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Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso
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1991-07-25
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[***][1/28/86][***]
FOOLED YOU!
Much to the dismay of journalists who'd pegged January 21 as the
date for IBM's lauch of a lightweight portable computer, the
corporation chose not to even mention its existence on that
date, instead unveiling the RT Personal Computer line of high-
speed, 32-bit workstations for technical and engineering use.
But why no "Convertible", "Clamshell", or whatever? Sources
give various scenarios, not ruling out the possibility the
Convertible will STILL be announced in time for the IRS
award--now expected this coming week. The most persistent
is that IBM may throw in the towel on the IRS bid, if it
hasn't done so already, for fear that complaints of collusion
between it and the IRS will surface. While sources are
certain that IBM won the bid as of last week, the bid was
supposed to go to a proven, off-the-shelf product, and IBM
could have realized it was cutting it way too close to be
above suspicion. The other scenario says IBM was simply
scared off by all the pre-publicity. Yet a final thought
comes from those who say Boca Raton just couldn't scramble
fast enough to meet its own deadline. We'll see.
Meanwhile, the $11,700-$19,510 RISC-based units consist of
one desktop and two floor-standing models and contain IBM's
new microprocessor chip with RISC's simplified instruction
set etched onto it. They are expected to compete with
similar workstations offered by DEC, Apollo and Sun Micro-
systems.
[***][1/28/86][***]
MAC PLUS FOLLOW:
As Stewart Alsop points out in his current edition of "PC
Letter", one of the biggest disappointments of the AppleWorld
Conference was that nothing was said about the new Apple II
computer. The other was that little was said about an open
Macintosh. Jean Louis Gassee was quoted as saying, "We are
not going to have an open Mac in 1986." Mr. Gassee's
license plate reads "OPEN MAC," ironically enough. The
next generation Macintosh, whenever it arrives, is expected
to have slots, much like the PC and Apple II.
[***][1/28/86][***]
JOBS COOLS HIS HEELS:
Following the settlement of the Apple lawsuit, Steve Jobs
has announced his ultimate school computer, to be made by
his firm Next, Inc. in Palo Alto, Ca. will not be out
until late 1987. That's giving him plenty of time to
sniff out college campuses and design his dream machine--
an under $6,000 RISC-based workstation. The 2-year
delay shouldn't be a financial hardship. Jobs has $75
million from the sale of Apple stock and sits on stock
worth another $80 million. Word is when the settlement
came last Friday, the champagne was opened among Jobs
and his 11 employees.
[***][1/28/86][***]
AS FOR WOZ...
Don't try to get in touch with him during February, according
to the San Jose Mercury News' Jonathan Greer. Woz, he says,
is cloistered in a secret hideaway where he's nailing down the
final bits of software needed to make his high-powered
remote controller work. Going along with him is an Apple IIc,
an oscillator and the prototype. Meanwhile, Wozniak is turning
out to be a revered patron of the arts. He recently gave
$250,000 to the City Center Ballet in San Jose, and just
topped it off with a $2,000 sculpture to Ballet president
Karen Lowenstern and original serigraphs to each trustee.
[***][1/28/86][***]
INTERFACING WITH COMPUTER FAIRES:
The giant Interface Group, organizers of Comdex, Byte, Computer
Showcase Expos, and other shows just purchased all the assets
of Computer Faire, Inc., the Newton, MA-based sponsors of the
West Coast, PC, Southern California and Northeast Computer Faires.
The Computer Faires had been up for sale for some time;
Sheldon Adelson, the Interface Group's chairman, promises to
return the faires to their roots where "the spirit of
creativity and entrepreneurship" will be fostered. The
next West Coast Computer Faire is scheduled for April 3-6
in San Francisco's Moscone Center. At the San Francisco
press conference, Faire founder Jim Warren presented his
rollar skates, with which he gained fame rolling around the
show floor, to Adelson.
[***][1/28/86][***]
MS CD-ROM?
Microsoft has leapfrogged ahead of the competition in the CD ROM
arena in three developments this week. First, Bill Gates told the
Washington State Software Industry Development Board that his
firm is committed to developing standards for compact disk
ROM technology; further, Microsoft has established a CD ROM
Division. Secondly, Microsoft purchased San Francisco-
based Cytation Inc., a small company working on the software
interface for CD ROM disks and computers. The terms were not
disclosed for this, Microsoft's first-ever acquisition, but
Thomas Lopez, founder of Cytation, has become Microsoft's VP
in its CD ROM Division. Finally, Microsoft hosts hardware
and software developers in March at a conference devoted to
development of standards for CD ROMs.
[***][1/28/86][***]
SO MUCH FOR VISIONS:
Since 1976, AT&T had spent countless man-hours and well over
$1 billion dollars designing Net 1000, a networking service
designed to connect the computers of customers and vendors
directly to AT&T mainframes through telephone lines. Late
last week, AT&T decided to scrap the project, blaming the
proliferation of personal computers and "very smart"
minicomputers" which "lessened the need." The 200 workers
on the project, based in Parsippany, NJ will be reassigned.
AT&T says it is not abandoning its networking technology,
but that this approach was the "wrong one," said Jack
Bucter, at AT&T Information Systems VP.
In other phone news, AT&T, RCA, ITT, MCI, Western Union,
British Telecom and several other corporations are teaming
up to lay the world's first fiber optic, underwater
cable across the Pacific. The $700 million project is
expected to be completed by 1989.
[***][1/28/86][***]
MOVIN' ON:
-MACWORLD magazine just got a new editor. Jerry Borrell is
former editor in chief of DIGITAL DESIGN magazine.
-MIKE RAWL leaves The Source as its Director of Marketing to
join Entre Computer Centers in Vienna, Virginia this week.
We'll miss him, and wish him best of luck.
[***][1/28/86][***]
NOTABLE QUOTES:
Jeffry Tartar, in his latest issue of his newsletter "SoftLetter"
adds some notable parting shots at 1985. Among them:
"MOST INGENIOUS SOFTWARE: A product called Arf! Arf!, which
appeared for free on a New York City bulletin board. After
you load it, the program erases the contents of your hard disk
and then says: 'Arf! Arf! Got You.'
"SHATTERED CRYSTAL BALL: Paperback Software founder Adam
Osborne, who predicted that prices of 1-2-3 and other leading
programs would collapse 'between September and December of
1985.'
"MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Watching Andy Warhol trying to
create an original work of art on the Commodore Amiga, in
front of an audience of hundreds of reporters, dealers and
industry luminaries.
"DULLEST THUD: Softcon II in Atlanta, where the only crowds
to be seen were the lines at airline ticket offices, where
frantic attendees were trying to arrange _early departures."
CONTACT: SOFTLETTER, 1679 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA.
02138 617/868-0157
[***][1/28/86][***]
IN BRIEF--
FRED GIBBONS, president of Software Publishing in Mountain View,
Ca. is now said to have suffered a _stroke_ on the ski slopes
which led to his partial paralysis in December. He's said to
be in good spirits, recovering at home.
CORVUS SYSTEMS has restructured into four new divisions--
retail, value-added reseller, OEM, and education. When will
the changes there end?
ATARI has been hit with another lawsuit, this one from an
unidentified "Japanese printer maker". The Japanese company
claims Atari reneged on a deal to buy 500,000 printers, and
wants $55.2 million for the lost contract.
HEWLETT PACKARD has also been slapped with a suit. Milpitas,
CA-based Datagate Inc. charges HP deliberately mislead
computer owners into thinking Datagate, a service company,
would soon go out of business, be unable to buy spare parts
from HP and further, were incompetent in HP computer repairs.
HP has declined comment. Datagate wants $35 million.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS of Mountain View, Ca. is going public,
having filed Friday for a proposed initial offering of 4
million shares.
FUJITSU AMERICA INC. of San Jose has announced it is boosting
the price of its printers, disk drives and telecommunications
equipment by 5 to 8 percent. Fujitsu blames the price
increases on the falling value of the US dollar against the
yen.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has filed lawsuits aginst 9 Asian
semiconductor manufacturers, charging them with violating TI
DRAM chip patents. Five of the defendants are Oki,
Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Samsung.
DATAQUEST, a market research concern in San Jose, says the
1985 worldwide market for personal computers grew only 3.6
percent in units and 31.6 percent in dollars. In contrast,
1984 growth rates were 46 percent in units and 73 percent
in dollars. Chew on that a while.
BOOK NOOK:
This spring, look for "Silicon Valley High Tech", a lavishly-
illustrated "history" book about the industry which will
sell for $40. Attached to the cover is a $35 Advanced
Micro Devices computer chip, interestingly enough. Advance
copies of the book are reaching selected coffee tables.
Wierdly enough, the book was produced in Hong Kong by
Intercontinental Publishing Corp. Ltd.
[***][1/28/86][***]
IN THE UNIQUE DEPARTMENT:
Two offerings close this week's NEWSBYTES.
-Budding or professional filmmakers who like to storyboard their
ideas might size up a new Macintosh program called "Storyboarder",
a package which also acts as a flash-card or slide-show when
commands are given to run each panel in sequence. The $495
package comes from American Intelliware Corp. of Marina del
Rey, California.
-Jim Forbes of "InfoWorld" gets credit for this one....
"Look Busy!" is a new, integrated software package designed to
make you look like you know what you're doing. Its spreadsheet
displays a lot of impressive-looking numbers, manipulates
them into graphs, gives you a personal calendar which can
impress your co-workers. Fake Software of Houston, TX
charges $19.95 for the IBM PC package and has plans to
follow "Look Busy" with two sequels: "Look Organized"
and "Look Intelligent" (for corporate users who need an
artificial intelligence program).
[***][1/28/86][***]
THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING *EXCLUSIVE*
William Battino and Andrew Zimmerman of Coopers & Lybrand
came to the Information Industry Association's Atlanta
chapter meeting Thursday to give an answer to last week's
Newsbytes editorial on where the electronic publishing
industry is going.
Their answer: channel systems. The two men interviewed 40
leaders of the electronic information industry and decided
that systems which let a business deliver information, plus
let users manipulate the company database and send orders,
will make the most money. An example is American Airlines'
Sabre system, through which travel agents can both check
schedules and order tickets.
These systems are, first and foremost, marketing tools.
American Hospital Supply uses its system to dispense
information to hospitals and to prevent those hospitals
from ordering elsewhere. "It won't be a question of locking
others out, but that they use your system to get your
products. While when they want others' products they play
phone tag," said Battino. Or, quoting Woody Allen, "80% of
success is showing up."
[***][1/28/86][***]
WHAT ABOUT THE HOME MARKET?
John McCarthy, vice president for business information
services at Viewdata Corp. of American Inc., Miami Beach
(Knight-Ridder's stumbling Viewtron experiment) was at the
IIA meeting and says things have started looking up there
since Viewtron stopped running videotex-with-pictures, and
became a text-only service like The Source. Financial
information is the big draw, he said, followed by a "CB"
service (like The Source's Chat feature.) "The ability to
communicate, to engage in casual conversation, is second in
popularity only to financial information. I don't know what
it's for, entertainment or communication," he said, but
"people all over the country are getting handles, paying $5-
15 per hour to carry on these relationships."
Apparently, the medium is the message.
[***][1/28/86][***]
IBM GROWS BIGGER (BUILDING)
IBM announced the 46-story building on 14th at West
Peachtree in Midtown that broke ground this week will now
be a 50-story building. The ceilings will be extra-high, so
the building will actually appear 60 stories tall. It will
be topped by a pre-aged copper pyramid. An IBM spokesman
said, "We want it to look 50 years old when it goes up." Then
he made the little joke. "There were two places that could
age the copper to look green. One has a special process in
Texas. The other is in Chicago -- he just leaves it outside
a night." One more thing. The new building will NOT become
headquarters for Big Blue's National Marketing Division,
now located in a campus-like setting northwest of Atlanta.
Supposedly, it will just hold regional marketing people on
its bottom 29 floors. (Rents above that will be $21 per
square foot.) Atlanta Mayor Andy Young had been speculating
last year that IBM, which has 28,000 employees here,
would move its world headquarters to Atlanta from Armonk,
NY.
