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/1988/nb880830.271

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[***][8/30/88][***]
APPLE RUMOR CENTRAL
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- When Apple Computer played a shell game with its
chief executives this week (see BIG APPLE SHAKEUP below), some marbles
may have been sent skittering out to the press.  Rumor has it Apple will
launch a spin-off company, as it did with its software to form Claris.
This firm will market "Ultramacs" or 68030-based workstations in
direct competition with Sun Microsystems, according to public relations
expert Marty Winston of Winston & Winston.  Winston says the
Ultramac project could yield five platforms before year-end, most
68030 and at least one 80386.  Three will be in the Mac line and others
will be handled by the new spin-off company.

If that isn't enough, there's news of an Apple II Rennaissance.  The
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS just featured an ad seeking engineers for "Apple
II: the Next Generation."  The engineers are being sought to design
the new microprocessor that will run the Apple II progeny.  At
least one new Apple II computer is ready to hit the market, according
to another NEWSBYTES source.  We're told the Apple IIC Plus may make
its debut at Applefest, slated for September 16-18 at the San Francisco
Civic Auditorium.

And to dispel all further talk of the Apple II's demise, Apple is
sending its chief, John Sculley, to make the keynote address and
special product announcement at the show.  Who else is slated to be
on the line-up?  Steve Wozniak, David Dwyer, manager of the Apple
Classroom of Tomorrow, and Tom Snyder, famous for his conflict resolution
game.

[***][8/30/88][***]
MORE ON APPLEFEST
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- In case you're planning to attend the Applefest
here, we're told American Airlines is offering the lowest rates and
is the show's "official" carrier.  Call 800-433-1790 and ask for
Star File S-14126.  The headquarters hotel is the San Francisco Hilton.
Room rates are $89 for a single and $99 for a double.  Call 800-
HILTONS or 415-771-1400 for reservations.  Booths are still available
for exhibitors, although we're told there are twice as many exhibitors
as last year.  For space call Mary Jane Bechtel at 617-860-7107
or David Ferrante at 617-860-7108.

[***][8/30/88][***]
BIG APPLE SHAKEUP
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Like a giant cell subdividing, Apple Computer has
split into four distinct operating divisions to accommodate its massive
and rapid growth.  The new divisions are Apple Products, Apple
Education and Apple Pacific, Apple Europe, and Apple USA.  The
pearl in this oyster is the Apple Products group which Senior VP
of Research, Development, and Product Marketing Jean Louis Gassee
will now head.  Delbert Yocam, formerly chief operating officer becomes
president of the Education and Pacific group, Michael Spindler is
president of Apple Europe and Allan Loren heads up Apple USA.

Apple's rapid growth -- sales were $993.1 million in its last
quarter ending June 30 compared to $637.1 million one year ago --
has also prompted more hiring.  CEO John Sculley, who's supposed to
be on sabbatical, reportedly showed up at a company meeting last week
to announce that 2,200 more people will be hired at Apple during
this fiscal year and another 3,000 will be on the payroll in 1990.
Currently Apple employs some 9,400 workers.

And speaking of Sculley, we're told he's sequestered in his Woodside
mansion but still calling the shots in Cupertino.  Throughout his
leave of absence, he's been on Applelink, the standing joke being
he's online "for hours and hours everyday," according to Apple
spokeswoman Barbara Krause.  "Just about everybody is getting
a message from Sculley these days," she added.  Sculley returns to
his desk at Apple September 2.


[***][8/30/88][***]
QUANTUM LEAP FOR QUANTUM CORPORATION
MILPITAS, Ca. (NB) -- If you buy an Apple or Commodore computer in
1989, chances are it will be driven by a Quantum drive. Quantum
Corporation, maker of high performance disk drives for PCs,
has landed two very big fish, Apple Computer and Commodore, for
major OEM contracts.  Quantum has announced that Apple has selected
Quantum's ProDrive 40S and ProDrive 80S, which are 40 and 80
megabyte 3 1/2" hard disk drives, for use in various Apple
products.  The drives are scheduled to begin shipping to Apple
in the Decmber quarter.  And to double the fun, Quantum has also
received a massive order from Commodore International which
wants to use the AT-Bus ProDrive Series 3  3 1/2" disk drives
in its products.   No dollar figure was put on the transactions

CONTACT:  Ann Wilkinson, QUANTUM, 408/432-1100

[***][8/30/88][***]
DRAM SHORTAGE - A WYSE SIGN THAT IT'S ENDING
SAN JOSE, Ca. (NB) -- Wyse Technology has become the first computer
maker to drop prices of its PCs because the price of DRAM chips has
stabilized.  Effective immediately, the WYSEpc 286 single drive
machine is reduced from $2,899 to $2,699, and the 40 megabyte
hard disk model is reduced from $3,959 to $3,759.  The
price of the 8 MHz IBM-compatible WYSEpc single drive model
drops from $1,899 to $1,799 and the 20 MB hard disk model is
reduced from $2,359 to $2,259.

Wyse's Steve Holtzman, VP of marketing, says his firm has been
able to obtain stable contract pricing and delivery commitments
for DRAM chips, hence the price reductions.  For the past six
months, this hasn't been the case; Wyse has been forced to buy
its 256K DRAMs on the spot market where prices were unstable, to
say the least.

But there's another factor to Wyse's price reductions.  The
firm is designing its own VLSI implementation of  80286-
based systems.  Like IBM and Compaq, Wyse is one of the few PC makers
to have designed its own chip set.  Custom circuitry should enable
Wyse to make its PCs cheaper than it does now.

CONTACT:  Lynn Lawler, WYSE TECHNOLOGY, 408/433-1000

[***][8/30/88][***]
SUN TO PROVIDE TEXAS INSTRUMENTS WITH SPARC TECHNOLOGY
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Sun Microsystems has slated a Tuesday news
conference to announce an alliance with Texas Instruments.
TI will license Sun Microsystem's SPARC chip architecture,
joining Fujitsu, Cypress, Bipolar Integrated Technology, and LSI Logic
as manufacturer of Sun's increasingly popular RISC-based technology.
The announcement is being billed as "a partnership that will
ignite the semiconductor and systems industries."

Also expected at the media event is news that TI will begin joint
research and development with Cypress Semiconductor on SPARC-
compatible chips.

