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/1988/NB880112.238

Text File | 1991-08-18 | 64KB | 1,354 lines

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CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW EMPHASIZES HOME BUSINESS
LAS VEGAS (NB) -- While computer companies were few and far between
at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, firms making peripherals to
aid the home office worker all but dominated the exhibits.  The home
office market is considered by the electronics industry to be an
explosive growth area in '88.  There are currently 13 million home-based
businesses in America, according to the American Home Business
Association, and one out of four new businesses starting this year will
be home-based.  The Association, based in Connecticut, estimates that
the home office owner spends $2,000 each year on hardware, software,
and maintenance.

One peripheral you'll see active this year is the facsimile machine.
Faxes from Canon, Sharp, and Toshiba were on display; all cost in
the neighborhood of $2,000.  But a very inexpensive alternative was
shown by Murata Business Systems, priced at just $899.

NEC Electronics exhibited a local area network for appliances and
computer equipment which operates via standard household
electrical lines.  Called Spectrum AC, the power line carries 9600
baud signals in a home/office link.  The product is still in
development but has the promise of helping create the "automated
electronic home" that futurists have touted.

The few computer companies on the floor included Blue Chip Electronics,
Amstrad, and Vendex.  Those shying away from public view, instead
opting for semi-private suites, included Atari and Commodore.  Sam
Tramiel of Atari explained to NEWSBYTES, "CES participation usually costs
$500,000 dollars.  A suite costs $100,000 and we save $400,000.  The
dealers that we want are coming to our suite anyway."

Most software firms without entertainment software opted for combined
booths, also to save money.  Brian Docherty, founder of Berkeley
Softworks told NEWSBYTES, "We and some other software publishers
are considering consolidating our efforts and going to fewer shows.
CES tends to be less and less computer-oriented."

One of the biggest booths on the floor was Japan's Nintendo, a firm
enjoying stupendous sales of its Famicon game player in America.
Nintendo, which has already dominated the Japanese game market,
claims to have sold more than 3 million systems in the US in 1987,
a figure which places it as the market leader in this area.  Its
game Legend of Zelda was the first million seller of the new
generation of home video game software.  Nintendo projects revenues
of $1.9 billion this year.

[***][1/12/88][***]
BLUE CHIP DUMPS PC-COMPATIBLES ON LIQUIDATOR
CHANDLER, Az. (NB) -- While showing off its four new PC models at
the Consumer Electronics Show, Blue Chip Electronics has given
authorized liquidator C.O.M.B. Co. of Minneapolis, Minnesota its back
inventory of low-end PCs called PC Classics.  The Classic, with
512k of RAM, 8088 16-bit microprocessor, 4.77 MHz clock
speed, two 360kb floppy drives, and 6 slots, was selling for bargain
basement prices -- $799 in the catalog but discounted an additional
$100 by the operator at COMB who thought NEWSBYTES was a
potential customer.

Contacted at CES, Blue Chip President John Rossi told NEWSBYTES
that the Classic has been "deemphasized in favor of the PC Popular
line."  The PC Pop comes in four configurations, ranging from a $599
model with 256K, 4.77 to 8 megahertz speed, and one drive, to an
AT-compatible at $1,495.

He also said that the appearance of the Classics in the C.O.M.B. catalog
does not mean hard times for the company, and added that he was
delighted with the reception his products were getting at CES.

CONTACT:  BLUE CHIP ELECTRONICS, 602/961-1485
                 COMB, 800/328-0609

[***][1/12/88][***]
MINDWRITE PURCHASED BY ACCESS TECHNOLOGY
CARMEL, Ca. (NB) -- The MindWrite word processing program and the
company named MindWork Software have been purchased by
Access Technology of South Natick, Massachusetts.   In an attempt
to penetrate the lucrative Macintosh market, Access Technology,
best known for its 20/20 spreadsheet product for Unix machines,
has also signed a letter of intent to purchase Trapeze, a
presentation worksheet that combines graphics, text, spreadsheet,
and page layout capabilities, from Data Tailor of Texas.  MindWrite,
introduced in January 1987, has captured an estimated 4% of the
Macintosh word processing market.

MindWrite was MindWork's only product, and the firm will now
become a subsidiary of Access Technology. Susan Raab, former
vice president of MindWork and now MindWrite product manager
for Access Technology, told NEWSBYTES she sees a bright future for
the product.  "Cary Wyman, who wrote the product, has been assigned
director of Macintosh development for Access Technology, a move
which allows him to expand the product line."

The firm's 8 employees will also remain with Access Technology and
support for the product will be handled out of its Carmel, Ca.
offices until further notice.

CONTACT:  MINDWORK SOFTWARE, 408/624-0522
          Karen Doyle, ACCESS TECHNOLOGY, 617/655-9191

[***][1/12/88][***]
APPLE DUE OUT WITH 40 MEGABYTE MAC SE
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- Apple will introduce a faster, bigger Macintosh
SE with a 40 megabyte internal hard disk, but which will not have
onboard color capability, nor be based on the 68020 microprocessor,
according to MACWEEK magazine.  The introduction is reportedly
slated for the second quarter of this year.  Additionally, the new SE
will have 2 megabytes of RAM rather than the one megabyte of current
SEs.

MACWEEK says Apple opted against color for the SE 40, as it is to be
called, because of concern over "the bad track record of incompatible
programs not currently able to run on the Mac II."  However, third party
developers, including Orchid Technology of Fremont, California,  are
introducing add-in  boards which will allow current and future
versions of the SE to  run color programs.  As for the failure to
issue a new SE with a 68020 microprocessor, analysts suggest it
may be due to product positioning, and a reluctance to have the
SE compete with the high-end Macintosh II.  They suggest that the
new SE will probably be upgradeable in a microprocessor swap from
Apple at a later date.

Apple is expected to introduce three new laser printers, a scanner,
and a CD-ROM laser disk player at the MacWorld Expo next week and
later in the year will unveil a 21-inch monochrome monitor for the
Macintosh series.

[***][1/12/88][***]
IN BRIEF --

CONNER PERIPHERALS, San Jose, Ca., has laid off 300 workers from
its 1,400 work force, blaming the layoffs on an inability to get
enough microprocessors needed for its disk drives.

INTEL CORPORATION, Santa Clara, Ca., ranked 8th in the latest Dataquest
survey of annual revenues by semiconductor firms.  Topping the list
were NEC with annual revenues of $3.1 billion, followed by Toshiba,
Hitachi, Motorola, Texas Instruments, Fujitsu, and Philips-Signetics.

KAYPRO, Solana Beach, Ca., reports a $616,000 loss in its last
quarter.  Sales dropped 25%.  President Andrew Kay says the loss is
due to slow sales but looks on the bright side, saying sales were
still 10% higher than the previous quarter....

MIGENT INC., Incline Village, Nevada, has given walking papers to
20 of its 70 workers, saying the layoffs are due to a need to
increase profits.  Migent makes a pocket modem and software such
as In-House Accountant and Ability Plus.

PC WORLD, San Francisco, California, is celebrating its fifth year
of publication with a special anniversary issue honoring its
readers.  The festivities also included a gala birthday party at
San Francisco's Flood Mansion January 9 at which the Stylistics, a
soul band, performed.

TANDON CORPORATION, Chatsworth, Ca., says it's established a truce
with suing shareholders who say the firm made false and misleading
statements in 1983 and 1984 annual reports. Shareholders will
have access to an $8 million settlement fund, 930,000 shares of
Tandon stock, and $10 million worth of Tandon computer products.

