Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/pc/text/mac_text/1994/jan_feb_94/nb011294

Text File | 1994-01-14 | 78KB | 1,701 lines

(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00001)

 ****Intel To Increase Investment In Philippines Factory 01/12/94
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Newsbytes has clarified
incorrect information carried by other news sources that Intel
plans to increase production at its "manufacturing" operations in
the Philippines. However, Newsbytes has found out that the
company does not have manufacturing facilities in Manila.

Michele Bourdon, spokesperson for Intel, told Newsbytes that
the $100 million or so being spent, "Is on equipment upgrades
within the existing factory," and that it is a "multi-year
investment and not money all being spent at one time in one
year."

The confusion appears to revolve around how one defines
"manufacturing." Bourdon told Newsbytes that, "There is no
specific manufacturing taking place there. It is a test-and-
assembly site, but they do call it a manufacturing site, based
on the way that they define manufacturing in the Philippines.
However, it is not an Intel manufacturing site the way that
we define actual manufacturing here."

The factory uses components manufactured at other sites
worldwide. "It is where the parts are actually put together,"
said Bourdon. "As far as Intel is concerned, we have fabrication
manufacturing sites where we actually manufacture the chips,
and then we have places where we test the chips and put the
parts together into the packages."

As to where the parts would be coming from, she said that,
"They could be coming from any of our chip manufacturing sites,
which we have all over the world. (For example) we have one in
Israel, we have one in Ireland which should be up and running in
the next couple of months, we have one in Santa Clara, in Phoenix
and New Mexico, and Portland, Oregon."

Bourdon told Newsbytes that, putting it in perspective, the
$100 million spent over the course of a few years is not very
much. "Factor that into Intel spending. If we stay relatively flat
with spending," Intel will total "between $2-$2.5 billion a year
for three years."

The name of the company operating in that country is called
Intel Philippines Manufacturing Inc., reportedly a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Intel.

(Ian Stokell/19940111)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00002)

Broderbund Adds 3  Labels 01/12/94
NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Many large
software entertainment and game companies act as distributors
for smaller firms who want to take advantage of their sales and
distribution channels. Along those lines, Broderbund Software
Inc., has signed three new affiliated label agreements.

The company says that it has become "the exclusive North
American distributor of products" for Cyan Inc; Campbell,
California-based Three-Sixty Pacific Inc; and Redwood
City, California-based Vicarious Entertainment. Under terms
of the deals, Broderbund will handle sales and distribution for
the three companies through its national sales organization.

Jessica Switzer, spokesperson for Broderbund, told Newsbytes
that the company now distributes products for ten software
publishers.

In answer to a question from Newsbytes concerning the amount
of the company's revenue that comes from other firms' products,
she said that, "We like to keep it below 20 percent, although it
fluctuates quarterly." She said that it ranges from 15 to 20
percent.

The company says that products to be distributed include: Cyan's
Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackeral and The
Manhole Masterpiece Edition CD-ROM; Three-Sixty's strategy and
simulation products, including Victory at Sea and Harpoon II; and
Vicarious Entertainment's CD-ROM program CNN Time Capsule
1993: 100 Defining Moments.

In announcing the deals, Steve Dunphy, Broderbund's director of
sales development, said: "These three companies are a terrific
addition to the Broderbund family. The combination of CD-ROM
products, children's software classics and entertainment
software is a synergistic mix that complements Broderbund's
diverse product line."

Asked by Newsbytes if Broderbund was actively seeking new
firms to distribute, Switzer said, "We're not aggressively looking
for new affiliated labels. But we won't turn down the right kind
of company."

As reported by Newsbytes, the company also introduced
three new titles at Macworld recently: the interactive storybook,
"Little Monster at School" by Mercer Mayer; "Prince of Persia 2: The
Shadow and the Flame," a sequel to the award-winning Arabian
Nights-inspired Prince of Persia action game; and "The Backyard,"
by Leslie Grimm and Lynn Kirkpatrick.

In September Newsbytes reported that Broderbund had teamed
up with Random House on a joint venture -- Living Books -- for
the creation, production and marketing of story-based
multimedia software for children.

(Ian Stokell/19940112/Press Contact: Jessica Switzer,
415-382-4568, Broderbund Software Inc.)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00003)

Japan - Electronics Firms To Increase LCD Production 01/12/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Japanese electronics firms
say they will drastically increase the production of liquid
crystal displays (LCDs) this year. The firms expect a major
growth in LCD demand, which will reportedly become a trillion-
yen market in 1996.

Such Japanese electronics firms as Sharp, Toshiba, NEC,
Hitachi, and Fujitsu are planning to increase shipments of
LCDs. Sharp will open its new LCD plant in Nara Prefecture this
summer and wants to increase production of LCDs by as much as
50 percent - up to 180,000 units a month.

Moreover, Sharp will invest 100 billion yen ($910 million) to
increase production, which is 20 billion yen more than initially
planned. With the money, Sharp will start building the new LCD
plant in Mie Prefecture this March. It is reported that more than
half of these LCDs will be TFT (thin film transistor) types. Sharp
expects an increase in demand for color notebook LCDs and the
firm's latest camcorder, the Viewcam.

Toshiba is planning to install a new production line at Display
Technology, which is a joint venture firm with IBM Japan. It is
reported that the firm will spend 35 billion yen ($320 million),
and the new production line will be created by this June. The
firm expects to triple production of LCDs at the plant.

According to the Electronics Industry Association of Japan, the
LCD market will increase by 30 percent this year. By 1996, the
association expects the market will grow to one trillion
yen ($9 billion) worldwide.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19930110/Press Contact: Sharp,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00004)

Control Data Seeks Indian Joint Venture 01/12/94
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Control Data Systems, an
offspring the US computer giant, Control Data Corp., is all set to
start up a joint venture in India.

DCM Data Products, which has renamed itself DCM Data
Systems, is likely to be the partner. DCM DP has been a longtime
associate of Control Data, marketing and supporting the latter's
products and services. DCM also has a software unit based in the
US, working predominantly on projects for Control Data.

On the other hand, Control Data was also in a tie-up with the ECIL
(the Electronics Corp. of India Ltd., in the public sector) for
manufacturing of its Cyber series of mainframe computers.
However, that arrangement ended following the demise of the
Cyber series. CMC Ltd., which maintains the majority of existing
Indian installations of Control Data, is also considered a potential
partner for the Indian joint venture. Besides, CMC has a 25-person
team, at its research and development center at Hyderabad,
dedicated to supporting Control Data's worldwide operations
maintaining about 3,500 Cyber mainframes..

Control Data, through its Indo-Asian subsidiary, has been on the
look-out for increasing its direct presence in India. "In the
liberalized environment in India, we are certainly keen to leverage
our existing strengths and spread our operation by increasing our
Indian operations with a direct presence," James E. Ousley,
president and chief executive officer of Control Data, told
Newsbytes during a tour of India.

Since its spinoff over two years ago, CDS, headquartered in Arden
Hills, Minnesota, has prospered under Ousley's "pragmatic"
strategy of refashioning the company into a business focused on
remarketing open systems platforms and offering systems
integration services, in the areas of manufacturing design,
networking and database management.

After abandoning the legacy of CD's proprietary systems two years
ago, CDS has carved out a system integration market niche by
forming alliances with leading suppliers. Silicon Graphics
purchased 10 percent of Control Data and NEC of Japan bought five
percent, while value-added reseller arrangements were made with
Sun Microsystems, Intergraph, Structural Dynamics Research
Corp., and Hewlett-Packard.

Ousley said that the Indian joint venture will also enable the spread
of CDS operations in the Asian region. Asked about the extent of
equity participation, he hinted that a majority stake with 51 percent
would obviously be the attractive option for US companies looking at
the Indian market. However, the actual details would be decided
soon, he said.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19940111)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00005)

Update - Kodak, Sir Speedy In Joint CD Venture 01/12/94
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- In
reference to the story by the name "Macworld - Kodak, Sir
Speedy in Joint CD Venture," which ran on the Newsbytes
wire January 6, Newsbytes would like to provide a toll-
free number where information on the service and locations
of participating Sir Speedy franchises can be obtained:
1-800-CD-SPEEDY (1-800-237-7339).

