Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1983 May to 1994 June

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(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00001) HAYES PATENT CASE SET FOR JANUARY TRIAL 12/11/90 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Hayes' patent infringement suits against Ven-tel, Prometheus Products, Omnitel and Everex have been set for trial starting January 4 in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of California in San Francisco. Hayes' is charging the four with violating a patent first filed by Hayes co-founder Dale Heatherington, and granted in 1985 as number 4,549,302. Hayes wants an injunction against further modem manufacture by the four companies, damages for past infringement, attorneys' fees, prejudgement interest, and treble damages for willful infringement. The Hayes patent applies to modems that require receipt of an escape sequence bounded by a guard time to escape to a PC communication software program's command mode. It covers all Hayes-compatible modems, because the sequence is a crucial part of the Hayes AT command set. In recent events concerning the patent, Presiding Judge Samuel A. Conti has granted Hayes motions to dismiss all antitrust claims made by the four, and the Circuit Court has upheld Conti's ruling not to hold the patent invalid without a trial. In order to win, the defendents must prove to the trial court that the Hayes patent is either obvious or invalid in some other way. Recent court rulings have increased the protection offered by patents in the computer field. Hayes also has protection for its patent in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada. A second patent infringement case against Multitech is being pursued in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, but no trial date has been set there. (Dana Blankenhorn/19901211/Press Contact: Hayes, Peggy Ballard, 404-449-8791) (EXCLUSIVE)(BUSINESS)(MOW)(00002) MOSCOW: UNSTABLE GOVT DRIVES COMPUTER PRICES UP 12/10/90 MOSCOW, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 10 (NB) -- The unstable political situation and signs of coming big changes in state fiscal policy have raised rouble computer prices. According to a variety of dealers and buyers of computers and other electronics in Moscow, the price of a standard AT rose from 43-45 thousand roubles last week to 54,000-55,000 roubles now. Fax machines are also up from 11-15 thousand roubles to 15-22 thousand. Last month, President Gorbachev issued a decree that takes 40% of foreign currency earnings from all Soviet enterprises "to service state debt payments." This decree and rumors about coming limitations for rouble transactions has forced many people to spend money -- local and foreign -- investing in small but expensive units such as computers, according to Leonid Malkov of Paragraph, a joint venture. (Kirill Tchashchin/19901207) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00003) BANYAN VINES/SMP SERVER FROM ORACLE 12/11/90 WANCHAI, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Oracle Corporation has announced the release of Oracle Server for Banyan Vines/SMP. This is claimed to be the first implementation of native symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) data base management which is tightly integrated with the Banyan network operating system. Oracle says symmetric multiprocessing provides significant performance improvements over non-SMP systems or single processor systems. As new processors are added to a computer system, SMP enables each processor to run a complete version of Oracle, resulting in significant transaction throughput gains. "For the first time, large business-critical applications can run on multiprocessor computers such as Compaq Systempro, and take advantage of the power and scalability of Oracle Servers, plus the transparent, distributed architecture of Banyan Vines," said Richard H. Hess, chief executive at Oracle Systems Hong Kong Ltd. Oracle Server for Banyan Vines/SMP acts as a Vines server based service and is completely integrated with StreetTalk, Banyan's global naming service. Any authorized Vines user can access any Oracle server on the network by referring to its StreetTalk assigned name. The actual location of any of the Oracle Servers is transparent to the user. "This approach greatly simplifies data base access, administration, security and backup," noted Hess. "Oracle's file and record locking methods also work with Vines network security to provide additional data integrity and database access protection." Oracle Server for Banyan Vines/SMP is based on the Oracle relational database management system (RDBMS) Version 6.0. It requires a minimum of eight megabytes of memory and 80 megabytes of hard disc storage. (Norman Wingrove/19901207/Press Contact: Venus Chan, Oracle, + 852 824 0118; HK time is GMT + 8) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00004) RIVAL HONG KONG PACKET NETWORKS ESTABLISH LINKS 12/11/90 WANCHAI, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Hong Kong Telecom's Datapak and Hutchison's INET packet networks are now able to communicate with each other, giving users of the two rival packet switched networks the ability to connect to users on either system. Datapak is Hong Kong's principal packet network, widely used for secure data transmission by everyone from individual private users to department stores, banks, stockbrokers and multinational corporations. Until now, though, it has not been possible for users of one of the networks to perform such routine tasks as exchanging electronic mail with users of the other network. Under the new arrangement, both private and public services on each network will be accessible to users of either system, provided they know the relevant network user address (NUA) and have the provider's permission to use the service. Among other things, INET users may now access Newsbytes on Hong Kong Telecom's Dialcom service via Datapak. Previously only dedicated Dialcom subscribers could join the award winning information technology news service, either through the standard telephone network or by way of Datapak. IT consultant and industry commentator, Keith