[***][1/28/86][***]
SOUTHERN BELL SLATES ISDN ROLLOUT
In September, Southern Bell will install its first ISDN
(Integrated System Data Network) switches in Midtown Atlanta
(near its new headquarters and IBM's new building) and
in suburban Dunwoody. A Northern Telecom DMS-100 switch will
be used to improve "800" service at the two locations. The
company hopes to roll out 800-ISDN service throughout the
Southeast in mid-1987. The switch will let a single phone
line carry two channels of voice or data at 64,000 baud,
plus a 16,000 baud data channel. Products from ITT and AT&T
will also be used to test compatibility with the CCITT
standard.
[***][1/28/86][***]
ATLANTA'S DR. Z ON WHERE GRAPHICS ARE GOING *EXCLUSIVE*
Mark Zachman, president of Z-Soft Inc. in Marietta (PC
Paintbrush) spoke to a recent Atlanta chapter meeting of the
National Computer Graphics Association on the future of
computer graphics.
He says it's IBM. "We sometimes think of supporting other
small computers, but the market for PCs is a whole lot
larger than the rest of the market combined." Machines like
the PC AT are now minimal requirements for graphics work.
"One knock against graphics packages is they eat computer
resources. We're about to eat as much as possible. The
product we're coming out with in June couldn't have been
done 18 months ago on a micro."
Zachman demonstrated PC Paintbrush on a Kaypro PC-AT clone.
He said the product leads its market because "it supported
more hardware than anyone else. The way you do that is
diligently follow hardware folks forever and ever, none of
whom would know a standard if they fell over it." Publishing
and commercial arts are the big markets for 1986, he added,
mainly due to the declining cost and increased
sophistication of optical scanners. "We have a scanner
interface for Compugraphic, on a new product they're
releasing. They're using it for logos. They scan in a logo,
which is a great big image, use our product to fix it up,
send it to the typesetter, and they've done something it
used to cost $2,000 to do."
One other prediction from Dr. Z, who used to teach at
Georgia Tech. "The IBM EGA, with 250 pixel hardware
resolution, will end up as the standard for the next 5-10
years. You'll see the functions Quadram is doing on its
Pallette Master (scanning and working with color
photographs), with great color depth, done on the same kind
of board."
[***][1/28/86][***]
ASHTON-TATE SUBTRACTS COPIES OF DBASE III PLUS
Responding to a reported bug in the multiuser portion of dBase
III Plus, Ashton-Tate has recalled all 34,000 copies of its new
software. According to the Torrance-based firm, only the
networking module was found to deficient. Apparently, a key
access code in the main system diskette was found to be missing.
An Ashton-Tate representative recommends that purchasers of
dBase III Plus return their copies of the program's System Disk
#1 and its backup copy to the place of purchase for a free
update.
[***][1/28/86][***]
APPLE AD AGENCY WINS REPRIEVE UNTIL MARCH
According to Adweek magazine, Apple's advertising agency has
been given two months to either clean up its act or see the
account slip away to BBDO Advertising in New York. Los Angeles-
based Chiat/Day, Apple's agency responsible for the "1984" and
"Lemmings" television commercials, has been on the hot seat in
recent weeks, principally due to what the magazine calls a
"hastily executed" series of print ads for the AppleWorld
Conference in San Francisco. C/D, for example, presented Big
Red with a campaign featuring a photo of an unmanned podium,
emblazoned with the Apple corporate logo. Adweek said Apple
wasn't amused with the "who's in charge here?" imagery.
However, a former C/D employee said the agency won't give up
Apple's business without a fight. "Chiat/Day really can't
afford to lose Apple--can't afford it in dollars and cents--and
can't afford it from an image standpoint," he said.
[***][1/28/86][***]
CHAPTER TWO
Ever wonder what happened to all those highly paid high-tech
executives when their firms went belly-up? The Los Angeles
Business Journal went in search of 10 former high-flyers, and
found that eight had found other positions in the computer
industry. Here's a brief rundown:
-> Walter Bauer, co-founder of Informatics General, is making
a speaking tour of local business groups, including the
Rotary Club. He sits on the board of directors at Protocol
Computers of Woodland Hills.
-> David Callan, founder of Callan Data, has resurfaced as vice
president of sales for CIE Systems in Irvine, a division of
C.Itoh Electronics. Callan attempted to make a go of it in
the Unix market but "business was lousy," he said.
-> Bruce Coleman, former president of Informatics General, has
returned to an old hang-out, Boole and Babbage Inc. in
Sunnyvale. He has recently been promoted to president of
B&B.
-> Charles Dickinson, former president and CEO of Dataproducts,
is believed to be still in a high-tech business, but sources
couldn't identify exactly where. "He kind of dropped out of
the picture," said the head of one executive-placement
company.
-> Elmer Easton, co-founder of Compucorp, recently helped start
a new software firm called The Grafix Connection in Pacific
Palisades.
-> Lore Harp and Carole Ely, co-founders of Vector Graphics
Inc., have gone their separate ways. Ely is reportedly
married and living on a boat in the San Francisco Bay area,
while Harp has founded a San Mateo firm which manufactures
feminine-hygiene products.
-> Lorraine Mecca, founder of software distributor Micro D, has
moved to Dallas. Her future plans in high-tech marketing
were not announced.
-> Charles Missler, former CEO of Helionetics, revived a dormant
investment banking firm called Microcircuit Design Corp. in
Newport Beach.
[***][1/28/86][***]
BEACHBITS
-> Symbolics Inc. has signed a $23 million 10-year lease for
227,700 square feet in the new Chatsworth Tech Center. The
new digs will be the firm's Western Headquarters. Symbolics
is based in Massachusetts.
-> Rosscomp Corp. of Santa Ana received official notice of
default for non-payment of interest from holders of its
convertible secured subordinated notes. The firm owes
investors about $950,000 for the use of their money.
-> Applied Circuit Technology Inc. of Anaheim has penned an
agreement to acquire Whiteworth International Inc. of
Gardena. Whiteworth makes non-prescription drugs. This
marks the third acquisition for ACT that is not related to
the firm's main business of manufacturing test equipment for
hard disk-drives.
[***][1/28/86][***]
TOUCHING "INSIDE MACINTOSH"?
Apple Japan says that Mac Plus will be released on Feb.3 in Japan.
Interestingly enough, Apple's press release comments that "Apple
Japan has currently been developing a Japanese version of Mac
Plus, which will be also released in mid-1986." This means it
is highly probable that Apple Japan might have given up its
"Apple Principle" in order to modify Mac's vital parts of
software called "Inside Macintosh." With this major operation,
a Kanji problem of Mac Plus will be solved in the future.