Eastman Kodak Company and Sir Speedy Inc., announced a
formal agreement at Macworld Expo last week to create
Kodak Photo CD Portfolio Disks. With 312 locations in
37 states, Sir Speedy will offer customers a service
which will take computer-designed presentations from
floppy disks and produce a finished Photo CD Portfolio disk
playable on televisions, CD-I (Compact Disk-Interactive) players
and multimedia-ready computers.

Customers will bring in their own presentation of
computer-assembled  photos, sounds, images, and graphics from
programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Aldus Persuasion to be
developed into a Photo CD Portfolio Disk. The customer
presentation may be delivered to Sir Speedy  in film, floppy
disk or CD.

The specialist will work with the customer to develop menu
options, sound timing, sequencing, and other options, Sir Speedy
said. The presentation script is then sent to a central location
where the master disk is produced.

(Wendy Woods/19940112)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(SFO)(00006)

 ****Gore To Ride The Information Highway Thursday 01/12/94
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- US Vice President
Al Gore has been talking about the Information Superhighway
for years. Early Thursday evening, he will ride it.

The Vice-President will participate in an on-line conference
on the Compuserve Information Service beginning at 5:30 pm
Eastern time. The topic will be, naturally, the Information
Superhighway, officially known as the National Information
Infrastructure, of which Gore is the best-known advocate.

The NII is a vast, high-speed data network proposed to link
American homes, businesses and schools. Any American with access
to a computer and a modem would be able to get on the highway and
contact public officials, gain access to government information,
retrieve entertainment software, and send messages instantly to
other individuals on the system.

Advocates of the system said its impact on American society would
be as great as, or greater than, the interstate highway system
which is so vital to American commerce.

Gore's appearance on Compuserve, a commercial on-line system with
more than 1.5 million members, is for many people a taste of what
the NII could be. Karen Jackson is a writer with the Heritage
Education Program in the federal Bureau of Land Management. She is
also deaf, which makes verbal communication complicated. But she
communicates fluently in written messages such as the one she
has posted for Vice-President Gore.

"This type of conference is a miracle for me to communicate and I'm
eagerly awaiting the information highway for the same reason!"
she said. US News and World Report is the sponsor of the Gore
conference.

Kirby Wallace, with the Public Service Company of Oklahoma, has
made plans to hook his computer to a large screen at a conference
center so that up to 100 engineers and executives in his company
could watch and ask questions of Gore.

While the official focus of the conference is the NII, that has not
stopped dozens of Compuserve members from posing questions
about military base closures, gun control, foreign policy (a graduate
student from Cincinatti wants some material for his thesis
straight from the VP's keyboard), drug legalization, nuclear
testing, the environment, a national health plan and other hot
political topics.

But most questions are about the NII itself: how will it work, how
much will it cost, and who will be able to use it?

Several themes emerge from the questions. Many people want to
know whether the federal government will assist low-income
people and cash-strapped schools who may not have computers,
telephones or access to current on-line systems and networks
such as the Internet, which connects academic and research
institutions around the world.

As Janine Janson, 6, of Deer Park, New York, put it:  "Dear Mr.
V.P. Gore, can you bring some more computers to my school so I can
communicate with children from other places?"

Others fear government involvement. "The PC industry has thrived
in large part due to the fact that it has been one of the least
regulated, least bureaucratized sectors of the economy. I
fear that the NII is going to change that, for the worse, if too
many stiffs (no offense, Mr. VP) from Washington try to 'control'
or 'supervise' it," says Charles Held. He fears that a Democratic
"top-down mentality"  will force Gore to declare that "the NII
is some sort of an 'entitlement' that needs funding from the
successful to give access to the unsuccessful.

"Mr. Gore might not tell you this, but I believe he wants a
strong hand in building an info superhighway so the government
can establish centralized control of the knowledge flow in the
US," warns Jay W. Inman in the US News and World Report Forum.

Others wonder how the NII will help them. John Hattery, a
principal in a firm which develops environmental products
for the fishing industry, says the Internet and Compuserve have
proven invaluable to keeping in touch with customers, even when
they are at sea. He wants to know how the info highway will
support small entrepreneurs. He adds: "I would love to see
any elected official try to run a business AND keep all of the
redundant records they legislate!  How can the net be used to
reduce this burden on society?"

Another question from Hattery is typical of a another theme:
security. "What provisions are being made to ensure privacy and
security, not only for private citizens concerned about 'Big Brother'
oversight, but also for business enterprises rightfully concerned
about industrial espionage and government over-regulation."

Representatives from US News and World Report who monitor the
forum say Gore will be presented with many of the advance questions
when he begins the conference, but the 300 people who have managed
to reserve a spot at the conference in advance will also be able to
pose questions directly to the vice-president.

Compuserve spokesperson Debra Young says the Gore conference is
the largest ever held on Compuserve. "We've never had more than
300 people at a conference. Now we're trying to find ways for many
more people than that to participate." Young says that Gore does
not have a personal Compuserve account, but the White House does,
and many Gore staffers make extensive use of on-line services.
Gore will be typing his responses directly from his White House
office in the West Wing.

To her knowledge, Gore is the highest-ranking political official to
ever participate in an on-line conference, Young said. This is also
the first time the Vice-President has participated in such a
conference, she added.

For the many people who are unable to attend, a transcript of the
conference will be available soon after it concludes, says
William Allman from US News and World Report. He has dubbed
Gore "The CyberVeep."

(Paul De Groot/19940112)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00007)

Macworld Expo - An Overview 01/12/94
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- On the
closing day of Macworld Exposition, people were still jostling
their way into the Apple Pavilion to see the long awaited PowerPC
in action. Last year's promises now appear in suites and nearby
testing sites and reports of Windows applications running
smoothly on a Macintosh computer are finally become a reality.

Apple's research, development and marketing staff stood watching
and listened closely, measuring the response of attentive Macintosh
fans.

A few days before, attendees entered the Moscone Convention Center
to find a new Microsoft FoxPro-based self-registration system
developed by Expo Registration Inc. Long lines moved steadily
along as row after row of Macintosh computers became available
for each person to enter their own registration information.
A mag-read card was printed and ready at the next station within
seconds.

Convention organizer Mitch Hall, president, Mitch Hall & Assoc.,
told Newsbytes, "I am always trying to find a way to improve
registration and meet the needs of convention goers, vendors
and the promotion management. After looking at all of the
available methods, I chose what I felt was the best."

There were no complaints of the registrants interviewed and
all reported less time to register than previous experiences.
Although attendance figures are not given out until days after
the show, Newsbytes learned that a crowd of 75,000 was expected.

At ten o'clock with badges in place, the crowd entered the Apple
Pavilion, the South Hall and the North Hall of the Moscone Center.
Across the street at the Marriott Hotel, Apple Computer prepared
for David Nagel, senior Vice-president and general manager of
AppleSoft Division, to present his keynote speech. Nagel
delivered what seemed like a real-time ten-year retrospective
of the Macintosh computer compared to the IBM/DOS platform
and highlighted the developments of PowerPC, PowerShare,
AppleSearch, Software Dispatch, and eWorld.

On the show floor, the bright lights, demonstrations and colorful
booths welcomed the crowd and displayed everything from mouse
pads to sophisticated client-server networks. Morphing programs,
multimedia developments and graphics accelerator cards for
PowerPC systems and upgrades seemed to dominate the show.
The attention to desktop presentations formed a theme for this
show as multimedia seemed more integrated into the business
world than ever before.

