Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1983 May to 1994 June

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(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00001) CLARIS GETS RIGHTS TO WINGZ MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Informix Software has granted Claris Corporation, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, the right to use technology incorporated into the Wingz graphic spreadsheet. Informix, which is will continue to develop and support Wingz on the Macintosh, has allowed Claris to develop applications using HyperScript, an English-like programming language used for building graphical software applications. (Wendy Woods/19900112/Press Contact: Steve Ruddock, Claris, 408-987-7202) (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00002) TOPS OFFERS UPGRADES; NO LONGER SUN DIVISION ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 190 (NB) -- The TOPS division of Sun Microsystems has become an independent subsidiary, a move which will allow it to control its own destiny for the first time in two years. The decision by Sun Microsystems to spin-out the networking division purchased two years ago comes at a time when TOPS is struggling to maintain market share amid increasing competition, and accompanies speculation that Sun will eventually sell it. Meanwhile, Sun has announced a Network Bundle for DOS and a Network Bundle for Macintosh, both of which offer the Inbox 3.0 electronic mail system which offers messaging for up to 20 users in a local area network. More users can be supported with the Inbox Plus mail software. The Tops Network Bundle for Macintosh now supports the AppleTalk limit of 254 zones and up to 254 servers per zone. The Network Bundle for Macintosh offers improved, AFP-applications- compatible (Apple Filing Protocol) Tops 3.0 file sharing software, Inbox 3.0, and a price tag of $299. The DOS Bundle, available mid-February, consists of Tops 3.0, which can now be configured in 65K, and Inbox 3.0. The price is $249 per machine. The DOS version has TOPS 3.0, which can be configured in 65K and supports the Hierarchical File System (HFS). TOPS says the DOS version is the first sharing system to support extended memory to reduce the amount of standard DOS RAM occupied and increase the amount of memory available for applications. Memory requirements are further reduced by the modular structure of the system allowing users to select only those network services actually needed. The DOS version also lets PCs act as fully functional file servers for Macintoshes on the network by supporting HFS and the Apple Filing Protocol. Currently Tops claims to have an installed base of 60,000 users, all of whom can get the Inbox 3.0 for free when the pay the cost of upgrading -- upgrades are $125 each or $185 for the pair of Mac and DOS Network bundles. (Wendy Woods & Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: Kim Tarter, Tops, 415-769-9669) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00003) SONY AND FUJITSU JOIN FORCES IN CD-ROM TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 5 (NB) -- Sony and Fujitsu have agreed to cooperate to distribute more CD-ROM (compact disc read-only- memory) software. They have succeeded in achieving data compatibility between Sony's Quarter L and Fujitsu's FM-Towns personal computers in the CD-ROM/XA (extended architecture) format. Applications, however, are not interchangeable, since both machines have a different architecture and operating system. With the agreement for CD-ROM promotion, the two sides are now considering the establishment of a CD-ROM consortium. They have decided to entrust software houses to develop software based on the CD-ROM/XA format. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00004) MITSUBISHI TO BUILD 16M DRAM PLANT IN U.S. TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 3 (NB) -- Major Japanese semiconductor maker Mitsubishi Electric has revealed a plan to build a 16 megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) production line in the U.S. The firm has been producing one-megabit DRAM chips in Durham, North Carolina while preparing for 4-megabit DRAM production in West Germany. Mitsubishi now claims to have sited a 16-megabit DRAM production line at its Durham, North Carolina plant, and construction will take place in mid-1991. Output is expected in the middle of this decade. The plant will have a 0.6-micron process line. Mitsubishi has estimated the new plant will cost 50 billion yen or $345 million. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00005) BUSINESSLAND BITES BULLET, LAYING OFF 5-7% SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Anticipating a computer industry slump in 1990, the 91-store Businessland chain has started off the year by laying off five to seven percent of its 3,900 workers and by restructuring. The restructuring and layoffs should save more than $12 million a year, according to the company. "The moves we are announcing are in keeping with the realities of the market and long-term strategic priorities of Businessland," explained David Norman, chairman. "They will not impact the level and quality of technical support and service." Businessland estimates revenues in excess of $370 million in the second fiscal quarter ending December 31 and will take a write off of $1 to $2 million to cover the costs of the layoffs. Norman announced that he and senior executives have internally launched comprehensive new marketing plans and programs to improve margins. "We believe that improved margins from the sale of NetFrame, Next workstations, and Businessland Services, combined with savings from the restructuring and continued cost controls, will result in improved operating margins beginning in the March quarter." Another action will be the conversion of an unknown number of Businessland stores into ComputerCraft stores, the company's consumer rather than business sales storefronts. (Wendy Woods/19900111/Press Contact: Beverly Bird, 408- 437-4366) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00006) NEW APPOINTMENTS AT COMMODORE WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 5 (NB) -- Commodore Business Machines has announced two appointments to top posts. Walter W. Simpson has been named director of product marketing and the new Application and Technical Support (CATS) group's vice president is Jeff Scherb. Simpson joins Commodore's new management team, which is tasked with bolstering a marketing approach intended to increase U.S. sales in strategic areas. Simpson, who has spent nearly 20 years in the computer industry, including 10 years as director of product marketing at Prime Computer, "will be a crucial link" in Commodore's marketing endeavors aimed at business, consumers, education, and government, according to vice president of marketing, C. Lloyd Mahaffey. Scherb will manage Commodore's global enterprises; his primary function will be pushing development of Amiga product software. He intends to increase software for education, graphics, multimedia, and Unix applications. Commodore Business Machines, Inc. produces and sells a full array of computers and peripherals for business, consumers, education, and government. (Beth Goldie/1990111/Press Contact: Jim Dondero, Fleishman- Hilliard, Inc., 202-659-0330) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00007) PRIME SCHEDULES SPECIAL SHAREHOLDERS SESSION NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Prime Computer has announced that a special shareholders meeting is scheduled for 10 AM on January 30, 1990 to sanction the projected merger between Prime and a subsidiary of DR Holdings of Delaware. The meeting will be held at Prime Computer Inc., 500 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham, Massachusetts. The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow Prime to send out a prospectus/proxy statement about the proposed merger. The proxy materials are in the mail. Once the merger has been realized, Prime "will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Holdings and certain of its subsidiaries." According to Prime's president and chief executive officer, James F. McDonald, this projected merger will develop a business atmosphere in which Prime can highlight strategically the particular arenas in which it can excel, i.e, the global marketplace for computer-aided-design (CAD) and -manufacturing (CAM), customer assistance, and minicomputers. The second biggest global distributor of integrate CAD/CAM and computer-aided-engineering systems, Prime Computer Inc. of Natick, Massachusetts, supplies integrated solutions worldwide to education, financial services, government, and scientific marketplaces. (Beth Goldie/1990112/Press Contact: Joe Gavaghan, Prime Computer, 508-655-8000, X7727) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00008) WESTINGHOUSE GETS $30 MILLION TO NOK COMPUTERS PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced that a Swiss nuclear company, Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerk AG (NOK), supplier of electricity to northern Switzerland, has awarded Westinghouse a $30 million contract to modernize Units 1 and 2 at NOK's Beznau site on the Aare River. The contract calls for Westinghouse's state-of-the-art ANlage Information System (ANIS) to be installed, thereby upgrading Beznau's ability to reach maximum long-range operation of its nuclear plants. Michael P. Comisky, Westinghouse Process Control Division general manager, stated that several Westinghouse divisions will be implementing ANIS, to "provide NOK the world's most advanced nuclear plant computer system." ANIS, simple to run, maintain, and upgrade by NOK personnel, has vast plant analysis, analog/digital signal data collection and processing, and monitoring proficiency, boosting the staff's ability to operate Beznau at top efficiency. (Beth Goldie/1990112/Press Contact: Jay McCaffrey, Westinghouse Electric Corp., 412-642-3366) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(ATL)(00009) HARRIS ABANDONING MOST CONSUMER BUSINESSES MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Harris has signed agreements to sell off its Lanier Business Systems and its data communications subsidiaries in separate transactions. The company is maintaining the old Harris/3M operations, which distributes computer and copier supplies. Syntrex of Eatontown, New Jersey, a network systems integrator, is buying what's left of Lanier, which Harris bought in 1983 when it was a major player in dedicated word processing. Pending a closing January 31, the company is already being operated by Syntrex. Terms were not disclosed. Adacom, of Overland Park, Kansas is picking up the data communications division, which will be run as Harris-Adacom. Adacom sells add-in hardware and software for IBM computers. Harris' data communication operations sell computer terminals, communications controllers and network connectivity products. Harris will keep a minority interest in Harris-Adacom, as will Oak Investment Partners, a venture capital firm. The company will retain its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Gary Brunner, Harris- Adacom, 214-386-2537; Louis Turkaly, Syntrex, 201-542-1500) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00010) CALCOMP JOINS FORCES WITH JAPANESE FIRMS ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Calcomp has joined Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Corp. in a new Tokyo-based computer graphics company called NS CalComp. NS CalComp is a result of the sale of shares of Nippon CalComp K.K., a wholly owned CalComp subsidiary. Nippon Steel purchased 51 percent while Sumitomo bought 5 percent for a total price of $20 million. CalComp retains the remaining 44 percent interest. Hiroyuki Kishikawa, formerly CalComp's director of Pacific Operations, has been named president of NS CalComp. Joining him on the board of directors for the company will William P. Conlin, president of CalComp and Larry Sanders, Calcomp senior vice president of sales and marketing. (Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: Richard Stehr, CalComp, 714-821-2396) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00011) COMPUTER AUTOMATION ACQUIRES NEEDED FUNDS IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Computer Automation has entered into a loan, warrant and security agreement with a group of private investors which has loaned the company $3,150,000 while the company has issued the investors warrants to purchase shares of its stock. The loan is at 15 percent interest for a 24-month term. The loan is secured by all of the company's assets and guaranteed and/or secured by certain assets of the company's operating subsidiaries. The loan may be prepaid any time. The warrants granted to the lenders, including John F. Blokker, a director of Computer Automation, entitle them to buy 315,000 shares of the company's common stock at $2 per share anytime after Jan. 5. Additional warrants have been granted to purchase 420,000 shares at $1 each after Apr. 30 if the loan has not been repaid. The money from this loan has been used to pay off Computer Automation's previous lender, Sanwa Bank California. Funds remaining after the payoff are earmarked to be used as working capital. (Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: William Osmundsen, Computer Automation, 714-833-8830) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00012) ORACLE MOVING TOWARD DIRECT SALES IN EASTERN CANADA MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Oracle has announced a new distribution agreement with Computertime Network, its distributor for Canada's five eastern provinces. Sales staff from Montreal-based Computertime will work with people from Oracle, of Toronto, Ontario, as Oracle prepares to sell its Oracle database software direct in Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Oracle spokeswoman Wendy Rajala said her company's current distribution contract with Computertime expires at the end of this year. Though Computertime will continue to have a role in selling Oracle products, she said, Oracle plans to do more direct selling than it has in the past. The company already maintains direct-sales offices in Ontario and the western provinces. In the meantime, the two companies will work together and present themselves to customers as Computertime/Oracle. Computertime, which develops and distributes software and offers training and consulting services, has distributed Oracle in Quebec and Atlantic Canada since early 1981, Rajala said. Earlier in the week, STM Systems of Markham, Ontario, announced plans to acquire Computertime. (Grant Buckler/19900111/Press Contact: Wendy Rajala, Oracle Canada, 416-866-8056) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00013) GANDALF ANNOUNCES BELGIAN SALE OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 8 (NB) -- The European subsidiary of Gandalf Technologies has signed a two-year agreement with Solvay & Cie. of Brussels. Gandalf will provide a range of data communications and network products to Solvay locations worldwide. The agreement will be worth about US$1 million to Amsterdam-based Gandalf Europe in the first year, the company said. Spokeswoman Janice Drummond said the size of the deal reflects Gandalf's shift in the past few years toward providing complete systems. She said Gandalf does not want to predict the value of the contract's second year. (Grant Buckler/19900112/Press Contact: Janice Drummond or Alastair Davie, Gandalf Technologies, 613-564-0183) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00014) ADOBE FOURTH QUARTER/FULL YEAR RESULTS A RECORD AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced its fourth quarter and fiscal 1989 operating results are a record. Revenue for the fourth quarter ended 1 December, 1989, was $37.703 million, compared to $25.265 million for the same period the previous year. Net income for the fourth quarter was $10.041 million compared to $6.659 million for the same period the preceding year. For the complete year to 1 December, 1990, Adobe achieved revenues of $121.358 million - an increase of 45 percent on the $83.483 million reported the previous year. Net income for the year was $33.706 million - up 60 percent on the $21.08 million reported in 1988. Announcing the figures last week, Jerry Byma, Adobe's managing director, said that the bulk of the company's profits continued to stem from royalties for its Postscript languages. Royalty revenue in the systems business jumped from $61.617 million in 1988 to $81.877 million in 1989. At the same time, Adobe's royalty-paying customers increased from 13 to 19 during the year. Newsbytes notes that income from Apple Computer, a major customer of Adobe's, accounted for 21 percent of the company's total income during the fourth quarter, indicating a downward trend on the 25 percent for the year to 1 December, 1989 as a whole. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press Contact: Jerry Byma, Adobe Systems Europe - Tel: +31-20-767661) (EXCLUSIVE)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00015) LONDON STOCKS FALL HEAVILY - FRANKFURT MIXED LONDON, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- The London Stock Exchange led the fall on Friday, with the Financial Times Stock Index (FTSE) plummeting 38.3 points to close the day on 2,380.1 points. Friday's traded volume amounted to 523 million shares compared with more than 570 million shares changing hands on Thursday. Leading the losing companies was Ferranti International which reported a loss of 4 pence (6 cents) a share to finish at 35 pence (53 cents). The company reported a loss of $25.56 million from discontinued operations. In Frankfurt, meanwhile, the market was mixed and did not follow London's lead. The Frankfurt index closed at 1,855.66 points. Amongst the many active issues, Siemens has bought a controlling interest in Nixdorf, the ailing West German computer company which reported huge losses last year. Siemens now holds more than 70 percent of Nixdorf's stock. This makes Siemens the largest European computer company, beating Groupe Bull of France, which became the largest European computer company after its purchase of Zenith a few months ago. (Peter Vekinis/19900113) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00016) DIGITAL EQUIPMENT BUYS FURTHER INTO MIPS SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is buying further into MIPS by purchasing 317,016 shares of the company's stock, pushing its total holding to about 5 percent. The purchase is reported to have cost DEC around $5.2 million Kubota, a Japanese manufacturer of computers, has also purchased MIPS stock to the tune of $9.985 million. Kubota's current share of MIPS amounts to 18 percent of the company. MIPS' shares are worth $16.37 at current trading levels. The company specializes in the manufacture of high end computers based on RISC (reduced instruction set computer) chips. (Peter Vekinis/19900113) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00017) TECHNOLOGY STOCKS LEAD DOWNWARD SPIRAL BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dipped heavily during the week, falling by more than 75 points on Friday, January 12. Computer and technology companies, as ever, led the downward tumble in share prices. Amongst the most notable were: [] Computer Research reported a loss of $51,151 for its first quarter ended 30 November, 1989. Revenues for the quarter were $2,647,881 - a drop of 22 percent on the same period last year. The company, which trades in the OTC market under the CORE symbol, provides computerized back-office accounting services for more than 90 securities brokers and dealers in the US. [] Independent Telecommunications Network has filed with the US securities and exchange commission (SEC) to offer 4.5 million shares. The company, which produces systems which operate and manage independent signalling networks and facilities for telephone companies, is based in Olympia, Washington. [] Ferranti Semiconductor reported a loss of $25.56 million for the latest period. The company blamed a shrinking order book, along with financial problems with its take-over of ISC last year. (Peter Vekinis/19900113) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00018) ASIAN MARKETS CLOSE LOWER CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- Asian markets closed sharply lower following the lead set by European and US markets this week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed down 19.59 points to end the week at 2836.94. On Friday, HKG$ 578 million worth of shares changed hands, down from Thursday's figure of HKG$ 649 million. Tokyo followed suit with the Nikkei Dow closing sharply down at 37,516.77 points - a drop of 653.36 points on the week. The Tokyo Stock Exchange Index (TSEI), which had gained 20 points on Thursday, plummeted 27/66 points on Friday points to end the week at 2786.47. In Singapore, the Straits Time Industrial Index (STII) closed down 6.9 points, finishing the week at 1559.17. Singapore Airlines and Development Bank of Singapore led the stocks. Technology shares, meanwhile, remained relatively unchanged. Unexpectedly, the Australian stock market did not follow the end of the week's downward trend. Instead, the Sydney stock market closed the week on 1713.7 points - up 17.8 points on the week, after Gold climbed $15 in price. (Peter Vekinis/19900113) (EXCLUSIVE)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00019) NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE DIVES MORE THAN 70 POINTS NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell on Friday to finish the day down 71.46 points at 2,689.21. Major computer stocks following the index included IBM, which dropped $100 to end the week at $97.875. AT&T also played follow- the-leader, falling to $43.25, down $1.125 on the day. Losers outnumber climbers by 1,485 to 204. Most of the climbers were mining stocks and non-technology issues. Volume on the big board topped the 154 million share mark. The American Exchange (AMEX) also followed the lead of NYSE and dropped with its index ending at 373.23, down 7.12 points on the day. Traded volume on the AMEX board amounted to 20,650,000 shares - almost double Thursday's amounts. Amongst the many active AMEX issues, Amdahl closed down 67.5 cents to $14.50 with Wang following suit with a fall of $4.5 - down from a high of $5.00. The over the counter (OTC) market also saw losses mount with the industrial index down 10.81 points, finishing the week at 434.43 points. Apple Computer closed the week at $34.50, down more than $10 on the preceding 30 days. Apple shareholders saw 1,534,800 shares change hands. Other active issues included Compaq Computer, which ended at $80.50 - down $6 on the week. Tandon appears to be hitting troubled times, with its shares ending the week at just 69 cents. The company has announced it faces a large loss for 1989, although reports suggest that it is doing better in Europe than in the US. Last, but not least, The Newsbytes Stock Index (NSI) ended the week at 11.52, down .02 points. (Peter Vekinis/19900113) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00020) HONGKONG BANK BUYS COMSHARE COMMANDER CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation will purchase Comshare's Executive Commander System. The software will be used by a number of senior managers in the corporation, one of the world's 30 largest banking groups with assets of $124 billion. Commander was chosen after a 10 month evaluation period. HongKong Bank Manager of Information Systems Paul Whitmore says, "If the initial project is successful, and people enjoy using the system, it will become a useful tool for delivering management information to senior staff throughout the world." Commander runs on a local area network incorporating important security features. The bank anticipates that analyses and report drafting will be enhanced by the graphic capabilities of the system. Mr Whitmore expects the bank to have many Commander users worldwide within 2-3 years. He says it will complement the bank's existing international computer network. The order includes One-Up, the PC version of Comshare's five-dimensional financial modelling product, which will be officially released in Asia in April. Comshare Execuview will provide a mouse or touchscreen-driven interface between the user and the One-Up database. The order has been placed with COL Ltd., a leading computer services company with an annual turnover in the region of $15 million. (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Guy Rickett + 852 527 1021) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00021) JAPAN: NOT MUCH DISCOUNTING ON BOOK-SIZED COMPUTERS TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Small, lightweight book-sized computers, gaining in popularity in Japan, are being discounted less than current desktop and laptop personal computers on the market. NEC's PC-98 NOTE, with list price of 248,000 yen ($1,700), is sold for about 200,000 yen ($1,400) on certain shop counters. Toshiba's DynaBook is selling between 160,000 and 170,000 yen ($1,100 and 1,400), though the list price is 198,000 yen or $1,400. NEC claims that it shipped 20,000 units of its PC-98 NOTE last month, a quantity that is meeting market demand. Toshiba, on the other hand, expects to report shipments of 120,000 units of DynaBook in fiscal 1989, ending March this year, twice what was initially expected, and due mainly to the large assortment of low-priced software for the machine on the market. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00022) CONNECTION MACHINE LANDS IN JAPAN TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 4 (NB) -- One of the most advanced American parallel processing supercomputer will land to Japan through the Japanese system house, Advanced Systems Co., Ltd. The supercomputer is the Connection Machine CM-2 series of Thinking Machine Corporation. Sales of the machine to foreign countries have been prohibited because it was developed with financial aid from the Pentagon. Japan is the third country approved for purchase of the computer following France and Sweden. The CM-2 series has the so-called HyperCube, an inter-processing network architecture capable of connecting up to 65,526 of central processing units and performing at 10 giga FLOPS (floating point operation per second). Thinking Machines is one of the fastest growing firms in the supercomputer industry and is doing research into parallel processing with Digital Equipment Corporation. Some computer science magazines are reporting difficulties in the machine's operation compared to the Transputer, a central processing unit specially developed for parallel processing by Inmos. Advanced System, however, plans to enhance the CM-2 with DEC's VAX series or Sun Microsystems workstation as a front end processor to avoid such difficulties. The Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute will be the first Japanese customer and is expecting installation of the machine in April. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111/Press Contact: Advanced Systems, 0425-25-6295) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00023) FUJITSU BUILDING NEW 4M CHIP PLANT TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 1 (NB) -- Fujitsu is building a four-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) production plant in Iwate Prefecture in Northern Japan. The construction of the plant is expected to be complete by April and output of products is expected by the fall. The construction of the plant is proceeding on the same property of the Iwate plant which is currently producing 256 kilobit and one-megabit DRAM chips. Fujitsu is now producing a small quantity of four-megabit DRAM chips in its Mie plant and the new plant is expected to be the company's main production site when four-megabit DRAM becomes a major product in the market. Fujitsu is also aiming to start construction of production lines in its U.S. and U.K. subsidiaries as soon as possible. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00024) The BoCoEx Index / Closing Prices on the Boston Computer Exchange for the week ending January 12, 1990 Machine Closing Price Ask Bid IBM PC 176 Floppy $ 550 - 825 400 IBM XT 086 10 MgB 800 - 800 700 IBM XT 089 20 MgB 775 - 975 775 IBM AT 099 20 MgB 1450 - 1600 1300 IBM AT 239 20 MgB 1825 - 1850 1700 IBM AT 339 30 MgB 1825 - 1850 1700 IBM PS/2 Model 30 20 MgB 1225 up 125 1525 800 IBM PS/2 Model 50 20 MgB 1800 up 100 1900 1500 IBM PS/2 Model 60 40 MgB 2700 - 2825 2500 IBM PS/2 Model 80 70 MgB 3800 - 4225 3650 Compaq Portable I Floppy 645 - 750 550 Compaq Plus 10 MgB 750 - 950 675 Compaq Portable II 20 MgB 1700 - 1725 1550 Compaq Portable 286 20 MgB 1900 - 2000 1600 Compaq Portable III 40 MgB 2400 up 400 2800 2000 Compaq Portable SLT 20 MgB 2600 - 3110 2600 Compaq Portable 386 40 MgB 3300 - 3510 2750 Compaq Deskpro 20 MgB 900 - 1200 800 Compaq Deskpro 286 40 MgB 1675 - 1975 1600 Compaq Dskpr 386/16 40 MgB 2475 - 2750 2475 Compaq Dskpr 386/20 130 MB 3800 - 4020 3800 Macintosh 512 Floppy 555 - 800 550 Macintosh 512e Floppy 625 - 890 625 Macintosh Plus Floppy 900 down 50 950 900 Macintosh Plus 20 MgB 1325 - 1500 1100 Macintosh SE Floppy 1575 - 1850 1475 Macintosh SE 20 MgB 1850 down 50 2150 1600 Macintosh SE/30 40 MgB 3160 - 3400 2500 Macintosh II 40 MgB 3750 - 4200 2150 Macintosh IICX 40 MgB 4200 - 4500 3700* Apple IIgs Floppy 1200 - 1475 800 Apple IIe Floppy 725 up 100 750 500 Apple IIc Floppy 475 up 25 650 400 Toshiba T-1600 40 MgB 3025 - 3200 2750 Toshiba T-3100 10 MgB 1500 - 1600 1400 Toshiba T-3100 20 MgB 1850 - 1850 1500* Toshiba T-5100 40 MgB 3700 - 4200 3100 Zenith 183 20 MgB 1250 - 1250 600 Zenith SuperSport 286 2000 - 2150 1650* * Top demand this week January Jump for Most Models by BoCoEx Staff Economists January is usually slow, but the second week was alive with action and prices rose on six models, while falling on only two. The PS/2 live from IBM was up in active trading as was the Macintosh Plus. The hard drive SE dropped slightly and the old II series from Apple was also up in solid trading. At the IBM desk, the news was all from the PS/2's. The 20 megabyte Model 30 was up $125 to close the week at $1225. The 20 megabyte PS/2 Model 50 was also up $100 and it closed the week at $1800. The rest of the PS/2's were trading at last week's closing prices. Among the XT's and AT's there was steady trading at steady prices. Demand was strong for the original PC and asking prices were up to a new recent high. At the Compaq desk, the news was all stable and steady. Recent trades of the Compaq Portable 3 at low prices could not be sustained, and asked and got a new price of $2400 up $400 from last week. The Portable 3 has been on a roller coaster over the last few weeks and both buyers and sellers try to figure where this model fits in the market. Buyers are reminded that closing prices are the result of trading, not a price offer, and the Exchange can not always supply equipment at the most recent closing price. Among the Apples, The floppy based Macintosh Plus was active and its price was up by $150 to close the week at $1100. The 20 megabyte SE was down in modest trading, and closed the week $150 below last week's price at $1850. This came despite the steady interest in the machine. The laptops were stable this week. A prior error in the reporting of the Zenith 183 with 20 megabyte hard disk led to the belief that trading of the hard disk model was occurring at $900. The correct figure for the 20 megabyte Zenith 183 is $1450. The editors apologize for the error. Index prices are based on configurations of complete systems with keyboard, monochrome monitor and adapter, less the value of any software or other peripherals. Call: 617-542-4414 or the Buyer's Hot Line: 1-800-BoCoExx or FAX: 617-542-8849. (BOCOEX/19900111) (EXCLUSIVE)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00025) SMART PHONES, BIGGER RADIOS, KARAOKE AND NINTENDO CLONES AT CES LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Consumer Electronics Show, which is expected to have drawn fewer spectators but more exhibitors this year, played host to the world's largest portable radio, a Nintendo game clone from Taiwan, William Shatner promotion of a "smart" phone, and a variety of Karoake systems. Technidyne (Los Angeles, California) introduced the largest portable radio. It weighs 26 pounds, has 10-inch woofer speakers, AM, FM, two shortwave bands, dual cassette player/recorders, a clock, and an alarm should anyone try to take it without the owner's permission. The 750-watt unit takes 10 size D batteries and has four castors for wheels. Technidyne calls it the "Four Wheel Drive." While radios were getting bigger, computers were getting smaller. Atari Corporation had a hospitality suite to show off its MS-DOS hand-held computer, the Portfolio, which weighs about a pound. In game machines, Nintendo (Redmond, Washington) announced it will increase the allotment of game systems to the U.S. up to seven million. Previously, the firm had only planned to ship 6.5 million to the U.S. in 1990. This is great news to toy stores that had to post limits of "one to a customer" during the 1989 Christmas season. Bit Corporation (Taipai, Taiwan) showed a 6502-based computer called the BIT79. It is an 8K unit with BAISC that can save programs to cassette and can only be expanded to 48K. Why would anyone buy such out-of-date technology? The reason is that this unit plays game cartridges for the Nintendo game machine and is claimed to be fully compatible as a Nintendo game machine clone. There is no word on the reaction from Nintendo's aggressive legal department. Star Trek's William Shatner announced the Maestro by Northern Telecom (Nashville, Tennessee). It's a telephone that will show what telephone number is calling you within the first and second ring. This $140 retail phone will store the last 15 numbers called, has volume control to 20 percent, one-button dialling, and a light that blinks when it rings. While the Maestro will work with either pulse or touch-tone system, it will only display the phone number calling you if the person is calling from an area with Custom Local Area Signaling Service. The Maestro is the first telephone in this price range to offer this feature in a consumer phone. One of the more popular themes in products at CES are karaoke systems. For those unfamiliar with the biggest consumer electronic craze in Japan the past five years, karaoke is Japanese for "empty orchestra" and refers to a system which allows a person to sing the vocal portions of popular songs while the instrumental portion only plays. Pioneer (Long Beach, California) has a LaserKaraoke in which music videos appear on your TV screen with printed words to the song. You read (or sing) the words as the letters change colors and a microphone combines your voice with the music (which can be altered to change tempo). (John Pilge/19900112) (EXCLUSIVE)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00026) A.N.A.L.O.G. ATARI MAG CEASES PUBLICATION BEVERELY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- Lee H. Pappas, editor of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing, has decided the December issue is the last of the oldest extant Atari-specific magazine. To paraphrase Mr. Pappas, he was tired of all the frustration from Atari Corporation. Mr. Pappas is still negotiating with another magazine to take over the subscriptions. Pappas was quick to point out that the decision was his and not that of the publisher who bought A.N.A.L.O.G. a few years ago. Mr. Pappas will continue as editor of other computer magazines by Larry Flynt's L.F.P., Inc. With the demise of A.N.A.L.O.G., which stands for "Atari Newsletter And Lots of Games," it has been a rough year for Atari Computer fans. In 1989 Compute! dropped the Atari ST section, ST Log ceased publication, Atarian ended publication, Atari Games ended, Atari User (a British publication) ended as well as a few other smaller ST publications. START, published by Antic, is one of the last ST-specific magazines in publication. (John Pilge/19900112) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00027) SUN OFFERS COMMUNITY OUTREACH MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Showing that it's never too big to offer a helping hand, Sun Microsystems has announced several community involvement programs and a direct grant program for non-profit organizations in local communities nearby Sun facilities in Silicon Valley and in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. Sun is offering one year grants of $1,000 to $50,000 and will accept grants for the following areas: education in grades 7-12, employment and job development, leadership development, and business enterprise development. Interested parties should apply to Jennifer Sims, Sun Corporate Affairs Department, 415-336-5337, and request a brochure which lists details and application procedures. "Most companies our age are still devoting all their energies to developing a viable business," says Scott McNealy, Sun president and CEO. "Through our many talented employees, Sun has been fortunate to become a market leader in just seven years. Together we are making a commitment to share our success with our local communities." Sun employees have volunteered through the Volunteer Exchange of Santa Clara County and the Volunteer Center of San Mateo County, California, to assist in such projects as St. Anthony's Dining Hall where free meals are provided to the needy, and have helped clear debris after a shipwreck in Half Moon Bay. Sun employees are also helping non-profit organizations with donations which are matched by the company under the Employee Matching Gifts Program. It was launched in October in time to raise $184,000 for the American Red Cross Earthquake Relief Effort. (Wendy Woods/19900111) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) HEWLETT-PACKARD UNVEILS 24 RISC-BASED SYSTEMS PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its largest new product array in history -- 24 models, all but one RISC, or reduced-instruction-set-computer-based machines, ranging in price from $18,000 to $1 million. The introductions are designed to dispel rumors that the minicomputer or mid-range computer system, the bulk of HP's revenues, is dead, having been replaced by powerful PCs. "You've heard that the minicomputer business is dead or dying," said HP President and Chief Executive Officer John A. Young. "We don't believe that assessment." The