Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/mac/Text/Mac Text/1986/V182

Text File | 1991-08-12 | 41KB | 874 lines

[***][12/09/86][***]
APPLE IIGS PROMOTION PARADE
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple Computer has awarded top prize in
its recent "Apple IIGS Introduction Contest" to a Maryland
retailer who put the machine in Clinton's Wild World
Amusement Park and accompanied its introduction with videotapes
and magic tricks. The unveiling of the IIGS was performed by an
illusionist.  There was no lack of imagination by the retailers,
who made up for lack of supply of the IIGS machines by their
abundant enthusiasm.  The runners-up had the new 16-bit Apple
playing music and displaying art in concert with a musician on
piano and an artist with watercolors; featured in a contest in
which the public had to solve a puzzle based on clues in a
local newspaper; saw a local doctor officiating at the "birth"
of the IIGS; was accompanied by a "Greatest Show on Earth"
circus routine with staff dressed as clowns and animals.  All
this silliness was also due to the prize: $25,000 for the
dealership and $500 each for ten sales people.

Unfortunately the dealers have short supplies of the new IIGS,
and now that the public is salivating for them, dealers must
politely steer them toward the IIC, which has been bargain-
priced at $949 for the holidays.

[***][12/09/86][***]
MICROSOFT SUIT GETS NASTIER
SEATTLE, Wa. (NB) -- Seattle Computer Products, which is suing
Microsoft for copyright violations, has asked the King
County judge hearing its case to amend the complaint to include
a charge that a Microsoft co-founder Pau Allen deliberately
misrepresented an agreement between the two companies five
years ago.  Seattle Computer Products seeks full rights to
produce and sell MS-DOS, the operating system which it sold
to Microsoft in 1981.  Now attorneys for the plaintiff say
Paul Allen "harbored a secret intent" to limit their future
rights.  Microsoft isn't commenting on the new complaint.
Judge Gerard Shellan has ruled that Seattle Computer Products
can sell its rights to MS-DOS to a third party; what has yet
to be decided is whether SCP has rights to all the new
versions of the operating system which Microsoft has published.

In other Microsoft news, the software firm has signed with
Olivetti of Italy to distribute its products in Europe.

[***][12/09/86][***]
MORE NASTIES -- DAISY'S TRADE SECRET SUIT
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. (NB) -- Daisy Systems Corp. has sued two
former employees, charging them with stealing trade secrets.
The pair, now founders of Santa Clara-based EDA systems Corp.,
allegedly used engineering and business plans acquired at
Daisy to form the new company.  Lucio Lanza and Jean Bowers
are now competitors to Daisy, and say of the matter (which is
the second one by Daisy against EDA this year), "The
market is very competitive, some of our competitors are
trying to slow us down with every possible measure. Nothing,
and I underline nothing, will surprise us."

[***][12/09/86][***]
INTEL FOUNDER FOUNDS LEGAL REFORM PROJECT
San Jose, Ca. (NB) -- What does Robert Noyce, co-founder of
Intel, do when he's not at work?  In his latest extra-curricular
activity he is founder of a different ball of wax: The California
Legal Reform Project.  Its initial goal is to have legislation
passed in California that would require legal costs in a lawsuit
to be paid by the losing party who refused an out-of-court
settlement offer.  Stopping short of saying our country is
lawsuit-happy, Noyce says, "America's ability to compete
internationally has been seriously hurt by our propensity for
litigation."  Lawsuits in federal courts have increased 758%
since 1974, according to Noyce, and the number of U.S. attorneys
has tripled since 1955.  The project sounds like a decent
idea to me.

CONTACT: Tom Skornia, atty., CALIFORNIA LEGAL REFORM PROJECT,
         408/977-1000

[***][12/09/86][***]
NEW US - JAPANESE ALLIANCE
FREMONT, Ca. (NB) -- In yet another manifestation that most
U.S. manufacturers would rather join than fight, Xerox
Corporation has announced an alliance with the highly-
successful, Nagoya, Japan-based Brother Industries to produce
electronic typewriters in the U.S.  Xerox expects to ramp up
production of the typewriters at its highly automated factory
in Fremont, Ca. Xerox, in turn, is giving Brother the rights
to produce Xerox daisywheel printers in Japan.

[***][12/09/86][***]
MAKE ROOM FOR LASERLAND
AURORA, Colorado (NB) -- It had to happen. The proliferation
of videodisks, laserdisks, CD-ROM software, players, and CD-ROM
drives has spun off a new retail idea -- the store devoted
exclusively to this emerging technology.  Laserland Corporation
has opened its first store in Denver and hopes to open 99
more.  The Denver store sells CD-ROM players from N.V. Philips
and Sony Corp., plus 1,650 videodisk titles, both 8 and 12-inch.
Marketing Director Bruce Hirota says franchises are available
now, if you're interested.

