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/nb880301.245

Text File | 1991-10-01 | 53KB | 1,117 lines

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WISCONSIN WINS BIDDING WAR FOR CHEN'S SUPERCOMPUTER START-UP
EAU CLAIRE, WI (NB) -- The supercomputer start-up of former Cray
Research master builder Steve Chen got a $75 million boost last
week, the result of a bidding war over the site of the new
company launched by the State of Illinois. Illinois had offered a
$50 million package of incentives to locate the company (which
already has a strategic relationship with IBM) in Champaign, IL,
near the University of Illinois. The Eau Claire city council, in
a special closed session, adopted its own $50 million package of
incentives, including buildings and land, and then Wisconsin
kicked in another $25 million, in the form of help toward
securing a private loan or equity financing and job training
funds. To justify the giveaways, both states showed off estimates
the company will create 2,000 new jobs and other benefits.

In exchange for Wisconsin's and Eau Claire's largesse, Chen, a
Taiwanese-American, agreed to build his first research center and
manufacturing plant in Eau Claire, and remain resident in the
city for at least 5 years.

CONTACT: SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEMS INC. [phone]

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US VIDEOTEL START-UP OPENS FOR BUSINESS IN HOUSTON
HOUSTON (NB) -- U.S. VideoTel, a start-up with about 100
employees which hopes to duplicate the success of the French
Minitel system across the U.S., has finally opened for business
in Houston. Spokesman Paul White told NEWSBYTES that the company
is currently marketing its services to businesses only, offering
monthly subscriptions, including terminals made by Telique
Alcatel (the same outfit making the Minitels) at $15-18 per
month. Southwestern Bell has opened a switching center at the
company's headquarters on San Felipe Rd., a few blocks from the
Houston Galleria on the west side of town. Serious joint-venture
talks are also going on with SW Bell and other Regional Bell
Operating Companies (RBOCs).

Initial services will be modest. Electronic mail, bulletin
boards, and Easy Sabre travel reservations are among the
offerings. Gateways are also provided to CompuServe in the U.S.
and the main Minitel system in France. Mr. White said that
residential customers will be sought out starting in late
spring, and a quick national roll-out is planned. Negotiations
are underway with about 50 information providers, both local and
national. "Our marketing concept is that successful videotex has
to be a community service," he added.

Telenet and Tymnet service are not offered yet, but the company
is working to get both, as well as the use of 800 numbers.

CONTACT: Paul White, U.S. VIDEOTEL, [phone]

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MSA AGONY REFLECTS IBM MAINFRAME WEAKNESS
ATLANTA (NB) -- These are the times that try mens' souls at
Management Science America Inc. A few years ago, it was the
largest software company in the world, and it still claims to be
the "nation's largest independent provider of applications
software for mainframe computers" employing 2,700. But a huge
loss for 1987 has been followed by the departure of 80 officers,
most recently Dennis Vohs, who ran the manufacturing software
side of the shop. President William Graves has said he wants
costs to get down below revenues, but cutting costs can also cut
service, and cutting service cuts revenues. MSA troubles are
partly a reflection of increased pressure in the IBM mainframe
business, and among companies supplying it. Users ask, why buy
something incompatible when you can use UNIX and never change
software again? That's the biggest picture.

CONTACT: Cyndi Ely, MSA [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
FAX BOARD SALES CLIMBING PAST SUPPLIES
Conversations NEWSBYTES has held with companies making facsimile
boards for PCs reveals the boards are selling like hotcakes, and
that demand may be outstripping supply. The GMS division of
DEST, in Boca Rotan, said last week its international sales are
actually stronger than domestic sales, because fax is even more
popular than voice overseas. Fax boards, unlike fax machines,
usually contain Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, so
that the messages you get can be saved and edited easily on a
PC.

CONTACT: Judith Mercer, GMS DEST, [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
TANDY CLAIMS IT WON THE CHRISTMAS BATTLE
FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Infocorp figures released by Tandy Corp.
on 1987 market share estimates show Tandy and Apple tied for
first place, with 23% of the market each. That's down from the
two firm's 25% shares in 1986, with "others", mainly Far East and
American clones, picking up the lost market share. IBM's share
stood at 17%, Compaq's at 6%, and Leading Edge and Epson both
came in with 4%, according to the figures. AT&T lost a point,
falling from a 3% share in 1986 to 2% in 1987.

Tandy, however, was proudest of Infocorp's estimates for its
performance in the 4th quarter, when it supposedly sold 34% of
all PCs. Apple followed with 23%, IBM with 14%, and Compaq led
the "second tier" with 5% of the market.

CONTACT: Ed Juge, TANDY, [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
BELLSOUTH BUYS CELLULAR FIRM, BUT REMAINS IN TROUBLE WITH FEDS
ATLANTA (NB) -- BellSouth Corp., the Regional Bell Operating
Company (RBOC) for the Southeast U.S., continues to have trouble
in its government contract work. Last week it was revealed that
BellSouth employee Neelam Soni took the 5th Amendment in
questioning from the General Services Administration, giving
only her name. The GSA is looking into reports Ms. Soni got
confidential data on telephone switch contracts from her father,
a GSA employee, then passed it on to BellSouth officers.
BellSouth offered to withdraw from the GSA contracts last month,
but its ability to seek the huge FTS-2000 contract, where it's
bidding against AT&T and others, has been put into question by
the controversy.

Also, BellSouth announced February 19 it's signed a definitive
agreement to buy the cellular phone operations of Mobile
Communications Corp. of America, Jackson, MS, for $710 million
in stock. MCC had rejected BellSouth's first advances a few
weeks previously. Under the agreement, MCCA will retain its
other operations, including telephone answering, satellite
services, manufacturing, paging, air-to-ground communications
and maritime communications, through a spin-off to MCCA
shareholders.

CONTACT: BELLSOUTH, Carlton Horton, [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
PECAN CHIPS


COMPAQ, Houston, stopped shipping EGA cards and monitors, and
will offer either monochrome or VGA systems. It's the first of
IBM's new PS/2 standards to win a complete market triumph.

COMPUTER PRICES should fall this year, according to Paul Carroll
of "The Wall Street Journal," who made the prediction based on a
Personal Computer Forum at Naples, FL.