Cameron, commented: "All that is needed now is for these information services worldwide to publish subscriber directories, like any telephone company. At present, we have the ludicrous situation of computer users being able to exchange electonic mail with anyone around the world - provided they have first contacted them by some other method to ascertain their user address." (Norman Wingrove/19901207/Press Contact: HK Telecom, + 852 808 6470; HK time is GMT + 8) (NEWS)(IBM)(NYC)(00005) IBM ANNOUNCES NEW SPEED RECORDS 12/11/90 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- IBM has announced that scientists at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY have set several world speed records for the kinds of circuits used in high-speed mainframe computers. Making the announcement, Paul Horn, who directs silicon research at the Watson Center, said: "We now hold all the important records for laboratory versions of the kinds of circuits found in high-end computers." The records, Horn said, set new standards for the future fast circuits of the kind now used in mainframe computers. The three IBM world records are: o Circuits using both silicon and silicon-germanium NPN transistors that switch in less than 25 picoseconds. (A picosecond is a trillionth of a second.) These NPN transistors are fabricated with a control layer of material that contains mostly positively charged carriers (P) sandwiched between two layers that contain mostly negatively charged carriers (N). o A circuit using pure silicon PNP transistors that runs in 35 picoseconds. (PNP is the complementary configuration for bipolar transistors, where a thin control layer with mostly negatively charged current carriers is sandwiched between two layers of material with mostly positively charged carriers.) IBM said that the new record is six time faster than the previous 1986 record. o An individual NPN silicon-germanium transistor that operates at a frequency of 97 billion cycles per second when cooled to -300 degrees Fahrenheit (-184 degrees Centigrade). IBM says that "the ultra-fast speed promises possible application of the bipolar transistors to supercooled, superfast computers of the future." The announcements were made in conjunction with IBM's participation at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco. (Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19901211/Press Contact: Linda Currey Post, IBM,914-945-2885) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(NYC)(00006) NCR ANNOUNCES COURT VICTORY OVER AT&T 12/11/90 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- NCR has announced that Judge Frederick Smalkin, Federal District Court for the District of Maryland, has dismissed, without prejudice, an amended complaint in a lawsuit filed by AT&T against NCR and the Maryland attorney general. The complaint by AT&T sought a declaratory judgment that the receipt of revokable proxies by AT&T for purposes of a potential shareholder vote would not make AT&T a beneficial owner of NCR shares represented by such proxies under the Maryland Business Combination Act. NCR said that, under the Maryland Business Combinations Act, a "beneficial owner" of 10 percent or more of the outstanding voting stock is precluded for at least five years from entering into any "business combination" with that corporation unless the company's board of directors approves prior to the beneficial owner becoming a 10 percent shareholder. NCR also announced that the court did not consider AT&T's request to enter a temporary restraining order which would have barred NCR from commencing or prosecuting any litigation against AT&T in connection with a tender offer in any other court. AT&T spokesperson John Shako told Newsbytes that the Maryland decision will not deter AT&T in any way from its attempt to acquire NCR. Skalko said: "We'll just proceed to the next step." (Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19901211/Press Contacts: Mark Feighery, NCR, 513-445-2033, John Skalko, AT&T, 201 898-3764) (NEWS)(IBM)(NYC)(00007) IBM & URBAN LEAGUE FORM DRUG YOUTH PROGRAM 12/11/90 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- IBM and the National Urban League have announced the formation of Drugs Destroy Dreams - A Youth Drug Intervention Program that will be implemented in Baltimore and seven other cities beginning Jan. 1. The $1.4 million pilot program is aimed at alcohol and substance abuse by youth at risk. Working with Urban League affiliates across the country, IBM employees and retired volunteers will work as instructors and mentors to teach drug prevention and early intervention to youngsters aged 12 to 16. The substance abuse curriculum will be taught in three-month sessions in the eight cities. The target cities, in addition to Baltimore, are Detroit, Michigan; Columbia, South Carolina; Providence, Rhode Island; Tucson, Arizona; Tacoma, Washington; Akron, Ohio; and Tampa, Florida. Announcing the program, John E. Jacob, president and chief executive officer, National Urban League, told a news conference: "The dreams of our young people must not be destroyed by drugs. With the help of IBM, we are aiming this innovative drug program at one of our nation's greatest challenges." Gerald W. Ebker, IBM vice president and president, federal sector division, commenting on IBM's involvement, said: "As business people, citizens, and parents, IBM is committed to helping our youth achieve their fullest potential. Our partnership with the National Urban League allows us to combine their expertise and IBM employee skills and talents to help our youth succeed in school and in life." (Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19901211/Press Contacts: Marie Givens,Baltimore Urban League, 301-523-8150; Cynthia A. Stevens, IBM, 914-765-4344) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00008) PRAIRIETEK BEGINS PRODUCTION OF 2.5 INCH HARD DRIVES 12/11/90 LONGMONT, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Prairietek Corporation has recently increased it's production staff almost 400 percent as it goes from startup mode to production mode. Dari Stout, PrairieTek spokesperson told Newsbytes that in January there were 130 employees; now