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/nb011994

Text File | 1994-01-23 | 73KB | 1,563 lines

(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00001)

Digital Joins Fast Ethernet Alliance 01/19/94
CHAI WAN, HONG KONG, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Digital Equipment
Corporation has joined the Fast Ethernet Alliance (FEA), one of two
multivendor consortiums dedicated to developing specifications for a
high-speed 100 megabit per second Ethernet standard.

Prominent members of the 15-member consortium include 3Com, Intel,
National Semiconductor, Sun Microsystems and SynOptics. It has
presented a high-speed Ethernet specification called 100BASE-X to
the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
standards committees for consideration.

"Digital's commitment to provide total interoperability through open
systems makes it imperative that we should be active in standards-
based extensions of Ethernet performance. That's why we joined the
FEA," explained John Winchester, Director of Components, Peripherals
and Storage Business at Digital Asia. "At the same time, we continue
to work with 100Base-VG vendors and participate in both the FEA and
100Base-VG workgroups," he added.

"Digital's goal is to deliver high-speed networking to the desktop
at the best price/performance levels in the industry. To support
that effort we will continue to evaluate high-performance
technologies and participate in those forums that can best
contribute to achieving that goal," he said.

(Keith Cameron/19940119/Press Contact: Bonnie Engel (Digital): 852-
805-3510)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00002)

Executive Information System Keeps KCRC On Track 01/19/94
KWUN TONG, HONG KONG, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- 50 senior managers at the
Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation, from Chairman Kevin Hyde down,
are using an executive information system (EIS) developed by COL to
help them budget, plan and review the company's operations.

The system enables managers to dig into operational and financial
statistics at increasing levels of detail in order to analyse the
company's performance. Significant variations from plan are
automatically highlighted by the system, enabling problems to be
investigated and solutions developed at an early stage.

"The EIS tells us exactly how we are doing, alerts us to anything
that's beginning to go wrong, and gives us the tools to model the
effects of possible solutions," said Hyde. "It puts every manager in
touch with his area of responsibility using easy-to-follow graphs
and charts."

The system was built by COL consultants using Comshare's Commander
EIS and business modelling software, running respectively on
executives' desktop workstations and on an IBM ES/9000 mainframe.
Managers of the corporation's five divisions -- Heavy Rail, Light
Rail, Bus, Commercial and Properties, and Freight -- can review
performance from different perspectives, including a high-level
summary and more detailed financial, operational and human resources
information.

Actual and budgeted performance are compared automatically by the
system which uses colour-coding to alert managers when variations
exceed preset limits. Trends are plotted on the basis of actual
figures and extrapolated according to target, hoped-for and worst
case scenarios.

Powerful yet simple simulation software enables users to test
changes in strategy by observing their likely impact on the
performance of individual departments or divisions, and on the
corporation as a whole. This multi-dimensional modelling capability
is an important element in the KCRC's new budgeting system, which
has been developed on the basis of the Comshare software.

"Commander EIS pioneered ease-of-use features such as the large,
colourful icons which have now become almost standard in application
software," said Rita Lee, Customer Services Manager of COL's
Comshare business unit.

"The system remains at the forefront of technology, incorporating
many features that make life easier for both the executives who use
it and the support staff who develop and maintain the applications.
It is this unique combination that makes Commander EIS the choice of
forward-looking organisations in Hong Kong and around the world."

KCRC joins many of Hong Kong 's leading companies as a user of the
Commander EIS. Others include HongkongBank, Cathay Pacific Airways,
American Express, BUPA, City Polytechnic, Dow Chemical, Hongkong
Telecom, Philip Morris and Rothman Far East.

(Keith Cameron/19940119/Press Contact: Peter Fishwick (COL): 852 -
798 4798)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00003)

Telecom Australia To Trial Caller-ID In Wauchope 01/19/94
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Australia's main
telecommunications carrier Telecom is to trial Caller-ID with the
several thousand subscribers who live in a small regional community
known as Wauchope. Telecom provides all local phone services
throughout Australia.

Wauchope (pronounced War-hope) has been chosen for the trial because
it is small enough to conduct the exercise at a reasonable cost, yet
provides a wide range of subscriber types, ranging through domestic,
government, manufacturing and rural. All subscribers will be
provided with Caller-ID phones which will display the caller's phone
number unless a lock-out code has been used in dialling the call or
the caller has an unlisted service.

This is not the first time services such as Caller-ID have been
proposed in Australia, but civil liberty groups are always vocal in
pointing out the potential problems, especially where subscribers do
not fully understand the implications of having their number made
known to the called party, or do not understand their rights to
control the service.

The Wauchope trial is intended to provide the regulatory authority
Austel with information which may lead it to make the service
available throughout the country. Telecom says that the only current
authorised use of Caller-ID is with the Australian 000 telephone
emergency service (like the US 911), but even this is not available
on calls from older exchange areas. The other users who currently
get Caller-ID in Australia are those businesses which have private
internal telephone systems and make calls to other, compatible
systems, usually through ISDN (integrated service digital network)
connections.

On a less positive note, Telecom is currently under fire for the way
it has handled a number of subscribers with complaints. The business
subscribers had complained about repeated irregularities in their
bills and Telecom promised to monitor the situation.

The "monitoring" turned out be much more literal than the
subscribers knew, with every minute of every conversation being both
listened to and recorded. In at least one case this was accompanied
by thousands of pages of transcripts.

Photo caption: "Telecom introduced Phonecard phone booths in
Australia in 1990, and has already released 89 different Phonecard
designs."

(Paul Zucker/1994019/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00004)

ZDS Launches Z-Stor Personal Server In UK 01/19/94
BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Zenith Data
Systems (ZDS) has announced the Z-Stor Personal Service in the UK,
following a successful launch in the US in the last month. The
machine is billed as the first workgroup server specifically
designed to make networking as simple and affordable as possible for
the end user.

"There's a large market for small networks, but potential customers
have either lacked the budget or expertise," explained John
Lonergan, ZDS UK's managing director.

"Today, networks are just too hard. The two greatest barriers for
most small workgroups -- cost and complexity -- are eliminated by Z-
Stor," he added.

The Z-Stor was developed in close co-operation with Novell, which
has licensed copies of Personal Netware for installation on the Z-
Stor machine series. Also pre-installed on the machine is Novell DOS
7.0, the new version of DOS from Novell. According to ZDS, users
only have to unpack the box, connect up their PCs and printer, and
after that, the network is up and running.

Two versions of the Z-Stor are available in the UK -- the Model 400
and the Model 1000. The 400 comes with a 25 megahertz (MHz) 80486SLC
processor driving 2 megabytes (MB) of memory and 400MB of hard disk
space. Other features include a 10Base-T Ethernet connector and
Friendlynet (an AAUI port) for 10Base-2 and 10Base-5 Ethernet
support, as well as personal computer memory card international
association (PCMCIA) card slot.

The Model 1000 has the same basic hardware features as the 400, but
boosts disk storage to 1,000MB, using a 500MB hard drive running
Novell DOS 7.0's data compression technology. Pricing on the 400 and
1000 series starts at under the UKP 1,000 mark, with shipment
expected early next month.

(Steve Gold/19940119/Press & Public Contact: ZDS- Tel: [phone]-
2237)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00005)

3Com/Pacific Monolithics Networking Deal 01/19/94
MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- 3Com has teamed
up with Pacific Monolithics, the US pioneer in wireless
communications. The idea behind the linkup between the two companies
is to offer a wireless Ethernet extension for existing local area
networks (LANs), which will then enable wireless LANs to operate at
a full 10 megabits per second (Mbps) for the first time.