machines, all members of the HP 3000 or HP 9000 product lines, are said to have up to four times faster speeds than their predecessors, thanks to the RISC-based architecture called HP Precision Architecture. The mid-range/high-end models feature multiple processors. One, the Model 870S/200, runs at 95 million instructions per second and is said by HP to cost less than a competing DEC VAX 9000. While most analysts were breath-taken with the announcements, some expressed concerns over two immediate hurdles. One is that most of the models aren't expected to be shipped until December 1990. The other is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary operating system, which is not currently compatible with Unix, the industry standard in minis. (Wendy Woods/19900111) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) NORMAN WINGROVE JOINS NEWSBYTES CAUSEWAY BAY, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Norman Wingrove, known to Hong Kong as the cohost of "The Electric Office," an information technology radio program, and a distinguished journalist in the computer field, has joined Newsbytes to cover the Pacific Rim. Wingrove will join Keith Cameron in providing Newsbytes News Network readers with the latest technology developments in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and China, a region undergoing dramatic change both from an economic and technological standpoint. Wingrove has established himself as a top-flight journalist both in print and in broadcast media. He won the gold medal for his editorial "Viewpoint," a nightly commentary on commercial radio, from the 1989 8th Annual International Radio Festival in New York. He is currently a columnist for the South China Morning Post's weekly information technology supplement and is a contributor to Asia Technology magazine. "We're honored to have a reporter of Norman's caliber working with our staff," says Wendy Woods, editor-in-chief. "Newsbytes readers can be confident that they'll have the inside scoop on breaking news from this region." Newsbytes News Network, which recently launched twice-weekly editions, maintains bureaus in San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Brussels, Toronto, Tokyo, and Sydney, as well as Hong Kong. Started in 1983, Newsbytes now supplies technology news to some 52 publications, both print and electronic, worldwide. Newsbytes headquarters is in San Francisco, California. (Wendy Woods/19900112) (EXCLUSIVE)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00030) ATARI PORTFOLIO: ITS SCREEN MAKES IT NON-COMPATIBLE PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- The Atari Portfolio won't run many standard MS-DOS programs, including communication programs, because its screen is not written to use the same codes as on the IBM PC. Terry Kepner, editor of the Laptop and Portable Computer Express newsletter, reported this problem first, and told Newsbytes there's another problem as well. "If you work the RS232 you're working the auxiliary port, not the serial port. Their RS232 module includes no telecommunications software. None of the public domain programs will work with the Atari. So right off you're in trouble. This doesn't mean you can't communicate with another computer, but if you want to use an Atari in the field to phone back to the office, you need custom-written telecom software, and people are not going to put up with that. You can't just load software and go." Problems with the Atari, and the high cost of the one-pound Poqet computer, are bringing new life to the old Tandy Model 100, Kepner adds. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Terry Kepner, Portable Computing International, 603-924-9455; FAX: 603-924- 9441) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00031) AUTHOR LAUNCHES RECREATIONAL PROGRAMMING NEWSLETTER LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- A.K. Dewdney, Computer Recreations columnist for Scientific American magazine, has launched a personal programming newsletter called Algorithm. Like Dewdney's column in Scientific American, the newsletter features recreational and educational projects for amateur and professional programmers. Initially, regular features include Algoletter, a column of advice from professionals; Easy Pieces, projects for beginning programmers by Michael Ecker of Creative Computing fame; Personal Programs, exercises for more advanced programmers by Cliff Pickover of IBM; Algopuzzles, computer mind-benders by Dennis Shasha, author of The Puzzling Adventures of Dr. Ecco; and Algofact and Algofiction, articles and stories from well-known scientists and authors. A Bulletin Board section advertises recreational products. More features are planned. More information and sample copies are available from Algorithm at P.O. Box 29237, Westmount Postal Outlet, 785 Wonderland Road, London, Ontario, Canada N6K 1M6. (Grant Buckler/19900111) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00032) FREE EDUCATIONAL MEMBERSHIP OF UK CD-ROM USER GROUP SWINDON, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- The UK CD-ROM User Group has announced it is offering free membership to bona fide educational establishments, thanks to a sponsorship deal with Images & Data, the Swindon-based computer consultancy group. Paul Fletcher of the CD-ROM User Group told Newsbytes that Images & Data is hoping to promote the benefits of CD-ROM usage among the computer community, hence they are paying the educational establishment's annual membership, which normally costs UKP 49 ($75). "Membership of the user group entitles bona fide educational sites to receiving our monthly newsletter, as well as the opportunity to purchase CD-ROM items from five companies we have negotiated deals with. It's an ideal opportunity for educational sites to obtain a discount on kit and software, free of charge," he said. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press & Public Contact: Paul Fletcher, The UK CD-ROM User Group, High Wings, Salem, Treforys, Abertawe SA6 6PD - Tel: 0793-815022) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00033) UK: DATATHEFT PAPERBACK PUBLISHED 1 FEBRUARY LONDON, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Datatheft, the book published by Mandarin and written by Hugo Cornwall, the original author of the Hacker's Handbook, now in its fourth edition, has been updated. The UKP 5-99 ($9-00) paperback will be published on 1 February in the UK. Billed as 'extensively revised and updated,' Datatheft has a good deal more material included since the book was originally published two years ago. The book seeks to address many of the computer security problems that have hit the industry since the first edition was published. In the book, Cornwall argues that legal reform on its own is insufficient to improved standards in computer security. The author says that the typical computer criminal is not the popular icon, the 'hacker,' but an employee or contractee of the victim taking an opportunity to exploit the system's lack of adequate controls. Hugo Cornwall is also known by his real name of Peter Sommer, one of Britain's best-known computer security consultants specializing in expert witness, insurance and computer forensics. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press Contact: Mary Harpley, Mandarin - Tel: 01-581-9393 x 2496) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00034) ELSEVIER PUBLISHES FREE SECURITY UPDATE AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Elsevier Science Publishers has published a free update magazine detailing its publications, books and reports on the subjects of computer communications, standardization and security. The magazine is available free of charge to all interested parties. According to Petra van der Meer, Elsevier's marketing manager, the update is a valuable addition to computer user's personal libraries. In addition, Elsevier is offering free sample copies of its regular magazines - computer networks and ISDN systems, and computer standards and interfaces - to interested readers. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press & Public Contact - Petra van der Meer - Tel: 020-586291 - Netherlands; Email on Dialcom - Memocom - 12427:ESX061) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00035) UK: CROWN COMPUTER PRODUCTS OFFERS UKP 799 LASER PRINTER BURSCOUGH, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Crown Computer Products, the budget computer peripherals specialist, has announced that a second and final shipment of the Sharp JX-9300 laser printer is available for direct sale to the public. The first shipment of the laser printer, which costs UKP 799 ($1,200) sold out within days of its shipment during November, 1989. According to Crown's product literature, the JX-9300 laser normally retails at UKP 1,595 ($2,400), which means that the company is offering the six pages per minute, 512K memory machine at less than half price, and with a full twelve month's warranty. Business at Crown, which specializes in foreign sourcing of brand name computers and peripherals to sell at much discounted prices, is booming. So much so, in fact, that the company has just opened a 10,000 square foot extension to its Lancashire headquarters, and is now publishing its catalogue, The Computer Buyer, on a monthly basis. To celebrate the business expansion, Crown is offering everyone spending more than UKP 1,000 ($1,500) with the company a voucher entitling the holder to up to three nights free accommodation for two at a variety of hotels. Crown offers prices such as UKP 516 ($800) for the Toshiba T1000 laptop; the rest of the Toshiba portable range is offered at 35 percent discount. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press & Public Contact: Malcolm Jamieson, managing director, Crown Computer Products - Tel: 0704-895815) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00036) HONGKONG IT OFFICERS CHARITY DRIVE FIZZLES, THEY TRY AGAIN CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- A charity drive organized by the information technology industry in aid of underprivileged children at Christmas realized only one tenth of its target and the deadline is to be extended. The IT Industry Charity Fund (ITICF), backed by the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, the Hong Kong Computer Society, the Telecommunications Users' Group and the Hong Kong Management IT Committee, aimed to collect $128,000 in the run-up to Christmas, but by the December 20th deadline only a little more than $12,000 had been realized. A new deadline has been set for January 20th. Hong Kong has a long tradition of collecting vast amounts for various charities throughout the year and has even been featured in the Guiness Book of World Records as making the biggest per capita contributions to charity in the world. So what went wrong with the ITICF drive? Committee chairman, Philip Wong of AST Asia, says the campaign received strong support initially, with many organizations responding with donations or pledges, but the amount collected by the original deadline was much less than expected. "Maybe we set our sights a bit too high. On the other hand, the IT industry has done very well in Hong Kong. I think some of the large organizations would be glad to have an opportunity to turn some of their profit back to the community, even if it isn't this charity but some other." The organizers also feel they probably kicked off the campaign a bit too late in the year. Fortunately, the industry still has the perfect excuse to put matters right in the shape of Lunar New Year, the most important of all local festivals, starting on January 26th, when everybody wishes everybody else health and good fortune and exchanges gifts with the greeting "Kung Hei Fat Choy." (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Mike Dunn, Media Dynamics Ltd, + 852 838 3889) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00037) MICHAEL JACKSON ON VIDEO GAME DUE IN JUNE TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- The world-famous entertainer Michael Jackson has applied his enthusiasm for games to a video game based on his movie Moon Walker. Japan's major video game firm Sega Enterprises will launch the video game titled Moon Walker into the domestic and U.S. market in June this year. The game software will run on its 16-bit MegaDrive, and the U.S.-version Genesis, as well as arcade game machines. Sega has not decided the prices yet. The action game, adopted from the movie, will mimic Michael's rhythmical actions faithfully as well as include his hit songs such as Bad and Beat It, according to Sega. Michael and Sega have joined forces to realize the game software, as Jackson is reportedly something of a video game junkie. Sega, chasing Nintendo's Family Computer or Nintendo Entertainment System for market share, aims to sell more of its video game machines by launching the new game software. Sega has so far sold 800,000 units of its MegaDrive and 500,000 units of its Genesis. (Ken Takahashi/19900111/Press Contact: Sega Enterprises, 03-743-7447, Sega U.S.A., 408-435-0201) (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00038) 'KGB HACKER SECRETS' TRIAL IN WEST GERMANY CELLE, WEST GERMANY, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- The trial of the three so-called 'KGB hackers' has begun in West Germany . The case stems from a West German TV documentary early last year which exposed four West Germans who were allegedly selling hacked IDs, passwords and telephone numbers to Russian KGB operatives in exchange for cash. Following the TV documentary, US and West German investigators arrested the four in March, 1989, but later released them without formal charges. At the time, Western authorities were keen to play down the details on what systems the group had sold details to the Russian secret service. One of the four - Karl Koch - subsequently committed suicide by setting fire to himself. Doubt was cast on whether Koch was killed or really did commit suicide, from certain quarters of the press, although the authorities have stood by their suicide story. The remaining three - Dirk Brzesinski, Peter Carl and Markus Hess - were subsequently charged with espionage in March, 1989, and could face up to 15 year prison sentences if convicted. A verdict in the trial is expected by the second week of February, according to West German press sources. During his testimony, Brzesinski revealed that the dead member of the group, Koch, was the ringleader. According to Brzesinski, Koch hatched the idea of selling sensitive computer system IDs and passwords to the Russians for a million marks. In the event, the group made around $55,000 for their troubles before the publicity started. (Steve Gold/19900113) (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00039) BSA BUSTS ALLEGED SPANISH PIRATES, WARNS OTHER VIOLATORS WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Just before Christmas, the Madrid, Spain Police Department raided the Mapfre Vida insurance company, seizing hundreds of apparently pirated copies of Ashton-Tate's dBASE, Lotus' 1-2-3, and WordPerfect. Business Software Associates' President Douglas E. Phillips told Newsbytes today that the BSA intends to claim damages amounting to 100 million pesedas (about $1.04 million U.S.). Although he declined to state how the BSA discovered the alleged piracy at Mapfre Vida, he did tell this bureau that several methods were and are in use to detect possible cases of software piracy and that the BSA is always scrupulously careful about the legalities involved in building a case. He credited the Madrid law firm of Cuatrecasas and Fabregat (offices also in Barcelona and Valencia) for handling the delicate legal considerations with great skill. When Newsbytes asked how the Spanish authorities reacted to the charges of software piracy, Mr. Phillips said that the BSA had received fine cooperation from Spanish authorities, including the Madrid Police Department, which carried out the raid. BSA is a Washington, D.C.-based trade group formed by major U.S. software companies, including Aldus, Ashton-Tate, Lotus, Microsoft, and WordPerfect. In an earlier statement, BSA said that it had conducted a series of investigations in Spain and that a number of other companies are suspected of being in violation of software copyrights. Mr. Phillips also warned that managers should make certain that all their software is legal or they will run the risk of being targeted for criminal investigation. (John McCormick/1990111/Press Contact: Lori Forte, BSA, 202-737- 7060) (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00040) NIST TACKLES THE TORMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TERMINOLOGY GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 8 (NB) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has today announced that it is studying current glossaries of poorly defined computer security-related terms. In an effort to eliminate misunderstanding, the glossaries will be entered in a bibliography to be printed this year as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). Samuel P. McCrea, NIST, is compiling the glossaries. Any information about possible entries (if you don't have printed matter, give publisher and title) can be sent to Mr. McCrea at NIST, A216 Technology Bldg., Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, telephone 301-975-5237. (John McCormick/1990111/Press Contact: Jan Kosko, NIST, 301-975- 2762) (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00041) DOD CONTRACT AWARDED TO STORAGETEK LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- The Department of Defense (DOD) has today announced the awarding of a $33.5 million federal government contract to Storage Technology (StorageTek), Louisville, Colorado, to provide DOD's Defense Logistic Agency (DLA), based at Cameron Station, Alexandria, Virginia, with computer data storage equipment. 