) -- NEC has announced so-called "clone killers" aimed squarely
at Epson's NEC-compatible computers.  They are laptop computers the PC-
98LT11, and a 3.5-inch disk version the PC-9801UX.  Both are the
upgraded versions of NEC's popular PC-9801-line.  The new laptop
the PC-98LT11 has a 640x400-line LCD, a 1M 3.5-inch FDD, and a
640K memory.  The price is $1,653, or $2,000 with a new compact
battery-operated printer.  Meanwhile, the new desktop computer
the PC-9801UX21 has two 3.5-inch FDDs, a 10MHz 80286 MPU, and
NEC's V30 MPU.  The hard disk model, PC-9801UX41, is also
available.  With a custom graphics LSI, the desktop computers
have extremely improved graphics processing capabilities.

Just last month, Epson announced a 3.5-inch disk version of its
NEC clone and the company is planning to announce a laptop
version within a couple of months.

CONTACT: NEC, 1-4-28 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108

[***][10/27/87][***]
CRAY JAPAN LINKS WITH TOSHIBA
TOKYO (NB) -- The American subsidiary of supercomputer maker
Cray Japan has agreed with Toshiba to develop software for
Cray's supercomputer systems.  To start, Toshiba will cooperate
in developing an interface software system for the IBM 3090 and the
Cray 2, which will be installed at the Industrial Technology
Institute of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and
Industry.  Cray Japan told the press it plans to tie up with
other Japanese makers to promote the sales of its supercomputers.

[***][10/27/87][***]
32-BIT PC FROM SORD
CHIBA, Japan (NB) -- Toshiba Group's personal computer venture
Sord has developed a 32-bit personal computer called the Future 32-
M68FT.  The latest PC is equipped with a 68020 microprocessing
unit and a 2M memory (4M at maximum).  It supports 640x500-line
graphics and runs Japanese word processing software for desktop
publishing.  The basic system is priced at $5,542.

CONTACT: Sord, 5-20-7 Masago, Chiba-shi, Chiba-ken 260, Japan

[***][10/27/87][***]
KOREAN MAKER ENTERS 4M DRAM RACE
TOKYO (NB) -- Hyundai Electronics in Korea has decided to develop
its own 4M dynamic RAM.  Hyundai has already started to talk with
Nihon Kogaku (Japan) to purchase its stepper, which is used for
manufacturing 4M chips.  A report says the sample product will be
released in June 1988.  Currently, Hyundai Electronics is
producing 256K DRAMs and 1M DRAMs, using Vitelic Corp's (USA)
technology.

[***][10/27/87][***]
FRENCH DID IT BEFORE TOSHIBA: SOVIET SALE UPDATE
TOKYO (NB) -- The French government has admitted that a now-
bankrupt French firm had illegally exported milling tools to the
USSR prior to the similar export by Toshiba Machine.  The
Norwegean Police report points out that Italian and W. German
companies also illegally exported the tools to be used to build
Soviet submarines and warships in the 1970s.  Those reports
give a clue to solving an unexplained bone of contention - why the
noise of the Soviet submarines drastically decreased before the
export of Toshiba Machine's milling tools.

[***][10/27/87][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

IBM JAPAN'S NEW SYSTEM36 LINE -- IBM Japan, Tokyo, has announced
a small general purpose computer, the System 36ES.  This compact
machine supports 28 channels for local area network, and connects
64 workstations in a telecom network.  IBM Japan aims to sell the
machine for small and medium-sized businesses.

MITSUBISHI'S NEW AI COMPUTER -- Mitsubishi Electronics, Tokyo,
has unveiled three models of a mainframe computer line, the Melcom.
They are the EX860, the EX870, and the EX880.  Their architecture
is a byproduct of Japan's 5th generation computer project
which has been led by the Institute for New Generation Computer
Technology (ICOT).

ZILOG PLANS TO OPEN CHIP'S DESIGN CENTER IN JAPAN -- The vice
president of Zilog (USA) told the press in Tokyo that the company
is planning to build a semiconductor design center in Japan in
the latter half of 1988.  Zilog aims to increase its chip sales
by 30 percent next year.