There's another bone of contention for Mac Plus. That's the
price, which costs US$3,240 in Japan. A drastic price cut will
be necessary to equally compete with other Japanese micros, say
many analysts.
[***][1/28/86][***]
STEVE JOBS AT COMDEX IN JAPAN:
Comdex in Japan '86 will be held from 3/3 to 3/6 at the Harumi
International Exhibition Site (Tokyo). The number of exhibitors
who have currently registered is 148, and the total number is
expected to reach 160, a spokesman says. This show features
Steven Jobs as the speaker for a keynote address. He will talk
about "Japan-U.S. Computer Industry: The Future as Pacific
Partners." One thing worries me about this year's COMDEX is that
most of the major U.S. and Japanese computer makers, except NEC,
have not registered as exhibitors yet. --Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Toshiba, Sharp, Mitsubishi, AT&T, and IBM... none of them are at
the exhibitor's list as of Jan. 20. Hummm...
[***][1/28/86][***]
COMPUSERVE LANDS IN JAPAN:
Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai Trading Co. will shortly launch a new
telecom network company to tie up with CompuServe, according to a
published report. The new company will provide a domestic
information service which is supported by various kinds of
information and technology of CompuServe. Currently, Fujitsu
has been providing a large scale VAN "FENICS," while Nissho Iwai
has been providing a gateway service for "EasyNet," a database
of Telebase Co., U.S.A. One of the major issues for CompuServe
to obtain a share in the Japanese market will be a subscription
fee. How much are we going to pay? That's the question.
[***][1/28/86][***]
"THREE" IS TOO CROWDED:
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications decided (1/22)
not to grant Satellite Japan Corp. permission to launch its
communication satellites. "There's not much demand here,"
explain the Ministry officials. Currently, the certificate to
launch the satellites has already been granted to the two
companies--one is Japan Communication Satellite Corp. founded
by C.Itoh, Mitsui-Bussan Trading and Hughes Corp., and the other
is Space Communication Corp. founded by Mitsubishi Trading,
Mitsubishi Electric and Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp.
SONY, Marubeni and RCA, which planned the launch of satellites
through Satellite Japan Corp. have apparently been shocked by
this decision. However, there's a possibility for the third
enterprise to get permission when the demand arises in the future.
[***][1/28/86][***]
LANGUAGE TRANSLATION MACHINES:
Sales competition among English-Japanese language translation
machines has become intense here these days. Among others,
Toshiba has started pushing sales of its minicomputer-based
translation system. BRAVICE International, the Japanese developer
of such systems for personal computers including NEC PC-9801 and
IBM5550, has increased the number of its dealers, providing lots of
seminars.
Meanwhile, one of our major concerns as users is the quality of
translation. Here're two sentences translated from Japanese,
using "a" translation system:
+++ I am the place which just car is washed.
+++ I finished just car a washing.
There's still a lot to be desired for translation machines to
produce perfect translations. Accordingly, NEWSBYTES-JAPAN has
decided not to adopt language translation systems!
[***][1/28/86][***]
<<< SKIYAKI BYTES >>>
SONY'S 8-MM VIDEO TV -- SONY plans to market a digital TV with
a built-in 8-mm video recorder in the U.S. around June.
According to a report, the 25-inch TV is equipped with a remote
controller. Its prototype was already shown at the CES in
Las Vegas this month. The retail price in the U.S. will be
around US$2,300. Meanwhile, SONY also plans to release the same
TV with a smaller screen in Japan later.
IBM IN A GOOD MOOD -- The total domestic output of "IBM3090-200,"
a super large scale processor which was released by IBM Japan
in fall '85, has reached 70 as of Dec. '85, according to Nikkei
Computer Magazine (Tokyo). This figure is far beter than
previously expected. Meanwhile, the gross sales profit of the
company in 1985 is 18% up compared with the previous year.
MOTOROLA'S NEW PAL -- Motorola Japan has chosen Tokyo Electron
Co. as its dealer of the semiconductor and the related products.
Motorola Japan has currently been distributing its products
through several dealers in Japan. The new agreement is expected
to beef up Motorola Japan's sales force. Meanwhile, Tokyo
Electron has already been marketing the semiconductors of Intel,
AMD, Western Digital, and Fujitsu. With this new agreement,
Tokyo Electron will become the first Japanese dealer to market
both Intel's 68000 family and Motorola's 8086 family in Japan.
Tokyo Electron expects a total sales volume of US$25 million
for the sales of Motorola's products in the first year.
ENGINEERING CENTER OF WESTERN DIGITAL -- Western Digital Co.
(U.S.A.) has set up a design center dubbed "Tokyo Engineering
Center" in its Japanese branch office. This center is for
IC board designing, quality control, and so on. Western
Digital also plans to manufacture IC boards in this center
late next year.
JAPAN TI'S BIG BITE -- Japan TI will start marketing the samples
of National Semiconductor's 32-bit MPU "NS32032" around this
March. NMOS MPUs with the clock speed of 12 MHz will be shipped
first. Subsequenty, Japan TI will manufacture its CMOS-type MPU.
TOSHIBA AND AT&T -- Toshiba has decided to sign a sales agreement
of digital PBX with AT&T. With this agreement, Toshiba will
start marketing AT&T's large scale digital PBX under the brand
name of "ATT/TOSHIBA" this summer.
C.ITOH REACHES DOW-JONES -- C.Itoh Trading Co. has signed a
contract with Dow Jones Co.(NY) to provide Dow-Jones' online
database called "Dow-Jones News Retrieval" in Japan. The current
Japanese providers of "Dow-Jones News Retieval" include Nikkei
Daily, Kyodo News Service, and Mitsui-Bussan Trading Co.
FUJITSU'S NEW BUSINESS MICRO -- Fujitsu will shortly announce
a new work-station of its 9450 family called "FACOM 9450 Lambda."
This new model can be additionally equipped with i80286 MPU board
which has currently been used in IBM5560, NEC's PC-98XA and
N5200-07, says a report. Wow!
CHIP DUMPING -- The U.S. and the Japanese government have been
hammering out to establish a monitoring system for fair prices
of microchips. Currently, the manufacturers in both countries
bitterly disagree with each other. I hope the new monitoring
system may eradicate such problems in the future.