they have 500. The dramatic increase is due to PrairieTek having gone into full production of their 2.5 inch hard disk drives for use in personal computers. Stout also said that the PrairieTek facility has added approximately 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space to accommodate the anticipated demand for the new drives. Several staff changes have occurred at PrairieTek in conjunction with the expansion. Scott Hudson, formerly vice president, Corporate Materials at Flextronics Corp in Fremont, Calif has been appointed as vice president of Materials, a new position at PrairieTek. Hudson held previous positions with Unisys Corp. and Storage Technology, where he managed annual material purchases exceeding $400 million. Previous staff changes at PrairieTek saw Ed Heacox appointed as vice president, manufacturing operations, and Bill Mansfield, senior VP of Administration and finance as well as CFO. Hudson will report directly to Heacox. According to Stout, these recently created positions are a result of the increased drive production. (Jim Mallory/19901210/Press Contact:Dari Stout, PrairieTek Corp., 303-772-4011 (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00009) MOTOROLA GOING AHEAD WITH JAPAN CHIP PLANT 12/11/90 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Motorola currently plans to go ahead with a new chip plant in Sendai, Japan despite what it considers a double-cross by Japanese manufacturers against its Micro-Tac cellular phone. The Sendai plant will cost $604 million, and double the company's Japanese chip-making capacity by 1993. The U.S. government, spurred on by Motorola, nearly set off a trade war last year to get the Micro-Tac and U.S. cellular spectrum system into the Japanese market. But NTT, working with four of the largest computer makers -- NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and Matsushita, has now trumped Motorola with a smaller phone unit which will be operating nationwide months before the U.S. company can get its base stations into the tightly-regulated Tokyo market. Motorola is still going ahead, building a Japan-wide cellular system on U.S. standards, but it will now have a much tougher time competing with NTT. Motorola will compete with rates 20% below those of NTT. In the Kansai area of Western Japan, where NTT and Motorola now compete head-to-head, Motorola's orders are outpacing supply 2 to 1. (Dana Blankenhorn/19901211/Press Contact: Motorola, 708-397-5000) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00010) US WEST ENTERS CROYDON PHONE SERVICE MARKET 12/11/90 CROYDON, UNITED KINGDOM, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- British Telecom now faces competition for its local telephone service revenues from an unexpected quarter -- U S West of Englewood, Colorado, USA. United Artists Communications, which runs the United Kingdom's largest cable television service, has with U S West entered the local phone market in the city of Croydon. The running of phone services by a Cable TV franchise is permitted under a 3-week old duopoly review by the UK government. Service outside the local Croydon calling area will be provided by Mercury Communications, BT's arch-rival in the long-distance business. In the US, U S West and other regional Bell companies are fighting hard for permission to enter the local Cable TV business, usually run by monopolies like United Artists. The phone firms argue that entering cable and broadcasting TV pictures is the best way to justify replacing their current copper-based systems with fiber-optic cables. U.S. cable companies, which now sell consumers about 50 channels of so- called "basic" programming for about $25 a month, have shown no inclination to enter the phone market. Introduced to the UK initially in central Croydon, the United Artists service is being extended to the boroughs of Sutton, Merton, Kingston and Richmond and will eventually be available to 400,000 other homes and businesses in the South London area. It will also be made available to other United Artists' U.K. franchises, including Avon, South Essex, the Medway towns, Edinburgh and the Cotswolds. Croydon is the UK's 7th largest commercial center, home to 10,000 businesses occupying 3.5 million square feet of space. The Croydon telephony service will offer a local loop of digital lines, which, by linking through Mercury's network, can call anywhere in the world. United Artists is also committed to providing a greater degree of service than is currently being offered. (Dana Blankenhorn/19901211/Press Contact: Rebecca Herbst, U S West Cable Communications, 303-649-4676) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00011) 900 BUSINESS WORKS TO CLEAN UP ITS IMAGE 12/11/90 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- The audiotex industry is working on all fronts to clean up the image of so- called "900" numbers, which have in the past been marked by fraud, erotica, and consumer rip-offs. MCI has accepted the principle of a clean-up with a new code of conduct for all users of its 900 services. MCI is one of four companies offering the lines, the others being US Sprint, Telesphere and Call Interactive, the latter a joint-venture between American Express and AT&T. MCI's new code will allow it to pre-screen both programs and advertising used for its lines, tighten guidelines on the programs it will allow to be offered, and improve its consumer complaint monitoring and tracking system. Call Interactive already has similar guidelines in place, and does not offer any adult-oriented services. MCI also pledged it would advocate consumer safeguards before regulatory and public policy bodies to require: call blocking of information programs if the call charges to consumers exceed required price cap-per-call levels; and general availability of mechanisms that allow call blocking from home telephones to 900 numbers at no charge, including the ability to block calls to selected 900 numbers, such as those designated for adults. MCI will track and record consumer complaints by information provider and name of program, as well as the type of complaint -- such as deceptive sales tactics or program content. Based on its review of