[***][10/27/87][***]
COMMODORE INTRODUCES A 386 SYSTEM
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Commodore has introduced a new 80386
micro at the System 87 trade show here.  Commodore's PC60/40 and /80
come with the following: a 40MB or an 80MB hard disk, the Intel 80386
chip running  at 16MHz, one megabyte of RAM expandable to 16MB through
the system's 32-bit card slot, and a 5.25-inch floppy disk or a newer
3.5-inch diskette compatible with the IBM format. Both systems offer
5 AT-type slots and 2 XT-type slots for further expansion. Display
formats include a monochrome Hercules graphics-compatible card or a
CGA/EGA card. System software includes MSDOS3.2 for the 40 model
and Windows 386 for the 80MB model. The unit is priced in West
Germany starting at DM 9999 (about $ 5000).

With this system, Commodore hopes to enter the world of the big
boys. How the company is going to make it in a field unknown
to them remains to be seen.

In a related event, Commodore also announced its new entry-level
system, the PC-1, the lowest-cost Commodore system to date;
it uses an 8088 at 4.77MHz, has 512KB of RAM, a floppy controller,
serial and parallel ports, and a CGA adapter, all on the
motherboard. The system is supplied with MSDOS 3.2 and looks like
the Atari PC (tch..tch). Priced at DM 1295 (about US$ 600), it is
expected to sell at huge quantities, according to a company
spokesman.

Finally Commodore announced plans for Unix on the Amiga that will
run on a special card (not the MS-DOS card) and  should be
available in January 1988. The Unix system will run as a
task under Amiga-DOS, similar to the way MS-DOS runs on its 286
card. It is expected that Commodore will announce the Microport
implementation and that the new card will be similar to the MS-DOS
card, but with at least 2MB of RAM on board.

[***][10/27/87][***]
DATA TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES A NEW PAGE PRINTER
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Data Technology has introduced a new
page printer based on a liquid crystal shutter technology and which
features full Hewlett-Packard LaserJet Plus emulation. CrystalPrint
VIII is the first member of a series of LCS printers, according to
the company, and it offers a speed of 8 pages per minute, and up to
1.5MB of RAM -- a feature which enables it to print full-page graphics.
Additionally, the printer also offers three ROM-based fonts and
cartridge-based fonts and optional Epson, Diablo and IBM Proprinter
emulations. The printer uses the Casio LCS  printer engine which
offers better quality than laser printers (according to the company).
The unit is priced at US$ 2795.

[***][10/27/87][***]
SANYO LOW COST AT-COMPATIBLE AVAILABLE
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Sanyo has announced a low cost AT that
uses the 286 chip and can be operated at either 6 or 8 MHz. The
system, MBC 17 PLUS, comes with a floppy controller and parallel and
serial ports on the motherboard, and offers a maximum of 3 slim-
line disks that can be installed in it. MSDOS 3.2 is offered with
the system as well as GWBASIC. The keyboard is an ergonomic
design with twelve function keys and a separate cursor area. No
price was announced at this time.

In a related event, Sanyo also announced a low cost PC, the MBC
16 PLUS, which has the same dimensions as the MBC 17+ but uses
the 8088 chip that runs at either 4.77 or 8MHz. Other features of
the system include 3 slots and 640KB of RAM standard, and it can be
supplied with either two floppy disks or one floppy disk and a
20MB hard disk.

According to a company spokesman, Sanyo sees Amstrad/Schneider as
a threat to its low-cost market dominance and "is going to enter every
market the competition enters."

[***][10/27/87][***]
KAYPRO OFFERS NEW LAPTOP, THE 2000+
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Kaypro presented the 2000+ model
which is an advance over the previous 2000 laptop system. This
latest system, from one of the oldest companies in the business,
offers an EGA compatible backlit supertwist LCD with 640 x
350 resolution, a V20 CPU that can be operated at either 4.77 or
8Mhz, one 3.5 inch floppy disk that can be augmented with a 10MB
hard disk, a serial or parallel port, a clock and a RGB output to
an external monitor. The price of the system is set at DM 6995
(a steep US$ 3800).