[***][12/09/86][***]
NEWSBITS --

A published report says IBM is preparing a second version of
the Convertible laptop computer for introdtction next spring.
INFOWORLD reports the new Convertible features an improved
screen, extra RAM, and a new modem.

The AMERICAN ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION reports California ranked
third nationally in electronics workers per 1,000 population
last year, employing 23 in the electronics industry out of each
thousand people.  The top employer was New Hampshire with 40
electronics workers per thousand, followed by Massachusetts (37).

ADOBE SYSTEMS of Palo Alto is expected to introduce its first
retail software package early next year. Creators of the Postscript
page description language for laser printers, Adobe will
offer "Illustrator," an advanced Macintosh drawing program which
makes full use of the typefaces, fonts, and graphics capability
of the laser printer.

GRID SYSTEMS CORPORATION of Mountain View, Ca. is going to sell
the popular Toshiba T3100 laptop computer under its own label in
the spring, according to PC WEEK.  The $4,499 portable has a
gas plasma display and a 10 megabyte hard disk.

ALTA COMPUTER, a COMPUTERLAND franchiser with 3 stores in the
San Francisco Bay Area is cutting the pay of 120 salaried
employees by 10%.  President Ray Schlitzer says profit margins
have been under pressure and costs have had to be cut.

3COM CORPORATION of Mountain View reports a fat earnings
picture for its most recent quarter. The firm expects sales
will tally up to 25% more than the $22.5 million expected.
Compare that to sales of $14.4 million this time last year.

PACIFIC TELEPHONE's Pacific Telesis racked up a whopping $1
billion in earnings through the first 11 months of this year.
Pacific Telesis is the holding company for the phone
company.

[***][12/09/86][***]
EDS FINALLY JOINS GM AS PEROT LEAVES
DALLAS, TX (NB) -- H. Ross Perot got the golden boot by General
Motors from Electronic Data Systems, Dallas, the computer
services firm he founded in 1962, last Monday. GM agreed to pay
him $740 million for his holdings and reportedly added a clause
which will have him cough back $7.5 million if he keeps
criticizing GM, as he's been doing.  Perot, naturally, said he'll
stay at his Dallas office for now and gave GM directors until
December 15 to change their minds. (The "Wall Street Journal"
reported that if Perot gets mad at GM again, he'll likely just
write the $7.5 million check.)

Key questions. What happens to EDS now? Perot's top lieutenants
will reportedly follow him out the door. EDS has been charging GM
top-dollar internally for its services to boost its own "Class E"
stock dividend -- what will happen to those arrangements?
Finally, whither Perot? (With Chrysler chairman Lee Iococca
rumored as a Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President
George Bush hurt by the Iran arms scandal, trial balloons just
might be raised to put Perot atop the 1988 GOP ticket. At least,
it's a good rumor and you heard it here first.)

CONTACT: EDS [phone]

[***][12/09/86][***]
TANGENT TO BE READY WHEN APPLE READY, NOT BEFORE *EXCLUSIVE*
NORCROSS, GA (NB) -- Tangent Technologies Ltd., makers of PC
MacBridge, will have software ready to transfer files between PCs
and Macs using the Appletalk Filing Protocol, as soon as Apple
announces the Appletalk file server, probably at their annual
meeting next month. "We already have experience in this area, so
it's just plug-and-play. Once they announce the server it's
done...we already have it running here but it's under non-
disclosure with Apple," according to Tangent Vice President-Sales
Guy Mariande. "Infoworld" mistakening reported last week that
Tangent will beat Apple to market with a file server.

CONTACT: Tangent [phone]

[***][12/09/86][***]
ICS AWAITS YEAREND AS VIDEOTEX PROBLEMS MOUNT *EXCLUSIVE*
ROSWELL, GA (NB) -- Published reports that the wheels are coming
off for videotex consortia Trintex and Covidea, with key sponsors
like CBS pulling out, led us to calling Integrated Communications
Services Inc., the Roswell-based consortium sponsoring the 100-
home TranstexT test. (TranstexT is based on a "gray box" which
replaces the power meters and could control phone services, cable
services, and thus home shopping and information services.)

The TranstexT test has been due to conclude December 31 and
investors, including The Southern Company and BellSouth Corp. are
now deciding what to do next. ICS officials are reportedly trying
to extend and enlarge the tests in preparation for a 1988 roll-
out. However, ICS president Doug Bulleit is also doing a full-
court press for other work, especially studies in energy
management and advanced telecommunications, to avoid possible
lay-offs if the sponsors turn thumbs-down on TranstexT.

