Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1983 May to 1994 June

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[***][4/26/88][***] METAPHOR GETS $10 MILLION BOOST FROM IBM MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- IBM has virtually guaranteed continued access to an operating system with windows and icons, no matter what the outcome of Apple's suit against Microsoft and Hewlett Packard over the visual tools, thanks to a deal it has just struck with Metaphor Computer Systems. Metaphor, started by two former Xerox executives credited with inventing the symbolic interface that later appeared on Apple's Macintosh, has been making software that uses a version of the original Xerox "Star" graphic interface and sells it with workstations to the package goods industry. IBM has purchased 10% of Metaphor, at a cost of $10 million, and will jointly develop software with Metaphor for use in IBM's PS/2 line. At first glance it looks as if the deal is in response to Apple's lawsuit but officials from both firms claim it's not -- Metaphor and IBM have been talking about a team effort since 1987, the press was told. IBM's partial buy-out of Metaphor has prompted two big questions in everyone's mind. How will this alliance effect Microsoft, which has been the only designer of IBM's graphic interface (Presentation Manager) for OS/2 machines, and how will it affect Apple's suit? Apple is not taking IBM nor Metaphor to court and for that reason it may be difficult for Apple to prove ownership of the windows and icons of its Macintosh interface. [***][4/26/88][***] APPLE COMPUTER AND MICROSOFT SEE PROFITS SOAR CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple Computer reports earnings for the 1988 fiscal year topped $201 million, the highest ever recorded for the computer maker, and a figure 118% higher than this time last year. The news marks the third consecutive quarter that Apple has also recorded revenue increases of over 50%. Put another way, Apple is making twice as much money as it did this time last year. Del Yocam, Apple's chief operating officer, attributes the stellar results to not only an overwhelming demand for Macintoshes, which by some estimates is growing at a rate of 40% a year, but to its new credibility in the corporate arena. "Apple is succeeding in the business markets. Our customer base is broadening to include corporate, technical, and large systems users." Microsoft, meanwhile, earned $37.3 million, up nearly 100% over the same period last year when it earned just $19.1 million. This doubling of earnings is attributed to a 48% increase in international revenue, "notably strong due to increased product shipments and favorable exchange rates," according to a statement from Microsoft President John Shirley. One thing the fiscal results prove -- both firms clearly have more than enough money to pay the lawyers in their current "look and feel" battle over the Macintosh screen display. [***][4/26/88][***] THE BIGGEST MAC -- MULTIUSER MACINTOSH ON THE WAY? CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- MACWEEK magazine reports that Apple is preparing to introduce a Motorola 68030-based, floor-standing, multiuser Macintosh in October or November, but Apple is denying the report. Referred to as the Apple IIx, it reportedly has connections for six terminals, will include ROM-based Ethernet support, an internal 500 megabyte WORM drive and an optional CD-ROM drive. Apple Computer's CEO John Sculley has repeatedly stated that no new computer introductions will occur in 1988, a statement being echoed again by an Apple Computer spokeswoman. What is clear is that a 68030-based system will require a rewrite of the Macintosh operating system to accommodate the additional memory and processing power of Motorola's high-end chip. That fact has led many to speculate that we indeed will not see the IIx before 1989. [***][4/26/88][***] NEW ONLINE SERVICE COMING FROM APPLE? CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple is preparing to launch a new online service for Apple II and Macintosh owners which will compete with such major information utilities as CompuServe and The Source. The service, called ConsumerLink, according to MACWEEK magazine, will be launched in May or June and will offer electronic mail, online technical forums, the Grolier's Academic Encyclopedia, online travel and financial information. An Apple spokeswoman told NEWSBYTES she could not comment on the report. The service will reportedly offer Apple computer owners a unique graphic interface, thanks to special software that must be used to access the system. The online service is said to originate from Vienna, Virginia from Quantum Computer Services, the same firm which is operating the QuantumLink network for Commodore computer owners. [***][4/26/88][***] KAYPRO DROPS THE BALL: NO PS/2 CLONE SOLANA BEACH, Ca. (NB) -- Kaypro, which publicly announced its intention to be the first on the block with a PS/2 compatible machine, has been left in the dust by Dell Computer and Tandy in this arena. Further, Kaypro admits there will be no Micro Channel- compatible machine until at least the third quarter of '88 due to a shortage of chips sets. David Kay, Kaypro president, was quoted as saying, "The chip makers are late with engineering wrap-ups and things are not moving as rapidly as we had hoped." Reports indicate the six- man development team on the code-named "Spear" project may not even have a unit ready for show at Spring Comdex in early May. [***][4/26/88][***] BUSINESSLAND WYSES UP SAN JOSE, Ca. (NB) -- Businessland has announced that it will carry the full line of Wyse personal computers, terminals, and a selected monitors following the signing of a two year, multimillion dollar contract. "This agreement solidifies Qyse's position as the fourth major PC line available in our stores," says Businessland CEO David Norman. The availability of virtually all of Wyse's products in the 93-store chain is yet another boost for the San Jose company. Its first coup was getting Businessland to label its 80286-based Wyse PC under the Businessland name in 1986. [***][4/26/88][***] MAC WORD PROCESSING WARS SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- Three giants in the word processing arena are moving in fits and starts toward the Macintosh word processing market. WordPerfect, no sooner than it announced that WordPerfect for the Mac was shipping, had to recall 8,000 programs due to numerous bugs. The problems resulted from a "bad master" according to a WordPerfect spokesman. Then there's the Macintosh word processor coming from MicroPro, code-named Challenger. The product is being beta tested now in hopes of a promised June release. The word processor reportedly has several unique features, not the least of which is an ability to bind text to a curve. And finally, Ashton-Tate's FullWrite is taking its time in the firm's labs.....there's the small matter of numerous bugs that are causing longer than expected delays. [***][4/26/88][***] INFORMATION AGE BILL UPDATE SACRAMENTO, Ca. (NB) -- A bill to create the California Commission on the Information Age started its legislative journey on a positive note when it passed the Assemlby Utilities and Commerce Committee recently. It now goes on to the Ways and Means Committee. The bill establishes a $500,000, 16-member commission charged with identifying and investigating various "Information Age" issues, such as how to keep innovative information services alive, and how they can reach more Californians. If created, the Commission would begin its work in January 1989. The bill's hearing before the Assembly committee was accompanied by witnesses for Pacific Bell and AT&T who argued that the commission isn't needed since private firms are already doing its work. However, Assemblyman Richard Polanco responded, "but the issues we are discussing today transcend private interests. We need a public forum in which to discuss the full import of the information age." Support for the bill is still needed, and those with the pens and the will should write Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, the bill's sponsor, referring to AB 3487, at the State Capitol, PO Box 942849, Sacramento, Ca. 94249. [***][4/26/88][***] IN BRIEF -- ALDUS, Seattle, Wa., has shipped SnapShot, the firm's "electronic photography" software which enables a user to edit frames captured from any video or digital source. It runs under Microsoft Windows on an IBM PC AT or compatible or a PS/2 Model 30. The price is $495. AUTODESK, Sausalito, Ca., says its founder and board chairman John Walker has resigned from the board of directors to become a software developer within the company. "I want to devote time to product development," he says in a prepared statement. The ex-chief will most likely will help the Xanadu team as they race to meet a self-imposed deadline of 18 months to create their hypertext-based