[***][1/12/88][***]
FIRM HONORS WORST DESKTOP PUBLISHING
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- Contrary to popular advertisements, just
because you have a $500 desktop publishing package doesn't mean
you've got the smarts to use it.  Samples of the worst layout and
design of desktop published documents shouldn't be relegated to the
trash, or worse, to mass distribution.  Those awful documents could
win you an award from a San Francisco-based desktop publishing
shop.

Design Access is sponsoring a Bad Art contest and prizes include
a free copy of Adobe System's Adobe Illustrator and a free make-over
of the offending document by the company.  Entry categories include
Worst Layout, Worst Use of Color, Worst Use of Fonts, Worst Use
of Clip Art, Most Confusing Document, and Most Graphic Elements
in a Single Design.  Special prizes will also be awarded on an ad
hoc basis "according to the whim of the judges," says Design
Access President Bruce Ryan.

Ryan was inspired by a spate of graphically atrocious advertising
that has been created using electronic publishing systems.  "Like
the tip of the iceberg, they represent only a fraction of the output
of aesthetically impaired desktop publishing.  I felt that the
more hapless efforts should be preserved for posterity, like
TV bloopers, man-bites-dog headlines, or those early films of
airplanes that never got off the ground."

Winning entries will be preserved in a "Hall of Shame."  The
contest is open to entries until April 1.  So far, the firm has
received about 25 entries.

CONTACT:  DESIGN ACCESS, 1770 Union Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94123
                phone:  [phone]


[***][1/12/88][***]
AUSTIN WINS SEMATECH
AUSTIN, TX (NB) -- Austin, Texas was named the site of the $1.5
billion Sematech chip research consortium, Gov. Bill Clements
announced January 6. Austin beat out 11 other cities for the
honor, and is already home to another major research consortium,
the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC).
Sematech is a government-backed project aimed at developing new
manufacturing technologies. It will spend $1.5 billion over the
next 6 years looking for a competitive edge over Japanese chip-
makers. $100 million has already been invested, Congress has
appropriated $100 million more, and 800 jobs are expected to be
created along the way. Gov. Clements predicted the Sematech win
will help Texas get the Superconducting Supercollider, a $5.4
billion slice of federal pork due to be doled out of the barrel
later this year.

IBM vice president Sanford Kane, who headed Sematech site
selection, said Austin won because it has an old Data General
plant which can be occupied quickly and adequate waste treatment.
(Austin's economy went from boom to bust in 1985.) Most likely
Austin's low living costs and a huge network of incentives from
Sematech of Texas, a nonprofit corporation set up to compete for
the venture, had something to do with it, too. Sematech employees
coming to Texas will even get breaks on home loans.

The 11 losing cities will get $50,000 planning grants as
consolation prizes.

[***][1/12/88][***]
AMERICAN CHIP-MAKERS SIGN JOINT SUPPLY DEAL WITH HITACHI
DALLAS (NB) -- The size of the Sematech investment  and the
anti-Japan sentiment behind it, makes this story more newsworthy.
Texas Instruments and Motorola have joined other American chipmakers
in a joint supply agreement with Hitachi in Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASICs). ASICs are highly profitable because
they're programmed by the customer. They had been America's last
line of defense in its battle against the Japanese business
"invaders." Under the deal Hitachi, TI, Motorola and other
unnamed American chipmakers will all supply their best finished
ASICs to the others. It's supposed to defuse tensions and allow
more American penetration of the Japanese market.

[***][1/12/88][***]
BOON OR BOONDOGGLE? ALLIANCE SYSTEM OPENS FOR BUSINESS
SAN ANTONIO, TX (NB) -- Venture capital is the riskiest
investment you can make. About 1 in 10 ventures succeed big-time,
even when professionals stand behind them. Companies such as Compaq
and Apple fought heavy odds even with very bright men like Ben
Rosen helping out. That's despite the fact only 2 out of every
100 ventures ever gets funded.

Now you can try to out-Rosen Rosen through a new venture called
The Alliance System. It consists of 9 affiliated companies under
a San Antonio nonprofit called The Alliance Foundation, which
will use computers to make a market in new ventures starting at
1 cent per share. Ventures capitalized by the system pay
a 10% override to the system -- brokerage fees will be set at $1
per transaction because everything happens online and no paper
changes hands. If you join the system, you're expected to pony up
$100/month, half of which goes into investments from a blind
pool. If you want to join in this big-time you can buy your own
franchise -- the smallest franchise will cover 50,000 people. The
Alliance hopes to bring 6 million people online to participate
in this by practically giving away terminals for a $100
refundable deposit.

CONTACT: Deepak Midha, THE ALLIANCE FOUNDATION, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
QUADPRESIDENT BOB BROWN RESIGNS
NORCROSS, GA (NB) -- As snow fell over the Atlanta area January
7, Quadram President Bob Brown was pushed out the door by
Intelligent Systems MLP. Board member Frank Marks was named to
replace him, for now. "Philosophical differences" were cited.
What that may mean is that Brown, a 41-year old Harvard MBA,
displeased Quadram founder (and IS MLP chairman) Leland Strange, a
graduate of Mercer University and the school of hard knocks. The
split wasn't over results -- Intelligent Systems had a good 1987.
A spokeswoman said the board just wanted something "more linear."

WHAT NEXT -- Look for Venkat Mohan, an Indian engineer brought in
three years ago to improve Quadram's quality, to take the reins
within the year. Mr. Mohan was promoted to a marketing position
last year, and when engineers are moved to marketing they're
either bad engineers (he's not) or good managers (he is) being
groomed for better things.

CONTACT: Jane Bator, CAM GROUP, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
ELECTRONIC YELLOW PAGES WAR HEATS UP
ATLANTA (NB) -- The phone company isn't allowed into the
electronic yellow pages business, thanks to Judge Harold Greene's
ruling breaking up the Bell System. But anyone else with a PC can
get into the business. In Atlanta, the largest toll-free calling
area in the country, 6 jumped in during 1987. Of these, 2 are now
gone, but 3 others, The Information Line, Direct Connect, and
Inpho Atlanta, are battling for attention with billboard ads and
radio spots.

United Telecom of Kansas City, a parent of US Sprint, and Volt
Information Services Inc. of New York, which supplies data to
directory publishers, are behind The Information Line. Atlanta is
their second market. Now Direct Connect, backed by Mission Park
Investments Inc. of San Antonio, has announced plans to open in
Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, Detroit and Birmingham this year.
Atlanta was their first market. If you're paying for directory
assistance now, look for that charge to disappear as the new
systems grow. In Atlanta, 411 calls are free.

These firms make their money selling ads, which they read to you
when you call for information. Ben Urzendowski of The Information
Line showed off his DEC VAX-based system to NEWSBYTES recently.
Call 333-INFO instead of 411 and ask for a pizza delivery outfit
and they'll give you a number. Then they'll ask if you want to
know about special deals -- this question steers you to
Information Line advertisers, with the operator reading a line or
two of ad copy. (Cost to advertise -- about $150/month.) The keys
to success, says Urzendowski, are building an accurate database
and call volume. There are roughly 90,000 businesses in the
Atlanta area, and thousands move, appear, or disappear each month.