[***][8/30/88][***]
THE FEDS JUMP ON POWERMENU FROM BROWN BAG
CAMPBELL, Ca. (NB) -- The U.S. Department of Immigration has given a
big boost to Brown Bag Software by purchasing 7,000 copies of PowerMenu,
a menu system and file manager with security options.  The big buy
brings to 12,000 the number of PowerMenu programs purchased by the
agency since the start of 1987.  Federal orders have become such
big business for Brown Bag that it's opening an office in Washington, D.C.
this month to pursue further government business.  Brown Bag already
maintains offices in London, Koln, Amsterdam, Zurich, and Copenhagen,
in addition to its Campbell, Ca. headquarters.

In a related item, Brown Bag has released an upgrade to PC-Outline.
Version 4.0, renamed PC-Outline Plus, features integrated spelling
checker and thesaurus, user-defined interfaces that take on the
commands of Microsoft Word, WordStar Professional, MultiMate, Word
Perfect, as well as its own.  As part of an effort to market the
upgrade, Brown Bag has launched an ad campaign telling readers to
read the Lotus Agenda ads, then buy PC-Outline Plus for $195
plus shipping.  Upgrades are available free or for $50 to those
who have previously purchased PC-Outline during certain time periods.

CONTACT:  BROWN BAG SOFTWARE, 800-523-0764

[***][8/30/88][***]
IN BRIEF --

NOLAN BUSHNELL has resumed the post of president of AXLON following
the latest cash crunch which saw the ouster of president Bob
Lundquist.  Toymaker AXLON made $557,000 in the last quarter, but
it all went to pay off a loan, according to reports.

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY, Fort Collins, Co., has received a $1
donation of computer workstations from Digital Equipment to be used
at the school's College of Engineering.  The University returned
the gesture by buying $1 million more in equipment.

FUJITSU will begin 1 megabit DRAM production at its San Diego
plant in California starting next month.

PACIFIC BELL, San Francisco, Ca., has reportedly buried Project
Victoria, the 7 in one phone line technology.  The "Communications
Daily" newsletter reports that despite the presence of 158
executives at a Pac Bell conference to disclose Victoria technology,
none wanted to license it.

PHILIPPE KAHN, bad-boy president of Borland International, won the Trans-
Pacific Race to Hawaii, started doing aerobics, and has lately been a good
boy, so says industry observer STEWART ALSOP.

[***][8/30/88][***]
MORE FAX FLACK
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- We've been hearing about or experiencing the
endless stream of "junk fax" reaching our machines.  The latest in
yuppie toys has just reached another milestone.  A San Francisco
radio station recently announced it would accept song requests
by fax.  KFOG-FM says it was inundated with faxed requests from
places as diverse as downtown businesses to the Stanford Linear
Accelerator.  The most surprising aspect of the novel promotion
was the variety of ways listeners faxed in their requests.  Some
sent pictures of themselves, one sent her request on a 10-foot
long faxed banner, and there was even occasional pornography.


[***][8/30/88][***]
DEMOCRATS RELYING ON PC NETWORKS TO WIN 1988 CAMPAIGN
ATLANTA (NB) -- Long after memories of Gov. Dukakis' acceptance
speech have faded, Democrats are hoping their computer operations
will give them a leg-up on the 1988 campaign. The 300-node Novell
Netware network, mostly using Memorex and Zenith PC compatibles,
which ran party operations in Atlanta, is being dismantled, but
parts of it will remain in place for the Georgia Democratic
Party.

Roger Schneider, director of information systems for the
Democratic National Convention, says 45 of those workstations,
and the data on voters, contributors, and supporters contained in
them, remain as the backbone of state party efforts. Even after
the November election, 15-20 nodes will still be kept around the
state to coordinate operations. Databases were developed in the
months leading to the convention using dBase III and Clipper --
those will remain, too, as will spreadsheets made with Lotus 1-2-
3 and letters written with Microsoft Word.

More important, Schneider adds, the knowledge of how to use these
tools will remain with the 350 activists who manned those PCs.
"The Republicans had a mainframe and 3Com networks at their
convention," Schneider adds. "When our people go back home they
can get a PC, they know how to use it, and they can use it in any
race. The Republicans don't have that luxury -- they tied into a
mainframe and didn't learn." (We know -- you're Quayle-ing at the
very thought.) Schneider himself, a former high-tech entrepreneur
with Simpletec, Atlanta, GA, will move on to run the re-election
campaign of Alabama Congressman Ronnie Fillippo.

CONTACT: GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
TANDY MOVING SOME OPERATIONS OUT OF KOREA IN WAKE OF TROUBLE
FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Tandy is moving some manufacturing
operations out of Korea due to violence caused by anti-union
squads called Kusadai. The company's plant at Masan, a free trade
zone near the southern port city of Pusan, employs 2-3,000
Koreans. Some telephone and Color Computer operations are
impacted. Tandy Chairman John Roach said the Masan plant had been
experiencing "a lot of disruptions" over the last 18 months.

Ironically, the violence is apparently caused by groups who are
seeking to prevent unionization, which, they say, would raise
wages and cause foreign manufacturers like Tandy to leave. In one
incident, an attempt by Kusadai to break up a union meeting
outside the plant was thwarted by union bodyguards, who beat off
the attackers. The next day, inside the plant, the 16 men who'd
been victims the previous day attacked the women who'd been
directing the union meeting. Telephone manufacturing operations
are being switched to Taiwan, while the Color Computer work has
already come back to Fort Worth, and other telephone-related
operations will move back to the U.S. plant next year.

Ed Juge, the company's director of market planning, told
NEWSBYTES the level of employment at Masan is not changing as
much as reported. "Only 12 of 300 products made there are moving,
and some of that production had been moved in from Taiwan just a
year ago," he said.

CONTACT: Ed Juge, TANDY, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
GEORGIA COMPANY PUTS THE YELLOW PAGES ON YOUR HARD DISK
NORCROSS, GA (NB) -- Digital Publications has begun shipping its
PC Yellow Pages. The PC Yellow Pages is a database of local and
toll-free business phone listings which takes up about a megabyte
of space on a hard disk, and comes to you on floppies. The
database which controls the listings features pop-up windows,
color and graphics, with category indexes residing in your
computer's main memory for fast access. It even has automatic
phone dialing for telemarketing applications and label printing
for direct mail. The cost -- $100 to start, plus $7 each for
twice-yearly updates. Single-information listings, called
"Information Packs," are also available.