R&D CENTER IN THE U.S. -- Kyocera(Kyoto) and Toshiba will set up
their R&D Center respectively in the U.S. by the end of 1986,
according to a published report. Mitsubishi has already opened
such a center in the U.S.
[***][1/27/86][***]
GE DEMANDS SITE LICENSES:
Bridgeport, CT-based General Electric, which uses over 20,000
personal computers in its far-flung offices, has reached site
license agreements with two software companies. GE is making
SuperCalc (from CAI), and Officewriter (from Office Solutions)
officially-sanctioned programs, after reaching agreements for
company-wide site licenses. A GE spokesperson says the company
attempted to approach Lotus about a site license, but that the
1-2-3 mavens just weren't interested. (GE "power users" will
still have the option of using Lotus and other products,
purchased by GE at the regular prices.)
[***][1/27/86][***]
COLE MOVES AGAIN:
David Cole, most recently president of magazine publisher Ziff-
Davis, will now be heading a new Ziff-backed venture capital
firm. The Cole Gilburne Fund will back start-up software
companies. Its formation may be an answer to the often-heard
question of what Ziff was going to do with the multi-millions of
bucks it received last year when it sold off many of its
magazines. Before coming to Ziff, the 33 year-old Cole was
president of Ashton-Tate. Previous to that, he was vice president
of marketing at Sorcim and worked for both CBS and Prentice-Hall.
[***][1/27/86][***]
STORE METAMORPHOSIS:
At least three of the six Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Computerland stores that were closed down last month as a result
of non-payment of bills will be re-opening soon under new names.
Nynex, New England's Bell Operating Company, will re-open three
of the stores under its "Datago" computer store subsidiary.
Meanwhile, Computerland says stores in Cambridge and Reading, MA
and Providence, RI will be re-opening soon in their former
Computerland incarnations.
[***][1/27/86][***]
BELL LEAVES ENCORE:
Troubled Encore Computer Systems of Marlborough, MA has lost the
second of its three founders. 51 year-old C. Gordon Bell has
resigned as vice chairman of technology and board member. He'll
remain as a consultant to the company through this year and will
pursue "other interests." Before Bell became part of Encore's
start-up team, he was head of engineering for DEC. Encore
chairman Kenneth Fisher is now the only founder left.
[***][1/27/86][***]
NORTHEAST MAC PLUS SUPPORT:
Last week's announcement of the MacIntosh Plus was coupled with a
landslide of announcements from companies who'll immediately be
supporting it. Here's a selection of new and updated products
from northeast-based companies.
-- Layered, Inc of Boston announced a Mac Plus version of their
"Insight" accounting series. Three modules (General Ledger,
Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable) are available -- each
retailing for $595. (617-423-9041).
-- General Computer Corporation of Cambridge, MA says its
HyperDrive hard drives, and their HyperDrive 2000 12 MHz co-
processor board, have been upgraded to work with the Mac Plus.
(617-492-5500).
-- Dow Jones Software of Princeton, NJ has a new version of their
Straight Talk communications software for the Mac Plus. It's
specifically designed to ease access to Dow Jones News/Retrieval.
(609-452-2000).
-- MacPublisher II is a low-cost ($149.95) "personal publishing"
program for the Mac Plus and LaserWriter Plus. The program comes
from Boston Software Publishers (617-267-4747).
-- Another low-cost desktop publishing program is ReadySetGo
version 2.1 from NYC-based Manhattan Graphics. It retails for
$195. (212-989-6442).
-- Lotus released Jazz 1A. The new version of Jazz can be used on
a hard disk without a key disk, and Lotus claims it works faster.
(617-577-8500).
[***][1/27/86][***]
FINANCIAL RESULTS TIME:
It's the end of January; and that means it's time for public
companies to announce their financial results for the last
quarter of 1985. This past week saw a flurry of announcements
from Northeast-based companies. Here's the good (and bad) news.
-- WANG DOWN: Wang Laboratories' earning fell 61% in the last
quarter of 1985, even though revenues were up. The Lowell, MA-
based company earned $21.7 million vs. $56.3 million a year ago.
Still, Wang executives saw a bright side, since that $21.7
million figure was a considerable jump from the paltry $7 million
they earned in the July-September quarter.
Meanwhile, Wang announced last week that they've completed their
acquisition of NYC-based Walsh, Greenwood Information Systems.
The company will become a new subsidiary named Wang Financial
Information Services and will sell "Shark" -- a market data and
retrieval system that runs on both Wang equipment and PC
compatibles. Unlike Lotus' competitive system, which broadcasts
quotes over an FM radio sub-band, the Shark system provides real-
time quotations to users in all geographical areas from a central
mainframe computer in NYC.
-- PRIME UP: Prime Computer of Lowell, MA was proud to report an
18% jump in profits and a 23% increase in sales for the fourth
quarter. Profits were up from $14.83 million to $17.46 million;
sales from $170.76 million to $209.91 million. Prime's developed
a solid reputation for both their hardware and software; and is
evidently successful in competing against arc-rivals IBM and DEC.
-- DG WAY DOWN: Data General of Westboro, MA had earnings that
were way down from 1984. Let's not even talk about percentages.
DG's earnings for the last quarter of 1985 were $1.1 million;
compared to $23 million for the same period in 1984. Sales
dropped from $333.7 million to $293.7 million. DG president Edson
deCastro says he's "disappointed."
Despite the report, DG last week purchased a minority interest in
a Parsippany, NJ company. Dama Telecommunications Corp makes
high-speed digital voice and data communications products.
-- STRATUS WAY UP: Stratus Computer of Marlborough, MA is looking
at a rosy future. The maker of specialized systems signed up both
IBM and Burroughs last year to sell their systems; and their
earnings went from $1.5 million to $2.95 million.
-- RAYTHEON UP: Mega defense contractor Raytheon saw their
earnings rise 10% -- from $340.1 milion to $375.9 million.
Raytheon is Massachusetts' largest employer and is riding high on
the crest of President Reagan's defense policies.
[***][1/27/86][***]
GTE CHOOSES TAUNTON:
Speaking of defense, GTE Government Systems has chosen an
industrial park in the small southeastern, MA town of Taunton as
the site of a new $21 million plant that'll be building
communications equipment for the defense department. The company
recently signed a $4.3 billion long-term contract with the
government. The plant will employ at least 1000 people by 1988.