[***][1/12/88][***]
PECAN GOLDEN CHIPS

CENTEL CORP., Chicago, split its Information Systems subsidiary
into two units. Centel Federal Systems will now handle all
dealings with the U.S. government. (Easier to keep secrets that
way.)

CONTROL DATA, Minneapolis, finished its purchase of the
SAMI/Burke market research firm from Time Inc. for $60 million
cash, plus extra money based on performance down the road.
SAMI/Burke offers databases as well as research in product
tracking, test marketing, market modeling, and custom surveys.
It's part of CDC's move from computer hardware to information
services. CDC also owns Arbitron, the TV ratings service.

DCA, Alpharetta, GA, reported record earnings of $9.64 million on
sales of $53.8 million for the quarter ending in December. For
the first half of its 1988 fiscal year IRMA's folks have earned
$18.5 million on sales of $105 million.

FAIN, GREER & HIXSON, Atlanta, won a $230,000 contract to develop
an "expert" system in Europe called the Computer Answer Line,
through which operators will help support software written in the
French region of Lorraine.

MITEK SYSTEMS, Carrollton, TX, showed off Dataquest figures
estimating that $30 billion will be spent connecting disparate
computer systems by 1990. Mitek products connect DEC VAX machines
and IBM System 38 minis.

MSA, Atlanta, cut management salaries 3-10% and froze worker
salaries in the wake of a huge 1987 loss, $68.4 million through
September (partly caused by accounting changes). Sales meetings
and air travel were also cut. President William Graves said the
moves were made to avoid layoffs.

[***][1/12/88][***]
PECAN CHIPS

COPIA INTERNATIONAL, Wheaton, IL, signed an exclusive marketing
deal with Programmers's Connection, a North Canton, Ohio mail order
house for Copia's Peabody line of pop-up reference guides.

INFOMART, Dallas, signed Aldus and Micropro as showroom tenants.
Both will have booths near the mart's Epocenter, a desktop
publishing showplace which has markets for DP enthusiasts each
Wednesday.

THE CITY OF PHOENIX, AZ, settled a dispute over right-of-way
fees, according to "Network World" magazine. Companies which want
to run new phone lines will now pay $740 down and $1.25-$1.50 per
year per linear foot of cable. The city originally wanted to
collect as much as $10,560 for each fiber-optic cable run.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, Dallas, announced new models of its Business
System 600 and 800 multiuser computers. Older systems are being
replaced, and all products in the line are getting new gray
boxes.

UNISYS, Detroit, began shipping a new cartridge tape system, the
5074/0899, which can be used with all its mainframes. The move
represents the first integration at the top of the old Burroughs
and Sperry lines. A minimum system costs $110,500.


[***][1/12/88][***]
CLARIS CANADA OPEN FOR BUSINESS
MARKHAM, Ont. -- (NB) -- Concurrent with the official launch of
its U.S. parent in Mountain View, Calif., Claris Canada
officially opened for business Jan. 11.

The new software company is initially housed in Apple
Canada's national headquarters in Markham, a northern suburb of
Toronto.  Later, Sales and Marketing manager Patrick Maloney
expects the company to move into its own quarters.  Claris Canada
starts off with 250 resellers operating 400 locations across the
country to sell its products, which include AppleWorks, MacWrite
5.0, SmartForms, SmartForms Manager, MacProject II, MacDraw II
and MacPaint 2.0.

Maloney, formerly a senior account consultant with Apple Canada,
said his goal at Claris will be to make the company "the premier
vendor of Macintosh solutions in Canada."  He described the
position as "my opportunity to be an entrepreneur -- and doing it
with somebody else's money is an adventure too."

Claris Canada's initial focus will be on central Canada, where
the largest computer market lies.  Later, Maloney expects to
expand the firm's reach to Quebec and the Western provinces.

He added that Claris plans to build a "network of trainers" to
support its products across the country, and promised site
licenses for AppleWorks will be available to schools by the end
of this year.

CONTACT: CLARIS CANADA, 7495 Birchmount Rd., Markham, Ont.
         L3R 5G2, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
CROWNTEK SELLS ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE MAKER
TORONTO (NB) -- Crowntek Inc. of Markham, Ont., has sold York St.
Software, its Fredericton, N.B. subsidiary that produces a
microcomputer accounting package, to Columbus Computer Business
Systems of Toronto.

Crowntek is being sold of by its parent company, Crownx Inc. of
Toronto, which has decided to get out of high technology and
concentrate on its other lines of business, health care and
financial services.  But Wayne Kay, vice-president and general
manager of Crowntek, said the York St. Software sale isn't part
of that plan.  Kay said York St. would have been sold anyway,
because its accounting package, while it is "an excellent
product" doesn't fit well with Crowntek's other businesses.

It fits better with the business of Columbus, which develops
accounting and business software.  So the 100-person company
acquired the York St. Accounting package for an undisclosed sum.
York St.'s Fredericton offices will close.  Some former York St.
personnel are now on contract with Crowntek while other have gone
elsewhere, Kay said; Columbus acquired only the software and the
name.

CONTACT: COLUMBUS COMPUTER BUSINESS SYSTEMS, 200 Consumers Rd.,
         Willowdale, Ont., [phone]

         CROWNTEK INC., 3000 Steeles Ave. E., Markham, Ont.
         L3R 4T9, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS' DEVICE TO TEST X.400 CONFORMITY
VANCOUVER (NB) -- A group of researchers at the University of
British Columbia here are developing a device that will test how
well computers adhere to X.400 communications protocols.  The
researchers have support from the Canadian operations of LSI
Logic and from Idacom, a company formed by former UBC researchers
that already offers protocol-testing software for the lower
layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard which
is the framework within which X.400 fits.  The Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council, a granting agency of the
Canadian government, is also supporting the project.

Dr. Mabo Ito, a professor of electrical engineering at UBC and
leader of the research team, said his group wants to put the
protocol testing function into hardware so it will operate
faster.  He said the group is also working on a more formal way
to define the "test suites" that determine whether a device meets
the communications standards.

The project is expected to cost C$3 million over three years.
Idacom hopes to market the finished product, Ito said.

CONTACT: UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
MDS CANADA SOLD TO RECOGNITION EQUIPMENT
MARKHAM, Ont. (NB) -- Mohawk Data Sciences (Canada) Ltd. has been
sold to Recognition Equipment Inc. of Dallas for C$13.5 million
and 200,000 shares in Recognition Equipment.

Canadian management bought the former subsidiary of Mohawk Data
Sciences Corp. from corporate raided Asher Edelman in 1985, when
Edelman bought MDS to break up and sell in pieces.  They have
carried on selling small computer systems and terminals, becoming
also a distributor for Leading Edge personal computers and the
Waterloo Port network operating system from Waterloo Microsystems
Inc. of Waterloo, Ont.

Peter Baines, president and chief executive of MDS Canada and
formerly its controlling shareholder, said the four former owners
sold because MDS needed more resources and the backing of a
larger company.  "In a word," he said, "it just gives us more
ability to get into other markets, specifically the U.S."

The sale is also a good fit because Recognition Equipment has
already acquired former MDS Corp. subsidiaries in France,
Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.  "We're almost back where
we began" as part of a worldwide MDS organization, Baines noted.

MDS Canada's management remains in place, and Recognition
Equipment's 50-person Canadian operation will be merged into MDS.
Recognition Equipment sells scanning and image processing
equipment.