CONTACT: John Rapp, PC YELLOW PAGES, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
ZENITH UNVEILS ITS MULTI-PROCESSOR PC SYSTEM
CHICAGO (NB) -- Zenith has developed a new multi-processor
system using Intel 80386 chips and the Xenix operating system.
(DOS programs can run under Xenix in the Zenity system.) The multi-
processor approach, developed by Corollary of Irvine, CA, has been
in the prototype stage since April, with a 6-processor system. Texas
Instruments has a similar system, based on Corollary research, called
the 1500. That system, however, is powered by Motorola 68020 chips,
four at a time, and costs more.

[***][8/30/88][***]
CAREFUL, YOUR COMPUTER DESK IS OUT TO GET YOU
ATLANTA (NB) -- Georgia Tech researchers have found that man-made
furnishings emit as many as 60 different chemicals into the air,
chemicals which can cause headaches, sore throats and other
problems. Man-made fiberboard, used in many computer desks, as
well as partitions and shelves, is one of the worst culprits. The
glue holding it together contains formaldehyde. Inhaling the
vapors from such a desk can make you sick, especially if you have
allergies already. As Dr. Charlene Bayer, a senior research
scientist at Tech said, "Generally, indoor air is significantly
dirtier than outside air. You are in a box. Everything in it
gives off pollutants, and they build up." Bayer's solution is
simple. Open a window.

CONTACT: John Toon, GEORGIA TECH, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
PECAN CHIPS

DELL COMPUTER, Austin, announced a further delay in shipping its
PS/2 compatibles. This time the claim is insufficient demand.

QUADRAM, Atlanta, shipped an updated version of software for its
JT Fax PC facsimile board. It includes a utility which lets you
save graphics from incoming faxes in separate files, which you
can then paste into outgoing faxes.
===


[***][8/30/88][***]
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST/WEEK OF AUGUST 30, 1988
Copyright 1988/Written by W. A. Yacco, Exclusive to NEWSBYTES

In this week's installment...

 - SILK STRIVES TO STAY SOLVENT...Daybreak pins hopes on additional
                                  financing and new product.

 - ZIFF DAVIS SLICKS THE HICKS...PC Computing's "free" diskette

 - FEDERATED GROPES IN LA...Atari's retail adventure displays
                            potential

 - HP TO DEBUT FOR THE GROUP...Calculators bow for federated

 - QUOTE OF THE WEEK...It speaks for itself

SILK STRIVES TO STAY SOLVENT
TORRANCE, Ca (NB) -- Daybreak Technologies is struggling to prove
itself and stay alive.  If it does, the day may not be too far in
the future when the firm will introduce a breakthrough product for
the consolidation of financial statements.  However, the full-scale
r-&-d efforts necessary to complete the consolidation product cannot
be resumed unless the company obtains crucial second-stage
financing.  That financial commitment will only be forthcoming if
sales figures for current products justify it.

The company's best known product, the Silk spreadsheet, originally
derived from development of the consolidation tool.  When Silk was
introduced, it was hailed for its innovative features.  Today,
Silk has to deal with a competitor, Borland's Quattro, that
imitates one of its major innovations--the ability to save and later
recover every step in a spreadsheet session.  If introduced, the
company's consolidation product will also have to face consolidation
features in Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.

According to inside sources, Daybreak was rescued in mid-June with a
half-million dollar investment and the promise of another five
million -- if the company could prove itself.  The firm is pinning its
proof on a temporary price point of $69.95 for Silk (formerly
$298) and a $49.95 stand-alone version of its recovery feature named
Cocoon.  Cocoon extends the recovery features of its integrated
progenitor to work with 1-2-3, other spreadsheets and other types
of applications.  The saved steps can facilitate disaster recovery,
training programs, demonstration development, macro debugging and
similar needs.  Due to the new pricing, all sales are now being made
directly by Daybreak at [phone].


ZIFF SLICKS THE HICKS
NEW YORK, no, FOSTER CITY, no, BOSTON, Ma (NB) -- PC COMPUTING's
"free" diskette offer lures new zubscribers with utility zoftware
that has a zemi-hidden cost.  As a consequence, Ziff-Davis' new
magazine may have a zlight blemish on its first cover.

Shortly after accepting a charter offer for "PC Computing" from the
Ziffers, I got a zecond offer that included a free diskette.  Zince
both offers extended the right to cancel for any reason, I decided
to get the utility diskette and cancel the first order when the bill
came.

Both of the invoices reached me within a few days of one another.
Imagine my consternation when I discovered that Ziff is zending out
an invoice for $12.95 for those who receive the disk and another
invoice, for only $9.95, for those who accept the offer that does
not include the diskette.  Both invoices also include an offer for
an additional twelve months at $10.  Zo a price increase between the
two orders could not have been forced by rising costs.  That free
diskette costs zubscribers three dollars!  I'll continue this
opinion next week--watch this zpace.


FEDERATED GROPES IN LA
LOS ANGELES, Ca (NB) -- The Federated Group Product Expo III, 1988
was held last week, Monday through Thursday, at the Los Angeles
Airport Marriott Hotel.  The annual event takes place for the
purpose of presenting new products and training Federated employees
in sales.  This year, of course, the Atari booth represented more
than one of the retailer's computer vendors.

Neil Harris had come over from Atari just three weeks earlier to
begin organizing the chain's computer departments.  At Atari, Harris
had served as manager for computer lines so he was confident and
ready with solutions to this part of the Federated puzzle.  "The
idea is to get into the computer business and not just be a typical
mass merchant."  For Harris this means moving in more product lines
to fill out the offerings for a broader range of customers--
especially the more sophisticated high-end shopper.  A broader range
of computers will add 80286 and, possibly, 80386 machines.  Printer
and software lines must also be expanded.

The plan also means stressing service and expertise.  I was amazed
that Federated's efforts in this area seemed to be bearing excellent
results.  During a training session presented by Blue Chip
Computer's head of technical support, several Federated sales people
caught a minor technical error in the presentation.  They asked
insightful questions.  As a group, they seemed informed and capable.
I was impressed that, after years of being served by stereo salesmen
in computer stores like BusinessLand, there was finally the chance
of receiving real assistance from knowledgeable computer people in a
stereo store.

Not all of the personnel seemed as confident as Harris however.  I
had noticed the several of the Federated people in the training
session seemed nervous and uncertain.  They had brought with them
the advertisements of competitors which they used to argue the
difficult position of their lot.  And, they focused on price
competition from mail-order box movers rather than on the value they
could add to a sale with their expertise or by assembling custom
systems.