CONTACT: ICS [phone]

[***][12/09/86][***]
SOUTHEASTERN COMPUTER STORE SURVIVORS REACH PROMISED LAND
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- Fewer stores and lower prices equal higher
demand for computers this Christmas. But fewer stores with
tighter inventory controls also means shortages of popular
machines like the Apple IIGS and the Tandy 1000EX. Robert Snowden
Jones of the "Atlanta Constitution" reported Friday that his
survey of area stores found adequate supplies of Atari STs and
Commodore Amigas on hand. Shortages of Apples are old news,
caused by a lack of 6 custom chips used in the IIGS to produce
graphics and music. Ed Juge of Tandy admitted they just
underestimated demand for home PCs. Kids whose Santas were late
to the stores get the "cabbage patch solution," a certificate
under the tree saying the machines will arrive Real Soon Now.

[***][12/09/86][***]
LAY-OFF BLUES HIT SOUTHEAST AS MCI, UNISYS CUT BACK
BRISTOL, TN (NB) -- MCI announced last Wednesday that 130
Atlantans will get pink slips as it cuts back on telemarketing in
the wake of losses.  Unisys Corp. announced Thursday that 1,570
people in Bristol, TN, will also lose their jobs by next July as
it closes an assembly plant there. (Another 260 people at a
circuit board plant in Eau Claire, WI will also go by March.) The
Unisys cutbacks are part of a plan announced soon after the
Sperry-Burroughs merger to cut 9,600 total jobs termed
"redundant."

[***][12/09/86][***]
HONEYWELL SPINS COMPUTER BUSINESS INTO BULL-NEC VENTURE
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NB) -- Honeywell Inc. signed a tentative
agreement last Tuesday to spin off most of its computer business
into a joint venture with France's Compagnie des Machines Bull
and Japan's NEC Corp. Honeywell would receive $500 million for
its participation in the unnamed venture, and by 1988 it would
own less than 20% of it. The three firms have combined sales of
$1.85 million. No name has yet been given to the venture. (The
name Three Stooges has been rejected.)

[***][12/09/86][***]
BELLSOUTH BUYING DATASERV
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- BellSouth Corp. announced an agreement to buy
Dataserv Inc., a computer leasing outfit based in Minneapolis,
for stock worth $96.55 million. Dataserv merged with a public
company in England in 1983 and its stock is traded on The London
Exchange. The deal is expected to close in mid-February, after
which the computer lessor would become part of BellSouth
Enterprises, BellSouth's unregulated arm.

CONTACT: BellSouth [phone], Dataserv [phone]

[***][12/09/86][***]
PECAN BYTES

LOCKHEED-GEORGIA CORP., Marietta, GA, has closed its Getex
subsidiary, its intrapreneurial venture. The most successful
Getex product, a secure modem, was sold to A.O. Security of
Norcross, GA.

COMPAQ CORP., Houston, TX, announced its first European plant
will be built in Erskine, Scotland, near the Glasgow Airport, at
a cost of $23 million. Eventually 350 jobs would be created.

INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE INC., Lenaxa, KS, announced it has begun
shipping a German-language version of its Smart Software system.
Organa, AG of Lucerne, Switzerland, will distribute it and
provide technical support, meine herren und damen.

DCA, Alpharetta, GA, announced a major contract in the
Netherlands as GAK, a social services organization, ordered
$900,000 in X.25 packet assembly/dissassembly equipment through
DCA's Dutch distributors, Netcomm BV.

[***][12/09/86][***]
AND FINALLY...
The 1987 Medical and Health Annual says VDTs cause eyestrain and
discomfort, but won't kill you. Eye exercises and high-quality
monitors which reduce glare were recommended for the 10-14
million users of computer terminals, who continue to report
headaches, burning eyes, chronic eyestrain and blurred vision,
according to the report, which is published by the Encyclopedia
Brittanica.

[***][12/09/86][***]
POLITICAL DATABASES HIT OF EXECUTIVES CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, DC (NB) -- Politically-oriented databases, providing
desktop information on the Congress and its members and other
aspects of the political and regulatory process, were the
centerpiece of a recent computer fair organized by the American
Society of Association Executives. Systems presented at the fair
ranged from online databases giving current legislative and
regulatory activity to hardware and software packages designed
to let associations develop their own databases.

An ASAE spokesman described these services as being especially
valuable for smaller associations. "Associations with smaller
budgets and staff get a lot of information. One thing
associations have going for them in terms of public policy is a
large number of members and ability to mobilize grass roots
support. This helps them use the grass roots support more
effectively." ASAE officials indicated that they were surprised
at the turnout for the fair and will offer it again soon.

[***][12/09/86][***]
UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES SOFTWARE CENTER
Fairfax, Va. (NB) -- George Mason University has announced that it
will be the site for a "Software Engineering Center." The Center,
to be operated in conjunction with the Reston-based Software
Productivity Center, is being funded by a $2.4 million grant from
the State of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.