One of the strongest indications of multimedia's growing strength
was an announcement of the collaboration of Eastman Kodak
Company and Sir Speedy Inc., to provide Photo CD production
of presentation packages at Sir Speedy printing and copying
locations in 37 states. With the advent of the PowerPC, the
term "cross-platform" was heard at every booth and the days
of Macintosh-only applications seem to narrow towards a future
that does not exist. The PowerPC will be available to the
public in 1994 and Newsbytes understands there will be two,
perhaps three, different models appearing at Macintosh retail
sources.

One small software company, Connectix, was taken by surprise
as lines formed to get a copy of RAM Doubler, a new utility for
doubling the capacity of existing memory. Another company, No
Hands Software, found its cross-platform document distribution
software, Common Ground, to be one of the most popular items of
the show. And independent vendors displayed arrays of peripherals
that made areas of the show seem like computer super stores.

Around the floor a constant show of entertainment included "Ice"
and "Sabre" of the American Gladiators, an alligator in a tuxedo,
a Morticia of the Adam's Family and several Playboy and Penthouse
photo-stars. For the tired and stressed, a fifteen-minute
massage area was available.

Newsbytes learned that provisions for handicapped persons were
well provided.

At the closing of the final day of Macworld Expo, thousands
poured out carrying bags of pins, T-shirts, new peripherals,
Fractal Design Dabbler magnets, copies of Wired magazine,
giant Wordperfect umbrellas, and other trade show fare.

(Patrick McKenna/19940112/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00008)

IBM PC Company Sets Up Federal Channel 01/12/94
SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Just a month after
IBM sold its Federal Systems unit to New York-based Loral Corp.,
its IBM Personal Computer Co., has announced creation of a new
Federal Channel to deliver its full personal computer line to the
United States government and its agencies. But the two moves are
not connected, a company spokesman maintained.

IBM PC Co., was planning the creation of its new Federal Channel
"well before" the December sale of Federal Systems, which sold
advanced information systems to the military and other government
agencies and was not involved in PC sales, said Mike DeMeo, an
IBM spokesman.

According to company officials, the new channel will sell all IBM
PC brands through resellers, integrators, and other channels to
fulfil federal contracts and General Services Administration
(GSA) schedules and other government business.

While he had no specific figures on hand, DeMeo said the US
government and its agencies represent "a significant portion" of
the PC Co.'s sales.

In a prepared statement, David Boucher, vice-president of channel
management for IBM PC Company, Americas, said the new Federal
Channel "underscores the importance  of the federal marketplace
to the IBM PC Company. We are dedicated to providing our
federal channel partners the necessary resources to  compete
aggressively in this market."

All IBM Authorized Business Partners are eligible to participate
in the Federal Channel, IBM said. The operation will be based in
Bethesda, Maryland, and managed by Lesley Harris, federal account
executive.

(Grant Buckler/19940112/Press Contact: Mike DeMeo, IBM,
914-766-1802; Allison Jacobi, IBM, 914-766-1317)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00009)

Unitel To Cut Jobs, Change Local Access Setup 01/12/94
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Now that federal
regulators have said it can lease local access facilities from
the telephone companies at regular rates, Unitel Communications
Inc., plans to shut down its own analog local-access facilities
and lease digital lines from the phone companies instead. This
will result in better service and lower costs, but lead to the
loss of about 650 jobs at Unitel over the next three years, the
company said.

Unitel offers long-distance telephone service in competition with
the regional telephone companies in most of Canada. Just before
Christmas, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC) ruled that the phone companies cannot charge
Unitel extra for the use of their local lines because Unitel is a
competitor. That has cleared the way for Unitel to phase out its
own older, analog local-access facilities and lease capacity from
the phone companies instead, said Stephanie MacKendrick,
spokeswoman for the company.

Running Unitel's analog local facilities was labor-intensive,
MacKendrick said. Getting rid of them will mean better quality
service for customers, quicker setup for new clients, and lower
costs for Unitel. However, as the facilities are shut down over
the next three years, Unitel expects to cut about 310 jobs this
year and some 340 more by 1996. Most of the lost jobs will be
in technical and network functions supporting local access,
officials said.

The company said it hopes to retrain about 100 of the people
whose current functions will disappear and find other work for
them within Unitel. It will also provide counseling and
severance packages for those leaving. MacKendrick added the hope
that with the increased business they will be getting from
Unitel, the telephone companies might be hiring.

Unitel also said it will install new equipment and redesign
processes to improve the efficiency of its network.

In making the announcement, Unitel lashed out at its rival
telephone companies, accusing them of predatory pricing and
saying it would have to redouble its efforts to be a low-cost
service provider.

The company said it will take a one-time charge against income of
about C$325 million to cover the cost of the measures. While
Unitel does not make its financial results public, MacKendrick
said the company had been expecting a loss this year anyway as a
result of its push into long-distance service.

Canadian Pacific Ltd., owns 48 percent of Unitel, Rogers
Communications Inc., owns 32 percent, and AT&T owns 20 percent.

(Grant Buckler/19940112/Press Contact: Stephanie MacKendrick,
Unitel, 416-345-2482; Ken Stewart, Unitel, 416-345-2094)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00010)

Object World - Object Interoperability Across Sun/Windows 01/12/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- At Object
World, SunSoft has announced an agreement with Iona Technologies
of Dublin, Ireland, to deliver distributed object interoperability
across SunSoft's Solaris Distributed Object Environment (DOE) and
Microsoft Windows and Windows NT-based systems.

The pact signifies the first interoperability between two different
ORB (Object Request Broker) implementations of OMG (Object
Management Group) CORBA (Common Object Request Broker
Architecture), according to officials.

The agreement also means that Project DOE developers will now be
able to access and work with objects on Windows and Windows NT
systems running Iona's Orbix product. Conversely, developers
creating object-oriented applications for Windows and Windows NT
will be able to access and work with objects generated on Solaris-
based systems with Project DOE.

In addition, developers will be able to build applications from
components residing on a combination of Solaris- and Windows-
based systems residing on the network.

In the SunSoft booth at Object World, the two companies are
showing the ability to access objects registered on a Solaris-based
system running on a Sun Unix workstation from Windows and
Windows NT systems in the IBM-compatible PC environment, and to
add, delete, and manipulate these objects in other ways.

The companies are also demonstrating the ability to access objects
registered on Windows and Windows NT running on a PC from a
Sun workstation, and to manipulate these objects from the Sun
workstation.

"Today's announcement opens up tremendous opportunities in the
world of distributed objects, breaking down the boundaries that
previously existed between objects on PC-based systems with
Microsoft Windows and those on enterprise systems such as Solaris.
Developers will now be able to build applications out of 'snap-
together' components on various systems across the network," said
Dr. Guy L. (Bud) Tribble, vice president of object products at SunSoft.

Noted Chris Horn, chairman and chief architect at Iona
Technologies: "SunSoft and Iona are committed to distributed
object technology as a paradigm for building applications of the
future. This commitment is reflected in Project DOE at SunSoft and
Iona's Orbix product family." The two companies are working
together to ensure compatibility and interoperability between
Orbix and Solaris DOE, he added.

Project DOE is the leading implementation of the OMG CORBA and
COSS (Common Object Services Specification), according to SunSoft.
The object-oriented environment targets the enterprise-wide
computing market and exploits the major advances in Solaris,
including multithreading, multiprocessing, and sophisticated
security and network administration capabilities. Iona's Orbix,
which is available for Windows 3.1 as well as Windows NT, is
also a full implementation of CORBA.

"I'm very pleased to see this collaboration between two of OMG's
members, especially when it speaks so directly to the coalescence
of interoperability through object technology. This agreement
between SunSoft and Iona will help bring distributed object
computing to the desktop, a very desirable goal," said Chris Stone,
president of OMG.

Iona Technologies was formed in March, 1991 by Chris Horn, Annrai
O'Toole, and Sean Baker, three lecturer/researchers at Trinity
College Dublin. Throughout the eighties, the trio pioneered
European research into distributed objects.