CREDIT CARD SOFTWARE, Orlando, said IBM agreed to co-market its
bankcard/revolving credit processing software. It's the first
agreement in that field for IBM, CCS said.

DELL COMPUTER, Austin, TX, renamed its PC's Limited 386-16 the
Dell System 300. The company's founder, 23-year old Michael
Dell, also got a favorable notice in "Forbes" Magazine.

GESCAN INTERNATIONAL, Research Triangle Park, NC, is being
bought from General Electric by former GE managers led by Dale
W. Rowe. GESCAN text retrieval systems can store the equivalent
of 100 4-drawer file cabinets of information in the space of a
single 2-drawer unit.

HONEYWELL, Minneapolis, introduced a new batch control system
for large computer systems called the TDC 3000 Mini SPx. The
price -- $44,000.

RUMORS continue to spread of Tandy Macintosh clones, despite
NEWSBYTES being told repeatedly there's nothing to them. Texas
Instruments is now also expected to release a Macintosh clone,
according to the Cringely rumor-column in INFOWORLD.  (Just one
question -- who's their lawyer?)

UNISYS, Detroit, released a PC-based scheduler for its microCASTS
series of software for schools and teachers.

[***][3/01/88][***]
MA BELL DON'T ALLOW NO BAUDY TALK 'ROUND HERE
MONTREAL (NB) -- Reach out and touch someone?  Don't even suggest
it on Alex, the household telecommunications system Bell Canada
is about to launch.  Alex (named for Alexander Graham Bell) will
be comparable to the French Minitel system, which includes
electronic meeting places for the sexes known as messageries
roses.  But Bell apparently doesn't think Canadians are ready for
such things.  No chat lines will be allowed on the system,
according to a recent story in THE GLOBE AND MAIL in Toronto.

Bell's competition, the independent CETI Inc., will be slightly
more liberal.  CETI's system will have two chat lines, and
flirtatious conversations will be allowed within limits.  CETI
plans to monitor the channels, however, and says if conversations
get "too harsh," they will be cut off.

[***][3/01/88][***]
COMPILER SAID TO MAKE SPREADSHEETS FIVE TIMES FASTER
WATERLOO, Ont. (NB) -- Looking Glass Software has developed a
Lotus 1-2-3 compiler said to speed recalculation by 500% of or
more.  3-2-1 Blastoff will be one of the first three products
introduced by Frontline Systems of Palo Alto, Calif. Frontline
marks the return of spreadsheet pioneer Dan Fylstra, formerly of
VisiCorp.

Looking Glass Software is the developer of Alice: The Personal
Pascal.  Brad Templeton, president of Looking Glass, told
NEWSBYTES CANADA his new product, which works as a 1-2-3 add-in,
provides at least a fivefold improvement in recalculation speed
on any IBM-compatible PC equipped with a math coprocessor.  It
can also be used in combination with minimal recalculation
algorithms to get even more reduction in calculation time, he
said.

3-2-1 Blastoff will be shipping in the second week of March and
will be priced at $124.95 U.S.  Canadian pricing hasn't been set
yet, but Templeton said about C$175 would be probable.  Although
it is not definite, Looking Glass software may be a distributor
for the product in Canada.

A secure worksheet option in the compiler will allow worksheets
to be used with formulas neither visible nor changeable by the
user.  Besides serving as a security measure this reduces the
amount of memory needed to store the worksheet, Templeton said.
Basic 8088 machines equipped with an 8087 coprocessor and 3-2-1
Blastoff will be able to compete with 80386 computers not so
equipped, he said.  "Some of the older PCs sitting around can
become very powerful Lotus engines."

CONTACT: LOOKING GLASS SOFTWARE, [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ENGINEERS CHOOSE PHILIPS PCS
TORONTO (NB) -- The Engineering Society of the University of
Toronto has signed an agreement with Philips Electronics Ltd. for
the purchase of more than C$2 million worth of Canadian-built
personal computers for first-year students over the next eight
months.

The Engineering Society is setting up its own computer store on
campus to sell the computers to students at prices ranging from
C$1105 to C$1650.  The machines are 8088-based, MS-DOS PCs.  The
Engineering Society said it hopes to be able to offer 80286-based
PCs at prices students can afford in the near future.  Kevin
Melnyk, chairman of the committee that chose the Philips
machines, told NEWSBYTES CANADA he would like to see the AT-class
machines sell to students at C$2200 to C$2300.

Melnyk said the society's computer store won't immediately be
selling software or peripherals for the Philips computers, but is
working on an arrangement whereby software could be offered under
a co-operative agreement with Philips and a software vendor.

Philips Electronics, a subsidiary of NV Philips of The
Netherlands, builds 8088 PCs in a Montreal factory for the world
market.

CONTACT: PHILIPS ELECTRONICS LTD., Information Systems Division,
         1200 Sheppard Ave. E., Willowdale, Ont. M2K 2S5,
         [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
SOFTSEL DISTRIBUTING BEDFORD'S SIMPLY ACCOUNTING IN CANADA
VANCOUVER (NB) -- Softsel Computer Products of Canada, one of the
nation's largest software distributors, is now distributing
Simply Accounting for the Apple Macintosh.  The accounting
software from Vancouver-based Bedford Software lists for C$449.
The first Simply Accounting packages were shipped in December and
Bedford says its production facilities are going full steam to
meet a backlog of orders.  Softsel's parent company in Inglewood,
Calif. recently signed a distribution agreement with Bedford's
U.S. subsidiary in Redmond, Wash.

CONTACT: BEDFORD SOFTWARE, [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
BELL LAUNCHES VOICE RECOGNITION TRIAL IN MONTREAL
MONTREAL (NB) -- Bell Canada is trying out a voice recognition
system to provide French-language directory assistance for 976
numbers in the 514  area code surrounding Montreal.  Recorded
voices guide callers through the options.  The system recognizes
spoken responses to questions, usually structured to allow yes-
or-no (all right, oui or non) responses.  A backup system uses
Touch-Tone responses.  According to Bell News, a phone company
house organ, the Voice Interface System being used offers an
unlimited total vocabulary size, recognizes 50 possible answers
at any point in the dialogue and has an expected recognition rate
of 95 per cent.