GMU plans to use the grant to fund five professorships at its
School of Information Technology and Engineering and to
underwrite doctoral studies in software engineering. The software
center is viewed as a key test for CIT which was established to
promote high-tech industry in the region but has had a rocky
beginning.

[***][12/09/86][***]
SEC'S EDGAR MAY BE IN TROUBLE
WASHINGTON, DC (NB) -- EDGAR, the Securities and Exchange
Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval
(EDGAR) system, continues to be a source of controversy and
embarrassment. EDGAR is designed to allow corporations regulated
by the SEC to file required reports electronically or on tape or
disk. The data on file could then be accessed electronically by
investors and shareholders with microcomputers. Approximately
10,000 corporations and over 2,000 investment companies are
required to file various reports with the SEC. The SEC has been
running a pilot project of EDGAR under the operation of Arthur
Anderson & Co, a major accounting firm.

Last September, the SEC withdrew its initial request for bids on
the system just one week before the deadline. It was widely
reported that no bids had been received by the agency and none
were in prospect when the bid was withdrawn and revised. A new
bidding deadline of December 31 has been set, but a powerful
Congressman has publicly questioned the SEC proposal and whether
the agency has authority. Chairman John Dingell of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee has stated that his concerns over
the system remain, even after the bid revision. Other Washington
sources point out that the SEC budget currently contains no funds
for EDGAR and Dingell has maintained that the agency has no
Congressional authorization.

The General Accounting Office has also questioned the SEC's plan
that EDGAR's private operator pay for a portion of the system
while potential operators doubt the financial soundness of the
SEC's estimates of revenues. The SEC proposes to provide $46.5
million over eight years to the operator of EDGAR, but costs are
expected to outstrip that and would be picked up by the operator.
That has drawn GAO's criticism. The SEC believes that the
operator can turn a profit by selling the data on the system to
those who wish to use it. All SEC filings are public documents.
However, because government information can not be copyrighted,
there is concern that one or two customers could buy all or most
of the database and then retail to the public for lower prices
than the operator needed to break even.

[***][12/09/86][***]
FOREIGN COMPUTER GIANTS BUY INTO HONEYWELL
New York, NY (NB) -- Machines Bull of France and NEC of Japan will
purchase 60% of Honeywell's computer business. Under the
arrangement, Honeywell would transfer most of its $1.9 billion
Information Systems group computer division to a new company in
which it would own 42.5%, Bull would own 42.5% and NEC would own
the remaining 15%. Wall Street analysts believe that Honeywell is
taking a loss in excess of $250 million on the sale.

The multinational venture is a first for the computer industry,
but follows a trend in telecommunications and computer
peripherals. The move is expected to give Bull and NEC greater
access to the U.S. markets. The three firms have already been
closely allied and market each others products. Honeywell, which
wanted out of the highly competitive computer business, will
retain control of its software development unit.

[***][12/09/86][***]
LEADING EDGE EYES ARROW ELECTRONICS
Washington, DC (NB) -- Leading Edge Products, marketer of the low-
priced Korean-made Leading Edge PC, has purchased 5.8% of Arrow
Electronics and may seek to take over the company. Documents
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that
Leading Edge has bought 382,700 shares of Arrow.

Michael Shane, chairman of Leading Edge and a 94.5% owner of that
company, would not elaborate on his plans in an interview with
the "Wall Street Journal." Leading Edge is expected to post sales
of $400 million this year. Arrow, a distributor of electronic and
computer parts has lost $25.1 million during the first three
quarters of this year.

[***][12/09/86][***]
ENTRE WINS $1 MILLION VERDICT OVER FRANCHISEE
Vienna, VA (NB) -- Troubled Entre Computer Centers, Inc. received a
bit of good news when it was awarded nearly $1 million in a suit
against a former franchisee, Computomat. The ruling by the United
States District Court of New Jersey ended a two year legal battle
in which Entre had sued its franchisee and been countersued for
$20 million in damages. Entree had recently announced an $8.6
million loss for 1986. One of its major expenses during the year
was a legal bill of $8 million stemming from a series of suits
with unhappy ex-franchisees.

[***][12/09/86][***]
SINCLAIR TO LAUNCH NEW MICRO
LONDON (NB) -- This week's MICROSCOPE (a UK computer trade
magazine) headlines with the lowdown on the impending new
computer from Sinclair Research.

Due to be unveiled at the Which? Computer Show in February
'87, the new machine will "be definitely business-based,"
according to Sir Clive Sinclair, quoted in the magazine.
MICROSCOPE.  The magazine says that the machine is under
wraps at the moment, but Sir Clive is known to have taken a
prototype to the recent Comdex Fall in the States.  Other
than some fancy footwork on the wafer scale integration
level (pioneered by Sir Clive last year), little else is
known about the machine - except of course, that it won't be
PC compatible!