Under terms of the deal, SunSoft will take a minority share in
Iona, and Iona will remain an independent corporation. The two
companies have agreed to make their mutually interoperable
products available by the second half of this year.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940112/Reader Contact: SunSoft, 415-960-
3200; Press Contacts: Laura Ramsey, SunSoft, 719-528-3627;
Emily Cohen, Hi-Tech Communications for SunSoft,
415-904-7000)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00011)

Object World - ParcPlace Pacts With DEC/HP/SunSoft 01/12/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- At Object
World Boston '94, ParcPlace Systems has unveiled a series of
agreements billed as demonstrating support by major computer
systems vendors for VisualWorks, the company's client-server
Smalltalk applications development environment (ADE).

In one agreement, Digital Equipment Corp., will license VisualWorks
and port ParcPlace's ADE to Windows NT and DEC OSF/1 operating
systems on DEC's Alpha AXP hardware platforms.

ParcPlace has also announced an OEM (original equipment
manufacturing) pact that will allow Hewlett-Packard to resell
VisualWorks and ParcPlace's other Smalltalk products. In a third
agreement, VisualWorks will support SunSoft's Project DOE
(Distributed Object Environment).

VisualWorks provides an integrated graphical user interface (GUI)
builder, database access, and the Smalltalk object-oriented
programming language, the company said in making the
announcement.

Applications developed with the use of ParcPlace's ADE are scalable
across the enterprise, can have their functionality divided between
clients and servers, and are instantly portable across multiple
platforms, including Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, and Unix, officials
maintained.

The ParcPlace/DEC deal will permit Digital to license VisualWorks
source code and to market, distribute and support the ADE on AXP.
"Having (VisualWorks) on Alpha AXP DEC OSF/1 and Windows NT
reinforces Digital's strategy of providing Enterprise Network
Objects to solve our customers' client/server computer needs," said
Bob Supnik, VP, technical director engineering at DEC. Digital's
AXP hardware platforms range from PCs and workstations priced at
under $5,000 to large, multiprocessing enterprise servers.

The pact with HP will allow HP to market, distribute and support
VisualWorks in conjunction with HP Distributed Smalltalk 2.0, the
second release of a distributed object development environment
originally announced in February of last year at Object World
Boston '93. HP Distributed Smalltalk 2.0 is the first full
implementation of the OMG (Object Management Group) CORBA
(Common Object Request Broker Architecture) 1.1 specification,
according to HP officials.

The HP development environment, which runs on top of VisualWorks,
lets developers build CORBA-compliant applications either from
scratch or by modifying existing applications. VisualWorks is
based on the ParcPlace Smalltalk programming language.

With the newly announced SunSoft agreement, VisualWorks will
become the first Smalltalk ADE to support Project DOE, an
implementation of CORBA built upon the Solaris operating system,
officials said. "We are excited that Smalltalk developers will now
be able to exploit the power of Solaris' Distributed Object
Environment," noted Dr. Guy L. (Bud) Tribble, vice president of
object products at SunSoft.

ParcPlace expects to incorporate support for Project DOE in the
second half of 1994. Also in the second half of this year,
VisualWorks is slated to be ported to DEC's Alpha AXP platform.

HP Distributed Smalltalk, ParcPlace VisualWorks, and other
ParcPlace Smalltalk products are available immediately from HP.
Initially supported hardware platforms include HP 9000 Series
700 PA-RISC workstations and the HP Vectra line of PCs.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940112/Reader Contact: ParcPlace Systems
Inc., 408-481-9090; Press Contacts: Sue Anne Nichols, ParcPlace
Systems, 408-720-7514; John Giddings, Cunningham
Communications for ParcPlace, 408-764-0761)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00012)

Will the Info Superhighway Shut Down Current Services? 01/12/94
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Discussion
as to what the proposed Information Superhighway means to the
current physical landscape of today's world came to the
conclusion that new services offered electronically probably will
not shut down current services such as stores, the broadcast
industry, or the educational system. However, panelists in the
discussion were certain the Information Superhighway will have a
profound effect on society.

The session, "The Superhighway's Impact on the Landscape: What It
Means for Society," was held at the Superhighway Summit on the
campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and
presented by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Panelists included: Robert Johnson, founder and chief executive
officer (CEO) of Black Entertainment Television; Deborah Kaplan,
vice president and director of the division on technology policy
for the World Institute on Disability; Mitch Kapor, chairman of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Robert Kavner, executive vice
president and CEO of the Multimedia Products and Services Group
for American Telephone & Telegraph; Alan Kay, a Fellow at Apple
Computer; and Ruth Otte, president and chief operating officer
(COO) of the Discovery Networks.

In talking about the Information Superhighway, concern was
repeatedly expressed in this session and throughout the entire
conference that key players could get control of the highway and
limit access to information to smaller or new service providers.

The key is open access, according to Allan Kay. Kay pointed out
the Internet, the best example of the infancy of the information
superhighway, is growing at the rate of 20 percent a month with
over 40,000 computers connected, any one of which could be used
as an information server. The Internet never started out to be a
superhighway, but was originally intended to facilitate the
passage of information.

One of the concerns with the Internet is the government subsides
every transaction and the growth of the system means the
government is continually spending more money. The problem with
privatizing the system is it could end up as the cable television
industry, which started out with visions of grandeur for public
services but has not delivered those services because doing so
does not pay, the panel said.

Robert Johnson said his concern is will the neighborhood be there
when the highway gets there? Johnson said he wonders if the last
mile of the information superhighway will end up in Georgetown
instead of East Washington. Like many others, Johnson is
concerned that the structure creates jobs and opportunities in
the US. He also raised the concept of social services via the
information network, such as a tracking system for parents to
track children. Then, if a child was somewhere he was not
supposed to be, the parent could call on the child's beeper and
call him home.

The consensus appeared to be that the Information Superhighway
will not replace retail and service outlets, but it could take
over some of the tedious tasks. Robert Kavner said he believes
we all will continue to go to stores and malls, but the more
drudgery side of marketing will be done through the Highway. He
said, however, he is looking forward to certain shopping services
being available. For example, he could call his daughter, Brenda,
who lives hundreds of miles away, when he has limited time
available, and say Brenda would you like to go shopping with me
for an hour?

Mitch Kapor said the network should create, at least on a limited
basis, face-to-face relationships between people instead of
increasing the alienation of people in society. "If we become
more machine-like we all lose," Kapor said.

But Deborah Kaplan said the lack of face-to-face contact has been
a boost to large numbers of disabled people, who are on the
Internet because they do not face the barriers imposed by society
there. She described a cartoon of two dogs sitting in front of
the computer terminal and one says to the other one: "You know on
the Internet no one knows you're a dog."

Consumer privacy issues were also raised, and Kavner said it will
be relatively easy for marketers to collect an extremely detailed
dossier of an individual or family. Kapor proposed the answer is
not to collect the information to begin with, but to create a
monetary system on the highway that works much the same way as
cash does now. With cash, you can buy something anonymously. The
problem with that is law enforcement officials hate it, as things
bad guys can do are not easily prevented.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940112/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(DEN)(00013)

Cyrix's "Ditto" Image Fades With Court Settlement 01/12/94
RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- It you have one
of Cyrix Corp.'s T-shirts bearing the familiar Intel swirl with the
word 'ditto" inside, you better hang on to it, as it could become
a collector's item.

Cyrix has announced that it has settled a lawsuit brought by rival
chipmaker Intel over use of the image, agreeing to only use the
swirl in comparative advertising and to drop use of the word ditto
with it.

Intel had filed its suit in a federal court in San Francisco,
objecting to Cyrix's use of the trademark-protected swirl in Cyrix
ad campaigns. In addition to print ads, the disputed image was
prominently featured in the Cyrix booth at the Comdex trade show
in Las Vegas last November, including T-shirts being worn by
booth staffers. Cyrix says the ads were meant to suggest that
computers using Intel microprocessors are all pretty much the
same. Cyrix markets competing PC chips after winning a court
battle with Intel.

Cyrix spokesperson Katherine Dockerell told Newsbytes the
settlement does not include any monetary payment. An Intel
spokesperson told Associated Press a dismissal notice has been
filed with the court, which will retain jurisdiction if any dispute
over the settlement should arise during the next 10 years.