Interestingly, the English-language 976 directory isn't using the
voice-recognition technology.

[***][3/01/88][***]
CABLESHARE INTERACTIVE HOME SHOPPING SYSTEM SIGNS ON
LONDON, Ont. (NB) -- Residents of Deerfield, Ill. are using
Canadian-developed technology to make consumer history.  The
Chicago suburb is the first community in the world to use the
Telaction service, based largely on technology from Cableshare
Inc. of London.  Telaction combines cable television with Touch-
Tone telephones to provide an interactive home shopping system.
Four thousand subscribers to Post-Newsweek cable televsion
services are participating in a trial that began in mid-February.

CONTACT: Mary Dale Walters, TELACTION CORP., [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT ANNOUNCES TECHNOLOGY CENTRE, QUEBEC EXPANSION
QUEBEC CITY (NB) -- Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. announced
plans here in late February for a major expansion of its
operations in the Province of Quebec.  The program includes
buying a 50-acre site on which to build an Advanced Technology
Centre in Hull, Que., just across the river from Ottawa.

The 170,000-square-foot technology centre is to be completed by
fall, 1989.  It will provide a range of consulting, software
engineering and customer support activities.  DEC expects to
spend C$15 million on the project over the next three years.
About 250 staff will be needed, Digital said.

Digital also plans to buy a new office complex to accommodate
expansion of its sales and service groups in Montreal.

[***][3/01/88][***]
BITS, EH?
-- BELL CANADA, Montreal, has been ordered to pay C$160,000 to
Unified Technologies Inc., a small Toronto company that went
bankrupt 10 years ago.  The Supreme Court of Ontario ruled that
the phone company put UTI out of business by failing to meet the
terms of a contract with the high-tech manufacturer.  UTI agreed
in 1977 to make devices for Bell.  Bell was to pay a C$100,000
advance and supply components through its sister company Northern
Telecom Ltd.  Only C$45,000 of the advance was paid, the
components weren't delivered and Bell only bought 40 of the 125
units ordered, the court said.

-- COGNOS INC., Ottawa, has announced shipment of a version of
its fourth-generation language  PowerHouse for Hewlett-Packard
900 Series HP 3000 Precision Architecture minicomputers.  The
announcement coincides with volume shipment of the HP RISC
machines, and follows closely on the heels of a PowerHouse
version for IBM AT and compatible computers.

------------------------------------------------------

[***][3/01/88][***]
LATEST NEC PC-9801 MODELS ANNOUNCED: LAPTOP & MAC-LIKE PCs
TOKYO (NB) -- NEC has announced a laptop computer, which is
fully compatible with its best-selling desktop computer, the PC-
9801. The PC-9801LV21 has a 10 MHz V30 MPU, 640 Kilobytes (K) of
RAM, two 1 Megabyte (M) 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Drives (FDD), and a
640 x 400-dot LCD with eight-level gradation. The price is
$2,674 (345,000 yen), $23 cheaper than Epson's NEC-compatible
laptop computer.

NEC also unveiled two PC-9801-compatible compact desktop
personal computers.  One has a built-in 10-inch color display
with 640 x 400-dot resolution.  At a glance, it looks like
Apple's Macintosh, but it has two 3.5-inch FDDs in front of the
system.  The other model is the shrink version of its PC-9801UV
lines.  Both models have a V30 MPU.  They will be shipped at the
end of March.

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

[***][3/01/88][***]
NTT PREPARES FOR 64M LSI
TOKYO (NB) -- When most of the chip makers are talking about
4 Megabit or 16 Megabit LSIs, Japan's telecom giant NTT is
already preparing production of prototype 64 Megabit LSIs.  NTT
has just completed the synchrotoron facility to produce 64M
LSIs, and the company has started a trial run.  This sort of
facility is the first of its kind in the world, says a report.
NTT developed the technique to produce 16 Megabit DRAMs just
last year.

CONTACT: NTT, 1-1-6 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][3/01/88][***]
NEC RETALIATES AGAINST INTEL ON CHIP COPYRIGHT ISSUE
TOKYO (NB) -- NEC filed a counter motion asking for a summary
judgement in San Jose, CA, USA, against Intel's lawsuit over
NEC's V series chips that allegedly infringe on Intel's
copyright.  NEC says there are no copyright marks on the program
codes, which Intel has been taking up in its lawsuit.  Thus, NEC
claims Intel's lawsuit against NEC is unjustified.

NEC and Intel have been fighting for nearly four years.  The
first judge in the case resigned in January after his ownership
of Intel stock was revealed.  The trial had to start over from
scratch.  That's still not good for NEC, since many potential
chip buyers will not buy NEC's V series chips as long as the
lawsuit continues.  So, NEC has become impatient and filed this
motion at San Jose branch of the California District Court.
Some kind of court decision should be expected within a couple
of months.

[***][3/01/88][***]
SANYO LINKS WITH TEXAS INSTRUMENTS IN CHIP DEVELOPMENT
TOKYO (NB) -- Sanyo Electric says it and Texas Instruments have
been developing custom-made LSIs together. Graphic LSIs will be
completed by the end of this year.  Intel will manufacture them,
and Sanyo will purchase them for its VCRs.  Sanyo intends to
increase its use of American chips to 10-20% of its total in the
near future.  Other Japanese electronics makers are also
expected to sign chip development and purchase agreements with
U.S. firms.  This will increase imports from the U.S., and
reduce the two countries' trade imbalance.

[***][3/01/88][***]
KDD UPGRADES ITS INTERNATIONAL PACKET SWITCHING NETWORK
TOKYO (NB) -- Here's good news for users of The Source in Japan.
Japan's International Telecom giant KDD will perform a major
upgrade of its international packet switching network Venus-P in
May, adding more user- friendly interfaces and security
features.  One new feature, PASSBASE, is quite useful for users
who need to use many computer networks, such as the Source,
CompuServe, and Delphi.  The new Venus-P also supports a 2,400
bit per second (bps) service.  KDD's Kunio Ochiai says the new
Venus-P could be the most convenient packet network for PC users
in the world.  We'll see.