software. ELECTRONIC TEXT CORPORATION, Provo, Utah, has released four sets of diskettes packed with the collected works of William Shakespeare. At $99 per set or $299 for the poet's life's work, the series runs on IBM PCs with WordCruncher for text retrieval. EXPERIENCE IN SOFTWARE, Berkeley, Ca., has donated 50 copies of its Idea Generator software to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. The Idea Generator is used for problem solving and planning. The firm wants to donate its product to other good causes as part of its new "Make a Difference Where We Can" campaign. Contact Craig Settles at 415/644-0694. HITECH INTERNATIONAL, Milpitas, Ca., may have the cheapest 80386- based system on the market. Its 32-bit PC with 1 megabyte of RAM expandable to 10 Mb, four slots, and clock speeds from 4.77 to 20 Mhz, runs just $2,500. PC SIG, Sunnyvale, Ca., has published "Up and Running in 15 Minutes," a guide to using 8 of the most popular shareware programs, PC File+, PC Calc+, PC Outline, PC Write, Procomm, the Galaxy word processor, Automenu and Powermenu. The book also offers discounts of up to $50 on shareware. $12.95 from PC SIG. Call 408-730-9291. SUPERMAC TECHNOLOGY, Mountain View, Ca., is reportedly up for sale by its owner Scientific Micro Systems. SuperMac is expected to report a "significant loss" when financial figures come out soon. [***][4/26/88][***] TANDY'S ERASABLE CD STEALS SHOW FROM PS/2 CLONE FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Rumors of a Tandy CD machine were given more substance than dreamed possible in an April 21 press conference. Tandy announced a reusable optical disk technology with about 500 to 600 megabytes of capacity that can be used with existing CD and CD-ROM players. Tandy will license its technology, called THOR-CD, and Chairman John Roach expects products using it will come out over the next 18-24 months. Combined with reports that digital audio tape (DAT) players would also be coming to the U.S. market, this set off a flurry of concern in the music business, which fears that consumers will use the new technology to their detriment. The THOR-CD announcement overpowered the 5000 MC micro, the PS/2 Model 80 clone computer with prices starting at $5,000, $2,000 less than a similarly configured IBM PS/2 model, which Tandy also introduced at its April 21 news conference. The standard model includes 2 megabytes of RAM, expandable to 16 megabytes, and five 0M6666666xzicro Channel-compatible slots. Unknown, at this time, is what Tandy will pay IBM to license its patents in making the 5000 MC (IBM could be getting as much as 5% off-the- top) and whether anything in it might be challenged by IBM lawyers in court. (Learning the answer to the first question will lead you to an answer of the second.) The new PC should ship in July, Tandy said. Ed Juge of Tandy read NEWSBYTES a statement on the patent issues which said, in part, "The new Tandy 5000 MC contains elements that may require licenses...we are not currently aware of any issued patent that applies except those which we're licensed to use." IBM and Tandy released a carefully worded joint-statement, saying in part, "The product announced today is covered by the existing patent licensing agreement with IBM. PS/2 patents covered in the future are not licensed and will be subject to negotiations." Juge summarized that Tandy expects no problems bringing the 5000 MC to market. CONTACT: Ed Juge, TANDY (817)390-3300 [***][4/26/88][***] ZENITH PORTABLES WITH BLACK-ON-WHITE SCREENS WEIGH 11-15 POUNDS MOUNT PROSPECT, IL (NB) -- Zenith calls them the first truly portable, battery-powered 80386 and 80286 PCs ever. And perhaps the most impressive feature of the new TurboSport 386 and the SuperSport are their black-on-white screens called Page White displays. The SuperSport is a powerful IBM AT-like laptop and the TurboSport has the more powerful 80386 chip also used in the IBM PS/2 Model 80. Both chips are made by Intel. Zenith also announced a cheaper machine based on the old Z-184 laptop with its 80C88 (low power old-PC compatible) chip set. The TurboSport 386 display, a backlit fluorescent screen, seemed comparable in readability to some TVs. The machine, which weighs in at nearly 15 pounds, includes a 2400 baud Hayes modem and a detachable keyboard. Zenith estimates it can run 3 hours, even with a 40 megabyte hard disk. Fully loaded the machine will sell for about $8,500. The 80286-based SuperSport has a 12 pound weight, with the battery, and also includes hard disks of either 20 or 40 megabytes. The SuperSport with the slow chip, stripped, should cost about $2,400. All three machines can support expansion chassis, bigger keyboards, and TV-type monitors, so they can be the heart of a powerful desktop system which can be locked up at night. CONTACT: Glen Nelson, ZENITH, (312)699-4800 [***][4/26/88][***] MOTOROLA RISC CHIP SET COSTS $2,100 BUT RUNS AT 17 MIPS CHICAGO, IL (NB) -- By concentrating on the most common commands through Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) techniques, Motorola has created a new computer "brain," the 3- chip set 88000 series, which can run at up to 17 million instructions per second (MIPS). (That's a speed similar to the most modern mainframe, now adaptable to a desktop or even a laptop.) RISC chip sets like the 88000, along with the Sun SPARC or Intergraph CLIPPER chip, will run more complex modeling and simulation programs than ever before possible. All use the same operating system, Unix System V from AT&T. (Note -- MS-DOS runs only on the Intel 80x86 product line, and strict compatibles like the NEC V-Series.) Motorola, with $2.2 billion in 1987 revenues, becomes the largest chip maker to enter the RISC chip business. Pricing is considered "aggressive" by analysts at $2,100 for each 3-chip set needed in a total computer system. (A system will require one 88100 RISC chip, at $495, and two 88200 disk caching chips, at $795 each.) A battle is shaping up here among the 88000, the Sun SPARC, and new RISC chips from MIPS and AMD, but if they're all running the same operating system, the big winners will be users. The real battle, the ultimate battle, for the 1990s, is shaping up between Motorola and Intel, whose chips are used in the IBM line and PC clones. Motorola says its trump-card in the RISC chip wars is the 88200 disk caching chip. It claims this chip does the job of 50 chips on other RISC sets, including Sun's, using a single piece of silicon. The coming-out party for the 88000 featured companies which will work to get the chips into use quickly, under the rubric 88open Consortium Ltd., a user's group. Among the members are Data General, cited by Motorola as already having developed a transaction processor with the chip. Other members of 88open, according to Motorola, are Encore, Northern Telecom, Tektronix, Convergent Technologies, and Stratus, along with smaller companies. CONTACT: MOTOROLA, Dan Rogers, (512)928-6000 [***][4/26/88][***] DELL ANNOUNCES ITS PS/2 CLONES AUSTIN, TX (NB) -- Dell Computer quietly beat Tandy to the punch by a few days with its PS/2 Model 60 and 80 compatible machines, the System 400 and System 500. Why quietly? Company officials hadn't figured a price, and apparently hadn't figured IBM's legal or financial attitudes toward its machines. "We don't expect a tremendous demand for" PS/2 clones with the Micro Channel bus right now, Chairman Michael Dell was quoted as saying. Chips + Technologies makes the clone chip-set used in the new Dell line, Phoenix Technologies makes the BIOS. Western Digital and Microsoft also endorsed the new machine as being a legitimate clone, not a copy. While Dell was the first to announce a PS/2 compatible, it will not be the first to ship. Tandy's expected to ship its PS/2 clones first. CONTACT: John Ellott, DELL, (512)338-4400 [***][4/26/88][***] THE FAT GET FATTER: COMPAQ, NCR, EDS, CRAY HOUSTON (NB) -- Compaq earned $47 million on revenues of $439 for the first quarter of 1988 alone, doubling old records, the company announced April 21. EDS, Dallas, the data processing arm of General Motors founded by H. Ross Perot, earned $89.1 million, on sales of $1.122 million, the the same quarter. Even NCR, Dayton, OH, earned $74 million on sales of $1,281 million. [***][4/26/88][***] CRAY PROFITS DROP, WHILE CHEN'S SCS FINALIZES ITS IBM TIES EAU CLAIRE, WI (NB) -- Cray Research, which lost much of its research staff when Steve Chen's group broke off last year to form SuperComputer Systems, announced it earned $26.3 million on revenues of $125.8 million, both way down from a year ago. Chairman John Rollwagon claimed he can still meet the firm's optimistic projections and has signed 14 multimillion dollar orders during the first quarter, enough to keep the Cray factory in Wisconsin humming along. Meanwhile former Cray designer Steve Chen got the final OK on his deal with IBM, under which Big Blue will take 20% of his parallel-processor