[***][1/27/86][***]
GOODBYE MULTICS:
When you're used to dealing with the meteoric rises and falls of
personal computer software, it's sometimes difficult to remember
that the attitude is a little different in the mini/mainframe
field. Honeywell announced this week that they'll be phasing out
support for the 16 year-old Multics mainframe operating system.
The company decided that with only 54 sites using it, they can't
financially afford to support it anymore. (Anyone for "Multic
Lives" bumper stickers?)
[***][1/27/86][***]
EASYLINK FORMS:
Western Union has introduced an interesting new concept in
software for users of their EasyLink electronic mail service.
Instant Forms Plus is a series of utilities that let EasyLink
users create, modify, and transmit "electronic" business forms
such as invoices, reports, purchase orders, etc. The $100
package, which runs on the IBM PC, includes a conversion utility
that converts data from programs such as 1-2-3 into ASCII at the
transmission end, and back to normal format at the reception end.
CONTACT: WESTERN UNION
UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ
201-825-5000
[***][1/27/86][***]
NORTHEAST SNOWBITS:
-- Apollo Computer of Chelmsford, MA has signed a contract to
provide the Lockheed Space Operations Company with $1.6 million
worth of computer work stations.
-- A Hudson, NH printed-circuit board plant which has been closed
since last April has been re-opened by Hadco Corporation. The
company will be hiring 75 workers, and says they'll now be
specializing in high-ticket custom boards.
-- Bedford, MA-based GCA Corporation, as we've previously
reported, had a very bad year in 1985. This week, the company
announced that it's decided not to move its manufacturing
operations into a former Lawrence, MA textile mile that they just
spent $10 million to renovate. GCA will attempt to sublet the
space.
[***][1/28/86][***]
FOLLOWING THE FORGERY TRAIL:
IBM are not letting the grass grow under its feet. Earlier
this month saw the successful springing of a trap,
thanks to the quick-wittedness of Brentford-based IBM
dealers' "Computer Market", which was offered an imported PC
clone complete with Lotus 123, Symphony, Wordstar, Epson
printer and colour monitor, all in for 2,000 pounds.
Smelling a rat, Mike Fraser Hopewell of CM contacted IBM which
stepped in smartly armed with a legal warrant. The
importer, Chris Lyles, demo'ed the kit, only to have it
seized by IBM representatives. Interestingly, IBM isn't
pursuing the matter with Lyles, but instead is following
the trail back to Singapore, where the word is that the
clones are direct rip-offs of IBM PCs, right down to the
copyright notice of the ROM BIOS.
[***][1/28/86][***]
ATM RIPOFF FOILED:
Talking of ripoffs, one of the UK's major banks, National
Westminster, was very nearly taken for 75,000 pounds
($110,000) last week when a group of ten "attacked" several
ATMs when the main computer was offline for the twenty
minutes or so it takes to update the day's transactions. The
ATMs can normally call upon the network to inform them if a
card is valid or stolen, but for a short while in the early
hours of the morning, it can't. NatWest bank confirms that
an attempt was made, but is not saying how it was done.
Newsbytes UK reckons that the bank varies the time it
updates for security reasons and can spot unusual activity
in certain areas. The idea of offline ATM hits isn't new -
late last year, an Australian teenager made multiple
withdrawals from his account in Perth, but the transactions
only succeeded in him being heavily overdrawn the next day.
Good on yer bonzer!
[***][1/28/86][***]
WORDSTAR AMNESTY EXTENDS:
As reported previously, the amnesty from the UK arm of
Micropro, whereby pirate users of Wordstar could, on payment
of forty pounds plus tax, legalise their copies and receive
'free' manuals and updates, has been a huge success. Such a
success, in fact that the company has decided to extend the
amnesty to France and West Germany. Unfortunately for the
North American readers of Newsbytes UK, the amnesty is very
unlikely to spread to the US owing to the complex copyright
laws in the North American continent. Ah well, back to the
photocopies...
[***][1/28/86][***]
AT&T INTO THE UK:
AT&T, not content with conquest of the North American
continent, is planning to set up a joint manufacturing plant
with the Dutch-based Philips group, in Malmsbury, Wiltshire.
Currently the facility is occupied by TMC, a Philips
subsidiary, which is moving to Scotland. Initially the plant
will manufacture communications transmissions kits (modems
etc) and will employ 350 people. And the big day when AT&T
will move in? It all depends on when Philips moves out!
[***][1/28/86][***]
UK POST OFFICE OK FOR AUTOMATION:
The Department of Trade has given the OK for a major
extension to automate the thousands of post offices dotted
around the UK. Currently just 20 post offices are automated
in the London area. The government thumbs up allows an
"extended trial" for automating 250 more in the London
Thames Valley area. The only snag is the total cost of
automating the UK's post offices - 200 million pounds
($280m).
[***][1/28/86][***]
SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS YOU:
Following last week's report that skilled computer staffers are
leaving South Africa in their droves comes news that ICL is
offering single skilled staff as much as 170,000 ($75,000)
Rand a year to join them in SA. That's a big salary by
anyone's standards. ICL reports a lot of interest, but few
takers. I can't say I blame them!
[***][1/28/86][***]
DBASE III+ WITHDRAWN FROM UK SALE:
Ashton-Tate has been forced to withdraw the recently
introduced networking version of dBase III, dBase III plus,
after it discovered that multiple copies of a program on a
network think each other a pirate copy and jam up tight.
"As soon as we discovered the fault here in the UK, we
notified the plant in California and phoned all our
distributors immediately," said Paul Sloane, MD of
Ashton-Tate UK.
[***][1/28/86][***]
SO SHY BIG BLUE:
Regular Newsbyters will remember last weeks report about the
BBC filming a 'twenty questions' style short involving
Sinclair, Amstrad, and Apricot's representatives, plus of
course, Chuck Peddle, the man who invented the Commodore
Pet. IBM was invited, but, as soon as they found out that
questions from the audience were to be fielded, they asked
for a list of them beforehand. No can do, said the show's
producer, as even he didn't know what a real live audience
(gosh) would ask. Exit Big Blue, and no show for IBM on the
show.