CONTACT: KDD, KDD Bldg., 2-3-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku,
         Tokyo 163

[***][3/01/88][***]
NCR JAPAN CONNECTS IBM COMPUTERS AND NEC COMPUTERS
TOKYO (NB) -- NCR Japan will develop a telecommunications
system, connecting NEC and IBM computers.  The new telecom
system, NEC/SNA gateway, will be based on NCR's popular
communications system, ComTen.  Under the NEC/SNA gateway,
IBM and NEC computers will be inter-connceted through IBM's SNA
and NEC's DINA architecture.  NCR will sign license
agreement with neither IBM nor NEC -- the new system will be
made with the technical information already publicly available.
The NEC/SNA gateway will be completed and shipped within a year.

CONTACT: NCR Japan, 1-2-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107

[***][3/01/88][***]
SATELLITE MINI-THEATER NETWORK OF HAMBURGER FRANCHISE
TOKYO (NB) -- MacDonald's Japan, a unit of McDonalds of the
U.S., will set up its own mini-theater network via
communications satellite.  The company will create outdoor mini-
theaters equipped with very small screens and larger screens in
the parking lots of its "drive-through" shops in suburbs across
Japan.  In the theater, costomers can enjoy movies and network
programs in their own cars.  The company will also broadcast
events it sponsors, such as musicals and concerts.  The company
is planning to open an experimental shop in Yokodai, Yokohama,
as early as in April. The nationwide mini-theaters will be set
up by next fall.

CONTACT: MacDonald's Japan, Shinjuku-Sumitomo Bldg., 2-6-1 Nishi-
         Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163

[***][3/01/88][***]
TSUKUBA SPACE PORT -- A HIGH-TECH AMUSEMENT PARK
TOKYO (NB) -- Mitsubishi Trading Corp., Tokyo, will create a
large-scale amusement park in Tsukuba Science city, in coopera-
tion with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) of the U.S.  The new park will be called Tsukuba Space
Port, and will be twice as large as Tokyo DisneyLand.  Life-size
models of Space-Shuttles and a simulation of space training
facilities will be placed at the park.  Visitors will be allowed
to try out these facilities.  Hotels, a convention center, and
exhibit halls will also be built in the site.  Tsukuba Space
Port is expected to open in 1992.

[***][3/01/88][***]
IDG COMMUNICATIONS WILL HOLD ALL-STAR CAST SEMINARS
TOKYO (NB) -- A Tokyo branch of IDG Communications will hold
a seminar for a variety of audiences, including personal computer
users, buyers, and industry people.  The speeches will be
presented by noted American industry leaders, including Philippe
Kahn (President of Borland), Stewart Alsop (Publisher of PC
Letter), Eric Hippo (President of InfoWorld), and Jerry
Pournelle. Topics will include IBM's strategy on the PS/2,
Apple's strategy on the Macintosh, desktop publishing, and the
future of personal computers.  The Tokyo seminar will be held on
April 8. Admission costs 45,000 yen or $346.

CONTACT: IDG Seminar, c/o IDG Communications (Marcom
         International), Akasaka Center Bldg., 1-3-12 Akasaka,
         Minato-ku, Tokyo 107              PHONE: [phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

FUJITSU EXPECTS PROFIT INCREASE BY 45% -- Fujitsu, Tokyo, expects
profit of 80 billion-yen or $620-million in fiscal 1989.  That's
a 45% increase over this year.  The company estimates total
sales for 1989 will reach 1 trillion yen or $15.5 billion,
thanks to increasing domestic sales of communication and
computer systems.

HONEYWELL PLANS $4 BILLION R&D SPENDING -- Honeywell (U.S.) has
opened its worldwide strategic conference at the Tokyo office of
Yamatake-Honeywell, its Japanese joint venture. At the
conference, Honeywell said it will spend $4 billion for research
and development projects of factory automation and AI software
in the next five years.

JAPANESE LOGO WRITER -- Logo Japan, a Tokyo office of Logo
group, will release a Japanese version of LogoWriter on March 1.
Logo is a popular turtle-graphics oriented educational (CAI)
program. Japanese LogoWriter costs 43,000 yen or $333.

YHP'S JAPANESE FONTS FOR LASER PRINTER -- Yokogawa-Hewlett
Packard has released Japanese language fonts for its laser
printer, which can be connected to HP's 32-bit engineering
workstation the HP9000 Series 300.  Canon has been manufacturing
this laser printer as the LBP-A408.

AI LANGUAGE FOR HITACHI'S WORKSTATION -- Hitachi will release
artificial intelligence languages HI-UX Lisp and HI-UX Prolog
for the 2050 workstation.  They're equipped with a Japanese
language feature and window functions.  HI-UX Lisp is based on
Common Lisp.  HI-UX Prolog is based on DEC 10 Prolog developed
by Edinburgh University in the U.K.

COMMUNICATION TOKYO '88 WILL BE HELD -- Telecom-oriented
exhibition, Communication Tokyo, will be held in Harumi (Tokyo)
April 5-8. 127 companies will participate. 85 companies are from
overseas, including the U.S., W. Germany, Canada, U.K., France,
Taiwan, and Korea.  The exhibition will feature the Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) cordless telephones, satellite
communications equipment, and more.

CAMPUS ISDN OF FUJITSU -- Fujitsu, Tokyo, has begun to install
Kyoto University Integrated Network Services (KUINS) facility in
Kyoto University.  That's the campus version of ISDN, an
integrated network for computers, facsimile, telephones, and
videotex, etc.


[***][3/01/88][***]
IBM ANNOUNCES NEW SUPPORT INITIATIVES FOR SOFTWARE COMPANIES
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- "In Europe, we are operating in an
industry that is growing at 10% a year overall and 20% in the
services sector," said C. Michael Armstrong, President of IBM
Europe speaking at a packed IBM La Hulpe convention center to a
group of 250 executives from European companies.

"That growth", he continued, "is being fueled by the rapidly
expanding demand of our customers for applications solutions and
timely implementation. By developing closer relationships - and by
working together better - we can satisfy the demand."

He was announcing the birth of the new IBM initiative that is
designed to help companies who are interested in porting progream
ro IBM environments by offering free hardware for the cross-
development, and special discounts on IBM products. In addition,
companies can opt to have consultants with free applications
packages for demonstration purpooses, together with technical and
education support.