According to 3Com, the partnership has two key aspects: a technology
licensing agreement, which gives 3Com exclusive rights to develop,
manufacture and sell wireless LAN products based on radio technology
developed by Pacific Monolithics; and the incorporation of Pacific
Monolithics design team within 3Com to continue their development
efforts.

Plans now call for 3Com to develop a wireless Ethernet adapter and
network access point which will allow cellular-like coverage of a
campus and support for transparent access for users on the move.

"Customers are looking for inexpensive, high data rate, low power,
portable LAN connections," explained David Fisher, project manager
with 3Com and formerly with Pacific Monolithics.

"With 3Com's manufacturing capabilities, marketing strength and
Ethernet system knowledge, combined with PM"s wireless technology,
customers will get wire-like performance in a wireless environment,"
he added.

Founded in 1984, Pacific Monolithics is a privately-held firm based
in Sunnyvale, California, that claims to have pioneered low cost,
high performance Gallium Arsenide MMIC technology. The company
claims to be a leading supplier of integrated circuits and systems
for the wireless communications industry.

(Steve Gold/19940119/Press & Public Contact: 3Com UK - Tel: +44-828-
897000)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00006)

Paid Support Suffers A Setback In Oz - Major Player Pulls Out 01/19/94
NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- 1993 was the year computer
companies in Australia unbundled support. Now Newsbytes notes that
1994 may well be the year they have to take some of it back.

One company that made big plans to provide support for a fee was
HelpKey. The firm introduced a tollfree phone and fax service which
provided service for a flat fee of AUS$2 (US$1.38) per minute for
most popular software packages.

Now the company has suddenly withdrawn the service, saying: "our
research shows that demand for such a service is limited, and that
the role of supporting users will fall more heavily on resellers and
VARs."

HelpKey went on to say: "we will continue to focus on our core
services -- Information Technology (IT) Consulting, Analysis and
Design, Contract Programming and Object Oriented Technology."

Although the company said it had started the service as an
experiment, it is widely believed in the industry that this and a
number of other companies in the Australian IT industry had expected
to make good profits from offering support-for-fee services.

While some vendors such as Microsoft have dropped free support and
now charge for everything other than assistance with set-up or bugs,
other, smaller software companies have totally dropped support and
have appointed "official" third party service providers.

(Paul Zucker/19940119/Contact: HelpKey on phone [phone] or
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00007)

Gateway 2000 Debuts In Australia 01/19/94
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Major US PC brand Gateway
2000 has established itself with a bang in Australia with the launch
of Pentium-based models at less than AUS$5000. The models are the
first to take advantage of reduced prices for the high-performance
Pentium processors announced by Intel early this month.

Crashing prices for Pentium PCs are likely across the board in
future months as Intel drives to establish the Pentium as the
mainstream processor for business use.

The current price for Pentium PCs tend to be in the AUS$7-10,000
(US$5-7,000) area. Gateway 2000 has nominated Australian company
Softrade Direct Australia as a local reseller -- one of only seven
in the world. Softrade MD Julian Toohey has announced that in line
with Gateway's just-announced new pricing structure in the US,
Softrade would begin offering Gateway 60MHz Pentium systems from
AUS$4729 ex tax. The prices include 8 megabytes (MB) of random
access memory (RAM), a 424MB hard disk, a local bus motherboard,
monitor and a number of software packages.

According to marketing manager Shahron Ameer, Softrade has been a
supplier of low-cost computer aided design (CAD) machines systems
for the past six years. It began as a software supplier, bound found
clients wanted a total package and moved first into peripherals like
plotters and printers.

When the company found it couldn't be competitive without a source
of reliable PCs, a world search led it to Gateway. Ameer said
that Softrade will concentrate on direct sales of complete software-
hardware solutions, especially in the CAD area. It has around 15,000
customers around Australia with five full-time and 15 part-time
staff.

Gateway is said to have considered the Australian market in the
past, but dismissed it due to the presence of similar direct-sale
suppliers such as Osborne which is the top PC supplier in Australia.

(David Frith, Computer Daily News & Paul Zucker/19940119)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008)

Sprint & RP Telecom Cooperate On Polish Broadband Comms Net 01/19/94
KATOWICE, POLAND, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- As Poland's telecoms network
is dragged into the 1990s, pushed forward by the requirements of
mushrooming businesses in the former Communist satellite country,
only the public switched telephone network (PSTN) seems to have
enjoyed the benefits of the recent modernization.

All that may be changing, however, as Sprint in the US and RP
Telecom, the Polish telecoms supplier, have agreed to form a new
company to build an integrated broadband fiber optic network in the
Pila and Katowice areas of the country.

The move will mean that, within the next year, millions of people
and businesses in the these areas will have access to services such
as packet data networks (PDNs), video on demand, integrated services
digital network (ISDN), and even videoconferencing.

Currently, value-added telecoms services such as PDN services, ISDN
and even data lines are still very much in their infancy in Poland,
which has the dubious pleasure of boasting a telephone penetration
of 10 percent in lines per members of population. This contrasts
with the 43 percent average for Europe as a whole.

Plans call for Sprint to take a 25 percent stake in the new company,
with RP Telekom -- plus the local telcos, Telekom Pila and Telekom
Silesia -- also holding stakes. Other interested parties will also
be offered a share in the company, Newsbytes understands.

The bulk of the finance will be made by the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the commercial division of the World Bank, which
will invest around $120 million in the as-yet unnamed company.
Newsbytes understands that the IFC will take a stake in the new
company in return.

Plans call for a first stage plan of around 125,000 phone lines to
be installed in the two regions of Poland, which have a captive
potential audience of 3.2 million subscribers. Once the first stage
is complete, Newsbytes understands that the service will be rolled
out to other areas of Poland.

One interesting spin-off for Newsbytes readers in Poland will be
that Sprint could become the first international PDN service
provider in the country. This would enable, for example, modem users
to dial a local country number into Sprint and place host-paid calls
into online services such as Compuserve, Dialcom and Genie.

(Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19940119/Press & Public Contact: Roman
Jarocki, RP Telekom [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00009)

Microsoft Releases Drivers, Patches CD 01/19/94
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Microsoft
Corporation has released a supplemental Microsoft Technet
information CD that contains all the drivers for its entire software
product line.

Known as the Microsoft Drivers and Patches CD, the disk contains
more than 900 drivers as well as code samples, articles, utilities,
and all the patches for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.

According to Microsoft, the disk is the first of a supplemental
quarterly CD disk the company sends to members of the Microsoft
Technet. The company says that future CDs will include MS-DOS
operating system 6.2 Step Up, the software that upgrades licensed
MS-DOS 6 users to release 6.2. It will also carry patches for
Microsoft LAN Manager; and the Microsoft Networking Client Kit, the
standard networking client for Windows NT Advancer Server, Windows
for Workgroups, and LAN Manager networks.

Last fall Microsoft began issuing quarterly customer service packs
with code, updating users to the most current release of Windows NT.
However, this is the first time the information has been available
on CD. A Microsoft-provided installation utility on the disk
installs all the Windows NT patches automatically.

Microsoft Technet is a subscription service that provides technical
information about Microsoft products. Technet members also receive
the complete Microsoft Knowledgebase; and product resource kits with
utilities for Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups, Windows and the
MS-DOS operating system. The disks include training materials,
conference session notes, and other technical information. A
Windows-based interface and a full-text Boolean search engine is
provided on the disk.

Technet membership costs $295 for a single user annual
subscription or $695 for a single server license for unlimited
users. Microsoft offers a 90-day money back guarantee.