HP TO DEBUT FOR THE GROUP
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Ca (NB) -- If Federated is to bring in major
printer lines, the biggest coup Harris could hope for would be the
HP laser series.  The company may already be establishing a
beachhead for that move.  T. G. Neely of Hewlett-Packard was at Expo
III with the HP line of calculators.  And, according to Neely, the
calculators can be expected to appear in Federated's outlets within
thirty days.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK
 . . . John Lennon's biography has been on the cover of all the
magazines lately and I was beginning to worry that Newsbytes would
never have its own Lennon story.  It was really a great piece of
luck, consequently, that Federated chose last week to hold its Expo.
After all, the Marquis ballroom was filled with the latest
televisions, musical instruments, hi fi equipment, computers and
other gadgets.  And, at the heart of each of the devices was a
crystal that throbbed with the pulse of electronic life.

Not surprisingly, all of these finely tuned crystals served to lure
at least one uninvited guest: a well-known channel.  On the day I
attended, he was communing with his best spirit, a fellow over one
million years old.  The spirit, Gigo, was already in contact with
Lennon when I arrived.  Naturally.  Channels intimately know all
earthly celebrities and Lennon was surely no exception.  An
interview was granted in short order.

Through Gigo, Lennon said that my story last week on the copy
protection in PC DOS 4.0 would surface in both Infoworld and PC Week
this week.  I found it interesting that both publications had
already done brief reviews without noticing this feature.  "It's
just a coincidence," Lennon assured us.  It wasn't clear that
another piece of the Lennon puzzle had been unearthed but it did
seem like one of two possible explanations.  "Have you noticed other
coincidences in Infoworld recently," I asked our guide, but it was
too late.  The connection was broken . . . for now.

[***][8/30/88][***]
MITEL SELLS COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT OPERATION
KANATA, Ont. (NB) -- Mitel Corp., still trying to get back in the
black, has sold its Communications Management Services (CMS)
division to a Toronto company, TSB International Inc.

CMS, established in 1977, provides computer-based call accounting
services to businesses.  It had revenues of C$1.7 million in
fiscal 1988.  In that same year, ended March 25, Mitel lost
C$24.3 million on C$419 million in revenues.  TSB International,
a privately held company, sells PBX network management products
and services.  CMS and its employees will be integrated with
TSB's network management service bureau.

John Jarvis, Mitel's president and chief executive, said in a
press release that the sale is "intended to strengthen further
the focus of the Mitel management team on the development and
marketing of the Mitel PBX, peripheral and semiconductor product
lines.

In its latest quarter, ended July 1, Mitel lost C$1.8 million,
compared to a C$10.1 million loss in the corresponding quarter a
year earlier.  The company also recently closed its service and
repair centre in Deerfield Beach, Fla., laying off 25 people.

CONTACT: MITEL CORP., 350 Legget Dr., P.O. Box 13089,
         Kanata, Ont. K2K 1X3, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
STORES CHANGE HANDS IN WEST
CALGARY (NB) -- RPL Professional Computer Centres Inc. of
Calgary, Western Canada's largest Apple and Compaq dealer, will
gain a foothold in the IBM world as well if a deal with ASAP
Computer Products Ltd. of Concord, Ont., goes through.  Subject
to manufacturers' (read IBM) authorization, RPL is to buy ASAP
locations in Calgary and Edmonton and operate them as Entre
Computer Center franchises.  Robert Lloyd, president of RPL, says
the stores would sell mainly 80286- and 80386-based Personal
System/2 machines and focus on the business market.

RPL already operates seven stores in Alberta under the name
Professional Computer Centre.  They sell Apple and Compaq
hardware and focus on desktop publishing, advanced graphics and
connectivity.  With the purchase, Lloyd said, RPL is "just
looking to broaden the scope of the market we serve in Western
Canada."

Meanwhile on the West Coast, two stores formerly operated by
Netex Corp. of Vancouver, which went out of business, will become
Computer Connections locations.  Toronto-based Computer
Connections, which labels itself the largest independent, 100-
per-cent Canadian-owned Apple dealer, already has eight other
stores -- one in Vancouver and the rest in Montreal, Toronto and
Ottawa.  The company's educational software subsidiary MECC
Canada also operates a location in Richmond, a Vancouver suburb.
The newly acquired stores are in Victoria and Courtenay, B.C.
Company president Dave Harvey said there are no further expansion
plans at present.

CONTACT: RPL PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER CENTRES, [phone]

         COMPUTER CONNECTIONS, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
ABITIBI-PRICE SUBSIDIARY ACQUIRES DATAREX SYSTEMS
TORONTO (NB) -- Abitibi-Price, a major Canadian forest products
company, has taken over Datarex Systems Inc. of Orchard Park,
N.Y., a computer accessories and supplies wholesaler.  Through
its Buffalo subsidiary Azerty, Abitibi-Price is paying US$41
million or US$17.875 per share for Datarex.  The merger was
effective Aug. 26, following approval by shareholders two days
earlier.

Abitibi-Price is Canada's 28th-largest company by revenue,
according to the 1988 Canadian Business 500.  Its Azerty
subsidiary is, like Datarex, a wholesaler of computer supplies
and accessories.  Both have annual revenues of about US$45
million, said Sharon Paul, vice-president of corporate and public
affairs at Abitibi-Price, and do most of their business in the
U.S.  The name of the merged company has not been decided.

CONTACT: ABITIBI-PRICE INC., 2 First Canadian Place, Suite 1300,
         P.O. Box 39, Toronto, Ont. M5X 1A9, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
CANADIAN HIGH TECHNOLOGY SHOW A MONTH AWAY
TORONTO (NB) -- The Canadian electronics industry will gather at
Toronto's Exhibition Place September 26-30 for three electronics
shows under the same roof.  The Canadian High Technology Show,
the Electronics Production and Packaging Exhibition and the Test,
Measurement and Instrumentation Show make up what organizers call
Canadian High Technology Week.  Between them, the three shows are
expected to attract some 550 exhibitors.  A series of technical
seminars will be held at the same time as the shows.

CONTACT: CONNELLY EXHIBITIONS, 2487 Kaladar Ave., Suite 214,
         Ottawa, Ont. K1V 8B9, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
CENSUS DATA ON DISK
TORONTO (NB) -- You might call it the Domesday Disk.  Canada
Systems Group, in co-operation with Tetrad Computer Applications
Ltd. of Vancouver, is offering information from the 1986 Census
of Canada on floppy disks.  The data includes characteristics of
population, dwellings, households and families, including age,
sex, ethnic origin, marital status, education, occupation and
income.  The demographic information can be produced for any size
or shape of geographical area.