In a related story, IBM Italia, the Italian subsidiary of IBM,
delivereo the 100,000th system/36 - system/38, one of Europe's
greatest selling systems. C. Michael Armstrong, said that this just
goes to show that the /36 and /38 systems are indeed succesful and
this would not have occured without the cooperation of the 2500 /36
and /38 re-sellers in Europe. Worldwide, according to IBM figures,
250000 of these units have been delivered.

[***][3/01/88][***]
IBM BELGIUM REPORTS DECREASED IN 1987
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- IBM Belgium must certainly be one of
the few individual IBM subsidiaries which is having lower profits.
IBM Belgium (includes the tiny Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg) finished
1987 with 27.7 billion BF (about $790 million) down 2% and profilts
down .8% at 2.5 billion BF (about $71 million). Of IBM's product,
1/7th is exported from Belgium. IBM employees 2500 people and also
sponsors 891 people for university studies.

[***][3/01/88][***]
MITSUBISHI JOINS THE 386 RACE
RATINGEN, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Mitsubishi, so far the maker of the
Unisys PC, announced the latest system, the MP386 with a 386 CPU
and 1MB RAM together with a 32K cache memory which speads up the
disk operations. The system is supplied with either a 360KB or a
1.2MB 5.25 inch floppy and hard disks from 40MB to 140MB. According
the a company spokesman "we do not know if Unisys will take an OEM
purchase option on this system yet."

[***][3/01/88][***]
BRAILLE TERMINAL FROM WHO ELSE, THE DUTCH
GRONINGEN, HOLLAND (NB) -- Alva, a company that specialises with
system solutions for blind people announced a terminal that can be
used by blind people. As the terminal shows data on the screen, a
special single line "screen" reporduces the exact data in braille
codes which can be read as they appear. A touch cursor exists which
is used by the user to point to the desired information.

There have been many systems which offer sound generation, but this
is the first time that a barille output system exists for the
blind. I take my hat off to this company.

Contact: Alva, Haddingenstraat 35C, 9711 Groningen, The
         Netherlands, Tel: [phone]


[***][3/01/88][***]
NEW COPY PROTECTION EVEN THOUGH MANUFACTUERS ABANDON IT
HOLTE, D,NMARK (NB) -- I just cant believe it. Most major
manufacturers have listened and abandoned copy protection and here
is a company that is announcing a new system that "cannot be copied
by so called copy programs such as Copywrite and Copyiipc." I mean
who cares?

The program called Copylock II, is tied to the actual hardware and
the diskccontroller manufacture and allows backing-up and restoring
of data and programs as well as LAN support. Now you know. And you
can forget it.

[***][3/01/88][***]
IS THE AGE OF PLASMA HERE?
BIGGIN HILL, UK (NB) -- Well, the time may be ripe for it. A
company here has developed a Plasma (no, not the blood variety)
screen terminal that is light, modern and great to use. Offering up
to 640 x 400 pixels, the DT40 has a flat screen connected to a IBM
PC-type keyboard. Emulations and a powerful set of formatting
commands conclude the DT40, a terminal which the company thinks
will open up the world for modern systems.

CONTACT: Densitron Computers Ltd., Unit 4, Airport Trading estate,
Biggin Hill, Kent TN16 3BW, United Kingdon, Tel:[phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
386 STATE-OF_ART MAKE WAY. HERE COMES A FIBER TERMINAL FOR PCs
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Chances are you are reading this on a
PC. Maybe a Macintosh. Maybe even on a UNIX terminal. Well, how
about reading this on a fiber-connected terminal tied into a PC or
a UNIX system! This is exactly the kind of connection that the
Cygna system from SunRiver offers for users of 386 based systems.
What this means, that no longer you have to depend on a cable that
uses an RS-232 protocol that crawls along at 19200 bits per second
but on light that can carry signals at speeds up to 32,000,000 bits
per second.

Cygna, is something new in the computer world. No that the fiber
system is new, after all it has been around for a while but this
application is brand new. What's more, you only need one adapter
card at $799 which connects to the EGA graphics terminals or to PCs
and ATs with the same board which functions like a tranceiver. This
way you can have a UNIX system running nifty programs with PCs as
terminals at a cost of about $1300 each.

For a graphics user like me (I use MS Windows most of the time),
this is the solution I need to replace these systems I have here
acting like terminals to my UNIX system in ancient mode (that is in
character mode). And I am sure there are a lot of us out there who
think that Bill gates may be correct after all concerning graphics.
Hurray to SubRiver for Cygna!!

[***][3/01/88][***]
IBM CUTS PRICES OF PS/2 60 AND 80
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Well I think I obviously have some
good news. As reported here, IBM has decreased prices of the PS/2
model 60 and 80 by about 20%. The Model 60 falls down to DM8930
(about $5000) and the model 80 down to DM 16810 (about $9000).

[***][3/01/88][***]
EUROPE'S NEW PRODUCTS RELEASES

Facit of Sweden released a new printer, the B3450, which offers
250cps draft speed and a 24 pin head for letter quality printing.
CONTACT: Facit AB, Sundbyberg, Sweden, Tel: [phone]...

A 3270 to ASCII protocol converter has been released by Local
Data, UK, which is based on a half card suitable for fitting
inside PCs. CONTACT: Local Data, Slough, Berks, UK, Tel:
0753/76537

A new graphics board that offers 1280x820 resolution with 16
colors has been announced by PolyGraphics Systems of Holland. The
card, which is based on the NEC grapics chip with special ASIC
offers hardware zoom and pan.
CONTACT: Polygraphics systems, Sint Michielsgestel, Holland,
         Tel:[phone]

Another QPDM (Quad Pixel Dataflow Manager) supported graphics
board has been announced by DATAPATH, Ltd. which offers very high
speed graphics display. Offering up to 2048x2048x16 color
graphics resolution, it is designed for AT and compatibles.
CONTACT: Datapath, Ltd., High street, Melbourne, Derby DE7 1GJ,
         United Kingdom, Tel:[phone]

INMOS TRansputer based graphics card has been announced by TIKI-
DATA, Norway, which offers a 10MIPS Transputer CPU and 1MB of RAM
and is fully programmable with EGA boards.
CONTACT: Tiki-data, Sinsevien 53A, 0513 Oslo 5, Norway

SEL, ( a subsidiary of ITT), has introduced to the market a comms
processor that is designed to be used with IBM mainframes. The
system, called the 8820 can be connected to 64 comms lines and
performs transmisson translation automatically. The 8820 can
connect to various asynchronous, synchronous, BSC, SDLC or X.25
lines.
CONTACT: SEL, Lorenzstrasse 10, 7000 Stuttgart, West Germany,
Tel:[phone]

[***][3/01/88][***]
COMPUTER BRIEFS

Tired of spending money of Laser printer cartridges? Well now there
is a company that sells cartridges for less. Designed to fit
printers with the Canon engine, the XEROTEC-BOSS cartridge can be
filled up to four times. Not only that but the system is supplied
with four toner loads to get you going quick.