Many moons ago, just before Sinclair experienced financial
trouble (1985), NEWSBYTES UK learned of a new graphics
workstation under development by Sinclair.  Shortly after
this information fell into our hands, Sir Clive sold most of
his firm to Amstrad, who baled the group out its financial
doldrums.

We're conjecturing (as ever) but it could be that the new
Sinclair machine will be based around that original
workstation specification.  If so, the new machine will
feature not one, but two cpu's.  The heart of the machine
will be a Z80 system, but with advanced graphics and loads
of video RAM being handled by a 68000 processor.  Throw in a
wafer scale chip storage medium for fast video RAM updating
and you could be looking at the draft specifications for an
advanced colour CAD-CAM system with high speed zooming and
panning!

Are we right or are we wrong?  We'll have to wait until next
February to find out, as Sir Clive has, according to Cahners
Exhibitions, booked a relatively small stand, but in "a
prime position in one of the main halls."

"Other than a launch, I can't see what on earth he would use
it for," a Cahners spokesperson is quoted as saying in
MICROSCOPE.

CONTACT: CAHNERS EXHIBITIONS, Chatsworth House,
         59 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 1BR.

[***][12/09/86][***]
UK ST SALES PATHETIC?
LONDON (NB) -- Before Atari US executives reach for their
libel writs, we're quoting the new-broom-sweeps-clean
comments of Atari UK's general manager, Bob Gleadow.
Gleadow, who replaces the old management team of Max
Bambridge and Rob Harding has been in post for less than a
month, but his comments in the latest edition of MARKETING
WEEK MAGAZINE come as no revelation to NEWBYTES UK readers
who were regaled with relevant sales figures of the ST in
our Spetmber 16th edition.  Ah, it's so nice to be able to
say we told you so...

[***][12/09/86][***]
AMIGAS GOING CHEAP
SLOUGH (NB) -- No sooner had details of the A2500 and budget
B52 Amigas leaked out (see NEWSBYTES UK 18th November
edition) than Commodore UK has cut prices on the existing
A1000 model.

As of the 1st of December, the UK price of a 256K, single
drive Amiga falls to 995 pounds ($1,400) - almost 500 pounds
($700) off its previous price.  This is, according to Chris
Kaday, nothing to do with the new product announcements
affecting existing sales levels.

"We're working round the clock to satisfy orders for the
Amiga," says Kaday in the latest COMPUTER TRADE WEEKLY.
Despite this, the firm is managing to keep up with orders,
with Kaday quoted as saying that orders placed in the first
few weeks of December "will be delivered by Christmas."
That doesn't exactly sound like a shortage of the machines
to us...

CONTACT: COMMODORE UK, Babbage House, 53/69 King Street,
         Maidenhead, Berks.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][12/09/86][***]
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
LONDON (NB) -- One of the hottest-selling items in the
pocket gizmo stakes is the PSION ORGANISER II, a hand-held
computer with 16K RAM and a scrolling 32 digit LCD display.
What makes the organiser so neat is its size (the same as
largish hand-held calculator) and its ability to store and
retrieve information from eprom modules with up to 128K data
storage.

Paul Dye thought the Organiser was pretty neat too, until he
got busted last week for alledgedly heading a 200 million pound
($280m) drug ring.  Authorities say Dye kept the details of all his
drug dealings on his pocket computer and, when deals were
completed, he erased them from the eproms to cover his
tracks if he ever got caught.

Too bad then (or good, depending on your point of view) that
the Psion's eprom storage is similar to discs in that, when
you erase a file, you merely remove the directory entry.
Nope, you can't use a disc recovery program to pull back
data on the Organsier, you have to go Psion themselves.  The
London-based firm plugged the eproms into a PC AT and simply
sucked the data out onto disc.  From there on in, it was a
simple matter to print the data out - simple when you know
how.

CONTACT: PSION LIMITED, Psion House, Harcourt Street,
         London W1H 1DT.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][12/09/86][***]
AUTOBOOT TIME ON YOUR PC
FLINT, CLWYD (NB) -- One of the major advantages of owning
an IBM PC AT or near compatible is the battery-backed clock
maintained on the system board.  Saves all the drag of
entering the date, time etc., every time you boot up.

All those wasted key-presses for us PC owners will soon be a
thing of the past, thanks to a relatively inexpensive PC
plug-in from BENTLEY COMPUTERS LIMITED, a small Welsh firm
with their 'dClock' card.

At 60 pounds ($84), dClock fits into the slot occupied by
the 8088/8086 or NEC V20 cpu of the standard PC.  The PC's
cpu is then slotted piggy-back style onto the board,
minimising the space and - more importantly - without using
any valuable expansion slots.  Yes, there have been clock
cards before, but none this convenient.  Top marks to
Bentley for this new product.