CSG says businesses could use the data to select new locations,
transit authorities could use it to forecast ridership, or
political parties could use it in constituency work, to name a
few possibilities.  The data is available on a province-by-
province basis, and a free demonstration disk is available.

CONTACT: CANADA SYSTEMS GROUP LTD., 393 University Ave.,
         Toronto, Ont. M5G 2H9, [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
THE WORD MADE DIGITAL
TORONTO (NB) -- Seek, and ye shall find -- any passage in the
Bible, with two Canadian-developed electronic Bibles to be
released Sept. 1.  Marpex of Toronto is putting the King James
and New International versions on floppy disks.  Both editions
use FindIT, a text retrieval system developed by Reteaco, also of
Toronto, for rapid retrieval of information from large data bases
on compact disks.  The electronic Bibles also feature a subject
index to help users find related passages that don't use the same
word; for example, searching for "faith" would retrieve passages
containing words such as "trust" and "belief" as well.  The
diskette editions will cost from C$16 to C$120 depending on
whether the buyer wants only a portion or the entire Bible.  They
will be sold in computer stores, in Christian book stores and by
mail.

CONTACT: Doug Lowry, MARPEX, [phone] or [phone]

[***][8/30/88][***]
COMPUTERIZED TRANSLATION GROWING IN GOVERNMENT
OTTAWA (NB) -- Canada's two official languages and the natural
tendency of government to churn out lots of paper add up to
plenty of translation work.  But the Official Languages and
Translation Bureau in the Secretary of State's department has
found computers a good way to trim the workload.  Alain Landry,
an assistant undersecretary of state, says the bureau's Logos
translation system, supplied by Logos of Mount Arlington, N.J.,
is seeing more and more widespread use.  The bureau started
testing the system in March of 1987, he says, and has been
working with Logos to adapt it to the government's needs.

Landry said the computerized translation system can do most of
the routine work of translation, leaving professional translators
more time to put the final polish on translated documents.  The
Official Languages and Translation Bureau has concentrated mainly
on scientific and technical documents for computerized
translation so far.  That's because the language in these is
precise and the syntax usually straightforward, making them
easier to translate by machine.

Landry added that computerized translation is also being used to
produce French-language manuals for the new frigates being built
for the Canadian Armed Forces.

[***][8/30/88][***]
BITS, EH?
-- CALL-NET TELECOMMUNICATIONS LTD., Toronto, has given up its
battle with federal regulators (see NEWSBYTES CANADA, Aug. 23)
and agreed to stop reselling telephone lines.  Call-Net will
continue selling its call-detail recording system.

-- The CANADIAN CENTRE FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY,
Hamilton, Ont., will adopt the ISO-9660, or High Sierra, format
for its CCINFOdisc CD-ROMs in November.  CCINFOdisc contains
databases on the properties of chemicals and other occupational
safety information.

-- IBM CANADA LTD., Markham, Ont., has been taking out quarter-
page ads in newspapers to proclaim that "OS/2 Extended Edition is
Here!"  IBM authorized dealers are offering demonstrations, the
company says.

-- CROWNTEK BUSINESS CENTRES, Markham, Ont., has opened its 13th
branch office.  The new office is in Edmonton.

-- SUN MICROSYSTEMS OF CANADA INC., Markham, Ont., has appointed
Everett Anstey to the job of vice-president, sales.

[***][8/30/88][***]
CHIP MAKERS MAKING THE SWITCH TO MORE POWERFUL CHIPS
TOKYO (NB) -- Major Japanese semiconductor firms are dramatically
reducing the output of 256K DRAMs in favor of next-generation
memory chips, 1 and 4 MB DRAMS -- an effort requiring expansion of
production lines.

While Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu have not reduced production
of the 256K chips, Mitsubishi and Oki reduced their output by 1 million
units per month in July.  NEC reduced its 256K chip output
by 2.5 million units per month this spring, turning over the job of
256K production to its US subsidiary.

Meanwhile, each company is expanding its next-generation
memory line for 1M and 4M DRAMs. NEC will invest 35 billion
yen or $260 million to build NEC Hiroshima for 4M DRAM production.
Mitsubishi has decided to expand memory production lines in
its Kochi factory, and Toshiba has launched a plan to introduce
the latest facilities to manufacture 1M and 4M DRAMs in its Oita
factory;  ditto for the Mie factory of Fujitsu.  Hitachi has
resumed operation of its Naka factory to increase 1 MB DRAM
production.  A U.S.-funded Motorola Japan plans to build a
semiconductor assembly line next to Tohoku Semiconductor which
was established in cooperation with Toshiba.  Further, Oki
Electronics is aiming to start mass production of 4M DRAM next
fall.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu will start integrated manufacturing of DRAMs
in the U.S in 1989.  The manufacture of 256K and 1 Mb
DRAMs will be completed in its Oregon factory and 1 Mb chips will
be built in San Diego.  Fujitsu is the first Japanese company to
introduce integrated production of 1M DRAM in U.S.

[***][8/30/88][***]
SIMULTANEOUS EIGHT LINE ISDN TRANSMISSION
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's telecom giant NTT has developed a packet
switching unit for ISDN in cooperation with NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi,
and Oki Electric and has started setting up the units all over
Japan.  The ISDN unit realizes as many as eight types of data
transmission at the same time to several places.  For instance,
you can make a telephone call from the Tokyo main office to Osaka and
Nagoya branch offices.  At the same time, you can send and receive personal
computer communications with six business offices, such as those in Sapporo
and Sendai.  NTT will have finalized the units' locations by the
beginning of next year and after testing them, NTT will start
operation next spring.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu and Hitachi have signed an agreement to
standardize their ISDN connection units.  But their goal is to
make their units the standard for all of Japan.

CONTACT: NTT, 1-1-6 Uchi-Saiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][8/30/88][***]
TOSHIBA & SUN START NEGOTIATION FOR TIE-UP
TOKYO (NB) -- Toshiba is said to be negotiating with US-based
Sun Microsystems to produce peripheral units for Sun Microsystems'
Japanese customers.  If true, this is the second major agreement
Sun has made with a Japanese producer, following that with Fujitsu,
in which Sun will supply engineering workstations to Fujitsu on
an OEM basis.

According to industrial sources, both sides are talking about the
production of disk drives and printers for Sun, Toshiba will produce
them in  Japanese factories for the Japanese market.  Sun is already
strong in the Unix market here, but a liaison with Toshiba promises
to make it even stronger.