supercomputer start-up and guarantee it the capital for 2 years of research and development of new super-fast machines. [***][4/26/88][***] PECAN CHIPS CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, announced 6 new air-cooled mainframes which double the capacity of its Cyber series, starting at $533,500. The company promised the Cyber 960s will be emerging in a more timely fashion from its new factory at Arden Hills, MN. CROSSTALK, a division of DCA, Alpharetta, GA, said its recently- announced Remote2 product will ship May 30. EDS, Dallas, agreed to buy M&SD Corp. of Lyndhurst, NJ, which does consulting, call accounting, and financial phone services for Fortune 1,000 outfits. It's also a General Partner in a cooperative buying partnership, the American Business Network, which can get such equipment for its members cheaply. DENNIS HAYES got a divorce settlement from former wife Melitta Hayes and the company said, in a terse April 18 announcement, that the deal will "have no adverse effect on continued operations." INFORUM, Atlanta, said construction of its high-tech market center in downtown Atlanta is 2 months ahead of schedule. The 1.5 million square foot mart is due to open in September, 1989, just three blocks from the regular home of Spring Comdex, the Georgia World Congress Center. QUADRAM, Norcross, GA, said its new Quadboard PS/Q and QuadMEG PS/Q will support up to 4 megabytes of memory which is compatible with OS/2's extended memory specification. The boards also have a Micro Channel ID feature to prevent conflict with other expansion boards, and they are configurable without dip switches. The company also introduced an 80386 expansion card running at 20 Mhz for IBM PC XTs called the Quad386XT, shipping by the end of June at a price of about $1,500. SUN RIVER, Jackson, MS, announced that Virtual Systems of Walnut Creek, CA will develop standard device drivers for its Quick Connect operating system for use with the Fiber Optic Station PC workstation systems which use fiber optic cable to quickly run data among desks attached to it. [***][4/26/88][***] APPLE ANNOUNCES C$56-MILLION COMMITMENT TO QUEBEC MONTREAL (NB) -- The Province of Quebec is very much in fashion in the computer business these days. The latest in a series of companies announcing investments in the largely French-speaking province is Apple Canada Inc., which says it will invest C$56 million in the province over the next three years. The investment strategy includes buying printed circuits from Circo Craft of Montreal for use in Macintosh and LaserWriter II printers. Most of the circuits will be exported to Apple plants in the U.S. and Ireland. Apple also named Saturn Disq Inc., Montreal, the sole supplier of Apple Canada's Macintosh Learning Series, software training packages for the Macintosh. David Rae, president of Apple Canada, said in a prepared statement that the Quebec investments "signal a major step in Apple Canada's investment strategy in Canada and support the growth and development of the Canadian technology industry." Daniel Johnson, Quebec's Minister of Industry and Commerce, welcomed Apple as a "new major partner in the development of a world-class information technology sector." Other recent commitments to Quebec included Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd.'s announcement of a C$15-million Advanced Technology Centre to be built in Hull, and IBM Canada Ltd.'s promise to spend C$70 million this year to upgrade its Bromont manufacturing plant. CONTACT: APPLE CANADA INC., 7495 Birchmount Rd., Markham, Ont. L3R 5G2, (416) 477-5800 [***][4/26/88][***] INTERTAN LAUNCHES FIRST PS/2 CLONE IN TANDEM WITH TANDY BARRIE, Ont. (NB) -- InterTan Inc., the independent company that sells Tandy Corp.'s products outside the U.S., held a press conference in Toronto April 21, just as Tandy was doing the same in New York, to unveil the first non-IBM personal computer using Micro Channel Architecture. The press conference was less than flashy since Tandy would not send InterTan a sample of the new Tandy 5000 MC computer before the official announcement. So Tandy officials showed off to the media two framed poster-size pictures of the new machine. The Tandy 5000 MC uses a 20-megahertz Intel 80386 microprocessor and an expansion bus compatible with IBM's Micro Channel Architecture. Canadian officials had little information on the patent and licensing details of this, other than to read a carefully worded statement on the subject prepared by Tandy. The base price for the 5000 MC in Canada is C$7,999. That price does not include a hard disk drive. All existing Tandy drives can be used with the system, however. At current Canadian prices, adding a 40-megabyte drive with 25-millisecond access time and a controller would bring the total price tag to C$9,843. InterTan Canada Ltd. will be shipping the 5000 MC and Microsoft OS/2 at the end of June. InterTan President Robert Keto also used the occasion to predict his company will report substantially increased profits when its fiscal year ends June 30. InterTan has made more than $29 million in profit already this year, he said. CONTACT: INTERTAN INC., 279 Bayview Dr., Barrie, Ont. L4M 4W5, (705) 728-6242, or INTERTAN INC., 2000 Two Tandy Center, Forth Worth, Tex. 76102 [***][4/26/88][***] LANPAR LAUNCHES PC LINE MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- The latest Canadian entrant in the crowded IBM-compatible PC race is Lanpar Technologies Inc. Lanpar, which started life as a distributor of mainframe computer terminals, has been a personal computer distributor -- handling the Osborne I among others -- and a terminal manufacturer. It also has a nationwide third-party computer maintenance business. But the company's first go at building its own personal computers came with the announcement of a line of five IBM-compatible machines. The models include one 8088-based PC, the LPC Turbo; three models using the Intel 80286 processor; and one, the LPC 386/16, using a 16-MHz 80386 chip. All the computers come with a service-for- life guarantee: Lanpar says it will provide service for as long as you own the equipment. This and the company's established reputation in the terminal and maintenance businesses should help it in selling PCs to corporations. Lanpar did not respond to NEWSBYTES CANADA's requests for price information by this week's deadline. CONTACT: LANPAR TECHNOLOGIES INC., Markham, Ont. (416) 494-9494 [***][4/26/88][***] NEW AUDIT OF NBS MAKES PICTURE LESS ROSY MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (NB) -- It was no secret that National Business Systems Inc., a Mississauga maker of credit-card verification and point-of-sale hardware, was not in the great shape its original 1987 financial statements suggested. A new audit of the company released this month confirms it. Hees International Corp., which has been running NBS since regulators forced the firm to withdraw its financial statements in January, revealed that NBS lost C$33.8 million in 1987, instead of making a C$14.2-million profit as the original audit said. The firm recorded fictitious sales of C$24.2 million in the year. Dealing with that contributed to a reduction of shareholders' equity from C$143.2 million to C$78.7 million. [***][4/26/88][***] TELEPANEL SIGNS AGREEMENT MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- Kings Super Markets Inc. of West Caldwell, Pa. has agreed to install the Telepanel Price and Information Network from Telepanel Inc. of Toronto. The privately owned chain has 16 supermarkets in New Jersey and two more under construction. Telepanel's Price and Information Network uses a series of liquid crystal displays mounted on the edges of supermarket shelves to display price and product information. The system receives prices automatically from the store's checkout scanning system, and uses wireless transmission technology to send the data to the shelf displays. CONTACT: TELEPANEL INC. 245 Riviera Dr., Markham, Ont. L3R 5J9, (416) 477-7877 [***][4/26/88][***] BITS, EH? -- COGNOS INC., Ottawa software developer, made a profit of C$3.1 million on revenues of C$83.0 million in the year ended Feb. 29. That's down from net income of C$5.1 million on revenues of C$68.4 million last year. But the fourth-quarter profit of C$2.2 million, up from C$1.8 million in the same quarter last year, indicate a recovery from hard times in the middle of the fiscal year. Revenues for the quarter were C$27.0 million, up from C$18.7 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year. -- GEMINI TECHNOLOGY INC., Richmond, B.C., reported profit of C$88,000 in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of C$553,000 a year earlier. Revenues were C$1.8 million, up from C$82,000. Gemini makes semiconductor chips. -- BCE INC., Montreal, bought 220,000 shares of Memotec Data Inc., in February, increasing its stake in the company to 29.6 per cent, according to insider trading reports filed with the Ontario Securities Commission. BCE is the parent company of Bell Canada and Northern Telecom Ltd., while Memotec owns the international satellite communications carrier Teleglobe Canada. -- DIGITAL EQUIPMENT OF CANADA LTD., Toronto, will build backplane components at its plant in Kanata, Ont., for the new 6200 series of minicomputers announced by its parent, Digital Equipment Corp. of Maynard, Mass. Digital Canada also makes components for the DEC 8250 and 8350 minis in Kanata. -- MDI MOBILE DATA INTERNATIONAL INC. of Richmond, B.C., is still talking to BCE Inc. about being acquired by the Montreal firm, even though MDI's shares are trading around C$11 a share while BCE's offer is only C$9.75, THE GLOBE AND MAIL in Toronto reports. -- THE STEALS PEOPLE, Toronto-based operator of discount computer stores, is opening its third location. The new store is in Toronto's northeastern suburbs. The two existing locations are also in Toronto's outskirts, one in the north and one in the west. [***][4/26/88][***] MOTOROLA TO PRODUCE DRAM IN U.S. AGAIN TOKYO (NB) -- Motorola (U.S.A.) will resume the production of its 1 megabit dynamic RAM in the U.S., getting technological assistance from Japan's Toshiba. 