[***][10/27/87][***]
VICTOR TO OFFER UNIX ON ITS PCS
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Victor is to offer Coherent on its
VPCIII 286 system which will give it UNIX capabilities. Coherent is a
UNIX-compatible operating system produced by Mark Williams
Company, Chicago, and which has been available for  IBM PCs
for quite some time. The system is based on an older version of
UNIX, version 7, but neither Victor nor Mark Williams could
elaborate on whether their version will be UNIX V on which MWC is
rumoured to be working.

[***][10/27/87][***]
NOVELL TO ANNOUNCE 386 OPERATING SYSTEM
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- According to a conversation NEWSBYTES
has had with Novell's director in Europe, Novell is going to enter
the operating systems business with an announcement at Comdex,
Las Vegas in November.  The OS is supposed to feature LAN support
standard with particular emphasis on the 386 chip.

Additionally, Novell announced a new fault-tolerant server that
offers dual hard disks as well as dual CPU performance (so that if
one breaks down, the other one will continue to work without any
interruptions). The servers either use the 286 CPU or the 386 CPU.

Also, Novell announced the availability of NETWARE running under
Windows 386 from Microsoft.  A new catalog of Novell-compatible
software was also announced which covers languages, databases,
office automation software, accounting packages, CAD/CAM,
industrial control and data communications software.

[***][10/27/87][***]
PHOENIX OFFERS COMPATABILITY SUPPORT FOR 386
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Phoenix has announced compatability
support for the 386 after an agreement was signed between Phoenix and
Intel. Phoenix will offer OEMs all the necessary systems software
and hardware that can be used to design a 386 20MHz system. The
company is providing customized  versions of its 386-based AT
BIOS that supports Intel's 82380 Enhanced Peripheral chip and the
82385 cache controller chip. The first chip is a multifunction
companion chip to the 386 which integrates interrupt control,
timing, memory control and a 32 bit DMA controller; the
latter is a complete 32-bit peripheral chip that stores
frequently used code in a special fast RAM for quicker access by
the CPU.

[***][10/27/87][***]
EVEREX ENTERS REAL-TIME COLOR DIGITIZER WORLD
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Everex announced real-time color
digitiser that is compatible with the AT&T Targa Unit. The Vision
16 is the first in a series of cards to be offered by the company
that are able to digitize images containing up to 32,768 colors.
The cards offer 512 x 484 pixels with 16 bits per pixel.
Digitizing can be done in 1/30 of a second, thus offering real-time
possibilities. Zoom, genlock, video overlay and hue, saturation
and contrast, are all software-modifiable. The product is offered
with ColorScheme I software and will cost under US$ 2000.

[***][10/27/87][***]
IBM ANNOUNCES PACT WITH SIEMENS AND BELL ATLANTIC
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (NB) -- International Business Machines took
another step into the telecommunications business by announcing
separate agreements with Siemens of West Germany and Bell Atlantic of
the US.

Both of these agreements involve a study of new advanced
switching systems that will offer new communications services
over the next few years. IBM's pact with Siemens will involve the
development of software and hardware while the agreement with
Bell Atlantic revolves around marketing of these systems outside
the US.

In a related story, IBM announced an agreement with Intellicorp
Inc., a maker of a successful artificial intelligence product
called KEE. The agreement calls for Intellicorp to design its
product for the series IBM/370 systems.


[***][10/27/87][***]
BRIEFS --

OLIVETTI received a contract to automate all of Denmark's Post
Offices. The contract calls for the installation of 925 post
offices and is valued at about US$ 16 million.

CONTROL DATA is trying hard to sell it new ETA systems to
European buyers. The company has recently had a one page ad in
the Wall Street Journal/Europe offering the system for US $900,000.

NYNEX and the Dutch PTT are to explore strategic alliances, including
the development and marketing of various projects in the communications
arena.  Nynex President A. Sekulow said that the Dutch PTT serves many
industries that parallel the Nynex multinational customer base.
As part of the agreement, Nynex and the PTT will discuss
exchanging information about research and marketing activities.
The Dutch PTT is amongst the world's top 10 carriers with
revenues of US$ 6 billion.