CONTACT: BENTLEY COMPUTERS LIMITED, Unit 23,
         Manor Industrial Estate, Flint, Clwyd CH6 5UY.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][12/09/86][***]
ELECTRONIC MAIL GETS AN UPGRADE
LONDON (NB) -- One-to-One, which runs one of the several
electronic mail services in the UK, staged a massive upgrade
to its computing services last weekend.  Following
expansion beyond the 10,000 subscriber mark, the company has
upgraded its Tandem computers and now offers much-enhanced
facilities including noticeboard and courier mail services.

Speed is dramatically improved and, most importantly, the
new machines will be able to handle the forthcoming MHS
(Message Handling System) scheduled for early '87
introduction.  MHS will, once implemented on all systems,
allow email on one firm's setup to be sent to and from other
systems - much like the US Compuserve/MCI link-up in fact.
Sounds good.  NEWSBYTES UK will still stick with The Source
for UK/US email though!

CONTACT: ONE TO ONE, Scorpio House, 102 Sydney Street,
         Chelsea, London SW3 6NL.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][12/09/86][***]
A TALE OF THE HIGH-SPEED PRINTER
SHEFFIELD (NB) -- Three months ago, NEWSBYTES UK upgraded
its Epson FX80 printer to the new EX800 machine, capable of
300 characters per second.  Super, it works a treat, until
the ribbon runs out.

We spent a whole afternoon this week ringing around no less
than eight Epson-appointed dealers to find one that actually
*stocked* the ribbons for this popular printer.  Eventually,
in desperation, we ended up having to order three units by
mail order and have them expressed up to Sheffield.  Does
this sound like a popular printer?  We could understand it
if it we a Korean little-known machine, but an Epson?

The things they don't tell you when you buy the machine.
Come back the FX80, all is forgiven!

[***][12/09/86][***]
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It's crappy" -- an IBM dealer quoted in MICROSCOPE this
week over the forthcoming introduction of the PC Convertible
laptop to the UK in April '87.

TI-MITSUBISHI AGREE
TOKYO (NB) -- Texas Instruments Japan and Mitsubishi Electric
have signed a mutual business agreement this past weekend.  With
this agreement, both firms plan to beef up each others' so-called
Achilles heels by exchanging IC products.  Mitsubishi has already
begun to supply CMOS Logic ICs to TI on an OEM basis.  In return,
TI will start providing Mitsubishi with high-speed TTLs.

Major business agreements between Japanese and the U.S. makers
have been rampant since this past October.  And that's a big
change since last year when many U.S. makers filed lawsuits
against Japanese chip makers.

CONTACT: TI Japan, 4F Aoyama-Fuji Bldg., 3-6-12 Kita-Aoyama,
         Minato-ku, Tokyo 107
         Mitsubishi Electric, 2-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku,
         Tokyo 100

[***][12/09/86][***]
NEC-HONEYWELL-BULL UPDATE
TOKYO (NB) -- The shares for the new firm, which will be set up
by NEC, Honeywell and Bull, were officially announced last week.
According to the announcement, NEC will hold 15 percent, and
Honeywell and Bull will have 42.5 percent respectively.  The
investment volume of NEC will be US$50 million.  NEC's 15-percent
share is a little lower than initially expected.  President
Sekimoto of NEC told the press, "We'd like to promote the tri-
lateral business partnership at the start of this new firm.  This
will push the sales of the ACOS computers in the world."   Some
22,000 employees of HIS, which is Honeywell's computer division,
will be transferred to this new firm.

CONTACT: NEC, 1-4-28 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108

[***][12/09/86][***]
THE PRICES OF 16-BIT MPUs PLUNGE
TOKYO (NB) -- THE NIKKEI SANGYO DAILY (12/4) reports the retail
prices of 16-bit MPUs have nose-dived in Japan recently.  As a
result, Motorola 68000 costs only US$6.25, which is a 20-percent
drop since this past September.  One of the major reasons for
this price drop can be the volume shipment of these chips.  And
also, the severe competition among second source dealers is
blamed.  Especially, Motorola, who has too many second sources,
has been prompted a big price drop of its products, says an
analyst.  Currently, major second sources for the 68000 are
Hitachi, Signetics, and Thomson.

[***][12/09/86][***]
AI SEMINARS WITH TOPNOTCH LECTURERS
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan Electonics Institute (Tokyo) has started
holding a series of AI seminars.  So far, some guest speakers
including Kazuhiro Fuchi (ICOT) and Edward Feigen Baum (Stan-
ford Univ.) have already addressed the audience at the Institute.
The upcoming seminar schedule has a list of noted lecturers, such
as Prof. Takao Kanade (Carnegie-Mellon Univ.) on Mar.3, Prof.
Marvin Minskey (MIT) on Apr.21, Jack Rahaim (manager at DEC's
AI Technical Center) on Apr.23.  The admission is free for the
first 200 audience at each seminar.  They are the first come,
first served basis.  The reservations must be made by Dec. 12.