CONTACT: MDS CANADA LTD., 235 Hood Rd., Markham, Ont. L3R 4N5,
         [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
WEST COAST COMPANY HAS LONGER-LASTING BATTERY PACK FOR AT
BURNABY, B.C. (NB) -- Moli Energy Ltd. has just begun shipments
of a replacement lithium battery pack that it says will keep
system clocks going much longer in IBM PC ATs and compatibles.

The Burnaby, B.C., company has been producing the rechargeable
lithium battery packs in small quantities for about two years,
said Mary Connolly, sales manager, but is just beginning to turn
them out in production volumes.  Brunswick Technologies of
Brunswick, Ga., is distributing the power packs to computer
dealers in the U.S.  Connolly said retail prices aren't firm yet,
but won't be more than twice the price of shorter-lived
replacement batteries already on the market.

Although the units aren't shipping to dealers in Canada yet,
Connolly said they will be quite soon, either from Brunswick or
directly from Moli.

CONTACT: MOLI ENERGY LTD., 3958 Myrtle St., Burnaby, B.C.
         V5C 4G2, [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
CNCP TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOON TO BE JUST CP?
MONTREAL (NB) -- Canadian National Railway Co. might sell its
half interest in CNCP Telecommunications to Canadian Pacific Ltd.
by the end of this year.  The two national railway companies each
own half of the national telecommunications carrier.  The federal
government, which owns Canadian National, has advised it to sell
non-transportation operations.  It has already put two small
regional telephone companies on the block along with a chain of
hotels.

CN says it will consider selling all of its non-railway assets,
but won't necessarily get rid of everything.  But if CN does
decide to sell, privately owned Canadian Pacific (which also owns
hotels and trucking operations) is interested.  Company spokesman
Graeme McMurray told NEWSBYTES CANADA that CP "has said a number
of times" it is interested in 100 per cent ownership of CNCP.
Under the two companies' partnership agreement, CP has the right
of first refusal if CN decides to sell.


[***][1/12/88][***]
NEUROCOMPUTER BASE DEVELOPED BY FUJITSU
TOKYO (NB) -- Fujitsu has developed an architectural base for
neurocomputers, and has completed a breakthrough simulation program
that demonstrates the computer's capabilities. Fed various data and
decision-making criteria, the computer is able to learn and evolve
in a manner similar to the development of the human brain.  The idea
is to make programming obsolete.  The neurocomputer is a
sort of biocomputer based on biotechnology and electronics
technology, and it simulates the human nervous system when processing
data.  According to the announcement, Fujitsu's simulator has a
capability equivalent to 100,000 neurons of human beings.
Compared with the 14 billion neurons of actual human beings, the
number is small but it is much larger than the six neurons of current
top-level parallel processors.  Fujitsu has already started
development of the Neuro-Chip, a custom LSI for a neurocomputer.  The
company expects to build a prototype neurocomputer with the chip
within a couple of years.  Following the news, Fujitsu's stock at the
TSE market went skyrocketing.

CONTACT: Fujitsu, 1-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][1/12/88][***]
CHIP SALES SURVEY TOP TEN
TOKYO (NB) -- An American market research firm, Dataquest,
has released its survey on company ranking based on chip sales
in 1987.  According to the survey, six of the top ten companies
are Japanese chip makers.  NEC came in first, and Intel
(Ca.,USA) rose to 8th position from 11th in 1986.  Meanwhile,
National Semiconductor receded from 7th place to 11th.  Korean
chip makers are doing well.  Samsung has become 22nd from 30th,
and United Microelectronics has gained the 50th post.  Here's
the list of the top ten companies:

COMPANY      1987 RANKING & REVENUE    1986 RANKING & REVENUE
-------      ----------------------    ----------------------
NEC              (1)  $3.19 billion    (1)  $2.64 billion
Toshiba           (2)  $2.94            (3)  $2.28
Hitachi           (3)  $2.78            (2)  $2.30
Motorola          (4)  $2.45            (4)  $2.02
Texas Instruments (5)  $2.12            (5)  $1.78
Fujitsu           (6)  $1.90            (6)  $1.36
Philips           (7)  $1.60            (8)  $1.26
Intel             (8)  $1.50            (11) $991 million*
Matsushita        (9)  $1.48            (9)  $1.20 billion
Mitsubishi        (9)  $1.48            (10) $1.14 billion
-------------------------------------------------------------

[***][1/12/88][***]
HAND-HELD PRINTER FOR MACINTOSH
TOKYO (NB) -- A hand-held dot matrix printer for Apple's
Macintosh has been developed in Japan.  Snapwriter, the first of its kind,
supports various features such as shade, boldface, and underline.
Color ink ribbons are also available for this gadget.  It can be
useful for printing labels, to name one application.  It costs 48,000
yen ($375) with a printer interface and a program disk.  It is expected
to be available from Hachinohe-Farmware System by the end of January.

CONTACT: Hachinohe-Farmware System, Nakaya Bldg. 2F, Kita-8-jyo,
         Nishi-4-chome, Kita-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido 060

[***][1/12/88][***]
IBM JAPAN BUYS 1M DRAMs FROM TOSHIBA
TOKYO (NB) -- IBM Japan has revealed that it has signed an
agreement with Toshiba to purchase 1 megabit dynamic RAMs for
its large-scale computers, as well as personal computers.  According
to the agreement, Toshiba has already supplied 50,000 to 60,000
units of the chip to IBM Japan.  It is said the chip is an ultra-
high-speed DRAM with an access time of 80 nanosecond.

With the rapid demand increase for large-scale computers, 32-bit
personal computers, and engineering workstations, IBM Japan has
suffered a shortage of a 1 mega DRAMs.  So, IBM has decided to purchase
the chips from Toshiba.  Meanwhile, IBM Japan is also receiving
1 megabit DRAMS from Hitachi.

CONTACT: IBM Japan, 3-2-12 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106

[***][1/12/88][***]
IBM JAPAN LINKS WITH UNIVERSITIES ON SUPERCOMPUTER PROGRAMS
TOKYO (NB) -- IBM Japan has agreed with Waseda University and
Science Univ. of Tokyo to jointly develop application programs
for supercomputers.  IBM thinks the development of good programs
is the key to success for supercomputer sales.  And this is
just the beginning.  IBM Japan plans to tie up with more
universities and local companies concerning the development of
supercomputer programs in the near future.

[***][1/12/88][***]
SKYROCKETING LAND PRICE CRUSHES LABORATORY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan Digital Equipment Corp. (Japan DEC) has given
up a project to build its own basic research laboratory due to
a skyrocketing land prices in the metropolitan area.  Japan DEC was
planning to build it in the Kohoku New Town in Yokohama City,
where seventeen companies, including Kodak and Ricoh, have their
own laboratories.  Owing to the recent fanatic price hike of
land, the price of DEC's planned land site was almost doubled
from $1.56 million to $3.13.  Therefore, Japan DEC had to cancel
the project.  As far as business is concerned, Japan DEC is
doing quite well.  The company is expected to earn about 10
billion yen or $7.81 million in the current fiscal year.  The incident
tells us how serious the land price hike in Japan is.