====
[***][10/27/87][***]
MARKET MADNESS: THE COMPUTER ATE MY HOMEWORK
NEW YORK (NB)  -- As the stock market tumbled, rose, fell again,
and acted like a punch-drunk boxer in the 12th round of a bad
fight, blame began focusing on the role of the computer. In
particular, analysts and observers of the market said program
trading, which uses powerful mainframe computers to execute
complex and rapid trades contributed greatly to the volatility of
the market. After Black Monday's 500 point crash of the Dow
Industrial Average, New York Stock Exchange Chairman John Phelan
asked member brokers to stop program trading on some
transactions, to prevent program trades from taking over access
to the Big Board. "When they closed down all these stock-index
options and futures, the stock market went straight up," said
investor Asher Edelman. "When they opened up again, the market
went straight down."

In Washington, members of Congress began calling for strict
controls over program trading. "Program trading was caught red-
handed as the chief villain behind the meteoric velocity of the
decline," said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of a
subcommittee with jurisdiction over stock markets. "Whatever
happens, program trading makes it worse," added Rep. Dan Glickman
(D-Kan.), chairman of another House panel with responsibility for
the markets.

[***][10/27/87][***]
DOW JONES DEVELOPING NEW VIDEOTEX SERVICE *EXCLUSIVE*
PRINCETON, N.J. (NB) -- Dow Jones Information Services Group is
working on a new service that will be part of Dow Jones
News/Retrieval. The new service will attempt to combine the ease
of use of the Dow Jones News Service, which is driven by
corporate stock symbols, with the power of the Dow Jones Text
Retrieval Service, which allows key word searches of a database
of major publications going back to 1979. Aimed at corporate
executives, Dow Jones hopes the new service will allow for
English-like queries. "Maybe a user will be able to say to the
computer, 'Tell me everything you can find about Iran and oil
company stocks,'" said Tim Turner, director of marketing.

Currently, Turner said, text retrieval users tend to be corporate
librarians, who know how to frame correct key word searches. But
the vase majority of users of the Dow videotex service access
stock information, based on symbols. Turner told NEWSBYTES that
the new service would probably offer databases that are not as
extensive or deep as in text retrieval, but deeper than now in
the news service. Turner said Dow hopes to have the new service
available in a year. To run the service, Dow recently purchased
two 32K-processor Connection Machine supercomputers from Thinking
Machines, for a total of $5 million.

[***][10/27/87][***]
TELERATE WILL OFFER NEW FOREIGN EXCHANGE AND BOND SYSTEM
NEW YORK (NB) -- Ironically, as the stock market was nose-diving,
Telerate Inc. unveiled a new system that allows foreign exchange
and bond trading via a personal computer. Developed in
conjunction with AT&T, the system allows dealers to monitor
figures for exchange rates or bonds on the terminal, and make
bids and offers through the keyboard. The Telerate system is
designed to compete with a similar offering from Reuters.

[***][10/27/87][***]
QUALITAS LANDS A DEAL WITH INTEL ON UPGRADE BOARDS
BETHESDA, Md. (NB) -- Intel will bundle the 386-MAX memory
manager from Qualitas Inc. with its new board designed to turn
PCs and XTs into 386 machines. Intel already sells a board to
turn ATs into 386 speed demons. According to Mary Stanley of
Qualitas, the contract with Intel "is introductory. We will
renegotiate later the number of units and dollars." Intel is
expecting the new board to be a hot seller and is putting
Qualitas through a lot of hoops to make sure their memory
manager, which allows access to enormous amounts of RAM with
multitasking, runs as designed. So far, Stanley told NEWSBYTES,
386-MAX with the Intel board has successfully run with Ventura
and other desktop publishing programs. The upgrade, she said,
will be particularly beneficial to desktop publishing and CADCAM
users, because it will "speed up screen writes by 40 percent or
more."

CONTACT: Qualitas Inc., Bethesda, Md., 301-469-8848.