Are you looking for a nice portable modem? Then look at the
Datatronics Portable modem (which I use). The same size as an
credit card, it offers battery power and Bell/CCITT specs for the
travelling people.

Bunker Ramo, a unit of OLIVETTI, USA, said it has created a
financial information systems group for sale to trading rooms and
financial establishments. The hardware will be furnished by Band
corporation under an agreement between the two firms.

ERICSSON is set to expand in the Chinese market after it has
received a $73 million contract to install and supply more than
210,000 telephones over the next two years. In addition the company
will train Chinese technicians and also supply about 5000 long
distance lines to Guangdong province.

And finally in last week's issue Wendy Woods (Newsbytes West) gave
some definitions for computer terms. How about these for the
travel business: SABENA (Belgian airlines) Such A Bad Experience
Never Again; SAS (Scandinavian airlines) Sex And Satisfaction;
Air Lingus (Irish airline) Air Fungus; Lufthansa (German
airlines) Let Us Feel The Hostess As No Steward's Available;
Olympic Airlines (Greek airline, previously onwed by Onasis)
Onasis Likes Your Money Paid In Cash; TWA (Across the Atlantic
carrier) Try Walking Across; and BOAC (Old British Air name)
Better On A Camel.

[***][3/01/88][***]
LOTUS GOES FOR GROUPWARE
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. says it is
developing a program designed to let people using PCs on a
network have electronic conference calls. The program called
Notes will let networkers plan and schedule meetings, share
comments, track projects, and the like. But Lotus' entry into
groupware also has a taste of vaporware about it. Lotus says
Notes won't be available for about a year, and will run only on
OS/2 with Presentation Manager, which isn't due until October.
Lotus also hasn't set a price for Notes.

In other news from Lotusland, 1-2-3 Release 3.0 should be
available by around June, at a suggested retail price of $495.
Upgrades will run $150 and $200, and Lotus is expecting to sell a
ton of the snazzier spreadsheets. One Wall Street analyst says
t analyst says
Lotus will sell $150 million in upgrades in 18 months. Also,
Lotus has begun shipping Symphony 2.0, the third upgrade of the
integrated software. The retail price is $695, and registered
users can upgrade for between $95 and $150.

[***][3/01/88][***]
DON HODEL'S BIG MAC ATTACK
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Interior Secretary Donald Hodel, long a
microcomputer enthusiast, used an Apple Macintosh II linked to an
overhead projector to present his agency's fiscal year 1989
budget to reporters. As best NEWSBYTES can tell, it is the first
time a cabinet officer has used a computer for a press budget
briefing. As one cynical hack remarked, "It helps take the snore
out of budget briefings." When Hodel was Secretary of Energy, he
had an IBM PC-XT in his office, running a world oil model that
allowed him to tinker with things such as oil prices or supplies
and see how the world responded.

[***][3/01/88][***]
CUSTOMS CLOSING IN ON ANOTHER EASTERN BLOC COMPUTER DIVERSION
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The Customers Service confirmed a WASHINGTON
TIMES report, that the agency is investigating a diversion of a
high-powered computer to the Soviet Union. The newspaper says a
Los Angeles company, Essex Marketing, shipped a computer made by
Floating Point Systems of Beaverton, Ore., to an engineering firm
in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. But the computer never got to Zagreb.
Instead, it was flown to Belgrade, Yugoslavia's capital, and
then, a month later, to East Berlin and then to Moscow. Sales to
Yugoslavia, which is not a Warsaw Pact member, are legal. Essex
Marketing President Walter Patzl said his company has never
knowingly sold anything illegal to the Eastern Bloc. But Customs
officials says Patzl and his firm are under investigation for the
Floating Point deal and at least six other similar diversions.
Floating Point is not a target of the probe and is cooperating
with the government, according to U.S. officials.

[***][3/01/88][***]
"CATS" COMPOSER INVESTS IN COMPUTER TRAINING
PITTSBURGH (NB) -- Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of "Cats" and
the current Broadway hit "Phantom of the Opera," has bought 40
percent of Interactive Instruction Systems, a company that
intends to produce interactive videos for computerized business
training. The firm produces video discs for sales, marketing and
management training. Trainees on computers can talk to actors on
the video discs during role-playing activities, and the video can
react to the trainees' answers. The discs use professional
actors, and all the current videos have British-accented speech,
since the company was founded in Britain. IIS just opened their
U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh.

[***][3/01/88][***]
FRAUDWARE: JERSEY COMPUTER FIRM FLEECES HUNDREDS
NEWARK, N.J. (NB) -- Federal prosecutors have charged three men
and one woman with fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice for
using a fake East Rutherford computer retail firm to defraud
hundreds of investors and several banks. The indictment says
Charles Rothstein, his wife Margee Weiss, and his brother Herbert
Rothstein, all of Staten Island, N.Y., and Henry Guell of
Ringwood, N.J., with using Computer Technology International
Inc. as a vehicle to win bank loans and sell $1 million in stock
in 1983. prosecutors also allege that they also set up a
fictitious accounting firm to give approval to CTI's financial
statements, in order to defraud the banks and investors.
According to prosecutors, CTI collapsed this year when the
defendants cleared out their CTI accounts and set up another
phony company, Archer Ltd. of London, England, said officials in
the U.S. Attorney's office. If convicted, the four could faces
long prison terms and fines ranging up to $2.5 million.