complaints, MCI says it could terminate or suspend billing services for any program. Meanwhile, the 900 industry, working through the Information Industries Association, is consulting with state Attorneys General and the U.S. Congress concerning legal action against erotic lines and anyone who might violate guidelines similar to those annonced by MCI. Peter Brennan a vice president of Optima Direct, a Washington, D.C. telepromotions agency and chair of the voice information services division for the IIA, told Newsbytes his group will meet with the National Attorneys General Association December 17 in Texas to defend the industry, and has already worked with Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee on a proposed law against 900-number fraud. The Attorneys General have received literally hundreds of complaints against 900-number operators, and could either move against them under existing law or press for new regulations within their states. "I think we've succeeded in focusing the bill on the bad apples, and saving the industry," Brennan said of the Gordon bill. One area of remaining disagreement involves a cap on the price operators can charge for calls. The initial bill said that no more than $5 could be charged for any call, but Brennan pointed out that political groups and public television groups have already succeeded in the industry with $10-20 calls. Optima Direct has worked with WNET-TV in New York to hold down so- called "pledge days" with $10 calls to a 900 number. "A price cap will hurt the industry, and keep us with low-value services," he said. Results of IIA lobbying should be seen next year in the attitude of Congress and state legislatures toward the industry. (Dana Blankenhorn/19901207/Press Contact: MCI, 1-800-289-0073, Optima Direct, Peter Brennan, 212-983-1300) (EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(WAS)(00012) NEW VIRUS HITS AT MIT AND IN LONDON AT SAME TIME 12/11/90 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Raymond Glath, creator of VI-SPY, has told Newsbytes that he was contacted last week by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about a newly discovered virus that was affecting several MS-DOS based computers at the school. The new virus, which also struck the City University of London, is a new boot sector virus which therefore must be transferred to a computer via floppy disk. Mr. Glath told Newsbytes that he has already analyzed the new virus, dubbed the "Beijing" virus because of a message referring to the Tiananmen Square incident, and forwarded a modified version of VI-SPY to MIT to clean out the infection. The new virus can only infect a system from a "bootable" or system floppy disk but it then transfers itself to any hard disk and after activation to any floppy inserted in the system whether it is a system disk or not. Mr. Glath says that this is the major danger of the new, otherwise rather benign virus, because it apparently doesn't check the type of floppy before infecting it and will often make a disk unbootable rather than merely spreading the virus. Some 5.25-inch disks are rendered unusable by the virus but so far all 3.5-inch floppies that have been infected have become unusable. The virus is activated after between 1 and 128 boot operations and thereafter will display its message every six times. The virus will attempt to add itself to any floppy or hard disk and for some disks this will mean that it will overwrite the FAT or File Allocation Table, making the disk useless. The Beijing virus is apparently intended to spread a political statement because its only designed feature (crashing disks is apparently a bug in the virus) is to display the message "Bloody! June 4, 1989," the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Mr. Glath says that he feels it is significant that it appeared on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously because this may indicate a coordinated effort to spread the virus. Because the new virus is a boot sector virus that bypasses the normal MS-DOS interrupt system, it is not detectable by most anti-virus programs, according to Mr. Glath, and even those programs that deal with this type of virus won't properly report the Beijing virus until they are modified. Vi-SPY will include the new virus in the next version due to ship at the end of this month but current VI-SPY users who need an immediate update should contact Mr. Glath. VI-SPY, the first software modified to detect the new virus, is an anti-virus program published by R.G.Software, 6900 East Camelback Road, Suite 360, Scottsdale, AZ 85251. Users of the latest version of VI-SPY would only see a report that 2K (2048 bytes) of memory is hidden from MS-DOS by an unknown program, but the next update will fully identify and remove the Beijing virus, according to Mr. Glath. (John McCormick/19901211/Press Contact: Ray Glath, R.G.Software, 602-423-8000) (NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00013) GCN REPORTS NEARLY 5,000 U.S. ARMY PCS HAVE A VIRUS 12/11/90 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Robert Greene, a staff reporter for Government Computer News, has reported in the December 10 issue that about 5,000 U.S. Army PC computers have become infected with viruses in the last 90 days and that Pentagon officials are concerned about the effect this might have on Operation Desert Shield. The virus infections are thought to be due to soldiers buying inexpensive local software in Saudi Arabia such as computer games, and not coming from official U.S. Army software. So far about 4,800 PCs in a network have come down with the Jerusalem-B virus from an infected game disk. Several other virus strains have also shown up, including the "Stoned" virus which prints the message "Your computer is now stoned. Legalize marijuana." McAfee Associates' VShield is reportedly now being distributed at test sites in Saudi Arabia to help stem this virus attack. (John McCormick/19901211) (CORRECTION)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00014) CORRECTION: MINITEL NOT A 900 SERVICE 12/11/90 PURCHASE, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- A recent story in Newsbytes incorrectly stated the access points for