[***][10/27/87][***]
LOTUS LAUNCHES SMALL BUSINESS KIT, ANNOUNCES SUPER EARNINGS
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. has a new 1-2-3
Small Business Kit aimed at helping owners and managers find ways
to improve their operations. The kit includes the 1-2-3
spreadsheet, a series of templates, and special 800-number
support. Among the applications are cash flow, financial ratios,
cash budget statement, and pro formas. The suggested retail price
is $595.

Also, Lotus has reported a 101 percent jump in third-quarter
earnings, on strong sales of 1-2-3. Profits for the quarter were
$19.1 million (42 cents per share) on sales of $101 million. That
compares to $9.5 million in profits (21 cents per share) on $66
million in revenue for the third quarter of 1986. The flagship 1-
2-3 had record sales during the quarter.

[***][10/27/87][***]
IBM UPGRADES DESKTOP PUBLISHING, GOES AFTER PUBLISHING NETWORKS
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (NB) -- International Business Machines Corp. has
broadened the desktop publishing options for the new PS/2 Models
50, 60 and 80. Big Blue is offering its IBM SolutionPac Personal
Publishing Option for the top of the PS/2 line. The package
includes the IBM 4216 PostScript laser printer, an adapter and
adapter card, a mouse, and software that includes Aldus PageMaker
and Microsoft Windows. That package will set you back $5,888.

IBM says that users can also establish desktop publishing
networks with the new package, running PCNet or token ring. Any
workstation -- from an XT-286 to a PS//2 Model 80 -- now run as a
stand-alone unit or as part of a local area network. Within the
network, any PS/2, an AT, or an XT-286 can function as a print
server, allowing the 4216 laser printer to be shared.

[***][10/27/87][***]
COMMODORE FIRMS UP FINANCING, OFFERS ADS ON VIDEOTAPE
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (NB) -- Commodore International Ltd. has
announced an agreement with its major lending banks to renew the
company's $79 million credit line. In fiscal 1987, ended June 30,
the company repaid approximately $68 million to this lending
group, Commodore said. In May, Commodore completed a $60 million
long-term financing deal with Prudential Insurance, putting
Commodore in the best financial position it has been in for
years.

Commodore has also come up with an unusual marketing tactic, ads
on videocassettes. The ads are designed to push Commodore's
powerful but slow-selling Amiga. The tapes produce what Commodore
ad execs call a "video test flight" of the Amiga. Commodore
produced the 15-minute tapes as part of a major ad campaign it
has launched, focused on the Amiga and the mainstay Commodore 64.
The tapes are available from Amiga dealers.

[***][10/27/87][***]
APPLESIG A HIT ON THE SOURCE
McLEAN, Va. (NB) -- Membership in the APPLESIG, the Apple Special
Interest Group on The Source has increased by 36 percent in the
past three months, says System Operator Jack Griffin. Griffin
says the file library has doubled in size in the same period.
Also, says Griffin, APPLESIG has attracted several manufacturers,
including Apple's East Coast tech center, Pinpoint Publishing,
and Activision, which offer specialized product support to
APPLESIG members.

In other Source news, the VESTOR stock database, and historical
stock quotes to its online investment offerings. The Source
claims it is now ahead of Dow Jones New Retrieval and Compuserve
for online investment data. VESTOR is a database of fundamentals
on 6,000 stocks. The historical quotes database covers up to 24
years of historical (and, recently, hysterical) prices.

CONTACT: The Source, 1616 Anderson Road, McLean VA 22102, 703-
     734-7500.

[***][10/27/87][***]
HAPPY 10TH FOR WANG VS: EARNINGS UP, AND FOUR NEW COMPUTERS
LOWELL, Mass. (NB) -- Celebrating the 10th anniversary of its VS
line of minicomputers, Wang Laboratories Inc. has unveiled four
new VS machines, ranging in price from $13,000 to $75,000. The
low-end VS5E supports 16 users while the VS6E handles 32. The
VS75E, replacing the VS 65, supports 65 users with 32K bytes of
cache memory and up to eight megabytes of main memory. The
$75,000 VS 7010 supports 96 workstations and 128 peripherals.