(Jim Mallory/19940119/Press contact: Bev Auld, Microsoft Corp,
206-882-8080; Reader contact: Microsoft Corp, 800-344-2121, ext
3003 or 402-691-0173)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00010)

Standards Australia Issues S/W Engineering Terminology Glossary 01/19/94
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Standards Australia, the
standards association of Australia, has released a new publication
which defines more than 1,000 software engineering terms in general
use. It is published as the AS 3611-1993 Glossary of Software
Engineering Terminology.

The organization claims the new publication is a vital reference
document for software suppliers, computer systems consultants, MIS
sections of government and private organizations and anyone who must
keep up to date on the latest software engineering terminology, as
well as students of engineering, computing and information
technology.

The standard glossary identifies and establishes standard
definitions for terms currently applied in the filed of software
engineering. Standards Australia said it is an essential reference
for keeping up with the field. Entries are listed alphabetically,
and range from single words such as "software" to phrases such as
"test case" and acronyms such as "CM."

The publication AS 3611-1993 can be ordered from Standards Australia
by credit card for AUS$46 (around US$32) from: The Standards
Australia National Sales Centre, PO Box 1055, Strathfield, NSW 2135
Australia

(Paul Zucker/19940119/Press & Public Contact: SANSC - Tel: +61-2-746
4700; Fax [phone]


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(ATL)(00011)

New Sound Technology Offered 01/19/94
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- One story
from the Consumer Electronics Show which was lost amid the hubbub
was a rash of new sound technology. These included QSound, a new
system from Bose, and a technology called B.A.S.E., from Technology
Base Incorporated.

Newsbytes discussed the last with president David Shu. He explained
that the company had its first claim to fame with Digital Music
Express, which has become a de facto standard for offering up to 30
channels of music through a cable television channel. The company
provided only the technology, however, and the lion's share of the
revenues from the invention went elsewhere, Shu acknowledged.

Shu provided Newsbytes a videotape demonstrating the B.A.S.E.
technique and its comparison to ordinary sound, meaning it can be
applied to the creation of tapes as well as stereo components. Even
on an inexpensive stereo system, the B.A.S.E. sound was somewhat
deeper, with richer base notes and more separation between elements
-- more like watching a movie than a video.

Technically, Shu said, B.A.S.E. is a 3-D sound technique that's
already been used in movies and by some recording artists. He said
it's fundamentally different from QSound, which is a sound
localization technique. "That requires that you sit in a theater and
not move your head," he explained. "This is stereo field
enhancement. It doesn't change frequencies and thus some of the
people who have listened to SRS, now in use with some Sony
television sets, have come on board with us."

B.A.S.E. is being offered to makers of consumer electronics on an
OEM basis, so it may be incorporated in real products at future
shows, Shu said.

"Music should be a shared experience, so we've enlarged the sound
stereo field," he continued. "You have to have mono compatibility
when transmitting it. When you collapse to mono due to FM fading the
sound is still there -- that's a failing with QSound," where the
stereo effect disappears with distance. "And SRS has frequency
shifts between speakers.

"We have already established a reputation in the professional field,
with equipment a little under $10,000," Shu said. "But we can
produce the same quality in the $400 range. More than that, we've
gotten very good at integration...the chips cost OEMs just $10, and
if you get it down to $2.50 every TV set and Walkman can afford it."
The chips themselves are customized digital signal processors.

"The other thing we demonstrated at CES is the capability of
creating pseudo stereo after you collapse the sound," with distance.
"If we adopt that we can put it into all radios. When you drive
along FM has a fading, so FM stereo systems collapse to mono with
distance. What we do is sense the collapse and restore stereo, from
within the unit. That is something we have not finalized yet, but we
demonstrated the effect of collapse and the sound quality coming
out."

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940119/Press Contact: Davis Shu, Technology
Base, 707/956-0710; FAX: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00012)

AT&T Announces Bundling for DataPort Modem 01/19/94
LARGO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- AT&T's Paradyne unit has
announced some agreements covering its VoiceSpan technology, which
allows voice and data calls to share the same phone line.

The first product incorporating VoiceSpan is AT&T Paradyne's
DataPort 2001 modem, first shown at last fall's Comdex. The modem
will be bundled with FarSite, a conferencing system from DataBeam
Corp., Lexington, Kentucky. FarSite allows two people to share a
virtual "electronic whiteboard" on their computer screens while
simultaneously having a voice conversation. It works with other
modems, said spokesman Becky Taylor, but with the DataPort on both
ends it requires the use of just a single voice channel.

Canon and Matsushita Electric said they will begin developing new
fax machines that can share phone lines, using the VoiceSpan
technology. This could replace the present "fax switches" used by
many home workers who have a single line, which route calls among a
fax machine, modem and voice answering machine.

AT&T said that its Consumer Products unit will integrate the
technology into its phones so they can work with modems. Details on
that will come out later. The unit will use the technology to
complement its Edge 16 module for Sega Genesis systems, which allows
players to share video games.

Under this system, players would also be able to talk to each other
while they play. AT&T Microelectronics, meanwhile, said that in the
second half of this year it will begin producing a VoiceSpan chipset
implementing the technology, to be marketed under the VoiceSpan
logo. AT&T Paradyne said it intends to license the technology across
additional market segments, including PCs, PDAs, and
telecommunication services.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940119/Press Contact: Dick Muldoon, AT&T
Microelectronics, 908-771-2825; Mike Zeaman, AT&T Consumer Products,
201-581-3938; Becky Taylor, DataBeam, 606-245-3500/PHOTO)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00013)

HP Announcement Means Canadian Jobs 01/19/94
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- In the wake of
Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Computing announcement this week, there
is the prospect of about 300 new jobs for Canadians. Hewlett-Packard
(Canada) Ltd. announced plans to expand manufacturing in several
locations.

The Canadian subsidiary also announced an alliance with Bell Sygma,
a unit of telephone company Bell Canada that provides system and
network management services. HP Canada's Panacom division in
Waterloo, Ontario, is to build the new Entria X terminals for world
markets. The company said the Waterloo plant is expected to supply
about 24 percent of the Entria terminals sold worldwide.

The plant, which now employs about 130 people, is expected to hire
about 100 more to handle Entria production, company spokeswoman
Martha Terdik said.

In addition to those new jobs, HP is also expecting to hire about
another 200 people for assorted jobs across the country. These will
include added staff at a plant in the Toronto suburb of North York,
Ontario, to work at a facility that is developing a high-speed
optical fiber switch. The switch is due to be announced in the fall
for world markets, said company spokeswoman Tracy Holotuk.

The North York facility is the former fiber channel business unit of
Alcatel Canada Wire, acquired by HP Canada last year.

New employees will also be hired at other locations. HP Canada has
two manufacturing operations in Alberta, and has been hiring staff
in other areas such as marketing and public relations, Terdik said.

This is a turnaround from three years ago, Newsbytes notes, when the
company cut its staff from 1,200 to 1,050. New hiring since then has
brought the head count to about 1,400 today. The hiring is also in
contrast to much of the computer industry, and the Canadian industry
in particular, where job losses are more the order of the day.

HP and Bell Sygma plan to work together to offer outsourcing,
application development, and network management services. Bell Sygma
has 2,900 employees, has locations in Canada and the United Kingdom,
and currently has contracts in a number of other countries.

(Grant Buckler/19940119/Press Contact: Martha Terdik, Hewlett-
Packard Canada, 905-206-3311; Tracy Holotuk, Hewlett-Packard, 905-
206-3493)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00014)

CorelSCSI Network Manager Extends Existing Product 01/19/94
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Corel has announced,
and begun shipping, an expanded version of its CorelSCSI software
called CorelSCSI Network Manager.