Minitel Services' teletel-based online services. The company's services are not linked to caller-paid 900 numbers, as we wrote, but to the international Infonet packet network. Novus, which runs the Chatline service, is linked to users via a 900 number. Minitel Services is a company that connects information providers and their products to buyers in world markets. Information providers may connect customers, dealers, prospects or agents directly to services and personnel with local telephone access in 21 countries and more than 130 U.S. cities. In addition, users in some areas served by regional Bell gateways can access selected Minitel services using these gateways. (Dana Blankenhorn/19901211/Press Contact: Cece Drummond, Minitel Services, 914-694-6266) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00015) MIDAS ABS & NEW IBM COMPUTER FOR RUSSIAN BANK IN SINGAPORE 12/11/90 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- The Moscow Narodny Bank has bought a new IBM AS/400 and BIS Banking Systems' Midas ABS banking software package for its branch in Singapore. The purchase follows a year of strong growth in the financing of trade between Eastern Europe and Asia. "Our healthy business growth makes this the ideal time to upgrade our facilities and we have chosen the right professionals to provide the solution," said Alexandre Semikoz, the bank's general manager. The upgrade is expected to speed processing time on services such as letters of credit by around 50 percent. The system will access real- time information to meet customers' needs for faster, on-the-spot service. "As well as enhancing customer service, Midas will improve the bank's own productivity," said Bruce Quick, general manager for East Asia at BIS Banking Systems in Hong Kong. "The bank will be able to reduce paper processing time by about half, and thereby increase its business intake and delivery time." BIS has secured more than 100 Midas ABS contracts to date, a quarter of them in the Asia-Pacific region. BIS will supply both harware and software for the Moscow Narodny Bank Singapore upgrade. (Norman Wingrove/19901211/Press Contact: Bruce Quick, BIS, + 852 524 2065; HK time is GMT + 8) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00016) LUCKY DRAW FOR HOLIDAY CALLS TO EMIGRANT FAMILY/FRIENDS 12/11/90 WANCHAI, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Hong Kong Telephone and the Park 'N Shop supermarket chain are offering half a million Hong Kong dollars (US$64,000) in prizes to international direct dialing (IDD) customers spending more than HK$300 between December and February on calls to numbers in several countries worldwide. The two companies have organized a lucky draw under which, at the end of each month of the three-month period, 2,000 callers will win Park 'N Shop gift vouchers worth HK$50 each. In addition, at the end of the contest, all participants, including the monthly winners, will automatically be entered in a draw for a Grand Prize of a Ford Granada car worth HK$290,000 (US$37,000). Roger Barlow, manager of International Marketing and Development, International Telephone Services, said: "IDD is a convenient and cost effective way for the people of Hong Kong to send personal greetings to friends and relatives overseas at any time of year. The IDD/Park 'N Shop lucky draw adds a little extra excitement to the festive season, and our experience indicates that our customers enjoy this kind of competition." The winter holiday season in Hong Kong is extended, spreading over anything up to three months. Although Christmas and the Western New Year are not Chinese festivals, they are now widely celebrated and are followed by the Lunar New Year, the most important of all Chinese traditional festivals. In the run-up to Christmas, Hong Kong Telephone is also running a charity drive under which funds raised by charging children a small sum to make a telephone call to Santa Claus are devoted to a home for abandoned children. (Norman Wingrove/19901211/Press Contact: HK Telecom, +852 808 6470; HK time is GMT + 8) (EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(MOW)(00017) USSR: CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY TOOL AVAILABLE 12/11/90 NIZHNY NOVGOROD, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 6 (NB) -- Nizhneorodsky University is offering its Chemical Thermodynamics calculator, a "universal system for thermodynamic simulation." The chemical caluclator allows the modelling of different thermodynamic systems with unlimited numbers of ingredients in different chemical processes for everything from from synthesizing new materials to charging a car battery. The package, according to Alexander Kutyin, university spokesman, can work with up to one millionth precision due to proprietary mathematical methods. Mr. Kutyin also said that the calculator can produce high quality process charts as well as tables and is a very intuitive package for anyone with school chemistry knowledge. The package works on any IBM clone with a graphic card, and costs 1000 roubles ($50 by the market rate). It is available immediately. (Kirill Tchashchin/19901206/Press contact: Alexander utyin, Nizhnegorodsky University, phone +7 8312 65-84-90) (EXCLUSIVE)(BUSINESS)(MOW)(00018) USSR: TANDEM WILL PACKAGE SOFTWARE 12/11/90 Petrozavodsk, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- The Petrozavodsased enterprise Tandem, funded by the local commercial Tekabank, is setting up full printing facilities to locally produce packaged software to be sold for roubles only. According to Sergey Vilkov, Tandem's manager, the company is now looking for good typesetting equipment which is "the only thing we haven't found yet." If plans are realized, the new software manufacturing premises will be in operation in June, 1991. Microsoft and Nantucket have shown that they intend to use the new facilities to produce their branded software to be sold for roubles only, Mr. Vilkov stated. Microsoft now sells all its products for hard currency while Nantucket has a policy of selling older versions of Clipper for roubles only. (Kirill Tchashchin/19901207) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MOW)(00019) USSR: INEXPENSIVE LAN