A happy Wang has also reported profits of $22.5 million (14 cents
per share), for the first quarter ended September 30. That
compares to a less of $30 million (19 cents per share) for the
same period last year. Revenues for the first quarter grew to
$693 million, compared to last year's $598 million. Facing strong
financials but low stock prices as a result of the market crash,
Wang says it is planning to buy back as much as three million
shares of its common stock, out of 165 million shares
outstanding. That move should push Wang earnings per share even
higher.

[***][10/27/87][***]
PAT ROBERTSON'S COMPUTERGATE
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Republican presidential hopeful Marion G.
(Pat) Robertson is in trouble over a computer deal that may have
been an illegal dodge to finance his campaign. According to the
WASHINGTON POST,  Robertson's campaign sold its main campaign
computer system to a shell company in Denver for $100,000 more
than the $227,000 the campaign paid for the IBM mainframe. The
sale apparently was part of a complication sale-and-leaseback
arrangement to bolster the campaign coffers of the television
evangelist turned politician. According to the newspaper, the
campaign bought the computer for $233,480 from a longtime
Robertson associate, who bought it new a year earlier for
$600,000. Then, at a point where the campaign was deep in the
hole, the computer was sold to a Denver firm with no address and
no records in state corporate files for $337,500. Federal
election laws do not permit corporate contributions to campaigns
and individuals are limited to $1,000 or less.

[***][10/27/87][***]
COMPUTING WITH GOD
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (NB) -- While evangelist Pat Robertson is
having troubles with computers, a number of preachers are turning
to computers for inspiration on bulletin boards offered by
Networking and World Information, Inc. The videotex service has
several religious bulletin boards aimed at pastors across the
country. Among the offerings are NWI-ECUNET, a non-denominational
bulletin board, PRESBYNET for Presbyterians, ABNET for American
Baptists, MENONET for Mennonites and UM CIRCUIT WRITER for United
Methodists. The Methodists gets the prize for the best name. NWI
charges $6 per hour, off peak, and $18 per hour during peak
times.

[***][10/27/87][***]
NOAA DEVELOPS TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration has linked earthquake and water level sensors, a
weather satellite, and a personal computer into an inexpensive
system to detect tidal waves. The tsunami system will give a few
minutes alert to people who live and work in coastal areas where
such systems do not exist, NOAA said. Tsunamis are water walls
pushed by undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. High-risk
areas such as Hawaii and Alaska have warning networks, NOAA said,
but vast areas of the Pacific outside the U.S. do not.
Conventional systems cost $1 million to set up and $500,000 a
year to operate. The new systems, now being tested in Valpariso,
Chile, cost about $20,000.

[***][10/27/87][***]
NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION

APPLE COMPUTER's John Sculley will be the featured speaker at the
Federal Office Systems Expo in Washington next March 7-10.
Sculley's presentation will be entitled "Personal Computing in a
Multivendor Environment."

INSET SYSTEMS INC. of Danbury, Conn., has announced HiJaak, a
graphics conversion and capture utility that will move graphics
files from various sources to desktop publishing software. HiJaak
retails for $89.

UNISYS CORP. of Blue Bell, Pa., and Detroit, reported net
earnings of $130 million (68 cents per share) on revenue for
$2.22 billion. That compares to $53 million in profits (34 cents
per share) on $2.42 billion for the third quarter of 1986.

SHARP ELECTRONICS of Mahwah, N.J., has hired Tom Bongiorno as
product manager for portable computers. Bongiorno's computer
background includes five years with Star Micronics. Bongiorno,
Tom.

GOLD HILL COMPUTERS of Cambridge, Mass., has announced a new
quantity discount program for multiple purchases of GoldWorks
expert system software. Discounts of up to 33 percent are
available on the $7,500 program.

GRYPHON MICROPRODUCTS of Silver Spring, Md., has added interrupt-
driven communications functions and user-defined commands to the
Weiner Shell, its memory-resident programming language. The
program generates memory-resident programs that can run in
background for many personal computer products.

NSI LOGIC INC. of Marlboro, Mass., has announced a new graphics
chip for IBM computers that is less expensive and more powerful
than competitors. The EVC-415 chip provides a method of memory
mapping for standard graphics modes, improving screen drawing
times in high-resolution applications.