CONTACT: Toshiba,  1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105


[***][8/30/88][***]
<< SUSHI BYTES >>

THE WORLD'S FASTEST INFERENCE UNIT DUE -- Micom, Kyoto, has
developed a fuzzy computer system with a fuzzy processor,
jointly developed with Hosei University.  The fuzzy computer
realizes the world's fastest inference of 600 million times per
second.

FUJITSU TO RELEASE MS-OS/2 APPLICATION PROGRAMS -- Fujitsu will
start marketing major application programs for Microsoft's
MS-OS/2.  The shipping date for communication software, compiler,
and database software for OS/2 is expected at the end of this
year.  We will have to wait for Presentation Manager to be
released until March, 1989.

FEATURE-EXPANSION UNIT FOR PC286L -- Tokyo-based OA equipment
sales company Daisho has started shipping feature-expansion
I/O units for Seiko-Epson's laptop computer PC286L, which is
compatible with NEC's de facto best-selling personal computer
PC-9800 series.  IO286L uses standard boards for
NEC's PC-9800 series, including an add-on RAM board.  The unit is
priced at 89,800 yen or $700.

MS-DOS COMPATIBLE OS AND BIOS IN A BODY -- Kanematsu Semiconductor
will import personal computer systems from Award Software of the U.S.
The system is a ROM chip which integrates an MS-DOS compatible
operating system (DR-DOS) and a BIOS which is essential to
developing IBM-compatible PCs.  This ROM chip realizes not only
simplified development of personal computers but also lower costs and
fast processing.  Kanematsu is aiming to supply the systems to
IBM-compatible makers, including AX PC makers.

BREAKTHROUGH ON VOLUME PRODUCTION OF 64M DRAM -- Japan's largest
printing company, Dai Nippon Printing, has created a technology
that makes possible volume production of 64M DRAM.  The original plate for
producing semiconductors or photomasks has a stroke width of 0.15
microns; the company has started supplying samples to semiconductor
makers.

TOSHIBA DEVELOPS 32-BIT TRON MPU -- Toshiba has developed a 32-bit
MPU based on the TRON architecture.  TX1 has an operational clock
frequency of 25MHz and an average instruction execution of 5 MIPS.
The engineering samples will be supplied free of charge starting
this December.

NEC ADOPTS MATSUSHITA'S B-TRON FOR EDUCATION PC -- Japan's PC
giant NEC has signed an agreement with Matsushita to receive OEM
supplies of business TRON or B-TRON, which is an operating system
for the prototype of Japanese standard educational personal
computers.  NEC will complete its original prototype machine within
the year, by changing and attaching the Matsushita's B-TRON, and
will supply the prototype machine to the the Computer Education Center
(CEC).


[***][8/30/88][***]
IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, AND WALKS LIKE A DUCK?
ARMONK, N.Y. (NB) -- IBM has officially denied that it plans to
reintroduce the popular PC AT, in the form of a new addition to
the PS/2 line of personal computers. The new PS/2, as widely
reported here and elsewhere, would use the Intel 80286 processor
that is featured on the AT, and the AT bus, and would be called
the PS/2 Model 35. "IBM is definitely committed to building on
the PS/2 platform," says Big Blue spokesman Jim Monahan. "If
anyone expects IBM to introduce the PC AT, they are sadly
mistaken."

Nevertheless, PC WEEK, which first broke the story, insists it
has the goods on IBM. "IBM can call the new machine whatever it
wishes," editorialized PC WEEK, "but from our perspective, a bus
that accepts and uses AT expansion cards is an AT bus, no matter
what size box you stuff it into or at what angle you orient the
expansion slots....No matter how loudly Big Blue doth protest,
no incremental improvements in the design of the bus will change
the machine's basic nature: a return to the original PC AT
architecture." Quack.

In other news from Big Blue, the company has junked its personal
computer dealer incentive plan announced January 1 and expected
to be in place through the rest of the year. The program that
gave dealers credits and bonuses for taking inventory of PS/2s
will officially end on September 30. The IBM program, called the
Revenue Incentive Program, or RIP, succeeded in driving down the
market price of PS/2 computers, as dealers applied the money they
got from IBM into lowered street prices for the slow-selling
computers. Another shot foot at IBM.

[***][8/30/88][***]
OH, NO, MR. JIM, NOT LATE AGAIN
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. is beginning to
waffle on the timetable for Release 3.0 of 1-2-3. Lotus now says
the oft-delayed update to its popular spreadsheet program will
ship late in the fourth quarter of this year. A Lotus spokesman
told reporters that "I wouldn't expect the product to ship early
in the fourth quarter, but we're working hard toward achieving
our fourth-quarter shipment goal." Veteran Lotus gazers note that
Lotus is saying it hopes to debut the new product in the fourth
quarter, not that it will make it. "I infer from what the
company's saying that they're beginning to get nervous" about
being able to deliver on schedule, a securities analyst told the
WALL STREET JOURNAL.

[***][8/30/88][***]
AT&T ROLLS OUT NEW UNIX
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (NB) -- AT&T is now offering Unix System V-386
Release 3.2, which will run applications for Unix System V and
for Microsoft's Xenix on the same machine. The product is a key
in AT&T strategy of unifying the various Unix flavors that render
the standard operating system largely nonstandard from machine to
machine. By the middle of next year, AT&T plans to offer Unix
System V Release 4.0, merging Unix System V, Xenix, and Berkeley
Unix 4.2.

[***][8/30/88][***]
IRS BUGGED BY PS/2s
WASHINGTON (NB) -- More than half of the IBM PS/2 personal
computers installed in the finance division at the Internal
Revenue Service have failed, reports GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS.
The paper says that seven of 13 Model 30s had hard disk or video
failures. IBM blames the contractor who sold the machines to the
tax collectors, and all the machines were fixed or replaced. But
the sharp pencils in the finance division weren't confident of
the machines, so they shipped them off to another IRS division
and purchased ATs from AST Research as replacements.

[***][8/30/88][***]
COMMODORE LINES UP $50 MILLION IN NEW LOANS
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (NB) -- Commodore International Ltd. has lined
up $50 million in debt from Prudential Insurance and Integrated
Resources Life Insurance. The senior notes, at 10.75 percent, are
due in 1992 through 1995. Commodore, once on the financial
deathbed but now recovering nicely, will use half of the $50
million to pay off $25 million the company owes to syndicated
bank groups in the U.S., Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hong
Kong. Commodore lined up that credit when it was in trouble and
will now buy it out with the cheaper credit from the insurance
companies. Commodore will use the rest of the new loan for
general corporate purposes, the company says.