PACKAGE AVAILABLE 12/11/90 DONETSK, UKRAINE, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- The Ukrainian company BIS is offering a LAN (local area network) package capable of connecting up to 8 PCs to one server for just $79 per machine. A two-wire bus connected to serial port with special hardware supports data transfer speeds up to 115 kilobytes per second at 2-kilometers distance. BISLAN is a fully transparent networking environment providing disk and printer sharing, database applications use, and a sophisticated security system. BISLAN software uses 20 kilobytes (KB) or memory on the remote machine and 30 kilobytes on the server. Dimitry Baida, BIS manager told Newsbytes that this package is currently used by a great number of companies in the Ukrainian republic. (Kirill Tchashchin/19901207/Press contact: Dimitry Baida, BIS, phone +7 0622 92 82 89 fax +7 0622 93 10 21) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00020) UK: FRONTIER UNVEILS PRINTER-Q UNIT 12/11/90 HARROGATE, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Frontier Software, a name normally associated with Atari ST and Commodore Amiga peripherals, has unveiled the Printer-Q, an expandable printer buffer for Centronics printer buffer. Designed and manufactured in the UK, the Printer Q comes with 128K of printer buffer capacity and is expandable in steps of 128K - without any soldering required, says Frontier - to 1MB. Pricing ranges from UKP 99-95 for the 128K version to UKP 169-99 for the 1MB unit. Martin Walsh, Frontier's marketing manager, enthused about the unit to Newsbytes: "The Printer-Q offers ease of use, expandability and a multi-copy facility at an incredibly low price. Add this to our normal ten day money-back offer and the end user's satisfaction is guaranteed," he said. Walsh went on to say that the 128K version of the Printer-Q is competitively priced with a much more professional appearance than similar Taiwan-produced units costing more than UKP 120 for a 64K RAM unit without a copy facility. (Steve Gold/19901207/Press & Public Contact: Frontier Software - Tel: 0423-567140) (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00021) METRO SOFTWARE UNVEILS PC ARTIFAX 12/11/90 HENLEY-ON-THAMES, ENGLAND, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Metro Software has unveiled PC Artifax, the first Hewlett-Packard Laserjet Series II emulation package for PC fax cards. The UKP 99 package allows users of PC fax cards to "print" from their word processing software directly to a disk file that can be used for transmission by the fax card software. According to David Tobison, Metro's managing director, the package is revolutionizing fax technology. "For the first time, the internal fax board is a superior medium over the standalone fax machine. PC Artifax has effectively replaced the mechanical scanning process, thus eliminating inevitable distortions and errors. You can now have enhanced fax resolution unlike anything you've seen from a fax machine," he said. PC Artifax is designed for use on any IBM PC XT, AT, PS/2 or close compatible with 512K of RAM, a hard disk and DOS 3.0 or higher. A minimum of 1.5MB of free hard disk space is required. (Steve Gold/19901207/Press & Public Contact: Matthew Murton, manager, Metro Software - Tel: 0491-579857) (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) JOINT VENTURE TO SELL DATABASE 12/11/90 BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Wright Investors' Service, based here, and Disclosure Inc. have announced that Disclosure will sell Worldscope, an international company database developed by Wright. Worldscope, which covers more than 5,500 corporations in 25 countries, will be available through online information systems, on CD-ROM, on leased magnetic tapes, and through published periodicals, the companies said. Wright, an independent financial publisher and investment advisory/management service, has formed a joint venture with Disclosure, the largest single-source provider of domestic and international corporate information. The Worldscope database is the central information source for Wright's financial services business. In 1988, Wright opened a global corporate research center in Shannon, Ireland, staffed with more than 60 international analysts to maintain and expand the Worldscope international corporate database. Disclosure provides information on 12,000 companies that file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission through its Disclosure Database (Grant Buckler/19901207/Press Contact: John Connolly, Wright Investors' Service, 203-330-5180) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00023) FORREST MIMS STARTS SCIENCE MAGAZINE 12/11/90 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Forrest M. Mims, III, a noted science writer who was recently dropped from Scientific American when the editor learned that he was a believer in creationism, has started his own science project publication, "Science Probe!." The new publication is for all amateur scientists, includes a regular computer column, and does not have any particular philosophical agenda. Newsbytes spoke with Mr. Mims, who commented on the strangeness of being dropped from Scientific American, a publication originally founded by a Christian publisher who stated in the very first issue that he believed in creationism. Mr. Mims told Newsbytes that his new publication would feature a computer column written by William Barden, would have writers from all religious backgrounds, and would be strictly a scientific publication with no religious or philosophical agenda. He also said that he had received a great deal of support from scientists and journalists after being dropped from Scientific American's Amateur Scientist column. The new publication is a quarterly aimed at all areas of science with an emphasis on do-it-yourself experiments and feature stories as well as information about amateur scientists' achievements. One major project Mr. Mims is pursuing is the creation of a network of amateur seismic reporting stations, using standardized instruments, which can be built at home. For further information or a $9.95 subscription (first four issues), contact: Science Probe!, 