CONTACT: AI Seminar Division, Japan Electronics Institute,
         1-25-4 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160
         (03-367-6524 Direct)

[***][12/09/86][***]
COMPUTER-PRIVACY: MORAL QUESTIONED
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan is one of the safest countries in the world.
The ethics in computer privacy, however, still need to be
improved here.  According to the survey taken by the Japanese
National Police Agency (NPA), 30 percent of the computer users
among 1,548 pollees have experiences some sort of wrong-
doing, including "hacking."  NPA urges computer companies to
educate morals of the users, as well as tighten security
measures.

[***][12/09/86][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

TOKYO (NB) -- Sony has developed a 3.5" disk drive with a memory
capacity of 10MB to 12MB.  Its access time is faster than the
current hard disks, a report says.  However, Sony needs to work
on the minor details of this product.  Thus, it won't appear in
the market at least in a couple of years.

TOKYO (NB) -- Meanwhile, Sony has set the fiscal 1987 sales
target for the company's semiconductor products at US$563 to
$594, which is a 25 percent increase from this year.  Those
products include CCD, 256Kbit SRAM, and NEC's V20/V30 MPUs.

TOKYO (NB) -- The Tokyo-based typewriter maker BROTHER has signed
a two-year bilateral business agreement with Xerox Corp. in the
U.S.  With this agreement, Brother produces Xerox's printers.
While, Xerox produces Brother's electric typewriters.

TOKYO (NB) -- Asahi Glass Co. (Tokyo) and Komag (U.S.) will set
up a joint venture for producing and marketing the glass-based
3.5" and 5.25" diskettes in Japan.  The new firm's stocks are
shared equally by the two firms.  Meanwhile, Asahi Glass Co.
(Tokyo) has purchased the 50-percent equities of this California-
based disk drive maker Komag.

TOKYO (NB) -- According to a report, Japan's major conglomerate
SUMITOMO-SHOJI has decided to purchase a large amount of GCA's
stock.  GCA is a Massachusettes-based manufacturer of the
semiconductor manufacturing machineries.  The compnay has been
asking Sumitomo-Shoji for the financial support in the wake of
the world semiconductor slump.

TOKYO (NB) -- Japan UNIX User's Group (03-504-3828) will hold
"UNIX Fair '86" on 12/17 and 12/18 in Tokyo.  Approximately 30
exhibitors are planning to show their advanced technologies in
the UNIX-based hardware and software.  Bill Joy, who is the
designer of UNIX 4.2BSD, will speak at the seminar.

TOKYO (NB) -- The Tokyo-based Apple dealer HI-TECS (03-669-6800)
will open "Apple World Fair" between 12/6 and 12/14.  The
attraction includes a lottery for Alle IIGS.  Also, the
participants will have a chance to exchange messages with Apple
users in the U.S. via an international network.

TOKYO (NB) -- Japanese software distributor SOFTWARE INTER-
NATIONAL (Tokyo) will hold a series of free seminars for the
Japanese Lotus 1-2-3 users, starting in January.  The company
aims at selling 3,000 sets of Lotus 1-2-3 by March 1987.


[***][12/09/86][***]
WORLD OF COMMODORE SHOW MARKS FOURTH YEAR
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (NB) -- More than 75 exhibitors gathered at the
International Centre of Commerce here last week for World of
Commodore IV, a Commodore-specific computer show featuring
hardware, software and accessories from Commodore itself and a
number of other vendors.  Commodore predicted before the show
opened that about 40,000 people would attend.

Among the highlights of the show were the Sidecar, an add-on
hardware device that allows the Commodore Amiga computer to run
MS-DOS software, and a new AT-compatible called the PC40.

Although the Amiga was much in evidence on the show floor,
software being offered for the machine still seemed in relatively
short supply, particularly next to the vast selection for the
older Commodore 64.  However, some Amiga programs were on hand,
and Commodore was demonstrating the computer's impressive
graphics and sound capabilities at its own booth.

In opening the show, Commodore International's Chairman Irving
Gould said times have been tough for the company but that the
future looks more promising.  "For a while I thought there was no
light at the end of the tunnel," he said, "but now I can
definitely see it."  Gould also promised "some very, very
exciting new products coming early next year."

[***][12/09/86][***]
GEAC FILES WITH RECEIVER
MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- For years, it was the quiet success story
of the Canadian computer hardware industry.  Before the days of
PC clones, it was virtually the only company building computers
here, and while sexy new products such as the Hyperion PC
captured brief attention and then died, Geac Computer Corp. went
on quietly and profitably manufacturing minicomputers for the
banking and library industries.

But last week, Geac announced it would apply to have Peat Marwick
Ltd. appointed as interim receiver in a reorganization plan
designed to stay proceedings by its creditors.  That is roughly
the Canadian equivalent of what is known in the U.S. as a Chapter
11 filing.