(Jim Mallory/19940112/Press Contact: Michelle Moody, Cyrix
Corp., 214-994-8388)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00014)

Micrografx Ships ABC Flowcharter 3.0 01/12/94
RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc.,
has announced the immediate availability of ABC Flowcharter 3.0,
the latest version of its flowcharting software.

The company says the new version enables users to easily
visualize their workflow, with many of the changes based on
requests and suggestions from users.

New features include: expanded shape palettes, including graphics
for business processes and organization charts; an automatic
alignment tool for graphics within flowcharts; improved
connection lines; and support for Microsoft's OLE 2.0 (object
linking and embedding).

OLE support allows users to link Flowcharter documents with
information from other OLE-compliant applications such as
spreadsheet data, text, charts, drawings, sounds, video or
animation.

As an extra incentive to purchase ABC Flowcharter 3.0,
Micrografx is offering a free copy of Snapgrafx, its automated
business graphics tool, to all new registered owners.

ABC Flowcharter 3.0 offers: automatic renumbering of shapes
when the user deletes a shape; an automatic import filter for
direct importing of flowcharts from EasyFlow (DOS versions 6.0
through 8.0); and a single click fit-to-page feature which
eliminates the need to perform manual resizing of a chart.

A basics booklet supplied with the program defines the most
common shapes and explains when and how to use them, and
some new keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys have been added.
Hotkeys are key combinations, usually a letter key combined with
the Alt or Control key, that perform tasks without having to click
through several levels of menu choices.

ABC Flowcharter 3.0 has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $495,
but registered users of previous versions can upgrade for $99 per
copy. Micrografx says it will continue to offer Flowcharter 2.0 for
a limited time at the SRP of $199.95.

(Jim Mallory/19940112/Press Contact: Katrina Krebs, Micrografx,
214-994-6247; Reader Contact: Micrografx, 214-994-6192)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00015)

Furor Over Bill Gates Wedding Security 01/12/94
HONOLULU, HAWAII, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Hawaii state
investigators are reportedly looking into the legality of the
stringent security imposed at the recent wedding of computer
software magnate Bill Gates.

Gates and Microsoft business unit Manager Melinda French were
wed on the golf course on Lanai island New Year's day amid
security that excluded reporters and photographers from public
beach areas. There are reportedly no private beaches in Hawaii.

The Associated Press reported that several journalists and news
photographers were removed from the island when they tried to
get near the wedding site. AP says the media representatives
were threatened with arrest if they returned. Gates also hired a
private security force to patrol the area, and booked hotel rooms
and helicopters the media might have tried to use.

Hawaii State Attorney General Robert Marks told the AP the
exclusion of the public from areas of public accommodation on
any island is an important one, and one which should be resolved
early on in the development of Lanai as a so-called "private
island" for wealthy visitors. "We intend to ensure that criminal
trespass laws are not used to improperly bar the public from
public areas," Marks told AP. He said he will ask the Lanai Co,
which owns much of the island, to identify areas from which it
barred the public and the circumstances and authority for doing
so.

The newlyweds are reportedly honeymooning at a resort on a
private island in Fiji. Repeated calls by Newsbytes to obtain
comment on the story from Microsoft were not returned by
deadline.

(Jim Mallory/19940112/Press contact: Microsoft Corp,
206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00016)

Aldus Intros Persuasion 3.0 For Mac 01/12/94
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Aldus
Corp., has announced version 3.0 of Persuasion for Apple
Computer's Macintosh platform. Persuasion is a graphics
program for creating and managing slides, overheads and
desktop computer-based presentations.

Aldus says the new version of Persuasion for the Mac includes a
redesigned interface with a "floating" toolbox and movable color
palettes that can be placed at a user-selected location on the
screen. It also includes a charting module that is an OLE (object
linking and embedding) application with 84 separate two- and
three-dimensional chart types and a wide array of special effects.

Other features include sophisticated color models, the ability to
simultaneously manage both color and grayscale elements within
a single presentation, and precision editing tools. Multimedia and
onscreen presentations can include a number of transition
effects, sound synchronized with animated text and graphics, and
sequential highlighting within a single slide.

"We added so many features to version 3.0 that one of our design
challenges was to make them all accessible without cluttering up
the desktop," says Mark Sherman, Aldus senior product
marketing manager.

Persuasion 3.0 users can adjust the drawing tool, color, line, and
other feature palettes needed and can arrange them on the
desktop so they are accessible, but don't block the presentation
views.

Users can move between the outline, single slide, slide sorter,
notes and charting views by clicking on an icon. Changes made
in one view are immediately reflected in the data, menu displays
and supporting onscreen prompts in all other views. Slides can
be arranged by dragging them to a new position in the slide
sorter, and all necessary page renumbering, branching,
transitions and special effects adjustments are accomplished
automatically.

Persuasion also creates speaker notes and audience handouts as
the user creates a presentation. The speaker notes view provides
a thumbnail of the appropriate slide with an area for entering text.

The re-designed interface allows the user to start a presentation
by selecting an autotemplate from a gallery of thumbnails, or
small low resolution sample pictures. Once the selection is made,
the user is taken to the slide view, where prompts are presented
for creating titles, subtitles, bulleted text, and charts. Slide
masters are available for title slides, text-heavy slides, text plus
graphics slides, and organization charts.

Available chart types include absolute, stacked, bi-polar, dual
axis, bar, pyramid, scatter, sphere, ribbon, area, surface, radar,
polar, high-low, spectral, histogram, bubble, and open-close.
Users can modify imported graphics or clip art from Persuasion's
included library of 500 images.

Recommended system requirements include An Apple Macintosh
Hex or greater, Centris, LC III, Powerbook 160 or greater, or a
Quadra; five megabytes (MB) of system memory available to
Persuasion; at least a 90MB hard drive; and System 7 or later
operating system. Persuasion 3.0 for Mac has a suggested retail
price of $495. Registered users of earlier versions can upgrade
for $150 directly from Aldus or from Aldus dealers.

(Jim Mallory/19940112/Press Contact: Belinda Young, Aldus
Corp., 206-386-8819; Reader Contact: Aldus Corp., 206-622-
5500, 800-685-3617 for credit card orders)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00017)

UK - PPCP Ships PCMCIA 16-Bit Sound Card 01/12/94
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- PPCP, the portable
connectivity systems specialist distributor. has begun shipping a
Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
(PCMCIA) Type 1 16-bit stereo sound card.

The card, known as the New Media WAVjammer, comes with Microsoft
Windows Sound System version 2 software and a set of "plug-and-
play" device drivers. The card is claimed to be PPCP's first of its type
to offer stereo recording and playback, as well as voice recognition
and annotation facilities.

According to the London-based distributor, the card will appeal to
those users who use WAV and MIDI (musical instrument digital
interface) music files to obtain, what the company claims is,
superb audio-quality sound.

In use, the WAVjammer can support as many as 20 voice synthesis
channels. It records and play back 16 bit stereo sound with
sampling rates up to 44.1 kilohertz (KHz).

Thanks to the use of direct memory access (DMA), the card can
support the processing of large volumes of data for multimedia
applications which do not accept any breaks in the data flow.

The unit's on-card buffering allows the WAVjammer to use less than
two percent of the central processing unit (CPU), allowing it to be
used for essential computing tasks. When used in conjunction with
Microsoft Windows Sound System version 2, the bundle claims to
have complete compatibility any Windows application.

John Nolan, PPCP's managing director, said that the card can be
installed very easily in almost any PC. Pricing in at around
UKP400, the card can be installed and removed very quickly, he
claimed.

(Sylvia Dennis/19940112/Press & Public Contact: PPCP,
44-81-893-2277)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018)

UK - Mitsubishi Ships Budget MT-8 Cellphone 01/12/94
HATFIELD, HERTS, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Previewed by the
company last October, Mitsubishi has begun shipping the MT-8 hand
portable cellular phone. The unit, which claims to have a high
performance, it being offered at what the Japanese giant claims
is a budget price and is expected to appear in the UK with UKP150
price tag.