[***][8/30/88][***]
MACIVORY FROM SYMBOLICS
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Symbolics Inc. is introducing a new
computer system using the Apple Macintosh II. The system, which
includes Symbolics add-ons, will be called MacIvory, and will be
a low-end system for developing Symbolics processing
applications. Prices will start at $21,900, and shipments will
begin in October. Symbolics also unveiled a new high-end
workstation, the Symbolics XL 400. That machine will sell for
$64,900 and up, and shipments are scheduled for March 1989.

[***][8/30/88][***]
SOURCE OFFERS DECISIONLINES
McLEAN, Va. (NB) -- DecisionLines, a collection of newsletter
compiled by Gannett News Media Services, is now available on The
Source. DecisionLines is updated each weekday at 6 a.m., and
provides 12 industry newsletters in the fields of advertising,
banking, business law, energy, health, insurance, personal
investing, real estate technology, telecommunications, trends and
marketing, and travel. DecisionLines has a monthly subscription
fee of $7.50 per newsletter, with all 12 newsletter available for
$49.99 per month. Usage fees are as low as 18 cents per minute,
says The Source.

CONTACT: Source Telecomputing Corp., 1616 Anderson Road, McLean,
         VA, 22101. [phone].

[***][8/30/88][***]
OPEN SOFTWARE FOUNDATION PICKS CAMBRIDGE
LAWRENCE, Mass. (NB) -- The Open Software Foundation has picked
Cambridge, Mass., as its permanent headquarters. The foundation
had been temporarily located in Lawrence. OSF was founded by a
consortium of computer companies fearful of AT&T's dominance of
the Unix market. The original members included Digital Equipment,
Apollo Computers, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nixdorf, Siemens, and
Groupe Bull. Since then, Phillips, Adobe Systems, Altos Computer
Systems, Mitre Corp., Stratus Computer, Tecsiel, and Toshiba
America have joined. OSF plans to introduce a new, open operating
system in January 1990. The decision to settle in Cambridge came
after a three-month search that included Silicon Valley, Austin,
Texas, Pittsburgh, and Washington. Cambridge's proximity to MIT
and Harvard was a key factor in the choice, according to OSF
President Henry Crouse. The foundation has a budget of $100
million for the next three years.

[***][8/30/88][***]
HILDRETH PLEADS INNOCENT
DEDHAM, Mass. (NB) -- Computer whiz Tex Zachary Hildreth, 24, has
entered in innocent plea in Massachusetts court. He is charged
with 11 counts of larceny, after allegedly attempting to bilk
investors out of $500,000 to keep his computer company, Massdata,
afloat. Hildreth fled to New Hampshire with his mother, and both
attempted suicide, after creditors moved in on Massdata. Hildreth
is free on $10,000 cash bond. Prosecutors told the court that
Hildreth defrauded six investors by telling them of a family
trust that he would use to repay the investments. The trust fund,
the prosecutors say, is phony.

Elsewhere on the computer crime beat, policy have arrested four
current or former Digital Equipment Corp. employees on charges of
receiving stolen computer components. The arrests of two current
and two former Digital employees were made by state police
attached to Attorney General James Shannon's criminal
investigations bureau. The arrests followed an undercover
investigation. Police used marked money to purchase stolen
parts, and recovered the money in the home of one of those
arrested. A series of searches of the four homes turned up five
boards valued at $71,000 at one house, six boards at another, and
unspecified amounts of the marked cash.

[***][8/30/88][***]
COMPUTER TELEVISION SPECIALS COMING ON FNN
NEW YORK (NB) -- The Financial News Network plans a series of
half-hour specials on computing, co-produced with "Wall Street
Computer Review." The specials will focus on business and
investment aspects of the computer industry, according to an FNN
spokesman. The series will be part of a general upgrading of FNN
programming in the face of a challenge from NBC. FNN reaches 30
million of the nation's 45 million cable television subscribers,
according to FNN. NBC plans to offer a cable TV Consumer News and
Business Channel (CNBC) early next year, to give FNN some
competition. CNBC will offer 24-hour consumer business news on
weekdays, and 24-hour sports on weekends.

[***][8/30/88][***]
DAC SOFTWARE: UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP
MERIDEN, Conn. (NB) -- INR Holdings Inc., a Midland, Texas
company, has agreed to buy Insilco Corp. for $1.1 billion.
Insilco, formerly the International Silver Co., owns and operates
13 companies, including DAC Software, based in Dallas. DAC makes
popular personal computer accounting software, including DAC Easy
and DAC Easy Light. Other familiar Insilco companies include
Rolodex and Red Devil Paints. The company is no longer in the
silver business.

[***][8/30/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP., Maynard, Mass., has unveiled an upgraded
version of its Ultrix operating system, Digital's version of
Unix. DEC also revealed that 10 percent of its revenue, almost $1
billion, comes from Unix systems.

IBM and CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, Pittsburgh, are developing
Andrew, an experimental computer network that moves files at high
speed, at 210,000 characters per second. Andrew, named for 19th
century steel baron Andrew Carnegie, is designed for future
computer networks that could interconnect many college campuses
and businesses.

ACCESS TECHNOLOGY INC., South Natick, Mass., which builds
spreadsheet modeling programs, has been snapped by H&R BLOCK
INC., Kansas City, Mo., and will become part of the CompuServe
software products division. Block, the tax preparation firm, owns
CompuServe.

SAGE SOFTWARE of Rockville, Md., has signed a deal with Ross
Perot's PEROT SYSTEMS CORP. of Dallas. Perot will market Sage
software to the federal government. Sage products are used to
test and design mainframe and personal computer business
applications software.

XEROX CORP., Stamford, Conn., has acquired the Advanced
Information Technology Division of COMPUTER CORPORATION OF
AMERICA, Cambridge, Mass. The division does R&D and consulting on
information systems used by the federal government, systems
integrators, and commercial organizations. No financial terms
were disclosed.

UNISYS CORP., Blue Bell, Pa., has sold its South African
subsidiary to Mercedes Information Technologies, a South African
electronics firm. No financial details. Unisys says it will
provided funds for a transition to Mercedes of the social and
educational programs the company had established in South Africa.