[***][1/28/86][***]
IT'S HERE!
What? I hear you ask. IBM was so keen to tell my press
colleagues about a new product that it held a press
conference at the Which? Computer Show the other week.
Trouble was that it was held at 10am on day one of the show.
The conference was packed out with 3 (three) reporters.
And what was it that was launched in the UK? Displaywrite
3. Wow....ZZZzzzz.
[***][1/28/86][***]
OH JOY! 1200 BAUD FULL DUPLEX:
Here in the UK, modems capable of 1200 baud full duplex are
very expensive ($750 and up). As US readers know only too
well, the price can go as low as $150 for a North American
model. Yes, I know - US (bell) tones are different from
European (CCITT) ones, but they are virtually the same at
1200 baud full duplex...so I ordered one from the US. It
came today - the Universal Data Systems line powered modem.
Only $195 for 300 & 1200 baud auto-answer. The modem is
widely advertised in Byte magazine from several vendors and
IT WORKS! Recommendation? Buy one!
[***][1/28/86][***]
CANADA, JAPAN ENTER AI PACT:
Information about fifth-generation computer research and
artificial intelligence is to be shared by Canadian and
Japanese scientists. The Canadian Society For Fifth-
Generation Research (CSFGR), which has about 100 members at
20 schools, will collaborate with Tokyo's ICOT (Insitute
For New Generation Computer Technology), in a precedent-
setting project, the first such official foreign agreement
with the Japanese. The pact "will give a lot of
credibility to our society, and will help in efforts to
find funding for multi-university collaborative projects in
this field," said Simon Fraser University's Nick Cercone,
president of CSFGR. 2 1/2 years of talks, initiated by
researchers at Ontario's University Of Waterloo, preceded
the agreement, ratified last week. Scientific,
mathematical, and engineering information will be freely
shared between the two groups, but proprietary commercial
developments will remain confidential, says Eric Manning,
of Waterloo's Insitute For Computer Research.
[***][1/28/86][***]
MITEL FOUNDER DEBUTS LASER PRINTER:
Michael Cowpland, ex-chairman and co-founder in 1975 of
Kanata, Ontario's Mitel Corp., an aggressive leader in the
telecommunications field, has unveiled his latest
enterprise: a startup company dedicated to the introduction
of a new laser printer. Mr. Cowpland's Corel Systems Corp.
(Ottawa, Ont.) joins a growing and volatile market for the
newest high-speed print technology, which has grown from
1984's $290-million (US) gross to projections of $870-
million in 1986. Competing directly with giants such as
Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and Apple, Corel's entry is sold
as a printer-terminal bundle compatible with IBM PC/AT's,
for about $10,000 (CDN). Cowpland projects sales of $5 to
$6-million by the end of 1987. The laser scanners used by
Corel are their own design, mated with laser engines made
in Japan by Ricoh Co. Ltd., and assembled along with the
terminals in Ottawa. At a press conference recently in
Toronto to promote a Corel-sponsored tennis tourney, Mr.
Cowpland posed beside his printer and a giant tennis ball
to announce happily that shipments of printers and
terminals to customers in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa
will begin in February.
[***][1/28/86][***]
XEROX EN FRANCAIS:
Most of Xerox's new office products announced recently (see
previous issues of NEWSBYTES) will be available through the
Canadian subsidiary, as well as some unique products.
Offered from the Toronto-based unit are two French-language
IBM compatible microcomputers, and an accounting package
specifically supporting Canadian legislation. The software
was developed in co-operation with accounting firm Touche
Ross & Co. Half of Xerox's current R&D budget is going
into office systems, in direct competition with IBM; 1990
has been set by the company as its target date for
leadership in the field.
[***][1/28/86][***]
TARIFFS AXED BETWEEN CANADA, U.S.:
Most computer parts manufactured in Canada (as well as some
made in Japan) became duty-free when imported to the United
States as of January 17, under a new agreement signed late
last year. Previously, such imports--up to $4.3-billion
worth (US)--have been subject to a 4.3% tariff. Exceptions
to the pact are cathode ray tubes, which still carry 4.1%
duty. Canada in turn will waive tariffs on semiconductors
and other computer parts, at a date not yet specified.
[***][1/28/86][***]
BOEING FLIGHT SIMULATOR CONTRACT:
CAE Electronics Ltd., unit of CAE Industries Ltd. (Toronto,
Ont.), has signed a $2.5-million (US) contract with Air
India. Boeing 747 flight simulators originally supplied by
CAE in 1972 are to be upgraded under the new pact,
including a new digital motion system. Also to be modified
are the control force system, sound system, and onboard
computer. The work is scheduled for completion in early
1987.
[***][1/28/86][***]
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"The connection between laser jet printing and tennis is
obvious."
--Michael Cowpland--CEO, Corel Systems Corp., Ottawa,
Ontario
[***][1/28/86][***]
ITC HAMMERS JAPAN
The International Trade Commission in Washington has ruled
that Japanese companies have dumped semiconductors on the
American market at less than the cost of production. It was the
first investigation President Reagan has ordered into unfair
trade practices in the high-tech field. The ITC said Japan was
dumping 64-K dynamic RAM chips which cost American manufacturers
about $900 million in sales between 1984 and 1985. Other cases
are pending before the quasi-judicial body.
The decision is the first step in a process leading to possible
countervailing duties against Japanese chips. The next step comes
in May, when the Commerce Department reviews the ITC preliminary
ruling. That decision will come soon after an economic summit in
Tokyo involving both the U.S. and Japan. With the ITC ruling
expected to come out as it did, the Japanese last week reopened
trade talks with U.S. officials in an effort to resolve the
various complaints brought by the government and domestic chip
makers.
[***][1/28/86][***]
ARISTOTLE TO WASHINGTON
Aristotle Industries Inc., a pioneer in the field of
microcomputer software for political campaigns, has bought a
piece of ITT Dialcom and is moving its headquarters from Norwalk,
Conn. to Powertown. Campaign software is a growing vertical
software market and Aristotle says it already has about 1,800
clients for its package call "The Campaign Manager." Aristotle
has bought out Dialcom's congressional services division, which
supplied many congressional offices with mainframe computer
services through terminals and modems. The price was undisclosed.
Dialcom says it has about 170 clients, most in the House of
Representatives.