1M DRAM will be manufactured at Motorola's Phoenix, Arizona factory by the end of the year. Motorola stopped producing memory chips in 1985. That's good news for personal computer makers in the U.S., since there's a serious shortage of memory chips there. As was already reported, Motorola set up a joint venture in Northern Japan, in cooperation with Toshiba, in May 1987. Their joint firm Tohoku Semiconductor will manufacture Toshiba's 1M DRAM and Motorola's 68000 CPUs in May. CONTACT: Toshiba, Toshiba Bldg., 1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105 [***][4/26/88][***] IBM JAPAN TO RELEASE NEW MODELS OF PERSONAL SYSTEM/55 TOKYO (NB) -- IBM Japan has announced that it will release three upgraded models of IBM Personal System/55, which is a Japanese version of the PS/2. The new models 5550-S, 5550-T, and 5570-T, can use all the application software for IBM personal computers from Japan and the U.S. IBM Japan will ship them on May 12. The new models can display the Japanese and English language simultaneously, using a built-in LSI that controls the timing of the display of the two languages. The Japanese and English versions of MS-DOS and OS/2 can be used on the machines. The basic version of Japanese OS/2 was released in March. The extended version of OS/2 is expected to be released at the end of this year. The basic prices of the 5550-S and the 5550-T are 820,000 yen ($6,600), and the 5570-T is 1.45 million yen ($11,700). Meanwhile, the announcement of upgraded machines from IBM Japan could be a big blow to Japanese AX personal computer makers. (The AX is an IBM PC/AT-compatible computer with a Japanese language feature.) NEWSBYTES will report how AX personal computer makers will do at the coming Business Show, a major spring computer exhibition, in Tokyo in May. CONTACT: IBM Japan, 3-2-12 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 [***][4/26/88][***] FULL NEC+IBM-COMPATIBLE MACHINES FROM TOMCAT TOKYO (NB) -- Personal computer firm Tomcat Computer has released two personal computers which are fully compatible with NEC PC-9800 series and IBM PC/AT. The two models, the PC/2 and the PC/3, have the emulation mode of the Basic I/O systems for those two popular computers. The PC/3 is equipped with an 80386 CPU, and the PC/2 has an 80286 CPU and a slot for an 80386 CPU. Besides running IBM programs, both machines can run almost all NEC application programs, using a newly added V30 emulation program. The prices are 498,000 yen ($4,000) and 398,000 yen ($3,200) respectively. CONTACT: Tomcat Computer, Yaguchi Bldg. 4F. 3-6-4 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160 [***][4/26/88][***] FRANCE SHOWS INTEREST IN 32-BIT JAPANESE TRON OPERATING SYSTEM TOKYO (NB) -- The NIKKAN KOGYO newspaper reports the Ministry of Industry in France has requested the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to provide technical support for the TRON operating system. Reportedly, the French industry is thinking of using TRON as the future operating system for its industrial computers. Currently the French industry has been pushing X/Open, but it may adapt TRON. Following up on this request, Japan's MITI already introduced TRON at a conference in Paris this past week. The TRON association says it will cooperate with the French industry to set up TRON office in France in the near future. [***][4/26/88][***] DELAY IN U.S. SUPERCOMPUTER DELIVERY COSTS A $320,000 PENALTY FOR CDC TOKYO (NB) -- An American supercomputer, which is supposed to be delivered to Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), will be about two months late. This gaff requires payment of a $320,000 penalty for the supercomputer maker, Control Data Corp. (CDC), reports the ASAHI newspaper. In the agreement with TIT, CDC was supposed to deliver its supercomputer, the ETA-10, with eight parallel processors by the end of March. However since it is delayed, the penalty must be paid, according to the terms. Regarding the bidding on supercomputers, Japanese supercomputer makers are complaining that the Japanese government has set up bidding terms which are unfavorable to the Japanese makers. Most here believe the government has set up the terms to shut out Japanese makers in order to soften Japan-U.S. supercomputer sales friction. Now that there is news of a delay in shipment of the U.S. supercomputer, analysts say friction may actually increase. [***][4/26/88][***] SONY SETS UP ITS LABORATORY TO DEVELOP NEW OS TOKYO (NB) -- Sony has established a subsidiary, Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo. In that laboratory, Sony do research and develop new operating systems in cooperation with the University of California research staff, which has developed one of standard versions of UNIX. The new operating system will be a distributed operating system, dubbed Post UNIX. It is expected to have powerful networking features. Meanwhile, Sony will hold an essay contest, titled "Computer for the 21st Century - Make A Dream Come True" for young researchers at home and abroad. The prizes for the winner are 2 million yen ($16,000) in cash and Sony's workstation, the NEWS. CONTACT: Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Takanawa Muse Bldg. 3-14 Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo [***][4/26/88][***] FOREIGN SEMICONDUCTOR MAKERS ARE DOING BETTER BUSINESS IN JAPAN TOKYO(NB) -- Japan-based foreign semiconductor makers have shown sharp increase in sales. That's due to the skyrocketing demand for semiconductor chips, and improved access to the Japanese chip market. For instance, Texas Instruments Japan is in the black for the fist time in three years, as was already reported in this column. It's going invest $81 million to expand production of 1M DRAM. This is expected to boost chip production by three to four times over current output. The semiconductor business at Intel Japan is also thriving. The company has been doing so well that it has made its balance sheet public for the first time. LSI Logic is also expanding its sales. And last but not least, the British firm called Inmos Japan says it sold five times more product than it did last year. [***][4/26/88][***] A DECLINING MARKET FOR JAPANESE PCs TOKYO (NB) -- Japan Electronics Industries Development Association has reported total units of PC output recorded a minus growth for the first time in fiscal 1987. Total shipment was 2,060,000, which is a 4% drop over the previous year. The export output dropped by 6%, affected by the U.S. semiconductor retaliatory tax. However, in terms of money, Japanese PC makers made 22% more than last year in the domestic market and 3% more for exports, and thus total sales increased by 16%. The major reason for this contradiction in the statistics could be that users are buying fewer but more expensive PCs. Here's the survey: YEAR 1987 1986 GROWTH ------------------------------------------------- DOMESTIC 1,204 Units 1,236 Units - 3% (42) (35) (+22%) EXPORT 772 Units 824 Units - 6% (17) (16) (+ 3%) ------------------------------------------------- TOTAL 1,976 Units 2,060 Units - 4% (59) (51) (+16%) ------------------------------------------------- ( ) shows sales in US$1 million [***][4/26/88][***] POP-UP WINDOW TOOL TOKYO (NB) -- Tokushima-based IC design company Dedekindo has developed a tool that temporarily stacks onscreen data in a special RAM-resident memory box, and can display it anytime with a single key touch just like a window program. There is a 2-screen type and an 8-screen type. Each tool consists of a CRT memory box with ICs including a dynamic RAM, and a remote controller. The 2-screen type will be priced around 32,000 yen ($250), and the price of the 8-screen type is not known yet. Both