CONTACT: Japn Digital Equipment Corp., 3-1-1 Higashi-Ikebukuro,
         Toshima-ku, Tokyo

[***][1/12/88][***]
MITSUBISHI TAKES ON IBM-COMPATIBLE MARKET
TOKYO (NB) -- Mitsubishi Electronics has decided to support
IBM-compatible lines of machines by developing an IBM-compatible
operating system.  Mitsubishi's new IBM-compatible operating system
architecture will be based on its own operating system.  It is
said the new operating system will emulate IBM's application
programs on various levels of Mitsubishi computers, such as
office computers and general purpose computers.  With the
systems' integration under the IBM-line, Mitsubishi aims to become
a major player again in the computer business.

[***][1/12/88][***]
HITACHI LINKS WITH SEVERAL AMERICAN CHIP MAKERS
TOKYO (NB) -- Hitachi has signed agreements with several U.S.
semiconductor makers to guarantee mutual supplies of custom-
made integrated circuits, reports the KYODO news wire.  In the tie-up,
Hitachi and the American chip makers, including Texas Instruments
and Motorola, will complement each other's ASICs (Application
Specific Integrated Circuits).  This will ensure a mutual saving
of production costs and strengthen their competitiveness.
Also, it is expected to improve the American firms' access to
the Japanese chip market, says the report.

[***][1/12/88][***]
JAPAN INDUSTRIAL STANDARD ON FDD DATA
TOKYO (NB) -- The Japan Industrial Standard Research Organization,
an affiliated organization of the Japanese government, will set up
a standard for formats and codes for document data  on floppy
diskettes.  The standard is called the Japan Industrial Standard or
JIS, and has been given to a number of industrial products in
Japan.  With the FDD's data standardization, users of personal
computers and portable word processors can easily exchange data
with each other.

[***][1/12/88][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

IBM JAPAN BOOSTS SALES -- IBM Japan has announced it has raked in
over one trillion yen ($7.8 billion) in fiscal 1987, which
ended in December.  That's a 15% increase over the previous year.
The top sales company, Fujitsu, is expected to record 1.3 trillion
yen during the same period, ending in March.  IBM Japan will
compete with NEC for the second position by a nose.

JAPANESE LOTUS 1-2-3 ON OS/2 -- Lotus Japan, Tokyo, has begun to
develop a Japanese version of Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2.  The company
plans to release the program by the end of 1988.

MOTOROLA'S SILICON HARBOR PROJECT -- Motorola (U.S.A.) will build
a large-scale semiconductor plant in Hong Kong.  That's part of
the company's "Silicon Harbor" project.  Various ICs, from
home electronics products to supercomputers, will be produced in
this plant.  Moreover, the company will create an R&D center and
a chip design center there.  Motorola aims to initiate chip
production there in 1990.

SANYO'S JAPANESE IBM PC/AT-COMPATIBLE PCs -- Sanyo Electronics,
Osaka, will ship its AX architecture PCs in February.  The MBC17
series run IBM PC/AT programs and support a Japanese language
feature.  The prices are between $2,617 to $4,297.

FUJITSU IMPORTS U.S.-MADE DISKS -- Fujitsu, Tokyo, will import
magnetic disk drives which are manufactured in its Hillsborough
plant in Oregon.  The imported disks are designed to beat the
surging yen, as well as to reduce trade frictions between the two
countries.

OPTICAL DISK BOOM IN 1990 -- The Tokyo-based consulting firm
Shied Planning says Japan's optical disk market for computers will
grow as a $703 million market in 1990.  The company estimates
annual output volume of disk drives will be 120,000 units and
48,000 disks.

SONY SUCCUMBS TO VHS -- Sony, the advocate of Beta format VCR,
has finally accepted the VHS format.  The company will release
its first VHS tape recorder in May.  The first products will be
supplied from Hitachi on an OEM basis.  The actual production of
its own VHS VCR will start in the fall.



[***][1/12/88][***]
IBM TALKS CANDIDLY TO NEWSBYTES
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- "IBM has had difficulty in the
laptop market and is planning to look at the market carefully.
There are two main segments, the low 8088-based marketplace
at which the Convertible is aimed, and the powerful 80386
market. We are planning to come out with a laptop, but we have
not yet decided at what segment we are going to aim. We are
definitely not going to lose the laptop market."

These words belong to an IBM spokesman who was answering
questions on the new PS/2-40 laptop system. During the
interview, the spokesman said IBM is planning to reposition
its entire product line once a year in order to appear more
market-responsive. The date for the yearly shuffle will
probably be during the month of April, according to NEWSBYTES
sources, although the IBM spokesman said "a date for the
repositioning is too early to set at this time."

IBM also did not say anything about the 286 chip, which could
have been either on purpose (perhaps IBM is set to come out with
the new 80388 chip, the 386 software-compatible/286
hardware-compatible chip) or by mistake.

In addition, IBM said that PS2-25, the education-oriented
all-in-one system, currently selling in the US, has not been
set for a European introduction yet.


FIRST BOARD WITH 32332 CHIP HAS HIGHEST COUNT OF VLSIs
LES ULIS, FRANCE (NB) -- A 32332-based board from Forum, the
French board maker, has the highest count of VLSI chips on a
compact single board. The single board includes a 15MHz 32332
CPU chip, a 32382 memory management unit, a 32381 arithmetic
unit, 16MB of RAM, four VLSI chips for the interface circuits,
and a count of 9 other VLSI chips. The total size of the board
is 30cm by 30 cm (about 11 inches per side).

The board is offered with the UNIX V operating system and can
support up to 64 users. Other features include a 4MIPS operation
speed and support for a hard disk with up to 4.8 gigabytes of
storage.

CONTACT: Forum International, Les Ulis, Cedex, FRANCE,
         Tel:[phone], Tlx: 690033

[***][1/12/88][***]
PS/2 HARDWARE KEEPS ON COMING - MULTI-SERIAL BOARD FROM FRANCE
LES ULIS, FRANCE (NB) -- Axel, a maker of hardware-compatible
peripherals for the IBM PC, has announced the availability of
a four-port serial interface for the PS/2 series supporting
the MCA architecture.

The board, which uses the ubiquitous 8250 serial chip, supports
the official IBM identification number, a number which must be
on the appropriate interface board in order for the system to
recognize its existence.

CONTACT: Axel International, ZA de Courtaboeuf, Avenbue du
         Quebec, 91946 Les Ulis Cedex, FRANCE, Tel: [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
TEMPEST-CERTIFIED SYSTEMS OFFERED IN EUROPE
PORTUMNA, IRELAND (NB) -- MDB, the US manufacturer of various
computer modules, is offering Tempest-certified hard disk
modules for the European market. Tempest is a certification
method used to indicate that the attached device cannot exceed
a certain emitted radiation limit (you may be horrified to
know that your PC emits radio waves that can be picked up by
eavesdroppers, easily).

The Data Shuttle 4000 series of products offers Mil-specs on
most of its components with two drawers of removable hard
disk drives (similar to the Tandon Targa series of Add-Paks).

CONTACT: MDB Systems, Portumna, Co. Galway, Republic of
         Ireland, Tel: [phone], Telex: 50918, Fax: [phone]

[***][1/12/88][***]
AT-COMPATIBLE SYSTEM FROM GREECE
THESALONIKI, GREECE (NB) -- In an effort to make systems even
more buyer-friendly and to take advantage of a very weak
currency, a company in Greece has started to export an AT-
compatible system.

TOP-AT Turbo is a system that uses a 286 chip running at
10MHz and 6MHz. The system offers memory up to 4MB and
can accept all the various peripherals normally available for
the IBM AT and is also supplied with either a 20MB or a 40MB hard
disk.