28 DLA sites throughout the U.S. will have the equipment installed between 1990 and 1993, including StorageTek's newest disk-drive, the 8380F Disk Storage Subsystem, which stores some 7.5 billion bytes of computer data. The contract also calls for installation of the StorageTek solid-state disk and maintenance of all StorageTek equipment through 1995. Storage Technology is a worldwide supplier of high-performance computer information and retrieval subsystems. (Beth Goldie/1990112/Press Contact: Michael Klatman, Storage Technology, 303-673-5020) (NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00042) STONEHOUSE AIMS LEGAL SLINGSHOT AT GOLIATH IBM DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Stonehouse & Co., which sells network management software, has sued IBM charging unfair trade competition and deceptive advertising. Stonehouse claims IBM is interfering with its customer contracts and that its new "best solution" advertisements are false and misleading. The suit was filed in the state district court in Dallas. Specifically, the suit involves a contract bid with Chevron Industries, the oil company, where MCI had chosen Stonehouse's MONIES software to handle network management. "Our complaint charges IBM with commercial blackmail," said Marshall Roberts, Stonehouse founder and president. "It charges that IBM has used its immense size and power to muscle us out of a group bidding for a multimillion dollar contract from Chevron." MCI needed some IBM data processing products for the project which IBM initially agreed to provide. But, 4 days before the bid was due, IBM threatened MCI with "walking" from the bid unless MCI agreed to buy IBM's own software package. Stonehouse says that product had not yet become available. "We fully expect to win this," Roberts told Newsbytes. "They're interfering with contractual relationships, breaching a confidential relationship, and causing interference using market advantage. We think those are straightforward and provable." (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Stonehouse, Marshall Roberts, 214-960-1566 x6901) (NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00043) USC ADDS WANG INTEGRATED IMAGING LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- The University of Southern California (USC) and Wang Laboratories have announced that USC's Office of Admissions is using a Wang Integrated Image System (WIIS) to manage student admissions information. This is the first implementation of Wang's document imaging technology to automate the university admissions process. The system purchased by USC is valued at $1.2 million and includes a VS 7150 mid-range computer, 30 image workstations (25 with Freestyle document annotation capabilities), a laser printer, five endorsers and five document scanners. USC chose WIIS based on a successful pilot that prototyped the application and tested integration with USC's existing Prime computer network. (Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: Tom Myers, USC, 213- 743-7009) (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00044) PROPOSAL INTENDED TO BOOST CANADIAN SOFTWARE TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Canadian government has been calling for initiatives to boost private- sector spending on research and development, so Stephen Bingham produced one. Bingham, president of Toronto software developer Alias Research, has put together what he calls the Phoenix program. The program calls for government-guaranteed bank loans for start-up software developers. Bingham presented the plan to a government-sponsored conference in December, and hopes to publicize it further at Software 90, a conference scheduled next month in Montreal, Quebec. Bingham's plan would allow software companies with sales between C$3 million and C$50 million submit strategic business plans designed to achieve "acceptable rates of return over five years." Banks would lend 80 percent of the money needed to execute an approved business plan. The Canadian government would guarantee 85 percent of each loan. Each borrowing company would pay, in addition to financing costs not exceeding two percentage points above prime rate, one half of one percent of the loan principal to a fund for promoting the software industry. After repaying their loans, borrowers would also pay one percent of annual sales, to a maximum of 20 percent of their original loans, into a software development fund. This fund would invest in startup software companies. Bingham said he has had no response to the plan from the federal government so far. He is discussing it with the Canadian Bankers' Association, and hopes that after the Software 90 conference next month, a committee of software industry representatives, bankers, and others can be set up to refine the idea. "In no sense am I saying I've got the perfect program here and it can't be touched," Bingham told Newsbytes. "Hopefully we can improve the program by the input of the software community." Bingham's own company, Alias Research, develops software for generating three-dimensional images. Founded in 1983, it raised C$4 million in venture capital last year from private-sector sources, including venture capital firms in the United States. In 1988, Bingham's figures say, venture capitalists invested only C$11 million in Canadian software firms. In the United States, with about 10 times the population, software companies received some 40 times the venture capital, more than C$500 million. (Grant Buckler/19900112/Press Contact: Stephen Bingham, Alias Research, 416-362-9181) (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00045) AUSTRALIA: GOVT & IBM TEAM TO PROMOTE COMPUTERS SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 JAN 10 (NB) -- IBM and the New South Wales state government are addressing the chronic shortage of skilled labour in the Australian information technology industry by starting a new course designed to drag office workers into the 1990s. The two organizations have joined forces to offer a 54-hour training course called "The IBM Information Technology Course for Office Workers" or ITC, which has been created to equip office workers with basic computer, word processing and spreadsheet skills. The course will cost participants AUS$900 or around US$720. New South Wales Education Minister Dr Terry Metherell declared the course open at the inaugural class on Wednesday, January 10 and announced that the state government would offer 400 half scholarships of AUS$450 each, a total commitment to ITC of AUS$180,000. Participants will go to the University of Wollongong, the University of Western Sydney, or Macquarie University and they will work on the latest PS/2 individual workstations provided by IBM. (Gavin Atkins/19890110) (NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00046) SAMSUNG CUTS PC PRICES BY 19 PERCENT SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Citing the need to be more competitive in a market of "more than 250 hardware competitors," Samsung Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Phil Vertin has announced cuts of up to 19 percent on PCs and local area network products. Effective immediately, the price cuts affect everything from the low-end 8088-based PCs (the S3000VC is $799 compared to $895) to the 80386SX-based SD700, an 8/16 megahertz machine priced at $1,999 compared to its previous $2,195. In addition, Samsung's portable computer, the S5200, is now 12 percent cheaper at $3,499. Its local area network hardware, the PCtermianl 286, an 80286-based diskless local area network workstation, is $1,299 compared to $1,545. The big file server is $6,499 compared to $6,695. In addition, Samsung is making available hardware at either no charge or significantly reduced to dealers and resellers. (Wendy Woods/19900112/Press Contact: Tim Lysgaard, 408- 434-5482) (EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(WAS)(00047) HEADSTART CD-ROM COMPUTERS SHIPPING GREAT NECK, N.Y., U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Deborah Brown, a spokesperson for HeadStart's PR firm, told Newsbytes today that the reason no evaluation units of the new LX-CD and III-CD computers with built-in CD-ROM player have been sent out to reviewers is because the company wanted to make certain that there were a large number of machines in the stores ready for sale. HeadStart was recently acquired by North American Philips, a leader in CD-ROM technology. The LX-CD is priced at $2,000 and includes a stereo CD-ROM drive, 40 megabyte hard disk, one high-density 3.5-inch floppy drive, VGA graphics card, headphones, and mouse. The package deal also includes several important CD-ROM discs including the New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia and Microsoft Bookshelf. The machines can currently be seen and purchased in most Montgomery Ward Stores, according to Ms. Brown. Philips announced back on January 7th that, effective immediately, HeadStart Technologies Co., will be integrated into the recently formed Philips Information Systems Division, with Philips Consumer Electronics Company having responsibility for marketing, sales, and service. (John McCormick/1990110/Press Contact: Deborah Brown, HWH PR, 212-355-5049) (NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00048) PRICE REDUCTIONS, NEW SUPPORT FROM ASHTON-TATE TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 8 (NB) -- Ashton-Tate has announced several price reductions for Framework III upgrades and developer products, effective immediately and also unveiled some new support programs. Users can upgrade from any version of Framework to Framework III for $99, a reduction from the previous price of $175. Buying Framework III RunTime or the Framework III Developer's Toolkit now costs only $195 each. The old prices were $995 and $250 respectively. At the new prices, buyers receive complete software packages including documentation and unlimited customer support but Framework III RunTime no longer includes a copy of Framework III. In other news, Ashton-Tate has also announced the formation of A.T.T.A.I.N., the Ashton-Tate Training Association Information Network. The network is made up of national and regional organizations authorized by Ashton-Tate to offer training and education on dBASE IV, MultiMate Advantage II, MultiMate version 4.0, Draw, Applause, Framework III, RapidFile, FullWrite Professional, Full Impact and other Ashton-Tate products. There is a new technical support focus at Ashton-Tate as well. Four significant enhancements to the company's US technical support operation recently announced include free and unlimited telephone technical support, the Ashton-Tate ASSIST Program of enhanced support plans, toll-free access to the Ashton-Tate Bulletin Board System and "Auto-Tate," a toll-free automated attendant answering commonly asked technical support questions. This support is available for all Ashton-Tate products except advanced and connectivity products such as SQL Server and dBASE DIRECT. (Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: Brad Stevens, Ashton- Tate, 213-538-7348) (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00049) PS/2 MODEL 70 486 HITS CANADIAN MARKET MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- IBM Canada has announced the PS/2 Model 70 486, following the footsteps of its parent company in the United States. The new top-of-the-line PS/2 will be shipping by January 19, IBM Canada said. It will cost C$17,520 with a 60-megabyte hard disk, or C$18,370 with a 120-megabyte hard disk. Both versions use a 25-megahertz Intel 80486 processor. IBM Canada also said it is resuming shipment of the 486/25 Power Platform, a replacement processor board that upgrades a 386-based PS/2 Model 70. Shipments of the board were stopped in October when bugs appeared in early 486 processors. IBM said it will replace all Power Platforms that contained the defective processor. (Grant Buckler/19900112/Press Contact: Martha Terdik, IBM Canada, 416-474-3900) (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00050) CLEVERCOMM LAUNCHES RAPID RELAY IN UK LONDON, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Clevercomm, a UK computer company, has secured the UK distribution rights to Rapid Relay, System Management Associates' serial file transfer package for MS-DOS-based PCs. The UK 79-95 ($120) package is available immediately. According to Alistair Phillips, the director of Clevercomm, Rapid Relay does everything that Travelling Software's Laplink package does, but at a much lower price. "Rapid Relay's PC-Tools'-like design makes it very simple to use, unlike many utilities that make a simple job harder. You often find software packages where 10 percent of the functionality is being used 90 percent of the time, with the end result being the 10 percent gets harder to use," he told Newsbytes. Unlike Laplink, Clevercomm has opted to use only the serial port for PC file transfers. Phillips said that, by and large, the serial port transfer option was better for PC users: "Most PCs are now sold with two serial ports against one parallel port, thus increasing the chances of one being free," he said. Practically all desktop PCs have their parallel ports linked directly to a printer. This would oblige users to disconnect and reconnect their parallel cables at each transfer," he added. Rapid Relay also has a single-screen presentation system, rather than the split-screen system seen on Laplink and other file transfer packages. This, said Phillips, avoid any confusion on the user's part: "We heard from a PC magazine's journalist in the states that whilst he was evaluating a split-screen file transfer utility, he mistakenly tried to transfer files five or six times in the wrong direction," he said. As supplied, Rapid Relay comes with a four-headed cable (2 x 9- way, 2 x 25 way RS232) and software on both 3.5 and 5.25-inch disks. The program is capable of transferring files at over 115,000 bits per second. "That means a 100,000 character file can be transferred in under 12 seconds," said the package manual. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press & Public Contact: Alistair Phillips, Clevercomm Ltd., 10/12 Russell Square, London WC1 - Tel: 01- 995-5142) (NEWS)(IBM)(TYO)(00051) MITSUBISHI TO BOOST AX COMPUTER SALES TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 4 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Electric, one of the member of AX Conference which organized to fight the domination of NEC in the Japanese personal computer market, is planning to change its PC sales strategy. Mitsubishi released an AX machine called Maxy in spring 1988 and has sold it to corporate users, such as Japan Air Lines and Meiji Life Insurance. Mitsubishi is now going after the public thanks to the proliferation of new software for the machine. Mitsubishi aims to sell half of its 50,000-unit sales target in the retail shops this year. The Maxy has both a desktop and laptop version, but the laptop version is expected to sell the most. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (EXCLUSIVE)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00052) MCI MAIL SERVICE FAX RESTRICTIONS ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- This bureau learned today that some fax machines are being connected to 800 lines but that phone companies and fax services are not quite up to speed yet on this service. In particular, this bureau uses MCI to transmit most text facsimile messages but discovered that MCI Mail would not accept a certain publisher's 800 number for a fax transmission. MCI Mail told this bureau today that MCI fax service will work to an AT&T 800 number but in the Chicago area only. If an MCI 800 number is used for a fax line, MCI Mail can access that number throughout the U.S. A spokesperson for MCI told this bureau that initially it could not access any 800 fax service, but that it had added the above-described coverage areas and conditions and was endeavoring to add the ability to access 800 lines to the MCI Mail interface. Currently, attempts to enter an unacceptable 800 number for fax transmission via MCI Mail results in a rejection of the number. MCI Mail is a simple-to-use, highly popular electronic mail service which can also accept a client's ASCII text files for transmission to a fax terminal, greatly reducing the need for an actual fax machine and eliminating the need to have a fax line tied up while your office machine attempts to make a connection and deliver a fax message. (John McCormick/1990111) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00053) NORTHERN TELECOM OFFERS FIRST HOME PHONE WITH DISPLAY MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 8 (NB) -- Northern Telecom has introduced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas what it said is the first home telephone with a built-in display panel. The Maestro telephone's liquid-crystal display will be used for functions such as calling-number identification, the manufacturer said. A source at the company's telecom terminals division in London, Ontario, said at least three Canadian telephone companies are expected to offer the phones to customers this year. Carriers in the United States have also ordered Maestro phones. Bell Canada will offer the telephones as part of its Call Management Services offering in Ottawa, Ontario and in Hull and Quebec City, Quebec, by March. Call Management Services provides calling number identification and other services. New Brunswick Telephone is using Maestro telephones in a field trial and is expected to introduce commercial service this year. Alberta Government Telephones is expected to offer the telephones to some subscribers this month. Northern Telecom hired Star Trek celebrity William Shatner to host the Las Vegas roll-out at CES. (Grant Buckler/19900112/Press Contact: MaryLynn Hillier, Northern Telecom, 416-238-7162) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00054) ESOPS AT SNET NO FABLE NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- The board of directors of Southern New England Telecommunications (SNET) has approved the debut of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) this month as an adjunct to SNET's other employee savings plans. Walter H. Monteith, Jr., SNET's chairman and chief executive officer, stated that ESOPs enable SNET to give employees a better, cost-effective savings plan. An independent telecommunications company based in New Haven, Connecticut, SNET provides business and residential customers with communications equipment and information management systems and network services. (Beth Goldie/1990112/Press Contact: William Seekamp, SNET, 203- 771-2136) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00055) MILLICOM RECEIVES CELLULAR LICENSE IN GUATEMALA NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Millicom announced it had received a 20-year national license to establish and operate a cellular telephone system in Guatemala. The license, from Guatel, the country's national phone company, gives Millicom and its partners the exclusive right, for 5 years, to provide cellular telephone service to the country's 8.5 million population. Partners include Comvik International AB of Sweden and some Guatemalan investors. Millicom will hold 30% of the operation, Comvik 15% and the locals 55%. Cellular telephone service on the AMPS Standard is expected to begin in July, initially in metropolitan Guatemala City. Service will then roll- out to the rest of the country. The system is similar to existing Millicom systems in Costa Rica and several other countries, the company said. The system is modular in design, which lets the company add capacity at a small incremental unit cost. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Millicom, Andrea Van Raalte, 212-475-8200, x612) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00056) CCI SELLS DALLAS CELLULAR INTEREST TO MCCAW FOR STOCK NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Cellular Communications entered into an agreement with McCaw Cellular Communications to sell a subsidiary holding 5.56% in the Dallas non-wireline cellular partnership for 1,601,036 shares of CCI common stock now owned by McCaw. CCI will own about 9,345,000 cellular "pops" in Ohio and Puerto Rico. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: J. Barclay Knapp, Cellular Communications, 212-319-7014) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00057) CITY-SIZED PHONE MANAGEMENT INTRO'D BY OCTEL MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Octel Communications announced the 216-port Aspen Maxum Super-System with 912 hours of message storage capable of supporting up to 30,000 subscribers -- or the population of a small city. The device is created with three standard 72-port Maxum units linked by fiber cable running at 100 million bits/second. The fiber optic backbone operates in real-time, supporting all existing voice processing features, including telephone answering and voice mail. But even municipalities have time to approve purchase of the device. Octel says the system won't ship until early next year, and interface cards will sell for about $20,000 each. Octel said that when a customer has a number of small voice mail systems in a campus environment, each has a different access telephone number. The high-speed backbone allows the customer to have one phone number for voice processing access, improving system traffic capacity as well as dialing convenience for all users. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Octel Communications, Teena Claudatos, 408/945-3209) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00058) RESURGENS COMMUNICATIONS LISTED ON AMEX ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Resurgens Communications Group sold $15 million principal amount of convertible subordinated debentures due January 15, 2005, priced at par to yield 10%. The debentures are convertible into Resurgens' common stock at $4.62 per share. The common stock and debentures began trading on the American Stock Exchange January 11 under the symbols RCG and RCG.A, respectively. Resurgens Communications Group previously traded over the counter under the NASDAQ Symbol RCGI. Resurgens Communications Group is an alternative operator company specializing in hotels and hospitals. It also has a subsidiary, Southern Cellular Telecom, which sells and services cellular telephones, facsimile machines and other products. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Resurgens Communications Group, Michael P. Marshall, 404/261-6190) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00059) BELL ATLANTIC MOBILE LAUNCHES FIRST TV AD CAMPAIGN BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Reflecting both increased competition and increased call handling capacity, Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems is launching its first major television advertisement campaign. Director of Advertising Melanie vanderValk said the company previously relied on radio and print to reach top executives. "Now that you can buy a basic mobile phone for $699 and a top-of- the-line model for only $1,695, cellular service is developing a mass appeal. We're broadening our target market to 25-54 year olds with a household income of $35,000 and up," she said. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Brian Wood, Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems, 201-306-7508) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00060) AT&T, MCI BACK IN COURT AGAIN NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- AT&T and MCI are back in court again. This time, the bigger company is accusing its smaller rival of unfair and deceptive telemarketing practices and switching of long-distance customers without their consent. The AT&T lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, charges MCI and Pioneer Teletechnologies with using misrepresentations of facts to induce AT&T customers to switch their long-distance service. AT&T said, for example, that MCI sales representatives have told AT&T customers that AT&T is no longer handling long-distance calls, or in some cases saying that AT&T is going out of business. The lawsuit also charges that MCI and Pioneer representatives have switched AT&T customers to MCI without their knowledge or consent. Pioneer is a telemarketing agent headquartered in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, and is 25% owned by MCI. The suit asks that MCI stop making false, misleading or deceptive claims about AT&T, and stop switching AT&T long-distance customers to MCI without authorization. In addition, AT&T has asked to be awarded damages it has suffered as a consequence of the MCI and Pioneer wrongful conduct. AT&T also asked for a rule change from the Federal Communications Commission, stating that long-distance companies must obtain written customer permission before notifying local telephone companies of a customer's selection of a long-distance carrier. AT&T said its preliminary studies show that between February and November 1989 that 10-15% of monthly conversions of AT&T residential customers to other long-distance companies involved customers who either had never been contacted by the other company or had declined to switch. Many customers were initially unaware that they had been switched to another carrier. MCI denied the charges, and is considering a countersuit. "This is just another example of AT&T preaching competition on the one hand and whining when it takes place," an MCI spokesman told Newsbytes. "We've been winning customers at a rate of 100,000 per week. We view this action as an example of frustration and their attempts to impede competition in the marketplace." On the proposed rule change, the MCI spokesman called it ironic and said they'd oppose the rule change. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Bruce Reid, AT&T, 201- 221-8413; John Houser, MCI Corporate Communications, 800-289- 0073) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00061) MCI, AT&T OFFER INTERNATIONAL DISCOUNTS WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- MCI and AT&T have both announced new calling plans with bigger discounts on calling overseas. MCI's plans are Call Europe, Call Pacific and Call Canada. They let residential consumers pay a single low per minute rate for calls for a $3 monthly fee. Call Europe costs 59 cents per minute, Call Pacific costs 79 cents per minute, and Call Canada costs 19 cents per minute. The three plans come available January 15. The new AT&T plan is called Reach Out World. Under it, customers save 10% or more on calls made during specific hours, again for a $3 monthly fee. Countries covered include Canada, Mexico the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Australia, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Monaco, Brazil, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, the Philippines, Korea, Guam, Taiwan, Pakistan, Kuwait and Israel. Reach Out World customers also receive a 5% discount on direct-dialed interstate calls within the United States. AT&T said it will soon add nine new countries to Reach Out World, including West Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Greece and Thailand. AT&T also announced it has expanded its Worldwide Intelligent Network. AT&T will add the Philippines and Taiwan links to a fiber-optic network that now stretches from Europe to Asia. And later this year, AT&T plans to expand the fiber-optic network to include Hong Kong and Korea in the Pacific, and Colombia, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: MCI, 800-289-0073; AT&T, Rick Wallerstein, 201-953-7911) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00062) TELESPHERE NAMES NEW 900 HEAD OAKBROOK TERRACE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Telesphere Communications has chosen James G. Hertel Jr. as vice president of marketing for Information Services/900. Hertel had previously been with Ameritech. Senior Vice President Dennis Houlihan praised Hertel's work in developing applications for Frito Lay and Brim Coffee. Telesphere also runs long distance network services and operator services. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Paul Davies, Telesphere, 708-954-7700) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00063) ROCKWELL COMM SYSTEMS INTEGRATES THREE CA-BASED OPERATIONS RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 5 (NB) -- Rockwell Communications Systems has announced the integration of its three California-based operations, Semiconductor Products Division and Microelectronics Technology Center in Newport Beach and CMC in Santa Barbara into a new Digital Communications Division (DCD). The move has been made to more effectively coordinate the technical, manufacturing and human resource skills of three separate businesses into one division in order to give the company a strong position from which to aggressively pursue the worldwide digital communications market. (Janet Endrijonas/19900112/Press Contact: Ralph Bond, Rockwell International, Digital Communications Division, 714-833-6849) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00064) MERCURYLINK 7500 ANNOUNCES OAG COMPETITION LONDON, ENGLAND, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Mercurylink 7500, the UK side of the US-based Easylink e-mail network, operated by the Cable and Wireless group, is encouraging its subscribers to access the Official Airlines Guide online database via its service with a free competition. All competitors receive a free UKP 2-00 phone debit card, and a chance of winning a two-night holiday in Rome for two, all flights etc., included. To enter the competition, subscribers fill in a short questionnaire on international knowledge, all of which can be obtained, either from the OAG database itself, or from personal knowledge and other sources. In a letter sent out to all Mercurylink 7500 subscribers this late last week, Liz Clarson of customer marketing enthuses that the OAG now has access to more than 600 airlines, and 900,000 worldwide fares. Despite this, Newsbytes UK notes that the OAG was unable to detail a flight recently from Manchester, UK to Las Vegas, Nevada, via Chicago, for Comdex Fall '89 despite the flight was via American Airlines, and available on the Sabre and Amadeus airline information systems. A free competition, however, is a free competition, especially if there's a UKP 2-00 free phone card in it for all subscribers. (Steve Gold/19900113/Press & Public Contact: Liz Clarson, Mercurylink 7500 - Tel: 01-528-2500) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00065) CHINA TO BUY INTO HONGKONG TELECOM CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) is to buy up to 20 percent of Hongkong Telecommunications from parent company Cable and Wireless. Details of the investment still have to be finalized, but it will give the Chinese giant a stake in one of the territory's most respected blue chip stocks. Telecom is Hong Kong's biggest employer and is widely regarded as one of the best utilities of its kind in the world, with a virtually brand new network resulting from a massive replacement of lines and equipment over the past decade. Bankers estimate CITIC's projected 20 percent share will cost something in the region of $1.25 billion. There is no firm indication so far of how CITIC intends to finance the deal or whether the borrowing party will be the head office or its Hong Kong subsidiary. Based on current practice under which banks are lending up to 70 percent in deals involving blue chips, the Chinese company is probably looking for a package around $0.8 billion. The success of the project could give a much-needed boost to confidence. Many companies and investors, both local and international, have been reluctant to make big commitments to this British colony, due to revert to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, following the Beijing massacre of last June 4th and increasingly belligerent statements from mainland leaders. A senior Telecom executive told Newsbytes he thinks the company, which has an exclusive franchise for local telecommunications until 1995, feels a need to establish solid corporate contacts with the mainland in the run-up to the 1997 hand-over. For some years the company has had good business and telecommunications relationships with its Chinese counterpart, to the extent that it provides a complete directory in both printed and online forms of fax installations in China's neighbouring Guangdong Province, the printed version being issued in Chinese as well as English. (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Alice Yao, HK Telecom, + 852 528 8111) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00066) HONG KONG FAX USERS GET ONLINE FLIGHT INFO CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Hong Kong travellers can now use their fax machines to retrieve the latest information on flight departures and arrivals at Kai Tak International Airport. The Datacom Services division of Hong Kong Telecom has entered a joint project with the Civil Aviation Department to distribute flight information direct from the airport's display system. Datacoms General Manager David Connolly told Newsbytes it has developed its own software to consolidate last minute changes with the main bulletins. The resulting information is available to any registered facsimile user by setting the fax machine to polling mode and then calling the number of Datacom's innovative Infofax service. It is also being distributed via Datapak, Hong Kong's public packet switched data network, to display terminals in hotels, travel agencies, airline offices and courier companies, among others. The service is to be extended later this year to PC users subscribing to Datapak. Roy Ellyat, manager of Datacom Services says, "This is a major advance on the present situation, where the only way to keep up-to-date, short of going to the airport, is to telephone individual airlines or hope that they remember to call you." Other Infofax services range from weather reports, including charts, to Mark Six lottery results. The data are supplied by independent information providers. The only charge to the fax subscriber is the standard Infofax fee of $0.25 peak, $0.125 off-peak. (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Alice Yao, HK Telecom + 852 528 8111) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00067) STATE OF THE ART LASER TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR HONG KONG CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Case Communications Asia/Pacific has released its advanced Megabeam infrared laser communications system in Hong Kong. Bob Crockett, the company's regional support Manager Asia/Pacific, says the system can replace expensive cable or microwave links between computer sites and is ideal for cities like Hong Kong with its many skyscrapers. Unlike radio-based systems, Megabeam needs no licence to operate and has already been given international public telephone and telegraph (PTT) approval. Megabeam has an interference-free range of one kilometre, though under ideal conditions it is usable over distances as great as eight kilometres. Several units can be daisy-chained to carry signals over greater distances or around corners. Mr Crockett says the laser beam is invisible and immune to interception, making it a suitable carrier for sensitive data, video and private telephone exchange (PABX) traffic. The four kilogram bidirectional link terminating units, or LTU's, are about the size of a portable video camera, weatherproof and secure from electromagnetic and radio frequency interference, according to Case. Mr Crockett told Newsbytes he sees many applications for Megabeam in Asian countries, many of which wish to set up digital communications systems now, because of the simplicity of installation. (Norman Wingrove/19900113/Press Contact: Maggie Marrac, MDL Ltd + 852 838 3889) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00068) JAPAN OFFERS ISDN EXPERTISE TO KOREA TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 3 (NB) -- Japan's telecom giant NTT will supply its advanced telecommunication technologies, including ISDN (integrated services digital network), to the Korean Telecommunication Authority (KTA), according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. KTA President Rhee Hae-Wook visited Japan last month to seek the cooperation of NTT President Akio Yamaguchi who has since signed an agreement with him, the paper says. KTA hopes to modernize Korea's telecommunication systems by introducing NTT's expertise in telecommunications and intelligent building technologies. KTA has digitized all the inter-city exchange systems in Korea, and is scheduled to introduce ISDN service after 1992, the paper adds. KTA operates domestic and international communication services and has workforce of about 52,000 employees. It will be privatized in June this year. (Ken Takahashi/19900111/Press Contact: NTT, 03-509-5035) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00069) STUDY CITES BIGGEST REASONS FOR OWNING COMPUTERS LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Seventy-seven percent of home PCs are used mainly for word processing and running spreadsheets, according to a study commissioned by Smith Corona. According to Fred Feuerhake, Smith Corona's vice president of marketing, the survey, by New York City-based Decision Research Corporation, was helpful in encouraging Smith Corona to push the sale of its lower-priced CoronaCalc Spreadsheet and line of Personal Word Processors, viewed by Mr. Feuerhake as "an intelligent alternative to PCs." The survey revealed that word processing is done by 93 percent of the users; about 55 percent of them use PCs more than half the time for word processing and 10 percent use the PCs only for this function. PC purchase prices varied. Some 16 percent of the PCs cost less than $1,000; about 48 percent of the buyers spent $1,000 to $2,500 and the rest paid $2,500 to $5,000. Smith Corona, which is the only American producer of so-called "personal word processors" and electronic typewriters, has been in the office equipment industry for more than a century. It has a complete line of personal word processors, ranging in price from $599 to $899 and featuring complete word processing functions plus optional spreadsheet. One industry observer noted that Smith Corona is whistling in the dark if the company thinks it can convince most people to pay as much for a dedicated word processor as for a complete general purpose computer with word processing software. "After all," the observer said, "there is a reason why there is only U.S.