PERKIN-ELMER CORP. of Norwalk, Conn., will supply laboratory
information management systems to the Environmental Protection
Agency's 10 regional labs. The contract includes hardware,
software, installation, support, and software analysis.
==========

[***][10/27/87][***]
Brentwood, Middlesex (NB) -- Amstrad has hired the Cafe Royale in
London to launch what it calls "a new range of computer
products," and - needless to say - industry rumours on what the
products are, are now more plentiful than line noise on a 2400
baud modem call.

'It's a laptop,' say some papers.  'It's a 80286-based machine,'
say the rest.  What is it?  When is it?  Who knows?  After
several days of mumbling the name Amstrad fervently - as a priest
murmurs his Mantra - NEWSBYTES UK reckons there will be two
machines launched this week - an 8086-based luggable portable in
the Compaq portable vein, and a 80286-based micro not dissimilar
to the existing PC1512/PC1640 series.

The portable will most probably weigh 11 pounds, come with an LCD
screen (with gas plasma options), 640K Ram and a single floppy -
all for just #599 - shipping next month.

The 80286 machine will probably ship very late this year/early on
next year, price in at #999 in its basic configuration and
perform as well as machines costing twice the price.

This is - of course - informed conjecture on the matter.  Heck,
if every magazine with the word computer in its title can print
rumours, so can NEWSBYTES UK!  More seriously though, whatever
Amstrad launches this week (we'll report on the machine(s) in our
next issue), there will be a lot of UK computer firms biting
their nails on Wednesday.

Amstrad's HQ, needless to say, is keeping a tight-lipped silence
on the industry fervor.  "Wait until Wednesday," a spokesman
told NEWSBYTES UK.

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

[***][10/27/87][***]
MINDREADER DEBUTS IN THE UK
Aldbury, Ware (NB) -- Following a fairly low-key launch in the
US, Brown Bag UK has launched Mindreader - a revolutionary word
processor - in the UK.

The package - best described as a cross between a conventional PC
word processor and an artificial intelligence (AI) package -
sells as a #33 registration shareware product in the UK.
Licenced users are encouraged to pass on copies which - if
subsequently registered with Brown Bag UK - result in a
commission for the licenced 'passer-on' of the package.

"Unlike other shareware, Brown Bag is supporting Mindreader in
the UK, and with a UK telephone helpline," Paul Fletcher, the
company's UK guru, told the Net.  Fletcher runs the Brown Bag BBS
(0279-74855 - 300 to 2400 baud) which has Mindreader available
for download.

In use, Mindreader performs as most other w/p software but
actually suggests words as you type away.  If you make a mistake,
the package's spellchecker lets you know.  Thus, when writing a
letter, the software will fill in your name and address for you.
In theory - providing the content is simple - Brown Bag say that
a standard letter can be completed with just a few key-strokes.

Since the program is free, NEWSBYTES will leave its readers to
try the software for themselves.

CONTACT: BROWN BAG (UK) SOFTWARE, 7 The Bourne, Albury,
         Near Ware, Herts, SG11 2JR.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][10/27/87][***]
VIDEO DIGITISING - CHEAPLY
Lothian, Scotland (NB) -- Imagine being able to digitize video-
sourced images for under #100 on a PC compatible.  Rombo
Productions - winners of the 1987 British Microcomputing Awards
with its PCW version - is about to launch a digitizer for the PC
for #99.  "It's priced way under the competition," Colin
Faulkner, Rombo's technical support manager, told NEWSBYTES UK.
"And it works too," he grinned.

Vidi-PC consists of a PC format plug-in card, along with software
which - when fed with a video signal - allows a frame to be
'grabbed' and manipulated like the graphics systems seen on TV.
Previously, PC digitizers cost several hundred pounds.  Vidi-PC
doesn't cost the earth and will be out in a matter of weeks, says
the company.