CONTACT: Datasolve EPE, Agias Sophias 4, 54622 Thesaloniki,
         GREECE, Tel: [phone] Telex: 410087

[***][1/12/88][***]
CHIP RATES THE APPLE IIGS NUMBER 1 IN GERMANY
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- CHIP, Germany's biggest computer
magazine, says the Apple IIgs is Germany's top selling computer.
Following the IIgs is the Mac SE, the IBM PS/2 model 30, the Mac II,
the Commodore PC10, the PS/2 model 50, and Mac+, the Commodore
PC20 and the Commodore PC40.

In the home computer market, the Amiga 500 went straight to the
top, having been barely on the charts before now, and was
followed by the Commodore 64, the Commodore 128, the Schneider
464 and the Schneider 6128.

In the semi-professional market, The Atari 1040ST is followed
by the Atari 520ST-M, the Schneider 1640 (an EGA compatible
system - wonder why it is semi-professional), the Atari Mega
ST, and the Schneider Joyce word processor.

[***][1/12/88][***]
LEASING COMPUTERS IN EUROPE VERY POPULAR
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (NB) -- Leasing computers in Europe has
become very popular, mainly because the banks have so much
money they do not know what to do with it (if any banker is
reading this, I wouldn't mind receiving some).  Leasing in Europe
is scheduled to take away a whopping 31% of computer sales this
year with only 60% of potential buyers actually laying down money
for purchase of a machine. The remainder is split between rented
and used system purchases.

[***][1/12/88][***]
FOURTH CALL FOR PROPOSALS ON ESPRIT
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- The European Community (EC) has
issued the fourth call for proposals for the European Strategic
Program for Research and development in Information Technology
(ESPRIT). The first three calls were very successful with 1200
proposals presented to the EC.

Two hundred and twenty projects were selected for the first
phase with a total cost of 1.5 billion ECU (European currency
units) or about US $1.2 billion.

The new phase, called the second phase, will initiate projects
in one of three sectors: microelectronics, information
processing systems and information technologies.

CONTACT: Commision of the European Communities, DG
         Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation,
         ESPRIT Proposal Office A25, Rue de La Loi 200,
         1049 Brussels, BELGIUM


[***][1/12/88][***]
COMPUTER BRIEFS...

 ...DATA GENERAL has been awarded a contract to supply four Finnish
companies with health care systems. The companies are Union
Bank of Finland, Neste OY, Enso-Gutzeit, and Kymmene Oy. The
total value of the contract is US $1.5 million.....


 ....COMPUTERS IN POLAND are becoming a hot commodity.
According to news reaching this reporter, a buyer will pay
three times the black market rate in order to buy an
IBM PC-compatible system from Taiwan. The report says corruption,
fancy work, and bribes are often employed to obtain computers
in Poland, a country saddled with export controls from the US.

 ....SANTA CRUZ OPERATIONS has started shipping SCO XEENIX V
including a free computer graphics interface. This will enable
users to create some excellent graphics under UNIX....

 ....MICROPRO has launched Wordstar 2000, Release 3, Personal
Edition in Europe. Release 3 is the latest release of Wordstar
and it is in fact Neword, the program Micropro bought last
year. It is certainly impressive having many features such as
loadable laser fonts, spellers, thesaurus and speed.....

 ....THE COMPUTER VIRUS continues to spread.  Now at Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, the virus, a self-replicating program
that can attach itself and move from system to system on a
diskette (assuming the systems use the same type of
processor), is set to attack the disk drives of the facility
and destroy the data files on May 13, the first Friday the 13th of
the year. According to computer expert Shai Bushinksy, "It might be
to computers what AIDS is to sex.  Better avoid the free flow of
information."

 ....and finally COMMODORE has released its latest Amiga software
catalog.  The catalog is 355 pages long and costs DM 15 (about
$8). It is in German.  To get the catalog, write to
Commodore Computers requesting catalog #581012, Commodore
Computer, Lyonerstrasse 38, Frankfurt/Main 71, West Germany.



[***][1/12/88][***]
REAGAN SIGNS SECURITY BILL
WASHINGTON (NB) -- President Reagan has signed into a law a
measure designed to clamp down on security breaches of computer
systems that store unclassified data such as census and tax
records. The law supersedes a wildly-controversial 1984 national
security directive giving the National Security Agency
responsibility for safeguarding non-classified data. The new law
gives authority to oversee the sensitive but unclassified data to
the National Bureau of Standards, part of the Commerce
Department. NSA will provide technical advice to NBS. The law
also specifies that its provisions may not be used to deny access
to information under the Freedom of Information Act.

[***][1/12/88][***]
AT&T TO BUY HUNK OF SUN
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (NB) -- In a bold move to shore up its shaky
position in computing, American Telephone & Telegraph has said it
will buy some 20 percent of Sun Microsystems Inc., a Silicon
Valley superstar. The AT&T investment could amount to as much as
$300 million. Some analysts interpret the AT&T move as an
admission that the telecommunications giant will have to look to
outsiders to turn its loss-ridden computer operations around.
"There's certainly a better change for payoff out of Sun than out
of AT&T's own computer division," said Paine Webber analyst Jack
Grubman. "I'd rather see AT&T give Sun $300 million than have
AT&T spend it internally." The move also gives Sun ready access
to the deep pockets necessary to keep its engineering workstation
business booming.

The move should also help unify the fragmented world of the UNIX
operating system, originally developed by AT&T. Sun has been
working on revising UNIX for its own machines and has developed a
reputation for knowing UNIX better than AT&T itself. AT&T and Sun
have been working to develop a common version of UNIX, which
could turn into the best operating system for both workstations
and high-end microcomputers.

[***][1/12/88][***]
LOTUS AND AD AGENCY SETTLE COUNTER-SUITS
BOSTON (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. and advertising agency
Rossin Greenberg Seronic & Hill have settled their lawsuits out
of court, with an apology by Rossin Greenberg. Lotus filed suit
after Rossin Greenberg went after the Microsoft advertising
account and appeared to offer to swap some Lotus trade secrets to
Microsoft. Two Rossin Greenberg employees recently worked for the
agency that handles Lotus' ads. Rossin Greenberg counter sued,
charging defamation. In settling, Rossin Greenberg agreed to
protect confidential Lotus information and promised not to
solicit work from microcomputer software companies in the next 10
months without approval from Lotus.

In other developments at Lotus, The Charles Schwab Corp. has
agreed to market the Lotus real-time stock quotation products --
Signal and Quotrek -- to its customers. The products deliver
trading information from various exchanges to a Lotus facility in
San Mateo, Calif., which then broadcasts the data to FM stations
around the country, which can be received by Signal and Quotrek
users. Schwab, based in San Francisco, offers discount securities
brokerage and financial services throughout the U.S.

[***][1/12/88][***]
DEFENSE, GSA SPARRING OVER ZENITH LAPTOPS
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The Defense Department has put a hold on
further purchases of Zenith laptop computers until a dispute with
the General Services Administration is resolved, according to
GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS. The Defense Department has ordered more
than 225,000 of the popular laptops as part of an award won by
Zenith two years ago. The agreement called for purchases of
90,000 machines over the two years, and GSA has balked because
the purchases have far outstripped the contract. According to GCN,
Air Force officials thought they had authority to exceed the
90,000-unit limit, but GSA doesn't agree. The dispute is expected
to be settled soon. So far, the contract has brought more than
$660,000 million into Zenith's coffers.