-based maker of these machines left." (Beth Goldie and John McCormick/1990111/Press Contact: Lisa Hendrickson, Manning, Selvage & Lee, 212-213-0909) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(ATL)(00070) MITSUBISHI BUILDS ITS FIRST SIM MODULE IN NORTH CAROLINA DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Semiconductor America, announced it has completed its first custom-designed single inline memory module (SIMM). The module is a compact board densely populated with memory chips, for use in personal computers, engineering workstations, and other equipment. (Dana Blankenhorn/19900112/Press Contact: Molly H. Pasca, Mitsubishi Semiconductor America, 919-479-3333) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00071) JAPANESE FIRMS PLAN MOVES TO EUROPE TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Hitachi, the major Japanese electronics giant, has announced plans to begin manufacturing semiconductors in West Germany. The production site, which has still to be selected, should be on-stream for 1992, the year when internal European Community (EC) trade barriers are removed, creating the so-called free European market. Hitachi's plans call for monthly production at the company's integrated plant in West Germany to be equivalent to 500,000 units of dynamic random -access memory (DRAM) chips, Hitachi officials said. Another major Japanese chip maker, NEC Corp., started semiconductor production in Britain in 1987. Industry sources suggest that Fujitsu and Mitsubishi - also leading Japanese chip manufacturers - will announce similar EC production plans for 1992 shortly. (Steve Gold/19900113) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00072) CRAY TO USE JAPANESE MEMORY TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 6 (NB) -- The world's largest supercomputer maker, Cray Research, has decided to adopt materials made by Hitachi and Toshiba for the main memory of its supercomputers. Cray will use Hitachi's bi-CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) chips for the main memory of its current high-end model CRAY Y-MP, and Toshiba's SRAM (static random access memory) for the main memory of its next-generation C-90 supercomputer to be released by the end of this year. Cray wants an access time of 15 nanoseconds for the bi-CMOS from Hitachi and 8 nanoseconds for the SRAM of Toshiba. A bi-CMOS chip combines a high-speed bipolar semiconductor element with a highly integrated CMOS chip, to perform the features of both. IBM also is said to be developing a bi-CMOS memory technology. Hitachi is recognized as having the most advanced bi-CMOS technology, which is why Cray has chosen to work with Hitachi on its project to speed up the Y-MP supercomputer. Cray's coming C-90 will be a parallel processing supercomputer with 16 central processing units which separately conduct calculations. It is expected to process at a speed of 16 giga FLOPS (floating point operations per second). Cray expects the SRAM chips to enable the machine to operate cooler, and to consume less power. Hitachi signed a cross-licensing agreement with Cray for supercomputer technology in May 1989, and Toshiba is a big Cray customer, having purchased two Cray supercomputers. Cray previously used Fujitsu's memory for its external storage system, but installed the Cray supercomputer's main memory with U.S.-made components. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00073) HITACHI TO LAUNCH DAT STORAGE SYSTEM TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Hitachi has developed a computer storage system using DAT (digital audio tape). The new system called DT-1000S allows a DAT tape to store one-gigabyte of data, or the equivalent of 1,000 floppy disks. Hitachi has given its DAT drives data error correction features for greater reliability, and automatic rewrite, a feature which enables data to be written and erased anywhere on the tape. Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Toshiba, Sharp, U.S.- based Apple Computer, as well as other domestic and foreign makers, jointly proposed the DATA/DAT standard for a DAT storage system to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) in May last year. As the institute is expected to approve it as early as February, Hitachi has decided to ship first sample products based on the standard in April. The price will be 600,000 yen or $4,200. Sony and U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, cooperatively created a DAT storage system based on their DDS standard. Experts say the system is inferior to the DATA/DAT-based one in the area of error correction but superior in storage capacity and data transfer speed. Both firms already received approval from ANSI, and launched the production of the system commercially last year. The two formats are incompatible with each other, so a tape recorded on one system cannot be played back on another system. (Ken Takahashi/19900111/Press Contact: Hitachi, 03-258-2057) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00074) HITACHI LAUNCHES NEW COLOR LAPTOP TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Following NEC and Fujitsu, Hitachi has debuted its color laptop PC for the domestic market. The firm claims that its B32LXC features a vivid screen display and a low price. With the adoption of what it calls Retartation Film STN method for the LCD (liquid crystal display), Hitachi claims to have increased the viewing angles of the display. Hitachi says the up and down viewing angle has been increased 10 percent while the right and left sides are in focus at a 20 percent greater angle. The laptop screen is also said to be 10 percent brighter than NEC's and Fujitsu's offering. Hitachi's color laptop is capable of displaying 16 colors as can Fujitsu's, but NEC's can only display 8 colors. The embedded Intel 80386SX runs at a 16 megahertz clock frequency, and the one-megabyte main memory with Expanded Memory Specification can be enlarged to five megabytes. The new machine also comes standard with a Japanese language entry system said to have AI (artificial intelligence) features. The machine runs on Japanese MS-DOS Ver. 3.1. Japanese MS OS/2 Ver. 1.1 is optionally available for 62,000 yen ($430). The machine is priced in the same ballpark as the competition's. The Hitachi, with two 3.5-inch floppy drives, lists for 728,000 yen or $5,000. NEC's 16-bit color laptop with a built-in hard drive and Fujitsu's 32-bit color machine with two floppy drives both list for 748,000 yen ($5,200). Hitachi's color laptop with a built-in 3.5-inch 40 megabyte hard drive sells for 898,000 yen or $6,200. Hitachi will ship its color laptop machines on the 21st of March this year, and aims to sell 6,000 units in the first year. (Ken Takahashi/19900111/Press Contact: Hitachi, 03-258-2057) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00075) HITACHI TO SHIP 16-MEG DRAM SAMPLES THIS YEAR TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 4 (NB) -- Hitachi has decided to produce and ship 16-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) sample chips by the year's end. Hitachi, which already created prototype 16-megabit DRAM chips in its laboratory, has set up an advanced test production line in its Kofu factory, which is capable of manufacturing circuits with a line width as narrow as 0.5 microns. NEC and Toshiba, on the other hand, are also hurrying to make prototype 16-megabit DRAM chips, but their samples aren't expected for another year. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00076) JAPAN DECELERATES ONE-MEG CHIP PRODUCTION TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Japan's major chipmakers such as Toshiba, NEC, and Hitachi are hitting the brakes on production of one-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips in order to keep prices from sliding. They have cut production this month by 10 to 15 percent. Toshiba, the world's largest one-meg chipmaker, previously decided to maintain monthly output of 9 million units, but now has decreased it to 7 or 8 million units per month. NEC also has cut its monthly output by 17 percent to 5 million units. Hitachi decreased its monthly production by about 5 percent between October and December last year from the previous monthly output of 4 million units, and aims to curtail another 5 percent this year. Mitsubishi Electric, on the other hand, has made a decision not to produce one-megabit chips with an access time of 100 nanoseconds any more. Instead, Mitsubishi will launch faster 60 nanosecond chips into the market in order to deal with the sharp decline in one-megabit chip prices and the demand for higher speed chips. Mitsubishi, like the above three makers, will lessen its monthly output of 4.5 million to below 4 million units by this month's end. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00077) SONY TO INTRO 4-MEG SRAM LINE TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 8 (NB) -- Sony will lead the industry in launching a test production line for 4-megabit SRAM (static random access memory) chips, and will initiate sample shipment in 1991. Sony's manufacturing subsidiary Sony Nagasaki will introduce a 4-megabit SRAM test production line, and start sample production as early as next year. Sony plans to initially produce one-megabit SRAM chips in 1991, and gradually shift to 4-megabit SRAM volume production in 1992. A 4-megabit SRAM chip is capable of storing data equivalent to a 16-page Japanese language newspaper. An SRAM chip consumes less power and can be accessed faster than a DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip. An SRAM chip is suitable for small and portable equipment and high-performance computers. (Ken Takahashi/19900111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00078) JAPAN MASS-PRODUCING MAGNETIC-OPTICAL DISKS TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- In order to meet the surging demand for rewritable magnetic-optical disks (MODs) as computer data storage media, several domestic makers are now making them in volume. A rewritable MOD under ISO (International Standardization Organization) is capable of storing 650 megabytes of data. Sony is currently producing 8,000 units per month in its subsidiary Sony Magneproducts' factory in Sendai. It used to use the units only for its own storage products, but now that outside demand is increasing, Sony expects to increase current monthly output by a factor of three by March or April. TDK, which made sample disks at its Technical Center in Chikumagawa, Nagano and supplied them to other makers, has now decided to launch a 25,000 monthly output system this fall, as the quality of the supplied samples is expected to be approved. On the other hand, Osaka-based synthetic fiber maker Kuraray has also decided to launch into the MOD business. Its pilot line is scheduled to be complete in its Kurasiki factory next month, and Kuraray will ship sample disks to other makers. It has already established a MOD promotion division to develop customers with both technical development and marketing. Kuraray claims that it will be able to establish an annual production rate of one million units within two years. Kuraray claims to hold second place in domestic laserdisc production following Pioneer which has an annual production count of 3.6 million. With the entry into the MOD business, Kuraray will set up sales organizations for optical disks in the U.S. and Japan to develop the overseas market. (Ken Takahashi/19900111/Press Contact: Sony, 03-448-2111, TDK, 03-278-5111, Kuraray, 06-348-2111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00079) FUJITSU MAKES QUANTUM LEAP IN IC SPEED TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 4 (NB) -- The dream of a laptop supercomputer may be closer to reality thanks to a development from Fujitsu. The company has developed an IC (integrated circuit) which performs 100 times faster than current supercomputers and requires between one-half and one-tenth the number of conventional circuit design elements. The IC was developed with so-called RHET or resonant tunneling hot electron transistors technology. Fujitsu claims to have achieved a performance which is 1.3 times than advanced speeds already obtained using gallium arsenide technology, and adds that this configuration realizes 1.4 picosecond signal transmission. One picosecond is one-trillionth of a second. RHET was developed by applying the principles of quantum mechanics (atoms and subatomic particles) with a super-thin (about 20 or 30 molecules-thick) layer and superlattice structure. Fujitsu has overcome several problems involved in integration of the RHET elements since the first development in this technology in 1985. Officers say that they expect the immediate result of this research will be a supercomputer with a performance speed of one trillion FLOPS (floating point operations per second) in the near future. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111/Press Contact: Fujitsu, 03-216-3211) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00080) CANON SCUTTLING DOT MATRIX FOR INK JET TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Canon, the largest supplier of a laser printers in the world with a 70 percent market share, has revealed a plan to accelerate transition from dot matrix impact printers to ink-jet printers. The strategic movement will also support the transition of dot matrix printers to laser printers because an ink-jet printer bridges the price gap between the two. The new Canon Bubble-Jet ink-jet printer is said to have an improvement over other ink-jet printers which tend to get clogged up with dried ink at the nozzle. This defect meant they were not widely accepted by the public. Canon started the marketing of its latest ink-jet printer, DJ-130J, last December. The DJ-130J prints 360 dots per inch, 220 character per second and makes 45 decibels of noise. Those figures are almost the same as laser printers with the price tag of 198,000 yen or $1,365. The BJ-130J is available for PC-9801 series and IBM Personal System/55 currently, but Canon will make it available for other machines and will increase current output of 2,000 a month as soon as possible. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00081) IBM SEEKS JAPANESE CLEAN ROOM TECHNOLOGY TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 4 (NB) -- IBM is seeking Japanese clean room technology in order to develop next-generation computer chips. Professor Tadahiro Ohmi of Tohoku University has received an invitation from the headquarters of IBM in the U.S. to introduce the technology there. The technology, so-called Ultra Clean Technology, is utilized to build clean facilities with suitable level for the production of highly integrated circuits. The concept specifies not only a clean room but also a total process line, such as gas pipelines, valves, and the purification of gas itself. To accommodate the plan some manufacturers are developing necessary materials. Some Japanese makers are also showing their interest for this technology. Since higher integration requires dirt-free conditions, this technology is acknowledged as the most advanced technology for building a dirt-free chip plant. The technology is said to be critical for the future production of such 16- or 64-megabit chips with ultra large scale integration. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (EXCLUSIVE)(UNIX)(LAX)(00082) MAI STRATEGY FOR MOVING AHEAD IN THE 1990S TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- In an exclusive interview with Newsbytes, President and COO Fred D. Anderson, Jr., Chairman and CEO William Weksel and Director of Systems Marketing, J. Gary Brenkman, outlined MAI Basic Four's new strategy for the 1990s which includes a major move into the Unix operating system. "As you know," opened Anderson, "our company roots are back in the minicomputer market of the 1970s, a time when we could sell hardware. In the 1990s, the key will be selling solutions." Anderson told Newsbytes that MAI is moving from its proprietary architecture (Business Basic Operating System) into the world of standards with its first 1990s product, GPx Series 40 Systems running MAI's BOSS/VX "Dual Universe" operating system. "Our systems will now move Business Basic into Dual Universe which is 100 percent compatible with both Business Basic and Unix," Anderson explained to Newsbytes. "This, as far as we know, is a unique combination. The system will be transparent to both the Unix and the Business Basic user so there will be no need for anyone to learn new commands. Dual Universe will allow us to continue marketing Business Basic and at the same time let our customers move at their own pace into the Unix environment." "We've always designed for maximum compatibility within the Business Basic environment and now we're adding Unix capability," Weksel told Newsbytes. "When we say this system is 100 percent industry standards compatible, we know it is because we have been shipping in volume since December and the customers are proving our point." Brenkman noted that depending upon the age of a customer's current MAI system, conversion to the new GPx Series 40 system may involve only a change in CPU with all peripherals remaining the same. A new product line is just one way MAI is approaching the 1990s. "There has been much turmoil in the mid-range [mini] market," said Anderson. "There has been too much product for too few customers. What we have to do is sell turnkey solutions for customers in niche applications." For this reason, MAI has elected top reorganize into "business units." Each business unit is a separate company with its own distinct name operating under the MAI umbrella. "Business units are being established along industry specific vertical market lines. "In essence, what we are creating are value added resellers (VARs) with the distinct advantage of a well capitalized company behind them and an established customer base already numbering 30,000," said Anderson. These business units are being created on an international basis since MAI does considerable business throughout the world. Anderson pointed out the fact that the company does $80 million a year in West Germany alone. Anderson also reminded Newsbytes that MAI has introduced networking to connect MAI products with one another and with other vendor equipment. MAI has taken a step unusual for a manufacturer but definitely in line with the company's VAR concept. "Our business units will do what is necessary to satisfy the customer," said Anderson. "If that means integrating product from other vendors with ours, we'll do it. If networking is required, we'll do it. Today, the customers run the business. They are computer literate and manufacturers must realize we can no longer 'pull the wool over their eyes.'" Anderson also noted that none of these business units are located at the Tustin, CA headquarters. "These business units are headquartered out in the field as close to the heart of their particular vertical markets as possible," added Anderson. "The managers who run these units have a great deal of latitude in putting together the best solutions and also are charged with responsibility for overall operation of the unit." Both Anderson and Weksel are new to their current posts this week. Weksel, who took over as acting president in June when William B. Patton, Jr. resigned the post has moved to the position of chairman, replacing his close associate Bennett S. LeBow. LeBow has taken the new title of chairman of the Board of Directors' Executive Committee. In his place as president, Weksel has named Fred Anderson, formerly MAI's chief financial officer. Commenting on the executive changes, Anderson told Newsbytes: "I believe we have the strategy and the leadership including a strong middle management team to lead our industry in the 1990s. Our people have carried us through tough times in the past. In 1985, there were those who wrote us off yet in 1988 we were second in operating income margins to IBM in our industry. The losses in 1989 were a result not only of the Prime Computer situation but also the fact that we were late coming to market with a Unix-based system. Today I am confident we will rise to the top again. We have a firm commitment from our owners, LeBow and Weksel, whose $55 million investment in MAI back in September is solid proof of their faith in our future." (Janet Endrijonas/19900112) (NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00083) PYRAMID CHIEF OPTIMISTIC ABOUT NIXDORF SALE TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- The sale of West German computer vendor Nixdorf to Siemens does not worry Richard Lussier, chairman of Pyramid Technology, whose Unix-based minicomputers Nixdorf sells in Europe. In Toronto the day after the deal was announced, Lussier said his company has a good chance of continuing to deal with the merged company, despite Siemens' relationship with rival Sequent. Lussier, also president and chief executive of the Mountain View, California firm, said Pyramid's relationship with Nixdorf accounts for only seven percent of its revenue, down from about 26 percent three years ago. But, he said, "We think we're going to come out pretty well because of it (the acquisition)." Lussier met with Canadian technology journalists along with Thomas Stack, general manager of Pyramid Technology Canada. Stack announced a C$1-million sale of Pyramid hardware to Gordon Capital, a Toronto investment firm, and said the company's expansion plans for the coming year include an office in Western Canada. (Grant Buckler/19900111/Press Contact: Thomas Stack, Pyramid Technology Canada, 416-490-1165) (NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00084) YHP RELEASES NEW WORKSTATIONS TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Corresponding with a similar release by its U.S. parent, Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard has added two more brothers to the HP 9000 Series 300 workstations. The new machines are the desktop type model 345 and the deskside type model 375 and both have 12 MIPS (million instructions per second) of processing ability from the Motorola 68030 MPU (microprocessing unit) running at 50 megahertz. YHP will ship these machines in February to compete with the SPARCStation of Sun Microsystems and DEC Station 3100/2100 of Digital Equipment Corporation. The price of the machines in Japan, with minimum configuration, is 1,918,000 yen or $13,230 for model 345 and 5,658,000 yen or $39,020 for the model 375. YHP will emphasize that the new machines can run over 1,800 existing applications already written for its HP9000/300 series. The big selling point to the model 375 will be that it can be upgrades by just replacing current 68030-bases CPU board with a 68040 board. The upgrading service will start this fall and will cost 500,000 yen or $3,450. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111/Press Contact: Yokogawa-Hewlett-Pakard, 03-335-8177) (NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00085) CANON HOPES TO SELL UP TO 20,000 NEXT WORKSTATIONS TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 9 (NB) -- Canon claims that it will sell 15,000 to 20,000 NeXT workstations in Asia in fiscal 1990. While skeptics say this is fantasy, given the entire Japanese market in 1988 was 33,000 units and 40,000 units in 1989, Canon officers say the 1990 market as a whole will be far greater -- amounting to 60,000 or 70,000 units. To achieve this sales target Canon would have to control 30 percent of the Japanese workstation market with the Next machine. Of course, Canon has a strategy to achieve the goal. It will release a Japanese version of the machine by fall. It will also ask Next, based in Fremont, California, to develop a lower-priced, reduced- feature version of the workstation for the engineering market in Asia. It also plans to develop a new model with the latest central processing unit, the Motorola 68040, for release in the fall. Sales of the computer got off to a good start. Canon reports the first lot of 500 were sold out within the first month of sale, in December. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00086) TOSHIBA TO MINIATURIZE WORKSTATIONS TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 1 (NB) -- Toshiba hopes to export its expertise in the laptop and book-sized computer business to the workstation arena. According to Toshiba's blueprint for the machine, it will have RISC (reduced instruction set computer) chips and run on Sun OS (operating system) to be compatible with Sun's workstations. Toshiba will also employ four-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips to minimize space requirements and will develop a new white-mode LCD (liquid crystal display) unit. The firm is expecting to develop the machine by fall this year and is targeting the price around one million yen or $6,900. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111) (NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00087) SONY'S NEWS WILL SUPPORT OSF/1 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 10 (NB) -- Sony's News workstation will support OSF/1, an operating system developed by OSF or Open Software Foundation. With this endorsement, Sony has enlisted in the ranks of both the Unix standardization organization, Unix International, and OSF. The decision to actually apply the fruits of OSF's labor, however, indicate that the giant electronics firm believes OSF has the advantage. While AT&T attracts users with Unix System V Release 4.0, OSF has announced it will bundle popular operating system Mach with its OSF/1. "To provide the most advanced technology for our users, we will adopt OSF/1 as soon as it is developed," said a Sony spokesman. Sony is the second Japanese firm to announce support of the OSF/1 following Hitachi. (Naoyuki Yazawa/19900111/Press Contact: Sony Corporation, 03-448-2111) (REVIEW)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00088) Review of: CAVEMAN UGH-LYMPICS, game for the Commodore 64 or 128 Runs on: C-64/1541, C-128/1571 (in 64 mode) From: Electronic Arts PO Box 7578, San Mateo, CA 944403-7578 (415) 572-2787 Price: $29.95 PUMA Rating: 3.5 (on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest) Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Bill Juliani, 01/09/90 Summary: Humorous sports game set in prehistoric times. Up to six players, joystick required. Jiffy DOS and C-128 (in 64 mode) compatible. ====== REVIEW ====== "Champs To Bash Head to Head," cries the Ugh-Zaminer, a tabloid dated 35,000 B.C., and it isn't kidding! Loaded with humor (droll at times) the Caveman Ugh-Lympics is the lighter side of the Summer/Winter Games series. This 2-disk package at first glance seems silly, until you try to vault or race Dino, toss your mate, race the Saber Toothed Tiger, make fire or club your Neanderthal friend. Skill and time with the practice option are needed to even make a good showing. You can choose from six athletes, each with their own strengths and weakness, except for poor Vincent who isn't good at anything. Once you choose your athlete and sponsor you're off to the Ugh-Lympics, Practice, or to browse the Caves of Fame. Use a good quality, heavy duty joystick. As with 'Decathlon,' fast stick action is needed in many of the events. The Dino Vault is my most difficult area. I usually end up as Dino fodder. =========== PUMA RATING ========== Performance: 4 . Graphics are excellent and imaginative. Sound effects are great, but the music lacks something. Fast screen and response. Each event is loaded into memory, but there is some disk swapping. Usefulness: 3 Good game for all ages, and shouldn't collect dust. Manual: 3.5 Simple, and includes tips in both the manual and tabloid. Good humor. Availability: 3.5 Mail order or from EOA. (Bill Juliani/19900112) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00089) NEWSBYTES STOCK REPORT / FRIDAY 12 JANUARY, 1990 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 13 (NB) -- Technology stocks fared the past week as follows: Name of stock Closing price Traded(00s) 3com 12.62 1366 Adage 1.19 664 Alliant Computer Sys 5.87 229 Alloy Computer Prods 1.25 0 Alpha Microsystems 4.12 72 Alpharel 0.44 90 Alts Cmptr Systms 7.12 228 AM Magnetics 5.62 154 Amdahl 14.50 1851 Amdahl 14.50 1851 Analogic 9.62 72 Apple Computer 34.50 15348 Ast Research 13.62 1946 Astrocom 0.81 0 Astrosystems 3.62 115 Atari 8.75 1018 Banctec 15.37 304 Brrstr Infrmtn Sys 1.37 8 C P T 0.69 1834 Cipher Data Prods 6.62 1281 Cncrrnt Cmptr Crp NW 2.62 538 Cntrl Dta Crp DL 17.12 1078 Commodore Intl 8.25 2668 Compaq Computer 80.50 6499 Computer Identics 1.62 0 Computer Memories 1.31 23 Computrac 3.00 17 Convex Computer 15.62 545 Cray Resh 36.50 2067 Csp 6.00 2 D B A Sys 5.75 243 D H Technology 12.75 302 Daisy Sys 0.69 674 Data Gen 11.25 412 Data I O 3.62 99 Datametrics 0.94 0 Datapoint 3.25 69 Dataproducts 7.75 190 Dataram 9.50 17 Datasouth Computer 2.06 10 Dell Computer 5.37 310 Dgtl Cmmnctns Assc 20.75 3280 Digital Equip 84.62 4777 Dynatech 17.25 358 E M C Corp Mass 3.50 241 Ecc Intl 5.62 75 Ecc Intl 5.62 75 Electronic Assoc 2.75 9 Emulex 5.87 894 Everex Sys 7.87 1480 Evns&Sthrlnd Cmptr 21.37 186 Fibronics Intl 5.87 100 Floating Point Sys 1.62 198 General Parametrics 4.62 181 Genicom 1.00 113 Gerber Scientific 13.75 1120 Gnrl Atmtn Inc Clf 0.62 30 Gradco Sys 10.75 1740 Gtwy Cmmnctns 1.94 227 Hewlett Packard 45.75 4747 Hunt Mfg 22.50 297 I I S Intllgnt Info 4.50 84 Infotron Sys 7.75 30 Int Bus Machs 97.87 13477 Int Totalizer Sys 4.56 637 Intergraph 16.00 1082 Intermec 26.00 399 Interphase 5.50 5 Intllgnt Sys Mstr L 2.25 42 Iomega 3.37 225 Ipl Sys 6.44 0 Key Tronics 5.00 152 Lee Data 2.00 338 Litton Inds 76.25 258 Logicon 20.00 172 Masstor Sys CP 2.12 1310 Maxtor 7.62 4305 Megadata 0.81 0 Micron Technology 9.37 2284 Micropolis 3.75 769 Micros Sys 4.37 97 Miltope Group 6.00 19 Miniscribe 0.31 1849 Nbi 0.34 590 Ncr 61.25 2770 Norsk-data A S 5.75 72 North Atl Inds 3.00 38 Ntwrk Eqp Tchnlgs 29.62 736 Odetics Inc Del 6.25 1 Par Technology 4.50 44 Pitney Bowes 47.00 2751 Prcptn Tchnlgy 4.25 198 Prime Computer 6.75 395 Printronix 10.12 108 Printronix 10.12 108 Pyramid Technology 20.50 1632 Qantel 0.22 257 Quantum 11.75 4239 Recognition Equip 6.50 668 Reuter 8.25 148 Rexon 6.62 110 Reynolds&Reynolds 21.62 59 Robotic Vision Sys 3.25 117 Scan Optics 3.00 67 Scitex 17.00 408 Seagate Technology 14.50 5913 Sequent Computer Sys 20.25 1386 Sharebase 0.25 25 Smith Corona 12.00 1671 Sped O Prnt BS Mch 3.50 20 Star Technologies 0.50 200 Stratus Computer 21.62 1783 Summagraphics 12.75 68 Syntech Intl 0.37 73 System Inds 2.25 20 Tandem Computers 24.50 4052 Tandon 0.69 1036 Telematics Intl 4.50 304 Televideo Sys 0.31 273 Teradata 20.75 382 Terminal Data 1.25 55 Triad Sys 3.69 743 Tridex 4.00 54 Ultimate 8.12 121 Unisys 14.37 6982 United Telecomm KA 34.25 8698 United Tote 11.00 492 Unitronix 6.87 133 Velobind 5.37 96 Vmx 2.56 261 WA Scientific Inds I 9.00 25 Wang Labs 7.00 16 Wells Amern 0.25 60 Wes Digital Corp Del 9.12 1308 Wicat Sys 1.62 459 Wyse Technology Del 9.37 1514 Xerox 56.00 1765 Zentec 0.16 3 Zycad 2.50 96 The NEWSBYTES STOCK INDEX (NSI) is 11.50. The NSI is the aggregate of the stock prices of the past week. Comparisons show whether the index moved up or down. Compared with last week's value of 11.52, the index changed by minus 0.02 A total of 250,754 shares changed hands whilst computer stocks closed the week at 2,564.89 (Peter Vekinis/19890113) (INDEX)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00090) NEWSBYTES INDEX/January 16, 1990/Issue #343 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 JAN 16 (NB) -- The following reports are in this issue: ===== APPLE ===== CLARIS GETS RIGHTS TO WINGZ Informix Software has granted Claris Corporation, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, the right to use technology incorporated into the Wingz graphic spreadsheet. TOPS OFFERS UPGRADES; NO LONGER SUN DIVISION The TOPS division of Sun Microsystems has become an independent subsidiary, a move which will allow it to control its own destiny for the first time in two years. ======== BUSINESS ======== SONY AND FUJITSU JOIN FORCES IN CD-ROM Sony and Fujitsu have agreed to cooperate to distribute more CD-ROM (compact disc read-only- memory) software. MITSUBISHI TO BUILD 16M DRAM PLANT IN U.S. Major Japanese semiconductor maker Mitsubishi Electric has revealed a plan to build a 16 megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) production line in the U.S. BUSINESSLAND BITES BULLET, LAYING OFF 5-7% Anticipating a computer industry slump in 1990, the 91-store Businessland chain has started off the year by laying off five to seven percent of its 3,900 workers and by restructuring. NEW APPOINTMENTS AT COMMODORE Commodore Business Machines has announced two appointments to top posts. Walter W. Simpson has been named director of product marketing and the new Application and Technical Support (CATS) group's vice president is Jeff Scherb. PRIME SCHEDULES SPECIAL SHAREHOLDERS SESSION Prime Computer has announced that a special shareholders meeting is scheduled for 10 AM on January 30, 1990 to sanction the projected merger between Prime and a subsidiary of DR Holdings of Delaware. WESTINGHOUSE GETS $30 MILLION TO NOK COMPUTERS Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced that a Swiss nuclear company, Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerk AG (NOK), supplier of electricity to northern Switzerland, has awarded Westinghouse a $30 million contract to modernize Units 1 and 2 at NOK's Beznau site on the Aare River. HARRIS ABANDONING MOST CONSUMER BUSINESSES Harris has signed agreements to sell off its Lanier Business Systems and its data communications subsidiaries in separate transactions. The company is maintaining the old Harris/3M operations, which distributes computer and copier supplies. CALCOMP JOINS FORCES WITH JAPANESE FIRMS Calcomp has joined Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Corp. in a new Tokyo-based computer graphics company called NS CalComp. COMPUTER AUTOMATION ACQUIRES NEEDED FUNDS Computer Automation has entered into a loan, warrant and security agreement with a group of private investors which has loaned the company $3,150,000 while the company has issued the investors warrants to purchase shares of its stock. ORACLE MOVING TOWARD DIRECT SALES IN EASTERN CANADA Oracle has announced a new distribution agreement with Computertime Network, its distributor for Canada's five eastern provinces. Sales staff from Montreal-based Computertime will work with people from Oracle, of Toronto, Ontario, as Oracle prepares to sell its Oracle database software direct in Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. GANDALF ANNOUNCES BELGIAN SALE The European subsidiary of Gandalf Technologies has signed a two-year agreement with Solvay & Cie. of Brussels. Gandalf will provide a range of data communications and network products to Solvay locations worldwide. ADOBE FOURTH QUARTER/FULL YEAR RESULTS A RECORD Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced its fourth quarter and fiscal 1989 operating results are a record. Revenue for the fourth quarter ended 1 December, 1989, was $37.703 million, compared to $25.265 million for the same period the previous year. LONDON STOCKS FALL HEAVILY - FRANKFURT MIXED The London Stock Exchange led the fall on Friday, with the Financial Times Stock Index (FTSE) plummeting 38.3 points to close the day on 2,380.1 points. DIGITAL EQUIPMENT BUYS FURTHER INTO MIPS Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is buying further into MIPS by purchasing 317,016 shares of the company's stock, pushing its total holding to about 5 percent. The purchase is reported to have cost DEC around $5.2 million TECHNOLOGY STOCKS LEAD DOWNWARD SPIRAL The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dipped heavily during the week, falling by more than 75 points on Friday, January 12. Computer and technology companies, as ever, led the downward tumble in share prices. Amongst the most notable were: ASIAN MARKETS CLOSE LOWER Asian markets closed sharply lower following the lead set by European and US markets this week. NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE DIVES MORE THAN 70 POINTS The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell on Friday to finish the day down 71.46 points at 2,689.21. JAPAN: NOT MUCH DISCOUNTING ON BOOK-SIZED COMPUTERS Small, lightweight book-sized computers, gaining in popularity in Japan, are being discounted less than current desktop and laptop personal computers on the market. CONNECTION MACHINE LANDS IN JAPAN One of the most advanced American parallel processing supercomputer will land to Japan through the Japanese system house, Advanced Systems Co., Ltd. The supercomputer is the Connection Machine CM-2 series of Thinking Machine Corporation. FUJITSU BUILDING NEW 4M CHIP PLANT Fujitsu is building a four-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) production plant in Iwate Prefecture in Northern Japan. The construction of the plant is expected to be complete by April and output of products is expected by the fall. ======= GENERAL ======= SMART PHONES, BIGGER RADIOS, KARAOKE AND NINTENDO CLONES AT CES The Consumer Electronics Show, which is expected to have drawn fewer spectators but more exhibitors thisxpected to have drawn A.N.A.L.O.G. ATARI MAG CEASES PUBLICATION ANALOG CEASING PUBLICATION Lee H. Pappas, editor of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing, has decided the December issue is the last of the oldest extant Atari-specific magazine. SUN OFFERS COMMUNITY OUTREACH Showing that it's never too big to offer a helping hand, Sun Microsystems has announced several community involvement programs and a direct grant program for non-profit organizations in local communities nearby Sun facilities in Silicon Valley and in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. HEWLETT-PACKARD UNVEILS 24 RISC-BASED SYSTEMS Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its largest new product array in history -- 24 models NORMAN WINGROVE JOINS NEWSBYTES Norman Wingrove, known to Hong Kong as the cohost of "The Electric Office," an information technology radio program, and a distinguished journalist in the computer field, has joined Newsbytes to cover the Pacific Rim. ATARI PORTFOLIO: ITS SCREEN MAKES IT NON-COMPATIBLE The Atari Portfolio won't run many standard MS-DOS programs, including communication programs, because its screen is not written to use the same codes as on the IBM PC. AUTHOR LAUNCHES RECREATIONAL PROGRAMMING NEWSLETTER A.K. Dewdney, Computer Recreations columnist for Scientific American magazine, has launched a personal programming newsletter called Algorithm. FREE EDUCATIONAL MEMBERSHIP OF UK CD-ROM USER GROUP The UK CD-ROM User Group has announced it is offering free membership to bona fide educational establishments, thanks to a sponsorship deal with Images & Data, the Swindon-based computer consultancy group. UK: DATATHEFT PAPERBACK PUBLISHED 1 FEBRUARY Datatheft, the book published by Mandarin and written by Hugo Cornwall, the original author of the Hacker's Handbook, now in its fourth edition, has been updated. The UKP 5-99 ($9-00) paperback will be published on 1 February in the UK. ELSEVIER PUBLISHES FREE SECURITY UPDATE Elsevier Science Publishers has published a free update magazine detailing its publications, books and reports on the subjects of computer communications, standardization and security. The magazine is available free of charge to all interested parties. UK: CROWN COMPUTER PRODUCTS OFFERS UKP 799 LASER PRINTER Crown Computer Products, the budget computer peripherals specialist, has announced that a second and final shipment of the Sharp JX-9300 laser printer is available for direct sale to the public. The first shipment of the laser printer, which