Like the existing CorelSCSI, the new package supports Small Computer
Systems Interface (SCSI) connections, an increasingly popular way of
attaching peripherals such as external disk drives and compact disk
read-only memory (CD-ROM) drives to personal computers.

The package adds support for Novell Inc.'s NetWare local-area
network (LAN) operating system, Versions 3.11 and 3.12. It also
includes CorelRAID, a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) meant to support
the Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID) standard for fault-
tolerant disk arrays. The package also includes CD-ROM server
software, support for optical disk drives, and another NLM meant to
make CD-ROM jukeboxes work with NetWare servers.

The announcement is another step in a realignment of Corel's SCSI
and CD-ROM products that began with announcements last November at
the Comdex/Fall trade show in November. At that time, the company
introduced CD-ROM PowerPak, software aimed at first-time CD-ROM
users, and CorelSCSI 2.

At the time, David Madden, product manager for CD-ROM and SCSI
software at Corel, said the company was moving CorelSCSI 2 upmarket
to serve many users who formerly bought CorelSCSI Pro, and he
described CorelSCSI Network Manager as incorporating all the
features of CorelSCSI Pro plus NetWare support.

CorelSCSI Network Manager has a list price of US$595 or C$695. Users
of CorelSCSI Pro and CorelRAID can upgrade for US$249 or C$269.

(Grant Buckler/19940119/Press Contact: Dwayne Struthers, Corel,
613-728-8200 ext. 1651, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00015)

Massive Disability Info Database On Internet 01/19/94
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- The Trace Research and
Development Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison has
just shipped its latest version of the Co-Net CD-ROM (compact disc -
read only memory) containing lists of thousands of products for
disabled computer users, but the same files are also available to
anyone with Internet access.

Co-Net 6, the sixth edition of the ABLEDATA database, has added 14
new databases to its already massive collection of technology
listings for disabled computer users.

Those individuals with Internet access can FTP (the Internet file
transfer protocol which allows users to download files from remote
computers) trace.waisman.wisc.edu (the Internet address of the Trace
Center server) and download any files of interest.

This is a public domain project which means that those who have
access to the files, either through purchase of the Mac- and PC-
compatible CD-ROM or from the Internet, can freely distribute copies
of the files to interested individuals. BBS operators with the CD-
ROM are also free to post the entire disc for downloading by
callers.

In addition to the database of more than 18,000 assistive and
rehabilitation devices maintained under contract with the US
Department of Education, the new release of Co-Net also contains
extensive directories of individuals and agencies which provide
services to the disabled.

Also included is the complete text of the ADA (Americans with
Disabilities Act), the Rehabilitation act of 1973, and other related
legislation and information.

Completely new for this version is the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Resource File for Patients, a Resource Guide for Stroke Survivors
and Their Families, and Technology-Related Assistance for Persons
with Disabilities Act: State Programs.

The current disc is accessible on both DOS and Macintosh computers
and a Windows version is under development.

Single disc price is $27 including shipping and handling for US plus
$12.50 more for those using purchase orders. A two-disc subscription
is $50 cash or check, plus $12.50 for those sending P.O.'s.

(John McCormick/19940119/Press & Public Contact: Trace Center, U of
Wisconsin, S-151 Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Ave., Madison, WI
53705. Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; TDD 608-263-5408; Email
on the Internet: [e-mail].)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00016)

MCI Keeps Home Shopping, Runs into Ad Criticism 01/19/94
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- MCI expanded its toll-
free contract with Home Shopping Network, the nation's second
largest cable shopping service.

Spokesman Steve Fox told Newsbytes that the company has been working
with Home Shopping since 1987, when it took a contract to become its
secondary toll-free operator at a rate of about $20,000 in calls per
month.

The new three year agreement is worth $38 million, and includes
Virtual private network or Vnet service as well as long distance
data-hauling services under the frame relay standard. Home Shopping
said it now gets over 1 million toll-free calls each week from
viewers.

MCI has also started to run into criticism for a new ad campaign.
But while previous criticisms were business-related, with rival long
distance carriers challenging the company's claims, the new
criticisms are artistic. At issue are a new series of ads featuring
a young girl in a variety of scenes hyping the company's networkMCI
plan, under which it will handle the local end of long distance
calls in over 200 cities.

The critics, however, charge that the benefits don't come out of the
ad. The star of the ad, by the way, is Anna Paquin, a New Zealand
actress who starred in "The Piano." The ads were done by the
company's regular ad agency, Messner Vetere Berger McNamee
Schmetterer of New York.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940119/Press Contact: Steve Fox, MCI, 404-
250-5806)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00017)

AirOne Service Launched on Southwest 01/19/94
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- McCaw Cellular's Claircom
air-ground phone unit launched its AirOne service on Southwest
Airlines.

AirOne, a digital service which can provide data as well as voice
services, is now installed throughout Southwest's fleet of short-
haul aircraft. The service offers data and fax service as well as
voice. Since opening Claircom as a joint-venture with General
Motors' Hughes unit, McCaw has won a number of other airline
contracts, most notably those of American Air and Air France. McCaw
quietly bought out Hughes' interest in AirOne a few months ago, but
Hughes is continuing to provide equipment to the unit.

The company said that passengers on over half of Southwest flights
can now access data services through a standard phone jack, known as
an RJ-11 plug, in their seat backs. This allows them to make data
calls and get e-mail or send faxes through modems in their laptop
computers. The services will be available throughout the Southwest
fleet in early February.

Data and fax service are proving controversial, however. Some pilots
say the computers' magnetic fields disrupt crucial air-ground
communications, and forbid their use. Most airlines forbid the use
of laptop computers during take-offs and landings, and Southwest's
short hop strategy means most air time is taken up in these two
activities.

Still, a spokesman for Southwest said the airline was "delighted" to
be first in the world with the new service. Claircom president Keith
Grinstein said fax and data services are among his company's highest
priorities.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19940119/Press Contact: Southwest Airlines, Ed
Stewart, 214/904-4187)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00018)

SAS System Available For Microsoft Windows NT 01/19/94
CAUSEWAY BAY, HONG KONG, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- SAS Institute has
announced the shipment of the SAS System for Microsoft Windows NT --
less than 60 days after Microsoft announced actual production and
shipment of the operating system.

Release 6.09 of the SAS System fully exploits the 32-bit processing
power of Microsoft Windows NT. It also expands the software's
client-server capabilities by allowing client-side support for
Windows NT and adding server-side support of open systems, OS/2 2.0
and Windows NT.

The addition of these major server environments supports the SAS
System's client-server computing strategy by enabling organisations
to gain access to stored corporate data and deliver information
throughout their computing environment.

"With the 6.09 release falling so close to Microsoft declaring
production, we have one of the first application software products
available for Windows NT," said Nigel Gasper, General Manager for
SAS Institute Ltd in Hong Kong.

"This release gives our customers all the advantages of the Windows
GUI with the power and speed of the world's leading information
delivery system -- in a premier desktop environment," he said.

To Gasper this is a further demonstration of the SAS Institute's
commitment to freedom of choice for the customer. Because it has
designed portability into the SAS System the company can stay
completely in step with operating system vendors.

The SAS System for Microsoft Windows NT will be available on
customisable CD ROM only.

An integrated suite of more than 25 modules, the SAS System offers
enterprise-wide information delivery. It includes EIS, spreadsheets,
graphics, data analysis, report writing, quality improvement,
project management, computer performance evaluation, client/server
computing, database access, decision support, and applications
development.