[***][1/12/88][***]
DEC, WANG DUCK AIR FORCE COMPETITION
BOSTON (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. and Wang Laboratories
have both decided to drop out of a contest for a $4.5 billion Air
Force minicomputer contract, which could clear the way for an
award to AT&T. The contract would be the largest single computer
procurement in history. Both Digital and Wang complained that the
bidding documents appear to rig the award for AT&T by specifying
the UNIX operating system, and spent millions in legal fees
unsuccessfully trying to change the requirement. Frederick Wang,
president of Wang Labs, told the BOSTON GLOBE that his company
"could not effectively compete for this sale given the way the
contract was written." The Air Force expects to make the award
late this summer or early in the fall.

[***][1/12/88][***]
IBM IS NO-SHOW ON DATAPRO HIT LIST
DELRAN, N.J. (NB) -- Despite the widely-hyped advent of the PS/2
and OS/2, Big Blue was almost shut out when Datapro Research
Corp., a McGraw-Hill subsidiary, picked its top microcomputer of
1987. But Apple scored big, with the Macintosh II as the top
hardware of the year and HyperCard as the top software. IBM's
only appearance on the Datapro list was for best expansion card. The
envelop please? The winner is...IBM Video Graphics Array. The
other big winner on the Datapro annual survey was venerable Word
Perfect, the outstanding word processing program for the third
year running.

CONTACT: Datapro Research Corp., Delran, N.J., 609-764-0100.

[***][1/12/88][***]
NEW SOFTWARE FOR NASD
NEW YORK (NB) -- The National Association of Securities Dealers
has introduced a new computerized trading system designed to
dodge the gridlock that tied up the market during Wall Street's
October crash. The key to the upgraded system is new software for
the personal computers on the desks of the traders in the firms
across the country who make markets in over-the-counter
securities. During the crash and for several days after, major
segments of the OTC market ground to a halt because traders
weren't able to reach other traders by phone to make deals. The
new system will allow trades via computer, regardless of the
number of shares involved. Previously, sales of more than 1000
shares had to be done by telephone. During the crash, "the
telephone was the biggest bottleneck," said Joseph Hardiman,
president of the NASD. "This change will give investors
continuous access throughout periods of high volume and volatile
prices."

[***][1/12/88][***]
USDA UNVEILS CUSTOMIZED WEATHER FORECASTING
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Researcher David Woolhiser of the Agriculture
Department's Agriculture Research Service has written a program
called CLIMATE that allows farmers to do their own weather
forecasting. The data comes from 40 years of Nation Weather
Service records. So far, Woolhiser's program has been configured
only for South Dakota, but he says it can be adapted to other
locations. Using the program, a farmer can tell the computer
where his farm is by positioning the cursor, representing his
farm, onto a map of the state shown on the monitor. "For each
farm, the computer program selects appropriate weather
characteristics from data at nearby weather stations," Woolhiser
said.

[***][1/12/88][***]
ONLINE APPLICATIONS AT PENN STATE
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (NB) -- Penn State University is
experimenting with a system that lets students from 10
Pennsylvania high schools check on the status of their
applications, as well as other information, from a computer
terminal in the high school guidance counselor's office. If the
system works with the 10 schools, Penn State plans to expand it
to the entire state. Eventually, says a Penn State spokesman, the
university hopes to make it possible for high school students to
apply for admission from their home computers and also track the
application. The high school terminals tie into a mainframe at
the university's admissions office, where there is a bulletin
board that offers information about the main campus and several
satellite campuses, a message-posting facility, and updated news
and sports. Penn State has put $64,000 into the project. The
university pays for the terminals while the schools pay for the
phone line.

[***][1/12/88][***]
IBM: BLACK POWER AT BIG BLUE
NEW YORK -- Three International Business Machines executives are
among the 25 most powerful black executives in the U.S.,
according to BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine. The three IBMers are:
Curtis Crawford, vice president, Personal Computers and Related
Products; Ira HAll, assistant treasurer; Gerald Prothro, vice
president, Data Systems Division. The average age of the 25
executives on the list is 45, and their pay ranges from $250,000
(that's the low end!) to more than $1.2 million.

[***][1/12/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES --

WANG LABORATORIES of Lowell, Mass., says it will supply office
computers and software to National Mutual Life Association of
Australia. Wang said implementing the contract over the next
three to five years will bring in "tens of millions of dollars,"
making it one of the largest commercial awards in Wang's history.

COMPUTERVISION CORP. of Bedford, Mass., says its directors have
rejected Prime Computer's hostile tender offer of $13.50 per
share. The company is recommending that stockholders not tender
their shares. Computervision said Prime's bid was "inadequate"
and "not in the best interest of Computervision and its
stockholders."

DATA GENERAL CORP. of Westboro, Mass., has won a $1.5 million
contract for four health care systems in Finland. Data General
says the systems will enable the companies to predict and prevent
illnesses resulting from different working conditions.

EASTMAN KODAK CO. of Rochester, N.Y., has introduced a terminal
that will produce a high-quality copy of a microfilm image on
plain paper, cutting the cost of the copy dramatically. The
terminal costs $17,500.

GTE PRECISION MATERIALS GROUP will sell its Muncy, Pa., printed
circuit board operation in a streamlining move. The Stamford,
Conn.-based GTE Corp. said it would also unload its Reidsville,
N.C., technical products operation and a plastics plant in
Asheville, N.C. The circuit board plant employs about 175 people.

SYMBOLICS INC. of Cambridge, Mass., has won two Defense
Department computer contracts worth $8.5 million over the next
five years. Symbolics specializes in systems designed to run
artificial intelligence applications.

COMPUTER CONSOLES INC. of Rochester, N.Y., has won a three year
renewal of its contract to supply minicomputers to Unisys Corp.
The contract has an estimated value of $100 million. Unisys
markets the systems under its own name.

GENRAD INC. of Concord, Mass., maker of semiconductor test
equipment, has named Robert Anderson, 46, as president and chief
executive officer.

[***][1/12/88][***]
BT TALKABOUT SERVICE BLASTED
London, UK (NB) -- British Telecom's Talkabout "chatline" service,
where callers can conference with up to nine other people, has
come in for a blasting from Lord Young, the Secretary of State
for Trade and Industry.

"I'm very concerned about BT's Talkabout service, particularly
the service marketed to under-18's," said Lord Young last week.
"The service has been the subject of many reported abuses."

At the heart of the matter are the high charges (up to 38 pence a
minute) and alleged low life that inhabit some of the chat lines.
Reported abuse has included foul language and callers allegedly
using the service to date each other.  Both activities are
specifically prohibited by BT.

Lord Young has now asked Oftel, the government-appointed
telecomm watchdog, for a full and urgent inquiry into the
Talkabout service, although the inquiry may be unnecessary.
Terry Lewis, MP for Manchester, has tabled a short-reading
government bill proposing to ban the services once and for all.

For its part, BT has been attempting to keep the peace by
introducing ten minute cut-offs and monitoring of the service.
Lewis dismisses BT's actions.  "It really is an abysmal service
for BT to be engaged in, but it makes them a lot of money," he
said.

[***][1/12/88][***]
ATARI UPDATE FOR '88
Slough, Berkshire (NB) -- Atari has been in the news this past
week, following rumours about a possible laptop version of its
best-selling ST series (see NEWSBYTES EUROPE 05 January edition).
The latest POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY reveals that the 1040 ST will
include a TV modulator starting in the spring of this year.