Non-UK Newsbytes readers should be aware that the real distributor
price of the MT-8 is around the UKP300 to UKP400 mark. End user
hardware prices in the UK cellphone market are subsidized by
commissions of up to UKP300 payable by the network providers
down to the dealers, so allowing the end user price to be much
reduced.

The MT-8's design is based on the company's award winning MT-7
phone. Measuring only 156- by 56- by 24-millimeters, it weights 230
grams with a standard battery. At this size, the company claims that
the MT-8 easily slips into a pocket or a handbag.

As supplied in the UK, the phone comes in a pack together with a
NiCad (nickel cadmium) mains/battery charger, AC mains adapter
and instructions. There are two types of battery available - the
standard one can support around 50 minutes of talk time or eight
hours on standby. The other, extended NiCad battery can provide
110 minutes of talk time or 20 hours on standby.

A desktop charger for the MT-8 is also available as an optional
extra and can charge the standard or extended life batteries in,
respectively, one and 2.5 hours.

The MT-8's memories can contain up to 20 numbers, which are
linked in with the software. For example, the phone can be
programmed to recall a memory and repeatedly dial the number
until it gets through.

(Sylvia Dennis/19940112/Press & Public Contact: Mitsubishi
Electric UK Ltd., 44-707-276-100)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00019)

New Scanning Toolkit For Sun Software Developers 01/12/94
UXBRIDGE, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Fujitsu has
announced the availability of a new software toolkit that it claims
allows Sun software developers to incorporate the functions of two
small computer systems interface (SCSI) image scanners into their
applications software.

John Goodyear, scanner product manager with Fujitsu Europe, said
that the new toolkit is available for Sun's v2.1.1 operating system.
In use, the package can save developers days or even weeks of
developing and testing time spent creating dedicated interface
software for the two scanners, the M3096G and the M3097G, claims
the company.

"With document management becoming increasingly popular, more
and more software developers are finding they need to incorporate
scanning into their applications software. This toolkit will make
their job a lot easier," Goodyear explained.

Along with allowing access to the scanners' standard facilities, the
toolkit lets developers use the added facilities provided on an IPC
board which Fujitsu offers as an option. These include data
compression, dynamic thresholding and other image enhancement
and manipulation features.

Pricing on the toolkit depends on developer licensing
requirements, Newsbytes notes.

(Steve Gold/19940112/Press & Public Contact: Fujitsu Europe,
tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00020)

3Com APPN Network Node Claims First For SNA Strategy 01/12/94
MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- 3Com has
delivered its APPN Network Node software for the Netbuilder II
bridge runner platform. The company claims that this means that
APPN (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) is now supported as
a native protocol on Netbuilder II and across Netbuilder boundary
routing networks.

3Com also claims that the announcement fulfills the third phase of
the company's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) strategy and
makes 3Com the first major networking vendor to deliver IBM's
APPN functionality.

"The aim of 3Com's SNA strategy has always been to provide a cost-
effective way of merging SNA and traditional local area network
(LAN) environments. Combining 3Com boundary routing with IBM
APPN gives our customers a full function routed SNA network
which requires less administration for a fraction of the cost of
traditional networks," explained Nigel Oakley, 3Com UK's product
marketing manager.

3Com's SNA strategy has been implemented in three stages. The
first, implemented in 1992/93, was the availability of Token Ring
functionality across all product lines. Products delivered included
the NETBuilder Token Ring bridge/router and Token Ring module for
NETBuilder II bridge/routers, Token Ring functionality in the
LinkBuilder MSH hub, the Star-tek hub family, Focus hub and
Tokenlink III adapter family.

3Com claims to have shipped the second phase of its strategy with a
mechanism for the integration of 3270 devices into a multiprotocol
environment, with its release in 1993 of tunneling software for the
NETBuilder family.

(Steve Gold/19940112/Press & Public Contact: 3Com,
44-628-897000)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00021)

UK - HP Offers Printer Drivers For Amigas 01/12/94
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has
announced Studio-Light, a Commodore Amiga-compatible suite of
drivers to support a broad range of HP printer products. The
company claims that the software works with various Amiga
computer models and supports Amiga Workbench version 2 and 3
or later.

The Studio-Light software supports the following printers from
HP's DeskJet and LaserJet brands: HP DeskJet, HP DeskJet Plus,
HP DeskJets 310, 500, 510, 500C, HP DeskJet Portable, HP DeskJet
1200C, HP LaserJets II, IIP,III, IIID, IIIP, IIISi, 4, 4M, 4P,
4MP, 4Si, 4SiMX, 4L, 4ML and the HP PaintJet 300XL.

The software package is claimed to support up to 16 gray scales,
4,096 colors, 11 fonts selectable via printer device, and all
printer media appropriate to the above printers. All printout
parameters, like dithering methods, are preconfigured to ensure
ease-of-use, and graphic print speed is improved by a compression
algorithm.

According to HP, Studio Light is currently available in  both English
and German. The package is available through HP's usual network
of resellers at a nominal charge, Further details of the driver
modules can be obtained from HP First, HP's automated fax
information service which is accessible in the UK on 0800-960271.

HP's Fax Information Retrieval Service (HP FIRST) claims to give
software developers direct access, via telephone, to information
on a broad range of HP printer products and details on how to
develop device specific printer drivers for them.

The system provides information about HP's LaserJet, DeskJet,
PaintJet, ScanJet and plotter development kits, and how to order
these development kits. Each product development kit typically
contains the following: technical reference manuals; developer
guides; comparison guides; HP Explorer software; TFM files and
various utilities; and sample code.

Developers wishing to use the HP FIRST service need a touch-tone
telephone and a fax machine. The service is based on an automated
memo system, which guides callers to information relevant to them.
Order forms are sent via fax, and can be returned by fax, or by
post. All orders for kits are processed and dispatched within two
working days on receipt, from HP's European distribution center
based in The Netherlands.

(Steve Gold/19940112/Press & Public Information: Hewlett-
Packard, 44-344-369222)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00022)

Object World - Look! Tool Brings C++ Programs To Life 01/12/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- At Object
World, OpenObjects Inc., has announced its own formation, along
with its first product, an object-oriented software tool that creates
an "object centric" dynamic animation of a C++ program while the
code executes.

By providing an animated "look" inside the C++ program, the new
Look! tool helps to give software developers a better grasp of the
complex C++ programming language, said Michael Seashols, president,
CEO and co-founder of the San Mateo, CA-based startup, in an
interview with Newsbytes.

Look! was originally developed by Livingston, Scotland-based
Objective Software Technology Ltd. (OST), with funding from private
industry as well as grants from the government of Scotland,
according to Seashols. OST launched Look! in the UK last November,
and has been successfully marketing the tool in Europe since then.
OpenObjects will now market and distribute Look! in North America
and the Pacific Rim.

OpenObjects does not develop new products, Seashols explained.
Instead, the mission of the new company is to identify, market and
distribute object-oriented productivity tools that have been
developed by others, and successfully beta tested, but have not yet
entered into full distribution.

Seashols, who was previously founder/CEO of Versant, told Newsbytes
that he and Bill Baloglu established OpenObjects after noticing
that many worthwhile object-oriented products were not meeting
their ultimate market potential.

Before founding Versant, Seashols headed up sales and marketing for
two major database vendors, first Oracle, and then Ingres. "During
the late 1980s, I took both of those companies public," he recalled.
Baloglu, OpenObjects' vice president of technology, worked with
Seashols at Versant as head of both Technical Services and
European Operations. Baloglu was formerly technical development
manager for Computervision.

Some of the products to be identified, marketed and distributed by
OpenObjects will originate within large MIS (management information
systems) companies that do not have the ability or interest to
market the tools "outside" themselves, said Seashols. Other
products, such as Look!, will come from small, independent
development companies.