(Keith Cameron/19940119/Press Contact: Nigel Gasper (SAS): 852 - 568
4280)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00019)

 ****Sega Enterprises Links With Microsoft On Video Game S/W 01/19/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Japan's second largest video
game maker, Sega Enterprises, has signed an agreement with Microsoft
in the US. Terms of the agreement call for Microsoft to develop an
operating system for Sega's new next generation video game
machine.

As the news his the Japanese stock market, Sega's stock price
skyrocketed. Sega's new game machine is called the Saturn, and is
equipped with two 32-bit RISC (reduced instruction set computing)
chips.

With Microsoft's proprietary operating system, Sega's video game
machine will function better, officials say. The machine will be
able to process various data including texts, voice and motion
pictures. Also, the operating system will make it easy for game
software makers to develop programs, the company claims.

A Sega spokesman told Newsbytes that the firm will announce full
details of its as-yet unannounced video game machine this March. The
spokesman has also hinted that the firm has been talking with
Microsoft concerning the joint development of game software.

In Japan, as in the UK and US, the video game machine market has
been becoming extremely competitive of late, due to the
participation by major electronics firms such as Matsushita and
Sony. Matsushita has already developed the 32-bit video game machine
with multimedia features in cooperation with 3DO in the US. Sony is
also developing the powerful video game machine.

Sega wants to add more functions on its new video game machine -- It
will be able to be used for multimedia television. The firm has
already linked with Time-Warner and Telecommunications (TCI) and has
started the experiments on transmitting game programs via cable
television in Japan.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19940119/Press Contact: Sega
Enterprises, [phone], Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00020)

Personal Handy Phone Tests Start In Tokyo This April 01/19/94
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Japan's two major domestic
telephone firms, NTT and DDI, have announced they will start beta
tests of the so-called the Personal Handy Phone in Tokyo in this
April.

The tests will be carried on a massive scale, Newsbytes notes.
Assuming all goes well with the tests, NTT and DDI are planning to
start the actual business around the end of this year.

The experiments by NTT and DDI are the Tokyo version of both firms'
testing. Both firms already started the testing at Sapporo in
the Hokkaido Province last fall. About In the trial, around 1,200
units of the phone terminals were rented out to the monitor users in
Sapporo city.

So far, the experiment is successful, and it will end in this
spring. The experiments in Tokyo will be conducted in a much bigger
scale. About 5,000 to 6,000 units of the phone units will be rented
out to the experiment users in Tokyo. Both firms are currently
discussing on expanding the test area to the suburbs of Tokyo.

The Personal Handy Phone is a digital cordless telephone with an
extra phone unit. The user will be able to communicate with this
extra phone unit and the base phone unit. So, it is a sort of an
inter-phone call. Although the user will not be able to make a long
distance call, the usage fee is expected to be much cheaper than
that of a portable phone or a mobile phone.

The experiments in the Tokyo area will last for about six months.
Meanwhile, NTT and DDI are preparing to apply for the business
permission at the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication.

(Masayuki "Massey" Miyazawa/19940119/Press Contact: NTT, +81-3-3509-
3101, Fax, [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00021)

Intel Posts Records Revenue/Income For 1993 01/19/94
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Anyone
wondering why Intel is always so upset, and as a result always in
court, with those semiconductor vendors who clone their
microprocessors, need look no further than the company's 1993
earnings report to find out why. The company says that its net
income in 1993 increased 115 percent on a 50 percent rise in
revenue. Both totals are company records.

The company says that revenue was $8.78 billion, compared with $5.84
billion for 1992. Net income was $2.3 billion, compared with $1.07
billion in 1992. Earnings of $5.20 per share, increased 109 percent
from $2.49 per share in 1992.

Fourth quarter revenue and net income was also just as impressive
and also, according to the company, set records. Revenue of $2.39
billion was up 29 percent from $1.86 billion for the comparable
period in 1992, and up seven percent from $2.24 billion for the
third quarter of 1993. Net income for the fourth quarter increased
38 percent to $594 million from $429 million for the same quarter
of 1992, and rose two percent from $584 million for the third
quarter of 1993.

The stakes are indeed high, notes Newsbytes. Intel's defence of its
products against such clone companies as Advanced Micro Devices is
one of the industry's most followed soap operas. Competitors claim
that letting Intel forge the way, with them following in its wake
with similar products in order to reap the rewards, is just plain
good business practice. Intel, for its part, invests billions of
dollars in research and development of new semiconductor products,
and as a result, hopes to at least delay new competing products long
enough to get a worthwhile return-on-investment.

Newsbytes also notes that Intel's success has come on the back of
the personal computing (PC) revolution. The company's processors --
80286, 80386, 80486, and the new Pentium -- have been the brains
inside PCs since their inception in the early 1980s. The only major
exception to that is with Apple Computer's Macintosh line which
traditionally used processors from competing semiconductor giant,
Motorola.

Legal battles got so intense for Intel in the past that, following
court rulings that it could not trademark numbers, it surprised the
industry by following the 80486 processor line with a next-
generation called Pentium, instead of the expected 80586.

Concerning the fourth quarter, Intel said that, on a per-share
basis, the company earned $1.35 for the quarter, up 36 percent from
$0.99 a year ago. Even so, the company did say however that fourth
quarter results were impacted by heavier-than-usual start-up costs
for chip factories in California and Ireland.

Intel president and chief executive officer, Dr. Andrew S. Grove,
said of the year, "In the course of 1993, we ramped production of
our advanced Intel486 DX2 and Pentium processors, while also
bringing their prices down. In 1994 we plan to do more of the same.
Our goal is to double the performance of the processors used at key
price points."

He concluded: "The PC is emerging as a sort of electronic 'Swiss
army knife' that can be used as a mass-market personal productivity,
communications and entertainment appliance. As a result of this
trend, the PC user base continues to grow rapidly in the office and
the home."

The company said that, while unit shipments of its 80486
microprocessors continued at high levels in the fourth
quarter, demand continued to shift to higher-performance
microprocessors, in particular its 486 DX2 microprocessor.

(Ian Stokell/19940119/Press Contact: Pam Pollace, 408-765-1435,
Intel)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00022)

Adobe Joins "Virtual Library" Consortium 01/19/94
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Adobe
Systems is trying hard to push its new Acrobat electronic document
software in all areas of the industry. Now the company says that the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has accepted
Adobe as a member of its "virtual library" consortium.

What this means to Adobe, is that under a cooperative research and
development agreement, it will help NIST integrate Adobe Acrobat and
the PostScript page description language into research models and
applications that "explore the advantages of electronic libraries."

The deal calls for NIST and Adobe to collaborate in "reviewing and
developing supplements for the PostScript language," and the Adobe
Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF), used to view documents on
display devices.

NIST also plans to use Acrobat software as the basis of an internal
experiment to determine the benefits of implementing electronic
document communication across the organization.

In announcing the deal, John Warnock, chairman and chief executive
officer of Adobe Systems, said: "Of what use is a digital library if
the books and periodicals contained in that library are not at least
as visually rich and easy to browse as their paper-based
counterparts? Our technology acts as an on-ramp to the Digital
Highway by providing a mechanism to turn electronically authored
paper documents into computer-independent electronic documents."

The virtual library consortium is reportedly being organized
according to the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, which
allows NIST and other federal laboratories to initiate these
cooperative research deals with technology vendors. According to the
law, NIST may contribute personnel, equipment and facilities, but no
direct funding.