A Dialcom competitor, Public Office Corp., which supplies time-
sharing services to members of Congress, unions and trade groups
in Washington, plans to take on Aristotle in the field of
campaign software, but plans to pitch its sales toward users of
minicomputers. That's a risky strategy, as the micro end of the
computer spectrum is where the growth in political hardware will
occur.
A third entrant in the field is Intelligent Resources Inc., which
has developed campaign software packages based on dBase III,
which it is marketing to political campaigns and to certain
political consulting firms. IRI developed the programs during the
1984 presidential primary campaign by Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.),
using dBase II, and has rewritten it to run in dBase III.
[***][1/28/86][***]
DEAR SENATOR
If you want to send a message to your representatives in
Washington, MCI Mail has a slick way to do it. The electronic
mail service run by MCI Communciations has lists of members of
the House and Senators available online. You can send letter to
all members, of the members of just one house, or of just one
party. The message is printed by MCI's laser printers on plain
white bond, and, if you have registered it, your letterhead can
also be imprinted on the letter. The right stuff for high tech
lobbyists.
If you post your message by 8:00 pm Eastern Time, says MCI, it
will be delivered the next day at the regular MCI Letter price of
$2 per copy for up to 3 pages. To send a letter to House
Republicans, for instance, when MCI prompts you with TO:
respond with "US House R (List)."
[***][1/28/86][***]
THE PC LOBBYIST
Intelligent Resources Inc. (see above) is selling a dBase III
program that includes a database containing key information items
about all members of the House and Senate. The program is geared
toward lobbyists who want to keep track of detailed political
information about members, for retrieval by multiple
characteristics. The program, for example, will list out all the
members of the House who sit on both the Ways & Means Committee
and the Rules Committee. It was developed for a lobbying group
which was working to preserve the state and local tax deduction
during last year's tax writing extravaganza.
CONTACT: Intelligent Resources Inc., 422 C Street NE,
Washington DC 20002
[***][1/28/86][***]
NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (Continued)
Last week, we presented the New Jersey PC Club's discussion of
three new languages, SIMPLE, SLOBOL, and VALGOL. This week, we
conclude the series, presenting five more new and intriguing
languages for the future hacker.
SARTRE. Named after the late existential philosopher, SARTRE is
an extremely unstructured language. Statements in the programs
are left to define their own functions. SARTRE programs tend to
be boring and depressed and are no fun at parties.
FIFTH is a precision mathematical language in which the data
types refer to the quanitity. The data types range from CC,
OUNCE, SHOT, and JIGGER to FIFTH (hence the name of the
language), LITER, MAGNUM and BLOTTO. Commands refer to
ingredients such as CHABLIS, CHARDONNAY, GIN, VERMOUTH, VODKA,
SCOTCH, BOURBON, CANADIAN, WHATEVERS AROUND, and especially
STOLY'S.
The many versions of the FIFTH language reflects the
sophistication of its users. Commands in the ELITE dialect
include VSOP, LAFITE, and WAITERS(RECOMMENDATION). The GUTTER
dialect is a particular favorite of frustrated FORTH programmers
who end up using this language.
C -. This language was named for the grade received by its
creater when he submitted it as a project in a "low level"
programming language. In general, the laqnguage requires more C -
statements than machine-code instructions to execute a task. In
this respect, it is very similar to COBOL.
LITHP. This otherwise unremarkable language is distinguished by
the absence of an "S" in its character set. Programmers must
substitute "TH". LITHP is thaid to be utheful in produthing
lithth.
DOGO. Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Obedience
Training, DOGO heralds a new era of computer-literate pets. DOGO
commands include SIT, STAY, HEEL, and ROLL OVER. An innovative
feature of DOGO is "puppy graphics," a small cocker spaniel that
occasionally leaves deposits as he travels across the screen.
[***][1/28/86][***]
IS BIG BROTHER READING THIS?
Civil libertarians, officials of the electronic mail industry,
and the Justice Department staff are having a hard time coming to
agreement on what kinds of privacy rights to grant to Email. The
issue has emerged as a key element in the debate over the
Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1985, introduced in
Congress last year and scheduled for further consideration this
year.
Industry officials and negotiators from the American Civil
Liberties Union believe that users of electronic mail systems
such as The Source should have the same protections as those who
use the official postal system. Justice avers that the electronic
services, which keep copies of the electronic epistles for
billing and record-keeping purposes, are "third-party record
holders" like banks. So, like banks, argue the Administration
bargainers, Email companies should be forced to turn over their
records to police without a warrant from a judge. So far, the
parties remain at loggerheads.
[***][1/28/86][***]
STAR WARS PROBLEMS
According to a Pentagon study group, early studies of how to
protect the U.S. against ballistic missiles did not pay enough
attention to the computer hardware and software issues that are
among the most intractable problems of the President's Strategic
Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars. The Panel on
Computing in Support of Battle Management, also known as the
Eastport Study Group, said early Star Wars architects simply
assumed that the computing resources would be available and "paid
only 'lip service' to the structure of the software that must
control and coordinate the entire system." The group said it was
sure the hardware and software can be developed to control a
ballistic missile defense system, but that it hasn't been
identified yet.
[***][1/28/86][***]
WASHINGTON COMPUTER BUSINESS INDEX
The Washington computer index continues to soar, reaching 188.5
for the January 20 issue of Washington Business, the Washington
Post's weekly business tabloid. Computer advertising for the
issue totaled 9.8 pages, out of a total of 23.6 pages of
advertising. Last week, the index stood at 162.5. The leading
advertiser in the January 20 issue was Epson, with a full page
and a fifth of the adjoining page, advertising the company's
redoubtable printers. MBI had the full back cover.
[***][1/28/86][***]
POWERBITS
$$$ Holt, Rinehart and Winston has published SOFTWAR, a novel by
programmer Thierry Breton and writer Denis Beneich. the premise
is a U.S. mission to plant software bombs into the central Soviet
computer system. It got a ho-hum review from Washington Post
reviewer Curt Suplee.
$$$ IBM's Federal Systems Division has pulled down a $10.2
million contract from the U.S. Army Missile Command for
engineering development of radar frequency interferometers for
target acquisition.
$$$ Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh will be getting a
$5.4 million modification in an existing contract with the
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency for the strategic
computing program.