Peter Walker, PR person for Atari UK, poured cold water on the
rumours of a laptop when NEWSBYTES UK contacted him.  "The
laptop might exist in prototype form, but, quite frankly, we've
got a lot of new products to market at the moment in the UK," he
said, pointing out that the Mega ST and PC ranges are lined up
for a marketing push.

"Add to that the impending product launches for the 80286 and
80386-based machines and we've got our hands full at the moment,"
he said.  "A laptop isn't quite right at this time."

Walker's comments ring true, as the company is poised to
barnstorm its way into the business market at the moment.
Laptops are no great shakes according to computer market survey
firm Romtec, which places the UK laptop market share at just 3
percent at the moment.  Still, with an 1988 product range which
includes the RISC-based Abaq computer, currently being delivered
to UK software developers, Atari looks like it will be staying in
the news in '88!

CONTACT: ATARI UK, Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough,
         Berkshire SL2 5BZ.             Tel: [phone].

[***][1/12/88][***]
UK SOFTWARE PIRATE JAILED
Exeter, Devon (NB) -- In the first case of its kind to involve a
jail sentence, Gerhard Martens of Torquay has been jailed for 12
months after being convicted of 14 charges of forgery, copyright
infringement, illegally importing software, and offences under the
UK Trade Descriptions Act.

Martens, a German national, had been operating as Tos
International through premises in Torquay.  Advertising in the
computer press, he sold more than 200 top-selling computer
packages, usually at prices way below the competition.  How'd he
manage it?  Simple, he bought forged manuals in Hong Kong and
pirated software from Taiwan.

Not that he even had to leave the country.  NEWSBYTES UK notes
that several Taiwanese firms offer a mail order service for
pirated package such as Lotus 1-2-3 and the like, at prices just
5 or 10 per cent of the full UK retail price.  Whilst such
activities are illegal, there is little the UK software houses
can do to prevent such imports.  Martens, however, made the
mistake of working from a UK office and was arrested for his
activities.

During the course of Martens' arrest last year, Federation
Against Software Theft (FAST) officials cooperated with local
police in identifying goods seized from his Torquay offices.  As
well as several hundred items of forged software, trading
standards officers also examined many other pirated items.

Heading up FAST is Bob Hay, who led Martens' investigation.
"This case is serious by any standard and it's reassuring to see
that the courts took a similar view," he said.  "I hope the
findings of the court will serve as a deterrent to others."

Roger Tuckett, DEC UK's software protection manager, and chairman
of FAST, is equally keen that the case should be seen as a
deterrent by other, and would-be software pirates.  "This case
has demonstrated just what can be achieved through coordinated
action.  FAST's network of contacts in businesses proved
invaluable in this case," he said.

CONTACT: Bob Hay, FAST        - 01-430-2408
         Roger Tuckett, DEC UK - 0734-315359

[***][1/12/88][***]
MIGENT INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATES UK SALES INCREASE
London, UK (NB) -- In the wake of a 30 per cent cut in staff at
Migent's US headquarters, Migent UK is celebrating a record
quarter of sales.  Sales for the quarter ended December '87 equal
more than half those made in the entire fiscal year to September
'87.

Jan Feaster, newly-appointed European MD for Migent, is over the
moon about the figures, saying,  "We feel that these are exceptional
results, as the summer months in Europe are traditionally slow
selling period and yet Migent achieved sales in this quarter
which exceeded 50 per cent of its previous years total," he said.

* The figures for Migent's first 1987/88 quarter represent a
record for the group, as it's the first profitable quarter for MI
Software, of which Migent International is a part.

CONTACT - Allison Clout - 01-969-0869

[***][1/12/88][***]
NEW WORDPERFECT PRODUCTS UNVEILED THIS WEEK
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey (NB) -- The latest version of
Wordperfect for the PC, Version 5.0,  will be previewed this
Friday, when Sentinel Software unveils Wordperfect Office and
Dataperfect for the UK market.

Dataperfect is one of Wordperfect Corporation's diversifications
away from mainstream text processing.  As a database product, the
package is claimed to equal industry stalwarts such as dBase III
etc.  Wordperfect Office, meanwhile, is step beyond Wordperfect
Executive and offers a networking version of the famous
Wordperfect word processing package, along with several other
interesting new features.

All eyes will, however, be on the previewing of Wordperfect 5.0
for the PC.  Several product enhancements, including the
windowing and pull-down menus seen on the Amiga and ST versions,
are expected to be seen in the latest incarnation of the
Wordperfect package.  NEWSBYTES UK will be attending the press
launch this Friday and bring you full details of the new packages
in next week's issue.

CONTACT: SENTINEL SOFTWARE, Wellington House, New Zealand Avenue,
         Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 1PY.     Tel: [phone].

[***][1/12/88][***]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

ACORN COMPUTERS of Cambridge has landed a #40,000 deal to supply
the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 40 Acorn Master
computers.  The computers will be linked into an Ethernet LAN
system at the Ministry's Training Institute in London.

BOOTS THE CHEMIST, one of the UK's foremost high street
multiples, is readying to move out of computer retailing,
according to MICRONET 800 on Prestel.  The company is said to be
experiencing slow sales of computers and could use the floor
space to better effect.

In preparation for its move to a new computer and link to the
Mercury data network, the COMPULINK INFORMATION EXCHANGE (CIX) of
Guildford has increased its rates from #1-00 to #1-20 (#1-80 to
#2-20 peak rate) per hour.  Regular CIX callers are now able to
opt for a #50-00 monthly flat rate.  The increases are due to
system enhancements planned for the coming months.

SEIKO-EPSON has announced it will build a second plant in the UK.
The plant will cost the company more than #13m, and produce
30,000 printers per month once production peaks.  Currently, the
company produces about 8,000 printers a month at its existing UK
factory.

PERSPECTIVE UK of London (01-486-6837) has launched its range of
language learning software.  Packages for Dutch, French, German,
Greek, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish are now
available.  Pricing in at #29-00 per disk-based package, the
Linkword series is available for the Apple II, BBC Model B and
Master, Commodore 64 and IBM PC series.

VICTOR TECHNOLOGIES will launch a complete new range of computers
at a press and dealer event in London this Thursday.  NEWSBYTES
UK will have details on the new machines in next week's issue.

TORCH COMPUTERS of Great Shelford, has signed a major technology
transfer agreement with PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES of Rochester,
New York.  The agreement allows each company to draw upon each
other's technical expertise and product range for its home
country products.  The first product to emerge from the agreement
is a 3.5 SCSI disc controller board, derived from the 5.25 inch
unit seen on Torch's Triple X computer series.  Torch is also
working on a range of PCs based around Performance Technologies'
custom VLSI VME gate array chips.

ZENITH COMPUTERS will unveil a new laptop - the Z183 - at the
Which? Computer Show scheduled for January 19-22 in Birmingham.
The laptop features am 80C88-2 microprocessor, 640K Ram
(expandable to 1.64Mb onboard), 20Mb hard disc and back-lit LCD
screen as standard.  Complimenting the Z-183 at the show will be
a new range of VGA-compatible colour and monochrome monitors.
NEWSBYTES UK will be on hand at the show to bring you a special
show report in our 26th January edition.
====