In October, Newsbytes reported that newcomer No Hands Software
is challenging Adobe Systems in the electronic document distribution
arena. No Hands Software's Common Ground for Macintosh shipped in
May 1993, with the Windows version shipping at the end of the year.

As reported then by Newsbytes, until products such as Acrobat and
Common Ground arrived, electronic information distribution across
different computer platforms was usually limited to text files,
which do not allow documents to retain formatting or graphics.

The two competing products allow users to send formatted documents
created on their computers to any other computer -- even if it uses
a different operating system and even if the recipient has neither
the original software nor the original fonts.

(Ian Stokell/19940119/Press Contact: Linda Prosser, 415-962-3840,
Adobe Systems Inc.)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00023)

 ****HP Intros "Enterprise Desktop" Systems And Software 01/19/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- At a press
conference in Boston called "New Directions in Business Computing,"
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled the Enterprise Desktop Program. The
extensive new range of products and services includes the first
desktop workstations to be based on new HP's PA-7100LC processor,
low-cost business servers and X stations, and software for
workstation management, multimedia collaboration, and PC emulation.

"In terms of pricing, the direction is `down.' In terms of markets,
the direction is `out,' to an expanded number of platforms,"
explained Lew Platt, HP's chairman, president and CEO, to lead off
the event, which was attended by Newsbytes.

The newly announced HP 9000 Series 700 Model 712/60 and 712/80i
workstations provide the power of HP's RISC technology, plus
multimedia and telephony capabilities, for pricing that starts at
$3,995, said Gary Eichhorn, VP and general manager for HP's
Workstation Systems Group, also at the press conference.

The new HP 9000 E-class business servers (Models E25, E35, and E45)
are low-end extensions of the HP 9000 family, according to another
speaker, Carol Mills, general manager of HP's General Systems
Division. Priced from $5,969, the servers are targeted at small and
medium-sized businesses, and at use in ubiquitously performed,
"replicated" applications in large, distributed enterprise networks.

The new series of HP Entria X stations, billed as providing "plug-
and-play" installation and remote configuration capability, are
priced from $995, Eichhorn said.

The new introduced software offerings from HP include MPower 2.0,
the Ready-to-Wear Desktop Builder Kit (RTW-DBK), HP Wabi, and
Insignia Software Inc.'s SoftWindows.

MPower 2.0 adds new telephony and MPEG video playback capabilities
to HP's MPower, a package for real-time sharing of multimedia,
whiteboard, fax, mail and print applications. One of the new
capabilities, HP Teleshare, brings "point and click" access to
phone, fax and data-modem capabilities to the HP Model 712 with an
optional board.

HP Digital Video, the other new capability in MPower, is aimed at
allowing playback of MPEG digital video clips from disk in real time
in a window, with no additional hardware required.

RTW-DBK is an integrated set of software and documentation designed
to help IT (information technology) and other "desktop builders"
manage Unix workstations more easily and deliver a consistent look
and feel to users' desktops, said Eichhorn.

In a special promotion called the Enterprise Desktop Starter Kit, HP
is offering a package that includes both RTW-DBK and MPower 2.0.
Client licenses for the package are expected to be priced at $99,
and server licenses at $999.

HP Wabi 1.1 is designed to let users run 13 different Windows-based
applications, including Microsoft Word, Lotus AmiPro, WordPerfect,
Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Excel, Borland Quattro Pro, Microsoft
PowerPoint, SPC Harvard Graphics, Borland Paradox, Corel Draw!, Aldus
PageMaker, ProComm Plus, and Microsoft Project.

HP Wabi 1.1 is integrated into HP VUE, HP's visual environment for
HP workstations and X stations. The software is expected to become
available in the first quarter for $395.

Insignia Solutions' SoftWindows is meant to let HP users run all
Windows and MS-DOS-based applications, and to access files and
peripherals connected to popular PC servers such as Novell and LAN
Manager. SoftWindows is available immediately.

HP also announced that its Professional Services Organization (PSO)
is available to help customers plan, integrate, and manage products
in the Enterprise Desktop Program as well as other systems.

Also in support of the new Enterprise Desktop Program, several major
software suppliers are offering special promotions, officials said.
For the next 90 days, for example, Applixware is offering an
Applixware license for $239 off the regular price of $695 when the
software is purchased for use on HP's new Model 712/60 or 80i
workstations.

Also for the next 90 days, Lotus Development Corp. is offering a
bundle that includes its AmiPro word processor and Lotus 1-2-3
spreadsheet for $995, $195 off the regular price when purchased
separately.

Through the end of June, Clarity is offering its Clarity Rapport
Script word processor for $100 off the regular price of $695, when
Clairty Rapport Script is purchased with an HP workstation.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940119/Reader contact: Hewlett-Packard Company,
[phone]; Press contacts: Vicki Kravitz, HP, 508-436-5254;
Lynn Wehner, HP, 508-436-5017; Heidi Sullivan, HP, 508-436-5096;
Melissa Calvo, HP, tel [phone]; Jim Christensen, HP,tel 408-
447-1678; Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows Public Relations for HP,
tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00024)

Oregon Gets New Sony Optical Disc Plant 01/19/94
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Sony Corporation of
America has announced it will build a new optical disc manufacturing
center in Springfield, Oregon.

Sony says that the 250,000 square foot facility will manufacture a
full line of optical disc products to serve the entertainment and
information markets. The initial $50 million phase of the project
will have a capacity of 3 million discs per month and will employ
about 300 people from the Springfield-Eugene metropolitan area.

This is Sony's fourth pre-recorded software media manufacturing
facility in the US. Other plants are located in Terre Haute,
Indiana; Pitman, New Jersey; and Carrollton, Georgia. The 80-acre
site in Springfield's 250-acre McKenzie-Gateway Corporate Park is
scheduled to open in the second half of 1995.

Sony began producing CD-ROM disks at the Terre Haute facility in
1984 with 75 employees. That plant now employs 1,300 and Sony says
CD-ROM production has grown by at least 120 percent annually, with
growth up more than 160 percent in the last two years. The company
reports production of more than 20 million optical discs per month,
and has turned out almost 1 billion CD-s and optical discs.

Sony spokesperson Sue Satriano told Newsbytes other states
considered for the plant were California, Nevada, and Arizona. "We
wanted to be in the far west to service our west coast customers. We
needed the transportation (availability) of highways."

(Jim Mallory/19940119/Press contact: Sue Satriano, Sony Corporation
of America, 212-418-9523)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00025)

Radius Shows Strong Black Ink 01/19/94
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 NOV 19 (NB) -- Radius has
announced it has moved strongly into the black in its first quarter
1994 financial statement. The company boasts net revenues of $39.5
million, up 13 percent from the previous quarter and 7 percent
higher compared to the red ink the company faced in the year-ago
quarter.

The company is crediting new product acceptance, better European
sales, new distribution programs, and a new original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Apple Computer for its strong
revenue growth. The company is touting revenue figures up 28 percent
since the March 1993 quarter. Most of the company's products are
aimed at the Apple Computer Macintosh market, and Radius did
announced support for the PowerPC this month at the Macworld show in
San Francisco. The PowerPC is a new microprocessor Apple plans to
introduce in the Macintosh beginning in the first quarter of 1994.

While Radius has products for platforms outside the Macintosh, those
products make up less than 5 percent of its product line, according
to Radius officials.

Radius is also making more from each sale. Profit margins are up to
34.1 percent from 31.7 percent last quarter. Chuck Berger, Radius'
president and chief executive officer said: "Over the last nine
months, gross margins improved from 22.2 percent to 34.1 percent
largely due to our success in selling a greater proportion of higher
margin products and to more efficient operations. Improved gross
margins combined with continued expense control resulted in Radius
returning to operating profitability."