CONTACT: ROMBO PRODUCTIONS, 107 Raeburn Rigg, Livingston,
         West Lothian, Scotland, EH54 8PH.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][10/27/87][***]
BUDGET PC SOFTWARE THAT WORKS
Cambridge, UK (NB) -- Remember how you toyed with a low-cost
database on your Tandy Coco/Timex-Sinclair ZX81/Video Genie
micro?  The package didn't cost much, but it did everything you
need - right?  Logotron has released similar packages - the 1295
series - for PC compatibles, but at prices that make you think
they're made for the old machines.

#12-95 gets you one of three packages - Filer 1295 (database),
Planner 1295 (spreadsheet) and Writer 1295 (word processor).  The
packages are functional and *cheap*.  NEWSBYTES UK can report
that the packages do everything that packages costing 20 times
the price do, and do it well.  And if those prices are too much
for you, how about a 3-in-1 package for #29-95?  "Amazing value,"
said one journalist colleague when the packages were announced at
the Amstrad Computer Show in Manchester last week.

NEWSBYTES UK was so impressed with the packages, we actually
bought one - enough said?

CONTACT: LOGOTRON BUSINESS PRODUCTS, Dales Brewery,
         Gwydir Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LJ.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][10/27/87][***]
TURN THE LIGHT ON SOMEONE
Sheffield, UK (NB) -- Much of Southern Britain took a pounding
last week, as the UK suffered its worst storms for several
generations.  Wind speeds of 130 miles per hour were recorded in
the South East, with thousands of trees torn up by their roots.

Several tens of thousands of homes are still without electricity
as we go to press this week.  NEWSBYTES UK salutes British
Telecom's engineers, many of whom worked solidly last week to
restore communications to most of Britain.  Sadly, the hundreds
of thousands of trees cannot be repaired, and it may take a 100
years to replenish some trees, whole acres of which were utterly
devastated in the storms.

NEWSBYTES UK very nearly didn't make it last week.  Downed power
and phone lines combined to make a data call to the US nearly
impossible, but we made it.  And now to fill out the insurance
claim...

[***][10/27/87][***]
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Brian Long, ACORN COMPUTER's MD, has resigned.  The official word
is that he's left to "pursue other interests.  NEWSBYTES UK notes
that Acorn has turned in a #1.4m loss for the half year to
September, but the company looks set to improve on this,
following recent high sales of its RISC-based Archimedes machine.

MICROLINK, the Database Publications-owned group on Telecom Gold,
has signed a deal worth #1.3m with British Telecom.  The
agreement provides MicroLink with a much-improved mainframe to
service its 8,000-plus members with.  The company has also
announced that its subscribers will not have their rates hiked -
as has happened with other Telecom Gold subscribers, some of whom
report bills rising by as much as 250 per cent.

EPSON UK has taken out a 'writ of summons' against Amstrad,
following the latter's use of the term 'LQ' in its printer
series.  Epson has a series of printers with the LQ designator on
sale in the UK - ranging from the LQ800 to the LQ2500.  Amstrad
meanwhile, launched the LQ3500 at the Personal Computer World
Show last month.

PACE MICRO TECHNOLOGY has landed an order for 1,000 modems from
the government-sponsored Open University program.  The deal is
worth almost #200,000 at retail prices and involves Pace
supplying a customised version of its V21/V23 (300 & 1200/75
baud) modems to Open University students.

VIRGIN VISION - part of Richard Branson's Virgin group - has
bought into Mastertronic for #4m.  The deal gives Virgin a 45 per
cent stake in the phenomenally successful software house, which
pioneered the budget games market in the UK.

The PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD show - held in London last month -
broke all records.  Audited attendances were 72,783 for the five-
day event - up 10 per cent on last year's figures.  Next year's
dates have already been finalised - September 21/25 1988.

CAMBRIAN SOFTWARE has launched Series II Cambase Database
software for the Amstrad PCW series.  The #49-95 package does
everything that PC databases do, but better - and on the PCW
machines.

SENTINEL SOFTWARE has launched Repeat Performance, a stand-alone
memory resident PC package that controls the keyboard and cursor
from Dos, as well as incorporating several other useful
utilities.  The #35 package is also being launched in the US by
the Wordperfect Corporation.
====