Look! is aimed at offering a more in-depth understanding of objects
than the static diagrams provided by some CASE (computer-aided
software engineering) tools. The new product is designed to
represent changes in the set of objects that make up a system, and
in the interactions between those objects.

Look! supports most popular C and C++ compilers, and is available
for both Unix and Microsoft Windows. US pricing is $495 for a
single copy of the Windows edition and $1,995 per single copy for
Unix.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940112/Reader & Press Contact:
OpenObjects, 415-638-1000)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00023)

Teachers Clarify Ohio SchoolNet Criticism 01/12/94
COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Ohio Education
Association favors the state's plans for an education-related
on-line network, but a spokesman told Newsbytes the proposal
just does not go far enough.

"We support what" Governor George Voinovich is "trying to do,"
OEA President Marilyn Cross told Newsbytes. "But we think there
are other things in the equity issue like buildings and supplies."
SchoolNet, by itself, will not make poor schools equal with rich
schools.

"The other issue is that there are charges with SchoolNet, after"
the necessary equipment is provided. "The state budget has to
address those, so the poorer districts can continue to use it.
Otherwise we're very supportive of the information highway."
Some press reports had reported Cross questioning the wisdom
of the proposal, and she said that was not her intention.

In his state-of-the-state message, Governor Voinovich, a
Republican seeking re-election, had proposed giving 14,000
computers to 25 percent of the state's poorest school districts
and linking them with the education network, called Ohio
SchoolNet. SchoolNet would be linked to other networks under
the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
used for Internet networks.

In his address, the Governor also proposed offering metal
detectors and drug-sniffing dogs to schools requesting them,
which the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
objected to without some suspicion students subject to search
have violated the law. Both proposals, however, are considered
popular, and shortly after the speech Voinovich officially
launched his re-election campaign with a campaign trip to the
state's major cities, starting in his hometown of Cleveland,
where he was once mayor.

(Dana Blankenhorn/01121994/Press Contact: Ohio Education
Association, Marilyn Cross, 614-228-8951)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00024)

Cylink's New Wireless Modem Uses Different Frequency 01/12/94
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Cylink has
announced a new wireless modem in its AirLink line, this one
working at frequencies around 2.4 gigahertz (GHz). Earlier models
worked in the 900 megahertz (MHz) frequency band.

The new modems are being made possible by the creation of new
unlicensed frequency bands, part of the 200 MHz of new frequency
spectrum being freed-up by the government this year. The earlier
products worked at distances up to 55 miles without a repeater,
when the two modems were in a line of sight from each other,
using unlicensed bands shared with products like cordless phones.

The new modems are used for extending the reach of local area
networks, for wireless videoconferencing, and for linking to
regular voice and data networks. They can be installed in just
minutes, just for regular modems, and used in remote areas where
wired circuits are not available.

Because the new frequencies are higher than the older ones, waves
will dissipate more quickly, and the range of the new modems
will not be as great as those of the older products.

The range of the new products, with a non-directional antenna, is
about 1,000 feet with a non-directional antenna, run from speeds
of 64,000 bits-per-second (bps), to a top of the line model running
at 512,000 bps. They will use "spread spectrum" technology, which
eliminates interference with other users and allows the modems to
share frequency bands with conventional radios.

A press release from Cylink noted there are three frequency bands
on which radios with up to one watt of power can be used without
an FCC license. These are 902 to 928 MHz, 2.4 to 2.435 GHz, and
5.725 to 5.85 GHz. The new model can carry more data because it
uses a wider frequency band, 35 MHz, against the 26 MHz width
of the "L" band from 902-928 MHz.

(Dana Blankenhorn/0112994/Press Contact: Cylink, Arlene
Lightford, 408-735-5817)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00025)

Intel Working On Videoconferencing Standard 01/12/94
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Intel is
working on a new standard for videoconferencing systems that
will let equipment from different vendors work together. The
new standard is targeted for release in the middle of this year.

Among the vendors joining in the effort are PictureTel and
Compression Labs, the market leaders in this area, along with
VTel.

Intel, which is working on PC-based videoconferencing
systems, is joined in that area by Compaq, Lotus Development,
Novell, Software Publishing, and WordPerfect. Other companies
involved, mainly from the telecommunications end, include
Ericsson, Northern Telecom, and VideoServer. AT&T's
Communications Services Group will also support the
specification, Intel said.

The specification is designed to allow real-time, interactive
document and video conferencing across shared PC applications,
within the existing PC environment, at PC price points. The
specification has not yet gotten a name, an Intel spokesman said.

Intel brought the group together -- talking to the rest of the
industry and bringing key players together that can help with the
specification, a company spokesman told Newsbytes.

(Dana Blankenhorn/01112994/Press Contact: Intel, Pam Pollace,
408-765-1435)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(ATL)(00026)

Supreme Court Gets Cable Law Case 01/12/94
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- The US Supreme
Court heard oral arguments in a case pitting cables' freedom of
speech against the principle of anti-trust law.

In Turner Broadcasting System vs. FCC, case 93-44, the cable
industry hopes to overturn the "must carry" provisions of the
1992 Cable Act. Under this rule, cable operators must carry local
stations, even if they have small audiences. Turner's lawyers
argued that this violates the cable operators' freedom of speech,
while the US Justice Department argued that the law was an
anti-trust action aimed at reining in the industry's market
power.

In the law, stations were given an option between forcing local
operators to carry their signals or negotiating for payments,
called "re-transmission consent." Most stations chose the latter
route. While many, led by the CBS network, pressed for cash
payments, all eventually relented.

Instead, deals were done in which the operators agreed to carry
new cable stations offered by networks, for instance, NBC's CNBC
and ABC-Capital Cities' ESPN-2. This has proven a big problem
for Turner, which owns only one station, in Atlanta. His new
Cartoon Network winds up getting bumped from cable operations
in favor of untested cable networks pushed by broadcasters.

A sideline to this case is a somewhat-unrelated case decided by
the US District Court in northern Virginia. In that case, a
judge ruled that forbidding Bell Atlantic from offering video
services in its service area violated that company's First
Amendment rights to free speech. Since then, all the other
regional Bell companies have gone to court seeking the same
ruling on the same grounds.

The court is expected to issue a decision before its current
term expires at the end of June.

(Dana Blankenhorn/01112994)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00027)

A Look Back At CES 01/12/94
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Winter CES is
all over, including the shouting. The industry is crowing of its
success, but some analysts are questioning the optimism.

The Electronic Industries Association, which sponsored the show,
called it "exceptional, with group Vice President Gary J. Shapiro
noting that booth space grew over 10 percent, to 1,010,974 square
feet, while the number exhibitors grew to 1,857, up about 6.6
percent from last year's 1,741 in 1993. The final number of
verified attendees was 91,270, a 16 percent increase over 1993's
78,503.

But not everyone who attended left as optimistic as they arrived.
Many buyers interviewed by Newsbytes said they had a good year in
1993, but expressed disappointment in the lack of a "killer
product" on which to base 1994.

There was a wide variety of CD equipment available this year, for
instance, but the whole industry is suffering standards problems.
In audio, the regular CD standard is being challenged by Sony's
MiniDisk, a smaller, jacketed disk which carries the same amount
of music and can be recorded.

In the computer arena, there are still a wide variety of CD-ROM
standards, from Philip's CD-I and Kodak's Photo-CD to MPEG-1
and new double- or triple-speed players. All this can confuse
buyers and sellers alike, who may not understand that "Yellow
Book Mode 2" is the best way to assure a player will understand
the coming XA standards that might allow CD-ROMs to be
written on.

On the game front, there is more confusion. Sega and Nintendo had
the largest booths at this show, and both plan CD-based game
machines. But again, they are incompatible, except they can both
play CD audio disks. So, too, are the 3DO Real Machine produced
by Panasonic, the CD32 machine from Commodore, and planned game
machines like Sony's PSX and the Atari Jaguar. Worse, all the new
machines are more expensive than the machines they replace, or
have technical compromises. Sega's new CD unit, for instance, is
compatible with the older Sega Genesis game machine, which now
has 55 percent of the installed base, more than Nintendo's Super
NES. But that is 16-bit technology, meaning it could be overtaken
by new, faster, 32-bit machines within a few years.