products will be released in July. CONTACT: Dedekindo, 346 Nishiyama, Kami-Hachiman-cho, Tokushima-shi 770 [***][4/26/88][***] PFU TO SHIP LAPTOP COMPUTERS TOKYO (NB) -- PFU, a joint venture of Fujitsu and Matsushita, will release two models of a laptop personal computer, the C-250LT. The new models are laptop versions of the Panafacom C desktop computer. The C-250LT has an MN1617 CPU, a 1 megabyte disk and a 640 x 480-dot plasma display. The price of the 20 megabyte microdisk model is 588,000 yen ($4,700) and the 40 megabyte microdisk model is 738,000 yen ($5,950). Meanwhile, PFU has released an upgraded version of its file server system the C-Server Jr. The system EX is equipped with a 68020 CPU, a 6 megabyte memory, and a 10 megabyte floppy disk drive. CONTACT: PFU, 3-25-33 Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo [***][4/26/88][***] << SUSHI BYTES >> ASHTON-TATE JAPAN RELEASES NEW VERSIONS OF dBASE -- Ashton-Tate Japan has released dBASE III PLUS 2.0J for local area network (LAN) of IBM PS/55 and Hitachi's B16. They are priced at 298,000 yen ($2,400). SUN MICROSYSTEMS JAPAN TO RELEASE WORKSTATION WITH 80386 MPU -- Sun MicroSystems Japan, a Japanese subsidiary of the American workstation maker, will release its workstation, the Sun 386i. This new model has an 80386 MPU, and it can use application software for both UNIX and MS-DOS. NISSAN TO PURCHASE ANOTHER CRAY SUPERCOMPUTER -- Nissan Motor (Kanagawa, Japan) has ordered a top class supercomputer -- the X-MP432 from Cray. The price was $20 million. The supercomputer will be used for not only a new-car development, but also designing space ships. Cray supplied its first supercomputer to Nissan two years ago. HITACHI PRODUCES 1M DRAM IN MALAYSIA -- Hitachi is going to produce a 1 megabit dynamic RAM in Malaysia by the end of this year. The chip will be sold to the newly industrialized countries in Asia, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hitachi will be the first Japanese maker to produce a 1M DRAM in Asia outside Japan. HITACHI TO RELEASE 32-BIT WORKSTATION -- Hitachi announced it will release a 32-bit workstation, the 2020/32, with a 20MHz 80386 MPU. It will be shipped in the end of June this year. The price will be between $10,800 and $14,000, depending on the models. NTT DATA COMMUNICATIONS CORP. WILL BE SEPARATED -- Japanese telecom giant NTT will set up a subsidiary, NTT Data Communications Corp., on July 1. The new firm will be capitalized at $80 million, and have 6,800 employees. The new company expects to gain $64 million profit in 1990, and $112 million in 1991. WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE FOR SEVEN LANGUAGES -- Eisel, Tokyo, has released word processing software CD-WORD8 for NEC PC-9800 series. CD-WORD8 is multi-language CD-ROM software that includes 5 million words for seven languages. It has a translation feature for seven languages, but it translates only word for word. It is priced at 148,000 yen or $1,200. PRICES OF 3.5-INCH FDDs ARE FALLING -- Prices of 3.5 inch FDDs are falling more than 20% compared to last year. Sales competition among the FDD makers, such as NEC and Toshiba, has been getting intense. [***][4/26/88][***] ESPRIT II UNDERWAY BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- ESPRIT II, the successor to Europe's first high technology research and development program, is underway and officials are enthusiastic. Mr. Narjes, the EC Commissioner responsible for technology and information processing said, "This phase of ESPRIT is the biggest and most widely supported phase so far. It is expected that this phase will offer better products that phase I accomplished. Products which will shine by comparison to those that evolved from ESPRIT I, such as the T800 Transputer." The 700 proposals for funding that have been received so far are split in the following categories: 17% for microelectronics and peripheral technologies, 33% in information processing systems, 50% in IT (information technology) which is subdivided to 25% for CIM (computer integrated manufacturing), 14% to integrated information systems and 11% to IT application support systems. The success of Esprit I is demonstrated by products that have emerged based on the program, such as the international standard on office document architecture (ISODA) which is now accepted by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). Another one, and probably the most famous, is the T800 floating point Transputer chip, developed by the Supernode project. The European Community, the commercial guardian for this part of the world, sets down standards and offers support to companies that would like to develop Europe's technological strength, and provides 50% of development costs. [***][4/26/88][***] NEW AMD PRODUCT CALCULATES FAST! MUNICH, GERMANY (NB) -- AMD has announced the follow-on chip to the upcoming 29000 32 bit microprocessor, the 29C327 floating point chip. This product offers high speed operation at 120ns per instruction. The product will also be available in a faster version at 100ns in the fall. What separates this chip from other floating point chips is the ability to interface with a variety of systems as well as support DEC, IBM and other floating point standards. Implemented in a 1.2 micron double-layer metal CMOS process, it achieves performance currently matched by MSI and LSI combinatorial logic. The chip has register file, adder and multiplier, and fully-combinatorial elements. Fully 32 bits throughout, the 29C327, can interface with the 68000 series of chips and other microprocessors. [***][4/26/88][***] DRAM SHORTAGE WORSENS AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND (NB) -- The RAM shortage is worsening here in Europe. For example, during a tour of Holland's version of the West Coast Computer Faire, called Informaticbeurs, the computer exhibitors kept telling show-goers that after they sold off the systems on display, no more RAM-full systems will be sold, just 0K versions. (Now, I wonder what can you do with RAMless PC? A coffee table? Or a bookstand!) Of course the shortage has not bothered the 'RAM pushers who are making a fortune selling RAMs with increased prices bordering on the fivefold! A 256K RAM chip here used to cost (in the old days - 2 months ago) $6.50. Now the same part fetches $30. No one in the clone arena can afford them at these prices. [***][4/26/88][***] THE VIRUS AT THE TOP - CITIBANK ISSUES WARNING LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- Citibank, the world's largest bank (and the largest lender), send a memo to its worldwide subsidiaries and associated companies warning them of viruses which seem to be widespread within the firm. The company issued the warning after a virus wiped out the contents of a hard disk at one of its offices. The viruses in a banking environment are particularly dangerous when you consider that billions of dollar transactions are kept in storage media. A virus can destroy a complete inventory or large transaction (done with Citibank's CITICUBIT program). The company stressed that any diskette put in a system should be either 3.5" (there appear to be no viruses on 3.5" disks) or formatted recently or a certified Citibank diskette. [***][4/26/88][***] EUROBITS.... FACIT introduced a new video terminal, the A3400. This black on white terminal offers ANSI, VT220 and FACIT standards as well as the ability to use special memory cards that hold new programming information... ...POSITRONICA announced that the Radius Accelerator will be offered to the Belgian marketplace as of May 1st. This add-on board for the Mac replaces the 68000 with a 20MHz 68020 chip and uses 32K of high speed cache RAM. Also, the company announced that the Tecmar RAM AD and the new VGA adapter series will also share space on dealers shelf's. The surprise is that this VGA card supports some extra modes such as 640x350 in 256 colors and 800x600 also in 256 colors... ...AMD finished 1987 looking better than before (although still losing money) with revenues up at $997,080 thousands and a loss of $48 million. However, the loss was less than that of 1986 (which was almost $100 million) and the company is expected to turn a profit during this fiscal year. That is, if the 29000 succeeds..... ...MOTOROLA is certainly pushing its 88000 to European companies with a three page spread in the "Wall Street Journal/Europe." ...OLIVETTI has bought a 51% interest in Scanvest-Ring, a Norwegian producer of integrated systems. The Italian company would not disclose the sum used in the transaction, but analysts estimate the cost to have been around $74 million... ...and finally SIEMENS and SEQUENT teamed up for the European market. The two companies have extended a $50 million agreement which was announced in 1986. The agreement will now last till 1992 and will cost $30 million. Sequent will integrate the National Semiconductor 32532 microprocessor within Siemen's MX line of