[***][3/01/88][***]
YUPPIES BEWARE, HERE COMES THE BLUE-COLLAR MAC II
BILLERICA, Mass. (NB) -- Automatix, Inc., an eight-year-old firm
that specializes in factory automation and industrial robotics,
is shipping an industrial control computer based on the Macintosh
II. Joe Campbell, director of industrial controls for Automatix,
told NEWSBYTES that his company picked the Mac II as the basis of
its new AI 90 computer because of the ease of use of the Mac's
graphics interface. "We feel its important to get the guy on the
factory floor to buy into the process," Campbell said. "We bought
into the whole Mac user interface theory, driven by our
experience. We put an inordinate amount of energy into getting
the user up to speed and the Mac is really superb at that."
According to Campbell, the AI 90 is a stand-alone industrial
personal computer that customers and systems integrators can
tailor to specific factory control situations. The machines cost
between $10,000 and $14,000 and Automatix has shipped about 35 so
far, Campbell said.

[***][3/01/88][***]
SOFTWARE SALES SOAR TO NEARLY $3 BILLION
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Retailers in the U.S. sold $2.9 billion in
microcomputer software in 1987, according to the Software
Publishers Association. The trade group said software for IBM PCs
and clones totaled $2.2 billion, while Macintosh sales hit $273
million, with Apple II sales at $220 million and software sales
for the venerable Commodore 64 were $113 million. According to
SPA's Ken Wasch, Macintosh software is taking off, rising from
$51 million in the first quarter of last year to $92 million in
the fourth quarter.

[***][3/01/88][***]
BRITAIR DENIES COMPUTER BIAS
WASHINGTON (NB) -- British Airways has told the Department of
Transportation that its computerized reservation system does not
discriminate against American Airlines. British Airways officials
told reporters that the Travicom system gives fair information on
all flights for all airlines. American Airlines says the Britair
system displays British Airways routes more prominently than
competitors'.  In the meantime, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas)
wrote to Transportation Secretary James Burnley, supporting
American's allegations. Bentsen wrote that the complaint "may
well require that the Department of Transportation make a more
critical evaluation of these practices and their implications for
our domestic air transportation industry."

[***][3/01/88][***]
DESKTOP PUBLISHING AT THE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Beginning next year, all Pentagon weapons
manuals and written instructions must be produced on computerized
publishing systems in order to make revisions and updates easier
and quicker. The result is likely to be a $2 billion market over
the next five years, and all the desktop publishing companies --
including Xerox, IBM, Kodak, DEC, Interleaf, and Xyvision -- are
developing publishing systems to meet the military market.
Manuals and other documents make up about six percent of the cost
of complex weapons systems and some analysts say that a quarter
of all military manuals are out of date at any time.

[***][3/01/88][***]
FURTHER DELAYS IN AT&T COMPUTER TURNAROUND
NEW YORK (NB) -- American Telephone & Telegrpah Co. says profits
in computer sales will take a year longer than anticipated a year
ago. In March 1987, AT&T computermeister Vittorio Cassoni said
computers would be profitable at the telephone giant by 1989.
Now, says a company spokesman, the company is looking for
profitability by 1990. The keys to the company's profitability,
say analysts, are sales to the regional Bell operating companies.
Many of the computers AT&T sells to the Baby Bells are part of
the 5ESS phone switch, and AT&T's computer sales should surge as
the Bells move to the new switch.


[***][3/01/88][***]
NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION

WANG LABORATORIES of Lowell, Mass., has completed its acquisition
of Informatics Legal Systems from Convergent Inc. Wang says it
plans no change for the Phoenix-based Informatics, which employs
120.

AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH will integrate Tandem computers
into the 5ESS phone switch under the Integrated Services Digital
Network standards. AT&T says Tandem will be the first computer
company to handle the new ISDN switch.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES of White Plains, N.Y., has
developed an advanced, high-level language called Parallel
FORTRAN, aimed at the 3090 series of mainframe computers. The
compiler and library will translate FORTRAN code written for
general purpose processors and automatically convert it to code
that will run in a parallel environment.

SOFTWARE AG SYSTEMS of Reston, Va., has received a $11.50 per
share takeover offer from Software AG of Darmstadt, West Germany,
for all the stock the German firm doesn't already own. The two
companies are independent of each other, but have worked together
closely since the Reston firm was founded 15 years ago. The
tender offer is worth about $50 million.

[***][3/01/88][***]
APPLE PITCHES FOR UK SCHOOLS MARKET
Hemel Hempstead, Herts (NB) -- Whilst enjoying a degree of
success in the US educational market, Apple has never hit the
big time in the UK schools, where the Acorn/BBC micros have
established a firm foothold.

All that could be set to change, however, now that Apple UK is
offering cheap kits and free support to UK educational
establishments.  The educational pitch from Apple is on two
levels.  Firstly in the specialist Desktop Publishing (DTP)
arena, and secondly in the general curriculum market.

Spearheading the DTP push is a Mac Plus system with 20 Megabyte
(Mb) hard disk, a range of software including Ready Set Go!,
Microsoft Works, Superpaint and Hypercard, and a choice of an
Apple Laserwriter IISC or IINT laser printers.  Educational
market pricing is #3,695 for the IISC printer option, and #4,670
for IINT option.  Revealingly, the package also includes
software and cables for porting text-based files from the BBC
micro series over to the Mac environment.

The second part of Apple's educational market blitz centres
around Hypercard, which the company is pushing as the perfect
tool for developing and presenting course materials.

Keith Phillips, MD of Apple UK, sees the push for the schools
market as the next logical step for the company.  "Acceptance of
the Mac's easy to use graphics has been strong in universities
and polytechnics around the UK over the past two years," he said.
"The time is now right to broaden our education programme into
the schools market."

CONTACT:  Apple UK, Eastman Way, Hemel Hempstead,
          Hertfordshire HP2 7HQ.
          Tel: [phone].

[***][3/01/88][***]
CHAOS THREATENS WORLDWIDE SPAN SYSTEM
Hamburg, West Germany (NB) -- The Chaos Computer Club, which hit
the headlines last September when they 'assisted' West German
authorities in ridding SPAN, the Space Physics Analysis Network,
of a group of hackers calling themselves 'Data Travellers,' are
in the headlines again.