CES is also going through growing pains. Many exhibits,
especially in the audio area, were housed in hard-to-reach parts
of the Sahara Hotel, which also hosted the adult video section.
Some attendees had problems finding the audio, while vendors in
the adult video area claimed an order to "tone down" their
displays made it harder to do business. Even there, however, the
future was obviously on its way.

The biggest crowd in the hall was watching a Microsoft Windows
listing, where a new CD-ROM product was on display. Meanwhile,
home theater vendors were exiled to the Mirage Hotel, miles
from the main hall. Cellular and paging vendors were put into
tents in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Fortunately,
this is a problem which can be solved, since the Sands Expo
Center, with 500,000 square feet of space, was empty during
the show.

The EIA said the consumer electronics industry closed out 1993
with an estimated $39.7 billion in total factory sales, and
estimates that sales will grow to $41.4 billion by the end of
1994. The fastest-growing category, the association said, will
be home information equipment, or PCs, growing at 7 percent,
followed by blank media and accessories, growing six percent,
audio products growing four percent, and video growing three
percent.

(Dana Blankenhorn/01112994/Press Contact: CES, Cynthia Upson,
202-457-8728)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00028)

 ****VP Gore's UCLA Information Superhighway Keynote 01/12/94
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Vice
President Al Gore was the keynote speaker at the Superhighway
Summit held at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
and presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Gore's emphasis was on proposed legislation concerning national
telecommunications reform, the National Information
Infrastructure (NII).

California State Senator Barbara Boxer introduced Gore by saying
communication services could allow US companies to sell an
additional $3.5 trillion in goods by the year 2001 to 2002. By
that time Boxer said it is estimated three-fourths of all jobs
will be in the telecommunications industries and now in
California the computer industry employs of 90,000 people.

Gore reminded the audience that he coined the term, "Information
Superhighway" fifteen years ago. But the rapid changes in the
information industries are like the "Big Crunch" described by
British physicist Stephen Hawking in his theory of the universe,
that claims expansion stops and all matter comes colliding
together. Gore said the information industries are facing a
similar "Big Crunch" in the convergence of cable, local telephone,
long distance telephone, television, film, and computers.
In the words of Yogi Berra: "What we have here is an
insurmountable opportunity," Gore said.

While Gore said he does not believe legislative and regulatory
action alone will be the answer. His proposal is for the setting
of clear goals with government as a catalyst, but with the
private and non-profit sectors actually making the progress
toward those goals.

The first goal is to have every classroom, hospital, and library
in the US linked to the National Information Infrastructure. Bell
Atlantic and Telecommunications have already publicly committed
to providing services without charge to one-fourth of US
classrooms, a move Gore praised.

The legislation Gore proposes is based on five principles:
encouragement of private investment; providing and protecting
competition; providing open access to the network; taking action
to avoid creating a society of information "haves" and "have-
nots;" and encouraging flexible and responsible government
action.

To begin with, Gore likened the building of the Information
Superhighway to the introduction of the telegraph system in the
mid 1800's. Even though it had funded Samuel Morse's first
demonstration of the telegraph in 1844, government officials
refused to build the telegraph system with national funding. Gore
said that choice was one for competition in the marketplace.

He also pointed to American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), who
in 1987 was projecting it would take until the year 2010 to
convert 95 percent of its long distance network to digital
technology. But when pressed by competition, AT&T delivered a
nearly 100 percent digital network by the end of 1991 and
meanwhile the price of interstate long distance service for the
average residential customer declined over 50 percent. Gore said
the next step is to open up use of the wires and switches that
link homes and offices via local telephone exchanges.

Gore is endorsing the basic principles of the Brooks-Dingell
bill, which proposes a framework for allowing long-distance and
local telephone companies to compete against each other. However,
he suggests the regulation and review of this framework should be
transferred from the courts to the Department of Justice and the
Federal Communications Commission. He also expressed concern that
the regional Bells might use their present monopoly positions as
unfair leverage into new lines of business, and feels changing
who reviews and regulates the framework will help prevent that
from happening.

Concern about local telephone companies acquiring local cable
companies was expressed and Gore said the administration will
continue to bar acquisition of existing cable companies by
telephone companies within their local service areas in order to
prevent monopolies.

Standardization is another issue Gore feels government should be
involved in. Just as in the railroad says when tracks were
different sizes, a passenger could not easily travel from a town
served by one railroad to a town served by another, the
Information Superhighway faces similar challenges. In addressing
these issues, Gore said proposed legislation contains provisions
designed to make each telephone carrier's networks accessible to
other users.

Gore is also proposing non-discriminatory access requirements
could be imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on
cable companies, under appropriate conditions. The idea is to
allow smaller companies to compete.

While concern has been raised as to whether or not "the poor" will
be kept out of the Information Superhighway, Gore said his
intention is not to allow that to happen. He pointed at current
numbers that show nearly 100 percent of households own
televisions, 94 percent have telephone service, three-quarters of
households are equipped with video cassette recorders (VCRs), 60
percent purchase cable, and 30 percent have personal computers.

He said: "As the information infrastructure expands in breadth
and depth, so too will our understanding of the services that are
deemed essential. This is not a matter of guaranteeing the right
to play video games. It is a matter of guaranteeing access to
essential services."

He continued: "We cannot tolerate -- nor in the long run can this
nation afford -- a society in which some children become fully
educated and others do not; in which some adults have access to
training and lifetime education, and others do not."

(Linda Rohrbough/19940112/Press Contact: Joe Cerrell for Vice
President Al Gore, 310-276-0622; Mark Rosch, Weissman/Angellotti
for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 818-763-2975,
Harlan Lebo for University of California at Los Angeles, 310-206-
0510; PHOTO)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00029)

Japan DEC Hires Ex-NEC Executive 01/12/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- Japan Digital Equipment
(DEC Japan) has recently hired Kiyoshi Hayami, an ex-general
manager of NEC.

Hayami is one of the executives that contributed to the
sales growth of NEC's best-selling personal computer, the
PC-9801. He reportedly helped a great deal in the development
of system and application programs for the PC-9801, and
pushed the product to become the best-selling personal
computer in Japan. The PC-9801 was released in 1982, and it
has over a 50 percent share in the Japanese PC market.

With Hayami's hiring by DEC Japan, the relationship between
Japan DEC and NEC is expected to become closer in the future.
Kiyoshi Hayami, 48 years old, left NEC last year.

At Japan DEC, Kiyoshi Hayami has assumed a board director's
position at the technology department. He will deal with
networking or system integration technologies.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19930110/Press Contact:
Japan Digital Equipment Corp., tel [phone],
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00030)

Japanese Government To Develop Superconducting IC 01/12/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 JAN 12 (NB) -- The Industry Technology
Laboratory and the Superconductivity Research Laboratory plan
to begin development of a superconducting integrated circuit
(IC) which supports high-speed telecommunications.

The Superconductivity Research Laboratory has already developed
a prototype superconducting IC. Both of these laboratories are
under the control of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade
and Industry.

It is expected that a project team will be set up in 1995. The
team plans to develop a practical superconducting IC which can
function at room temperature. The superconducting IC will
reportedly support a telecommunication speed of one trillion
bits-per-second.

The new superconducting IC is expected to support over 15 million
phone lines and 30,000 lines of high definition TV data with a
single fiber optical line. A major advantage of this fiber based
on the superconducting IC will be low cost.

The Superconductivity Research Laboratory has already developed
a prototype superconducting IC which operates in a room
temperature. The IC has a superconducting antenna and six units
of Josephson element, and engineers have already succeeded in an
experiment to achieve a 23 gigahertz high-frequency radio wave.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19930110/Press Contact:
Superconductivity Research Laboratory, tel [phone],
fax [phone])