Net income was reported at $735,000 ($0.05 per share) compared to
$108,000 or ($0.01 per share) in the previous quarter and $713,000
in losses (-$0.05 per share) a year ago. The company is also
boasting a strong cash position and low inventory. At the quarter
end, cash and short term investments had increased $2.4 million to
$27.4 million, inventories remained low at $11.1 million, and the
company says it had no long term debt.

New products announced during the quarter include: the
Precisioncolor Pro 24XK graphics accelerator card which is now
shipping, the Lemansgt accelerated graphics card scheduled to ship
in March of this year, the Precisioncolor/17 display now shipping,
the Radius Full Page Display, Stagetwo Rocket multiprocessing
product for Macintosh scheduled to ship in March, and digital signal
processing (DSP) daughter cards for the its Rocket and Stagetwo
Rocket products that Radius' Photobooster technology.

(Linda Rohrbough/19940119/Press Contact: Richard Stoltz,
Radius, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00026)

Gandalf Reorganizes, Will Cut 60 Jobs In Wake Of Loss 01/19/94
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Two senior executives
have left Gandalf Technologies and the company will be cutting about
60 jobs, as well as reorganizing after disappointing third-quarter
results.

Gandalf, which makes networking equipment, said its revenues for the
third quarter, ended Dec. 31, will be C$30 million -- down from C$35
million in the second quarter and below the company's expectations.
Gandalf lost C$2.3 million in the second quarter, and expects its
third-quarter loss will be worse, said Walter MacDonald, chief
financial officer.

Gandalf is shifting its focus to remote access products for branch
offices, and revenues for its new Premier line have been growing
rapidly, MacDonald said. However, revenues from older products
dipped sharply in the third quarter.

The company said it is reshuffling its organization and
concentrating top management at headquarters here. About 60
engineering and sales positions will disappear at the firm's US
headquarters in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The US location, which
housed a number of corporate functions since Gandalf's acquisition
of Infotron Systems Corp., which was based there, in the summer of
1991. After the moves just announced, MacDonald said, the Cherry
Hill location will be "virtually exclusively a sales office."

John Wandell, former president of Gandalf Canada, has left the
company. His replacement, not yet named, will hold the title of
vice-president of Canadian sales. Mike McGrail, former president of
Gandalf International, is also gone, and Judith Scott, managing
director of European operations, has taken over from him
responsibility for the international distribution network.

Also, Jim Hahn, who was based in Cherry Hill as vice-president of
marketing, is to be replaced by Alex Brisbourne, former vice-
president and general manager of Gandalf's Premier product family.
Brisbourne will remain in Ottawa.

The company will take a restructuring charge of C$1 million to
C$2 million in the fourth quarter to cover the cost of the
restructuring, MacDonald said.

MacDonald said Gandalf still sees potential for its older
products in the near future, but would not predict what sort of
results the company will report for the fiscal year that will end
March 31.

(Grant Buckler/19940119/Press Contact: Walter MacDonald, Gandalf,
613-723-6500, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027)

Borland Posts Third Quarter Revenue Figures 01/19/94
SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Borland
International is fighting hard to ward off losses following its
acquisition of Ashton-Tate in late 1991. The company has reported
third quarter revenue of $111.7 million, a 7.1 percent increase
compared with $104.3 million for the same period of fiscal 1993.

Income was negligible, but better than it was a year ago. The
company says that net income for the quarter, which ended December
31, 1993, was $418,000 compared to a net loss of $61.3 million in
the third  quarter a year ago.  The company earned two cents per
share for the third quarter of fiscal 1994, compared with a loss of
$2.34 per share in the third quarter of fiscal 1993.

Revenues for the nine months ended December 31, 1993, were $342.5
million, a 1.3 percent decrease compared with $346.9 million for the
nine months ended December 31, 1992. However, net income for the
nine months ended December 31, 1993, was $9.4 million, compared with
a net loss of $54.3 million for the nine months ended December 31,
1992.

As with its most recent quarters, as reported by Newsbytes, reduced
sales expenses and research and development costs have helped with
the move further into the black.

The company said that selling, general, and administrative expenses
for the quarter were $66.2 million, a 18.4 percent decrease  from
$81.1 million for the same quarter in the previous year. However,
research and development costs for the quarter were also down 20.9
percent -- to $14.9 million, from $18.9 million for the same quarter
the previous year.

The trend towards client-server architectures played a part in the
company's income. Speaking of the quarter, Philippe Kahn, chairman,
president and CEO, said: "During the quarter we focused on growing
market share and helping our customers to `upsize' their PC
software applications into client/server environments."

Things have not gone particularly well for Borland since its
acquisition of Ashton-Tate, another database company, at the end of
1991.

In July, Newsbytes reported that Borland had posted first quarter
net income of $6.2 million, up 259 percent compared to net income
of $1.7 million reported in the same quarter the previous year. At
the time, Borland said that the results were due in part to a focus
on decreasing sales expenses as well as research and development
expenses.

Then in October, Newsbytes reported that the company had announced
lower second quarter earnings and net income of almost half of its
net income in the same quarter the year before. However, the company
reported overall higher earnings for the first half of the 1993
fiscal than the previous year.

At that time, Kahn, said that the lack of losses for three
consecutive quarters was due to the introduction of Windows, DOS and
Workgroup editions of both its spreadsheet product Quattro Pro 5.0
and database product Paradox 4.5. Borland has been involved in an
ongoing legal tussle with spreadsheet-leader Lotus development over
its Quattro Pro product.

The company is still pursuing an acquisition policy however. Just
last week Newsbytes reported that the company had announced plans to
purchase reporting and query tool developer Reportsmith of San
Mateo, California for about $18 million. Reportsmith markets a
product of the same name for database report generation in
client/server computing environments under Microsoft Windows.

(Ian Stokell/19940119/Press Contact: Steve Grady, 408-431-1621,
Borland International Inc.)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00028)

HP Workstations Aimed At High Power For Near-PC Pricing 01/19/94
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- HP's newly
announced Enterprise Desktop workstations are aimed at a "new class
of customers," who want more capabilities than a PC can offer, but
at an affordable price, according to Gary Eichhorn, VP and general
manager of HP's Workstations Systems Group.

The new HP 9000 Series 700 Models 712/60 and 71280i provide greater
price/performance than either competing entry-level Unix-based
systems or high-end PCs such as Pentium-based systems, said
Eichhorn, speaking at a press conference in Boston attended by
Newsbytes.

Priced starting at $3,995, Models 712/60 and 71280i are the first
desktop implementations of HP's RISC-based PA-7100LC processor,
which was introduced last month. The two new systems are targeted at
end users seeking a powerful, multi-windowed environment with high-
end multimedia, graphics and telephony capabilities, as well as at
software developers.

End user applications are expected to include customer service,
document and image management, financial trading and brand
management, in addition to CAD (computer-aided design), CASE
(computer-aided software engineering), and electronic design
analysis.

The Model 712/60, running at 60 MHz, delivers 58 SPECint92, while
the 80MHz Model 712/80i provides 84 SPECint92, according to
Eichhorn.  Both systems deliver 79SPECfp92.

The PA-7100LC chip used in the Model 712 contains built-in MPEG
compression that allows display of full-motion video at 30 frames
per second, the VP said.

HP's "next generation" graphics chip is integrated into the CPU
motherboard, a measure aimed at reducing overall systems cost as
well as improving performance of HP's graphics subsystem.  The
Models 712/60 and 712/80i achieve 1.1 million and 1.4 million X11
vectors respectively, Eichhorn told the journalists.