parallel systems. [***][4/26/88][***] UPCOMING SHOWS... SICOB SPRING, PARIS, APRIL 25th TILL APRIL 30th OEM 88, BRUSSELS, MAY 3RD TILL MAY 5TH MACWORLD EXPO, AMSTERDAM, MAY 9TH TILL 11TH EURINFO 88, ATHENS, MAY 16TH TILL MAY 20TH [***][4/26/88][***] EDITORIAL -- THE THEME OF THIS COMDEX -- WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR by Dana Blankenhorn, IP2004 Here in Atlanta, some friends and I were wondering what the theme of this Comdex show might be. We had just spent a day chasing vapor -- vapor spreadsheets, vapor hardware, even vapor marketing programs. Then we turned our faces southeast of the convention center, toward the Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium. We thought of the Atlanta Braves. Ah ha! Wait 'til next year. Braves' management, in a rare display of truth-in-advertising, admitted to fans they probably wouldn't have much of a team this year, but that with the young kids coming up we might make a run at it next year. Same thing with the computer industry. In our case, too, the problem began with bad trades. This trade, however, was the 1986 chip dumping agreement with the Japanese. Fact is, the chip shortage is going to hurt the American computer industry badly in 1988 -- how can you run OS/2 and a decent program without 3-4 megabytes of memory? How can you run your new laser printer without at least a meg or two to process the page? How can you run the new, heftier versions of your software favorites without more memory to handle their nifty new features? Now, there are xenophobes out there who think this is all a fiendish plot by the Japanese to take away our industry. And Japanese producers plan to double or triple their RAM chip production this year, no doubt swamping the increases from Micron and Texas Instruments. But this was no MicroChip OPEC that did us in -- this was our own trading representatives. They looked a bargain straight in the face, and called it unfair competition. So, we make do. Shipment dates of September and November are promised on such things as PS/2 clones and the OS/2 Presentation Manager. Laser printers are shown, without price tags, because that would be a dirty little secret. The most innovative thing at the show is a little hand-held scanner, not just made in but designed in Taiwan! Yet the crowds are bigger than ever and the arguments over wait states and clock speeds reach a feverish pitch. The bright side of rising prices is you can hide a multitude of blather under them. But for computer buyers, the best advice is to wait. Wait until RAM chip prices come down. Wait until last February's announcements turn into real, de-bugged product. Do something useful, like helping Steve Gibson stamp out computer viruses. Or reading NEWSBYTES. -- Dana Blankenhorn NEWSBYTES WELCOMES YOUR RESPONSE TO OUR EDITORIALS.... [***][4/26/88][***] ANOTHER RESIGNATION AT LOTUS CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Michael Kolowich, vice president of information services for Lotus Development Corp. has resigned to become publisher of a new personal computer magazine to be published by Ziff Communications Co. of New York. A month ago, Charles Digate, Lotus senior vice president, was nudged out of the company after a disagreement with Lotus chief Jim Manzi. Kolowich said his departure was "entirely voluntary." Kolowich, 35, has been in charge of the Lotus market services that have been distributed over FM radio waves and on compact optical disks. Ziff will begin publishing the new magazine, PC COMPUTING, this summer. Ziff already publishes PC MAGAZINE, PC TECH JOURNAL, AND PC WEEK. David Roux, 31, will succeed Kolowich. In other Lotusland developments, Manzi has topped the annual BUSINESS WEEK "executive compensation scoreboard," with $26.3 million in salary, bonuses, and stock options. Manzi was $8.5 million ahead of No. 2 on the best-paid boss list, Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, who hauled in a puny $17.9 million. The average chief executive's total pay jumped 48 percent in 1987 to $1.8 million, said the magazine. Life's tough in the pinstripe trenches. [***][4/26/88][***] XEROX DROPS SMALLTALK STAMFORD, Conn. (NB) -- Xerox Corp. has spun off ParcPlace Systems, developer of Smalltalk-80, as an independent software company financed with venture capital. Xerox pioneered Smalltalk, an object-oriented language, at its Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. ParcPlace is headquartered in Palo Alto and has financing from Weiss, Peck & Greer of San Francisco, Advanced Technology Ventures and Paragon Partners of Menlo Park; and Inman & Bowman of Orinda. Xerox keeps a minority interest and one seat on the board of directors. [***][4/26/88][***] MOTOROLA'S RISC NEW YORK (NB) -- Motorola Inc. of Schaumberg, Ill., has rolled out its new reduced instruction set chip (RISC), the 88000 family. Motorola says the 88000 will blaze along at 17 million instructions per second, five times faster than anything else on the market (and getting near the traditional range of supercomputers). Motorola also unveiled a series of 88000 multiprocessor boards, called Hypermodules, that promise up to 50 MIPS on a single board computer. The company said it has made samples of the 88100 processor and 88200 cache-memory chip available to special customers for the past six months. General samplings of the 20 MHz chips will be available in the third quarter, with orders being taken in the fourth. Motorola said the 88100 will be $495 in quantities of 100 to 499, while the 88200 will be $795. While the chips aren't aimed at personal computers quite yet, analysts and industry officials are abuzz with speculation about how the Motorola products might work into Apple's product development plans. Apple has traditionally had a strong working relationship with Motorola. Imagine an Apple Macintosh III running the 88000 chips, with about 30 MB of memory. Are those folks quivering over in the corner executives from Sun and Apollo? [***][4/26/88][***] VIRGINIA COMPUTER EXECUTIVES INDICTED ON FRAUD NORFOLK (NB) -- William Brautigan, 42, vice president of finance for Systems Management American Corp. and Tim Herring, 41, an SMA procurement executive, were named in a 55-count indictment alleging they defrauded the U.S. Navy, impeded justice, and conspired to cover up the fraud and disguise kickbacks. SMA, one of Norfolk's largest employers, is cooperating with the investigation. Brautigan faces up to 248 years in prison and fines totaling $4.5 million if convicted. Herring could see a 182-year sentence and $5.7 million in fines. The charges relate to work SMA did from 1983 to 1987, installing computer systems on a number of Navy warships. The indictment was part of an investigation run by the U.S. Attorney's office in Norfolk. Three individuals have entered guilty pleas in the case. A former SMA architect, Gerald Woods, was sentenced in January to two years in prison for a kickback scheme allegedly including SMA President and founder Herman Valentine. Woods received a light sentence in return for cooperating in the investigation. Valentine, who founded the computer company in 1970, denies the allegations, claiming that Woods is a drug abuser and liar. [***][4/26/88][***] WEST GERMAN CRACKED U.S. MILITARY COMPUTERS NEW YORK (NB) -- A West German citizen broke into 30 U.S. military computer systems over telephone lines for nearly two years, according to a report in the NEW YORK TIMES. The paper reports that the German cracker methodically searched the military databases for nuclear weapons information, data on intelligence satellites, Star Wars, the space shuttle, and the North American Air Defense Command. No classified data was compromised, according to security officials contacted by the newspaper. The intrusions involved U.S. systems in this country, Europe, and Japan. A West German magazine, QUICK, has identified the electronic intruder as Mathias Speer, 24, a computer science student in Hanover. U.S. officials have not confirmed QUICK's information, although they acknowledge the have the identity of the perpetrator. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California discovered the intrusions and trapped the intruder with a phony database that kept the data burglar online long enough to trace the phone call. That makes it the first electronic sting operation. [***][4/26/88][***] NEW JERSEY RETAIL CHAIN ACQUIRED CRANBURY, N.J. (NB) -- Clancy-Paul, Inc., a chain of computer retail stores in New Jersey with $35 million in sales has been gobbled by by ValCom, Inc., of Omaha for an undisclosed sum. ValCom is the nation's fourth largest chain of computer retail outlets. According to ValCom President Bill Fairfield the purchase leaves ValCom with 167 stores in 44 states, and yearly sales of nearly $200 million. Clancy-Paul operates six stores in Princeton, Red Bank, New Brunswick, Clifton, and West Trenton. The company offers products from IBM, Apple, Compaq, and Hewlett- Packard. [***][4/26/88][***] APOLLO CUTS PRICES CHELMSFORD, Mass. (NB) -- Apollo Computer Inc. has knocked more than a third off the prices for its Series 4000 workstations. These machines are Apollo's near-low-end computers, and the new prices should make them competitive with souped up Apple Machintosh IIs and 80386 PC clones. The entry level price for the Apollo is now $8,990, while the price of the color version of the same engineering workstation starts at $13,990. The machines run the Unix operating system. [***][4/26/88][***] THE NEWSBYTES-EAST EARNINGS REPORT--2 LOVE THAT LOTUS -- Lotus Development Corp. rolled up a record for first quarter revenue of $117.3 million, compared to $84.8 million for the first quarter of last year. Earnings were $18.3 million (40 cents per share) versus $13.7 million in earnings (31 cents per share) for the 1987 first quarter. What fuels the continuing growth of Lotus? Good old 1-2-3, says the company. BLACK INK AT DG -- Data General Corp. reports a second quarter net earning of $17.2 million (57 cents per share) compared to a $42.6 million second quarter loss last year. Revenues for the quarter were $349.7 million, compared to $315.2 million last year. WANG WOWS -- The third quarter at Wang Laboratories of Lowell, Mass., shows net income of $22.7 million (14 cents per share) on revenue of $767.9 million. Last year's third quarter at Wang saw paltry earnings of $5.9 million (four cents per share) on revenue of $745.9 million. Wang said orders for the third quarter were five percent higher than last year and that its Wang Integrated Image Systems are booming. Once a financial basket case, Wang is now showing considerable muscle. CCI SOARS -- Computer Consoles Inc. of Waltham, Mass., says first quarter income, before extraordinary gains, was more than double that of a year ago. Revenues rose 10 percent to $39.2 million compared to $35.6 million for the first quarter of 1987. Income before extraordinary gain was $1.9 million (14 cents per share) versus $800,000 (6 cents per share) for the first quarter of 1987. CCI's figures include an extraordinary gain of $1.3 million from repurchases of debentures. CCI said its computer products division reached break-even in the first quarter, after 1987 losses of $13 million. The company makes minicomputers. WORLDWIDE RECORD -- Worldwide Computer Services of Wayne, N.J., has reported the highest sales and net earnings for any quarter in the company's history. Net sales for the quarter ended March 31 were $4.3 million, compared to $3.6 million for the prior year. Net income of $118,395 (7 cents per share) compared to $105,450 (five cents per share) a year ago. The company supplies the Fortune 500 with high-tech temps. [***][4/26/88][***] NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION CHARLES RIVER DATA SYSTEMS of Boston has made a deal that will see Kawasaki Steel Corp. market Charles River Data's super-micros in Japan under the Kawasaki brand. Kawasaki aims at first-year sales of $2.4 million. IBM has upped the power of its ESA-370 mainframe systems architecture and MVS mainframe operating system. Big Blue has also introduced a new version of its top-of-the-line relational data base, DB2. DB2 Version 2 offers referential integrity, says IBM, which automatically enforces rules to protect information in the data base. Not aimed at the home hacker, DB2's license fee is $3,600...per month. MASSACHUSETTS COMPUTER CORP. of Westford, Mass., has rolled out a new line of faster computers designed for recording and analyzing real time data from sensors. The computers use one to five Motorola 68030 processors, running under Unix. Prices range from $24,900 to $120,000. PRIME COMPUTER of Natick, Mass., has upgraded its EXL multiuser micro line, with two new models. The EXL 320 and EXL 325 can accommodate 16 to 48 users. The machines use the Intel 80386 chip, running Unix. Prices for the EXL 320 start at $25,900, while EXL 325 prices start at $45,900. Shipping in June. BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN of Cambridge, Mass., will supply Japan Air Lines with a worldwide data communications network. BBN says the job is worth $26 million, making it the largest non- government award the company has ever received. BBN does a lot of military-related work for the U.S. government. [***][4/26/88][***] ATARI SHOW LAST WEEK - NEWS ROUND-UP LONDON, UK (NB) -- Last week saw the Atari User Show take place at London's Alexandra Palace. NEWSBYTES UK was there to capture all the hot news from the three-day event... [***][4/26/88][***] ATARI UK: 520 SUMMER ST DEAL NOW; STACY LAPTOP VERY SOON LONDON, UK (NB) -- NEWSBYTES UK bumped into Bob Gleadow, MD of Atari UK, at the show. We learned some interesting snippets of information: Stacy, Atari's ST laptop, is coming very soon, and the company is now bundling #414-worth of software free with each #399 520 ST sold. Gleadow was surprisingly candid on the ST laptop, code-named Stacy by Atari sources. "We hope to have the laptop finished and on sale before the end of the year," said Gleadow. "If all goes well, you could see it on sale around October/November time," he added. Gleadow remains coy on the subject of pricing (still to be announced), but NEWSBYTES UK anticipates a #700 price point. LCD screen resolution shouldn't pose any problems, said Gleadow, pointing out that, with Atari's expertise, any screen graphics problems should easily be solved. More immediately, the 520ST, which recently rose in price by #100 to #399-99, gets a boost with the free bundling of 22 games worth #414 until 1st September. "The Atari 520STFM Summer Pack bundling deal makes the ST really compete with the Amiga 500," said Gleadow, acknowledging Commodore's rival machine. "Our user base is higher, and we intend to keep it that way," he added. * NEWSBYTES UK also notes that Atari UK is building a double- sided drive into new 520STFM models. This unannounced 520 ST enhancement adds considerable value to the 520STFM, as well as placing the 520 into (ironically) more direct competition with the 1040 ST. CONTACT: ATARI UK, Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, Berkshire SL2 5BZ. Tel: 0753-33344. [***][4/26/88][***] CLUB 68000 SHOW DEBUT LONDON, UK (NB) -- Club 68000, another Atari computer club staged its debut at the show. Club 68000 has aims which are different from the majority of computer clubs, however. "For #10, members get a regular newsletter, access to discount software software and our public domain and shareware software for the Amiga and ST," explained Peter Thake of the club. How discount is discount? #49-95 for a copy of PC Ditto, compared with a retail price of #89-95, that's how much discount. Although NEWSBYTES UK remains a little sceptical of the club's newsletter (the club has only been running a few weeks), it certainly offers good value in the software stakes. Worth checking out if you're after a bundle of really cheap software for your ST and Amiga. CONTACT: CLUB 68000, 52 Linkworth Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 6QH. Tel: 01-560-1717. [***][4/26/88][***] GEM MULTITASKING FOR THE ST REAL SOON LONDON, UK -- Multi-tasking on the Atari ST, as seen on the Commodore Amiga, has been around for some time, but true concurrent working of Gem applications has yet to be seen. The reason for this is that Gem requires operating system control of the screen - a task not possible for two or more packages to share at the same time. Computer programmer Hanifi Houbart reckons that he's about to solve this problem, thus pushing the Atari ST's capabilities out to meet the Commodore Amiga. "I've written a package to support ST applications software in a multitasking environment, and now I'm working on solving the Gem problem," Houbart told NEWSBYTES UK. "I reckon I should have solved this problem very shortly," he added. Houbart is coy on pricing for his as-yet unnamed MTOS (multi- tasking operating system) for the ST. "I'll be making an announcement shortly," he said. He also noted that he originally wrote the multitasking software for himself. "I never intended to market a commercial package," he revealed. CONTACT: HANIFI HOUBART - 01-960-0203 [***][4/26/88][***] MONITOR MAGAZINE/CLUB AT THE SHOW LONDON, UK (NB) -- Now into its 19th issue, Monitor magazine appears to be coming on in leaps and bounds. Issued quarterly, this colour glossy is just part of the membership package that the UK Atari Computer Owners Club is offering members for #5-00 a year. "Monitor aims to keep members informed of what's happening on the Atari scene generally, and at a low price," explained Roy Smith, the magazine's editor. "Our club is the UK's largest Atari club, and the magazine is only one of several benefits, which includes access to the club's extensive 8 and 16-bit public domain libraries," he added. * Non-UK membership and magazine subscriptions cost #8-00 a year for Monitor surface