500-B Bi-County Blvd., Farmingdale, NY 11735 or phone 516-239-0467. (John McCormick/19901207) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00024) SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISORS APPROVE VDT SAFETY LAW 12/11/90 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- The city of San Francisco has become the first city in the nation to pass a local ordinance designed to protect the health of those who work at video display terminals (VDTs). The law calls for breaks for VDT workers every 15 minutes, ergonomic equipment, and more research on radiation and other hazards for VDT workers, among other measures. San Francisco Supervisors voted 8 to 1 to approve the measure, which will come up for a second vote next week before reaching the desk of Mayor Art Agnos. The law affects businesses with at least 15 employees and allows them to take up to two years to provide comfortable and safe equipment with which employees can work, including better lighting, wrist rests, and adjustable chairs and tables. The law also calls for employees who work at the terminals all day to get regular breaks at 15 minute intervals in order to stretch and rest their hands and arms. The third provision calls for a panel to advise the city on new developments in research concerning potential hazards at VDT terminals, including radiation dangers as well as repetitive motion injuries. Experts estimate the law, which is backed by the Service Employees International Union, will cost the city $1.4 to $6 million to enforce. The cost has become an issue with the city's Chamber of Commerce, which is taking out newspaper ads proclaiming that the law sends a signal that "San Francisco is not a good place to do business." However, the measure's supporters, including Supervisor Nancy Walker, say that the money has already been earmarked by the city, which has promised to upgrade facilities for its workers. (Wendy Woods/19901211) (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00025) POCKET PAGER FIRM AT&E CUTS WORKERS 40% 12/11/90 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- AT&E Corporation has given walking papers to 40 percent of its employees --- 60 to 80 people -- and its president, Charles Skibo, has resigned. The troubled wristwatch pager company is said to be in a cash crunch that has delayed a nationwide roll-out. The cutback in staff is the second since September. President Charles Skibo, who is reported by the San Francisco Chronicle to be interested in buying the rights to sell the AT&E pager in California, is the former head of US Sprint. A second top executive to leave is reportedly Ronald Foerster, senior vice president of AT&E. The company says it now requires "a cash infusion in order to continue operations and implement a strategic new plan." The company is reportedly talking seriously with Seiko, maker of the watch that runs the pager technology, about a strategic partnership or a multimillion dollar loan to continue operations. (Wendy Woods/19901211) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00026) LONE STAR CLONESMEN STORMS CHICAGO 12/11/90 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Having opened 74 retail computers stores in the last year and a half, Compuadd, a Texas-based combination chain store and mail order operation, has begun a new chain of computer "superstores" with the opening of a new location in the Chicago suburb of Schaumberg. While the chain's previous stores average 5,000 square feet, the new superstores will run from 12,000 to 25,000 square feet and will offer more than 2,000 computer-related products, at what Compuadd calls "mail order prices." The chain plans to open the superstores at a rate of about one a month, with future locations planned in Dallas, Boston, New Orleans, Louisville, Washington, D.C., and Portland, OR. (Lamont Wood, 19901211/Press Contact: John Q. Pope, 512-250-2000.) (NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00027) COMPUADD LAUNCHES 386SX NOTEBOOK 12/11/90 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Compuadd, an 89-store Texas-based chain of computer stores and mail order operation that makes it own clones, has announced the Companion SX, a 20 megahertz 386SX that can fit in a briefcase and weighs less than 6 pounds. The unit weighs 5.7 pounds, and measures 8 by 11 by 1.5 inches. The base price of $3,995 includes 2 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM), a 20 MB hard disk, a 3.5-inch diskette drive, a side-lit VGA screen measuring 10 inches diagonally, a PS/2-style mouse port and mouse, Windows 3, and MS-DOS 4.01. The machine has a capacity of 6 MB or RAM. The machine's removeable, rechargeable batteries are said to give it an operating capacity of three hours. With a 40 MB hard disk, it lists at $4,395. The Companion SX is expected to be available in the first quarter of 1991. (Lamont Wood/19901211/Press Contact: John Q. Pope, 512-250-2000.) (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00028) HARDWARE COMPRESSES SOUND FOR RAM STORAGE 12/11/90 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1999 DEC 11 (NB) -- Dallas Semiconductor has announced it is now marketing a digital audio recording subsystem that can reproduce high-fidelity sound at bit rates as low as 8 kilobits per second. Called the DS2270 Speech Recorder Stik, it can record an hour's worth of conversation into four megabytes of random access memory (RAM), making RAM-based sound processing practical, said Mike Bolan, vice president of product development. Standard digital telephony involves a coding rate of 64 kilobits per second. The subsystems have an OEM pricing of $96.25 each in quantities of 500, and $18 each in quantities of 10,000. (Lamont Wood/19901211/Press Contact: Syd Coppersmith, 214-450-5349) (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00029) PHOENIX SUES EX-EMPLOYEES OVER TRADE SECRETS 12/11/90 NORWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Phoenix Technologies, based here, is suing five former employees and their new company, alleging theft of trade secrets and breach of contract. Phoenix has filed suit in the Middlesex County Superior Court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against