Geac's troubles began last year, when it posted its first-ever
quarterly loss in the second quarter and went on to lose money in
the third and fourth quarters as well.  In the year ended April
30, Geac lost C$9.9 million on C$65.1 million in revenues,
compared to a profit in the previous year of almost C$5 million
on revenues of C$71.7 million.  The bad news continued in the
first quarter of this year with a C$2.9-million loss.  The losses
were blamed on rising costs while sales remained flat.

At the beginning of April, Geac fired its president and chief
executive, Chuck Williams, after six years at the helm, replacing
him with William Beairsto.  Observers suggest Geac may not be
able to go it alone, and will have to merge or form a joint
venture with another company.

The company has said its reorganization plan will involve selling
some business units and seeking partners.  Proceeds from any
divestitures would be used to pay down the company's debts.

[***][12/09/86][***]
BELL TOLD REBATES CAN WAIT, BUT ANOTHER INVESTIGATION COMING
OTTAWA (NB) -- The Federal Court of Canada last week gave Bell
Canada a reprieve, saying the phone company does not have to pay
C$206 million in rebates to its subscribers until its appeal of
the regulatory order has been heard.  The Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which issued
the rebate order in the first place, had a week earlier told Bell
to pay up, appeal or no appeal.

Meanwhile, a group of independent telephone equipment suppliers
have asked the CRTC to investigate a Bell reorganization that
makes the phone company's equipment sales operation part of the
regulated entity.  Bell Communications Systems Inc., amalgamated
with the main body of Bell in early November, formerly competed
with Bell in sales to business customers.  The independents feel
the new combination will put too much pressure on them, and want
to the CRTC to stop it.

[***][12/09/86][***]
SOFTKEY GOES TO MARKET
TORONTO (NB) -- SoftKey Software Products Inc. will use the
proceeds from an offering of 1.2 million common shares to finance
the development of software products using interactive compact
disk technology.  The company plans interactive programs that
will use "live" television to give their own sales pitches and to
train users.  SoftKey also plans to use CD technology to sell
specialized business applications software.  The company's
current products include vertical packages for veterinary
practices, auto repair shops and corporate libraries, as well as
its KeyChart graphics software.

The stock is being listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
SoftKey has more than 250 dealers and an installed base of more
than 9,000 users in the U.S., and claims to have received more
than 500 dealer requests for its new products during the Comdex
show in Las Vegas last month.

CONTACT: SOFTKEY SOFTWARE PRODUCTS INC., 260 Richmond St. W.,
         Suite 404, Toronto ON M5V 1W5, [phone]

[***][12/09/86][***]
STOCK EXCHANGE WILL MOVE TO COMPUTER TRADING
VANCOUVER (NB) -- The Vancouver Stock Exchange will start
switching over to computerized stock trading in 1988.  The change
will start with junior development issues, and eventually will
incorporate all the development stocks traded on the exchange --
which make up most of its volume.  The move, in line with a
general international trend to computerized trading, is expected
to open up a number of opportunities for international trading
links for Canada's third-largest exchange.  The VSE is also,
appropriately enough, a favorite market for small Canadian
technology stocks.

[***][12/09/86][***]
CONTROL DATA WON'T SELL TICKETRON AFTER ALL
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (NB) -- With its financial restructuring
complete, Control Data Corp. has decided it no longer needs to
sell Ticketron, a subsidiary that sells theatre and sports
tickets in Toronto, Montreal, and a number of other locations in
central Canada.  The computer maker had agreed to sell the
subsidiary to an Allen & Co. Inc. affiliate.  Robert M. Price,
chairman of Control Data, said in a statement that Ticketron is a
"highly successful business ... that will materially contribute
to profits."  The company is working on development of a new
ticketing terminal and intends to introduce a computerized
wagerizing system next spring.

[***][12/09/86][***]
WHITTON JOINS VERIFACT
TORONTO (NB) -- As predicted (see last week's NEWSBYTES CANADA),
George Whitton has joined International Verifact, the maker of
credit-card authorization terminals that has seen rocky financial
times lately.  However, Whitton has been named chairman of the
board of Verifact, replacing Kenneth Cutt, rather than president.
Douglas Archibald remains as president.  Earlier speculation was
that Archibald would be asked to step down to make way for
Whitton.  Instead, Archibald merely loses the title of chief
executive -- which goes to Whitton -- and becomes chief operating
officer instead.

[***][12/09/86][***]
BITS, EH?
-- An Ontario Supreme Court judge has ruled that Canadian
combines (antitrust) investigators can keep documents they seized
in an illegal raid on Commodore Business Machines' Canadian head
office in 1983.  The raid was part of an investigation into
allegations of discriminatory pricing, illegal price maintenance
and misleading advertising, into which preliminary hearings are
to begin shortly.