costs UKP 799 ($1,200) sold out within days of its shipment during November, 1989. HONGKONG IT OFFICERS CHARITY DRIVE FIZZLES, THEY TRY AGAIN A charity drive organized by the information technology industry in aid of underprivileged children MICHAEL JACKSON ON VIDEO GAME DUE IN JUNE The world-famous entertainer Michael Jackson has applied his enthusiasm for games to a video game based on his movie Moon Walker. ======================= GOVERNMENT & THE COURTS ======================= 'KGB HACKER SECRETS' TRIAL IN WEST GERMANY The trial of the three so-called 'KGB hackers' has begun in West Germany . The case stems from a West German TV documentary early last year which exposed four West Germans who were allegedly selling hacked IDs, passwords and telephone numbers to Russian KGB operatives in exchange for cash. BSA BUSTS ALLEGED SPANISH PIRATES, WARNS OTHER VIOLATORS Just before Christmas, the Madrid, Spain Police Department raided the Mapfre Vida insurance company, seizing hundreds of apparently pirated copies of Ashton-Tate's dBASE, Lotus' 1-2-3, and WordPerfect. NIST TACKLES THE TORMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TERMINOLOGY The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has today announced that it is studying current glossaries of poorly defined computer security-related terms. In an effort to eliminate misunderstanding, the glossaries will be entered in a bibliography to be printed this year as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). DOD CONTRACT AWARDED TO STORAGETEK The Department of Defense (DOD) has today announced the awarding of a $33.5 million federal government contract to Storage Technology (StorageTek), Louisville, Colorado, to provide DOD's Defense Logistic Agency (DLA), based at Cameron Station, Alexandria, Virginia, with computer data storage equipment. STONEHOUSE AIMS LEGAL SLINGSHOT AT GOLIATH IBM Stonehouse & Co., which sells network management software, has sued IBM charging unfair trade competition and deceptive advertising. Stonehouse claims IBM is interfering with its customer contracts and that its new "best solution" advertisements are false and misleading. USC ADDS WANG INTEGRATED IMAGING The University of Southern California (USC) and Wang Laboratories have announced that USC's Office of Admissions is using a Wang Integrated Image System (WIIS) to manage student admissions information. PROPOSAL INTENDED TO BOOST CANADIAN SOFTWARE The Canadian government has been calling for initiatives to boost private- sector spending on research and development, so Stephen Bingham produced one. AUSTRALIA: GOVT & IBM TEAM TO PROMOTE COMPUTERS IBM and the New South Wales state government are addressing the chronic shortage of skilled labour in the Australian information technology industry by starting a new course designed to drag office workers into the 1990s. === IBM === SAMSUNG CUTS PC PRICES BY 19 PERCENT Citing the need to be more competitive in a market of "more than 250 hardware competitors," Samsung Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Phil Vertin has announced cuts of up to 19 percent on PCs and local area network products. HEADSTART CD-ROM COMPUTERS SHIPPING Deborah Brown, a spokesperson for HeadStart's PR firm, told Newsbytes today that the reason no evaluation units of the new LX-CD and III-CD computers with built-in CD-ROM player have been sent out to reviewers is because the company wanted to make certain that there were a large number of machines in the stores ready for sale. PRICE REDUCTIONS, NEW SUPPORT FROM ASHTON-TATE Ashton-Tate has announced several price reductions for Framework III upgrades and developer products, effective immediately and also unveiled some new support programs. PS/2 MODEL 70 486 HITS CANADIAN MARKET IBM Canada has announced the PS/2 Model 70 486, following the footsteps of its parent company in the United States. CLEVERCOMM LAUNCHES RAPID RELAY IN UK Clevercomm, a UK computer company, has secured the UK distribution rights to Rapid Relay, System Management Associates' serial file transfer package for MS-DOS-based PCs. The UK 79-95 ($120) package is available immediately. MITSUBISHI TO BOOST AX COMPUTER SALES Mitsubishi Electric, one of the member of AX Conference which organized to fight the domination of NEC in the Japanese personal computer market, is planning to change its PC sales strategy. ================== TELECOMMUNICATIONS ================== MCI MAIL SERVICE FAX RESTRICTIONS This bureau learned today that some fax machines are being connected to 800 lines but that phone companies and fax services are not quite up to speed yet on this service. NORTHERN TELECOM OFFERS FIRST HOME PHONE WITH DISPLAY Northern Telecom has introduced at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas what it said is the first home telephone with a built-in display panel. The Maestro telephone's liquid-crystal display will be used for functions such as calling-number identification, the manufacturer said. ESOPS AT SNET NO FABLE The board of directors of Southern New England Telecommunications (SNET) has approved the debut of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) this month as an adjunct to SNET's other employee savings plans. MILLICOM RECEIVES CELLULAR LICENSE IN GUATEMALA Millicom announced it had received a 20-year national license to establish and operate a cellular telephone system in Guatemala. CCI SELLS DALLAS CELLULAR INTEREST TO MCCAW FOR STOCK Cellular Communications entered into an agreement with McCaw Cellular Communications to sell a subsidiary holding 5.56% in the Dallas non-wireline cellular partnership for 1,601,036 shares of CCI common stock now owned by McCaw. CITY-SIZED PHONE MANAGEMENT INTRO'D BY OCTEL Octel Communications announced the 216-port Aspen Maxum Super-System with 912 hours of message storage capable of supporting up to 30,000 subscribers -- or the population of a small city. RESURGENS COMMUNICATIONS LISTED ON AMEX Resurgens Communications Group sold $15 million principal amount of convertible subordinated debentures due January 15, 2005, priced at par to yield 10%. BELL ATLANTIC MOBILE LAUNCHES FIRST TV AD CAMPAIGN Reflecting both increased competition and increased call handling capacity, Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems is launching its first major television advertisement campaign. AT&T, MCI BACK IN COURT AGAIN AT&T and MCI are back in court again. This time, the bigger company is accusing its smaller rival of unfair and deceptive telemarketing practices and switching of long-distance customers without their consent. MCI, AT&T OFFER INTERNATIONAL DISCOUNTS MCI and AT&T have both announced new calling plans with bigger discounts on calling overseas. TELESPHERE NAMES NEW 900 HEAD Telesphere Communications has chosen James G. Hertel Jr. as vice president of marketing for Information Services/900. ROCKWELL COMM SYSTEMS INTEGRATES THREE CA-BASED OPERATIONS Rockwell Communications Systems has announced the integration of its three California-based operations, Semiconductor Products Division and Microelectronics Technology Center in Newport Beach and CMC in Santa Barbara into a new Digital Communications Division (DCD). MERCURYLINK 7500 ANNOUNCES OAG COMPETITION Mercurylink 7500, the UK side of the US-based Easylink e-mail network, operated by the Cable and Wireless group, is encouraging its subscribers to access the Official Airlines Guide online database via its service with a free competition. CHINA TO BUY INTO HONGKONG TELECOM China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) is to buy up to 20 percent of Hongkong Telecommunications from parent company Cable and Wireless. HONG KONG FAX USERS GET ONLINE FLIGHT INFO Hong Kong travellers can now use their fax machines to retrieve the latest information on flight departures and ines to retrieve STATE OF THE ART LASER TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR HONG KONG LASERBEAM LANS FOR HONGKONG Case Communications Asia/Pacific has released its advanced Megabeam infrared laser communications system in Hong Kong. JAPAN OFFERS ISDN EXPERTISE TO KOREA Japan's telecom giant NTT will supply its advanced telecommunication technologies, including ISDN (integrated services digital network), to the Korean Telecommunication Authority (KTA), according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. =================== TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY =================== STUDY CITES BIGGEST REASONS FOR OWNING COMPUTERS Seventy-seven percent of home PCs are used mainly for word processing and running spreadsheets, according to a study commissioned by Smith Corona. MITSUBISHI BUILDS ITS FIRST SIM MODULE IN NORTH CAROLINA Mitsubishi Semiconductor America, announced it has completed its first custom-designed single inline memory module (SIMM). JAPANESE FIRMS PLAN MOVES TO EUROPE Hitachi, the major Japanese electronics giant, has announced plans to begin manufacturing semiconductors in West Germany. CRAY TO USE JAPANESE MEMORY The world's largest supercomputer maker, Cray Research, has decided to adopt materials made by Hitachi and Toshiba for the main memory of its supercomputers. HITACHI TO LAUNCH DAT STORAGE SYSTEM Hitachi has developed a computer storage system using DAT (digital audio tape). The new system called DT-1000S allows a DAT tape to store one-gigabyte of data, or the equivalent of 1,000 floppy disks. HITACHI LAUNCHES NEW COLOR LAPTOP Following NEC and Fujitsu, Hitachi has debuted its color laptop PC for the domestic market. The firm claims that its B32LXC features a vivid screen display and a low price. HITACHI TO SHIP 16-MEG DRAM SAMPLES THIS YEAR Hitachi has decided to produce and ship 16-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) sample chips by the year's end. JAPAN DECELERATES ONE-MEG CHIP PRODUCTION Japan's major chipmakers such as Toshiba, NEC, and Hitachi are hitting the brakes on production of one-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips in order to keep prices from sliding. They have cut production this month by 10 to 15 percent. SONY TO INTRO 4-MEG SRAM LINE Sony will lead the industry in launching a test production line for 4-megabit SRAM (static random access memory) chips, and will initiate sample shipment in 1991. JAPAN MASS-PRODUCING MAGNETIC-OPTICAL DISKS In order to meet the surging demand for rewritable magnetic-optical disks (MODs) as computer data storage media, several domestic makers are now making them in volume. FUJITSU MAKES QUANTUM LEAP IN IC SPEED The dream of a laptop supercomputer may be closer to reality thanks to a development from Fujitsu. The company has developed an IC (integrated circuit) which performs 100 times faster than current supercomputers and requires between one-half and one-tenth the number of conventional circuit design elements. CANON SCUTTLING DOT MATRIX FOR INK JET Canon, the largest supplier of a laser printers in the world with a 70 percent market share, has revealed a plan to accelerate transition from dot matrix impact printers to ink-jet printers. IBM SEEKS JAPANESE CLEAN ROOM TECHNOLOGY IBM is seeking Japanese clean room technology in order to develop next-generation computer chips. Professor Tadahiro Ohmi of Tohoku University has received an invitation from the headquarters of IBM in the U.S. to introduce the technology there. ==== UNIX ==== MAI STRATEGY FOR MOVING AHEAD IN THE 1990S In an exclusive interview with Newsbytes, President and COO Fred D. Anderson, Jr., Chairman and CEO William Weksel and Director of Systems Marketing, J. Gary Brenkman, outlined MAI Basic Four's new strategy for the 1990s which includes a major move into the Unix operating system. PYRAMID CHIEF OPTIMISTIC ABOUT NIXDORF SALE The sale of West German computer vendor Nixdorf to Siemens does not worry Richard Lussier, chairman of Pyramid Technology, whose Unix-based minicomputers Nixdorf sells in Europe. In Toronto the day after the deal was announced, Lussier said his company has a good chance of continuing to deal with the merged company, despite Siemens' relationship with rival Sequent. YHP RELEASES NEW WORKSTATIONS CANON HOPES TO SELL UP TO 20,000 NEXT WORKSTATIONS Canon claims that it will sell 15,000 to 20,000 NeXT workstations in Asia in fiscal 1990. TOSHIBA TO MINIATURIZE WORKSTATIONS Toshiba hopes to export its expertise in the laptop and book-sized computer business to the workstation arena. SONY'S NEWS WILL SUPPORT OSF/1 Sony's News workstation will support OSF/1, an operating system developed by OSF or Open Software Foundation. ====== REVIEW ====== Review of: CAVEMAN UGH-LYMPICS, game for the Commodore 64 or 128 ========= EDITORIAL ========= SEND IT ELECTRONICALLY! - Editorial by Keith Cameron, Newsbytes Hong Kong Hot off the electronic press, the international IT news service Newsbytes reported that as of 1st January 1990, US broadcasting giant, NBC, will no longer mail press releases to the media. Instead it is working with the Associated Press (AP) to send them directly into newsroom computers. (Wendy Woods/19900111) (EDITORIAL)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00091) SEND IT ELECTRONICALLY! - Editorial by Keith Cameron, Newsbytes Hong Kong POK FU LAM, HONG KONG, 1990 JAN 11 (NB) -- Hot off the electronic press, the international IT news service Newsbytes reported that as of 1st January 1990, US broadcasting giant, NBC, will no longer mail press releases to the media. Instead it is working with the Associated Press (AP) to send them directly into newsroom computers. I hope that a few agencies will take notice of this development and start being a little more adventurous. Over recent times I have written a great deal about business communications systems, particularly electronic document interchange (EDI) and open systems interconnect (OSI). There is no doubt whatsoever that these facilities will improve efficiency and productivity in all business arenas. But there are a number of communications services which are available in Hongkong and elsewhere around the world today which could be better utilized and, strangely enough, are not used by the people who could benefit most - the public relations and publishing firms. I find it incredible that the PR firms which handle information technology clients still distribute press releases on paper and/or by fax. My little Ricoh fax works seemingly day and night receiving literally hundreds of pages of text produced by these firms, and that is not to mention my mailbox which is jam packed every day. I would much prefer to be able access a central database to pick up all the information, or at least receive it in text down a telephone line. It is even more puzzling that the IT magazine publishers do not put more pressure on them to transmit the releases electronically. It is so easy to do and it is far more practical and economical for everybody concerned. According to the Newsbytes report, the plan at NBC, which is far more complex than is required here, is that AP members who subscribe to the AP Features services will have NBC press releases piped in directly with those wires. Other recipients, like magazines, which are not AP members, can either get tiny satellite dish antennas which will send the data directly into their PCs, or acquire printers which will deliver the releases like old-fashioned newswires. The daily NBC news briefings, which usually run to about 18-24 pages on various subjects, will be sent via modem from NBC's headquarters in Rockefeller Center to AP's offices in the same complex, then via microwave to a satellite uplink in Staten Island. The news will reach newsrooms each afternoon at the same time in all locations. Unlike fax transmissions, these will not have to be rekeyed, can be edited immediately with any word processor and dropped into the newspaper untouched by human hands. Other networks in the US are watching NBC's move closely. The simple fact is that the clients of PR agencies in Hongkong and elsewhere would be served far better if their releases were distributed electronically. If a publication is using press release material purely for news items, then the advantage of receiving them electronically is obvious and the chance of publication, because of the automatic nature of the procedure, is far higher than the traditional paper method. Because there is no necessity to rekey the information, releases can be received by publications right up to their deadlines. The result is that clients' news items are published on a more timely basis. Apart from the pure production advantages for the publications, there is another benefit which is not so visible, the archive advantage. All publications maintain libraries of information related to products, personalities and companies. The problem is that, in a normal magazine environment, few of the press releases actually are filed in these libraries. Simply because of the vast quantity of paper, filing cabinets are just not large enough and the press releases end up in the waste paper basket, whether used or not. If press releases are received electronically then they can also be filed electronically. In its simplest form this means a text database on a personal computer. The journalist or editor then has the capability of searching through the disk library by keywords related to any particular subject he or she may be addressing with any particular article which is being written at the time. Chances are that with this method, more information will be picked up and published. The journalist writes a more complete story; the reader benefits because of the additional information; and the PR client gains greater coverage than would otherwise have been possible. It is relatively straightforward for a PR agency to set up an electronic distribution medium. It can be done using a PC, some reasonable communications software and a little assistance from the Hongkong Telephone Company Datacom Services Division or your regional phone company. Dial-up or packet switch connections can be arranged very easily and economically. Each publication would probably justify the relatively minor costs purely on the savings of fax paper. But certainly the production savings and the hidden advantages mentioned above have tangible value. In Hongkong two commercial systems exist which could handle the electronic distribution of press information - Dialcom, operated by Cable & Wireless; and, iNet, operated by the Hutchison Group. Either one offer the opportunity for releases to be distributed worldwide on a timely basis. All that is necessary is for the publications to join the service and they can receive all releases in their electronic mailboxes. The trend is clear, electronic publishing is here and here to stay. My point of view is soundly supported by the fact that I would not have had the information for this column today had it not been for Newsbytes, which is an international network specializing in the worldwide electronic distribution of information relating to the IT industry. The NBC report was loaded onto the Newsbytes News Network in the US on Saturday and it was read in print in Hongkong on Tuesday. Come on Relations firms, start using the technology you so ardently endeavor to promote, your clients will be better served and their prospects will be better informed. (Keith Cameron/19891207)