The systems also include a new "color recovery" technology designed
to display graphics, still images and video showing true color (8
million colors simultaneously) using one-third the video random
access memory (RAM) of more costly 24-bit systems, he said.

Optionally available is a product billed as the first standalone
flat-panel display from a workstation vendor.  Designed to address
the space and weight constraints of industries where desktop real
estate is at a premium, such as financial services, the new 12-inch
display is one-fourth the size and one-fourth the weight of a
comparable 17-inch cathode ray tube (CRT), and uses half the power,
he noted.  The flat panel display is expected to be available in the
first half of 1994, for $10,595.

Running HP-UX 9.03, the Model 712 is fully compatible with current
HP 9000 Series 700 workstations.  The workstation can also support
other operating systems as they emerge, because the PA-7100C
processor is bi-endian.  Other capabilities include a power-down
switch and a "fast-boot," modular design, Eichhorn added.

A total of 13 Windows-based applications can be run on the
workstations with the use of HP Wabi 1.1 Windows emulation software.
The use of Insignia Solutions's SoftWindows emulation software lets
users run all Windows and MS-DOS applications.

Eichhorn asserted that the Model 712/80i offers three times the
integer and floating-point performance of the Sparcclassic and Sparc
LX; 17 percent better integer performance than Digital's Alpha 3000
AXP, Model 300; almost 35 percent better integer and faster
floating-point performance than a similarly priced IBM RS/6000 Model
25T, and almost 45 percent more integer and floating-point
performance than the SGI Indigo IndySC.

Performance of the lower-priced Model 712/60 is also considerably
higher than that of comparable workstations from the same
competitors, he added.

Further, the Model 712 is priced about $1,000 less than a comparably
equipped Pentium-based PC, and $2,000 less if the Pentium system is
outfitted with multimedia hardware capabilities, he said.

The Model 712 comes with a 260 megabyte (MB) disk and 16 MB of RAM.
The Model 712/60 is priced from $3,995 (with a 15-inch color
monitor) to $7,770 (with a 19-inch color monitor).  The Model
712/80i is priced from $8,820 (with a 15-inch color monitor) to
$10,820 (with a 19-inch color monitor).  All systems are shipping
now.

The systems support up to 128 MB of memory and 1 GB of internal
disk.  Two expansion slots are also provided.  Standard I/O built on
to a special board includes a keyboard and mouse, 16-bit audio, LAN,
SCSI-2, one RS-232-C port, and one Centronics port.  Optional
expansion I/O includes telephony, X.25, IBM token ring, a second
LAN, a second graphics head, and a second RS-232 C-port.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19940119/Reader contact:  Hewlett-Packard Company,
800-751-8900;  Press contacts:  Heidi Sullivan, HP, 508-436-5096;
Lynn Wehner, HP, 508-436-5017; Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows
Public Relations for HP, 617-252-0606)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029)

Level One Intros LXT914 Hub Repeater On A Chip 01/19/94
FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- The trend towards
increased networking in companies has led to more vendors
attempting to implement networking functions at the chip level.

Now, Level One Communications has announced the development of, what
the company claims is the first multi-port hub repeater with
integrated transmit filters designed for 10BaseT networks.

According to the company, the new LXT914 provides all the active
circuitry required for the repeater function on one CMOS
(complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) device, and will establish
"a new industry standard in Ethernet connectivity."

The LXT914 has four fully integrated 10BaseT ports (which include
integrated transmit filters), plus one attachment unit interface
(AUI) port, a serial port for selecting programmable options which
also serves as a management interface, and an inter-repeater
backplane port (IRB) all combined on one chip.

The company says that the AUI port allows connection of an external
transceiver for 10Base2, 10Base5, FOIRL or drop cable connectivity,
and the IRB port enables multiple LXT914s to function as a single
repeater without external logic.

The LXT914 uses CMOS technology and is packaged in a 68-pin
PLCC requiring only a single five-volt power supply.

The LXT914 can reportedly be configured for all hub market
segments and provides port security by effectively blocking
access to individual ports on a network.

Announcing the product, Robert Pepper, Ph.D., president and CEO of
Level One, said: "The advanced technology in the LXT914 eliminates
the need for expensive, external transmit filters and common mode
chokes required in all other 10BaseT hub solutions. On a cost-per-
port basis, the LXT914 represents the most economical solution
available in the industry today."

The company says that the LXT914 also has on-chip receive filters,
automatic partitioning of faulty stations, a programmable squelch
level allowing extended range in low-noise environments, automatic
polarity detection and correction, and synchronous or asynchronous
inter-repeater backplane modes supporting "hot swapping" (where 128
or more 10BaseT ports can be cascaded together). The LXT914 can be
cascaded in four port increments using the inter-repeater backplane.

(Ian Stokell/19940119/Press Contact: Bob Zimmerman or
Francois Crepin of Level One Communications, 916-985-3670)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00030)

Digital Introduces First PCI-based Ethernet Controller 01/19/94
CHAI WAN, HONG KONG, 1994 JAN 19 (NB) -- Digital Equipment
Corporation has introduced the first single-chip Ethernet
controller, the DECchip 21040, based on the Peripheral Component
Interconnect (PCI) local bus.

This high-integration, low-cost controller enables manufacturers of
servers, PCs and adapter cards to design and build PCI-based
products that satisfy today's high-demand, networking applications.
The DECchip 21040 controller is the first of a family of PCI-based
Ethernet controllers, the company claims.

"This announcement demonstrates Digital's commitment to the merchant
semiconductor market," said John Winchester, Director of Components,
Peripherals and Storage Business at Digital Asia.

"We are making Digital's proven expertise in Ethernet networking
technology available to customers for a broad range of PCI-based
products. Te industry is converging around PCI with more than 200
leading semiconductor and computer vendors supporting this emerging
local bus standard," he said.

The DECchip 21040 controller sets a new standard for Ethernet
controllers by providing near-optimal throughput with substantially
reduced CPU utilisation. Its highly integrated design and glueless
connection to PCI significantly reduces system development costs and
makes server level performance affordable for desktop users.

Digital is a founding member of the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG)
and has already introduced the industry's first microprocessors
featuring an integrated PCI interface, the DECchip 21068 and 21066
microprocessors, which are members of the Alpha AXP microprocessor
family.

The architecture of the DECchip 21040 controller is designed
specifically to meet the challenges of a 32-bit PCI bus
implementation. By incorporating a master direct memory access (DMA)
architecture and a deep FIFO memory the DECchip 21040 controller
results in low CPU utilisation and can handle increased system bus
activity.

This also allows for very simple multi-Ethernet port
implementations. The DECchip 21040 microarchitecture supports full
duplex Ethernet operation providing 20 megabits per second data
transfer in switched Ethernet applications.

Digital provides a comprehensive set of software drivers with the
DECchip 21040 controller for a wide range of network operating
system environments, including Novell's NetWare and Microsoft's LAN
Manager. Windows NT, SCO UNIX, PATHWORKS, VMS and other drivers will
be available early this year.

These drivers, in conjunction with the DECchip 21040 design, enable
adapter card manufacturers to build a single product that will "plug
and play" in motherboards representing diverse operating systems and
hardware platforms.

Digital's DECchip 21040 Evaluation Design Kit helps hardware
engineers designing with the DECchip 21040 controller to bring
products to market more quickly. This kit, which is available now,
includes an Ethernet PCI board, documentation and sample drivers.

(Keith Cameron/19940119/Press Contact: Bonnie Engel (Digital): +852-
805-3510)