SystemSoft, of Natick, Massachusetts, and five of the firm's founders, employees, and/or shareholders: Robert Angelo, Jeffrey Bobzin, Michael Segroves, Jonathan Joseph, and William O'Connell. The developer of system software that is key to the manufacture of IBM compatible computers said all five individual defendants held key management, sales, engineering, or marketing positions. Phoenix alleges SystemSoft and the five individuals misappropriated trade secrets from Phoenix and the five individual defendants have breached contractual obligations. Robert Langer, vice-president of finance at Phoenix, told Newsbytes the five left Phoenix over a six-month period from late 1989 to early 1990, and founded SystemSoft to offer products competing with those of Phoenix. According to the complaint, the defendants have intentionally interfered with both existing and prospective contractual and business relations between Phoenix and certain customers and prospects. The complaint also alleges unfair or deceptive acts or practices and unfair methods of competition. Phoenix has asked the court for preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop SystemSoft and the five individuals using what Phoenix considers to be its trade secrets. The complaint also seeks damages against SystemSoft and the individual defendants. SystemSoft has notified Phoenix of its choice of legal counsel but there have been no further developments, Langer said. (Grant Buckler/19901211/Press Contact: Robert Langer, Phoenix Technologies, 617-551-4161) (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00030) UK: TWO TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTERS LAUNCHED 12/11/90 CLOVELLY, DYFED, SOUTH WALES, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- South Wales- based White Horse Technical Services has launched two new newsletters - the Ultima Report and the Amiga Professional News. The Ultima Report is a monthly technology report which claims to provide a single source of information on high technology products in the hardware and software arena. The UKP 165 p.a. report covers trends likely to be used in computers of tomorrow, according to Paul Fletcher of White Horse Technical Services. The Amiga Professional News, meanwhile, claims to be the first UK newsletter to be aimed at professional Amiga users around the world. The launch issue looks at Pagestream 2.0, developing applications software for the Amiga CDTV and upgrading mass storage devices. Like the Ultima Report, the Amiga Professional Mews is published monthly with a subscription rate of UKP 59 a year. Both titles will, together with CD-ROM News which White Horse has been publishing for a while, will be published in the US by Multimedia Computing Corporation of Santa Clara, with whom the company has reciprocal publishing agreement. (Steve Gold/19901211/Press & Public Contact: Paul Fletcher, White Horse Technical Services - Tel: 0269-871300) (NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00031) IBM INTROS MULTIMEDIA FOR PEOPLE WITH COGNITIVE IMPARIMENTS 12/11/90 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- IBM has introduced THINKable, a multimedia software program for the PS/2 that the company says can be used by therapists in treating the approximately 12 million people in the US who suffer memory loss as a result of an injury, a developmental disability, substance abuse, degenerative disease, and neurological disorders. In making the announcement, Juan M. Sabater, IBM's corporate director of community programs said: "IBM developed THINKable as part of an ongoing commitment to help individuals with disabilities achieve greater personal and professional independence through the use of technology." THINKable uses multimedia technology including animation, photos, and natural voice to help improve memory, attention, discrimination, and sequencing. Therapists can use sample strategies provided with the program or tailor practice sessions to meet individual needs. The program can also be used to generate graphic and tabular reports for case managers, doctors, families, and insurers. THINKable requires a minimum of 4 MB of free memory, a 30 MB fixed disk, and OS/2 Standard Edition, Version 1.3. It is packaged on 3.5 inch program diskettes and comes with manuals, an introductory videotape, an audio capture and playback (ACPA) device, two sets of headphones and one Y-cord adapter to allow both headsets to plug into one jack. The program is scheduled to ship in March 1991 at a list price of $4,800. (Janet Endrijonas/19901211/Press Contact: Regina Lewis, IBM, 914-642-5469) (NEWS)(GOVT)(BRU)(00032) OLIVETTI STRIPPED OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT 12/11/90 MILAN, ITALY, 1990 DEC 11 (NB) -- Weighing less will cost Olivetti more, the Italian government said, withdrawing special protection from the Italian computermaker after the surprise announcement that the company is to shed 7,000 jobs. Olivetti, taken aback by the announcement from Italy's Labor Minister, planned to cut 7,000 jobs, of which half would be people at home in Italy, now has another little crisis on its hands. In trying to soften the blow, Olivetti had requested that it be to be granted the status of a company in a crisis sector. But the Italian government responded "no" to the request. Such a status would have allowed Olivetti to hand out pre-pension retirment slips to all men over 55 and women 47 or older. The Economy Ministry did allow 2,800 job losses to be termed "extraordinary" but that leaves Olivetti 1,200 short of its planned total of 4,000 lay-offs at its Ivrea plant in Italy. The group of 2,000 are assured of receiving 90 percent of their pay in unemployment payments but for the other 1,200, nothing has been worked out so far. If the situation deteriorates, unions have warned, an all-out strike may not be averted. Three thousand Olivetti employees who will be sacked outside Italy, will see no special plans to assist them. They will just be given their pink slips. The European Parliament only last week asked Olivetti, Bull of France and the Dutch electronics group Philips to halt lay-off procedures to buy time and look better answers. (Eric Dauchy/19901211)