mail delivery, #12-00 for airmail delivery. CONTACT: UK ATARI COMPUTER OWNERS CLUB, PO Box 3, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6 8LR [***][4/26/88][***] STAC - THE ST GRAPHIC ADVENTURE PROGRAMMER LONDON, UK (NB) -- Incentive Software took time out at the show to launch STAC, the first graphic adventure creator for the ST range. Pricing in at #39-95, the package looks to offer good value for money, both as a programmer's tool, and as a fun environment for all ST users to create their own graphic adventures. "We could have charged a lot more for the package, but chose to pitch it at #39-95 to attract all ST users," Sean Ellis of Incentive told NEWSBYTES UK. "We're not after any license fees either - any programs which result from STAC need only credit us on the opening titles, and the software authors are free to market their adventures as they see fit," he added. STAC could open up the market for graphic adventures on the ST in a big way. Whilst most buyers of STAC will probably use the package to create adventures for themselves and their immediate circle of friends, we could see a crop of low-cost or even public domain graphic adventures for the ST very soon. CONTACT: INCENTIVE SOFTWARE, 2 Minerva House, Caleva Park, Aldermaston, Berkshire RG7 4QW. Tel: 07356-77288. [***][4/26/88][***] SHOW SNIPPETS... HISOFT (0525-718181) unveiled four new packages at the show: Aztec C, Devpac ST 2, Twist and Wercs. Aztec C (#129 & #179) is an ST version of Manx software's C compiler package. Devpac ST2 (#49-95) is the second edition of the popular ST assembler package. Twist (#39-95) is a switcher program for the Atari ST. The package doesn't support true multitasking, but freezes and saves up to 14 applications programs to a Ram disk. Wercs (#29- 95) is a Wimp Environment Resource Construction Set and is a complete resource editor for the ST. METACOMCO (0272-428781) has released CAMBRIDGE LISP for the ST at #89-95. The Bristol-based company says this pricing opens the world of Artificial Intelligence to ST owners. MICROLINK (0625-878888) announced ST-specific versions of its modems at the show. #99 gets you a V21/23 modem, whilst #169 adds V22 (1200 baud) to the modem's capabilities. Both modems include Kuma's K-Comm communication software in their VAT- inclusive prices. MIRRORSOFT failed to show the Atari CD-Rom unit as promised at the show. First announced by Atari at last year's PCW Show, the Atari CD-Rom unit has yet to make a UK public appearance. [***][4/26/88][***] AND THE REST OF THE WEEK'S NEWS... ASHTON-TATE PRESTEL BASELINE SUCCESS MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE (NB) -- Ashton-Tate, which switched its user help line and database service from Telecom Gold over to Prestel earlier this year, has turned in some impressive access figures for the service. Baseline, officially launched on Prestel at the Which Computer? Show in January, has been accessed more than 70,000 times a month since the launch, a figure which taken Digital Dynamite, the database administrators, by surprise. "Ashton-Tate's service has surpassed any other database service we've been involved with, in terms of numbers of enquiries and responses," said Perri Tate (no relation) of Digital Dynamite. Whilst the Prestel success is bound to please BT's Prestel staff, Telecom Gold staff will have to content themselves with the fact that Prestel's free off-peak charges have probably accounted for upsurge in Baseline usage. CONTACT: ASHTON-TATE UK, Cavendish House, 57-59 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London W5 5SA. Tel: 01-840-7200. [***][4/26/88][***] COMPUTER HACKING DECLARED LEGAL LONDON, UK (NB) -- In a precedent-setting case, two computer journalists, Robert Schifreen and Steve Gold (yes, you're right, that is NEWSBYTES UK's bureau chief) were finally acquitted of 'hacking' into Prestel, the UK's viewdata system, in 1984. The case started in March '85 when the pair were arrested for gaining unauthorised access to Prestel in late '84, and subsequently appeared in the Crown Court in April 1986. During the two-week trial by jury, the defendants were found guilty and fined a total of #1,350. The pair appealed and had the convictions quashed in the Appeal Courts in July last year. British Telecom appealed and pursued the case to the House of Lords, the highest court in the Uk, earlier this year. Five Law Lords declared unanimously last week that the Forgery Act 1981 does not apply where computer 'hacking' was involved. Lord Brandon of Oakbrook declared that the prosecution was "an attempt to force the facts of the case into the language of an Act, not designed to fit them." The case, whilst good news for Schifreen and NEWSBYTES UK's editor, is bad news for UK operators of online computer systems, since it means that anyone gaining unauthorised access to their system is not committing an offence. NEWSBYTES UK notes that a change in the law is imminent. * In response to several requests, NEWSBYTES UK is pleased to send every reader a genuine *autograph* for readers to store with their family heirlooms: SGOLD What did you expect - modesty? [***][4/26/88][***] ZENITH: 80286 & 386-BASED LAPTOPS UNVEILED LONDON, UK (NB) -- Zenith has announced what it claims are the industry's first 'truly portable' 80286 and 80386-based battery- powered laptops. The three portables are the Supersport, the Supersport 286 and the Turbosport 386. The Supersport centres around an 80C88 (XT compatible) microprocessor running at 4.77/8.00MHz. The Supersport 286, as the name implies, uses an 80C286, whilst the Turbosport 386 uses an 80386 microprocessor. Both the 286 and 386 models run at 12MHz and 6MHz with zero-wait states, and are capable of running multitasking applications software. The Turbosport 386 looks a neat machine, and comes with a page white 600x400 pixel LCD screen. (All models in the sport range feature a high-contrast, supertwist backlit LCD screen). Okay - the bottom line. The Supersport prices in at #1,395 for a single floppy (3.5 inch) drive, and #2,595 for a 20Mb hard disk version. The Supersport 286 costs #3,195 in a 1Mb Ram, 20Mb hard disk-equipped configuration and #3,995 for a 40Mb hard disk version. The Turbosport 386 meanwhile, costs a hefty #4,995, and comes with 2Mb of Ram and a 40Mb hard disk as standard. Anything else. Yes - Zenith is bundling Dos 3.21, laplink software (for file transfer connection to a PC) and a carry case with these prices. That softens the blow a bit. CONTACT: ZENITH DATA SYSTEMS, 452 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire SL1 6BB. Tel: 06286-68588. [***][4/26/88][***] +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... + +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ APPLE COMPUTER (0442-60244) has scooped two DESIGNERS AND ART DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION awards for its international TV advertising campaign. The awards went to Apple's ad campaign, which included Balance Sheet, Power Lunch and War Room as its themes for its 60- second ads. BRITISH TELECOM has teamed up with THE TIMES to offer the STOCKWATCH audiotext service. Accessible on via BT's value-added 0898 exchange (0898-141-141 for details), the service provides spoken details of UK stock market prices. Membership is free and comes with a #10 multi-frequency keypad for controlling the service. The keypad's cost, incidentally, is refunded in the form of a voucher against British Telecom telephone bill. CAMBRIDGE COMPUTER's Z80-based Z88 laptop is to be marketed in the US. Sinclair Systems, a division of Diversified Foods Inc., will market up to 13,000 of Sir Clive Sinclair's laptop over the coming months. Pricing is $549 for the Z88 and $110 per 128K cartridge. COMPUTERLAND UK (0908-664244) has announced the SUMMER LAN ROADSHOW. During late June/Early July, the company will tour five key UK sites giving demonstrations of Local Area Networks, including Novell and IBM's Token Ring Network. ELECTRIC SOFTWARE (0954-61258) has announced TIMEWORKS DESKTOP PUBLISHER PC for the IBM PC and close compatibles. Until 31 May, the package will sell for #99 and then for #129. The ST edition of the package is now available in English and German, with Danish, Dutch and Swedish versions following shortly. PC SUPERSTORE (0684-892428), the Tandata Holdings' mail order division, has been granted an IBM PS/2 dealership. The dealership could prove to be stiff competition for conventional IBM dealerships, given PC Superstore's aggressive pricing and service back-up. TELECOM GOLD, the UK's email brand leader, has opened a gateway into the British Telecom Travel Service (BTTS) database. The BTTS database also allows onward gateway access to the ABC service, which includes information on hotels and flight information around the world. Additional services, including theatre booking facilities, cross-channel ferry bookings and car hire information, are planned for later this year.