[***][8/30/88][***]
SAGESOFT BOUNCES IN WITH NEW NETWORKING SYSTEM
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, UK (NB) -- Sagesoft will launch a new
networking system called Mainlan this Thursday, 1 September. The
system works at 4Mb a second and uses twisted wire cabling - the
same cabling, in fact, as the company's original Sagenet system.

So why launch another budget networking system when Sagenet is
selling quite nicely? Amstrad is upcoming with its badged
Corvus/Omninet system, so mid-range networking systems will be
the 'in' thing from next month (when the Amstrad system is
expected to be launched) onwards.

Mainlan will cost around the same as the forthcoming
Amstrad/Corvus system, at around #200 per node. The
Amstrad/Corvus system starts at three nodes, however, whilst
Mainlan starts at two nodes with a retail price of #399. It's
also capable of expansion up to 63 stations with a maximum 400
metre stretch in terms of cabling.

The Mainlan system centres around an Italian-made custom chip
working to NetBios standards. NEWSBYTES UK sources suggest that a
PS/2-compatible system is also in the pipeline. The PC version
launched this week, meanwhile, occupies between 40K and 80K per
network station - highly compact in networking software terms.
Its also rumoured that a number of PC manufacturers have
expressed an interest in Mainlan for inclusion as a standard
feature their PCs.

As if that wasn't enough, sources suggest that each Mainlan
system comes with an E-mail system and print spooling function
supplied as standard. Not bad value at all.

CONTACT: SAGESOFT, NEI House, Regent Centre, Gosforth,
         Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE3 3DS.  Tel: [phone].

[***][8/30/88][***]
ADOBE SIGNS WITH R R DONNELLEY
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (NB) -- Adobe Systems has signed a
licensing deal with R R Donnelley and Sons, the largest
commercial printer in the US. The deal will allow Donnelley to
use Adobe's Postscript Interpreter software in its Pulsar
publishing systems.

Donnelley's Pulsar system allows computer users to send screen-
created files direct to a cylinder engraving system, effectively
by-passing many of the stages in conventional plate preparation.
If that sounds impressive, it's because it is. Better still, the
inclusion of the Postscript interpreter means that conventional
DTP (desktop publishing) files can be imported and zapped down on
a direct-to-plate basis.

Harold Evans, general manager of R R Donnelley's, said that the
company is committed to providing customers with the best
solutions to the pre-press and printing needs.

"We see Postscript software as an integral element to such
solutions. Now that we've coupled Postscript technology with our
high-end systems, the result has been improved quality, service
and schedules for our customers," he said.

CONTACT: ADOBE SYSTEMS EUROPE BV., World Trade Centre,
         Strawinskylaan 631, 1077 XX Amsterdam,
         The Netherlands.      Tel: [phone].

[***][8/30/88][***]
APPLE MANAGERS HEAD FOR THE TOP - LITERALLY
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE (NB) -- In an expedition led by
mountaineer Chris Bonnington, 16 managers from Apple Computer UK
will attempt to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest
mountain, later this week.

The team is led by Keith Phillips, Apple UK's MD, and includes
staff from all areas of the company, none of whom have climbed
before. The trip is the culmination of three month's intensive
training for the group.

"Our objective is to reach the top, but to work equally hard at
creating a strong team with a unified ethos and the sense of
purpose that has driven Apple UK to its current success," he
said.

Last Friday (26 August) the team set out for Chamonix to learn
basic mountaineering skills - the climb proper begins on
Thursday, 1 September.

* Apple's senior executives climbed Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest
  peak, last year. The 1988 Mont Blanc attempt is by a different
  team, however.

CONTACT:  Apple UK, Eastman Way, Hemel Hempstead,
          Hertfordshire HP2 7HQ.
          Tel: [phone].

[***][8/30/88][***]
POLICE SWOOP ON SCOTTISH SOFTWARE PIRATES
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND (NB) -- Police have swooped on several software
outlets in the East Kilbride and Glasgow regions of Scotland. The
raids have netted the police more than #200,000-worth of pirated
software.

Assisting the police in their raids was the Federation Against
Software Theft (FAST) which has assisted in more than 20 such
raids in the past few years. According to Bob Hay, FAST's
enforcement officer, the Scottish raids were the biggest to date.

"We'd known about illegal activities in Glasgow for about a year.
Information cane in from various sources, including software
houses and the general public," he said.

According to COMPUTING magazine, six people have been arrested in
connection with the piracy raids. Under Scottish law, they must
now wait until the Procurator Fiscal makes a decision on how to
proceed with the case.

CONTACT: FEDERATION AGAINST SOFTWARE THEFT (FAST) - 01-430-2408
[***][8/30/88][***]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

ACE MICROSYSTEMS (01-847-4673) has integrated spreadsheet,
graphics and time management functions into its 16/32-bit Lex
word processing and database management system. The additional
features are the result of a joint development, support and
marketing agreement with Saturn Systems of Minneapolis...

APRICOT (021-456-1234) will launch its 'Qi' - not Chi, as was
previously thought - range of MCA-compatible machines on Monday,
5 September, in London. A total of six 80386/80386SX-based
machines are expected, including a possible OEM laptop.
Networking is expected to feature highly on the specifications
list...

Further details of ATARI'S POCKET PC were revealed in the Sunday
Times newspaper last weekend. The machine appears to be MS-Dos
compatible and bears a strong similarity to the early Sharp
pocket computers, except that it features 512K of Ram and is
claimed to be fully MS-Dos compatible. The machine is scheduled
for launch later this year with a provision price tag of under
#200...

BIS APPLIED SYSTEMS (01-633-0866) has announced a special seminar
on Packet Switching networks. The event is to be held in London
on 4 October, 1988...

DATABASE EXHIBITIONS (0625-878888) has announced that Atari is
making its biggest ever commitment to the Atari Christmas Show,
scheduled for London's Alexandra Palace on the 25-27 November
this year. The Atari Abaq should feature highly on Atari's
Christmas line-up...

IBM started shipping its AS-400 series of minicomputers last
week. First reports suggest as many as 125 units were shipped in
the first consignment of the machines designed to replace the
System /36 and /38 series...

INMAC (0344-424333) has released an Optical PC Mouse costing #125
for the PC. Versions for the Apple Macintosh 512K and Mac SE
series are also available at #85 and #108 respectively. The mouse
is claimed to be better than conventional mechanical units since
there are no moving parts involved...

MICROPRO UK (01-643-8866) will launch Wordstar 5.0 on 29
September this year. The package started shipping in the US last
week and includes pull down menus and improved graphics in its
long list of features...