This time around, it appears that members of Chaos have planted
a series of logic bombs in SPAN system computers.  Since SPAN is
the top secret worldwide computer network which connects
scientific centres in Britain, France, Germany, Japan
Switzerland and the US, several network users have taken their
computers offline for fear that the software logic bombs will
cause disruption to their own national computer networks.

The threats are being taken seriously be SPAN officials, who are
reported to be carrying out software checks on the network
software.  In the meantime, Chaos appears to have brought
several parts of SPAN to a grinding halt, all without actually
doing anything.

NEWSBYTES UK's sources suggest that the threats are for real,
and the logic bombs have been planted to retaliate against raids
and arrests which took place last year on Chaos members' homes
in France and West Germany.  Quite how SPAN will handle the
situation if no logic bombs are actually found remains to be
seen, but the whole episode must be very worrying for SPAN
officials, as well as its users.

[***][3/01/88][***]
FRONTIER SOFTWARE LANDS DEAL FOR ICD/OSS DISTRIBUTION
Harrogate, North Yorkshire (NB) -- Continuing its support for
the 8-bit Atari XE and XL series, Frontier Software has become
UK distributor for the OSS product line in the UK.

OSS was recently taken over by ICD Inc., of Illinois U.S., for
which Frontier also distributes.  Whilst the software isn't new,
it's the first time that Atari 8-bit users in the UK and Europe
have been able to buy the OSS packages at sensible prices.
Prices range from #19-95 through to #49-95 for software such as
Action -the Pascal/C-like 8-bit XE/XL programming language,
Mac/65 - a macro assembler and debugger, Basic XE - a 130XE
programming tool, and The Writers Tool - a complete word
processing system for the XE/XL series.

Frontier has also become the sole UK importer of OSS Personal
Pascal for the Atari ST.  The #59-95 package has been widely
acclaimed as the single most popular language package for the
ST, and includes a powerful editor, compiler and linker, as well
as enabling access to most Gem functions.

Martin Walsh, Frontier's marketing manager, sees the Pascal
package as offering excellent value for money.  "At #59-95,
including tax, we think the package will prove as popular in
this country as it's been in the States," he told NEWSBYTES UK.

CONTACT: FRONTIER SOFTWARE, PO Box 113, Harrogate,
         North Yorkshire HG2 0BE. Tel: [phone].
         Email: Compuserve - 72007,163
                Dialcom/Telecom Gold - 72:MAG40240

[***][3/01/88][***]
TELEMAP UNVEILS TELETALK
London, UK (NB) -- Telemap, the communications company which
runs Micronet 800 on Prestel, has unveiled Teletalk, its
computer conferencing system on Prestel.

The service, which operates through a viewdata gateway to
subscribers of Micronet, allows group conferencing to take place
in a manner similar to that seen on some online services in the
US.  Teletalk, however, is different in that users can move
between specified areas on the Teletalk service, even closing
various 'rooms' for private conferences as required.

The service was officially launched on Monday the 29th of
February on Prestel and will shortly be available on a similar
gateway basis to subscribers of Telecom Gold, the BT-operated
Email service.  Pricing for use of the Prestel gateway had not
been decided as NEWSBYTES UK went to press, but is expected to
be in order of pennies per minute - similar to the charges
levied by Micronet for use of the Shades adventure gateway.

"Teletalk is a new concept for UK online users," said Micronet
spokesman David Rosenbaum.  "The Prestel gateway is a lot more
consumer-oriented than it will be on Telecom Gold.  The Gold
gateway will be pitched much more at the business user of the
service."

NEWSBYTES UK tried out the Teletalk service last week and can
report that the private chat facility is highly useful as a
group conferencing system - useful, for example, in editorial
meetings for electronic magazines such as Newsbytes.  Full marks
to Telemap for this innovative service.

CONTACT: TELEMAP LIMITED, Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill,
         London EC1R.                 Tel: [phone].

[***][3/01/88][***]
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

APPLE UK has announced a major two-day conference to be held in
London in March.  The conference will include appearances by
John Sculley, Apple CEO, Jean Louis Gassee, Senior Vice
President of Apple research and development, and Mike Spindler,
Senior Vice President of Apple's international sales and
marketing division. Further details are given in the Diary Dates
column (see below).

ATARI has confirmed that it will be unveiling a range 68030-
based Unix workstations at the Hanover Fair in West Germany.
Sources indicate that the machine's pricing will be highly
competitive. Desggns are expected to be similar to the Mega ST
range.

CAMBRIDGE COMPUTER'S Z88 laptop, the machine which brought Sir
Clive Sinclair back into the limelight, is still awaiting US FCC
approval, reports POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY.  The paper reports
that Cambridge Computer has a representative in the US who is
working on speeding approval through.

DATABASE SOFTWARE of Macclesfield has launched Mini Office
Professional in 3.5 inch format for the Amstrad PPC portable.
The #49-95 package includes comms, database, spreadsheet and
word processing functions.  The package was recently launched in
5.25 inch PC format.

HEWLETT-PACKARD has ported several of its office system products
over to the Unix environment.  Packages available for H-P users
of Unix include the HP Newwave application environment, as well
as a X-Window system to enabled MS-Dos and OS/2 packages to be
run.

ISTEL has reported a massive response to its INFOSEARCH online
search service.  The subscription to the service, which allows
easy online searching of more than 1,000 worldwide databases,
now stands at 500.  Plans are in hand for a further 500 users to
come online shortly.

MICROSOFT UK is offering a free copy of RBase Graphics (worth
#175) with every purchase of the RBase #545 package until 30
April this year.

[***][3/01/88][***]
UK DATES FOR YOUR DIARY...

Event:         Informations Systems & Technology
               - The Apple Conference
Dates:         21/22 March 1988
Location:      Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, London
Organisers:    Apple UK - 0442-60244.

Event:         Digital Scanners, Automatic Digitisers &
               Document Distribution
Dates:         6/8 April 1988
Location:      Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Organisers:    IGC (US) - 0101-617-267-9425

Event:         The Truth about ISDN
Dates:         11 April 1988
Location:      Regent Crest Hotel, London
Organisers:    IBC Technical Services - 01-236-4080